Are you thinking about next year already? I am. I hate to say it, but this year's over. With the end-of-the-year holidays, and my vacation coming up, it's time to finish up projects, get them announced, and generate some revenues. What are you doing to prepare for 2010? I'm writing a prediction about content marketing for a book, and I'm launching a couple of projects (sneak preview, Content Marketing for Smarties and Patsi's Private List). (BIG announcement next week, on the teleseminar (don't forget to register here: How to Create Content Products with MyKnowledgeGenie.) (Personal Note:…
Selected by patsikrakoff
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Writing on the Web
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If You Work for Yourself, Be a Good Boss (Weekend musings...)
7 Nov 2009 | 5:14 am -
Content Creation Made Easy, Interactive, and Affordable: My Knowledge Genie Free Class
6 Nov 2009 | 3:21 amYou may have heard the buzz about it already, My Knowledge Genie is a content creating wizard that will save you a ton of time and energy. I don't promote products unless I see them as having really good value. As soon as I set up a free account at MyKnowledgeGenie.com, I had to stop my fist from hitting my forehead too hard. This tool really is a genie. I started a free trial last week, and I'm almost finished with a comprehensive ebook that includes chapters, checklists, definitions, learning reminders, and summary questions. I'll be publishing it soon, and selling it for $97. Cost for… -
3 Key Content Questions You Must Answer
4 Nov 2009 | 3:51 amTo paraphrase Doug Kessler, Velocity Marketing:While there’s a lot of craft in the practice of content marketing, the core of the discipline is very, very simple: you have to be able to answer three questions quickly, clearly and compellingly: Who the hell are you? Why should I care? Why should I believe you? If you can answer these three questions well, you’ll have done the hardest and most important part of your content marketing job. You'll also make the other parts of your job a lot easier.While Doug writes this as part of his Holy Trinity of Technology Marketing, these questions are… -
Put Down Your Twitter Toys & Get Back to Work!
3 Nov 2009 | 4:45 amI am looking at the Twitterverse and shaking my head. So much going on there, so much noise. Looks like some of you are having just too much fun over there...And like a kid with a new toy, some of you are abandoning your old stand-by business blogs in favor of quick updates on Twitter.Tsk, tsk. Put down your Twitter Toys right NOW! Some of you are making too much noise. All that laughing, it can't be good for business, now can it? Really? You're getting new clients and making money and having a good time, too? Can't be true...and yet...just last week I got a new client who told me she found… -
Confessions of a Content Marketing Doofus...
2 Nov 2009 | 6:27 amI've got to confess to being my own worse marketing example...This weekend I read my own blog posts...and decided I talk a good talk but don't always walk the talk! What a doofus...(Another great photo from Shutterstock)It's the post about using client comments as part of a good content marketing strategy. If social proof is so darned vital in influencing readers to become clients, why don't I showcase the emails and comments I get from the people I've worked with?I can be demure and say I don't like tooting my own horn, but that would be lame since I am telling everybody else how crucial…
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Holy Kaw!
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My plug is better than yours
7 Nov 2009 | 8:38 amWho’s got the best power plug? Crave UK answers the question with their tongue somewhat in cheek. Could there be any bias with their #1 plug? I guess the writers don’t travel much and could care less about size. Also, perhaps anthropomorphism is a bit too highly ranked? More intelligent ways to be shocked. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
25 wackiest NYC Marathon costumes
6 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pmRunning 26.2 miles while sucking down polluted urban air wasn’t quite difficult enough for some jogging fools competing in the New York City Marathon last week, so a handful of creative folks decided to extend Halloween an extra day and run the race while donning costumes. Photogs spotted clowns, super heroes, Uncle Sam, nuns and even an apparently alive Michael Jackson. Lucky for you, you didn’t have to travel all the way to the Big Apple to check out all the shenanigans because Buzz Feed has collected images of the 25 best costumes at the 2009 NYC marathon. Enjoy (and feel lazy… -
Tech that refuses to die
6 Nov 2009 | 10:26 pmCall them the Jason Vorhees of technology—gadgets that just won’t die, no matter how many times you kill ‘em with a chain saw. Tech moves fast,—remember, like 10 years ago you probably had a pager in your pocket—but why is it that some technology seems completely resistant to kicking the bucket? From cables that remain tangled under your desk to the hipsters’ audio format of choice, vinyl, CNet highlights eight tech items that refuse to meet the Grim Reaper. Even Twitter makes a surprise entry on the list. Check out the full list, including why the sans… -
How to change
6 Nov 2009 | 10:09 pmWant to change? Then, according to Peter Bregman, just change one thing. In his case he stopped consuming large amounts of sugar. For me, it would be carbohydrates. But the article isn’t really about dieting—it’s about how to become a better business person, so read it and reap. More Lifehacks. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Guess who is a Glamour woman of the year?
6 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pmIt’s going to be a long time before I post about anything in Glamour, but this is a special occasion. The magazine named Google’s Marissa Mayer as one of the women of the year for 2009. Joining her is “refuse to use Bluetooth” Maria Shriver and others. The only reason Matt Cutts didn’t win is that he’s a man—despite the concerted efforts of SEO consultants around the world to game the voting.. More, albeit less glamourous, news about Google. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Junta42-Content Marketing
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Custom Print Magazines - Why Can't MasterCard Produce Inc. Magazine?
4 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amI don't know about you, but I've been reading more print magazines lately. Seems odd at first, but in a way, it makes perfect sense. I spend most of my business day and night on the computer. When I'm on my computer, I need to get things done. But when I want to relax and engage in an inspiring story, print is my choice...books and magazines. At the top of the list is probably Inc. magazine. This month's article about how 37Signals founder Jason Fried spends his day was priceless. Speaking of "priceless", shouldn't MasterCard be producing an Inc-type… -
Less of Me, More of You - A Stella Pop Content Marketing Video
2 Nov 2009 | 7:38 pmBig thanks to Mike O'Grady at Stella Pop for putting out the latest edition of eVidmagazine featuring yours truly. Although Mike was originally thinking a two or three minute video interview, he decided that the video worked best as a 10 minute segment. Hey, he's the expert, so I'm not going to disagree with him. My biggest takeaway from the video was this - Less of me and more of you (well, not literally since it's almost 10 minutes of me). What I mean is that brands are starting to focus much more on you (the buyer) and much less on the "me" (themselves). In simplest… -
BtoB Custom Media / Custom Publishing Special Report
29 Oct 2009 | 9:49 amBtoB Magazine just did an outstanding custom media special report for business-to-business brands. Here's an overview of the special report. Media, Agencies Battle to be Kings of Content: Publishers, advertising agencies, direct firms, pr firms - everyone is battling for the money flowing into content marketing and custom media. This article offers perspectives from both media companies and agencies on the battle for content. Custom Media Moves Closer to the Core: Great examples from the CME Group, Sherwin-Williams and IDG on how brands are leveraging both print and online custom media as… -
Who's Outsourcing Content? - A Junta42 Annual Report
29 Oct 2009 | 5:33 amWe just delivered the Junta42 annual report email to the Junta42 content marketing vendors and I thought I would share it with the community.As you'll see in the email, these are high-level numbers. Over the next few weeks, we'll be putting together a "State of Content Marketing Outsourcing" (better title to come) that will take the mounds of data we have on content marketing projects and put it together in a handy report. If there is anything specific you'd like to see, please let me know.>>>>Start of EmailHi John: First off, I wanted to… -
Personal Branding Success in 15 Steps
27 Oct 2009 | 7:35 pmDan Schawbel has put together a first-rate magazine about personal branding called (of course) Personal Branding Magazine. The latest issue includes an article from yours truly, which I've included below. I also included one of my PowerPoint presentations when I do in-person workshops on personal branding (this article was based on that presentation). If this topic is important to you, I suggest you check out Dan's magazine (get the free trial issue here). 15 Steps to Personal Branding SuccessBefore talking about the how of personal branding, it’s essential to talk about why…
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Darren Rowse
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Blogging is Rocket Science
7 Nov 2009 | 6:07 amToday’s post is by Kevin Sanders of Strong and Fit. Do you ever have those moments when seemingly random, unrelated thoughts kind of merge together in your mind? This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I remembered a documentary I watched on the space shuttle years ago. Something was said about the percentage of fuel it burns within the first two minutes of liftoff. It stuck in my mind and I tried to find the information on Google. No luck. Then I remembered that one of my family members (Dale Hutchens, Ph.D.) works with NASA. He is a chemical engineer who was directly involved with… -
Six Ways To Make More Money As An Affiliate
6 Nov 2009 | 5:15 amBy Johnny B. Truant I’m going to go out on a limb and say that affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money online. You don’t have to create a product or develop a service, you don’t need huge amounts of focused traffic the way you do with AdSense, (I started using AdSense a year ago and just recently passed the $100 minimum payout), and you don’t need to do a ton of advertising or SEO to make it work. All you really need is an audience to whom you can refer products and services. Of course, the above statement is true in the same way it’s true that you… -
The Paint By Numbers Guide To Artful Blogging
6 Nov 2009 | 5:15 amA Guest Post by Greg Hayes from Live Fit Blog. Do you subscribe to the idea that blogging is an art form? I do. Britannica Online defines art as “The use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.” If you’re a blogger, then by definition, you most certainly engage in the following activities during the creation of content: Creative Writing Web Page Design (Aesthetics) Idea Development (Novelty) Social Media (Shared Experiences) When we start our blog, we read the A-list bloggers, and they repeat the… -
14 Types of Stories You Can Tell On Your Blog
4 Nov 2009 | 6:18 amYesterday we explored WHY stories can be such a powerful communication tool on your blog. Today we’ll look at 14 types of stories that you might like to try on your blog. 14 Types of stories can you tell on your blog Personal Discovery Stories – tell how you discovered a lesson. These stories show your readers how similar you are to them and also might give some practical advice on how they might learn from your experience. Stories as Analogies and Illustrations – tell a story that on the surface has nothing to do with your topic but which illustrates a principle that is relevant. -
Why Stories are an Effective Communication Tool for Your Blog
3 Nov 2009 | 6:18 amAs I write this it is the first Tuesday morning of a new month and I’m sitting in a local coffee shop going through my ‘start of the month routine‘. It involves a large lattè (everything else hinges on this) and some delving into my blogs metrics to see how they’ve been performing. While I do keep track of the traffic stats of my blogs each day I like to set aside an hour or two at the start of each month to go a little deeper and do some more analysis of trends on my blogs – I find that when I do this I notice things that I can build on to continue momentum on…
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Copyblogger
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The Oscar the Grouch Guide to Building a More Remarkable Blog
6 Nov 2009 | 7:33 amThis week marked the 40th anniversary of the breakthrough TV program Sesame Street. I’ve written before about some of the many lessons you can learn from this cultural icon, but today I’m going to zero in something new. You might have an Elmo blog, a Cookie Monster blog, or a Big Bird blog. (How you define those is up to you.) But some of the smartest and most successful bloggers out there bear more in common with the show’s least-likeable character: Oscar the Grouch. Oscar was an important character from the show’s beginning, and on the surface he doesn’t seem to quite fit in. -
Here’s Something to Think (and Talk) About
5 Nov 2009 | 6:55 amI’m flying to New York City today for the Audience Conference, so I thought I’d share a quotation about the relationship between writers (or any content creator) and the people they hope to connect with. When talented people write badly it’s generally for one of two reasons: Either they’re blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove or they’re driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They’re moved by a desire to touch the audience. ~Robert McKee Let’s discuss. What do McKee’s words mean to you? About the… -
Get Off Your Computer and Become a Better Blogger
4 Nov 2009 | 6:45 amBloggers spend a lot of time on their computers. They’re posting, reading, commenting on other blogs, sending Tweets, checking half a dozen social networking sites, and generally being web-geeky. They find something interesting or random, and then clue in other people to that interesting or random thing. This is how blog posts gain steam on Digg or go viral. This is how we find out about new YouTube videos. This is how we communicate now. Except we don’t. We were people before we were bloggers Think about the blogs that you like the most. Like, to pick a totally random example,… -
The Quentin Tarantino Guide to Creating Killer Content
3 Nov 2009 | 5:58 amIn a recent Copyblogger post discussing how the king of content is being slowly usurped by the Crown Prince of Context, author Larry Brooks referenced the remarkable opening scene of Quentin Tarantino’s new movie Inglourious Basterds. There are few writers like Tarantino, and though his verbal carpet bombs and kinetic escalation of violence aren’t for everyone, there is no doubt that the dude follows his muse. Those who love him will eagerly wait in lines wrapped around the block to show their support. In short, Tarantino sells it every time. And by it, I mean an ironclad belief in… -
How to Get Lucky With Content Marketing
