
Show Notes
Patents and Buffer and Pinterest, Oh my! Those are the big topics of conversation in this episode. We talk about patent trolls and then insert a clip from a conversation with three of our favorite SuperFreds – Alisa Meredith, Ian Anderson Gray and Jeff Sieh – to get their take on the big Buffer/Pinterest news from last week.
But First, A Sponsorship
Our episode today is sponsored by Tramplee Designs where you can buy a purse, bag, clutch or tote that is customized for you. Tramplee Designs offers unique designs for unique women.
Purse creator extraordinaire and SuperFred Tammie Rampley is the mastermind behind the designs. You can purchase a bag from her Etsy shop or send her a request for your own custom design. These are perfect for Mother’s Day, graduation, prom, weddings and just every day.
So What’s A Patent Troll?
A company called Personal Audio LLC exists solely to attempt to enforce patents related to podcasting, which would essentially require all podcasters to pay them a licensing fee.
If it sounds nuts, well, it is. But their M.O. is to slap you with threat of a lawsuit and hope you’ll be unsuspecting enough to cough up the licensing fee rather than the rather large sums of money it would cost to legally fight them.
Fortunately, thanks to a half-million-dollar crowd funding campaign and the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) they’ve lost a recent case against Adam Corolla’s company that leaves their validity in doubt.
A Win For Pinterest Lovers
Last week Buffer announced that you can now schedule pins to Pintrest through their Awesome Plan.
We love Buffer as a scheduling tool and were so thrilled to hear this news that we immediately asked three of our favorite SuperFreds to chime in with their reactions.
Alisa Meredith wonders if this will just lead to a lot of bad images on Pinterest.
Ian gets geeky and laments a lack of IFTTT integration.
Jeff just strokes his beard and looks fabulous.
With A Little Helpful Criticism For Buffer
While we all agree that Buffer is pretty great, what we don’t love is their pricing model. Currently, you can sign up for their Awesome plan for $10 a month where you get 12 profiles. The only other option is a Business account for $50 a month where you get 25 profiles.
Hm. Let’s do some math… you could buy 5 Awesome plans for $50 which would net you 5×12=60 profiles. Or a Business plan for $50 which nets you a mere 25 profiles.
We’re all left scratching our heads wondering how this makes sense.
Carol Lynn Angers The Pinterest Lovers
Carol Lynn dares challenge Pinterest’s methods by wondering whether their vertical orientation is backwards, since every other platform uses a horizontal orientation for images.
Alisa is having none of it and makes a good point about Pinterest being extremely popular among mobile users. But it’s still challenging to prep your images in a format that works everywhere.
The Pinterest/Buffer Wish list
Alisa wants to be able to add a place to pins when they’re Buffered rather than going back to edit the pin later.
Jeff wants stats so he knows what’s working on Pinterest and what’s not.
Ian wants more social profiles beyond the measly 12 you get in the Awesome plan, without upgrading to the Business plan.
And we want Buffer to rethink it’s Business pricing. We also want to be able to schedule blog posts for promotion even if the post isn’t published yet, without getting that aggravating “page not found” message.
Your Marketing Action Item From Carol Lynn
Go to your blog posts and look at your headline/feature image. (If you’re not using images, start by changing that!)
First, decide if you’re using good photography or just some boring, generic overcooked stock photo.
Then look at the photo outside the context of your blog as if you were seeing it on Pinterest. Would someone be able to tell what your blog post is about or be compelled to visit your blog based on that image?
If not, consider adding a text overlay, URL, logo or the title of your post so it helps bring you qualified traffic.
Your Marketing Action Item From Ralph
Think about what marketing challenge you’re facing right now. Send an email to [email protected] and let us know what that challenge is. We’re going to answer as many challenge questions as we can on our 100th episode next Monday so consider this your opportunity for some free consulting.
Links & Resources
- Visit Tramplee Designs on Etsy and see if one of the purses catches your eye. Or send Tammie a request for a custom order.
- Read about Personal Audio LLC on Wikipedia
- Read about Adam Corolla’s recent victory against patent trolls
- Find Alisa Meredith on Pinterest
- Find Jeff Sieh (and his beard) on Pinterest
- Find Ian Anderson Gray on Pinterest
- Find Carol Lynn on Pinterest
- Find Ralph on Pinterest
- Watch John Oliver’s clip about patent trolls – it’s funny and disturbing at the same time
Where To Listen
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Carol Lynn, your mom and my mom have something in common. My mum’s b’day is May 19th which, of course, is very close to Mother’s Day. In years past I’ve tried to get away with the “one gift thing” for both occasions. I’ll let you guess if that approach worked. 😉
The math for Buffer’s pricing is … uh … um … crazy?! Cuckoo?! Makes NO sense.
Tickled pink to learn Tammie is a new sponsor. Woohoo!! Her bags are BEAUTIFUL. By the way, I don’t see a “sponsorship” tab at the top of the page. Is it a super secret selective process to become a sponsor of the podcast? Just asking because I’d love to see you garner a gazillion dollars through sponsorships. 🙂
Alisa and I are birds of a feather. Math. Yuck. LOL!
Thanks so much Melanie…
You’re welcome, Tammie. 🙂 Any chance you’ll be adding “office bags” to your Etsy line for toting things like iPads and laptops? You could have a field day marketing to small biz owners and solopreneurs! (Most of whom attend a lot of networking events and need to carry those items with them.) Also, being a long-time Southern California gal, I love the beach bag idea. 🙂
Oh I can answer that one…. my bag is designed specifically to carry my laptop! It perfectly fits what I need and my midget body.
I saw your laptop bag and I LOVE it!! But I don’t see anything like that on Tammie’s Etsy page.
You have a midget body, too?! I thought I was the only one in this crowd with a short torso. Bags aside, I wish just ONE manufacturer of women’s attire would make t-shirts that stop at my waist instead of the bottom of my bum!
My mom’s birthday is the 31st so between us we bookend Mother’s Day! I know she is going to love her bag for at one gift. Now if only I could think of another…
We do not have a sponsorship tab… yet. There are so so many things to do!
Well, before you dive into creating your sponsorship page, there’s this little to-do task regarding a certain someone’s podcast poetry. 😉 LOL
TOO much to do, TOO little time. I know the feeling.
I KNOOOOOOOW!
Wow.. Me and Michelle Bachman, all in the same episode, you are lucky your equipment is still working.. Love being a part of an episode with such amazing guests on… I really have to check out Buffer and see how it will work for me and my business. The tool I use links directly to my shop, I am working to size photos as I list new bags so that I put in one optimized for each platform. I will have to see whether it has an option to use it with Etsy. hmmmm…
Buffer is pretty awesome, hence why I suppose they call it “the awesome plan”. I have always found it the easiest to use in terms of scheduling because that is one thing I hate to do. I don’t think it has any specific Etsy integration but if you get the Buffer extension for your browser you can go to an Etsy page, click the Buffer button and it will pop that sucker right into the update box.