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Elenore die heiße Blondine (23.07.2009)
Hier siehst du eine extrem scharfe Blondchen mit ihrem Lover beim Liebesspiel. Er nuckelt sie echt heiß und besorgt es ihr dann indem er ihre Löcher stopft. Ein scharfer Analfick darf natürlich auch nicht… weiter Mit einen klick auf die Photos, kommst du zum scharfen Anal-Portal! Klicke hier für mehr Videos!

Fick meine geile Fotze (25.07.2009)
Das blonde Biest hier freut sich schon die ganze Zeit auf diese heiße Fickerei hier. Zwei Männer die sich um sie Kümmern und ihr beide Löcher derartig Durchficken. Sie geben sich viel Mühe um das Luder zufrieden zu stellen. Mit einen klick auf die Fotos, kommst du zum geilen Anal-Portal! Hier geht es zu mehr Bilder und [...]

Teite mit Nahrungsmittel (26.07.2009)
Teite steht darauf sich alles Mögliche in die Pussi zu stecken. Hier macht sie es sich gleich mit mehreren Sachen. Zum Beispiel mit einer Gurke einer Kerze und allem was sie noch so findet… Klicke hier für mehr Videos!

Arschficken im Pornohaus
Wenn Gina am Set ist stiehlt sie allen anderen die Show, doch auch ihre obergeile blonde Kollegin hat so einiges zu bieten und zweigt auch schon ihre Blaskünste. Auch den engen Arsch lässt sie sich pudern… Hier enthüllen wir ihnen die heißesten Hardcorepics und geilsten Hardcorevideos! Hier gehts zu noch mehr Videos!

Expert Koi Ponds Advice and Information
Expert Koi Ponds Advice and InformationSome people build their own koi ponds and fountains to suit their preferences Integrating Home Made Ponds And Waterfalls In Your Home; Home Ponds Can Be Attractive Hobby; Indoor Ponds Source: uniquepondspro.com Homemade Waterfalls | Reference.com Enjoy your own garden waterfalls and backyard pond experience with well [...]

Expert Koi Ponds Advice and Information
Some people build their own koi ponds and fountains to suit their preferences Integrating Home Made Ponds And Waterfalls In Your Home; Home Ponds Can Be Attractive Hobby; Indoor Ponds
Source: uniquepondspro.com

Homemade Waterfalls | Reference.com
Enjoy your own garden waterfalls and backyard pond experience with well balanced design. Backyard Waterfall How to Build a /Permaculture-Ponds/Koi Homemade Indoor Waterfalls
Source: ask.reference.com

Indoor Ponds
Natural Ponds Backyard Ponds Build Lakes And Ponds Ponds With Gazebos Indoor Ponds Indoor Koi Ponds Making your own indoor pond can be quite a tedious job
Source: build-a-pond.com

Indoor Ponds - MonsterFishKeepers.com
Have your own Photo Gallery and the ability to upload HELP INDOOR KOI POND SETUP!! (1 Viewing) 357g indoor pond build *(first timelol )* (1 2 3 4 5)
Source: www.monsterfishkeepers.com

3 Tier Deck Pond - Indoor Fountains for Your Water Garden
Discount Koi Pond at an indoor water fountain and you ll quickly appreciate the benefits of having one in your backyard. There is a 3 Tier Deck Pond How To Build Your Own
Source: www.watergardensguide.com

Koi Forum (Nishikigoi - Japanese Koi Fish): KOI Talk: Pond
My own practices are for my own situation, but In my indoor koi pond, the water exits the pond to two 40 With 40 koi inside your 1200 gallon pond, what is the biggest koi live
Source: www.koi.com.my

Koi Ponds
If your pond is not build properly the remember that your Koi pond is fact that your pond is indeed, outside. Being outdoors, your fish tank faces problems that a normal indoor
Source: hubpages.com

Indoor/Outdoor Ponds [Archive] - Aquaria Central
Aquaria Central > Freshwater Topics > Indoor/Outdoor Ponds Ponds on the Net; Outdoor Community Aquarium; Build your Own Pond Anyone keeps other fish in ponds, besides Koi
Source: www.aquariacentral.com

Russell Watergardens & Koi Franchise Opportunities
How to Build It Pondless Waterfall Water ll be running a successful pond and water feature equipment, Koi and supply franchise of your own in 2,000 to 10,000+ square feet of indoor
Source: www.russellwatergardens.com

Tags: animal, animals, fishes, koi, pets

The Green Frog - AOL Video
The Green Frog - AOL VideoMost Outrageous: Scuba Diving Pets From: Animal Pla 01:38. Koi get a new pond at Belle Isle From: FreeP.com 02:04Source: video.aol.com MakinBacon on HubPagesI really enjoy all aspects of writing, business Koi Fish Pond Pumps Extraordinary and Outrageous Skull Tattoos by MakinBaconSource: hubpages.com Download Hindi Mp3 Songs [...]

The Green Frog - AOL Video
Most Outrageous: Scuba Diving Pets From: Animal Pla 01:38. Koi get a new pond at Belle Isle From: FreeP.com 02:04
Source: video.aol.com

MakinBacon on HubPages
I really enjoy all aspects of writing, business Koi Fish Pond Pumps Extraordinary and Outrageous Skull Tattoos by MakinBacon
Source: hubpages.com

Download Hindi Mp3 Songs and Lyrics: January 2008
Album: Outrageous - Sherlyn Chopra Singers: Sherlyn Chopra MP3 Bitrate: 320Kbps, VBR Mera Tujhse Hai Pehle Ka Naata Koi Yoonhi Nahin Dil Lubhaata Koi Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Source: download-hindi-music.blogspot.com

Koi Videos - Watch Videos about Koi on Gawkk
The Koi that lives the longest ever recorded in history died at the read more http Previews & Trailers, Music & Dancing Videos, News & Political Videos, Odd & Outrageous
Source: www.gawkk.com

Las Vegas Home Repair
LAS VEGAS KOI FISH FOR SALE AND POND SET UP AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES the MOJO back to any home, at any stage of development and no idea or job is too outrageous
Source: www.mojohomerepairs.com

Japanese Koi China Glaze Nail Polish - 5.50 Shipping
Japanese Koi China Glaze Nail Polish - The Japanese Koi China Glaze Nail Polish is China Glaze Outrageous China Glaze Outta Bounds China Glaze Oxygen China Glaze Paint the Town Red
Source: www.chinaglazediva.com

Tags: pet, fishes, pets, animal, fish

OGRODNICZE - DZIA KOWE Forum. Kwiaty ziele i ogr d :: —> Zobacz
OGRODNICZE - DZIA KOWE Forum. Kwiaty ziele i ogr d :: —> Zobacz Je eli trzymasz karpie koi, nastaw si na to , e je eli nie b d mia y pokarmu ro linnego to b d [...]

OGRODNICZE - DZIA KOWE Forum. Kwiaty ziele i ogr d :: —> Zobacz
Je eli trzymasz karpie koi, nastaw si na to , e je eli nie b d mia y pokarmu ro linnego to b d podgryza ci ro liny. Ja swoim przynosz rz s wodn , przed
Source: www.forumogrodnicze.info

zawieszona okresowo SORRY
Jesli kochasz rosliny ozdobne prosz o kontakt: mam kolekcj ciekawych okaz w drzew kwitn w listopadzie i grudniu!), roslin wodnych i wiem co robi aby karpie koi i
Source: www.angelfire.com

Ryby zimnowodne - PRZYRODNICZE.pl
Ro liny ozdobne; Zwierz ta w domu; Akwarium; Ptaki; Pies; Kot; Inne ssaki; Gady; Pozosta e Karpie koi Inne odpowiednie do hodowli gatunki Wpuszczanie ryb Monitorowanie parametr w wody
Source: www.przyrodnicze.pl

OGR D JAPO SKI - Onet.pl Blog
symbolizuj go ko ysz ce si wysokie trawy na wietrze, pluskaj ce si karpie koi lub paprocie . azalia japo ska . sosna . trawy ozdobne . drzewko bonsai
Source: www.ogrodjaponski.blog.onet.pl

Co ma piernik do puddingu, czyli angielsko-polskie Bo e Narodzenie
Angielska rodzina artuje nawet, e moi krajanie jedz ryby ozdobne karpie kojarz im si z koi carps, popularnymi w UK kolorowymi karpiami trzymanymi w stawach ogrodowych
Source: www.pinezka.pl

Choroby ryb w oczku wodnym
KHV (KOI HERPESWIRUS) Now chorob wirusow , kt ra dotkn a ryby yj ce w stawach jest KHV. Atakuje ona wy cznie karpie (konsumpcyjne i ozdobne koi).
Source: oczkowodne.net

www.pzw.gda.pl :: Zobacz temat - ywiec - gdzie kupi
a od wiosny do wrze nia dostaniesz karasie zanety u mnie to jest (R biechowo) przy pkp od wielko ci 5 cm do 20cm karasie ozdobne karpie koi z ot orfe i wiele innych ryb
Source: forum.pzw.gda.pl

ryby
Karpie maj bardzo dobr rybki ozdobne: 2009-06-12: wielkopolskie: od 2 z z /szt. sprzedam: -ryby ozdobne do oczek wodnych -karas ozdobny -karp koi krajowy -z ota orfa
Source: www.gieldarolna.pl

Tags: koi, fishes, animal, pets, pet

manufacturing Directory
manufacturing DirectoryBradfabs (BRADFORD FABRICATION) Limited - Bradford, West Yorkshire. Roberts Precision Tools Ltd Birmingham, West Midlands.Source: www.uksmallbusinessdirectory.co.uk DiseasesAlgarth Koi Uk. High quality Japanese Koi Carp Stockists of leading brands such as Tunze and Deltec WARWICKSHIRE; WEST MIDLANDS; WEST YORKSHIRE; WORCESTERSHIRESource: www.hotfroguk.co.uk UK Stockists - Nutrabaits.netUK Stockists Japanese Koi Co. [...]

manufacturing Directory
Bradfabs (BRADFORD FABRICATION) Limited - Bradford, West Yorkshire. Roberts Precision Tools Ltd Birmingham, West Midlands.
Source: www.uksmallbusinessdirectory.co.uk

Diseases
Algarth Koi Uk. High quality Japanese Koi Carp Stockists of leading brands such as Tunze and Deltec WARWICKSHIRE; WEST MIDLANDS; WEST YORKSHIRE; WORCESTERSHIRE
Source: www.hotfroguk.co.uk

UK Stockists - Nutrabaits.net
UK Stockists Japanese Koi Co. Ltd., Henlow. Tel: 01462 850822 West Midlands . Allen s Fishing Tackle
Source: www.nutrabaits.net

CLICK HERE - 923 005 6121 to fresh direct best buys.
The edward ginsberg to s50 sirrus before web development standards in koi carp fish the littleton travel if diversified truck and auto , which garmin zumo stockists west midlands.
Source: www.constructionlaw.org.nz

Tags: fishes, animals, fish, pets, animal

Dropsy or Pine-cone Disease - Koi Diseases (bacterial) - Koi Health
Dropsy or Pine-cone Disease - Koi Diseases (bacterial) - Koi HealthKoi Diseases (bacterial) Koi Health, Koi Clubs USA, Koi Clubs & Water Garden Societies Raised scales (rather like a pine cone) and eyes standing out from the head.Source: www.koiclubsusa.com Koi Varieties - Koi History - Koi Clubs USADoitsu Koi with lines of scales on [...]

Dropsy or Pine-cone Disease - Koi Diseases (bacterial) - Koi Health
Koi Diseases (bacterial) Koi Health, Koi Clubs USA, Koi Clubs & Water Garden Societies Raised scales (rather like a pine cone) and eyes standing out from the head.
Source: www.koiclubsusa.com

Koi Varieties - Koi History - Koi Clubs USA
Doitsu Koi with lines of scales on the back and along the lateral lines are literally ’silvery pine needles,’ for glittering scales on the platinum ground which look like raised
Source: www.koiclubsusa.com

Topical Treatments - Koi Medications - Absolute Koi
For your koi use Propolis: As a topical treatment for ulcers, sores, raised scales, especially useful round the mouth, eyes and gill area where the use of other medications would be
Source: www.absolute-koi.com

Simply Koi and More Koi View topic - Small infection
Hi all i have a Kohaku with a slightly raised scale and a small infection under it and was wondering what you would segest for treatment? Iv heard you can remove scales and then
Source: www.koiquest.co.uk

Koi classifications and koi patterns
Crescent markings of Koromo usually show up on the scales of red patches. Koi with scales on the platinum ground which look like raised markings
Source: www.macarthurwatergardens.com

All about Koi
Butterfly Koi 32 Bowles Avenue, Ludlow, MA They have been raised primarily for with golden silvery scales.
Source: www.butterflykoi.com

Bacterial Koi Diseases - Koi Health
The two most common bacteria that cause problems on koi fish are Aeromonas and Raised scales (rather like a pine cone) and eyes standing out from the head.
Source: www.cotskoi.com

Blackwater Creek: Ginrin & Doitsu
Where the sparkling effect is heavy, the surface of the scales becomes slightly raised A deeper look at the scales on metallic, ginrin and koi with both combined, can clear up
Source: www.koisale.com

Koi Health, Disease and Medication Forum - Koi Forum
Koi Health, Disease and Medication Forum post here about health problems and water new koi suddenly develops raised scales on several parts of body (1 2)
Source: www.extremekoi.co.uk

Tags: fish, gold fish, animals, animal, pet

YouTube - Large Jumbo koi
YouTube - Large Jumbo koiLarge Jumbo koi nice koi , really nice , checkout the gun ruined it *carp music Source: www.youtube.com KOI CARP DRAW GIVE AWAYOn offer is a Takahashi tosai showa (32cm, Value 275) and a Sakuma jumbo tosai showa All [...]

YouTube - Large Jumbo koi
Large Jumbo koi nice koi , really nice , checkout the gun ruined it *carp music
Source: www.youtube.com

KOI CARP DRAW GIVE AWAY
On offer is a Takahashi tosai showa (32cm, Value 275) and a Sakuma jumbo tosai showa All Forums >> >> Buy/Sell >> KOI CARP DRAW GIVE AWAY : Page: [1]
Source: forum.koimag.co.uk

Beginners Corner. An Introduction to the Koi hobbyist. Packed with
The average Koi can grow to 24 - 36 inches, with some jumbo perhaps as long ago as 2000 years and many early Koi, or coloured Carp can
Source: koicarp.net

Tags: fishes, animal, animals, fish, koi

Koi-Hobby
Koi-HobbyHerr Poethen profitiert von der jahrelangen Erfahrung im Bau von Koiteichen und bietet ebenfalls den Teichbau sowie hochwertige Japankoi an. Koi-Consult kooperiert mit Herrn Poethen Source: www.koi-hobby.de Koi - Paradies, Schl ssliweg 6, CH-9422 Staad, Tel. +41 71 855 18 88 Alles von A-Z f r den Teichbau! KOI-Teich: Jetzt [...]

Koi-Hobby
Herr Poethen profitiert von der jahrelangen Erfahrung im Bau von Koiteichen und bietet ebenfalls den Teichbau sowie hochwertige Japankoi an. Koi-Consult kooperiert mit Herrn Poethen
Source: www.koi-hobby.de

Koi - Paradies, Schl ssliweg 6, CH-9422 Staad, Tel. +41 71 855 18 88
Alles von A-Z f r den Teichbau! KOI-Teich: Jetzt planen - im Fr hling bauen! Wir bieten unseren Kunden auch ein umfassendes Zubeh rsortiment an. (Gratiskatalog)
Source: koi-paradies.ch

www.koi-aquario.de - Teichbau unserer Anlage
Koi, Teichanlagen, Pumpen, Bruch Profis sind wir auch in punkto Teichbau. Gerade bei Koi-Teichen, die irgendwann an ihre Besatzgrenze sto en, ist es besser von einem Fachmann
Source: www.koi-aquario.de

Koi & Teichbau * * * * * Meisterbetrieb - Wir ber uns
Koi & Teichbau - Planung und Beratung von Teichanlagen - Wir bauen Koi- , Schwimm-, oder Naturteiche - Wasserlandschaften, Bachl ufe, Au enanlagen - Japang rten - Japan
Source: koi-karpfen-center.net

Kinginrin Koi - Variationen und Zeichnung des Ginrin Koi
Kinginrin - Variationen und Zeichnung des Ginrin Koi. kin ist Gold und gin ist Silber und rin die Schuppe.
Source: www.teichbau-profi.de

Koi Karpfen
Vom Teichbau-Zubeh r bis hin zu Gesundheitsprodukten finden Sie hier alles, was das Koi Liebhaber Herz begehrt! Zus tzlich bieten wir nun auch telefonische Betreuung f r die
Source: www.koi-lexikon.de

Bavaria Teichbau
Men Beratung Planung Bau Bau Beispiel Messe Video Teiche Video KOI Besuchen Sie uns auch in unserer Ausstellung 85221 Dachau, Erich-Ollenhauer
Source: www.bavaria-teichbau.de

KOI-SHOP-TRIER
Koi-Shop-Trier bietet Ihnen weit reichende Angebote und Services mit dem Schwerpunkt KOI,Teichbau und Aquarienbau
Source: www.koi-shop-trier.de

Koi, Koi News, Koi-Sammler, Koi-Liebhaber
Koi RSS-Feed von unicum-koi.com hier finden Sie aktuelle News zum Thema Koi, Teiche, Teichbau, Teichfilter und Zubeh r. Bachflohkrebse News Aktuelle Nachrichten zum Thema Aquaristik
Source: www.rss-scout.de

Tags: pets, fish, animals, pet, animal

My Microsoft SDC open day presenation
My presentation at the Microsoft SDC open day alongside Devtest CEO Sarah Richey is now up on Microsoft’s site. http://www.microsoft.com/australia/services/microsoftservices/sdc_openday.mspx For my presentation you need to open the “How we do: Testing” video and I am in the last half following Sarah.

Build successful
Building: McWatiN (Debug) Building Solution McWatiN Building: McWatiN (Debug) Performing main compilation... Build complete -- 0 errors, 0 warnings ---------------------- Done ---------------------- Build successful. Two words that mean so much … this time they refer to WatiN built using MonoDevelop on Mac OS X. 1. Get a subset of WatiN to compile with no PInvokes done 2. Get McWatiN to successfully start firefox. 2. Replace [...]

Enjoy it while it lasts
The third site in the stack overflow trilogy,superuser.comlaunched yesterday. I can say quite proudly that I have the 25th highest rep of anyone on the site. For now. Here is a pic to remember the moment, as I am sure I won’t stay there for long.

WatiN on Mac os x running under mono using monodevelop
I didn’t think it would be this easy, but it’s working. I can now run a basic WatiN test on mac os x using mono. The code is here http://code.google.com/p/mcwatin/. All credit to the WatiN guys, all I did was remove stuff Here’s what you need to get this running Mono 2.4 and MonoDevelop preview for [...]

A brilliant ad … from microsoft
This is just brilliant … check out this ad for Microsoft Office for mac.

What is this bug on my mantle
Really big bug

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - July 25 09
Media literacy is a critical skill that aims to increase the understanding of how mass media produce meaning and construct reality. In a world where knowledge is increasingly distributed and technological developments are shaping new educational paradigms, the ability to filter relevant information is not to take for granted. Photo credit: Stephen Downes Inside this Media literacy digest:

• Complexity In Government - Periods of change present a duality that conspires to derail even the best organizations.
• Transparency Is The New Objectivity - When information is transparent, we can better understand and evaluate what is added to data after it has been gathered / created.
• Creating a City That Thinks Like The Web - ...practical examples of how cities can be structured to enable greater citizen involvement in simple things like fixing streets and drawing attention to non-emergency situations.
• Universities and Financial Crisis - When society’s institutions fail - health care, education - all of society suffers.
• Beware The Cloud - ...freedom is at risk in the cloud, where the vendor of a platform has much more control over whether and how to let others write new software.
• Interrogating Media - When seeking to understand media, gurus / experts like to use questions as guides.
• Huxley and Orwell - ...a comparison between the world views of Huxley and Orwell.

Educational technologies expert George Siemens shares with you every week a selection of useful resources to help you make sense of the key technological changes and trends affecting society at large. Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends by George Siemens

Complexity In Government

Periods of change present a duality that conspires to derail even the best organizations:

• Change draws many people to points of security - a move to conservatism, to what has worked during stable periods
• Responding well to change requires a reformulation of practices, as previous actions have partly contributed to the need for change

In essence, what we turn to in tumultuous times may well have contributed to creating those environments in the first place. Dave Snowden (slides and audio from a keynote (why .pdf? Why not slideshare?)) offers the following insights:

“During a period of change you can’t work from past practice, organisations that do go under or undergo some form of catastrophic failure from which they may or may not recover... You can’t put new wine into old wineskins, new methods and tools have to be adopted in full, attempting to dress them up in the familiar clothes of the previous paradigm helps no one.”

Transparency Is The New Objectivity

David Weinberger declares transparency to be the new objectivity:

“Objectivity used be presented as a stopping point for belief: If the source is objective and well-informed, you have sufficient reason to believe... In the Age of Links, we still use credentials and rely on authorities. Those are indispensible ways of scaling knowledge, that is, letting us know more than any one of us could authenticate on our own. But, increasingly, credentials and authority work best for vouchsafing commoditized knowledge, the stuff that’s settled and not worth arguing about. At the edges of knowledge - in the analysis and contextualization that journalists nowadays tell us is their real value - we want, need, can have, and expect transparency.”

Transparency is worth promoting - whether in science, literature, or government. I don’t think, however, that transparency has a place in the debate of objective vs. subjective. Objective / subjective are ways of knowing or a perspective of what is permissible in coming to know (or in the case of objectivity, as noted by David, defining something as if it can be seen outside of ant perspective). Transparency is more like a filter or barrier. When we are not transparent, we are blocking how we see or what we see. When information is transparent (like the data tables that are used to create graphs / charts by organizations like OECD), we can better understand and evaluate what is added to data after it has been gathered / created.

Creating a City That Thinks Like The Web

When success is discovered in one domain, it’s natural to expand whatever the “it” is into other domains. Open source software has changed how software is created, tested, and released. Open education finds its roots in this movement (and both find their roots in Richard Stallman’s early work, which in turn has it’s roots in ideas of John Locke, which in turn... ah, you get the idea). Business models of collaboration at least partly find their inspiration in openness as well. Enterprise 2.0. Government 2.0. Why not apply these principles to cities? Creating a city that thinks like the web presents practical examples of how cities can be structured to enable greater citizen involvement in simple things like fixing streets and drawing attention to non-emergency situations (seeclickfix.com).

Universities and Financial Crisis

The Bank of Canada has declared that the recession is over. While the numerical indicators (small growth predicted) may support this assertion, reality will tell a different story for many people and institutions. Universities, for example, are only now beginning to feel the impact. University of California is starting with deep cuts. Canadian universities are facing cuts as well. Few universities, however, face the difficulties of Harvard. Hard Times at Harvard provides a rather depressing glimpse into university systems that have lost focus and direction. When businesses fail, the families of those previously employed are impacted. When society’s institutions fail - health care, education - all of society suffers.

Beware The Cloud

I’ve found personal benefit to moving more and more of my information into “the cloud”. Web-based tools like Google Docs, Twitter, WordPress, delicious, etc. provide the freedom to access my resources regardless of device. The development of smart phones over the last several years makes this model of data creation / access particularly valuable. With MobileMe and LiveMesh, we get the additional value of being able to store resources - via the cloud - across multiple devices. Good ol’ redundancy. All is not well, however. Jonathan Zittrain states:

But the most difficult challenge - both to grasp and to solve - of the cloud is its effect on our freedom to innovate. The crucial legacy of the personal computer is that anyone can write code for it and give or sell that code to you - and the vendors of the PC and its operating system have no more to say about it than your phone company does about which answering machine you decide to buy... This freedom is at risk in the cloud, where the vendor of a platform has much more control over whether and how to let others write new software.

An API is at best a pacifier to sedate the majority, but it is a far cry from open source. To paraphrase Mark Pilgrim: open enough works for running programs now, but it is a long term sacrifice of freedom.

