Reinforce Media, LLC

I have been working my ass off, frustrating my friends, frustrating my wife (who does understand and support me 100%), and pushing myself to the limits with some of my projects.  I work hard because I love what I do and feel that the work that I put in will be worth all the time spent and frustrations created.  The thing I have the hardest time with is that NONE of my sites really make good money.  Yeah, I am admitting that.  None of my sites make enough money that I could survive solely on the money that the site provides.  No, I will not tell you what they do make so please do not ask.

What I can tell you though, is that I recently just finished a book called Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. The book basically says, “If you are passionate about what you are doing and really believe in what you are doing, then chill”. This is not necessarily the intended message of the book, but I did get this from what Gary is saying.

I believe that the intended message of the book is, “If you are passionate and follow through with your passion, you will Crush It”.  I have been in-line with this mantra for a while, but it is tough to keep going when things are not where I was hoping they would be at this point.

So, I am taking to hear the original message. I am going to spend my time making my products good, talking about them, sharing them and “crushing it” by letting people know who I am.  By doing this I bolster my “personal brand” (another big mantra of the book) and direct people to the projects I am working on as a result.  One more thing I am going to do is provide more content for you the reader both here and on my personal blog.

For more information about the book, you can get it pretty cheap via amazon:

As you can probably tell by my declaration of course redirection, I highly suggest this book. If you have a passion and want to know more about how to turn that into a profit or you want to know how to take what you already have to the next level or you just to find out that you are already on your way to Crushing It, read this book.

So, I have this friend… This is the way many people start their stories when they are really talking about themselves, but this time it is not the case.  This story is about a friend of mine, we will call him John.

John runs a website which is a store front and information source for a niche market that didn’t realize they were a niche until John’s website.  It is a cool idea for sure.  John is not a developer.  He runs the company and handles all of the marketing and content that goes on.

When John wanted some new features on his site he came to me and we talked.  I informed him that as his site was in .net I was not able to do any programming but I could definitely be a consultant on whatever project he was getting done for his company.  John then went out and asked for programmers that new .net and who could handle a project of the size he wanted.

I referred my friend Jason Rowland, who accepted John’s RFP (Request For Proposal) and came back to him with a fully fleshed out proposal.  Jason’s proposal came in higher than John expected and the timeline was longer than the other proposal that came in.

Sam sent in the other proposal.  His proposal was a more manageable number, something closer to what John was hoping the cost would be for this feature and as I mentioned before, he said he could get it done on a shorter timeline.

Well, you know as well as I do that I would not be writing this story down and sharing it if something didn’t go wrong.

John went with Sam, which made sense at the time because he was cheaper and the feature would be done sooner. After the delivery date that Sam had come and gone,  and after the money Sam had asked for did the same, John was worried.  I had been talking to John throughout this project, even consulting the developer on one of the features and how to handle it so that it was optimal for SEO, and it didn’t get the site de-listed.  I noticed that the developer was a little lost, he was trying things that were misinformed and seemed out of place for a developer of the caliber that was needed for this project.

In the middle of all this, someone noticed that the website was hacked into and there were prescription drug links all over in the source of the pages and told John.  John asked Jason to look into it, because Sam was so bogged down with the other project.  Again, Jason sent him a proposal of what would be needed. On top of that, Jason noticed a huge security leak in the site that would allow future issues if they didn’t cause the original issue itself.  Jason told me about what was going on, because he knew I was friends with John and had been consulting with him along the way.  I immediately sent John an email showing him the security issue and how his current developer was the cause of it.

John got Jason on the phone, asked him to figure out how much it would cost to fix all the problems and put Jason in touch with Sam. Sam admitted to Jason that he “left a security vulnerability issue on the site because he figured he’d ‘clean it up on the next go-round’”.  John was PISSED, and understandably so.  He hired Jason to fix the issues on the site.

As of last night, the repairs have cost John $1000 and things are only partially fixed.

What is the lesson here?

When you ask for proposals and you receive them, please do not look at the number at the bottom.  Look at the proposal itself, judge the developer on the amount of time and effort he puts into the proposal.  This is a good indication of how dedicated he is to his profession and providing a quality product for you.

