{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} I hope you are enjoying this sunny Easter weekend. In fact, the weather has been partly responsible for my newsletter being a little late today. I have spent the last few hours helping my 11-year-old son "pimp his ride"...! He has a new scooter - apparently it is the "top of the range" and the envy of all his mates at the local skate park. But even having the best scooter is not enough apparently. Everyone, so I am told, "pimps" their scooter with attachments and coloured items which make it more personal. So, this morning off came the brake, to be replaced by a purple one. Then, off came the front handlebars to make way for a purple and white T-bar arrangement. Then finally, "stunt pegs" needed adding to the wheels - in purple of course...! The outcome, though, is that this scooter is now unique. No other 11-year-old has one with the exact arrangements of add-ons and colour changes that my son's scooter now has. And that is the point - it is HIS - not just any old scooter. It emphasises the value upon which we all put on personalisation - when you buy a new car, you personalise it with new favourites on the radio, what you carry in the glove box and perhaps even some fluffy dice. Making things "ours" is a vital part of human existence. So it begs the question - how much can people who visit your website make it "their own"? Can they personalise it? I know my website can't be - but being with my son this morning has made me re-evaluate that.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: How can we protect intellectual property online? Your intellectual property, whether it is a blog, an ebook or an online video training programme can easily be stolen. Blogs can get copied in the blink of an eye. Indeed there is software which automatically sniffs out useful blog posts and republishes them on other sites, without the original author even being aware it has happened. And even if you protect your PDF files by locking them so they can only be viewed on screen, well, bad luck, there is free software which will easily unlock protected files, thereby allowing people to create new documents from your hard work. True, this is all illegal; international copyright laws exist which mean that everything you write (even your shopping list) has automatic protection which allows you to challenge any use of your material in a court of law. But, can you imagine the costs involved in going to court in a different country where you have tracked down that 17-year-old blogger who has been ripping you off. Even if you won, the teenager probably wouldn't be able to pay your costs or even compensate you. Nowadays, we have to think more in terms of protecting our material in other ways. I was reminded of this issue earlier in the week when I was contacted by a veterinary surgeon from Bulgaria. He is about to publish a book and is concerned his material will be stolen and appear on all sorts of websites. He wanted to know how to protect it - from a legal perspective more than anything else. But I felt he needed more of a psychological answer than a legal one. People rarely steal things from individuals they like and respect. In other words if you establish your online reputation such that people see you as THE expert on a topic your material is much less likely to be ripped off. It means you can protect your material if you are present online in all sorts of places from Twitter to Facebook to LinkedIn to specialist forums all demonstrating your link to your specific subject. Not only does building respect for your authority on the subject mean that theft of your intellectual property is less likely, it also means that when it is stolen everyone knows. This then reduces the impact the thief thinks it will have because people no longer respect them if they are prepared to steal from someone who has so much more respect. So, you don't need to resort to fancy protection systems to reduce online theft of your intellectual property. All you need to do is make it psychologically tough for the potential thief by ensuring you have a solid reputation for your topic.
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: There is money if you look for it At the beginning of the week I was in sunny Eastbourne - where I joked I had reduced the average age of the population. Eastbourne is known as a retirement location, of course, but the sea-front is lined with hotels stretching for a mile or so. Each of them must be making money. But how? Hoteliers I meet are fond of saying that business is at an all time low and if it weren't for the weddings industry they would go bust. But Eastbourne is probably not top of the list for dream wedding destinations - yet the hotels are (even now) busy and thriving. The hotel I stayed in was full - 165 people were staying and the hotel was full every night of the week. Most hoteliers would pay for that sort of occupancy level. But - other than me and the people attending the meeting I was at - the rest of the hotel were all elderly. And, importantly, they were all on a week-long "sequence dancing" trip. Four nights of dancing, day trips for afternoon tea and a day out in Brighton were all on their itinerary. All the people taking part in this extravaganza were from Yorkshire it seemed by the accents all around me. So. here is a sea-front hotel not making money from selling itself as a holiday destination, but instead marketing itself 200 miles away to old people who like dancing. Other hoteliers could take a tip from this - as could the rest of us. There are people prepared to spend money on what we have to sell. It's just that we are often busy looking for them in the wrong place.
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": Become a recognised authority
To find out more about this book visit: http://uklik.me/authority60
AND FINALLY: From this week's blog... Do you link your website to the weather? You should…! Kate Middleton must be hoping that the predictions are right; weather pundits reckon that next Friday will be bright and sunny for the Royal Wedding. Whoopee…! Indeed, almost every bit of media coverage now mentions the weather and the forecasters are being dragged into studios across the world to say if the big day will be dry and bright. We are fascinated by the weather. Read More About how your blog can benefit from the weather at: http://uklik.me/h00f3y
Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web:
grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
