A Few Strong Words…

Today I am exactly the same age as John Lennon was when he was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman.

In his last major interview done before he died, he said that he had heard once that life begins at 40, and that he believed that. He was looking forward to his life ahead.

I was 12 at the time, and I didn’t really understand what he meant — after all, here was an ex-Beatle who had travelled the world, written some of the best music of all time, and somehow managed to take off five years of his career to raise his son. What was he waiting to begin?

I sort of understand it now. I think it has something to do with confidence. How many times have we said to ourselves “if I knew then what I know now…” I know I do all the time. At 40, you reach a point in your life where you have many of the answers. Old enough to know what to do, and young enough to still be able to do it.

One thing I definitely understand now was an incident he described in that same interview (it was with Playboy, and they published the complete transcript in book form after his death). I don’t remember the story verbatim, but it goes something like this: John and Yoko were sitting in a restaurant and he heard a song come onto the radio. He happened to mention that he liked that song, at which point Yoko reminded him that he should, since he wrote it. The song was Glass Onion from the White Album — he had totally forgotten all about it.

I found it hard to believe back then that you could forget a thing like that. Although it isn’t nearly the same scale, I’ve actually had similar incidents where I’ll read something and go “hey, I really like that!” and then realize I wrote it years ago. Kind of a great warm feeling, with a bit of messed up rolled into it.

I am somewhat envious of John Lennon. I mean besides the obvious: who wouldn’t want to be a Beatle? Who wouldn’t want to be able to play the guitar and be that creative and that rich and to be able to say “I wrote Strawberry Fields Forever“?

What I’m most envious though is that he had the time to be creative.

For me, creativity takes a lot of time. I can’t just snap in and out — if I’m working on something that demands creativity, I am basically a vegetable for anything else. Don’t give me phone messages, don’t ask me to take out the garbage, don’t give me any information I’m supposed to hold onto. And unless you are happy with vacuous “uh-huhs” after every sentence, don’t even try to hold a conversation with me.

The worst though is when you have to stop because the kids are getting off the bus or you have to get milk or the million other reasons that pop up. You can try to catch that wave again later, but almost every time it is already gone…

John Lennon didn’t need to deal with the real world. Not like we did. He had drivers and shoppers and housekeepers and personal assistants, so he could float through most of the day without worrying too much about “real world” stuff. Oh sure, he had his own pressures more than likely, but hopefully you take my meaning here…

I will say that yes, a great light went out with his death. His last album Double Fantasy hinted at new depths to his creativity that we will never fully know.

But rather than wallow in these thoughts, I prefer to think of it this way. My life is “beginning” now, and I still have creative depths that I haven’t explored. His work inspires me, and yes damn it there should have been more from him to come.

There wasn’t though.

So I’ll be happy listening to Strawberry Fields for the 1,000th time and marvel at his wit and use it to spur my own imagination. And if I accomplish 1% of what he did, I think I’ll still be a very lucky man.

~Graham

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I’ve been struggling with the direction of this blog since the beginning. Well, maybe struggling is too harsh. Pondering, perhaps.

At first, I had it on my now-defunct StrongWhitePapers website, simply because I had just designed the website and work-flow-wise, it just made sense to add it to that site. I thought at first I’d write about white papers, but I didn’t want to be too limited in my scope. After all, I offer many services, not just white paper writing.

Now that I’ve centralized everything including my blog on my main website, the question still hangs out there. Do I write about writing? Do I write about marketing? Do I write about purple widgets? I’ve written about all of them so far. But I think I want to start homing in on a niche topic.

What all of these things have in common — and indeed what many blogs dance around but not delve into — is creativity. This is a topic that really interests me. What is creativity? How do we “unleash” our creativity? Do you have to be “creative-type” to be Creative?

Linda Naiman, an expert in arts-based learning, described creativity as the act of turning ideas into reality. “If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative,” she says.

That’s an interesting concept. You have to build on an idea — you have to create. Seems kind of obvious, when you think about it. But that is one key way that we are different from (most) of the other animals on this planet. Our ability to see the possibilities and form our reality based on what we can imagine is at the heart of what makes us human.

Of course, this is going down too much of an anthropological path. I want to find out how creativity helps us in everyday life, mostly as it pertains to the workplace. I want to find those nuggets of creativity that make our world a better place, and find out how we all can inject our own creativity.

I hope you all come along for the ride. I think it will be interesting at the very least.

