Martin's Ride Logo

My friend Red Maxwell, President and CEO of OnRampBranding, is the best. He answered my plea for logo help. I've know Red for a long time and he is one of my five secret weapons. If your business needs web strategy and/or graphic help, call Red and tell him I sent you. Mentioning my recommendation will help me pay Red back for all of his help and support over the years. Red is a true Mench. He helps without watching the meter and I owe him more than I can repay already, but Red keeps giving because that is who he is. Doesn't hurt to be one of the smartest digital strategists on planet earth either, doesn't hurt :).

Here's Red's great work for my across the USA ride to cure cancer:




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Is Netflix The Future Of Cable TV?

Future predictions are best left to guys name Nostradamus, but there are moments when time bends just enough to provide a glimpse into the future. Technology is bending time and, if we look carefully, we can see future pointers. What will the future of cable TV incorporate based on what is happening now?

• Infinite Inventory
• On Demand on multiple platforms (TV, computers, game systems)
• Sophisticated “like me” Reviews
• Community to harness Wisdom of Crowds
  

Infinite Inventory – Advantage NetFlix
On Sunday I wanted to watch Paul Newman’s Nobody’s Fool. Not sure what made me want to re-watch this movie, a favorite, but something created the demand. Problem is no system could satisfy the request immediately. Netflix came closest, but Newman’s 1994 film wasn’t part of Netflix’s “watch now” options…..yet.

Infinite Inventory is implied by Moore’s Law and Anderson’s Long Tail and is being executed by forward thinking companies including Apple (iTunes) and Amazon. Infinite Inventory is the idea that as inventory carrying costs approach zero, as they already do for digital goods, any “store” should sell every widget on the planet.

I started writing about Infinite Inventory in 2008 looking for a term to describe Anderson’s infinite shelf space idea in his book The Long Tail (see my take on Slideshare in Martin's Long Tail). When I floated the idea it was hard for our company’s owners to grasp. Inventory, in their minds, always cost money. Inventory in a digital state, something it is in for much longer than its physical presence, is or will soon be free. Moore’s Law reduces transistor costs yearly even as power increases. Moore’s Law is behind the digital revolution. Bandwidth, storage and CPU costs are being lowered as I write this (on a “free” blogging tool).

Movies are following music and heading to server land where the cost of offering one more movie will be pennies. Soon, say in the next two years, Netflix will offer Watch Now version of almost any title imaginable – Infinite Inventory. The economics are too undeniable. Once servers are in place loading up one more feature costs little, so every movie ever made will be available on someone’s servers soon. I give this race to Netflix because “watch now” is a game changer beating the cable company’s puny DVR by a landslide.

On Demand On Multiple Platforms – Advantage No One
Netflix’s “watch now” option is easiest to execute on a computer. Soon distinctions between TV’s and computers will be a distinction without a difference. So much video demand exists online it won’t be long before someone figures out how to get Hula, YouTube and Netflix on my plasma. I know there are ways to do this already. My geekiest friends are already there. I am not resisting, but my two-year-old Sony and surround sound system doesn’t make getting Netflix or the web to it easy. The key is easy display on any electronic device (TV, Computer, Phone, iPod). First group to solve this issue in a non-geek reasonable priced way could reset the game. Right now no one has an advantage in On Demand On Multiple Platforms. Cable’s DVR is the closest but its puny offerings mostly focused on current run movies means it can’t win this category outright. Slight leads in what is going to happen next will be meaningless. If cable doesn’t understand Infinite Inventory then the DVR will go the way of the beta-max.

Sophisticated “like-me” Reviews – Advantage Netflix
The Netflix crowd source competition to discover a new review algorithm was worth every one of the million dollars they paid. Netflix’s sophisticated algorithm matches movie renters to movie reviewers showing a “% like you” for how much each reviewer’s picks come from a similar psychological / mathematical place.

