The Marketing Booth

Help Bloggers to help you, for free

2005-10-13T15:48:00.000+02:00

Kelly Abbott, the Technology Director of Red Door Interactive, posted an interesting article on IMedia Connection today, explaining what motivates bloggers, and how to reach them to further your marketing objectives.

He cedes the fact that blogging has long been considered a medium which has crossed the chasm into mainstream markets, and is exploding as a dynamic way for marketers to pull out their trusty rifle, and nail a target market with precise shots. The thing about targeting bloggers, is that you are targeting their entire audience at the same time; an audience, he posits, that could also form your customer base.

So you've gotten the idea that targetting bloggers could seriously help your business. Or could it?

I'd like to suggest that if you are considering targetting bloggers, you should first consider what it is that most bloggers are blogging about, and then decide if your product or service fits into that niche. Here are a few ways to do just that:

Feedster lists the Top 500 blogs of the month, every month, by the number of links to those blogs. This is a good judge of the popularity of a blog, but not necessarily of a blog topic.

A tool to discover what people are talking about you right now, is called Technorati. This site lets you run searches on keywords that you associate with your product or service, to see how popular they are on the blogosphere.

You may also want to check out the Top 100 folders that Bloglines users use to categorize their blogs of interest. (i found this earlier in the year on the O'Reilly Radar, which picked up the info on the Confusability blog ) Not surprisingly, the Top 5 were: Blogs, News, Tech, Technology, and People. Followed by Politics, Friends, and Comics. Java was 17th, Business 22nd, Sports 24th, and Knitting beat out Marketing by taking the 37th and 42nd spots respectively.

Now, just because only 16 people in the world are currently blogging about your product / service / interests, doesn't mean that they're not worth targeting. Instead, it means that you have a beginning audience from which to cultivate personal relationships and build a community around. These may be your biggest fans, so let them know that you're out there listening to them!

Of course, if you are targeting a larger audience, or want to automate your research and recieve notifications as soon as someone mentions you. Or if you want to organize your research, and all you information with a product that can replace your Email Organizer, Desktop Search Utility, RSS Reader, Personal Information Manager, Newsgroup Reader, Task Manager, Contact Manager, Bookmark Manager, and Instant Message History Manager. As well as read your Files in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat, and view your Pictures, in one Integrated Information Environment, then I can suggest a tool to help you. :)

Good luck with your targeting!

Interview Transcript: Efficiency, productivity, and organization

2005-10-04T14:51:00.000+02:00

It seems that my list of projects to do is still growing, but I thought it would be a good idea to post the interview transcript from Steven Lubetkin's podcast about JetBrains' productivity tool for people who love to get lots of info and want to manage it better, Omea Pro.

