February 28, 2006
" The 34-minute time and expense app - thingamy"
For the last few months, I've been helping Sigurd Rinde market his software, "Thingamy".
Dennis Howlett just took it for a test drive and posted his thoughts:
Last week I set Sigurd Rinde the challenge of creating a time and expense application. I didn’t give Sig a lot of detail but enough to see if something usable would come out the other end - it did. We were supposed to review progress yesterday but I had to put Sig back until today. There’s one word to describe this - awesome.Prepare Ye the Can of Worms etc.[...]
The only thing it really needs to know are the process flows. Everything else is up to you. You’ve got some learning to do but that’s true for any new application. In this case though,. you’ve got a tool that can go one heck of a distance. there is one proviso - everyone should use it because that’s how you get the best value. It won’t take you long to see that but it will challenge your preconceptions about how applications are meant to work.
[UPDATE:] Dennis has some new Thingamy thoughts here.
tecnorati "favorite" list
Technorati has a new Top 100 list, based on people's "favorites". I'm Number 24 [for now], apparently. Neat.
near cannes
I'm writing this from Antibes [near Cannes] in the South of France.
Here on business. Long Story.
So... Anybody want to buy a yacht?
[And while we're on a French theme:] Here's a podcast from Mardi Gras, put together by famed New Orleans blogger, Brian Oberkirch.
February 27, 2006
hello, jeremy
I live nowhere near Dallas. But if I did, I would call Jeremy over at TopGeeks every time my computer needed fixing. I have never met Jeremy; in fact up until about five minutes ago I had never even heard of him. But thanks to this blog post Jeremy gets all my future Dallas business, if and when etc.
[Insert new "Power of Blogs" thought here.]
"interpublic, where are your blogs?"
Great post from MarketingMonger:
Interpublic Group. 91 companies. $6 billion in annual revenues. 43,000 employees. 3 corporate blogs.So how come advertising agencies aren't getting into blogging? I've said it many times before:Great design still matters. So does branding. And pr. And marketing. And these companies do all those things very well.
But social media is coming and it's going to affect them and their clients.
Blogging, when done correctly, is CHEAP and EASY. Ad agencies are in the business of selling stuff that is NEITHER.[Bonus Link:] I love this tagline for The Obligatory Blog:
These days, if you run a software company, you have to have a Blog. This is mine.
"geo-localization of tags"
Jon Husband, of "Wirearchy" fame made an interesting point recently in the gapingvoid comments:
Blogging will get much more *local* in the next few years, in my opinion, in a range of interesting ways, and then one of the questions will be how to get global microbrands to become more effective and responsive on the local level and in local ways.Thoughts?This issue may become, for blogging, the equivalent of the *centralization / decentralization* pendulum swing issue that larger organizations continually re-visit as their markets or the org's capabilities change.
Watch for geo-localization of tags.
heiko's new job
Heiko Hebig, my favorite German blogger, no longer works for Six Apart. Seems he has this awesome new job at Burda.
In order to maximize these efforts, we are currently in the process of setting up "Burda Labs". At this stage "Burda Labs" is a working title for a small team of experts from various fields of expertise. The aim of this operation (call it skunksworks if you buy into conspiration theory) is to connect the unexpected. Now what does that mean? Honestly, I don't know. Not yet. At this stage it's way too early to predict the outcome.Godspeed, Heiko!
February 26, 2006
shaveblog
Corey Greenberg, a presenter on NBC's Today Show, has a blog devoted to old-fashioned gentleman's shaving:
The thing is, I got such a good shave with the Israeli blade I kept shaving with it all week. I get scary-close shaves with the Swedes, but in the this dry winter weather they can be a tad too much for my puss. The underside of my chin has been feeling kind of raw lately, but man, what faceturbatory shaves I get from these Swedes loaded in my 40's Gillette Super Speeds. I play with myself all day long, stroking my chin and cheeks and marvelling at the total lack of feelable stubble.Corey and I were college buddies. Wicked smart, is he.
more on the 100 dinners...
Right now I'm getting very excited about the Stormhoek "100 Dinners" idea.
We'll supply the wine, the bloggers supply the people and the conversation. The events don't have to be big, or at a fancy place, we imagine that they could be anywhere- a bar, a porch, a beach, park, whatever, so don't limit yourself to a restaurant.
Why am I getting so excited?