2 Nov 2009 | 7:36 amDo you feel like you’re fighting for every page view your blog receives? Do you wonder why you’re struggling to find readers when other bloggers seem to just hit “publish” and the world comes running? It may be tempting to throw up your hands and say, “those other guys have all the luck,” but it won’t get you anywhere. The truth is, those “lucky” people are doing something you’re not doing. (Or they’re doing what you are doing, but better.) If you want to get lucky, you’re going to have to give up the “poor…
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ContentMarketingToday
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6 Reasons to Embrace Social Media Today
6 Nov 2009 | 7:47 amSocial media marketing is a trend, not a fad. But, most small to medium-sized businesses have yet to participate fully and enthusiastically. We have just written about a powerful new research study that paints a picture of how thousands of smart companies are already benefiting from the inclusion of social media. What’s clear from that research is that when we evaluate social media, we are not talking about the marketing longevity equivalent of the hula hoop or the Lambada. Social media marketing is here to stay. Because you want your organization to be here for the long… -
Terrific New Social Media Research Study Means It’s Time for Small Business to Get with the Program
6 Nov 2009 | 7:19 amIf you’ve been dragging your feet on social media, it’s time to take both of those feet and jump right in. The just released study on business use of social media from the folks at Business.com is must reading for content marketers who are active, tentative or hesitant about social media. Their research, 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study makes it clear that even small business owners need to take social media very seriously indeed. The study was designed to assess current trends in the use of social media in North American businesses. Based on 2,948 valid responses to… -
Give Your Marketing Real Depth to Deliver Offline and Online Results
6 Nov 2009 | 5:57 amIt’s All About the Power of Deep 3 D Content Over Skinny 2 D Content What’s the difference between 2-D marketing and 3-D marketing you might ask? Plenty! Think of all the junk mail you receive at home or at the office. Tons of envelopes and a few postcards. Virtually everything but the bills will be tossed–and much of that without anyone looking at the individual pieces. There is no depth to all that stuff. But what if you receive a well-designed magazine that clearly matches your interests, even if you haven’t requested it? What’s the… -
Top 10 Lessons Small Businesses Can Takeaway from Smart Content Marketers
23 Oct 2009 | 6:37 amThis week, several client meetings reinforced a vital truth: Content marketing isn’t an arcane theory taught in expensive graduate schools that only billion dollar companies can use. In fact, great content marketing is much more about brains than big bucks. Those client conversations took me back to lessons learned from more than a dozen case studies we featured in Get Content Get Customers. What came through loud and clear was that content marketing requires discipline, patience, and persistence, but it doesn’t require an enormous budget. It’s particularly gratifying… -
Yes! You Can Afford to Do The Research That Lets You Understand Your Customers
22 Oct 2009 | 3:39 pmHow to Get Started on Cheap and Powerful Customer Studies Unless you understand your customers, you risk painful marketing missteps. Because we know that effective content marketing depends on a thorough understanding of your customers, regular research should be a core component of your content marketing strategy. Of course, it’s possible to do way too much research. That’s when you wind up with the paralysis by analysis situation. But, most small to midsize companies suffer from too little research and too much gut feel. That’s when some very…
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Writing White Papers
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Major Study Shows White Paper Power Increasing!
29 Oct 2009 | 3:06 pmListen up businesses! The white paper is here to stay and it’s only getting more important. Or so says a brand new study by Eccolo Media. I covered the main take-home message of their last report earlier this year. But this new study has some amazing findings covering everything from the influence of white papers compared to other marketing tools, how they are shared, their ideal length and when they are used in the purchase cycle. I outline the key findings below. (more…) -
Using Twitter For White Papers
26 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pmAre you scratching your head trying to come up with current trends on a particular white paper topic? Why not tap into Twitter? By using applications that harness the power of this vast network, you can selectively search the Twittersphere for trends in your industry. Set up alerts around key phrases (more…) -
Learn How to Master Facebook and Twitter Marketing in Free Live Streaming Event
12 Oct 2009 | 12:00 amLinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter… To some they’re social media. But for those in the know, they’re free marketing tools that can attract thousands of customers and make millions of dollars for businesses willing to get in the game. That’s according to the “The Social Media Dream Team,” four powerhouse social media professionals (Mari Smith, Jason Falls, Chris Garrett and Denise Wakeman), who will be fielding live viewer questions on finding customers and making money online with social media. The group will appear in free real-time video streams on Monday,… -
White Paper Client Interview Template: Good for Sales Letters, Too
6 Oct 2009 | 1:56 pmAn interesting thing happened while collaborating on some sales letter work recently. While sitting in on the initial client interviews, I found myself going back to Mike’s white paper interview template to “fill in” some gaps while we were talking to the client. Mike’s white paper process is much more interview-heavy than other types of marketing writing, but it’s also much more comprehensive. The “Stelzner method” is more of a guided discussion than an in-depth creative brief filled out over the phone, and I’ve found it much more efficient for gathering information than your… -
Should You Task Your Staff to Create White Papers to Spawn New Ideas?
24 Sep 2009 | 5:31 amLet’s say the idea vault is looking pretty empty. No one at your company has really contributed any new thoughts in ages. Does it ever make sense to ask your key players to contribute white papers, outlining new ideas for corporate growth? This is the essence of a question submitted by Jason, working for an international organization: I am working for a international high tech company and they have planned a management meeting with the 80 top managers (R&D, Engineers, Sales, Marketing, Finance). They will spend a week together, working on different issues. The outcome of the…
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Seth's Blog
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Take what you can get (?)
7 Nov 2009 | 3:34 amWhen you're just starting out or when your organization is struggling or when the economy isn't hot, it's very tempting to take what you can get.You just graduated from law school and you have a lot of debt and the best job you can get is doing collections work. Should you take it?Your consulting firm is organized around providing high-value work for large corporations, but the only gigs you can get in the consideration set for are small, struggling companies looking to spend a few hundred dollars a day. Should you take them?The list goes on and on.There are two things worth remembering here:… -
Everyone is clueless
6 Nov 2009 | 2:29 amThe problem with "everyone" is that in order to reach everyone or teach everyone or sell to everyone, you need to so water down what you've got you end up with almost nothing.Everyone doesn't go to the chiropractor, everyone doesn't give to charity, everyone has never been to Starbucks. Everyone, in fact, lives a decade behind the times and needs hundreds of impressions and lots of direct experience before they realize something is going on.You don't want everyone. You want the right someone.Someone who cares about what you do. Someone who will make a contribution that matters. Someone who… -
The unclicking 84%
5 Nov 2009 | 2:36 amMark points us to this great set of stats.Basically, all of the clicks for all the ads online come from only 16% of the surfers, and most of them come from just 4% of all internet users.So, if you optimize your ads for clicks, it means you're ignoring a huge population.If your business is built around the kind of person who clicks, you win. If it isn't, you either need to not buy ads online or buy ads optimized for attention and familiarity, not clicks.Imagine that only left-handed people clicked on ads (it's about the same percent). What are you going to do if you make a product for the… -
When data and decisions collide
4 Nov 2009 | 2:54 amUntil recently, most of the decisions we were called on to make were based on hunches, insight and a little bit of data. Occasionally, a field like direct marketing would develop into something quite data-driven ("I don't care if you like mailer one, Smythe, mailer #2 did three times, better! Number 2 it is.") but not often.It took Ignaz Semmelweis more than twenty years (he died before it happened, actually) to persuade doctors that washing their hands could save the lives of mothers giving birth. He had the data, he had the proof, but that wasn't enough to change minds.Data mining and the… -
Limited edition boxed set available today SOLD OUT!
3 Nov 2009 | 7:41 am[We ended up selling more than three a minute. You guys are so cool. We had a few counter problems, but it didn't effect the number we sold...they're all gone, 800 in total, and I won't be able to sell any more. Thank you for the energy and support!]It seems as though the Apple tablet is unlikely to be ready in time for the holidays... what to get? How about a boxed (a wooden box) set of five of my books? Very limited (only 800 will be sold, ever). Sold at a discount from retail, with cool packaging, assembled by elves, delivered by Martians, blessed by enlightened goats. My goal was to make…
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Marketing Profs Daily Fix
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Paul Williams: Catch More Fish With The Right Lure, In The Right Waters
6 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amA couple of fishermen are hanging out in their local bait shop. One has a new product idea for out-of-town visitors. Sell a lake map and fishing lure combo. Take specific fishing lures and tape them to the different lakes on the map. This way the out-of-towner will know the proper bait to use at each particular lake, and will lead to a more successful fishing experience. If you're at Watermans Reservoir and want to catch a Northern Pike, you need a spinner lure. At Worden's Pond after Jackfish? Use a fish-imitation lure or cut bait.* Here comes the business segue... We marketers and business… -
Suzanne Lowe: Digital Versus Paper: What's The Future For Professional Services?
4 Nov 2009 | 5:50 amIn the past several weeks, I've encountered questions about the effectiveness of digital marketing versus paper-driven communications. A recent WSJ piece "Marketers Still Prefer a Paper Trail," asserts that people are motivated to go to a Web site to buy when they see an item in a catalog. Some of my marketing communication friends tell me that their professional service clients are producing print newsletters in addition to (and in some cases, instead of) digital newsletters. They say, "my clients' clients are so overwhelmed with emails that they actually appreciate print newsletters!" It's… -
Paul Williams: Don't Force It: Roam Before You Pave
3 Apr 2009 | 7:16 amI have a story for you... An architect built a cluster of office buildings around a central green. When construction was completed, the landscape crew asked him where he wanted the sidewalks. "Just plant the grass solidly between the buildings," was his reply. By late summer, the new lawn was laced with paths of trodden grass between the buildings. These paths turned in easy curves and were sized according to traffic flow. In the fall, the architect simply paved the paths. Not only were the paths beautiful, they responded directly to user needs. I love this story. I am certain this…
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Chris Brogan
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Interview with Mike Myatt
5 Nov 2009 | 8:46 pmMike Myatt is Chief Strategy Officer of N2Growth, a business that deals with branding, coaching, leadership management and more. Mike was also kind enough to buy many copies of Trust Agents, which made me wonder: what kind of a guy buys a ton of books to help a guy out, without wanting me to go and speak at some event or something? Mike just wanted to see things go well with our launch, and for that, I’m grateful. I asked Mike some questions about his business and where he sees all this going. Here’s our interview: You help coach CEOs on leadership and related issues, and… -
How to Think Of Blog Posts
5 Nov 2009 | 4:26 amThe secret to blogging every day is a blend of three things: discipline, practice, and ideas. That last part is usually what I find people asking me for help with, so let’s talk about that today. Ideas don’t just grow on trees. But, you do have to harvest ideas the way you’d pick apples. Why? Because they’re everywhere. Here are some of the ways I find ideas. How to Think of Blog Posts Answer questions. You get emails with people asking you for your thoughts on X. Write the post instead of just replying to the email. Take pictures. I see strange things out and about. -
Wiring Up Business- Two Channel Social
3 Nov 2009 | 10:14 pmLet’s imagine you’re a small or medium sized business and looking to use social software to improve communications on many fronts: support, service, marketing, etc. If you chose to use a service like Twitter, for instance, for some of this communicating, I can see the need to have a two-channel mindset: one public and customer-facing and the other private and business-facing. On the public channel, you’d talk with customers and prospects about the business, including everything from support help to promotional opportunities, to general good will. On the other channel,… -
Trust Agents- An Introduction
3 Nov 2009 | 7:39 amI can’t say thanks enough to John Spiropoulos for his great video project from my trip to Southern California to spend time with Brandtailers. These videos he made are amazing. Pay attention to the quality John put into them more than the content itself. I mean, I’m flattered and pleased, but also pay attention to how John did what he did. I think he’s top shelf. You? If you can’t see the video, click here. -
Thank You Amazon-Thank You Friends
3 Nov 2009 | 4:28 amYesterday, Trust Agents was named a Top 10 Book by Amazon.com, thanks in great part to YOUR kindness by ordering it. In just over two months, the book has made the New York Times Bestseller’s list, the Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s list, the top 5 sellers on Audible.com, and now the Top 10 Business & Investing books of 2009, according to Amazon. I consider every one of those successes to be yours. You did all the hard work. Julien and I just typed. Thank you for what you’ve done to make the book successful, and for believing in us. For those of you who haven’t…
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Bob Sutton
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When is the change going to be over?
