This summary of an article from the December issue of the Journal of Advertising Research (good luck finding the issue online because I couldn’t) says that common word-of-mouth advertising by regular folks is more powerful than “key influencers.” Which is to say that sucking up to A-list bloggers may not be all that it’s cracked [...]
I used to take an adult hockey class. Each session started with all of us facing the boards and skating backwards on the instructor’s whistle. We were all supposed to stop on a second whistle; then the instructor grouped students by how far they had skated in the limited time. (This is a picture of [...]
Google announced the winner of the Adsense Story Contest today: Hometips. This is a site that features free content concerning home improvement, remodeling, repair, redecorating, and do-it-yourself projects. For example, here are tips for hanging Christmas lights. According to the owner, Don Vandervort, the revenues generated by Google Adsense went from paying for coffee to [...]
Thankfully, Craig M. and Carla D. pointed out Kiva gift certificates. Your recipient can go online and select an entrepreneur to support. When the loan is repaid, the process starts again. What a great idea for Christmas gifts.
Continuing on the theme of naming companies, you should read “Company Naming Changes 2006” by Strategic Name Development. 1,900 name changes occurred last year. The company has identified nine categories of name changes: Dog Eat Dog (34%) Too Big or Too Little (29%) Build on the Brand (Building on a Strong Brand) (5%)
Stanford Magazine has a terrific article about Kiva called “Small Change, Big Payoff” by Cynthia Haven. This is the story of how Matt and Jessica Jackely Flannery created it to enable people to make micro loans to entrepreneurs around the world. The results are awesome: more than 123,000 people have loaned more than $12.4 million [...]
I enjoy the process of coming up with a name for a company or product, and the fact that so many domains are taken makes it more challenging and enjoyable. (My latest, greatest is Muchobene.) Halfagain Marketing posted an article called “What’s my name?” which is a very useful list of naming tips. For example, [...]
After a very short while, hearing about the nth social-media, video-sharing, or user-generated-content startup gets boring. After all, you can only listen to so many “unique” ideas if you know what I mean. Luckily, once a year or so, I hear about a company that is truly different, and tonight I attended the friends and [...]
Today Amazon announced its foray into selling hardware with a data service. The device is called “Kindle,” and it represents a daring move for an “online bookstore.” You’re going to see two kinds of reviews: bad ones from people who haven’t used it and good ones from people who have. It’s that kind of product—plus [...]
IMHO, this is the best truemor posted yet. It certainly is one way to change the world by fostering pride and empowerment.
The recordings of the “A Brand You World - 2007 Global Telesummit” are now online as MP3s and iTunes Podcasts. It includes people like Jason Alba, Richard Bolles, and Andy Sernovitz. If you want to learn how to market yourself, check them out.
TechCrunch published a great guest post by Glenn Kelman, the CEO of Redfin, called “Entrepreneur 2.0.” It inspired me to piggyback on his idea that investing in “serial entrepeneurs” who have already been successful might not be all that it’s cracked up to be and write this post. Both our posts run counter to the [...]
All hail Carleen Hawn because she has written a fabulously funny analysis of the management style of (Fake) Steve Jobs. It’s called the “Ten Commandments of Fake Steve Jobs” Never let people know where they stand. You don’t have to hire the best people. Only promote stupid people. Never tell people what is expected of [...]
Here’s the place to get video clips from my interview with Dan Lyons, aka “Fake Steve Jobs.” This is one of the funniest interviews I’ve ever done—if I do say so myself. There are a boatload of inside jokes going on, though. If you need joke support, just post a comment.
I found this interview of Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank. His idea to provide “micro loans” to poor people to jumpstart their entrepreneurship truly is changing the world. In fact, Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work. Here are some key quotes from the interview: “Women have a long-term vision, she wants [...]
My interview of Fake Steve Jobs, sponsored by LinkedIn, is tomorrow at 6:00 pm Pacific. If you want to attend in person, click here to register. UStream will also stream it live if can't attend in person. You can click here or return to this posting to watch this embedded player. Also, on November 8th [...]
Chris Brogan suggested that people be able to use Twitter to post news to Truemors. We listened to him, and my buddies at Electric Pulp made this possible even though they were really busy with Stephen Colbert. I call it “Twitter News Network” (TNN). Here’s how what you need to do: Follow the Twitter Truemors [...]
Here are the top-ten Leopard tips from my friends, Adam Engst et al, at Take Control Books. They’ve already released five ebooks to help people upgrade to Leopard. These books cost either $10 or $15, but you can save 30% if you buy all five. Take Control publishes minor updates for free, so the authors [...]
This interview features the chief marketing officer and product manager of Compete, Inc. They discuss how Compete competes with Alexa and Comscore, site metrics, and SEO practices. Question: What exactly does Compete do? Answer: Stephen DiMarco: We have a diverse sample of 2,000,000 U.S. Internet users that have given us permission to analyze the web [...]
“Snooze or Lose” is an article that every parent should read because kids need their sleep or their cognitive ability may get set back for years. Here’s the key sentence: “A few scientists theorize that sleep problems during formative years can cause permanent changes in a child’s brain structure: damage that one can’t sleep off [...]