Entries from November 2005 ↓

Get Firefox. I don’t really understand the technical details of why it’s better, but I sure love the tabs.

If you want a technical explanation of Firefox’ superiority to IE, let my friend Richard Miller explain it to you. Design for Firefox First, Internet Explorer Second.

According to KSL News, Franklin Covey posted its first annual profit since 1998. Ya gotta remember those 7 habits.

via [ KSL ]

via [ Yahoo! Finance ]

How many wealthy people in the world do you know that would say this?

My wife and I have been blessed by the Lord with financial resources. We feel a need to give back. The IRS says we own these assets, but we believe they belong to the Lord, and we are stewards over them.

- Alan Hall

via [ Paul Allen ]

Paul Allen seems to have the same problem as the rest of us. Research is expensive. And, to tell you the truth, I wonder how much of it is actually good research.

I don’t see it being free anytime soon - at least not the good research. Gartner, IDC, Jupiter, etc…

If you are in the business of Internet Marketing though, I do suggest you take a look at Marketing Experiments Journal (MEJ). It’s free. For some reason, everybody likes MarketingSherpa, but MarketingSherpa often quotes MEJ, and MEJ provides better research. MEJ does primary research/A/B testing, and host of other things and provides it all for free. Get it now. It may not be free forever.

Here’s a rediculous concept. Bad PR still gets press. How? Because people write about how bad it is.

Let me show you.
Set Godin Cites Incredible Press Release From Hell

The PR folks are used to having to shovel loads and loads of outbound stuff in order to get one or two things picked up. That’s the way it works in traditional media.

That’s 10 total blogs have linked back to Seth’s original post about the bad PR of “THE VENDARE GROUP CHANGES NAME TO VENDARE MEDIA”? 11 if you include me. How many people have read those posts? The press release just had 11 blogs post information about their headline, which simply helps with Vendare’s SEO rankings. Funny how Seth (and now I) may just be contributing to the problem by giving the problem recognition.

Here are some of the other’s who are contributing to the problem (now I am included)
larry borsato
what’snextblog.com
lightbox5.com

A friend of mine is celebrating the 30-birthday of his motorcyle. Even more insteresting is the fact that he created a WML app that works with his mobile phone to record the price of gas when he fills up his two-wheeled pony. Now he has 30 month’s worth of data (graph included) tracking his gasoline consumption.

Each time I buy gas I open up my phone and record how much gas I bought, how much it cost, and my current odometer reading. I don’t quite know why I started doing it, probably just for fun, but now I have 30 months of historical data which is sort of interesting to look at.

via [ RichardKMiller.com ]

From what I have been reading from other folks on the Internet is that they have seen some unruly behavior today during black Friday shopping . . . I have heard the stories, but I have never actually seen it myself. Well, not in real life.

I didn’t have this experience.

In fact, mine were all quite the opposite, yet I wasn’t standing in front of BestBuy or Wal-Mart for a cheap-o computer or laptop at 5 a.m. in the freezing cold. I will tell you I am very dissappointed by those early risers that went to my local Circuit City in Midvale, Utah. They left coffee cups and scatterings of their early morning garbage all over the sidewalks. I did find some great deals though - mostly DVDs. Interesting though, I didn’t even see one XBOX 360 the entire 6 1/2 hour shopping day.

I did have an a-ha experience of the most unlikely kind today. I was actually thinking about those little paper toilet covers that stores keep on the back of their toilets and how they often say “Provided by the Management for Your Protection.” Protection from what? Are they suggesting that their toilets are so terrible that we need the management to protect us from some unknown funk growing in the bathrooms? We all know what they are for . . . don’t try to sell it as a customer service tool. It just comes out the wrong way . . . no pun.

I participated in a news discussion about Microsoft’s “shortage” of the XBOX 360. What I essentially told the reporter is that it’s all a ruse to manipulate the laws of economics and to generate publicity. Microsoft leaks or says “we may not have enough to go around” and people run to the store.

Russell Page, a technology marketing consultant based in Utah, says it’s no secret that Microsoft is trying to gain momentum with its new offering to overtake Sony as the No. 1 game system in sales in America. Microsoft is now second.

Page said that Microsoft could be welcoming talk of shortages this holiday season.

“This idea of a shortage sends consumers to the stores with their pocketbooks,” Page said. “The Xbox (360) is likely going to be hard to find because it creates a marketing buzz.”

via [ Akron Beacon Journal ] - XBOX 360 is the talk of the game world

Even better, look at what happens to the perceived value of the XBOX 360. Suddenly, $399 doesn’t sound like so much when $699 is a good deal on eBay.