1. How about if it scaled? How about instead of doing a hundred dinners as a one-off, it becomes an ongoing thing? Hundereds and hundreds of blogger dinners [Thousands?] over the next couple of years?
2. How about if the idea really gelled with everybody, and suddenly having Stormhoek at a blogger dinner came pretty standard, as ubiquitous as say, wifi at a Mashup?
3. How about if it worked well enough that we could justify spending ALL our marketing budget on the dinners, and forget about all the other options- advertising, in-store promo's, product placement and all the other marketing methods I utterly despise?
I can think of worse way to make a living.
When I launched the whole Stormhoek thing, I said:
Will the idea-virus spread far enough that suddenly, instead of one or two people knowing about the wine, suddenly tens of thousands of smart connected people in the UK know about it, and are talking about it?What? Using the blogosphere to launch a national wine brand... and nothing else? Puting ad agencies out of business? Huh?Is that enough to launch a national brand?
If it isn't, well, no great loss. We will have gotten some PR out of it, and maybe a few long-term Stormhoek customers out of the blogosphere.
But if it is, then I'm thinking, Holy Shit, what we're doing might put a lot of traditional ad agencies out of business. Seriously.
I'll admit it- when this whole idea began it seemed very "out there".
But since The Telegraph article came out now I'm starting to think, Holy Shit, this is actually starting to work.
And that's scary. In a good way.
Next steps?
stormhoek in the sunday telegraph
Nick Dymoke-Marr, the big cheese at Stormhoek just got a big article written about him and this whole Stormhoek blogospheric thing in the business section of The Sunday Telegraph, on of the big UK national papers:
Last May, six months after Stormhoek launched, Dymoke-Marr despatched a bottle of his mid-price Sauvignon Blanc to 150 of the UK's most frantic-fingered "bloggers", the burgeoning community of internet diarists.Rock on, Nick. Nice to see Big Media finally starting to pick up on it.It was a plan that didn't lack bottle. After all, since their emergence at the end of the 1990s, bloggers have become a nightmare for businesses the world over. Microsoft, Tesco and McDonald's have all fallen victim to vicious blogs written by irate customers or seething employees.
But Dymoke-Marr's gamble elicited barely a sour grape. "We were just really honest," he says.
"We didn't say we were selling the best wine in South Africa. We just said: 'Here's a nice wine, reasonably priced, tell us what you think.'"
The bloggers got to work, tapping away about the virtues of the vino. Estimates of how many bloggers there are around the world range from 15m to 30m. Up to 80,000 blogs are thought to be started each day. If you had punched Stormhoek into Google last June, 500 references would have popped up. That figure stood at about 85,000 last week.
That being said, I'm more interested in the US launch these days; in particular the "100 Dinners" idea. If you have an idea for that, please sign up on the wiki and/or send me an e-mail. Thanks.
February 25, 2006
preston reed is blogging.
The result of a successful composition should be satisfying, entertaining, involving, and, on some level, edifying, whether it be long or short, simple or complicated, easy to listen to or not. Some compositions require multiple listenings to digest and enjoy. Some are instantly pleasing. But there will always be something that feels right -- natural, organic, alive -- about a good composition.[Live-streaming music samples can be found here. My fave track is one called "Flatonia," but that's just me.]A good composition gives back energy. It continues to evolve inside the listener over time.
[Here's an AMAZING hour-long video of Preston performing live at The Kennedy Center. Watch his technique. Wow.]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I thought legendary acoustic guitarist, Preston Reed, should start a blog:
What Preston realised is that what paid his bills wasn't percentages on record sales, but the relationship he had with his audience.A few phone calls later, he was on the case.So he and his wife built up a nice wee "Global Microbrand", which includes lots of playing, lots of touring, lots of real time connection with people who dig his work.
Like I said, this conversation was pretty seminal. Turns out what a lot of bloggers are now trying to do online, Preston was already trying to do the same via live music. His philosophy certainly helped confirm what I was trying to do with my work, back in those early blogging days- bypassing big media, building one's own sovereignty from the ground up etc. Even though I'm not a musician, his hands-on M.O. proved to be a real long-term inspiration for me.
So I wrote him an e-mail earlier today, telling him he'd be a perfect candidate to bring some music into the Blogosphere. Maybe I get him to play live at a Geek Dinner, blog confab or something. Just an idea.