Reviews are key to marketing anything today. Reviews and posts from our friends are great but not always present or available. Finding ways to trust previously anonymous reviewers is something the Netflix “like me” reviews system accomplishes. Netflix’s system sets up an easy comparison. It is easy to see what “like me” people think of a movie and just as easy to go to the other end of the spectrum and see what people not like me think. This dynamic takes advantage of how negative reviews can positively affect a purchase. There are times when someone well out of your circle can be most influential. I don’t know anything about Japanese action films. If I was researching Seven Samurai reviews from those not like me may be the most helpful. Netflix’s system makes it easy to make well-informed buying decisions from either end of the spectrum. A million dollars well spent by Netflix provides a sophisticated advantage, an advantage cable companies don’t even understand (yet).

Community To Harness Crowd Wisdom – Advantage No One
Netflix has the most community-like functions with its “like me” reviews. Netflix’s system is too closed to win this category however. Only Netflix subscribers can read and share reviews. Closed platforms make it hard to invest hours writing reviews. Closing a community reduces impact and effect of social capital. I can’t post a review on Facebook or a link on Twitter. Netflix was hammered on privacy recently. They were going to create a second reviewer algorithm prize but pulled back after suits and FTC woes.

Netflix needs to figure out social features such as follow, fan and share. There review tool suffers here. Funny the FTC came down on Netflix like a ton of bricks on privacy when our innermost secrets are readily available on Facebook. Netflix is more likely to fix this than cable companies, to become more Facebook-like, but, for the moment, no one understand how to create a community around crowd wisdom, movies and reviewers.

Summary: Netflix is ahead 2 to 0 over cable, but this horse race is far from settled.

Netflix and Facebook = found this link after I wrote this post. It may move this community category to Netflix. Wouldn't be hard to have better community ideas than the cable company, so Netflix is going to win this category too if they haven't already.

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Future Tech On PBS

Ray Suarez leads a panel of digital experts including Esther Dyson, Paul Saffo and Jaron Lanier in a discussion of what has happened and what is going to happen.

Art of Walking Alone Together

Zen Warrior's Code
Samurai swordsman, author and brush painter Miyamoto Musashi wrote a magical set of life affirming "precepts" a week before his death in 1645. Mushashi's code is simple, calm and elegant. Many of Musashi's thoughts apply to the way of the web :). Internet marketing, I'm becoming convinced, is more an eastern study of contrasts than western territorial acquisition. Musashi's life was a study in contrast. An artist who fought his first duel at thirteen, Musashi understood Zen's final irony. Enlightenment is only attainable by being. Strive and you lose. Want it and you are lost. Why is the hardest thing in life just being? Its a Zen thing.

• Do not turn your back on the various Ways of this world.
• Do not scheme for physical pleasure.
• Do not intend to rely on anything.
• Consider yourself lightly; consider the world deeply.
• Do not ever think in acquisitive terms.
• Do not regret things about your own personal life.
• Do not envy another's good or evil.
• Do not lament parting on any road whatsoever.
• Do not complain or feel bitterly about yourself or others.
• Have no heart for approaching the path of love.
• Do not have preferences.
• Do not harbor hopes for your own personal home.
• Do not have a liking for delicious food for yourself.
• Do not carry antiques handed down from generation to generation.
• Do not fast so that it affects you physically.
• While it's different with military equipment, do not be fond of material things.
• While on the Way, do not begrudge death.
• Do not be intent on possessing valuables or a fief in old age.
• Respect the gods and Buddhas, but do not depend on them.
• Though you give up your life, do not give up your honor.
• Never depart from the Way of the Martial Arts.

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Top 6 Internet Marketing Books

Mary Kay O'Connor, President of Starting Point, asked me an interesting question. What were my top Internet marketing books? Thinking about this question for a long time I came up with the six point star to represent the six core web marketing books. No one book defines online marketing. Combine six books, however, and it is possible to define any macro or micro trend. This post is about those six books, next post will be about how they relate to major web and Internet marketing trends.