4 Nov 2009 | 7:54 amAn executive my wife knows reported one of her people recently asked her this question. The last couple years have been tough on all of of us, and especially tough on people who had assumed that the future would be an imitation of the past. Of course, the answer is that the change will never be over. More so than ever, a boss's job is to prepare his or her people by developing expectations that there will be constant change, while (as I wrote in HBR), providing as much prediction, understanding, control, and compassion as possible.I wonder, what else can a boss do to help… -
The Baboon Troop that Mellowed Out After the Alpha Males Died
2 Nov 2009 | 8:35 amI got an email last night from a former student (thanks Hendrick!) who wanted to let me know that Stanford's Robert Sapolsky had done a WNYC radio show called "New Normal?" (listen here) where he described his 2004 article with Lisa Share on a troop of baboons -- which became more peaceful (or at least less nasty) after the alpha males died. It is amazing stuff, and more evidence that being a jerk and having power go hand in hand. Here is a link to the original academic article (which I was able to download for free). It is short and quite accessible, and just… -
Intuition vs. Data-Driven Decision-Making: Some Rough Ideas
1 Nov 2009 | 10:22 amA Stanford undergraduate doing a case analysis on using intuition versus systematic analysis wrote me an email last night to get my thoughts on the difference between the two, especially in light of the work that Jeff Pfeffer and I did on evidence-based management. Below is my lightly edited response. This is just off the top of my head (is it mostly intuition?). I would love to hear your thoughts on this distinction -- if it is useful, how the two concepts fit together, when one is more useful than the others, and so on: I don't think that intuition and… -
I Am Just Like You
30 Oct 2009 | 9:31 amA few days back, I wrote about David Dunning's book Self-Insight, which presents a compelling case that there are numerous impediments to self-awareness and that many of these roadblocks are mighty difficult to overcome. I am now on the last chapter, which contains some interesting ideas about how to increase our awareness of how skilled or unskilled we might be at things and our awareness of how others see us. Dunning points out that a host of studies show that one major impediment to self-awareness is that people see themselves as unique -- usually as superior to others -- … -
Reducing Interruptions and Saving Lives: New Study on Drug Treatment Errors
28 Oct 2009 | 9:21 amI have written here and other places on Amy Edmondson's wonderful research on how, when nurses feel as if they have psychological safety, they openly talk about and try to correct drug treatment errors, but when they work in a climate of fear, they are afraid to even admit when they have made mistakes -- which led to a rather bizarre finding in Amy's early research that in nursing units where people felt safe, even compelled,to talk about and learn from mistakes, they reported ten times more errors than in a nursing unit where the supervisor slammed nurses who admitted or where…
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John Jantsch
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3 Sources of Grammar Inspiration
6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 am3 Sources of Grammar InspirationThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing About once a week I amuse the grammar troops by torturing some aspect of the language in my writing. Hey, I don’t do it on purpose and I love that I’m able to provide an otherwise cuddly group of individuals with a steady flow of chuckles. I’ve had this post in the back of my mind for some time, but I was prompted to write it today by a LinkedIn status update I saw yesterday. (Name of victim withheld) – “Excited to attend my first titter conference today.” In the always on, say… -
Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma
5 Nov 2009 | 3:16 amTrust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and CharismaThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Nick Morgan (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes Trust – can’t get enough of that as a brand, business, or person these days. Everyone knows that, but what they may not know is that there are things each of is doing that may be unintentionally eroding trust – particularly when it comes to the topic of speaking and presenting. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast Nick Morgan, author of Trust Me, talks… -
Social Media Training Course Beta Testers Needed
3 Nov 2009 | 5:03 amSocial Media Training Course Beta Testers NeededThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This whole social media thing for small business can be confusing, I know, I speak to groups of small business owner routinely and hear things like – “I’m overwhelmed, I’m tired of the hype, what do I do first, how do I find the time.” Update: The good news is a lot of people really want to beta test this program – over 125 left comments for the 10 spots, but I guess that’s the bad news too. Here’s what I’ve decided to do – I will choose 20 beta… -
Biznik Blends High Tech with High Touch
2 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pmBiznik Blends High Tech with High TouchThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Fortunately, it’s starting to feel like the wave of social media hype has crested and small businesses can turn their attention to understanding social media “best practices” rather than obsessing over next week’s new tool. Today’s greatest small business opportunity awaits those who learn to skillfully blend the awareness creating, automating, and filtering aspects of social media platforms with the trust and customer building aspects of education based, face-to-face networking. -
Weekend Favs October Thirty-One
31 Oct 2009 | 5:20 amWeekend Favs October Thirty-OneThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve added a weekend post routine that I hope you enjoy. Each weekend I write a post that features 3-4 things I read during the week that I found interesting. Generally speaking it doesn’t involve much analysis and may range widely in topic. (Flickr image included here is also fav image of the week) Enjoy! Good stuff I ran across this week: Twitter Gallery - Nice collection of free twitter backgrounds. This is an asset that should be branded, but at least dress it up a bit. KnowEm – Search over 340 popular social…
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Shel Israel
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Some Social Media Department [SMD] granularity
3 Nov 2009 | 9:41 amI am heartened that I've received some comments and thoughtful questions that indicate I am not alone in thinking the time has come to establish social media departments in the enterprise. This follow up post offers a few thoughts on just what this department would--and would not--do. And I need to start with a disclaimer. I do not think this new department should own social media in the enterprise. That is as bad an idea as one department owning email and deciding how it should be used, or the telephone and so on. Social media encompasses a set of tools that improve communications by… -
Time to draw a Social Media box into the org chart
2 Nov 2009 | 8:52 pmI was having lunch with an old friend who has spent the better part of the last four years pushing the social media rock up the enterprise mountain. She was frustrated. Marketing, after disdaining and ignoring her social media team efforts four years ago; after having then gotten angry and tried to shut down the social media efforts two years ago, now wanted to fold the social media team into the marketing department.She is not alone. Almost every enterprise has a small band of social media champions. They have almost operated as a skunkworks operation, one who existed from project to project… -
Personal Brand & the Humanization of Corporate Brand
2 Nov 2009 | 9:29 amA great deal is being said these days about personal brand and as is usually the case, with a new term, there is debate on how new or important it is. There are those who feel personal brand is just a new term for good old-fashioned reputation and others who feel there is an opportunity for old advertisers to try a new spin on their creative attempts to insert position messages into human minds.I see some truth in all of this, and the whole truth in none of it. To me personal brand is very closely connected to human reputation. There are two aspects that I think make it at least slightly… -
SM Global Report: Howard Rheingold [Part 2]
28 Oct 2009 | 8:35 amWhere we're going [Howard Rheingold. Photo by Oscar Espiritusanto]Note: This is part part 2 of two parts. You can see Part 1, Where we've been here.This title is just slightly misleading. Howard really offered no predictions of where people and technology is heading in the Conversation Age, and I didn't try to get him him to make forecasts. While his writings have displayed more than a little prescience, he is more of a thinker than a futurist. But he did offer some interesting observations about at least one emergent technology and some useful… -
Explaining my SM Global Report
27 Oct 2009 | 8:18 amYesterday, over on Twitter, I asked for suggestions for my SM Global Report and was surprised by the confusion that caused. Some people thought I was offering some sort of proprietary report, perhaps a PDF.This post is to help me explain and to give me a link I can point to in the future. [If you know all about the SM Global Report and how I use it, just skip this report and come back later.]The Social Media [SM] Global Report is at the core of what I do. Since 2005, I have interviewed people about how they use social media in their work and lives. In all there have been over 400 interviews…
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Valeria Maltoni
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Is Your Conversation About Scarcity or Abundance?
6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amYou need to decide now, because your results depend on the answer. I have a problem with scarcity mindset - it's myopic, unnecessarily restrictive, and in fact destructive for you and your organization. Scarcity presupposes that you're the center of the universe, that the work box is the only box available for packing a life, and it doesn't have a good ending. It's a very lonely ending. Yesterday we talked about the difference between getting recognition for its own sake and getting the idea done. The latter is in the abundance camp. Which incidentally is the same place or context where weak… -
Participation and Getting Ideas Done
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am[Maestro Salieri and the priest, from Amadeus, 2:35]This week, so far, we talked about setting up listening posts to serve customers better as first line of response and to be proactive, building a framework to develop valuable content to deliver as a service, and measurement. Today we focus on participation. That mix of attention, time, interaction, with a sprinkle of human thrown into it that makes relationships start and grow.What did you see in the movie clip above? [hat tip Rohit Barghava for leading me to Amadeus] Antonio Salieri was the most famous composer in Europe. He wrote 40… -
Avinash Kaushik, Web Analytics 2.0
4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am“In God we trust, all others bring data.” — Framed plaque from the ‘60s at NASA’s Johnson Space CenterWhen it comes to deep smarts, curiosity, with practical advice and sprinkled with a healthy dose of good humor, I cannot think of anyone more qualified than Avinash Kaushik. He's not only a real dynamo in all matters analytics, he's also a genuinely passionate, interesting, and kind person. Think that he wrote the answers to our conversation while his hand was healing from an injury because he had made a promise.Every single one of his posts - and now I can say the same for the… -
Developing a B2B Content Strategy: Start with Who
3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amBusinesses that want to create long-term sustainable growth will be increasingly moving towards connected company status. That is the place where being social benefits the business by providing insights, strengthening relationships with partners and customers, and building and connecting a community with common grounds and needs. In many organizations, the listening post resides within the marketing group. As we discussed yesterday here and on Twitter, customer service should co-own the space and collaborate to develop big ears during customer conversations and interactions. In many B2B… -
Twitter, Customer Service, and Good Brand Management
2 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amIf monitoring conversations and knowing what you're listening for is the first ingredient in good online best practices, knowing when and how to respond is much more than good etiquette. It's become an integral aspect of brand management and can mean the difference between a flop - or worse, a crisis - and a deposit in your company's reputation bank.It's easy to dismiss Twitter's usefulness as a tool. That is until you figure out that on Twitter you can find mentions of your brand and you can actually connect with customers directly and provide a first line of response. Chances are, that in…
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Dan Pink
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Quote of the Day: No means yes
2 Nov 2009 | 6:09 am“Strategy is what you choose not to do.”– Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, with an assist from Michael Porter -
Signs that make you look twice — Part 2
1 Nov 2009 | 5:17 pmMy old friend and college classmate Sharon Roth sends this tangle of a sign, which she snapped on the mean streets of Park Ridge, Illinois. The “Stop Means Stop” addendum at the bottom could be effective, she says. But there’s so much clutter and noise surrounding it that many drivers tune out rather than slow down. (In other words, writers aren’t the only people who need editors? — Ed.) -
Signs that make you look twice — Part 1
1 Nov 2009 | 5:04 pmJason Soll – a sprinter, a TEDster, and a central Ohio homeboy — sends this sign from his dorm at Claremont McKenna College. It’s clever. And by getting us to look twice, the sign might prod us into following its instructions. -
Factoid of the day: Miles for clunkers?
