LimboLuster Is
Back on Track
When you write, you expect short notice changes. Here at
CKMG, things get so busy that I’m often working on three different project a
day, alternating between how to improve the resale of your house, who is
eligible for the GI Bill and which airline to take to fly to the Caribbean. Of
course, being given new projects is fun, since it means that I have some choice
between what I want to write. Now, blogging is back on the table as I have been
called upon to start writing for one of CKMG’s blogs, LimboLuster.com.
What Is LimboLuster?
As a recent graduate myself, I can attest to spending more
than a couple of nights eating ramen instead of a proper meal with meat. I also
know how expensive living on your own in your twenties is, given the amount of
stuff you need all at once (re: new apartment), deadbeat friends and roommates
(you got a few bucks for beer?) and how other friends move up faster than you,
expecting the same quality of life they’re accustomed to in return (we’re
getting married -- in Tahiti! You are coming, right?)
LimboLuster.com is the perfect site for the newly minted
college student, the broke twentysomething and anyone else who’s looking for
ideas on how to go through life on a tight budget. From how to throw a cheap
party to tips on how to get a decent paying job out of school, LimboLuster.com
features articles on all the little things that make life easier to deal with
after leaving high school.
LimboLuster.com for
College Students, Grads and More
Although this site is a bit of a hodgepodge, my job is to
give the blog a fresh voice and a new direction. As a result, if you’re
browsing through the archives, you might notice that the topics range greatly.
Keep checking back in the coming weeks and you’re more likely to find stuff
related to cost cutting, class-cutting, haircutting and so forth. Stay tuned,
and be sure to check out CKMG’s other fabulous blogs!
I was an excellent American history student. I read the
textbook cover to cover and earned the top score possible on my high school AP
test. In short, I know my facts.
But memories get rusty after several years of ignoring the books
in favor of TV. Did you know that Tulsa is home to one of the top ballet
companies in the country? Or that Colorado Springs was originally founded in
the hopes of building a health resort in the late 1800s? Maybe you had no idea
that Virginia has no major professional sports teams, but that Washington, D.C.
has one of each and is home to the most monuments in one area. If you didn't know, a simple search with SEO methods could probably tell you. The other way to find out is wait for the latest and greatest from CKMG.
City Info Search From CKMG
Oh, the fun facts you learn when you are tasked with
acquiring as much knowledge as possible about all 50 states in the U.S. of
A. and its top 50 cities. From Omaha to Oklahoma, Seattle to South
Carolina, I’ve read about them all in the past week in preparation for CKMG’s
newest venture, City Info Search. The site will cover every state in America
and discuss everything from restaurants, nightlife and shopping to points of
interests and historical sites. City Info Search will be about finding what you
want to know about any city, anywhere in the U.S. And yes, there is a good
chance you will learn that Arizona is the fastest growing state or that the
beach is accessible from any point in Rhode Island within 30 minutes. Three
cheers for red, white and blue!
--Nadia Osman
This post is in response to those of you that have basically sent me "WTF" emails re: our corporate blog and the lack of activity. Yes, we at "Content Kings" should be blogging daily and that goes for everyone in the organization - starting from the top down. That said... you can be on the look out for more blog postings from the leadership of CKMG throughout the remainder of the year and beyond.
CKMG has maintained steady growth over Q1 supporting our key clients and our sister company and performance based ad network - AKMG. Over the last three months we've been focusing on our "FOCUS" which happens to be the motto for Q2. Last year we evolved from a seo content solutions company to a full fledged web development and design company built on a foundation of seo and content. While this evolution was great for the company and our clients it also brought more opportunities - which in most cases is a great thing but for us it actually caused a bottle neck and forced us to re-think our strategy in regards to who we really want to work with.
By aligning ourselves deeper into our clients business models we can provide better results and more of an ROI. Even though we're capable of simply filling in gaps where needed our time is better spent working closer with our existing clients to help them lead their verticals. Now that we have AKMG off and running we're able to provide our clients with immediate gratification while developing their brands and fighting for search engine results.
