January 29, 2010 by John Stubbs.

Submitted By John Stubbs of Mac Productions

Is Video More Than Viral?In recent years Internet video has been the medium of choice to show stupid pet tricks, dancing babies and other You Tube sensations.Businesses are figuring out how to use video to become the star of the show.“Online video is taking a larger role in the marketing mix “says Benjamin Wayne, president and chief executive officer at Fliqz, in an interview with CRM Magazine.As with any marketing medium, a video strategy can’t live in isolation. A multichannel strategy can go something like this: A company creates a white paper, then films a demo about the white paper, which is later uploaded onto You Tube. The video is then repurposed in a PowerPoint presentation in addition to appearing in a weekly email newsletter.This can actually be accomplished on a shoestring budget, thanks to devices like an entry-level netbook and an iPhone.Once you’ve created your video, now you’re ready for distribution. In terms of distribution, You Tube remains the most visible destination for consumers and businesses alike.Here are a few examples of how businesses are using video:* Create product demonstrations for new or existing products.* Help users answer commonly asked questions through a video how-to guide or refresher course.* Train and educate employees.

Jim Kukral, a business web coach, explains how companies can best use video to help the small business user:Create an account: With You Tube your username will also be your channel name.Upload a file: Make the Title, Description, and Tags specific to the video and your business. It makes it easier for you to be found by places like Google and You Tube.Engage with Viewers: In “My Videos,” You Tube allows you to create “Annotations” similar to popup bubbles that give users a call to action (e.g., “Click here for more videos”).This also works great for nonprofit organizations.Here are a few examples of how nonprofits can use video:* Create a video “About Us” introducing people to your organization.* Create a type of video fundraiser.* Train and educate staff and volunteers.Which brings me full circle with this question. Is video more than viral?I’d say yes, but what do you think?Portions of this posting were reproduced with permission from CRM Magazine, and Associate Editor Jessica Tsai

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January 29, 2010 by John Stubbs.

Places like Twitter and MerchantCircle have become the Swiss Army knife of communication.  Any small business owner can use a mobile device and Twitter to publicize an event, product or service quickly, rapidly, easily and at little to no cost.  Small business owners like Mac Productions can setup shop on MerchantCircle join a rapidly growing community and quickly begin building their on neighborhood of business owners by circulating coupons, newsletters, promotional flyers, etc..  These activities also have a major impact on your search engine rankings making it easier for people to find you.  Twitter can be used for a direct mail blast.  Unlike a promotional email, the tweet is broadcast to everyone with a Twitter account.  To target a specific crowd or segment using crowdstatus.com is an excellent tool.  Twitter and MerchantCircle are two excellent ways to get your message out at a lower costs.  Well, that’s my opinion, but what do you think?

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October 30, 2009 by John Stubbs.

In my previous posting entitled “You Can Never Have Too Much Exposure”, I covered “Click My Coupons” and “Google’s Local Business Center”.  Both are excellent business building tools for for profit businesses.  In this posting I’d like to talk about something called “Google Grants“.  Google Grants is a unique in-kind donation program awarding free AdWords advertising to select charitable organizations. We as in Google, support organizations sharing our philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts. What is Google Grants? The Google Grants program empowers non-profit organizations to achieve their goals by helping them promote their websites via advertising on Google. Google AdWords ads appear when users search on Google and when you click on one of the ads, you are brought to the website being advertised.  The Google Grants program currently works with over 4,000 nonprofit organizations.  Check our their “Program Guidelines and Details” to see if you qualify.  To apply click here.  Let us know if this helps.  Regards, John A. Stubbs - Mac Productions.

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October 11, 2009 by John Stubbs.

Good Day:

My staff and I are constantly look for ways to create a better web experience.  An experience that’s both efficient and profitable.  In the midsts of a strategy session two untapped resources were brought to my attention:

• Click My Coupon - This fabulous site allows you to create coupons and promotions on a city level in places like Nashville, Columbus and Houston to name a few.
• Google Local Business Center - Need I say more.  It’s Google.  Similar in concept to Click My Coupon.

Using the above resources in conjunction with our TrafficDriver services will bring more people to your site. And in the end that’s what it’s all about.This posting is a series of postings designed to bring more visitors to your site, and maximize your website investment.  Drop me a line and let me know if it helps.Sincerely,John A. Stubbs

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March 20, 2009 by John Stubbs.

In this contracting economy, companies are laying off hundreds in many cases thousands, I.T. departments are being decimated. This leaves companies to answer one major question. Who will maintain our web presence?

Mac Productions offers 5 levels of website maintenance and management services to meet the needs of these companies.

A company purchases a set number of hours ranging from 2 to 48. These hours are used to maintain and manage a companies web presence. Any unused hours will rollover to the next month.

