Blogger Finally Allows Imports and Exports

Might be time to finally make the move to Tumblr - they just raised money so will be around for a few years and is just an easier blog engine to use...

Blogger Finally Allows Imports and Exports

7 great reality checks from Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is one of my favorite entrepreneur/VC bloggers and I also highly recommend his latest book. This list of 7 things are a must read for every entrepreneurial type out there right now and I highly recommend them. If I may, I'll add a #8 to the list: don't reinvent - if someone already built it (e.g. wordpress, a CMS, video serving, analytics), don't try to build it yourself - just use it!

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TAKKLE is the largest high school sports community: our blog

Reblogging this from the Takkle blog:

Do you want to play sports in college? Are you looking for an athletic scholarship? Whether you play football, basketball, soccer, baseball or you are a cheerleader or runner (or participate in any of our other 40+ sports), Takkle is here to help you get discovered! A lot of our users have been asking for help with college recruiting so we have built the best free tool for you! We know that economic times are tough so we want to help you and your family save some money!Takkle Recruiting lets you create your free Takkle RecruitMe sheet with all your stats, highlight film, academic info, degrees you're interested in and favorite colleges! And once you're done, we help you get in front of thousands of coaches by submitting you to the NCSA Recruit-Match directory which is accessed by thousands of college coaches from across the country!Check back frequently as this is only the beginning of Takkle Recruiting and please let us know your thoughts!Christian Busch, TAKKLE is the largest high school sports community: our blog, Dec 2008

You should read the whole article.

Direct Marketing spending to outpace traditional ad spend in 2009 (again)

Interesting article from one of my favorite marketing news source - Marketingcharts.com - the Direct Response industry will outpace traditional spend again in 2009. What's more interesting is the breakdown by channel (source: DMA, 2008)


The overall lead by DM is really caused by Direct Mail (not surprising as branding Direct Mail is notoriously expensive and inefficient) and by new media spending. According to this data, almost 3/4 of online advertising expenditures are still driven by Direct Marketers. Not surprising considering the superior tracking ability. On the flipside - why is the traditional marketing industry still spending about 50% of their budget on TV, magazines, radio and newspapers; all traditional one-way channels?

I would expect a continued shift of traditional AND direct dollars towards online in the next few years and as newspapers and magazines continue to decline, the new media row will only get bigger - lots of room to grow considering that it's still only 13% of total spend!

marketing, direct marketing, online spend, ad spend

We're running out of water - what entrepreneurs are doing

Image via WikipediaFascinating article about how entrepreneurs are addressing the looming global water shortages. Addresses storage, distribution, desalination, purification and some other interesting twists.

read more | digg story

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Flixster is spamming me - how not to do opt-in marketing

This morning when I looked at my gmail, I found about 30 emails from Flixster, a site that I once signed up to in order to test their Facebook Connect implementation. When I signed up, they asked me to import my Gmail contacts, which is fairly common practice right now. Once that was done, the spamming started: they preselected all of my gmail contacts for an "invitation" - consequently, I invited no one. Now it gets worse: although I never authorized this, Flixster remembered my contacts for me (not good practice!) and now sent me these lovely emails suggesting I "might know" these people - of course I do - they're in my gmail address book....
I'm a big fan of the viral loop, the famed viral coefficient and the power of referrals - but please play by the rules, don't abuse the trust that people extend to you and most importantly - don't spam people!

President Elect Obama Victory at Times Square

Last Tuesday night was a wonderful time to be on Times Square. Exuberant people celebrated the victory of Barack Obama. The mood was festive yet peaceful and there was definitely hope in the air. Let's all do our share to make sure the hope becomes reality!