Friday Blog Meeting Delayed

Granted, February is the shortest month of the year, but this one seemed supremely fast. Due to scheduling conflicts this month's blog meeting at Kaldi's will be cancelled.

Now, about that April meeting...
We are looking for someone take the spotlight at next month's meeting and share their latest blogging stories. Is this you? Step up and send us a note.

Bose Sound Dock: 64 days and counting

*** Update: On Saturday morning we opened the box, plugged it in and even listened to the nano. The result? The end of an the saga and the start of surprisingly good sound. Say what you will about the small size, this baby's packing some pretty good bass. ***

Way back in December - the 26th to be exact, Franki and I went to Best Buy to pick up some post-Christmas electronics.

I got her an iPod nano to work out with, and that complemented our two other iPods nicely. So with a iPod family of three, we thought we were well covered.

Our music tends to come from MyMusic on the TiVo Home Theater - which is to say a piece of software called TiVo Desktop that broadcasts iTunes from one of the Macs to the living room television. It's not a bad system, but it's not the same as having a stereo. Last year I purchased one of those small iPod docking stations that passes as a boombox these days. My wife had me return it, as what she was really looking for was the fabulous Bose Sound Dock system. So we waited a year, and saw it at BestBuy one day when our buying defenses were at low tide.

$299 for the system at Best Buy, but they didn't have one in stock. We bought it anyway, and waited for the call that said it was coming in. A week later, I went to the store to pick up our new system, but all they had was the color black (and we wanted the white one). I called Franki, who pulled up the Bose website online and saw that the manufacturer had the system for the same price, free shipping, and a $25 iTunes card. I told a BestBuy clerk about the deal, and after confirming it on his computer, he handed me over a $25 iTunes card.

Now that's smart shopping.

For those of you who aren't able to call the spouse when you enter a store - consider comparison sites like Reseller Ratings. If we had decided to check with them first - we would have found the SoundDock for $269.00 on Amazon.

Now I like BestBuy, and we like the reward points and the 0% interest for 6 months we get when you spend over $300, so I'm glad I gave my money to them. I'm just glad Franki was on top of the price when I went in.

So we made the switch on the receipt, and I took home the black one, hoping to exchange it at another store. Two weeks later, we took the black Bose Sound Dock to another Best Buy on the way to kickboxing (at our friend New Life Martial Arts in Ballwin). They had the white one in stock, but wouldn't make the switch because we didn't have the receipt and their system showed we had returned the Sound Dock already. Exasperated, we brought the system home and went back to the Best Buy a week later with the correct receipt. They switched our system, and we went home, finally ready to listen to our Sound Dock.

When we got back to the condo, the power was out. One week later, Franki plugged in the Sound Dock and....it was a dud. Didn't work - nothing worked.

So we returned the Dock to the original Best Buy and replaced it with a new model. Today, that model is sitting underneath the desk in the kitchen, unopened, 64 days after we first purchased it. See, we lost our main iPod (the one with all of our music) during the move back from staying at relatives during the power outage. And our second iPod? It's broken, with the sad Mac face on the screen.

That leaves only the Nano, and it just doesn't seem right to plug that little 1,000 song machine into the Sound Dock. So the Dock sits under the kitchen desk - unused, out of sight, collecting dust. Sometimes, in my weak moments, I think the universe is conspiring against us. Maybe we aren't meant to listen to a Sound Dock. Maybe our successful use of the equipment will trigger the apocalypse, and so forces unseen by man are holding us back.

I can't tell. And I'm a little afraid to find out.

Judge PayPerPost By Their Actions

Rohit Bhargava has an excellent blog, Influential Interactive Marketing. He consistently puts out high quality information that is supremely relevant to my research into blog marketing. So perhaps I should apologize for hijacking his thread on giving free stuff to bloggers.

I didn't mean for to lapse over into a complaint about PayPerPost, but in the conversations about undue influence and the difference between a paid shill and a honest opinion, their "unique" brand of marketing comes to mind.

Why don't I trust PayPerPost? In addition to their having a truly loathsome business model that convinces bloggers to devalue their websites, they tend to follow marketing practices that strengthen the argument against them.

Unfortunately, my comments at Rohit's blog brought out another misleading comment.

