Climate change is an emotive subject and one that I don’t really have a strong opinion. In my head, it would be nice to cut down on our reliance of things that churn out gases and will one day run out, especially when there are so many ways to make energy naturally.

But, I also know I won’t change my habits drastically enough to make a difference. Mainly because the motivation for me isn’t strong enough. For instance, if fuel prices rise, less cars are on the roads. I kind of like that, but perhaps it’s because I don’t do too many miles a year so it’s not hitting me (personally) hard enough.

But, if you can combine the two messages at the same time, perhaps you end up with quite a strong sales proposition. A bit like Al Gore’s latest speech.

“When you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices.”

People are selfish and they will make decisions that seem right for them - not for you selling to them. If you can become greener and save money, then surely it’s a no brainer? Good for your pocket and good for your soul.

So, if you can address the selfish motivations of your customer, you may be quids in. Why not explore why people want or need your product or service?

Seth Godin’s post about Low Hanging Fruit got me thinking. Maybe not in the way it was intended but I have suddenly started to commoditise things I have done for free in the past.

At The Escape, I am running a workshop about writing for the web for clients. This information has value, so we decided to charge. It’s half subscribed after less than a week. Rather than do it as pure added value, we get some value back to the tune of £1,000.

Also, I have had a meeting this morning in London and discussed the need to a client to get to grips with their web strategy before implementing the ‘nuts and bolts’ of content and design. Rather than them come to Basingstoke for our free web strategies seminar, we suggested that we go to them.

They will share the cost between their various marketing partners and we get to prove ourselves for two hours. What’s more, they realise the value that the seminar could provide and will pay for my time to do it.

I’m all for educating clients, and, it does seem that if you start charging, even if it is a nominal fee, they become more emotionally involved in the purchase.

The double-bubble benefit of a motivated client base equals more successful websites out there - pointing back to me.

Back in March, I set up two Blogs. I enjoy the NLP one, it’s quite cathartic. The candle one was a reaction after spending quite a bit of money on a domain last year (I was going to go down the e-commerce route) and wanting to recoup some money.

But, candles are boring - they are for me anyway.

So, last week, I read this article on Site Reference (I really like their articles and recommend subscribing to their feed) and I thought I would try it out last night - hence the new candlebox.

It was so easy to set up (and I stll don’t know of the value yet) and for just $117 you can use up to 99 domains. So, I put a few others dead domains up there too.

Then, last night, I was watching the news, talking about recessions, etc. and started to wonder about setting up a whole bunch of topical domains - just in the short terms perhaps. So, five minutes later, I had Credit Crunchers.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

I heard that one of our competitors in Basingstoke has ceased trading this week. I guess I should be jumping for joy but I’m not. In fact, I’m a bit gutted.

KAG Design had been in Basingstoke for over twenty years and were central to the design community in Basingstoke. As young pretenders came and went, KAG were always there or there abouts. I envied them a bit I guess, and aspired to be as big as them when we set up The Escape in 1998.

At The Escape, we have aspired to many companies during our life and I can say, without hesitation, that although it wasn’t a destructive ambition, if was jaded somewhat when I learned the reality behind the facade of these companies.

It seems that KAG are not alone in shutting up shop. Design agencies are struggling across the board. As budgets get cut and new media changes the way that creative is delivered, traditional design is dying on it’s arse. But, it’s not as if we haven’t seen it coming.

About 50% of The Escape’s revenue now comes from an industry that was barely in existence when we set up ten years ago - the web. We changed, we adapted and that part of our business has grown immensely over the past five years.

And, as a business owner, I can’t help thinking that if it came that quickly… perhaps it will morph into something else within the next ten years that makes our current service offering obsolete. Content management systems may well be just an extension of a computer operating systems before long, who knows?

And, where does that leave me? I read once that the lifespan of a business is 25 years, so if that’s the case, The Escape is nearly half way there.

But I acknowledge that businesses change. Industries change. Whether it’s camera films, fax machines, video recorders or websites; nostalgia is one thing, making money is another.  The vision to succeed is different to the day-to-day delivery of a product and service. Any person in a small business must be looking at change. Not necessarily the risky end of cutting edge change, but at the very least diversification.

One last thought. 90% of the work we used to do, ended up being printed. Now, it may end up on the web, as a PDF, or on disk because the client is being offered print ridiculously cheaply and we won’t cut off our nose to spite our face. Hence, the change in revenue generators for The Escape.

The death of a business soon passes and people forget. Nostalgia doesn’t pat the bills. Change is the only constant.

A friend of mine, Darren, has just gone freelance, after being made redundant. He is a Senior Mac Artworker - and a very good one. He is based in Basingstoke but told me he is working all over Hampshire, up into Surrey, around Farnham way, and across towards Reading in Berkshire.The full SP is that he is Mac based and is very proficient using:

• Quark Xpress
• Adobe Indesign
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Photoshop

Anyway, if you need a freelance artworker in Basingstoke give him a shout.

Just finished a small project for a local fencing company in Basingstoke. He is doing me some work, I did him a website.

I say I did it, my friend Steve Clark designed and built it from my strategy document. Now it’s live, I am now going in and tidying up the content, adding some words here and there to make sure the website gets some traffic that leads to business.

If you are a Basingstoke tradesman, you may want to bear in mind I do trades, and, I want an extension built next year and everything that goes with it.

The great thing about this website is that it has a really focused sales proposition, which makes it a much more viable commercial marketing  tool - my favourite.

Nice little article here from Site Reference about Link Building. If you are into easy reading, with pertinent information, well worth subscribing to their feed.

I’ve just started using a piece of software called Coda for my web edits - I highly recommend it.

It’s ease-of-use has given me the impetus to edit my web pages on a more regular basis and as a result I’ve seen some nice uplifts in traffic.

Just by revisiting some of the words on the page and making some very small changes, I have managed to refine my text to be a little more specific and more relevant for a search and I have seen a rise of 25% more unique visitors this month.

A website isn’t a brochure and as such it should be tweaked occasionally, especially if you have the added intelligence of up-to-date keyword research.

Get tweaking now!

Found some great videos from 1938 media - some not for the faint hearted.

I liked them though - especially this one which made me feel really great about using Twitter.

It took us eight years to land a client once, but the contract we took on was worth the wait. The thing is, when you don’t do retail sales and are in B2B, chances are the sale takes a little longer than a quick in and out. A level or proving yourself also come into the equation, rather than being based purely on price.

That’s what I love about the whole idea of permission marketing and digital delivery such as websites, Blogs and e-mail marketing.

Seth Godin, Author of the original book on the subject, covers it again briefly on his Blog today.

It’s a much more laid back way of marketing and is proven (for me at least) to generate pipeline through relevant attention, rather than the badgering approach which annoys me more and more each day.