The Business Blog Book Tour is off and running.
Yesterday, Rob did a fine job hosting.
Today, it is the boys at Brand Autopsy.
You’ll find Ben and Jackie at Ensight.org tomorrow.
The Business of Books
If a business book sells 10,000 copies, it is considered a success. It is very rare for a business book to have blockbuster success like a Da Vinci Code or the latest Harry Potter. One exception is Good to Great by Jim Collins having sold over 1,000,000 copies.
I found that out recently and it really surprised me. I am not sure why. I guess I looked at my bookshelf and saw an awful lot of business books.
I have decided that Rob, Jon, and I are single-handedly supporting business book publishing in America.
They are talking about me
The Church has a great post on an article from the Chicago Tribune. With the drop in young men watching TV, the newspaper went on a quest to find them and found out what they are doing.
The attitude they found describes me to a tee. When my wife and I give gifts, we are always looking for something unique, something that fits the recipient, and something that wouldn’t expect. That requires some searching (which I love doing) and requires keeping your ears open for suggestions from others.
At my other blog, getting opinions from others is the whole point. I posted a request for suggestions on a carrying bag for my new Powerbook and 14 people told me what they thought was good. After initially buying a bag, I returned it and went with one of their suggestions.
Word of mouth is powerful. Trust is precious. A lot of companies need to get on board.
Do A Little Extra
I spent yesterday morning the Milwaukee Dads group. This is an organized group of stay-at-home dads who get together a couple of times a week. This week was breakfast on Tuesday and a play group on Friday at one of the dad’s homes. E. and I had a great time and will definitely be back.
As we were leaving the Baker’s Square, the waitress brought out two pies and simply said that these were for the stay-at-home dads. I thought that was so nice of them.
I doesn’t take much to create a big impression.
Songs with “Penny” in the title
- Penny – Night Ranger
- Throw a Penny – Bee Gees
- Druscilla Penny – The Carpenters
- A Bad Penny – Cat Stevens
- Penny Is Poison – The Verve Pipe
- Penny Lane – The Beatles
- A Penny A Kiss – Tony Martin
- Penny Lover – Lionel Richie
- A Penny For Your Thoughts – Willie Nelson
- Penny for Your Thoughts – Peter Frampton
- Penny & Me – Hanson
- Penny’s Song – Felicia Day (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)
- Penny – The National Parks
- Penny – The Honeycutters
- Penny – Joe Stampley & Moe Bandy
- Pretty Penny – Stone Temple Pilots
- Penny On the Floor – The Clark
- Lucky Penny – JD McPherson
- Penny On the Train Track – Ben Kweller
Online Music and Mixes
A week ago today, WSJ led the Marketplace Section with an article headlined, “Online Music Rings Up New Sales With Outtakes, Mixes” [sub. needed]. The piece talks about how songs that will never make it on a CD are ringing up huge sales online.
A day after singer Beyonce belted out her soulful interpretation of the anthem at this year’s Super Bowl, the recording was up for sale for 99 cents on Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Music Store, where it became one of the top-selling tracks for the week.
and
Last month, Apple put a version of “I Fought the Law” by rockers Green Day up for sale on iTunes at 10 p.m., after the song aired earlier that day as the soundtrack to a Super Bowl commercial for Apple and PepsiCo Inc. For the next two weeks, “I Fought the Law” was the top-selling track on iTunes and, since then, has bounced around the top three or four slots.
Rob Schoeben, vice president of applications marketing at Apple, says the Green Day track is a “world-wide exclusive” on iTunes, meaning it won’t appear on other Web sites or in stores. Apple believes Internet-only music may be an important way to coax first-time users into buying their music on the Internet. “We think if there are things you can only get online, you can get people who are laggards to try online” music buying, Mr. Schoeben says.
I think both of these illustrate the idea I was talking about last week. If people hear something they like, they want to be able to go buy it right away. By offer these tracks, iTunes are filling that need and creating a unique revenue source that didn’t exist before.
BTW, I don’t buy the laggards argument.
New Film Making Powerhouse: New Zealand
I ran across an interesting article in WSJ [sub. needed] about film making in New Zealand. I should disclose that I have a soft spot for New Zealand. In 2000, my wife and I quit our jobs and traveled for a year. We spent 4.5 months in Australia and 2.5 month in New Zealand.
NZ is a wonderful country that has everything – mountains, glaciers, rain forests, fjords, dormant volcanoes. It is all that stuff that is making it a great space to make movies. Having Peter Jackson as a citizen doesn’t hurt either.
I have copied a large portion of the article below. The copy was created from speech given by Ruth Harley, CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission. She talks about the seven things that have led to success with the film industry in New Zealand.
Books Mr. Buffet says you should read
Today, Warren Buffett released the Berkshire Hathway’s annual letter to the shareholders.
The buzz today is that he recommends some books to read:
- Bull! by Maggie Mahar
- The Smartest Guys in The Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
- In an Uncertain World by Robert Rubin
He gives a nod to Jason Zwieg’s revising of The Intelligent Investor, originally written by Benjamin Graham.