In response to the discussions about giving bloggers free stuff to get them to post on a product, a commenter named Mindcomet, with a link to Mindcomet.com said this.

I totally agree with your thoughts on keeping your blog transparent and letting people know whether or not you are actually being compensated for your posts. One reason why I'm not against the PayPerPost model is because they are not only disclosing their affiliation with the company but they are also not swayed to take any particular tone. They are simply asked to write about a brand one way or another. Very good thoughts here.

Seems pretty straightforward. Well written, no defensive tones - but the comment is written from the standpoint of an objective third party. There's just one problem. Mindcomet is the interactive agency behind PayPerPost. This commenter, although he signs it and provides a link back to Mindcomet, clearly is trying to pretend they are simply giving their opinion.

This goes to the crux of complaints about PayPerPost. Someone stumbling on Rohit's blog, or casually reading his comments, wouldn't know that Mindcomet is affiliated with PayPerPost. The goal is to write authentic-sounding comments that can later be defended as full disclosure because, hey, they signed the post with a Mindcomet link.

I don't link them, because clearly PPP is just a link-baiting scam, and not true marketing. And I wonder if the mystery will ever be cleared up about KidDDynamite? (it's a fake blog). It's simple - astroturfing, fake blogs, fake comments, guerilla marketing where teens are paid to pimp products, and "fake" scandals are poor marketing. It's not just that they have the potential for backlash - they don't work.

When will corporations learn?

Schwarzenegger Would Be Proud

There are only so many ways to sell hair care products. But this is a compelling visual campaign even Arnold ("Ahh-nald") would appreciate. To communicate that the product strengthens hair, healthy strands are braided (or Photoshopped) to look like a muscle-bound arm flexing. Notice that the ad contains as few words as possible. Great design can achieve many things. In this case, a very effective advert that also shows us the product packaging and end result in one glance. Simple. Brilliant.

[Via Back In Skinny Jeans]

Paid Blog Reviews: How Can You Trust Them?

I had the misfortune of reading a column in BtoBOnline magazine on the practice of paid blog reviews. The writer, Matthew Schwartz, citing ReviewMe.com and PayPerPost, two companies that pay bloggers to write stories for their clients, gave an aura of legitimacy to companies that allow their clients to pay bloggers for posts directly. Despite the fact that the system is simply a glorified link building campaign where compaies pay for post with links rather than just the links themselves, many of us in the blogosphere have warned that systems like these are bad for the reputation of the blogosphere as a whole.

Let's ignore the fact that a blogger who writes a paid review is selling themselves short. If they really want to make money off their blog, they can usually get a company to give them more money directly. The bigger bloggers do just that, with advertising and sponsorships. That is an established model. The thing is - by the time you have enough traffic to make any real money, you don't need sites like PayPerPost.

I don't like paid review blogs, and I do have a stake in the battle. Blogs, when they first started were a more honest way of getting news and reviews. I'd be a fool to think that would last forever, and once the general public found out about them, the general view was that bloggers are just a bunch of amateurs talking about what they had for lunch.

That's not true of course - blogs are trusted sources of information, but only for the communities in which they have earned that trust. A reader that lands on your blog doesn't know you, and thus doesn't trust your review. A reader that follows your writing, comments, and returns your e-mail, on the other hand, has a high trust factor. It's what keeps them coming back.

So when I hear about surveys that show that only 30% of the respondents trust reviews they read in blogs, I wonder about the numbers. I wouldn't trust most of the blogs I read until I had a chance to filter them, or unless someone else I trusted referred me.

Paid Blog Reviews don't have any of that trust dynamic. Why would I trust a blogger who is eager to take small bits of money to write about a company? They have already demonstrated the ability to sell themselves cheaply. Why should I trust someone who has that little regard for their own opinion?

As for the article, what bothered me most was the legitimacy Mr. Schwartz gave to the issue. With just a short aside about critics being other bloggers, he swept aside th serious implications of paid reviews.

Now companies that don't know better are going to stumble over to those sites and hurt their reputations. Blogging requires honesty and trust. It seems Mr. Schwartz doesn't understand the dynamic of why blogs are trusted by their readers, anymore than Ted Murphy or Jarrod Hunt do.

