I read an article on Biznik yesterday about one author’s experience with a bad web designer.  It was a very good article and it’s on my to do list to comment on it.

But that’s not what this post is about.

It occurred to me long after I read it that the author crafted the title of the article in pretty clever way.  He’s clearly an experienced writer (or he had an experienced writer come up with his title.)

The article is about the lessons he learned about web designers, using a painful experience to illustrate them.  It’s a great article topic all by itself, but the piece could have been lost by a boring title.  The full title is “Formerly frustrated website virgin learns 11 things you should do when choosing your website developer” which, to me, is just a tad too long.  But, I’m not an experienced article title creator, I’m just a consumer (at least in this instance).

But the point here is to illustrate for you how the title gets people to read the article.  It gets your attention, makes you laugh, and makes you curious — a great combination.

Another thing to note is that the title alone does not make it.  The article delivers on its promise.  It’s cleverly written, humorous, and informative.  It satisfies.  It gives you what you expected when you read the title.

So read the article, and then let me know whether you agree.

Happy Friday!

I’m almost done with Jim Kukral’s book, “Attention! This Book Will Make You Money.”

I’ve read (or listened to) dozens of marketing books in the past several years, and this is one of the true gems.  Most books I read now are basically repeats of all the others, only in a different voice with a different spin, with a few new terms and names thrown in to prove it’s current.

But Jim Kukral has made the process of getting attention for your brand an achievable thing for small businesses everywhere. All it takes is a little creativity and a lot of humility.

Business owners with big egos and a chip on your shoulder can just skip this book, you won’t get anything out of it.  You won’t be able to bring yourself to implement many of the ideas Jim talks about.

The rest of you take note.  Because if you don’t, your competitor will and you’ll soon be losing business to them.

The book does not go into a lot of detail about how to implement these programs.  It’s not a how-to book. It’s an idea book — a collection of stories, case studies, and interviews that all focus on one theme – how to stand out from the crowd in your particular industry.  The ideas are brilliant, doable, and effective. And for the most part, affordable.  I found them to be truly inspiring.

Small businesses, with a little brain power and hard work, can achieve results that would rival larger brands with deeper pockets.  Kukral gives one example of a local yarn store owner who got a van and installed a large ball of yarn on the top of it.  The van was used to drive people to and from the store, being clearly seen about town.  Tacky?  Perhaps.  Memorable?  Absolutely.

The author cautions the reader that there is also a wrong way to do this.  Not delivering on the promise is one.  It might seem obvious to some but it’s a point worth making, even to those who should know better.  Denny’s now-infamous stunt of offering free breakfast to everyone almost caused riots, and they ended up turning away a lot of unhappy people and hurting the Denny’s brand in the process.

These tactics are not for the faint-of-heart.  But what entrepreneur do you know that doesn’t take risks?  These ideas are perfectly suited to the take-charge, no-holds-barred, try-anything, boot-strapping small business owner.

If you’re one of them (us), get this book.  If you don’t love it, I’ll buy it back from you and give it to someone who will.