This morning, I found this post called Brandishing books at Game Matters. It was a great post about Seth’s recent blog tour. There were also great comments about doing something similar with computer games.
I think things like Carnival of the Capitalists and the BBBT are great community builders. It helps everybody get to know each other and it helps with foster conversations.
Should I or shouldn’t I RSS? There seems to be a lot of asking this week. What got me started this time was the post on Tom Peters’ new blog. Ron Crossland asks “Will RSS really provide the average consumer BETTER content or simply more CONTENT?”
It’s not just Tom site’s questioning things. 37 Signals, Matt Mulenweg and the Online Journalism Review have all had something to say about whether to add RSS.
37 Signals laments that they won’t be able to control the design. Without a feed, I will never come to your site.
Ron, it is all about more content and more conversations and the ability to listen to more voices. Maybe RSS will change the shape of the power curve for bloggers.
For me, RSS is about the process, not the product.
I think the use of audio on blogs is going to grow. I am going to start experimenting with it here and at 800-CEO-READ.
NPR profiled a couple of audio bloggers.
Tom Peters used audio to review the book Ageless Marketing.
Have you seen other good ones?
Update: Of course, someone is blogging about audio blogging.
So much of life is expectations. Shannon at shannonsays.com has a great post about Jetstar, the new budget airline in Australia. The no-frills approach means no seat assignments, no food service, and no refunds if you show up late. This seems to be upsetting Aussies who expect more from an airline.
There is a lot of talk about exceeding your customers’ expectations, but there is an edge (see free prize inside) by offer less than everyone else. You just need to make sure your customers have adjusted their expectations.
I told you about my search for C2 (again there would be a link, if I could find one) last week. Since then, I found out that C2’s official launch was Monday.
I was again in the grocery store yesterday for the weekly trip and saw no sign of the low carb cola. But what I did see what Pepsi Edge available in 20 oz. single bottles occupying a great location at the end of the aisle. I bought a couple of bottles and tried it last night. My wife and I thought it was pretty good. You get a little aftertaste of the artificial sweetener. I recommend going out and trying it. We will probably buy a 12-pack and see if it can replace the full carb version we drink now.
Business lessons;
We now have 45 sites on the bizblogdirectory wiki.
If you have added you site, take a trip on over.
If you are looking for some new reading, I also recommend a look through the list.
I decided to spiff things up a bit around here in honor of the first year.
I know RSS is make site design less relevant.
My friend Tim Frame helped with the graphics.
I hope you’ll come by and take a quick look.
A Penny For… is one year old today.
I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have.
MarketingSherpa announced the winners of the Readers’ Choice Blog Awards this morning.
A Penny For… was nominated in the “best individual’s blog on the general topic of marketing and advertising”.
The winner is… Adrants and the honorable mention goes to Seth Godin.
I feel like the award show nominee that has to clap and smile as the winner walks up to accept the awards, but is thinking “WHY DIDN’T THEY PICK ME?!” 🙂
I got this off the Scoble LinkBlog this morning. Robin Good gives 10 steps to creating a better brand for yourself:
I have officially been on doing my own thing for a little over two months. I have the KaosPilots book at the Penny Store. I have the 800-CEO-READ Blog. There are one or two other potential projects. So far, I am happy with the progress. I only work 15-20 hours a week while I spend three days a week watching our little guy.
I want to develop my business further over the next six months, so I have been doing a lot of reading on freelancing and free agency. I’ll post some stuff I have run across that I think is interesting. I know there are a lot of bloggers and blog readers who are free agents, so I hope we can create some good discussion around the rewards and risks of being a free agent.
Bob Wright has taken NBC from a single public network to a media powerhouse. In the last issue of Fortune (5/31/04), they showed a graph showing how ad-based revenues will go from 95% to 50% with the Vivendi Universal merger.
In this issue (6/14/04), there is a Q&A with the GE vice-chairman. Most of the questions are about how hard life is going with [insert VU merger, endings of Friends/Fraiser, cost of Law & Order]. The only two questions that told you anything were:
Q:Is there one non-NBC show you wish you had?
A: 24
Q:Did you learn anything from the Donald by watching NBC’s hit The Apprentice?
A:[Laughs]It reinforced my view that you should be confident and be bold.
The Internet has changed my tolerance for waiting. I can hear or read about a book and go order it on Amazon that moment. They can have it to me the next day. iTunes is even better. I can have the song I want in about 30 seconds.
More often, I want to just know more about something. I have a greater intolerance for a lack of information. There is no reason I should not be able to find out about a product or service via the internet. Companies continue to underestimate the need and the intolerance.
My latest example is Coca-Cola. They have started an advertising campaign for their new C2 product – a cola with 1/2 the calories. The commercial caught my attention. I went to the store the next day on a normal shopping trip and couldn’t find it. I thought it was a little odd, but decided to do some a little searching when I got home.
I could not find a thing about the C2 product on the Coca-Cola website. How is that possible? They are #91 on the Fortune 500. Over and over, they are considered one of the most recognized brands. First, result on Google is a blog-styled site called Carbwire. It looks like their information is pulled from a press release.
Advice to companies: People want to know about your products NOW and after they make a decision to purchase, they want them ASAP.
My home state is well-known as America’s Dairyland (contrary to what those commercials say). You may also know that Wisconsin is #2 in cranberry production. Cheeseland is also third for potato production.
One of the more interesting production crops in ginseng. It not unusual to see a couple of acres covered with the signature black mesh. It seems that our ginseng growers are having problem with counterfeiting; not of the root, but of the seal designating the product is from Wisconsin. Forbes has the whole story.
You want to give feedback to this thing you are really excited about and you get this: