Marketing and Sports With Ed

Dallas: Can you finally live up to the hype?

By Ed on Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 | No Comments

Ah, the Dallas Cowboys. What can we expect from you this year? The last few years have been good years for you season wise, but they’ve been nothing but years to forget because you have done nothing with them in the playoffs.

Here’s a breakdown of your last five seasons and how they ended:

2009: 11-5, lost to the Minnesota Vikings in the Divisional round.
2008: 9-7, missed the playoffs entirely.
2007: 13-3, lost to the New York Giants in the Divisional round.
2006: 9-7, lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card round.
2005: 9-7, missed the playoffs entirely.

Of all of these years, 2009 was the only season the Cowboys had 2 playoff games. They beat the Eagles in the wild card round, 34-14, then turn around and get absolutely destroyed by Brett Favre and the Vikings, 34-3.

Now, let’s go back to 2008. The Cowboys went 9-7. They were still fighting for a playoff spot (with the Eagles, no less) and they go out in week 17 and get absolutely destroyed by the Eagles, 44-6. You choked away a chance to go to the playoffs, and the Eagles went instead, and made it all the way to the conference championship before losing to the Cardinals.

2007. You guys were 13-2 and had already clinched a first round bye into the playoffs. You go out and lose to the Redskins 27-6 in the final game of the regular season, but everyone in the media (except maybe the media in Dallas) isn’t too worried about you heading into the playoffs. What do you do? You go out and lose to the eventual super bowl champion New York Giants, 21-17.

2006. The Cowboys are 9-5, sitting pretty looking towards getting a spot in the playoffs. What do they do? Proceed to lose to the Eagles, 23-7, and the Lions(!), 39-31, and barely squeak into the playoffs with a wild card spot. You then go on and lose to the Seattle Seahawks, 21-20, in a game that you should have won, had Tony Romo not botched the snap on the field goal attempt with a few seconds left in the game that could have sent you guys into the next round.

2005: Drew Bledsoe is the quarterback of the Cowboys. in 2004, you went 6-10. Bill Parcells is the coach of the Cowboys. You’ve got to feel good, as a fan, about your teams chances in the rather weak NFC. You started off well against the Chargers, winning a close game. However, you lost both games to the Redskins this year, one that felt like a punch in the gut, and another where the Redskins absolutely dismantled the Cowboys. Sitting there at 9-6, fighting for a wild card position. However, you have one of the worst clutch kickers in the game, Shaun Suisham, and not many people have confidence in him, but that’s ok, because it wasn’t necessary to even have to bring Suisham in for a game winning kick, as again you choke in the final game of the season, losing to the Rams, 20-10.

Let’s flash back to reality now and give the Dallas Cowboys a little reality check on what they need to do to improve: the Cowboys need to become a better football team in the month of December and beyond. Let’s compare your records for the past 5 years, split between December and beyond (including playoffs), and the previous 3 months of the season:

2009: 4-3 in December, 8-3 before
2008: 1-3 in December, 8-4 before
2007: 2-3 in December, 11-1 before
2006: 2-4 in December, 7-4 before
2005: 2-2 in December, 7-5 before

Are you noticing a trend here, Cowboys fans? Your team is great in the months that don’t really matter of the season, but when the season gets down to crunch time, they crack under pressure, and can’t get the job done. I’m looking at you, Wade Phillips and Tony Romo. You two are the talk of many of the things that either get you praised in the eyes of the fans, or get criticized greatly when something goes horribly wrong (remember 2006, Tony? I don’t think you’ll ever forget).

This season, the Super Bowl is being held in Cowboys Stadium. That’s right, the stadium that Jerry Jones spent billions of dollars building so that he could not only impress the fans of his team in Dallas, but could also get another Super Bowl in Dallas. I think this year could be your year, Cowboy fans. The NFC is relatively weak again this season (except for maybe the Saints and the Packers, those are the only two real threats I see to you even getting near the Super Bowl this season). Wouldn’t it be great if the Dallas Cowboys could break through for once without names like Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin standing on the sidelines and have the Super Bowl in their stadium, with the team that plays their games in that stadium playing in the game, instead of sitting in the bleachers watching? Who knows, it could happen!

