Three C's of Interactive Marketing
Communication, Collaboration, and Context. This is a terrific article by Robert Manning an account director at Agency.com. Found it as I was looking around Digitrends.com, a site I haven't been to in a while.

The end game of interactive marketing should be fostering greater communication and collaboration; its real value has never been as a transactive medium. But to achieve status as a great communicator, you first have to develop listening skills.

Robert argues that P2P marketing will be the only truley effective means of marketing on the Web. "Collaberative P2P Space" will allow a company to "facilitate a forum of creative statement; establish a brand new collaborative space where the company sponsors creative statement" for members restricted by previous communications media. This reminds me a whole lot of Chris Locke's Gonzo Marketing. And I really do believe, in conjunction with weblogs, this is the futre of marketing.

Kodak's Sharper Focus
Being that I used to live in Rochester, Kodak has always had a place in my heart. You see, Kodak is Rochester. At least it's economy anyway. When we were going through the last recession (early 90's), Kodak was especially slammed, and never really recovered. Their main problem, from what I understand, is in the post their revenue came mostly from film sales. Then 2 things happened: film became a commodity because the competition matched Kodak's quality; Digital happened.

Kodak has never really grasped the potential of the Internet and the synergies with digital photos. Marketing strategy after marketing strategy, Kodak has failed. Kodak is starting yet another marketing initiative, "Project Next." But this one might work. Project Next will entail, "revamp[ing] its website to improve customer satisfaction and usability, more tightly integrate the company's many online businesses, and ultimately cut costs and put it in a better position to compete as photography moves from film to digital"

While that's a little vague and abstract, what I did like was the next sentence: "Kodak .... will launch a new, XML-based website in the first quarter of 2003." While XML alone doesn't say all that much, it really makes me think. For the non-techies out there (like me) blogging is based on XML coding. I'm taking this to mean, Kodak is giving web-voice ownership to its customers.

The possibilities are far-reaching. If I were running the Kodak marketing department, here's what I'd do. Allow customers to create Photo Blogs (or Photo Journals, not to scare the blogger-phobs away). Date-stamped, customers could keep photo blogs online, link to friends who have similar interests ... even create photo blogs around hobbies ... for example, a family who's kid swims competitively could post pictures (embarrassing as it may be to the poor kid) or their son's or daughter's achievements and link to other swimmers who have started similar blogs. .... thinking out loud now, but this is how Kodak could rebuild it's brand and start those high profit-margins again.

"Blog"
Even William Safire is writing about "blogs." (via Saltire).

''Will the blogs kill old media?'' asked Newsweek, an old-media publication, perhaps a little worried about this disintermediation leading to an invasion of alien ad-snatchers. My answer is no; gossips like an old-fashioned party line, but most information seekers and opinion junkies will go for reliable old media in zingy new digital clothes. Be that as it may (a phrase to avoid the voguism that said), the noun blog is a useful addition to the lexicon.

The Microcontent News Blogging Software Roundup
John Hiler has finished his beast of an article outlining all the blogware that's fit to print. Save your appetite, this is a 7 course meal --- but I can't wait to dig in!

Amazon Web Services in Use: Amazon Light
This is the first example of work using Amazon's new Web Services program which allows anyone to create their own Amazon store front and get commissions on sales. This design by Kokogiak is terrific. Originally modeled after Google's simplicity (the lawyers put that to a stop), the site is to the point and delivers what you want. I really think the opportunities are endless here. Anyone in ecommerse should roll something like this out. Combine it with blogging and imagine what you get.

Tom Hespos - Content Revoluion is Just Beginning
Tom is one of my favorite writers covering online advertising -- the guy just makes sense. I started reading him on ClickZ and iMarketing news years ago.

Tom is a regular columnist for Media Post -- a newsletter and website dedicated to online advertising media. Tom, like me, always saw the Internet as a revolution in the Marketplace of Ideas. The problem, Tom points out, is it was very difficult to be a publisher without having a skill set in online publishing. Tom is psyched (me too). Because of tools like Blogger this new Marketplace of Ideas is becoming closer to reality.

