Finding her niche

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As a cabinet layout designer for KraftMaid Cabinetry, Lori Mittelstadt has designed many a stellar kitchen.

Recently, however, her kitchens have had a closer brush with the stars as she took on projects for "Extreme Makeover - Home Edition" in Dundee and a "Holmes on Homes" project in Pasadena.

It's all in a day's work for the woman who as specialized in kitchen and bath design for the past 24 years.

"I've enjoyed it," she said. "I never wanted to do anything else."

Mittelstadt grew up in Beaver Dam and pursued her passion of interior design at UW-Madison. After graduating she worked as a kitchen designer and then as an interior designer for two companies in Madison.

Eventually she had the opportunity to work for KraftMaid, which meant a move to Cleveland. Her job was to design cabinet displays for home centers such as Menard's, Lowe's and Home Depot.

"I said, 'why not,' " said Mittelstadt, who enjoyed the work, but decided to move closer to home during her father's illness. Although her father passed away, her mother is still living in Beaver Dam.

Even though she was far from the company headquarters, KraftMaid still wanted her expertise. Ever since her return to Wisconsin in 1999, she has been able to continue her work using e-mail and express delivery service.

"I'm spoiled because I get to work out of the house," she said.

The work is similar to what she did in Cleveland, but has changed in dramatic ways.

"I was always designing for the big box stores, and there were a lot of them going up at that time," Mittelstadt said. "That has all evolved over time. Now instead of the four designers in Cleveland, there are also myself and a woman in Chicago. The woman in Chicago does all of the Extreme Makeover designs, and I had the chance to act as the local contact for the program in Dundee. I met with all the designers and really enjoyed the experience."

The adventure included a visit to the site, where she had a chance to meet the stars, to see the finished product, and to represent her company.

An endorsement for their product came when craftsman Ed Sanders chose KraftMaid to produce the cabinets for his own home.

"It's quite an honor for us," Mittelstadt said. "He was very impressed with what we have to offer."

She is no stranger to being in the forefront, with many of her designs regularly featured in magazines such as "Traditional Home," "Country Home," "Better Homes and Gardens" and "Midwest Living."

"Meredith Publishing handles all of those magazines and I have a good relationship with them," Mittelstadt said.

Other design experiences include consulting on several rooms for an "idea house" in Door County, room designs for home show booths in Chicago, and work for many clients throughout the Midwest.

One of her latest experiences was working with a couple who had been abandoned by their contractor in Pasadena. Ellen Degeneres paired with Mike Holmes, a Canadian home improvement star much like America's Ti Pennington, to rescue the Tiu family. The Tius had been abandoned by their contractor after they had spent $200,000 on their renovation. With the help of Holmes and Degeneres, contractors were recruited to do the work and donors were sought to help reduce the cost of materials. KraftMaid offered cabinets and design expertise.

Mittelstadt quickly volunteered to accept the assignment.

Walls were removed to open up the space to the back deck, and Mittelstadt suggested transitional cabinetry to match the family's contemporary decorating scheme. Using her advice the couple selected black appliances — to minimize children's fingerprints.

She most often designs kitchens from a distance, but still has important input suggesting the mood of a space by recommending finishes and hardware options.

Mittelstadt has kept track of the project by watching periodic updates on the Ellen show on ABC.

"Mike Homes is going to be back on in mid-March," Mittelstadt said.

Such high profile projects are not the norm, but they do add something extra to an already interesting career.

"It's pretty exciting to be in one of these projects," Mittelstadt said. "It's really more rewarding than exciting, because it's all done on the computer. You see it in your head, but to see it in reality is always a thrill."

An example of her own work is the cabinetry installed in the home that she shares with her husband, Frank Mittelstadt. Their manufactured home has areas for both to work, with spectacular views of the landscape and the wildlife on Beaver Dam Lake.

Such a setting and such a job suit her perfectly.

"It's really neat," she said. "I enjoy this kind of design. I haven't been bored yet."

[via wiscnews.com]
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The Web 2.0 Nonsense

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After listening to people (mostly geeks) wax rhapsodic about the wonders of “Web 2.0? for, oh, almost two years now… I decided to go deep and see what the fuss was about.

The reality?

Nothing much to see here. Move along. We’re just tearing down the set, getting ready for the next act.

Web 3.0 and 4.0 are getting dressed and ready to take the stage.

