In my hustle and bustle lately, I neglected to realize that I’ve been blogging “semi-pro” as I refer to it for a full year.  I went back to see some of my earlier posts from last August and was reminded of this one – Hats, Hats, Everywhere! Could it be that it was just a year ago that I was still managing PsPrint’s mailing services?  It’s also sad to say that I was “in charge of” social media marketing – a project that never took off on the company level, but I’ve obviously been running strong with it.

It feels like it’s been much longer than just a year that I’ve been at this, but I have to say that I’ve learned so much in a year that it’s incredible.  In many ways this blog as served as a gateway to that knowledge and opportunities that I’ve been given.  I’ll never be able to thank this little blog enough lol.

I wish I’d discovered Google Analytics sooner so I don’t have complete data, but thank you to the 16,000+ visitors this year that stopped by.  Thanks for spending those few minutes to check out what I’ve been spewing out there into the webverse.  I hope you’ve come by more than once.  Told your friends.  Subscribed despite my trials and tribulations in getting a freakin’ feed to work properly.  And come by despite going through three URL changes…

Stay Classy, Interwebs.

Thanks to Jim Kukral who wrote a cool birthday song for my blog!

Happy birthday to your blog.

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Demographics:

• The physical characteristics of human populations and segments of populations often used to identify consumer markets. Demographics can include information such as age, gender, marital status, education or geographic location

Whenever you do a targeted marketing campaign, demographics are key! It’s a much better use of your time, efforts, paper, and budget to send your message to consumers who will be the most likely and interested in buying what you’re selling. You don’t want waste precious resources sending custom hot tub installation flyers to people in apartment buildings.

Many mailing list providers (e.g. PsPrint, USAData, etc) offer many demographic distinctions to choose from when renting a mailing list to market to. It’s also important to differentiate if you’re aiming for consumers at large or other businesses as it makes a huge difference in what kind of list you spend your money on.

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Glossary Definition From Website Magazine, February 2008.

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I figured out a really nifty thing to do on LinkedIn a few months ago… creating an HTML email signature with a link to this blog, to the PsPrint website, and to my LinkedIn profile. I was, sadly, highly amused by this function and emailed a colleague to show it off.

Colleague: Oh that is cool…I am still not 100% comfortable with online communication websites but Linked In seems cool because it’s business connections.
Me: But it’s the waaaave of the futurrrrre. And we’re going to start social media marketing, so get used to it :p

Back in August we decided to do a full frontal attack on social media! I can’t say much yet since we’re still fleshing out the procedures and nitty gritty details, but I’ll be taking the lead on it. That was decided back in August and we still haven’t made any progress on it, other than my blogging efforts here.

It was exciting to get some new responsibilities and start working on a new project. Our mailing services is pretty automated and our affiliate program was starting to go places. I couldn’t wait to talk more about it, but mum was the word at the time.

So I got to thinking about it… is social media and online networking really the wave of the future? What are your thoughts?

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About a month I go, I briefly mentioned that we’ve started a new affiliate program on Commission Junction. Didn’t bring a whole lot of fanfare to the party since we hadn’t officially made the announcement to our customers and current members at that time. I gave up my position as the manager of PsPrint’s Direct Mail Services to focus more time and attention on this little bugger.

Well, let’s get this party started? 8%? Weak sauce of the past. We’re serving up 15% commissions now, baby!
That’s right, we’ve dropped our measly 8% commissions and boosted to 15%. Partnering with Commission Junction has made the program so much better: a better interface, more reliable tracking, the support of a big affiliate network, you name it. It’s all simpler than ever for our affiliates AND us!

I’m really excited about the transition as it gives us a chance to start over and scrap the old program soon. It’s hard to improve on something that’s inherently flawed like our old program.

We’ve made sure to get the word out on this just in time for Affiliate Summit 2008 West. The Summit will be held at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino February 24th through 26th. PsPrint will of course have a booth and I will be there, so if you happen to be a reader of this blog stop by and say hi to me for a special treat .

Really, I swear!

