Sometimes the most important thing in Mass Email is not knowing when or how to send, it’s knowing when NOT to send. I know, those of you that aren’t involved in the active end of marketing are saying “He’s a bloody spammer…” The truth is this – I am the gatekeeper who decides who gets to use certain cherished customer lists. And part of that it ensuring anything that is sent is relevant to the particular user group in question. And I…
Due to a newly discovered Windows Flaw, vBulletin is liable to cross site scripting attacks. They have released a new update to the current 3.6 code stream, and patches for the previous code streams as well. Go here to find out more (if you have an earlier version, click the patches link).
My Morning Jacket performing “Lowdown” at the Mercury, Austin, TX on June 3, 2003
A couple weeks ago I posted that the International Herald Tribune was offering an new service that allows you to create podcasts of the stories you want to read and download them to your preferred listening device. Here’s a review after using it over the past week. Overall, it is a striking innovation in the way newspaper content is presented. The implementation needs work, but the basics of the system are sound, easy to use, and give entry to traditional…
I was talking with Val O. last night and she said “Okay, if not press releases, what should they be doing.” My snarky answer, “Whatever works.” But really it’s simpler than that. Let’s take a look at a friend who’s product manager for a legacy software product. It’s got 20 years of service, and runs on a platform that’s no longer made or supported by the company that made it. Feature-wise, it’s still the best in the industry. So they decided to…
I’m full of righteously indignant bile and ready to spit nails today, so if you’re not in the mood for a good rant, perhaps you want to skip this post. Press releases – I have little use for them. Sure, it’s good to get into the trade press, but the truth is this: your customers don’t read much anymore. Sorry folks, I know all you MarComm types just spewed non-fat mocha latte out your nose, but the truth is out there. …
Okay, I’ll admit it – I’m probably the only person on the face of the earth who doesn’t own an Ipod. It’s not that I don’t love music, I do. I’ve just normally streamed stuff of archive.org, so I never got around to joining the Ipod nation. Last week I went nuclear on the “bring your tunes with you” issue. Forget about your 2 gig, or even your 80 gig Ipods. I got a 160 gig MyBook and downloaded my whole library. Sure, I have to…
(Yech – I just tried some of the searches that hadn’t been working and now they are – hence the entire premise of this post is, at best, questionable. I’m still going to leave it up as it brings up a question we need to consider – how reliant are we on Google, and how will small changes in Google affect our online marketing efforts) Everyone’s talking about the long tail, and savvy marketers devoting more resources to looking at blogs, buzz management and all…
JP had a great follow up to yesterday’s bit on Community Participation. He quite presciently notes that roles within communities are not stagnant, they in fact evolve. My experience with the Reel-Time.com community demonstrates this in spades. I saw a three-four year cycle in our users in that niche community for saltwater fly fisherfolk.
David Churbuck’s posted here and here on the subject of lurkers and forum engagement in online communities, as did J.P. Rangaswami on his ConfusedofCalcutta.com blog. David suggested that I post on my experiences in working with him on the Reel-Time.com forum since 1995 or so. Here’s the critical stat from J.P.’s post: “I’ve always believed in a simple rule-of-thumb about opensource communities: * For every 1000 people who join a community: * 920 are lurkers, passive observers * 60 are watchers, active observers…