But in the meantime, what does creativity mean to you? Let me know in the comment section below!

~Graham

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From the beginning, Apple was IT chic – a phrase that would be an oxymoron with any other company.

When I was growing up, everyone wanted an Apple II. But it wasn’t cheap: at about $1,200, most of us settled for the widely popular Vic-20 and/or Commodore 64 instead.That didn’t stop us from wanting one though.

During the 1984 Superbowl, Apple unveiled its Macintosh computer with an unforgettable ad showing a colourful Olympian throwing a hammer at Big Brother’s screen, changing the world forever.

It also forever-solidified the image of Apple vs. IBM (now embodied with Microsoft and the generic “PC”). Apple was colourful, exciting, fun. IBM was not.

Soon after that landmark commercial, Steve Jobs left Apple – quit, or was about to be fired, take your choice – and the company entered its own form of the Dark Ages. Some hardcore Apple lovers, mostly musicians and graphic designers, hung on. Market share was abysmal though, hovering around 3-5% by the mid-90s.

Then Steve Jobs came back, first as a consultant and then as the interim CEO. Reportedly, after the takeover he drifted into the boardroom in his shorts, t-shirt, and 3-day stubble and asked the BOD: “What’s wrong with this company?” After resounding silence, he offered: “The products. What’s wrong with the products?” More silence. “The products SUCK!” he shouted. “There’s no sex in them anymore!”

The sexy Apple is back now more than ever. With its long-running “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” ads, the truth is painfully clear on the TV screen. Mac is cool, hip, and yes, sexy, while PC is rigid, square, and mundane. In short, it is IT chic vs. IT geek.

So what is it about Apple that makes it one of the sexiest companies out there, IT or otherwise?

It can be broken down into two broad reasons: creating a strong, consistent perception over the decades, and delivering beyond expectations.

The Art of Apple’s Perception

Let’s be honest: Steve Jobs is the heart and soul of Apple. His departure left Apple floundering, and his return was like the second coming. And it’s his vision that drives both the products and the marketing of those products.

The problem with the computer industry as a whole is that most of the players are self-absorbed. The race to the faster chip, more memory, bigger storage, etc. etc. etc. The difference with Apple – and Steve Jobs – is that the emphasis is more on how the customer is going to use that technology. Joe Plumber does not care that his computer is 2.2 Ghz with 3GB RAM and a 320 GB hard drive. He wants to be able to schedule appointments, do the books, AND listen to some music on his computer with as little fuss as possible.

Apple gets this. Although the company may have suffered because it didn’t “open up” its computer to generic vendors like IBM did, it gains in the fact that it has total control over the programs that run on Apple. The result: fewer software conflicts, fewer crashes, and overall an easier experience for the user.

And there it is, the two little words that define Apple: user experience. We have been trained to think of computers as doing the work for us. In fact, we “touch” our computers as little as possible – it is the virtual world, not the real world.

Apple started to really change that in 2001 with its iPod. With the sexy touch wheel and easy access to all your music, you really do touch and feel your computer. That tradition continues with the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Can a full Apple touch screen computer be far behind?

iPod Puts Apple in the Hands of the People

The really cool thing about the iPod is that suddenly all the people who wanted to own an Apple, but couldn’t because of practicality (almost all of my clients are on PC) or price could buy into the Apple Dream. I remember my first iPod, a Nano that my wife got me for Christmas. Sleek black front, colourful small screen, and easy-to-use touch wheel.

But what really impressed me was the shiny silver back. Impossibly shiny. Why were they hiding this? It was one of the little extras that really blew my mind. I bought into the Apple perception, and unlike many products where the perception is just the hook, Apple met my expectations with the sleek design. And then it exceeded them with this shiny silver backing. Sounds silly perhaps, but I really felt like I had arrived.

And that experience is turning into a little windfall for Apple. Hooked on iPod, they are now jumping the PC ship and buying Apple computers. According to CNNMoney.com, Mac is now sitting at about 21% market share in the US. Yes, aggressive marketing is certainly key, but it is hard not to see the connection between the popularity of the iPod and its siblings, and the rise of the Mac.

A Final Word

Apple is a strange one. It is a tech company that is able to embody cool, have rock-star launches, and put forward a CEO that looks like he just got in from a day at the skate park. Apple backs up the sexy, casual image with sexy, user-friendly products. However it is Microsoft, the Darth Vader to the Emperor PC, continues to dominate the market.

