Does It Matter that Former Yahoo Exec Brad Garlinghouse Has Joined AOL?

TechCrunch reports that former Yahoo Executive Brad Garlinghouse has joined AOL. But does that cause to help AOL?

Nope, not even a little. It won’t help make a difference with AOL. Brad would have been better off if he had joined either LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter (or even my next project Welated.com or Laatie.com).

AOL as a brand has lost its mojo. The only difference would be if AOL changes its name and brand to something else other than AOL, and completely revamp its business model and focus.

Even for someone to still has an email address @aol.com seems so a hundred years ago, and if you still have an @aol.com email address, that may even likely cause you not having anyone taking you seriously, because that’s so a century ago, it’s like carrying around and listening to a walk-man while everyone else is listening to an iPod, plus nothing new or really good has been coming out of AOL as a company lately.

The solution for AOl is; change the name from AOL to something else, bring in new management as it’s doing now and get rid of all the old ones, and then rebrand and refocus the business model, but keep the AIM solutions, that’s the only way out for AOL.

An IPO for AOL without doing any of the above will likely to be a disaster in terms of stock and company value both in the short and long run.

Filed under: AOL, advertising , advertising, AOL, Garlinghouse, IPO

What Makes a Good Business Slogan?

A slogan, a mantra, is the salt and pepper for any and your organization. It’s what people everywhere remember when they see your company name or products, anywhere.

Your slogan, mantra statement must be short; three words max, and must be even simpler for anyone to remember and recognize it and associate it with your company, employees, brand, and products. This is the slogan you embedded in all your ads and wherever else your company’s name appears.

Watch this video by Guy Kawasaki, fast forward to 6:20 on the video, and listen to Guy Kawasaki defines a mantra statement and his recommendation on what to do to come up with a cool slogan.

Who’s Guy Kawasaki? He is the fool who once turned down the CEO job-interview for Yahoo! He’s one of the most revered Silicon Valley’s executives and founder and managing director of Garage.com.

Here are our two slogans:

RentersQ – “Before You Rent”.

Gatepedia- “The Online Branding”.

What’s your business slogan? How effective is it? Let me help you, create the most effective and brandable slogan, a mantra statement, for your organization.

Filed under: advertising, branding, business, design, entrepreneur, logo, mantra, slogan, startup, statement , advertising, branding, creating mission statement, Internet, mantra, marketing, mission statement, slogan

What Makes a Good Mission Statement?

Every company every where is supposed to and must have a mission statement, which is the heart of the business’s vision and  the guide of its operation, as a whole.

But how can you come up with a good and captivating mission statement? Most large companies spend thousands of dollars paying ad and marketing agencies to develop and craft their mission statements.

Look at some of the world’s largest companies’ mission statements below;

Microsoft: “Our mission and values are to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.”

But, how does this mission statement directly define in the ways Microsoft helps people and businesses? How and in what ways it helps them realize their full potential? What full potential?

A mission statement doesn’t have to be strenuous and complicated to read and understand its meaning, and doesn’t have to be direct and or completely specific to what the company does. A mission statement must be a simple gesture of structured words that embody, embrace and define the goal of the business, an entity, as a whole, both for employees, shareholders, partners and customers.

Watch this video by Guy Kawasaki, fast forward to 6:20 on the video, and listen to Guy Kawasaki defines a mission statement and his recommendation on what to do to get a good mission statement.

In your company, you should have the following statements:

1. A mission statement
2. A vision statement
3. A values statement
4. A mantra (slogan)
5. A profile statement

A mission statement – should be short and simple, which at the most basic defines why your business exists, and that’s for all your employees, customers, shareholders, and partners.

A vision statement – defines what your company plans and hopes to do and become, here you are targeting the same audience as in your mission statement, and this one can be longer and detailed.

A values statement – defines your company values and ethics and this one can be even longer and detailed.

A mantra statement – must be short; three words max, and must be even simpler for anyone to remember and recognize it with your company, employees, brand, and products. This is the slogan you attach to your ads.

A profile statement – this is what describes your company in detail, not your mission statement.

Each statement as listed above must serve as its own segment. And again, if your mission statement can’t fit on the back of your business card, then you need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a short and tastefully mission statement.

Words on the Street

Read what others have to say about a mission statement.

BPlans.com: “Your mission statement is an opportunity to define your business at the most basic level.”

