SIPA Blog

Fun With Video and Other Stuff From Friday April 3, 2009

2009-04-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

OK, fantastic. Today was a lot of budget hacking and web posting. We hacked over 100K from the budget, which means I will not only be taking out the trash, I will be wearing the bag. And, if you've never done it, you really must lay off your mother-in-law. She took it better than I did.

Part of our problem is the unexpected limp performance of teleconferences. Teleconferences are exactly what we thought people would want since they can't leave their seats. Now, we had some other factors that may be toying with us (more about that later in a post entitled: "How to Hose Your Lists"), but maybe the people left to do the work after all the layoffs just don't have the time for 100 minutes of thigh-slapping legal education. I've heard others are down, but talked to someone else today who's teleconference business was holding up. On the other hand, we had a great one this week with 70 attendees. What a tease! We had another one with 5 if you count the operator. My team makes fun of that fact that I like to call those "recording sessions."

We've been shooting video, which helps our SEO. Our site is young, but we'll probably have 100,000 visitors this year. Not bad given we're in a narrow market. We will have easily double that when you count all the other sites that pick up our content through direct arrangements and press releases. Let's see if I am clever enough to post a video here . . .

Wow. Been here since 4:30 a.m. and still have my wits. Or at least one wit. This is shot with two cameras in high quality, which gets lost when uploaded to YouTube. We're using it to enhance our site and sell the video package. We've already had several orders. This video was shot by GiantAntMedia.com. I highly recommend them. Visit their site not just to see what you can do with talented people and a couple cameras, but to have a little fun.

Here is one shot with less definition, and edited by yours truly, who after he takes out the trash edits video using either Windows Movie Maker or borrows one of his kids' Macs and uses iMovie. He then stops talking about himself in the third person and inserts the video.

Not great. Not bad. But the speaker was intelligent and prepared, so the content makes up for the single-shot look. We worked with a local video guy on that one. He's great to work with and is learning his craft, but the conditions for shooting weren't the best.

Below we completely failed on quality (shot by yet another company), but the content was outstanding and we're selling recordings.

I learned from this that the audio is more important than the video. Fortunately the video is so bad you can't tell the audio was synced up later, but missed by a fraction of a second. It's a bit like watching the English language version of a movie with English dubbed in. It was on this one that I learned the magic of converting PowerPoint slides into Move Maker slides. I have to say that during this process I decided to love Microsoft since stuff works so well together, and it's already on my PC. I love the Mac too, and anyone I come into contact with in the video world insists on it. I've found free programs to convert Mac files into Windows files, but if anyone has one they love, please tell me. My kids never have problems with their Macs and quickly learned movie editing, much to the disappointment of our family chinchilla, Gizmo (below), who's now on YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, I use that for all our promotional clips. It's super easy to use and gives you the flexibility to insert clips like I did in this post.

My daughter, 17, shot that using the camera on her laptop, inserted photos, slides and music, converted it and posted on YouTube between the time I showed her iMovie was on her Mac and sat down at my desk at the office just 5.5 miles away. Next I am going to show her my budget.

OK, enough for today. I need to sweep our PayPal account and go home. PayPal, by the way, was a godsend. Their rates are higher than you'd pay with other merchant account services (anyone may feel free to suggest them), but since we were considered a startup banks would not let us take credit cards. PayPal approved us in 24 hours and not only were we taking credit cards, but creating and customizing buttons for our site. And for a hoot, whenever someone purchases something from us, I get an email notice which I've set to trigger the sound of a cash register, which I downloaded from SoundSnap.com. It's a great site to get any noise you like. Anything from "glass breaking" to "woman vomiting." Hours of fun for the entire family.

Thanks to a truly spirited and willing staff, the lights remain on at HB Litigation Conferences LLC.

Future Posts (this is really here for me more than you): Fun with WordPress, Lexis Web 2.0, Podcasting, Blogging, Creative Madness, and why I hate Comcast, NAPA Auto Parts and Salmon, reprising "Schmoozing With The Masters," and why I drive a car that looks like a wet cough drop.

Back At It

2009-04-02T05:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, I know you missed me, my loyal follower.

Since my last post in September 2008, let's see . . . . I was working with long-time friend David Foster at BVR trying to launch a legal division, BVR Legal. After a few months we agreed the idea didn't have legs. I think we can safely say the idea didn't have much of a torso either. But hey, we tried it. And all the credit in the world to David for giving it a shot. That's not to say BVR doesn't have opportunity in legal markets -- they have tremendous opportunity there. It's just that, in the end, not enough of our customer base was the right target for their products. Like I said, we tried it; it didn't work. During that time, like right now, 15-hour days and weekends were pretty much standard. On New Year's Eve, when many of you were drunk, David and I were settling. By 7 p.m. I owned, of all things, a conference business. What better business to be in when budgets for training and travel have been slashed to the kidneys? I figured I could zig while everyone else zagged. But first I had Kung Pao Chicken to celebrate, then worked until 11 p.m.

How's it going? It's tough! We're currently losing less money than the company did while we were at Lexis and BVR. I am no businessman, but I believe the intention is to not lose money at all. I read that somewhere. I think in HBR. So we are scrambling to take advantage of some great assets and some interesting new opportunities.

I will attempt to post some of what we're learning as we go.

First lesson. Don't be afraid to try new stuff. Don't constantly talk yourself out things. Sure, do you business cases, do your math, do your plans, but as has been said many times, test, test, test. And there is no test like a live one.

I will share life-altering chestnuts like that as we go, and keep you posted on our business. The thrill for you will be to see if we succeed or crash. Think of it as a reality show. It could go either way folks. By the way, we don't do just legal conferences. We will do weddings, bah mitzvas, and children's birthday parties. Gallow's humor or Zen?

Either way, wish us luck! This much I can say: we are having a ball! What a great business when you get to live with your customers!

Non-Invasive Interview: Don Nicholas

2008-09-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

TH: I enjoyed your presentation at the conference back in June. Thanks for doing it.

DN: Thanks! Always our pleasure.

TH: What are you working on right now? What’s the next big thing on your plate?

DN: The Mequoda Research Team is attempting to document how a specialized information publisher should operate their online business... we've focused on seven specific strategies that we've detailed in Seven Online Publishing Secrets... which is now in its third edition...

http://www.online-publishing-secrets.com/

The challenge is that this process and the best practices are evolving at break neck speed... it’s like trying to write a book about an event as it’s happening.

To keep up we have the following programs in process...

- 3 posts per week at Mequoda Daily that update some aspect of the system

- a monthly webinar that documents our current thinking on one of the seven strategies

- 2 annual conferences (Boston in the Fall and Napa Valley in the Spring) where 60 to 70

Mequoda operators gather to discuss the current thinking on all seven strategies. (http://www.summit.mequoda.com/)

- plus 2 or 3 private workshops per month that we lead to help individual publishers sort thru all the options for their online marketing and publishing programs

- and the consulting we do with the 18 publishers that are either running or building a Mequoda (or Mequoda-like) Online Marketing & Publishing System.

A few weeks ago, I spent one day with the American Quarter Horse Association and another with the folks at Harvard Law School... in both cases we spent the day defining the business processes (content sources, contact frequency, product mix, reporting requirements, keyword universe and so on) that will define their online marketing and publishing program.

These are all very smart people that know their audience and content backwards and forwards... my job is to help them define their online business processes with the same level of measurable specifics that we would use to define the steps in executing a direct mail campaign or producing an annual conference or publishing a monthly newsletter.

The version control alone really keeps us hoping, as operators invent new best practices and we move to validate them with other operators and then document them for the group.

TH: I'd like to think the benefits from our national meeting which takes place in June, continues to pay dividends for participants. Did you make new contacts there?

DN: Yes, lots. The SIPA conferences are one of our favorites for networking. Everyone is extremely candid and open about the challenges and opportunities they face on a daily basis. The culture of openness really helps all the members grow and learn from each other.

TH: Other than yourself, was there a speaker who really stood out for you?

DN: This shouldn’t be a big surprise: we really enjoyed Fred Marckini’s speech. Aside from the fact that his talk was articulate, well-presented and informative, anytime anyone other than us attempts to convince SIPA members of how important organic search engine optimization is, we smile. We feed proud. And happy.

TH: What would you say are the biggest new opportunities specialized information publishers have today that they didn’t have 10 years ago? What about challenges?

DN: One of the biggest opportunities, we think, is for specialized information publishers to reclaim their position as leading authorities on their topics online. Because some (ok, most) publishers have been asleep at the wheel, they allowed “pure-play” websites, those media organizations that didn’t originate in print, to completely dominate their niches online. The good news is that once specialized information publishers with strong brands figure out their online strategy and start becoming visible in Google, they can sometimes bypass, or at least legitimately compete with, their “pure-play” counterparts pretty quickly.

On the magazine side, a good case study we like to point to is People.com - 18 months ago their brand was subjugated to AOL and they were generating roughly 300K visitors a month. Time, Inc.’s Ann Moore stood up at the American Magazine Conference in 2006 and said that they were no longer going to fear the cannibalization of print. They were going to put their best and brightest in charge of their online properties and now, roughly 18 months later, People.com is seeing over 10 million unique visitors a month, according to compete.com.

TH: Where do you think all this Web 2.0 stuff is going? Web 3.0? Web 4.0?

DN: Trouble is, many publishers get caught up in the rush to figure out Web 2.0 without ever mastering Web 1.0. We’d be happy to see more specialized information publishers becoming much more visible in Google, becoming much better at converting traffic once it arrives on their sites and much better at monetizing that traffic through email newsletters, etc.

Assuming we mean UGC (User Generated Content), the web is an interactive medium by nature... encouraging users to comment, ask question and help each other must be part of your long-term online strategy. At the same time, users still want experts, authors and editors to lad their online communities. And publishers need to have a business strategy that integrates UCG into their overall online marketing and publishing business model.

TH: Any words of advice to niche publishers trying to compete with free content? Will it all be free one day?

DN: Define your media pyramid with free content as the foundation... most content will ultimately appear as free words on a search engine optimized web page at some point in its life cycle. And when it does it is creating value by attracting search engine and other traffic from other websites. It is every bit as valuable when it becomes part of your audience development program as the lists we rent to drive a successful direct mail campaign. Free content, correctly deployed, is the key to building a robust online audience.

It’s important to remember too, that as humans, we still value something called ownership. So even though we can access lots of content online for free, we still like to own magazines and newsletters. If a user needs a quick answer to something, the web is perfect. It’s a great reference tool. However if a user wants to become truly proficient in something, if they really want to master a subject, they subscribe to a newsletter or magazine. Differnet mediums, different modalities.

TH: Care to share your biggest professional challenge right now? Do you have a hero? A mentor? An antagonist? Forget that. What was your first pet’s name and the name of the street you grew up on? Is this what you wanted to be when you grew up? What can you tell us about yourself that other people wouldn't guess? (example: you are a champion bowler)

DN: I was a nuclear engineer by day and rock radio DJ at night on the USS Enterprise back in the 70s. When I left the Navy in 1978, I applied to PG&E to be a power plant operator and to CSUS to get a degree in journalism. After some coaching from my Dad, I dropped the engineering thing and went with the ambiguity of a career in media. It was a good choice. :)

The Wall Between Editorial & Marketing: You Have To Be Kidding!

2008-06-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

I just received this email from SIPA member and speaker Scott Jacobs:

"One thing that struck me in Washington this year - - once again - - was that marketing and editorial types still have problems working together in some shops. We're sitting here in 2008 and I am hearing the same things I heard when I attended my first newsletter conferences in 1989. "We hate them, they hate us." One expert marketer who I hold in high regard has even had to create her own Oliver North operation with her own launch editor for fear she would not get the cooperation (she really doesn't) from her veteran editorial colleagues who aren't "into" doing new things. I mean, what the heck is that about? But fascinating discussions like that made the bean soup go down a lot easier during second lunch. And what's with the paltry servings of bean soup anyway? A guy needs his fiber."

Can this still be the case? Increasingly I am seeing a complete convergence of product and marketing teams given the need for quick positioning on the open Web that doesn't doesn't allow for delays presented by epic professional differences.

Scott is currently a free agent after many years as a product planner and news editor for LexisNexis, Mealey's and various newspapers. He also operates under the impression that everyone is interested in his dietary intake.

Two Weeks Ago I Didn't Even Know What a "Rapid Conversion Landing Page" Was and Now I Can't Live Until I Get One

2008-06-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

Kim Mateus from Mequoda added some useful comments to my "coverage" of her and Don Nicholas' presentation at the annual conference. Since there was too much substance in her post to leave it buried there -- and because she invited me to "re-blog" it (possibly inventing a new word?) -- I am doing just that. Here you go:

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the coverage!

