If I’m wrong about this, please tell me. I’d love your comments. This is about Ethics, Integrity and getting paid in case you are wondering where I’m headed with this. If you have a small business, you need to know about things like this if you have not already “been there – done that.”

I was contacted by a computer consultant about coming to me for internet marketing consulting. I explained my fees and that my payment policy was Pay Pal in advance or a check at the time of service. Well, he showed up for the session and mentioned that he was on staff with St. Thomas More Catholic Church – Chapel Hill NC which he is according to their staff page. This had not come up in previous conversations. He also informed me that they pay promptly and I had nothing to worry about. O.K., it’s a church. He’s on the the staff. No problem, right? WRONG!

It is now, July 2nd, 2007. I provided the services Monday, May 21st, 2007. I still have not been paid and they are ignoring much of my communication at this point. My last verbal conversation with anyone was a VERY IRATE financial services person at the church last Friday, June 29th, 2007.

The conversation went something like this… “Peggy,on our staff, was on the phone with the lady from the church. The lady said…Check # ____ and for $_____ was mailed on June 4th, 2007. Peggy, we don’t have it. IRATE church representative, well, you’ll have to pay a $35 stop payment fee for us to issue another one. Peggy, please hold.”

“I then got on the phone with the lady who REFUSED in a VERY NON-CHURCH tone of voice to issue another check because they did their part… they mailed it. It didn’t matter to her that the check was lost, had not cleared the bank and that I had not received it. Their hands were clean because they put a .41 stamp on an envelope and mailed me something that I have yet to receive…. She clearly stated that it was not her fault and another check would not be cut unless I paid a $35 stop payment fee for a check that was obviously lost in the mail that I have NEVER had in my possession.”

Here are some DIRECT quotes from an e-mail that I received today July 2nd, 2007 about this matter…

In reference to it being lost and them not taking any blame: “There are some issues that either you, the UPS store or the Postal Service need to work out.”

In reference to me paying the $35 STOP payment fee for a check that I have never had in my possession: “I have checked with the office of Business Services of the Diocese of Raleigh, and this is the recommended practice.”

There conclusion and thoughts on this post: “You rendered a service in good faith; we mailed payment in good faith. Unfortunate as it is, the system failed somewhere and we are stuck in this senseless exchange. I hope common sense prevails.” Readers… What does your common sense tell you here?

What’s your thoughts on this? Have you had similar experiences? Should I forgive the church for not getting my check to me? Should I pay the $35 stop payment fee? Who is at fault here? What about ethics and integrity? Am I out of line or is St. Thomas More Catholic Church – Chapel Hill NC out of line? At this point, do you think that I will ever get paid? Readers, please help me here.

Branding is a monumental part of growing a business. And while I don’t have massive amounts of experience with developing brands, I do have a great deal of experience with promoting companies and brands online through press releases, articles, web copy, etc.

From an internet marketing perspective, I’ve worked with many brand names that are disastrous to promote and some that are sheer joy.

Here are some points to ponder about how your brand name may hold up in terms of online promotion.

Brand Names and Press Releases

The title and summary of a press release are where the most messages are conveyed. Most people will only see either the title or summary and will never click through to read the entirety of the content so I feel it’s important to include the company (brand) name in one or both of these areas.

You’ve got about 100 characters to work with for a press release title and perhaps 250 for a summary. Very long names hog up valuable real estate, leaving little room for a compelling hook.

It can be difficult to find short and sweet company names today with so many great domains already taken. But from a writer’s perspective, I promise you won’t regret a shorter name once you have to try to work it into a title or into body copy repeatedly.

Brand Names and Article Titles

No doubt everyone understands the importance of a catchy headline. Brands that are versatile in meaning or work as verbs are much easier to turn into catchy headlines. It’s fun to write headlines like ‘The Rotten Side of Apple,’ or ‘How Often do you Google Yourself?’ But trying to work in Atlanta Home Mortgage Refinance Company Inc. can be very limiting.

Brand Names and Web Copy

At the same time, Atlanta Home Mortgage Refinance Company Inc would probably be beneficial in terms of search engine rankings with so many rich keywords that can be placed throughout the website content. There are many times when a keyword rich company name allows you get more keywords into the body copy naturally.

Not everyone will be an Apple or a Google or a Volkswagen. So do you go for the search engine rankings with a keyword rich brand name or please humans with something fun and unique? It’s important to remember that search engines are designed to give humans what they want.

Regardless of where search engines are in their current technology, they will always strive to give human beings the best results so it is always smart to make decisions based on people first and search engines second.

For a hearty series on branding, check out Chris Garrett’s Better Blog Branding series.

At the TIMA seminar here in Raleigh NC I had the opportunity to meet 3 Reps from Google and learn some great new info. Here are some of the highlights.

New Stats: 1 billion+ people on line currently, 555 million since 2000. 2-3 Billion more anticipated in the next 2-3 years. 50% of the USA has broad band access. Google Reaches 88% of internet users, 4.5 Billion page views per day.

“Alleged” Gadget Ad’s in Q3?: Interactive media ads that are open source type of interface. Basically from my understanding an interactive ad that you could say rotate the product they are advertising to see all angles of the item. Applications such as a series of interactive button questions to yield a product based on your answers. Like a small window of another site with an advertisement focus.

Radio Ad’s: Are now available. And those of us with AdWords accounts can already see the new tab at the top of our campaign management screen that says Audio Ad’s, also the $400.00 credit for free Radio dollars till the end of June. You can target major cities, Time of day, Age, Music preference, 100 of the top 100 radio stations. You can even control which ad’s run based on weather, temperature of day, pollen count. Google will also generate a phone number that you can use to track the calls you receive from your radio advertising. No political ad’s are authorized yet. Co$t Per thousand (CPM) impressions. Only terrestrial for now. Cost Competition is within Google only not according to the station, although the stations may have a base cost to reach before they will fill the spots. I found that Greensboro, High point area are exponentially higher than Raleigh, Greenville and charlotte when I was pricing some things out personally. It seems VERY affordable to roll out some Radio advertising via Google. Also There are some very affordable 3rd party ad providers that can create an ad for you with voices, music and script if desired with quick turnaround! You may soon hear some LookToTheRight.com commercials on the air waves soon! So keep your ear tuned in to Create Business Growth!