So without further ado,

~~~~~

Tackling the information overload in computer technology has been a challenge for software developers for a number of years. Today on the CompuSchmooze Podcast we’ll talk to someone from a company that may have a solution. This is Steven Lubetkin, welcome to the CompuSchmooze Podcast.

Keeping track of the information on your computer is probably one of the biggest challenges that faces computer users today. We store information in a calendar program, in our email program, and of course many of us use Microsoft Outlook for both of those functions. We also store files in folder hierarchies, RSS feeds and newsgroup posts in our aggregators, webpage booksmarks in our browsers, and instant message conversations in our IM software. There are a number of software solutions on the market that attempt to integrate some of these disparate sources of information, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen one with the promise of the newest entry in this field.

A program called Omea which comes from JetBrains, a software productivity company, they began by developing software for programmers to streamline the development process. They are located in Prague, in the Czech Republic, and our guest today on the CompuSchmooze Podcast is David Booth. David is the Executive Marketing Manager for JetBrains’ Omea product line, and he’ll talk to us today a little bit about the Omea Information Environment which integrates all of your email, your contacts, your tasks, your files, as well as newsfeeds, webpage bookmarks, and also usenet newsgroups into a single integrated environment where you can search and organize more efficiently. David was educated at the University of Waterloo and also the Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. He’s worked in the international sphere for the last four years, first in Amsterdam for Sitraka Software, then in South Korea, and now he makes his home in Prague, in the Czech Republic where JetBrains is headquartered. He is highly interested in social networking software, information organizers, search technology, and the future of mobile technology, and he spoke to us over the Skype Internet Telephony Service.

Tell me a little bit about JetBrains and take me through to the process that got you to where we are now, launching an official release of version two.

JetBrains is focused on tools that help people improve their productivity when they are dealing with a lot of information. So the programming tools had intelligent organizers and a lot of shortcuts that help developers to work faster. The Omea project started in the middle of 2003. Our CEO, Sergey Dmitriev, was taking a hard look at information overload because a lot of people were complaining about it at the time, and still are.

See, people have problems finding the information that we really need, because there is just so much available all the time. By organizing, creating shortcuts, and adding intelligent features to their Java IDE, IntelliJ IDEA, JetBrains saved developers a lot of time searching for information, bugs, or code problems. So we decided to take some of these ideas, and open them up to a wider, less-technical audience: to people who are overloaded with information, who are receiving too much information, or just can’t manage all the information that they WANT to have, and WANT to access, as effectively as they would like to do it. We created a tool, Omea Pro, that brings all the information sources together that people use on a regular basis. Like their emails, their contacts, their files, documents, transcripts, spreadsheets, adobe pdfs, RSS feeds, tasks, and things like that. As well as their conversations on ICQ or Miranda, newsgroups… basically a large variety of resources, can all be pulled together, and found quickly with Omea’s Desktop Search functionality, and with Omea’s Organizing features, people can keep themselves organized, permanently.

JetBrains wanted to create a tool that made it easy to organize your information, and they did it in a way that other tools really didn’t, because most other tools only succeed in segregating your information. Emails are all kept in Outlook, instant messages conversations are stored in ICQ or Miranda’s history, your files are organized in a folder hierarchy, and the team thought, well, it’s just so much easier to bring it all together, put it into one environment, so that way you don’t really need to use a variety of other programs. You’ve got everything from your emails to your webpage bookmarks in the same place. And, that’s the idea behind Omea.

Is there a story behind the name? How did it get the name?

It was originally an abbreviation of “Omniamea”, which comes from Latin, meaning “All my things”. I’ve been told that it’s part of a proverb that says, “Omniamea mecum porto”, which loosely translated means, “I carry all my things with me”. And that’s where we got “Omea”

From the user’s standpoint, what are some of the advantages of the product? Obviously bringing everything together, it sounds good, but how would a normal everday user benefit from Omea?

I guess one of the worst case scenarios is when you know you have information, somewhere on your computer, but you just can’t find it. Maybe you had some research that you just saw once, saved it for later, and now you need that information, because would be perfect for the project you're working on right now. But you don’t remember where it was. You're thinking, "Was it in a conversation that I had with someone? Did I write it in an email? Was it in a file? Was it an attachment to something?" Sometimes you don’t really know, especially after 2-3 months, and you’re looking back for it now. Or if you’re looking for info about your client work that you’ve been doing. So, in Omea, you can just type a keyword and search, like a desktop search, and find any information in your entire computer that relates to those keywords. So if you want to have a temporary productivity boost, and you don’t want to spend 10 minutes looking for something, you just want to find it now, that’s where Omea’s search functionality comes in.

Now, if you want to have a permanent productivity boost, you can set it up so that Omea keep all your resources organized for you, the way you tell it to, given a system of rules. So you teach Omea what to look for, how to organize it, and then as soon as information arrives, that relates to your specific projects, or to a client that you work with, or to certain keywords, like the industry buzzwords that you’re following, or your competitors’ products, then Omea picks them up, organizes them into a nice little category, and lets you know "hey you’ve got some new information, and it’s about “this”".

One of the things that impresses me the most is the integration of things like usenet newsgroups, and RSS feeds from the various weblogs and podcasts. Talk a little bit about how you can use the Rules to manage those and to filter those into effective categories.

One of the ways is using keywords, so basically you could tell omea, “I’m looking for anything that mentions my competitors’ product”. You can tell Omea to search for the name of that product and have it filter anything, from a podcast, to a competitors website, so anytime the website changes, you get notified of it, every time the competitor sends out an RSS feed, or someone in the blogosphere mentions your competitor’s product, it would immediately go into your category. It’s the same with emails, anytime that you’ve written about that product, or your competitor with your colleague, or a user of the product, so, as soon as you need something that relates to that competitor’s product, it’s all right the for you, in one place, and you don’t need to look in all you different programs for it.

One of the things that I notice Omea does that is a weakness or shortcoming of MS Outlook, is the ability to link across the resources. You can link a posting to an RSS feed, or an email or a contact, you can link all of those within an Outlook-based task so that you have them all in one place is a task environment as well.

And from there you could send the task to other users of Omea, so they have all the resources and the links together as well.

That could be incredibly efficient as a way of managing information

Especially if you’re managing it as part of a team

Sure, in different locations as well. What about future enhancements David? One of the things that users will discover isn’t there pretty early on is a resource window for a calendar function. You pretty much cover everything else in Outlook, but not the calendar.

That’s the next thing that we’re working on.

Any timeline for that?

We haven’t really released a public timeline for that. We’ve been focused on the 2.0 release and as soon as we’re finished with this, we’re going to listen to our audience some more, check out their feedback, and then get right into the calendar.

Some of the other resources that you are already indexing and tracking are outside of the Outlook Environment, you’re tracking instant messaging,

With ICQ and Miranda

Are there any plans to expand that to other instant messaging environments?

Not in the immediate future, we’re focusing on things like the calendar first, and we’ll be looking at other IMs, depending on which companies are most open to the extra 3rd party functionality for their software, and which IMs our users like the best.

Alright! Thanks a lot!

Thanks for the call.

I’d like to thank David Booth from JetBrains for joining us on the CompuSchmooze Podcast today, to talk about Omea. If you have questions, or are interested in Omea the product, you can go to the Jetbrains website, and download a free 30 day trial, which integrates with Microsoft Outlook, and all the other information-related programs on your PC, and improve your efficiency rather drastically by allowing you to integrate information from disparate sources. If you have comments or questions about the CompuSchmooze Podcast, you can direct them to me at Steve@lubetkin.net. We’d also like to thank the Garage Band of the Week, Momma’s Rug, for the use of their instrumental tune “Wasted” as our theme music for this podcast. For everyone here at CompuSchmooze, this is Steve Lubetkin, thank you for listening, and we’ll see you on the net.

~~~

Well, after trying out this transcript, i've had the chance to really analyze exactly what I said, and I how i said it. I think something like this is going to become a regular item on my to do list, to help with future interviews!