Businessplans.org: “The mission statement should be a clear and succinct representation of the enterprise’s purpose for existence. It should incorporate socially meaningful and measurable criteria addressing concepts such as the moral/ethical position of the enterprise, public image, the target market, products/services, the geographic domain and expectations of growth and profitability. The intent of the Mission Statement should be the first consideration for any employee who is evaluating a strategic decision. The statement can range from a very simple to a very complex set of ideas.”

Mission Statement Focus

Here are some of the well known enterprises’ mission statements

Google – “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Starbucks – “establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow.”

Airtran – “Innovative people dedicated to delivering the best flying experience to smart travelers. Every day.”

3M – “To solve unsolved problems innovatively”

Mary Kay Cosmetics – “To give unlimited opportunity to women.”

Merck – “To preserve and improve human life.”

Wal-Mart “To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people.”

Walt Disney – “To make people happy.”

Ford Motor Company (early 1900’s) – “Ford will democratize the automobile”

Sony (early 1950’s) – “Become the company most known for changing the worldwide poor-quality image of Japanese products.”

Boeing (1950) – “Become the dominant player in commercial aircraft and bring the world into the jet age.”

Wal-Mart (1990) – “Become a $125 billion company by the year 2000.”

Should I keep going posting mission statements of well known companies? Some of these mission statements are pretty lame and meaningless. And, no, I didn’t create them; I’ll do a better job than that, just look at my companies’ mission statements that I created in no time.

Oh, for your information if you are just starting out, when drafting your competitive analysis, always look at your closest successful competitors, and try to do better than what or how they do things. You can even take a peek at their business structure and mission statement. And feel free to update and change your mission statement at any time to reflect your business growth.

I hope this helps you in crafting your mission statement. The best way to be creative when trying to come up with your mission statement is when you are taking a shower, doing number #2 in the restroom, taking a long walk, or my favorite, when I lay down and take a nap, when I am half sleep, that’s when I become more creative.

My Companies

Here is my company, Gatepedia’s mission statement, and please let me know if you understand the meaning of the following combined strings of words:

“At Gatepedia, our mission and values are to synergistically engineer unique infrastructures and efficiently coordinate diverse deliverables to exceed our customers’ expectations.”

But what does that mean? You tell me…!

The above stated mission statement is not the actual Gatepedia’s mission statement. I just put it up there to see how you’d react to those complicated and ugly strings of monstrous words. A good mission statement should be simpler and short enough to fit on the back of a business card.

Here are my companies’ actual mission statements.

Gatepedia: “At Gatepedia, our mission is to consistently create superior values and unique infrastructures for our company and for the world.”

Kapenda Corporation: “To become the unparalleled essential ingredient in the lives of all the living things.”

RentersQ: “To become the world’s trusted hub for online rental and real estate services.”

Need help?

For just a few hundred bucks, I can create a cool, meaningful, marketable, brandable, and captivating mission statement or slogan for your company within 24 hours. Just get in touch with me now.

Filed under: advertising, blog this, business, culture, design, economy, entrepreneur, graphic design, help, logo, mission, project, startup, statement , advertising, branding, creating mission statement, Internet, marketing, mission statement, slogan

AOL Acquires Bebo

Apparently, there’s still value in the mostly ad-supported Internet business of social networking.

Yesterday AOL announces a plan to acquire Bebo, the third-biggest social networking site in the United States, for $850 million in cash. It’s reported that “AOL has spent close to $2 billion in the past year or so on acquisitions as it races to leave behind its tangled legacy as the 1990s phenomenon that introduced much of America to the Web.” (CNNmoney.com).

Filed under: AOL, Internet, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, adword, blog this, business, networking, social, startup, technology , ad, adsense, advertising, adwords, branding, campaign, design, Gatepedia, Internet, logo, marketing, online, PPC, promotion

The Social Networking Web Explosion Years of 2003 – 2005, What Were You Doing?

Okay, I am a child and a graduate of the web 1.0 bubble-era, so I have learned a lot from it, but may be not good enough to some. But do you remember that one guy, I can’t remember his name right now, but he’s from the Silicon Valley area. He had a very successful dot com company; he became an instant dot com millionaire (well on papers) in that era.

When his company received plenty of VC funding and eventually made the IPO, he had gone out and spent millions (on paper), buying huge houses, cars, etc., without having his company actually made any money.

So, after the collapse of the web 1.0 thing which also caused his company to fold, the banks came and took away all of his possessions. Perhaps not knowing what else to do, he was probably more embarrassed than being disappointed, he then left for Asia and joined the Monk convent, but no biggie, and it’s all good, right? Right!

