Robin Sagara - Blog

The Secret Structure of Great Talks

2012-02-09T20:17:26Z

This TED Talk video really helped me understand what makes for a great, viewer-engaging, presentation. Ever wonder why your great idea got passed over, while another mediocre one got snapped up? Watch this video, seriously.

"Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

2012-02-08T17:57:57Z

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. Johann Wolfgang von GoetheA whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: 'Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.'" ~from The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, by William H. Murray

Ignoring good advice because it's the right thing to do.

2012-01-23T17:52:59Z

There are so many ways to market your products and services: Websites, SEO, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, blogging, email blasts, direct mail, presentations, events, workshops, teleclasses, videos, postcards, business cards, brochures, newsletters, seminars, shopping carts, advertisements, and many more.

Each of the items listed above comes with its own set of "rules" on how to use them to best advantage - you know, the stuff you read about in all the marketing newsletters and books, best practices that tell you how to set it up, what it should looks like, how many and when... Advice everywhere, good advice, time-tested and very helpful.

However, there is one rule that overrides them all and that helps make marketing decisions sooooo much easier. It's a rule that we follow in everything we do for you because it's the very most important one of all: PEOPLE FIRST.

Of course, it's important to know those best practices and to incorporate them into your marketing so that you maximize your return by following time-tested guidelines. But always, always remember this first: It's about connecting with the person on the other end. What problem do they have that you can fix? Put yourself in their shoes and view all your marketing as if you were them.

Then structure your marketing. If connecting with your audience violates one of the marketing "rules" then ignore the rule.

Unnamed climbers on a hard-glazed Rulten. Lofoten, Norway. MARKO PREZELJEntrepreneur Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia built his business by following that one most important rule of putting people first.

Yvon loved climbing, didn't love that all those pitons got left in the rock, so he decided to make reusable climbing hardware. He was 18 years old, he set up a shop in his parent's back yard. By 1970, Chouinard Equipment had become the largest supplier of climbing hardware in the U.S. In his catalogs Chouinard broke every direct mail catalog rule because he designed his catalogs to help people become better climbers and not to just sell them merchandise. The rules said do this many images to that much text, have an 800 number for orders, and so on. Instead he had oodles of pictures, and a 14-page essay on "clean climbing."

In his book Growing a Business, author Paul Hawken (of Smith & Hawken) profiled Yvon & Patagonia and mentioned how (in the beginning) they had an 800 number, but only for talking about climbing. If you wanted to place an order, you had to pay for the call.

He knew it was the right thing to do, he knew it was more important to connect with his readers than to follow rules.

Go out there and break some rules.

All our best to you and yours.

Robin & Harry

Happy Holidays from Robin & Harry Sagara

2011-12-16T18:00:10Z

Library Phantom Leaves a Tree, Then a Coffin in the Library

A feast for your eyes this holiday season, wonderful photos from photographer Chris Scott in this article on the National Public Radio website about the anonymous artist who left ten stunning pieces with messages in libraries in Edinburgh, Scotland: "...in support of libraries, books, words, ideas..."

Photo by chrisdonia
Photo by chrisdonia

For the entire article go here.

As always, all our best to you and yours.

Robin & Harry

QR Codes and Free Fonts

2011-11-09T22:16:13Z

Try scanning this QR Code with your smartphone scanner, it'll take you to our website!

QR Codes: I'm starting to see these little square codes all over the place lately, although they've been around for a while now. They're called "QR Codes" which stands for "Quick Response."

Printed on ads, book covers, postcards, business cards, and flyers, even seen on TV or other screens, they can be scanned with a smartphone or digital device with a camera. Instantly, the viewer is taken to your website, FaceBook page, LinkedIn profile, or a specific sales page on any website. Instant gratification.

Look around, you'll see them on books, magazine ads, flyers, postcards, business cards and more.

