Got an Idea

I finished reading the book All The Rage. It follows the story of Napster, the MP3 file sharing program from 10 years ago. I was inspired to find that a high school kid was the author of the program. Sure they had some other dudes writing code. But he originated the thing.

If a high schooler from a tough neighborhood can start up the Napster revolution, then I figure I can come out with a product. I alreday have an idea. It will target college students, or high schoolers looking to enter college. I have scraped some college style data and loaded it into a database. I have also developed a proof of concept prototype.

Now I need to turn the prototype into a real product. I am trying hard to keep it simple and get something that can ship. Next I need to set up my web site. I hear you should do that even before you have a product. Ready, set, let's go.

Super Couponing

I clip coupons in the weekend newspaper circular. They save me a few bucks every week. I know I cold do better. One lesson I learned by accident is that you can double up by using both a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon on the same item. Sweet.

I recently got a book on couponing. It explained that there are different levels of coupons users. Apparently I am a novice. You can also go online and print out coupons to add to the mix. Finally you can also put coupons on your store card for the ultimate savings. Go figure.

Although I am only starting to read the couponing book, I have learned a few gems I shall try out. You can search online for the name of your store and "deals". It will give you some great savings. Let's see what else this little book can teach me.

Saved by the Coupon

I got a letter from a hotel I had visited about a year ago. They were running some specials on rooms in the off season. The price was right. They also included a bunch of coupons with the deal.

When I got the hotel, I found their service a bit lacking. Now that soured the deal. However the coupons came in very handy. Overall the deal was just average considering the weak service.

This hotel had the opportunity for a big win. They could have impressed me with a greal deal plus great service. That would have me returning when the rates returned to full price.

However with the service being sub par, they lost some business when they would be making a higher profit. You need to follow through if you grab customers with coupons. Otherwise you will fail on your loss leader.

Free Webcast

I was reading one of my favorite ISV blogs. The author was talking about a video he had produced. He planned to sell it and make some cash. For a limited time, the video was supposed to be free. I figured I would give it a try.

I was directed to the AppSumo web site. Initially I needed to enter my email address to get through. I figured this was fair since the video was free. Then I found another barrier. I needed to tweet about it on Twitter or share it on FaceBook before getting through.

Ok. So first I need to provide my email address. Next I need to tweet or share. What is the next level of pain I need to endure before getting my free content. No thanks. I don't think I need the free content. Sheesh. At least the company did not lose any money from me. I was just going for the freebie.

Ousting Cofounders

I just read quite a story about Noah Glass. He was one of the cofounders of Odeo. This was a company with a product that was put out of business by Apple iTunes. The point of interest was that Glass was also involved in the creation of Twitter. He was fired in 2006 when Odeo got bought out by its CEO. His involvement appears to have been covered up or omitted.

Noah Glass states that he named Twitter (orignally called Twttr). He does concede that Twitter creation was a group effort. The site originally ran from his laptop. Glass wanted to spin Twitter off from Odeo as a separate company.

Evan Williams was the CEO who fired Glass. He previously worked for Google. When Odeo was becoming irrelevant, he asked employees to come up with new ideas. They came up with the idea for Twitter. Williams spent around $5M to buy the company back from investors. Then he let Glass go.

Evan Williams is the creator of Blogger. You know he has the power. That includes the power to kick out a cofounder. Ouch. How do you protect yourself against such tactics? I don't know. Maybe you got to be a single founder with your own funding.

Grey Shirt Girl

A blogger that I like to read ran an experiment. He got a picture of a girl that produced great success in FaceBook ads. He then submitted an FaceBook ad of his own featuring this girl. FaceBook turned him down.

Apparently the word about this girl has been going around for a while. She produces amazing click through results on FaceBook ads. Yeah I get it. She is busting out of L7. So the boys are going to click through like crazy.

Here is the part I don't understand. Both women as well as men click on this ad. Why would women be clicking on the ad of a busty woman? Also this is an image of a woman who is not all that beautiful.

What I am wondering is that if this image works so well on FaceBook, does that translate to Blogger as well? Let us see.

Good Advertising

I was reading some technical magazine. There was an advertisement in there for a free eBook. The company invited readers to come on an adventure to learn some new stuff.

I went to their web site to give it a try. They were smart. They broke up the chapter of the book. You had to visit different pages on the web site to get to the link of each page. The book itself was a decent overview of Agile software development technologies.

The company did not require me to enter any personal information. They got me to check out their site. The book was well written and left a good impression in my mind. When I need to do something Agile, guess who I am probably going to turn to first?