In this context (local phone book ads) that response is a honest one, as almost anyone who has been in the tech consulting business on a “small shop” scale for a while will probably agree. The cost-benefit just isn’t there until your company is a certain size AND when/if you have a service that a lot of people locally need and/or want. And personally, I’m not all that interested in running a large company just yet. (I’d rather enjoy my time with my children, thus staying a “small business” is the easiest way to do that.)

When we first started out we ran ads in a few places around town to get our name out in front of thousands of people. After two years of that without a single nibble, we have ditched that almost entirely and have focused on what has consistently brought people “in the door”. Word of Mouth (WoM) referrals (referrals from clients, references on blogs and websites, etc.), our website (via search engines), our open source WordPress plugins and of course happy, repeat clients.

The business that we’re in, and our specialty in particular, is still a pretty niche market overall. Thus the vast majority of our clients are out-of-state or out-of-country, which makes perfect sense given that most of what we do is focused on the “online community” and not a geographic community.

So, yes, we honestly don’t need traditional advertising and any local traditional advertising that we may do will serve some other purpose as well. That way, at the very least it helps others’ in the community (like supporting the arts or childrens’ sports leagues).

Chief technology officer
Pay range: $128,017 to $212,100.

Project manager
Pay range: $77,265 to $112,615.

Help desk support
Pay range: $79,033 to $109,838.

Database manager
Pay range: $59,843 to $83,325.

Web developer
Pay range: $57,823 to $87,113.

These numbers had to be pulled out of the air or via a very bad source. There is no way that this is an average range here in Indianapolis.

Just last year I applied for a web developer job at the Indy Star and I am almost certain that their salary would have been nowhere near that salary range, even for someone who has done this sort of thing for over a decade. Most places in Indy might offer $40k if you’re lucky, and I actually had a few tell me that $30k was as high as they could go. AND these were companies that listed their jobs in Career Builder. How hard is it to check your figures when the data should be right in front of you?

Kids, don’t let these numbers fool you into selecting the IT field. Trust me, they are in no way average and outside of Indiana you need to consider the cost of living differences. There are plenty of jobs out there that make better money if that’s all you’re after.

And if you really want to go into the IT field, I suggest paying your dues for a few years to get a feel for the corporate world, and if you’re the entrepreneurial type, start a consulting business on the side that you can groom into a full-time job. I know that’s not for everyone, but I am extremely happy that I am doing what I’m doing. It is a little nerve-wracking at times, but at least you have some say over what you do and how much you make.

Depending upon who you talk to, it can mean a variety of things, but here’s a my list of blogs & blog posts that I’ll thrown in that category…

• Link posts. This can be something like “Check out so-and-so’s post/article about XYZ.” Or something with a pulled quote, a link and very quick commentary (i.e. just about any Utter Oddness post.). And also link “dailies”.
• Tidbit posts / blog grenades. This can be just a brief mention of something but offers little to no elaboration. While this is great to get the creative juices flowing, it does tend to irritate people who come looking for “meat”.
• Random posts. This can be random in the sense of the blog audience or random in the sense of the content within the actual post. It just seems out of place from the normal posts.
• Thoughtless posts. These posts are often the result of a person just sitting down at their keyboard and hacking away until something shows up on the screen and some smelly digital diarrhea is left behind for all to “enjoy”. (I apologize now for the imagery that statement may cause…but you get my point, right?)

Now there are other criteria you could use, but that list covers most “shotgun posts” you may stumble across in the blogosphere. And I must assert that if a blog is touted as a personal journal, this doesn’t matter quite as much as it does for blogs who have an intended audience besides people just interested in you. (I’m sure that people will argue some of my list…but it is my personal list, so take that with a grain of salt.)

Of the bunch, the only one that truly irks me are thoughtless posts. I can usually pick up a copy of the local newspaper if I want to read that sort of thing. Luckily I don’t run into that very often.

Blog grenades intrigue me a bit and random posts can be interesting from time-to-time. And I absolutely love link posts as they save me time by finding the content for me.

So, with that overview, I’d like to introduce you to my new sideblog/asides/mini-blog, Blue Shotgun.

There are often times that I really want to post links, tidbits, random thoughts, announcements, etc., but within the context of my personal blog, or any of my other blogs (even the ones which are technically shotgun blogs), it normally doesn’t seem appropriate, so I refrain (with a few exceptions here and there).