To clarify on some of the points… when Don says that sites with effective conversion architecture see a 6-8% conversion rate, he is referring to visitors converting to email subscribers. Some of the ways to improve site-wide conversion rates is to use Text Links, OFIEs (Order Forms in Editorial), OFINs (Order Forms in Navigation), Floaters and Rapid Conversion Landing Pages, all asking for an email address in exchange for a free special report.

In terms of the rapid conversion landing page (RCLP), you’re absolutely right – publishers should pay lots of attention to this opportunity and use RCLPs as email acquisition goldmines.

The process is to:

Do some keyword research to know what your potential audience is searching for in Google that you have content to support.

Pick one term that you think you can get ranked on (decent search volume with not much competition) and title your free special report accordingly.

Write the report and a rapid conversion landing page and optimize it for that term:

Include keyword phrase (report name) in meta title of page

Include keyword phrase in URL string

Include keyword phrase in meta description

Write a tip about the new report letting your existing email subscribers know it is available – this encourages pass-along. Of course, optimize the tip and have it point to the RCLP, making sure to link the actual keyword phrase, not “click here”.

Add a text ad to all of the related content on your site that points to the RCLP (again making sure to link the actual keyword phrase).

Write a press release announcing the free report and include in the release a link to the RCLP, again making sure to link the actual keyword phrase.

Let it cook, monitor the position, repeat and reinforce as required until the desired SERP (search engine results page) position is achieved for that particular term. (Blogger's note: this seems a lot like shampoo.)

As you may have guessed, we’ve done this process ourselves at the Mequoda Daily. We have a free special report titled 12 Landing Page Templates, which describes each of the templates and provides examples.

Here is our RCLP, optimized for the term “landing page templates”: http://daily.mequoda.com/gla-8-master-landing-page-templates.html

And go do a Google search for Landing Page Templates – you’ll see us in the number 1 postion!

(Tip: don’t put numbers in the URL string. They won’t help with SEO and if you ever decide to update the report, as we did from 8 LP templates to 12 LP templates, you’re stuck with the old number in the URL!)

And the newest RCLP we just built for Fuelnet.com, optimized for the term “customer relationship marketing”: http://www.fuelnet.com/free-reports/10-secrets-for-successful-customer-relationship-marketing/

Thanks again for your coverage!

Should You Tube Too?

2008-06-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

Last year I became a fan of some funny videos on MySpace. My story is that I was there to learn about social networking "for work." I am sticking to it. The video that made me LOL, if I may, was part of a series involving twins: one German female named Liesel Sprague and one Austrian male named Klaus Sprague. Their mother gave birth on a plane. The twins' relationship is strained by Klaus' inferiority complex and Leisle's superiority complex. This manifests in Leisle's trouncing of Klaus in racquet sports. Anyway, I wrote to Jay to say I liked the videos. Shockingly, he wrote back. I have parents who don't do that. (Not my real parents. My made-up comedy parents, the ones who don't write to me.)

It turns out the guy is part of a two-human team comprising, well, him, Jay Grandin, and Leah Nelson. Leah is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and Jay is an industrial designer. This Vancouver-based pair recently founded GiantAntMedia.com, a creative video team-for-hire, making ads, films, product launches, social media campaigns, video blogs, music and training videos.

I asked Jay and Leah for some insights on the internet video world. Like their videos, I can't tell which is responsible for what. If they weren't Canadian I'd say they were cleverly trying to dodge blame for any offense their comments may cause.

TH: You list clients like Steelcase, MySpace, Watch for Change, Creative B'Stro, hadtosay.com, Metacafe. Oh, and Business Valuation Resources (I know because I wrote the script!) And you have all of your comical or poignent videos. How many total views have you had so far?

JG/LN: 31,250,000.

TH: That's a few. What would you say are the most effective uses of videos for companies?

JG/LN: One of the things that people often forget is that online video is entirely permission-based marketing; unlike a captive television audience, an online media consumer needs to make a conscious choice whether to watch your video or not, and many of those views are going to be solely based on peer recommendation.That said, if companies can step out of the box of traditional message deliveries in favor of something creative, innovative or funny, the brand-building potential is immense. People will pass on something that they think is interesting.

TH: Are companies actually making money from video?

JG/LN: If you're talking about media companies such as YouTube, yes! For companies that are creating video content in the social media space, the barrier to entry is so low (lower production quality needed, no huge media buy) that a well placed video can provide enormous ROI. Bud is a great example of a company that has created a huge presence in the online space with their bud.tv campaigns. I don't drink Bud Light, but I definitely think of them as having an engaging brand.

TH: Are there good examples of incorporating video into marketing?

JG/LN: Apple has been very successful.Net 10 very recently released a 'caught on tape' style video that links to an auxiliary site, http://www.no-evil.net/ that talks all about the evils of wireless service providers. Great campaign.Geiko has done a fantastic job of making a brand around something completely banal (insurance) into something engaging. Their commercials get passed all over the internet. Axe is another good example.

TH: Videos are supposed to help with SEO, right?

JG/LN: Apparently.

TH: What about niche information video?

JG/LN: The YouTube generation has enabled all kinds of "citizen journalism" and out of it, dozens of successful video channels are emerging. Wallstrip, a video blog/show about Wall Street happenings is hugely successful. That's pretty niche. As people become more accustomed to getting their media from online sources, micro-audiences for almost any type of content are popping up (the current buzzword is 'micro-tubing'), so it's a great opportunity for any of those, provided they're executed in an interesting way.

TH: You shoot a lot of stuff on location. Ever have a problem with that?

JG/LN: People are wary of video cameras these days, mostly because so many people use them now and carry them on their person in the form of digital still cameras and cell phones, and they know how easy it is to put something online and have it forever floating in cyberspace. People who own or manage businesses get very nervous about having something undesirable associated with their company or brand, OR don't want to give space away for free. We've been turned down many times by companies or establishments that don't want anything to do with a video shoot, or have rental rates and liability requirements geared toward film/television that just aren't realistic for a small outfit like us.

TH: You are heavily involved in social networking. Has that led to business for you?

JG/LN: Yes! That is our business! It's completely essential to connect with people (fans) through social networks. It's how people find content and where they are recommended by friends to watch videos or read articles/blogs etc, so if we put our content there, where we already know they're going, we can be sure they will watch our videos. It all goes back to permission marketing; if we have 300 friends who join our Facebook group, we can almost guarantee 300 views immediately. That seems like a small number, but when nurture the relationship with those 300 viewers, that number will only go up as they recommend you to others. It's like having 300 lazy PR reps working for you at all times! When you add 4500 YouTube subscribers, and 11000 MySpace friends, it makes it much easier to spread a message.

TH: Can you share a couple of your videos with us to show business applications?

JG/LN: Hadtosay.com is a website that was started as a way to pass an anonymous message through the web. They were looking for a way to boost their traffic and to get bloggers to notice. After we did a video for them, it provided a good piece of "link bait" to then approach bloggers again with. The video quickly got 10,000 views and traffic to the site spiked. www.youtube.com/hadtosay

TH: You two hitchhiked across Europe, staying with your MySpace friends, and uploaded a video of your trip there. Are you crazy?

JG/LN: No, just fiscally challenged. The Europe trip would not have been possible without the generous help of our "Friends" and lonely truck drivers.

Non-Invasive Interview #1: Meg Hargreaves

2008-06-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

[Blogger's Note: I thought I'd rip off everything I've ever enjoyed about magazines, radio and television and start an interview series where interesting people in our specialized info community submit to questions, the answers to which may teach you something, foster our network, or make you cry. This is my first attempt, but I am not making any promises. In a moment of courage and perhaps lack of will, Meg Hargreaves of Pike & Fischer, consented to be my first victim. I would have said guinea pig, but that brought back bad memories for Meg. I feel the same when when I hear the word raccoon. Don't ask. -- Tom Hagy]

TH: You took part in an informative panel on email and Web marketing at the annual conference. Thanks for that. What are you working on right now?

MH: Like other attendees of this week's terrific SIPA conference I'm trying to juggle spinning lots of plates while trying to implement all of the best practice tips and hints I gathered at the Mayflower. I run 4 business units here at IOMA, including 3 Pike & Fischer units. My teams cover (at last count) 10 diverse markets so every day is different, challenging and interesting. I gathered terrific ideas at this years SIPA conference that I can implement across all of my focus areas. Right now I'm focused on final logistics for our 4th annual Broadband Policy Summit here in Washington next week. (Ed Coburn, I feel your pain!)

TH: What were the three things you learned from the conference that you can actually apply to your business?

MH: No. 1. Google Alerts -- I hadn't heard of this new feature from Google. My team is already putting this tool into practice to track where our products and services are being mentioned across the Web. I was also reminded of how long I've been in this business (22 years and counting!) because it hearkened me way back to days when I used to rely on one of the original electronic press clipping services -- LexisNexis Eclipse [Blogger'sNote: the name was an early use of putting "e" in front of something to suggest electronic. Most people forgot that or just didn't realize it. It could just as easily been called eClips because it was electronic clipping. Kind of like a light bulb is an eCandle. Anyway, Eclipse was recently changed to Lexis Alerts. Is anyone awake now?].

No. 2. At Sunday's Leadership Dinner at Morton's I had the pleasure to be seated between two publishing veterans who have made tremendous contributions to SIPA over the years - most notably as past Presidents -- David Foster, who now runs BVR and founded IOMA, and Mike Mealey -- founder, of course, of Mealey Publications [acquired by LexisNexis eight years ago]. In addition to getting to spend quality networking time with these knowledgeable SIPA members, Mike gave me a crash course on his experiences in newsletter publishing and a brief history of SIPA . . . and some fun stories to boot. While it wasn't news to me, it really reinforced how valuable an organization SIPA is. It's a wonderful community.

No. 3. Right after that, I learned that Morton's valet closes at 11 pm on Sunday night and the resulting cab fare to Great Falls is $45. Ouch.

TH: I once lost my car in a lake, but enough about me. Is there anything that surprised you at the conference?

MH: See No. 3 above.

TH: Did any of the speakers stand out for you?

MH: Well, I've been a Dave Barry fan for 20 years, so that was a highlight. I also thought that the sessions on Microsites and Blogs & Beyond were terrific. These are both areas where I'll be placing more focus in the months to come -- so the nuts and bolts info I gathered was great.

TH: The most shocking thing about Dave Barry is that he's 60 years old! Clearly I need to start exfoliating. What would you say to someone who didn't attend?

MH: That they missed 1) a great opportunity to gather actionable insight to advance their publishing efforts today AND 2) a chance to meet and great and learn from their peers in the industry.

TH: Did anything funny or unusual or odd happen that you'd like to share?

MH: No comment!

TH: What can you tell us about yourself that other people wouldn't guess?

MH: In 1980 I was ranked 10th in singles and 6th in doubles in competitive badminton by the U.S. Badminton Association. I also summited Kilimanjaro in 2002. As a result I only have one good knee left. As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.

TH: We have a lot in common. I once drove a badminton net stake into my hand, requiring, but not getting, several stitches. I onced climbed the lighthouse in Barnegat Light, New Jersey. So we're practically twins. Thanks, Meg.

MH: You're welcome.

Baby, You're a Niche Man (that only makes sense if you pronounce it "nitch," which apparently is wrong.)

2008-06-04T03:43:00.000-07:00

My impression from this week's annual SIPA conference (I know, who asked me) is that niche publishers like us are in a perfect position in the world of microsites, blogging and SEO. Each of these things has to do with deep subject area expertise, the ability to make sense of what's going on, and to talk about it in an articulate and speedy way. You need to look no further than this blog as an example of what I am not talking about.

When newsletters came along, they were the fast, unaffiliated, irreverent, and cheap alternative press. Now bloggers have that same feel. Bloggers are the new newsletter publishers, and newsletter publishers don't need to make nearly as a dramatic retrofit as many in the media in today's Web environment when it comes to content. We operate in the niches. That's where we excel. And when we write, we don't think about it but we spew key words like baseballs in a batting cage. (What does that even mean?) And who better to oversee a microsite than a niche publisher? We're built for this!

We have a great deal to learn from the technology and Web experts -- the real experts on the cutting edge -- but we have all the raw materials we need. Our challenge, and I think we can handle it, is to be very open minded about our business models. Given their experience with advertising, that's where broad market publishers have an edge. The willingness to take chances and experiment is paying huge dividends from the stories I heard at the Mayflower. Even the ones I heard about niche publishing.

Finally, a big thanks to Ed Coburn of Harvard Health Publications, Patti Wysocki, consultant, Janine Hergesell, Kati Fritz, Harry Baisden and all the SIPA volunteers for their hard work on another stellar event. Feel free to use this blog to add what you learned or what you feel about the event.

Dave Barry Gives Us Face Cramps

2008-06-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- I counted about 1200 facial cheeks on the brink of spasm as humorist Dave Barry shared all that he knew about specialized information publishing to an audience of SIPA members at the Mayflower yesterday.

Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 98, Barry told us about how he moved to Miami from the United States, and takes umbrage when all people talk about is the violence there. He said those people just make him want to kill them. Continuing his insights on niche publishing, he recounted a story about a man who drove his car onto an airport runway, right up to a plane on the tarmac. "I can't get within ten feet of a plane with a bottle of shampoo, but this guy pulls up with a Chevy Cobalt," Barry said.

In a lesson for learning your lesson, Barry shared the story of his dog Ernest and his backup replacement dog Zippy, who knew very well to wait at the screen door of his screened-in porch before romping out into the backyard. The pair always waited patiently for Barry at the screen door, then exited. Wait, open, exit. But when Hurricane Andrew blew the screened-in porch away, everything but the screen door, the dogs STILL waited at the screen door. He could not get them to exit any other way. Somehow there is a lesson in there for traditional niche publishers who insist on clinging to old business models, but it just wouldn't be funny.

Going on with more wisdom about niche publishing, Barry told us about his witty conversation starters with former First Lady Barbara Bush ("Jeb is very tall."), about how America is the leader in the manufacture of Oscar Meyer Weiner Car technology (and how he understands Iran is developing similar capability), and how the drivers in Florida bring a unique blend of creativity and aggression to their driving ("They will pass you in a car wash.")

Dave was the keynote speaker for the Specialized Information Publishers Foundation editorial and marketing awards, and a welcome addition to our conference!

Mequoda's Nicholas: Microsites, Macro-Traffic (I am paraphrasing. OK, I made it up)

2008-06-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

OK, some SIPA sessions this year were good simply for showing me just how much I don't know. Granted, the bar is low. Due to the fact that I am lazy about unpacking my suitcase, I found out that the key to my room last year no longer works. But the gentlemen in my former crash pad could use a depilatory.

The session at this week's SIPA conference by Don Nicholas, managing partner of The Mequoda Group was like that. Not the part about hairy men; the part about being englightening.

The amount of attention needed to your site index, your meta tag page, your author landing page, and more was making me tired, until I heard the kind of results his clients and examples were getting. Your site-wide conversion rate is also a must metric. Nicholas said some sites get a decent 1 or 2%, but some who do it really right get between 6-8%. Conversion in this context means converting visitors to email subscribers to paying customers. At least I think. You see, it's my strategy to allow for errors in my reporting, in the hopes of generating requests for corrections, demands for retractions and hate speech directed at my people.

He recommended paying a LOT of attention to your rapid conversion pages, which are key to your conversion arsenal. TIP: offer a free report relating to the key word that brought the customer to the site.

I was scribbling in between coffee-shakes, but he included these sites as some good microsite examples: fuelnet.com; Motley Fool; HR Daily, about .com (with 456 microsites and a Google visibility index of 65%!), Morningstar and Consumer Reports. No, I don't have time to look up the URLs. If that annoys you, please write back and complain, including the proper URL.

Don prepared the presentation along with Mequoda Senior Partner Kim Mateus.

Good job!

iPropect's Marckini Gives Good Reasons to Understand Search

2008-06-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

Fredrick Marckini from iProspect provided a clever, polished and highly informative presentation today at a full East Room at the Mayflower Hotel in DC. I'd recommend you reach out to him to get the presentation, or I will ask him to post a link for us here. Get the tape of his presentation too. Or just give him a call. I have his home phone around here somewhere. Not the number, just the phone itself.

If I read the room right, or maybe I am just reading my own mind, or maybe I noticed about 30 people in line to give him business cards, Marckini made everyone realize how much they need to pay attention to how traffic is coming to their Web sites, and how they need to stay on top of how those things change.

Marckini artfully, and more artfully than I am "summarizing" his talk here, demonstrated how simple adjustments to text in the right places -- the title, the URL, in activated links, etc. -- can make a difference that can generate thousands of visitors and result in millions of dollars in leads. For example, the title tag (which appears in that blue space all the way at the top of your browser) for iProspect says "search engine marketing firm -- iProspect." Not something like, "iProspect, we're really cool," which may be fine if you're selling sunglasses or air conditioners.

Paying attention to SEO is particularly important because, as he explained, 72% of all clicks in Google search results take place in the natural search results, not in the paid ad area.

He encouraged people to optimize press releases for the search engine's news tabs and to be sure to conduct keyword research before writing them. He talked about the importance of including your search marketing targeted keywords in the headline and body copy of the press release, and to include activated links so that when people find your press releases in search results, they can click on those links to visit your site. He pointed out that if a press release ranks well in search results due to proper keyword optimization, the actual press coverage of that press release is less important than the traffic and audience that release garners.

"Study the searches that bring visits," he said, saying not to use lame terms like the name of the site or your company slogan. Know what people are searching and know which searches bring them to you.

Fredrick said another speaker at the event, whom I didn't hear, Jay Berkowitz with Ten Golden Rules gave an excellent talk on Web 2.0 strategies for online profits.

Nice job, Fredrick, and thanks for speaking to us.

Andy McLaughlin SIPF's First Hall of Famer

2008-06-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

Andy McLaughlin, president of PaperClip, and everyone's favorite Tickle Me Elmo (I have no idea), was honored at this week's annual meeting of the Specialized Information Publishers Association. With more than 600 in attendance, Andy was honored for his creative, tireless and effective volunteering and fundraising for the Specialized Information Publishers Foundation.

Obviously surprised and grateful, Andy immediately began discussing his wardrobe, noting that his shirt was cut from the same cloth as the giant curtain behind him. Both were blue, which brought out the color of his veins. Andy was unapologetic for his fundraising tactics, making comparisons to mafia tricks and references to mounting legal fees. In a moment of sincerity, Andy commented on how much he believes in the work of the foundation, whose mission is to promote SIPA through outreach to academics and professionals alike.

Taken by the heft of his plaque, suitable for framing if, apparently, you have a nail the size of a railroad spike, Andy said he'd been looking for a decent paperweight.

Congratulations, Andy, for all you do, and for all the humor with which you do it.

(Dan Warren of Warren Communications and the new SIPF President, presented the award.)

Networking in the Niches

2008-03-21T04:51:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine shared this quick post from Paul Chaney of Bizzuka who writes that many of the discussion groups created at large social networking sites aren't all that active. He comments that 'indigenous, self-standing niche networks" might be a more successful model, especially effective for niche networks and membership groups. He also links to a site devoted to WOM (word of mouth) marketing.

This is another example that networking, sharing and publishing might be easier and faster than ever, but the basics of networking continue on. Here is Chaney's post: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/28580.

From where I sit, and criticize all around me, I think we've made it too easy for people write and publish and share and forward . . . . Unless it's me, of course, I'd like everyone to think before hitting the send button. How can I possible read all your posts and emails when I am busy writing them myself?

Goo Goo, Dah Dah, Bebo: Time is Running Out on Baby Names

2008-03-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

With AOL's $850M purchase of social media company Bebo, with a 40-million-member community, I am reminded that time is running out on securing those really funny baby-talk names. I was thinking BooBoo.com might be a great one, especially if you sold bandages, GlugGlug.com would good if you, say, ran a beer marketing publication, but it looks snapped up. Because "ma" is often a child's first word, I thought http://www.mamma.com/ would be good. Turns out it's a snappy little search engine. I searched myself on it, and it was pretty good. Anytime I can seem my name on the Internet gives me chills of excitement. It also turned up a photo of Wild Bill Hagy (pictured). No relation.

Anyway, to see a story about AOL and Bebo, written in adult English, go here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23609587/. AOL, for those of you who just arrived in by donkey cart, is owned by Time Warner.

Thanks to Scott Jacobs for sending it over.

Bye For Now, Margie

2008-03-13T05:43:00.000-07:00

Folks, our SIPA circle just got a little less warm. We are all going to have step it up.

Margie, I miss your smiling face and wise counsel already. You're not one to leave the party early so there must have been a reason, or you're really ticked off right now. Either way, let's laugh our asses off at the next one too.

Our hearts go out to Larry, the kids, family and many close friends. She was the best.

And In this Corner: Microsoft Bid for Yahoo! Sets Stage for Heavyweight Bout

2008-02-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

I know you don't come to me for the latest business news, which is why I am posting this so late. I hate to disappoint. Now I am waiting for someone to write, "Well actually, Tom, we don't come to you at all." If so, that means you will have fallen into my trap.

Like in boxing, it's fun to watch the big boys fight. I am more a fan of the welterweights and middleweights, and sometimes the light heavyweights (are you asleep yet?), but on those rare occasions you get to see the big fellas who can actually move, duck, punch and speak. We have all the possibilities of such a bout as Microsoft looks to add some pack to its wallop with its Yahoo! bid, setting up a battle of the colossals. I urge people at ringside to wear splatter guards. OK, enough tortured boxing metaphors. Someone who tracks this stuff more closely than I do cautioned that this is "far from a done deal," noting that Yahoo! has turned down bids like this before. Is it time for Yahoo! to make the big move?

Here is the letter Microsoft's Steve Ballmer sent to the Yahoo! board of directors:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Microsoft to make a proposal for a business combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Under our proposal, Microsoft would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 based on Microsoft's closing share price on January 31, 2008, payable in the form of $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. Microsoft would provide each Yahoo! shareholder with the ability to choose whether to receive the consideration in cash or Microsoft common stock, subject to pro-ration so that in the aggregate one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be exchanged for shares of Microsoft common stock and one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be converted into the right to receive cash. Our proposal is not subject to any financing condition.

Our proposal represents a 62% premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock of $19.18 on January 31, 2008. The implied premium for the operating assets of the company clearly is considerably greater when adjusted for the minority, non-controlled assets and cash. By whatever financial measure you use - EBITDA, free cash flow, operating cash flow, net income, or analyst target prices - this proposal represents a compelling value realization event for your shareholders.

We believe that Microsoft common stock represents a very attractive investment opportunity for Yahoo!'s shareholders. Microsoft has generated revenue growth of 15%, earnings growth of 26%, and a return on equity of 35% on average for the last three years. Microsoft's share price has generated shareholder returns of 8% during the last one year period and 28% during the last three year period, significantly outperforming the S&P 500. It is our view that Microsoft has significant potential upside given the continued solid growth in our core businesses, the recent launch of Windows Vista, and other strategic initiatives.

Microsoft's consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo! should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing.

In February 2007, I received a letter from your Chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo! Board that "now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction." According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo! Board's confidence in the "potential upside" if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment. A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved.

While online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers. Synergies of this combination fall into four areas:
Scale economics: This combination enables synergies related to scale economics of the advertising platform where today there is only one competitor at scale. This includes synergies across both search and non-search related advertising that will strengthen the value proposition to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, the combination allows us to consolidate capital spending.

Expanded R&D capacity: The combined talent of our engineering resources can be focused on R&D priorities such as a single search index and single advertising platform. Together we can unleash new levels of innovation, delivering enhanced user experiences, breakthroughs in search, and new advertising platform capabilities. Many of these breakthroughs are a function of an engineering scale that today neither of our companies has on its own.

Operational efficiencies: Eliminating redundant infrastructure and duplicative operating costs will improve the financial performance of the combined entity.

Emerging user experiences: Our combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is greatly enhanced.

We would value the opportunity to further discuss with you how to optimize the integration of our respective businesses to create a leading global technology company with exceptional display and search advertising capabilities. You should also be aware that we intend to offer significant retention packages to your engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.

We have dedicated considerable time and resources to an analysis of a potential transaction and are confident that the combination will receive all necessary regulatory approvals. We look forward to discussing this with you, and both our internal legal team and outside counsel are available to meet with your counsel at their earliest convenience.

Our proposal is subject to the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement and our having the opportunity to conduct certain limited and confirmatory due diligence. In addition, because a portion of the aggregate merger consideration would consist of Microsoft common stock, we would provide Yahoo! the opportunity to conduct appropriate limited due diligence with respect to Microsoft. We are prepared to deliver a draft merger agreement to you and begin discussions immediately.

In light of the significance of this proposal to your shareholders and ours, as well as the potential for selective disclosures, our intention is to publicly release the text of this letter tomorrow morning.

Due to the importance of these discussions and the value represented by our proposal, we expect the Yahoo! Board to engage in a full review of our proposal. My leadership team and I would be happy to make ourselves available to meet with you and your Board at your earliest convenience. Depending on the nature of your response, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to create significant value for Yahoo!'s shareholders and employees, and the combined company will be better positioned to provide an enhanced value proposition to users and advertisers. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favorable reply.

Sincerely yours,

Steven A. Ballmer

Adobe & Yahoo! Trying To Help Make Us More Money

2008-01-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

I love advertising.

More specifically, I love ads.

