Archive for October, 2007

Attention those heading to SMX Social Media Expo!

Internet Marketers of New York will hold a Charity Party sponsored by Best of The Web to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Simply donate $40 at the door to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fight cancer and enjoy three hours of open bar partying with fellow social internet marketers. At the end of the night they will be raffling off prizes.

About the Party: (Make sure and check the real site for any last minute changes)

$40 Donation to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (I’m sure they’d take more.)
Monday, October 15, 2007
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Town Tavern Bar & Grill 134 W. 3rd Street and 6th Ave. (Google Map)
All Internet Marketers Are Welcome!

As this is a Meme per Marty at AimClear, I’m tagging some of my blogroll. Pass along this information to other bloggers if you can:

Seth Godin
Bill Slawski
Marketing Pilgrim
Barry Schwartz
David via WebproNews

Note: I won’t be at SMX NYC. If you’re not able to go to the party, be sure and check out the ultra-convenient on-line donation form for the society. It took me less than 5 minutes and it felt great.

I’m not making this up. But since my kids have a dog, it caught my eye. straight from 3 Dendy Road in South Devon - probably attached to one of the cleanest patches of turf in the whole of England, if this pans out - a talented industrial designer has created The Poop Swoop . Roughly a canine version of the Diaper Genie (an absolutely genius product, I’ll say from experience) the thing is meant to keep you from using your hands (through a bag, surely) to remove the waste. Very civilized.

From the Poop Swoop site:

“Yuk! We all hate dog poo! But we love our dogs!!!!! That’s why we went away, dreamt up, and patented - The SWOOP. The SWOOP really is your second best friend. It’s patented design GRABS and BAGS your pooch’s poop in a single action, concealing it away, leaving you free to dispose of it in a hygienic and responsible manner. ”

I’d like something more passive or at least entertaining. Where you push a button and a light blue glow and fresh pine scent marks the end of terds. Or perhaps a second button on this thing that would hurl the payload at cars driving too fast in the neighborhood. But I digress.

Surely NASA could provide a little insight since they’re spending tax dollars to extract electricity from crap already. Wouldn’t it be short leap to turn fido into a cell phone charger for my Blackberry? Short of that, like many, I’m sorely tempted to let natural biodegration take it’s course.

But Poop Swoop’s site lays on the guilt:

Do you walk down the street risking the paparazzi catching you, swinging your plastic bag above your head like a medieval weapon. Or do you do the unthinkable, something that only the Late Great Barbara Woodhouse would do and the hardiest of abattoir workers, that is: pocket it!

Perhaps I’ll not go to Paignton on holiday after all.

All of these inventions are based on a vertical tying business model, where the costs of production and marketing are made up later in costs of bags. The bags for the Swoop run about $0.25-0.28 each. Similar human versions of these bags are about $0.12-$0.15 as long as some blogger doesn’t ruin it for them they stand to make a shitload.

Postscript: Then there are people more creative who figured out how to entertain kids and take care of the problem, too.

A little Lexington news to share. 400 will be hired to staff a variety of positions at Amazon.com’s facility here in Lexington. This is a response to Amazon’s excellent growth, of course, and very good for Lexington. The Lexington Fulfillment Center was established in November 2000 and fulfills customer orders for products from Amazon.com.

These are mostly warehouse, maintenence, operations, and human resources positions.

Amazon has been consistantly praised for its successes in offering a huge variety, an excellent affiliate program and some of the industry’s best customer service.

“Lexington has been a great success for Amazon and our customers,” said Michael Passales, general manager for Amazon’s Lexington facility. “As we continue to expand our product and category selection, we are looking forward to hiring even more individuals who will help us deliver a great experience for our customers.”

Amazon is hosting weekly job fairs every Wednesday through the month of October from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at its facility located at 1800 Mercer Road in Lexington, and information about upcoming Open House events is available by calling 859-381-2299. Management positions can also be applied for online at www.amazon.com/careers.

