I always find on the customer side, I respond positively to outreach, if done at all reasonably. As all companies tune into this, it will be interesting to see if it’s possible to overdo it. Hat tip for starting me thinking about this issue to @brightmatrix with his tweet regarding engagement. I think right now at least, engaging produces the best results, but I’m definitely on the lookout for the tipping point where it may become too much.

Worse yet, there’s the idea that this is something new. Personal branding is just a new way to talk about reputation. Well, you know what? Reputation is a much better word for that.

Personal branding implies you should be fake to make it (if you disagree, do let me know). Before you tweet, interact, blog, or walk down the street you need to think if it fits with the image you want to portray. Well, you know what, if there’s only one facet to your personality you’re not an excellent brand, you’re boring.

My goal was to create a real step-by-step guide. Given it’s a blog post and not a novel, it just scratches the surface, but I have to say I like how it turned out. Check it out and let me know what you think.

It’s all too easy to get caught up in the little things that make you feel productive instead of seeing the big picture. Email is a great example of this, you can spend a good portion of your day answering emails and be very busy, not necessarily the most productive.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself, am I meeting my big picture goals?

A few months ago I read the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. Mostly, I hate it. I think his methods are spammy and I don’t think I would be happy working only four hours a week. Actually, I doubt he worked only four hours a week when getting his book out and promoting it. (There’s a whole separate post here about how I think the real goal is to work at something you love so that most of what you’re doing doesn’t feel like work.) There was one point that’s stuck with me though.

He said to choose three things you want to accomplish every day. Just three. And make sure you get those done.

Obviously, we all do way more than three things in a day. Sometimes though, I think we manage to be too busy all day to accomplish the three things that were most important. So maybe it’s not a bad rule.

So you’ll have to excuse me if I ask you (and myself) a cheesy question “What three things do you want to get done today?”

I’ve looked at a lot of intern applications recently and many belong on a what-not-to-do list. After getting frustrated of seeing the same mistakes happen over and over, I decided to write this in the hope of saving at least a few interns from such a fate (for my sake as much as theirs). Getting an internship in a recession can be tough — getting an internship with one of these mistakes might be impossible.

1. Creating your cover letter with a quick search and replace.
If you seriously think I haven’t noticed that your cover letter is entirely generic and doesn’t mention anything specific about my company… well let’s just say you’re not getting hired. If you don’t take the minimum amount of effort to add at least one sentence describing why you’re right for this specific company, why should I take the time to give you an interview? And, no, saying that you’re looking forward to our “fast-paced environment” does not count as unique. I even had one intern apply without even bothering to search and replace, the cover letter had another company’s name in it. Ouch.

2. Submitting a resume that’s not skimmable.
I have too much work to do, that’s the reason you’re getting hired in the first place. Maybe, it’s different for bigger companies with full-time recruiters (I doubt it), but I don’t have the time to fully read every resume. I skim. If skimming your resume tells me nothing interesting, I’m going to think you’re not interesting. Oh and bonus tip, do not start with your high school experience. Once you’re in college, people rarely care about your high school awards or extracurriculars.

3. Giving only one specific interview time.
I promise I do remember what it’s like being in college. You have a lot of things going on and it’s hard to fit in interviews in-between classes, going to the gym, studying, your club meeting, and being hung over. But, if you tell me that only time you have available this week is 4:15 on Thursday, I’m going to think you don’t really care about this job.

4. Saying you’ve been too busy to check out our site.
If you’re too busy to check out our site, why am I talking to you? Although I don’t know what’s worse, saying that straight out or pretending that you’ve checked it out when you really haven’t. Let me give you some advice — an interview is different from class. You can’t just BS your way through it (sorry, professors). I will know if you haven’t done your research and that will affect my decision.

5. Missing or being late for an interview.
I almost didn’t include this one because I thought it was too obvious, but it’s happened enough that I think it’s necessary. Being “on-time” to an interview means being a few minutes early. If you’re actually late, I’m gonna think you’ll be late for work too.

