Random Stuff

I never got around to applying The Four Hour Work Week, but I have followed a few lessons from the book. Most specifically, eliminating distractions and “Become(ing) and Ignoramus.” (page 92)

For a moment lets just forget blog RSS feeds, forums, and CNBC — instead consider your daily personal contacts and work interruptions.

Step 1 — Create an “personal” e-mail address. Its brand new and no one even knows what it is.

Step 2 — Get a new “personal” phone line / number. Again, its brand new and no one knows it yet.

Step 3 — You have two options, either have an employee become your intermediary to filter out the garbage, or give out this personal contact information to only your most important contacts.

For example, a company that you do 5/6/7 figures of business with a month may qualify as high priority. A company that you used in the past does not. This also means from time to time you may need to create a new “personal” contact system.

Have two sets of business cards. If you go to a conference, give one to the people trying to sell you something. Give a second to the important people you need to contact. If you have met me, you know I do not even give out any business cards. I’ll take yours, and contact you on my own time.

Because my company is very tiny (in employee size) I do not have anyone filter my contact information for me. I am sure there are many people who are pissed that I answered their voice mail 2 months after they left it. Thats ok, because if I spent my time reading through every personal correspondence, there wouldn’t be much business left.

Ironically you will notice I have a personal contact email on this blog (as of the time I write this.) Your contact structure does not have to be limited to two tiers. It can be very beneficial to make it multi-channeled. As the business owner, if might be ok for your press contacts to have direct contact information. Or perhaps there is a more “casual” contact point that you can access after work that you know will never contain urgent news to break you away from family time.

Consider these ideas and build yourself a custom solution, if you haven’t already. As always, these aren’t rules; test things out and figure out what works for you.

Here is something funny for the weekend.

Before starting, this is not a post for or against Ron Paul. Rather, I am trying to point out a few things about demographics, something any web publisher and marketer should understand & study.

There has been a general representation, not only in the mainstream press, but also web sites such as Digg that Ron Paul has a very tiny, core group of supporters. These supporters are spamming polls, online and offline to give the illusion that he has a huge backing.

Judging by the comments I have read on various forums & blogs, as well as by statements I have seen on television, there is a perception that Ron Paul’s supporters are imaginary. More than a few bloggers feel that comments supporting Ron Paul are “auto-generated.” Earlier this year there were stories about Ron Paul supporters gaming Digg. Today Wired reported that someone was e-mail spamming messages in support of Ron Paul.

The reason why this appears to be “a Ron Paul fraud” is because the Republican polls are polling registered Republicans. Additionally, the groups polled are samples as tiny as 500 people. The most recent Zogby poll puts Ron Paul far behind at 3%. Thats not the 30%+ number we saw at the end of the last Republican debate.

Lets take a look at what groups can & do include Ron Paul supporters:

-Anti-War. None of the Republican candidates express any views but escalation.
-Pro-Small Government. Again, no other Republican candidates express interest in this, yet the Republican party pushed the concept very hard in the preceding decade.
-Libertarians. This group alone represents probably 2-3% of US voters, they would not be reflected in Republican polls.
-Democrats. Watch a debate. Ron Paul reflects the anti-war position as strongly as the further left Democratic candidates. Democrats watching a Republican debate will either vote for Ron Paul or no one at all.
-Crazy People. People who believe they don’t have to pay taxes, conspiracy theorists, etc. This group is showing support for Ron Paul.
-The Disillusioned & Non-voting. This group can include all of the previous groups. Only about half of Americans who can vote do.

Add all these groups together, and you have a very significant audience. This is far from an illusion fraud created by a tiny, core group of supporters. Certainly you will have rogue individuals too stupid to understand their attempts at gaining influence will actually destroy themselves and damage the candidates they allegedly support.

No matter what market you are involved in, do not buy into the distracting noise and well worn theories. Unlike politics, being #2,#,#4, or even #15 can net you a fortune. Go after the under-represented niches, no matter how loony or lazy they may appear (you may well find that this is a bonus, not a detraction.)

