Once again, I found myself vetoing a gig because in the initial discussions - free advice - we met with defensive arguments at every suggestion and comment. If you're considering paying someone for professional advice, I assume the first thing you do is check to see if they have the experience, references and up-to-date knowledge you need. Then you have a talk to see what they think of your project. Can they help? If during the initial discussion, you find yourself constantly disagreeing vehemently with what they're saying, they're not right for you. Keep looking or just keep doing what you're doing now. I've mentioned in earlier articles that I've had some of the most stimulating discussions of my career with Bordeaux clients - great minds - but these were always two-way discussions and brainstorming, never systematic, ego-driven need to be right.

This is all too common in small businesses, the ones where one or two people have bootstrapped their home-built web site into a for-money operation but find they're not getting traction or not getting audience. When I go to a site that has some of the most obvious flaws in content, navigation, brand name, graphics choices, I wonder why these are never justified in a logical, lucid manner. Instead, I hear  this:

"We're not getting any visits, people aren't staying, (aren't ordering, aren't commenting)...."

"Well, you might consider simplifying the menu. In the initial view of your web site, there are 16 destinations. That may be too many choices for the initial visitor to handle. Also, you've got the navigation links pushed down below the fold on Facebook."

"Yes, but I think..." - (goes on to argue but not support the argument)

"You've posted some good stuff on Facebook. It would be great if the 30 people you have managed to attract on your Facebook page would get into discussions, either with you or with other fans."

"We don't really want to see that happen. What we want is..." - (unreasonable expectation about people clicking to purchase through Facebook).

On and on. Now you want me to write up a proposal? Seriously? Sure, it's one sentence:

"Find someone else."

More interesting than friend and follower numbers are join date, the number of posts and the number of lists. For perspective, I've added some bloggers who probably don't answer to the name 'critic'. Although I've never met Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey, who is "coming back"  to the head of the line as Twitter "product boss", I did talk to him on the phone in early 2007, and he agreed to help us with our Kiva.org initiative by promoting it on Twitter's front page. Thanks Jack, you're awesome!

The first seven wine personalities (beginning with the king, "The Vee") are all from North America. The UK component, led by Jane Anson and Jamie Goode got on the train about 1 year later. Toward the end of 2009, over 3 1/2 years after the first tweet, two and a half years after Gary Vaynerchuck, France, one of the foremost wine producing nations, wakes up to Twitter. Finally, 4 1/2 years after the first tweet, 3 1/2 after The Vee, French critic Monsieur Michel Bettane joined Twitter.

First Tweet ever:

@jack (Jack Dorsey) Twitter: 2006-03-21  Posts: 9635 Listed: 12001

 @LastGlass (Randulo Bordeaux) Twitter: 2006-10-27 Posts: 2348 Listed: 12

@randulo (Randulo Bordeaux) Twitter: 2007-03-17 Posts: 11547 Listed: 172

North American Beginnings

@garyvee (Gary Vaynerchuk)  Twitter: 2007-05-04 Posts: 45079 Listed: 13210

@1WineDude (Joe Roberts)  Twitter: 2007-12-15  Posts: 24300 Listed: 608

@drvino (Dr Vino)  Twitter: 2008-03-21 Posts: 4934 Listed: 816

@RemyCharest (Rémy Charest)  Twitter: 2008-06-01 fr Quebec, Quebec Posts: 19995 Listed: 288

@NatalieMacLean (NatalieMacLean)  Twitter: 2008-11-07  Posts: 9065 Listed: 1116

@alicefeiring (alicefeiring)  Twitter: 2008-11-10  Posts: 3808 Listed: 238

@Burghound (Burghound Report)  Twitter: 2008-11-16  Posts: 179 Listed: 144

Great Britain arrives..., then more Yanks

@newbordeaux (jane anson)  Twitter: 2008-11-28 Posts: 2819 Listed: 147

@jamiegoode (Jamie Goode) Twitter: 2009-01-27 Posts: 4341 Listed: 366

@Decanter (Decanter)  Twitter: 2009-02-26  Posts: 2329 Listed: 794

@ericasimov (Eric Asimov)  Twitter: 2009-03-30  Posts: 2569 Listed: 803

@ozclarke (Oz Clarke)  Twitter: 2009-04-01 Posts: 245 Listed: 452

@WineSpectator (Wine Spectator .com)  Twitter: 2009-04-27 Posts: 2965 Listed: 1276

