Forbes just picked Free Prize Inside as one of their top ten books of the year.
Yikes! Forbes.com: Forbes.com’s Business Books Of The Year.
Hey, they’ve even got a poll and you can vote for your favorite.
It’s just nice to be nominated.
So not only is RSS showing up in browsers, but now it’s in email clients as well. Thunderbird is go.
Email is a better metaphor for RSS anyway. The big news is that RSS is here, you should be obsessed about having your readers/clients/prospects adding you to their list.
I got two already, so it’s spreading.
There is no national do not call list for cell phones. There is no public list of cell phone numbers. Don’t worry! This tiny portion of your life is safe. A ‘Do Not Call’ List for Cell Phone Users? – Netlore Archive.
Easier than checking the archives! More efficient than wading through inane banter.
If you’re only going to read 2 of my posts a month (that’s 24 for those of you without a calculator) then this is where I’d have you start:
Seth’s Blog: Sleeping at night.
Seth’s Blog: A Little Like Francisco Franco.
Seth’s Blog: What happens when it’s all on tape?.
Seth’s Blog: Beware the CEO blog.
Seth’s Blog: Three kinds of blogs.
Seth’s Blog: Lies to protect the status quo.
Seth’s Blog: Trust and Respect, Courage and Leadership.
Seth’s Blog: Time to take action?.
Seth’s Blog: The problem with search engine optimization.
Seth’s Blog: The Provincetown Helmet Insight.
Seth’s Blog: Opt in, Opt out, Opt cheat….
Seth’s Blog: The Curse of Great Expectations.
Seth’s Blog: Five years from now….
Seth’s Blog: On thinking big….
Seth’s Blog: Differentiation and Segmentation.
Seth’s Blog: What is the Free Prize?.
And like the net, it “changed everything.”
The Yellow Pages receive billions of dollars in advertising money a year. It’s a great business model–businesses show their interest in getting new customers by buying bigger ads than their competition. Consumers choose the businesses with the biggest ads. The Yellow Pages wins.
The other cool thing about the Yellow Pages is that the ads AREthe content. The Yellow Pages without ads don’t exist.
So, check out Google Search: billiards near 10706 . This is Google’s first shot at competing with Yahoo’s offering ( Yahoo! Yellow Pages.)
Neither one works as a business, but both are a fine start.
The problem is that there’s no way for the consumer to tell one provider from another. Distance is fine, but most providers we choose aren’t chosen because they’re half a mile closer than an alternative.
If you’re a search engine, this is the next big thing. (note to Silicon Valley: you’ll need thousans of salespeople if you want to do it right).
If you’re a business that works locally, this is a bigger deal. Businesses that figured out how to use the Yellow Pages did GREAT (all caps are appropriate here). It was the difference between the big win and just getting by.
So, watch and learn and experiment. Here comes the next big thing.
Nice piece in today’s New York Times: Unleashing the Ideavirus.
Doc Searls started a little tempest re PDFs and Changethis.com The Doc Searls Weblog : Tuesday, November 30, 2004.
Basically, he says that PDFs are not all that great compared to HTML and ChangeThis ought to offer its manifestos in web-friendly format.
We got some mail on this as well.
I hear you. But I think the comparison is not apt. The right comparison is to compare our PDFs to books.
Books are not searchable. They cost money to reproduce. You can’t print multiple copies and Google searches them even less well than they search PDFs.
You don’t hear anyone whining about books. You don’t hear about anyone sending long, detailed emails to book publishers explaining why they should abandon printed books and start publishing in HTML.
Anyway, we use PDFs because they’re a lot more booklike. They read better. They stick together when you forward them. They print better.
I know they’re not in HTML. There are 6 trillion other web pages to choose from if you want that.
Thanks for your feedback! Keep the cards and letters coming.
Maybe I’m typing too fast or thinking too quick, but a few people have written in re the Livestrong post below.
Here’s one quote:
Maybe people want to participate in the trend but don’t like the message on Armstrong’s bracelets. Maybe friendship is more important than cancer to some people. Maybe part of the proceeds for the friendship bracelet are also donated. Did you look into that?
…
In all honesty, your most recent post lacks more decency than the guys making friendship bracelets. Even Nike is cashing in on the trend, as they should. I’d be more ashamed of all these guys for not taking advantage of an opportunity.
The others also took the position that if a marketer CAN make a buck and it’s not against the law, then he SHOULD make a buck. They also seem to feel that it’s not okay for me to call em on doing so.
Are there grey areas? Sure there are. This is not one of them.
1. it’s a cheap bracelet and no knock off is going to make a lot of money
2. it’s enough to poison the well for the foundation
3. it’s such an atrociously similar knockoff that there’s no issue here of fairplay or dubious intellectual property protection. It’s a rip off, plain and simple.
My point in the original post? Marketers need to stop trying quite so hard to exploit every possible nook and cranny, damning the consequences. There are consequences, and you are responsible for what you market and what you sell. It’s not the market, it’s you.
There. Thanks for listening. Send future mail to Donald Trump or someone else.
You know about the Livestrong, the fashionista ideavirus that donates 100% of proceeds to fighting cancer. It’s a great cause, well orchestrated by Nike and Lance Armstrong. So well organized, in fact, that there’s a waiting list.
Well, some marketer (I use the term with trepidation and loathing) has decided to fill the gap by launching the “Friendship” bracelet (see photo below).
How does he sleep at night?
How do the stores that sell this?
Sir, have you no decency?
It makes me ashamed to be in a similar line of work.