My question is this, after the dot com 1.0 bubble, what were you doing between 2003 and 2005 when they were starting Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Hi5.com, and some of today’s most successful dot com 2.0, web based applications and social networking sites?

Well, for me, I had gone back to school, and I passionately dislike myself because this entire web 2.0 thing caught me asleep. I didn’t see it coming. I guess I initially looked at their business models and said, hmm, they are just another TheGlobe.com wanna-be’s. Do you remember TheGlobe.com? I’d say that TheGlobe.com was the first social networking site for the web 1.0, but it’s too bad, it didn’t survive the bubble.

The question is; if you are an Internet aspiring entrepreneur, what were you doing between 2003 and 2005 when they were starting MySpace, Facebook, Digg, and the late coming, but fastly growing kid, YouTube?

Do you think there is still a room for another web startup to make it?

Filed under: Google, Internet, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, adword, article, blog this, business, culture, eBay, entrepreneur, living, networking, news, social , ad, ads, adsense, advertising, adwords, branding, campaign, design, Gatepedia, Internet, logo, marketing, online, PPC, promotion, social networking, web 3.0

The Better Way to Design Your New Logo

It’s a fact that your logo is the face of your company, your corporate identity and brand and it is the very first thing that your customers and audience recognize, remember and associate you with what you do and your product offerings.

But getting a logo designed is the hardest task, and companies spend tens of thousands of dollars designing their logos. There are many firms that offer logo design services, corporate identity, etc., and some charge extremely large fees, just to design your logo.

Most of them do really good, but charging hundreds of thousands of dollars just to design a logo seems rather ridiculous, but hopefully worth it. Is it the designer who makes the logo stand out and make a statement or you, the logo owner?

It’s partly the designer but it is all about you. And you can hire a small time in a sense of the firm size, or a local freelance graphic designer, even a college student and pay him or her a normal fee, whatever she or he charges, hopefully not in the tens of thousands of dollars, and still get the best logo designed, than paying a large design firm hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Hey, you can have or hire the best of all the best graphic designers in the world, but if your taste is ugly, then you’ll end up with a logo design that has no good value or appeal to anyone, except those who have the same taste as worse as yours.

Getting your logo designed is as easy as you may think. First of all, you have to know what you precisely want. And do a lot of research; compare several designs already out there before you embark on your own design. And most importantly, you must know your industry, your targeted audience, and your product offering.

Imagine how your design fits in with your audience and your industry, and always look at what other successful companies in your industry have done with their logo designs.

Picture in your mind placing your logo on top of your office building as your logo signature, picture putting it on your business cards, entrance ways, merchandise, etc., imagine what it will look like in the eyes of your audience and everyone else who sees it.

I am personally not easy to work with when coming to things like these; I may ask to make several modifications until it feels completely right to me. And, if it doesn’t feel right even for a little, then I’ll have it changed to my liking. It’s better getting it done the way you exactly want it rather than not being completely happy with it.

I like taking long drives or a short nap, and then I try to imagine the design in my head and how I like it, when I take a nap, while I am half sleep, that’s when I think creatively the best, and if there’s one thing, even a little that bothers me or displeases me on the design, then I’ll have it corrected to my pleasing.

That’s my personal secret and hopefully it helps you a little. I am not a graphic designer, although I try to, but what I do, I open a new MS Word file, after I have done my research, and write down everything how I want my design to look like, and then I take it to my designers or find a freelancer. Yes, there are in-house designers that I can use, and I do use them most of the time, but I like it when I get outside designers to design some of my stuff, that way I get new and different design ideas, but per my pleasing.

And, when I get the designer that I want, I allow the designer to input his or her own artistic style in my design, giving them artistic freedom, so I try to go with the designer who may offer exactly the style that I want, and then when I give them my MS Word file, I also allow them to express themselves artistically, to expand on what I have proposed, and then I get a mixture of his or her idea with mine, combined, and the results, marvelous.

Today, I have just unveiled our official Gatepedia.com logo as can be seen at our current blog at http://www.gatepedia.com. This logo was designed by one of my all time favorite graphic designers, Lindsay Marsh at Marsh Graphic Design (http://marshgraphicdesigns.com).

She is the best and very affordable, which is a big plus. If you need a logo or whatever graphic work for your small or large business, I personally recommend her. That’s the second artwork she has designed for us, and we are very happy with her work and we will continue to use her service more.

Well, I can keep on writing but that’s my secret advice for how you can design the best logo for your project or business, and now, go out there, make great logo design, and make it happen, and BIG.

“Each One, Teach One”! Make the best of it, and remember to help the needy and those who seek and ask for your help in whatever and every way you possibly can.