2.0 (or “The Tooster”, as his friends call him) is pretty much history. The term was really just a glib marketing gimmick meant to separate “today’s” Web from the bad old “bubble” Web circa 1999 and 2000. The mainstream media — clueless, as always — decided the bursting of that bubble signalled the death-blow to this “Internet-nonsense fad”, and promptly found other things to be ignorant about.

(The scariest example of just how out-of-touch mainstream culture is toward the Web is the fact almost NONE of the federal government is wired in any significant way — not the FBI, not the Supreme Court, not the politicans. True to form, just as The Tooster is fading away, those in charge are finally beginning to upgrade to DSL.)

The term “Web 2.0? is useful only as shorthand when you want to refer to the notion that — yet again — technology is changing fast. (Imagine that.) The implied secondary notion is that — yet again — these changes will affect us all in profound ways. (Ooooh, don’t be scared.)

And — yet again — the reality simply doesn’t live up to the hype.

I’ve coined a phrase that, for me, helps explain why the “experts” get so preoccupied with announcing the latest revolutionary upheaval in human development through technology.

The term is “Paleo-Tech”… and it means, simply, “ancient technology”. We are (according to Professor Carlton) in the Paleo-Tech Age, which mimics the Paleolithic age, when Man (with a capital “M”) was just beginning to use technology.

Back then, it was fire and stone and metals… and for the next ten thousand years or so, we played around with better ways to cook, melt, forge and build stuff.

Today, it’s Java script, XML and the “semantic Web”… and because the development of new technologies is so super-condensed, by the time most people catch on, it’s already ancient history.

Thus, we are living in a time when all newly-developed technology is instantly on the way out. Almost, anyway.

Paleo-Tech. It’s driving Hollywood nuts, because no matter how much they try to make the technology in their scripts brand-spanking-new, they risk looking like dorks by the time the movie comes out six months later. (I recently saw a two-year old flick that might as well have been made last century, because the meant-to-be-hip cell phones used were embarrassingly out-of-style.)

But this is what I find interesting: Entrepreneurs are almost always on the cutting edge of the newest and flashiest tech. (The military drives most of the coolest advances, but they’re trying to kill people, not earn an honest living.)

And this creates an ongoing “situation” that requires the direct intervention of grizzled old veterans like me.

The situation is this: People are easily dazzled by shiny new objects. And lots of the new online technology is VERY pretty and seductive.

But here’s the mantra I want you to repeat, often: Technology doesn’t sell stuff. Salesmanship sells stuff.

I’ve seen a LOT of sci-fi quality technology in my career. I started my advertising career in Silicon Valley back when the Internet was just a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye… I had inside connections with the Stanford Artificial Intelligence labs… played the very FIRST online games ever invented… began working on a PC (sorry, Woz) back when I had to load DOS on a 5-1/4? floppy each time I booted up… wrote one of the very first online ads… and on and on.

I also worked on some of the very first modern infomercials, helped clients create prototypes that begat e-books, had one of the first ad-related podcasts posted to iTunes, participated in the earliest e-mail blasts ever done, and have tended this blog for a very, very long time (making good use of functions like RSS and tags before most marketers had even heard of them).

The Tooster and his application-drunk buddies 3.0 and 4.0 don’t scare me even a tiny bit.

I will make full use of every blip of technology I discover… and learn the stuff I need to learn, and pay other people to stoke the fires of the crap I suspect will soon blend into the woodwork.

Because every bit of tech that matters to entrepreneurs is just another way to communicate with other humans. From smoke signals to cuneiform tablets to the Guttenberg press to radio and TV and now the ever-wondrous Web… it’s still just one creature with a cerebral cortex talking to another one.

It’s fun. It’s like living out a sci-fi fantasy.

But the foundations are still the same as they were back when our ancestors were incinerating each other trying to find new uses for fire.

Humans want to get the basics of suvival settled… so they can use new technology to entertain themselves, kill each other… and buy shit.

As a business owner or entrepreneur… you want to sell shit for other people to buy. So you need to separate out the hyped tech that is mostly about entertainment (and for God’s sake, keep your hands off the evil lethal stuff).

And learn the simple secrets of using all new technology as a way to channel your salesmanship.

The technology, all by itself, will not magically generate profits for you. (In the still-current Paleo-Tech Age model, the only people who are supposed to get rich from new tech are the creators and share-holders. As Google proved with its profit-murdering “slap” at sites trying to use pay-per-click to build lists, entrepreneurs are seen as suspicious usurpers of technology, and must be thwarted whenever possible.)