• Point 1: Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
  Advertising's Orwellian ubiquity successfully deadens message and receiver making the battle for hearts and minds the definition of "new" marketing. Gladwell's Tipping point moved marketing from a series of land grab tasks to a viral battle for advocacy. It is important to understand no one believes marketers anymore, but more important to realize what they will believe in - each other. Finding Gladwell's connectors, mavens and sales people that can more messages and create tribes becomes a primary function of this "new" marketing. Gladwell's understanding that ideas transfer like biological agents in wild viral epidemic. Marketing is creating, nurturing and supporting epidemics, sometimes called Oprah Effects or viral marketing, and thus creating movements (ref: see Thoughts on Leadership from the Dancing Guy for a dramatic and funny example of the dynamics of creating a movement).
  
  
• Point 2: Long Tail by Chris Anderson
  There is a long tail inside of every number set. Anderson's Long Tail, sometimes called a Pareto Distribution, explains the old 80/20 rule in a new way. 80% of almost anything comes from 20% of the set, something Anderson calls the head. Anderson's interesting realization is how our world used to be built around the head, the big hits that dominate any market. Marketers had to make constant Sophie's choices. Marketers would double down on the hits while abandoning also-rans. Anderson's book explains in an Internet age shelf space is moot eliminating Sophie and her choices. Internet marketers live in a land of infinite inventory where "selling" every widget (every product in a business vertical). Selling is in quotes because throwing another product page on a server costs pennies and, thanks to search engine marketing and traffic arbitrage, could return dollars. Anderson's Long Tail is an important read.
  
  
• Point 3: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
  Consumers are crazy and Duke professor Dan Ariely knows it. Predictably Irrational explains the crazy. Ariely's explanation of the power of anchoring is a critical Internet Marketing concept. Anchoring is our human tendency to associate patterns and meaning where none exists. We buy on "SALE" and look for "DEALS". An old P&G boss once said a important thing to a young me. "People," he explained, "buy with emotion and justify with logic." My old P&G boss was right and Ariely explains just how right in Predictably Irrational.
  
  
• Point 4: Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
  Crowd sourcing is all the rage but it isn't new. Web 2.0's open platforms encouraging user interaction, sometimes called User Generated Content or UGC, is moving our old word-of-mouth practices into new dominance. Soon it will be impossible to imagine buying anything without taking the pulse of our friends, friends of friends and others loosely associated with us or our affinity groups. Crowds always beat individuals. Metcalf's Law says the value of any telecommunications network is square of the number of members. Soon we will all have individual networks with stratospheric values. Web sites must harness crowd wisdom to do any and every thing. Why operate in a vacuum when it is so easy to ask, summarize feedback and act with our customers in mind? Another related book is Tribal Marketing by Seth Godin. Godin's idea that our function is create leaders who then create movements is related, instructive and true. How you mine and use crowd wisdom is important.
  
  
• Point 5: Purple Cow by Seth Godin
  Traditional marketing is dead replaced by content marketing and word-of-mouth. Now what? Now you have to create viral, or purple, content. Seth explains why purple cows are important and what you can do to create them. With 80,000,000 web properties and more popping up every minute cutting through clutter is important. If your ideas isn't special Seth's advice is to not do it. Create the next coolest thing or stay home.
  
  
• Point 6: Made To Stick by Heath Brothers
  Content needs to be PURPLE and it has to STICK. The Heath brothers examine what it takes to create sticky content in detail. Why do some ideas survive while others die? Made To Stick explores how ideas move through populations become bigger with each pass. Some Made To Stick truths are common sense. Simple ideas work better than complicated ones and how any marketer's idea starts out is rarely how it ends up (this is the whisper game we all played as kids passing secrets until they are unrecognizable by the end).
  

