I’ve been reading The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary for a leadership group at church (I know it sounds odd, but it does make sense).

I’m not a big Starbucks fan (I prefer Port City Java personally), but the book is a great read. They talk very little about coffee, but spend a lot of time on things like ownership, innovation & customer relationships.

Even though they do some weird corporate stuff like putting a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks, it’s nice to see a big company where the emphasis isn’t on profits alone.

You can find it at Amazon by clicking on the link above, or (better yet!) spread the love to some local bookstores:

• http://www.pombooks.net/
• http://oldbooksonfrontst.com/
• http://www.rarebargainreaders.com/

I *almost* did this last year, but allowed myself to get talked out of it. This year, however, is going to be different.

A lot of people tell me I’m going to lose business. Honestly, the leads I’ve gotten from the Yellow Pages have ended up being low-to-no budget, so I feel that it’s running at a loss for me right now.

And then I think, “when was the last time I picked up a phone book?”

Further Reading:

• Small Biz Marketing: More Bad News for Yellow Pages
• Yellow Pages Usage Stats Are Likely Wrong

And then, this link made the rounds last month:

• http://www.yellowpagesoptout.com/

For the DIY types among us: Four fonts are too many for the content area of your website. Two is the rule of thumb.

Remember, the more fonts you use, the more it looks like a ransom note.

You may have read the news in passing this week; JCPenney got busted by the NYT & Google for black hat SEO techniques… meaning they were using a paid link campaign to get higher ranking search results. This is a big no-no in Google’s book.

But, here’s the thing:

JCPenny, like many of us, had hired someone to do their SEO and were unaware of what was going on. I’m sure they were thrilled at first about their traffic and sales before the smackdown from Google came hitting hard.

Life Lesson: Know who you are hiring for SEO and their methods. Yeah, there’s going to be some “trade secret” specifics, but they should be able to discuss their plan in general, and any mention of link-building needs to be discussed in-depth as it is the #1 way you can get into trouble.

If you’re unsure of where to start, Google’s SEO starter guide ( http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf ) is a great place to launch off and get a basic understanding of the industry.

Fortune has an excellent behind-the-scenes article on Conan O’Brien and how social media changed and kept his career alive in the days after he walked away from the Tonight Show. (link via @MikeAdamsNC)

It’s a inspiring story on several fronts, but here are some points that I walked away with.

1. Conan & his team used social media to communicate directly with fans in a non-traditional way.
2. Fans initiated the “I’m with Coco” campaign as a grassroots-type effort without any prodding from Conan & his Team
3. They took immediate steps to position themselves both online and offline (the “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour”) to take advantage of the growing fan reaction.
4. Conan’s production company owns his new show and they are constantly looking for ways to take advantage of non-traditional points of distribution.
5. In the end, he realized that what he had become was greater than what he always dreamed he wanted.

And all of the above is great, and there are lessons to be learned from his experience.

But–

None of this would have been happened if he wasn’t open and honest through the whole situation. Beginning with his letter, he showed his true colors and we all identified with him. If he had been bitter & angry or manipulative in any way, I think very few of us would have bought it.

Strategy is important and I’m not discounting that. However, all the strategy in the world isn’t going to give you long term success if nobody wants what your selling, or (worse) they don’t like who you are.

What does this have to do with web design? Probably not a lot. Websites & Facebook & Twitter & [fill in the blank here] are all great things to have. Broadcast & print are both still relevant no matter what people would like for you to believe. All these things are really secondary to you and your business. Done well, they tangibly reflect what your business is about.

Not the other way around.