marketing – Page 5 – President of Outskirts Press

How to Become an Apple Developer – Part 3

So once we completed step 1, which was registering at http://developer.apple.com/programs/start/standard/create.php and once we completed step 2, which was (for us) indicating that we were a company interested in becoming a developer, we waited…. Apple needed more information to complete their review of our application.

7 days later… (yes, days), we received this from Apple:

“We are currently in the process of reviewing your iOS Developer Program enrollment information. Please fax one of the following forms of identity for your business. To assist with this process, please ensure your business documents match your enrollment information. Fax your submission to <their fax number>. Please include your Enrollment ID <our enrollment ID> that was provided to you upon submission.

Please include your main company corporate telephone number with your faxed documents.

Articles of incorporation
Business license
Certificate of Formation
Charter documents
Operating Agreement
Partnership papers
Reseller or vendor license

Best regards,

Apple Developer Support”

We submitted our Articles of Incorporation. That was exactly 1 week ago. We’re still waiting…. I’ll keep you posted, and then we can continue with the next steps of the application process which includes, among other things, paying Apple (of course).

marketing

Apple Developer Program – Applying for – Part 2

Don’t expect to become a certified Apple developer overnight. Completing step 1 takes a matter of minutes. Completing step 2 takes…. well, I can’t tell you how long it takes, because we’re still waiting.

HOW TO Create an iPhone Developer Account (IOS)

1. Register as a new Apple developer at http://developer.apple.com/programs/start/standard/create.php

2. Confirm whether you are an individual or a company

When we indicated that Outskirts Press was a company registering to become an Apple Developer, we were notified that our application was under review. All developer registrations under-go a review process, and the review process for an “individual” (which is also a choice) is presumably faster than the review process for a “company” (which is the choice we selected). Individuals, I have been told by others, are reviewed and/or approved within 1-2 days, although that estimate came before Apple development was at the state of popularity it is today, so that could be a short estimate now.

As for our review as a company, it took Apple 7 days to send a request for more information. In a couple hours I’ll report on the message we received from Apple and what we sent them and how long it took (is taking)…

marketing

How to Apply for Apple Developer Certification – Part 1

Outskirts Press has some exciting products in store for the near future, including an Ipad/iBookstore edition and an “Author App” which will offer authors the opportunity to add a personal iPhone application to their marketing mix. We’re also working on a free Outskirts Press application which should be ready relatively soon. And we’re in preliminary development for a mobile version of our website.

Well, all of this requires some ground work with Apple, and to be honest, it’s kind of a big pain in the butt. Apple appears to be buckling under their own popularity. Approval processes that should take days end up taking weeks. But, be that as it may, if you’re motivated to become an Apple Developer, there are certain things you must do. And here they are:

HOW TO Create an iPhone Developer Account (IOS)

1. Register as a new Apple developer at http://developer.apple.com/programs/start/standard/create.php

It will ask you if you are a new developer or an existing developer, and ask you to further define your intention with Apple. This is pretty easy.

2. Confirm whether you are an individual or a company

Individuals get approved faster. Companies usually have to submit some form of additional documentation to prove they are a business. In our case, Outskirts Press submitted our Articles of Incorporation to Apple.

… more to come next time…

marketing, Social Networking Sites

Why is Facebook so Popular?

I’m becoming a believer in this “Facebook phenomenon.” Only recently has Outskirts Press actively engaged the “social community” in terms of Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, YouTube, and the rest. Even though it sounds like I’m mindlessly jumping on the bandwagon when I say this, I’ll say it anyway: It has shown immediate dividends.

Sure, we’ve been “blogging” for a number of years; but to successfully engage the promise of “Web 2.0,” companies need to embrace the multiple platforms and entertwine them.

Yes, we as a company have a long way to go on all those platforms. It’s an on-going exercise that requires quite a lot of effort, actually. For example, thanks to our Kindle giveaway in December and our Facebook Anthology project in January, we are seeing large increases to our Facebook Community, and we will continue to offer our community more promotions and incentives to become involved. It is wonderful that these people are all supportive of each other and positive in general.

And perhaps that is one of the main reasons Facebook is so popular. People there are nice and respectful. Isn’t that a refreshing change of pace from other “locales” on the internet where anonymity allows people to be rude, spiteful, argumentative, and sometimes downright jerks? Amazingly even those who aren’t anonymous often choose to show their true colors daily, a la Russell Hantz on the TV show Survivor. Every comment to a Yahoo article ridicules something; many bloggers seem to believe the only opinion they’re allowed to have is a negative one; and forums are filled with such pervasive confrontation they’ve actually coined a term for it: flame war.

And yet on Facebook, people are supportive of one another, kind, giving of their time and knowledge, and respectful. This never became more obvious to me than it did a few days ago on my birthday (January 19th). Current friends, old high school and college friends, relatives, Outskirts associates, and Outskirts authors all took a moment to wish me “Happy Birthday” on Facebook. So did my wife, since I was on a business trip that day.