These six books create a whole, a six pointed star, capable of explaining almost any macro and micro trend. Next post I'll explain what I mean by that but here is a taste:

Macro Trend - Too much advertising chasing too little attention.
Related Books: Purple Cow, Made to Stick and Wisdom of Crowds

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Seeing Sinbad

Twenty years ago (1992) I was riding in a car heading to LAX. My boss Bob Solomon was in the car complaining. We’d spent several days in LA meeting with ice cream companies without seeing any stars. Bob seemed to think I could conjure stars up at a moment's notice. We flew out from NutraSweet's Chicago Headquarters to meet with Baskin Robbins in Burbank and Alta Dena Diary in the unfortunately named “City of Industry”. After lots of driving and presenting NutraSweet’s short lived fat substitute called Simplesse I was exhausted.

It took a month to set up the handful of meetings we just finished. This was before GoTo Meeting. The only way to meet dairies back in the day was planes to cars to hotels and then back to planes. I flew 150,000 domestic air miles my last year at NutraSweet (the kind of flying days that are thankfully gone). Bob Solomon was excited about “being out in the field” and wanted to see stars. We moved into the LAX lanes and I was about to say, “sorry Bob,” when something in the rear view mirror stopped me mid-sentence.

“Bob,” I remember saying calmer than I felt, “Sinbad is coming up behind us on a motorcycle.” Bob didn’t even turn around he was so sure I was making it up. “Bob,” I remember insisting, “he really is behind us.” The sound in my voice convinced Bob to turn around. When he did he saw the actor / comedian Sinbad comfortably riding a large Harley with handlebars above his shoulders looking very cool on a hot LA day.

We both went nuts at that point. Sinbad must have thought the two crazy suited executives hooting, hollering and pumping fists was a strange sight even for LA. We turned off to drop of the car at Hertz #1. Sinbad roared by pumping a solitary fist and nodding his head. He smiled and chuckled to himself about his effect on those two strange execs in the rent-a-car. My wizard skills were complete. Rushing to the plane Bob said something about conjuring up Daryl Hannah or Demi Moore (Remember this was 1992) next time. I smiled and promised to work on it.

Seeing Sinbad tonight on the Celebrity Apprentice made me recall a magical time long gone. Seeing Sinbad that day at that moment was a small funny miracle. Tonight when Sinbad's team won I smiled and pump my fist in the air for no apparent reason.

Thanks Sinbad and good luck dealing with the Donald.

Marty Smith
One of the crazy guys in rental car outside of LAX twenty years ago.

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Blippy.com Is One Cool Tool

Connection in an age of connectivity can be hard. Irony is a bitch. Meaningful connections are based in time and information. Modern life is full of one and short on the other. No one has enough time, but information is coming out of our ears. The result, if you read a book such as Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Johnson, is our parsing skills are becoming overdeveloped. We can wrestle mountains of data to ground even as talking on the phone becomes harder.

Where in this strange Chinese finger trap taking us? Who knows, but I love Blippy. Blippy.com’s tag is “what are your friends buying.” Blippy understands something I read somewhere. Every act of consumption is simultaneously an act of creation. Strange to say we are artists with credit cards, strange but accurate. We create our lives by what we say, do and BUY. In this time, in the perfect electronic storm that is our lives, we create defining patterns. One of defining pattern is what we buy on iTunes, at Barnes and Noble and Netflix.

Yes I could have hidden a recent rental of Paul Blart Mall Cop, but I didn’t. It stands out like a sore thumb. Paul's asynchonicity is apparent. It was a weak moment that lasted less than ten minutes, the amount of time I stomached such a meaningless use of fifty million dollars. I live next to a mall. Malls are my single bachelor life. I eat there, watch movies and read books, but Paul Blart’s mall was an uninspired ride taken to make me less depressed with it immediately making me sad (lol).

Blippy.com, on the other hand, is a joy. Its magical sign up process reaches out to your Netflix, iTunes and other sites (more to follow I'm sure) to pull in your latest purchases. Your friends follow and comment on what you are buying. They ask questions, compare notes and are involved. They help you even as you help them.