//Tom Elliott
Happy Holidays
Posted by: Keion Moradi | 2007-12-17 16:00:00 | Posted in: CKMG News
Happy Holidays
Some of you know we’re in the process of
redesigning our corporate site which will include an updated team and
individual section (pictures, videos, etc…). Part of the redesign
included a half day photo shoot in and around Santa Monica where the
photographer did his best to capture notable Santa Monica features.
He just sent over the first batch of photos and I thought this one was pretty great do decided to post.
Not a bad looking crew if you ask me… We’re missing quite a few
people though: Matt Tuens, Tony Wang, Kim White, Tara Zottola, Steve
Hawke, Mark Emmenegger, Henry Baum & James Sheldon.
Since the inception of Content Kings, Inc.
in January of 2006, we’ve wanted to build a strong network of
demographically targeted brands to increase the value of our company.
The obstacle we’ve faced as a self funded start up has obviously
been staying focused on what drives revenue today… which is providing
the highest level of SEO & SEM services to high profile clientele.
By focusing our time and energies on helping our clients make money we
knew it would only be a matter of time before we’d be able to begin
investing into our own brands and projects.
In the last 12 months our team has grown from the fab four to the
current team of 16 working out of the Santa Monica office. For those
of you that know us, you know we of course have a team of contracted
writers; just under 100 at this point and it’s always been our goal to
slowly transition the top writers into head writer and editor roles
working out of the office.
Last week I had the pleasure of spending some time with our client AcreageAnywhere.com at their Cabo San Lucas retreat - Villa Las Palmas. Their Villa is positioned atop one of the Pedregal Mountains with a gorgeous east facing view of downtown Cabo, the boat port and bay.
In Cabo during Memorial Day Weekend there is a World Championship Bill Fish Catch and Release Tournament where fisherman from all over the world take 3 days to see who can catch the most Striped Marlin. The Tournament was Amazing to see. I was only able to actually fish on the Sunday prior to Day 1 of the Tournament but got a chance to go out on Gary’s boat - Spartacus at Sea, to witness the memorable event.
At 630am all boats gather in the bay awaiting the 7am start time:
It was a beautiful morning…
It gave us a great chance to discuss the upcoming sites along with a few new ideas that are now in the works.
In the coming weeks we will be launching two sites under the AcreageAnywhere umbrella. ReferMyClients.com & AcreageAnywhere.com…
RMC will assist realtors with broadening their offerings for clients allowing them to make great commissions for referring clients allowing the AcreageAnywhere marketing team the ability to market the land, ranches, ranchettes and second homes to these prospective buyers. AA will further assist the realtors by allowing them to customize their own version of AA with a sub domain owned and operated by the individual realtor.
Ex: CarrieSellsDallas.AcreageAnywhere.com. This will be a great tool for the new and old realtors out there… allowing them free access to land opportunities they wouldn’t of otherwise known about providing their prospective clients with a compelling reason to consider purchasing land or properties in outside markets that may be performing better or a smarter investment.
All in all… the trip was a great success. If you’re curious to learn more about the fishing to Cabo, I suggest you take a look at my personal blog - The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Force. I had an experience with a Marlin that inspired me so much I haven’t stopped talking about it all week.
CKMG Trivia Night
Posted by: Chris Stout | 2007-06-04 16:00:00 | Posted in: CKMG News
This past Tuesday night, the CKMG crew
headed down the street to compete in the weekly “Trivia Night” held at
Barney’s Beanery on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It was
the first time any member of the CKMG team entered the weekly trivia
battle, and of course, we crushed the competition.
The regular contenders were no match for the all-star trivia team
assembled from the CKMG office ranks. Craig Berger, our head writer,
put forth a particularly heroic effort. The taste of victory fired the
crew up for future battles. If you’re going to be in the Santa Monica
area anytime in the foreseeable future, head into the Beanery on
Tuesday night. Put your trivia force to the test and see if you can
dethrone the reigning trivia champs from CKMG!
