From the Intrawebs

assertTrue( ): Nine Questions to Ask during a Job Interview

2010-09-12T03:22:55Z

Shared by Travis
Good advice for people in an interview. Not asking good questions is a sure way to blow an interview. These are some good questions.

Agile Ruined My Life

2010-09-07T19:25:12Z

Shared by Travis
A good look at some of the problems with "Agile." Agile is generally good, IMO, but it is not without its problems that you need to look out for.

6 ways Software Product Managers can use LinkedIn « Software Product Manager by Gopal Shenoy

2010-09-07T04:30:57Z

Shared by Travis
LinkedIn's value is far more than just keeping track of who is working where. Gopal does a good job describing how to capture some of that value.

Seth's Blog: A bias for scamminess

2010-06-26T16:22:13Z

Shared by Travis
It is sad when a company uses deceptive practices to "earn" money instead of ensuring the product provides more value than the customer thinks she's paying for. Even worse when it is tied to a government entity.

Avoid stamps.com. How is that a sleepy, conservative organization like the postal service ends up licensing its brand to a company that can't resist every honey pot scheme and opt out technique in the book? I needed to send a...

Rules and Laws Product Managers Should Understand (part 1) | On Product Management

2010-06-19T20:00:44Z

Shared by Travis
Nicely relevant.

The Social Internet Survey Software & Online Survey Tool

2010-06-18T23:18:47Z

Shared by Travis
Inexpensive target market research with built-in respondants. Looks interesting, but I'm curious about the respondants.

The online survey tool with a built-in consumer panel. Create a survey using the online survey creator, select your target market, and watch results pour in.

IORAD, The Instructional Appliance

2010-06-17T06:19:31Z

Shared by Travis
From screen capture to SWF. An interesting way to approach building reference material (user guides and such) for you web application.

Why We Haven't Taken Venture Capital | Zoho Blogs

2010-06-08T02:20:01Z

Shared by Travis
It is always good to know what drives you individually when you get into the world of entrepreneurship. If you don't know what is driving you, you are bound to end up unhappy.

Many people in the technology industry express surprise that Zoho has never received any outside capital, and has been b

10 Simple Strategies for Business Blog Content

2010-06-03T06:04:11Z

Shared by Travis
As a blogger, I always appreciate good information on how to be a better blogger. This list, while targeted at business blogging, is valuable even outside that space.

Are you sick of business blogging? Do you feel like you brain is empty and out of ideas for blog posts? This is a common feeling. (I know I, personally, have often felt this way.) The reality is that the web is full of too many great ideas and different types of content, that you should never run out of things to blog about, regardless of your industry. When it comes to blogging well and often, it usually comes down to how you see ideas and how well you explain them in a way that matters to your audience. It doesn't matter if you are blogging about manufacturing or swimming pools or any other industry for that matter, the basic process for coming up with great blog content can be applied to any business.

10 Ways to Keep Your Blog Full of Content

1. Answer Customer Questions -- After spending years in an industry, it is easy to use jargon and lose sight of how customers see the industry. A good way to solve this problem to create valuable blog content is by looking through your email or checking with your sales and support teams to generate a list of common customer questions. Take each question and write blog posts that clearly answer them without using industry jargon.

2. Aggregate Industry Information -- Everyone has good ideas. As a blogger, a great way to put together a powerful blog post is to compile popular industry statistics, images, videos, etc. into one article that makes it easily accessible for your readers. This saves them time spent researching and eliminates the need to visit dozens of sights. When aggregating content, be sure to give credit and link to the original source of information.

3. Think Beyond Text -- Text is great, but it doesn't have to be the only type of blog content you offer. Think about other types of content. For example, you could publish video or audio interviews of industry experts. You could create a blog post with pictures taken at an industry trade show. For a day, remove text as a possible form of blog post content and think about other content types that can be valuable to your readers.

4. Seek Out Guest Authors -- Let other people think of ideas for you. Think about other experts and leaders in your industry and approach them about contributing a guest article to your blog. You'll find that many people are willing to this for free in order to gain exposure to a new audience and generate a link or two back to their own blogs or websites. By securing a few good guest authors, you can outsource blog ideas and save some time in your schedule for other types of content.

5. Make Lists -- Coming up with new blog posts is often a function of framing ideas in the correct way. Think of common industry issues and situations in the form of lists. Lists can be how-to, best-of, etc., but often serve as a catalyst for coming up with a fresh angle for an common topic.

6. Make Charts -- People love data. Most businesses have data about their industry and use it to make important business decisions. While some data may need to be kept confidential, other data can be made into charts that can become a blog post, providing readers with valuable industry insight.