Rock on.
February 24, 2006
everybody wants love
Rick Segal's new V.C. idea, as told by Shel:
He's a believer in micro financing and has become convinced that small investments spread over a large number of entrepreneurs with the right talent could be very lucrative for the right investors.
gender politics
A wee spat between Gia and Anina seems to have broken out. I know and like them both, so I'm staying WELL out of it.
Still, it's good to see gender politics entering the Blogosphere- it's a remarkably asexual place, by and large. Maybe that needs to change.
kiwi something
Jack Yan is trying to launch a global fashion magazine brand not from Paris or New York, but from New Zealand.
That's right; New Zealand. Hey, with the internet, anything's possible.
stormhoek cartoon
Looks like Stormhoek's marketing is starting to work. Heh.
[Note to self: Is Guy Kawasaki a wine drinker? Is he planning on throwing any Web 2.0 parties?]
The one thing I'm REALLY glad that me and the Stormhoek folk did is, when we started the first European wine promo back in the summer, we made it available to ALL bloggers, regardless of "influence" and/or traffic.
It made it a lot more interesting and fun than the usual "Let's give out some freebies to some A-Listers and start some buzz" routine.
Meanwhile, the Stormhoek 100 geek dinners thing is up to 39 parties. We want to get the number up to 100. If you have a interesting "Web 2.0" event coming up, large or small, Stormheok would perhaps like to sponsor it. Thanks.
malcolm gladwell has a blog
"Tipping Point" and "Blink Author, Malcolm Gladwell has started a blog. Thanks to Steve Rubel for the pointer.
February 23, 2006
biz school questions
[PS: Yes, the new M-Tablet PC drawings were all drawn in the last 24 hours.]
A business studies student just sent me the following questions, for his class. Anybody else want to have a shot at answering?
Below are some questions I had. Please consider them guidelines only. Feel free to add anything that you think might help.My answer to all eight questions: Read my blog and find out. Everything's there if you do your homework.Questions:
1) How would you describe your profession/work? What do you do (for money)?
2) What exactly is a “global microbrand”? How does it differ from a traditional brand?
3) How does one go about creating a “global microbrand”?
4) What is the difference between marketing by blogs for small business, and large corporate b-blogs?
5) In such a saturated blogosphere (where most blogs have relatively few hits), how does marketing by blogs reach out to customers?
6) In the world of blogs, where entries become obsolete within a matter of hours, is marketing by blogs sustainable?
7) How do you think marketing by blogs will change the way people perceive of marketing/advertising?
8) On gapinvoid.com, Stormhoek is mentioned as a success story. What other success stories do you know of? Unsuccessful stories?
[UPDATE:] Some good answers over at Eric's MarketingMonger, and there's also good stuff in the comments below. Thanks for the input, Everybody!
quality online content experiences are best!
Dennis Howlett does the great job of explaining just why traditional, paid media just-doesn't-get-it:
“We don’t allow self promotion - It’s not in our commercial interests to send people away from our site.”Of course not. It's in your interests to get advertisers to pay you lots of money by offering the consumer a quality online content experience. Lucky you.
February 22, 2006
February 20, 2006
free dvd's?
So, do you think there is any merit in the idea of Sony giving away 2,000 "Young Adam" DVDs to bloggers? I mean, they cost about 40¢ apiece to make.
Just curious.
[Note to Self:] Another blogvertising campaign, maybe?
ps:
[PS:]I love my new Motion Computing Tablet P.C.
I had an old Dell for years. It finally died.
My new baby utterly rocks.
big day at english cut
Today was quite a big day at English Cut. First, we launched the $300 shirts. Then Thomas announced that yes, we're doing the "100 suits per year" thing, after all.
In spite of the controversy it created in the gapingvoid comment section, the e-mails so far from our existing clients have been very supportive.
Some people think we're creating an "artificial" scarcity. I prefer to think of it as a "real and genuine" scarcity.
If we cut back our suit number in order to spend more time and effort on each order, calling it "artificial" doesn't make sense.
Tom is only capable of producing so much, and it has to be be managed properly. That means a frank conversation with the market about supply and demand.
February 19, 2006
shut up and get your checkbook out
Congratulations to PR maven Steve Rubel on his new job. At another large New York PR agency, no less.