Is it possible that Apple sets the standard too high?

Or is it perhaps Apple doesn’t feel it has to dominate the world, just service its own little part of it as well as it can?

Now there’s an interesting concept for you…

What I take from Apple: building and controlling your perception (aka your image, your brand) is extremely important. Since 1984 and before, Apple has maintained essentially the same image, and underlined it with the same messaging.

But what really sets Apple apart is that it then delivers on that perception. Most companies create a perception that associates them metaphorically. For example, the McDonald’s ads with the touching scenes of kids sharing their fries with their calm, understanding über-Dad is nothing like the madhouse of screaming babies and pushed-to-the-edge parents after a long day of work it really is.

In Apple’s world, you would get there and your kids would give you a sip of shake as well as some fries…

Bottom line: build your perception and your business on concrete expectations, and then make sure you deliver – even exceed – those expectations.

So there you have it: a minor dissertation on why Apple is one of the best perception-mongers in the business. What do you think? Are there other companies that do it better? Or is Apple just smoke and mirrors, and I’m missing something here?

Let me know by leaving a comment below.

~Graham

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Someone in the blogosphere asked recently why people don’t say thank you any more. Has the practice really declined? I guess I can see how people are becoming gruffer — especially in the bigger centres. Perhaps as a part of this, the simple act of saying “thank you” is being replaced by “flying under the radar”.

Well, I have a few thank yous here. First, I want to thank all the people who sent words of support during my self-imposed sabbatical. I don’t want to go into details here, but suffice to say that it was a difficult time. All of your kind words were much appreciated.

On a less-sombre note, I would also like to say thanks to Danny at Outlaw Design Blog. He had a writing contest a couple of months ago on the future of social networking. As one of the winners, I received 2,500 business cards from U Printing (that’s a copy of my card there, top left). This was actually perfect timing — I haven’t had cards for a while so it really gave me the impetus to get off my butt and finish the design. Fits in nicely with my new website design I think — it’s that consistency thing again.

Lastly, I’m hoping I’ll be saying thank you to Brian at Copyblogger. I entered his Haiku contest to win a MacBook Air. There were hundreds of entries (at last count) so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Mine was:

Today Pope would find / to forgive Vista human / but to Air, divine

Not exactly Shakespeare (or even Alexander Pope, for that matter) but I like it nonetheless…

Who do you have to thank? Let it all out here in the comments below, or put together a few notes of your own. It feels good, it is good, and it helps keep the world a little happier.

~Graham

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In this series, we have looked at how perception affects buying habits – particularly whether or not they buy what you are selling.

There are many, many ways that you can influence this choice, and paint yourself in the best light. In this post, we’ll look at specific things that help shape that perception, and how you can harness that power.

Colour

We all realize that colour has meaning. Some are obvious: red means passion, green means envy, blue means cool and soothing. Some are not so obvious: prisons use a certain shade of pink on their walls to help calm inmates. Some meanings change over time: ten years ago, if you said “green” then someone would say “envy” back but now they are more likely to say “environment”.

Here’s a short-list of colours and their associated meanings:

Red – passion, attention, excitement
Blue – trustworthy, professional, peaceful
Yellow – happy, intelligent, “visible” (as in “grabs attention”)
Orange – bold, cheerful, adventurous
Green – harmony, soothing, flexible
Purple – regal or stately, spiritual, eclectic
White – pure, fresh, clean
Black – refined, powerful, mysterious

Of course it is not just what colours you use, but how you use them. A totally black room for example would more likely convey foreboding and evil than refined. And interestingly, orange and red in restaurants seems to say “eat up and get out” – which is exactly what the fast-food restaurants want you to do.

If you are unsure of what colours would work well with your business, take a look at the competition. McDonald’s and Burger King use similar colours to each other – reds and oranges. Coffee shops tend to used dark rich browns and creamy colours. Banks and financial institutions seem to favour blues.

Finding out what colours your competition uses might put you on the right track. Then look up what the colours mean to find out why they might be using them. Brown for coffee is obvious, but why blue for banks?

Name

The expression “a rose, by any other name, would smell just as sweet” is not true. It is scientifically proven that your name can deeply influence how people perceive you. That’s why air fresheners have names like “Country Fresh” instead of “Country Barn”. It’s also why Shaggy changed his name from Orville Richard Burrell.