Interrogating Media

When seeking to understand media, gurus / experts like to use questions as guides. Two of the more provocative media thinkers - Postman and McLuhan offer the following to interrogate media (and technology):

• In his lecture Technology and Society, Neil Postman offers the following questions for consideration:
  • What is the problem to which this technology is a solution?
  • Whose problem is it?
  • Suppose we solve this problem decisively, what new problems might be created because we have solved the problem?
  • Which people and what institutions might be most seriously harmed by a technological innovation?
  • What changes in language are forced by new technologies and what is changed and forced by this new language (meanings)?
  • What sort of people and institutions acquire special economic and political power because of technological change?

• McLuhan offers the following for evaluating media (.pdf):
  • What does it extend, enhance, accelerate, intensify or enable?
  • When pushed beyond the limit of its potential, it will reverse what were its original characteristics; into what does it reverse?
  • What does it displace or obsolesce, that is, render relatively without dominant power or influence?
  • What does it retrieve from the past that had been formerly obsolesced?

Huxley and Orwell

Last week, during our Summer Institute at University of Manitoba, we had a few meandering discussions of how technology is influencing humanity. Discussions of “it’s all changing” are common. The greater challenge is to engage in “what are we becoming”. At one stage, I made the point that two writers framed the concerns facing society: Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.

• Orwell emphasized the threat we face from “big brother” - an organized government/political structure that determines and limits our rights (and in the process, our humanity).
• Huxley, on the other hand, suggested that the real enemy is not the government, but rather humanity. We are our greatest threat. Our desire for pleasure, and the paths through complacency and passivity this desire leads us, is what we should be most concerned about.

With that conversation in mind, I was rather pleased when I came across amusing ourselves to death - a comparison between the world views of Huxley and Orwell (via Frances Bell).

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on July 24th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

Photo credits: Complexity In Government - Jelena Zaric Transparency Is The New Objectivity - Erik Reis Creating a City That Thinks Like The Web - Ndul Universities and Financial Crisis - Daniel Kaesler Beware The Cloud - Desinformado.com edited by Daniele Bazzano Interrogating Media - Mark Hunt Huxley and Orwell - Huxley.net and eBooks@Adelaide ...

Media literacy is a critical skill that aims to increase the understanding of how mass media produce meaning and construct reality. In a world where knowledge is increasingly distributed and technological developments are shaping new educational paradigms, the ability to filter relevant information is not to take for granted. Photo credit: Stephen Downes Inside this Media literacy digest:

• Complexity In Government - Periods of change present a duality that conspires to derail even the best organizations.
• Transparency Is The New Objectivity - When information is transparent, we can better understand and evaluate what is added to data after it has been gathered / created.
• Creating a City That Thinks Like The Web - ...practical examples of how cities can be structured to enable greater citizen involvement in simple things like fixing streets and drawing attention to non-emergency situations.
• Universities and Financial Crisis - When society’s institutions fail - health care, education - all of society suffers.
• Beware The Cloud - ...freedom is at risk in the cloud, where the vendor of a platform has much more control over whether and how to let others write new software.
• Interrogating Media - When seeking to understand media, gurus / experts like to use questions as guides.
• Huxley and Orwell - ...a comparison between the world views of Huxley and Orwell.

Educational technologies expert George Siemens shares with you every week a selection of useful resources to help you make sense of the key technological changes and trends affecting society at large. Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends by George Siemens

Complexity In Government

Periods of change present a duality that conspires to derail even the best organizations:

• Change draws many people to points of security - a move to conservatism, to what has worked during stable periods
• Responding well to change requires a reformulation of practices, as previous actions have partly contributed to the need for change

In essence, what we turn to in tumultuous times may well have contributed to creating those environments in the first place. Dave Snowden (slides and audio from a keynote (why .pdf? Why not slideshare?)) offers the following insights:

“During a period of change you can’t work from past practice, organisations that do go under or undergo some form of catastrophic failure from which they may or may not recover... You can’t put new wine into old wineskins, new methods and tools have to be adopted in full, attempting to dress them up in the familiar clothes of the previous paradigm helps no one.”

Transparency Is The New Objectivity

David Weinberger declares transparency to be the new objectivity:

“Objectivity used be presented as a stopping point for belief: If the source is objective and well-informed, you have sufficient reason to believe... In the Age of Links, we still use credentials and rely on authorities. Those are indispensible ways of scaling knowledge, that is, letting us know more than any one of us could authenticate on our own. But, increasingly, credentials and authority work best for vouchsafing commoditized knowledge, the stuff that’s settled and not worth arguing about. At the edges of knowledge - in the analysis and contextualization that journalists nowadays tell us is their real value - we want, need, can have, and expect transparency.”

Transparency is worth promoting - whether in science, literature, or government. I don’t think, however, that transparency has a place in the debate of objective vs. subjective. Objective / subjective are ways of knowing or a perspective of what is permissible in coming to know (or in the case of objectivity, as noted by David, defining something as if it can be seen outside of ant perspective). Transparency is more like a filter or barrier. When we are not transparent, we are blocking how we see or what we see. When information is transparent (like the data tables that are used to create graphs / charts by organizations like OECD), we can better understand and evaluate what is added to data after it has been gathered / created.

Creating a City That Thinks Like The Web

When success is discovered in one domain, it’s natural to expand whatever the “it” is into other domains. Open source software has changed how software is created, tested, and released. Open education finds its roots in this movement (and both find their roots in Richard Stallman’s early work, which in turn has it’s roots in ideas of John Locke, which in turn... ah, you get the idea). Business models of collaboration at least partly find their inspiration in openness as well. Enterprise 2.0. Government 2.0. Why not apply these principles to cities? Creating a city that thinks like the web presents practical examples of how cities can be structured to enable greater citizen involvement in simple things like fixing streets and drawing attention to non-emergency situations (seeclickfix.com).

Universities and Financial Crisis

The Bank of Canada has declared that the recession is over. While the numerical indicators (small growth predicted) may support this assertion, reality will tell a different story for many people and institutions. Universities, for example, are only now beginning to feel the impact. University of California is starting with deep cuts. Canadian universities are facing cuts as well. Few universities, however, face the difficulties of Harvard. Hard Times at Harvard provides a rather depressing glimpse into university systems that have lost focus and direction. When businesses fail, the families of those previously employed are impacted. When society’s institutions fail - health care, education - all of society suffers.

Beware The Cloud

I’ve found personal benefit to moving more and more of my information into “the cloud”. Web-based tools like Google Docs, Twitter, WordPress, delicious, etc. provide the freedom to access my resources regardless of device. The development of smart phones over the last several years makes this model of data creation / access particularly valuable. With MobileMe and LiveMesh, we get the additional value of being able to store resources - via the cloud - across multiple devices. Good ol’ redundancy. All is not well, however. Jonathan Zittrain states:

But the most difficult challenge - both to grasp and to solve - of the cloud is its effect on our freedom to innovate. The crucial legacy of the personal computer is that anyone can write code for it and give or sell that code to you - and the vendors of the PC and its operating system have no more to say about it than your phone company does about which answering machine you decide to buy... This freedom is at risk in the cloud, where the vendor of a platform has much more control over whether and how to let others write new software.

An API is at best a pacifier to sedate the majority, but it is a far cry from open source. To paraphrase Mark Pilgrim: open enough works for running programs now, but it is a long term sacrifice of freedom.

Interrogating Media

When seeking to understand media, gurus / experts like to use questions as guides. Two of the more provocative media thinkers - Postman and McLuhan offer the following to interrogate media (and technology):

• In his lecture Technology and Society, Neil Postman offers the following questions for consideration:
  • What is the problem to which this technology is a solution?
  • Whose problem is it?
  • Suppose we solve this problem decisively, what new problems might be created because we have solved the problem?
  • Which people and what institutions might be most seriously harmed by a technological innovation?
  • What changes in language are forced by new technologies and what is changed and forced by this new language (meanings)?
  • What sort of people and institutions acquire special economic and political power because of technological change?

• McLuhan offers the following for evaluating media (.pdf):
  • What does it extend, enhance, accelerate, intensify or enable?
  • When pushed beyond the limit of its potential, it will reverse what were its original characteristics; into what does it reverse?
  • What does it displace or obsolesce, that is, render relatively without dominant power or influence?
  • What does it retrieve from the past that had been formerly obsolesced?

Huxley and Orwell

Last week, during our Summer Institute at University of Manitoba, we had a few meandering discussions of how technology is influencing humanity. Discussions of “it’s all changing” are common. The greater challenge is to engage in “what are we becoming”. At one stage, I made the point that two writers framed the concerns facing society: Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.

• Orwell emphasized the threat we face from “big brother” - an organized government/political structure that determines and limits our rights (and in the process, our humanity).
• Huxley, on the other hand, suggested that the real enemy is not the government, but rather humanity. We are our greatest threat. Our desire for pleasure, and the paths through complacency and passivity this desire leads us, is what we should be most concerned about.

With that conversation in mind, I was rather pleased when I came across amusing ourselves to death - a comparison between the world views of Huxley and Orwell (via Frances Bell).

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on July 24th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

Photo credits: Complexity In Government - Jelena Zaric Transparency Is The New Objectivity - Erik Reis Creating a City That Thinks Like The Web - Ndul Universities and Financial Crisis - Daniel Kaesler Beware The Cloud - Desinformado.com edited by Daniele Bazzano Interrogating Media - Mark Hunt Huxley and Orwell - Huxley.net and eBooks@Adelaide

5 Ways To Green Your Coffee Beans
Each morning millions of people start their day with a dark brew of coffee. Here are 5 small steps to ensure that your morning cup of coffee is eco-friendly.

5 Ways To Green Your Coffee Beans

One thing I have learned during my time on this earth is that there are two kinds of people… those who drink coffee and those who don’t.

I have always been the first kind.

Growing up, at special family gatherings, the adults would make a huge pot of black coffee on the stove, laced with sugar. Everyone, kids included, would get a glass mug of this beautiful dark creation and added a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. I can’t remember whether it was a caffeinated brew or not but based on the noise and activity level that quickly ensued, I bet that it was a full throttle coffee simmer.

These days, the tradition continues (minus the cup of java for my toddler). My mornings start out with a first-rate hot cup of coffee. The debate regarding the health benefits of coffee will go on endlessly. In the meantime, I drink plenty of water, eat my veggies, and make my coffee eco-friendly.

Here are 5 ways you can go green with your coffee beans, guilt free:

1. Organic Beans – Just like any other crop, organic grown coffee beans are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Choosing organic means that the soil and trees are naturally enriched and alternative sources of pesticides are used (like birds).
2. Fair Trade Certification – Most coffee beans are grown in countries that don’t have strict employee guidelines in terms of fair labor practices. One way to ensure that your beans are harvested by fairly compensated workers is to look for the Fair Trade label. Fair Trade doesn’t mean organic, but many are grown without the use of GMO’s (genetically modified organisms or pesticides). Another benefit of Fair Trade coffee is that it supports a region’s community and infrastructure.
3. Go Ahead and Go Local – If you are not going to make your own brew at home, the next best thing is to support a local coffee house which serves organic coffee. If your local coffee shop does not offer organic or Fair Trade brew, speak up and let the owner know that you (and many others) would love to support a new organic grind.
4. Bring Your Own Cup – According to Coffee-statistics.com, Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day — that’s 146 billion cups of coffee per year – and growing! Want to know how much you contribute? Check out this handy “coffee waste calculator“. Do your part by purchasing a high quality stainless steel coffee mug. Make sure the cup is stainless steel on the inside as well as outside to avoid any leaching from the plastic next to hot liquid. These make great gifts as well.
5. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – This little trio of R’s applies to your morning coffee routine as well. Gone are the days of mindlessly using paper coffee filters. Today, there are some amazing choices to get eco-friendly with your caffeine. If you prefer a paper filter, you can choose from bamboo, hemp or recycled paper to help reduce waste.
   
   Another great option is to buy a good reusable filter that can last for years. Made from stainless steel, nylon and even gold, these high quality mesh filters are easy to clean and can actually enhance the quality and taste of your brew.

Enjoy!

- EcoDiva

(Photo: richardsummers)

5 Ways To Green Your Coffee Beans

Review: The Education of an American Dreamer by Peter G. Peterson
The Education of an American Dreamer: How A Son of Greek Immigrants Learned His Way From a Nebraska Diner to Washington, Wall Street, and Beyond. by Peter G. Peterson (quite a title!) is an autobiography and I don’t think I’ve read a autobiography in years. But when I was approached by a publicist and asked [...]

Review: The Education of an American Dreamer by Peter G. Peterson

The Education of an American Dreamer: How A Son of Greek Immigrants Learned His Way From a Nebraska Diner to Washington, Wall Street, and Beyond. by Peter G. Peterson (quite a title!) is an autobiography and I don’t think I’ve read a autobiography in years. But when I was approached by a publicist and asked if I was interested in reading the story of Peter G. Peterson, founder of the Blackstone Group, I agreed. The Blackstone Group is a private equity firm that manages close to $95 billion assets, as of the end of 2008. While they’ve been adversely affected by the economy, like every other person in the US, they recently announced that they would continue to pay out its dividend for the year and the stock surged. The Blackstone Group is famous and you can read more about it on Wikipedia (of course!).

I was most interested in reading the story of one of its co-founders, Peter G. Peterson, as he told it. He, of course, has his own Wikipedia page too which includes a brief biography, but nothing can match the story told straight from the man himself. So… I jumped at the chance. If you want to read his story, go to Wikipedia. If you want to hear him tell it, you have to get this book.

The book goes through every chapter of his life, from leaving Kearney Nebraska to his life in Chicago and his (four) “rounds” in Washington DC. It includes his time as Chairman of CEO of Lehman Brothers and everything else in between. The story of Blackstone Group doesn’t appear until Chapter 14. Some believe that living life is about collecting stories, making memories of the good and bad that has happened, and Mr. Peterson has done an excellent job writing down his.

If you’re a fan of books like these, where you get to hear stories straight from the first person, then you’ll enjoy this. If you’re thinking you’ll learn something actionable, you probably want to pass on this. If you just want to learn about him and the Blackstone Group, check out Wikipedia. It’ll be less fun but it’ll be faster.

Review: The Education of an American Dreamer by Peter G. Peterson

Your Take: What Would You Like to Accomplish in Ten Years?
Last week, I asked you what you’d tell yourself ten years ago. Today, I’m flipping the script… if you were visited by your future self, say ten years into the future, what would you like your future self to say about what you’ve accomplished the last ten years? I would like my future self to tell [...]

Your Take: What Would You Like to Accomplish in Ten Years?

Last week, I asked you what you’d tell yourself ten years ago. Today, I’m flipping the script… if you were visited by your future self, say ten years into the future, what would you like your future self to say about what you’ve accomplished the last ten years?

I would like my future self to tell me that I had started a family, started holding annual charitable events (much like my friend Scott and his very successful twice-annual Ghent Bar Tour), and built up Bargaineering to be a premier personal finance resource on the web. I’ve always measured success as a mixture of family, community, and career so to have reached those successes within ten years would be pretty exciting to hear. To top it all off, I’d like to know that I did it with hard work and determination mixed in with a little bit of luck, to help solidify what I learned the last ten years.

What would you like to accomplish in ten?

(Photo: bitterjug)

Your Take: What Would You Like to Accomplish in Ten Years?

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If you are not already, you need to be thinking this way. We have a new Go Daddy Girl! You ain't seen nothing until you've seen Danica and this sexy Vegas cop.

SPECIAL EDITION: Are Go Daddy commercials too racy? Here's what America thinks!

Watch Video Blog

Dr. Bob hits the road to see Danica race and find out if America really knows what GoDaddy.com does.

Friday Focus 07/10/09: Featuring Food
Apologies for posting this a day late, but I will try to make it up to you with yummy-looking websites. It's a food-centric Friday Focus!

Apologies for posting this a day late, but I will try to make it up to you with yummy-looking websites. It’s a food-centric Friday Focus!

Designs of the Week

The full-width background photo under the earmarked recipe notecard is great. Unfortunately I’d rather that the top navigation wasn’t part of the Flash objects on this site. I like the very subtle grungy texture used here as it does seem to reinforce the seafood/marina feel.

A very green website, both in color and food group. Perhaps the best way to present veggies (and fruits) is to photograph them on a crisp, white background, and that works quite well here.

This is a nicely-designed restaurant site—elegant photography, rich dark hues, and good spacing all over. I like the high-res icons jutting out of both sides of the layout.

Another full-width background photo effect, this time it’s much bigger and has several rotating images. I kind of wish the content below it were longer—more than 3 links each for the new and popular recipes, for example—because you want to give more diverse options to your readers.

This is one of the more “different” designs of the bunch, because of the illustrations, brighter colors, and the overall lighter attitude this site has. But, really, when it comes to food websites, the greatest measure of good design is in the food photography, so make sure you prioritize that!

How pretty is that lettuce as a frilly background! Brings way more to the table than any other Photoshop brush, no? I would’ve liked a little more tweaking on the navigation but on the whole this is a nice, clean site. Very easy on the eyes.

We get a more hip atmosphere from this site, but the food photos are still front and center. Great JavaScript effects, typography, and color scheme.

Social Media Weekly

Design, Typography, Freelance – 25 Must-Read Books For Designers, Typography Lovers And Freelancers

User Experience, Usability – Recommended Books for your User Experience and Usability Library

Design – Using Wireframes to Streamline Your Development Process

HTML, CSS – Four Methods to Create Equal Height Columns

Friday Focus 07/24/09: For the Birds
This week's Friday Focus features designs with pretty little birds in them. (No, this isn't another collection of Twitter-related sites---only two of them are.)

This week’s Friday Focus features designs with pretty little birds in them. (No, this isn’t another collection of Twitter-related sites—only two of them are.)

Designs of the Week

Illustrations are inspired by origami and papercraft, animations are done purely in JavaScript. Pleasant and brilliant.

I love the mobile motif here—everything is hanging onto something until the very end of the page. Great concept for an online shop.

I like the illustration style here because it’s more cartoony instead of delicate and craft-y. And it seems dotted and dashed lines are all the rage these days.

I like it when sites go all out on a metaphorical design. This one has the content floating on ice!

Two things about this site mask how simple it looks. First, the hawk looks stunning—big, bright pink, and detailed. Second, the illustrations (aka Twitter backgrounds) listed on the site speak for themselves—if you’re designing a portfolio, do the same thing.

Some of you might have to squint to see the birds, but I appreciate the subtlety while still paying attention to detail—you can play hangman (or is it hangbird?) on the site! They’re all over the place, though, so you will enjoy their company.

Social Media Weekly

Typography – Web fonts — where are we?

Freelance – Freelance Design Contracts and Templates for Designers

Programming – How to Debug PHP Using Firefox with FirePHP

How Important Is Brand When Launching A Web App?
Thoughts on brands, names, domains and how consumers remember you from what you call yourself.

Think Google. Think Twitter. Think Microsoft. Think WordPress. These are either established brands in their respective industries, or hip, new startups that have made the grade. These are already mainstream, with instantly recognizable brands and names. If you’re just starting out with a web app or service of your own, don’t you want to achieve this status someday?

How important is the role that a brand name plays in the success of an online venture?

And if brand is so important, is it also very important to consider the domain name early on in the planning stages? All of the brands I’ve cited above have their own .com names. But what if you have an excellent brand idea, but realize later on that the domain name is no longer available–at least on the popular .com and .net TLDs?

I’m in the process of planning and launching several new online ventures. And among the first considerations I’m working on are the brands and domain names. For this reason, I’ve already purchased several domains that I’ll possibly use. I’m also thinking of using existing domains I own, which I could just turn into a brand, like what I did with WorkSmartr.com, which I turned from a productivity blog into a site for outsourcing online work.

Here are a few things I think are important when choosing a brand.

A name that sticks. As I see it, brand is an essential aspect of business building. People are better able to remember something that they recognize easily. People are more likely to use a product with a cool sounding name. If your brand has made it into pop culture, then even better. See how you can “google” a word or “tweet” an update.

A name that’s descriptive. Another consideration is whether your brand is descriptive. This makes it easier for people to search for you. If you want a blogging platform, maybe the first thing you see on searches is “blogger.” Or how about Twitter Buttons? The domain name is usually one of the things that can help search optimization, so why not get one which already has the keywords you need?

A play on words. Web 2.0-ish names have been popular and everyone had been jumping on the bandwagon. Flickr started it, and a host of others followed (I must admit I do have my own domains that use a similar variation).

A name that’s flexible. Sometimes, getting the exact domain name may not necessarily be an absolute requirement. Think Dropbox. It’s a popular application, but they’ve had to be content with getdropbox.com. How about Backpack, which uses backpackit.com? It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get the domain name you want. For instance, I realize a business called “Racoma” owns the domain racoma.com, which incidentally stands for my surname. So I have had to use racoma.net and racoma.com.ph instead. What’s great is that because I’m more active online, my sites running on the .net and other domain extensions are more searchable than those that don’t belong to me.

Remember that a brand should stick in your target audience’s mind. If it doesn’t, and if your venture doesn’t succeed as planned, then it’s probably time to move on to the next one. I’ve seen it happen before. It’s not so difficult to rebrand, relaunch and redesign in today’s online environment.

No matter what, just make sure your name doesn’t fall under that “stupidly thought of” brand or domain, just like these “unintentionally worst” company URLs. That would be a laugh.

Twitter and the Numbers Game
Some thoughts about Twitter's marketing potential amid the numbers game.

One of the trending topics on Twitter lately is the #moonfruit hashtag. If you’re aware of Moonfruit, you probably know about their promotion to give away 10 MacBook Pros to random people who mention the hashtag–one each per 24-hour period. So far a lot of people have participated, and the topic has been among the top mentioned. Who wouldn’t want a free MacBook Pro, after all? I, myself, joined in.

But apparently, promotional campaigns like this don’t sit very well with the folks from Twitter, who seem to have taken off the #moonfruit hashtag from the trending topics list, even if it’s still, to this time, a popular mention on Twitter. Hashtags.org says it’s about three times as popular as other trends this week, even surpassing other, probably more relevant, topics like the Iran Election and whatnot.

Twitter and marketing

What does this have to say about marketing on Twitter? Is Twitter’s marketing potential diluted by the fact that the powers-that-be seem to frown upon the idea of the system being gamed? Is Twitter’s marketing potential affected by the negative image put forward by aggressive affiliate marketers (or even spammers)?

I often tell people that I think the best way to market on social media is by really connecting and interacting. In a way, the people behind Moonfruit have connected and engaged their audience, and with valuable incentives to boot. Perhaps the only mistake here was that their popularity took the better of them, and they were viewed as having gamed the system. That is, they have taken advantage of the numbers on a system where numbers play a big part in saying what’s important or not.

Twitocracy?

What’s wrong with this concept of “Twitocracy,” then? Maybe it’s the fact that any numbers system can be gamed. Think of Digg. Think of Google. In the olden days, people used to be able to easily game these two, and other similar services. For instance, Digg is quick to update and refine its algorithm for pushing articles up to front page. But in its early stages, just a hundred or so votes within a given period of time will be enough to frontpage an article. The administrators probably thought marketers would easily take advantage of these to drive traffic to their sites.

Google is another example. While their algorithm for PageRank and search engine results is probably more secret than the formula for Coca Cola, the search engine optimization industry is still thriving. Some Google insiders openly speak against SEO, highly favoring what is thought of as a more natural or organic way of optimizing webpages, which is by creating good content and a good information structure.

Twitter is, undoubtedly, a simpler and more straightforward platform than the two above-mentioned online services. You post “tweets” or updates. You get a network of friends and followers. Popular keywords get trended. But it doesn’t stop there. The wide array of third-party applications and services that build upon Twitter take advantage of the fact that the service is such a rich ocean of data that the possibilities for mining these are practically endless.

And then there’s the issue of things being a numbers game. He who gets the most followers would be considered god-like. The keyword or topic that gets discussed by the biggest number of people deserve a mention in the veritable trending topics list, whether it’s an important world event or simply a trivial word or phrase. Or worse–an explicit or obscene word. And if abused, this could render the entire thing useless, or at the very least less usable.

It’s like saying open comments are good. But when you get deluged by spam, you start moderating.

So does Twitter have marketing potential, even with the problems posed by playing the numbers game? Yes–and as I earlier mentioned, it’s about connecting and engaging your audience. And this is among the things I’ll be discussing on this new weekly Tuesday Tactics column.

image credit: flickr/mfilej

7th grade May 12, 2009
Test on invertebrates on Wed May 13th Study your folder for the essay questions Final on Monday Practice on the website www.georgiaoas.org/

Test on invertebrates on Wed May 13th

Study your folder for the essay questions

Final on Monday

Practice on the website

www.georgiaoas.org/

Is BuddyPress for you?
Should you build your next social networking site with BuddyPress?

