Caution Little Kiddies: This post is rated PG-13 for Violence and Adult Language..
Opened eyes are blinded with morning crust while fervently searching the room for an answer. Dawn is breaking through the windows and the room is filled with a reassuring blue telling of a significant passing of time.

I’ve fallen asleep on the couch again. The couch, once firm and comfortable, has spread it’s cushions as it tries to ferociously eat my ass alive. Climbing out of it’s mouth, I sit up relieved but puzzled of the events taken place in my subconscious.

“What the hell did I just dream about?”

Hours Before…in the mind of an artist

I lift my head and take in the familiar scenery of my hometown on Long Island, NY. The quiet seaport, seemingly desolate at the time carries only the echoes of grasshoppers chiming in the morning dew.

*Crunch*–Damn, poor grasshopper…you have no power against my (slightly s & m) platform boots. Walking centered on the streets of Greenport, my heels produce a rhythm of sound which bounces off the buildings I pass. I’ve walked this path before plenty of times on route to my high school, a solid building standing tall now only meters away.
Standing before it now my throat surprisingly lets out a shriek motivated by the sudden quiver of the road beneath me. Looking around there’s nothing to be seen–though my sight has always majorly sucked ass…”dumbassedness” on my part led to the misplacement and failed (*cough* unattempted) retrieval of my prescription glasses at a job interview two years prior.

Grasshoppers no longer occupy the sounds of the dark morning air–but faint cries in the distance increase in volume with their approach. The ground quivers ever more quickly this time, as I begin to see familiar faces of townspeople running my way. Then, with the swiftness of a samurai sword–I see “it” coming from the shadows..

…A fucking Tyrannosaurus Rex approaches the school mauling down people and popping them into it’s crater of a mouth like mint tic tacs…
“Holy Shit” (figuratively and luckily not literally). I run towards my high school still strapped into my six inch heels (??) remembering to not look back ’cause people always die that way in the movies.
The T-Rex storms over to the building, crunching people like I once crunched that lonely grasshopper. Protected by a century old building? Ha! Say that to the pile of rubble that crumbled under the force of the mighty rex’s chompers. Finding a place to hide in an ever increasing empty field of land becomes harder but I manage to crawl under a piece of the building still intact. Or, at least it was–that is until the T-Rex karate chopped the top portion of the building. Running in the direction of the opening furthest away from the blood thirsting dinosaur, I can’t help but wonder at this point why the hell I’m in six inch platform boots!

The light of the opening was all a mist like a near-death experience, for I was running from a damn dinosaur and how I had not been stepped on by that moment was of pure mystery to me. Fin-a-fuck-ily I emerged from the building, at least what was left of it but conveniently caught the eye of the dinosaur who now had a personal vendetta against me. It chased me to the only tree in sight, it’s hot and putrid smelling breath panting behind me. Feeling it gain on me I make a desperate leap toward the “y” formation of the tree when…….

…I woke up.

No, I don’t think so

Shortly after realizing I was still alive and had woken from a dream, I laid my head back on the couch pillow to go back to the dream. Yes, I went back to kick ass! You think I was going to let that dinosaur almost eat me without a fight–I don’t think so honey.

I enter back into the dream strapped with the best futuristic weaponry a dream can buy–this time with comfortable roomy sneakers. The last moments I remember are of charging head on with the ferocious T-Rex, like some badass Mila Jovovich character similarly to Resident Evil…

The Point

I’m sorry was there supposed to be a point to this story? Ahh yes, if ever you need a dinosaur slain, call on me, Melody, the most badass chick in online marketing and certified T-Rex destroyer…

Be sure to Subscribe to my RSS or else I might not be able to save you!

<3 Love Ya!
-Mel

The Twitter phenomenon is taking over the internet like a wildfire. Every online marketer is using it to their advantage to optimize on the potential reach for their audience. And if you haven’t noticed already, many internet entrepreneurs are creating businesses which are an extension of the Twitter system.

Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. I think by now I’ve accepted the idea that any huge internet phenomenon will be quickly overturned by internet marketers who may abuse or take away from the experience. But I’ve also realized that it’s a nice interaction between people of similar interests, and is also a nice, concise way to break the ice in getting to know new people online.

I’ve taken notice in recent weeks how much Twitter is actually influencing my blog posts. I question whether or not that’s entirely a good thing, but feel free to give me your opinion.

