Josh Anstey’s Blog

I am a subscriber of Marketing Magazine in Australia, and have been one for about a year now.
The magazine is great as it provides a range of marketing information in all different areas as well as practical case studies.

Marketing Magazine just ran a promotion that started at Easter, and it was a really clever example of direct marketing. (I suppose you would expect Marketing Magazine to run a clever campaign).

Each subscriber received an easter egg in the mail, and if it had a gold ticket you won a prize.

As you have guessed by now, I opened mine to find a golden ticket. I called the number and won a free movie ticket. (Yes, while I opened it the song from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory went through my head – ‘I’ve got a golden ticket’).

Anyway, the main message from this was the really clever effective direct marketing campaign that Marketing Magazine was running.

For all the marketers out there – think of a simple effective way you can create a direct marketing campaign with your current market.

Let me know what you think of.

Good luck!

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As you have noticed, I decided to change the theme of my blog.

I had the other one for quite some time. It now feels like it is the beginning of a new era for my blog - a very exciting one.

It is very different looking at this theme, and will take some time to adjust.

I was wondering what you all thought of the theme?

Send me your comments and let me know what you think about my new theme and design.

I have just watched the Adobe Cards animation and it is incredible. I got the link from Anthony Milner. The animation really shows the power of Adobe’s CS3.

From a marketing perspective, I think it has taken the web animation world to a new level.

I am excited about what the future for web animation holds.

Watch the Adobe Cards animation, and let me know what you thought of it.

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Mark Cohen tagged me with this meme. It is quite fun. Here is how this meme works… Enjoy!

The ground rules for the meme are simple. Here they are…
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Little known facts about Josh:

1. My first job was in a local computer shop at about the age of 8. I used to get paid about AUD $5 for 4 hours of work. My job was very important back in the day. I was in charge of formatting 3.5” Floppy Disks. Remember those? The ones that held a huge amount of 1.44MB. How times have changed.
2. When I was 13, myself and two friends wanted to buy a boat. Realising we needed funding; we decided to start a business. We considered a range of options including selling soft drinks on the beach, but then took a better option and decided to start our own Web Design business. One of the many reasons for my entrepreneurial flair.
3. I am a massive NFL (National Football League or American Football) fan. I am a huge supporter of the Dallas Cowboys. I would love to go to the SuperBowl one year.
4. I would love to learn the following languages fluently: Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew, and French.
5. I did karate for about 10 years in a range of styles from Shotokan, JKA and Kyukoshin.
6. One of the most motivational quotes I have ever heard was from my High School Principal, speaking to a group of us when we were elected Prefects at high school. His quote was 10 words, each word 2 letters and has stayed with me ever since. He said, ‘If it is to be, it is up to me.’
7. I was in the school band for a number of years and used to play the Baritone, Euphonium and then Tuba (brass instruments). I won the Music Excellence award one year in Primary school.
8. I am sure there is extra-terrestrial life out there, and am excited at the possibilities of meeting and interacting with other forms of life.
   

Hope you enjoyed that. Now for the tagging! I am tagging:
• ProBlogger – Darren Rowse
• Guy Kawasaki
• Jim “The Net Fool”
• Terence Chang
• Chris Brogan
• Scott Bradley
• Dan Schawbel
• Mari Smith

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Welcome ProBlogger Readers

Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger has run a project on Twitter. He collected the best post titles for blogs in March.

I submitted my post, ‘Lessons learned from a stand up comedian’ and he added it to his list. Click here to read the list ‘Re-Tweeted - Top Post Titles’.

So to all the ProBlogger readers, Welcome to my blog.

Thanks so much Darren!

Check out ProBlogger and my post on ‘Lessons learned from a stand up comedian’

Blog.JoshAnstey.com has some really interesting posts coming up this week.

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Yes that is right. There are lessons to be learned from stand up comedians.

Before we learn the lessons, let me explain to you the pre-text of this post.

Last week I went to see a stand up comedy show by the great Australian comic Wil Anderson.

Wil has a new show called beWILdered and it is absolutely hilarious. I recommend you check it out. Anyway, at the show it got me thinking about how there are a few things to learn from stand up comedians that entrepreneurs can put into practice.

Stand up comedians are entrepreneurs themselves. They are a perfect example of someone going at it alone, giving it their best shot, getting up in front of a crowd and saying ‘here is what I have to offer; what do you think about it?’

Sometimes this is successful; they are received well and have an audience filled with laughter for the whole show. Sometimes it is not successful, and there is an awkward silence of unfunny jokes, and an unresponsive quiet audience. Regardless of the results, you can bet your dollar the stand up comedians are standing back up on stage the next night giving it another one of their best shots.