I remember when “portal” websites were the thing online. Everyone wanted to be the next Yahoo!, and every other website was powered by PHP-Nuke.

Of course, it was the community aspect of these so-called portals that made them so popular- and that hasn’t changed, except that now we call them social-networking sites.

BuddyPress is an add-on to Wordpress MU that gives you the ability to grow your own social-networking site. It’s actually a suite of plugins, and a niftily-tweaked Wordpress theme, offering up member profile pages, private instant messaging, groups, forums and blogs at the click of a button (or, in this case, the activation of one plugin). Because it uses Wordpress MU, you already know it’s on a great system- plus your members blogs can use any Wordpress theme they want (depending upon whether you, the admin, install it, of course).

Is BuddyPress for you? Check these out:

BuddyPress.org
The official BuddyPress site, and where you want to go to check out the demo, read the FAQ, and look through the forums.

Buddy-Press.net
All you need to know about BuddyPress, including a really simple installation guide, and ten reasons to use BuddyPress (that I wrote).

BuddyPress DEV
This is where to go if you want to learn how to extend BuddyPress, or see how others are doing it. Lots of good stuff here, especially on their plugins page.

Have you tried BuddyPress? Like it, hate it? What do you think?

Friday Focus 07/17/09: Old Newspapers
This week on Friday Focus, we pay homage to the good old newspaper, whose elegance and practicality ought to transcend the ages. Print isn't dead; not quite yet.

This week on Friday Focus, we pay homage to the good old newspaper, whose elegance and practicality ought to transcend the ages. Print isn’t dead; not quite yet.

Designs of the Week

When using newsprint hues, keep things interesting with bold, intricate type. The thing that bothers me here though is the excessive use of uppercase text. Needs more variety and hierarchy in typography—smallcaps, italics, drop caps, etc.

This site has its own flavor of old, publication-like, and grungy, but doesn’t look outdated whatsoever. Perhaps it’s the orange and blue. Or the crazy line scribblings in the header. The only minor letdown here was the footer—a lot more detail could’ve gone into that. Really like the fixed world map background though.

This one also seems lacking in hierarchy—hardly any variation in type sizes, for starters. But kudos for creating a 100% fluid layout. Not to mention the “Table of Contents” style articles list to the right.

Ignore the use of monitors, gradients, and rounded corners and you’ll enjoy how much of an ancient-looking site this is. Especially their blog. The branding has a lot to do with it, but I also think it’s the bold use of black and white.

Social Media Weekly

Design – Crank Up Your Design Radar

Accessibility – A Designer’s Guide To Accessibility and 508 Compliance

6th grade May 14, 2009
Energy Independent study due at the end of the day on Tuesday the 19th

Energy Independent study due at the end of the day on Tuesday the 19th

Age discrimination lawsuits will be harder to win

In a decision this week, the US Supreme Court decided to change precedent. And who said "conservative" justices don't make law, are not "activists"? This decision is one of those based on ideological lines.

The Court in a 5-4 decision said that the burden of proving age discrimination lies solely with the plaintiff. In previous cases, the plaintiff merely had to prove that age was a factor ... and then the company had to show that there were legitimate reasons for the termination. How, now, will plaintiffs be able to show that age was the primary factor? Afer all, the plaintiff was not in the room when the decision to terminate him/her was made.

Choosing between food and rent

In a conversation today with a client of mine, he presented me with an interesting dilemma. He is a sole practitioner with two associates. They both acknowledged that they were down to 50% capacity.

His dilemma now:  What is his best choice?

1.  Fire one of the two lawyers

2.  Take work from his desk and transfer it to them ... this would give him more time to market the firm or more leisure for himself, but it wouldn't immediately increase the firm revenue

3.  Have the two associates begin to focus more on practice development efforts that are within their comfort zone to take up the slack time and hopefully succeed in additional revenue

What are your thoughts? Are there other options you can suggest?

He would like to keep both associates fully occupied. But, if he can't, it's like choosing between food and rent. You need both but can't afford to pay full boat to do so.

Senior lawyers at risk

Layoffs in the legal profession have been in the news lately, but downsizing from the top?  More experienced attorneys, even senior partners in some larger law firms are not as secure in their jobs as they once were in what may be more signs of practicing law as a business.  Law.com bloggers and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams welcome Ed Poll, a recognized expert and author in law practice management and Stephen E. Seckler, president of Seckler Legal Consulting, to discuss the new benchmarks the legal profession is seeing in job performance and what The Business of Law may look like in the future.

Don't Waste a Good Crisis

Blogging: Reshaping Business and Everything else…
20/20  had a one-hour special on the digital age called “caught”! Many of the authors who were interviewed are those whose work we’re reading right now, BuzzMachine, We the Media, etc. The first bit talked about how soldiers in Iraq are documenting the war in their own way, using their cellphones to create videos they [...]

“The Search” AKA Big Brother?
John Battelle begins his book, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, by explaining the Database of Intentions as basically a log of every search, result, and action taken on the internet. This log, he explains, is creating a Web-history of our culture. I find this [...]

3-D Copier
I am still astonished by the concept of the 3-D Copier. In the very near future, this copier, which is currently in its preliminary phases, will be able to copy whole objects and also have them appear at a different location. Whole objects, such as guns, cups, or books. Currently, the 3-D copier can already duplicate [...]

The rest of “Naked Conversations”
Scoble and Israel explain that authenticity, originality, and creativity are the main components of a good blog. Companies who use blogs as a marketing venue are on the fast track to failure. People do not want to see ads made by big companies on what are ‘home-made’ venues of expression, which makes a lot of sense [...]

“The Long Tail” and Web 2.0
 Chris Anderson argues in his book, “The Long Tail” that in-fact niche audiences combined create as large of a market audience as the mainstream. These niches should not be ignored because they essentially make up the consumers of websites such as amazon.com, iTunes, and netflix (books, music, and movies). He gives us an overlook on [...]

‘The Search’ continued…
The second half of The Search is really rich in content and in my opinion, much more interesting to read than the first half. Battelle really dives deep down into the meat of what Google is all about. One of my most favorite sections is where Battelle describes what the future of search can look [...]

The rest of “Smart Mobs”
The book doesn’t stop being interesting in the second half, that is for sure. The first interesting ted-bit that came across my radar is about the communal coffeepot. At PARCpad, they aimed a web camera at the coffeepot that took snap shots of the pot to signal when the coffee was ready for consumption. Instead of taking [...]

Rest of “The Long Tail”
Anderson begins the second half of “The Long Tail” with an explanation about the 80/20 Rule, which is now closer to the 80/10 rule and the confusing remaining 10 percent of percentages for differentthings (which is why they don’t need to add up to 100). Anderson argues that 10 percent of products account for 80 percent [...]

Play Money
What a book! Part academic, but mostly story telling, Julian Dibbell takes us to the world of imagination come to life. This book is the story of how Julian went from playing games online for fun and realizing that he’s tapped into one of the least explored money-making ventures. There are several specific things I’d like to [...]

Paul Barsch: When Strategic Planning Gets Locked in the Basement

Strategic planning helps marketers answer what to sell, who will buy it, and how to beat competitors in the marketplace. However, in today’s volatile and chaotic marketplace, some executives argue that it’s better to “fly by the seat of your pants” and skip forecasting. What happens when strategic planning is locked in the basement? Let’s look at two cases to find out.

It is tempting to confine “strategic planning” to the ivory tower of executive decision making. And taking into account that most CMOs don’t have a seat on the executive board; should marketers wash their hands of the topic? Not so fast, say the analysts at Gartner. A report, “Top Ten Marketing Processes for 2008-2013”, clearly labels “strategic planning” as a concern of the marketing discipline.

Strategic planning involves taking into account the necessary systems, people, resources and processes needed to design and execute a future picture. And while it can be argued that today’s marketplace is simply too complex, interconnected, and unstable to plan and prepare for anything longer than a twelve month timeframe, the following cases show the importance of keeping the future firmly in front of you.

“The Smartest Guys in the Room” is a story about the rise and fall of Enron. The book details what happens when you take really smart individuals, and put them together in no-holds barred, survival of the fittest cauldron with loose rules and even looser ethics.

One of the more interesting quotes is from Jeff Skilling, the former CEO of Enron who said, “I think strategic planning is the antithesis of building a corporation." Jeff really was one of the smartest guys in the room and he said many brilliant things during his tenure at Enron. However, this phrase wasn’t one of them.

Jeff believed in a "let the cream of the crop rise to the top" type of management style, where players would duke it out in a Darwinian/Machiavellian manner. If an initiative made sense, had the political backing of players in the firm, and promised to make oodles of money, it was usually funded. At Enron, strategic planning was locked in the basement. And we all know how the Enron story ended.

In “House of Cards”, William Cohan chronicles the rise and fall of Bear Stearns. In a similar “locker room” mentality to that of Enron, managers were very insular and most were Bear “lifers” (they started their careers at the firm).

In a culture that was free wheeling, excessive, and pretentious, there was little room for strategic planning. Cohan writes, “(At) Bear the historical view of the firm is that they don’t plan. They don’t have business plans. At one point they were proud the only thing that was planned was the executive dining room. Everything else was opportunistic.”

In fact, former CEO and Chairman Ace Greenberg said, “What our positions look like at the end of the day is long range planning as far as I am concerned.” At Bear, strategic planning wasn’t locked in the basement; it never existed in the first place.

In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the fog sometimes gets so thick that when driving you can only see 200-500 feet in front of your car. These pervasive hazes are dangerous to all drivers because they literally have no idea what’s ahead—drivers are lucky to see the tail lamps of the lead car! It could be open road ahead, or a fifty car pile-up. Limited visibility can be extremely dangerous.

We cannot hold the lack of strategic planning solely responsible for the downfall of Enron and Bear Stearns. There were too many other factors at play to draw this conclusion. However, it is also clear that when management has little visibility into upcoming adverse events (ex: credit crisis)—all heck can break loose, and possibly devolve into cataclysmic results.

Where is marketing’s responsibility in this?

Marketers should not only have a pulse on customer wants/needs but also sentiment. Customers are pretty smart—they often “sniff” trouble or sign of a potentially adverse event coming long before we can. Marketers need to understand what customers are saying and thinking. We need to discern what constitutes a critical mass and tipping point. We need to have the mechanisms in place (not just social media) to capture and act upon this feedback.

With our eyes wide open, and backed with historical and near real time data (quantitative and qualitative) analysis we should be able to help our companies navigate times of stress.

Marketers—don’t let your company become next case study for lack of strategic planning. We have a responsibility to our companies, customers and ourselves to let strategic planning out of the basement.

• A HBR article, Bringing Customers into the Boardroom argues, “In too many companies, marketing is poorly aligned with strategy.” Do you agree? If so, why do you think this is the case?
• Will involvement in strategic planning help get marketing back on the CEO’s agenda?
• Author Nassim Taleb says that humans tend to, “Focus on the minutiae instead of the large (unexpected and devastating) impact events.” If you agree with this statement, what is a potential solution?

Jeanne Bliss: 'Zappos and Amazon Sitting in a Tree...'

This is one of the positively "Tony Hsieh" lines that is most memorable in the out-of-the-blue news that hit today that Amazon acquired Zappos. In his email to employees, Tony said:

"Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say "Amazon acquires Zappos" or "Zappos sells to Amazon". While those headlines are technically correct, they don't really properly convey the spirit of the transaction. (I personally would prefer the headline “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”)"

As Tony explained to employees, this is a stock transfer deal. But what's most important is the deal behind the deal; which is that Zappos remains who they are. They become better at the blocking and tackling and operational aspects of high volume pick, pack, ship operations, especially as they expand into product lines well beyond shoes. But the core values and the zaniness of Zappos will remain.

Glad to hear it. On this point I stick my neck out to say that I believe in both of these companies' commitment. Here's why:

1. They both began with a passionate focus on customers.
2. They both still have leaders on board who think, drink, eat customer happiness.
3. Bezos knows that messing with what Zappos has achieved in terms of emotional bonds with customers and employees is what they are buying. This is the currency of the brand. He knows not to mess with that. (check out the Bezos' video)
4. Amazon saw a kindred spirit and asked it to bond with them. Tony characterizes it closer to a marriage/romance with his line above.
5. Congruence of values will be an important compass in steering decisions.

Thinking of the names Amazon and Zappos sitting in a tree to make each one better sounds okay to me. The potential is great.

Is my antennae up a little bit that Zappos will change? You bet. But do I see this as more positive than negative..a "glass half full" prospect? Yes. Right now, based on just who these companies are and how they've conducted themselves, I'd say at least three-quarters full.

What do all of you think? How did you feel when you read the news? I bet you had an emotional initial reaction...what was it and why?

Andrea Learned: Chipotle's Hot Spot: The Vulnerability of Authenticity

The Chipotle restaurant chain just announced that it will sponsor free screenings of the newly released documentary film, Food Inc. Kudos to them. There is something very authentic about allowing your brand to become vulnerable in this way. By inviting its customers to see the ugly truth, Chiptole is walking its talk of a responsible and healthy food movement.

Of course, the company is also risking the likelihood that a few of the more nutrition-conscious eaters they draw into the conversation might call them on anything Chipotle is doing that doesn't quite make the grade. But, that seems to be part of the point in the brand's Food Inc. support. According to a Hollywood Reporter article:

Chipotle says that 35% of the beans it uses are organically grown and that it serves more naturally raised meat than any other restaurant worldwide.

“I hope that all our customers see this film,” said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle. “The more they know about where their food comes from, the more they will appreciate what we do.”

Now, given so much risk in opening consumer eyes to what may not yet be up to par in their own work, why would the brand decide to put itself so "out there?" If marketing to women is considered to be marketing to the highest standard of all consumers (as it should), there are two elements of such wisdom exemplified within this Chipotle “strategy”:

1) Acknowledging (and embracing) the fact that they are on a journey* toward a greater goal. A woman's multi-constituent, multi-tasking, community-aware brain tends to appreciate this sort of adaptable, possibly meandering path. Chipotle’s healthy/fast food market segment is a very tight, focused consumer niche that likely thinks along similar lines. The brand’s executive team must feel confident that the sophistication level of such restaurant-goers will bear out. Chipotle expects, and likely will get, goodwill points for all their efforts in that positive direction. As a bonus, they’ll get more patience from consumers regarding any less-than-perfect business or food-related practices thus far. Consumers trust a journey - because it is human-scale. Consumers don’t trust an “all and perfectly done” proclamation, because that is truly impossible.

2) Choosing to rise above the competition by being an industry educator. To learn more about an industry or category, women will tend to take time gathering information and educating themselves before making a purchase. Any brand that helps in this process will be duly rewarded. Chipotle is doing this. Rather than looking for ways to exclude themselves from the fast food industry altogether, the brand is integrating new research and deliberately sharing that with the competition - as well as customers. What could be more counter-intuitive than sharing knowledge/content/ideas? Yet, those industry leaders that do will often become shining stars more easily seen by consumers. Such industry-wide education efforts may not garner a brand the big press or glamour of fancy promotions or astounding sales growth, but they do serve as a worthy investment toward reaching today's more holistic consumer brain, male and female.

The Chipotle team is taking a risk by putting their own business under a microscope, but it also raises their profile in terms of their authenticity. Their approach and motivations should be a model for other brands in pursuit of the more sustainably-minded consumer. And, in my mind that person is either 1) a woman or, 2) is thinking a lot more like one today (using right with left brain to make decisions).

Moral of the story? Authenticity actually can’t happen without vulnerability, scary as that sounds. However, the right customers (your core market) will appreciate and reward you for it. So, take the risk so few brands will, and see what happens!

Starting From Scratch
Well, it was finally time to erase the old spam-filled blog database and start from scratch.  I’m 99% sure there weren’t any real blogs from any real live people in there, so the only people that should have been inconvenienced by the reboot would be the spammers and myself.  And the spammers won’t even notice, [...]

Well, it was finally time to erase the old spam-filled blog database and start from scratch.  I’m 99% sure there weren’t any real blogs from any real live people in there, so the only people that should have been inconvenienced by the reboot would be the spammers and myself.  And the spammers won’t even notice, I’m sure.

I didn’t think about saving a copy of the themes directory.  Oops.  I should grab a copy of that from backups while I can.  I lost track of how many themes I had nicely re-edited to work with the site, so that all those spam blogs would look interesting.  Of course, the spammers never thanked me for all that hard work.  Jerks.

UPDATE: Themes have been restored from backups.  Hooray for themes!

Tim McAtee: This Isn't Your Father's Publishing Model

I've recently joined MarketingProfs as Research Director and I'd like to offer some insight to anyone interested in my take on digital media. I have worked in digital media research my whole career, but my father started out as a reporter for Time Magazine back in the 70s and has spent the last 20 years working as an editor for a print magazine―a niche medical journal. We talk about the future of media and monetization models the way most fathers and sons talk sports. He will occasionally call me up and demand to know whether I'm purposely killing his industry or not.

Today he sent me a link to an article in Fast Company entitled "Print Media Is Dying. Online Revenues Are Tiny. What If the Ads Are to Blame?" As always, it got me thinking and writing.

My emailed response to my Dad ended with a terse "systems that don't work die." And as I wrote it, pessimism washed over me. My Dad, a smart guy, is freaked out by the idea that the activity he has spent his whole life doing will simply vanish. And, Cliff Kuang (the writer of the piece and also, assumably, a smart guy) clearly doesn't see things the way I do. I'm a fairly confident individual, but it's easy to falter when those we lean on stumble.

What seems so incredibly obvious to me is that the value of information is changing, and as it does, it is dragging media monetization models with it. The value of scarce, immediately relevant, actionable information is quite high―that's why Google pockets about one out of every two dollars of online ad revenue. The value of non-scarce information is practically nothing. That's why inexpert opinion (i.e. national reporting from just about any local newspaper) isn't worth the quarter consumers now refuse to pay for it, and instant-expert bloggers aren't any better. On the other hand, want to know what a real expert like Warren Buffet thinks about the economy? You can trust the Wall Street Journal to pry some quotes out of him, or you can subscribe to Buffet's Twitter feed and keep tabs on him yourself. That sort of access is unprecedented and having it changes everything.

As magazines, like my Dad's evolve, they may be hard to recognize in their new incarnations. But, I really believe they won't die when they transition to digital as long as they continue to do what they are supposed to―provide valuable information to their readers at the precise moment the reader needs it most, and occasionally before they even know they need it. Valuable information is usually monetizeable. As long as my Dad can figure out how to satisfy this demand for information from consumers, while making it easier for his advertisers to get to future customers through him than it would be to do so directly (setting up their own content distribution via Twitter, email newsletters, etc.) then marketing revenues won't dry up and the magazine gets to stay in business as an information middle-man, or if you prefer, an expert.

Too often, publishers used to CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) pricing models let advertisers take over the online publication and plaster ads everywhere--essentially spamming the audience with unwanted ads. That system just doesn't work any more. On the other hand, pricing models that promote good advertising practices, such as CPA (cost-per-aquisition) or CPC (cost-per-click) make sure everyone stays happy. The publisher makes money, the consumer gets the info they want without wasting time, and marketers get access to hot leads they would otherwise have trouble finding. I call it the win/win/win scenario, and think it should be the goal of anyone interested in the future of media or marketing―myself included.

I'm not saying that if everyone switched to a CPC model tomorrow, all our troubles would go away. What I will emphatically say is that we, as an industry, need to come to terms with the fact that the old ways of doing things aren't sustainable. The systems we rely on, the models we employ, the metrics with which we measure, and even the language we use must all change. I don't have all the answers, but because of what I do, I'm able to collect thousands of great ideas and present the best ones to you. For me, the future of media is a personal matter. Let's make it work.

Stephanie Miller: Creating Buzz: It's the Message AND the Medium

I was delighted to be the email advocate on a panel on “Creating an Environment for Viral Marketing Success,” moderated by entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki last Thursday. It was a virtual complement to the SmartBrief Buzz2009 event, held in Washington DC with more than 80 association executives.

The panel included social media practitioners Brendan Hart, VP of National Geographic, Stacey Kane, Marketing Director for the California Tortilla chain of franchise stores in the DC area, and Andy Sernovitz, author and founder of the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association.

When creating buzz, the panel discussed the necessity of matching the message to the medium. I noted that there are two ways to build word of mouth - sustained programs, where we send out some small bite of content every day; or a campaign, which is a one-time, big blast that you hope will be the top search link for a day or longer.

The sustained approach is a great way to engage. Offer a coupon for a taco like California Tortilla, or link to a way cool photo and invite comments as National Geographic does. I gave the example of Publisher's Clearinghouse emailing the video of the winners (yes, they still give out million dollar checks every month). These are the most forwarded messages.

Campaigns are harder to build and take a commitment. They are also risky - they could generate complete silence, or negative publicity, or lots of noise but not a lot of sales, like the Subservient Chicken campaign from Burger King. National Geographic built a puzzle of Mt. Everest which drew in a lot of traffic. It includes "Look, I did it!" links to share.

For California Tortilla, the rate of response is slightly higher on Twitter, perhaps because these are the “freshest” (most recent) subscribers, but the largest number of people by a magnitude of 100x is via the Taco Talk (http://www.californiatortilla.com/taco-talk.html) email newsletter. So, while Twitter and Facebook have “cool” factors, when she needs to bring people to the stores for lunch, email has the reach and remains her best friend.

Guy Kawasaki is of course a wildly heralded thought leader on entrepreneurism and social marketing, and has 175,000 followers on Twitter. He uses Twitter exclusively among the social networks to help promote his latest business, Alltop. He says that if you aren’t “pissing off” some people on Twitter, you aren’t using the channel properly. He freely admits that he uses it as a broadcast channel only. It was good to see that strategy (which works well for his personal brand) contrasted with what Stacey is doing (engagement and direct marekting) and Brendan (loyalty).

Andy Sernovitz gave a wonderful intro about how word of mouth is just the result of “making love” with your customers. Delight them, arm them with great sharing tools, and tap into what they already love about your products and services, and you will enjoy stronger word of mouth marketing, he said. Andy also suggests that you don’t need to use all the bright new shiny technologies out there to be successful with word of mouth. Don’t get distracted, but focus on where your customers are already hanging out. Like email!

What I loved about the discussion is that while it was all about viral and the buzz generated from social networks, the emphasis kept coming back to email marketing as the foundational element for most marketers. Certainly email powers the social networks – it’s the biggest traffic driver. But more importantly, for most of us, email is the most powerful link between your brand and the largest number of customers simply because that is where our customers spend time.

Integrating social and email is a great idea, and I offered a number of tips to help, including:

1. Match the content to the medium. Email is great for lifecycle marketing, promotional broadcasts and content newsletters. Facebook fan pages are great for surveys or building loyal fan bases. Twitter may be great for customer service as well as broadcast. Don’t just repost your blog everywhere – send content that is relevant to the channel so that you appeal to customers who consume information in different ways.
2. Make it easy to share. Add “SWYN” or Share with Your Network links, but do so prominently and integrate them into the content. SWYN links in the footer will not drive significant sharing, just like a buried Forward to a Friend link will get little use.
3. Host your own social community. Invite conversation among Facebook fans (e.g.: What do you think of this new product feature?), offer product reviews or build your own community (IBM Corp. has nearly 45 community sites). Use that content in your email newsletters, and to help keep product and customer service and marketing teams connected to the marketplace.
4. Tie it back to email. Integrate the opt-in invitation everywhere – on your Facebook page (Lenovo does this well), at the end of videos, on your Twitter profile, on key landing pages for shared content..
5. Celebrate your listening skills. If you are responding to customer and prospect input, be sure to communicate back your responses and any changes you are making. This makes for excellent email newsletter content.
6. Participate. Do more than listen, participate. Don’t engage halfway.

As with everything in email and social media, it’s all about the subscriber experiences you create via your content strategy. All the viral mechanics and technology automation in the world will not make your brand compelling or engaging. Be where your customers are – and for now, you can't ignore the inbox.

At the end of the day, here’s why email is the coolest and sexiest channel in the digital marketer’s toolkit: Revenue. Email drives the most revenue at the lowest cost. Period. And you just don’t get any sexier than that in business.