Cowboys 2010 Prediction: 12-4

I’d like to say I can see the Cowboys making the Super Bowl this year, but I really don’t see it happening until they stop breaking under pressure in the month of December, and Tony Romo finally wakes up and realizes that he is an elite quarterback in the NFL, instead of just someone for the tabloids to talk about who he’s dating now. Come on, Dallas, prove to me that you can actually win when it counts again!

Roger Clemens: Your arrogance has cost you.

By Ed on Thursday, August 19th, 2010 | No Comments

You lied to Congress. You’ve been defiant about your use of performance enhancing drugs ever since the Congressional hearing about PEDs. The only other person that has even come close to being as arrogant about not talking about your PED use has been Barry Bonds.

Alex Rodriguez? Sure, he did the same thing, but he stayed that way until he didn’t have a choice, then he came clean. Now, a very small majority of the people even think that his milestone of 600 Home Runs is even worth it.

Sammy Sosa? He forgot how to speak English for the entirety of the congressional hearing about his use of PEDs! Have you heard much about him since? No? Didn’t think so.

Rafael Palmeiro? He did the exact same thing as you did, and now he’s a ghost in society as well. What a shocker, eh?

Mark McGwire? He took the neutral approach until he had no other choice but to talk about it when he became the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. Then he came clean.

But you, Roger Clemens, of all people, decided to just be arrogant about it and deny every single thing about it (sorta like Palmeiro did), and now you’re going to be taken to trial because of it, and I think that Congress has a very strong case against you, since they’ve had a while to dig up evidence to prove it in court.

You blew it big time, Roger. All you had to do was step up in front of Congress, discuss your use of PEDs, and be on your way. Sure, you wouldn’t have gotten into the hall of fame, but you would not have this shadow of doubt hanging over you that is now more than likely going to get you put behind bars for a long time, and absolutely destroy any chances that you had of getting into the hall, exactly how McGwire is to this day. He admitted it, great respect to him for actually admitting it after all that time of silence, but he’s not getting into the hall either.

You know what else McGwire isn’t doing, Roger? He’s not going to be locked up in jail for a very, very long time because of his lies and arrogance in front of Congress. Better start working out that plea agreement soon, Roger, you’re probably going to need it.

Roger Clemens

If only this face worked as well with Congress as it did on the baseball field.

It’s that time of year again.

By Ed on Saturday, August 14th, 2010 | No Comments

That’s right, football season is drawing near! And there’s plenty of questions to be answered about all 32 teams. Here’s just a few important ones:

Can the Saints repeat as Super Bowl champions?
When will Darrelle Revis be in Jets camp?
Can Tom Brady and the Patriots get a new deal done?
Can the Cowboys make it to the Super Bowl in their home stadium?
Mike Homgren. Can he rebuild the Cleveland Browns?
Will TO and Ochocinco be able to coexist in Cincy?
NFL Rookies: Why is there no Rookie Salary Cap?

I’ll get around to answering all these questions before the season starts, but for now, I’ll cover one question.

Brett Favre: Are you coming back, and why do you do this every year?

You had ankle surgery. You trained with the high school kids in Mississippi this year, again. You’ve had the media flocking from all over the place to ask you the same question that they’ve asked you every year since you first announced your retirement from the Green Bay Packers: Are you coming back this year?

Honestly, I’ve had enough of you doing this each and every year. Yes, I understand that you’ve been playing in the NFL since 1991, so I’m sure you’re tired of the rigors of another training camp. Yes, I understand that you’re 41 years old and you can’t recover as well as you could when you were 22 years old. But for crying out loud, even your teammates are getting sick of your antics, especially Jared Allen.