Then there are names that get lost in translation: the Chevy Nova that means “will not go” in Spanish, and the Toyota MR2, which sounded out in French becomes (phonetically – and roughly at that) “emm, err, duh” or “merde”, which equals that barn smell mentioned above…

Michael McDerment has a few suggestions on how to name your company. His approach is a little basic, but his reasoning is sound.

I think you can treat names like colours. If you are operating a bank, solid “blue” names like Morgan and Chase are good. If you are aiming your business at kids, then “orange” names like Chuck E. Cheese and Hannah Montana fit the bill.

No matter what your business, come up with a few names that you like and shop them around your friends and family to find out which will help people’s perception of you most.

Font

This is a small but important consideration. The font choice you use in your logo and banners will have a huge impact on your business.

I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here: Kelly Erickson already had a great take on this subject.

I will add this though: try to look at the fonts you use like colours again. The “blue” IBM logo. The “red” Chili’s logo (which actually is red, and uses an image rather than words – how fun is that?).

In my own case, I used a hand-writing script for my name, trying to convey “artistic” and “creative” with a straight font for the “Freelance Writer” sub-name, conveying professionalism and reliability (you can let me know if I missed the mark by leaving a comment below…!)

Style

Style is very difficult to tackle. It covers many different aspects of your business, from the way you use colour to your content, your customer service, your storefront, your website layout, and more.

My last name is not Gucci, so I am not going to go too far down this road. But I will say this: I did try to consciously put together a basic style for my own website using all of the points including the blue colours to represent professionalism and reliability, the fonts as mentioned above to convey both professionalism and creativity, and the simple layout to represent “easy to work with”. The image I chose of the piled rocks also represents all of these attributes (I believe) as well as give a calming image – to represent that I’m in control and can take the stress off my clients’ shoulders.

Once you get into things like Gucci and Ferrari where style is their business, you need to have a very sophisticated palette. But for the average business, the most important thing is consistency. Again, I’ll compare it to colours: match your style so that everything works together to give the perception you want to convey.

And get rid of colours that clash. Your jewellry shop can be bathed in regal purple, well-lit, and have the most smudge-free display cases. But put up a poster with a snowboarder on it, and you will negate everything.

The “Easy” Way to Do All This

These are just a few basic ways to help influence other people’s perception of you. There are countless more. But if you start by identifying your keywords (as discussed in the last entry in this series) and choose colours, fonts, names, and style to reflect these, you’ll at least be going in the right direction.

It’s important to have a strong sense of self, but often you can save yourself a lot of anxiety and trouble by getting someone else to create your visual identity. A graphic designer understands how colour, fonts, and other design elements work to convey your image. An experience designer can help your storefront business (and perhaps even online business) create a better customer experience using these techniques and more. Find one you trust and who seems to have the same style sensibilities that you want to reflect in your own business.

In the next installment in this series, I will do a case study on a company that does it (mostly) right: Apple.

Until then, chime in with your comments! Am I right? Am I wrong? Am I blue? Let me know…

~Graham

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For personal reasons, I need to take a short break. I will be back online ASAP.

~Graham

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We keep hearing about attacks on blogs, posts being wiped out, comments destroyed — and this is from people who aren’t even upgrading to the latest version of WordPress!

Yes, I’m talking about getting your blog hacked. It can happen to anyone, and in fact it has happened to many already. If the hackers do get access to your database, either through the front door (i.e. through your blog admin pages) or directly through some back door, you risk losing everything. That’s why it is so important to back everything up.

But how? I talked about it a little bit in a recent post dedicated to helping people move their WordPress blog from one server to another. But there is an easier way, and best of all it’s automatic!

I’m talking about Austin Matzko “WordPress Database Backup” plugin (version 2.2.1). This nifty plugin automates everything for you. I have it set so that a backup is emailed directly to my inbox every week, so that if I do get hacked, I will only lose a week of data at most. But you can set it up for daily, weekly, even hourly backups. It also allows you to manually save your database to your server or your own hard drive.

Now I’m sold on this one, but if you have another that you use, let us know by leaving a comment below! And I’m always up for new plugins and gadgets, so if you have a favourite, leave that here too…

~Graham

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In Part I of this series, we discussed how perception can affect buying habits. In Part II, we saw specifically how this works. You don’t want to buy a Ferrari in a dirty back alley for example. The environment and the way you do business needs to reflect the product or service you are selling.