This saves a company a ton of money.

Find out today how much we can save your company.

As for the thousands of casualties of this economy, we’re hiring.

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March 20, 2009 by John Stubbs.

In 2002, the U.S. Conference of Mayors prepared a study on hunger and homelessness in 25 major cities.  Here’s what they found:

• 38% of the request for homeless families go unmet.
• 60% of homeless shelters turn away homeless people due to a lack of resources; mostly money.

In Europe homeless people are often referred to as “rough sleepers”.  According to the study in London:

• The life expectancy of a homeless person in London is 42 years, compared with the national average of 74 for men and 79 for women.

Simply put hunger and homelessness is a global problem.

Mac Productions responds with a program called “Hosting The Homeless“.

Through this program Mac Productions donates $12.00 per year to organizations combating hunger and homelessness globally, in the customers home area for every website we host.

We feel that choosing Mac Productions as your hosting partner makes good business sense as well as good community sense.

Together we can put an end to hunger and homelessness one site at a time.

Sincerely,

John A. Stubbs

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July 22, 2008 by John Stubbs.

In a few short weeks Mac Productions will return to the world wide web.  All of at Mac Productions, are deeply grateful to all of the vendors, suppliers and most importantly our customers, who have stood by us during this challenging period.  To that we are eternally grateful.  During this period we have strengthened our infrastructure, revamped our entire product line, extended our reach to the mobile web, and expanded into 7 countries.  While improving customer service.  And we’re just getting started.

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May 26, 2007 by John Stubbs.

Today, (05.25.07) ended what was a particularly difficult week, putting the finishing touches on a nationwide hiring initiative, reviewing future long-term investment options for our company and ironing out a few logistical issues with a vendor.

So to say I have been the poster child for stress this week is an understatement. On Friday, I emailed a potential employee apologizing for such a lengthy delay in receiving the results of their background check. Their reply one of the most humbling comments in recent memory as follows “Thanks for keeping me informed, nice to know I’m not invisible or anything like some places treat you. Your company must be one of the better places to work for”.

Those words hit home in a big way, because its what I’m all about, and what my company is all about. The feeling of “hey I matter” is how I want everyone who comes in contact with Mac Productions to feel.

So about that stress filled week. It’s All-Good.

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May 12, 2007 by John Stubbs.

What benefits do I get with a website? Asked the treasurer from a nonprofit customer of ours. A good question, but one that left me saying, “why now, why ask two years after the fact”?

This revelation came as we enter year two of a multi-year agreement, and after being found online by organization such as:
• HBO Sports
• The Toledo Blade
• NBC News Columbus
• L.A. Times

If they’re think this, so late into the game, what percentage of our target market is being held back with this line of thinking. Furthermore, we do not have a prepared response to address this question.

So we crafted 8 Great Reasons Why ALL Nonprofits Should Have A Website. This will be posted on our website and emailed to all of our virtual sales representatives ASAP.

Not to say our FREE websites for nonprofits have not been a smashing success. Since 2005, we have witnessed a 300% increase in our nonprofit business. To the point we’ve given this product its own web address. Calling it “Freesite”. We provide every nonprofit with
• 3 Gig of website storage space
• 300 + spam filtered and virus protected email addresses
• A website with an unlimited number of pages, plus a blog

There’s always room for improvement.

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May 11, 2007 by John Stubbs.

Mac Productions is all about ltr’s (long term relationships), whether it’s with customers, vendors or staff; building ltr’s is in our DNA. Which lead me to my point, today we had to terminate a four-year relationship with a vendor.

For several weeks I have agonized over this decision, looking for any reason to maintain our relationship, in the end I kept returning to the reason behind the break-up.

Prior to 2007, we had a solid relationship that would only get stronger in 2007.

Sometime in March of 2007, the vendor in question modified our agreement, without informing us, and allowing us to sell services they no longer offered.

We understand things change, but it was how it was done and when we were notified of these changes that put our relationship with them in jeopardy. Basically, we were NOT informed until our customer had a store full of customers wanting to purchase a service that no longer existed.

Our customer was attempting to make a sale, when sale after sale failed, so they contacted us, and we contacted the vendor. At which time we were informed, they no longer carried that service. I was understandably shocked and outraged. I asked our representative, when did this happen, and was told some time ago. Again, I responded asking if they are aware the contracts we are presenting to our customers still have the service listed. The answer was yes. Do they even care how we looked in front of our customer, or how our customer felt having to turn away thousands of dollars in sales? To that I have no answer.

In summation, we lost the customer, so we had no choice but to lose the vendor. With a little thing called “proper notification” all of this could have been prevented.

And life goes on…..

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