Easter Egg Hunt

Posted by on Mar 23, 2008 in Blogging | 4 comments

Chris Brogan wrote:

Here’s what you do: find a “hidden gem” blog, someone who you think is writing good stuff, but who has only one or two comments per post. Write a blog post telling us just a little bit about that site, why you like it, who should become a regular reader, etc. Make sure there are TWO links in the post: one to that new site so we can find it, and one back to [chrisbrogan.com].

Actually, despite having published over 1,400 blog posts and 760+ audio podcast episodes, the vast majority of my posts on FinancialAidPodcast.com get zero – yes, zero – comments. I’ve debated for a long time why this might be. Comments are enabled, no registration required, etc. so it’s not necessarily barrier to entry. I think it might be the case that for my audience, it’s perceived as an “expert” blog and therefore audience members are reluctant to contribute, treating it more like an information source than a discussion.

The desired audience is fairly inclusive – students, parents, families, financial aid professionals, and anyone who likes:

  • Free stuff
  • Job hunting tips
  • Personal finance
  • and of course, help paying for college

So, Chris Brogan, send over the commenting hordes!

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Google out to bat for non-profits, hits home run

Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 in Advertising, Marketing | 8 comments

Google announced a slew of products specifically tailored to non-profits two days ago.

First, all their apps – Google Apps for Domains, etc. – are all free.

Google Checkout transaction processing is free to non-profits until 2009.

Here’s the game changer. Google Grants is an application process to qualify for free AdWords advertising. Where commercial organizations pay out the nose for top keywords, if your non-profit is a certified 501(c)(3) and is chosen as a Google Grants recipient, you can go head to head with corporate America for mission-critical keywords and spare your budget.

This is big – very big. It will give non-profits access to huge audiences and resources without needing huge budgets, and the smaller the non-profit, the more benefit they’ll be able to get if chosen for the grant.

Hats off to you, Google. You may be Big Brother, but at least you’re more or less benevolent.

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Starbucks is watching your every cup

Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 in Foodblogging, Marketing | 6 comments

Today, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that they had acquired Coffee Equipment Company and its Clover system of coffee machines, single-serving cup makers that will let Starbucks customize your coffee for you.

So what?

The So What is this: Clover coffee machines are networked. They all speak to headquarters via CloverNet, and monitor EVERYTHING about your cup of coffee. From the web site:

Know with CloverNet™, a service that gives you web access to your Clovers. Find out what’s brewing on each of your Clovers right now, and visualize business trends through real-time charting. CloverNet also makes it easy to update brew parameters for all of your coffees, and to keep your Clovers in peak operation through system monitoring.

Starbucks doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the coffee – the machines are pure marketing wizardry, giving real time data flows to central command. This is what makes Clover and CEC a smart acquisition.

Starbucks: Because Google shouldn’t have a lock on Big Brother.

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End of the Line

Posted by on Mar 18, 2008 in Economy | 0 comments

End of the Line

Farewell, Bear Stearns. If it’s any consolation, a number of your colleagues will be joining you soon. Why? Simple: there isn’t enough money in America to save the financial system as we know it. It’s coming apart at the seams.

This is a good thing.

For sure, there will be lots of folks who will have to go through economic pain – heck, depending on the credit markets, there’s no telling how my current employer will fare, so I’m not at all exempt from this, either. It’s still a good thing overall, and here’s why. For the last 37 years, America has been living beyond its means. Our overall savings rate has dropped into the negative, and we’ve been spending like a drunken sailor.

Come to think of it, I’m fairly certain drunken sailors spend less. Because they typically don’t have access to leverage or derivative financial instruments, they can only spend what they have in port.

How much too much have we been spending? Warren Buffett warned in 2002 that derivatives – bets on bets, essentially – were financial weapons of mass destruction.

Charlie and I believe Berkshire should be a fortress of financial strength – for the sake of our owners, creditors, policyholders and employees. We try to be alert to any sort of megacatastrophe risk, and that posture may make us unduly apprehensive about the burgeoning quantities of long-term derivatives contracts and the massive amount of uncollateralized receivables that are growing alongside. In our view, however, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal. – Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report

According to the Bank for International Settlements, the total outstanding notional amount is $516 trillion (as of June 2007).

The annual gross domestic product of the United States of America – the goods and services that back “the full faith and credit of the United States” on which all of our bonds and other promises are made is… $15 trillion.

Think about that for a second. If 3% of the derivatives in existence go bad (about the same amount that touched off the subprime bonfire last year), an unravelling could occur that would exceed all the goods and services the country makes, period.

All of this massive leverage – which is a fancy word for gambling, really – is catching up to the financial system rapidly, and all of the money in the world can’t bail out the system. It’s my hope that things unwind in a relatively orderly fashion, like a building evacuation, so the building can be torn down and rebuilt more soundly, but one way or another, the house of cards is coming down, and needs to.

Americans need to start saving again. Yes, the entire financial system incentivizes us to spend, spend, spend, but if you can resist the temptations of mass media, marketing, and incentives and put some money aside, you’ll be far, far ahead of your peers and colleagues.

In a downturn, cash is king. Save, reduce expenses, and batten down the hatches.

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Apres moi, le deluge

Posted by on Mar 16, 2008 in MySpace | 0 comments

“Apres moi, le deluge” – Louis XIV

MySpace applications are beginning to roll out.

If you thought vampires and pirates on Facebook was bad, just wait.

In the meantime, expect to get a whole bunch of MySpace friend requests from me and others in the near future.

Exciting things are happening with MySpace, more than ever.

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