How Twitter Influences My Blog Posts

Blog Titles Within 140 Characters- My blog titles usually aren’t too long anyway, but I’ve had to make sure that my titles are especially concise for when I tweet them on Twitter. If my title is too long, then it’ll also make the link to my post take up too many characters. The link ends up converting to a “tiny url” anyway, but this doesn’t help when creating the tweet. In fact, it would be awesome if Twitter somehow incorporated into their system, an option to include a link without it interfering with the available amount of characters you have left.

Concise/catchy Titles- My followers are essentially my audience. So I try to produce titles to blog posts that are relevant to their professions in the graphic design or internet entrepreneur related industries.

Relevant Posts The types of followers I have also influence the relevance I bring to my overall blog posts. This is where I question how much is truly acceptable to be influenced by Twitter and I don’t want to be too heavily reliant on it because currently the bulk of my traffic isn’t coming from Twitter.

When To Post There are certain times of the day when if you make a blog post it has more of a chance to be seen then at another time. I try to be sensitive to this concept, because there are also times of the day when you get the most clicks from your Twitter followers. I tend to get tweets that I’ve been meaning to say out of the way before posting a link to my most recent blog post because I like to keep the link up as long as possible.

Make It Re-tweetable Many people on twitter are “re-tweeting” the posts they find most interesting to them, and beneficial to their followers. Although it’s sometimes difficult to make every single thing you write on your blog worthy of being spread around the twittersphere, make sure that you release your best posts during the times of the day when others will bite the bait.

How has Twitter influenced your blog/site?

Twitter gives you so much potential for building upon your readership so be sure to use it wisely. But how has it affected your site’s progression? Comment and let me know..

Be sure to Subscribe to my RSS for for more updates and discussion about online marketing!

Love ya!
-Mel

I received a very interesting e-mail this morning from a mysterious individual seeking to give me his business proposal. In this e-mail he tried to use the common marketing tactic of insulting his way to business. This situation actually is beneficial to understand, because it allows me to literally decode his wording and show you how to decide whether an individual is worthy of business or is just another scam.

Actual E-mail

Here is the full e-mail, I’ll begin to break down his intentions sentence by sentence. For future reference I’ll be referring to this person as (name).

“I visited your page (now realizing that I found you as a result of your blog commenting experiment) and want to let you know that you’re wasting your time with a blog if you’re trying to make money. And now for the legitimacy behind why I think that way, social traffic = garbage. You have adsense on your blog but you don’t make very much off of it do you? You have affiliate products on your page and they don’t generate too many sales either I’m guessing. You have a lot of talent but you’re squandering your time trying to follow all of those other idiots.

Let me ask you a question, do you visit other people’s blogs and click on any of their ads or purchase any of their stupidly advertised affiliate products? Of course you don’t, so what makes you think they’ll click?

Ehhh enough of the brutal honesty. Real reason why I’m here; business proposal.

A SEM firm that will dominate the local market. Currently a HUGE industry with room for future growth. Unlimited potential. SEO’ing the local market = BIG $$$.

Reply if you want to discuss.

=)”
-(name)

Initial Thoughts

At first I didn’t know whether or not to take this as a spam message. Notice how the bulk of the message could be applied to almost any individual, yet the only way he associates connection to me is through my blogging experiment. This has the potential of being the same tactic used with e-mail marketing–creating a connection to a person by either associating a name or something they’ve done while the rest is the same message that is sent to dozens/thousands of other people.

This person immediately comes off very “omniscient” in his e-mail, although his e-mail address is conveniently a gmail account instead of an e-mail account from a site he owns–so I have no way of knowing who this person truly is.

Decoding Sentence by Sentence

“I visited your page (now realizing that I found you as a result of your blog commenting experiment) and want to let you know that you’re wasting your time with a blog if you’re trying to make money. “

First, he tries to legitimize the actual act of visiting my site by connecting my recent blog post about my blog commenting experiment. Then he pursues a statement that is meant to either quickly belittle my efforts in one shot, or to show that he knows the “true intentions” of my blog. Notice how the phrase, “want to let you know,” is like saying that he’s doing a good service to me by letting me know before I go any further with my “time wasting” efforts.