Good luck getting things done!

GTD: Getting Things Done

2005-09-30T14:26:00.000+02:00

Today is another one of those days. My list of items TO DO is staring at me, seemingly growing by the day, while I'm putting out fires as they crop up, from advertising to a user review section on our website, to finding out cool stuff about how Google's SEO bots work, and revelling in the fact that Omea Pro now holds the 4th spot when you search Google for Email Organizer.

It's also a day for analyzing the traffic of our website, and looking into the sites that are sending us a fair amount of visitors. One such example is Punkey, a blog focused on the Getting Things Done (GTD) principles of Dave Allen, the author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Punkey has a huge variety of resources on his blog, which focus on productivity in his personal and professional life.

One resource I particularly liked is called 50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work, and though it focuses on the perilous procrastination powers of writers in particular, it's easy to see how applying some of these techniques to the writing that marketers do could help almost anyone to be more productive.

For example, sometimes opposite strategies can work wonders:

Outline. Plan everything you're going to write, all the way through to the end. Do your research while you're outlining, so by the time you start writing the actual , you're already living in that world. With a detailed enough outline, the actual writing becomes a matter of choosing the right words to describe what you've already decided to tell. You can concentrate on style and let the work take care of itself, because you've already done that part.

Don't outline. Don't plan ahead at all. Feel the lure of the blank page. Trust your instincts and dive into the project, and don't look back until you're done.

I think I'll go apply some of these strategies right now, while writing a niche-focused contributed article for targeted e-newsletters.

Information Organizer for Marketers gets podcasted on CompuSchmooze

2005-09-20T16:05:00.000+02:00

The podcast has emerged as one of the most relevant methods to spread information between knowledge enthusiasts on the internet. Not only do information seekers who are "in-the-know" have access to corporate websites, press releases, demos and magazine reviews, but now they can also get a glimpse behind the scenes, by listening to interviews with the people involved in their favourite technologies.

This helps people, who Emanuel Rosen refers to as "Network Hubs" in The Anatomy of Buzz, to spread the word about your technology from the enthusiastic supporter, to the skeptical mass market. Sounds like a tool that might interest those folks over at The Chasm Group.

And indeed they are interested. Geoffrey Moore, the author of Crossing the Chasm (the first in a series of books that describe how and when to target specific market segments to encourage the adoption of your technology), has been doing podcasts over at IT Conversations for quite some time now, though I'd like to hear his views on the podcasting medium, and its position in the Technology Adoption Curve.

Recently, I was interviewed by Steven Lubetkin, of CompuSchmooze, about the release of JetBrains' Information Environment Omea Pro 2.0. Steven and I spoke about the origins of Omea, the problems that it is designed to tackle, and the benefits for marketers, researchers, journalists, and busy CEOs. Steven made an interesting comparison between Omea Pro and Lotus Agenda, as well as a podcast of the interview (which Omea Pro can actually pick right out of his blog's RSS feed, and download automatically for you).

As the medium of podcasting takes off, marketers and network hubs alike will be able to cummunicate closer together, often without the carefully scripted and prepared content that audiences are so used to seeing on corporate websites worldwide. Even further along, this means that audience members can come together and share their views about products in a totally unscripted manner.. or in a "semi-unscripted manner" if they are being sponsored.

Omea 2.0 Released!

2005-09-09T11:07:00.000+02:00

As a marketer, I'm proud to announce the release of Omea Pro 2.0. This tool has helped me immensely while tracking the changes in the Desktop Search and Information Organizer industries, keeping up with my competition, and organizing all my files, feeds, emails, instant message conversations, newsgroups for our products, and the 100's of websites that i track (who unfortunately don't yet use RSS technology).

By bringing all of my resources into Omea Pro's Information Environment, I'm able to organize myself by my projects, topic of research, and all the contact people involved in each, with one tool. That's major. For example, I have a specific category for each of my competitors, so anytime that we mention something about them internally... in an email, ICQ conversation, or strategy document, Omea automatically picks up that info, and puts it into my category. It does the same thing whenever the competitive firm puts out an RSS feed, and it keeps their websites in my category as well. So later, when i'm looking for info on them, it's all in one place.

Omea Pro's desktop search functionality helps me quickly find any resource, from any Information Source, in a few seconds... instead of looking through all my info for a specific fact. So I don't need the Windows Explorer to check out my folder hierarchies... Outlook to organize my emails... ICQ or Miranda to scroll through my message histories.. and a separate aggregator to track my industry update research via RSS feeds...

Frankly, this product saves me time, to focus on DOING more important stuff than just searching for information. And I look better to the CEO when I can show him a long list of the things that I've accomplished, instead of just saying "I researched this".

I should mention here that I work for Jetbrains, the makers of Omea Pro 2.0, and that fact makes me an early adopter for technology like this. It also means that I've got a competitive advantage when it comes to productivity, and THAT is translatable to any other marketer out there who knows what it's like to have a LOT to do, and something to prove to the development team.

Check out Jetbrains' Marketer Case Scenario or the demo!

Are social business networks effective for finding employees or finding a job?

2005-05-03T21:43:00.000+02:00

I see these sites like Friendster, Ryze, and LinkedIn, and I just wonder… what is it that these people are actually using the site for? I especially wonder at the idea of connecting people only through their connections. Kind of like a six-degrees of separation thing. Frankly, if a friend of a friend of a friend recommends someone to me… it doesn’t get them any better chance of being hired, because frankly, they are as much as stranger as any other person out there. It does however, bring them to my attention. Though I don’t think this is the best way to do so.

