While YEA-NAY Marketing fully supports the rights of copyright holders as presently constituted (YEA-NAY being one of millions in the United States), these bills are far to encroaching and punitive than is necessary or warranted. SOPA, for example makes it comparatively simple for a copyright owner to request a shutdown (technically DNS censorship) of an infringing site. This could be YouTube with user generated content or your cousin’s mommy blog. While “technically” supposed to protect against foreign sites which encourage illegal piracy of content (aka, the Pirate Bay from Sweden, among the most famous), the bills have far-reaching consequences by giving copyright owners power without due process for the offender.

Not only are the bills as presently proposed unconstitutional, but they have the potential of harming the most innovative, and highest growth industries in the world. That is a huge shot in the foot to all of our economies, from Delta, Utah to New York City. We are talking about a massively huge industry, not to mention the fact that ALL other industries in the world are CONNECTED to the internet technology industry.

In this light, YEA-NAY Marketing has decided to pledge to “blackout” all of our company sites for 12 hours on January 18th to stand with Reddit and other sites in protesting SOPA. While YEA-NAY Marketing and our parent company, PICTURE Media International, don’t have many high-traffic sites, our combined dozen or so websites will perhaps reach a few hundred people, and that is enough for us to ask for this help.

Other large sites, such as Wikipedia, are also considering a blackout, and we hope that many more decide to join in to show Congress the potentially far-reaching effects of such legislation. This is not a harmless bill. This is a very dangerous piece of legislation, being drafted and voted upon by hundreds of people who, for the most part, do not understand it’s implications.

You can support the protest by learning more about the legislation of SOPA and PIPA as well as their effects by visiting http://americancensorship.org/

Remember to sign the petition, contact your representatives and senators, and let them know how you feel!

Encourage Wikipedia to join in on the blackout.

NOTE: Any of our web hosting clients who would like to join us in the blackout, we will set up your sites to do so. Just email us (because we need documented permission from you to alter the terms of your hosting agreement), and we’ll take care of the rest.

NOTE for Real Estate clients: we will not be blocking our real estate tour pages because that would put our real estate clients at risk of large fines imposed by WFRMLS for not following their linking guidelines on virtual tours. While the rest of YEA-NAY’s site will be protesting SOPA, we realize we can’t put our clients at risk for such things.

We’ve been developing our internal network, including the ability for all our clients (new, past, and present) to purchase any of our packages online. We were waiting for this part of our website to launch before announcing our deals, but with the delayed launch of this network, we are announcing our deals today which will be good through December 29, 2011 (our office will be closed Dec.30-Jan.3 for New Year’s festivities & our annual company retreat).

So… what are the deals? Enjoy:

All of these are vouchers, meaning you don’t have to use it right now! You can buy the deal now and use it next year! All vouchers purchased during the sale will expire the day before Thanksgiving 2012 (November 21, 2012).

If you’d like to take advantage of these offers, please contact us via the “Request a Quote” link above, by calling 801-432-0404, or by emailing Dustin if you already have that information.

What’s the catch? We are only allowing 10 deals in each category to be sold at the discounted rate, so order yours sooner than later! Limit of 4 deals per client (ends up being 8 packages for the price of 4 at a maximum).

We really appreciate all of our clients, friends, and family who have made this year an incredible year for us, and we look forward to bigger and better things come 2012.

Would it be worth it to you financially to build your own WordPress site?

Maybe. Here’s a few questions to ask yourself:

1. How tech-savvy am I?

If you’re pretty tech-savvy and already know HTML and/or CSS (web display languages: Hyper Text Markup Language and Cascading Style Sheets), then you might consider it.

Although WordPress provides a CMS for dynamic, easily edited content, the framework for setting up a website on WordPress may require some knowledge of code. For someone without experience in this area, this can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience.

2. How much would it cost me?

In addition to the knowledge of code required, you’ll also have to purchase a domain name and hosting. While you may occasionally find sales, this will probably cost you about $150 per year.

In addition, unless you intend to code your own WordPress theme from scratch (or use one of the many blog-like free templates), you’ll want to purchase a premium WordPress theme to match your business and website’s needs. This can cost anywhere from $25 to $200.

3. How much time would it take?

For a very basic site, it takes our experienced developers 4-6 hours to setup and configure a WordPress site to a client’s specifications. In contrast, this could take several days for someone with little to no experience.

4. How much money would I not be making in the time it takes me to build it?

Only you know the answer to this question. If you miss 3 days away from your business while setting up your site, will that cost your business $300? $1000? More? We encourage you to consider this in addition to the other concerns when looking at your options.

5. How professional do you want it to be?

Now that we’ve sufficiently depressed you… are their advantages to doing your own site? Absolutely!

1. You will know your website inside and out. If there is a problem, you’ll be able to fix it on your own.

2. You will have a better understanding and appreciation for web developers if/when you decide to hire some to take your website or business to the next level.

3. It can be a rewarding experience to complete something that you built yourself. That’s why we do it too after all!

All in all, carefully weigh your options, consider your budget (including money AND time), and choose what will work best for you.

Of course we have cost-effective solutions available from YEA-NAY Marketing, and if you decide to hire the work out, we’d love to help you with that as well.

May you rest in peace Steve, while we continue to enjoy the great fruits of your labor.