“And now for the legitimacy behind why I think that way, social traffic = garbage. “

This statement is a HUGE no no, in that he has essentially given his ignorance away. “And now for the legitimacy behind why I think that way”–this translates to “I’m not a credible person, especially since there is no way of connecting me to valid, factual sources, so what I’m about to say is just my personal opinion.” Furthermore, “Social traffic = garbage”–notice the bluntness in how he has associated a marketing tactic with something so foul and undesired. Further ignorance is displayed simply because he has decided to draw to such a blunt (and biased) conclusion.

Sensitive people may even say that he is not only saying that the tactic is garbage, but the person who is using it is garbage as well. His statement actually communicates to me that he has a huge grudge over people who have made significant money online, and since he can’t he can only resort to saying their marketing tactics are garbage.

“You have adsense on your blog but you don’t make very much off of it do you? You have affiliate products on your page and they don’t generate too many sales either I’m guessing.”

Here, again, he is trying to associate a connection to understanding my true intentions as though I’m hiding some big secret. Also, drawing to the conclusion that I haven’t made any significant money is trying to evoke some sense of disappointment on my part, as though his statement will scare me into desperately seeking his advice (ultimately leading to a transaction). My blog is four months old, shall I collect my million dollar check next Tuesday–I think not?

“You have a lot of talent but you’re squandering your time trying to follow all of those other idiots.”

After belittling my efforts, and “unmasking my failure to make money,” he then tries to demonstrate his sense of compassion by saying such a talented person is wasting their time–this acts as a way to quickly fluff my ego. However, soon after, I’m met with another insult when he insinuates stupidity on my part by following the idiotic methods of others.

Let me just say, in regards to this comment, that I don’t believe I have followed anyone and my blog posts have become unique to the person I am. In fact, my experiment was done on such an extreme level to help educate others on the traffic opportunities related to commenting.

“Let me ask you a question, do you visit other people’s blogs and click on any of their ads or purchase any of their stupidly advertised affiliate products? Of course you don’t, so what makes you think they’ll click?”

This person loves abrupt conclusions. I have clicked on other people’s ads before, it has helped me to understand which products are worth pursuing. Here is where he has demonstrated your common tactic–”I’ll provide an automatic answer to my question in order to validate my statement.”

“Ehhh enough of the brutal honesty. Real reason why I’m here; business proposal.”

LOL..as someone who has been in the brutally honest financial industry–if this is brutal honesty then he is a mere puppy in a pitbull’s territory! Again, see how he is trying to act as though he’s doing me such a huge favor–you’d think I should be indebted to him by now right? “Real reason why I’m here,”–because otherwise I wouldn’t be worth his time, right.. ;business proposal. Which also translates to: real reason why I’m here = to hopefully make money off of poor self esteem after I aim to chip away at your ego.

“A SEM firm that will dominate the local market. Currently a HUGE industry with room for future growth. Unlimited potential. SEO’ing the local market = BIG $$$.”

That’s it??? That’s what your huge profitable secret is–search engine marketing? “Currently a huge industry,” which also translates to the fact that you’re essentially copying the paths of others instead of spearheading some revolutionizing marketing idea. “Unlimited potential”–he hasn’t made a single dime! LOL..People who have made significant money, will demonstrate the heights you can achieve with a particular program. And, but of course, try to tantalize me with your triple dollar signs..

“Reply if you want to discuss.”

Here, he is trying to retain some sort of power in the discussion..That, god forbid, I answer back with something that isn’t related to the e-mail. What he forgets though, is he wants MY business, so technically I have the power….lol classic..

“=)”

This is, by far my favorite part of the e-mail. I love talking to hypocritical people who talk so much mess about you, and then have the nerve to add a little smiley face like it bringing world peace to the conversation..

My E-mail Reply

I wholeheartedly support the idea that you should defend yourself and what you stand for, just as long as you don’t let it get to you too much..We should be enjoying our lives, not worrying about the criticism of others, especially people you don’t know. So say what it’ll take to relieve yourself of your anger, and move on..Here was my reply:

“Oh (name), you are certainly a funny character you know that? Honey, you don’t need to tell me anything about some of the ludicrous efforts people will do to generate traffic, but I hold one experiment and you equate that to the future success of my young blog…

You don’t know why I market to this industry, and I don’t have to explain myself to you. Soon enough, I know I’ll be one of those people you desperately seek advice from, for at the end of the day–you still want business with me. And I find your approach hilarious–essentially, demean my efforts as a way for me to desperately seek your mysteriously “profitable” advice.