The Vikings have plenty of faith in Tavaris Jackson now, so if you don’t make your announcement soon about whether or not you’re coming back, I’m sure the Vikings wouldn’t mind having Jackson under center calling the plays this year.

Come on Brett, I was a huge fan of yours when you played for the Packers. But ever since your first retirement from the NFL, you’ve been nothing but a glutton for attention from media outlets all around. Do something now, instead of just trying to get more and more attention from the media, and less and less respect from your fans.

Good Riddance, LeBron.

By Ed on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 | No Comments

Hope you enjoy your new home with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, let’s hope one of you can throw your scorer mentality away and actually make it work. But unless one of you does, the chances of that happening is pretty slim to none.

Much respect to Dan Gilbert, however, for giving LeBron James the treatment that he deserves after letting everyone in Cleveland down and deciding to go somewhere else to play for a team that has a “better chance” of winning.

Dan Gilbert’s open letter to Cleveland Cavs fans

Unless they can somehow become like Shaq and Kobe were in LA, it might work for a year or two, but when things start to go south in Miami, but when things start heading south, don’t expect it to be all well and good.

Hope you enjoy stabbing the entirety of Cleveland, Ohio, and the 5 teams that you dragged along for this narcissistic ride with you in the back by just announcing that you were going to Miami when we all probably knew you were going there as soon as it was announced that Wade and Bosh were joining forces in Miami. Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Cleveland, and the Clippers(!) should all feel equally pissed about this, simply because you wouldn’t just tell them that you were going somewhere else. But Cleveland should feel the worst, because instead of travelling around to all these teams, you just had all the meetings in CLEVELAND, no less. Dan Gilbert’s feelings are expressed pretty well in that note.

And with that, I’ve said all that I really feel was needed to be said. No longer will you be the “King” in Ohio, or anywhere else for that matter. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Get Organized!

By Ed on Sunday, May 16th, 2010 | No Comments

Getting organized is the key to making your life working at home efficient and relatively stress free. If you can get and stay organized, your business and your home life will flourish. Without taking some simple organizational steps you’ll be swamped with work and overwhelmed in no time.

You can get some great time management tips here.

One of the most important parts of getting organized is to establish business hours. Setting up specific working times during each day has many benefits.

First, you’ll be more consistent with your work. Once you’ve gotten used to starting and stopping at a specific time each day you’ll work more efficiently. You’ll manage your work time better and reduce distractions. You’ll also be less likely to pick up things to do. If you have set working hours, you’ll schedule tasks around your work time so you’ll be more focused during your work time. It will help your family and friends understand that you are working while you are at home, and you won’t be available during those hours.
Next, you need to start delegating tasks. It may seem easier to do everything yourself, but once you have work duties on top of household duties you’ll realize how few hours in the day there actually are. There is nothing wrong with asking someone else in the family to take on some of your tasks. By sharing the household duties as a family, you’ll have more time to get your work done and feel more rested. The important thing to remember when you delegate is that things won’t be done the way that you would do them. However, they are getting done.

Planning your work and family activities will make the whole house run smoother. If you don’t have a daily planner, then you need to get one. It doesn’t matter if it is a paper planner or a computer application. When you use a planner to write down everything that needs to be done, and then plan each activity for a specific time, you’ll have the opportunity to manage your time wisely in and out of your home office.

Organizing your home at large will help make your business more organized. While it may take a while to establish some organizational habits in your house, your efforts will be worth it. Don’t try to get organized in a weekend or even several days. Work up to a level of organization that suits your needs. Start small with your desk space. Organize the things in your desk and on top of your desk. Make sure that everything that you need has a place, and toss or donate things that you don’t need. Then move on to another portion of the house. When something is out of place, it’s easy to put it back in its home once you’ve taken the time to organize your storage spaces around the house. If need be, take a trip to an office supply store or home improvement store and buy items like bins, cabinets and shelves that will help you stay more organized.

