The Daily View

A few week's back, I mentioned that I finally looked out the window. Our offices are in Dogpatch along the water. We have a cool view of the ships coming and going and operation over at the Port of Oakland.

The neighborhood has a rich history of longshoreman, brothels, haunted docks, runaway cows, and the stockyards of yore. Rumor has it - Dogpatch got its name from the feral dogs that used to scavenge scraps of meat and waste at the slaughter houses. Well, isn’t that special?

Our offices are located in the old American Can Factory, which was built over a forty year period (1915-1955). The American Can Company employed thousands of men and women in the manufacture of cans and bottles for West Coast canneries. The plant was shut down in 1969.

Today, Dogpatch is a mix of light industry and residential. We are located along the new 3rd Street Light Rail , which connects Third Street to the Embarcadero, BART, and the Ferry Building. We are proud to be part of this rich heritage and welcome you to come visit us and our neighborhood.

Occasionally, I will post the daily view as a reminder to look up. To remember, yes, there is more to life than work. Today, we were treated to an afternoon setting with a Pricess Cruise Ship docked outside our window. pretty cool, eh?

Plus this way my sister knows I'm alive . . . (I know, I know - I'll write)

Are you being served?

The Wall Street Journal - Making the Most Of Customer Complaints - discussed how customers are judging companies by how well they handle customer complaints. It made me think of all the companies I’ve interacted with recently – Yahoo customer service – friendly, knowledgeable. 1and1.com referred me to a call center in the Philippines where the agent read a script. Vendor from Florida told me a flying rat story – strange, but extremely personable and I was talking to the owner. These experiences would---to some extent---affect whether I continue doing business with these companies.

What would your customers say about you?

This article provides solid guidelines on how companies can use customer complaints to do a better job. There is also interview with David Bowen, one of the authors of the article and study.

Do As I Say

Not as I do. . .

OK, that might have worked for your dad, but it shouldn’t be your consultant’s approach. We try hard to live by the rules that we set for our clients - Keep your website fresh. Update the look, if it’s tired. Post to your blog.

So, when I took a look at our website – ouch! The copyright was for 2006 – probably the last time I was inspired to update it. And the colors were slightly off and the front page image was a tad tired. It’s time.



I invite you to follow along as we go about revamping our site. The look, the feel, content – ultimately the searchability (SEO). Why do we build websites, if you can’t find them?

Currently, Dohertyassoc.com has a traffic rank of: 3,740,178. Ugh – if it were client, I’d be telling them “Well, there’s plenty of room for improvement.” Sit back, we’ll do all the work – you can learn from our successes and hopefully avoid whatever silly mistakes we make along the way.



“Fasten your seat belts - It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

Are you an Entrepreneur Who Feels You're "Swimming Alone"?

Are you an Entrepreneur Who Feels You're "Swimming Alone"?

Latin American entrepreneurs already turn to Capitalemprendedor.com as an important online source of information and support.

The www.CapitalEmprendedor.com site is a Spanish blog that serves as an invaluable information tool for Spanish-speaking business people.

The purpose of the blog is to provide all kinds of information useful to the Latin American businessman, who at times may feel he is "swimming alone, against the current", due to the lack of available sources of information and support to help his business succeed.

The 80/20 Rule

Every Sunday, I receive the newspaper filled with circulars and advertisements. This section immediately goes into the recycle bin unread. However, I occasionally glance at an advertisement that appears amongst interesting articles in the sections of the paper that I do read. Why do I read those advertisements and not the circulars? Those advertisers understand the 80/20 rule and so should you. Follow the 80 percent interesting/relevant content in exchange for 20 percent advertising when you are marketing to your customer - regardless of which medium you choose to reach them.

The average reader will accept about 20 percent advertisements mixed in with 80 percent interesting content. Are you willing to watch on average 8 minutes of commercials in exchange for 22 minutes of "Family Guy or Desperate Housewives?" Most of us are. At the same time, few of us are willing to watch an infomercial, because it just a sales pitch similar to the circular.

So when you reach out to your customers - be it a mailer, an email or a blog - is it an infomercial? Or have you taken the time to provide interesting content they can use? Perfect example, I receive a mailer from a local real estate agent. It talks about the local housing market, it talks about the economy, and it offers advice on staging and other tips. And yes of course - ultimately it has a pitch - but if the information is valuable I read the mailer and so will your customers.

Understanding Keywords

If you are like me, you’ve subscribed to the “if you build it they will come . . .” approach to web marketing. You’ve built or paid for a pretty website. You’ve made your global debut and now you sit and wait. And wait!

One of the key elements to search engine optimization (SEO) is developing keywords. Simple you say. Maybe not.

Recently I was working with client and we were discussing what keywords she wanted for her website. “Bookkeeping,” she boldly replied. We searched bookkeeping on Google (it has 65% of all traffic, so we tend use it as a barometer for search) - 20,900,000 responses for bookkeeping. Ugh – that’s a lot of web pages to try to compete with for attention.

“How about SF bookkeeping?” 1,060,000 responses for SF bookkeeping – better, but that’s still a lot of folks fighting for a top spot on Google.

“How about Noe Valley, SF bookkeeping?” 10,800 for Noe Valley, SF bookkeeping. So, instead of competing with 20 million users of a single keyword, we build “keyword phrases” to target our customers and increase our chances of being found on Google.

Targeted keyword phrases can include references to locale (Noe Valley), community (gay, hispanic) or whatever else distinguishes your business from all the other bookkeepers (or what ever it is that you do) out there.