Aaron Ewer
Aaron Ewers thoughts about everything

I’ve been working on a web site for a group of local lawyers who have their own radio show on the AM talk radio station here, 1510 WLAC. The cool thing about AM radio is that late at night the broadcast signal goes really far and this show can be heard in 33 states and 3 countries on a regular car or truck radio. Plus it is broadcast live on the internet, so it can actually be heard all over the world.

It’s an interesting show - the lawyers take calls on the air from real people and help them explore their options and explain their legal standing. You can learn a lot from listening every week.

Years ago I took a sales position with a database marketing group. It only lasted about a year, as the boss was impossible to work for, but I learned a lot about marketing and sales, and I have to give credit to the people at that now defunct company for teaching me some important lessons. By the way, the company is defunct because the boss went to jail for tax evasion - but that’s a different story. The people who worked there were the tops in their fields and their expertise is what fueled the company to its high level - although short lived - success.

The main thing you need to know about using database marketing for a sales campaign is that the quality of your leads is the single biggest influence on the success of your campaign. There are lots of companies that sell sales leads, but the lists have to be targeted properly, as current as possible and very very clean.

If I was to start a business to business sales campaign, the first call I would make would be to “The Lead Dogs.” This company knows their stuff and they share a lot of useful information about marketing on their web site. There are several critical steps involved in a successful campaign, including business to business telemarketing, direct mail and a unique URL to support the campaign. You can read more about this and other marketing tips on “The Lead Dogs” website, so take advantage of their knowledge and abilities.

While surfing various sites today I’ve come across an unusual word three times, all in totally different topics and arenas. I don’t know if I just noticed this one particular word today and with increased awareness I am noticing it more, or is today just a day when this word comes across my screen several times? It’s very weird. If this was numbers instead of a word, I’d taken them to the convenience store and buy a lottery ticket.

The word is “robust,” which is a powerfully descriptive word and I really like it. I should use it more. I first noticed it used in a comment ties to an article in the New York Times on how flip flops are allegedly harmful to feet. I suspect that study was underwritten by the manufactures of athletic shoes and disagree totally with their conclusions. Nonetheless, a fellow commenter used the word robust and I thought it was well used there.

Then a press release from Mozilla and article on Yahoo News calls the new version of Firefox to be released tomorrow, “robust.” Well, I am a Firefox fan and am very much looking forward to the new “robust” version of Firefox.

And last, there is an article on the BBC website abut the advances in medical lasers that will help the biomedical field. The new lasers reportedly have a robustness:

Dr Graeme Malcolm, of M-Squared Lasers Ltd, added: “A step change improvement in the cost, size and robustness of ultrafast lasers is needed before they can benefit biomedical applications fully.”

I’m not sure what a step change is - perhaps a steep change? Or is step change a British expression?

Anyway, the word of the day award goes to “robust.” Now we should all try to use it in a sentence during a conversation with someone tonight!

Several years ago I delved into GIF animation. It took a couple days to create some basic GIFs and practice using the settings, but even the very first project turned out nicely. So that’s encouraged me to jump in and give Flash animation a try.

There’s a company called AntsSoft that makes a Flash text animation software called SWF Text. AntsSoft make a variety of web design software including Flash slideshow software and Flash menu builders. So I can create several different effect using their software.

I was reading up on the SWF Text program and see that is has all the features that I think I need to create a great Flash intro for our family’s personal website. I want to do a montage of family photos with some special effects on the text and this program should do all that and more.

The details on using the Flash Text sound like anyone can quickly learn to use this software, with some very cool features like over 160 text animation effects and more than 40 background animations.

AntsSoft is offering a 30 day free trial on SWF Text, and since this is a holiday weekend, I have an extra day at home to work with it and make our new Flash intro. I’ll let you see how it turns out when I’m done!

School will be out for the summer after next week and my son is really pumped about having the whole day for play instead of having to sit in a classroom all day. He’s a very active kid, so we are making plans to keep him busy for the next two months of no school.

One thing he really likes is skateboarding. The kids down the street are really into the sport and they’ve let him ride their skateboards a few times. We are thinking he’s old enough now to get one of his own. The wife wanted to pick up a cheap skateboard at the toy store, but I think I’ve talked her out of that. I used to ride my skateboard all over the neighborhood when I was a kid, and I know that they have a lot of new designs and technology that are specific to the rider’s age and weight and the type of riding he’ll be doing.

I found a website that has a great assortment of skateboards and all the other gear we’ll need. I’m going to let my son sit with me and pick the board design that he likes, and we’ll order it this weekend so it will be here about the same time that school lets out.