@EmmanuelDelmas (Sommelier) Twitter: 2009-04-30 Posts: 2642 Listed: 75 (Early for France)

@antrose33 (Anthony Rose) Twitter: 2009-08-13 en London, UK Posts: 665 Listed: 86

@nealmartin (Neal Martin) Twitter: 2009-09-23 Posts: 1105 Listed: 198

@JancisRobinson (Jancis Robinson)  Twitter: 2009-05-08 Posts: 2946 Listed: 1792

@JamesSuckling (James Suckling)  Twitter: 2009-04-23  Posts: 3920 Listed: 440

More France

@BourgogneLive (Bourgogne-Live) Twitter: 2009-11-28 Posts: 10903 Listed: 232

@Vindicateur (Le Guide) Twitter: 2009-12-12 fr  Posts: 1881 Listed: 61

and, finally...

@RobertMParkerJr (Robert M Parker, Jr)  Twitter: 2009-12-22  Posts: 805 Listed: 911

I looked for Michel Bettane who was recently known as @LeGrandTasting but that page doesn't exist anymore.

@BettaneDesseauv (Bettane et Desseauve) Twitter: 2010-11-22 Posts: 24 Listed: 3

 

A while back, I berated and lambasted a woman for wasting my professional consulting time and not wanting to trade her professional graphics time in return. Well, Karen, you're still a cheapskate! However, when it comes to dealing with phone companies, I am a huge cheapskate. I hate paying for services I don't use and paying too much for the ones I do use.

When Free, one of the large French Internet triple-play operators in France came out with their sexy new Freebox v6 Revolution, I pored over the documentation and reviews as much as I used to do with the sci-fi articles in Playboy Asimov's Magazine. It seemed too good to be true. So far we've had excellent luck, and here's a summary if you'd like to see why I was lured to leave a company we liked a lot.

Internet: DSL 22Mb/s - someday Free will also do fiber in our street. Apparently they will also be a mobile operator within a year or so.

The modem/router box is literally plug and play (and works for both DSL and FFTH) and it's IPv6 compatible.

The same box includes a DECT base. That means if you already have DECT phones like the Siemens Gigaset, they can work with it out of the box. Otherwise, you just plug your phone into a jack on the back.

The modem/router talks over the power line to a "set top box", the FreePlayer. The units are pre-paired so there's no configuration to do.

The player brings flawless HD TV (morte than 56 channels with nothin' on) and a 250 gigabyte NAS unit. The Netwark Attached Storage appears as an external mounted drive on both Windows and Mac computers. You can move your video collection over to it and watch then using the remote. You can also attach several kinds of external drives to the player and the router.

The whole thing was designed by Philippe Starck, which is a big deal for some, tarte à la crême (means the lastest bullshit) for others, and not of interest to me. In fact the remote would have been better designed by Apple, Logitech or Sony, but whatever. The buttons are mushy, but it mostly works.

Back to my cheapness. What grabbed my attention initially was not Free's unlimited calling to 118 countries, including every single one I've ever needed to call in my life, China, Argentina included. No, it was the unlimited mobile calling to all French operators. Because receiving a call is free on mobiles in Europe, calling one is very expensive, usually around $0.20 per minute. Now, voilà, it's included in the monthly payment. For mobile, I've been testing a no-contract option for Internet on the iPhone. Here's the montly run down:

PAYG (Mobicarte) $16 / month - includes few calls, but sufficient Internet (EDGE/3G) to use maps, Gmail, apps and the web.

DSL/phone/TV     $52 / month - includes "unlimited" mobile and long distance, over 100 TV channels (90 are crap, but hey) and very respectable DSL speeds

So, for $68,  less than most people pay for their iPhone contract on ATT, we have all these services, a cheapskate's dream.