I think it’s a shame that advertisers are only restricted to TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and cell phones. To Web sites, pop-ups, billboards, airline tray tables, blimps, and beach planes. To the shirts, hats, bags and even the bare backs of major athletes. And still, I can’t get enough.

No. I mean it. I wish I could TiVo them. I love the Geico cavemen. I love the three boys returning to school with their new backpacks, paid for by MasterCard. I miss the old Alka-Seltzer commercials, because those people with hangovers and gas always looked more miserable than I ever could. But then, I was ten, and at least six months away from my first hangover.

I wish there were more places for ads. On my drapes. On my windows. On my pillows. On the foreheads of my friends and children. Go for it! Put one of those big ol’ Mail Pouch ads on the side of my house! Just pay me, and you’re in.

So I was thrilled with the news that Adobe (ADBE) and Yahoo! (YHOO) joined together to launch Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo!. And don’t take my introduction as sarcasm. It’s just me screaming out that I know so little about technology I can only make fun of it. With a roll-off-the-tongue carpal-tunnel name, Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo! (AAPDFPY!) is an opt-in service that allows publishers to drive new revenue with contextual ads. “The service has the potential to offer readers access to more free content, enhanced with ads that match their interests,” according to the company.

To join the AAPDFPY! program, publishers must register online, and then upload their Adobe PDF content so that it can be ad-enabled before distributing PDFs. Ads can only be displayed within Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat, in a panel adjacent to the content so that they do not disrupt the viewing experience. Every time the PDF content is viewed, contextual ads are dynamically matched to the content of the document. The publisher can then monitor performance through detailed reports. Cool, huh?

So how is the AAPDFPY! launch going? Cynthia Tillo, Senior Product Manager with Adobe, told this blogger really well.

“We have seen interest from all types of publishers,” she said. Publishers of “eBooks, nonprofits, magazines, technical journals, educational institutions and bloggers, to name a few. Some of the more surprising ones include companies who want to include Yahoo! ads in their own marketing collateral and one individual who wants to include ads in his resume! The potential of users being able to access more content for free is actually a reality. One of the great eBooks that used to be sold for fee is Kevin Kelly's True Films, a review of the best documentary films, and it is now available for free: http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/002538.php. We have another publisher who plans to get rid of their annual subscription model and make available thousands of PDF reports for free, in exchange for ad revenue.”

To read more about the launch, click here:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200711/112907Yahoo.html

SIPA Marketing Conference Sharefest: Keep Miami Alive!!!

2007-12-14T15:21:00.000-08:00

MIAMI -- You know what they say. What happens in Miami, stays in Las Vegas. If you got as much out of SIPA's 24th Annual Mid-Year Marketing Conference as I did, then you didn't drink nearly enough.

The chairmen of the event, Randy Coon and Greg Martz of The Motley Fool, put together a diverse and valuable program. We'd like to keep the conversation going. Please use this blog to post quick notes on what you learned, observations you made, or merely to hurl insults at others. Tell us what you liked. Post questions and we'll see if we can get you an answer. If you have trouble with the site, there is next to no hope for you. But send me an email anyway.

Surf's Up: Riding the Online Wave from Acquisition to Renewal was excellent. Thanks to Randy, Greg, Patti, Janine, Katie and all the speakers.

Email: Revolting and Beautiful and Powerful if You Get it Right

2007-12-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

David Daniels, VP and Research Director at JupiterKagan Inc. and Jeanniey Mullen, Senior Partner at OgilvyOne Worldwide. Below is coverage of their presentation today, although you won't realize that for a couple paragraphs. And you can compliment my page composition skills later. Also, I just realized that Mr. Daniels might think the headline was written to describe the photographs. That was not my intention. Please bear with me. --Tom Hagy

MIAMI -- I live in Pennsylvania, probably near a swamp. In the summer there are these pesky bugs that swirl around your head with one goal and one goal only: to fly directly into your eyes and drown in your tears. I now wear goggles during the summer months, a fashion accessory that is getting raves in the neighborhood.

These bugs are almost as annoying as the volumes of email I get. That is probably because of the volumes of email I send. But my stuff is really important. Like this blog.

Apparently I am not alone. Well, at the moment I am extremely alone, and finally figured out how to work the air conditioner here at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel. It’s now 40 degrees here in room 803, much better than the 30 degrees of the last two days. If I’d woken up this a.m. spooning with a polar bear I would not have been surprised.

Oh, right, I am not alone. We all get tons of email, and companies who send them, smart ones, are finding ways to integrate and improve email communication with customers with admirably profitable results.

Jeanniey Mullen of OgilvyOne Worldwide and David Daniels of JupiterKagan Inc. closed the SIPA marketing conference here with some useful context, techniques and best practices to use email and related devices to have a significant impact on brand advocacy, customer loyalty, e-commerce sales, viral marketing and offline sales.

Some fun factoids. According to the JupiterKagan research cited throughout the presentation, consumers get about 274 personal emails a week and another 304 at work per week. 70% percent have two accounts. 8% perform email triage via their handhelds.

Email is still the #1 online activity, but it is decreasing, according to Mr. Daniels.

“Email bankruptcy” is a movement for those of us sick of email – like Moby – and just want the world to start picking up the phone again. And some of us would prefer you leave a message under our windshield wipers.

For email subscriptions, 53% of people unsubscribe because the content is irrelevant, 40% because the sender is sending too much, too often. An unknown percentage just doesn’t like your smirk.

Bills. 25% of people are now suppressing their paper billing statements in favor of email statements. That goes up to 33% if you make over 100K, a reason to ask for a raise if I ever heard one. There is no difference according to age here. I have begun suppressing bills in all media.

Understand this: people actually opt in because they trust your brand. But before you start designing your emails, focus first on how you acquire your email addresses, how much data you want, where you will ask for the information, how you handle it. Get that right first.

Portability. Thanks to handhelds people seeking instant gratification can now get it, at least when it comes to email, information, and commerce. Earlier this year 10% of those polled made new purchases this way, a number that just jumped to 18%, according to Mr. Daniels.

Improving renewals. Ms. Mullen noted her work with one publisher revealed that their renewal rates were 97% higher among readers who opted in for email correspondence.

Text messaging. For you thumb jockeys out there, note that 27% of those polled use TXT more for personal use than email. Ms. Mullen cited as an example an airline ad that encouraged people to send a text message to the customer with their email address to get something for free. She saw this ad while waiting for her bag at an airport. Maybe next they will ask for a TXT to get the bag within 8 hours.

RSS. 7% of those polled adopted RSS, but this leans more toward guys in the 35-44 age range. A good example of this is Travelocity RSS and Blackberry RSS.

Social Sites. 18% of the online population now use these sites for networking. They also use them for fun and seeing if they are more successful than their high school friends. But enough about me. 50% of people 18-24 years old use these sites more than email for communicating; 32% of those 25-34 do so.

Note how social networking capability can facilitate discussion and how Microsoft, for example, is aggregating your conversations to understanding user behaviors. For example, the speakers noted that 80% of people start discussing their weekend on Wednesdays after 6 p.m. and then start talking about something different on Saturday at noon, about when I am getting out of bed.

18% of people will forward promotional email. When I have done it, it was usually emails like the ones that promised I could enlarge my pancreas. I don’t even want to know why. You have a lot more credibility if someone else, a friend, forwards your email to a friend. The power of viral communication is compelling.

Customer service. 90% of customers call customer service when something is wrong and 40% aren’t satisfied after that first call. Following up with email that is valuable, timely and relevant can keep the conversation going and improve customer satisfaction. The speakers noted the use of video helps tremendously in this regard. It keeps your readers’ attention. They noted how IBM sent out a video of Ned and Gil trapped in a server maze. It was funny, viewed a ton, and got customers engaged.

Good to know. Conversations happen inside and outside the inbox. People talk, text, and actually discuss you face to face. “The opt-in is worth as much as your best customers’ spending history,” Ms. Mullens said. Your reputation, actual and reliable delivery of your email, rendering of the email itself (good looking? Who cares. Can they view it?) and relevancy (will they care?) – are critical to effective email communication.

10 Points to Build Your Email Newsletter Experience

1) Put top search words in your email copy.
2) Drive opt in via all media channels.
3) Integrate email with media launches.
4) Let social networks carry your message.
5) I missed #5 because the guy next to me wanted to tell me about his high school rock band.
6) Ensure your message renders correctly on a range of devices.
7) Prepare a mobile landing page.
8) Leverage subscriber behavior.
9) Leverage partners to grow lists.
10) Test test test!!!!

Please share anything I might have missed, confused or misspelled. If you have #5, please tell him to call his wife. And by all means, PLEASE INSULT ME if that helps you make your point.

Shiny Pretty Relevant Things. Technology Changes, But Apparently We Don't.

2007-12-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

MIAMI -- When you go to a Web site, your eyes are darting all over the place. They jump from shiny objects to shiny objects, to attractive objects, to things that might help you, to things that are just interesting, to things on your mind, maybe even to things relevant to what you’re doing! Like that’s going to happen.

You might think you’re concentrating on one thing or another but in just a second your eyes have pinballed around a Web page about a million times and even found your favorite two or three places to land.

Bill Barnes, co-founder of Enquiro Search Solutions Inc., makes a living out of turning that spastic ocular activity into money. With customers like Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), IBM (IBM) and LexisNexis (my employer), he has a lot of experience to draw on.

Mr. Barnes spoke during the SIPA Marketing Conference here today. I won’t attempt to capture his talk completely. Let’s be honest. I am not getting paid for this, and my fingers are now frozen. While I am in Miami, my air conditioner thinks we’re at the Equator.

Mr. Barnes summarized your Web mission for you. Make sure there is a connection between intent and content. Understand what someone intends to do when they sit down at their computer, and make sure you help. He showed “heat maps” of various Web sites, showing red zones, where most eyeballs landed, and light blue zones where fewer landed, and zones with no color where . . . . I think you follow. This kind of data is invaluable. He can show how the top left of the page is truly hot hot hot! But that the top right still can draw 30% of your visitors. He emphasized that hot spots are blogs, video (and audio), press releases and images. He encouraged you to get relevant content of this type on your site and make sure it is tagged to draw search engines.

Personalization rocks. Even if appearing low on a page, he showed how personalized content – content based on understanding your user – draws eyeballs. He showed how eyeballs tend to move down first, which is good news for content even below the fold, and then back up again, but not necessarily all the way to the top. So the middle can be tops. Mr. Barnes found that personalized results can increase clicks fourfold! To extrapolate, a photo that is relevant to the search and personalized would be a great eyeball magnet just about wherever it is on the page.

He strongly advised having a site map image for any site. He suggested doing an image search on your company right now and see where you pop up. Again, make sure the images are relevant and tagged, and preferably original, not from clip art.

Adding images to press releases is a good technique, as is including company stock symbols and linking to Google’s stock page. See the third paragraph of this post for how it's done.

Optimizing video is important since it is not picked up automatically by search engines. Put your video on YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe, Yahoo Video, etc. Then, get people to comment on your video, he said, and while you’re at it, comment on other companies’ videos.

Get your bloggers to comment on your companies’ activity and press releases, even if you have to separate yourself from employees by letting them blog on their own.

Get as much interlinking in your site and with other sites as possible. He strongly recommended creating a FaceBook for your company now.

Study the key words people are plugging into your site as great customer feedback.

OK, that might be the worst summary I have done today. Or in my life, although the bar is pretty low. I invite Mr. Barnes to please respond to this, either to elaborate, correct or just complain about me.

He offered a free white paper white paper on the subject at http://www.enquiroresearch.com/. I am sure that’s better than what you’re reading right now. He also had great things to say about research performed by Nielsen Norman Group. Check it out.

Web Analytics Must Focus On Outcomes

2007-12-13T11:19:00.000-08:00

MIAMI -- Avinash Kaushik kicked off the 24th SIPA marketing conference with a session that promised to prove that Web analytics were more life changing and less boring than you might think. Let me just say that Mr. Kaushik is anything but boring, as a speaker anyway. Please. I have to limit my comments to what I know. With a healthy mixture of wisdom and, get this, facts, plus humor and, my favorite, irreverence, he was a great start to the program.

Here are my quick takeaways on location if, that is, I can survive the hyperactive air conditioning unit in my room, which apparently was made fun of by other air conditioners as a child and is now overcompensating. It's about 30 degrees in here.

Web analytics are a must, and must be accompanied by intelligent humans who can study them and find actionable lessons. “Tools are just tools. You must have people to analyze the data.” That is where insights come from, he said. Mr. Kaushik was surprised at the number of companies and executives who “deliberately don’t want to be smart” and ignore this concept. This is especially true, he said, since Web analytical tools, good ones, are cheap or even free.

One of the great things you can get is a list of multiple outcomes, like your visitors’ likelihood to purchase or whether they would recommend the site to someone else. Reports can be generated that display trends in a digestible way, too, so even a CEO can understand them.