Check out the full webcast (90 minutes) here. And follow the Tweets using #buzz2009. Thanks to SmartBrief for having me, and thanks to Guy, Andy, Stacey and Brendan for a great conversation!

Jeanne Bliss: Chips For Humanity: How Frito-Lay Earns Market Share

I am intrigued by Frito-Lay. Having not eaten a Frito for years, I must say that the endeavors of this brand compel me to once again munch a bunch.

Two recent activities in particular are brilliant. Yes, of course, for the actions, but most importantly for the intent and motivation that guide their decisions.

First; parent company PepsiCo's commitment to sustainable growth, defined as Performance with Purpose. TrueNorth, their Frito-Lay divison's 100% natural nut snacks is recognizing people who pursue their life's passion. Their "True North." In June, Nancy Miller was recognized for her passion in forming the Jimmy Miller Foundation, which hastens healing of individuals through the therapeutic power of the ocean through honoring the memory of their son whom they lost.

Second, this past month, I began to hear radio ads about how Frito-lay has begun adding more of their snack foods into the bags. A small gesture to help in the tough economy. More for your money. Sure, one could argue that eating chips isn't earth shattering. Again, what's important here is the intent and motivation behind this decision. The intent: to help families. The motivation: they have families too, they connect.

What Pepsi-co and this brand extension Frito-Lay accomplish is the personalization, they connect commerce with humanity. I am a huge fan of Indra Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, who, in the way that she leads enables and heralds this connection.

As a consumer, so often these types of efforts can frequently come off as plastic, or obviously cloying and artificial. What sets these efforts apart in how they come across and out of Frito-lay is what is behind their decisions. It's the intent to help and the motivation that inspire these uncommon acts of kindness.

What do you think? Do these efforts sound genuine to you? Do they compel you to buy snack products from this company knowing that behind it is a beating heart considering the life of its customers?

Stephen Denny: Note to CMO: Creating Trance States

Dear CMO:

I installed an HP K8600 printer in my office this weekend. Having spent a good bit of time working with my partner on a retail experience problem, I realized while I was installing this very complex piece of office machinery that I was staring at the solution right before my eyes. While I was installing the driver, of all things. And this is the point – and the minor epiphany – of customer experience.

There are times in the lives of your customers when they’re waiting for you. While there are ample reasons to reduce or even eliminate unnecessary bottlenecks in the delivery of your service, there comes a time when you either can’t or don’t want to skimp. You need to do something correctly, customized for the specific needs of your waiting customer. In my case, this software won’t install itself. As the old proverb says, “we count the faults of those we wait for,” so this can be a problem.

As with any immovable problem, the best and often only way to deal with it is to embrace it and “make the bug a feature.” So how do you make a wait not just bearable but actually valuable? How do you create a brand-enhancing mini-flow-state when you simply need them to wait for a moment? Much like the magician using temporary distraction to draw your attention from his sleight of hand, you create a “trance state,” letting your customer temporarily lose themselves in your micro drama while you deliver the goods.
For HP’s software install, this is done with a well developed slide show of branded messages that reinforce the benefits of the product line (an up-sell), the technical characteristics of the printer purchased (education), providing a web-based ink purchasing site link (e-commerce) and other messages.

Key Takeaways:

Make the bug a feature. If you can’t eliminate the bottleneck, don’t try to cover it up – use the time so well that the wait becomes an event in and of itself, worthy of mention.

When you make people wait, remind them of what a great decision they just made. The immediate post-purchase moment is exactly the moment to remind your customer that they were wise to decide on your brand. We all believe our judgment is sound and typically over-estimate our confidence in our decisions immediately after we’ve made them. So give them the pat on the back they want.

No one is as fervent as the recently converted. Your brand experience doesn’t stop with the packaging, as I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, but it’s always worth repeating. We can all agree that the brand experience continues through the product’s lifecycle with you, as the user; but those first critical moments, from installation through initial mastery, will determine the trajectory of your brand experience with that user throughout the user’s total lifetime of loyalty. Let’s spend a lot of time and energy on getting it right up front.

Does your brand experience have a stalling point? A time when you simply can’t do something as fast as your customers want? Take this as a challenge, then, and make the wait better than bearable. Make it word-of-mouth worthy. How would you create a trance state for your brand?

Regards.

P.S.: How would you have improved upon HP's experience―or your own experience―in creating a trance state? I've posted more thoughts on this subject over at Note to CMO, so feel free to comment here or there.

Dana VanDen Heuvel: Starbucks Profit: Aided by Cost Cuts or Aided by Marketing?

Starbucks reported today that their earnings rose to 24 cents a share from 16 cents and bested the expectations analysts who were seeking per-share earnings of 19 cents. What's at the heart of this positive news for Starbucks?

According to the Wall Street Journal article, the profit was "aided by cost cuts." (Starbucks Swings to Profit, Aided by Cost Cuts - WSJ, 7/22/09) Well, I submit that the article my be more aptly phrased as "Aided by Marketing." Marketing appears to have played a significant role in helping Starbucks hold their own against an economy that's running from even the smallest luxuries en masse, competitors that are offering cheaper "me too" products in the specialty coffee department and the general 'cocooning' behavior that's keeping Americans at home and out of their favorite 'third places.'

Mr. Schultz said the company has benefited from its own marketing campaign, which has included print ads and communication with consumers using social media Web sites. Last week Starbucks became the most popular brand page on Facebook with more than 3.5 million fans.

In fact, I would argue their are four elements in the marketing equation that have contributed to their "resurgence" in the last year:

1. Starbucks' crowd sourcing of consumer ideas via their My Starbucks Idea site - With thousands of ideas submitted, thousands more votes on this ideas that followed, and a few actual innovations that have made it into stores that have provided genuine benefit to Starbucks consumers, this is one of the things that has kept me personally loyal to the brand


2. Their intelligent use of data through the Starbucks cards and the vast email database - While Starbucks didn't really have much of a "loyalty" program to speak or until the Gold Card (yes, I have one), they've built a great email database that they've used as recently as this week with the "free pasty with a drink purchase and this email" campaign. One only had to look at the sheer volume of empty pastry containers and the large stack of emails at my local Starbucks to see the email is a steady staple in their marketing plan that's working for them.


3. Starbucks made waves with social media - They currently have the largest Facebook group (3.5 million users) of any of their competitors.


4. Finally, Starbucks has stuck to their knitting using traditional marketing - Using vehicles like print ads and (seemingly) more prolific and effective in-store marketing, while integrating them into the overall digital strategy to reach customers at all ends of the spectrum, Starbucks has truly "met people in their medium" to ensure that no customer is left behind.

More to the point, even competition has helped Starbucks to carve out a stronger position in the coffee market.

In recent months, Starbucks has faced increased competition from rivals including McDonald's Corp. and 7-Eleven. McDonald's recently launched a national marketing campaign behind its McCafe specialty coffee drinks.

Rather than hurt Starbucks, Mr. Schultz said the added attention has helped his chain. "It appears that the various marketing campaigns, and all the media coverage about coffee, has created unprecedented awareness for the coffee category overall, and has actually had a positive result on Starbucks business," he told analysts.

While I admit, this is a complete outsider's view of the situation, I submit that as a daily customer, who better to see the effects of their marketing that us! I further submit that Starbucks' marketing efforts have done as much for them, maybe more, than any of the cost-cutting and operational efficiency plays that they've made over the past year.

This story illustrates what marketers all over the country know and Schultz said it himself in the article when he said "No company can save themselves to prosperity." Exactly! Prosperity comes from being competitive, engaging in smart marketing, crafting a holistic strategy and a driving that strategy to execution. Me, I'll take marketing over cost cutting any day!

Ann Handley: Guest Post: Freemium, a Post 1.0 Concept Is Hot Again

by Tom Blue

In case you aren't familiar, freemium is defined as a business model that gives a portion of its services for free and a portion of its services for a fee.

Freemium is Currently Hot

Over the past year fremium has become a hot topic in the tech community. The concept gained some ground during the 2.0 years, but has really taken off now due to plummeting advertising rates. Lowered rates have left many ad revenue based companies in a state of panic so many have latched on to the concept. Even more recently, Malcom Gladwell’s review of Chris Anderson’s new Free: The Future of a Radical Price book has spawned a lot of thought leaders to weigh in on the concept of the business of free and freemium. What is surprising to me is that everyone feels this concept is revolutionary.

A New Idea?

Just because this model has a trendy new name and someone wrote a book on it does not make it cutting edge. Companies have been running on this model for years and it became very popular after the Web 1.0 ad rate drop... or did we forget?

For example, in 2001, the magazine, Silicon Alley Reporter, was having trouble staying afloat on the advertising-only model so they changed their name to VentureReporter, gave daily venture capital news for free and offered more detailed information via a paid online subscription. They went from a company that was headed for bankruptcy into a profitable business that was sold to Dow Jones.

LinkedIn, founded in 2002, has been running on this business model since its inception. Their idea was to allow people to network with their current connections for free while allowing paid subscribers to email some of the site’s members via their Business subscription. Given the economy they started in, they assumed from the beginning that a freemium model could not only garner them some real traffic, but bring in enough revenue to not depend on ad revenues only.

These aren’t the only examples. All of these well known web properties were either founded under the freemium model during the post 1.0 era or were founded previously and started to offer paid premium services in order to supplement their decreasing ad revenue; Hotmail, Classmates, Blue Mountain, Six Apart, Hoover’s, XDrive, and hundreds of others.

The Future of Freemium

Freemium will be one of the most popular business models during this recession and most likely a few years after. But when ad rates go back up, its popularity will decline again which is unfortunate. Unfortunate because advertising only services have too many highs and lows and if you over extend yourself it is hard to recover during recessions. Also unfortunate because paid subscription only services hinder your ability to go viral. Alternatively, if you work in a freemium model you will still receive the benefits of word of mouth and organic search marketing, but you get the added bonus of receiving revenue through other streams.

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Tom Blue is the CEO and Founder of Lead411, an information services provider that caters to sales and marketing professionals. He is a serial entrepreneur and also writes for his sales and marketing blog, BTS411.

Reprint: Against Powerpoint, and in defense of Luddite tendencies
An old rant of mine from March 2006. My teaching style has not changed, nor have my views. Warning:� this post may be less restrained than some (and I might even swear).� I’m not unhappy, just in a kind of ornery mood.� (It might be because I’m sitting here in my sweat.� I went running [...]

An old rant of mine from March 2006. My teaching style has not changed, nor have my views.

Warning:� this post may be less restrained than some (and I might even swear).� I’m not unhappy, just in a kind of ornery mood.� (It might be because I’m sitting here in my sweat.� I went running at the Rose Bowl tonight for over an hour, came home and found that a water main had broken up the street.� No shower for me.� If it isn’t fixed soon, I’ll have to make a late night trip to the gym in order to bathe.)

Today, we had our monthly noon Social Sciences Division faculty meeting.� As usual, I stayed quiet, though I perked up a bit during a brief discussion of the new Internet filters.� (All of my colleagues are adamantly opposed.)

But then we launched into another discussion about creating "smart classrooms."� This has nothing to do with real teaching, mind you.� A "smart classroom" is one filled with all sorts of technological gizmos:� DVD players, wireless Internet access, various modern projectors, and lots of something called Power Point.� I am now convinced I am the only tenured professor in America under 40 who has no idea what Power Point is.� To me, it sounds like a basketball term (wasn’t Magic Johnson kind of a "power point" guard at 6′9"?).� Anyhow, my colleagues all seem to be busy showing videos (or DVDs) and creating fancy Power Point projects for their classes.� It all sounds dreadfully dull, and I’m just not interested.

I show — maybe — one video a year.� When I first started teaching, I showed a lot of them — largely because I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough to say.� Now, God help me and my students, I have plenty to say.� I know damn well that my students spend enough time interacting with technology outside school; the last thing they need is to sit mutely in front of a TV screen.� I’m not saying that videos don’t have their place — in an art history class, I would imagine that they would be essential, but too often I think they (and all the other fancy-shmancy stuff) are just cover-ups for mediocre teaching.

I am sick and tired of having folks with doctorates in education (Lord help us) tell me that "lecturing is an outdated teaching style."� Well, it’s still a damned effective teaching style if it’s done well.� I put a lot of time and energy into crafting articulate, interesting, lectures, largely because I believe that for most students, it remains the most effective and memorable way to learn.� �I do invite discussion and debate in some of my classes, and I welcome questions — but I cling tenaciously to the old-school notion that my job is to be an interesting, compelling, and provocative deliverer of information.� �(And along the way, raise up young feminists and pro-feminists.)

(more…)

联想红本女事件--很傻，很天真!

五一过去了，但是“五一的那些事”不得不再提下，特别是“联想红本女”这个很傻很天真的营销事件。

�

回放：五一期间，Sohu的数码公社的头条大新闻“7天7夜不吃不喝网络追踪红本女事件”，“京城第一剑”在论坛里连续发了N张超高清晰的“美女+红本”的写真级别的照片。

效果：回复和流量量：2586 / 2239687�

�

很显然，这是一则精心布局的，但是又严重低估消费者智商的“事件营销”，理由如下：

�

一、图片精心设计

�

�� 一张张的图片，拍摄超高清，如果是狗仔没事偷拍，哪会有如此之让人秀色可餐之效果？

�

���美女都是面带微笑，就没有一张表情比较木奈的样子，而且美女拍摄前期进行了精心化妆，浓妆淡抹，欲盖弥彰，人家狗仔拍王菲还能拍到素装照呢，这一黄毛丫头连续七天，竟然全部精心打扮，显然是背后设计。

�� 美女动作，都是经典的“小资”动作，美女又不是偷拍者的亲戚？为什么动作都如此“优雅”，摆拍的痕迹严重，甚至连护花使者，都是个超级帅哥；

��

拍摄角度，这个图片显而易见，不可能是偷拍，这样的图片只能仰拍，一个蹲在自己面前的偷窥者，美女竟然没有一点察觉？或者难不成整个的商场都是高清相机？

�� 就是自己后期处理也要弄出个效果来啊，但是作者明目张胆的把这些照片“不加修饰”的放到网上，欲盖弥彰。

�

二、逻辑严重不同

��

��不得不否认，现在的网民，只有两类：十分喜欢美女的；喜欢美女的。

� 男生喜欢，不言自明；女生喜欢，模仿对象；

��如果是美女偷拍，那只要美女就好了，就是你摆拍的痕迹严重了点，大家也是可以将就着看的，毕竟大家的视听已经被芙蓉姐姐整到可以容忍的极限了。但是，那为什么就每张图片偏偏加个本本？还都是个红色联想？严重的自我炒作。不符合最简单的逻辑推理，司马昭之心啊！

�

三、法律因素

�

� 偷拍肯定是构成法律后果的，就连台湾这个我国开放度很高的地区，偷拍都会被鄙视，被严惩，但是笔者敢光天化日之下晒美女“偷拍”照，而且还“偷偷”的陪上了联想红本本，而且，又是在正儿八经、绝对奉公守法的良民类网站，搜狐社区的头版头条，根本没有认识任何顾及，没有任何的后顾之忧。

�

� 推断偷拍者只有两种身份：有绝对的政治背景，老子不怕！；联想自导自演，请的专业模特，也不怕。

�

事件营销的关键点

最基础的实事求是

� 事件营销讲究的是最起码的事实，我们不反对策划事件，但是事件必须是经过基本的大脑思考的事件，必须是建立在事实的基础之上的，不能把消费者或者看客当作傻瓜来设计事件，不然一旦被揭穿，换回来的只能是无数的鄙视，只能搬起石头，砸自己的脚，纯粹自我找臭型。

自我传播

� 事件营销“润物细无声”，不是自己光明正大的放喇叭，不是自吹自擂，是让消费者可以自我传播，媒体自行关注，事件本身的自我复制，这样才能扩大影响，迅速形成话题。

� 但是纵观整个“联想红本女”事件，竟然没有一个自我扩散的理由，百度一搜“联想红本女”五个字，都是营销者的批评性文章，哎，成了落水狗。

�

�� 事件营销，成本低廉，效果突出，甚好。

�� 但是，不经过严重低估消费者智商的，不经过大脑思考的事件营销，很傻，很天真！

<联想红本女事件--很傻，很天真!>

《新浪魔方能否成功？》

《80后广告的自白》

《何为行为广告？行为广告是什么？什么是行为广告？》�

沙滩大定格最新公告（内部公告）

�������������������� 沙滩大定格公告：
报到时间：这周日9点（明天9点，请为了伟大艺术献身的同志们拒绝迟到。）；

报到地点：厦门珍珠湾沙滩（有珍珠湾这一站）；

拍摄流程：事先我们会用红线排出我们站的线条（北大青鸟四个字），大家只要站在线条上，摆出自己的姿势就好了：喝矿泉水、系鞋带、瞭望、吃零食、看书、打电话、发短信、情侣姿势请自行解决（越high越好，^_^）--------等等，当然，为了支持奥运，模仿各类奥运比赛：摔跤、赛跑，接力赛，打排球，男生，踢足球，篮球，等等也是非常好的。大约学要定格6分钟左右。�

����������� 以上拍摄预定时间，半个小时。

���������� 然后我们再变化图形：130人先组成奥运五环标志，再演变成2008北京奥运标志，然后演变成燃烧着的跳动的祥云火炬形状，然后再演变成361度的“飞”字形，最后由“飞”形的“乙”字形的人全部跳转到“两点”（361标志的）的右边，组成361的完美标志。

����������� 以上拍摄预定时间，2个小时左右。
注：1、单个人的拍摄完后现场发工资，团体（由同学通知该活动的）的直接发给领队人员；
��� 2、尽量穿红色或者白色T恤；
��� 3、现场可能要发放不定数目的361外套（如果总部能够把上衣发货到的话，就发，如果发不到，我们会在以后的时间给那些没有发放工资的同学补上一套。），拍完后归为己有；

��� 4、为了预防老天爷看我们拍摄的太完美，不小心流泪，大家务必自备一把伞防止他哭泣（拍摄五环的时候也可以派上用场）。辛苦各位兄弟姐妹了。
�����另有不明事情及时致电：13225030625

�

�

以下是前期视频剪辑的超长版本，大家看那个镜头不好看，就告诉博主，我们再精简：

�

�横向互动之天佬和曹芳华说本博文谢绝转载。

�

�

�

绝对创意1

忙完了沙滩大定格就不幸被感冒病毒盯上了，

�

很久没有写点东西了，

�

心里都过意不去了。

�

传几个几天前朋友分享的平面给大家调剂下紧张节奏吧。

广告主：澳大利亚邮局；

这是一张让我确实很感动的广告，

信件，

是可以真正可以传达感情的载体；

可以收藏在箱底，

心间，

慢慢体味，

慢慢斟酌，

不似短信的即删即用；

不似电话的即打即完。

�

广告主：WMF刀具

名称：厨房里的雕刻艺术 (3).jpg

刀，

并不仅是机械的用来切东西的工具，

也许生活本来就应是多几分品味；

闲适。

�

�

广告主：反家庭暴力组织；

美女，

如果迷离，

也是很能打动人的，

眼神里充满了无奈、失落、绝望。

�

�

好的广告创意是广告的第一步，

可惜的是好的创意总是公益的居多。

�

�

小孬的故事

小孬，

一个好色的顽皮孩子，

一个每个人看了都喜欢的“坏孩子”；

一个以积极心态面对各类生活的孩子；

小孬的故事 匆匆上线：

�

http://www.xiaonao.tv

http://bbs.xiaonao.tv

�

只有故事、表情、和论坛三个栏目！

�

论坛很多搞笑的冬冬，

�

绝对值得你一看！

�

Thursday Short Poem: Dameron’s “No Longer Ashamed”
My friend Emily has turned me on to the poet DeLana R.A. Dameron, whose How God Ends Us has won the South Carolina poetry prize and is one of the best first offerings I’ve read in a while. This brief one is from DeLana’s own website. And oh, how much so many of [...]

My friend Emily has turned me on to the poet DeLana R.A. Dameron, whose How God Ends Us has won the South Carolina poetry prize and is one of the best first offerings I’ve read in a while. This brief one is from DeLana’s own website. And oh, how much so many of us know (or knew, when we were younger) about being “confident in invisibility” and being a “stone statue” when the lights are on.

No Longer Ashamed

In the daylight, under the open glare
of the unshaded bulb in your apartment,

I straddle your lap. It is hot for February.
Down to tank top and bare feet you brush

your hand against my forearms, shoulders,
chest. Despite desire, I am a stone statue

in the garden. The only times we’ve come
to this place is under the cloak of night—

oh inscrutable night I bloom under
without pause, without question, confident

in my invisibility. You reach with cupped hand
to a breast as if to hold water. You ask
if you could see me. I am a small sip falling

横向互动平面 （一）

�

�

�

横向互动立志改变中国本土企业命运；

助力本土品牌构建；

主力大国崛起；

一系列平面广告即将推出！

�

<联想红本女事件--很傻，很天真!>

《新浪魔方能否成功？》

《80后广告的自白》

《何为行为广告？行为广告是什么？什么是行为广告？》�

抵制赵半狄之抵制《功夫熊猫》狭隘行为

�

�狂晕事件回放：

���� 前天上午，“艺术家”赵半狄来到国家广电总局 电影 局，呼吁抵制好莱坞电影 《功夫熊猫》 在中国的上映，他给出的理由只有：

1、好莱坞在莎朗·斯通发表对中国地震的言论后，又跑到劫后余生的中国“捞金”不合适。

2、《功夫熊猫》“盗窃”中国的国宝和功夫。

��对于赵半狄的呼吁，电影局有关领导给予接待，表示理解群众的情绪。

而且，赵半狄就和朋友们竟然举着“不容许好莱坞在劫后余生的中国捞金”的横幅横行到广电总局。声明中赵半狄称“好莱坞，它的气质和价值观会产生大量莎朗·斯通这样的人物。这样的好莱坞，还要在劫后余生的中国捞金。”

另外，赵半狄他们还认为，《功夫熊猫》“盗窃”中国的国宝和功夫，编织着美式“励志”故事，虎视眈眈的还是中国人的钱包。

但赵半狄同时表示，自己并未看过《功夫熊猫》。

80后广告人天佬观点：

首先，“艺术家”赵半狄确实为国宝熊猫做出了点贡献，我们不能完全否定他个人；

其次，他的这个抵制，有点此地无银三百两之意，目的不纯，炒作意图太过明显；

再次，你都没看过《功夫熊猫》，单凭一个影片题目，空穴来风，随意职责，你凭什么就抵制《功夫熊猫》？此类行为太不负责了，这部明显的没吃到葡萄呢，就瞎喊葡萄酸了。

毛主席都教导了：没有调查就没有发言权，此类搞笑行为已经构成严重诬陷。

第四，“好莱坞在莎朗·斯通发表对中国地震的言论后，又跑到劫后余生的中国“捞金”不合适。”，这个莎朗·斯通跟这个《功夫熊猫》有啥屁关系啊？八竿子都舞不着，硬往一块扯，那莎朗·斯通没人性，就不要再给他造知名度了，还有好莱坞有很多演员还是不错的，不能因为这只老鼠就坏了一锅粥，不能把人家好莱坞全给灭了，都民主时代了，还搞株连九族！还有，谁家的电影拍出来不都是卖钱的，有种你别以艺术的名义鑚钱啊？《功夫熊猫》开拍之前，是没有预料到地震嘀，这个灾难对于我们是个噩耗，但是我们不能因为灾难而倒下去啊，而反对国宝啊？没道理嘛。

不过，这点《功夫熊猫》倒是可以把票房的一部份捐献给灾区，四川灾区。

第五、“功夫熊猫》“盗窃”中国的国宝和功夫”更是把某人的狭隘的思想表现的一览无余，都nnd 21世界了，你知道啥是全球化吗？啥是民族的才是世界的吗？人家给你宣传，你还说人家是婊子，太过分了。让人心寒啊。李小龙、成龙、李连杰这些好莱坞的华人巨星，哪一个不是靠着中国功夫走俏的？你难道说他们也是“窃取”？无理取闹。

