MEDIABLITZ

According to this informal traffic comparison query I just ran on Compete.com, something's weird with Wired.

Bottom line: If you have two products you're looking to sell, one higher priced than the other -- price the one that you most want to sell with amount -.99. For instance 2 pens, one $2 and the other $3. If you want to move the $2 pen price it $1.99 and keep the $3 pen at $3.00. If you want to sell more of the higher priced pen, tag it at $2.99 and the lower priced one at $2.00. If you use .99 cents on both, for instance $1.99 and $2.99, sales will stay flat. This study was reported on by MarketingProfs who got the information from a study done by T he Journal of Consumer Research. Now, go experiment and let me (and your boss) know about your success.

Blog network Sugar benefits from mainstream online advertising crisis. New York Times, 9/14/09.

From ComScore Press Release June 2009

What do Consumers Spend Their Money On?

Time Spent Online Among Kids Increases 63 Percent In The Last Five Years . 16 Million Strong and Growing: Growth Rate of Kids Online Outpaces Overall Internet Population According To Nielsen (New York, US – July 6, 2009 ) In May 2009, children aged 2-11 comprised nearly 16 million, or 9.5 percent, of the active online universe Since 2004, the number of kids online has increased 18 percent, as compared to 10 percent for the total active universe, with a fairly even split between boys and girls. The growth of children online outpaces the overall growth of children in the U.S., where kids under 14 are projected to decrease by 1 percent from 2004 to 2010 (according to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 7/04 – 7/10 projection) Kids Go Cuckoo for Time on the Web Time spent online among children aged 2-11 increased 63 percent in the last five years, from nearly 7 hours in May 2004 to more than 11 hours online in May 2009. Time spent among kids outpaced the increase for the overall population, which...

From now on I'll call this SMRL. Posterous vs Tumblr: A Head to Head (Mashable) Tips & Ideas for Landing Pages & Sites (LandingPageOptimization.com) How Many FaceBook Users Will Go Public (BusinessWeek) On Twitter a Promotion Tried to Ride Iran Traffic (NewYorkTimes) News as a Social Medium (SF Gate) Inside the Hope Factory: Max Harper on the Obama Media Machine (TechPresident) 50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills (Smashing Magazine) Cool Search Engines That Are Not Google (Wired) Staying Productive While Working From Home (Dumb Little Man) Driving Traffic to Your WebSite (2007 | Network for Good Learning Center)

19 Presence Management Chores You Could Do Every Day | Chris Brogan 7 Simple Tips for Marketing Your Blog on Twitter | Blogussion ComScore monitors common short code (CSC) mats for CTIA-The Wireless Association | Press Relase Answer services: the case of satisfying two user experiences | Adrian Chan How to Set Your Community Manager Up to Fail | Kommein 16 Ways to Lure Traffic to your Web Site | Marcia Yudkin Promoting Causes on Online Social Networks | The Chronicle of Philanthropy Map of the Seven Deadly Sins Geographical Penetration | FlowingData | via @claynewton Vimeo vs. YouTube vs. Facebook vs. Viddler vs. SmugMug: Who reigns supreme in online HD video hosting? TV Com beats Hulu to Facebook Integration | Mashable

The world is abuzz with Twitter. Ashton Kutcher, who writes a many a mean tweet, was on TMZ because he tweeted about his neighbors' construction crew annoying him and his wife, Demi Moore,  around the Super Bowl. Then celebrities started going on talk shows and hosts started asking them if they tweeted. News people also seem to love it and often there are tweets saying I'm at the president's news conference or sitting at the anchor's desk. It's a service where anyone can join and post anything they like as long as it's less than 140 characters. It's kind of like a giant IM where you can choose to read (follow) whomever's tweets you want to follow.  So you're reading IM's from hundreds of people sharing random insights from the universe and hundreds more are reading yours. I've been tweeting for two years. Someone I knew had a "badge"-- a little square with someone's latest tweet on their blog. With a note asking for ...

WowOWow A rather unfortunate name, long, and confusing, for example what comes first the ‘W’ or the “O’. It’s targeted to women over 40 although the founders are quite a bit older. Five high-powered media women each contributed $200,000 to the site: • Lesley Stahl: (67) She’s been on 60 minutes for 19 years. • Peggy Noonan: (58) Political conservative, WSJ columnist. • Liz Smith: (85) Gossip columnist, let go from New York Post very recently. • Joni Evans: (??) Former book publisher / agent. • Mary Wells Lawrence: (80) Retired Advertising Executive It reminds me of the Huffington Post but only an all woman perspective. It has features on the economy, politics, entertainment. On the day I visited the three headlining stories were 1) Liz Smith, 2) An interview with Phyllis Schlafly (84 year old quintessential anti-feminist), and 3) A review of a book on finding love over 60. It’s comment heavy and serves an under served prosperous demographic. In this age of longer liv...

In front of a large green screen, a young girl wearing a shiny blue Cinderella costume accented with a bright red boa dances while singing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” into a microphone almost as big as her head. A teenager dances beside her wearing a multihorned alien mask that looks like something from Star Wars. A teenaged boy, wearing a matching boa, plays wild air guitar on a red electric model. In front of them a single TV monitor reveals the words to the song karaoke style. A grid of eight TV sets projects their music video as it’s happening with a red velvet curtain and bright spotlights replacing the green screen. The group gets a copy of their music video on a DVD to take home. This is Zeum (pronounced Zee Uhm, like the last 2 syllables of the word museum), an exciting multimedia museum that marries technology and creativity in the midst of San Francisco’s futuristic Yerba Buena development. Conveniently located next door to the Moscone Convention Center on Fourth and Howa...

A month after the election, Barack Obama’s Myspace page is quiet. A large graphic says “Thank You For Your Support.” The last blog entry posted on the site is dated November 5, a day after the historic presidential election. It’s a copy of the text message he sent to his supporters before giving his acceptance speech in Chicago. I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history. And I don't want you to forget how we did it. You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change. I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next. But I want to be very clear about one thing... All of this happened because of...