My Grandma Crane lost her mother when she was six-years old. Her mother hadn’t written anything down about her relationship with her daughter. Grandma grew up wishing for some memories of her mother, but unfortunately they just weren’t there.

When Grandma started her own family, she was determined to keep a good record for her children. She kept a detailed baby memory book for each of her seven sons. She noted their milestones: first smile, first tooth, first steps, etc. She recorded their first sayings. My dad claims his first words were swearwords, but I’m sure his baby book would attest otherwise. Grandma kept a copy of the boys’ birth certificates as well as a foot and hand print. She even wrote down father’s blessings and little letters from mother for each of the boys. Grandma felt closer to her babies as she compiled these books, but she never imagined the long term effect they would one day have.

My Uncle Bobby, the youngest of the seven boys, was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was just six-years old. His oldest brother Curtis became his best friend as he fought through the excruciating sickness and the associated treatments. Curtis comforted, loved, and protected Bobby in every way he could.

During a family outing to the carnival, Curtis and some of the other brothers took Bobby to the carnival funhouse where inside a padded room the boys would hang from “monkey bars” on the ceiling. They would have “king of the hill” style wars where the last boy still hanging from the bars was the winner. Curtis and the other brothers decided to make sure Bobby was victorious. They swung from bar to bar knocking the other boys down while telling Bobby he was winning.

Amidst their fun, a young man was able to slip past their defense and was headed straight for Bobby. Curtis saw it happening. “Don’t you dare knock him down!” he shouted. The young man continued toward Bobby. “If you knock him down, I’ll punch your lights out!” called Curtis.

With a swift kick, the young man knocked Bobby to the ground. I’m sure the youth was oblivious to what he had done; what a surprise it must have been to turn and face Curtis and five other ornery brothers.

Within the next year, Curtis was called over seas. Bobby passed away shortly after Curtis’ departure. His passing was difficult for the entire family, but particularly hard for Curtis who was far from home. Curtis and Bobby had become so close, and how Curtis wished he could see him again.

Forty years have passed since Bobby’s death. Last year Grandma handed Bobby’s baby memory book to Curtis. After reliving his memories with Bobby, and sharing them with his family, he decided that he had never before received such a meaningful gift. The faded memories of Bobby were revived as he read them with his family. The relationship between the two brothers, separated by death, still lives on.

To create your baby memory book, visit http://www.imemorybook.com

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I sent out my first press release today. I really don’t know what I’m doing, so I tried to pattern my release after another very successful press release. Hotsoup.com put out a press release on Oct. 17 of this year. It caused a huge spike in traffic. Here is the Alexa chart that shows the spike.

Just like hotsoup, I loaded my title with high profile names. I tied in a current event, Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes’ wedding, to draw extra traffic. I used BusinessWire to do the release. It cost nearly 800 dollars. I hope it will generate enough traffic and links to pay for itself.

Here it is:

Did Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes or Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner Make a Wedding Memory Book from iMemoryBook.com?

PROVO, Utah–(BUSINESS WIRE)–About half of all marriages end in divorce. Couples who keep a wedding memory book might have a higher chance of succeeding. Did Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes or Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner make a wedding memory book? No, but they should have. Paul Allen–one of the original founders of MyFamily.com–in talking about the importance of a wedding memory book said, “These have the potential to lower the divorce rate! During hard times, couples will be able to go back and remember why they love each other.“ Could it help Tom & Katie last longer than Tom & Nicole? Could Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner survive longer than the Hollywood norm? Probably. Take for instance Derek and Wendy Thomas (Provo, UT) who are quickly approaching their first anniversary. Time is flying by, but the memories of their courtship and wedding are not. Early in their engagement, Derek and Wendy decided to make an iMemoryBook wedding memory book to record their story.

Derek wrote his perspective of how he and Wendy met and fell in love. The two were originally set up on a blind date. “I was excited,“ wrote Derek, “but I didn’t really want to show it yet.“ Eventually, he showed his excitement and affection for Wendy; their relationship progressed and developed.

Without reading what Derek had written, Wendy recorded the same story, but from her point of view: “I thought for most of that first evening, his name was Brian.“ Fortunately, she figured out his name and their relationship began.

After recording their own stories, the couple used iMemoryBook’s invitation system to invite their friends and families to contribute memories and advice. Over the course of their engagement, they watched as over 50 people from around the nation contributed to their wedding memory book. More than 100 pages of photos and memories were compiled in about 2 months. As a finishing touch, the couple added their engagement and wedding photos. Derek and Wendy‘s wedding memory book was completed shortly after their wedding.

Almost one year later, their wedding memory book still lies on the coffee table in their living room. Guests and visitors pore over the photos and memories of the proud couple while Derek and Wendy relive their story, falling in love all over again.

iMemoryBook version 2.0 was just released to the public on November 15. Neal Harmon, iMemoryBook’s founder, commented on its release: “With the Christmas and wedding season approaching fast, now is a great time to make a wedding memory book. As of November 15, starting your iMemoryBook doesn’t cost a cent. When your story is complete, you can use iMemoryBook’s press and bindery to print your professional wedding memory book.“

Note: Anniversary, funeral, personal history, and baby iMemoryBooks are also available.

(a) Paul Allen no longer works with MyFamily.com.

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American Promotions Inc. is a Utah based business that provides imprinted apparel, promotional items, and logoed gifts. They have been in business since 1996 and have many reputable clients including Tahitian Noni and Omniture.