最后，声明本人跟《功夫熊猫》无任何关系，纯属是路见不平，不得不拔刀相助！赵半狄老师啊，不要再这么幼稚了，都21世纪了，别再闭关锁国了，行吗？

�

�

�

康师傅矿物质水却是自来水 转点

康师傅“喝”自来水

�

�

《今日早报》报道：近期，杭州顶津食品有限公司（以下简称顶津公司）生产的康师傅饮用矿物质水出了“水源门事件”，引起社会强烈反响。

�

�

�

�

浙江省消费者权益保护委员会（下称省消保委）也陆续接到众多消费者来电反映。消费者普遍认为，康师傅用“选取优质水源”的广告词误导消费者作出正确选择，对消费者构成了欺诈。

�

省消保委拟订调查问卷，8月14日至18日在网站作了调查，结果显示：共有971人参与投票，其中有93.2%的消费者认为公司的广告对消费者有误导作用。

�

省消保委认为，顶津公司生产的康师傅饮用矿物质水，在电视广告词中声称“选取优质水源”，“选取”两字含有经过甄别、区分之后作出的选择、舍劣取优的意思。而康师傅饮用矿物质水使用的水源是下沙自来水公司提供的自来水，根本不存在选取。其次，自来水是城乡居民最基本的生活饮用水源，必须符合国家生活饮用水卫生安全标准。而就此认为符合国家质量安全标准的自来水就是“优质水源”，显然得不到消费者认同，是对消费者的误导。

�

昨日，省消保委致函顶津公司，要求该公司停播当前含有“选取优质水源”广告词的广告，自觉承担相应的社会责任。在今后的信息发布和广告宣传中，遵循相关法律法规，依法发布广告信息，诚信经营。

�

其实水源有很多啊，家乡到处都是甜甜的地下水，想不懂这些鸟人为什么这么傻，自己砸了自己的牌子，这下子损失没法估量了。

为了捡点芝麻，把西瓜给丢了，何必？

家乐福的公关考试零分

� 从短信到邮件，从qq到msn，仿佛一夜之间家乐福就成了众矢之的，国人发泄的对象，我们在感慨国人在民族大义面前的空前团结的同时，也在赞赏网络强大的传播力度，网络已经突破了传统媒体的束缚，给了我们每个人发表愤怒的机会。群里到处都流露着对家乐福的憎恨和仇视，安徽、武汉、青岛都有了实质性的过激行为，家乐福瞬间就四面楚歌。

� 面对民众的高调抵制，家乐福仅仅是出了一纸声明。对于这个声明我相信我们众多的网友都有看过。该声明不但没有冷却公众火一般的抵制热情，反而火上浇油，愈烧愈烈。

1、嗅觉失灵。

� 公关本来就是公司的一个情报收集机和警报器，家乐福怎么说也是个跨国机构，公关系统应该是很健全，可是面对网络和短信铺天盖地的抵制信息，竟然没有一种监督机制，无动于衷多日，以致“星星之火终于燎原”，抵制信息在天涯和猫扑两大重量级论坛一发而不可收拾。

2、火上浇油

� 声明明确表明虽然有抵制，但是“对营业没有影响”，不知道公关经理是怎么审定这篇稿件的，这不是明摆着的挑衅行为吗？公然藐视公众的抵制效果，有着法国人的自我傲慢，没有一点谦虚精神。每个人都“努力”传播抵制信息，你还公然说“没有影响”，好似再说“让暴风雨来的更猛烈些吧！”。

3、避实就虚

� 抵制短信的主题内容是其背后老东家LVMH集团支持zd，但是声明中却只是一味否认，没有一点证据拿出来，没有以理服人，只是一味的自我辩护，没有找到问题的关键点。用力不在刀刃上，就是把尿憋出来，也没有任何效果。

4、没有系统性

� 抵制行为主要发生在网络上，只知道自己发表了一份声明，塞给媒体，自己的网站竟然都没有一点相关信息，要知道，当我们这些普通消费者知道某一个企业发生事情的时候，我们首先想到的就是去企业的官方网站看看，但是家乐福的官网有的只是“周年庆”的促销信息，和无关痛痒的信息，也就无怪乎被黑客看中了，被贴上“抵制家乐福”的条幅。其实，解铃还须系铃人，既然抵制信息主要发生在网络，那么就是自己花钱，也要把主流的新闻类网站的头条新闻买下来，放上自己的严重声明。

5、光说不练

� 目前为止，让笔者看到的最满意的行动就是北京家乐福全部换上了红色工装，而且印上了中国国旗，但是听说帽子还弄巧成拙，被北京奥组委警告侵权，真是人被了，喝凉水都塞牙啊。其实，这个是家乐福最大的失误之处，像个光说不练的鹦鹉，只是在哪里发表声明，没有任何实质性的行动。你支持奥运，你没有支持zd，证据呢？消费者，或者普通民众是喜欢看到真正的行动的，肯德基的苏丹红一曝光，总裁就站出来自己在餐厅里公开吃汉堡，扫除公众的疑虑，但是家乐福高层至今还是仅仅停留在说的层面，没有一点实质性的行动。

�� 家乐福的公关，如果可以打分，那无疑0分。

�� 其实我们都知道，理智的分析，家乐福也是大半个中国企业，从员工到供应商，都占到绝大部分，如果公关的当，甚至可以无形之中提升他的知名度，但是，他的应变能力和执行能力实在是差劲之极，这也只能是个永远的奢望了。

�

�

《80后广告的自白》

�

《何为行为广告？行为广告是什么？什么是行为广告？》

�

《晋江品牌营销之路在何方？》

�

《从娱乐界看营销》

�

�

�

Nylonstrümpfe ganz Erotisch - jetzt sehen
Diese erotischen Nylonstrümpfe machen unser … versaute Göre und genießt die harten Stöße. Hier gehts zu noch mehr Videos!

Ich brauche Sahne
Dieses versaute Weibsbild braucht dringend etwas … opft ihn den Kaffee und der Gast ist zufrieden. Hier geht es zu mehr Bilder und Filme!

Versautes Colege Luder (19.07.2009)
Am Versautesten sind noch immer diese Studentinnen die all ihren Frust beim Poppen auslassen und da kann es schon mal passieren das die Luder sich nicht nur mit dem Fick in die Muschi zufrieden geben, nein sie wollen Leiden und sich auch richtig hart in ihre engen Arschlöcher bumse… weiter Klicke hier für weitere [...]

Das blonde Luder und ihr stecher
Die blonde Maulfotze hier hat ganz schön was drauf und kümmert sich richtig um seinen Lümmel und nuckelt ihn ab. Den harten Lümmel schiebt sie sich jetzt echt tief in die Möse und reitet ihn zu. Ihr sexy Poloch braucht es auch und der Lümmel dringt ganz langsam von hinten in sie ein. Das enge [...]

Claudia Ferrari
Die obergeile Claudia nimmts locker auch mit zwei Mannsbilder auf, sie lutscht den beiden ihre Stängel und kann es kaum noch erwarten die fetten Rohre in ihren Unterleib gedrückt zu bekommen… einen im Po den anderen in der Spalte, so gefällt d…. Hier geht es zu mehr Bilder und Filme!

Fick meine geile Fotze
Das blonde Luder hier freut sich schon die ganze Zeit auf diese heiße Fickerei hier. Zwei Kerle die sich um sie Kümmern und ihr beide Löcher ordentlich Durchficken. Sie geben sich viel Mühe um das Biest zufrieden … weiter Klicke hier für weitere Fotos und Filme!

Elenore die heiße Blondine (23.07.2009)
Hier siehst du eine extrem scharfe Blondchen mit ihrem Lover beim Liebesspiel. Er nuckelt sie echt heiß und besorgt es ihr dann indem er ihre Löcher stopft. Ein scharfer Analfick darf natürlich auch nicht… weiter Mit einen klick auf die Photos, kommst du zum scharfen Anal-Portal! Klicke hier für mehr Videos!

Lilli mit Freund
Lilli ist zwar noch jung, aber sie ist komplett versaut. Erst lässt sie sich den Schwanz ihres Freundes tief in den Rachen schieben und dann wird das enge Poloch durch diesen Rohr richtig gezerrt… Mit einen klick auf die Pics, kommst du zum heißen Anal-Portal! Hier geht es zu mehr Bilder und Filme!

To think fast, eat diet rich in carbs
Brinkworth, of the Commonweal-th Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation-Human Nutrition, in Adelaide, Australia and colleagues compared mood and cognitive function in overweight or obese, but otherwise healthy, men and women who were

Brinkworth, of the Commonweal-th Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation-Human Nutrition, in Adelaide, Australia and colleagues compared mood and cognitive function in overweight or obese, but otherwise healthy, men and women who were more

Coffee and cholesterol
Frank, a professor of nutrition in the department of family and consumer sciences at California State University Long Beach. According to Frank, there are "several pieces to the coffee story," including not only whether people drink filtered or

Frank, a professor of nutrition in the department of family and consumer sciences at California State University Long Beach. According to Frank, there are "several pieces to the coffee story," including not only whether people drink filtered or see more

Advertiser Directory
They are doing very well, they’re alert and friendly,” said Jillian Janikowski, the shelter’s director. “They mainly need to be together and get the proper nutrition.” A neighbor discovered the dogs in the basement of the home Ryk vacated

They are doing very well, they’re alert and friendly,” said Jillian Janikowski, the shelter’s director. “They mainly need to be together and get the proper nutrition.” A neighbor discovered the dogs in the basement of the home Ryk vacated read more

Number of obese growing on global scale
Finally, a host of "environmental" factors contributes to the problem, nutrition experts say. These include a decline in manual labor as machines on farms and in factories carry more of the workload, urbanization and changes in leisure patterns

Finally, a host of "environmental" factors contributes to the problem, nutrition experts say. These include a decline in manual labor as machines on farms and in factories carry more of the workload, urbanization and changes in leisure patterns read more

Natalie Bartley: Teens for Planet Earth program gets kids involved in …
The ground squirrels spend up to eight months underground, so storing fat and proteins found in their food sources is critical for their long hibernation period. Plus, the squirrels are facing decreasing population numbers not only to poor nutrition

The ground squirrels spend up to eight months underground, so storing fat and proteins found in their food sources is critical for their long hibernation period. Plus, the squirrels are facing decreasing population numbers not only to poor nutrition more

Lisa Montgomery trial set to begin
Competitive wages and benefits . Office Assistant (FT) - Medical Office The Center for Nutrition and Optimum Taking applications for AM & PM cleaners at Cleaning Etc, 266-7293. K ansas Health Solutions is a not-for-profit managed health care

Competitive wages and benefits . Office Assistant (FT) - Medical Office The Center for Nutrition and Optimum Taking applications for AM & PM cleaners at Cleaning Etc, 266-7293. K ansas Health Solutions is a not-for-profit managed health care read more

Finding, using quality child care essential
facilities are evaluated on several criteria, including: quality of relationships between the caregivers, the children and their families; activities and curriculum offered; staff training; physical environment; health and safety; nutrition; and

Facilities are evaluated on several criteria, including: quality of relationships between the caregivers, the children and their families; activities and curriculum offered; staff training; physical environment; health and safety; nutrition; and more

David McMillian: Focusing on revenge has negative impact on the …
Gould says "food is more than nutrition," and points out that "kids get treats when they're good or when they scrape their knee. It's an expression of nurturance." I grew up with "hot at 4 o'clock" doughnuts that seemed, to me, to be just about the

Gould says "food is more than nutrition," and points out that "kids get treats when they're good or when they scrape their knee. It's an expression of nurturance." I grew up with "hot at 4 o'clock" doughnuts that seemed, to me, to be just about the link

Why Bernanke Might Need India to `Do a China’: Andy Mukherjee
Local wages are rising because of the increased cost of nutrition: Pork prices in China soared 87 percent from a year earlier in August. The backlash against Chinese-made poisonous toys and inflammable clothes also suggests that China's

Local wages are rising because of the increased cost of nutrition: Pork prices in China soared 87 percent from a year earlier in August. The backlash against Chinese-made poisonous toys and inflammable clothes also suggests that China's more

Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade's apology for intermarriage crack shows power of diversity in media
On the surface, Fox & Friends co-anchor Brian Kilmeade's admission that he "made comments that were offensive to many people" when he noted "(Americans) keep marrying other species and ethnics . . . Swedes have pure genes" while discussing a...

An introduction to pure vitriol
I’ve put an end to late night jaunts under the pretex of needing coffee. I’d rather blog. And gleefully. My vitriol, afterall, is all over the web. Today his brother and sister in law called to chat. I was polite. They were polite. It was short because I had to go back to sleep. Later he [...]

For this wise African-American, Sotomayor hearings unveil the heart of race conflict in America
Never have I wanted more to throw a brick through the screen of my television. Watching Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor sit stoically through a succession of white men, perched at the head of the whitest, malest, most powerful political...

RIP Walter Cronkite: Passing of an icon whose era passed long before
What strikes me most about the death of legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite -- a death the journalism world has been anticipating for weeks -- are a couple of thoughts: First, though Cronkite passed away on Friday night, the just-the-facts...

Discovery Channel catches up to executive producer, says Pitchmen will present a second season after death of star Billy Mays
(UPDATE: After I posted this item on the certainty of producers' Anthony Sullivan and Thom Beers that Pitchmen would continue after the unexpected death of Billy Mays, Discovery Channel -- which had originally declined to comment on my item --...

Former local broadcasters Bill Murphy and Victoria Lim return to TV on Bright House Networks' cable channels
Former WTVT anchor Bill Murphy already has a line ready to explain his return to local TV just 19 months after retiring from the Fox affiliate’s weekend morning newscasts. On Aug. 1, he’ll join cable provider Bright House Networks’ Tampa...

What is personal space?
What is personal space? How do you define personal space to someone who is culturally unfamiliar with the concept? How do you demand that your personal boundaries be respected? Two days after our wedding, FIL questioned my beliefs on feet-touching. They practice it, of course, and with great gusto. I have grown up believing that it is [...]

Paula Abdul's threatened departure from American Idol a textbook case of negotiating by media
Blogging from vacationland today, where I can't resist tossing in a few opinions on the latest head-scratcher to come out of the American Idol camp -- news that judge Paula Abdul has an agent who is telling the press she...

Two more longtime area journalists lose jobs at WFTS-Ch. 28 and Creative Loafing
Posting will be light the rest of this week -- I'm taking the family to Disney World for my daughter's 5th birthday. But I couldn't hit the road before noting the departure of two more longtime journalists, both seemingly victims...

My list of summer TV's worst shows . . . so far
A couple of weeks back, I filled The Feed with a list of the shows I most liked this summer. Now it’s time for the other shoe to land. For every ambitious drama like Nurse Jackie or True Blood, there’s...

My lips like “Sugar” (listening to my Zune - Flo Rida) perfect song to listen to while sipping a Caramel frap!

Help me and win a prize :)
I need your help on a project that I am currently working on. It is very simple and for helping me out you can win a great prize It will only take 5 minutes of your time to be of great help. All you have to do is fill out the following survey to the best of your [...]

I need your help on a project that I am currently working on.
It is very simple and for helping me out you can win a great prize

It will only take 5 minutes of your time to be of great help.
All you have to do is fill out the following survey to the best of your ability and you could be a big winner

Prizes:

1.  Sony MP3 Player ($100 value)
2.  6 month access to thousands of PLR/Master Resell Rights Products ($282 value)
3.  a copy of Sales Letter Factory software ($67 value)

To enter the drawing for a prize, all you have to do is complete the following survey. Winners will be announced on May 22nd.

*Tip:  The survey will go out to a select limited number of people. Your chances of winning a price are pretty good.

PLR = Private Label Rights
MRR = Master Resell Rights

Thank you
-Socrates Socratous

4 Proven Strategies to Profit from your List
You hear everyone and their brother saying over and over again "the money is in the list" Yeah, it’s true… It’s also true that "the gold is in the river" but if you dont know how to *mine it*, it’s worth nothing to you It takes a special skill to mine gold It also takes a special skill to "mine gold" from your [...]

You hear everyone and their brother saying
over and over again "the money is in the list"

Yeah, it’s true…

It’s also true that "the gold is in the river"
but if you dont know how to *mine it*, it’s worth
nothing to you

It takes a special skill to mine gold

It also takes a special skill to "mine gold"
from your list.

Whether you have a list or thinking of starting one,
you owe it to yourself to read this email…

Today I am going to share 4 Rock SOLID, proven
strategies to profit substantially more from your list

The sooner you implement the 4 strategies below
the sooner you will see a big increase in your
bottom line:

———————————————
Strategy #1 - Creating an autoresponder
———————————————

Add a series of "autoresponder messages" to
be delivered at time intervals after someone
subscribes to your list. (the more, the merrier)

Why?
When you do this, someone who opts in to
your list will receive an email immediately,
then another one tomorrow, then next day,
then 3 days later and so forth. Each of these
emails is an ADDITIONAL opportunity to make
extra sales.

and best thing, its all automated.

You have to do this step immediately. it
works for all the NEW people that opt in.
in this case, whether you have 0 or 10000
people on your list, it doesnt matter.

"Get 60 professionally written, ready to
use emails to fill up your autoresponder:

==> http://mydigitaldispatch.com/recommends/list4profits

———————————————
Strategy #2 - How many emails to send?
———————————————

Make sure to promote 1 product at LEAST 3
times before moving on to another one or
you will be leaving money on the table.

Why? People need to see the same message
multiple times before they respond.

When you find a great product, dont give up
after the first email, send more.

Don’t be surpriced if your second or third
email makes more sales than the first.

Studies show that it takes up to 8 follow ups
per product, before response starts to wind down.

if you have a list where people REQUESTED
information about a particular product, then
do 8 follow-ups.

But when it comes to your subscriber list, 8 is
too much. 3 seems to be the magic number.

"Get 60 professionally written emails that
promote 20 high quality clickbank products
You get 3 emails promoting each product:

==> http://mydigitaldispatch.com/recommends/list4profits

———————————————
Strategy #3 - Which product to promote?
———————————————

Promote PROVEN quality products. This means
you should promote products that are good
proven SELLERS.

Each email you send is very important.
an email promoting product A could profit $100
another email to the same people promoting B
could make $1000. You better promote more of
the latter kind of products.

Finding good products to promote takes time
and an experienced eye to single them out.

On the page below you will find a list of 20
good selling products, along with 3 pre-written
emails to promote each one of them:

==> http://mydigitaldispatch.com/recommends/list4profits

———————————————
Strategy #4 - Choice of words
———————————————

Study and learn as much as you can about
copywriting. Similar to #3. A Poorly writen
email could make a few bucks, where a well
written one could pull in thousands from the
same list. It’s *THAT* important.

Writing hypnotic emails that put your audience
into a buying trance takes a lot of skill.
If there is *ONE* thing you need to learn is
copywriting. So start learning

It costs thousands to hire experienced proven
copywriters to write copy for you.

Meanwhile to save you tons of money and time,
go download the 60 professionally written emails
that you can *immediately* use to promote 20
high quality products as an affiliate & keep
ALL the commissions you make.

(you DO NOT pay royalties to the copywriter)

Get the 60 pre-written emails here:
==> http://mydigitaldispatch.com/recommends/list4profits

———————————————
Conclusion
———————————————

I get a lot of emails from subscribers telling me
that they dont have a list.

You know what, it was a time when I had NO list.
Fast forward a couple of short years later,
I was able to add over 250,000 subscribers to my lists.

You want to know HOW?

Here comes the Big SECRET…

…Ready?

…Sitting down?

Here is HOW I was able to add over 250,000 subscribers
to my lists:

*ONE Subscriber AT A TIME*

Yep. one at a time.

and the longer you put this off, the longer it will
take you. Simple as that.

so get started building a list today and incorporate
all of the above strategies.

Stay tuned for more list building secrets soon

Meanwhile, get this:
==> http://mydigitaldispatch.com/recommends/list4profits

Till later,
Partner to Your Success,
-Socrates Socratous

P.S. The best time to start building your list
and making sales is NOW. The longer you wait,
the longer it will take for your profits to start
rolling in.

Don’t spend endless hours writing your own autoresponder
emails right now. Focus on getting subscribers and use
the pre-written emails from here:

==> http://mydigitaldispatch.com/recommends/list4profits

He was upset but I didnt say anything
I got a short story for you today Last Wednesday I stopped at a coffee shop to have some coffee and relax a bit. So I was sitting outside at the patio watching all these people in "work attire" rushing in and out the door to grab a quick coffee on their way to work This guy from the next table over [...]

I got a short story for you today

Last Wednesday I stopped at a coffee shop
to have some coffee and relax a bit.

So I was sitting outside at the patio watching
all these people in "work attire" rushing in and
out the door to grab a quick coffee on their
way to work

This guy from the next table over was complaining
to someone on his cellphone that "due to the economy"
canceled his internet connection at home and had to
come to the coffee shop to check his email every day.

I have nothing against cutting something you
dont need anymore, but  why cut something you
need, or enjoy when you can have it for free.

That’s right.

a $30/month internet connection can be easily
covered with selling 1 (JUST ONE) $30 product
every month online.

a $25 water bill can be eliminated with a simple
website that makes  0.84cents a day.

Even though I did not say anythng to that man, he
made a good enough point to write this letter to you
hoping that you will see how valuable even a small
producing website can be to your lifestyle.

For step-by-step videos on how to create cash
producing websites that would cover your bills
one-by-one, go to the following page:

http://mydigitaldispatch.com/recommends/more-website-profit

Moral of the story.
Dont be scarcity minded. Stop listening to the negative
news about how the world is failing around you and begin
building your OWN future. Live your life on your terms

Make sure to take action on this today
http://mydigitaldispatch.com/recommends/more-website-profit

Partner to your Success,
-Socrates Socratous

Success Quote - Christopher Morley
"There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way." -Christopher Morley (1890 - 1957) So true. No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are. If you cant live life on your own terms, If you cant have the lifestyle of your dreams, then you [...]

"There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way."
-Christopher Morley (1890 - 1957)

So true. No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are. If you cant live life on your own terms, If you cant have the lifestyle of your dreams, then you are being robbed of your own success.

In recent years the idea of "lifestyle engineering" is becoming more and more popular. Steering away from becoming wildly rich but actually plan your DREAM lifestyle and spend your life executing that plan.

Personally, this idea is what drove me to pursue Internet Marketing.

Partner to Your Success,
-Socrates Socratous

P.S. I hope your enjoy this great quote.

Post your comments below

Here’s a good one for your background iPhone pic!
IMG_0515

Anesthesiology Medical Billing
Billing Paradise is one of the largest Anesthesiology medical billing companies in United States, assisting medical practitioners like individual doctors, health associations, clinics.

Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Medical Billing
Billing Paradise is one of the foremost companies in the United States offering thoracic and cardiovascular surgery medical billing to various medical related individuals to medical organizations.

Allergy and Sleep Medicine Medical Billing
Billing Paradise is one of the largest medical billing companies offering assistance in allergy and sleep medicine billing servie providers.

Dentistry Medical Billing
Billing Paradise dentistry medical billing services offer dentists, clinics, hospitals and also medical billing companies.

Cardiology Medical Billing
The appropriate medical coding could mean the difference between an insurance company pays a claim, or to reject.

Accident de La Route
Hi to u all, i do hope that you have heard and read about the accident at Montagne Longue. The article appeared on L’Express of 15th January 2007: However, let me explain something to you: All people in the accident are my neighbours(except for Sabeyroon)… Today(18/01/2007), Firdose-the 19yr Old married woman breath out her last breath at around [...]

Verizon exclusivity ends, YouTube Mobile opens the gates – Mobile Marketing
Alright, everyone go quit your jobs and pick up second (and third) batteries for your handsets: YouTube Mobile has gone live. As previously reported, YouTube was apparently merely biding its time while Verizon’s exclusivity deal ran its course before flipping the switch, so now we can all enjoy several hundred editor’s picks — the supposed cream [...]

Mobile Marketing – Blogs : une rumeur fait trébucher l’action d’Apple
En quelques minutes, un article sur un blog a fait chuter l’action Apple à la Bourse de New-York. Petite frayeur pour les actionnaires d’Apple cette semaine. Mercredi, à 11h49 (heure américaine), le blog américain Engadget (consacré aux gadgets, aux lecteurs mp3 et aux téléphones mobiles), met en ligne une info exclusive : selon un mémo interne [...]

Independance Day
As you may all have noticed, we are living in the Independance dream these last days and till 12th March….The concept of “Patrimoine Nationale” arises only prior to the great celebration…. Instead of focusing on the festivities on the 12th March 2007 and the flag raising ceremony at 18hr at Caudan – which is, by the [...]

Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Mobile Marketing – Press Release: Steape Launches Mobile Phone Translators For Travellers
Let your mobile phone speak a foreign language for you Mobile-content producer, Steape launched in May their talking phrase books for mobile phones in the UK and the USA today. At the push of a button, travellers can easily communicate in a foreign language using an application on their mobile phone. The translators are already popular [...]

Com-yumn-icating…
Hi to you all, I am so sorry for not updating by previous blog but you see… i’ve quite a heavy time-table to respect, be at home and at work… and of course the end of year preparation as well as Eid-ul-Adha… Hmmmm, i would like to start this blog with a ‘tagged’ questionnaire from our lecturer- [...]

Marketing Mobile : Mozilla Joey, la clé du web mobile ?
Vous pourrez peut-être bientôt consulter l’essentiel d’une page web depuis votre téléphone portable grâce à une extension de Firefox, baptisée Mozilla Joey. Celle-ci permettra à l’utilisateur de sauvegarder les parties qui l’intéressent, telles un tableau, certaines images ou du texte, sur un serveur Mozilla personnalisé. Celui-ci redimensionnera automatiquement ces éléments et les optimisera pour pouvoir être [...]

Sikh community
Sikh community is my topic for my final online community documentary… CLICK HERE So please comment and have a look

Secret Coffee Garden
I live in Melbourne for almost 4 years, yet I still don’t know cool places to go to hang out with friends So, I’m making a list of places that I’ve already known and you can also add this list - Madamme Brussells on Bourke st - Kitten Club on Lt Collins st - St. Jerome’s on Lonsdale st - [...]

Wikipedia- Is it reliable?
Wikipedia…hmmm..I think it’s pretty reliable and useful, as people who has the knowldege about a particular topic can contribute to the content Wikipedia- Is it reliable? « ONEL ANUGRAH

Cheap Airfares
How frequent do you travel using the air plane? As for me travel using flights are much more easier compared to travel with buses or train. Cfares is the cheap flights search engine that allows you to find and compared the cheapest flights on earth. I tried to find and compare the tickets for the flights [...]

How frequent do you travel using the air plane? As for me travel using flights are much more easier compared to travel with buses or train.

Cfares is the cheap flights search engine that allows you to find and compared the cheapest flights on earth. I tried to find and compare the tickets for the flights from Kuala Lumpur to Phnom Penh and guess what, the return results are fabulous.

Cfares provide the very best cheap flights database. I don’t really know where they get the results but I am very positive that this site is the most very effective site on the entire earth. Cfares is not new in the market and you can get a very good bargain in the site. Just make sure you always check the sites when you have plan to travel to overseas.

If you are a frequent traveler, you can always use Cfares to get the very cheap airline tickets and you can always travel for more.The payment term is always good as they can accept the major credit cards.

Internet Marketing: A Guide to List Building
There are many methods used to market internet businesses. Among them, one of the best methods is called list building. List building is as simple as its title suggests. It is the concept of building a list of possible visitors to your site. When building your list, you must take into consideration the nature of [...]

There are many methods used to market internet businesses. Among them, one of the best methods is called list building. List building is as simple as its title suggests. It is the concept of building a list of possible visitors to your site. When building your list, you must take into consideration the nature of your site and those who might be related to or take an interest in the subject of your website. For instance, if you have a website on potty training, the foundation of your list should consist of people interested in this subject. For instance, a good example would be mothers with toddlers.

While keeping in mind your primary list of possible potential customers, when building your list, it would be to your advantage to try to broaden the possible visitors. You may do this by thinking of ways to promote your site to people who may not directly be interested in potty training. One way of doing this is to offer possible links to websites with similar subjects. You can exchange links with other sites that may cover similar subject matters. This practice is called link swapping. Obviously, when doing this, you want to steer clear of competing sites, after all, you do not want to give your competition an edge. For instance, keeping with the same example of a potty training website, you may offer links to websites that cover other aspects of motherhood such as taking care of an infant, or bathing your baby. The same process works in reverse, the other websites can include a link to your site and help steer traffic in your direction. By exchanging links with websites such as this you are helping each other bring in a higher volume of traffic.

Internet etiquette is important to practice while list building. People must choose to become part of your list, not the other way around. Your list should always remain confidential. Good internet business practice should always be exercised. Any unsolicited emails can be considered spam and at the very least is considered rude and in most places is illegal. Therefore, always be certain that every member contained in your list opted to be there or you could find yourself in the midst of a legal matter down the line.

Another method of internet marketing is to write articles on the subject of your site and offer them free of charge to websites and forums. Chances are you are an expert on the subject of your site and therefore writing an article should not be too difficult. You should also include a link to your website in the article which can be used as free advertising. You can send your articles to article directories also.

Another little trick is to include your URL with your e mail signature line. By following these simple techniques, your internet business will soon be extemely profitable.

About the Author

Visit http://affiliatemarketingnews.net/ and http://optinforsuccess.com/ for the BEST money-making opportunities and internet home business programs! Subscribe to our FREE newsletter by sending an e-mail to optinforsuccess@aweber.com and receive a free gift!

The 9 BIGGEST Reasons Why Internet Marketing Is The Best Home-based Business You Can Start!
If you are curious why starting your business or selling on the internet is one of the most flexible and easiest business you can start, read this article!� [...]

If you are curious why starting your business or selling on the internet is one of the most flexible and easiest business you can start, read this article!�

How would you rate your current lifestyle right now?� On a scale of 1-10, are you living out your dreams and living life to the fullest?� Or are you living like most average people and throwing away your lives at the office?

If you are one of those people who absolutely LOVE whatever you do at the office, or if you like sitting in rush hour traffic inhaling the toxic smoggy air…then stop reading this article and continue slaving away your life to your traditional business or boss.

You and I are all busy with our jobs and lives, and you most likely don?t have the time commitment and money to build another stream of income.� However, there is a solution.� And let?s explore how internet marketing can provide you with that solution.

Here are the five compelling advantages why you should forget about starting a traditional storefront business and start an internet marketing business:

1.�� You can work less hours with comparable or BETTER financial results than a��conventional business.��

One of the biggest problems with starting a traditional business is that it robs you too much of your time!�� If you look into starting any traditional business (professional practice, food franchise, or anything in between), you will� find that it you will need to commit up to 12 hours a day to have it start up and running successfully.�

But lets be realistic, do you have that kind of time commitment to start something like that?� After putting in your 9am through 5pm at your job, do you have the energy to put in an additional 12 hours for your conventional business?�

Unless you are Superman, I would guess, ?Most likely not.?� With internet marketing, there are many very successful people that earn a six figure income with less than half the time!

I read that:

?Success is when small efforts produce big results.� And failure is when big efforts produce small results.?

Which option sounds like a success to you?� And which option sounds like a failure to you?

To have that kind of time commitment you will need to ditch your ?steady? paycheck, quit your job, and come up with up to a MILLION dollars to start your traditional business.� Which brings up the next strength of internet marketing which is…

2.� You can startup without starving for the first few years!To make that kind of financial commitment mentioned above, you would have to cut�back on your food budget, starve your family, and live like a beggar for a few years before you break even with your investment and put any positive cash flow into your pocket.�

I don?t know about you, but I would rather maintain my comfortable lifestyle while building my internet marketing business after work… and still have time for family and friends.

The big lie of, ?It takes money to make money? may have been believable IF you are living in the 1920’s, but times have changed, ways of making money have changed and you have to adapt�to that change if you want to be successful.

We live in a unique time in history where the average Joe to the single mom with a job and�a baby can become millionaires working with a computer and internet connection in the comfort of their own home.�

What this means is that internet marketing is the easiest way to have a six-figure income without any of the employees, overhead, and headaches! With the internet, the world is at your fingertips which brings up the 3rd strength of internet marketing…

(stay tuned for the 2nd part of this newsletter which will cover advantage 3, 4, and 5 of internet marketing!)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan Quan is a certified Internet Coaching Empire coach and specializes in helping people build their own successful internet marketing business.� Visit his website at http://e-bizcoachalan.com/success.htm�and find out how he can help you to quickly accomplish your goals and boost your internet profits.

Online Casino Topic
If you are my loyal readers, you are smarter than before about online casino sites. As my old posts, mostly covered more on the casino review sites which are available online. Now it is different. I have found this Online Casino Topic which discuss literally on online casino including reviews, howto method especially US residents [...]

If you are my loyal readers, you are smarter than before about online casino sites. As my old posts, mostly covered more on the casino review sites which are available online. Now it is different.

I have found this Online Casino Topic which discuss literally on online casino including reviews, howto method especially US residents and also free game download which are new to me. So I open and read thoroughly the entire sites. Yes it is totally different in term of concept but a bit similar to those review sites.

A part from the directories, they provides their readers with good review on each casino sites. The categories is nicely arranged on the top left of the page makes it easy browsing and also search engine friendly. However, most of the reviews lack of the casino’s logo and makes the readers a bit confuse while reading it.

Finding a Online Casino That Accept USA Player

This is the most famous question among the US residents who loves to join the online casinos. Most of the online casino sites are not accepting wages from US residents due to some law restrictions. I found that there are lists of online casino allows wages from US residents. Few options like credit card, banking and e-currencies to choose from.

Due to legislation passed on October 2006 many online casinos and banking options designed to support online gambling sites (ie. NETeller, Click2Pay, FirePay and others) are no longer accepting wagers from players that reside in the USA. Most casinos found throughout our site still accept wagers from US players but some have the exception of the following states found here (also find what banking options are still available here).

Please advise: Golden Casino, Rushmore Casino, Millionaire, English Harbour and One Club Casino still accept all U.S. players from all states and territories. Also be sure to check out our US online casinos section.

New Information April 1, 2009 ~ Added the best Amex online casinos and the best Visa and MasterCard casinos for US players!

New Information November 6, 2008 ~ Most of the Microgaming online casinos will no longer be accepting players from the United States.

As you can see the quote pasted from the original site, there is no limitations for US residents. You can still enjoying playing at top online casino.

Free Download

You can start to play by download casino software to your computer. There are three choices for the player:

1. Download casino directly to your computer
2. Flash based
3. Java based

If security is your priority then please download the casino and install it to your hard disk. It is safer because your session is not always connected and allow special port to open. Quality of the game is better compared to the online version.

For newbies, you can always download the casino and while playing games, you can read on the strategy guides which are available on the top left hand side of the web page.

Unselfish Casino Site

Usually when you open one website, they are focused on selling their own product. You can hardly find links to the outer world especially their competitor. This is different for Online Casino Topic dot com. They are great by sharing the other top casino resources such as directory and high reputable casino sites.

I would not have to think twice before I bookmarked this site. I would have be their first and loyal followers because of the unique and great value. I feel like home !!

Internet marketing: The Beginning of the End of Search Engine Optimization
One of the constants in life is change, and this is especially true in this Internet age. It is either you evolve, or you dissolve; nothing stays the same. As far as Internet marketing is concerned, times have really changed. Before, online marketers were obsessed with learning any tips and tricks available in [...]

One of the constants in life is change, and this is especially true in this Internet age. It is either you evolve, or you dissolve; nothing stays the same.

As far as Internet marketing is concerned, times have really changed. Before, online marketers were obsessed with learning any tips and tricks available in order to get favorable listings in the search engines. But now, the trend seems to veer towards unconventional Internet marketing strategies.

Instead of being trapped in the complicated mechanics of search engine optimization (SEO), the wave is now flowing towards the more accurate and humanized features of user-driven indexing systems.

Right now, you may be thinking: Huh? What do you mean ‘humanized’? Worry not. Let us now analyze how Internet marketing has evolved.

Search engine optimization - the beginning of the end

Search engine optimization, or SEO, has dominated the Internet marketing industry for many years. It is widely accepted that more than 80% of your website traffic will come from the search engines. Although not many online marketers have come forward to back that claim, getting a good position in the search engines is still the way to go.

But search engines are not 100% perfect. They rely on robotic spiders to crawl through every single webpage on the Internet. These spiders will then index the pages according to the algorithms prescribed by the respective search engines.

There is nothing wrong with the process here. But the problem is that everything is automated. The robotic spiders cannot think like a human, therefore everything is either black or white to them; there is nothing in between. They might even list your web pages in the wrong category without your knowledge!

Humanized features of user-driven indexing system

User-driven indexing systems are totally different from the algorithms of SEO. Since the features are humanized, the users are able to classify websites under appropriate categories, or more commonly known as tags. This feature is so much more reliable than the approach of the spiders, because these websites are seen by actual human eyes.

Exit SEO, enter social bookmarking websites

Social bookmarking websites are the most popular kinds of user-driven indexing systems. There are a lot of these websites available on the Internet today, and they are very widely visited websites, if their Alexa rankings are anything to go by. Some of the more popular and hot Social bookmarking websites are Technorati, Furl and Feedmarker.

So what exactly are social bookmarking websites?

While surfing the net, when you see a website that catches your attention, you will add the URL of that site to your favorites under your ‘My Favorites’ folder on your web browser. With a click of your mouse, the URL is saved on your hard drive. This whole process is known as bookmarking.

Social bookmarking websites work pretty much the same way. But instead of saving a URL on your hard drive, you will be able to save it on a web server, under an appropriate tag. For example, if you come across an interesting dating website, you can save the website address under the tag ‘dating’.

Another interesting feature of social bookmarking websites is that you can share your list of ‘tagged’ websites with other users. If some of them are looking for dating websites, you can do your bit to help them by sharing your list with them. How cool is that?

How can Social Bookmarking benefit Internet marketers?

This exciting new technique can benefit fellow Internet marketing professionals in the following ways:

1. It will soon replace the search engines

This is a frightening prospect. Some experts are predicting that social bookmarking will soon replace the search engines as the information finding process of choice by most Internet users. The best way to take advantage of this growing phenomenon is to start using its features as early as today. Google and Yahoo!, you have been warned.

2. It can easily be manipulated

Social bookmarking is so much easier to manipulate. You have all the freedom in the world to place all your favorite websites in any desired tags without going through the sickening algorithms of the search engines.

3. The potential of tags

Tags are widely considered as the ‘keywords for the new Internet age’. They are now beginning to establish an interconnectivity that will soon cover many platforms and channels. If you want to dominate certain specific tags, then social bookmarking websites can be your launching platform.

Social bookmarking is destined to be the next big thing in Internet marketing. The current phenomenon that has taken the Internet by storm is blogging, and those who have taken early advantage are now reaping handsome rewards.

If you do not want to miss out on the next big thing, then now is the time for you to embark on the bookmarking adventure so that you are one step ahead of your competitors.

Wyatt Lee is an expert author specializing on the subject of Internet marketing. Please visit his Internet marketing blog for all the best tips and latest news on the world of Internet marketing.

Secret Internet Marketing Tactic Lets You Dominate the Search Engines
Copyright 2006 Michael Senoff If you want to get a LOT more Internet traffic than you are now, without having to do a lot of complicated key word and SEO tricks, then this article will show you how. Listen to this: The key to getting a lot of traffic to your website…is audio. [...]

Copyright 2006 Michael Senoff

If you want to get a LOT more Internet traffic than you are now, without having to do a lot of complicated key word and SEO tricks, then this article will show you how.

Listen to this:

The key to getting a lot of traffic to your website…is audio.

Why?

Because search engines are now starting to pick up what is called ID3 tags.

What are ID3 tags?

Well, you know how when you put a CD in your CD Rom, or if you have a car CD player, and you put it in there and you see the little title of what you?re putting in there flash across?

That?s an ID3 tag. There?s code embedded in the actual mp3 file, and also when people download digital files onto an iPod.

This allows people to sort their music by title, artist and other criteria.

The ID3 Name tag allows you to enter a more descriptive name for your audio file. For example, an audio file that has a name like ?myaudio.mp3? can be renamed ?How I Made My First Million in Advertising.? That?s certainly more descriptive than the file name!

You are also able to enter the Artist?s Name and Composer. Both of these will probably contain your name as well as the name of your web site, email address, and/or telephone number. Mix up the content between these two fields. In my audios, the Artist?s Name field has my name and web site address and the Composer field has my name and my telephone number.

Although its length is limited to a few sentences, get creative and come up with a succinct summary of the audio that includes key words that will get your audio listed higher in Search Engines when someone is looking for content that may be just what your audio contains.

And, when you have an mp3 file up on your website, the search engines start picking it up that information like they do HTML text.

So, imagine if you have twenty or thirty audio recordings on your site, and you?ve got millions of people searching for whatever it is you sell.

By using audio, in addition to your regular web page content you have now, you have an extra “layer” of content being picked up by the search engines at the same time.

And by having those ID3 tags, and the keywords within, it?s going to be easier to dominate your market because the websites can?t search the actual audio portion.

All they can go by is what?s on the ID3 tags on your files. This is the strategy I do with my own websites with phenomenal results. And it will work for you, too.

The whole key to this is to simply get that audio content up there on your site with the ID3 tags and then let the search engines do the rest.

For more information go to http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/Audio_Marketing_Secrets.htm

ClickBooth Super Affiliate Network
How do you get more money online? Normally people love to get money from the advertising space that they sell in their inventory while most of the richest will do the affiliate marketing. Most of the top name on the net are doing the CPA program. CPA versus CPC Have you check out the ClickBooth. Click Booth [...]

How do you get more money online? Normally people love to get money from the advertising space that they sell in their inventory while most of the richest will do the affiliate marketing. Most of the top name on the net are doing the CPA program.

CPA versus CPC

Have you check out the ClickBooth. Click Booth is different from the other company who are offering the CPA system. This is the only company in the world who are really focused on what they are doing.

Calling for all affiliate member in the world. I think that CPA (Cost per action) is the way to go because it is in the best interest for the affiliate to send the best targeted traffic to the advertiser as possible to increase the chance of a conversion compared to the advertising that can create an awareness but not the conversion.

Make Money Using ClickBooth Network
Clickbooth Affiliate Network is a network for publisher to create their affiliate account and make money by promoting the product. A lot affiliate member that can earn five figure monthly.

To be honest, promoting the best deal around in the net are much more easier than doing it offline. You just imagine, if you have like thousands of email database, you can earn so much money by sending the promotion to your email lists when they do buy something from the promotion link that you send out.

If you feel that you have a product and you can pay a sales commission to your dealer, why not trying to do it online. It really helps you to get more sales or lead. Form there you can increase your company sales.

So the conclusion for this ClickBooth, I would rate them 9.5/10 as the website load very quickly from my end. The advertiser register with them are a lot and I have a lot of choices to choose.

Gamers Should Buy Lifelock Identity Protection Plan
As gamers who played an online multiplayer game or any game that involved payment via credit card usually doesn’t care anything except for the joy and happiness to fulfill the needs to play the game. Gamers who always charge their credit card online are always be the victim for the identity theft. This is a problem [...]

As gamers who played an online multiplayer game or any game that involved payment via credit card usually doesn’t care anything except for the joy and happiness to fulfill the needs to play the game.

Gamers who always charge their credit card online are always be the victim for the identity theft. This is a problem hat widely being reported to the government in the whole world. That is why to protect your identity from theft is a must. The easiest way to do it is buying the service from the lifelock.

With just $10 per month, you can easily protect your identity from being stolen by those culprit. Just imagine you wake up one day and suddenly 10 demand letter from lawyer in your mail box and what you should feel about it?

New Home Internet Marketing Strategies For Proven Income
The title probably got your attention, but maybe this is not so new. And then again, maybe it is new as the internet is not that old. Human beings have been writing for millenia, Writing on the internet with this much ease has only been done for a very short time. I have written a [...]

The title probably got your attention, but maybe this is not so new. And then again, maybe it is new as the internet is not that old. Human beings have been writing for millenia, Writing on the internet with this much ease has only been done for a very short time. I have written a number of articles on the subject of internet marketing, mostly because I am investigating the same, and the best way to clarify your thinking is to put it on paper. Articles will do this for you. Emphasis is on the basics, the kinds of things that anyone new to internet marketing can and should do, not the fancy stuff. These are the not so new home internet marketing strategies that more experienced internet marketers continue to do themselves on a regular basis. They provide the internet marketer with a dependable, recurring, high, and consistent proven income. Focus will be on article marketing because I have become aware of how important this has become to the search engines.

My honest wish is that I had started my online business about 15 years ago when the internet was just getting popular. Like most I didn’t. When I did make the decision to start an online business, and I was really new to home internet marketing strategies, I looked at a number of websites for the keywords I had chosen. I remember the first time I spied on my competition. The site had over a thousand links. I had about 10. I thought to myself, how am I ever going to get this many? The competition is tough! Sites with pr four and pr five on page one of Google are so far ahead of me, I will never be able to make up this lost time.

I was so pre-occupied with Google Adwords, list building, and making fast money that I put the idea of getting a lot of links to my website aside. After about ten dollars, it was a lot more than that, and about a month of wasted time, I bought LinkMachine and started linking. I also started submitting my sight to the internet directories. I started getting some traffic from this, but I knew it was not nearly enough. I realized that most of the people looking at my link pages were not the customers I was seeking, but other internet marketing strategists looking for link partners. My site had gotten a pr three, so there were quite a few. I was getting lots of visits to my web pages, however no sales.

I spent the next few months focusing on my linking strategies along with directory submissions. Traffic continued to increase until all of a sudden, I could not seem to find any more high pr sites to link to. I had pretty much run into most of the relative web sites. Many of them required a pr four or higher. Most ignored my requests to be a link partner. This was probably because of the number of requests they receive. I did not want to link to the pr zero sites any more because I realized that this was not going to help my site when I reciprocate. I had to do something different.

I already had about five articles that had been submitted to a number of article directories. A few of them were sitting on page one for the keywords I had written about. After going through all of this, I decided to go on an article campaign. I wrote five articles in one week. I sat down and registered with about two hundred high pr article directories using Article Submitter Pro. I made sure that all of my old articles were showing up in all of the article directories and added them when I found them missing. I picked up a thousand back links just by fixing the old ones.

Then I submitted the five new ones in one week. Within a week my web page went from about page five and six to page one and two in MSN. It also climbed dramatically in Google for one relatively low traffic keyword phrase. Web page visits increased immediately by one hundred or so. The really cool thing about the search engine pages that my web site was showing up for on page one and two, is that the articles are also showing up on page one and two. So, surfers are clicking on my main web page by clicking on my web page link, and if they don’t do that, they would also see and click on the article links showing up on the same page.

Fresh articles are important in the article directories as well. If the article directory has a recently added section, your article title will show up on that page as well. This not only exposes the article to surfers who frequent that article directory, it provides you web page with another back link in addition to the article back link itself, even though it may only be for a short while. Article directories like Idea Marketers will display this link not only on their main page, but on the pages of articles that are relative to your topic. They have made a science out of creating internal links for their own web site because these pages also contain links back to their own web pages. I had one article in this article directory that generated dozens of back links because the anchor text link showed up on a number of sub-pages.

Here is something about writing articles that I have found a personal observation on. The longer you are pursuing a business, and searching for that one thing that will give you the proven income that every marketer on the internet seems to promise with little or no effort on your part, the more focused your articles become on the keywords you want your web site to show up on page one in the search engines for. When I realized that this was incredibly important, as well as the anchor text in the author box, the higher my web page started to climb in the search engines. My web pages now show up on page one and two in MSN and Google for about a dozen key word phrases. I am adding about one hundred visits per day on average every month.

These new home internet marketing strategies in the form of your own fresh article content contributions, though not so new in concept, will move your web pages up in the search engine rankings fast! My hope is that your web pages climb the misty mountains of Google and MSN and provide you with the proven income you always deserved.

Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science. Find more information on new home internet marketing strategies for proven income.

About the Author

Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science. Find more information on New Home Internet Marketing Strategies For Proven Income.

New Home Internet Marketing Strategies For Proven Income
The title probably got your attention, but maybe this is not so new. And then again, maybe it is new as the internet is not that old. Human beings have been writing for millenia, Writing on the internet with this much ease has only been done for a very short time. I have written a [...]

The title probably got your attention, but maybe this is not so new. And then again, maybe it is new as the internet is not that old. Human beings have been writing for millenia, Writing on the internet with this much ease has only been done for a very short time. I have written a number of articles on the subject of internet marketing, mostly because I am investigating the same, and the best way to clarify your thinking is to put it on paper. Articles will do this for you. Emphasis is on the basics, the kinds of things that anyone new to internet marketing can and should do, not the fancy stuff. These are the not so new home internet marketing strategies that more experienced internet marketers continue to do themselves on a regular basis. They provide the internet marketer with a dependable, recurring, high, and consistent proven income. Focus will be on article marketing because I have become aware of how important this has become to the search engines.