A Little Less Conversation

I'm what they call and equal opportunity unsubscriber. There are 50 million blogs out there. Read that number again and let is simmer for a moment. 50 million. Now that, my friends, is the land of plenty. The blogosphere is loaded with options. And as a symptom of that, the curious person's RSS reader becomes packed to the gills with feeds very easily. What makes a blog "feed-worthy" varies, but one thing is for sure: negativity will have me hitting the "delete" key in a nanosecond.

My feeds serve to inform, inspire or entertain me. That's it. And there are myriad choices for this content. (Read that number above again if you're not convinced.)

But once in a while it happens. A good blog goes sour. Sometimes it's the blogger. They're "just not that into you" anymore. You can tell when blogging has become a chore for someone. It shows in the writing. The other situation is when the community takes the nose dive. One angry comment is just that, one angry isolated comment. But when the crowd turns into an angry mob I know it's time for me to move on. Yes, I unsubscribe.

With so many choices you can't be afraid to pick and choose your sources of information. By allowing myself to clear out the feeds list from time to time I've discovered new blogs, new ideas and entirely new circles of interesting people. It is both liberating and rewarding. I highly recommend it to anyone stuck in an information rut or suffering from boredom in your daily reads. Me? I'm off to go read some of my new feeds right now...

Lock Bumping: Bump, Bump, Bump

If you thought Kryptonite Locks was a big blogging story, wait until you hear about lock bumping. Using a series of cuts in a regular key, over 90% of bolt locks can be opened within seconds. This news is all over the internet, with instructions on YouTube explaining how it is done. The video I have I pulled from a local television station report in Memphis - it does not tell you how - but shows you that it can be done - even by a ten year old.

This is astounding. Check out the report.



Honey, it's time to go to the locksmith and check the alarm company again.

**Update: A commenter left a site she just built that addresses lock bumping on the front page. Sure Guard Lock.

Jigaw Bars: Them's Some Tasty Eatin'

***Coupon code at the end of the post***

Franki and I take Focus Factor daily. It's a supplement we take because we feel it works for us, but not everyone feels that way. I was curious about what other people thought about the supplement, and search turned up the site of Pat Sullivan, a health and wellness blogger who markets a variety of health products, including Jigsaw bars a variety of supplements.

I left a comment on Pat's blog, describing our experiences with the product, and Pat engaged me in an e-mail conversation based on that comment, and asked me if I would review his Jigsaw bars if he sent a couple of boxes over.

I agreed to them, and a few days later a box of chocolate, and a box of coconut-almond bars appeared.

The Taste:
They're great. I can say that Pat definitely hit the bar on tastiness and freshness. The lack of sugars, and the lack of the typical flavor of peanut butter and dark chocolate masking soy protein was a welcome change.

The chocolate bars taste like a good chocolate cake, moist and not overpowering, and the coconut almond bars, if you like those flavors, (which I do), offer something that you don't get with other bars - the actual taste of coconut and almond. There's no bitter aftertaste (my biggest complaint about bars), and you're not hungry when you finished.

On the Taste level, the bars totally rock.

The Cost:
One big concern I had was cost. I'm not a health bar expert. I've switched off candy bars, and now eat the Balance Gold energy bars you can buy at Trader Joe's or Walmart, and to be honest, I only eat them because they're like Diet Coke - once you force yourself to drink it for the health reasons, it's not that bad. In fact, I used to smear real peanut butter on them to improve their taste, ruining the health effect I was trying to create.

So I'm not Pat's target audience, because I'm used to paying about a buck a bar for food I don't really like. I asked Pat about this - and he directed me to several other bars he competes with, and they are all the same prices - a box of 12 runs about $35 dollars.

You do get what you pay for - and if you're buying energy bars, it's better to buy good ones, than stale ones bulk.

So I'm giving my approval to the Jigsaw bars - I'm eating enough of them - and I plan on interviewing Pat on this blog, because he has a fascinating story (he created ACT!, the contact software), and he's all over this blog thing - (small business blog marketing, baby!).

If you are considering buying the bars - there's a Buy 1 Get 1 Free Special, and if you have read this far - send me an e-mail and I'll give you a special coupon code to enter for an additional $5 off your order.

At the very least - consider linking Pat's blog as an example of good blog marketing.

Are You Fabulous?

The Winning Pitch, a woman-owned PR firm in San Jose, CA, is looking for an extra blogger to write about topics of interest to women (fashion, fitness, careers...) and occasionally, products for their clients.