He emphasized the importance of making sure reports focus on outcomes. “Reports can be 15 words. You don’t need a Ph.D. thesis,” he said, “I don’t give a crap!” He noted that one company was generating 200 Web reports. He stopped sending them. No one noticed. Why? Because they didn’t say anything that was actionable or could help people in the company move forward. Companies should give people a bonus for drawing meaningful conclusions from data! Make sure reports are focused on outcomes. Deploy techniques like advanced visitor labeling. “Reporting is not analysis,” he said.

Web analytics allow for experimentation and testing. Many companies let the HIPPO decide, which means the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. “And this is why most Web sites suck,” he said.

Capturing the voice of the customer is another benefit. “I like surveys a lot,” Mr. Kaushik said. Ask two or three questions, as long as one is “Why are you here?” and another one is “Were you able to complete your task?” You want to find out why people are doing on all these crazy things on your site, then tweak your site to make it easier to do those things. Understand these things first, he said. “Is your site sexy or cool? Who gives a crap?! Fix this first!”

Mr. Kaushik said competitive intelligence can be generated easily through Web analytics. For example, noting that 80% of people on the Web start with a search engine, you need to understand what words are driving traffic to what sites. Understanding that fact will enable you to drive traffic.

Microsoft and Google both have free Web analytics tools. There are sites that allow you to test different page layouts. See Skype for a free Web site optimizer to help you do this.

Web analytics can provide “true customer centricity” to help understand why the bulk of your repeat visitors are coming back, and what they are doing. You might find the main reason they are coming is not the main solution you provide.

“Make customers happy and the money follows.”

For more go to his blog, Occam’s Razor at www.kaushik.net/avinash.

Google's Revised Page Rankings Algorithm: Why It Matters

2007-11-29T06:24:00.000-08:00

If you noticed a drop in your Web ranking recently, it could be because you haven't updated it since Vanilla Ice's last hit, or because it's unattractive and difficult (come on, I'm not the only one thinking it), or it could be because Google revised its organic PageRank algorithms. I know, the Vanilla Ice Theory is easier to digest.

If I may distill it, ripping off something I read in an Outsell Inc. report, Google's PageRank uses the Web's linking structure to assess a Web page's value. But Google changes these rules periodically and, according to Chuck Richard (not in photo), an Outsell analyst, Google will happily help webmasters make their pages more Google-friendly. Not staying on top of these changes can spawn dips in your visits.

"Most sites rely far more on natural search results for generating all important traffic to their sites than rely on paying for key words," he said, "so these periodic moves by Google cause major disruptions in traffic." It also triggers excitement among Web site operators who lose ranking. Some, reportedly, even used bad words.

Richard offers the following calls to action for publishers:

"1. Your online success is much less under your own control than print success used to be, when you chose and strictly managed the channels to reach your audience. Google sets the rules, you play by their rules, and you'd better be paying close attention. Be 100% confident that you are monitoring your traffic daily and avoid finding out in a month-end report that you suddenly lost 25% of your traffic because your sites slipped off the first page of the Google search results.

"2. If you have outsourced or contracted with an SEO firm to guide you, get specific data-supported proof from them that they're watching for sudden shifts in traffic volume, demographics, referring sites, etc. and will immediately guide you to compensate for them.

"3. When these shifts occur, use quantifiable testing processes (A/B, multivariate or equivalent) to test and recalibrate your best methods for recovering all lost traffic, and preferrably, capturing incremental traffic by taking advantage of Google's new ranking criteria."
Finally, Richard advises, it's time to "bend Google's new rules in your favor."

I know. Many of you are pining for the days of truly hard decisions, like whether to mail first class or bulk mail. Others of you don't even know what I am talking about. Ah, the slow old days. I am off to churn butter now.

Copyright Clearance Center Adds Blogs to Its Licensing Programs

2007-11-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

Man, I have fallen a long way since the days I was a snap crackling reporter and would at least change a few words in news release headlines, even add a typo for authenticity, when stealing from PR writers, then later dismiss them, haughtily, as corporate hacks and sellouts. But not now, buddy. That headline is fresh from Business Wire. Corporate PR guys: you are invited to show me your nostrils.

Apparently bloggers are living the lives of newsletter publishers of years past. Covering their niches with a unique voice, fighting for dignity, respect and press passes, and joining the ranks of the aggregated, the long-tailed, the owners of cleared copyright. The aggregation already happened, of course. CCC entered an agreement with Newstex which, according to the release, has rights to "more than a thousand popular and respected blogs." A quick scan of the list did not reveal mine. Clearly an oversight.

(Disclosure note: LexisNexis, my employer, also has a deal with Newstex.)

“Blogs have become critical sources of information for CCC’s customers—those decision makers who need to share up-to-date news and insights with colleagues, customers and business partners,” said Bill Burger, CCC’s Vice President of Marketing.

Bill, have you even read my blog?

Ad $ for Bloggers, Podcasters

2007-11-18T18:03:00.000-08:00

CNET Blogger Stephanie Olsen, citing a study from the Society for New Communications Research, reported that advertising and markting professionals expect to spend more money on "conversational media" like blogs and podcasts than on the usual outlets, like print media.

A lot of us wait until we have the whole business model figured out, but if you plan to take advantage of social media you will want to start building the traffic well ahead of when you plan to start charging for ads. So what are you waiting for?

You can read Ms. Olsen's blog at http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9812928-7.html?tag=nefd.blgs.

SEO Morte?

2007-11-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

Randy Zlobek, author of SEM Gorilla, in a recent blog post, asks the musicial questiton: "Is SEO Dead? Or Does it Need Help?"

OK, then he goes on to answer himself (my kind of blogger), saying that as a "standalone methodology" SEM is "dead as a doornail." You have to do a lot more to score high with search engines. All of this Web 2.0 stuff is a lot more work than anyone would to think. All this nasty networking, socializing, writing, issuing press releases, using pay-per-click ads, adding links, being relevant, etc.

Anyway, read his post at
http://chiefmarketer.com/seo_dead_11132007/.

Subscription & Ad Revenue Models on the Web: I Will Take Mine To Go

2007-10-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

So there I was, having dinner at Shun Lee Palace on East 55th Street in New York with actor Robert Wagner, actress Heather Graham and publisher Ira Mayer. Bob was on his fourth Scotch rocks and Heather was up in arms over Beijing’s recent limitations on reincarnation. “How can they tell you how, when and where to reincarnate?! They are requiring monks to have prior permission! It’s madness!”

I had to change the subject since, apparently, in China they love Wagner’s old TV show, Hart to Hart, and Bob gets some good royalties from all that. I thought a rousing discussion of internet business models would shake things up, and Ira enthusiastically joined in.

“So, how do you know when to give away your content so you can generate enough traffic to support an ad revenue business?” I asked. “Everyone seems to be doing it.”

Surprisingly, Heather, who was scanning the menu for vegetarian fare, had a lot to say on the subject. “I think some content should be fee based, while other content has the legs for advertising,” she said, sneering at the Peking Duck.

Bob pointed to his empty Scotch glass with enough exaggeration so the waiter could see from 30 feet away, and said, “What the Hell are you talking about, Heather? These guys produce high-end, must-have content that their readers would die without. They need to squeeze every nickel out of them!”

“And someone needs to squeeze out a Tic Tac for you,” she said. “Look, all I am saying is it’s up to business people to work the numbers,” she sketched in the air, looking at Ira. “Did anyone ever tell you you look like Jimmy Caan?”

“No, Ira said, but I do occasionally steal silverware.”

“Huh?”

“Nevermind,” Ira said, “tell me more about this formula of yours.”

“Well, if you have a small but intense readership, say 500 or so, and they must have your content, then you’re probably looking at fee-based stuff. But if you have 20,000-50,000 readers and they really like your content but can live without it, then you have an ad model on your hands.”

I had to chime in. “But what if you gave away your content. How might you know that your free access wouldn’t draw three or four times the numbers on the Web, giving you the traffic you need? Then you would have an ad model, right.”

“Oh for crying out loud where is my Scotch!” Bob shouted.

“It’s in your hand,” Heather said.

Ira, normally calm as a house cat, became agitated and unsheathed his chopsticks (he brought his own). “I completely disagree, and can cite examples.”

“Well smell you.”

“Bob, please shut up,” Heather commanded. “Go ahead, Ira.”

“Thank you. Well, there are people with highly valuable must-have content and VERY small audiences . . . numbering in the hundreds . . . that have pure ad supported newsletters. Take Owen Taylor’s free California Garlic & Onion Report. It has had an advertiser for years and it doesn’t have a massive readership, as you might guess.”

“Ira,” Heather chimed in. “I was just talking to Owen and he said he dropped that report. Apparently the U.S. garlic industry was hit pretty hard by, coincidentally, Chinese garlic imports. I believe you’re talking about his cotton report, which has had the same advertising sponsor for 17 years! In fact, he has never sold a subscription. He just makes sure he finds the exact people sponsors want to reach, and then gives them info they can’t get anywhere else, and faster than anyone else.”

“Oh,” Ira said, “so it’s cotton, not garlic.”

“Speaking of which, you might try the Whole Sea Bass Braised in Hot Bean Sauce,” I suggested.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Bob spat.

“It’s roasted in garlic and scallions,” I said, looking at Heather for approval, which I didn’t get.

Ira kept going. “For a small publisher with a narrow but highly interested audience, getting ad revenue from someone who also wants to reach that niche can be meaningful. And getting a ton of traffic for free content as a result can drive sales of other services you might offer. So my point is . . .”

“You had a point?” Bob chimed in, earning a chilly stare from Heather, who picked up the point.

“Yes, Ira,” she said, “I agree, and like I was about to say an hour ago, it’s up to smart businessmen like you to test test test to see what will drive the best profits.”

“And sitting around talking about it won’t get the job done,” I said, contributing nothing at all of substance.

“Where the Hell have you been?” Bob said.

“I was sitting here the whole time,” I replied.

“You wouldn’t know it.”

“You need to test test test,” Heather repeated. “You need to bake in a different mix of personnel. I mean, you will need ad sales people, and I mean internet ad sales people. And you need to optimize the Hell out of your site. But since it’s free, you can always take it back! Also, if you have 20 products that have 500 readers each, you need to look at a way you can drive all those users through one place so you can create a funnel of traffic that would appeal to advertisers.”

“So you might have a hybrid model,” Ira said.

“Exactly,” Heather replied.

“Good gravy Marie are you people are boring!” Bob exclaimed. “I have talked to Cheese Doodles more interesting than you! Is this what you do all day? What do you say we get some Moo Shu and a couple dozen egg rolls to go and eat it on my boat?”

“NO!” we all said at once, and placed our orders.

Bob started with another Scotch, and bristled when they refused to bring him prime rib, so he sulked and ordered the Mandarin Steak, which he later admitted he loved, begrudgingly.

Heather had the Baby Eggplant, Szechuan style, of course.

Ira and I wanted the Beggar’s Chicken but they required 24 hours notice, so I ordered the Prawns on Banana Leaves, thinking the Chicken with Three Different Nuts was a little too on the nose.

Things went well until our entrees came and they accidentally gave Ira my prawns. Ira is deathly allergic to prawns. The EMTs were prompt and very nice. Heather gave them her autograph. Bob headed for the bar when Ira’s head achieved the circumference of a pumpkin. He is fine now but let me warn you, he is very touchy about Jack-O-Lantern jokes.

Editor’s note: I was hoping I wouldn’t have to say this, but our attorneys wanted me to make it clear that this is a work of fiction. "Any resemblance between these characters" and all that. Counsel thought it was misleading to make you think I knew famous people so I need to add the following statement: I have never met Ira Mayer. And Robert Wagoner is really a nice guy.

SIPA UK: Real Live Personal Relationships Remain Key to Business Success

2007-06-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

LONDON – OK, so getting here was less than smooth. A flight delay had me amusing myself in Philadelphia International to well past midnight. I kept saying to myself: it could be worse; they could be asking me to listen to country music. Apparently I said this aloud. The person next to me was a Toby Keith fan. I changed seats.

Then I realized that Gatwick airport is about as far from my intended hotel as Philadelphia is from my intended hotel. But fortunately, the taxi driver made the long drive seem much . . . well . . . longer. Apparently he was uncomfortable with silence. Apparently he doesn’t have teenage daughters. Apparently sticking my head out the window only signaled to him that I wanted his views on cell phones, child rearing and Israel.

When I arrived at the Grange Holborn Hotel for the meeting, I figured I was all set. Nice place. Nice people. And a terrific minibar. I looked like someone who hadn't slept in 24 hours. Puffy, glassy eyes made me wonder about the question, "Do you need help with your bags?" Then I received this email from Andy McLaughlin, president of PaperClip: “Dude, you’re at the wrong hotel.” Indeed. I was at a Grange, but Grange City Hotel was the site of the conference. At this point I felt doing anything right was becoming less likely, and was certain that when I opened my suitcase I would find clown clothes.