This is where Blue Shotgun comes into play.

While Blue Shotgun is going to serve as my sideblog/blog companion for Musings, I have opted to make this a fully functional standalone blog because normal sideblog setups are very limiting in what you AND your readers can do. With it setup this way, you, the reader, can:

1. Search the sideblog.
2. Comment on the sideblog entries.
3. Subscribe to RSS feeds.
4. See the recent entries via all Surge Bucket Media blogs. (If you didn’t catch it, or only read the RSS and haven’t visited any of the sites recently, there is now a recent SBM posts section at the bottom of all blogs.)

Content wise, I’m aiming for “anything goes” topic wise (within reason and decency of course), so I’m not sure what all will show up over there. And be prepared for the postings to come in fast spurts. While there may be days between postings at times, when I do pop in to post, they will often appear in quantity since these should all be pretty short.

Off the bat, I can tell you that general podcast announcements (i.e. “Trolley Dodgers #XX is now available”), ad scans, links and quips will be showing up. So if you want to keep seeing those updates, either bookmark Blue Shotgun or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Enjoy. (Or ignore.) Your choice.

It’s not that I’m overly paranoid that the Chinese are out to kill and/or harm us all, but it is certainly a concern. Especially since it appears that every toy that is/was made in China toy is being recalled, but they’re just taking it in stages. (Is that paranoid or make me sound like some conspiracy nut?) And who has the time to purchase toys that have to be returned? Can you even imagine how much worse the exchange lines will be after Christmas this year if this continues?

So we looked through all of the kids current toys and haven’t found much of anything that isn’t made in China (and good luck finding many “Made in the USA” toys at the major retailers). And this also includes all of the “kids meal” related toys for the various fast food restaurants.

So this has lead to the start of yet another Surge Bucket Media blog, Just Not China, which will showcase products that you can buy that are indeed, “Not Made in China”. (If someone has a positive phrasing idea for that, please let me know.) While there are a few major companies that we hope to get on board, the vast majority of the products will not be available many places beyond online websites and catalog sales. But that is great as you’ll be helping the “little man” and be purchasing products that most people don’t even know about.

We quickly put this up today, based on this blog’s theme, so bear with us as it gets built out and products are listed. It may take a few weeks to get rolling, but we hope to have some products listed well before Christmas. So please bookmark the site and subscribe to the RSS feed. And if you have anything to add, please contact us.

On this episode of Utter Oddcast we discuss A Pensylnania woman cussing her toilet, Chinese drivers kick up stink about “WC” car plates, a naked man breaching Vatican security, a man walking plank in his undies (again), a NYC woman finding a python in the toilet, Hardee’s 920-calorie breakfast burrito, and the Pepsi vs. Coke throwdown at Wal-Mart.

Check out the October Oddness 2007 Drawing for more information…

On this episode of Utter Oddcast we discuss a hospital who gave a man a drip-feed of vodka, stealing the Bible, the free ‘Naked Lunch’ controversy, a dog that saved a family from a fire started by a cat, chicken wing competitive eating, a Wal-Mart wedding and a man who tried to pass a million dollar bill.

On this episode of Utter Oddcast we discuss the Tokyo Circus invasion, Malaysia seeking out dirty toilets, an orangutan that prefers tattooed blondes, Bengals fighting their stadium’s pooping pigeons, competitive eating: 21 pounds of grits in 10 minutes, and Illinois school that says “no hugging”, a man charged with stealing 123 parking meters and casket sales tipping off police to murders.

These episodes are scheduled to be released each Monday in October, for a total of five episodes. AND we’re looking for your contributions to include in the remaining episodes. Please see the website for the full announcement.

Episodes

• #1 – Utter Oddcast #27 (October 1, 2007)
• #2 – Utter Oddcast #30 (October 8, 2007)
• #3 – Utter Oddcast #32 (October 15, 2007)
• #4 – Utter Oddcast #34 (October 26, 2007)
• #5 – Utter Oddcast #36 (October 29, 2007)

Here’s the list of episodes you may have missed: #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29 and #30.

Enjoy! And check Utter Oddcast out on MySpace.

#4, #5, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14

Enjoy! And check Utter Oddcast out on MySpace.