29 Oct 2009 | 8:25 pmI’ve been on the road a lot lately — which means that my posts have been infrequent and that they have a travel theme. Today’s the same. Sitting on the tarmac in O’Hare for two hours tonight, I came across this stunner in today’s Wall Street Journal:“There are an estimated 10 trillion unused frequent-flier miles in circulation now, worth some $165 billion.” That dollar figure is more than the GDP of Egypt. And if you were to distribute all those miles evenly among Americans, it would amount to one free trip for every man, woman, and child in the… -
Where are the dang outlets?
22 Oct 2009 | 1:02 pmThat’s the question that power-mad (in the electrical sense) travelers ask when they arrive at an airport with their phones and laptops screaming “battery low.”The search can quickly lead an upstanding citizen down the low road. I’ll cop to: scouring every baseboard in a terminal in a mouse-like quest for a power hole; pinching the outlets behind the United check-in desks when nobody is looking; sitting on the floor, Buddha-style, in the middle of a crowded gate so I can draw a few minutes of juice from one inconveniently located power source; and unplugging the electronic garbage…
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Escape from Cubicle Nation
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10 ways to stimulate the economy with your brain
5 Nov 2009 | 10:58 amI don’t know about you, but I get mighty tired of reading newspaper articles and blog rants about the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of stimulus money on our economy. What makes me frustrated is that we waste hours a day fighting with each other about things outside of our control, instead of using our own brains to do something about our local economy. So here is my list of 10 things you can do, right now, to stimulate a small corner of your local economy without spending a dime: Mentor a new business owner. If you know how to build an effective website or display goods more… -
Spreading the addiction of the TED conference one city at a time
30 Oct 2009 | 2:24 pmThere are few things that get me fired up late at night like watching TED videos. For the uninitiated, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and is a conference that takes place once a year. The videos from TED are shared free on their website, and the talks are enough to get you standing up with your fist in the air, clutching your heart with tears streaming down your cheeks, or doubling over with laughter. TED is undertaking a new initiative which is to encourage local communities to sponsor their own events, called “TEDx.” We are hosting ours here in Phoenix,… -
Last chance to attend live Escape from Cubicle Nation workshop in 2009
28 Oct 2009 | 4:20 pmThe fabulous and enthusiastic crew from last week’s Escape from Cubicle Nation Workshop in London. Photo by the handsome and talented TMSRuge. I communicate on Twitter so frequently that I just realized some blog readers may not know that my last live Escape from Cubicle Nation workshop will take place on Wednesday, November 4 at the Hotel Belamar in Southern California. I will be joined by the fabulous and talented Colleen Wainwright, otherwise known as Communicatrix, who is an amazing resource for branding and social media. This will be my last workshop of the year, and the last… -
Response to Chris Brogan about Overnight Success
25 Oct 2009 | 4:05 pmSitting in the Dallas airport after having spent the weekend speaking and participating in Milana Leshinsky’s Coaching Millions Super Summit, I watched Chris Brogan’s 3-part video series on Overnight Success and felt my heart melt. I related to so much of what he talked about, since I have spent so much time this summer on the road, promoting my book. Getting out in front of people is critical, spreading the message of hope and connection through entrepreneurship is imperative, and creating a powerful business model that serves people well and provides well for my family is a… -
The beauty of dirty laundry
19 Oct 2009 | 2:38 pmAt the management conference I attended in Pärnu, Estonia last week, we had a speaker from Denmark, Morten Lund, a long-time entrepreneur who had, among other things, made good money investing in Skype. As he launched into his presentation, he said: “I have founded over 88 startups. And at the moment, I am bankrupt.” Due to a failed investment in a newspaper business in his native Denmark, he had lost a lot of money. But, he said, he actually was feeling quite good. He was spending lots of time with his four kids, whom he obviously adored. And he remained passionate about…
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How to Change the World
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The 19 bloggers Inc. thinks you should read
6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pmInc. named 19 bloggers that you should read. We’ve aggregated them all in one place: Inc19.alltop. -
How to Get Found
4 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pmThe reality is that people and technology is getting better and better a blocking out unwanted interruptions—aka, “marketing.” Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, and he explains in my post on the American Express Open Forum “how to get found.” It’s all about creating great stuff and letting Google et al do what they do: find great stuff. -
How I tweet
2 Nov 2009 | 8:47 amBy popular demand (and some complaints), I’ve done a FAQ with myself about how I tweet. Hope this helps you use Twitter for your business too. I explain how I use ghostwriters and why I repeat my tweets among other “unusual” practices. -
Current Twitter Demo Script
28 Oct 2009 | 2:26 amThis is the set of links that I used to demo Twitter by going down through this list to show why Twitter is such a valuable marketing tool. Introduction Home page Profile page Monitor Search Guy Kawasaki or Alltop Starbucks VIA introduction Search for “Prius” or “Civic” Sell Dell Outlet Kogi BBQ Support Comcast Cares Engage JetBlue Virgin America Fandango Prospect Camaro Camaro near Palo Alto Advanced searches Surfing or skateboarding (shows how to eliminate extraneous results such as “surfing the web” How I Tweet - Find Alltop MyAlltop helped me find this. -
How to Avoid Twitter Cluelessness
26 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pmOver at the American Express Open Forum blog, I explain how to not look clueless on Twitter. The first five ways are: Don’t tell other people how to tweet. Don’t tell the world that you unfollowed someone. Don’t ask people why they unfollowed you. Don’t constantly tweet mundane updates and babble. Don’t use a small picture for an avatar. To read all ten and why they impugn your intelligence, click here.
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HBR Editors' Blog
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Is Listening an Endangered Skill?
5 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amIs listening important? "Yes, of course," you say. But then why would anyone pay thousands of dollars to hear someone speak, and then not listen? I recently attended the PopTech conference in Camden, Maine, a mind-bending affair attended by several hundred idea junkies, each of whom paid several thousand dollars to (ostensibly) hear what really smart people like Daniel Goleman, Dan Ariely, and Michael Pollan had to say. Yet as I stood up to stretch in the back aisle of the dark auditorium, I noticed dozens of lit-up BlackBerries throughout the audience, as people rapidly clicked away. The… -
Coping with "Career Menopause"
28 Oct 2009 | 9:04 amNight sweats. Heart palpitations. Crying jags. Mood swings. I'm a 55-year old woman, well and gratefully past that hormonal "change of life." So what the heck was this thing? My brilliant (and younger) colleague Julia Kirby took me out for a glass of wine and patted my arm. "Don't worry," she told me sympathetically. "It's career menopause." Count on Julia to consistently deliver le mot juste. I've always loved my job, but for ages I've been feeling something else — call it a longing for greater self-fulfillment — tugging at me. Relatives and friends have had brushes with death,… -
Throwing Money at the Energy Problem Isn't Enough
26 Oct 2009 | 9:18 amToday the U.S. Energy Department announced major funding for 37 cutting-edge energy research projects, from biofuel-producing bacteria to CO2-eating enzymes. The goal, as department secretary Steven Chu put it, is to "spur the next industrial revolution in clean energy technologies." That's an inspiring notion — but throwing money at clean-tech is a partial solution at best, no matter how revolutionary the research. America has always had a love affair with technology, and president Obama is as smitten as Secretary Chu. Obama was in Boston on Friday just a few miles from our offices,… -
HBR Issue Highlights | November 2009
22 Oct 2009 | 8:53 amWelcome to HBR's Issue Highlights. Each month, this interactive table of contents will highlight some of the magazine's best features, tell you who should read them, why they're relevant, and what you'll take away from them, all in under five minutes. Share this with others by clicking on the "Share" button in the bottom right hand corner. Let us know what you think by commenting below, or by emailing us at issuehighlights@harvardbusiness.org. -
Drucker at 100: What Will You Do Differently on Monday?
15 Oct 2009 | 9:09 amAmong business conversations I've witnessed over my career, the topics of corporate social responsibility and sustainability have tended to invoke a collective yawn. Yes they're important, but such concerns were frequently considered a bore, separate from the business of doing business. An extra, a luxury--not suited to the every day pressures of work. I know because we at HBR spend our lives discussing article ideas along those lines, and our obligation to readers and authors is to give them something they can get passionate about. Until recently, it took some effort to work up the passion…
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HarvardBusiness.org
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Is Your Business Ready for H1N1?
6 Nov 2009 | 8:26 amFeatured Guest: Dr. Robert Blendon, professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Kennedy School of Government. RELATED:Business Preparedness for Pandemic: Executive Briefing for Corporate and Governmental Decision Makers More than 200 corporate and government leaders came together at Harvard Medical School in Boston to learn about the most effective practices in preparing for a pandemic. This report captures the key takeaways from this leadership summit. -
Can We Simplify Financial Regulation?
6 Nov 2009 | 5:50 amThere's a common saying that you never pay attention to your electricity provider unless the lights don't come on. Well, it's the same thing with the various regulatory systems throughout the world. For the most part, they tend to be invisible, unless there's a problem. Unfortunately, over the past year the financial regulatory system has been extremely visible, and not in a good way. As the post-mortems on the economic downturn continue, regulatory bodies are being put in the spotlight. Why didn't they prevent the crisis or at least send early warning signals? How did the examiners allow… -
How to Ask for Help — Without Looking Stupid
6 Nov 2009 | 5:24 amLast week, more evidence emerged in the Securities and Exchange Commission's debacle over the mishandling of the Bernie Madoff über-fraud. While the SEC failed repeatedly to uncover the greatest Ponzi scheme in our country's history ($50 billion and counting), the New York Times revealed a tale of "unseasoned people uncertain about what to do and unwilling to ask for help." But learning how to ask for help — and how to do it right — is critical to doing your job well and setting yourself up for success. You may be afraid of looking dumb, but to be afraid to ask for and get the… -
When Should You Let an Employee Make a Mistake?