It comes down to three things when I’m looking at a potential employee:

Attitude
Ability to learn
Ability to achieve.

That’s it. These social networking sites don’t help me determine any of these attributes, so therefore, they are not the best way to meet potential employees. What I need, is a list of developers who are interested in building mobile technology, with a focus on S 60 phones, and Bluetooth. And I don't want to pay for the list, nor do i want to pay just to make contact. Show me that list, and I don’t care how many degrees of separation they are from me; I’ll make it one degree in about 30 seconds.

Who are bloggers? The Blogosphere Series - Part Two

2005-04-28T16:15:00.000+02:00

This is the Blogosphere Series, Part Two, a look into bloggers.

Who are bloggers?
What are their Interests?
Why do they blog?
What makes them different from non-bloggers?
What encourages them to keep blogging?
Are they willing to spend their money to blog?

In Part Three of this series, I'll try to answer: "How do I get bloggers to blog about me?"

1) Who are these blogger-people?

CNN Reports that the majority of blog-readers are internet users between the age of 18-29, however they did not poll people under the age of 18, so this data is less accurate than it could be. It does show a trend for young people to be the most common readers of blogs, but also highlights that if a user of any age category uses the internet, then there is more than an 28% chance that they have read a blog sometime before.

A survey of bloggers and readers of blogs that carry BlogAd advertising showed that among other findings, 70% of bloggers are over 30 years old, 43% had family incomes greater than $90000 USD, 75% are men, 50% said blogs are their most useful source of information, 4.8% listen to podcasts weekly, 28% use RSS to read blogs, and 20% of readers are also bloggers.

2) What are bloggers blogging about?

On Dec 9, 2004, Media Culpa stated that, “I have checked a sample of 50 important RSS feeds of traditional media in the Nordic countries in the Bloglines system and it is clear that IT and news are what interests most subscribers, 84 per cent of all subscriptions are for IT and general news. Business, sports, culture and entertainment have far less subscribers. This is of course an effect of both supply and demand.”

The O'Reilly Radar picked up this Confusability blog that lists the Top 100 folders that Bloglines users use to categorize their blogs of interest. Not surprisingly, the Top 5 were: Blogs, News, Tech, Technology, and People. Followed by Politics, Friends, and Comics. Java was 17th, Business 22nd, Sports 24th, and Knitting beat out Marketing by taking the 37th and 42nd spots respectively.

3) Why do bloggers... blog?

Defining exactly why people blog is not an easy task. Perhaps it is better to start by analyzing why people read blogs first, and then look at why people write them after.

In this blogads survey from March 2005, the timing and content of blogs (faster news, news I can’t find elsewhere) was important to readers, but perhaps more important was the source from which the news was delivered (Better perspective than a reporter, more honest, and with transparent biases). This supports the ideas of Jeremy Wright and Darren Barefoot that describe ‘objectivity’ as the currency of journalism, and ‘authenticity’ as the currency of bloggers. Perhaps the fact that 43.8% of blog readers are interested in “transparent biases” shows the decline of true objectivity in the journalist trade. This could either be because people are beginning to distrust the current level of objectivity in news-providers, or because people value opinions that support their own, and like to hear such information.

This begins to open the door into the bloggers mind, showing a glimpse of why they blog. The idea that their opinion is valuable and desired by other humans makes blogging an attractive social outlet. That they can also gain a reputation among a community of peers, build a business, interact more closely with their customers, and stay connected with their family and friends increases the attractiveness. A Feb 18th, 2005 survey of blogware users stated the reasons why people blog are:

40% - To let the world know what I think!
30% - To stay connected with family and friends.
15% - To build a better relationships with my customers.
10% - To share ideas and projects with coworkers/employees.
5% - To store and share photos online.

Though this survey had a low number of respondents (32), it had some other interesting findings, including the fact that 34% of the respondents had been blogging for more than 2 years (while 25% began within the last 3 months), and that these users would prefer to see blogware blogs listed by topic, category, author, and location of author rather than one of these individually. People who read blogs want them to be organized, and relevant to their interest. This is another reason why aggregators will be more popular.

This comes back to the number of people who are interested in blogs for the speed with which they can find information, and the fact that they can’t find that info elsewhere. An extension of this will be “semantic” tools that explain the web, based not on the hyperlinks throughout it, but by the information contained within the pages on those links. The condition implied on these semantic tools, is that they will need to be fast, simple, and allow users to pull desired information and information sources (eg via RSS).

Simply, users need fast access to important information that is easily searchable and organized. Participators need to feel like they are making a difference, to know that others are listening to them, and to gain respect or a reputation among their communities.

4) How are bloggers different from muggles?

Hepnar.org lists 15 traits believed to be common among all bloggers, but I’ve shortened his list and made comments:

3. Other people listen to what they have to say (on the net).

This inspires bloggers to build online presence

6. They read other people's blogs for inspiration.

7. They generally have a basic knowledge of CSS and/or HTML..

As blogging hits the mainstream, this is likely to become less important

8. They learn about other members of the blogosphere by reading that person's
blog.

They initially learn about other members via the comments that person makes on a blog, or as a recommendation from a blogger they respect.