Here's a useful article about it on the OvernightPrints.com Blog. To get one just do the following (takes just a minute or two):

To start your QR code click on this link: http://createqrcode.appspot.com/
Type in your webpage that you want to send contacts and customers to
Your link will be generated as a black and white coded image
Right click your QR code and save it to your desktop
Add this image on all your business cards and marketing materials

Fonts: If you do any design work and love fonts like we do, you know that it can get expensive to add to your collection. Here are some very nice artists who make their fonts available for free. Do donate something to them if there is a link for that. With fonts often costing $20-$40 each, it's nice to be able to support the artist directly with a donation. Again, thanks to the OvernightPrints.com Blog for the links. Click here to see the fonts and download them.

Funding Opportunities from Arts Funding Watch

2011-09-26T20:26:29Z

One of my favorite publications is from the Foundation Center. It's called "Arts Funding Watch," a newsletter devoted to arts-related topics. You should subscribe. Go here.

Here are some highlights from the September issue, their deadlines are soon, and check the Foundation Center website for more. If you're serious about pursuing some grant money, it's worth doing a month's membership online to collect info. Or, use one of their 450 free funding information centers in libraries and nonprofit organization across the U.S. and in seven other countries.

Queens Council on the Arts Invites Artists and Arts Organizations to Apply for Arts Fund Grants
$1000-$5000 for Queens-based artists and arts organizations working on projects and capacity-building initiatives designed to benefit the citizens of Queens. Dealine 10/5/11

Tribeca Film Institute Invites Submissions for Narrative and Documentary Filmmaker Grant Programs
Grants of up to $40,000 as well as professional guidance and other resources will be provided through the TFI Documentary Fund, the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, the Tribeca All Access program, and the TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund. Deadline 10/10/11

Association of Performing Arts Presenters Accepting Applications for Cultural Exchange Fund Awards
Subsidies of up to $2,000 for individuals and $10,000 for groups will be awarded to Association of Performing Arts Presenters members traveling to build partnerships and collaborations with international artists. Deadline 11/4/11

Media and Performing Artists and Nonprofit Organizations in Northern and Central California Invited to Apply for Collaborative Project Grants
Grants of up to $40,000 will be awarded to nonprofits, religious institutions, and public agencies working on collaborative projects with media and performing artists in Northern and Central California. Deadline 11/8/11

If you need help, feel free to contact me. I've helped artists do the research, find appropriate grants, assemble required info, and complete grant apps.

All my best to you and yours!

14 Ways Your Website Can Support Your Marketing Efforts

2011-08-18T22:20:24Z

These days you gotta have a website if you're in business, and most people do. I can think of one person who doesn't, but only one and even he is thinking that it would be a good idea to have one.

Your website is the core of you online marketing, and it should support your other marketing efforts. What? You ONLY have a website and it's your only marketing? Please don't tell me that or I'll go off on a "If you build it (and do nothing else) they will not come" rant. :-D

Anyway, if you can't answer "yes" to all these questions, it's time for a website revamp. Contact your webmaster, or me if you'd like some help.

Is your website:

Easy to use?
For the VIEWER. Think about how you sometimes go to a website and there are all kinds of things to trip over, that slow you down, confuse you, and make it a trial just to find what you're looking for. Don't do that to your clients and customers. Seriously. Confused and frustrated people will disappear faster than a wet cat.
Readable?
If your company only sells to people under 30 with 20/20 vision, go ahead and use small, scrunched-up type in pale colors and clutter up your site with lots of distracting flashy stuff and heart-pounding background music. No so much? Make sure YOU can read your website without your glasses. Can others who are older or who don't have perfect vision read it easily?
Organized so people can get to the info they want, fast?
It takes time to work out a structure for your site that will make it easy for people to find what they need. Take the time, it's worth it. Once people get mired in a maze of click here, click there, and don't know where they are, you'll lose them waaaayyy before they take out their wallet or contact you.
Fun to look at and use?
Fun doesn't mean loaded up with flash, music and migraine-inducing colors. Fun means easy-to-use with enjoyable graphics and colors that support your brand, interesting well-written copy, and pages short enough so they don't have to scroll for days.
Set up so that viewers want to move forward and buy or inquire?
Your website should help move the viewer through the info and to the point where they contact you or buy something.
SEO-friendly?
There's a lot that can be built into your site to make it friendly to search engines. After that, there are lots of things that can be done by a competent "white hat" SEO specialist to keep you up there in the search engine results. Good SEO is an ongoing process, NOT a do-it-once-and-forget-about-it kinda thing.
Updated regularly to keep it fresh?
Stale and outdated content makes you look unprofesional or even out of business. Keep it updated, at least four times a year. Plus, the search engines will like you better for it.
Working with your other marketing efforts?
Are your other marketing efforts being used to drive people to your website? Like, your website on your business cards, brochure, postcards, PowerPoint presentations, all kinds of presentations, banners, posters, you know what I mean.
Working with your social media efforts?
Is your website helping people find you on social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook? Are your social media efforts bringing people to your website?
Easy for people to contact you?
As in, they have multiple ways to contact you and can find that info on every page without heading over to the "Contact" page.
Making your work, artwork, products/services look stellar?
This one drives me nuts. People spend good money on a website, or hours of their own time, and then use crappy images of their work. Why? I wish I knew. That image may be the only time they see your work before they buy. If you can't take professional-quality photos, pay a pro to do it. Your business is worth it.
Set up to load quickly?
Some websites are so heavy with large image files and junk that it takes a l-o-n-g time for everything to load onto the screen. Ugh! Images for web are differenet (and much smaller) than images used elsewhere. Learn the difference or get help.
Easy and fast to update?
Websites are like pets and kids. You think they're expensive to get, and then you find out what it costs to KEEP them. Make sure yours is designed to be updated by you or your webmaster quickly and easily. Oh, also, maybe you want a webmaster that doesn't charge over $100/hr by the half hour when all you need is small changes now and then. I'm just sayin...
Making you look professional?
Again, it's about the VIEWER and what they want to see and how they want to see it. NOT what you decide they should see. Really. Check your website stats to find out which pages attract and hold people there. Also, please save anything not directly related to your business for your personal blog or other website. When in doubt, stop and ask yourself, "Does adding this to my website support my business marketing efforts, or does it degrade/dilute my efforts and make me look silly and unprofessional?"

Hope this helps! As always, all my best to you and yours.

Is it worth going after grants/fellowships?

2011-07-29T17:00:32Z

I think it is, IF you do three things:

First, be sure you're clear on who and what you are, and how having some additional funding or opportunites would help you build a career/business.
Pull together some basic info and have it at the ready.
Do your research, make sure you are a good match for the grant.

There is a LOT of grant money out there. There are fellowships, and other opportunities. They are NOT a fast fix for cash flow problems. Applying for them can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. Sometimes years. But, hey, it's your dream, your passion, yes? Isn't it worth some investment of time and effort?

You don't always win on the first try, but when you do it can mean a major cash infusion to pursue your dreams and/or splendid learning opportunities.

I've worked with many creative people in this area. Were they successful? Honestly, most of them were not. Some were. Like I said, it can be a long process. If you really are in this for the long term, it may be worth your while to pursue a grant, a fellowship, or other opportunity. Most people I've worked with give up after one try, and that's just a waste of all the time they spent doing research and putting together the info requested in the application. Once you have that info and a list of opportunities that you are well matched with, cookie cutter the process and go for it!

You can hire me to help you, or start here and explore: http://foundationcenter.org. The Foundation Center can help you identify funding sources. You can search their r-e-a-l-l-y big database online, for a fee, or at one of many "Cooperating Collections" at local libraries, for free. If you're not a nonprofit organization, check the area for Individual Grantseekers.

When searching for grants, fellowships and other opportunities, make very sure you qualify for them. Read the info thoroughly, follow the directions when applying. If you second guess them and don't follow directions to the letter, you're wasting your time.

Pull together all the basic info you'll need, keep it on your computer, you'll be using it again (and again).

Sign up for one or more of the Foundation Center's newsletters to be notified of grant opportunities in your area, or in your area of expertise.

Also, if you're an artist get Benny Shaboy's Art Opportunities Book. Lots of resources there.