Getting organized does take some time and effort. Realize that with time your organizational system will get better. Work with your family to make your home run efficiently, and then you’ll be able to concentrate on your work.

For more information on getting organized read some of these articles.

I believe that saving money is making money.

Friday Afternoon Rambling

By Ed on Friday, May 7th, 2010 | No Comments

With no real big off the wall news to talk about right now (at least not that everyone knows about already), I’ll give my thoughts on a few things.

Jamarcus Russell released by the Oakland Raiders

I’m pretty sure everyone saw this coming, but Jamarcus Russell was released by the Raiders. Not only did he have the worst win percentage by a number one pick all time (.280), he also made 39 million dollars to be the biggest bust in NFL Draft history as a number one pick. Yes, that’s right, an even bigger bust than Ryan Leaf, because although Leaf was also massively hyped, he was the 2nd overall pick in the 1998 draft, and was 4-17 as a starter in the NFL (In case you were wondering, that’s a .190 win percentage). I guess we can group Jamarcus Russell in with Ryan Leaf as being the 2 biggest busts in NFL Draft history, although Russell is undoubtedly a biggest bust than Leaf.

Yankees vs. Red Sox this weekend

That’s right, it’s time for Yankees vs. Red Sox, again. You know, that first series of the season where Joe West was complaining about how long the games between these two teams took. In the first 3 game series these two teams played, there were 30 pitchers used in the 3 games, and the average game length was 3 hours, 38 minutes. Maybe Joe West will be there again, so the game may only take 3 hours instead of almost 4.

All joking aside, I expect all 3 games in this series to be highly contested low scoring affairs. The pitching matchups for the 3 games are all great, and are shown below:

Friday: Phil Hughes (NYY, 3-0, 1.44) vs. Josh Beckett (BOS, 1-0, 6.44)
Saturday: CC Sabathia (NYY, 4-1, 2.74) vs. Clay Buchholz (BOS, 3-2, 2.97)
Sunday: AJ Burnett (NYY, 4-0, 1.99) vs. Jon Lester (BOS, 2-2, 3.93)

The Red Sox have gotten their season back on track after their dismal start, and the Yankees have their best 3 pitchers going for all 3 games in this series. Although the Yankees have a lot of injury questions (Posada may go on the DL, Granderson is on the DL, what’s wrong with Rivera?") all of their backups (Chamberlain closing, Winn and Thames in the outfield replacing Granderson, Cervelli catching) have excelled when they needed to, while the starters are injured. All 3 games in this series are going to be highly contested.

The Cleveland Indians

Yes, I understand the Indians have a new manager. Yes, I understand that most of the Indians players are still young and inexperienced (if I’m not mistaken, they’re the youngest team in baseball). It’s just getting disappointing to see the same result every year since the Indians choked away a 3-0 series lead to the Red Sox in the ‘07 ALCS, mediocrity. Currently at 10-17 in the AL Central and tied for last place with the Royals, it’s starting to look like this is going to be another year of the Indians rebuilding and just improving on the nucleus that they already have in place.

That being said about the disappointment in the Indians, there is a lot of upside for this team as well. Although being young makes them inexperienced now, I expect them to hit their stride and really show what they can do as a team as we get into the summer months, and hopefully they can give the top dogs in the AL Central a run for their money going down the home stretch. If it’s not this year (and I’m pretty sure it won’t be), I can’t wait to see what the Indians have in store for us for the years to come. If Acta can keep this team together, nothing but great things wait for these guys.

Tiger Woods: Will he win a major this season?

By Ed on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 | No Comments

The Bad. I’m sure all of you have seen or heard about Tiger Woods’ off the course incidents with the car accident, the sex addiction admission, then the much reported rehab for said addiction. The good. Woods was still in contention on the final day of The Masters before Phil Mickelson went away with the green jacket. This can only lead to better things for Woods in the future, especially after the long layoff he had during this ordeal. Previously, Woods had missed a long stretch of tournaments after having knee surgery, then returned to win the first tournament that he competed in after returning from the surgery.