10. A presence on the Internet is fulfilling for them.

Bloggers are spending time on the computer instead of in the pub or with their family. This online presence helps them to feel respected, intelligent, appreciated, and stimulated by their interactions with other people there.

11. They are generally a bit geeky.
12. Have a basic knowledge of computer skills.
13. Are proud members of the blogosphere and are passionate about blogging.
They may be geeky, but they are not ashamed of it (online at least)
15. Stand by their opinions and respect other members of the blogosphere and people in general.

People have learned that if they make stupid comments, or begin “flame wars” on blogs, then their comments will be removed. Once the thrill of irritating someone is removed, they cease the practice.

He goes on to say “I'll continue to look for similarities between members of the blogosphere, not only because I think it's interesting, but because it's like Social Studies (I have a point, I promise...). It's like learning more about your culture. It's fun!” His quote shows how #13 is applicable.

However as blogs progress into the mainstream, the trends of bloggers is likely to change. Some predictions include:

The mainstreamers will not blog obsessively, all day, every day. Blogs will be a tool and a facet of their lives, not their lives. I think most mainstream blogs will average annually ~2 posts/week.
They want convenience. The better the tools/software services, the more convenient it will be for them to blog and the more they will blog.
They are looking for the classic “whole product” and do not want to fuss w/difficult to use/unintegrated technologies.
There is no joy in perl scripting for them. Blogs will become, as Jason observed, the new business card/CV and also the new refrigerator door. People will update the world on their careers in the professional section of their blogs. They will update their friends in the personal areas.
Pictures/galleries and filesharing posts will become at least as important text-oriented posting.
As they post more and more of their lives online, they will start to demand ways to safeguard and secure all the work they have done.
Next-gen blogrings/community/affinity groups will become more important and will create their own mini-blogospheres, complete w/powerlaw distributions
Folksonomies will become a concept everyone can understand and will surprise everyone w/how they evolve.

The last two predictions seem the most interesting for the future. People are already listing “respected bloggers” on the sidebars of their own blogs. Because no one expects to be the next Scoble, people will form into their own groups, comprised of opinion leaders, thought-followers, nay-sayers, and passive readers, for topics that interest them most.

This blog has become incredibly long, so I'll save the last few questions for the next post in the series.
1) What encourages them to keep blogging?
2) Are they willing to spend their money to blog?
3) How can I get bloggers to blog about me/ my company/ my service?

The Blogosphere - Part One: Industry Facts

2005-04-27T14:00:00.000+02:00

This is by far, not an extensive report on the state of the blogosphere, rather it is an amalgamation of some of the research available online.

However, though it focuses entirely on individuals who blog, I believe that a great majority of bloggers would also be interested in the creation of a social networking / folksonomy crossover and therefore, perhaps this preliminary research will indeed prove valuable in the future.

Firstly, I think it’s important to begin with a description of the blogosphere, as it currently exists.

Technorati is now tracking over 8.3 million blogs[1], and the number of blogs it is tracking doubles every 5 months. It is not clear if this effectively describes the number and rate of growth of blogs, or Technorati’s effectiveness at tracking them. However, it is expected that Technorati will be tracking 15 million blogs by August, and 30 million by January 2006 if the trend continues[2] (but there isn’t much evidence to show why it would).

There are a number of blog providers in the industry, most notably Blogger (which was acquired by Google in 2003, and has gone from 169 thousand users in 2001 to 8 million blogspot.com blogs[3], though the number of active users on the service is unknown), MSN Spaces (4.5 mln bloggers have set up an online presence at MSN Spaces, according to Microsoft and reported by MarketWatch. Only 170,000 of them (or fewer than 4%) are updated daily) and LiveJournal.com (which has a reported 5.6 million accounts[4]; 2.4 million of which are active). But there are many more providers out there including: Typepad (for hosting blogs), Moveable Type (software installed on your own site to host your own blog, also used on Typepad), Tripod (a blog provider, with easy access to photos, polls, etc, charges $9.95 per month, and has advertising), etc.

According to Heinz Tschabitscher, a writer for about.com, the “top 10” aggregators are:
1) Newz Crawler
2) FeedDemon
3) SharpReader
4) Bloglines
5) NewsGator Online Services
6) intraVnews
7) News Gator
8) Awasu Personal Edition
9) Blog Navigator
10) Mozilla Thunderbird

It's interesting to see that Omea Reader wasn't included on this list, perhaps the word isn't out yet. (note: the author works for JetBrains, and uses Omea Pro all day, everyday)

Here's another list of the most popular aggregators.

Some of the industry trends are:
1) Consolidation – large providers get larger, while smaller providers struggle to grow. Though LiveJournal’s software powers a number of sites, of the 13 looked at by my source only 4 experienced growth in active users. (were they the big 4?) (are the early entrants the current leaders?) (if you have this info on your site, please make yourself known and i'll include credit)

2) Though there are a lot of fish, most end up leaving the river. Though blogging itself is gaining popularity, the vast majority of users are still abandoning their blogs or defecting to other services (eg, between Aug 2004 and Jan 05, Live Journal had over 2 million new people try their service, but only gained 170 thousand active users.) What helps ensure that users stay?

3) Aggregators are gaining popularity because they make it easier for users to look at a lot of information that interests them, in a shorter time. How many people are using aggregators now?

