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Budget Breakdown: “Online Reputation Management Project”

Rockford-Jobs-Cheap-Trick

Let’s do the math, and sort through the amazing amount of hope-filled economic details in the article,”Online Reputation Management Project,” published by our internet friends at the Rockford Register Star.


yasWhat is an “Online Reputation Management Project”?

Most business professionals and seventh graders that are developing a WordPress-content driven website call these projects global SEO marketing campaigns. These campaigns involve creating content to market and sell a mountain of ideals, products, and services on the internet.

The internet is a tool that appears to the general public in a deceiving way. You think it’s free everything you’re reading is true, but it’s not— most of the information, including yours, is being profited from.  

The internet is a marketing machine driven by a ROI (return on investment) results. Online investments in SEO Marketing Campaigns pays off when you, the user, believes, buys, comments, tweets, likes, reacts, and shares information.  The information has been created to poison your mind into eventually spending all of your precious time and money ordering more garbage from Amazon Prime.  Free shipping!

The internet’s greatest benefactors are the privacy-invading–social media companies (that you agreed to use by clicking OK to each company’s terms and conditions), Google, Bing, Yahoo, RkfdNews, DerbyReynolds and other smaller companies that are here to make money at your expense while littering your mind with an equal amount of poorly created, dumb-downed, easy-to-read, accurate and inaccurate information.

It’s the wild west of humanity. It’s fun!

The internet is also a playground for performing public art experiments, pranks, that can cause amateur marketing professionals, city leaders, and anyone that’s in on a public-funded handout (a dole, #trickford) to lose their panties when pushing strangers buttons for free. Free!  Many people see pranksters as trolls when, in fact, many of them, us, are the only truth bombers left on the internet making any sense whatsoever.  Honesty rarely impresses strangers. Lies are most likely to be believed and sold for a greater ROI. Politicians and artists know what is being said here, but only the artists have the creative rights to lie to you.  Think about it, ponies.

RACVB and RAEDC, like many public charities in Rockford, spend thousands-to-millions of dollars on annual marketing campaigns to improve the region’s image with carefully crafted lies that appear like the truth.  However, the intent to spread civic pride is an honorable one; if paid for by someone else, obviously.  Does it make that intent genuine if paid for? No.

In Rockford area terms, an Online Reputation Management Project actually means (according sources cited in the RRStar article): “We have to win the war!  Google must be polluted with churchy, feel-good youtube videos and happy, proud facebook content! We must change the perception others have of us when they’re using the internet to look for jobs in the Rockford region! We must lie harder— who’s paying for it?  Who gets the money to do it?”

What’s special about the internet is that there’s an infinite amount of room for everyone to share their ideals and opinions. Sometimes, you can pay Google to outrank facts, truths, or poor jokes. Either way, the internet is special.  It makes billions of people feel as if their voice matters when, in fact, it is an incredible place to be reminded of racism, ignorance. nepotism, free shipping, fascism, corruption and kitten memes.  (I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few, sorry.) It is a vast marketing platform that caters to idiots with money and power. My voice, this article, does not matter. I may be an idiot, but I do not have money or power to share this information in a manner that can profit from you, your information and money.  However, I have earned your time— CHA-CHING!  

This “sticky” content was created for free— no grant needed.

 #Trickford


Who is (RAMA) Rockford Area Marketing Amateurs?

lincoln said it!I made that up, it’s called marketing. Like Transform Rockford, Rockford this and Rockford that, it’s all marketing.  If you can figure out a way to receive money through grants from the state and feds, you are going to do incredibly positive talking things in Rockford with your marketing projects.  Lol. #Trickford #Top25By2025 #CelebrateMisery Yawn.

I’m going to legally file “RAMA” as a non-profit to qualify for the same grants that everyone else downtown in the hornets nest have their hands on. Going to get some of those free money bags and share it with my FRANDS.  Follow the money, look at the names, they’re always the same.  Now, look at the money-fund-grant trails that start with our city’s most lucrative acronyms (public charities, dole creators). 