For qualified people in Lexington currently working at smaller, old-fashioned warehouse ventures, this represents a chance to get involved in one of the most advanced logistical systems in the world. The high-tech warehouse environment at Amazon will offer outstanding experience with modern systems with great benefits and a terrific entry into your career history.

One side-note about the photo above. Note the vacant field next to Amazon? I’m pretty sure they’re not planning on growing corn.

Dear Retailer who sells very nice gift items in Lexington Green. When I snap a photo of something, I’m not here to scam you.

I’m not the front for a big Chinese manufacturer who is about to knock off your stuff and put you out of business. I’m not planning out an elaborate “Mission Impossible”-style robbery.

My wife and I are multi-tasking. I need to send her a picture of something I like and see if she wants to swing by and look at it. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars in your store and you don’t need to break the delicate positive brand image I have of you with some petty “We don’t allow pictures in the store” rule. I explained what I was doing, nicely, but it didn’t matter.

It’s amazing that I’m even in the store - with as much as I buy online. Since it’s an artsy-store, I flip the tag over on the item I’m photographing. … yep, URL. I surf to the address, yep. photos. Get a clue. This small, unique retail shop is one example, but not a unique one, and it’s about to collide with new technologies for comparison shopping we discussed at SMX Local Mobile in Denver last week.

If this were a one-time situation, I’d blow it off. But it happens to others, who blog about it too. I’m pretty fast with my camera, just hold it up and snap a quick picture, so I’m not making a scene or asking people to move, etc. I guess I could get better at it. I’m also not there photographing every thing on the shelf. I’m the best type of interested customer.

Seth Godin was busted for photographing oreos, and had this to say:

The irony of the Stop & Shop approach is that the people who you don’t want taking pictures–snoopy journalists or competitors–can easily conceal their cameras and you’ll never know. But the raving fans, the bloggers, the folks twisted enough to want to take and flickrize their supermarket experiences are your friends.

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A terrific brain trust of folks answered great questions that I’ve tried to aggregate into an organized list you may find very helpful. Enjoy! The Q/A was especially helpful and added a lot to the session.

Moderators:
Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land
Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

TIP: See the end of this post for other coverage on the conference too.

 

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Mobile Search: Beyond 10 Blue Links

Fascinating presentation at SMX Local Mobile.

Mobile searchers don’t want lists of web pages - they want answers or fast ways to take action. Mobile search providers are increasingly experimenting with alternative interfaces, such as location-aware browsing, voice recognition, text messaging and other innovative approaches. Learn about these new efforts and how they potentially impact mobile search marketing efforts.

(room sparse, but excellent presentation!)

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Show Me the Money!

So there are Billions out there. But who’s making money now. How will SEMs place bets now to ensure their success? Show me the money!

Moderator:
Greg Sterling

Speakers:

• Ian White, CEO, Urban Mapping
• Shawn Riegsecker, Chairman & CEO, Centro
• Justin Sanger, CEO, LocalLaunch
• Alfred Chow, Head, Yellowbook

 

Lots of energy in the room for this one. Big variety on the panel. PACKED ROOM.

 

Live Blogging after the jump

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Local businesses want leads and customers, not clicks. Although pay-per-click and pay-per-call are the two prevalent ad models to reach local searchers, will other models like CPA/PPA ultimately be more effective?

(Partial Liveblogging - other presenters not blogged… couldn’t get a coherant flow going :-P)

Steven Chuck, Director of Strategic Alliances, Yahoo! (more…)

Moderator:
Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

Marc Barach, CMO, Ingenio joined for the Q&A

Throughout this writup: PPC = pay per click.� Don’t confuse it with PPcall
Lots more after the jump… (more…)

This is a liveblogging entry from SMX Local/Mobile - a conference I’m attending in Denver, CO.

This was the best session I’ve attended yet at the conference. Lots of great information and engaging speakers. Good questions from the room and highly relevant content. Bravo!

Moderator:
Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

Speakers:

Alex Porter, Vice President, Location3 Media

Alan Beiagi, Director and GM, Mapquest

Michael Jones Google - replaced Microsoft who didn’t show

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