The firm specializes in products for women, and is currently a PageRank 3 site with about 40 readers daily. We need an experienced Typepad blogger to come in and take that momentum and build on it. The original blogger has to move to other projects, so we're looking for a replacement.

The Winning Pitch can pay up to $200 a month, and the blogger would be responsible for 3 posts a week, but more important, would have to be somebody that was truly interested in helping the owner build up her PR business and online reputation. This is not a writing job - this is a blogging job.

The owner is a wonderful person, and has gone through a training program on blogging, but needs someone who can work independently and in the best interests of the company.

The requirements are simple:

• We are NOT looking for a writer, we are looking for a blogger.
  
• Must have familiarity with Typepad.
• A blog, and at least 6 months experience with blogging.
• Honest - we want someone who actually likes the blog and can write from an honest place. We don't want "marketing speak" or someone who would write something about a product for the money. A genuine interest in topics of interest to women is a must.
  
• Passionate about what they do.
• Good chemistry with the owner.

The blog is not about the PR products the firm publicizes. It's about things of interest to women. Be that running a Fortune 100 company or buying a (you guessed it...) fabulous pair of Michael Kors shoes. Both are examples of what being a woman means today. We're looking for someone with style, flair, and ability, who wants to be affiliated with a professional PR firm, and improve their own image. We're looking for someone fabulous to step into the role of blogger and enjoy this role.

Please check out the website and the blog to get a taste for the current direction. If you're interested contact info@durbinmedia.com with a link to your blog and why you should write for the site. The $200/month is a firm offer, and a fair price for 12 postings and commenting on blogs you already like.

Are you fabulous?

Social Target Launches: Nathan Gilliatt

Our friend and fellow social media expert, Nathan Gilliatt, has launched his new company, Social Target.

Social Target offers research and consulting on social media, market intelligence and related new technologies for non-technical business leaders. We're digital natives, so we respect the ways of online communities and will help you understand the boundaries as we explore the capabilities of the tools for marketing.

Nathan is a great guy, with some awesome ideas, the first being his guide due out in April of online monitoring tools. There are plenty of tools that have been reviewed for huge corporations, but there isn't a comprehensive guide of tools that covers the international scene.

Keep an eye on Nathan and his blog, the net-savvy executive. He's one of the good ones.

Rosenberg Communications Launches a New Site

Rosenberg Communications, who I wrote about a couple of posts ago, launched a new site for their PR practice.

The previous post described my opinions on best practices for PR Firms communicating with Blogs. I felt Derek Karchner had done a great job passing on information about one of their clients, the Hitachi Foundation, and wrote about his efforts.

I got an e-mail today about launching the site, and it seems Rosenberg has repaid the favor, mentioning our review in their announcement. That was a nice thing to do. Who said bloggers and PR folks can't be friends?

To be clear - there is no work between Rosenberg and Durbin Media. And I'm not writing about them for payment or because they wrote about me. They won my trust, and now I want to help them - hopefully with some of my Google Juice and by passing their name to people I know.

Contrast that with a firm that sends me the latest press release, but doesn't even know what I do or tell me where they read me, if they read me at all. Or worse, the canned fake, I read your blog all the time and think you're great - please talk about my client. Yes, I do get notes likes that.

Politeness and sincerity will get you everywhere in the blogosphere, and in the real world, too.

Download This Song: MC LARS

We love our TiVo, and so we tend to check out the ads when they pitch something on the DVR. It's kind of like clicking on GoogleAds of the blogs you read. If you can help them out, you might as well.

So we get this music video from MC Lars, who won't be seen on MTV, but can be seen on TiVo. This guy is awesome. The tune is catchy, and the chorus has that tinny radio box sound you heard in Video Killed the Radio Star. So the music is good - but more important, here's a guy taking the independent route to music success.

His message is simple - if the record labels can't get their hooks into, then they can't sue your fans for downloading your music. It's part of a new generation of musicians who are going the independent route with YouTube, MySpace, and social media to get out their music, without giving billions to bloated companies.

The chorus:
Hey Mr. Record Man, what's wrong with you?
You're running your label, like it was 1992.
Hey Mr. Record Man, your system can't compete.
It's the new Lars model, File Trasnfer..Complete!