Easy-to-use content management systems are a great first step toward truly leveling the playing field. But we still need further innovation in this area. It would be nice to see a company come along and make animation and graphics as simple as Blogger and LiveJournal have made content management. ....How long will it be before we see something that makes manipulating graphics and images so simple and intuitive that even the "technology-impaired" can easily construct photo essays and online newspaper-type layouts?

I'm betting that a lot of this technology is not very far off. And once it makes a splash, we could be looking at an explosion of new content sites. What could this do to online media planning five or ten years down the road? It might be wise to think about what the marketplace might look like if a wave of independent publishers suddenly started entering the game en masse.

Tom just started blogging over on his new company's (UnderscoreMarketing) website. Look for more to come -- Tom has a keen sense in how advertising will be reshaped on the Web.

Rick Bruner: Pop-Unders: Cockroaches
That's one way of putting it. I think the pop-under is the equivalent of a street peddler. They have no concern as to what you are in the middle of. They usually peddle some gimmicky product that has no legitimate value. They're persistent little buggers, who can't take a hint.

The web is my place -- "our" place. The argument that we'll "get used to" this scum of advertising is ridiculous -- and this is how most marketers legitimize this trade. We succumbed to TV advertising, 468X60's, Radio Spots, Billboards -- we'll succumb to pop-unders. This couldn't be further from the truth. Customers "own" a portion of the web. Pop-unders trespass on our property. There is absolutely no value to customers -- and businesses -- for that matter in pop-unders. Someone had the idea of posting a pop-unders not served here on sites that don't use them. I think that's a terrific idea. The pop-under is destroying online advertising's credibility and is minimizing it's potential to something simplistic and hated.

Kudos to Organic for refusing to buy them for their clients. Nice work.

Subscribe Now!
Alrighty - get WebSense delivered to your inbox, so you don't have to remember to come back! Put your email address in the box to the left, and everytime I post something new, you'll get it via email. This is from Bloglet, which I got from POELog.

Why Most Internet Advertising Fails - The Meaning of a Link
In Small Pieces Loosely Joined, David Weinberger discusses how linking is a way of showing visitors what a site creator's passions are. For example, I really enjoyed most of David's book, so I linked to it. I enjoy reading those blogs over there on the left, so I link to them. There is an underlying understanding between site visitor and site creator that the links on a page show the site creator's passions (if not passions at least links to sites their visitors will find useful). And if the site visitor likes what the site creator has to say, he/she will probably like what the site creator links to.

Theoretically, this makes online media placements (e.g. paid-for links) the equivalent of a bribe in the eyes of the site visitor. "I'll give ya a hundred bucks for puttin my link on your page." What does that say about the integrity of the link to the site visitor? The only relationship between the site creator and the advertiser is a financial one. And that's what drives the decision to place an ad. And because this is apparent to the site visitor, the ad holds no true value in their eyes, unless if their one of the .03% lucky ones who actually see an ad that's is relevant to their needs.

One place this theory doesn't hold true is on search engines -- which may explain why keyword buys get a good response -- and really any kind of data driven site (i.e. Internet Yellow Pages). Here there is an understanding between site visitor and site creator that the site is going to provide reliable data, whether it be businesses in my area selling air conditioning repair service, or sites created by people who love to knit (trust me there's a bunch).

Where does this leave Internet advertising and marketing?

AKMA Reviews Futrelle
AKMA has some more intelligent and "constructive" things to say about the Post review of SPLJ than my little rant below.

Essential New Media Books
Saltire lists New Media books must haves. I haven't read one of them! D'oh! BTW, here's my "Advertising Brew" Amazon list on listmania.

??? David Futrelle (Washington Post) Review: Small Pieces Loosely Joined
Cool! A review of David Weinberger's Small Pieces Loosely Joined!

