Just thought I would remind my two or three readers 
that the fun new Coke video is out today. Just click here to see 251, two liter-bottles of diet coke and 1506 mentos explode in a fantastic fashion. Their last experirment had 6 million viewers, it will be interesting to see how many this video has.
Yesterday my roommate introduced me to a video on YouTube called Brainiac Alkali Metals. It is a video of a British fellow, from UK Sky One series Brainiac, using Alkali Metals and water to make experimental explosions. My roommates dad, who is a highly respected chemistry professor here at Brigham Young University (BYU), is using this video in his class today. If you search for “braniacs†on YouTube, you will find a number of their videos, all of which are really entertaining. You will also notice how many times each video has been viewed, this one on Alkali Metals has been viewed 38,000 times in 3 months! All you would need is a group discussion after viewing this video, and a quiz to jog your memory, then you would never forget the things taught about alkali metals in this video.
I just keep thinking that between, Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, online news sources, YouTube, and a growing multitude of other fantastic educational sources online; we have all the keys needed to learn just about anything we want these days. From private schools, to home schooling, to the public school system, to our current advanced education system, there is an incredible need for better, less expensive (in tuition for private schools, but in the absurdly high taxes for public schools, and grants for college), educational recourses in this country. The business world is quickly latching onto the principles of the internet; but, now with this plethora of great online educational recourses in this world, how might we optimize education, give parents the time they desperately need with their children, and create a more competitive educational system?
I hate shopping. I often tell my friends that it is less exhausting to work a 13 hour manual labor day (e.g. laying concrete, landscaping, construction, working the potato harvest in Idaho–all of which I have done) than it is to spend four hours shopping for clothes, or groceries. I hate the lines. I hate the choosing between unlimited options. I driving to and from stores and then walking all the way through them. I don’t understand those who like shopping. How is it fun to go and spend huge amounts of time just to spend huge amounts of money. Even worse is when you spend huge amounts of time and then you return with nothing. I know girls who just shop to look, they don’t ever buy anything. It is all odd to me.
With regards to the lines. These lines are why I rarely shop at WalMart and why I shop at Kmart and the Family Dollar. Walmart is always a zoo. The other day, at Walmart, it took me about an hour just to buy a stick of deodorant. The drive is ten minutes. I had to park way out in the far end of the parking lot and then walk all over the huge store just to find someone that wasn’t busy to ask were the deodorant was (The number of overweight people in Walmart is surprising, you would think walking all over that store would put them in shape). I ended up talking to a frequent Wallyworld shopper who knew more about Walmart than their employees do, she led me to an overwhelming shelf of deodorants of all shapes, colors, scents, costs, brands, and sizes. After picking my new deodorant I walked up and down 100 yards of checkout counters just to find that I wasn’t going to avoid any lines. Who would have thought that all those people parked in closer car stalls than me, who had all used up all the customer assistance before I even got in the door, would now be in front of me at the checkout line? It was a miserable hour of my life.
On the contrary, the other day I stopped at a Family Dollar, and I had a wonderful experience. I was able to park within 40 feet of the store door. When I got inside I was just steps away from one side of the store to the other. Picking was easy because they only give you two or three choices. Prices are often better than Walmart. Checkout was a breeze, because they don’t have lines. Other than the size of the store, Kmart is the same way. I love short lines.
Perhaps Kmart/Sears, who is hurting terribly right now, should advertise the one good reason to shop at Kmart instead of Walmart. Shorter lines and closer parking spots. It would work for me.
Coke-a-Cola recently jumped into the ad world of viral videos. There are two men; one of them looks like he is in his 30’s, the other is older, who are taking Mento’s candies and putting them in Diet Coke bottles. I guess there is a chemical reaction that makes the coke bubble and even explode. Click here to see the video. It reminds me of the paper miche volcanoes I made a as a kid. I would put vinegar, red with food coloring, and baking soda into the manmade mountain and watch as it erupted. I think this Diet Coke and Mentos idea will be one of my next date activities, we can have a Diet Coke war.
The fact that Google just purchased YooTube for a whopping $1.65 billion dollars tells me that this viral video market still had a lot of room to grow. Paul Allen explained in class that right now GooTube and others are not crowded, but in a year they will be. Right now is the time to get in on this market. If I can convince the others at FamilyLearn to use the recourses to do it, I would really like to experiment with some different cheap viral videos. Daniel would be perfect for the Job. The hard part is going to be making iMemoryBook funny.
Lately I have been spending some time placing blog entries on digg.com. Today I decided to try and put our FamilyLearn press release about the Funeral Home market on Digg. I was so focused on putting in the most searched keywords that I failed to brand iMemoryBook. That is a big no, no. You should always have your product in your title. Then if they don’t even ready your article they will at least read your title and see who you are. Anyway I hope that at some point I will put something on Digg that just takes off.
Are there any tricks to making something move to the top on Digg? Do you have any ideas?
One of the things we are graded on in my internet marketing class is whether or not we are soliciting comments to our blog; i.e. invited readers to make a comment on your blog.
For example, the other day Paul Allen wrote an article on how Apple is taking a presence in the PC market. At the end of his post he wrote this:
I’ve been in the Microsoft/Intel/Windows camp for almost 20 years, but even I’m thinking that my next PC should probably be a Mac. I don’t think I could ever switch completely, but for so many applications, Macs just seem better.
What do you think?