Although he did not win the Masters in his first tournament back from all the problems that he’s had over the past few months, I would expect Tiger Woods to win at least one major this year, if not the US Open at Pebble Beach this year. Woods won the US Open in 2008, and has always seemed to play well at Pebble Beach. I would not be surprised if he won the US Open this year, and possibly more than one major this year. It’s a bold prediction, but with Woods’ performance at the Masters, I see no reason to not expect him to win one, if not multiple majors this year.

If you want anymore information on golf, check out this site. It has more information on golf that you golf fans might be interested in.

Choosing a Work At Home Business

By Ed on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 | No Comments

If you are considering working from home, there are a set of decisions that you must make. First, you must decide whether or not working at home is right for you. Next, you need to consider what type of work at home job you are interested in. There are many opportunities out there, both offline and off. Having a successful career starts with evaluating your own skills and the job requirements and then finding the right match.

Sometimes the best place to start your career is where your out of the home career ended. Many find that they can become independent contractors in the field that they previously worked. You can use your previous work experience as a launching pad for your work at home career. Some of the ways to use your experience to your advantage are:

Finding a company that hires people in your field to work from home.
Using your previous experience to become an “expert” writer in your field.
Starting a business related to your previous field.

Some people look at their work at home careers as a way to break out of their old job. If you’d like to try something completely different, there are plenty of opportunities for entry-level work as an independent contractor. Many of these jobs deal with telephone or online customer service. When you work as a customer service agent from your home, you need a reliable Internet connection and a working phone. Companies also hire medical transcriptionists, data entry professionals and virtual personal assistants.

If you want to start your own business, the opportunities are vast. You can start with a direct sales company and sell products from an established brand to friends and neighbors. You’ll make commissions through your sales and also off of recruiting other people to sell the products. There are hundreds of direct sales companies that offer everything from aromatherapy products to candles to cooking supplies.

Another option for starting your own business is offering a service in your community. Day care centers, florists, professional organizers and hairdressers can all work at home. Starting a business in your community normally means that you’ve had some experience in that field. There are some small business ideas that can be started without much experience.

Many work at homes establish their businesses online by using one of the popular auction sites, like eBay, selling products that you make yourself or have the rights to resell. Still others find a home in internet marketing by directing traffic to a website and then recommending certain products and services.

Decide what type of job you’d like to do and then go from there. If you are truly a people person and need to get out each day, direct sales or a local service business might be right for you. If you are the type who lives online and is comfortable with the Internet, try finding a job or starting your own business on the web.

Once you’ve decided what category of job you’d like, do some research and find out what it takes to be successful at that type of business. Imagine what your life will be like as you take on the duties of that job. Be realistic with yourself about how much time you can devote to your business. Finding the right match isn’t hard when you consider all your options. Read more at the Business Analyst site.

NCAA Tournament: Afterthoughts on Selection Sunday

By Ed on Monday, March 15th, 2010 | No Comments

I’m sure by now plenty of you have seen the bracket for NCAA March Madness. Plenty of you have probably also seen all the analysts discussing who they think is going to win which game, and which team got snubbed, but I’d like to discuss a little something else before I move onto doing any predicting of upsets or who’s going to win it all.

First, lets discuss the Midwest bracket. Kansas, the number 1 seed in the region, has quite possibly the toughest road to get to the Final Four. Why is that? They’re in a bracket with teams like Ohio State and Georgetown. This is pretty much the “Bracket of Doom” if we were to use a World Cup Soccer term. What I don’t understand is, why does Kansas, quite possibly the best team in college basketball the entire year, have one of the toughest roads to the Final Four, when Duke, quite possibly the most unimpressive number one seed of the tournament, has the easiest road to the Final Four? And why does Duke even have a number one seed in the first place? Isn’t a team like West Virginia, or maybe even Ohio State more deserving?

