Live Talent Videos

Live Talent Videos

Threadless.com Is Web 2.0

I’m certainly not the first to comment on the innovative functionality of Threadless.com, some noted business books praise the site as starting a new type of economy online, the user created product. I’ve been a fan of Threadless.com for years, but felt like it was the right time to make a comment about the evolution of the site.

For the uninitiated Threadless.com is a website that allows users to upload their own t-shirt designs, have any visitor that wants to vote on them, and then the site produces the most popular shirts. It is a 8 figure a year business that is so efficient, it rarely deals with having too much stock since it only prints what people actually want to buy.

The first shirts I purchased from the site were ordered back around spring of 2005. While I was in love with the original designs, and cool user voting system, getting the actual gear was not as amazing as it could have been.

For starters it took nearly 2 weeks for the shirts to arrive, which had me wondering why the site would note “In Stock” for the items I ordered when in fact it was clear they still had some screen printing to do.

Adding to the mild irritation of ordering from the site was the quality of the t-shirts. I’m not a t-shirt fanatic, but I have some experience in the apparel industry, and love nothing more than a soft vintage style tee. These had the cool artwork, but lacked the comfortable feel of say an American Apparel or Alternative Apparel shirt. Still, the art was so cool, and the fact they were created by people no different than yours truly, how could I not think this site was anything less than incredible.

Fast forward 4 years. While I regularly read the Threadless.com weekly email blast, and often laugh out loud at the awesome new designs, many of which are ironic, funny, and often clever as all get out, I hadn’t actually placed an order since the last debacle.

Then I saw this design, aptly titled  98 Different Creatures! created by a dude named Daniel Abensour. How cool? A t-shirt with 98 unique creates on it, in my favorite color for shirts, grey no less! I had to have it.

So after a few clicks and a quick updating of my account I bought it, and about a half dozen others. The shirts came in 2 days, and the first thing I noticed is that they are now screened on some incredibly soft tees made specifically for the site. I’m wearing my 98 creatures tee right now, and later I might have time to check out each one of them, because this shirt is so comfortable I could, and probably will wear it to bed. Ok, too much information, I agree.

What a difference 4 years makes! No waiting, no itchy sandpaper shirts, just awesome service, incredible products, and that uniqueness that makes this site the epitome of Web 2.0.

Journalists Not So Comfortable with SEO

Great article my dad sent me about how journalists, are not so, eh hem, comfortable, with the literalism that exists in SEO land.

Resume Ape Video Ad

COOL ALERT! Our very own Resume Ape video ad just finished production. This was filmed last week, I wrote the script, and absolutely love the way Jennifer read it.

We are using this on Resume Ape site, and as a sample for our upcoming Live Talent Videos website that will offer the same awesome script writing and HD video production with, you guessed it, live talent.


Resume Ape Unique Resume & Cover Letter Writing Service Ad from Clark Covington on Vimeo.

Best Opinion Piece I've Read in Recent History

Awesome op-ed predicting the future with laser clarity by Peggy Noonan. If people were to ask me how I view what I do, it's so close to what Noonan describes as garage level innovation it's not funny. Except for me it's not a garage but rather a converted couple of rooms in a ranch house.

Read her story HERE

Clark’s Internet Marketing and SEO Seminar & Workshop Questionnaire

As a past customer of mine I value your opinions, thoughts, and most importantly buying habits. Rather than toss together some cheesy seminar and hope people will sign up for it, I’m asking you for feedback before we even begin to look for event space.

Please take a minute to visit the link below, and answer 10 short questions about two seminar ideas that have been stewing around in my head.

One idea involves having a small group (20 to 30 people total) meet for a weekend in the mountains at an upscale cabin. We’d go over the strategies I’ve used to build my business, and look specifically at your business and how we can make it better. It’s be intimate, fun, and around the clock since we’d all be in the same place, at the same time! Kind of scary, but could be groundbreaking in terms of what we come up with. This would be more of a retreat, and it would certainly allow you to think outside the box when it comes to your online marketing campaign.

The other idea is a more traditional seminar, doing it for a single day in Atlanta Georgia. This would be more of presentations, networking, and the like.

Anyways, I’m totally reliant on you to show me the light, please visit the link, fill out the questions, and karma will reward you with a wonderful weekend…And hopefully a stupendous seminar to boot!

FILL OUT SURVEY HERE

Thanks for taking the time to do this, I sincerely appreciate it.

Best,
Clark
www.ClarkCovington.com

P.S. When you get the email in a month about the new seminar I’m having this is your chance to directly influence what it is all about, where it is held, and even how much it costs, so take a minute to fill out the survey at the link above.


Please fill out my form.

Eighteen Things Going On At Once

1- The continual reorganization of my two offices. I’ve got more printers than Kinkos.

2- Still working on finishing the work at home guide that our writers contributed to.

3- Finished filming the commercial for Resume Ape today, looks amazing.

4- About to use that commercial as a sample in our upcoming live talent video service.

5- Working on preliminary publicity for Strange Business, including a feature at Book Expo.

6- Trying to finish the new Grisham book, the 37 Signals book, and a fiction writer’s workshop book.

7- Waiting on the shipment of those incredibly cool American Apparel Resume Ape shirts to arrive.

8- Trying to find speakers for the new desktop, don’t they all come with them to begin with?

9- Researching aging info marketers websites for the heck of it. They need Wordpress bad!

10- Trying to get Jack to stop scratching the cut on his neck.

11- Attempting to read two newspapers a day carefully for trends and pleasure.

