I think one of the most powerful types of marketing has to be word of mouth. Whilst there are issues regarding the legality of paying people to give word of mouth marketing, free stuff’s a great tool!
When I received my LG Viewty, I’ve recommended it to several friends who I believe seriously valued my opinion. Also, as well as putting the review on my blog I put it on several review sites like DooYoo, Ciao and Epinions.com . Amazingly, the Ciao review alone has had over 1000 reads in less than a month!
Another example is that I’ve kindly been lent 2 Skypephones. My friends have seen these and they think they’re cool… one is now planning to get one over Christmas. If you’re interested in winning a Skypephone, visit this blog where the most creative entry wins! Deadlines is Monday 17th December.
Word of mouth marketing works but it’s wrong to get paid to do it (but free stuff’s always good!).
Tags: marketing
Have massive amounts of work due soon? Consider turning your networking off.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll go onto the Wikipedia or receive a thrilling email and be enthralled by something pretty off-topic for hours making your final product of a lower quality. There’s a simple solution: isolate your computer. Turn your network card off; this will prevent you from getting any emails, reading RSS feeds or looking on the Wikipedia about Filipino politics.
If you need to research, try using offline media (digital or paper-based). Only go online if you need to.
Do any of you have any other, obvious productivity tips?
Tags: productivity
Please people, stop using the dollar. I’m not an economist so I’m sure my arguments flawed… rebuttals appreciated!
It’s a weakening currency and it is fairly frustrating receiving AdSense and TLA payments which are growing smaller and smaller even if the actual amount is rising. For example, in October last year a pound was about $1.87… now it’s more like $2.08! Quite a difference! Whilst changes in exchange rate are very normal, I think in today’s world of global trade it is especially inconvenient.
We Britons are a stubborn people being one of the few European nations to opt out of the €. Many Europeans moaned that the switch to the Euro saw prices rise but I think our prices are already inflated well above their American equivalent (a copy of The Sims 2 for Mac will only set you back $45 (at today’s exchange rate about GB£21) on Amazon.com but will cost you GB£30 (about US$62) on Amazon.co.uk). It’s interesting how the weakening dollar doesn’t lower British prices!
I’m tired of advertisers using dollars to pay. I’m happy that several of the advertisers I do business with directly pay me in dollars or Euros. I think Euros is a more sensible choice for websites to do business in as nearly half a billion people use the Euro or a currency pegged to it!
Would it hurt companies such as Google or TLA to offer advertisers and publishers the option to use currencies besides the dollar? Obviously, they would have to do some conversions (for example if the advertiser paid in US$ but the publisher wanted GB£) but if an advertiser paid in sterling, could the publisher not be paid in sterling?
Tags: economics, dollar, euro, pound
I made a productive use of my time today…
You might think the title of this post is weird and that’s because it is but any 9ruler should immediately understand. As well as being a mixture a dead, naturally fragrant plant material, potpourri also means a mixture of miscellaneous things. ‘Sunday Miscellany’ seemed to be somewhat of a boring title, so I chose this title to timely celebrate the life of a certain late forum.
It appears China aren’t big fans of RSS, apparently blocking all RSS feeds. Like Google, they must prefer Atom. 
Our loyal, Blogger-loving reader and occasional guest writer Azhar has just celebrated his 400th post on his fantastic photoblog The Daily Sunrise!
It seems some clever people have started selling SEO-themed t-shirts… and you thought you EFF one was nerdy? 
(via Pronet)
Series 11 of South Park has resumed… I’m not a fan of the latest episode though, nowhere near as good as the earlier episodes in the series (link to Wikipedia, includes spoiler).
Boing Boing has finally enabled comments. I think comments are an essential aspect to any blog and an interesting debate on that subject is going on over at Brian Heys’ blog.
And on a fitting closing note 9rules Ali2 will be released on the 9th and I think it’s going to be fairly promising 
Tags: 9rules, links
