Real Twilight Wallpaper For iPad and iPhone

A friend, and Twilight fan, from California asked me for "a real photo"  iPad screen saver of La Push on the Washington Coast.  This is as real as it gets.

La Push Twilight iPad Wallpaper

La Push Twilight iPhone Wallpaper

Countdown to First Day of Washington Summer

This has been right so often that I decided to stop being irritated and just go with it:  Our summer doesn't start in June -- it starts in early to mid July.

July 4th weekend can be clear and hot, or cloudy and cold.  But just wait another couple weeks and your chances for real summer weather go up higher than a cirrostratus making a jump shot.  So why not make it official?

This is the official countdown to the First Day of Washington Summer - July 12th.

The best part is our summer doesn't end in August.  It goes into September.

Planning an outdoor wedding, party, family reunion, trip to the ocean?  Before you do check the chart.  Check it out along with great explanations on why and how our northwest weather works at Cliff Mass's Weather Blog.  See his article on our summer weather. 

Cafe Dei Opening Tomorrow

Cafe Dei opens in Tacoma tomorrow and just in time.  This town needed a place near 6th and  Fife to get micro roasted coffee and Mighty-O donuts.

For more info on Cafe Dei see their facebook page.

Grow Your Business With the Help of Pierce County Library System

Want free help in growing your business, starting a business, or finding a job?  Pierce County Library System's Job + Business Center is available now.  Six locations open seven days a week are there for you.

Go to the Job + Business Center site.

See the press release.

Two Five Three Video Captures Tacoma

If you live or work in Tacoma, you have to see the video.  Fice captured the city.

You might not agree with the presentation, but this is a great example of taking what you believe in and making your case in a bold, passionate, creative way.  Although the Chamber of Commerce would have done it differently, I think it represents the city well and touches people on a personal level that is hard to do.

It's Fice's music. Erik Soderquist directed the video.


See more on Fice

Food cart drive gets rolling; will folks dine downtown? - Business - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

Food cart drive gets rolling; will folks dine downtown? - Business - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

425r

For some Washingtonians, there is a perception that a 425r is living a different life than the rest of the state.  I heard someone in Olympia say, "Why can't a 425r just put on a hoody like everyone else when it rains?  Do you really need a 'waterproof yet breathable' $200 soft shell to go to the store?"

425r refers to someone from the 425 area code of Washington, an area code covering North and East of Seattle; stretching from Everett, through Bellevue, Redmond, Renton, and Maple Valley.

There is a marked income difference.  For example, the median household income for Tacoma is about $38,000, Shelton $32,000, Centralia $30,000.

Bellevue, a 425 city, is about $76,000.

For the breakdown, see the Washington State Office of Financial Management's summary of income by counties.


Flickr photo

Should I Follow Everyone Who Follows Me On Twitter?

When you get that message that a new person is following you on Twitter, should you follow them (known as follow back) out of politeness or good protocol?  Why wouldn't someone follow back?   To answer the question, Meryl Evans did something really smart - she asked experienced Twitterers.

Wondering why people don’t follow you back? I asked some Twitterers their reasons. Perhaps you’re breaking one of these Twitter commandments.

Thou Hast a Bad Profile
avidwriter: I don’t follow back people who are following 300+ people with no bio, URL or haven’t bothered to post a tweet.
debworks: No face picture, no real name, not following anyone.
overthinker: I won’t follow people without bios.
adenin: I tend not to follow people with a lopsided following/followers/updates ratio.

 Read on at Web Worker Daily for another 20 reasons.

Free Youth

Ad for free lunch program outreach in Washington (on website and Twitter):

"Youth free lunch program."

Which is it?

"Youth free" means there are no youth at lunch (common in senior centers but not school lunchrooms.)

"Free youth lunch program" means free lunches for youth.

See my NW Word Hub for more on words.

Green Marketing Idea

Looking for more ways to buy locally? Being green just got a little bit easier, thanks to Sound Trading Co., Seattle's first online eco-store and gift registry. Every item and service sold on their website is locally made, locally transported and created using the "best practices for a healthy world.

Co-founders Lilah Steece and Harrison Neel got the idea for Sound Trading Co. during one very wedding-heavy summer when they realized that friends had few alternatives to registering with chain stores for mass-produced items that were usually shipped from far away. Sound Trading Co. was conceived as a way to give residents of the Puget Sound area easy access to locally made, environmentally conscious products and services from area artists, businesses and nonprofits.

Customers can set up wedding and baby registries through the Sound Trading Co. website, or simply buy individual gifts and services for specific occasions.  Read on in NWsource.

Advertising To End Exploitation

Three groups of Catholic sisters in Tacoma are launching an ad campaign this week to raise local awareness about the global problem of human trafficking.

The ads start appearing on Pierce Transit buses today in Pierce County. They offer help through a website and a national hot line.

With the campaign, sisters from three religious communities are speaking out against forced sexual exploitation of women, children and men through prostitution, said Sister Sharon Casey, president of the Dominican Sisters of Tacoma.