I know people who are ecstatic about getting massive numbers of hits for their funny video on YouTube… who spend days figuring out how to use Slingbox to catch TV shows on their cell phones while they travel… and who prefer texting to talking.

Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that.

But a million hits for your video of Farquar falling off his skateboard won’t put a nickel into your pocket.

And why are you still wasting so much time watching TV? There’s a brave new world spinning out there, wondering when you’re gonna show up.

If you’re gonna be an effective entrepreneur, you gotta brush the stars out of your eyes and see all the technology tumbling down the chute ONLY in terms of how you can use it in conjunction with your salesmanship skills.

I’ll post more on this soon.

It’s fun, I gotta admit. I LOVE all the new tech gadgetry. The X-Box bored me, mostly (it really was just a small step up from playing Pac-Man drunk in a loud bar), but I’m excited about the Wii’s potential for truly gnarly gaming.

And all the career adventures I’d craved in my youth are now available again, thanks to technology advancing faster than The Man can censor it. (I can now have my own pirate radio station, publish and distribute my own books, and produce any type of late-night-quality TV show I like… all from my cluttered little office, digitally, online. I get shivers just considering all the possibilities.)

I’ve got some pretty valuable insights to share with you, too.

But I’m tired. I wanna surf the Web a bit, buy some more oldies on iTunes, enjoy a microbrew (another modern invention courtesy of the harnessing of fire long ago), and get a good night’s sleep on my Tempurpedic. (Space-age sleeping technology!)

Let’s pick this up later.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton, http://www.marketingrebelrant.com/

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Finding a Support Network

Get Your Website to Profit With the Best Affiliate Programs Available

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The Internet is one of the most frequently used tools for communication today. There are over millions of people who log on to the Internet every single day. Besides, with the benefits that the Internet gives, who would not want to be a part of this information superhighway.

With the Internet, you can communicate with your family and friends through emails and instant messengers, you can purchase goods and services without leaving your own home, and the Internet is one of the most promising income generating tools that everyone can use today.

In the past, you needed products or services in order to make money through the Internet. Today however, you can make money through the Internet by using affiliate programs. This program will allow you to make a substantial amount of money out of your website and is a very good home business that you would want to get in to.

First of all, you need to know what an affiliate program is and how it works in order to fully understand how you can make some money out of it. Affiliate programs is like a joint venture where you or your website becomes a partner with another website that have already developed a product or service that they are already selling in the Internet. As a partner, your job is to direct the visitors of your website to your partner website and hope that they will purchase the products or services being offered. Your website will be like the company's marketing arm, among several.

The company you plan on being affiliated to will be providing all the necessary tools that you need in order to start the affiliate program. They will be providing the links, and some companies will provide free e-books on how you can effectively earn from affiliate programs.

The best way to profit from your website through affiliate programs is by promoting your website in the Internet. The key to success in affiliate programs is targeted traffic. This is why you should think of a product or service that you would want to promote and also a product or service that you are knowledgeable about. Think about your hobby. For example, if you like fixing cars, you want an affiliate program that promotes cars, or car parts.

In your website, you will then discuss about your hobby. Make some articles and post it in article publishing websites and also in your own site. Since your affiliate program is selling cars or car parts or even car accessories, the traffic you generate in your website will have a greater chance of clicking the link or banner of your affiliate website and buy from that website. You will then earn a commission out of the sold product.

As you can see, it is very simple to earn money from affiliate programs. However, when you are just starting out in the business of affiliate programs, you have to work hard to establish your reputation as an expert in the product or service you are promoting. The best way to do this is publish your articles about a particular product frequently. This will build your reputation in the Internet and soon, you will get that targeted traffic you have been always wanting. It is also a good idea to update your website once in a while (once a week) with tips and tricks on a particular product.

The best thing about affiliate programs is that you do not have to be in front of your computer 24 hours a day 7 days a week. All you need is a few minutes of checking up in your website and also check out your earnings in your affiliate programs. Always remember to update your website frequently in order to keep your readers and keep them buying from your affiliate website.

Steven Gerber is a professional copywriter & marketing consultant. He is a protege of Dan Lok, the World’s #1 Website Conversion Expert, & in Steven’s totally biased opinion simply THE BEST. You will find the latest internet marketing techniques & tricks at: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com.
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