My honest wish is that I had started my online business about 15 years ago when the internet was just getting popular. Like most I didn’t. When I did make the decision to start an online business, and I was really new to home internet marketing strategies, I looked at a number of websites for the keywords I had chosen. I remember the first time I spied on my competition. The site had over a thousand links. I had about 10. I thought to myself, how am I ever going to get this many? The competition is tough! Sites with pr four and pr five on page one of Google are so far ahead of me, I will never be able to make up this lost time.

I was so pre-occupied with Google Adwords, list building, and making fast money that I put the idea of getting a lot of links to my website aside. After about ten dollars, it was a lot more than that, and about a month of wasted time, I bought LinkMachine and started linking. I also started submitting my sight to the internet directories. I started getting some traffic from this, but I knew it was not nearly enough. I realized that most of the people looking at my link pages were not the customers I was seeking, but other internet marketing strategists looking for link partners. My site had gotten a pr three, so there were quite a few. I was getting lots of visits to my web pages, however no sales.

I spent the next few months focusing on my linking strategies along with directory submissions. Traffic continued to increase until all of a sudden, I could not seem to find any more high pr sites to link to. I had pretty much run into most of the relative web sites. Many of them required a pr four or higher. Most ignored my requests to be a link partner. This was probably because of the number of requests they receive. I did not want to link to the pr zero sites any more because I realized that this was not going to help my site when I reciprocate. I had to do something different.

I already had about five articles that had been submitted to a number of article directories. A few of them were sitting on page one for the keywords I had written about. After going through all of this, I decided to go on an article campaign. I wrote five articles in one week. I sat down and registered with about two hundred high pr article directories using Article Submitter Pro. I made sure that all of my old articles were showing up in all of the article directories and added them when I found them missing. I picked up a thousand back links just by fixing the old ones.

Then I submitted the five new ones in one week. Within a week my web page went from about page five and six to page one and two in MSN. It also climbed dramatically in Google for one relatively low traffic keyword phrase. Web page visits increased immediately by one hundred or so. The really cool thing about the search engine pages that my web site was showing up for on page one and two, is that the articles are also showing up on page one and two. So, surfers are clicking on my main web page by clicking on my web page link, and if they don’t do that, they would also see and click on the article links showing up on the same page.

Fresh articles are important in the article directories as well. If the article directory has a recently added section, your article title will show up on that page as well. This not only exposes the article to surfers who frequent that article directory, it provides you web page with another back link in addition to the article back link itself, even though it may only be for a short while. Article directories like Idea Marketers will display this link not only on their main page, but on the pages of articles that are relative to your topic. They have made a science out of creating internal links for their own web site because these pages also contain links back to their own web pages. I had one article in this article directory that generated dozens of back links because the anchor text link showed up on a number of sub-pages.

Here is something about writing articles that I have found a personal observation on. The longer you are pursuing a business, and searching for that one thing that will give you the proven income that every marketer on the internet seems to promise with little or no effort on your part, the more focused your articles become on the keywords you want your web site to show up on page one in the search engines for. When I realized that this was incredibly important, as well as the anchor text in the author box, the higher my web page started to climb in the search engines. My web pages now show up on page one and two in MSN and Google for about a dozen key word phrases. I am adding about one hundred visits per day on average every month.

These new home internet marketing strategies in the form of your own fresh article content contributions, though not so new in concept, will move your web pages up in the search engine rankings fast! My hope is that your web pages climb the misty mountains of Google and MSN and provide you with the proven income you always deserved.

Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science. Find more information on new home internet marketing strategies for proven income.

About the Author

Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science. Find more information on New Home Internet Marketing Strategies For Proven Income.

Secret Internet Marketing Tactic Lets You Dominate the Search Engines
Copyright 2006 Michael Senoff If you want to get a LOT more Internet traffic than you are now, without having to do a lot of complicated key word and SEO tricks, then this article will show you how. Listen to this: The key to getting a lot of traffic to your website…is audio. [...]

Copyright 2006 Michael Senoff

If you want to get a LOT more Internet traffic than you are now, without having to do a lot of complicated key word and SEO tricks, then this article will show you how.

Listen to this:

The key to getting a lot of traffic to your website…is audio.

Why?

Because search engines are now starting to pick up what is called ID3 tags.

What are ID3 tags?

Well, you know how when you put a CD in your CD Rom, or if you have a car CD player, and you put it in there and you see the little title of what you?re putting in there flash across?

That?s an ID3 tag. There?s code embedded in the actual mp3 file, and also when people download digital files onto an iPod.

This allows people to sort their music by title, artist and other criteria.

The ID3 Name tag allows you to enter a more descriptive name for your audio file. For example, an audio file that has a name like ?myaudio.mp3? can be renamed ?How I Made My First Million in Advertising.? That?s certainly more descriptive than the file name!

You are also able to enter the Artist?s Name and Composer. Both of these will probably contain your name as well as the name of your web site, email address, and/or telephone number. Mix up the content between these two fields. In my audios, the Artist?s Name field has my name and web site address and the Composer field has my name and my telephone number.

Although its length is limited to a few sentences, get creative and come up with a succinct summary of the audio that includes key words that will get your audio listed higher in Search Engines when someone is looking for content that may be just what your audio contains.

And, when you have an mp3 file up on your website, the search engines start picking it up that information like they do HTML text.

So, imagine if you have twenty or thirty audio recordings on your site, and you?ve got millions of people searching for whatever it is you sell.

By using audio, in addition to your regular web page content you have now, you have an extra “layer” of content being picked up by the search engines at the same time.

And by having those ID3 tags, and the keywords within, it?s going to be easier to dominate your market because the websites can?t search the actual audio portion.

All they can go by is what?s on the ID3 tags on your files. This is the strategy I do with my own websites with phenomenal results. And it will work for you, too.

The whole key to this is to simply get that audio content up there on your site with the ID3 tags and then let the search engines do the rest.

For more information go to http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/Audio_Marketing_Secrets.htm

Internet Marketing: A Guide to List Building
There are many methods used to market internet businesses. Among them, one of the best methods is called list building. List building is as simple as its title suggests. It is the concept of building a list of possible visitors to your site. When building your list, you must take into consideration the nature of [...]

There are many methods used to market internet businesses. Among them, one of the best methods is called list building. List building is as simple as its title suggests. It is the concept of building a list of possible visitors to your site. When building your list, you must take into consideration the nature of your site and those who might be related to or take an interest in the subject of your website. For instance, if you have a website on potty training, the foundation of your list should consist of people interested in this subject. For instance, a good example would be mothers with toddlers.

While keeping in mind your primary list of possible potential customers, when building your list, it would be to your advantage to try to broaden the possible visitors. You may do this by thinking of ways to promote your site to people who may not directly be interested in potty training. One way of doing this is to offer possible links to websites with similar subjects. You can exchange links with other sites that may cover similar subject matters. This practice is called link swapping. Obviously, when doing this, you want to steer clear of competing sites, after all, you do not want to give your competition an edge. For instance, keeping with the same example of a potty training website, you may offer links to websites that cover other aspects of motherhood such as taking care of an infant, or bathing your baby. The same process works in reverse, the other websites can include a link to your site and help steer traffic in your direction. By exchanging links with websites such as this you are helping each other bring in a higher volume of traffic.

Internet etiquette is important to practice while list building. People must choose to become part of your list, not the other way around. Your list should always remain confidential. Good internet business practice should always be exercised. Any unsolicited emails can be considered spam and at the very least is considered rude and in most places is illegal. Therefore, always be certain that every member contained in your list opted to be there or you could find yourself in the midst of a legal matter down the line.

Another method of internet marketing is to write articles on the subject of your site and offer them free of charge to websites and forums. Chances are you are an expert on the subject of your site and therefore writing an article should not be too difficult. You should also include a link to your website in the article which can be used as free advertising. You can send your articles to article directories also.

Another little trick is to include your URL with your e mail signature line. By following these simple techniques, your internet business will soon be extemely profitable.

About the Author

Visit http://affiliatemarketingnews.net/ and http://optinforsuccess.com/ for the BEST money-making opportunities and internet home business programs! Subscribe to our FREE newsletter by sending an e-mail to optinforsuccess@aweber.com and receive a free gift!

Internet Marketing Newbie? Tailor Your Website
You have decided to zero in on product creation? You have reached the point were you know your goals inside out. You have even written your goals down. They are tacked onto your refrigerator and taped over your computer. You also have your goals written in your pocket-size ?ideas? booklet. It appears you are ready to [...]

You have decided to zero in on product creation? You have reached the point were you know your goals inside out. You have even written your goals down.

They are tacked onto your refrigerator and taped over your computer. You also have your goals written in your pocket-size ?ideas? booklet. It appears you are ready to rumble! Let?s get it on!

You finally decide that the theme for your website is going to be ?Men?s Shoes Of The 50?s.? From here on in, everything on the website should dovetail nicely into the theme.

Don?t bring in men?s trousers. For now, during the early going, stick with this specific shoe.

Put your shotgun away, at this point, you need your rifle. People are savvy. They know what it is they want. They?re smart enough to know not to type in men?s shoes. They zero in on a specific shoe, mens shoes of the 50?s.

It?s coming early, but here is a priceless golden nugget.

You now know the way people search online. Try to marry your selling strategies to the way people search. When you can accomplish that, you will be looking your target customer dead in the eye.

Lets dig into this a bit more. People who go online to buy a ?men?s shoe of the 50?s? are interested in just that, a mens shoe of the 50?s. That?s it!

The trousers that you thought they might buy when they come to your 50?s shoe website are what you want. Not what they want.

Crucial error!

Learn a lesson here because most of the money spent on promoting 50?s shoes and trousers is unfocused and wasted. That money could have gone to increase your variety of 50?s shoe on display on your website.

Or better yet, it could have boosted your marketing budget thereby bringing more targeted traffic to your website. You also now have to redo your divided website.

Picture this!

Your website is perfectly themed. Content is intricately woven throughout your website and is spot on. You have done your website homework. Your articles and reports are singularly focused with great content on the mens shoe of the 50?s.

The search engines have sent the spiders to comb your website and they love it. Your google ads are specific and focused.

Deep into the country, in a small unknown town, daddy?s birthday is approaching.

Mother is secretively asked, ?what does daddy want for his birthday??

She shoots back with a smile, (the children have remembered) ?get him a pair of two-tone shoes from the 50?s.?

Perplexed, the children respond, ?they don?t sell those shoes in town, where can we get them??

Mother smiles again, ?try the internet.?

?Oh why didn?t we think of that,? replied the children.

They go to the computer, fire it up, and guess what they type in? You?re correct, mens shoes of the 50?s. And guess which website is staring them in the face?

This scenario is played out over and over and your internet cash register is ringing steadily. Stay focused, set up one singular site, but set it up well. Then watch that one website turn over again and again. Sort of like money in the bank.

About the Author:

Wycliffe Williams has wasted time and money learning this. Sometimes some lessons are brutal. They don?t have to be for you. Remain focused. Run a tight ship. Remember, keep your ears close to the ground. Listen to the internet beat. Take positive action going forward. Looking for a dynamic money earner? This Website is awesome!

SEO MASTERS INDIA: Search Engine Marketing, Internet Marketing Specialist
Did you know that 90% of unique internet traffic to a website originates from a search engine. So you can not ignore search engine optimization or search engine marketing! SEO trend in India is fast catching up. Many SEO companies in India have set up their services. These SEO firms in India have become successful [...]

Did you know that 90% of unique internet traffic to a website originates from a search engine. So you can not ignore search engine optimization or search engine marketing!

SEO trend in India is fast catching up. Many SEO companies in India have set up their services. These SEO firms in India have become successful in a short period of time as the service that they provide is needed by everyone who wishes to achieve success in web marketing.

SEO Masters India doesn’t stand different but are different is all aspects of their service. For them what stands more important is their worldwide clients who made their site worth visiting in such a vast IT industry. SEO Masters India strongly believes in them, know capabilities and limitations and work accordingly on any given project. SEO Masters India makes sure that whatever they do is client and quality centric.

Their team consists of experienced SEO / Internet Marketing Experts who can offer expertise in the areas like Web Promotion, Internet Marketing, PPC Campaign and Top Search Engine Positioning. With focused nature to place our client’s website prominently in the search engines and further retain the search engine rank positions, their professional and expert SEO team has developed successful and ethical web marketing and Natural SEO techniques over the years and have a proven track record of excellent results and a plethora of satisfied clients.

SEO Masters India has a budget for every type of business and with affordable options to suit your marketing goals; they will certainly increase your online presence!

Feel free to circulate and share out this Article as you wish - if you can post it on your own site or email it to your friends then please do. It’s real time to reproduce the word far and wide amongst the all community across the world.

SEO MASTERS INDIA is truly a MASTER of these elements.

Contact Us: SEO MASTERS INDIA http://www.seomastersindia.com seomastersindia@gmail.com Ph: +91-079-9825199968 / 9824676503

About the Author

SEO MASTERS INDIA is an India based SEO Company, which provides professional Search Engine Optimization Services, Pay Per Click Management & Web Designing Services across the Globe. SEO Masters India seeks to further increase client return on investment by refining the most important aspect of an optimization campaign, research & development and algorithm decoding.

On the Palm Pre and iPhone Keyboards
There has been a lot of debate as to who has the better keyboard. Is it Palm Pre’s hardware keyboard or iPhone’s on screen keyboard? John Gruber from the Daring Fireball: …seven years of hardware keyboard use have warped his perspective. He’s got it backwards: for 90 percent of people, it doesn’t make a difference whether the [...]

There has been a lot of debate as to who has the better keyboard. Is it Palm Pre’s hardware keyboard or iPhone’s on screen keyboard?

John Gruber from the Daring Fireball:

…seven years of hardware keyboard use have warped his perspective. He’s got it backwards: for 90 percent of people, it doesn’t make a difference whether the keyboard is hardware or software.

I tend to agree with this statement. I never used a smartphone with a hardware keyboard before the iPhone and within about 5 minutes of picking one up I was typing just fine. Trying to use someone’s BlackBerry has proven to me that I just can’t type on a hardware keyboard. Maybe it’s that my fingers are lazy and don’t want to push the hardware buttons, or maybe it just feels out of the ordinary needing to find those tiny keys. To contrast, the iPhone does an amazing job figuring out what I meant to push even when I’m not pressing exactly where I need to be.

HDR Photography FAQ | Where Art & Engineering Collide [del.icio.us]


The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien - Cold Open of the First Show - Video - NBC.com [del.icio.us]
This deserves a bookmark.

Google Chrome [del.icio.us]
Proper Google Chrome (development) download link for OS X.

Stuff in Leopard that is Important
Apple is boasting an impressive 300 new features in Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard,” but not all of them are really that important to me. I took a quick look (no pun intended) through the list and pulled out a few that I feel will affect the way I use my computer now and in the [...]

Apple is boasting an impressive 300 new features in Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard,” but not all of them are really that important to me. I took a quick look (no pun intended) through the list and pulled out a few that I feel will affect the way I use my computer now and in the near future.

• System Wide Grammer Check
• TextEdit’s ability to read and write OpenDocument and Word 2007 files
• Time Machine (duh!)
• One OS supports both 32 and 64-bit applications natively and seamlessly
• Automator now allows you to record actions
• Boot Camp is built-in, with WHCL-certified drivers
• Stacks
• Overall iCal improvements: iCal moves closer to being truly useful in an office environment
• New AirPort Menu
• Screen Sharing

One feature that I thought I wouldn’t be able to live without is Spaces. I have since seen the real light-of-day: I can only do so much at once. I played with VirtueDesktops and found that having multiple desktops actually made me less productive. But I guess we will find out how Spaces compares at the end of the month.

The Last Calvin & Hobbes...
All things need an ending. This one, I can relate too..

The future?


What the hell..
Let's watch an episode of THE MIGHTY BOOSH. tonight the boys get marooned on a desert Island that could be a metaphor for the internets. Anyways here are two guys going crazy talking to coconuts...








Here's some animation by Keith Haring...think of it as an animated exhibit..


The view out my window...


The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges 1960)










Duck Soup (Leo McCarey 1933)











Flashback Fridays...
Originally Posted August 1st 2003


Your Moment of Random Cuteness...


WestWorld (Michael Chrichton 1973)

Desktop Widget Reminds You to Shutdown the Computer
Far too many people do not turn off the computer when they are done for the day. But a small change in habit could made a great impact on the environment by reducing carbon emissions. The HP Widgets reminds you to shut down every day.

Do you turn off the computer when you are done for the day?

Great if you replied yes but if you aren’t in the habit of shutting down the computer at the end of the work day, you aren’t just wasting money (through electricity bills) but the laziness on your part is making an impact on the environment as well. From a 2009 report:

If 100 users remembered to turn off their computers at the end of their work day, this could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 2.14 cars off the road in a month.

If all of the PCs in the world are powered down for just one night, this alone would save enough energy to light up the Empire State Building for more than 30 years.

If the numbers ring a bell, you may want to try this desktop widget that quietly sits in the system tray and monitors your system usage like how frequently you turn off the computer and how long does the computer stay idle (powered on but unused) after working hours.

The widget then tries to estimate the amount of energy you may have saved by turning off the computer. It also includes a handy timer that will remind you to power off the computer one hour before the end of the work day.

Now the more interesting part. The widget also uploads your usage on a community website where everyone can see how frequently other widget users in different parts of the world are turning off their computer. It’s a social site so can you also see stats of your friends who too may have installed the widget.

The HP "Power to Change" widget in an Adobe AIR application so it should work just fine on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. The widget will not count time that a computer in standby or hibernate mode as idle time.

Another eco-friendly tip: Use Less Paper when Printing

Desktop Widget Reminds You to Shutdown the Computer - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

Entry level positions at The Inquisitr
I should have known that when I wrote this post about The Inquisitr that the word comfortable in it was a mistake. I’ve never done comfortable well. There’s a thrill in blogging about where the next hit comes from (not unlike drugs), the next biggest high, the next level and hence we’re rolling the dice [...]

I should have known that when I wrote this post about The Inquisitr that the word comfortable in it was a mistake. I’ve never done comfortable well. There’s a thrill in blogging about where the next hit comes from (not unlike drugs), the next biggest high, the next level and hence we’re rolling the dice today.

We’re offering five blogging positions in a range of roles. Details on Darren Rowse’s Problogger here.

They’re hard to describe, and using the term entry level in the title for this post might be slightly disingenous, but likewise it’s something close to that. They’re something like an internship/ entry level position, and they share some qualities such as experience, exposure etc. But likewise we’re paying for them, be it not at the top of the market, but given dozens of networks including some of the big players hire “interns” like there is no tomorrow and pay them zilch, the positions offer some money. Compared to what I’m hearing from bloggers writing for content sites offering rev shares at the moment the rate is actually fairly high as well given what they are getting.

As we drive forward to 3 million page views a month (we did 1 million at 2pm on the 8th this month, our best week and a bit on record) we’re looking for ways to grow even more, so I see these positions offering benefits for us and each blogger. We obviously get more content, different views and hopefully interesting posts, and in return each successful candidate gets experience at the top end (while these aren’t I’ll hold your hand jobs, I’ll certainly be taking an active role in guidance), some extra money, and either a top level job with us one day (may not happen, but it’s an option depending on performance and our finances as a result) or a stepping stone onto something better.

We treat all our bloggers equally irrespective of their pay rate, seniority, experience or what not, and these positions will be no different, although they do come with lower posting requirements.

If we fill these spots our regular posting compliment rises to 10, and add another 3 on top for occasional guest/ CPM spots.

Taking a Cue from Digg, Google Introduces Ads in Orkut That You Can Trash
If you don't like a particular ad, just put it in the trash but if you found it interesting, share it with your other friends. That seems to be the new advertising formula for Orkut and Digg.

If you don’t like a particular ad on your screen, just throw it in the bin but if you found it interesting or useful, why not share the ad with your other friends - this seems to be the new advertising formula for Digg and now Orkut.

The traditional banner ads and even contextual advertising (like AdSense) is not really working on social news sites so web companies like Facebook and Digg are trying more innovative ways to get the advertiser’s message across to their users without actually annoying them.

For instance, Digg introduced a new advertising platform early this month that gives users more control over advertisements that get displayed on the Digg website. Digg users can vote or even bury an ad just like they interact with other non-sponsored stories on Digg.

The more an ad is Dugg, the less the advertiser will have to pay. Conversely the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system.

Taking a cue from Digg, Google is introducing a slightly similar form of advertising in Orkut where users will have the option to trash ads that they dislike.

Called Orkut Promote, this is sort of a self-advertising platform where advertisers as well as regular Orkut users can promote their content including photos, videos or text content among the Orkut community. Google will charge advertisers for promotion while regular Orkut members won’t pay have to pay a fee for using Orkut promote.

It works like this. Say I have a video on YouTube that I want to spread virally on Orkut. I create a new promotion in my Orkut account that embeds the YouTube video. As soon as I publish this promotion, all my other friends on Orkut can see it and if they like it enough, they can further promote it to their own circle of friends. Or they may just decide to trash it.

�
Who is using Orkut - Comscore

To get started, watch out for a link on you Orkut profile that says " Promote on Orkut" - the service isn’t live for everyone yet.

Orkut Promote will be another tab to your Orkut profile page and Google will use the tab to display promotions from both advertisers and other Orkut users (i.e., your friends). You can trash or re-promote sponsored promotions in the same way as your friends’ promotions.

Taking a Cue from Digg, Google Introduces Ads in Orkut That You Can Trash - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

How to Remote Control your Windows PC with Email or SMS
Learn how to shutdown or lock your computer via email, Internet or SMS text messages from the mobile phone. You can take screenshots, terminate process or even download files via simple twitter commands.

It’s a long weekend and you’re happy because you’ll get to spend the next three days with your family. You left the office in an excited mood but as the cab was approaching home, you suddenly realized that you forgot to shut down the Office PC. Oops!

It’s a sinking feeling because there’re so many confidential documents on the computer and since most of your trusted colleagues have also left for the day, there’s no point calling them for help.

So what do you do? Drive back to Office? Well that’s not required - just take out your cell phone or switch on the laptop at home, send an email (or an SMS or a tweet) and that will instantly lock your Office workstation. And if you share the same computer with multiple people, you can use another email command to remotely log off or even shut down the computer from anywhere in the world.

There’s no magic here, it’s the power of TweetMyPC utility that lets you remote control your computer from a mobile phone or any other Internet connected computer.

It works like this. You first install the free TweetMyPC utility on any Windows PC and associate your Twitter account. The app will silently monitor your Twitter stream every minute for any desktop commands and if it finds one, will act upon it immediately. The initial version of TweetMyPC was limited to basic shutdown and restart commands, however the current v2 has a far more robust set of commands, enabling a far more useful way of getting your PC to carry out certain tasks especially when you’re AFK (Away From Keyboard).

Before we get started, it may be a good thing if you can set up a new twitter account for remote controlling your desktop and also protect the status updates of this account to ensure better security.

Protecting the account means that you prevent other users from reading your tweets which in this case are email commands that you sending to the computer. To protect your Twitter profile, log in to Twitter with the credentials you want to use, click Settings and check the box next to "Protect my Updates".

Let’s get started. Install the TweetMyPC utility of your computer and associate your Twitter and Gmail account with the application. It will use Twitter to receive remote commands (like shutdown, log-off, lock workstation, etc) from while the email account will be used for send your information (e.g., what process are currently running on your computer).

How to Send Commands to the Remote Computer

Now that your basic configuration is done, it’s time to set up a posting method. You can use email, SMS, IM, web or any of the Twitter clients to send commands to the remote computer.

By Email: Associate you Twitter account with Posterous (auto-post) and all email messages sent to twitter@posterous.com will therefore become commands for the remote computer. (Also see: Post to Twitter via Email)

By SMS: If you live in US, UK, Canada, India, Germany, Sweden or New Zeleand, you can send associate Twitter with your mobile phone (see list of numbers) and then control your remote computer via SMS Text Messages.

By IM: Add the Twitter bot - twitter@twitter.com - to your list of Google Talk buddies and you can then send commands via instant message.