And then the disappointment sets in .... some bitter (he admits this himself) has-been who told too many people to buy too many tech stocks and then got a taste of his own feet decides he needs to bait David Weinberger ....Did this guy even read the book??? And why is he reviewing it? I think he skimmed a couple chapters online, said, this shit is over my head, and slammed the book. Futrelle hated the book before he even pretended to read it. He starts bashing Cluetrain (is this a Cluetrain review or SPLJ review?) and then can't stay away from this obsession of David's (W.) use of the word "we." I guess Futrelle's lack of understanding of where this book is going reduces Futrelle's review to David's (W.) use of the first-person singular and the first-person plural. All Futrelle can say about the strengths of the web is that we're "simply sitting on our posteriors staring dully at a computer screen." (Note Futrelle's use fo the first-person plural).

This review was trite and awful. On to our regularly scheduled programming.

Meet Up
Stumbled accross this cool tool on Doc's blog. If anyone in the DC area wants to meet up (or if you want to meet other bloggers in your area) click below. I'm recommending Flannagans.

Digital Identity --> The Big I -- Eric Norlin TDCRC
Eric Norlin gives an incredible dissertation on Digital Identity, something, Eric, is sure will be the next business phenomenon online. This is something I should be more familiar with, but am not.

It is precisely at this intersection of the real and virtual worlds
that digital identity sits. Digital Identity is not simply an online
phenomenon. Rather, it is a third state, a bridge that lies between
the real world and the world of ones and zeros. The liminal quality of
digital identity is precisely what makes it so significant.

If digital identity were nothing more than the ability to shop easily
online -- to auto-fill out the forms for ordering a book on Amazon --
then, quite frankly, digital identity would be very boring. It most
certainly wouldn't be some business altering force. But digital
identity is not simply contained to the online world; it straddles (or
is moving toward straddling) the two worlds of the real and digital.
As cell phone makers move towards location-based identity, as General
Motors deploys OnStar systems, as Fortune 500 companies use identity
management software to manage employee processes -- in these and many
more instances, digital identity is the bridge that ties the
electronic world to the physical world.

This makes me think of another "Big I," Digital Integrity.

Fee or Free: It's Economics!
Vin Crosbie gives a common sense reason to why content on the Internet is free in his latest ClickZ column. Vin plays down those who say we need to "educate" people to pay for content. There's an information surplus. Companies can't charge for content when it's so abundant. Now, if you have content that is on-of-a-kind, you'll be able to charge for content, and you should.

The Internet eased consumer access to information and astronomically increased choice of information sources. Most information is no longer scarce. It's becoming surplus. Publishers who distribute information are economically compelled to charge increasingly less.

Those of you who didn't nod off in economics class may remember how supply and demand works: You can charge much for something scarce or otherwise hard to obtain, but you must charge less if that something is surplus or otherwise easy to obtain.

Technological progress continually makes products more surplus and easier to obtain, even information. Result: Prices for information make ineluctable progress toward zero. Or, as Brand's observation is partly remembered, "Information wants to be free."

This makes me think about the homogenous nature of media in general. Few providers provide all of the content. It's become the same and it's everywhere you look. Mainstream media has become dull, and this is why I think Saltire is right when he says, it's all coming crashing down. There's no diversity in media today. And the media giants have shot themselves in the foot because they all thought their little formulas were going to deliver a constant flow of billions of cash-o-la. Someone forgot about the Golden Goose.

This is one of the reasons why the Web is so revolutionary. While there is an abundance of similar information, there is also an abundance of truly unique commentary. Conversations. Real talk.

But as I think out loud, and I'm thinking about David Weinberger's new book, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, which I just started reading, and he's talking the web as a space, not a medium. We go to places on the web, they aren't delivered to us -- as in the traditional sense of media. Because it's a place where conversations occur, not just the pushing of content, I wonder how we'll ever charge for content on the web. Would you pay a quarter every time you talked to your neighbor?

