Marketing advice from Eric Karjaluoto. In short, be real.

«Whatever you’re doing to market your company, I ask you to press “pause.” As I noted earlier, it’s beautiful out there today. Go for an espresso—perhaps even treat yourself to a double-shot. Lean back in your chair and ask yourself if you’re actually saying something that people care about. If not, I ask you to start looking for a wave. You never know; you might just find some gnarly surf out there.»

"The pitch-based approach is dysfunctional, and even the best practices within it are still, largely, bad practices. The most lucrative firms have a smaller client base and very selectively add a small number of high quality new clients in a year. There’s less frantic activity and more measured evaluation of the opportunities at hand. They say no a lot more."

"My proposal is that companies have to become smaller and much more plentiful. This allows people to truly own them and bear both the burden of this ownership alongside the potential rewards. I say that almost every creative-worker out there needs to quit today and become a 100% owner in their own company. This shifts our industry from one of large factories filled with frustrated — even if well compensated — designers, to one of a million tiny enterprises."

"The invasion of design has begun, fueled by an army of talented newcomers and low-cost offshore services. This new breed trades methodology for mimicry and by doing so radically undercuts pricing, sometimes even working for free. Like it or not, supply and demand in the design industry is undergoing upheaval. Worse yet, for design buyers it’s getting harder to differentiate between good and bad design."

"For as much as I make fun of them, I’m in fact a believer in online ads. They’re largely a mess right now, but this will change. In contemplating the future, three factors need to be considered: First, AdSense has completely buggered the market. Second, the death of mainstream media will create a vacuum of content. Third, this shortcoming will result in real revenue for quality content providers, regardless of delivery device."