By Web:If you are on vacation but have access to an internet connected laptop, just log into the Twitter website and issue commands (e.g., shutdown or logoff) just as another tweet.

Download Files, Capture Remote Screenshots & more..

While the TweetMyPC is pretty good for shutting down a remote computer, it lets you do some more awesome stuff as well.

For instance, you need to download an unfinished presentation from the office computer so that you can work on it at home. Or you want to download a trial copy of Windows 7 on the Office computer while you are at home.

Here’s a partial list of commands that you can use to remote control the PC - they’re case-insensitive and, as discussed above, you can send them to Twitter via email, SMS, IM or the web.

Screenshot : This is one of the most useful command I’ve come across after the shutdown command. Want to know what’s happening within the confines of your PC when you’re not around? Just tweet screenshot and TweetMyPC will take a screenshot of your desktop and post it to the web (see example).

ShutDown, LogOff, Reboot, Lock : The function of these useful commands is pretty obvious from their names.

Standby, Hibernate : Don’t want to shutdown the remote PC? Save power by entering standby mode with this command. Or hibernate your PC with a tweet, thereby saving even more power.

Download : You can download any file from the Internet on to the remote computer using the download command. For instance, a command like download http://bit.ly/tCJ9Y will download the CIA Handbook so you have the document ready when you resume work the next day.

GetFile : The Download command was for downloading files from the Internet onto the remote computer. However, if you like to transfer a file from the remote computer to your current computer, use the GetFile command. It takes the full page of the file that you want to download and will send that you as an email attachment. If you don’t know the file page, use the command GetFileList to get a list of file folders on that drive.

GetProcessList : This is like a remote task manager. You’ll get a list of programs that are currently running on the remote computer along with their process IDs. Send another command kill to terminate any program that you think is suspicious or not required.

Conclusion:

TweetMyPC is a must-have utility and you never know when you may need it. And if you have been trying to stay away from Twitter all this time, the app gives you a big reason to at least create one protected account on Twitter.

That said, there’s scope for improvement. For instance, the app will wait for a minute to check for new messages in your Twitter stream so it’s not "instant". The developers can actually increase that limit because the Twitter API now allows upto 100 checks per hour.

And since the app is dependent on Twitter and Gmail, it will not work during those rare fail-whale moments.

Related: Twitter Guide: How to Do Everything with Twitter

How to Remote Control your Windows PC with Email or SMS - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

Tips for Producing Better Video Slideshows with Animoto
If you are already using Animoto to create video slideshows of your photos, here are some tips for producing even better video with Animoto.

If you are already using Animoto to create video slideshows of your photos, here are some tips for producing even better video.

Animoto is an easy tool for creating impressive videos out of your boring digital photos in minutes. Just upload your pictures to the Animoto website (or pull them directly from Flickr or Picasa), select a background music to play with your video slideshow, add some text (optional) and you’re done.

Check these pages on YouTube and Twitter to see some more video clips that have been created using Animoto.com.

The basic version of Animoto is free but it limits you to 30 second video clips that aren’t downloadable though you can upload them to YouTube. You can however sign-up for Animoto using this special link and it will give you the option to create one full length video on Animoto for free.

A full length video can be as long as the duration of the song and you can download the video as well though it’s not in HD format.

Animoto Tips for Better Video

While Animoto makes is super easy for your to create professional looking videos without any preparation, a little bit of planning can make your slideshows look even better. Here are some tips from Animoto:

1. When uploading photos to Animoto, always pick photos that have a landscape orientation as portrait photos can sometimes format oddly during the video render process.

2. Animoto will automatically determine the duration of each picture in the video slideshow but if there’re pictures that you really want to emphasize in the video, select the images in the video editor and use the spotlight button.

3. When adding text to your video, always make sure that their pictures on either side of the text slide else your text will lack any moving video in the background.

4. Your choice of music determines the transition speed. If you select a slow classical song, your music video will have slow transitions whereas if you select rock, the transitions will happen fast - go for the latter if you are looking to create MTV style video clips.

5. Animoto consumes around 15-20 images for their 30 second shorts. If you upload more images, they are likely to be discarded in the final video so pick the best shots before starting the render process. For full-length videos, you an upload upto 300 shots but the number of pictures used would really depend on the choice of your music - slow music means less pictures.

6. While most people use Animoto for creating fast slideshows, you can adjust the video speed to 1/2x for a more traditional slideshow.

7. If you want to brand your Animoto slideshows, make sure that the last image in the slideshow is not a photograph but an image of your logo.

Tips for Producing Better Video Slideshows with Animoto - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

Find Your Most Popular Web Pages on Twitter with Google Docs
Learn how to discover and track the most popular pages of your website on Twitter using Google Docs. You can measure the Twitter success of your RSS feed or the entire site in one go.

If you were to measure the popularity of your website content on Twitter, the most effective way would be that you count the number of tweets (and re-tweets) that are linking to your web pages.

For instance, I can go to backtweets.com and it will instantly show me a list of twitter messages (and their total count) that mention any of my blog articles.

Which articles from your site are getting popular on Twitter?

The web interface of backtweets is pretty awesome for tracking popularity of web pages on Twitter one-by-one but imagine if you could use the same service to measure popularity of dozens of web pages or even your entire site in one go?

Well, here’s a Google Docs spreadsheet [*] that does exactly the same thing. It consists of two sheets - one for tracking RSS feeds and other for tracking multiple URLs.

[*] If you have trouble viewing the sheet, please open this read-only HTML version of the Google sheet. And here’s a video demo:

The text in the video will be more readable if you watch it in full-screen mode.

Here’s how you get started - just type the URL of any RSS feed in cell B1 and Google Docs will automatically compute the tweet count of all articles that are syndicated via that feed.

If you like to measure the same data but for your entire site, open the sheet titled "Web Pages" and copy-paste the list of all your URLs in column A. The tweet count will be reflected in the adjacent column and you can then sort by this column to find web pages that are most popular on Twitter.

And this computation happens in real-time so the Twitter numbers on your Google Docs will change if more people tweet that URL or if you some new content gets added to your RSS feed.

The Technical Details

You don’t need to read this for using the spreadsheet but if you are really curious to know how Google Docs could get the Twitter numbers for your blog feed, here’s what happens behind the scenes.

Cell B1 is the place where you type the web URL of an RSS feed.

Column A grabs the title of the 15 latest stories from the RSS feed using this formula:

=importfeed(B1, "Items Title" , , 15)

Column B displays the URL of these 15 stories using this formula:

=importfeed(B1, "Items URL" , , 15)

Now that we have the URL of your pages, we can use the BackTweets API to calculate the number of incoming links on Twitter for those web pages. BackTweets sends the data in an XML format so we use another Google Docs formula to extract the relevant information.

=importxml(http://backtweets.com/search.xml?key=XYZ&q="           &B3, "//totalresults")

You need to replace the string XYZ with your own unique API key and that can be requested at this page. It’s free for non-commercial use and you can make 1000 requests per day.

See the tutorial on Tracking Web Pages with Google Docs for a more detailed explanation of the ImportXML function.

Find Your Most Popular Web Pages on Twitter with Google Docs - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

Shop.org Regional Dinners: The Power of Community
We Will Get By, We Will Survive __   The Grateful Dead Last week Scott Silverman and I had the pleasure of attending our Chicago and Columbus Regional Dinners.  It was truly an inspiring experience to see the power of the Shop.org community at work and doing what it does best — allowing our members to help each [...]

We Will Get By, We Will Survive
__   The Grateful Dead

Last week Scott Silverman and I had the pleasure of attending our Chicago and Columbus Regional Dinners.  It was truly an inspiring experience to see the power of the Shop.org community at work and doing what it does best — allowing our members to help each other improve their business and achieve their goals.

At both dinners the conversation never lapsed and we had a great diversity of eCommerce “newbies” and seasoned veterans who shared with the group the wisdom of their experience.  If I may risk jinxing it, I felt the general mood of the dinners to be a lot more optimistic then in recent memory.  Things are obviously still challenging, but our members were not wallowing in misery — instead they were sharing how they are succeeding and finding opportunity through adversity even in a recession.  

I would like to thank our sponsors at the dinners (Right Now Technologies in Chicago and eBillme in Columbus) and invite everyone to check out our list of Regional Dinners for one near you.  I will see everyone in Boston on June 15! 

Larry Joseloff
VP, Content
Shop.org

The HoneyComb Engine
All other Zakelro projects have been moved to the back burner. The HoneyComb Engine rev03 RPG system, the result of nearly 20 years of exploring participatory storytelling systems, has been testing extremely well and we’re fervently committed to sharing it with the world at large. I’m hard at it, shackled to my keyboard, banging out a [...]

All other Zakelro projects have been moved to the back burner. The HoneyComb Engine rev03 RPG system, the result of nearly 20 years of exploring participatory storytelling systems, has been testing extremely well and we’re fervently committed to sharing it with the world at large.

I’m hard at it, shackled to my keyboard, banging out a rough draft of the manual. Not one, but TWO editors eagerly snatch the digital pages from my feverish grasp and pour their red pixels into the mix.

We’re having weekly meetings to discuss publishing avenues, prototyping the Life Wheels, and exploring manufacturing options so that we can deliver quality, sustainable, fair trade, merchandise.

I’m working on a site to support the free online distribution of the system, act as a storefront for people who wish to purchase the book in hardcover, paperback, or PDF format, and eventually play host to the digital conversion of the HoneyComb Engine.

I’ve got a follow-up book planned that will share specific tools and tips for building non-linear plots and provide skill training exercises for sharing the story creation process. It’s quite likely that I will be publish world-books at some point–sharing the world I’ve built that supports multiple play styles, limitless genres, and a participatory storytelling approach.

The Renown game will be revamped to use assets compatible with the Rev03 LifeWheel and together the games will provide a design tool for creating your own games or randomly generating your own plots and story experiences for Rev03.

I don’t expect to become an enormous publishing empire–just a very tiny one. But it is clear to everyone involved–my wife, my testers, myself–that this is it. This is the culmination of my theory and the platform that will support its future growth and development. There’s a near-palpable buzz around the Zakelro Manse these days and it’s exciting.

Over the next month, I’m running public tests of The HoneyComb Engine Rev03 ruleset at a wonderful local gaming shop, Guardian Games. The sessions, if you’re local and interested in checking it out, are:

• Thursday the 9th of July from 6-8p
• Saturday the 18th of July from 6-8p and 8-10p
• Thursday the 23th of July from 6-8p
• Saturday the 1st of August from 6-8p and 8-10p

Each session will support 3-4 players and cover the basics of the system while providing a very simple plot to unravel. I will also be creating a unique storyworld based upon independent player input for each session, just to keep things interesting.

The first BIG unveiling of the system will be at PAX this year. As I said yesterday I’ll be moderating a panel on Sunday, but the rest of the weekend I hope to run numerous public play sessions. If you’re going to be at PAX and want to give it a shot, let me know. If you’re local but won’t be at PAX, I’ll have a hotel room right next to the convention center and will happily set up private showings as well.

And then,

On September 9, 2009,

the HoneyComb Engine website will go live. The system rules and high-quality printable PDFs of the assets needed to run the game will be available, for free, to the public. Shortly thereafter the HoneyComb Engine system manual will be made available for purchase in both PDF and physical book formats. At some point within the following year, Life Wheels will be made available for purchase as well.

This is it–”money where my mouth is” time. I’m excited and can’t wait to see where this is going to lead us over the coming year!

Rev03: Exert Your Influence
This post is the eighth in an ongoing series explaining the basics of Rev03, the RPG system underlying the HoneyComb Engine. Did I say in the last post that we were going to talk about item and world creation?! I lied. Lied, I tell you! In point of fact, today I am going to talk [...]

This post is the eighth in an ongoing series explaining the basics of Rev03, the RPG system underlying the HoneyComb Engine. Did I say in the last post that we were going to talk about item and world creation?! I lied. Lied, I tell you! In point of fact, today I am going to talk a little bit about interacting with the world and the newest component of Rev03–the Challenge Track.

The interaction mechanic for Rev03 is pretty simple and designed to share the storytelling power. I’m going to use combat terminology to describe how it works, because it most effectively allows me to explain all three elements of the Challenge Track.

The center track is an indicator of time. ‘Tellers place a token on this track on the number that matches the maximum value of their Poise influence. This gives ‘tellers with a higher Poise, a greater initiative. If the narrative dictates a surprise attack, or one ‘teller clearly has an edge, then adjustments should be made for this. The ‘teller prime then calls out Ticks and ‘tellers slide their tokens up the track, one hex per tick. When a ‘teller hits the top hex, numbered 9, they either call out, “Ready,” or, “Hold.” They also move any exerted will that lies on an Influence into the expended will hex, and an amount of expended will (as determined by the value of their Life/Control) back into their Source.

If they hold, each subsequent tick allows them to repeat the preparatory actions of hitting the ready hex, meaning they can reclaim more Will with each hold. They may also use holds to time their actions to correspond with the other ‘tellers. If they call out, “Ready,” they take an action.

First, the ‘teller declares which Influence they intend to use–Mastery, Persistence, Design, Poise, Sleight, or Charm. The Body Mind and Spirit Influences are special-case interpretations of the six core influences and come into play with the specialties wheels (which is new take on the handling of Professional specialties since I Iast posted and includes a Body Wheel, as well as a Mind (Psionics) and Spirit (Magic) wheel).

Next the ‘teller determines, with the help of the ‘teller prime if need be, what the difficulty level of the action is. This uses the left-most table of the Challenge Track, which presents the four challenge levels in descending order from safest (yellow) to most dangerous (red) and numbered 0 through 3–Uncontested Mundane, Contested Mundane, Uncontested Extra-Normal, Contested Extra-normal. Mundane actions are anything we can picture a human doing. Extra-normal is other than that, whether it’s casting a fireball, probing a mind, or picking up a van. The challenge level number, the small number on the left, is the amount of will you must exert to meet the challenge level before rolling a d10 to determine your success. The larger number is the amount of will you must exert if you want to buy an automatic success (a 6 on the result table). The d6 and d10 indicators are there to show what sort of die they’ll be rolling against if applicable.

Uncontested actions are any actions that don’t involve another character potentially working against you. Contested actions are any actions taken against another character, even if they aren’t in a position to immediately defend themselves.

It should be noted that uncontested actions aren’t without difficulty. Picking a lock is a mundane contested action, but the lock will have a difficulty rating of 1 through 6 (which might be set by the ‘teller prime, or just determined by the roll of a d6). It should also be noted that buying a success on a contested action (such as in combat) won’t always guarantee you a success if your opponent is able to defend and rolls a natural 7, 8, or 9. They can even buys their own automatic success, and force a standard resolution (keep reading).

This makes the automatic-success buyout a powerful but unwieldy tool. Will, once spent, is regained at a rate determined by the Life element, which has a maximum value of three. This makes it pretty easy to overextend yourself, which is quite dangerous because without available Will, you’re not able to do much other than run and hide. I have found that ‘tellers are eager to use those automatic successes at first, but quickly discover that it’s often better to trust the results of their favorite die.

The ‘teller moves the number of needed Will tokens from their source to the chosen influence, referred to as exerting their influence, and if they haven’t decided to automatically succeed, rolls a d10–allowing Fate to have an effect on their action. They compare the result of their die roll to the result table on the right side of the track. This gives the ‘tellers a suggestion as to how many hits (damage or effect) their action might have, and how it might effect movement–either of their own character or their opponent. Movement modifiers are applied to the tokens of the participating characters on their respective movement tracks. Red results are bad for the ‘teller’s character. Yellow results have some effect, but don’t modify movements rates and green results are very good for the ‘teller–having a greater potential for effect and allowing them to position themselves well for their next action. Taking this into account, the ‘teller describes their action and the effect it has on their opponent.

If the ‘teller receiving the action is also Ready, they may decide to defend, completing the same process, up to the die roll. Then the ‘teller with the highest roll gets to control the action, describing the success or failure of it and declaring any damages or movement penalties based on the difference between the die rolls. This is the case, even if they fail their defense by only rolling 1, 2, or 3 higher than their attacker.

It is fully expected that the ‘teller in charge of the action will try and give themselves the advantage in some way, setting up their next planned move. And while the ‘teller prime should help them come up with descriptions that are in keeping with the style of the narrative and guide them in setting appropriate damage levels and move bonuses/hindrances, they should also encourage them to find creative ways of turning failures to their advantage.

Both a natural 9 and a natural 0 are considered automatic criticals. 9 is a critical success. 0 is a critical failure. Both have a firm movement value of 6, meaning one of the combatants will move their token to 0, or the other will be placed on 6 and get an action the very next Tick. If your token is on 0, you must wait for every other character in combat to either hit ready, or land on 0 themselves before you can begin moving your token up the track again.

Once the ‘teller has finished describing their action, and the appropriate damage has been assessed, they reset their counter on the challenge track to the maximum possible value of the influence they just used, as modified by any movement penalties or bonuses. The will they exerted remains on the influence until they next hit the final hex on the track.

This is obviously a hasty overview of the system, which will receive a much more in-depth treatment in the manual. For example, there are ways to stack actions, modifying the effect or movement rates for subsequent actions. There are also combat effects that wear off, represented by tokens of course, and ways of calculating weapon damage maximums, movement maximums related to using complicated weapons, etc.

Call to Action: Let’s Define Standards for Online Marketing Attribution
Are you accountable for the ROI of your company’s online marketing efforts?  Do you struggle with how to measure the incremental impact of your media dollars when multiple influences or touch-points occur during the conversion process?  If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, I invite you to join forces with your Shop.org peers [...]

Are you accountable for the ROI of your company’s online marketing efforts?  Do you struggle with how to measure the incremental impact of your media dollars when multiple influences or touch-points occur during the conversion process?  If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, I invite you to join forces with your Shop.org peers in a new Online Marketing Attribution SIG, and participate in developing a series of best practices for online marketing measurement.

At the 2009 Shop.org Marketing Workshop, John Lazarchic (Petco), John Ardis (ValueClick), Dustin Engle (Range Online Media) and I participated in a panel titled “Measuring What Matters:  The Secret to Online Marketing Channel Attribution.”  In our panel, we explored current online measurement practices (and pitfalls), and discussed the importance of going beyond last-click conversion in determining the true impact of your marketing dollars. 

Our conclusion:  by measuring just the last-click (long the industry standard), marketers are very likely undervaluing the “introducers,” which occur at the beginning of the buying funnel;  overvaluing the “closers,” which occur closest to the conversion point, and largely ignoring the “influencers,” which occur mid-cycle.  As a result, marketers may reduce spending precisely where it is most likely to drive incremental sales.    

Fortunately, many marketers have already evolved to more sophisticated measurement techniques which allocate sales across the buying cycle:  introducers (first click), influencers (non-converting clicks) and closers (converting clicks).  To date, however, there is no common framework for either the tools or the allocation process, and minimal capacity for evaluating the influence of offline media.  As the methodologies and tools emerge to make these sophisticated multi-channel allocation methodologies accessible to all marketers, we need to join together to define the standards for our industry. 

Our call to action:  as marketers and members of the Shop.org community, we are best positioned to define the new allocation standards for the online retailing industry.  Working together, we can develop a set of guidelines for marketing allocation best practices, a requirements list that meets retailer ROI measurement needs, and a directory of non-proprietary tools and techniques.  Our findings can serve as a reference point for e-tailers and vendors—creating a non-proprietary measurement approach which can be tailored to the buying lifecycle for each retailer.     

Members of this SIG will:

• Review current multi-channel allocation methodologies for determining incremental sales, highlighting the pros and cons of various approaches;
• Review available and emerging technologies for tracking and allocation;
• Recommend best practices for retailers to implement in their organizations to effectively measure the incremental impact of their marketing dollars.

I hope you’ll join us!  Leave a comment or email me at anneashbey@jeffnet.org to express your interest in participating.

3 Days, 5 Books, Limitless Community
This is important to me, so even if you find yourself wondering what this has to do with games–please just read through this post. My partner in life and creativity, Rachel, is walking in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day in Seattle in September. The walk is 60 miles across three days and the [...]

This is important to me, so even if you find yourself wondering what this has to do with games–please just read through this post.

My partner in life and creativity, Rachel, is walking in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day in Seattle in September. The walk is 60 miles across three days and the net proceeds, as you would expect, go to support breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. According to Susan G. Komen For the Cure, more than 200,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and nearly 40,000 will die from the disease.

It’s quite likely that you know a breast cancer survivor. It’s not too much of a stretch to think you know someone who didn’t survive.

Not only has Rachel been in training, building her walking stamina well beyond my own (and I consider myself quite the walker), but she’s working hard raising the entry fee in ways that return value to her community. Asking for money is not something either of us are very comfortable with, so it’s been a big learning experience to find ourselves in this position.

First off, she’s made an arrangement with the Laurelwood Pizza Company and they are generously donating 15% of the proceeds from their NE 40th Avenue location in Portland, OR on Monday the 20th. She’ll be there in the evening from 5-close, but if you live in the area, please stop by and have at least a pint. Their beer is excellent and their food is pretty amazing.

Secondly, she’s put together a Wii bowling tournament at Guardian Games on Saturday, August 1st from 1-5p. I speak from experience when I say Guardian Games is a great spot to hang out and that the staff and clientele are very welcoming. The entry fee for the Wii bowling tournament is $15 and there will be prizes for the winners.

Seeing her efforts, both in fund raising and in walking, I found myself wondering what I could do to help. When we hit the fast-track to publishing The HoneyComb Engine participatory storytelling manual, I realized what I, what we, can do for her. The online version of the manual will go live on September 9th. We’re committed to having the print-on-demand version (most likely through Lulu) available by the holidays. Current estimates suggest it’ll probably cost between $15 and $20.

But you might not have to pay that much for your copy.

I’m giving away the first 5 HoneyComb Engine manuals ever to be printed. They’ll be personally transcribed with a thank you and signed by both Rachel and myself. We’ll even toss in a copy of the PDF manual, which we’ll be selling online as well.

All you need to do to be eligible for the drawing is follow this link to Rachel’s Breast Cancer 3 Day profile, LINK!, click the button labeled Click to donate to Rachel!, and donate $5.

That’s it. Just $5.

Every $5 dollars donated will count as an entry in the giveaway. So donate $10 and you’ll get two entries in the drawing. Donate $15 and you’ll get three entries, and so on. Just be sure to put “HoneyComb Engine” in the Personal Note field so we know to add your name to the drawing.

I know the gaming community is amazing when it marshals its forces to support a good cause. One in eight women in their lifetime will be diagnosed with breast cancer and Susan G. Komen is pretty much the source of funding for breast cancer research. Your donation is not only tax deductible, but you could be one of the first people to own a copy of our brand new role-playing system.

Thanks for reading.

Ticking Timebombs in Your PPC Program?
The fact that Google has relaxed its policies with respect to trademark protection doesn't change the law. Indeed, the perils of PPC advertising with respect to trademarks are poorly understood.

Notice anything usual in the next paragraph?

You’re the marketing guy who drives sales for your company via paid search plus 100% ethical SEO. You do direct marketing like no one else. You’re working hard, doing great. Then one afternoon, the phone rings. It’s the big boss. “We’re in deep deep trouble — we just got a trademark alert from some aggressive trial lawyers from our online retail partners. Put our PPC marketing on hold now, just do it! We may need some of the best lawyers in America to get out of jail free on this one.”

You might have picked up on a couple, but those 8 sentences include 15 trademarks.*

Likewise, online advertisers occasionally don’t notice third-party trademarks when developing term lists and copy for paid search campaigns. In the case of reputable retailers and search agencies, the misuse is often accidental, but the legal consequences can be large.

Trademark law is based on the likelihood of confusion for the consumer. I can invent a beverage and name it “George’s Amazing Cola,” but I can’t legally call it “Coke” or “Coca-Cola”. The Coca Cola Corporation holds the trademark on their name, and plastering “Coke” on my drink would clearly confuse consumers. Intellectual Property (”IP”) law also protects visual appearances (”trade dress”), so I can’t legally swirl “George’s Amazing Cola” in Coke’s distinctive red-and-white font.

A company can use another company’s mark in their advertising as long as it doesn’t create a likehood for confusion — say, in a comparison. I can advertise that “George’s Amazing Cola has half the sugar as Coca-Cola” (assuming that fact is true) without infringing on Coke’s IP.

George’s Amazing Cola of course wouldn’t run a print ad or TV ad saying: “Coke, but less expensiv