Here's an example. I found it in today's edition of Philantrophy New Digest: The NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) has a program to help individual artists of all disciplines develop their career. Stipends from $200 to $1500 are avaiable. Not a fortune but the process to apply seems fairly simple. If you are an artist living in NY (or are a NY resident living outside NY), check it out here.

Good luck! Contact me if you want help. All my best to you and yours!

Protecting Your Website Content & Images From Theft

2011-07-08T14:00:18Z

I get asked frequently about this. It's an epidemic. People are having their website content and images stolen and used on other websites and on other products and services.

It's not a question of if your work or images will be stolen, it's a question of when. With technology today it's possible to grab anything you see on your computer screen. Taking legal action can be time-consuming and expensive, but a few precations can go a long way towards slowing down the thieves:

Copyright your work and images, individually or as a group. It's not expensive or difficult. You will need to gather info about each image to document it.

Yes, your copyright exists from the moment the work is created. Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation.

Make sure the images you use on your website are the smallest file size possible that still look good. Why? Besides loading more quickly and making for a smoother browsing experience for your visitors, a small file size means that the theives won't be able to use the image for much of anything. By "small" I mean in the 30-100 kb range for a large image with a lot of detail. Small images (an inch or two across on the screen) can be 5-20 kb. Using large high resolution files doesn't always make the image look better, they just slow down your website and makes it easier for thieves to use them for print (reproductions, postcards or notecards).

Last month I noticed that a client had given an image to an arts organization to use on their website. The file size was huge for website use (like, 4 MB), and the image was big and crisp enough to make a poster! I alerted my client and we replaced the image with a low-resolution one and it looked just as good.

Another way to protect your images is to watermark them with copyright info or a logo, large enough to see and over an area of the image that would pretty much make the image unusable if the copyright info was cropped out. Also, it's difficult to airbrush out copyright info that's part of the image. Most thieves are lazy, otherwise they'd work for it like the rest of us. Slow them down by making it difficult for them to use your images.

Use your name (or company name) in the file name, along with the name of the image, like "JohnDoe-Springtime." If someone uses an image at least the file name will ID you and you can use Google to search for images by putting in your name. That will help you FIND the thieves.

If you find an image that is being used without your permission, the first step is to contact the user with a "cease and desist" letter. That usually works. If not, you can pursue other avenues if you want. If you don't, at least the image is identifiable as yours and think of it as free advertising.

Use Copyscape or a similar service to search the web for your content.

To take legal action, get some advice from a good copyright attorney first. I've had clients work with Rebecca Prein, and there are many others who help put you on the right path.

Here are some resources to help you copyright your work, know what to do in case of theft, and use Creative Commons licenses. I don't know everything, so please let me know if you have resources to share by leaving a comment on the blog or emailing me at robin@sagaradevelopment.com.

US Library of Congress - United States Copyright office for copyright registration.
http://www.copyright.gov/

Stolen Content - Content protection and what to do in case of theft.
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/

Creative Commons - Non-profit organization providing creative licenses for image works. http://creativecommons.org/

All my best to you and yours,

Cool Artist Booths at Dwell on Design

2011-06-28T22:16:31Z

Last weekend we went to Dwell on Design, a yearly event at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I LOVE Dwell on Design. There were over 300 exhibitors showcasing contemporary and modern design products and services that are innovative, sustainable, or just plain good design. There are professional education workshops/seminars; and home tours. This year the focus was on conceptual design and international talent, and I was happy to see more than one or two fine artists with booths. They were all out in front chatting with people and talking about their art:

Caleb Siemon + Carmen Salazar were there with their sparkling handmade glass.Carmen Salazar was so busy that she ran out of business cards. No worries, a quick photo of her and her badge gave me all the info I needed!

The L.A. Art Show was there with a booth to publicize the January 2012 show.

Artist Sasaki listened to visitor's hearbeats and drew them. It was a fundraiser for Architecture for Humanity's relief and rebuilding efforts to support Tsunami victims in Japan.

Artist Parvez Taj's boothArtist Bradford Stewart kept it simple and clean.Joe Cariati Glass made the most of a small booth.