Blippy.com is wisdom of crowds machine and perhaps the greatest divining rod in a land of electronic water finders. You can follow my purchases and I can follow yours. Use Blippy to comment, ask questions and poke gentle fun. We brace friends who should have turned to us instead of Mr. Blart. We know our friends and ourselves better. What more can one ask for from a FREE social network application? To everyone at Blippy I say THANKS and GREAT JOB. I love Blippy even if it displays deep individual truth (mine) warts and all. Sign up for Blippy to be amazed. Sign up for Blippy to see yourself and your friends through our most telling modern story – what we buy.

Follow ScentTrail's Blippy

Martin

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Surprise Marketing Defined

Surprise, an unexpected thing that creates astonishment, is an important marketing strategy in a connected and cynical leaning world. Suddenly we are old souls. Instant global culture creates quick maturity, a sudden adulthood happening younger and younger. Steven Johnson explains, in his book Everything Bad Is Good For You, explains how our video game based culture creates information parsing machines (us). By the time a teenager gets a driver’s license they many not want or care about it. They don’t have to get in cars to hang out. Any computer or phone brings connection, information, social networks and surprise.

Surprising a world weary audience isn’t easy. The pay off can be grand. Years ago, back when I had money (lol), I owned 100 shares of Pixar. I bought the stock because Steve Jobs was running Pixar. One day, without solicitation, two Buzz Light Year posters arrived with a thank you note. Wow, this was a COOL thing to do. Pixar's surprise became an instant hit with my nephew, recipient of the posters. I was surprised and delighted. I’ve told 100 people about Pixar's surprise marketing, not a bad return for $10 in posters and postage.

When is the last time any company thanked you for anything? I pay a horrendous cable bill every month to stony silence and arrogance only a monopoly creates. Next week I’m turning off cable television. Time Warner insults its customers in so many ways I hardly know where to start, but here are three examples:

• New Customers = GOOD, Old Customers = STUPID
  Every $24.95 ad I see insults the better than $150 I pay monthly. I’ve called and asked how I can get the “intro” offer only to learn I can’t because I am an existing customer. I won’t be a Time Warner customer in about five days.
  
  
• Obnoxious Inclusion Of Goofy “OFF” Channels
  My DVR stopped organizing around my favorites (for some technical failure). I have to claw through hundreds of BS channels that are “off”. These channels are nothing but an ad asking me to ask my Time Warner representative about turning on the channel when I mistakenly click on one. No preview not even an explanation of what the channel is appears. These channels are in the way, stupid and a nasty inconvenience. Time Warner could remove these channels, but they think my accidental view of them will prompt a call, and it may if I knew what blahblahtv was. Without a preview, explanations, or free trials forget selling me expanded channels. Either sell me or remove the irritating intrusive.
  
  
• Cable Time
  We all know cable's time is more important and valuable than yours. If I make the mistake of wanting my cable back on they will give me the 4 hour period where I will have to be home while they may come by. With GPS why can’t cable and every other service group narrow their “be there” windows to a half an hour? Narrowing the window allows me to leave work just before they arrive. I wouldn't feel jailed in my house while I wait for the cable guy. Fair treatment starts at home. Not true! If Time Warner or other cable companies follow this suggestion it is NOT the seventh sign and the end of days. It just means the cable company woke up, sort of like the once powerful phone monopoly did, in time to learn they are NOT the only game in town.
  

Could Surprise Marketing Help Time Warner Cable
No is the short answer. Time Warner’s customer service baseline is so poor any surprise would seem insincere and out of place. Don't use surprise marketing to plug basic customer service and marketing holes. Surprise marketing is only viable when customer service is excellent.

Surprise Marketing Defined
Surprise Marketing is creation of an unexpected thrilling connection with a customer or potential customer where there are no strings attached and employed to show appreciation, magic and joy.

Steve Jobs didn’t require positive vibes about Toy Story and Pixar. Until today I didn’t connect poster arrival around Toy Story's debut. I did my job. I gave my Toy Story posters to a little boy who say the film multiple times, had enough Buzz Lightyears to start a war and who woke up looking at Woody and Buzz every morning for years. Think Pixar’s surprise paid for itself?