I say yes and no. I would pay to read some blogs, because they are so valuable. Others I wouldn't. I'd pay for the Wall Street Journal (I don't because my girlfriend does). But that's less conversation, more content...... anyways, enough meandering... back to work.

Micromarkets & Blogs: Chris Locke on NPR
Here is a transcription to Chris Locke's piece on NPR Marketplace talking about the blog phenomenon.

Garbage to one person is of high value to another, and the way the Internet works is that people group together around things that interest them. So the audience isn’t the mass audience, it’s little tiny micro audiences that aggregate around things people are saying that resonate with their own concerns. There has been an enormous amount of stuff written and said about the phenomenon of weblogging, which two years ago didn’t exist, and today there are something on the order of two million of these things in existence. It’s been a hockey stick spike.

Kartoo.com Mapping Search Engine
Rick Bruner points us to Kartoo.com which gives search results visually. I like the use of Flash on this site. Looks like some kind of Meta-Search Engine. Looks pretty neat, but I'm not too sure of the usefulness of it. I'll have to try it a couple more times.

New to Me
Adding 2 blogs to the blogroll today. XPlanes' bblog (via POELog) which has some good marketing and business blogging. And Boing Boing (via Rick Bruner), which points out the interesting and annoying things in life, like why Blockbuster requires you to rewind DVD's.

NPR Clueless
Marek J writes an open letter to NPR on their assbackwards policy on requiring permission to link to their (see, I did it) web site.

Blogging Giving Voice to Women in Iran
JOHO points us to a very neat story about women blogging in Iran -- allowing them to express themselves freely for the first time in history. Check them out here -- I can't understand a word of it, but I like the idea.

Sean Carton: ...Death of the "Official Story"
Sean's latest in ClickZ talks about Macromedia's use of blogging to "promote" their new products. Sean points us to a very important study by Edros and Morgan which found only 10% of consumers trust Internet advertising.

I think blogging and other forms of C2C communications (Sean mentions instant messaging, SMS, email chat rooms .... BTW, I think what makes blogging so powerful is that its truly in the public sphere, where as apps like instant messaging are private communications...) are the future of "marketing." "Marketing" in quotes because as oppposed to B2C marketing, where a company pushes a message to a customer, C2C marketing is where businesses facilitate and encourage the communication between customers. And going back to that stat where only 10% of people trust internet advertising, I think customers are looking for some kind of communication that is lower in the bullshit and higher in real value. As marketers we need to facilitate this marketing and ensure its integrity and honesty is upheld above anything else (including -- and don't jump -- negative commentary).

From Sean's article:

Whether Macromedia knows it or not, what it's done is merely institutionalize a trend that's been building up in the consumer landscape for years, a trend that many commercial advertisers are loathe to address: that the Internet now makes it virtually impossible to create a unified "image" consumers will swallow. Sure, you can still create "brands" people can identify, but now, if that finely crafted brand image doesn't match reality, you're gonna be found out.

Interestingly, Mike Chambers, one of the Macromedia bloggers, said that it wasn't a decision by Macromedia to start the blogs but a decision by the 5 community managers who are blogging for Macromedia today.

Facing the Music: Michael Wolf
This has got to be the most realistic and honest look into where the music business is heading. Saltire chimes in with commentary on the piece too. From the New York Magazine:

Starting in the fifties, and then gaining incredible force in the sixties, rock-and-roll performers eclipsed authors as cultural stars. Rock and roll took over fiction's job as the chronicler and romanticizer of American life (that rock and roll became much bigger than fiction relates, I'd argue, more to scalability and distribution than to relative influence), and the music business replaced the book business as the engine of popular culture.

Now, though, another reversal, of similar commercial and metaphysical magnitude, is taking place. Not, of course, that the book business is becoming rock and roll, but that the music industry is becoming, in size and profit margins and stature, the book business....

Radio, heretofore ad hoc and eccentric and local, underwent a transformation in which it became formatted, rational, and centralized. Its single imperative was to keep people from moving the dial -- seamlessness became the science of radio. ...