The conference, once I cabbed it from the Grange to the Grange (apparently the Brits have the same affliction as the Yanks: we can only think of so many names to call things), I was greeted warmly and my presentation was received.

Here are some of my takeaways from other speakers, notes I jotted down between fatigue-induced fits of wanting to giggle or cry. A friend of mine said I was experiencing menopause. I found myself having trouble regulating my body temperature. This confirmed her diagnosis.

Alex Connock, CEO, Ten Alps plc. The guy buys companies. At least that was my impression. He came from a television background, and offered lots of fun pictures. OK, I was sitting in the back of the room with a seven-year old named Alex McLaughlin, a sunny-faced, spring-in-his-butt, iPod-wearing kid who had a terrific sense of humor. That is to say, he laughed at my jokes. His dad was the one who calls me “dude.” But Mr. Connock had some terrific insights and philosophies. In this phase of information creation and sharing and producing, “no one knows anything.” This was music to my ears. Finally, for the first time in my career, I feel like everyone has caught up with me. I have made a living out of not knowing anything. He had encouraging words for event developers: “Conferences are the sexiest sector of publishing. People want face to face meetings.” This was my first light bulb at the event (and by light bulb I mean "a learning moment"). In this age of virtual relationships and virtual everything, will all of us living our lives – both our first and our second – through computers, the basic tenants of business survive. I want to meet you, know you and, if I trust you, I want to do business with you. Connock put so much stock in this he said that a critical asset for the companies he buys is how well they understand their clients and can articulate their client relationships. Connock showed a number of internet TV, telly, or television channels his firm has created, signaling internet B2B television as something we all likely should, will or may want to consider developing. Like, for example, in the next ten minutes. The many images he had in his presentation were fun and stimulating. I, on the other hand, had a picture of a chimpanzee.

Speaking of primates, Phil Binkow, Financial Operations Networks LLC, took the theme of customer relationships another step further. He described during the course of launching his service that his firm interviewed 260 customers, with the interviewers applying an “enthusiasm rating.” He said audio programs, live events, certification services, etc., contributed to the community building in his market. It was during Phil’s presentation that I was in the throes of fatigue, fighting back tears and titters at the same time. No reflection on Phil’s content, more of a reflection on my own physical and mental limitations.

William Buist, Managing Director, Abelard Management Services and Coordinator, E-cademy Black Star members’ forum, is in the business of connecting business people. He sees his job as “helping people in the conversation.” The value in social networking he said is “what people say about you to people who don’t know you.” If what you offer is invaluable, people will say so. The Black Star service is a great example of what can only be described as premium social networking, where not just anyone can take part and join, which in itself makes me want to take part and join. Of course, letting me in will reduce my opinion of the service, but that’s a another story. It is a life members club, a group of like-minded individuals, that comes with a high price ticket. In the US we call that "being Republican." Buist stressed the importance of a vision for your community. Without it, the community is rudderless, I think he said.

Jem Stone, FM Portfolio Executive, BBC, surveyed the many blogs – the “too many” blogs – hosted by BBC. Stone was frank about the BBC’s efforts in this area, easily calling out what has worked and what hasn’t, and proudly sharing that BBC is not too proud to kill off a blog that isn’t doing well. His ability to be frank comes from the fact that a number blogs appear to be doing really, really well! He emphasized that creating good blogs and meaningful social networks is real work that requires real passion on the part of participants. He bristled at the comments of one blogger who, in his own blog, made the whole thing sound like obligatory shift work and a one-way chat with strangers. Bollocks! OK, he didn’t say that. I did. Just now. Must be the bangers and mash I had for breakfast? I just looked up the term, and apparently it's taboo. Really? Anyway . . . . Stone said the whole thing, the whole social networking thing, is not just creating a blog and walking away and hoping for the best. It’s a lot of work and the people who do it well actually care deeply about it. They don’t have to remember to file a blog entry, they are impelled to do so. He listed Technocrati and Bloglines as excellent tools for monitoring your firms in blogspace. I really liked one blog Stone illustrated. Rather than asking simply for a comment on blog entries, the invitation said “complain about this post.” Love it! He also said that if what you are creating is something like a discussion board, just don’t call it a blog.

Anthony Ray, Director, Stingray Research, said it is important to provide information that is extremely specific and has immediate and obvious value to the customer. He echoed the refrain about talking to your market and understanding their underlying motivations and emotions. “We talk to a lot of teachers,” he said. “Teachers want to feel in control. They gain emotional satisfaction when they feel in control. And they like to receive kudos.” His company helps meet those needs. He also felt what you call features is extremely important. “Don’t call it a chat room just because everyone else does,” he said. Or at least that’s what my notes say.

David Foster, president, Business Valuation Resources, LLC, had a lot of good stuff to say. I didn't write down any of it. He likes novels, for example. I was too busy trying to think of what I was going to say, or make my panel partner Jane Wilkinson, marketing director, Euromony Institutional Investor, laugh while David spoke. I glanced down at one point to see that Jane had written a few notes down about my presentation, “Shaking the Cushions for Coin: Finding Revenue in the Content Niches (pronounced “nitches”), but realized she was sitting where I was earlier in the day, and I had left my own speaker’s notes at the presenter’s table. I was admiring my own notes. David, please share with us a few insights here. You have many. And there is no need to mention my name and “animal eroticism” in the same presentation ever again. It was apparently misunderstood by many. When I got back to the Grange Holborn last night, there were three zebra having a smoke in my room saying they wanted a word with me. After a couple bottles of gin they calmed down. We even shared a few laughs. Exchanged email addresses. Promised to write, etc. Zebra are really jerks, by the way. I will no longer feel bad for them in documentaries about lions. Oh, I remember, David also recommended reading Wikinomics. I made a joke about downloading the audiobook, but accidentally purchased Wicca-nomics. Apparently jokes about making money from witchcraft just isn’t funny. Note to self.

PLEASE COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS POST.

Shaking the Cushions for Coin: A Preview of My Upcoming London Presentation

2007-06-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Here is advanced warning on some of what I will be discussing at the London SIPA meeting later this month.

SIPA UK Presentation
Tom Hagy
London June 2007

Title & Summary

Shaking The Cushions for Coin: Finding Revenue in the Content Cracks

• Developing High-Value Niche Content
• Leveraging the Information Lifecycle
• Slicing Content to Create New Products
• Driving Revenue through Repositioning & Improving Delivery

Biography

Tom Hagy is vice president at LexisNexis®, provider of Total Solutions for legal and corporate markets. Tom's role is to test and deliver new content solutions in often narrow market niches in alignment with customer needs and corresponding corporate initiatives. Starting out as a reporter covering legal topics in 1985, Tom moved from covering beats to helping decide what subjects customers needed his team to cover. Tom became managing editor and then publisher at Mealey Publications, which was acquired by LexisNexis®, a division of Reed-Elsevier, in 2000. Content responsibilities expanded beyond legal news to offering content in a variety of media. It is Tom’s role today to identify content solutions and deliver them in whatever media best suits the customer need. Content Tom has developed is delivered via online, email, podcast, RSS feeds, print, Web sites, and PDF, as well as via live events, Web cast and audio programs. He is editor of the SIPA U.S. blog. He served on the SIPA board of directors from 1998 to 2007, leaving his post as vice president to spend more time with his family. Tom lives with his wife and two teenage daughters in a suburb of Philadelphia. He continues to drum and watch way too much boxing. Don’t get him started.

Speaker Notes

Developing High-Value Niche Content

Gary Hoover, found of Hoover’s business information, recently said at the SIPA conference in Washington, DC that all the money is in the niches. He added that attendees should pay attention the word “specialized” in the name of our organization. He also said that everyone is looking but most are looking in all the wrong places. The concept of niche publishing, while not new to SIPA members, is worth revisiting just about every day. As companies grow they can become less satisfied with the revenues that a niche product might generate, or the time it takes to nurture a niche product and reap the rewards. Innovation guru Rosabeth Moss-Kanter said at another SIPA event recently that very few really big ideas started out that way. And yet, large companies tend to want new products that have the following attributes: guaranteed success, little investment, immediate returns, large revenues. There aren’t many great ideas that can meet those kinds of expectations.

Slicing Content to Create New Products

Thanks to technology, and thanks to the return of “content as king,” content creators can create products with little incremental investment. With the low investment can come an increase in the number of products you can offer. And with that, you can have “products,” or cuts of data that make very little revenue on their own, but when coupled with a number of other easy-to-create slices of data, start to add up. There may be a single large investment for you up front so your data are organized in a way that enables slicing into narrow offerings, but the investment will be a wise one if you have sufficient content. Once organized, not only can you offer slices, but you can offer them in a number of ways that satisfy the individual preferences of your readers. And, not only can you satisfy readers, you can use these slices to lure new readers.

What if a prospect comes to you with this statement: “I am generally interested in your subject area, but most of what you write is for a global audience, and my interest is just for what takes place where I live. Also, it’s often more information than I need. And, I don’t have much time during the day to read so I’d like to consume your data on my long train ride to work.”

Are you equipped to satisfy this prospect? Can you offer your data according to geography? What about the age of the reader and where they are in their career? What about their religion or race, or a fear or aspiration they have? What about a problem they are trying to solve or a task they are trying to perform? What about the lifestyle they lead? If you can carve data this way, you can create offerings that may not be big sellers in themselves, but add up in aggregate. Barry Parr of Jupiter Research, also speaking at SIPA’s recent conference, advised publishers to thing of content as data. I couldn’t agree more.

Leveraging the Information Lifecycle

Think of information, or its snooty cousin, knowledge, as something that evolves over time. We may wonder about the consequences of a potential change or event. Then, when that change or event becomes more of a possibility, we start to speculate, then when it looks like that change or event will actually transpire we start to anticipate and plan. Then when it happens we gather and absorb information, and then, as time passes and more context forms, we gain or seek an increasing understanding and clarity of what it means. Eventually the event or change becomes history, and from that we start to wonder what’s next.

Give thought to how you can serve your market along the way as ideas and information evolve and become more (or less) clear. A blog can be a great device for speculating, anticipating and gathering information, where a conference, or newsletter or book can be a great way to share a clearer understanding.

Conclusion

Finding and timing the right approach and vehicle – matched with the urgent and narrow needs of your market – is your challenge in finding coin in the cracks!

Forced Free Trial: Torture?

2007-06-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

I am not sure this qualifies as valid customer feedback, but at least one alleged enemy combatant being held at Guantanamo Bay included the forced reading of a newsletter among the instruments of physical and mental torture he is enduring. Other devices included unscented deodorants and shampoos. Odd how I find myself agreeing with this guy.

I used to open subscriber mail and can tell you, this is tame.

Read the news as only Fox can tell it: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272492,00.html

There was no mention of cream rinses or bath beads, but then, the enemy combatant isn't me.

New SIPA President Looks for Larger Footprint

2007-06-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

Strafford Publications founder and president Richard Osoff has succeeded Oakstone Publications' Nancy McMeekin (at left, obviously) as SIPA president, pledging not only to attract new specialized information enterprises, but to inspire involvement from greater numbers of people working for today's member companies.

Nancy enthusiastically and intelligently managed SIPA through a major transformation, acting as much like a CEO as any of our presidents. "Her leadership and dedication were inspiring," this blogger said to himself with no one there. "Richard will take the next step of securing greater involvement," I added. Evoking the name of the legendary and, some say, mythological mega-ped Sasquatch, Richard wants to see the strength and relevance of SIPA's offerings encourage more participation more deeply in member organizations.

"For those people in our member companies who don't attend a major meeting, about all the contact they have with us is Hotline," Richard wrote after the meeting. "So that means the sense of benefiting from membership is pretty much limited to conference attendees, a small number active in chapters, and some listserv users. I'd like us to have a bit broader base of advocates within member firms . . . or at least a broader base of people whose contact with SIPA is more tangible, in hopes that they will perceive (and hopefully communicate internally) a sense that they benefit from their company's membership."

"Easy to say, hard to do," said Mr. Osoff, who has a full board of talent chomping at the bit to build on recent progress in branding and offerings -- including the highly successful "New Rules" Conference this month.

If you have ideas or want to participate in building a better SIPA, please get engaged! There are many ways. Just ask.

SIPA Clips on YouTube

2007-06-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Andy McLaughlin of PaperClip has a way of cornering you on your way to get your seventh Diet Coke to ask you any question he has on his mind at that moment. This is nothing new. But now he is carrying around recording equipment. If I have done this right, the link below will show you where Andy posted brief interviews with Helen Hoart, Margie Weiner, Bruce Guzowski, Robin Crumby and yours truly in the halls of the Mayflower during SIPA's national meeting this month, sharing what we think, learned, or what we say we think but really learned from someone else but won't say who. Or whom. Robin posted these on the U.K. site. Well, all but mine. This bothers me only because I went out of my way to wear my new Web 2.0 glasses. Unfortunately, I forgot to not shave.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PaperClipComm

You will notice that the introduction to my clip is longer than anything I have to say. Interpret that how you like.