No strings attached is an important surprise marketing principle. It took me 15 years to realize the connection to Toy Story's debut, so no strings were even remotely attached to Jobs' poster gift. Surprise marketing, when done well, blots out the sun. Surprise marketing is so magical any crass revenue goal is wiped away :). The closer surprise marketing is to “no strings” the better it works. Nothing falls flatter faster than a surprise with strings or one that isn’t a surprise.

Show appreciation, magic and joy.“We are going to do this to create good customer karma,” just wouldn’t fly in many ROI regimented cultures. Until basic customer service includes positive surprise marketing on a more regular basis using it as a one-off is nothing but dangerous. Get your company’s basic customer service beyond excellent and surprise marketing might create an event customers and stakeholders discuss for years.

Have you been surprised by a company? Did a company use surprise marketing is a creative and joy spreading way for you? What about companies such as Time Warner, who’ve surprised you with just how bad they treat you, please share your positive or negative surprise-marketing story.

Thanks,

Marty

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Marketing Bell Curve

Hit a baseball 4 out of ten times and you are in the Hall of Fame beating Ty Cobb’s lifetime .366. League averages in the modern area are in the .250 / .260 range. This means big league hitters strike out 3 out of every 4 at bats. Marketing in an Internet world is like hitting a baseball. You are going to strike out more than you hit home runs, a lot more.

Marketing and sales has always been a numbers game. How many baseballs can you hit sitting on your couch? Not many. How many million dollar marketing ideas can you create in a day? Depends on the day, but if your ratio of successful ideas to dogs is higher than one in four you should be in the marketing hall of fame. Marketing is about perspiration as much as inspiration. We market therefore we are.

Marketing’s batting average is going down. The irony of our (marketers) inability to connect with people even as new connection methods spring legs and walk around the room is not lost, nor is it understood. Marketers turn up the volume. If we scream, the bizarre rationale goes, people have to listen. Maybe in an old world, a world of five TV channels, Slinky and Hula Hoops screaming could work.

Remember the Seinfeld episode with the closer talker? Jerry and the clan became uncomfortable when the “close talker” invaded their personal space. Marketers do the equivalent every day. Here is a favorite example of a close talker’s screaming. Stride Chewing Gum I have two questions for you?

1.Is memorably stupid more important than anything else in the gum business?
2.How bad is Wrigley kicking your butt?

I give Stride Chewing Gum extra credit for creating a pretty inventive web site. Stride Chewing Gum demonstrates my bell curve marketing point. Some things they are doing such as Submit your ridiculous idea contest and win $5,000 is good. Others such as the Ostrich riders falls well down the bell curve.

Despite some creativity, Stride’s overall score falls on the wrong side of the marketing bell curve. Stride Chewing Gum and Cadbury may have escaped becoming Marketing Zombie of the Week, but not by much. The Hall of Marketing Fame is clearly safe. Do you have a candidate for Marketing Zombie of the Week?





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How iPad Changes Publishing

Great article on how Penguin sees iPad changing publishing.

Read iPad Article

Apple iPad Ad Airs During Academy Awards

Apple's first iPad ad aired during the Academy Awards. First shipment will be April 3rd with pre-sell beginning March 12th.

Bungee Jump Your Life

How are you bungee jumping your life?
I'm leaving my job as a Director of E-Commerce in a week to bungee jump my life. I'm going to ride my bicycle across the USA or die trying (LOL). I'm 52 overweight and have survived several harrowing health challenges. No time like the present to bungee jump my life is my thinking.

Don't let me bungee alone. How are you or would you like to bungee jump your life? If you have bungee jumped or based jumped please share the experience.

Thanks and Happy Landings.

Marty

Fcuk Up Culture?

I’ve learned the Internet credo. I’ve taught the Internet credo. Ugly and fast is better than later and perfect. Put something up warts and all; see if it gets traction earning further improvement. Speed, speed and speed are most important words in web marketing. Internet time is different. A day in the world is like a week online. Our TO DO lists are longer than time available. We crunch, mash and fly. We hurtle toward an ever-faster future.