5 Nov 2009 | 3:43 pm"Put my training wheels back on," Sophia said in a stern tone, "Or I'm not going to ride my bike!" She had just turned four that day and wanted to learn to ride a bike like her older sister. Now she wasn't so sure. After a lot of encouraging and a little stubbornness of my own, she was willing to try. We agreed to practice 15 minutes a day until she got it. A couple of days later we weren't getting anywhere. It's not that she wasn't trying, it's just that she didn't seem to be able to get her balance on her own. Then it dawned on me: I was getting in the way. I didn't want my baby girl to get… -
Washington Must Help the U.S. Regain the Lead in Manufacturing
5 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pmThe federal government can and should play a much bigger role in helping American companies regain the lead in manufacturing. We need to invest a commensurate amount of federal R&D dollars in advanced manufacturing technologies as we do in other areas of science, technology, and engineering. The last administration created an assistant secretary for manufacturing in the Commerce Department, but that position really didn't come with any significant resources, and that's still true. There is some government investment in manufacturing R&D. For example, the National Institute of Standards and…
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StartupNation
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Why you should pay for this content
6 Nov 2009 | 3:10 pmWeird that I’d write a blog post about paying for content in a free content world, isn’t it?! Weirder yet that StartupNation has for years on end been a STRICTLY free content site and hosts many tens of thousands of pages of free content and features. So why have we recently launched a paid content offering (in our new Quarterly Marketing Trends eReports)? Because they’re worth it. Our experts and co-authors spend weeks amassing research and drawing out takeaways and distill those down into clear trends and action items that could have a profound impact on your business. For… -
Exceed Expectations to Boost Sales
6 Nov 2009 | 3:35 amIf you want to increase your level of returning customers, there is one major thing that you need to take care of at the very beginning of every relationship - Expectations. This may sound simple, but if you don’t spell out what you are going to provide for the money, you can run into major confusion and complications in the future. And it goes both ways. Your customers need to tell you what they expect too. With this in mind, here are three key tips to think about when you begin to work on any new projects or customer sales: 1. Communicate goals. Before you exchange funds, products… -
Make Your Website Stand Out in 30 Minutes or Less
4 Nov 2009 | 3:44 amIn the time it takes you to shop at your local grocery store, you could implement simple and easy changes to your website to make it stand out from the crowd. Online competition is fierce. Consumers and B2B (Business to Business) buyers have many choices. Checking out your competitors is merely a click away. So it’s more critical than ever that your website is remarkable and compels your site visitors to take notice. Either you are going to be different than your competition, or you are going to lose many prospective customers who just can’t seem to remember your company’s… -
Secrets to Accelerating Your Business Success
3 Nov 2009 | 8:10 pmAs a business owner, I love being my company’s “evangelist.” I get huge kicks from educating and exciting people about becoming a customer. But frankly, there’s an even more important—though arguably less exhilarating—aspect to closing new business. We call it, the art of follow up. My feelings about this were confirmed and further fueled at a recent networking event in Phoenix where Clate Mask, CEO of Infusionsoft, presented his thoughts on the way to make following up work for you. Because entrepreneurs like me are among the most passionate people on earth, and we love pitching… -
Target is re-branding to “Real MOMS”…..Bye-Bye Bullseye!
31 Oct 2009 | 3:05 pmIs that bull’s-eye logo going bye-bye to survive the Wal-Mart effect? What does Wal-Mart know that may save business everywhere? Is it true- is Target steering away from their famous Bullseye logo? Since March of 2009, they have been pulling it to implement an ARROW; that is being targeted right to “Real MOMs” and how they are saving real money at Target. The MOM demographic just happens to be the largest growing consumer base, next to the Hispanic market, which both carry allot of weight behind their dollar buyer power. Target has been under pressure from its largest majority stock…
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Men With Pens
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Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating Prejudice in Fantasy
6 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIn honor of the super-exclusive offer for Men with Pens readers only in regards on the Gamer Lifestyle Course, we’re turning our attention in this latter half of the special fiction week towards how to write realistically in fantasy worlds. If you’ve missed the first posts in this special fiction writing series, you can read them here: Day One: How to create a believable character Day Two: How to create a setting for your story. Day Three: How to create plot Day Four: How to get serious and make money from fiction writing Day Five: How to create character flaws Today, for our last… -
Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating Character Flaws
6 Nov 2009 | 1:00 amIn honor of the super-exclusive offer for Men with Pens readers only in regards on the Gamer Lifestyle Course, we’re turning our attention in this latter half of the special fiction week towards how to write realistically in fantasy worlds. If you’ve missed the first posts in this special fiction writing series, you can read them here: Day One: How to create a believable character Day Two: How to create a setting for your story. Day Three: How to create plot Day Four: How to get serious and make money from fiction writing Today, we’re tackling a topic that has plagued fantasy… -
Special Fiction Week: Your Exclusive Men with Pens Offer
4 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmWe’re going to ask you a serious question: Is copywriting really what you want to do to make money? Because I’ll tell you right now, it’s not what I want to do. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy copywriting immensely. It’s hard to find a better job than being a freelance writer. I like the hours, I like the work, I like the vast majority of the people I work with. Of all the possible jobs I could have, copywriting is right up there in the top 10. It’s not at the very top, though. At the very top of my ultimate top 10 jobs is being paid to write fiction. That’s what I’ve wanted to do… -
Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating a Plot
3 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIf you’re one of those people who writes copy for a living in order to make enough money to support your fiction writing endeavors, then this series is for you. This week, Men with Pens offers a full six days of posts, each on writing fiction and boosting your potential to create a kick-ass novel. We’ll also have an exclusive Men with Pens offer for readers this week – stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where you’ll discover how to earn money from fiction writing. The series began with tips on how to create a believable character, and the next installment discussed how to… -
Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating a Setting
2 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIf you’re one of those people who writes articles or ebooks or website copy for a living in order to make enough money to do the other kind of writing – yes, fiction – then this series is for you. We’re offering a full week (yes, six posts) all about writing fiction and improving your skills. We’ll also have an exclusive offer for Men with Pens readers later on this week; you’ll be able to put your fiction to work for you and earn money off its originality. Yesterday’s post began the series with tips and tricks on how to create a believable character. We…
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Home Business Ideas
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Marketing School: Your Check Is In The Mail
6 Nov 2009 | 8:52 amI wonder, if someone were to go through this blog and count, how many times I’ve said, “after much ado…” There’s really no better phrase, under the circumstances. But it’s Friday, and you want to just finish your day and get on with going out and getting drunk, so I’ll try to keep the ado to a minimum. The story so far Once upon a time, we wrote an e-book called SEO School. Lots of people bought it. (Thank you, lots of people. And if you’re the voyeuristic type and want to know what we mean by “lots of people”, check out the How To Make $12,246 In A Day series. Also… -
Anti-Social Media: The Dark Side of Authenticity
5 Nov 2009 | 12:25 amA couple of hours ago – it’s 2 am right now — as I was getting ready to close up shop for the night, I went onto Twitter one last time before heading for bath and bed. I tweeted this. For those of you whose bosses don’t let you on Twitter, it read: Getting ready for a hot bath and glass of wine with @chrisbrogan and @julien. Well, their book, anyway. #illtakewhaticanget I went. I had my bath. As I was getting ready to go to bed, I remembered I was waiting on something, so I logged back on. I had a handful of DMs from someone I know who didn’t like what I said. Not a troll. -
101+1 Small Business Marketing Questions For People Who Don’t Speak Marketing
3 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amHow To Use This List: Pick 25-50 questions. Answer them as honestly and expansively as you can. Follow your intuition. Trust the answers to lead you to make the right decisions. Come back in three months and do it again, with the same or different questions. Do that and you’ll have a better marketing plan than anybody I know. Including me. 1. What do I love to do so much that it doesn’t feel like work? 2. What parts of that activity are my favorite parts? 3. Is there anybody else on earth who might really dig doing the parts I don’t really dig? 4. Why are you different than… -
Social Media and Social Proof: On Twitter Lists, Metrics, Mammals and Marketing
2 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amFirst, I’ll give you some background before I get into my screaming, raging rant. Cool? (Oh, and please do not take this explanation as endorsement, OK? Some people have never heard of Twitter and I want them to be able to experience the full force of my rancor just as much as you can.) Twitter is a social media site. The people who choose to be alerted to your updates (tweets) are called followers. For a long time, your worth as a human being was calculated by subtracting the amount of people you follow from the number of people who follow you. This little junior high… -
How to stop being an information product slut and start creating the business you want
30 Oct 2009 | 12:40 pmThis is a guest post from Cath Duncan at The Bottom-line Bookclub Be honest… how many e-books and e-courses have you bought that are languishing un-opened on your computer right now? Search your harddrive and inbox, and you’ll probably be shocked to find e-books and e-courses that you don’t even remember buying or downloading and a membership site or two that you haven’t logged into for months. And for the few information products that you have actually read cover to cover, ask yourself, “How much of it have I actively applied?” Why do we spend our hard-earned,…
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CNN/FORTUNE/Money: Small Business
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Getting by with a skeleton staff
6 Nov 2009 | 8:36 amSmall business owners are still whittling away at their payroll, but the deluge of pink slips on Main Street is slowing down. -
Freebies for the jobless
6 Nov 2009 | 2:23 amFrom free dry cleaning to a no-cost vacation, these 5 businesses have come up with creative ways to help out unemployed residents in their communities. -
Alone in an abandoned car plant
5 Nov 2009 | 7:28 amMost people assume the Packard Plant in Detroit is vacant. It's an industrial ruin where the last car was manufactured 53 years ago. -
How Build-a-Bear invented a market
5 Nov 2009 | 6:03 amCute sells: Stuffed animals are a $1.5 billion industry in the U.S. Commanding nearly a third of that market is Build-a-Bear Workshop, a St. Louis-based retailer that lets customers personalize plush teddies, bunnies and other fuzzy friends. Founder Maxine Clark got the idea for the company in the mid-1990s while toy shopping with a 10-year-old girl who suggested that she and Clark could make their own stuffed animals. -
Fighting the five-finger discount
5 Nov 2009 | 1:56 amInventory losses are on the rise, thanks mostly to cashiers giving themselves and friends five-finger discounts. Employees stole an estimated $15 billion from retailers last year, according to University of Florida criminologist Richard Hollinger, who conducts an annual survey of the country's top stores. That's 25% more than stores lost to shoplifters.
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Lip-Sticking
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A Lip-sticking Podcast with Melanie Notkin
6 Nov 2009 | 5:07 amThis Lip-sticking podcast is with Melanie Notkin of Savvy Auntie, a smart, talented, and well-connected women who happens to be a PANK: Professional Aunt, No Kids. We were both on the Maria Shriver blogger call a couple of weeks ago, and we both came away shaking our heads. For me, the Shriver Report was more about how the celebrities of the world could help the poor Moms of the world, and less about the "women's nation" Maria touted. For Melanie, the Shriver Report left out a large faction of women - the PANKs, who make up almost 50% of the female population in this country. I hope you'll… -
Are You Showing Your Face on Facebook?