From mono to stereo to Walkman. It just happens that the next stage of technological development in the music business has largely excluded the music business itself.

I would comment, but I think it's all been said.

Search and Ye Shall Find
Kottke searches the top 10 search engines for the top 10 search engines. Pretty neat.

Doc on Advertising and Blogs
Doc has a lengthy piece on Harry Copelands Blogonomics piece in Pressflix:

Agreeable stuff, indeed. But Henry's going somewhere with this, and it's not a place all of us will want to arrive at. .... Advertising..... So maybe there's a market there. But it's one that will exist between bloggers and advertisers. Not between bloggers and readers. ....The minute this blog turns into an intellectual property business, or the minute that I need to "monetize" it in some way, it will have a different purpose than the one that brings readers to it now.

I tend to partly agree with Doc. But I think we're looking at this blogging and business concept from the wrong angle. It's not about placing ads on blogs. It's about turning bloggers into advocates for your products and/or service and connecting networks of common communities (i.e. common groups of blogs) to larger websites of mass appeal. So several micromarkets are connected to a corresponding mass market (i.e. corporate web site).

Blogging opens up honest conversations about products, issues, companies, hobbies and habits. With that said, it is essential that "the system" helps maintain the integrity of bloggers. I think Jeff Jarvis has got it dead right (in a Gonzo marketing kind of way) when he says, "the wise marketer will recognize a community of shared interest and will underwrite that community .... 'we share an interest and affection for this community.'"

Gonzo Marketing & Blogs
Lot's to catch up on, since I've gotten back from Hilton Head (thank you very much). This is a really interesting read on applying Gonzo marketing to blogs. And so is this. These two pieces are really central to this idea I keep thinking about, incorporating blogs and business. From Jeff Jarvis:

that instead of intrustive advertising, the wise marketer will recognize the power of blogs and join that power by joining the community. Instead of buying ads on blogs (which we'd all love, but which would not work even if it happened... witness other failed Internet ad movements; we will be spared that humiliation thanks to timing) the wise marketer will recognize a community of shared interest and will underwrite that community, will help make it possible, will say by that act "we share an interest and affection for this community."

And Corante has a pretty cool diagram which, I'm sure, will be similar to what I'm thinking too.

A Brief History on Blogs
Rebecca Blood blogs a history of blogs .... pretty interesting (via msnbc, which by the way, is a terrific mainstream article on blogs -- see what'd I say about equalibrium, it's already kickin' in ;-)).

A Fine Farewell
Rick Bruner blogs a fine farewell to Andy Bourland in Executive Summary. Andy has decided to move out of the interactive field. Why, I'm not sure. He still has a great mind for it, no matter what he says. Nonetheless, I remember first subscribing to ClickZ, which Andy co-ounded, ran and operated. It was the best commentary on internet advertising, marketing and media. A lot of those old articles would probably still inject wisdom into this infant industry. I still find ClickZ one of the best sources of commentary. In a way, ClickZ has always been a collection of blogs by industry professionals -- even though they were never referred to as such. Best of luck to Andy.

Attack of the Blogs
There's been a lot of mainstream press lately on blogging (Corante has got a complete list) ... and I don't think the press has it entirely right. Newsweek ran a story, "Will Blogs Kill Old Media?" -- San Antonio Express: "Are Media Being Blog-rolled?" The list goes on.

The real story isn't Bloggers vs Mass Media. It's really about bloggers and mass media, and how they will co-exist. The Newsweek article quotes Dave Winer as saying, "By 2007, more readers will get news from blogs than from The New York Times." I say without the New York Times blogs won't exist, and without recognizing blogs, the New York Times won't exist.