Is there a problem?
I want my team to go faster, faster and faster still, and they do a great job. Is this the correct philosophy? Do we need to be faster or do we perceive the need to be faster and act on that perception? Yes competitors have taken our ideas and beat us over the head with them, but what real damage was done? Is first more important than best?

How would we react to our doctor, dentist or airplane mechanic if they adopted our fast and error prone philosophy? Has Toyota’s once revered Total Quality Management culture been infected by our current F**k Up Culture. Errors are happening more and to people and companies previously immune.

Myth of Multitasking
Profs at Stanford studied the superior processing skills of multitaskers. Only one problem, heavy media multitaskers lost to light multitaskers in every test:

"They're (heavy media multitaskers) suckers for irrelevancy," said communication Professor Clifford Nass, one of the researchers whose findings are published in the Aug. 24 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Everything distracts them."
Stanford Multitasking Study

Does Clifford Nass’s comment seem prescient and far-reaching? Basic tenants of our current F**k Up culture:

• The amount of data, let’s call this “input” for lack of a better phrase, is overwhelming with no clear hierarchy. All data is equal and so doubly overwhelming.
  
  
• Parsing and crafting responses to overwhelming amounts of input flattens output (output is synonymous with response) due to lack of input message hierarchy. When everything seems equal response to anything is impossible.
  
  
• When speed trumps quality and data lacks hierarchy MISTAKES happen.
  

Mistakes happen when we speed up. This is a truth we all know. Late to a conference call today I tried to push phone numbers twice as fast. After the fourth try I stopped, took a deep breath and pushed numbers at a normal pace. Doing things quickly multiple times takes longer. Mistakes take longer.

There is a constant value for what a human brain can coordinate and accomplish in a block of time. Let’s call this constant A (for accomplishment). Attempts to double and triple A are mirage like multitasking. Life may feel faster, but A is a constant, like the speed of light or pie. A doesn’t change our perception of it does.

This means the only variable we can manipulate is T for time. We double down as I am doing right now. It is 9:30 and I am using technology to get more done, but the amount I can accomplish, the constant A, is not changing. A can’t change. Time has a ceiling too. There are 24 hours in a day. Eventually T taps out too. You may add Blackberry time, but you are not impacting A and you will run out of T at some point.

What about the variable Q for quality? A balanced life is set to have (T)time x (A)accomplishment = (Q)quality. We allocate time against things we want to accomplish increasing the quality of our lives. Manipulating T unbalances the equation: (T)time X (A)accomplishment = (Q)quality/(T)time

Balanced Equation
3 hours x 1 accomplishment = 3
3 hours x 2 accomplishments = 6

Unbalanced Equation
3 hours X 4 accomplishments = 12/3 (4)

Your balance may be my crazed. Equations help think about abstract concepts in a linear way. Effects of unbalanced lives are all around us (Toyota, GM, Kia). Internet culture is pervasive and fast. It may not be RIGHT or TRUE. We want air traffic controllers; doctors and dentist to live balanced and firmly planted in RIGHT and TRUE. With pending unemployment I head toward a self imposed balance. Hope to find RIGHT and TRUE in there somewhere too. Hope you do too.

Martin

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Tweet Around The World In A Day

Can a tweet go around the world in a day? This is the question I ask on @ScentTrail today. I am a low level tweeter. If my tweet can go around the world in a day any one's can. Here is how we will know:

1. Retweet @ScentTrail Around The World...in a day tweet.
2. Include your country in your retweet.
3. I will post results here

Let's see it Twitter has the power it seems. Can a message go around the world in a day?

Martin
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Asynchronous SEO 2

Asynchronous Albert
My first post about asynchronous SEO is confusing. The concept is simple. Simple may not be accurate, but it is easier than I made it before :). Why is asynchronous SEO important? How many documents come back on your most popular keywords? Millions? Tens of Millions? The problem with thinking like everyone else is millions got there first. Asynchronous SEO is a contrarian strategy. Asynchronous SEO looks for what authors Kim and Mauborgne named a “blue ocean strategy”.


