Apr 282013
 
Affordable Sports Car Showdown

This weekend I found an entertaining video from MotorTrend, courtesy of the BMW Blog. Mike Febbo of MotorTrend and Greg Emerson of European Car Magazine squared off on their pick of the best affordable sports car today. Mike is a huge fan of the Scion FR-S, while Greg feels that the Volkswagen GTI is the […]

Apr 232013
 
Punchdown Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk

One of the wine bloggers I follow is Joe Roberts, of 1WineDude. Together with Tara O’Leary, aka the Wine Passionista, he has launched a video series interviewing major influencers in the world of wine. Recently they featured an interview with Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the true trail blazers in wine marketing. After shooting to social […]

Apr 202013
 
Quick Fix for E36 M3 Spoiler Brake Light

This morning I fixed a small issue that could have caused me a large problem. My E36 M3 spoiler brake light wasn’t working consistently. Sometimes the light came on when I applied the brake pedal, sometimes it did not. In addition to being a potential problem while driving at night, my car needed to pass […]

Apr 172013
 
Content Marketing, Big and Small

Is content marketing done differently depending on organization size? That’s the focus of a new study from the Content Marketing Institute. CMI defines an as over 1,000 employees. One of the reasons this study got my attention was because that dividing line roughly describes my agency’s two main types of clients. We tend to work […]

Apr 142013
 
What Exactly Does Content Marketing Mean?

The concept of content marketing is red hot these days when discussing effective communications. It’s not a new concept, and I’ve been discussing it on this site for almost two years. Lately the concept has reached the fully hyped phase. Like many terms that become hugely popular, content marketing can mean different things to different […]

Apr 102013
 
My BMW M3 Turns 14

My 1999 BMW M3 turns 14 this month. I’ve owned the car for almost 10 years, having bought it with less than 16,000 miles. The first birthday story back in 2008 still says it all on how I feel about the car. It’s been a busy year keeping the car in top shape. That’s because […]

Apr 072013
 
Honest SEO is Effective SEO

Last week a tweet directed me to a good article on SEO from Mashable. It talked about changes in search algorithms and the rise of content marketing has put a premium on creating content humans want to read, as opposed to trying to game the system with black hat tricks. Honest SEO is now the […]

Apr 022013
 
Fixing Auto Adjusting Headlights on the E39 M5

When the E39 M5 was first introduced in North America in 2000, it was a $70,000+, top of the line BMW sedan. As such, it came with a list of standard features that were options on lesser models. One of those standard features was Xenon headlights with an auto adjusting feature, which was fairly new […]

Mar 302013
 
Cars and Coffee at Katie's in Great Falls

This morning I attended the Cars and Coffee meetup at Katie’s in Great Falls, Virginia. It was my first visit, and I was blown away by the size of the event. There were easily 100 cars this morning, and the crowd spilled across multiple parking lots. Lots of low volume sports cars and collectibles, including […]

Mar 282013
 
Another Viognier Taste Test

Last year I wrote about the white varietal Viognier, spurred by my Mom drinking a favorite of hers over the holidays. It was from Bonterra in California, and we taste tested it against two French Viogniers. Last weekend my folks were in town, and I purchased some 2011 J.V. Fleury Cotes du Rhone for the […]

Mar 252013
 
New Online Marketing Research

Part of my role as a counselor to clients is keeping them up to speed on new online marketing research. I came across two reports last week that could be useful when evaluating client tactics. The first was from Forrester Research and looked at what kind of content online consumers find most persuasive. Per the […]

Mar 202013
 
Wine Dinners -- Good Times and Good Value

My March Wine and Dine column published today in WashingtonExec magazine. My focus this month is wine dinners, and in particular one we attended that featured the wines of Holloran Vineyards. The dinner was held at the Del Ray Cafe in Alexandria, and put together by Bill Holloran and Jane Cahill, an ex-neighbor and former […]