5 Nov 2009 | 7:59 am…or another unsightly part of your anatomy, further south? By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter People are still figuring out how to use FB in their business. And, I think it can be a valuable tool, depending on your industry and target customer. Facebook - unlike LinkedIn (which is all business, or should be) - is/can be a combination of personal and professional - which is both good and bad. Where's the line? It's your decision; what works for one may not for another. (All "rules" aside.) As Yvonne noted in another post, My Facebook is not your Facebook. To be… -
Traveling from South Carolina to Chicago...Covering PMA's Annual Marketing Law Conference
4 Nov 2009 | 8:55 amBy Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo TalkThe last couple of days I've spent in Myrtle Beach, SC visiting my parents who moved down here about three years ago from New York. My mom's been battling breast cancer which spread to her lungs, so it's been rough on her and my dad, especially the last couple of months. She seems to be improving from an infection she caught a month ago. That's the thing with cancer, it doesn't always kill you. But once you have it any little thing your body catches can. Anyhow, I've been trying to talk them into hooking up the old computer that all us… -
Come to my Social Media Seminar
4 Nov 2009 | 6:39 amTrue story: Recently I received an email from someone I did not know, about a topic I am quite familiar... the subject line was: How to Create & Monitor Your Social Media. I, along with dozens of others - whose emails were displayed in the CC column NOT the BCC, were invited. Turns out I likely met the sender at a conference. It seems to be common practice to add conference attendees to your email marketing list, with or without permission, which is why I received this invitation. We can discuss the inaccuracies around doing that (really, just because we met over coffee at a… -
Kicking & Screaming all the Way to Facebook
2 Nov 2009 | 3:33 amby Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief of Social Media Strategy at xynoMedia It's bedtime, but little Caleb wants a story. And after the story, he needs to pee. Then, he needs a glass of water. And, then he wants you to leave the light on. And, then he wants a kiss goodnight. And, then...and, then...and, then.He knows it's time for bed. He's sleepy as a cat. He knows sleep is unavoidable and yet he keeps holding onto that one last minute of being awake. The above scenario usually ends up with Caleb falling into some sort of crying/whining jag and then eventually passing out in sleep from sheer…
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The Accidental Entrepreneur's Guide
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When Trying Harder Gets in the Way of Prosperity
22 Oct 2009 | 7:02 pmPhoto Courtesy of: istockphoto The wealthy man is not he who has money, but he who has the means to live in the luxurious state of early spring. ~Anton Chekhov Have you ever had a friend who always seemed to date the wrong people? Often this is the result of a confusion of values and standards. If your friend is choosing prospective mates based on certain standards, perhaps looks, he may be unwittingly overlooking the woman who is a good match for his values. When your standards don’t match your values or vision, the harder you look for what you want, the worse your results. As they say,… -
The Innocent Origins of Scarcity Thinking
15 Oct 2009 | 4:29 pmOnce upon a time there were three little pigs. The time had come for the little pigs to leave home and seek their fortune. Of course, the first thing they needed to do was to find shelter. The first pig built a house of straw he found scattered on the ground. The second pig built a house of sticks he scavenged from the woods. The third little pig discovered an abandoned cache of bricks. “These would be perfect for a house,” he thought. But then he decided to live out in the open because he just didn’t feel right about taking anything without asking and he didn’t very much like to ask. -
Why lowering your prices doesn’t work and how to resist the urge
8 Oct 2009 | 5:27 pmA few years back (okay, 20, but who’s counting?), I participated in a three-day studio tour on beautiful, art-friendly Bainbridge Island. I spent most of the weekend scurrying around, pricing and re-pricing every scarf, sweater, and hats, certain that if only I chose the right price my work would fly off the walls. It didn’t. That weekend came vividly to mind as I read the following letter from artist Julie Sadler. I was recently in an outdoor art show and had to give prices to people as they asked for the original works that I have done. Even tho I have gotten a fair price for some of my… -
Why You Don't Need to Believe in Your Business
28 Sep 2009 | 2:18 pmI know, it sounds crazy. Why on earth would I tell you not to believe in your business? I wouldn't. But there are times when we just don't have a lot of faith in what we're doing. Things go wrong. We feel tired. We lose a client or get hit with a late charge or miss a deadline. It hurts when things go wrong, and it doesn't help to insist that we buck up and "believe." A battle with confidence We put unnecessary and unproductive pressure on ourselves and our businesses when we think we need to believe in them. If we believe we need to believe (!), we're naturally going to be afraid and worried… -
Review: The Shadow Effect (Movie)
21 Sep 2009 | 10:54 amOver the summer I had the opportunity to review Debbie Ford's movie, The Shadow Effect. Ford, you may remember, broke ranks with the forces of relentless positivity with her 1999 book, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers. In some respects, The Shadow Effect is a continuation of that work. Here's a clip. A number of unforeseen circumstances prevented me from reviewing the movie when I had intended and, as a result, I had the opportunity to scan other reviews before writing this one. Of the reviews that appear in the first two pages of Google results, there were two broad categories: thrilled…
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SharpBrains
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100 is the New 65: Living Longer and Better
7 Nov 2009 | 6:04 am(Editor’s Note: we are pleased to bring you this article thanks to our collaboration with Greater Good Magazine). 100 is the New 65 - Why do some people live to 100? Researchers are trying to find out, reports Meera Lee Sethi, and they’re discovering how we might live better lives, not just longer ones. Will Clark, 105, recently bought a van for a 5,000-mile road trip across the Midwest with his wife, Lois, who is 102. Elsa Brehm Hoffmann loves bridge and is always ready for a party. Rosa McGee enjoys singing hymns to herself all day long. Will Clark makes a mean spaghetti and… -
Digital Games for Physical, Cognitive and Behavioral Health
5 Nov 2009 | 1:35 pmThe Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) just announced more than $1.85 million in grants for research teams to study how digital games can improve players’ health behaviors and outcomes (both brain-based and behavioral). The press release: Nine Leading Research Teams Selected to Study How Digital Games Improve Players’ Health “Digital games are interactive and experiential, and so they can engage people in powerful ways to enhance learning and health behavior change, especially when they are designed on the basis of well-researched strategies,” said (UC Santa… -
Smart industry-research collaboration for working memory training
4 Nov 2009 | 8:26 amVery interesting announcement yesterday, by Lumos Labs and researchers Susanne Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl: “The Lumosity.com version of Dual N-Back replicates the training previously used in the lab while making it available online. The program will be used to facilitate further research in memory and intelligence training, with the Lumosity Research Platform supporting data collection and study administration.” “The online availability of the dual n-back task is a great step forward for our ongoing research and we are happy having found Lumos Labs as a competent… -
Brain Fitness Book: talks, interviews, reviews
30 Oct 2009 | 6:37 amNext Tuesday, November 3rd: I’ll be presenting the SharpBrains Guide to a business/ entrepreneurial audience at the San Francisco Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (you can register online). Description: While most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it,” very few understand what “it” means, or how to properly “use it” in order to improve brain function and fitness. This talk will provide an overview of the most recent research, guidelines and resources to “Use It and Improve It”, summarizing the main findings and… -
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Forum on the Future Impact of Neuroscience and Behavior Change
28 Oct 2009 | 11:59 amThe Robert Wood Johnson Foundation just announced a new initiative of their Pioneer portfolio: “On November 11-12, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), working with the Monitor Institute, will welcome a small group of researchers, academics, physicians and industry leaders in the fields of neurotechnology, neurodevelopment and behavior change for a “Forum on the Future Impact of Neuroscience and Behavior Change.” The question: what could neuroscience innovation mean for the future of health and health care? This blog post contains the list of participants (honored to be one)…
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Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
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Sports Science Weekly Gym Bag - 10-28-09
28 Oct 2009 | 9:25 pmWelcome to a World Series edition of the Weekly Sports Science Gym Bag, a collection of some of the best stuff I've found in the last week. A few more baseball stories are included, while you watch the Yankees lose in 6 games! The Overmanager: Why the New York Yankees' Joe Girardi is too smart for his own good To play in the NFL, you have to make a show of going to college. To play in the NBA, you have to get through high school. To sign a contract with a major league baseball team, all you have to do is convince someone you're 16, provided you weren't born in a country with… -
Running To The Right Beat
21 Oct 2009 | 8:29 pmWith the Fall marathon season in full swing, thousands of runners are gearing up for the big day. Just as important as their broken-in shoes and heart rate monitor is their source of motivation, inspiration and distraction: their tunes. Running with music has become so common that the two biggest names in both industries, Nike and Apple, have been joined at the hip with the Nike + iPod combination. So, what is it about music and running, or any exercise, that feels so right? Several recent studies try to chase down the connection between our ears and our feet. For the last 20 years,… -
Sports Science Weekly Gym Bag - 10-7-09
7 Oct 2009 | 7:56 amTime for another edition of the Sports Science Weekly Gym Bag. (Yes, a Wisconsin Badger football gym bag this week...they're 5-0!) If you ever run across something that you would like to share, just add it to the comments below! Marathon Runners Mull the ‘D Word’ This is the time of year, after marathoners have logged their longest miles, that any kind of pain, nagging or excruciating, can send runners into a panic about whether they will make it to the starting line. Or if they should even try... Faster tunes make you bike faster, even if it hurts a bit more Researchers have been… -
I Run, Therefore I Drink?
2 Oct 2009 | 1:44 pmHere’s a question for your buddies at the next golf outing or bowling league night: Are we more active because we drink more or do we drink more because we’re more active? Recent research showed that there is a correlation between the two, but could not offer a solid reason. Either way, another study claims the combination of moderate alcohol use and exercise will help our hearts more than just choosing one over the other. Michael French, a health economics professor at the University of Miami, and his colleagues dug into data from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a… -
Sports Science Weekly Gym Bag - 9-28-09
28 Sep 2009 | 8:39 pmHere's a new feature of Sports Are 80 Percent Mental: A weekly round-up of some of the best blog posts, articles and other interesting stuff that I've found on sports science and fitness research. If you find anything else, please just add it as a comment to this post! Aging Muscles: 'Hard To Build, Easy To Lose' Have you ever noticed that people have thinner arms and legs as they get older? As we age it becomes harder to keep our muscles healthy. They get smaller, which decreases strength and increases the likelihood of falls and fractures. New research is showing how this happens —…
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Chris Garrett on New Media
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Brilliant Free Stuff from Friends
30 Oct 2009 | 9:07 pmAuckland, New Zealand I’m sat taking some time out from our travels down under to let you know about a couple of great giveaways. Yes, I am on my travels again. This time touring the other side of the planet. We are down in Auckland, New Zealand right now, after a quick stop in Singapore and just before we head to Sydney, and then Melbourne Australia. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be updating my blog with a vacation update but this news is too good. How good? My friend Sean is giving away an entire audio course. Not only is he giving it away, it’s a course that he is currently… -
Gary Vaynerchuck Interview
13 Oct 2009 | 5:00 amGary crushing it at Web 2.0 Expo NY Today I am happy (and more than a little relieved) to be able to share with you this quick and informal interview I grabbed last week with Gary Vay.Ner.Chuk. Gary has quickly become a fixture on the convention scene, TV celebrity and a media darling because of his larger than life energy and positive personality, and also his expertise in personal branding, social media and business. Right now he is in the process of the launch his brilliant new book, “Crush It“. I was fortunate to grab 30 technical gremlin frustrated minutes where I got to ask… -
Join Me For a Live Chat
12 Oct 2009 | 2:17 amAsk me social media and blogging questions and see me answer live As part of the launch of Social Media Examiner I will be doing a live video chat along with Mike Stelzner. It’s free and easy to join in, and should be good fun! 10:00 New York time 15:00 London time Check out the full details here. Also, while you are there, check out my first article for the site … “How to Create Headlines that Go Viral With Social Media“ Related Posts:Social Media Marketing Survey Results - Free PDFHow to Really Use Social Media Marketing as a Tool For BusinessI Want Your Social Media… -
Get My New Business-Blogging Book with $10 Off
8 Oct 2009 | 6:50 amBusiness Blogging Made Simple A real-world guide to creating, writing and promoting a successful blog Inside my new e-book “Business Blogging – 50 Steps to Building Traffic and Sales,” you’ll discover: Why your business needs a blog (yesterday!) The biggest pitfalls of blogging — and how to avoid them How to build a following of faithful blog subscribers Proven tips for converting your blog traffic into sales Order now and get instant access … Save $10 – offer ends 14th Today! (Offer extended) I am really proud of this new book, I think the Wordtracker folks have done a… -
Climb Inside Gary Vaynerchuk’s Brain and Crush It
1 Oct 2009 | 3:03 amGot personal branding or social media questions? How would you like to get answers from one of the biggest new media rockstars on the planet? Gary Vaynerchuk is one of my favorite people in social media and he is in crazy demand right now due to his massively successful business projects, his new book (Crush It), and the arrival of his child. I am pinching myself right now because he has given me a slot in his super-busy schedule. Frankly I am also a little cautious – I do not want to mess up this chance to get some GaryVee wisdom on record. This is where you come in! As well as giving…
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Write to Done
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One is a Lonely Number – Why You Need a Writing Mentor
5 Nov 2009 | 1:53 pmA guest post by Jules Clancy from stonesoup This writing business can be a lonely endeavour. We’ve all been there. Self imprisoned in our lonely garrets – or more likely behind our laptops. Reaching out to the world with our writing but feeling helpless and alone. Fear not fellow writers. There is hope. I’ve recently discovered a wonderful way to overcome the fear and feel connected with the rest of the world. Let me introduce you to the benefits of finding yourself a writing mentor. Benefits of a writing mentor 1. Confidence boost To give your confidence a well deserved… -
How to Revise Your Titles for Maximum Results
2 Nov 2009 | 6:32 pmBy Sean Platt of Ghostwriter Dad No one has championed the use of killer headlines more than Brian Clark. His advice on what makes for a compelling headline is gospel to many in this latest wave to crash across the copywriting shore. It’s impossible to argue – magnetic headlines invariably lead to more clicks, more conversions, and more clients clamoring for your content. But what about when your words have turned to whisper, and your old posts have been left to whither upon the WordPress vine? When you first craft a piece of killer content, you want as many eyes on it as possible. -
How to Create an Article of 1,000+ Words in 90 Minutes or Less
27 Oct 2009 | 4:09 pmA guest post by Patrick Stöckmann of Unwrap Your Mind It’s a dreaded situation for all beginner (and even seasoned) bloggers. You want to write a post, and are sitting in front of a blank page. Suddenly your mind looks just the same – blank. Your inspiration just stopped, and you feel at a loss. We’ve all been there. The good news is that there are some surefire ways of writing quality content in record time. I want to share with you my techniques for writing a 1,000+ words article in 90 minutes or less. To show you that I actually do what I preach, I’ve written the… -
How to Write a Novel in 30 Days
22 Oct 2009 | 7:54 pmGet your pencils sharpened for November. By Leo Babauta I’ve decided to take the plunge and join NaNoWriMo in November (for the 2nd time), attempting to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. Join me! I successfully completed NaNoWriMo in 2006, and it was an incredible time. It was a lot of fun, and joining with the efforts of tens of thousands of fellow writers is an experience like no other. Just a few reasons to do NaNoWriMo: 1. It gives you the motivation to finally write that novel. 2. It teaches you some good habits — getting writing done every day. 3. You learn a lot… -
The Tarot as a Tool for Writing Your Novel
20 Oct 2009 | 5:50 amNote from the Editor: November sees the beginning of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Anyone can join the thirty days of literary abandon. WTD will run posts to inspire and encourage you on the way. By Marelisa Fábrega of Abundance Blog National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins in just a few days, on November 1st, and thousands of would-be authors are registering with high hopes of crossing the finish line on November 30th, novel firmly in hand. The objective of writing at least 50,000 words in 30 days doesn’t seem so daunting, until the sobering thought hits that you have…
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Liz Strauss at Successful Blog
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Cool Tool: screenr - Screencasting How to Add Text to Your Twitter Background
4 Nov 2009 | 5:29 amScreencasting Fast and Easy Screencasting is recording actions on the screen with narration. It’s a great way to show people how. What it says it does: allow screencasting without software. How well it does that: screenr is easy and intuitive. Size the capture screen to the website you want to discuss. Click the record button and record. Pause if you want. Then wait, a few minutes for it to process. Embed the screencast in your eCourse, download the video as MP4, upload it to your You-Tube channel, and watch it on your iPhone! Send it to Twitter. Post it on your blog. It’s free… -
Why Can’t We seem to Keep Things Simple?