A marketing professional just sent me the following note:
Something I've noticed about the newest class of PR/marketing bloggers- most of them are in the bowels of big agencies and their writing and point of view show it. It's a lot of "Here's how to use blogs as tools for our wonderful PR programs", and not at all about what blogging IS. Agencythink in new clothes; that's all it is.Well, I don't think Steve Rubel is a hack [No worse than me, anyway]. I have nothing but respect for the guy. And not everybody likes being on their own. Some people are far better suited working for big companies. Different strokes etc.Rubel can't ever truly be Rubel until he's on his own- going from one overlord to another means more of the same commentary on business as usual. The sad thing is I don't think he realizes that.
Then again, my nameless friend makes a good point about some of the business blogs I've been seeing around.
I suppose any hardcore professional blog evangelist will invariably end up with the same pitch, like it or not:
"Blogs will disrupt and transform everything about your business. Except for the part where you pay me lots of money".Nice work if you can get it.
your sexy little cutting-edge blogware app has no excuse
[Shel Israel and Robert Scoble, co-authors of "Naked Conversations".]
The big Web 2.0 event of the week was, of course, the launch party of Robert and Shel's book, "Naked Conversastions", over at Michael "Techcrunch" Arrington's house. Flickr photo links here and here.
Something tells me this was more than just another Geek dinner. As Dan Farber wrote in ZDnet:
TechCrunch leads Silicon Valley Web renaissance.The party atmosphere reminded me of the good old Internet days, overflowing with new ideas, optimism, and enthusiasm.
Of course, I would have loved to have gone. That being said, that didn't stop me from getting 10 cases of Stormhoek sent over for the party. Michael was very kind:
I also want to specifically mention Stormhoek, who donated ten cases of their premium wine to the party. It is incredibly good wine, and their generosity in sending it has made me a lifetime customer.Jeff Clavier was also there, and he ended up writing a nice review of it as well.
Both whites were fresh and pleasant, the Pinot Grigio being off dry and the Sauvignon Blanc having the dry and floral typical characteristics of that varietal.Meanwhile, George Nimeh has done a stellar job figuring out my Stormhoek marketing strategy:
You can't buy the kind of endorsement that Michael gives Hugh and Stormhoek, because everyone knows the deal. It is, for lack of a better word, cool. The relationship is transparent, and that matters. We all know what Hugh is up to, but that's ok. That's the way it should be.I personally don't have a problem with bringing the dreaded "marketing" word into the Web 2.0 space. This isn't 1998. Our kind, understanding VCs aren't going to give us $20 million dollars to spend on TV spots. Whatever product or conversation we're bringing to the Web 2.0 party, be it software, hardware, wine, Aeron chairs, real estate or whatever, we're all going to need really amazing marketing, if we're going to survive.In other words, honest transparent marketing and communication just plain works.
And hey, if a $10 bottle of obscure South African Wine can make a decent go of it, then your sexy little cutting-edge blogware app has no excuse. Rock on.
[MORE LINKS:] Robert Scoble writes about the party. So does Rick Segal [hilarious and sharp; recommended], Brian Oberkirch interviews Shel and Robert for a podcast.
February 18, 2006
just don't be surprised when you get left behind
As I am doing nothing but make money via blogs, courtesy of English Cut, Stormhoek and some other projects, I find this Slate article, "Twilight of the Blogs- Are they over as a business?" rather humorous, for all the wrong reasons:
But as businesses, blogs may have peaked. There are troubling signs—akin to the 1999 warnings about the Internet bubble—that suggest blogs have just hit their top.This is the trouble with journalists. Because they generally don't do anything, except write endlessly about the people who do, their opinions are always based upon second-hand sources. Which makes for a pretty murky lens to view the world through.
Hey, guess what, Big Media? Unlike your poor, sorry excuse of a career, making money via blogs is all about doing interesting things with interesting products and ideas, and not about getting invited to all the right parties.
What? you mean there's no secret "In Crowd" validation committee telling you which table you're allowed to sit at? Shock! Horror! Still, this would explain why you've never properly understood blogging from Day One.
So to Big Media, Madison Avenue, journalists, bloggers and citizens everywhere, I say: If you think this is just a game of bubbles, bandwagons, favoritism and knowing the right people, as opposed to having good ideas and plain old hard work- Fine, go ahead and believe it. Nobody cares. Just don't be surprised when you get left behind, same as you did every other time the world changed.