When Jason did his proposal, he came in considerably higher than Sam.  Up front, this is scary to anyone asking for proposals because they KNOW how much money they will HAVE to shell out and there is no guarantee that the product will work or be finished on time.

John has spent more on the project than Sam proposed and more than what Jason originally proposed.  Jason will fix the problems, but no one can work for free so it is going to take some money to fix the glitch (READ: to fix Sam’s crappy job).

This is a tale as old as time, because this happens with any contract work.  People will consistently worry about the bottom line and not pay attention to the warning signs.  Please learn from John so that you do not make this mistake yourself.

The last time I talked to John his comments to me were:

You and Jason are my go-to developers from now on

Thank God you recommended Jason to us

I just wanna say that you and Jason are good at what you do because you convey trust and that you know what the hell you are doing.

I got two names that stood out above the rest from my impromptu contest to name my RSS application.  The problem is that I am not sure which name to choose, which will in turn decide who is $100 richer.  I leave this up to you, but first I will give my 2-47 cents.

The names to choose from, in order I received the suggestions, are:

WINNER: Twindicate.com! More info here

Twitticate

FeedMeStuff

FeedMeThings

RSSCaster

Please tell me which one you like and why. This will help me figure out who the winner of my contest is!

These names were suggested by @barineau & @18percentgrey, respectively. Give them some Twitter love by following them, they are both great guys!

I have been working on an application for a couple months now. Recently, I just overhauled it and added a ton of new features to accommodate a potential client’s requests.

The product is solid and does exactly what I want it to do, the problem is that I do not have a name for it.  For some reason with this product I have writer’s block for domain names. Normally, I can come up with something and just run with it.

Now, you probably want to know what the product is. OK, this is the first time I am publishing anything about it online mostly because I am paranoid, but also because I was not ready to share it yet.  In order to get a quality name, knowing the features can help.

The product is an RSS to Twitter post application for enterprise users. Yes, RSS to Twitter has been done before. However, I provide specific features that help users to maximize the potential from posting their RSS feeds to their Twitter feed.  Also, if there was not competition for the guys who are out there right now, what would drive them to innovate?

What I need is a quality memorable name that will allow me to brand my application and give potential clients something to hang onto.  I am working on the product description documentation and some marketing materials, so I need a name to put at the top of the page.

Here is what I am looking for:

It needs to be available, as in as soon as I see the name I can register it.

It needs to be somewhat topical, or completely off the wall (in a good way)

Remember, I am going to use this name when I go to potential clients.

I am going to try to stay away from Tweet, Twitter, etc just in case.

If you have an idea, please DM me @mbernier or email it to me at name-ideas AT reinforcemedia.com with your Twitter account name if you have one.  If I choose to use your idea, I will send you $100 for helping me out and do a write up about you and how you helped me out.  If I do not choose your idea and it is appropriate, I will share the idea here and why it doesn’t fit with what I am looking for.

If you have questions or comments about what I am looking for, please leave them below.

I appreciate you reading this article and if you send an idea, I appreciate that as well.

I will announce the winner on this blog on the morning of Friday September 25th, and work out a way to pay them the $100 once they are announced.

I am aware that what happens to me would not affect most people. However, I have been thinking about brand management quite a bit recently and this struck a chord with me.

Tonight I walked into Chipotle near my house to get dinner.  As I walked up to the counter the employees were all in the kitchen area talking and joking around.  When they finally saw me they said “One minute” or something similar that told me I had been put on hold live and in person.  The only thing worse is when you walk up and someone is talking on the phone and gives you the “just a minute” finger at the same time as they completely ignore you.

I brushed this interaction off because I was hungry and wanted a ‘dang quesa-dill-a’ with chicken.  After they made my food, I asked for the corn and pico to go with it, and asked for everything to go.  As I reached the register, the manager came out of no where to take my payment.  She told me the total, I handed my debit card over, and I started to get that paranoid feeling like I was paying too much.  The manager did not hand me my receipt, she set it on the counter next to the register. That little guy in charge of my paranoia started kicking my brain saying “PAY ATTENTION”. » Read the rest of this entry «