By now, you may think I’m just making this stuff up, but I swear it’s all happened. So, if you care about the company, take some time on the application. They’ll notice if you don’t. It’s much better to take the time to a do a few applications well than to apply to a bunch of places haphazardly.

So, have you ever seen or made mistakes like these? Which other big mistakes am I missing?

Really. That seems to be the best way. I’ve recently joined up with Klout, which is located in the city (SF) and it didn’t take me too long to figure out that I simply need to move. Since it currently takes me about an hour and a half to get to work, you can bet I’m looking forward to it.

P.S. Check out Klout to find out what your online influence is. Let me know what you think.

P.P.S If you have any commuting tips, I will definitely listen

While reading 72 Ways to Simplify Your Life (which, despite the fact that I want to poke fun at the length of this list, is a good read), I started thinking about whether I even want a simple life. Maybe, a life that’s stressful but also exciting and intellectually stimulating is a better bet.

This brings me to Penelope Trunk’s post about how your life can only be happy or interesting, but not both (she wants to be interesting). I think living life with a goal of being interesting is a terrible idea. It’s like that Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times.” I think that Penelope is looking at the definition of being happy in too narrow of terms. I know, I could never be truly happy unless I was learning (on the job, in life, etc.).

You can reach your own conclusions here because I haven’t wholly settled on mine. Can’t I have an interesting, simple, happy, exciting life?

“Free to Play.” “Freemium.” Those words are echoing the halls here at the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. One of the fastest growing sections of the gaming economy is casual gaming, with an audience that’s predominately female and typically older than the “traditional” gaming crowd. Facebook and mobile (especially iPhone) games like Farmville, TouchPets, Words with Friends Free, and Mobsters are all free to play and making a killing.

So where’s the money coming from? The secret is to get as many players as possible (hence the free offering) and then take advantage of how much each player is willing to pay. Games offer virtual goods or currency that consumers can buy in-game. Lex Bayer, of Playspan, says that they’ve seen some individual Facebook users drop thousands of dollars a month within games. Players spend money on upgrades to their farm, accessories for their character, or to advance levels.

iPhone apps use a similar strategy. In the popular game iMob, you can purchase more expensive copies of the game in order to buy respect points which allow you to advance further in the game. To get 1425 respect points players drop $49.99 on the App Store. Who said you can’t buy respect?

There are however, some cautionary tales as players are often willing to drop dough for virtual goods, but hate to be forced into it. Ngmoco’s TouchPets initially required players to pay for “dog food.” If dogs were not given enough food they would fall asleep, but to many kids and parents they appeared to have died… talk about traumatizing. Luckily, ngmoco turned things around by auto-generating more dog food. Now players spend money on doggie accessories, but don’t have to worry about their dog dying. After all, as one player aptly pointed out, “You can’t buy a sweater for a dead dog.”

For the players that don’t want to drop cold hard cash, there’s always offers and advertising. At Mobclix, we’ve seen many games rake in the cash with advertising. Increasingly popular are offers that allow players to do some sort of action, like filling out a survey, and in exchange get virtual currency. Certainly, offers have had their fair share of scandals (i.e. the Zynga and Offerpal scandal), but with better quality control they are going to be a part of free-to-play gaming.

Free is the name of the game, but it’s still the same game — making money. Social and mobile gaming are finding the secret to turning the casual gaming audience into a cash cow. They get as much money as each individual is willing to pay, and those who won’t pay are, in effect, subsidized by the small percentage dropping tons of cash. In the future, will you be willing to pay as much for a virtual sweater as a real one?

Well, I came across this great site called Write or Die. You set a writing goal for yourself and if you don’t meet it the site “punishes” you. It could be as low-key as an annoying pop-up or as extreme as erasing you work. All you have to do is set your goal and start writing.

And, ok, this isn’t really an end to procrastination. For instance, I’ve been procrastinating trying it out all day. But, look, it made me write something. Success.