4) Big information providers are beginning to use RSS content. Wall Street Journal has added RSS feeds, and New York Times has 27 feeds, which drive a million page views per month. As RSS becomes a trusted method for receiving news of interest, more and more big information providers will join the field.

This is the first installment of information on the blogosphere. The next one will be focused on bloggers, and blog readers:
Who are they?
What are their Interests?
Why do they blog?
What makes them different from non-bloggers?
What encourages them to keep blogging?
Are they willing to spend their money to blog?

References:
[1] http://www.technorati.com/
[2] http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000298.html
[3] Found via a Google search on the .blogspot.com domain
[4] http://www.livejournal.com/stats.bml

Robert Scoble: What RSS Aggregator do you use?

2005-04-12T11:31:00.000+02:00

After hearing Robert Scoble speaking about XML content Syndication on IT Conversations, I decided to try to contact him directly, just to see how well his filtering of blogs works.

Apparently, if I write: something about Longhorn, and click my heels three times, The Scoble will appear and grant me the answer to one question, so here it is:

What RSS Aggregator do you use Scoble?

Now, I just have to get this blog up on Technorati, so I'll add a couple Technorati Tags here:
Scoble Longhorn XML Omea Reader JetBrains (yes, those are shameless plugs for our reader/organizer.. but note that the product link is not included... tactful? nah.... )

World Perception of Information

2005-04-11T10:13:00.000+02:00

When we change our view of the world, our world itself changes as a result.

I noticed this today as I was writing a report on the blogosphere and the people who compose it. While adding words like “blogosphere”, “folksonomy”, “blog”, “blogging” and “blogger” to my MS Word dictionary it started to sink in. I’ve always thought of myself as a bit of a mid adopter when it comes to technology. Though I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, I just recently bought my first laptop (the Compaq nx6110, in a case with HP branding all over it), and am still an avid user of IE, even though my colleague Rob Harwood is trying his best to lure me into Firefox with promises of “tabbed browsing”, “better page searching technology”, “virus protection”, and a slew of other features, which sound very appetizing, but somehow I just can’t break the old habit. My new excuse is that the scrolling section on my touchpad doesn’t seem to work in Firefox. I guess this just goes to confirm that once you’re product has crossed the chasm, features aren’t everything anymore. However, mobile technology and blogging have been capturing my attention as of late, and therefore the ideas that I associate together, are beginning to change my view of the world.

This struck me when at a dinner party earlier in the week the topic of blogging came up. My friend Scott mentioned that he just didn’t get it. “Why should anyone waste their time reading from a bunch of people who just want to hear themselves ramble about their opinions?” He was speaking about the trend of diary blogging, but his opinion disturbed me. Though I was ready with a barrage of rhetoric about why people waste their time listening to politicians when they fully know that less than half of what they say has any real substance to it, and was probably composed by a script writer after reading the latest opinion poll, I held back, and simply replied, “because it’s real.”

I found myself recounting some of the language of Jeremy Wright and Darren Barefoot, in their True Voice audio conversation with Stowe Boyd, about professional bloggers. In it, they mention some of the differences between journalists and bloggers and one of their points was about “the roots and ethics of journalism”. In the mid 20th century, a lot of journalists were getting paid to write, by the people doing the advertising. Every paper was basically turning into a tabloid, and newspapers started to realize that their readership was going down, because people didn’t believe what they were saying. So, journalists banded together and realized that it was their objectivity to issues that was their real livelihood, and being paid to talk about an issue, was a sure way to prematurely end your career. So reporters and journalists stopped writing their opinions, and started “reporting facts objectively”. One thing Jeremy and Darren didn’t mention is that editorial columns have always been a popular part of magazines and newspapers, and these editorial columns have often been the most thought provoking, and indeed the most talked about part of the publication. They are also the most heavily opinion-based section of the paper. Jeremy and Darren pick this topic up again in their interview, and say that it is the ability of bloggers to be authentic that makes them popular. And while journalists trade on their objectivity to an issue, the real value to bloggers and blog readers, is the opinions of the author. This was my answer for Scott, that the real, unabashed opinion, of a real person, is why people “waste” their time reading blogs.

Six months ago, the conversation could have ended with Scott's rhetorical comment, but since my perception of the information available to me has been changing, I have therefore become a source of information for others, and therefore a cog in the information exchange. Who knows, the world of information itself may be forced to change because of a cog like me. It will be interesting to see where information sources head next. Will the wiki gain popularity? Or sites such as del.icio.us? What information is the most valuable to us, and will there be a time when we would be willing to pay for it? What is worth paying for? I’m predicting that these answers will be revealed by the end of 2005, and a small handful of companies will emerge to lead the change. Will it be yours?

Captivate vs. Camtasia Studio

2005-03-02T18:48:00.000+01:00

Grab a seat and hold onto your earlobes folks, this bout is scheduled for one fall:

In the Blue Corner, weighing in at two hundred and ninety nine dollars, feast your eyes on Tech Smith's Camtasia Studio.

And wearing the big pants, with an initial purchase price of four hundred and ninety nine USD, ladies and gents, gander in awe at Macromedia's Captivate (formerly known as RoboDemo).