News media slowly allowed corporate powers to control their stories. Advertising, ratings, political correctness, cross promotion and corporate bias crept into the newsroom unchecked. Because there was no counter balance, it grew out of control. Blogging creates an equilibrium. The " unbespoken outsiders—impassioned lefties and righties, fine-print-reading wonks, indignant cranks and salt-’o-the-earth eyewitnesses to the 'real' life[er's]" will keep those giant media companies in check. Now maybe we can start trusting the news again, wherever it may come from.

Scott Rosenburg is thinking along the same lines in Salon:

Typically, the debate about blogs today is framed as a duel to the death between old and new journalism....

The rise of blogs does not equal the death of professional journalism. The media world is not a zero-sum game. Increasingly, in fact, the Internet is turning it into a symbiotic ecosystem -- in which the different parts feed off one another and the whole thing grows.

Weblogs -- which often consist of annotated links to media Web sites as well as to other blogs -- would barely be able to get by without the informational fodder provided by the mainstream media. Meanwhile, time-strapped reporters and editors in downsized, resource-hungry newsrooms are increasingly turning to blogs for story tips and pointers. No one has enough time to read everything on the Web; blogs offer a smart reader the chance to piggyback on someone else's reading time. Good journalists would be fools not to feed off blogs.

Weblogs expand the media universe. They are a media life-form that is native to the Web, and they add something new to our mix, something valuable, something that couldn't have existed before the Web....

It should be obvious that weblogs aren't competing with the work of the professional journalism establishment, but rather complementing it.

So what's mass media to do? I say, embrace blogging. Make it part of your entity. Or watch your entity disappear.

Or just listen what rageboy has to say (how does he do it? Speak with such honesty?) Great to see him back, btw. He's really been writing up a storm (here too).

Marketing Blogs Unite!
Been very, very busy lately and not much time for blogging as I would like. So much to blog, so little time.

But I wanted to give a big thanks to recent mentions from other "marketing bloggers." My traffic has really been heading up. Thanks to Deborah Branscum for the link, Oliver Travers for his mention on Web Voice, Rick Bruner for the perma link under his Blog Marketing links and Rob Poel who I think was my first visitor, ever. Oh yeah, how could I forget, and Steve MacLaughin for his thoughts on my Jack Feuer blog.

ClickZ: Seana Mulcahy on Advertising and Blogs

Could this be the future of blogging?

Blogging isn't widely used, accepted, or provided by companies to employees. The technology would be an excellent forum for workplace communication. Quite often, my clients are trying to target the at-work audience. This would be a perfect fit. Not only would it be a great way to brand or promote products and services online, it would also allow advertisers to gain planning insight. Have you ever watched postings on an online bulletin board or lurked in a chat room? It's amazing what you can find out about people's interests, needs, problems, and attitudes toward a brand.

Many pundits strongly disagree. They believe blogging is built on trust. I agree. They think promoting a mobile phone or airline tickets or soft drinks on a blog would be horribly wrong. That's where I say, "Give me a break."

Open a newspaper, use the remote control on a TV, flip through a magazine, listen to the radio. What are you surrounded with? Advertising, of course. Perhaps these cynics want to protect and preserve the untouched atmosphere. I respect their opinion.

But I still say, "Why not slap an ad on it?"

There are many things that just don't jive here and is typical of what is so prevalent in advertising today. If it moves, "slap an ad on it."

First, I don't think advertising and blogs mix. I said it below, and I'll say it again. Seana treats blogging as an unusually effective outlet for advertisers. I don't get this. Why is a blog a better place to slap an ad? To me, its just another place -- if not, a worse place. When a real voice is juxtaposed against advertising, the real voice wins and the advertising loses.

I don't really consider myself a pundit. I'm in advertising just like Seana. But I don't think "promoting a mobile phone or airline tickets or soft drinks on a blog would be horribly wrong," I think it would be horribly ineffective. Why would it work? I can appreciate the use of blogging for planners -- to gain insight into customers -- But that's different than slapping an ad on it.

That's not how you use the web in business. You talk with. Not talk at.