I just got back from my trip to South Beach a few hours ago and I’m welcomed home to the office with snickers of anticipation for me to see this Christmas surprise Morgan has in store for me.
This is the email I received upon landing in Long Beach:
Everyone:
I was looking at the CKMG corp. site and I noticed something very strange.
While I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think elves attacked us.
Seriously, are there elf hackers? Doug, look into that.
Honestly, I don’t know how to explain it… check it out for yourselves HERE.
Morgan
My first thought was that we’d been hacked and how perfect the timing was… but when I clicked the link, saw the stockings and read the title “Akmg CkmgHRISTMAS STORY,” I knew I was in for a treat. Take a moment to read when you have a chance, it’s a great read… Looks like we need to get some poetry clients now.
-Tom
At the end of each year I spend time analyzing company goals, personal goals and the obstacles that developed on the route to them.
I thought it would be cool to list some of the lessons learned both by the company and personally in 2006:
1) Be willing to adapt your plan. In order for us to hit our revenue goal we had to develop some new streams of income for the company that weren’t originally part of our goals in January.
2) Keep your ear to the tracks. Throughout the course of the year we were able to take advantage of opportunities purely because we were postitioned properly. If we weren’t constantly trying to learn more about this industry we would of missed the train.
3) Learn to let go. Steven and I enjoy getting our hands dirty, so much so that we stunted some of our growth this past year by keeping training wheels on bikes that didn’t need them. It’s important to empower your team with important responsibilities where your only guidance is the initial project overview.
This lesson was imperative to learn in 06 because for us to hit our revenue goals in 07 it’s imperative that we scale our most valuable resource - human capital.
4) Surround yourself with Winners. We are just as picky choosing our clients and partners as our clients are choosing their agency. What we’ve learned in 06 is that we are on a path to becoming the best comprehensive search solution for our clients. Because we invest so much time an energy improving processes and our product clients or partners that aren’t on a similar path with their business do nothing but impede progress.
5) Clients and Partners are our biggest asset. We’ve been fortunate to partner with some truly stellar online marketers this year. So much of our 2006 business has come from within our network of agency alliances. I read a book a few years back called “Love is the Killer App” by Tim Sanders and I must say it truly is. This lesson and principle has been emphasized by going above original expectations; by spending additional time on our clients we’ve developed innovative solutions that bring more value to all future campaigns.
6) Personal Fitness is mandatory if you are to perform at a high level each day. I’ve been working out all my life and if I was to time line my life you’d see different reasons for my strenuous workouts. The lesson I learned in 2006 is that my performance at work is directly correlated with how many times I was able to fit a work out in during the week. I’m so much more productive when training on a regular schedule.
-Tom
It’s almost the end of the year and I’m starting to analyze the deals that have been fruitful and the deals that have fell short of their expectations. I do this to prevent making the same mistakes twice with deals, unique business relationships, etc…
What I’ve realized is that it wasn’t always about the deal as much as it was all about the people involved and their understanding of what it means to “execute”.
Main Entry: Execution
Part of Speech: noun
Synonyms: accomplishment, achievement, consummation, fulfilling, doing, completion, realization, performance, implementation
Why does Google seem to be in the right place at the right time all the time?
The moment someone within Google brings up a new idea, concept or strategy they are making moves to see that idea, concept or strategy to completion. They are always one step ahead of their competitors by being proactive with their business. Yes they make mistakes but they hit more home runs by taking action than by freezing at the pitch.
The only reason I am bringing this up is because as our company grows I am seeing how pronounced this truly is. It starts at the top. Leaders must continue to push and inspire their company’s to break comfortable molds.
- Be Innovative with your Marketing
- Analyze the risks so you can manage them properly
- Develop the action plan
- and EXECUTE.
If you don’t someone will and more times than not, that someone will be your competitor.
-Tom Elliott
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