As you may know, it is easy to look objectively at someone else’s decisions and judge their effectiveness. Yes, Italian marble fountains in the showroom and oak desks mean prestige, trust, and Ferraris.

But what represents your product or service?

For Starters…

It is important to realize that every aspect of your business influences perception. The way you dress for a business meeting, the design of your website, the look of your business card, the colour of the drapes in your office, the way you recycle. Even things like the car you drive or the places where you eat.

For some of us, like the work-from-home freelancer, we aren’t likely to be “seen” at any particular restaurant. But imagine what perception customers would have if they saw Ronald McDonald standing in line at Wendy’s for a lunchtime burger…

So for starters, consider every aspect of what your customers/clients see of you, including:

• Logo
• Tag lines and slogans
• Business cards
• Website and/or blog
• Advertising (print ads, banners, Google Adwords, etc.)
• Phone message recordings
• Brochures and other marketing materials
• Store front
• The way you dress and groom yourself for direct contact with customers/clients

Develop your own list, and consider every point. Also try to keep an objective eye here, if at all possible. What would you think if you saw all these separately? What would you think looking at all of these together?

In short, what perception do you have of yourself based only on these items?

Chances are, there is room for improvement. Even companies like Microsoft and GM must constantly work on customer perception. Decide:

1. How you want customers/clients to perceive your business.
2. How you can achieve it.

What Are Your Keywords?

Deciding how you want customers to perceive you can be deceptively complicated. It is no secret that even the best marketers out there freeze up when they try to decide how to market themselves.

So crafting customer perception is no small thing. It helps though to start with the basics. Jot down in one sentence exactly what your company does. Think in terms of benefits, not features. For example, if you sell WordPress plugins, then your sentence won’t be “sell WordPress plugins”, it would be “make it easier for people to use WordPress”.

See the difference? Not only is the second more colourful and descriptive, but it focuses what your core business really is (i.e. helping people, not just selling products).

If you feel it is important, add a couple more sentences to describe the nuances of your business. But don’t write an essay. Boil it down as much as possible until you have the essence of your business.

Now we boil it down even further. Create a list of keywords based on this sentence, just as you might a blog post or an SEO web page. If you are a florist, some obvious keywords would be “flower”, “arrangements”, “gift ideas”. But what about words like “fun”, and “happy”, and “celebration”? These are even better because they deal with emotions, not objects or ideas.

And we all know from Marketing 101 that connecting emotionally with your customers will make all the difference.

One More Easy Tip

If you want an objective assessment on how your customers perceive you, why don’t you ask them?

Recently, James at Men With Pens asked their readers what people thought of the look of their blog, and what they could do to make it better. That post and the comments opened a whole can of worms. Many people chimed in with suggestions for a website redesign.

But what I think surprised James was the fact that different readers saw different things. Everyone knew them as bloggers, and many knew that Men With Pens was a business name as well, but few knew exactly all the services they offered. (In fact, this is the case for many bloggers — I found out recently that few readers know exactly what I do as well!)

Just by asking for customer feedback, you can find out exactly how some of them perceive you right now. You can do this by emailing them for a quick impression of your website, sending a “How Are We Doing?” survey, or if you have a blog, simply asking them like James did. However, I would recommend making it as easy for your clients to respond as possible. You don’t want them to start thinking that they are now working for you!

Armed with this new-found information, you can decide what holes are in your customers’ perceptions, what you need to stress better, and what you should fix. We’ll discuss this next in Part IV of the series.

Until then, have any tips for discovering customer perception? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

~Graham

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Editor’s Note: Originally, I was going to run Part III of the Art of Perception series today. But in response to Brian Clark’s challenge, I am posting this article in its place today. I think this will be very helpful for those of you who are planning to move your WordPress blog to a new server.

~G.S.

Once it a while it happens: you find out you need to move your blog from one server to another. Perhaps you are changing server providers, or perhaps you want to move your blog from one of your websites to another (as was my case).

Now I know a little bit of coding, a little bit of database stuff, so I was fairly confident I could do move my blog without difficulty. I was wrong – I still got tripped up.

Part of the problem, I think, is that I was getting information from several different sources. This advice “mash up” led ultimately to two mangled blogs (original and new), lost data, and a cross-eyed headache.

But I learned from my mistakes. I have created an easy 6-step plan for moving your WordPress blog from one server to another that’s straightforward and painless.

