Published on May 28, 2009
in Ideas.
I’ve had this idea for a while and probably wrote something on it in the past. The key to beating Google in search is creating a more efficient way to search. Today. You search. You see if you like it. And. 25% of the time you click the back button.
Here is where Microsoft can beat Google. They need to change this behavior. You should search FORWARD. Not backwards. You could do this through the browser. You could do it through widgets. You could do it through inexpensive re-targeted ads. The key is to let people search. Keep their search results next to their browsing, but eliminate the the back button mentality.
Like all things. Easier said than done.
Published on May 26, 2009
in Ideas.
I love craigslist, but we have had to relist items a few times because we thought we had something sold, but it fell through.
When we were moving houses, my wife listed our dining room table, chairs, and our drier in separate listings. We quickly had a few emails and someone said they would come Saturday morning to pick up the dining room table and chairs. The emails kept coming, but my wife started telling people that it was sold. Saturday morning came and the people didn’t show up. We had to relist. Ugh. The same thing happened with the drier, but we weren’t able to get the drier sold by the time we moved, so we moved it.
So, our drier has been sitting in our new garage. This weekend I got motivated to be able to fit both cars in the garage. To make this happen, we needed to get rid of the drier. My wife listed it on cl again and emails started coming in, but this time I told her to tell people that the first person to show up gets it and we would email them back if it was sold before they showed up. My wife didn’t want to deal with people, so she listed my cell phone. I got two calls quickly. One person wanted to come the next day and the other person mid week. I told them, we had listed items on CL before and people didn’t show up, so we were going to sell it to the first person that came and wanted it. The person who planned to come Monday, came in 30 minutes! The drier is gone. If you want to move something quickly, I think it’s key not to hold it for someone to show up - Sell to the first person that shows up.
Published on May 22, 2009
in Ideas.
You hear a lot about Twitter these days. Heck. Even Oprah is on it. But. Twitter isn’t as easy to understand as it sounds. This is for people that want to understand how to use Twitter without using it. Or. Why someone would want to use Twitter.
Twitter is the social network for people you don’t know but you want to know. Make sense? For example. I can follow Oprah on Twitter. She doesn’t know me, but I’d like to know her or at least I’m intrigued enough to follow her. Ok. I don’t follow Oprah, but I do follow Pete Carroll. Go Trojans! Oprah can broadcast out to all her followers anything she wants. All her followers will get instant access to her broadcast. Twitter is great for celebrities since their fans can follow them and they can tweet once in a while with less than 140 characters and keep people engaged.
Second. Twitter is great for real time information for very precise things. Like local and conferences. If you want to meet people at a conference, usually a tweet with the hash tag of the event will fill your schedule up. Or. If there is a bad accident on 101. Searching #101 will usually turn up some very local and relevant content. Some local food trucks send tweets out about their location.
Third Usage case. With twitter you can update your status acrosss platforms. This works best with Facebook. Just install the Twitter app on Facebook and then your status will update with your latest tweet. This way you only have to update one place.
Published on May 18, 2009
in Ideas.
I started a feed of marketing bloggers nearly three years ago. I went out and looked for the best marketing blogs I could find. The feed has about 12 bloggers.
My feed still has 12 blogs. All of them are still active. Which I think is amazing. But. I now only read two of them about once a month. Shoemoney – Skills to Pay the Bills and Seth’s Blog.
While these blogs are totally different in style, they both do two things that are similar that I think keeps me reading. First, they post about once a day. They might miss a day here or there, but for the most part they crank a post out per day that has a digestible tidbit for me.
The second thing is they have a voice. A style. That is unique and authentic.
If you’re starting a blog or already writing one, I think it’s important to have a cadence. A cadence to the frequency of your posts (something I clearly miss – but can improve upon) and a cadence to the style of your writing.
Published on May 14, 2009
in Ideas.
Ever watch Barry Sanders in his prime. He could take a hand-off and instantly hit full speed. He’d pop outside. Stop. Switch directions. And be at full speed again. Amazing.
While we aren’t getting chased by 300 pound linemen every day, we do get interrupted. You may be locked deep in a complicated spreadsheet, or concentrating on a intricate algorithm. Then. Have to switch gears to a business development issue or handle customer support. Each time stopping and switching activities.
I’m consciousness of my start and stop time. I try and take a breath. Focus. And go. What’s your start and stop time?
Published on May 9, 2009
in Ideas.
Published on May 6, 2009
in Ideas.
It’s now easy to wirelessly sync your blackberry contacts with Gmail. This also works with Google Contacts that are in your Google for Domains account so you can easily sync your business contacts. Just install the latest Google Sync application for your Blackberry. To get your contacts to sync, you have to change a setting in your blackberry contacts to allow duplicates. To do this, open your Blackberry contacts application, click options, select yes for allowing duplicate names. Then go into the options of the Blackberry sync application and select the checkbox to sync contacts. When you do this, you’ll also get the option to sync your Blackberry Calendar with Gmail. This has been working great with me.
If you don’t know how to find your contact list in Gmail (many have never noticed it), just go into Gmail and you can find the link under the trash link on the left hand side of the page. Now all I need is sync to work for Blackberry mail to Gmail so I won’t need the Gmail Blackberry application. Some day:)