Now there are no kid gloves allowed in this cage match, and nobody's pulling punches. Here's the rundown:

When first checking out Camtasia Studio, I was impressed by the website.. simple concept: download the product, choose the screen size that I want to record, ensure that the mic isworking, hit F9 (or click the record button) and start recording my demo / screencast. Great idea. Now, if I claimed to be the most technical guy on the planet, i'd be stricken dead by 99% of the employees of JetBrains. The thing is, it's really just about as easy to use this software as they say on the site. Editing the demo once it's recorded is a little more challenging when you start getting tricky. For example I often wanted to change little things like wording, or adding background audio... which i was unable to do at all... sure the audio 2 track worked, so I could record my voice after I recorded the demo, but I couldn't get anything on the audio one track; whether it was embedded in a powerpoint presentation, or playing in Windows Media Player in the background. Since not everyone wants to listen to Kruder and Dorfmeister while watching a demo, this may not be a problem for them. One cool thing about it, was that it recorded exactly what my .ppt presentation was doing. That was great. I'm a bit of an uber-genius when it comes to making snazzy presentations, so this made me really quite happy.

So for Ease of Use, and synchronization with .ppt, I give Camtasia Studio a: "Good Job Guys"

One thing that really disturbs me about Captivate, is it's screen-shot design. On one hand, it makes it really, incredibly, completely, superbly easy to edit AFTER you've recorded. But during recording, it takes about 342 screenshots whenever something happens, takes 1/2 second videos when the button colour changes before i click "ok", and forces me to delete 80% of the shots it takes, before i can get to the real editing. It also doesn't capture .ppt presentations very well at all. In fact, it distorts the video, and can't capure a movie of things that pop up and disappear on the screen.. basically, any movement designed to attact eyeballs. Then it distorts the backgrounds of .ppt. However, back to that screenshot thing... it lets you show direct, clean, mouse movements, and allows you to create tutorials, and add interaction with the demo very easily. That's a good thing for anyone who's sat through their boss' presentations on corporate conformity before.

For Editing, and interactivity, I WOULD give a "Good Job Guys", but that blunder with recording live screen action cost Captivate BIG points. If you're not into .ppt, or your demos only give a quick, one-screen response, then it's cool, but don't count on live video.

Deliberate Delays for Days and Days

2005-02-23T10:57:00.000+01:00

I've been a baaaaaaaaaaad blogger recently, especially after I gave my boss, Sergey Dmitriev, (the ingenious creator of JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA, and a slew of technophilic software... with more always on the horizon) a hard time about not blogging himself.

Here's the reasoning though: I'm getting ready to become an avid screencaster. Now you can get cutting commentary, complete with visual diagramatic exctasy. For less than pennies a glass.

So screencasting, via Camtasia Studio, is on it's way, hold onto your pants, but i'm not worried, nobody's reading this anyway :)

Bloggers Rights and Blogosphere Data

2005-02-15T10:27:00.000+01:00

David Stennett, of mobile bluetooth-based advertising technology fame (thanks to Jellingspot)pointed out an interesting addition to my "Power of Bloggers" and "Corporate Bloggers" posts. The article, from CNN Money, states that even though bloggers feel that their rights are protected, this may not be the case when they are blogging about their employer. The article sites a case at Delta airlines, and mentions how Apple is trying to crack down on what bloggers write, especially if information is leaked, even if they are not employees.

Joe, cites www.dijest.com/bc/ as a great reference for finding information about the blogosphere. These bloggers collect a lot of data, and describe their site like this:

Blogcount asks: How big is the blogosphere? What is its shape, color, true
nature? Blogcount catalogs efforts to answer these questions. We collect and
organize the best reports and analyses on this subject. Contact Us: tips@dijest.com

Technorati Tags: blogosphere blogger blog bluetooth blogcount marketing

Marketing Speak: Jargon Begone!

2005-02-14T15:30:00.000+01:00

OK, i'm back from St. Pete's, Russia; the trip was great, the team-building was successful, and now I'm back to talk about marketing blunders.

Today's Topic: Marketing Jargon - who are these people talking to?

Example Number One: Overture
"With a range of products and a breadth of expertise, Overture's Partner Business & Solutions Group offers companies customized solutions that deliver unmatched monetization for their Web sites. "

Now I believe that the introductory paragraph on any of your website pages should clearly and quickly explain exactly what you can do to help your customer. Especially if you are talking about a solution you can provide. From this intro paragraph, can you tell me:
a) Who is the target market?
b) What does Overture do for the target market?
c) What do they want me to do next?

I think the answer to C is obvious: They want me to read on, in hopes that I can find out exactly how they will help me. Perhaps this intro paragraph is designed to pique my curiosity. But frankly, I don't want to read on, because even though i'm a marketer, I'm already bored.

The answer to B is perhaps in there somewhere, and i think it could sound like this:
"Overture helps your website make money. Period."

The answer to A? Yeah... uhh.... it's pretty specific: "companies". That's like Porsche's website saying something along the lines of: "We're targeting people who drive cars, trucks, and vehicles".

Now of course, I fall victim to this as well (once in a while :) And it looks something like this:

"Omea Pro is a product-class defining solution that makes it easy for professionals with a lot of information, to organize and act upon that data in ways that are difficult or impossible using traditional folder hierarchies, email software, web browsers, and RSS readers."

Let's look at the three questions I tackled earlier:
a) Who is the target market?
b) What does Omea Pro do for the target market?
c) What do they want me to do next?