For reasons beyond my comprehension, Duke has the easiest path to the Final Four. I’m not going to even try to explain any of the conspiracy theories, I’m sure there’s plenty of them out there. However, when you have Villanova as a number 2 seed going into the tournament losing 5 of their last 7 games, I’m not too concerned. Not to mention that Kentucky, the number 2 overall behind Kansas, has West Virginia, quite possibly the strongest number 2 seed in the entire tournament, and Kansas has Ohio State, the second strongest 2 seed in their bracket. Not only that, but Duke quite possibly has the easiest second round matchup as well, possibly with Cal, the number 8 seed, and seeded way too high coming from the pathetically weak Pac-10 conference. Syracuse, however, the number 4 overall team in the tournament, possibly has a date with number 8 seed Gonzaga facing them in the second round. Sure, Gonzaga didn’t win the West Coast Conference title, but a number 8 seed is still way too low for them, and makes for an interesting 1/8 matchup if things go as expected.

Let’s not forget the number 4 seed in Duke’s bracket, Purdue, is going to be missing quite possibly their best player, Robbie Hummel, due to injury. Purdue struggles to score points without Hummel’s 15.7 a game, and might not even survive their first round matchup with 13 seed Siena. If I am a Kansas, the number 1 overall seed in this tournament, I am furious with the NCAA committee about this. Why do we, as the number 1 overall seed, get such a difficult road to the final four, when Duke, a marginal number 1 seed at best, is the number 3 overall seed, and gets quite possibly the easiest road to the final four? College Basketball Nation over on ESPN.com has a lot of articles covering what I’ve discussed here, as well as plenty more, so it’s worth checking out if you still need your college basketball fix before tomorrow night’s play in game between Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Winthrop.

Content for Your Website

By Ed on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 | No Comments

Content for Internet Marketing

If you are currently marketing your business online and have not put a great deal of thought into the content on your website, you may be making an incredibly costly mistake. The content on your website is invaluable for a number of reasons. First of all it gives visitors to your website their first impression of your business and the products and services you offer. Additionally, well written content can be instrumental in selling products and services to your potential customers. Finally, the content on your website can influence the size of the target audience you are able to reach by helping to improve your search engine rankings. This article will delve deeper into the importance of providing accurate, concise and informative content on your website when you are marketing online.

One of the basic reasons why the quality of the content on your website is so important is because visitors to your website will likely form their initial opinions of your website based on the content on your website. If the copy is poorly written, does not hold the visitors attention and does not promote your products and services well visitors are likely to leave your website without making a purchase. Conversely, if the copy on your website is well written, engages the reader and promotes the products and services you offer, the visitor is more likely to investigate the website further to learn more about the products and services and may make a purchase.

Ask for the Sale

Well written sales copy can be persuasive and may compel visitors to the website to purchase the products or services offered. This is important especially if the main purpose of the website is to sell products or services. The sales copy should accurately describe the products or services offered, stress the importance of these products and services and compel the visitor to make a purchase. All of this should be done without appearing to be blatantly advertising the products and services. Writing this type of copy can be quite complicated.

Finally the content on your website is very important because it can greatly influence your search engine rankings. This is critical because high search engine rankings help your business reach a considerably larger audience. Internet users are typically looking for information quickly and want immediate results to their inquiries. Search engines understand this profile and write complicated algorithms which help them supply the most relevant websites when a user searches for a particular word or phrase. This is important to business owners because Internet users realize the value of search engines and are likely to only visit websites which rank high in the search engines. This includes websites which rank on the first page or two of the search results. Your business might sell football jerseys and you may have a well designed website, a superior inventory and excellent prices but if your website does not rank high in search engines you are missing out on a great deal of free advertising. If your website lands on the third page or lower most visitors who search for relevant terms will not visit your website because they will have found what they were looking for on earlier pages. This is where the content on your website becomes important. Websites containing content which has been optimized for particular keywords will rank high with the search engines. Hiring a writer skilled in writing optimized content can help to improve your search engine rankings so you can reach more potential customers.

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