Before You Start

This article assumes that you know how to access your server through your control panel, or are at least willing to learn. You will also need the following items:

• An FTP program. I used Dreamweaver.
• An HTML program or (if absolutely necessary) a text editor. I used Dreamweaver.
• MyPHPAdmin installed on your server*
• A database set up on your server*

*If you are not sure about how to do this, follow the steps to do this from the WordPress New Install instructions here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Using_phpMyAdmin

Terminology Note: The blog you are moving from, including the server, database, and files, is referred to here as “current”. The blog you are moving to is referred to as “destination”.

Step 1 – Back Up Everything

Here is a list of things you want to back up (specific instructions to follow):

• Your Current Database
• Your Current Blog files
• Your Destination Database, if you have one

Current Database Backup (see image below)

1. Log into your MyPHPAdmin
2. Click on the Databases link
3. Click on the database that holds your blog
4. Click on the Export tab
5. There are ten tables (as of version 2.3.3). Make sure all are highlighted/selected. If you are using the database for other applications, deselect any of those related tables.
6. Ensure that “SQL” is selected below this list of tables.
7. Select (put a checkmark) the “Structure” checkbox, as well as “Add Drop Table”, “Add Auto-Increment”, and “Enclose table and field names with back quotes”. Deselect everything else in the Structure checkbox.
8. Select the Data checkbox, and deselect everything in that section except “Use hexidecimal for BLOB”.
9. Select “Save as File” and add a filename. If you have a large database, you may want to compress it by selecting one of the ZIP file options, but generally this is not necessary.
10. Click the “Go” button at the bottom right. You will be prompted to save a file to a folder of your choosing on your hard drive.
11. Done!

Current Blog Files Backup

If you already have a folder called “blog” on your destination server and local hard drive, you will have to rename it or back it up before following these steps. IMPORTANT: Any information you do not back up will be erased in coming steps!

1. Open an explorer window and go to the folder that contains your website on your hard drive.
2. Create a new folder somewhere else on your hard drive.
3. Right click the “blog” folder in your website, drag it to the new folder, and select “Copy” from the list.
4. Using an FTP program, download all of the files from your server to your hard drive.
5. Click “Yes” if it asks you about overwriting files (you just backed them up…)
6. Using the same procedure as Step 3, right click the “blog” folder, drag it to the folder on your hard drive that contains your new server website, and click “Copy”.
7. Done!

Destination Database Backup

If you already have database information on your destination server and you want to protect the information contained in that database, back it up using the same procedure described above in Current Database Backup.

Step 2 – Reconfigure Your Config

You may remember that when you first installed your WordPress blog, you had to add values to the wp_config.php file, including database pointers, passwords, etc. You will now have do the same for your new blog so that the database connects with the files on the new server.

In your HTML editor, follow the same instructions found here (http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Step_3:_Set_up_wp-config.php). Note that instead of references like ‘putyourdbnamehere’, you will have the old information in place from your current blog.

Step 3 – Upload Your Files and Database

1. Upload your files using any FTP program. Click “Yes” if prompted to overwrite.
2. Upload your database by going to your MyPHPAdmin on the destination server.
3. Click on databases, then the name of your database.
4. Click on the “Import” tab.
5. Locate the database you backed up from your current database on your hard drive by clicking the “Browse” button.
6. Once selected, click the “Go” button, bottom right.
7. Done!

Step 4 – Change Your Blog Pointers

The database on the destination server is a mirror image to that of the database on your current blog. The data contains “pointers” to your blog, and right now those pointers are leading visitors back to your current blog. All you need to do is change two pointers on the destination database to point it to your destination blog.

1. Open the destination database in MyPHPAdmin.
2. Click on databases, then the name of your database.
3. There will be ten tables displayed (as of version 2.3.3). Locate the table called “wp_options”.
4. In that row, click on the first icon. If you hover for a moment over this icon, the tool tip should read “Browse”.
5. Many rows of data will appear. Find the column that says “option_value”. Scroll down until you find the URL of your current blog (it may be the top one).
6. At the left of this row, you will see a pencil icon with a tool tip that says “Edit” when you hover over it. Click on this.
7. Change the URL in the text box provided, and click the “Go” button, bottom right. IMPORTANT: double check that you have no spelling mistakes, etc. in the URL address, or it will not work!
8. Scroll down until you find the URL of your current blog again, and change it following Steps 6 and 7 again.
9. Done!