Filed under: Internet, Tools, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, adword, art design, article, blog this, business, culture, design, education, entrepreneur, graphic design, launch, logo, production, project, promotion, social, startup, technology , ad, ads, adsense, advertising, adwords, branding, campaign, design, Gatepedia, Internet, logo, marketing, online, PPC, promotion, social networking, web 3.0

The Yahoo! Layoffs Ripple Effect

Battered by slow revenue growth and the popularity of social networking Web sites, Yahoo! Inc. is poised to lay off hundreds of workers, according to published reports.

Is this the sign of the Bubble 2.0?

In general, I have always been an avid user of Yahoo and will always be as long as they are what they are and will continue to be that way, with more improvement on their systems of course.

I prefer their news and finance sections, small business tools and email system, and the search tools. I actually find the Yahoo Search to be better for “me” than Google. That’s just my personal preference.

As for the Bubble 2.0, I think we are almost there, and soon, you will see the ripple effect for the Yahoo planned layoffs affecting other net companies soon. Like the Bubble 1.0, I think we have already exhausted our current net revenue stream, the ad based revenue model, and those who solely depend on ad revenue model, may initially feel the effect.

There are just too many social networking sites and many other community sites that depend on ad revenue stream alone and have no other revenue model, which I am just not sure how they will survive in years to come.

However, I am not trying to be snobby, but what we are currently developing, Gatepedia, may save the day. It may be the savior for most net companies, but that can only be tested once it is launched.

So, will the Yahoo! layoffs ripple effect reach other net companies, I am sure it will. In the next few months or so, you may see many other net companies doing the same thing, layoffs in order to cut costs and boost profit.

The Bubble 2.0 is coming, it has already touched down, on Yahoo!, and this time, it will be huge than the first one.

Filed under: Internet, Web 2.0, advertising, business, economy, technology , advertising, branding, Internet, marketing

Tip-Mart Makes the List of Finalists for the TechColumbus 2007 TopCAT Innovation Awards

We’re moreover excitedly excitingly excited to announce that Tip-Mart, Inc., the developer of RentersQ (www.rentersq.com) and soon to be launched Gatepedia (www.gatepedia.com), has made the list of finalists for the TechColumbus 2007 TopCAT Innovation Awards in the category of Outstanding Startup Business.

TechColumbus (www.techcolumbus.org) accelerates the growth of the innovation economy by providing vital resources and assistance to people and enterprises that depend on technology to achieve their business goals.

The annual TopCat Innovation Awards (www.topcatawards.org) is the most prestigious technology event in Ohio, which recognizes outstanding achievements in technology leadership. From hundreds of entries, TopCat Awards will be given to 13 outstanding leaders and teams who exemplify the best in technology leadership and innovation.

Just for having been nominated for this category for the TechColumbus 2007 TopCat Innovation Awards and now that we’ve made the list of the finalist is even better. And we hope that we win, but even if we don’t win, we’re just humbly honored for being part of these great events.

It truly helps thrust our passion for staying up late, developing cool and unmatched technological advance web-based tools for the masses.

Please stay tuned for Gatepedia, coming soon.

Filed under: Blogroll, Google, Internet, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, adword, apartment, article, blog this, business, culture, economics, foreclosures, houses, landlord, launch, life, living, news, project, real estate, rent, technology, tenant , advertising, apartment for rent, awards, campaign, finalist, foreclosures, marketing, office space, promotion, real estate, rent, rentersq, sale, technology awards, tip-mart

AdSense leaves Google?

Is there any more room in the entrepreneurial world for a well known, well funded, well experienced and respected individual to enter the entrepreneurial world?

Will he be a threat to most of us or an icing on a cake, a blessing in the sky?

Whatever he decides to do will be a monster success. Welcome to the jungle, Gokul!

Gokul Rajaram, a high-ranking Google product manager who helped launch one of the search giant’s most profitable ventures has left to start his own company.

“I’ve been having the itch to do something entrepreneurial for awhile now,” says Rajaram, 33, known by Googlers as one of the “godfathers of AdSense.” “I’m in my early 30s and I have some experience and financial security, so the time felt right.”

“I have some ideas on the consumer Internet side,” he adds. “I’m still trying to flesh that out in the next few weeks. Right now, I’m just trying to get used to not going to work.”

Read the entire article at CNNMoney.com.

Filed under: Google, Internet, Tools, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, adword, article, blog this, business, project, technology , adsense, advertising, adword, entrepreneur, Facebook, Gokul Rajaram, Google