See how easy it is to do marketing?

RAMA.


“Online Reputation Management Project” Budget Breakdown


Budget

$174,000 for two years, estimated.
($87,000 annual estimated)

Budget Sources

1) $75,000 rewarded from a “seed grant from the Rockford Area Economic Development Council’s (RAEDC) annual Emerging Opportunity Fund.  (These grants typically come from many sources, state, federal, and indirectly from tax payers.)

2) Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (RACVB) is contributing “50,000 to the reputation management project” from __________ (not cited within article, math unknown. Again.).

3) RACVB “hopes to raise an additional $49,000 in six months to help it “counteract stubborn and sticky information about the challenges we are trying to overcome.” ($49,000 from unknown sources within a strange 6 month timeline? Economics and hope are a strange combo for fulfilling budget expectations, but funny!)

Revised Budget

$49,000 doesn’t exist within the $174,000 budget provided within the article.
It’s a hopeful amount, which accounts for nothing on paper to banks, accountants, the IRS and creditors.

The actual budget is:

$125,000


Budget Expenses

Where is the money being spent?

According to the article:
The region is waging a war on Google.
The cost: $6,000 a month.
The spoils: perception.

1) 6,000 a month estimated may be going to Google (their advertising and marketing programs include: AdWords, AdSense, YouTube and much more). NOTE:  The entire article is filled with emotions, metaphors and loose estimations being provided by RACVB and RAEDC, so remember, we don’t know where the $6,000 monthly budget is being spent.

2) 12 months X $6,000 = $72,000

3) 2 years X $72,000 = $144,000

4) $30,000 ($15,000 a year) Remains in the two-year $174,000 budget (The $174,000 includes the hopeful $49,000. Again, hopeful financing is unknown still. #Lol— #TRICKFORD!)

Actual Cost of Labor, including the hopeful financing ($49,000): 

$15,000 a year from the remaining estimated budget to produce online content to meet the project’s goals with changing Rockford’s image, perception, within online search results.  Remember, this is based on their hopeful financing estimation.

That’s $1250 a month if we’re following the hopeful budget breakdown. (Not a bad part-time job to sit and make some skewed, positive-themed internet posts about how pretty the city of Rockford is, or to create another Facebook page about how happy and proud Rockford is.  Anything, pretend! That’s the internet in a nutshell.)


What happens if RACVB and RAEDC can’t find the hopeful $49,000 to add to the guaranteed $125,000?

Based on still spending $6,000 a month to win a war against Google, according to the article and sources cited, that leaves RAEDC and RACVB in a pinch having spent more than their budget allows. About $19,000 short. 

1) If the hopeful $49,000 doesn’t exist within 6 months, according to the article, maybe RACVB and RAEDC can adjust their project budget and ask local artists and freelancers to donate more labor for free if—for example—Our City Our Story (OCOS), Conveyor (CNVR), Graham Spencer (RACVB), KMK (RPS), any of the usual marketing firms back out from project negotiations due to a lack of hopeful funds.  Hope for the best, work less for more!

2) Or, enjoy a pot of coffee at Wired and Octane and talk about partnering with RPS205, as suggested in RRStar’s source article, (RHA) Rockford Housing Authority, and ____________ (add any public charity acronym); or, maybe the Mayor can ask his future employer and bosses at Gorman and Co., based out of Wisconsin, to raise even more funds from Chinese investors?

Maybe?  Free ideas! Free truths! You’re welcome, ponies.




WATT HE SAY?!

WATT?!

Wow! How in the world? What the?

#Trickford!

I hope this budget breakdown provides a few ideas for everyone involved to consider based on this region’s economics, facts, and quality of life. The emotion-based marketing agendas are cute, but they possess minimal sustainability and offer nothing towards putting action into curving real life problems.  There are many ways to spend this little amount of grant money, but it involves taking baby steps towards putting the community into action, too— and those ideas will cost you.  