Step 5 – Review the Destination Blog

1. Log in to the destination blog the same way you do your current blog.
2. You will probably have to re-activate all the plugins you have.
3. You might want to take some time at this point as well to update plug-ins, and perhaps even your whole WordPress version, if newer versions are available. This way if you have any problems, you do not have to panic since this blog isn’t “live” yet!
4. Done!

Step 6 – Change FeedBurner and Your Commenting Habits

The last thing you need to do is let the world know that you’ve moved. If you use FeedBurner for subscribers, then you can automatically redirect your subscribers’ feeds by going into your FeedBurner account, clicking on “Edit Feed Details”, and change the domain name in the “Original Feed” text box to your new domain location.

Note: this does take a little while to “propogate”, usually a couple of hours. I officially switched over my blog on a Sunday, my lowest traffic day, so that it would be least likely to affect readers.

You can also announce the move on your blog – I did pre-announcements to let people know. Also make sure that when you are commenting on other blogs, you add the URL of the new blog, not the old one.

And that’s it! Your new blog should be up and running just like your new one.

One side note about links: all incoming links will now be erased, and you’ll be starting at zero again. This is part of the price of moving — just look at it as an exciting new fresh start.

Making a move right now? Let us know how it goes by leaving a comment below — especially if you used this method!

~Graham

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In Part I of The Art of Perception series, we talked about how perception can affect our buying habits. As experienced consumers, we have opened and entered many doors in our lives, some good and some bad. Now we can usually tell where a door is going to lead before we get to it.

On the other side of the equation, as marketers we can try to understand what the characteristics of that “ideal” door is, and then design our door to match.

In this installment, we talk about why perception is so important. If our customers get to the door and hear hooves on the other side, they’ll expect horses. Usually it is vital that when they walk through that door, we show them horses.

Why Give Them Horses?

Let’s back up a step. As we know, the most effective marketing is targeted marketing. The better we can identify our “best” customers (repeat customers with the highest sales, etc.) and create marketing that speaks directly to their wants, the more likely we are to make that sale.

In terms of perception, this means setting up a buying environment that will make people comfortable. For example, if you are going to buy a Ferrari, you’d expect the showroom to have marble floors, perhaps a fountain in the showroom, and fine leather furniture.

But what if this wasn’t the case? What if there were plain concrete floors, wood panelling, and florescent lighting throughout? You would likely get nervous. Alarm bells would go off. You would probably wonder if this “dealership” was actually a chop shop.

Now this doesn’t just hold true for high-end items. Think of McDonald’s. Their key to business success has been consistency. Go to any McDonald’s in the world and order a Big Mac, and you’ll get exactly the Big Mac you were expecting.

What Are We Trying to Convey When We Give Them Horses?

In simple terms, giving them horses nurtures the same thing whether you are selling Ferraris or Big Macs.

Trust.

Customers who want to see horses are expecting reliability and consistency. There are two reasons for this.

First, this helps the type of buyers who don’t want to think too much about their buying decision. They are relying on some other aspect of your business (your brand, your presentation, your professionalism, etc.) to help guide their decision. For example, people in a hurry don’t want to make a huge dinner choice, so they go for a Big Mac, knowing that it will be a safe and reliable choice. Other examples include:

• Any type of franchise operation
• Everyday items like dish soap, toothpaste, razor blades, etc.
• Branded clothing like Nike runners, North Face winter wear, and Joe Boxer boxers

Secondly, this covers buyers who are carefully scrutinizing their purchases. Someone buying a Ferrari wants to feel like those hundreds of thousands of dollars are well spent. Buying it from a trailer office just won’t convey that trust. Other examples include:

• Financial services like banks, investment consultants, etc.
• Jewellry stores and other luxury item shops
• Country clubs and similar social clubs
• Real estate agents

Nurturing Trust

Perception plays a large part in conveying that trust. That’s why banks are solid, conservative structures with vaults and bars and secret rooms. We want to protect our money in a fortress, so they give us a fortress.

It’s also why McDonald’s puts such an emphasis on cleanliness. Seeing a spotless restaurant conveys the perception that the food you are about to eat is good too. (Okay, you know what I mean…)

So how do we as marketers convey that trust by creating perceptions?

We’ll look at that next Monday.

Until then, join the discussion! How does perception affect your buying (or selling) habits? Share your experiences!

~Graham

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