I was already thinking about the Mac I just bought and how much I love it, but that little question, “What do you think?†was enough that I spent 10 minutes and wrote a comment about this entry.
Ben and I had a great customer experience at Harmon’s (great name by-the-way) grocery store while preparing for the FamilyLearn BBQ the other day. I had talked about the experience throughout the night trying to figure out how Harmon’s trained Nate to sell me a $10 steak, but Ben blogged about it. At the end of his entry he extended his invitation for others to make a comment on his blog:
There is a lot written on effective question asking, but I haven’t read anything yet on how to instill a question asking attitude in an organization. How do you train a team of Nates?
Let me know your thoughts. Please refer me to some good books, articles, or posts.
One of the main purposes for blogging is to develop and learn more about a thought. If you are truly writing your blog to learn, the content your writing will automatically drive comments to your blog. But if you will solicit comments you will dramatically up the chances of your blog getting more comments.
So, what are some other ways I can get people to comment on my blog? I would love to hear your ideas.
Today I noticed that Skype has a service for your mobile phone. At this point it only runs on windows PC, makes me wish I had got the Windows version of the Treo. This means you can make free calls to anyone else on Skype, anywhere in the world with your Windows Mobile Pocket PC device, whenever you have a high speed WiFi internet connection. The only thing is that you still have to pay for your mobile internet service. But let me explain how I think we will all have FREE cell phone service in the next few years.
Last Thursday Paul Allen told us that it won’t be long before everyone in the US has access to a FREE WiFi internet connection. Google and others are already giving WiFi internet connections for free in select cities. Also, it seems that each day in my MarketingVOX news letters I see a new Mobile phone advertising service popping up. New services like Pay-Per-Call instead of just pay-per-click (ie. You use your mobile internet phone service to search for a tow truck while you are stranded on the side of the road. Your search engine uses the GPS system in your phone, finds the towing company closest to you and places an ad at the top of your search. You click your ad and your phone automatically calls the towing company.). It won’t be long before a mobile phone service provider disrupts the entire cell phone industry and offers all ad based cell phone service.
Skype’s tag line is, “The whole world can talk for freeâ€. It might just be a dream of mine, but I can’t wait for the day when I don’t have to call Sprint and argue with them about confusing, infuriating, phone bills. No more overages, no more $.10, 60 character limited, text messages, and no more proration.  Freedom from the clutches of the likes of those cell phone giants.
If you liked this post, please let me know what you think. Make a comment.
Currently I send out probably 20 emails per day. Some are to teachers, others for work, some to friends. Paul Allen gave us a great idea in class yesterday; you put an ad in your email “signatureâ€. I figure at an average of 20 emails per day times 365 days a year, I will promote what I desire 7300 times per year.
Below I posted my old work email signature vs the new email signature I created yesterday, I kept it small from side to side so that it is easier to read and I made sure that it had a call to action and a link:
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The information contained in this e-mail and any of it’s attachments is intended for the sole use of the individual or entity it is addressed to above and is considered confidential unless otherwise marked.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, they are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.VS
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“God gave us memories, that we might have
June roses in the December of our lives”
- James Barrie - Scottish poetPreserve your memories at
www.iMemoryBook.com
Which one do you think does more for your business?
This came on Digg this morning about 5 hours ago, it has already been Dugg like 1200 times! …. op, now 1230! We all know that this happens, but I guess I didn’t realize how far marketers distort people to make things sell. This Dove advertisement called “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted“.
This is a fantastic marketing campaign by Dove. They are doing it for the Dove Self-esteem Fund, a campaign for real beauty. This campaign is refreshing.
Yesterday in Paul Allen’s internet marketing class a man came in and explained that when he learned that CleanFlicks and CleanFilms, and the others like them were going out of business, he went and looked for a couple of movies that he wanted. He couldn’t find them in his local store. He began calling around for it. Then he had an ingenious idea. He put together a bunch of money and bought out all the inventory of over 50 stores! He is now selling the edited DVD’s online. He has already sold over 600 titles in this project already! Unreal.
This guy (sorry, I didn’t write down his name) now has a complete monopoly. Yet, he is selling them all for $9.95 or less. Not only that, but there is a major scarcity! To maximize the leverage of supply and demand, I would create an Ebay store, and begin auctioning the movies off then I would drive traffic to the store by Pay-Per-Clicks and a couple of press releases on campuses, on the evening News, on KSL, pretty much everywhere I could. I know that if I was in a situation and there was only one edited: Gladiator, or Shawshank Redemption, or BraveHeart, or Last of the Mohicans, I would pay some significant cash for that movie. Add in the auctioning power of Ebay and you will multiply your revenues by 2 fold.
He was in our internet marketing class to find a couple of students who would like to manage his pay-per-click campaigns. He would pay the student until the campaign was over and he would give all the edited FREE movies we want! I almost jumped out of my chair. I had to calm myself down and remember that I am already so swamped with preparations to launch the new iMemoryBook system that I could never effectively add another item to my to do list. Dang…I remember thinking when I first saw the announcement of all these stores going out of business, “Man it would be smart to buy a bunch of these and resale them.†Although I never really seriously considered buying a bunch of these DVD’s I did consider investing a chunk of savings into Google’s IPO, and Vulcan’s IPO (all of these would be fantastic investments). I chickened out on each of them. The only time I have jumped at a great opportunity was when I jumped on with FamilyLearn, which I am certain will pay off sooner than later.