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All in one printing is a valuable asset to have. The printer I use at home, an HP OfficeJet 6210, is a great piece of machinery. With this I can print anything I want with photo quality results (usually photos and Google Map directions are what I’m printing). I can also scan my photos, make copies for free, and, if I had land line phone service, I could easily fax to my heart’s content. I’ve had all in one printers for a few years now, and I’d never go back to a simple printer as my main machine.

Here at the office we have a Konica machine that almost does as much as my little HP (despite being 5 times the size). It prints, it scans, it copies, it slices, it dices. Wait – rewind those last two there.

But it’s a great machine when it’s not tragically overworked by the volume our office sends it’s way. Without an all in one machine like this, our efficiency is severely hindered. Anyone who’s been here on a day when the printer goes down knows exactly what I mean.

While not a scientific percentage, a quick search of Google Shopping shows 23,015 results for “all in one printer”, so clearly there are a ton on the market and many small businesses look for combination deals like this to save on money and supplies. Every business I’ve worked at has kept a similar all-in-one machine in their arsenal of office equipment. So if these are so important to us, why do people still look to specialized companies for their professional printing needs?

The best stop is a printing company that can do it all for you. This way you save on supplies, shipping, and effort. The time you save dealing with one company to do everything for you will increase your efficiency and give you time for other more important projects than ordering more business cards. Naturally all businesses want to get more bang for their buck, so the best solution is to go somewhere with great quality and low prices.

PsPrint, one of the first online printing companies and the only online printer with facilities on both coasts, is a one-stop-shop. Offering exceptional quality at bargain prices, PsPrint offers everything from business cards to presentation folders, professional graphic design services to mailing services. They can take care of your printing needs from start to finish. It’s a great online resource to have in your back pocket. Ordering online has never been easier: just upload your artwork, pick out what you want, and associate the two. BAM – you’re in business.

Don’t take my word for it… head over to www.PsPrint.com and check out the selection of products and services for yourself. You’ll wonder why you went to any other printer before.

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It’s the end of a 2 year streak for me here running our Mailing Services at PsPrint. I’m passing it on to an able-bodied lieutenant and the Customer Service department… probably where it should have been the whole time. At this point the majority of the day to day stuff has been passed on and it is a bit strange to come in and not have to do these things.

But what will I do with my days? More of the same, really, just with more time to focus. We’re still transitioning our current affiliate program into a reseller program and have begun our true affiliate program over at Commission Junction. I’ll have more time to properly manage both programs and follow up with affiliates and resellers alike.

There will also be more time to focus on our email marketing campaigns, trade shows, advertising opportunities, blogging, social network marketing, reputation management, new media, and our green printing initiative.

So the end of an era has come and 2008 will be a fresh year for me here. I’m excited, and yet, anxious. Bring it on!

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Things I’m In Charge Of Today
the Print Green initiative
Social Media Marketing
Mailing Services
Affiliate Program
Reseller Program (TBA)
E-Mail Marketing
Tracking IT fixes
Tracking website version changes
Tracking Opt-Outs for emails and snail mails
Answering Marketing Email

Things I Assist With
Advertising
Trade Shows
Donations
Partnerships

Does this seem like too much or just enough?

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No, I didn’t get the saying wrong. That’s how I feel today. I’ve got a ton of energy physically speaking… got a great night’s sleep last night. But after even a short week of overloading my brain with end of month reporting, more reporting, affiliate network shopping, and more late nights at the office, my brain has decided to stage a sit in.

Actually, before about 11:30am this morning the brain was active too. However after sitting in various conference calls from then until about 2:15pm, my brain revolted from overload. First we heard all about LinkShare and their merchant platform. Then all about Widemile’s optimization services. Then talked to a couple cats at Clickbooth since we haven’t ventured into CPA marketing here at PsPrint yet.

Is it a bad thing that during our conference call I surfed over to MarketingTerms.com and had to look up CPA? I was pretty embarrassed with Anne sitting behind me… although I guess she actually didn’t notice until I mentioned it after the meeting. Oh well.