Tom

Google Is Your Friend & Needs Great Content

2007-06-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

Here are my edited notes from the session that ended minutes ago during SIPA's "New Rules" Conference held here in DC. Please pardon typos, fragments, etc. Much of this is direct quoting, or as close as I could paraphrase. This is NOT a transcript. Mr. Madden was a forthcoming and articulate speaker. --Tom Hagy

Andrew Madden
Strategic Partnership Development
Google
amadden@google.com

Google is your friend . . . I am here to speak about how to improve your visibility on Google. We want to communicate directly with content partners.

“Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” We are increasingly focused on offline content, so we can get access to it; this tends to be a pretty easy job as content owners see they are getting crawled and indexed. At first, we crawled what was available online. Since Google was founded about 10 years ago, we have seen dramatic change in the kinds of content we crawl and index, and kinds of content users are seeking. Users used to be satisfied with whatever was out there on sites, now they want biographies and documentaries. They want local and mapping information. These are the content types we have had to integrate. We are bringing books online to make them discoverable online online. We see the impact of video online is huge. We are unsure of what the next big innovation will be . . . .

The three key components of the Google business model. Users. Content. Advertisers. Users are the most important. “Google is not interested in being a content creator. We want to drive users to content creators. If a content creator wants to work with an advertiser we want to support that as well.” . . . .

The Internet highlighted the untapped potential on both the content and advertising side to reach smaller companies versus the large media companies and advertisers. It’s the “long tail.” “People are searching for everything. And Google helps content owners move down the tail.” Popular searches like "Harry Potter" are huge, but people also are searching "Peruvian Orchids" or "Jersey City." We won’t sell directly to you, but we will send you to Amazon or Borders . . . .

Now I will mention a few of our products "where we actually make money."

Key-word advertising. We are making an educated guess about what you are looking for as a searcher. We also offer ads in a syndicated format, so there are ads positioned on AOL and other sites. With syndicated content ads we load in contextually relevant links based on the content on a given page. See AdSense for Content. It is fully automated and fully self service . . . .

Improving Visibility on Google.com. The Google News Archive Search pulls from archival content. It is introduced as an index you’d find on Google News. Users can now take a deeper dive. They can refine searches by date and publication, or cluster results for similar topics.

If you, as a publisher, have paid content and the user hits the wall to register, our crawlier hits that same wall. Our crawlers are good but can’t get behind this. “With News Archive Search, we want full access to content behind the pay wall, driving more traffic. We kept advertising out of the mix for this relationship.” Good landing pages [e.g. with content] are great, bad pages [e.g. with walls] are death.

“To crawl firewall content some of it has to sit on our servers. We enter an agreement with providers to take the content down at anytime.”

We have dollar signs and amounts in search snippets. We give user the ability to make a decision to purchase. “User experience is important to us. If content is not labeled premium, and it is, they turn away from the bad experience.”

First Click Free. With this service the publisher let’s us in to full access to their content, so a Google searcher can intersect with fee content. “The searcher gets to consume the full text of one article. Once moving beyond that they hit the pay wall. Once in they can consume other content. Good for publishers who want to use teaser content or sell subscriptions. For news providers with a lot of content being posted throughout the day, it is a pretty compelling way to get people to your content.”

Another way is to use Google Web Master Tools. Submit a site map, inventory of site, add it to Google index. We know when you make updates. We can tell you what might be wrong with a page. We can provide detailed data. Help you to diagnose problems. Tell you which queries are most popular. We can do a much better job of accessing your site. It is simple to use. Powerful. Tells you what pages have errors, what pages are not found, which are blocking crawlers, timing out, or not reachable. Stuff publishers tend not to know. You can take down documents. Good self-service way to get Google to know what you are doing. Great for mobile devices. Provides a great way for content partners to push their content to us.

You can create shortcuts to content if you are a provider. iGoogle. For people with Google account. You can build modules around what is of interest to you. Personalized home page content modules. Same for toolbar.

Google Co-op helps users tailor their experience. Same for search. Some like broad general results. If you search Angelina Jolie, you can pick a source to appear first, e.g. People Magazine. I can subscribe to people.com. “When I get a search, having subscribed, those results appear at top of my search results.”

Custom search engine. Tailoring search results at your site, e.g. www.jumpup.com, from Intuit. There you see top business resources. Google custom search engine across a set of sources. Helps build community at site. Offers a better search experience. Highly targeted search engines can be assembled by your editors focusing on the URLs you want to focus on.

“The power of Google is the sources it searches.”

Question from this blogger: What prevents people from moving to the next hot search engine?

Answer: That is the fundamental question that we face at Google. How to keep people coming back. It is through content partnerships. Getting access to content that others can’t get access to. Something like archive searches. We look to hundreds of partners to allow us to use this content. What you can’t get elsewhere, like maps, YouTube . . . What we can add to our corpus of content that we can surface. Add more trusted, more respected, more useful content.

Don't Be Afraid and Other Tips From Winning Reporters

2007-06-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

The following was submitted to the SIPA Blogger by Harry Baisden, SIPA Director of Publications, offering tips from winning specialized content reporters at today's (June 5) "New Rules" conference at the Mayflower Hotel.

Don't Be Afraid, Make Your Readers Winners and Other Tips from Winning Reporters

Washington, DC -- You’ve got to be tenacious…you need to know how old laws fit new realities, you’ve got to know what your readers want and need…you must learn to follow the daisy chain…you’d better be sure you KNOW the field you’re covering. Make these “have-to’s” your mantra and you, too, can be walking up to the podium at the annual International Newsletter & Specialized Information Conference to accept an award in Specialized Information Publishers Foundation’s journalism and marketing excellence competition. Five past award winners -- Carl Ayers and Jonathan Stern of UCG, Glenn Demby of Bongarde Media Co., George Lobsenz of The Energy Daily and Ellen Smith of Legal Publications Services -- talked about what it takes to get the award-winning story at a session of the 31st Annual International Newsletter & Specialized Information Conference in Washington today.

“You just can’t be intimidated,” Ayers said, pointing to the lawsuit threats he has received. “You’ve just got to stick with it.”

Demby’s award-winning efforts come from a different perspective. “We’re not a big breaking news organization,” he said. “Helping people in their business is our essence.” The political systems of the U.S. and Canada usually struggle to try to keep up with the changes in society, he said. It’s a newsletter’s job to help its readers learn how the old laws fit the changes in their industries.

Stern cautioned reporters and editors not to be so focused on “the story” they’re working on in an interview to miss tips that might point them to the trail of a whole new story. “A lot of reporters just don’t get the ‘listen’ part right.” Stern's breaking news coverage of the WorldCom collapse won him a first-place SIPF award three years ago.

Many stories come about of a long “daisy chain” of information that may not be easily recognizable at first, Lobsenz said. When you get a small piece of information that might start you down that daisy chain, it’s important to “act like you know more than you do and you’ll get even more information.”

“It’s one of the hardest things for a young journalist to realize how important it is to know the field they’re covering,” Smith said. She said there was no way she could have won the awards she has garnered in recent years when she first starting covering mine safety and health issues in the late 1980s. “People trust me and trust my knowledge,” she said. “They may not like me, but they know I’ll get the story right,” she said.

Hoover's Vision: Original Thinking for Business Success

2007-06-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

Washington, DC -- In a non-stop machine-gun style keynote address here today, business visionary Gary Hoover offered what is arguably the most articulate summary of the opportunities and challenges for SIPA members. “All the money is in the niches,” he said. “The opportunities are everywhere everybody is not looking.”

There is no way I can adequately capture Hoover’s passion. But imagine somebody having a secret that would change the lives of millions. Don’t allow him to speak for a whole year. Then ask him to drink eight cups of black coffee. Then put him in front of a microphone. Then make sure your toupee is screwed down tight.

The guy loves what he does, and does love to share how he does what he does.

Addressing a packed ballroom at the historic Mayflower Hotel during the 31st Annual SIPA Conference, the founder of Hoover's business information offered eight characteristics leaders of great enterprises possess.

A Sense of Curiosity. “Curious people look for answers in unusual places,” he said. Personally he likes to look for answers that will be valid 20 years out. Talking to as many people as he can seems to be key to his success, commenting that on one speaking engagement he learned more from the limo driver than the CEO who invited him to speak.

A Great Sense of History. You must pay attention to the market needs and how they have shifted over time. The fact that we in the U.S. have a growing elderly population and a growing percentage of Latino and Asian citizens, as examples, have and continue to present many opportunities.

A Sense of Geography. “We all grew up somewhere and we are all shaped by it,” he said. You must get to know what shapes the people in your markets to better serve them. “Know where you are at a given juncture of space and time.” This will help you identify most compelling opportunities.

A Clear Vision.

A Certain Vision.

A Unique Vision.

A Consistent Vision.

Hoover cited Southwest Airlines as one enterprise that scores well on vision.

“They get you on the plane fast, tell a joke, throw you some peanuts and take off!” Target is another company that is blowing the doors off competition by truly focusing on what their customers want. Sears is one company that lost its vision, he believes. They went into financial markets and built a tall building, he said. “They really took their eye off the customer.”

He said companies exist for one thing, and that is to “sell goods and services to people.” When you start saying your goal is to make money, you are headed down the wrong path. “Being measured isn’t the goal of a company.”

Passion. “No one ever built a company by not loving what they were doing.” He said if you don’t like what you’re doing, just get out.

He offered that you can learn from any type of enterprise (so study them), that you should talk eye-to-eye with customers as often as possible, and constantly look for opportunities where others are not.

Gary Hoover founded Hoovers business information. He also founded BOOKSTOP, which later sold to Barnes & Noble for $41.5 million. He is the author of "Hoover’s Vision."

Think of 'Webs' Not Sites, Content as Data & Hang With The Kids

2007-06-03T14:21:00.001-07:00

Washington, DC -- The way to succeed in the world of Web 2.0 is to think less about building Web sites and more about building your “web” -- the many ways you can lead Internet traffic to your content and your site by connecting your data (i.e. content) to other data being eyeballed on the Internet.

This was the advice shared this afternoon by Barry Parr, Senior Media Analyst at JupiterResearch. Parr gave an enlightening overview on “where information is headed” in the ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel during the 31st Annual SIPA Conference here in DC.

Here is a quick recap of Parr’s insights, roughly in the order he presented them, and almost certainly with typos, disjointed prose and plenty of tasty non sequitur for you to ridicule (I am glad I could be here for you).

Parr said online growth is starting to flatten. If I captured the slide right, there are 200M users expected in 2011, compared to 60M in 2001, but user-generated content is increasing. Readers of blogs, for example, doubled in 2006 over 2005. Ad sales are growing at 10 percent a year. Content relating to personal ads and entertainment lead the way. Video and audio are building in popularity and promise to be a big part of the Web’s future.

In the traditional Internet, we all went for rapid growth, increasing audience size, greater ad inventory. We looked for increased revenue, invented production techniques, converted our traditional audience to the Web, expected startups and new entrants. We served unsophisticated users.

Make Them Stay

In the Web 2.0 environment, he said, we work with small staffs and little investment, marketing our sites through word of mouth, not ads. We are moving to increased intensity of use, page yields, more sophisticated users, looking for cost control, using existing production techniques. We pursue online users, rethink the organization and anticipate consolidation.

We see companies buying companies and helping them grow within their organizations, Parr said. The trick now is “getting people to spend more time on your web site.”

People Formerly Known As the Audience

Borrowing a phrase from a former colleague at the San Jose Mercury Times, Parr referred to “the people formerly known as the audience.” Now they are getting involved.

“One-third of people on the Web are creating content somehow. Another 20 percent read the content. Another 50 are not participating at all.” Parr said there is opportunity in those numbers.

If you have a population coming to your service, anticipate 10 percent of people to participate in the beginning, he said, but expect growth if you do it right. “We are turning into a nation of content creators in a way that may have been impossible to imagine even five years ago.”

Younger users are far and away more interested in creating content. Three quarters of 18 to 24-year olds are creating content on the web. More than half of the 25 to 34 crowd are creators or readers.

Good Sites

Want to see a site Parr likes? Go to http://www.yelp.com/, where people comment on the local services where they live. Just knowing that someone likes a service isn’t enough, so the user profiles help you understand what people like you like.

Parr also likes http://www.linkedin.com/. So did many in the audience. While it’s a great professional network, it also is a good source of information, he added.