Adverblogging
Rick Bruner, who originally blogged about Nick Denton's new venture (see last entry), writes about some of the possibilities of blogging, marketing and, now, PR (and the unfortunate coinage of "adverblogging").

Rick blogs about how Macromedia is backing the launch of their new MX platform by creating a blog maintained by 5 staff developers. The internet tears down the boarders between customer and company where marketing-speak dies and real voices thrive (rhyme not intended). Rick claims adverblogging is inevitable. While I'm not sure about "adverblogging," the term, I know Rick is right.

P.S. Rick has a really cool section of his site slapping fun at all the un-creative logos with swooshes and orbits.

Blogvertising?
Nick Denton, founder of moreover.com, is starting a new venture revolving around the idea of making it easier to search for blogs (good idea). The plan would be ad-supported (bad idea).

Denton plans on mixing blogs and advertising. Advertising and blogs don't mix. Unless if you're "advertising" someone elses blog (Pyrads, Blogsnob, for example).

The way I bet it roles out, advertising gets distributed on this blog network, the network gets paid for advertising, maybe bloggers get a portion of the pay (in which case, this might work). Now, Denton's plan is vague, so I may be totally off the mark. But the fact that it sounds like a purely adsupported revenue model instantly raises my skeptisim.

Bottom line: Why would advertising a company's product or service resonate on anyone's blog? When a real voice is juxtaposed against advertising, the real voice wins and the advertising loses.

For info go here, here, here, here, here and here.

One of the Greatest Things about the Internet are Gems like this
I quote:

I said this is what is happening on the net. We have never in our
lives had a channel to say this, to tell what it's like to be human ....

I don't want to be a hero, I said. Don't want to have a thousand
faces, launch a thousand ships. But I wonder why we think this way.
Where our sense of shifting destiny has gone. For better or worse, I
said, I am trying to live my life in public. Online. We've never had
any channel for this. No models. And the models we need are not
"model" lives but real ones. Uncertain and afraid, crippled, broken.
Trying to make sense of our minds and our hearts and the world we
encounter out here. Telling each other what it's like to be human.
Making what we can with all we've got. Not shitting ourselves and each
other with facile platitudes, easy formulas, empty slogans. A human
life for all to see, for what it's worth. It may not be worth much,
but that's what I'm doing here. Not a model life, but writing that
shakes and shivers and burns and speaks for whatever life we have.

Agency.com Blogs It
This is a very, very cool new blog by the folks at Agency.com. I think this takes a lot of courage. For an ad agency to open up their conversations to the rest of the world is pretty revolutionary. (Thanks to SherpaBlog for the link).

John Hiler on Blog Marketing
Deborah Branscum interviews Coronte Microblog creator John Hiler. John shares with us how blogging will be important to marketing. Not sure I agree with all of John's conclusions, but an interesting read nonetheless.

It's Friday!!
.... and it's time for some peanut butter and jelly.

Googlewog: The Power of a Brand via Doc's Blog
Doc writes a heartwarming piece about his son in his blog today. This could have easily been an ad. Any copywriter could write such a story. But what makes this one so much more powerful is the voice is real. The power of the internet is that it opens up the relationships between customers and the products they buy (although Doc didn't pay for Google, you can get the point). People will be linking to Doc's story all day today. Google is winning in the process because it delivers a stellar product. And Doc has something neat to say about it.

New Marketing Blog - NetMarketing
Stumbled accross this new marketing blog called NetMarketing by Robert Lock via the Corante Blog. Lots of industry info.

BTW just added a discussion forum via Bravenet (thanks to NetMarketing). So talk it up folks ...

Adweak: Ad Criticism & Blatantly Fake News
Thought of making a parody website of Adweek. Looks like someone already did. Pretty funny site. Check it out.

Totalitarian Control of the Browser - First Our Inboxes, Now our Browsers
Sean Carton gives another scary view of things to come in his latest ClickZ article at what some marketers are trying to do to our browsers. The sad thing is, I think Sean is dead on with this prediction.