There is one other book reference in the letter and you have probably heard this story. Every year, Buffet does a session with finance students from the University of Tennessee. Last year, the students gave him a copy of Jim Clayton’s autobiography, First A Dream. Clayton is the founder of Clayton Homes, a powerhouse in the manufactured homes business. One thing lead to another and Buffet ended up buying Clayton homes last year. As a thank-you for the tip, each student got one share of Class B stock . Today’s value is $3,136.
Two of these titles are already on Amazon’s Top 25
P.S. Fast Company also had a take on the Clayton Homes acquisition in their Jan. 2004 issue.
Moltz visits Startupskills.com
Our friend Barry Moltz is visiting Richard and the folks at Startup Skills.com today. They are talking A Little Crazy again.
Check it out.
It’s tough being an entrepreneur
Check out this great write-up on Small Business Trends. The post summarizes a discussion from Joi Ito’s blog about the difficulty of starting a business in Japan. I thought it went well with our discussion last month about the similar situation in France. The included chart shows France only slightly better than Japan for entrepreneurial activity.
MMMBop
You know I am always a sucker for penny references.
Hanson was on On-Air with Ryan Seacrest today.
The lead single off their new album Underneath is Penny and Me. You can listen to a clip here.
Like almost everything here at A Penny For…, there is a business angle to this post. I first have to admit that I like Hanson’s music. Their last album had stuff I enjoyed.
After they got done playing, I immediately went to iTunes looking to download Penny and Me. I couldn’t find it. They listed all of their old albums, but nothing about the new one. I hopped over to Amazon and found the album will be released on April 20th. I would love to know how many people did the same thing I did.
I wonder if the immediate availability of digital media is going to require a change in the way it is publicized. I would argue that Hanson missed out on revenue today by not having the album available for purchase. Honestly, don’t know if I will be as hot after the song a month from now. Fans of Hanson will be willing to wait. What about all the people who thought to give them another chance? Unless they start getting airplay, Hanson missed an opportunity to convert those prospects to customers.
Now imagine, Hanson ends their performance and says, “If you liked the new song, visit iTunes. The single and new album is available there today.”
What do you all think? Is there any point in creating pent-up demand for product that can be experienced two minutes after you decide you would like to experience it?
Business and Blogging VI: Corporate Weblog Manifesto
Ben at the Church had a post last week about Robert Scoble. Being hailed as World’s greatest blogger, I had to check him out.
I wanted to point you to his Corporate Weblog Manifesto. This goes along great with what I was talking about last week. The Manifesto consists of 21 points. I think they are all good, but #20 and #21 I like the most. They both go together well.
20. Be the authority on your product/company. You should know more about your product than anyone else alive, if you’re writing a weblog about it. If there’s someone alive who knows more, you damn well better have links to them (and you should send some goodies to them to thank them for being such great advocates).
21. Know who is talking about you
I had a publisher contact me this week to give me additional information about a book I had blogged about. That shows me companies are starting to look at what bloggers are saying about them.
A new endeavor
I have started a new blog.
Making the Switch is going to focus on the questions users have when they make the change from the PCworld to Appleland. It will run as long as I have questions.
I think the blog will be a great way to capture the knowledge for others who have similar questions.
I have also found the Apple community to be outstanding. There are 18 comments on my Apple post from last week. The new blog already has three comments and I started it 6 hours ago. It’s that interest that is going to be the blog useful for myself and others.
I am also trying out TypePad for the task. I find it very simple to use. I’ll let you know how it goes.
If you are an Apple user or if you are interested in what it is like to make the switch, join us over at the new place.
Oscars becoming a commercial event
Maybe someone is listening.
Last month, we were talking about Super Bowl Ads and Abnu from Wordlab thought Madison Avenue should take notice of the huge audience they have for the Oscars.
I watched the first 30 minutes of the Academy Awards last night and there were a few companies that rollled out new advertising. The first commercial was a Diet Pepsi spot. It featured Jason Biggs at an Oscar party with some friends. Next was a HP + Fender ad with lots of kids trying to play “Smoke on the Water”. There may have been other ads.
Now, we just need the media to jump on the bandwagon and start talking about all of the cool ads the next day.
Poker is Hot
They are talking about poker everywhere.
This morning there was a segment on CBS Sunday Morning. The report was focusing on the World Poker Tour. Last year, the tour had $10 million in prize money. Tour organizers estimate prize money will be around $30 million this year and $50 million next year. The other number thrown out was that 50 million Americans play poker. Seems a little high.
They say the rise in poker’s popularity is due to the card cam, which gives viewers the ability to see the players cards. Producers say it creates drama – you knowing player A should fold, because player B has a pair of aces.
The March issue of Fast Company has a one pager what business folks can learn from the poker world:
- Bluff when you can, not when you have to.
- Don’t speak when you can nod
- Always be willing to fold a strong hand
- Always be willing to call with a weak hand
- Patience is the highest virtue
Recommended books from the article include:
Play Poker Like the Pros by Phil Hellmuth Jr. (from one of the best on the tour)
The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky (cult classic)
Positively Fifth Street by James McManus (lit prof turned poker player talks history, strategy, and his run at the World Series of Poker)
There seems to be a thriving poker blog community. What first led me there was The Intrepid Card Player’s take on United from this week’s COTC. He lists a dozen poker blogs and that led me to a ton more. You are interested in checking out poker blogs Guinness and Poker seems to have a pretty complete list.