Here's the video.



So here's my question, or comment, as it were. Record and Movie companies use commercials and advertisements to show that downloading music hurts the artists and the employees that bring us movies and songs. Their argument is that if we downlo,.., I mean steal music, that artists will stop creating. But these labels hurt artists. They rake huge profits out of the marketing of this product to the masses. They suck money from the artists, and give them a small fraction of the money back. Where are the commericals how these big companies hurt the creativity of the artist?

And if more independent artists can create likable work - wouldn't that be better, I mean, artistically, for everyone? If the point is protecting musicians for the sake of their art, shouldn't we talking about how to protect musicians from the labels?

And You're Gonna Need a Crew As Nuts As You Are

Remember this name: Brandon Hardesty. He produces videos in the basement of his mother's home and uploads them to his site and YouTube. And his following is quickly growing. Below is one of our favorite works, an iconic scene from Ocean's Eleven. Incredibly, Brandon creates these on his own, as working with a crew can lead to schedule conflicts. In his words:

"I have friends that would gladly help me out... the thing is, I'm better at working with myself. When other people get involved, it turns into "wow, we need to schedule this" and they need to rehearse it."

Keep up the great work, Brandon. We look forward to the upcoming "A Few Good Men" scene rumored to be in the works.



Watch this video, then head to YouTube to enjoy scenes from Pulp Fiction and the Princess Bride as Brandon reenacts them with great skill.

Nothing Makes Me Laugh Like Extortion

I've been looking for this commercial for months. It is my favorite of the "What Happens in Vegas..." collection of spots. While the other commercials I've seen all show a couple being vague about their weekend adventure or parents being more lax with kids upon returning home, this spot hits below the belt. What the creators are able to do in terms of storytelling and tension building in 30 short seconds is nothing short of impressive.



What is fascinating about the current campaign as a whole, is that it never shows us Vegas at all. We see everyday people enjoying (or in this case buying) their privacy. They drive home the tagline by letting the charaters keep the exposure of their antics confined to the Strip. Great strategy in this era of limited privacy and overexposure.

Best of all? Unlike the K-Fed Rollin' VIP commercial for the Super Bowl, the events in the Vegas spots directly tie into the brand. There is no bridge needed to get us to recall the sponsor. Not everyone creates such a strong connection with their campaigns. Before you click on this link, do you even know what company hired K-Fed to star in their big game ad?

Jason Calacanis Says Quit Pissing In The Well

I found this story from iMedia Connection to be very timely, and have to say Jason Calacanis, for all of the negative press, really hits a lot of good points.

Giving a speech at the iMedia Brand Summit, Calacanis had this to say:

Calacanis offered some litmus tests that marketers should ask themselves before entering the blogosphere, including the mom test, the leaked memo test, the too easy test and the ask the experts test.

"Ask yourself, would this be okay to show my mom? If this is something that you don't want fingerprints on, ask yourself how it would turn out if everyone found out-- because they will. If it seems like it's too easy, then dammit, it is too easy." Lastly, ask the experts-- there are authorities out there. "There are hundreds of people who blog about a given topic who will provide a reasonable answer to your question," said Calacanis.

This should be something easy for marketers of fake blogs and viral marketing, but they somehow miss the mark. If it is found out that you are behind something, will you be standing up and saying, "Yes I did that and am proud," or will you be standing at the podium apologizing?

Calacanis also admitted he made lots of mistakes at AOL, and says that blogs are a huge opportunity that can be used for Good or Evil. His pictures, at the link above, do a very good job of visually demonstrating what blogs are and what they do.

It sounds like a good speech - I'm sorry I missed it. As for the title - he says e-mail used to be this killer app, but spammers have ruined it, just as big portions of the blogosphere are about to ruin the trust factor of blogs.

UnBoxing ProFlowers

I couldn't resist. We've generated some terrific feedback from our post about ProFlowers. Some argue the money saved was well worth it, others think it does a disservice to professional florists hand delivering assembled arrangements. Lest any of you wonder what the true ProFlowers experience is like for the recipient, I invite you to watch this video and decide for yourself.