3 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amA Guest Post by Kyle Lacy I was asked to write this guest post about the power of simplicity in blog design and honestly, I was at a loss for words. What does it mean to have simplicity in blog design? Are we discussing the concepts of the layout design? Or a universal view of all things blog? I am not here to talk about the back-end coding of a blog, the rules of user interface design, or minimalistic thoughts on design…but the ability to give your readers the easiest way to read your valuable CONTENT. It is easy to say that the simpler the design the better. I mean… look at… -
Trusting Ourselves, Structure Damage, and Recovering
2 Nov 2009 | 5:12 amA Project Post by Liz Strauss and Kristi Daeda I’ve been working on a special project with Kristi Daeda, an awesome friend, writer, and career counselor. Our project will take many forms for people working on true trust and business relationships. Right now we’re working on breaks in our trust and world view. We’ve named them structure damage. What Is Structure Damage? It can happen when the world seems most in order. Suddenly, without warning, someone or something pulls the rug out of from under us. Trusting what’s next can be hard. Structure damage occurs when we are… -
Thanks to Week 210 SOBs
31 Oct 2009 | 7:32 amSuccessful and Outstanding Bloggers Let me introduce the bloggers who have earned this official badge of achievement, and the right to call themselves Successful Blog SOBs. I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs. They take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger. I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on. Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community. Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award… -
What Jim Ericson Had to Say About Corporate Trust …
30 Oct 2009 | 6:37 amA community isn’t built or befriended, it’s connected by offering and accepting. Community is affinity, identity, and kinship that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions. Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.
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Debbie Weil's BlogWrite for CEOs
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What Does “Writing 3.0” Mean to You? (Quick Poll)
5 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pmChoose an answer and click Vote. Then you’ll see the results. Interesting. -
No Punditry: Just Exploring Twitter Lists
3 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pmNo need for me to wax expert on Twitter's new List feature as Mashable, TechCrunch and many others are doing that. (Here's a video showing how to create a List.) Frankly nobody is an expert yet. We're all curating (creating lists, culling them, joining others, etc.). Here's my round-up of Washington DC tweeps whose 140-character musings I find useful or entertaining. Women I will point out that the number of lists featuring smart women in tech or social media is very cool. Examples here and here and here. Listorious notes lists tagged women and social-media-divas and all-the-geeky-ladies. -
Fall Leaves: Stop and Look
25 Oct 2009 | 8:29 pmI have this thing about trying to get the perfect picture of fall leaves. This was on a rainy day, taken with my Canon G10, a great all-around small camera. Below is another pic I snapped with my iPhone with blue sky behind the trees. Both were taken in my neighborhood from almost the exact same vantage point. -
Sneak Preview: an Updated Site Design and New Logo
21 Oct 2009 | 5:58 pmIf you're not interested in Web site design, stop reading right here. If you are... take a peek at my redesign by the clever folks at Viget, featuring an "illustration" of yours truly as well as my new logo with the @ sign, designed by the talented Erick Anderson. Erick won the logo contest I ran on Genius Rocket. More on that later. I've gotten positive and negative feedback on the illustration. Mostly negative. So we've decided to put a headshot there instead. (Below is a very rough mock up. We're still fooling with the background colors.) The illustration is an interesting idea. -
Next Best Thing to Attending BlogWorld Is Visiting the Home Page
13 Oct 2009 | 10:14 amYou've heard about live blogging, video streaming and live tweeting from an event. Don't forget a good old-fashioned home page crammed with content to make you wish you were there. I can't attend BlogWorld this week in Las Vegas (I spoke at BlogWorld '07) but anyone can learn a ton about this high octane event by visiting www.blogworldexpo.com. On the home page are preview video interviews with keynote speakers like Guy Kawasaki, Kara Swisher and Scott Monty, links to the Twitter page (transparently written by conference organizer Rick Calvert), an active Facebook event page and Flickr photos…
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Marketing Profs Daily Fix
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Paul Williams: Catch More Fish With The Right Lure, In The Right Waters
6 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amA couple of fishermen are hanging out in their local bait shop. One has a new product idea for out-of-town visitors. Sell a lake map and fishing lure combo. Take specific fishing lures and tape them to the different lakes on the map. This way the out-of-towner will know the proper bait to use at each particular lake, and will lead to a more successful fishing experience. If you're at Watermans Reservoir and want to catch a Northern Pike, you need a spinner lure. At Worden's Pond after Jackfish? Use a fish-imitation lure or cut bait.* Here comes the business segue... We marketers and business… -
Gavin Heaton: On Generosity and Grace
5 Nov 2009 | 6:35 amWe are marked each day by the casual collisions that are the artefacts of our existence. There are phone calls, messages and the relative anonymity of online interactions. And in the search for connection, communion or community, we thoughtlessly mistake message for meaning, words for action and interaction for friendship. It’s a confusion of intention – and we are the poorer for it.When I began writing my blog I did so with no expectation of return. Like a long-dead star, I felt that I was emitting the weakest of signals with no hope of a destination. The gravity of my expectations was… -
Ann Handley: What's New: Introducing Our New Mobile Marketing Newsletter
5 Nov 2009 | 6:28 amYou know the end of every calendar year brings a bounty of blog posts and articles carrying business predictions for the New Year? Year after year for the past several years, pundits have prognosticated the rise of Mobile Marketing. And then year after year, it has failed to live up to its promise. Instead, Mobile seems stuck on the sidelines, perpetually benched. But with recent developments in the mobile space, it seems the prediction is now (finally) reality. I’ll even go out on a limb and make my own prediction: Mobile Marketing is here to stay. That’s why we’ve just launched a new… -
Suzanne Lowe: Digital Versus Paper: What's The Future For Professional Services?