Here’s a video of an address Steve gave at Stanford six years ago:

Of course, all of our Utah friends (and their friends on Facebook) saw this photo earlier this week from an unsuspecting Arby’s in Orem, Utah:

But we have our own little Holy War anecdote I thought was interesting: yea-nay.com is ranked #2 (organic results, after videos) for the keyword “rise above the blues.”  Rise Above the Blues is a famous ‘Mormonad’ printed in the LDS Church’s New Era magazine for teens.  One of our talented designers created this poster several years ago, and we just happen to have the page of our portfolio where it is titled “Rise Above the Blues.”

Well, low and behold, this poster turns out to be our highest trafficked piece of content in the past 30 days.. all because of a ranking for an odd keyword.  This is what caught my attention.

So, then I decided to see, is this poster famous because of the rivalry (and therefore a relevant search result for that keyword), or is people searching for the original Mormonad poster?

To figure that out (or at least have a guess at the answer), I looked back into our analytics history for that content, and discovered something interesting: our first page view was on August 31st, and page views spiked 2 days before and after the big rivalry game (and have since dropped off).

In addition, of the 46 search queries resulting in page views on our site, 13 of them had “Utes” in them, like “rise above the blues utes.”

This makes me conclude it was a result of the rivalry, though some of the visitors may have been disappointed if they were looking for the original Mormonad.

Lesson learned: pay attention to your analytics so you know what people are looking for, why they are looking for it, and what you can do to make the visitor experience better for the visitors to your website.  SEO can be a powerful tool to drive traffic to your site, even if sometimes in the strangest ways…

Disclosure:  I am a member of the LDS Church, and also a University of Utah fan. :)  Go Utes!

Did you ever consider, that your lack of this or that might not be the root of the problem, but a cover up for the real issue?  You might be your biggest problem?

Wait a minute!  Let me finish!

Am I crazy?  Maybe– but let’s think about this.  Yes, you are probably your company’s greatest strength: you are the founder, you’ve gotten it to this point, and you’re making things happen.  But you may also be your fledgling firm’s greatest weakness.  How?  Because YOU are doing everything.

How is this a weakness?  It’s great on the books because you are keeping your expenses low.  You are learning new things that will benefit you as an entrepreneur in the long run.  But you reach a point as an entrepreneur when you’ve got to outsource or hire someone to help you move to the next level.

I’ve found this in several areas in my business: accounting (no-brainer for me!), SEO, web development, video editing, project management, and more.  Although I can do some of these things, I can’t do them as well, and they slow me down.  Why not focus on those things I am truly good at, and outsource the burdensome tasks to someone who can get them done more quickly, and oftentimes more cost-effectively (especially considering the valuable time you save yourself!).

When you find trusted contractors or in-house employees who can take over responsibilities, it frees you up to be more effective, rather than being a bottleneck.  I’ve been a bottleneck several times in my business, and unfortunately, sometimes it takes a proverbial brick to wake me up to that fact.  Other times, I’ve recognized it without such a painful lesson, but at any rate, it is important to course-correct when you do recognize it.  Sitting on a problem too long without fixing it is quite a problem in itself.

I am fairly well-connected in Utah, and to some extent around the nation.  If you’re in need of someone or any particular sort of help, let me know and I may be able to connect you with someone who can help.

The Letter:

Back in June, I received a letter from a firm who owns or represents owners of tens of thousands of stock photography images.  This letter alleged that I had posted a photo on my blog (this blog in fact) which was owned by either them or one of the clients they represent.

Of course, I was shocked.  If memory served me correctly, I had found the image on a stock photography site, which should be safe. Apparently not!  They requested payment of several hundred dollars (much more than a standard licensing fee), and I was very nervous!

Intellectual Property Law:

Having awesome intellectual property attorneys can be a huge stress reliever!  My attorney explained to me that although they may have ownership of the image in question, they hadn’t explicitly presented evidence of their ownership of the image.  Furthermore, under copyright law, if the image didn’t have a registered copyright on it (even if it had a common law copyright), they could only take me to court if it was registered.  A registered copyright is one that is registered with the US Copyright Office at the Library of Congress.  Any other method may be helpful in proving copyright, but can’t be used to collect damages or fees.

My IP attorneys have written back requesting to speak to an attorney, and requesting proof of copyright ownership.  Without these conditions, I won’t proceed.  Meanwhile: I would recommend that you double check the photography you use, and make sure you find it on a reputable website.

Stock Photo Sources:

For purchased photos, I recommend photodune.net (one of the most cost-effective sources).  In addition, you can find free stock photography on sxc.hu, though make sure you read the licensing terms on each photo there, because some of them differ or have additional restrictions.  Most photos and graphics on the site are licensed under a Creative Commons license, but even that license can have customizations, so still read the fine print!

As long as you make sure you know where your photos come from and that you have the necessary permissions to use the photos you gather, you should be just fine!

Make sure you also understand intellectual property protection for your own business.  Whether it be patents, trademarks, copyrights, or trade secrets, that is an important step for any growing business to take, because it should protect your revenue streams.  I will be doing a post in the future regarding intellectual property protection as it relates to your marketing, including some quick tips.

This post should not be taken as or construed as legal advice.  I am not an attorney, nor do I pretend to be.  Consult your own legal counsel for specific advice in your case!