“It’s another form of human slavery,” she said.

The $3,850 ad campaign is just one local effort to counter human trafficking...
Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/06/21/v-mobile/1279133/ads-target-exploitation-of-humans.html#none#ixzz0rY5n3uxj

Appeal to Your Customer's Desires

You might not be in retail, but this is a great visual example of simple, effective selling.

1. Make  your appeal.
2. Answer objections.
3. Make it easy to complete the transaction.

Besides all that, it answers a question for people using an EBT card (a card issued by the state to buy food items.)

By the way, candy is now taxed in Washington State. Read up on what is and what isn't taxed in the Kitsap Sun.

How To Pronounce Puyallup

 There are hundreds of ways to say it wrong and there are Washington residents who avoid using it in a sentence. But you can pronounce Puyallup like a native. Here's the way to get it right and remember it forever.

Just say allup

(as in GALLOP)

but before you do,

Say Puy (as in FEW.)

Photo:
Dia del nino at the Puyallup Public Library
Originally uploaded by quinn.anya

Tacoma Photography

Taking great photos of your own backyard is a real gift.  Chris Anderson is more than an amazing photographer -- she has a way of capturing our region in her photos. This one of Tacoma's Glass Museum is beautiful.

See her other photos on flickr.
 mistymisschristie

Make Yourself Useful On LinkedIn

Want to help other business people and increase your reputation at the same time?  Use your expertise, experience, and judgment to answer questions on LinkedIn.  If you are marketing to businesses (b2b) this is an excellent way to connect with your customers and potential customers.  Here is a great article by Jason Falls on how to do it.  (It also has a cool phrase I hadn't heard before: "it's not rocket surgery.")

Step One
Find a category of LinkedIn Answers you have a degree of expertise in. A screen shot of the Answers page for Internet Marketing is below. At the bottom of the right column of the page you should see the orange RSS feed button. Click that to subscribe to the feed via email or  your favorite feed reader. Repeat the process for any number of other topics that make sense for your business.  Read On  at Social Media Explorer: How To Make LinkedIn Answers Part Of Your Routine.
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Startup Weekend in Olympia

Olympia, Washington is an underground center for green, responsible, CREATIVE, technology. It's time to bring it above ground.  Are you interested in attending a startup weekend in Olympia?

On the couch, a tiny dog buries his head into a blanket and shuts its eyes.
"Spanky's the only one who got to sleep," Martin says.

This group of nine entrepreneur hopefuls started less than two days ago with just an idea: an online planning and finance tool for small businesses called ProphetMargin. Now they have the website design, a business plan and a working database. And by the end of the evening, they'll have a formal mentor and a meeting planned with investors.  Read on in The Olympian.

Guerrilla Marketing or Ambush Marketing?

Great guerrilla marketing idea with just one problem -- FIFA and South Africa have rules against this marketing strategy.

They consider it ambush marketing.  The reason is that they don't want companies that have not payed for sponsorships to get free advertising.  The Olympics and other sporting events have similar rules.  In this case, South African law applies:  " the Contravention of Merchandise Marks Act."
 

FIFA ejected 36 female Netherlands fans from their World Cup match with Denmark for wearing an orange mini-dress designed by a beer company.
The dresses were made by Bavaria beer and despite the outfits containing no branding, the organizers said it was against their rules on "ambush marketing".  Read on at Yahoo! World of Sport.

Tacoma Filmmaking

We love to see Tacoma creating films from scratch.

Local filmmakers Isaac Olsen and Kurt Kendall will roll out their independent feature noir film “Quiet Shoes” at the Rialto this Saturday. Filmed on a shoestring budget in and around T-town, “Quiet Shoes” features local talent including members of Tacoma band Girl Trouble, and combines noir with wacky comedy.

Read on in the Tacoma News Tribune.

Are Clients Rationally Irrational?

Are your customers' decisions based on rational or irrational thinking? Hear some surprising answers in NPR's interview with Dan Ariely.

Hear it now on NPR site (7 minutes)

Robert Siegel talks to behavioral economist Dan Ariely about his new book, The Upside of Irrationality. The book is a follow-up to his New York Times best-seller, Predictably Irrational, in which Ariely examined a number of biases that lead all of us to make unwise decisions. This time, Ariely explores the flipside to irrationality and how it helps us achieve great things...

Photo:by Wonderlane
See info

Branding Your Business Videos

Tight branding is not just a good thing to do or a theoretical marketing concept -- branding is at the core of every good business and business idea.

To challenge your thinking on branding a new product, start with this short show.  With a panel of consultants (an advertising agency, a PR representative, two marketing managers, and Taser's founder) Donny Deutsch of The Big Idea will give you plenty to consider.

It was recorded a couple years ago,  but is now available online.

Watch segments on CNBC's blog (1-3 minutes) or for you Comcast customers, watch the whole show on your Fancast TV (45 minutes.)

Already saw the show? See how the featured business, Bug Labs, is doing since the show was recorded at their blog.