4 Nov 2009 | 5:50 amIn the past several weeks, I've encountered questions about the effectiveness of digital marketing versus paper-driven communications. A recent WSJ piece "Marketers Still Prefer a Paper Trail," asserts that people are motivated to go to a Web site to buy when they see an item in a catalog. Some of my marketing communication friends tell me that their professional service clients are producing print newsletters in addition to (and in some cases, instead of) digital newsletters. They say, "my clients' clients are so overwhelmed with emails that they actually appreciate print newsletters!" It's… -
Kathy Bushman: Still Questioning The Value In Social Media
3 Nov 2009 | 7:04 amI had the pleasure of attending the Social Media Business Forum (#smbf) that took place October 23rd in Durham, NC. It’s the first event that was put on by Jeff Cohen, Wayne Sutton, and Ryan Boyles of OurHashtag, and Kipp Bodnar of Howard Merrell & Partners. They are passionate about teaching business people how to benefit from using social media and are responsible for many of the social media events and tweet-ups in the “Triangle” (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) North Carolina area. Jeff Cohen told me that they recognized a real need for business people to be educated on social media and…
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Des Walsh dot Com
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Launching New Talk Show on BlogTalkRadio
29 Oct 2009 | 4:35 am“Des Walsh & Friends” show to launch on BlogTalkRadio I’ve been thinking for a while now about having another go at starting my own show on BlogTalkRadio and when I checked my account there yesterday I was a bit startled to realize that the last effort was a couple of years ago. In the meantime I have endeavoured with my China-based colleague, Lonnie Hodge, to put out a regular show about China, China Conversations, but our efforts on that particular platform, while successful to a degree, were thwarted technically: much as we loved the basic BlogTalkRadio setup and the… -
Believing Popular Myths About Twitter Could Cost You Money
26 Oct 2009 | 8:39 pmWhy smart business owners cut through the noise and get the Twitter business case I’ve been thinking about the comment I heard yesterday morning from an otherwise quite smart presenter on morning television, to the effect that everyone who goes on Twitter gets addicted to it and that’s why she is not on it. I didn’t get the exact words – let’s face it, who hangs on every word from breakfast television? But I suspect that that presenter’s views on Twitter, if repeated in a local book club or at a barbecue would not be regarded as exceptional. From a business… -
Joining China Global Speakers
25 Oct 2009 | 7:27 pmIn the past couple of years, since having the privilege of moderating a panel on blogging at ad:tech Beijing, I have been actively engaged in developing my business interests and connections with China, in association especially with my colleague Lonnie B. Hodge, and with that seeking to deepen and broaden my understanding of the complex world of modern China. This month I have had the distinct honour of being invited to join China Global Speakers and have accepted. Thank you Helen Zhang and colleagues. I trust you know I will do my utmost to live up to the confidence you have shown in me. -
links for 2009-10-15
15 Oct 2009 | 3:02 amDes Walsh dot Com — Social media strategy + business coaching Succinct, persuasive argument for using Facebook "fan" pages for marketing (tags: Facebook+fanpages socialmediakeys social-media) louisgray.com: Technorati Roars Back To Life After Self-Imposed Slumber On the eve of BlogWorld Expo 2009, a sometime darling of the bloggerati, Technorati, is entering a new phase. Whether that will constitute "roaring back to life" as Louis Gray opines, who knows, but at least it's good to see the Big T not caving in but fighting back (tags: Technorati blogging blogs… -
Recommending Typepad for Business Blogs
14 Oct 2009 | 10:33 pmTypepad has great features for business blogging and no shortage of success stories Here’s a paradox: yesterday I posted on Thinking Home Business about how to set up a WordPress.org blog I use WordPress as the platform for most of my blogs but I freely recommend Typepad as a serious option for business blogs. WordPress is not the only option I’m willing to risk occasioning some confusion, because while the WordPress technology is amazing, I don’t want to even think about how long it took me to get comfortable with installing and managing WordPress sites. In fact, I’m…
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Roger Ebert
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Disney's A Christmas Carol / **** (PG)
"A Christmas Carol" (PG, 95 minutes) An exhilarating visual experience that proves for the third time Robert Zemeckis is one of the few directors who knows what he's doing with 3-D. The story that Dickens wrote in 1838 remains timeless, and if it's supercharged here with Scrooge swooping the London streets as freely as Superman, well, once you let ghosts into a movie there's room for anything. In motion-capture animation, Jim Carrey does the movements and voice of Ebenezer Scrooge, never thinner, never more stooped, never more bitter. The A-list cast also includes Gary Oldman, Colin Firth,… -
Precious / **** (R)
"Precious" (R, 109 minutes). School is an ordeal of mocking cruelty for a fat teenager, and home is worse. Precious avoids looking at people, hardly ever speaks, is nearly illiterate, is pregnant. One of her teachers (Paula Patton) and a postal worker (Mariah Carey) see something in her, or simply react to her obvious pain. They try to coax her out of her shell. She's not stupid, but feels defeated. Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe gives a powerful performance in the title role, and Mo'Nique is frighteningly effective as her abusive mother. Directed by Lee Daniels, based on the novel "Push" by… -
The Men Who Stare at Goats / ***1/2 (R)
"The Men Who Stare at Goats" (R, 93 minutes). A weirdly funny comedy that seriously claims to be based on an actual U.S. Army interest in using paranormal soldiers as a weapon. Ewan McGregor plays a reporter who encounters George Clooney, a "Jedi Warrior" graduate of these secret program; flashbacks show Jeff Bridges as an officer who seems very much like The Big Lebowski. Could they kill goats by staring? Well, if you can bend a spoon with your mind, why not a rifle? Three and a half stars -
The Box / *** (PG-13)
"The Box" (114 minutes, PG-13). A preposterous but never boring sci-fi movie where a mysterious stranger (Frank Langella) gives a couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marston) a box with a button on top, and tells them if they oust out they'll get $1 million in cash -- but someone unknown to them will die. Well, what would you do? And then the plot really gets wild. Stay way if you expect it to add up and make sense. You're entering…the Twilight Zone. Three stars. -
(Untitled) / ***1/2 (R)
"(Untitled") (R, 96 minutes). A good, smart comedy about the fringes of the New York art world, starring Adam Goldberg as an impossible experimental musician and Marley Shelton as a chic Soho gallery owner. The art on display is good enough to be plausible, and weird enough to be funny. It's worthy of the best Woody Allen, and Adrian is not unlike Woody's persona: A sincere, intense, insecure nebbish, hopeless with women, aiming for greatness. Directed by Jonathan Parker. Three and a half stars
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Neuromarketing
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Emsense Raises $9 Million
3 Nov 2009 | 9:09 amNeuromarketing firm Emsense has raised $9 million in additional capital. The new round was led by an investment from Technology Partners with existing investor the Foundry Group also participating. This funding will allow EmSense to continue its global expansion in support of its many market research partners. The funds will also enable the company [...] -
Want Some Emotion with That Website?
3 Nov 2009 | 5:01 amAs a web community guy, one of the most common problems I see is the failure to communicate emotion properly when people interact online. A remark intended as humorous can be perceived as a personal attack, or an expression of sympathy can be taken as cruel sarcasm. While I always suggest caution (particularly [...] -
College Branding: What if Harvard Moved Next Door?
2 Nov 2009 | 5:06 amWhy do most college branding efforts end up as meaningless pablum? I think it’s because most colleges have been relatively insulated from the effects of devastating competition. In fact, historically there have been major barriers to competition in the cozy world of higher education. The biggest have been geography, cost, and reputation. [...] -
Scent Marketing vs. Social Media
30 Oct 2009 | 5:23 amThe other day, Ad Age’s CMO Strategy Section ran a column by Harald Vogt on scent marketing. Vogt may not be entirely impartial on the topic – he is the founder and chief marketer of the Scent Marketing Institute – but he makes some good points when he questions why so few marketers employ [...] -
Sugar as Brain Food
29 Oct 2009 | 5:22 amThis isn’t great news for dieters, but sometimes sugar can be a good thing. Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University, had subjects perform a mentally taxing task – watching a video while being careful to ignore random words scrolling across the bottom of the screen. (Apparently, it takes quite a bit [...]
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New York Times
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Modern Love: A Brief Visit From My Soldier Son
7 Nov 2009 | 7:06 amAmid anxiety, a family celebrates the wonders of military life with a wedding for a son going off to war. -
Broader Measure of U.S. Unemployment Stands at 17.5%
7 Nov 2009 | 5:35 amThe official jobless rate excludes millions of people who have given up looking for work and part-time workers who want to be working full time. -
Virtual Goods Start Bringing Real Paydays
7 Nov 2009 | 2:10 amIt is quickly becoming commonplace for people to spend a few dollars to get ahead in an online game or to give a friend a gift on a social network. -
She Ran to Gunfire, and Ended It
6 Nov 2009 | 11:45 pmKimberly Munley, who brought down the gunman, was on her way to have her car repaired when she jumped into action. -
Big City: Happy Times at the Dog Run, Now Coming to an End
6 Nov 2009 | 11:06 pmAfter finding a new community at the small-dog run in Washington Square Park, a retired surgeon prepares to move back to Ohio.
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Scientific American
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NASA-funded monkey-radiation experiment raises hackles
6 Nov 2009 | 2:59 pmA nonprofit group that promotes animal rights in medical research has taken issue with a NASA grant funding an assessment of the long-term effects of radiation on monkeys. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), based in Washington, D.C., sent an appeal Thursday to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, urging that the radiobiology study, intended to test the effects of radiation encountered in long-range spaceflight, be suspended. [More] -
What will it take to force political action on climate change?
6 Nov 2009 | 2:21 pmAs utilities fire up their "clean coal" machines and international negotiators haggle over the precise definition of a tree , only one entity has the courage to stand and deliver the hot air the world so desperately craves on climate change: the U.S. Senate. After a hectic couple of weeks, filled with Republican walkouts and Democratic intransigence, the Senate's Environment and Public Works committee has pushed a bill to the Senate floor that would cut carbon dioxide. [More] -
Google Droid is here: Can it go toe-to-toe with Apple's iPhone?
6 Nov 2009 | 1:18 pmThe flood of Google Droid mobile phone reviews in the past week suggests that if the two devices stepped into the ring together, it would end like the first Rocky movie . Like Apollo Creed, the iPhone would still be the champ by a split decision by virtue of its status as the smooth-stepping veteran in the marketplace (not to mention its friendship with iTunes), but the Droids that debuted Friday on Motorola and HTC devices have come out swinging and win a few key rounds. [More] -
First Look at Carbon Capture and Storage in a West Virginia Coal-Fired Power Plant [Slide Show]
6 Nov 2009 | 12:01 pmNEW HAVEN, W.Va.--A 100-story smokestack belches a roiling, white cloud of water vapor, carbon dioxide and other leftover gases after burning daily as much as 12,000 tons of coal at the Mountaineer Power Plant --a total of 3.5 million tons a year. The facility just outside the town of New Haven boasts a single 65-meter-high boiler capable of generating enough steam to pump out 1,300 megawatts of electricity--enough to power nearly one million average American homes a month--continuously. And now roughly 1.5 percent of the CO 2 billowing from its stack is being captured in an industrial unit… -
Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite: Pest Management Proves More Effective than Pesticides
6 Nov 2009 | 9:04 amIn a large apartment building, it’s impossible to avoid the neighbors. You can hear the Bruce Springsteen that the tenant in 7B cranks while vacuuming, the kids in 8A directly above tromping around, and if someone decides to paint, the fumes reach everyone on the floor. So when a building supervisor notified owners in a sixty-unit co-op building in Brooklyn that one of the apartments had a bedbug infestation, Eddie Rosenthal feared that it was only a matter of time until the bugs spread to his home. [More]
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Get It In Writing
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Comment and let me know
5 Nov 2009 | 8:11 amHope you are doing well – happy, successful and at peace. You may have noticed that my weekly e-newsletters and regular e-mails have…..well, disappeared. Earlier this year, I made a deliberate decision to stop creating more content until I looked closer at my business, at my wonderful clients and at great people like you who are members of my e-mail list. I have asked many of you – as well as myself – questions like: How can I best serve you? What are your most pressing challenges when it comes to writing your copy and marketing your business? What are the most… -
How to find a writer
15 Oct 2009 | 9:31 amFor those of you that could relate to my last post, Don’t even think about writing for the web, I wanted to discuss the importance of hiring a copywriter. Finding quality writers is no easy task. As with hiring any employee or contractor, be sure to get the facts first. Ask these questions, and you’re sure to find a talented, hard-working and dependable writer with whom you can build a productive relationship. What exactly am I looking for? Before you begin your search for a writer, make sure to make a rough draft of your needs. Do you need a marketing writer, who produces brochures and… -
Don’t even think about writing for the web
7 Oct 2009 | 10:33 amSo in the last post I talked about my recent website research project and all the bad websites I ran into throughout the process. And it got me thinking. What websites really need is better copy. And I don’t say that because I’m a writer. The sad truth is that – in very general terms – the quality of web writing and copy is mediocre at best. I’m not calling for elegant prose. What I’m saying is that what your website reveals – in clear, well-placed words – influences what people think of you, your product, your company. Here are the top five ways to tell you’re NOT ready for… -
Content creation flaws
2 Oct 2009 | 10:59 amSo I have been doing some research over the past month in preparation for a new site I will be launching. And I hate to have to say it, but there are A LOT of bad websites out there. (No I will not featuring any in particular!). What I am going to do though is share some big time NOs NOs in case any of you are in the midst of a project or considering a site revamp. Flaw # 1: Senseless navigation Your website navigation should immediately let you know: Where you are, Where you’ve been, Where you can go next and Where the home page is. Navigation, in fact, must be so easy that visitors to… -
Keeping your copy active
30 Sep 2009 | 5:10 amOver the last two weeks, I have emphasized the importance of focusing on your target marketing, what they have for hot buttons and pain points and how your copy needs to be centered on the solutions they need. So once you have gone through the pre-writing process (with thorough research) and you embark on the act of writing marketing copy, I have a tip for you. It involves passive and active sentence structure, something you likely haven’t even given a thought. You will find that some also refer to this as writing in passive or active voices, but in this post, and in my book, Do It Yourself…