Another site is http://www.glam.com/. While just “okay,” it has a huge distribution network and, according to Parr, is “the fastest growing site in Media Metrics 100, and one of the fastest growing content sites ever, because of the understanding of the distribution model, making it work, and superior networking.”

Redesign Reviled, But Effective!

Parr noted that USA Today executed a major redesign of its site in March. Traditional users reviled the new look, even though it put user-generated content front and center, an unusual feature for newspapers. Admitting he’s not a fan of the makeover, Parr said USA Today nearly doubled the rate of pages viewed per visit, moving the needle from 2.5 to 6.5! That is not an easy number to increase, Parr said, and other papers have tried this only to crash-land due to crazy, stupid and even hateful posts.

“Creating communication on a site requires a lot of hard work and cultivation and editorial control,” Parr warned. “Editors are used to thinking that products they create come at the end of a long process. They believe that on the Internet ‘everybody is an idiot and post garbage,’” Parr said. “They should realize there is a middle ground.”

Parr’s recommendations to the audience:

Ø Start participating in online communities.
Ø Plan now for reader participation.
Ø Determine whether social networking makes sense for you.
Ø Learn how to nurture and moderate the community.
Ø Start a list of features you need from your content management software. Keep track of what you see that you like. Monitor other publishers.
Ø Think in terms of solutions, not features. Before saying “we really want to do a wiki,” first figure out what you want it to do and what problems you are trying to solve.
Ø Prepare to work. “Communities are hard to maintain and with no plan building one could be a disaster.”

Develop a Web, Not a Site

Parr said most people consider Web 2.0 as community content creation or interactive Web sites. While those are components, he said publishers should focus on developing “a Web and not a site,” then thriving on mediating that community.

“At a newspaper we always wanted to control the customer, and if someone got between us and the company we got uncomfortable,” he said. “Getting used to intermediation is difficult for publishers to do.”

Parr showed one video clip that was recorded by CNN, then posted on YouTube by several individuals, then cited by two blogs, and finally fed to him through Google Reader. “That is three levels of intermediates between the user and CNN,” he noted. “That will get deeper and broader as time goes on.”

All The Kids Are Doing It

Young users prefer to get their news from portals, Parr said, followed by cable news, then broadcast news sites, then their ISP. Local newspaper sites are at the bottom. Parr said he expects the 18-to-34 crowd -- 60% of which prefer portal-fed news -- to continue this preference. Portals don’t generate news, yet most people trust portals just as much as traditional sources of news, Parr explained. Many paid news models aren’t working right now, but mostly because these sites are not taking advantage of a lot of potential traffic. For some sites as much as half of their traffic is coming from intermediate giant Google.

But how does a publisher compete? Get stories on other publishers’ sites, use syndication like RSS, work with aggregators, get affiliates to buy your content and redistribute it. Join social networks, start an online forum, figure out what features help your users solve problems, start using feedburners and track activity. "Don’t get distracted by buzzwords," Parr cautioned. You don’t need to have a wiki if a wiki doesn’t make sense for your community. Finally, think about who your distribution partners are, both upstream and downstream, and seek partnerships.

Data Are King?

“Treat content as data,” Parr said, and “think about how you want your WEB to look.” An example of the importance of seeing “content as data in a web,” he noted that a most-viewed story recently on http://www.wsj.com/ was two years old. Why? Because it was mentioned by a popular blog as a valuable piece on investments. A great story, but how can you make this happen? Parr’s suggestion for how to develop relationships with bloggers: treat them like traditional journalists. Reach out to them, give them quotes, and share statistics they can use. (I would add: flatter them, refer to them in ways they will find out, and, if you ever meet them, make sure you dress exactly like them. Bloggers dig that.)

A note for us text-based publishers: “Video is going to be a big part of the net, and a big piece of the use of video will be on the net.”

Can we be over-protective with our content? Apparently so. “Digital Rights Management is a bad idea. It is a disaster for the end user,” Parr said. “I am not saying it is inappropriate in all cases, but you need to think about the impact on the end user when you do it.”

Tiny Bubbles

Finally, Parr told this blogger (I always wanted to say that) that he attended the recent Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. He described the mood there as “very bubbly,” likening it to the atmosphere in year 2000 around the swelling Internet bubble.

“There was a lot of excitement with a lot of buzzwords and hype,” he said, “and that concerns me.”

The buzz after Mr. Parr's session was extremely positive. It was an excellent presentation and just right for SIPA attendees. Here is his email address if you would like to reach him:
bparr@jupiterresearch.com.

SIPA Board Highlights

2007-06-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

The SIPA Board met this morning and I am sure I would be pelted with more than one margarine patty if I wrote about everything discussed there. Not because it's a secret, but because I don't think anyone wants you to know just how boring we can be.

One thing that is not dull is the progress we are making in reforming our association to better support the changing needs of information professionals. SIPA embarked on a strategic planning project two years ago this month and we are starting to see some solid signs that we are on the right track. While new membership remains a challenge, that is partially intentional. The Board felt it needed to ensure that SIPA should first firm up its offerings for our non-traditional prospects before actually pushing a heavy recruitment program. Now that many elements of our plan are in place we're ready to go. Again, early signs look good. We heard one report that a very large publisher who used to pass on participation in a newsletter-only association sees the newly directed SIPA as one that is relevant and on target with its business goals.

The "Welcome to The New Rules" Conference which began this morning -- chaired by in-coming SIPA VP Wayne Cooper -- has 625 attendees, up from 571 last year. Today's workshops, one a SIPA "bootcamp" and the second a usability session, drew a combined 92 attendees. We have 32 exhibitors, 21 of which are return vendors and 11 new vendors. Great to see so many coming back and so many new faces. We have strong international attendance this year, with a particularly strong German contingent from GVNR, including that company's Helmut Graf, also a SIPA board member.

There was much discussion around building more of an online social network for SIPA. This blog is just one aspect of that. I also found out that the U.K. has had a blog since 1876 or so, and I look forward linking to that forum from this one (apologies to the word "forum").

But more importantly, the M&Ms have returned to the registration desk. Their absence may have impacted previous attendance, market research suggests.

I understand there is a new beverage with our name on it, The SIPA Pearl, but no reviews yet on its deliciousness compared to, say, the SIPA Snowcone, SIPA Pâté and the short-lived SIPA Pâté - Snowcone Combo.

Get What You Want

2007-06-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

In case you think attending any SIPA event is anything like sitting through high-school algebra (which I enjoyed sitting through during the summers as well), it's NOT.

To get the most out of SIPA events -- including "Welcome to the New Rules" chaired by Wayne Cooper and kicked off this morning -- come prepared with what YOU want to learn. Sure, listen to the experts, but take a few minutes and jot down the 5-10 things you MUST learn at this meeting to help you in your profession. If you don't hear answers from speakers, chase them down in the hallways, network at lunch, and by all means, make random calls to hotel rooms. You can't swing a cat around the Mayflower right now without hitting someone who has an answer for you. That actually happened in 1989. We don't like to talk about it.

Memo Morte?

2007-06-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

When I was six months old, Elvis Presley received his U.S. Army draft notice. That same year Wham-O introduced a cool new toy called the Pluto Platter, later renamed the Frisbee. A guy in Massachusetts began selling lawn flamingoes. Ford introduced the Edsel. The preferred written business communication was called the “memorandum.” I know these things because that’s what it said on the birthday card my 16-year-old daughter gave me. Except the part about the memorandum. On that score I am making a thoughtless assumption in order to write a compelling opening statement. This is a blog, after all. Aren’t I allowed to be loose with the facts? (See upcoming blog entry: “This is a Blog. Aren’t I Allowed to be Loose with the Facts?”)

Of the things listed above only the Frisbee and flamingoes survive today. We all know what happened to Elvis: he faked his death and started a random tour of convenience stores and gas stations, then cloned himself by the thousands. And the Edsel: it was horribly unpopular and discontinued after two years and we have been reminiscing about it ever since. This is similar to how we treat presidents. And now, the memorandum, while not dead, is at least on life support, replaced by PowerPoints and what can only be characterized as an incessant spewing of every typo-ridden, half-baked, knee-jerk, caffeine fueled, BlackBerry or laptop manufactured “document” we have come to know as “e-mail.”

“Eek! mail” would be a more appropriate name for the fear it all strikes in me. For some reason I even object to putting an “e” for electronic ahead of “mail.” Do we have to now call mailbox mail p-mail? If carried out to other inventions, it would mean we’d be finding our way in the dark with e-candles, typing on e-writers, computing on e-thinkers, and talking to each other through e-cups and e-strings. But there I go, getting up on my high e-horse. Because of the ease with which we can spout off and share our brilliance, I now have 786 emails in my in-box. And very few of those could be characterized as thought-through. Rather, they are bits and pieces sent to me like a 786-piece toy that requires assembly. And don’t think I am not part of the madness. I am. But I’d like to do something about it.

I propose an international moment of silence before hitting send on any e-mail. During this meditative moment ask yourself: Should I just call? Have I thought this through? Do I even know what I am saying? Should I take more time and more fully develop my thought in, say, a memorandum? More importantly, what’s that on my nose? Why do I know so much about Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton? Have I ever seen the Queen Mother dance? Why is it that skunks are associated with severe intoxication?

More later. Can’t I stop mid-stream and complete this thought later? This is a blog after all. (See upcoming post: Can’t I Stop Mid-

Flickr / Meetup Visionary Speaking June 14 in NYC

2007-05-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

Got this email today in case you're interested in a dive into the Web 2.0 pool. For more info go to www.iBreakfast.com. --Tom

Esther Dyson to Keynote Web 2.0 NY SummitIndustry pioneer, visionary and backer of Flickr and Meetup speaks at Web 2.0 NY Summit on Thursday, June 14 at the Fordham Auditorium on 62nd & Columbus in New York City.The Web 2.0 phenomenon is more than a fad - it is a new way of doing business and it is sweeping through the media business. It is also having a dramatic impact on advertising which is why we have dubbed this Madison Ave. 2.0. We think the wave of acquisitions taking place on Madison Ave has everything to do with this - it will be a major topic of discussion(view our blog to read more.)Come to the Web 2.0 NY Summit to learn how this is changing content, marketing and customer interaction. Learn how to develop your company, sell your products, acquire new customers and raise capital.In addition, we will introduce you to Madison Ave 2.0 the new version of our very popular Local Ad World where you will find how the advertising industry is about change dramatically around this world of social use and technology.You will meet speakers and companies like Shelly Palmer (TV Disrupted), Kara Nortman (Interactive Corp.), Shaival Shah (Oddcast), Doug Perlson (TargetSpot), Jenny Mullen (OgilvyOne), Andrew Weinreich (MeetMoi), Connie Connors (HitTail), Wayne Reuvers (LiveTechnology), Andrew Bloom (Spot Runner), Chris O'Brien (MotionBox), David Teten (Circle of Experts) Gregory Galant (RadioTail), Stephen Rosenbaum (Magnify), Collarity.........

Tag (not the fragrance)

2007-05-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

If you are not tagging your content for reuse and repurposing, doing so now will enable you to create products from products with little or no incremental expense. Consider the many ways you can cut your content. As examples, consider if an article applies to a job function (e.g. CEO, HR, homemaker, office gossip hound), a specific geography, a task someone needs to perform (e.g. writing, suing, selling), a sub-segment of your market (e.g. inexperienced), an emotion (e.g. stressed out), or a species.

Loser Interface

2007-05-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Engage professional user interface talent in Web design whenever possible, and engage customers. Don’t rely on what you like or what your boss likes. An awkward interface can kill content value no matter how good the information is.

Take a look at the book "Designing the Obvious" written by Robert Hoekman, Jr. Mr. Hoekman dedicates his book to "anyone who has ever used a Web application and resented the experience." I like his attitude. And he speaks to experts and novices (meaning I understood most of it) alike.

Innovate, Don't Luxuriate.

2007-05-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is one of the most motivating speakers on innovation I have heard. I had the pleasure of hearing her in Boston at a SIPA event earlier this year.

Here is some of the advice I captured, interpreted or mangled: 1) Establish a budget for innovative ideas. It doesn’t need to be large, just enough to at least give an idea a push. 2) Create space and time for innovation, e.g. 15% of your staff’s time could be spent on new projects they choose. 3) Create a process and culture for innovation. You will find new ideas if your staff knows you want them, and they know what to do with them. 4) Consider an “innovation jam” or exposition where employees show off their ideas. 5) Don’t restrict innovation by measuring with the same old metrics. Be innovative about how you measure success as well. Your old metrics may no longer be valid. 6) Don’t consider only huge ideas. No big idea ever started out that way. A lot of small ideas add up. 7) Tap all employees for innovation. One of her clients, a food company, was anxious for market feedback. She reminded them that they have thousands of employees, and every one of them eats. 8) Know your goals. You may not have all the answers when you test a new idea, but you should know what you hope to gain from it.