Lesson #1 from stand up comedians: Always give it a go. Don’t be afraid to stand up there, be counted and put your ideas out into the open. And more importantly, if at first you don’t succeed, don’t be disheartened, be persistent, confident and get out there and do it again.

Comedians want you to laugh, have a good time, enjoy the show and then go home and tell all your friends and family to come see the show. Stand up comedians spend a lot of time getting to know their audiences, relating to their audiences, and bringing their audiences on the ‘comedic journey’ with them. They want it to be your experience. Why? Well aside from the fact that it makes you enjoy the show a whole lot more, it also means there is a higher chance of you going home and spreading the word about the show. What is this called? This is the great important marketing skill of Word of Mouth.

Lesson #2 from stand up comedians: Relate to your audience so that they are enjoying your product or service. Word of Mouth is the most powerful marketing tool that you can use. There is a much higher chance of someone using your product or service if a friend or family member has recommended it. Never forget the importance of getting your customers, clients or users to promote your product. Make sure they enjoy their experience with your company. For starting entrepreneurs, this is the most cost effective way to kick-start your business.

I hope you are able to put these lessons learned from stand up comedians into practice.

By the way, I really do recommend seeing Wil Andersons show beWILdered – you are guaranteed to have a great night.

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Hello fellow entrepreneurs,

I am going to be travelling for the next 2 months. So if you don’t see a new post here for a few days, it’s because I have not had a chance to get to a computer in wherever I am. But rest assured, there will still be some great posts over the next little while.

Here are some reasons why travelling is great for all entrepreneurs:

• Exposed to different cultures
• Identify opportunities in foreign markets and countries
• Learn about other ways of doing business
• Meet people (other entrepreneurs, business partners, clients) in person
• Ability to bring your world experience into your business and entrepreneurial world

I am really excited for my trip, and look forward to writing some great posts along the way that will cover the different entrepreneur, marketing, networking, and web 2.0 experiences that I have along the way.

For those interested in where I am travelling, I will be in the USA (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas), Mexico (Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Isle Majures, Oaxaca, Mexico City) and Canada (Montreal, Toronto).

If you have any suggestions of places to check out while I am in any of these amazing cities, reply to this post and let me know. If you would like to meet up, send me a message.

I look forward to bringing some great travelling experiences to my blog.

Make sure you don’t miss out on anything during my travels. Josh Anstey’s blog is going to bring the world to the entrepreneur. Make sure you have subscribed to my blog.

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It is no good to talk about ideas that you are never ever going to do. You can have a brilliant business idea, you can have a million marketing ideas, initiatives and goals, but essentially you have nothing if you do not take action.

On ‘The SmallFuel Marketing Blog’ I read a post called, ‘The First Priority of Small Business Marketing.’

It is spot on and straight to the point. There is no point talking about something and not acting on it. Look at all the successful businesses around you, all your mentors and hero’s in anything and everything. Entrepreneurs, movie stars and sportsman.

How did they get to where they are?

They took action. They had an idea, a thought, a dream and a goal, and they took action to achieve it.

As a small business, it is often hard to get the ball rolling. Often challenging to actually kick something off and take the initiate to make it happen. But when you do, you will see the difference and reap the benefit.

For Small Business, the marketing priority needs to be to take action and get it done, give it go.

Give it a try. Think of one thing you have on your ‘wish list’ that you have wanted to do but never get around to it. Take action!

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Following on from my article, ‘Who are you and why should I care’ I found this interesting article that is along the same lines.

It reinforces how important your online reputation is, and how you need to make sure that your online reputation is positive, consistent and portrays the image you want the world to see.

Click here to read the article by Tyler Cruz on Learning to Manage your online reputation.

Did you like this article? You may be interested in my article, ‘Who are you and why should I care’ or ‘The art of the Elevator Pitch’.

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I read an interesting article on Biz-Blogger.net called ‘Who are you and why should I care’. I have talked before about the importance of marketing yourself and how you position yourself. This is even more important for online entrepreneurs, as we live in an age of instant information. You really need to have thought about this, and be ready to answer the title question of this post, ‘Who are you and why should I care?’

Some questions the article suggests you think about and know how to answer include:

• How am I different?
• What do I stand for?
• What can I provide?
• What are my product strengths?
• What are my product weaknesses?
• What does the market want?
• Am I an innovator?
• What can I personally offer to the product/service?

Read the full article, ‘Who are you and why should I care’ on Biz-Blogger.net as it has a few good pointers.

Something that relates to this is the elevator pitch article that I wrote about a while back.
Click here to read my article, ‘The art of the Elevator Pitch’.

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