Why is Facebook popular? Because Facebook makes people feel good. It makes them feel liked, popular, and as if they are a part of something bigger than themselves.

This doesn’t seem to be a happy accident, either. Facebook appears to have been designed with that specific purpose. Unlike other “voting” mechanisms on other sites (“thumbs up vs thumbs down” on many sites or the 1 star thru 5 star rating on Amazon, for example), Facebook only has a “Like” option. It doesn’t give you the opportunity to dislike something or to be mean, even if that is your intent. The “meanest” thing you can do is NOT vote . And that’s probably not very satisfying for mean people. As a result, they don’t get involved. Facebook stays a happy place while the rest of the Internet continues to revel in its own misery. Win-win.

It just so happens I’ll be talking more about Facebook and other social networking opportunities for writers the day after tomorrow at the Writer’s Digest Conference in Manhattan. But I thought I’d give another sneak peek here first. And I’ll be discussing more about Facebook in upcoming posts, too.

branding, ceo, marketing, partnerships, publicity

The difference between “cause marketing” and “philanthropy”

Or, I guess I should really call this posting “The little gray area between cause marketing and philanthropy.”

Cause marketing, basically, refers to a mutually beneficial relationship between a for-profit business and a non-profit organization. The term more broadly encompasses any marketing endeavors involving charitable causes. Philanthropy, on the other hand, simply involves a corporate donation to a non-profit charitable organization (usually tax deductible).

I mention this because in my mind Outskirts Press has always been a philanthropic organization that is also involved in cause marketing. I’m not sure I agree that the two terms are mutually exclusive, or perhaps, if they are, that simply demonstrates a lack of effort by the P.R. department of the philanthropic organization.

For example, you can donate thousands of dollars in books to the Children’s hospital — as Outskirts Press has done in the past through its involvement with the Children’s Literacy and Education Foundation — and that can be both a philanthropic act (a pure corporate donation), and can also fall within the definition of “cause marketing” once you mention the donation on a blog or among your social networks, since ostensibly, your company is marketing the good will among your clients or customers that results from charitable donations.

In our case we would typically write and distribute a press release about the donation. And we would take (and subsequently circulate across our social networks) a photograph of the red wheelbarrow full of books in front of the Children’s Hospital logo.

You see, philanthropy AND cause marketing. I have other examples I’ll discuss next, including our donations to the Colorado Humanities, and our upcoming Facebook Anthology – the royalties for which go to a charitable organization.

blogging, branding, marketing, self publishing, Social Networking Sites

Social Networking Sites

Outskirts Press has its sights set on social network publishing this January as we launch our first ever “Facebook Anthology” set for publication this quarter. This is an opportunity for our Facebook Fans to submit material for free publication, just for being an Outskirts Press Facebook Fan. In my last posting I referred to this as an “experiment” and it is one. In fact, any social networking initiative or engagement is something of an experiment because it evolves in real time, with real participation by real people. It’s impossible to duplicate that in advance within a “testing environment.”

Engaging in social networking sites was one of my New Year’s Resolutions last year and it continues to be equally important this year.

So we are launching our Facebook Anthology experiment this month and we don’t know how successful it will be, or how engaged we can get our Facebook Fans to be. But it looks promising so far. Since announcing the Anthology on January 1, our Facebook Fan base has increased by 10%. Now it remains to be seen how many fans actually submit material for the anthology. Of course, it doesn’t help that Facebook makes the submission process somewhat convoluted. You see, in an effort to engage the “social” part of this anthology, we wanted to encourage our fans to submit their material directly through Facebook (as opposed to submitting it to us via email, for example). But, as a result, submissions are victimized by Facebook’s character limitations:

A “Wall Posting” has a character limitation of 1,000 while a “Status Posting” has a character limitation of 420. Since our fans are only allowed to post “Status Updates” on our wall, that means their submission is limited to 420 characters — not very many at all.

So the solution to this was to encourage them to Post a “Status Update” announcing their submission, and then Comment on their own Status Update to submit their actual creative content. You see, for some reason, Facebook allows 8,000 characters in the comments section, even though the status posts are limited to 420. Why? That’s a question for Mark Zuckerberg. While this is relatively easy to do in practice, it sounds overly complicated when just reading about it on a blog posting. It’s my hope we can encourage our fans to participate by stressing the “free publication” part and the fun social aspects of this anthology. It’s a fun, free, fast way to get published by Outskirts Press — and perhaps will allow new authors the chance to “dip their toe” into the self-publishing pool to see how it feels.

It is also my hope that many of our Facebook fans will appreciate the opportunity to donate to a worthwhile charity. You see, the royalties of this Facebook Anthology are going toward a charity that our Facebook fans themselves will vote on. And more on that next time….