Rockford has an amazing creative class of people, professional artists, and laborers. They will work, and when ideas are put into real work—that are paid for in a fair non-abusive, ethical manner—everyone succeeds and your goals are naturally met over time. In the community—and on the internet—where you want to attract strangers from outside of here to come here. To spend their money here. To drink our city market booze.  To impregnate our girlfriends and wives. To blow our boyfriends and husbands.  To grow our weed. To inflate our ego balloons.  To piss on our pride.  To spend, spend, spend that money, brah.

Internet SEO marketing agendas are temporary, as stated in your project summary. They’re also expensive marketing copouts, and an excuse for not spending the money on real work in the community that has a direct effect on everyone.  In return, affecting people inside of the box first with smart positive action that leans towards a better quality of life, and attracts those on the outside of the box who will want to come here.

Start with what we have (and leave Cheap Trick out of it):  We have incredible resources, venues, in our community— and they’re being ignored 6-7 nights a week.

Change that perception.

The creepy, proud, positive, fake-churchy perception that many of you portray within your marketing initiatives is gross.  Not sexy at all.  I’d never fuck Rockford if I were passing through and saw some of the community initiatives being plastered all over the media.  You know which ones they are and if you don’t, you’re a part of the heist. Be clever, get creative— attract strangers, intellects, all walks of life— and leave the creepy tactics at church and in the coffee shops. It’s not appealing, sexy, or image-boosting.  I’d never fuck Rockford.

Change that perception.

How genuine are any of you with your intents to better the community if a five to six figure grant isn’t being handed to you to spend/hand to the usual suspects to improve our city’s image?  Let’s address that, too.

Is it all politics? I think so. 

Change that perception.

It’s important that all of you who are trying to change our community’s image faces the poor, negative perception that many, many of you in charge with the money and power have created to begin with— which you choose to ignore and cover up.  Right?

Change that perception.

The few amongst our business and creative community who steal from the poor via Kickstarter to go on European trips under the premise of putting on an art gallery or two, but have actual intents to vacate and take it easy on our dimes and intellect.  The media should go after our community cons that have the at-large people fooled, rather than continuously rewarding them, their businesses and their poor ethics, with positive press.  The truth is not libel when poor behaviors by local businesses have happened to many people, and it is worth something to those that have been taken advantage of.

What happened to our local media? Few voices for the people around when the law is not affordable or helpful to the working class.  

Change that perception.

Business owners, public charities, and city government officials. The wrong people are in charge, and the right people are too poor, outnumbered, overworked, and way too smart to get involved with politics and budgets. How can that be changed?

Change that perception.

Transform all of it and start at the top. Decent ethics and abilities to put ideas into action without a grant, without a handout, without a bailout are still necessary for true leadership.  The American Dream is far from what it should be because we are a nation of leaders in each of our communities who think that being the borrowers, beggars, and white-collared thieves is good for everyone.  It’s not. It’s toxic.

Change that perception.

Hope doesn’t earn money, hard work does.

Change that perception.

tom-cruise-rockfordThe imaginary, emotions-based internet war that the RRStar article implies:   This is a war you can’t win— there is nothing to win on the internet. The changes you seek start with each of us confronting the problems head-on.  Silencing facts and drowning out voices of truths with money is about as close to realizing Putin’s Dream— not the American Dream.

This is an imaginary war that the city and its leaders will never win no matter how much is spent. All it takes is a handful of artists to do what we do with passion (priceless), our voices and our work,  because the community at large deserves a discerning voice. Rather than the amateur, mediocre, strangely proud, creepy churchy voices that our leaders and media are paying to portray the region with.  

(Keep it coming, ponies, I love it!)

Change that perception.

If $0.01 is spent anywhere to outrank and cover up another babbling RkfdNews article, then we’ve already won the war vs. Rockford.  For free!

Oh, the algorithms!

Yep.

Jerkin’ ya all off while wasting more of your precious time on the internets! #Trickford #CelebrateMisery #YourCityYourStories #Top25By2025

— Ron Kites



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