The last week I’ve been making sure our mailing services don’t break, which is nice for a change. At the end of August the mailing went crazy… it seemed like while I was on vacation everyone and their mother decided to place a mailing order. Which is great… but left me a lot of work to catch up on. We’ve been really focused on the affiliate program and it’s future. Which is great too. We’re looking at new features, better affiliate acquisition, possibly a new network, new creative, new campaigns… heck new everything. It’s an exciting time for me, especially since Anne confirmed that we’ll be attending Affiliate Summit 2008 West in Las Vegas in February. That means between my personal vacation, the National Association of Realtors show in November, and AS West I’ll be heading to Sin City three times in 6 months. Not too shabby for this California girl.

I’m also semi-addicted to del.icio.us now. Last night I imported all my bookmarks from home into it so now I can access them anywhere… and that’s half the point, right? It’s really actually pretty interesting to see how many other people have some of my favorite places bookmarked. I’m also surprised in some cases how few people have some websites bookmarked. For example, the View Askew Productions Message Board has over 10,000 registered members. But only 2 other people on del.icio.us have it bookmarked…one of which I even recognize (and promptly added to my network).

Time for my Friday ritual of trying to see the wood grain of my desk. Wish me luck.

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While brushing my hair this morning I found not one but three gray hairs. It’s hard to tell the color of a single hair, it almost looked blond… but considering that my hair is naturally a dark brown, I sorta doubt they were blond.

Has the stress gotten to me already? My coworkers have joked that I’m no longer allowed to take Vacations because the rely on my being here so much (although this is something they joke about every time I take some time off for any reason…) And since returning from Sin City, the work load on my desk has been seemingly endless. I’ve been here two and a half extra hours each night trying to catch up before Labor Day, and with it also being the end of the month I have EOM reporting coming up to worry about as well.

What happened to the days when I just came in, did my job, and went home? I guess in the days of mailing services, marketing, advertising, sales, social media, the affiliate program, and email marketing there’s no sleep for the weary. It took me half a day just to catch up on Twitter posts and all the blogs I subscribe to through Google Reader. I’ve perhaps spent more time here at PsPrint than home in the last few days.

In case you’re wondering, I did enjoy my vacation. Some of the highlights included a helicopter tour over the strip at night, seeing Penn & Teller live and getting photos with them and their autographs, seeing lots of animals, going very high up at the top of the Stratosphere tower and the Paris Las Vegas Eiffel Tower, and traipsing all over Las Vegas Blvd. My travel friend and I basically saw everything we went to Vegas wanting to see, except we missed out on the Tournament of Kings dinner show at Excalibur. I think when I go back to Vegas in November to attend the National Association of Realtors’ conference, I might take an evening to head over there. I wasn’t quite ready to re-join reality!

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So in less than 48 hours, this is where I will be… chilling with (hopefully) a fruity drink in my hand rearing to go and enjoy beautiful Las Vegas. I’ve needed a vacation for awhile now, and it’s good to go on a real vacation.

Of course, trying to get a bunch of projects done in time to go without worrying about work is almost impossible. It’s like the fates align to send every new project possible right into your inbox the day before you’re set to leave. Today was my last day in the office until next Tuesday, so of course new affiliate projects came across my desk, problems with mailing services customers happened, a new email marketing campaign launched, and I was IMed about a thousand times.

If only my vacation started tomorrow! While I won’t be in the office, I’ll instead be down in San Jose attending the Search Engine Strategies Expo at the Convention Center. They have a Social Media track of educational sessions that should be very informative and give me some good ideas for that task here at PsPrint in the coming months. I’ll be there in classes until about 2, then I’m going to walk around the expo and check it out a bit.

Afterwards, that’s when my vacation starts! First I’ll be meeting up with a friend from out of town in San Jose to go to the Winchester Mystery House. It’s amazing how terrible of a tourist one can be in their own area… I’ve never been there, despite being fascinated by it’s history since 3rd grade. So going there, then Friday morning flying to Las Vegas. I can’t wait.

So, I bid this blog adieu until the 28th when I get back. I leave you with a question: what did you do on YOUR summer vacation?

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