PR To Blog Communications: Best Practices

I've been blogging for a long time - so it's only natural that I get a lot of e-mails asking for links. Most of the time, these are bulk e-mails from "marketing" companies looking to boost their companies SEO, but in the last six months - PR Firms have started to send me press releases, and sometimes - when they really want to get in front of one of my blogs - they send me personal notes.

I won't dwell on the bad ones - there are plenty of examples of poor PR to Blog communications, but I did want to give props to one firm and one individual who took the time to read my blog, send me a hand-crafted note, and respond with questions.

Derek Karchner of Rosenberg Communications works with the Hitachi Foundation, a non-profit initiative that works with local communities to help train workers on the skills needed to keep good jobs. Derek had a story about a partnership with Minneapolis that was bearing fruit, and so he passed the story on to me at a blog I write with Harry Joiner over at Duct Tape Marketing on employment.

Derek took time to hand craft the message, personalize it, tell me why he thought the content would be useful, and left his contact information should I have follow-up questions. When I did respond, he put me in touch with the people at the Hitachi Foundation when I had some extra questions, and followed up with me to make sure I had everything I needed.

That took time - real effort - and I reciprocated with a post on his story, because it made sense in the content of my blog. The personal effort is the best practice I want to showcase. It made a difference for me in responding.

So the question, is why PR folks don't do more of this. Time is often cited as a reason. How are busy PR folks supposed to take the time to make friends with all of these bloggers? Are they supposed to suck up to these people who prior to their blogs had no real influence? Not at all. Derek didn't prostrate himself in front of me and beg for a link. He took the time to understand my community (the one he was trying to reach), and in return, I did my best to introduce his content to the community he wanted to reach.

Thank you, Derek. I would recommend you and your firm to anyone who asked. And if you have more content, I'll be happy to work with you on getting that message out.

Small Business Blogging: American Legends

Lost in the blogarific narcissism of corporate branding is the recognition that the little guy has a lot to gain from blogging on their own.

Small businesses, especially product-driven businesses who employ college-age consumers, are some of the best places to watch the growth of business blogging. Lacking the millions of dollars in marketing budgets from big companies, and oftentimes forced to compete solely on quality and personal brand, small companies can have a big impact in the blogosphere.

American Legends, for example. American Legends is a sports memorabilia store in Scarsdale, NY. They sell baseball cards, hockey autographs, and basically anything any true sports fanatic would want for a gift.

So how do I know about them? They sent me an e-mail as part of a link exchange. I get a lot of requests from agencies that I ignore, but I always like to help out fellow bloggers, and boy did I make the right decision.

American Legends has a blog, hosted on blogspot (so it's free), and they have hundreds of links and stories around the internet. The blog writers are college students who work at the store, and they have taken the store and given it national exposure.

They have a PageRank4, lots of Technorati links, and great sports content. If I were buying sports memorabilia online, I bet I would consider them instead of a local store (because they are easy to find).

When you think about the power of business blogging - think about the small businesses who can compete using only their own resources - the internet and their employees. The person who contacted me was a 19 year old college student doing what he does naturally - connecting online.

That's impressive.

Big Pimpin' Caveman Style

Our favorite caveman isn't sleeping on stone pillows. No, no, no. He's living large in what appears to be a gorgeous pad with all modern conveniences (widescreen plasma, granite countertops, PowerBook, gourmet kitchen...). Geico's latest addition to the caveman campaign is a microsite that opens for us a window into the world of this up and coming commercial celeb.

What amazes us is just how detailed the site is. You can change channels on the TV, listen to his voicemail and even read his email. Of course, your gracious host comes out once in a while to let you know you're being rude, but you can still snoop a bit. In fact, we hung out so long we finally located him in the shower. Not to worry, a healthy amount of steam and a glass door protect us from becoming too familiar.

This is a terrific example of integrated marketing. Props go out to the crew that designed it - but even more to Geico for being savvy enough to realize that branding can be this subtle. You have to interact with the television to locate Geico references. And fans of the campaign can enjoy the "Remind Me" song via the iPod. Top shelf work. We look forward to seeing where they take us next.

Visit iheartcavemen.com or cavemancrib.com.

St Louis Business Blog Help

This Friday, we'll be hosting another St Louis Business Blogging meeting at the Kaldi's in Chesterfield Valley. The time is 7:00-7:45. Bring your questions and your laptops - all bloggers and those interested in the topic are invited to join us.