Posts filed under “Business”
Get the basics right first
When creating anything, you’ve got to get the basics in place first. Once you’ve done, that you can build on it. This sounds trite, but this quote from Fast Company’s series on Customer Service illustrates the issue perfectly When Jeanne Bliss, a 25-year veteran of the customer-experience wars and the author of Chief Customer Officer [...]
The Best Way to help your Business? Help Your Customers Have Fun
Sounds obvious, but it’s easy to forget. Mark Hurst’s post on Richard Branson prompted me to read the Fast Company article he was talking about. It’s fantastic. One thing jumped out at me while reading it: What Branson understood two decades ago is just now beginning to be embraced by other corporate leaders: We should [...]
What's your 75 year marketing plan?
Alison sent me an article which contained a pointer a piece called “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?” by Edward Jay Epstein in the Atlantic Monthly in 1982 that completely blew me away. It talks about the birth of the modern diamond trade and the moves made by DeBeers to not only control [...]
Great Post on Deciding What Not To Do (via Raymond Chen)
Whether it’s product or business strategy, until you decide what you’re not doing, you’re not going anywhere. Dreaming about the end state when your product is all-conquering and you’ve gone public on the NASDAQ is all well and good (and necessary), but you have to sit down, prioritize, decide what’s in and out of scope [...]
Time is the Enemy (via A Sack of Seattle)
Andy has a post up on his blog about the decision to scale back operations at Judy’s Book. Today was a tough day. For the second time in my life I had to tell a great team of people that the idea they’d worked so hard on was going away. After 3+ years, our management [...]
Digg Lets Banned Domains Back In (via Pronet Advertising)
Looks like Digg has let some of their domains back in. This follows closely behind Dave’s post on banned domains which made the front page. Coincidence? thor hd
Awesome Post on User Acquisition by Andrew Chen
Andrew Chen¬†has a great post on his blog entitled¬†“Why Bloggers and Press Don’t Matter for User Acquisition.”¬†I often find myself nodding as I read his posts and this one is no exception. Press & Blogger buzz while it drives traffic, often has no connection¬†whatsoever¬†to driving users and user engagement.User acquisition is a critical part of [...]
Every Page Counts
Seth’s post on follow through and caring about the last inch is a must-read if you haven’t read it already. Obsessing about the last inch of follow through ensures that the important parts of what you do get just as much (if not more) commitment. ipod death race free You can’t afford to stop caring [...]
Experience vs. Ability
This is the classic problem facing startups looking for talent. Do you hire someone who’s been around the block, been knee-deep in the industry for years, or do you look for someone who’s smart, hungry and can figure things out? There’s no question that experience can be valuable, but there are times when it can [...]
Do No Evil? Yeah right…
The Techcrunch post on Google’s CPA release contained a mention about Google’s decision to launch text link ads. No longer will Google ads need to be confined to their own space on the site – publishers can subtly embed ads right into hyperlinks within the main content of the site itself (see second paragraph of [...]