Over the past year American Promotions has dedicated a large portion of their resources to develop an industry leading website. It has over 4600 products and produces a consistent flow of internet orders. With this foundation laid, American Promotions is now looking to hire an internet marketer on a results-based compensation plan. Responsibilities will include, SEO, PPC management, article & press release distribution, and email marketing. Experience is preferred but not necessary.

As a new hire, you will be given a paid membership to Provo Labs Internet Marketing Academy where you will learn the latest principles and techniques of Internet marketing.

Interested applicants should contact LaRae: larae “at” ameripromo.com (I didn’t write @ to avoid spammers).

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I presented today to Team iMemoryBook on why we should each keep a blog. I narrowed it down to 3 reasons:

1. To Learn:
We are all learning valuable lessons every single day. We learn from personal experiences; from successes as well as failures. We learn from those we work with. We learn from what we read and what we hear.

Blogging is an opportunity to record these lessons. In writing them down; we recognize, analyze, evaluate, and internalize these lessons. Through this simple act of writing, we elevate our understanding and level of expertise to a whole new level. Many bloggers have even reached the point of being considered “The Authority” in their perspective field. All of us can become experts in what we do, and blogs are a great tool to get us there.

2. To Network:
In blogging, we acknowledge the source of our lessons learned by linking out. We link to other blogs and websites in order to show their contribution to our learning. As we link out, the owners of the other blogs and websites take notice. Others begin to read our blogs. Online conversations develop that, over time, become relationships and networks. Many experienced bloggers consider their blog to be their most valuable asset–in terms of networking–that exists.

3. To Generate Business:
Meaningful blogging results in links–lots of links. Links result in high search engine rankings. High rankings result in lots of free internet traffic. This traffic, if leveraged correctly, results in business. A well established and well known blogger can drive unimaginable amounts of traffic. For example, when the book Call to Action was released, Seth Godin (one of the most powerful bloggers) wrote a short blog post about the book. Within hours, the book was sold out and back orders were being placed by the thousands. Before long, the book was a New York Time’s best seller.

Our individual blogs might never have the power of Seth’s, but what leverage they do have will be extremely valuable.

Tell me why you blog. Do my 3 reasons cover it?

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Lorri Randal from Copperrain informed me of an upcoming seminar that they will be holding for Online video advertising. I won’t be able to be there, but someone from FamilyLearn should be able to go. We will use it to further our mission of uniting families. After the Google Youtube acquisition, a lot of people will be putting more and more emphasis on video advertising. It’s important that we stay at the forefront of this movement.

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Paul Allen taught us today about PPC Marketing.  I already had a decent understanding of how PPC campaigns function.  I went in hoping to gain a better understanding of how PPC marketing fits into the overall Internet Marketing picture.  In other words, how should my focus be distributed amongst PPC, SEO, affiliate, and other types of marketing?

Most of the meeting was more directed toward teaching what PPC is, and how to start a campaign; but at the end, Paul took a few minutes to give a recommendation on when to implement it:

1. Create Your Strategy.
2. Refine your landing pages.  It’s not smart to spend money, sending traffic to pages that are not focused on the keywords and the ad.
3. Put some sort of analytics on your website.  There is no point in driving untraceable traffic to your site.
4. Now you have done your homework and prepared your website, you are ready to drive traffic to it.  PPC is a great starting point.  You get immediate traffic and immediate data on how specific keywords and ads are performing.  This data will be very useful as you start to apply the principles of SEO and other types of internet marketing.  Always cross-test your ads and keywords.  Run comparable ads so you can track and compare the progress of each.
5. Start applying other kinds of internet marketing (I will post on other types as I learn about them).

Paul used a couple of different powerpoint presentations.  Both were very well done and extremely helpful.  Jeff Harmon posted them on his blog.  If you are learning about pay-per-click, they are worth looking at.

Provo Labs has a comfortable atmosphere.  I didn’t feel intimidated to ask questions and participate in the discussion.  I can already tell that the group learning and collaborating will be very helpful.  I’m excited to continue learning.

I’m even more excited to apply the principle I’m learning to FamilyLearn’s websites.

What wasn’t so nice:

I don’t remember exactly when, but I think it has about one year since I first saw that construction had begun on the ProvoLabs office building on 900 E. in Provo.  I’m in awe that it has taken so long.  It’s now in use and it isn’t even complete.  Last week’s opening social was held on the first floor amongst a bunch of cubicles.  I came in late, so I wasn’t even able to get close enough to Paul to hear what he was saying.  Fortunately, I was able to catch him afterwards.  He spent a few minutes with me individually which I really appreciated.

Today’s seminar was held on the mostly completed second floor, which at least has a conference room.  The smell of fresh paint was quite strong—I had a bit of a headache by the end.  The room doesn’t have a projector or projector screen, so the start of the meeting was delayed while chairs were stacked as a resting place for Paul’s projector.  Instead of desks we had chairs—not a huge deal, but it’s nice to have a place to set your laptop.

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Paul Allen blogged today about the importance of rushing into online video.  He linked to an article he recently wrote for Connect magazine.  He wrote of the importance of skating to where the puck will be, and not where it is.

At FamilyLearn, our focus is on preserving life’s stories.  We’ve primarily done this through written stories, memories, and journals all supplemented by photos.  Paul’s post helped me realize that many families’ stories are in home video format.

We need YouTube style video sharing and storage, but focused on families.  How many families record events just to put the tape in a drawer and never see it again?  What family wouldn’t want that drawer organized, accessible, and shareable?

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