Example:

Over 50 Marketing Charts and Graphs

View more presentations from HubSpot Internet Marketing.

7. Think Like an OpEd Writer -- Take a stance. OpEd writers argue one side of an issue. No industry is without controversial topics. Pick a couple of hot-button topics and write an opinion article about the issue. Polarizing blog posts like this often attract more traffic and comments than traditional posts.

8. Look at Analytics -- Take a look at your website analytics. Website analytics provide a lot of information about your readers. For example, you can see where they are geographically, what type of computer or smart phone they use, as well as other valuable data. If you notice that you have a large portion of visitors from an unexpected location, it might make sense to write a few blog posts related to industry issues in that geographic area.

9. Review Industry Books -- Provide your own twist on what others have to say about your industry. Read some recent industry books and then write or produce video reviews that point out the good and bad in each of those books as well as indicate which segments of your audience may enjoy reading them.

10. Break News -- Think like a reporter. Has an announcement recently happened that has an impact on your industry? Take a few minutes to summarize the news announcement and then explain what it means for your industry. Beyond helping your readers, breaking news regularly will help to improve organic search traffic, because search engines place value on the first sites to discuss a particular subject.

What tips do you have for keeping blog post ideas flowing? Which of these strategies do you use?

Photo Credit: qisur

Free Download: Advanced Business Blogging

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(title unknown)

2010-06-01T06:04:23Z

Shared by Travis
A tool for working through assumptions/goals/what-have-you for a start-up. Based on Steve Blank's customer development model.

Pre-Launch Marketing for Stealthy Startups | Rocket Watcher by April Dunford

2010-05-25T04:41:35Z

Shared by Travis
What do you do with your website before you are ready to launch? Hint: you should be doing something!

Just because you aren't ready to talk about your product or service, doesn't mean that you can't start engaging with your market. Pre-launch is the perfect time to spread the word about your point of view on the market you intend to serve.

Conjoint Analysis 101 — World's most popular product management training by Pragmatic Marketing, 60,000 have attended.

2010-05-25T04:35:45Z

Shared by Travis
A great introduction to conjoint analysis. I will definitely be digging deeper.

Know how your market values your product How do you know what the market wants? What market segments exist? What those segments prefer? What will they pay? In short, how do you know what trade-offs to make? By using conjoint analysis, understand the trade-offs you should make by understanding the trade-offs your market will make. By Brett Jarvis

» The plural of anecdote IS data. The Experience is the Product | Better product management and products

2010-05-25T04:04:08Z

Shared by Travis
The plural of anecdote is not data. Except when it is. This post will help you how to turn those anecdotes into data (and that really is your job as a product manager).

"The plural of anecdote is not data." -- Frank Kotsonis That's a good way to shut down someone who is trying to use sparse "I know someone who..." stories to second-guess a decision. But in general, it's not true.

Five championship strategies « Lead on Purpose

2010-05-24T16:48:31Z

Shared by Travis
I'm a big fan of the movie "Forever Young" primarily because it focuses on winning on the field by first winning in the heart. Make sure to follow through and listen to the podcast!

YouTube - TEDxPugetSound - Simon Sinek - 9/17/09

2010-05-21T17:39:40Z

Shared by Travis
Great presentation on thinking about Why instead of How or What, which is critical for great #prodmgmt.

Standing Cloud

2010-05-07T01:18:59Z

Shared by Travis
This service lets you test and deploy open source application in the cloud with the click of a button. Really cool!

Tynt » The copy / paste company

2010-05-01T05:45:11Z

Shared by Travis
Tynt provides information I would have never thought I could get. If you are providing any kind of valuable content on your site/blog (and you really should be), Tynt can provide valuable analytics that you probably don't have now.

Tynt Insight monitors when users copy content from your web site and automatically adds a link back to the original page when your content is pasted.

Seth's Blog: The coming melt-down in higher education (as seen by a marketer)

2010-05-01T04:23:15Z

Shared by Travis
This echos many thoughts I've been having about higher education. My kids are getting to the college age, and, honestly, I'm concerned about what college means for them.

For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of...

Tynt » Sorry TechCrunch – FaceBook is NOT the Biggest Driver of Social Sharing on the Web! (Its e-mail at 70%)

2010-04-30T18:02:11Z

Shared by Travis
How important is email to the "social web"? This sums it up pretty well!

When I read the recent TechCrunch article saying that Facebook dominates social sharing on the web, claiming 45% of all social sharing, I was very surprised as

Rands In Repose: The Twinge

2010-04-29T03:48:52Z

Shared by Travis
This article is why I think engineers can make the best product managers...if you can get them out of the "build" mentality. Those "twinges" can make phenomenal difference to a product.