Politics makes for a great study in the dark arts of social engineering and human manipulation. Everything you want to learn about building a fanatical group of followers can be found here — if your not too busy buying in to the stories yourself.

Think that buying The Secret was a ripoff? Check out this massive, multi-billion dollar scam:

While fringe sources pointed out ethanol’s economic problems years ago, the mainstream has finally figured it out. A very good article was recently published at Rolling Stone — Ethanol Hurts the Environment And Is One of America’s Biggest Political Boondoggles. I recommend you read it. With a Presidential election coming up the truth needs to be known.

The energy policy of the United States is not just an issue for US citizens. Jeff Goodell at Rolling Stone writes — “Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption — yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World.” In January The Washington Post published an article about the impact corn prices are having on Mexico’s poor. (President Bush wants US ethanol consumption increased 5x.)

Does any one other than corn farmers think this is a good idea?

The first time I saw Google Maps I was amazed. Between the fancy AJAX interface and high resolution satellite imagery hours vanished toward what felt like minutes.

Last night I took a look at Microsoft’s Live.com Maps. It seems they’ve been doing some updating.

The pictures below speak for themselves, and I’m not even including the in-browser 3D maps (yes I know Google Earth does the same.)

Google Maps (Click text for external link, images for zoomed jpg)

Microsoft Maps, Ariel view 1

Microsoft Maps, Ariel view 2

…

Still not impressed?

What if you want to see what the other side of the building looks like? Not a problem — Microsoft offers north, south, east, and west views.

To be fair, Live.com maps does not have footage for the entire United States. Some areas stink, still stuck with grainy B&W ariel images. However, this is hardly limited to major US cities. I was able to see my old small hometown in Wisconsin, the garden behind the house I grew up in clearly visible. Perhaps the demise of Bill Gates and his company has been exagerated.

Besides dropping eight figures on advertising this year Ask.com has had a little bit of a redesign. They added a wallpaper feature, one of which is polka dots. No joke.

I was shocked to see some of the nastiest young actresses I posted about on WickedFire in March end up on the Maxim Hot 100 list. Beauty is only skin or bone deep, and make up combined with Photoshop does a good job at enforcing that. Unfortunately most of these girls are coked out and pretty damn ugly.

I don’t think I’m going to be alone here wondering how in the hell Lindsay Lohan made #1. Does Maxim Magazine auction off their sexiest women spots?

Warning: Mild Adult Content

Redbull, Rockstar, and Monster are only a few names of energy drinks available. Seeing healthy profit margins, the market has been flooded. In order to generate buzz to drive sales new entries have done everything from spending millions on Superbowl commercials to naming their drinks after a hard drug.

The Cocaine energy drink (wikipedia entry) grew through explosive internet buzz and lasted long enough to make an appearance in a rock music video.

Unfortunately the name has drawn the scrutiny of federal regulators, and the plug was pulled this past Saturday. The company plans on changing the name.

The hypocrisy comes from a popular soft drink named Coca-Cola. Unlike the Cocaine energy drink, Coca-Cola at one time actually contained real Cocaine. When researching this blog post I discovered that Coca-Cola still contains byproducts of real Coca leaves. Unlike the Cocaine Energy drink, largely consumed by adults for entertainment purposes (it tastes like crap), Coca-Cola is aggresively marketed to all ages and sold in schools around the United States and world.

From CNN — “Our goal is to literally flush Cocaine down the drain across the nation,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who announced the company’s agreement with his state Monday. “Our main complaint about Cocaine is its name and marketing strategy seeking to glorify illegal drug use and exploit the allure of marketing ‘Speed in a Can,’ as it called the product.”

I have a red Coca-Cola glass sitting right next to me on my desk. I don’t believe that the FDA or any state should go after Coca-Cola. Nor should they interfere with the production, marketing, or distribution of the Cocaine energy drink. Its disturbing to think that while someone at the FDA is wasting time on this, a grocery store could be selling botulated olives or something that could actually kill someone.