I understand what it truly is though, honey. You see my genius, and foresee what’s to come my way–so why wouldn’t you want to profit from it, right?

Oh (name), dear (name), for your own sake, figure out your agenda…

-Melody”

I think the part that sums up my feelings is the last sentence. Most people online have an agenda to which they want some sort of praise for, and try to belittle others with differing opinions..

How would you have responded?

Would you have responded to this person at all? If so, what is the tone you think you would’ve had in the e-mail.

Be sure to Subscribe to my RSS for for more classic behavioral interpretations!

Toodles
-Mel

As I sit on the couch, eyes numb from countless hours spent on my new layout design, the local news station on tv briefly notes a winter warning heading towards our area.
Schools represented by their names and numbers flash onto the bottom of the screen–all of them must be closed today.

I don’t get it. Why do Philly Schools close so easily?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the cautions needed to be taken during sever winter weather, but in my hometown on Long Island NY we NEVER got our school closed in this weather. Either the superintendent found pleasure in our sorrow to go to school that day, or the myths were true about him having a winter home in a remote snow stricken area where he simply became used to the weather.
The warning says that Philadelphia is supposed to receive a couple of inches of snow today, but in NY it used to take 3-4 ft of snow for my k-12 school to close. I remember being cuddled up by the TV in the morning, anxiously awaiting “Greenport Secondary School” to flash across the screen–but there would be nothing…my hopes and dreams would be shattered, and I could only hope that a convincing winter cough would keep me home for the day..

It just seems like whenever there is a slight dusting on the ground, or a lonely snowflake riding on the breeze, the Philadelphia School System jumps at every advantage to close their schools. I can even recall when all the schools were closed for an insignificant non-national holiday.

Urban kids in Philadelphia face two choices: 1) Death 2) Or jail. And you would think that with all the problems with violence they would urge to keep the students in school throughout the year. I have never been to a city (probably cause I rarely travel) where I’ve seen so many students out before the afternoon.
I guess I can say I care these days because I’m no longer a child without responsibilities. Besides, I don’t want to hear these kids yelling outside before closing hours–they’re already loud and rude enough.

Perhaps I’m concerned about the community, or maybe I’m just pissed we never got so many days off….you decide.

America is the country of “diversity” of celebrating different nations from all over the world joining together for the common goal of reaching “the american dream.” But is imposing cookie cutter beliefs on people who obviously don’t celebrate the same things crossing the line?

I think so.

I usually find this time of the year frustrating, because with the “jingle bells,” “thanks”giving, and merry “christ”mases, ringing throughout the streets–you’d think I would atleast be able to avoid it at work..

And this year, as the boss, I finally can.

Let me first say that, I do not celebrate “Hol-i-days.” For my own particular reasons, part of which what happens to people at this time of the year and the actions they commit. For instance, the worry, regret, and unsatisfaction that comes along with Christmas, a supposed joyous time of the year. Or perhaps hundreds of people violently trampling over each other for the mere hope of retrieving a “tickle me elmo” or “wii” is what these days are about..

I personally, never had good experiences during these times of the year, which is probably 2% of the reason why I don’t celebrate them. The other 98% is actual beliefs, religious misinterpretations, and the actions of others during this time.

But wait, I don’t impose a melancholy attitude during this time, if approached with a question/statement about the holiday, I just simply say, “Thank you, but I don’t celebrate .” But why is it that everytime I do this, the eyes of the person I speak with widen, their mouth becomes crooked, and they give me this screechy question of “why?” as though they feel sorry for me..

Trust me, I’m fine..I just don’t celebrate holidays, what’s the big deal???? I don’t get into conversations of why–it’ll only cause more frustration, but I am also never discriminating against those who have different beliefs.

Why is it in the place of such “welcomed diversity” is everyone expected to celebrate the same thing?

Well, for once, as boss, this holiday season I will not impose upon my employees my personal beliefs as perhaps my former employers or employers in general do. I like to go to christmas parties for the networking opportunities, not for the singing, or egg nog. Heck, I wish they sold egg nog throughout the year–I love that stuff!

Hey, I’m a different kind of person..entrepreneur at 19, boss at 20, with beliefs, talents, and ideas stemming from the unconventional, my question is….

During this season, will you be more open to your experiences or more superficial in your quests for artificial fulfillment?

Final Confessions: I welcome diversity–for I am different myself. But hold scrutiny and criticism to yourself before criticising the views of someone is different.