How An Artist Thinks About SEO
I know talented artists. Most are too busy to think about search engine optimization (SEO). BUT, if they did think about SEO they would think asynchronously. Most artist think asynchronously about breakfast, politics, shopping, watching TV, movies, etc… A blank canvas is an intimidating thing, I know from experience. A blank canvas demands asynchronous thinking. Approach any blank canvas in a synchronous way and you create a copy. You don't make art. You don’t become the next Damien Hirst (read How Damien Hirst Changed the Art World) or Andy Warhol by ONLY copying. Art requires intelligent asynchronous strategies, blue ocean strategies.

SEO, like art, is a crowded world with millions on the line. Find a way in and win the lottery. Find a way in over and over and you are on beach writing about it. There is one undeniable fact. Approach art or SEO like everyone else and you fail before you start.

I need to be clear. You should do what everyone else does. Study approach and monitor keyword selections (with a product such as Hitwise). Don’t stop at the warm up. Inside the normal keyword circle of your business vertical and you’ve only JUST sat down. Your ante is in and cards are dealt. Winning is what you do next - think asynchronously.

Asynchronous SEO Example
Since I was obtuse in my first post, let’s try to come down to earth by using L. L. Bean as an example. Let’s say L. L. wants to improve their bottom of page 1 position on the keyword “fleece”. What do they do?

1. Keyword: Fleece - Documents: 20MM
2. Keyword: Waterproof Fleece - Documents: 1.8MM
3. Keyword: Fleece Squirrel - Documents: 167,000
   

What term should L. L. Bean go after? Fleece is a basic top of the funnel keyword. You have to have content on it and L. L. Bean does earning the bottom of page one. Others such as REI, Amazon and “FleeceLady” are higher on "Fleece". Winning “FLEECE” is not impossible for Bean, but it could take months. Fleece squirrel on the other hand is winnable inside of several weeks (probably). AND, fleece squirrel can help Bean win FLEECE (why is another post for another time).

Why Winning Is More Important Than Anything
Your reaction may be, “yeah but who cares about winning ‘fleece squirrel’, no one types that phrase.” You would be half right. No one types, “fleece squirrel” today. Fleece squirrel could be a blue ocean. If Bean hired an illustrator, created a cute squirrel icon, attached the icon to a definition and published fleece buying tips then Bean would start winning “fleece squirrel”. Once L. L. starts winning fleece squirrel other sites will have to FOLLOW pumping up the value of the phrase. Traffic increases. Competitors help Bean build bridges to fleece squirrel. Once the first one says, “We are better than those fleece squirrel guys,” Bean has won the day and should win the battle on “FLEECE”....eventually.

Winning creates a virtuous cycle. Ever notice how some friends have all the luck? They are good-looking, thin, and smart, are always happy and can turn dimes into dollars. In Connected: The hidden power of social networks authors Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler make the financial case for having smiling happy friends; you are more likely to be smiley and happy and you make more money when you are smiley and happy. Create a blue ocean such as fleece squirrel and smiley happy people find you. Well maybe it is competitors who don’t want to be left out who find you, but the effect is the same. Your claim’s value grows by Metcalf’s Law. Metcalf valued telephone networks at square the number of people using the network.

Applying Metcalf’s phone network valuation to content and keywords is the best way to value what is happening to “fleece squirrel”. When we started there was little value in the term. Then we did a little marketing. We created an icon and wrote content. We gave our fleece squirrel a job – explaining how to buy fleece. Before you can say “rat with tail” competitors are talking about our fleece squirrel. Google documents returned doubles then quadruples, value as determined by Metcalf’s law skyrockets. We will be the kings of “fleece squirrel”. In the beginning owning the term and four bucks gets us coffee at Starbucks. We create a some Blue Ocean Strategies and presto chango our little squirrel term is worth millions.

What is easier synchronous SEO on “fleece” or asynchronous SEO on “fleece squirrel”? I go with the squirrel.



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