12- Making repeated attempts to clean out my inbox, no matter how many emails arrive in a day.

13- Trying to figure out if Starbucks will sell me a commercial grade brewer for my bedroom.

14- Wanting to buy more Art.

15- Thinking about Ft Lauderdale real estate.

16- Wondering why people fax so much still when email is cheaper, quicker, and more convenient.

17- Setting up the Marketing Mountain seminar at the one awesome cabin.

18- Looking forward to Dateline tomorrow night.

Coming Very Soon LIVE TALENT VIDEO SERVICE

My next website launch will change the game up, entirely!

First Look at Amazon's Clickriver Ad Platform

I'm using Amazon's Clickriver ad platform for the first time today and here are some initial thoughts.

1) It's very easy to use, took about 5 minutes to setup.

2) People don't click the ads much, I've had over 20,000 impressions without a single click.

3) The service is very similar to AdWords contextual / placement service.

4) Hands down the coolest feature is the one that allows users to rate a merchant and share with others, no doubt Google will bite this feature soon enough.

Here you can get a glance of my home screen.

Here you can see my actual ad on the #2 resume book on Amazon.

Get Motivated Coming to Columbia, SC

Just bought tickets to this thing, looks incredible, I’m actually surprised Columbia was picked to host one, how cool is that? Made it to church today, did dishes, and washed Rufus, well his cage at least. Not bad for a lazy Sunday!

If you plan to go to the Get Motivated seminar here in Columbia give me a shout and we’ll meet up, should be a sight to see!

Five Guys Mission Statement

At lunch today I noticed the awesome mission statement of Five Guys hamburgers. I love how this is worded, and the fact they put it on their soda machine where the optimal amount of customers could read it shows they really mean what they write. All companies should have a mission statement like this one. The burgers there aren't bad either.

Thank You Customers

You, the customer are the most important visitor on our premises. You are not dependent on us, we are dependent on you. You are not an outsider in our business- you are part of it. We are not doing you a favor by serving you...you are doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.

Thank you,

Five Guys

Cool placement for the Kindle announcement of Strange Business.

Coolest Book Cover Ever

This book caught my eye at Books-A-Million today when I was doing my regular rounds of peeping out what was selling. Probably the coolest cover I've ever seen, surely not a cheap book to make.

Internet Marketing Magnate Clark Covington Releases New Book on Kindle Exclusively For First Month

COLUMBIA, S.C., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- In the spirit of the title of his new book, Clark Covington bucked traditional publishing procedure and released a digital version exclusively on Amazon.com's Kindle marketplace. "Strange Business: The Unconventional Guide to Internet Marketing" profiles Mr. Covington's unique style of selling goods and services online. "I couldn't just release the book in the normal way most authors do, this book is all about breaking the rules of marketing on the internet, so what better way to start the promotional efforts than to release it on the incredible Kindle device?" Author Clark Covington explains in regards to the unconventional book release. No stranger to using unique marketing methods online, Clark Covington has achieved a level of success few internet entrepreneurs enjoy today. With over thirty unique website service businesses under his belt, Mr. Covington's company Rufus Space Industries, INC., has helped thousands of businesses flourish online. From the $97 press release writing service to the $15 book review service, Mr. Covington's across the board philosophy is to offer the highest quality service for a price that is drastically lower than most competitors. "With the economy the way it is, cheap is now chic, when I started this business four years ago that was not always the case, but we were able to consistently offer lower prices and higher quality services to our customers over the years, and now it seems that things are really coming together," notes Clark Covington in regards to the growth of his various businesses. "Strange Business: The Unconventional Guide to Internet Marketing" focuses on the fifteen fundamentals of successfully selling products and services online. These fundamentals include: how to successfully build a loyal base of customers, a team of highly skilled staff members, and most importantly how to sell more each day by charging less. "I wrote this book as if I were writing a letter to a business owner who wanted to launch or grow a business online but had no idea how to do it. Doing things differently online in today's highly saturated web business climate is not just recommended, it is a must if you want to build a viable business online." States Clark Covington in response to his motivation for writing the book. For more information about Clark Covington visit http://www.clarkcovington.com/ For more information about the Kindle release of his new book visit http://clarkcovington.blogspot.com/2009/02/strange-business-released-on-amazon.html

Strange Business Released on Amazon Kindle

Strange Business: The Unconventional Guide to Internet Marketing is now available for purchase on the Kindle exclusively for the rest of Feburary by clicking HERE.

Chapter 8 of Strange Business Book Audio Recording

Ready to get your education on? Press play to listen to chapter 8 of my upcoming book Strange Business: The Unconventional Guide to Internet Marketing. My gift to you, enjoy!

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Offline Gmail

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Offline Gmail

Snubbed Out of the Forbes 25 Web Celebrities List

Despite my best Internet Marketing Rockstar t-shirt hawking efforts, I was snubbed from the Forbes.com 25 top web celebrity list. As you can imagine I’m both shocked and crushed, kind of like finding out your girlfriend is cheating on you with your best friend’s dad, it feels awkwardly sad to be left off such a list.

In all seriousness there are some awesome people I’d never heard of on the list, the two individuals that fascinated me the most are Cory Doctorow’s free download with lots of rights book marketing efforts and Steve Rubel’s mention of a Web 2.0 aggregator called FriendFeed.

The person that I could relate to the most was actually on a less flattering list, those that have dropped off the top 25. I did not know that Darren Rouse used to be a minister,that is really cool though, I did know him as the guy behind Problogger. He also has promoted his book along with mine since it’s very first day on Amazon as I’ve so gracefully illustrated below.