Answers:
A) The target market is "Professionals with a lot of information". Yeah... not exactly the most specific. I could've done better.
B) uhhhhhhhhhhhh..
C) uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... read more?
(My personal favourite quote from this quote is "product-class defining solution"... it just says so much.... :)

So this is the question: Does sounding like a marketer help your target market identify with your product or service? What if your target audience IS marketers?

I think the answer is NO. Though it sounds "professional", i think the potency is lost, unless you are trying to build interest through confusion.

Technorati Tags: marketing communication web content design

Power of Bloggers vs Dunkin Donuts

2005-02-08T10:24:00.000+01:00

Alright, so I said i probably wouldn't get the chance to post, but since we're looking into the viral marketing campaign ideas again, i found some more interesting stuff, and decided to quickly post it:

First, I heard about the Dunkin Donuts scandal involving sending coffee to soldiers. Apparently they were offering a program to soldiers' families to send free cases of coffee over to their boys (and girls) in Iraq. Bloggers got ahold of it (damn you bloggers! (i love irony) You conveyors of information and freedom of speech!), and suddenly Dunkin Donuts was faced with having to send 130, 000 cases of coffee over. So they pulled the program.

This was my comment on Jeff Nolan's blog:

"Why didn't Dunkin Donuts take the offer and just run with it? OK, so they'd have to send over 130,000 cases of coffee to the soldiers.. who cares??? That's a great way to say: "Hey guys, here's some great coffee!" Interpreted conveniently by the press and information community as: "Look how nice DD is! Bush got these guys involved in a stupid war, and DD understands that it's not the soldiers' fault!"

If THAT MANY people were interested in getting DD to send coffee to soldiers, then there could have been press releases and serious ad campaigns, even mentioning that DD does not want to get into the debate on the war, but believes that good people deserve good coffee.

Instead, they'll likely create a large group of boycotters. Good work."

To St. Petersburg

2005-02-05T14:41:00.000+01:00

I'm going to be in St. Petersburg, Russia all next week, so these blogs may become erratic (but only for the week, then back to the avg 5-6 per week schedule). Though the number of comments being left on this blog haven't really come up, the number of hits i'm getting daily has!

However encouraging that may be, frankly I don't really care how many people read this. It's good just to get myself organized, and think through the marketing that's going on out there!

So, until my return, check out these cool sites:

Deceptive Marketing at blogcritics.org
Tech Info from around the World courtesy of JB (look in Recent posts)
And for those who haven't seen it yet: The ClueTrain Manifesto

Here's a quote from The CTM:
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

Lead Generation using Webinars

2005-02-03T15:03:00.000+01:00

Brian Carroll's B2B Lead Generation Blog has consistently useful articles for the active salesperson, marketer, or Marketing VP. In the link above, Brian talks about how Webinars can fit into your marketing mix. Even though you may be afraid of low registration numbers, and even lower turnout for the actual performance (he says that only about 30% of registrants actually show up on avg anyway), if you can be recognized as a source of valuable information, your attendance numbers will steadily climb. He also provides this Lead-Generation Model that shows where Webinars can fit, and who is most likely to benefit from them.. moving them closer to becoming a customer.
see a larger image here
Now you're thinking: "Hey, maybe a webinar will really help me!" But I caution you to really look at the information that you want to present to your audience. Is it valuable to them? Truly Valuable? Are they going to want to watch it for 10-30 mins? Is your presentation entertaining? What do you want the viewer to do after seeing it?

Form an orderly line with their credit card information ready?

Webinars help your audience to see you as
a) a person
b) a respectable source of information

They don't want to see a salesperson giving them a 30 minute pitch, so make sure your goals are in-line with their needs. If you're interested in some webinar software, check out: Webex and Infinite Conferencing.
(I'm not biased towards or against these product like I am for Omea Pro so reviews and comments are always welcome!)

[Technorati Tags: Marketing Webinar Sales Lead Generation]

Paying People To Blog

2005-02-01T19:28:00.000+01:00

It looks like this is the theory:
1) You pay well respected bloggers to put up posts about your product.
2) You get mentioned more, and linked to more, so your site ranking goes up.
3) Since those people are well respected, other people mention it, further increasing the number of hits to your blog/company site.
4) More hits = more interest = more sales

Some problems:
1) If someone is paid, whether or not they are allowed to say whatever they want to, will anyone believe that they are being honest?
2) Google separates the "Sponsored Links" from links that it found using its spiders. This way consumers know that people are paying to be seen first. Will blogging search engines like Technorati begin doing this too? How would they monitor who's referring to a site that pays people to blog about them?
3) Will people lose respect for someone who is directly paid to blog? I guess this ties to number one, with the association of honesty and respect kind of going hand in hand.

I believe that Marqui is the first company to try this idea, and I applaud them for trying it. It's damn gutsy. This debate is the actual reason that I found out about Marqui at all, and it did in fact get me to take a look at their software demo (which targets Marketers). I even sent them an email!

But of course, I'm relatively evil when it comes to getting attention and trying new things. Just ask my team. :)

[Technorati Tags: Blog Marqui Marketing Paid Blogging]

Corporate Bloggers, Honesty Problems, Bloggers vs Traditional Media

2005-02-01T18:46:00.000+01:00

Firstly, A post by David Sifry, (the founder and CEO of Technorati) entitled Oct 2004 State of the Blogosphere: Corporate Bloggers states that there are only about 5000 corporate bloggers, and provides a nice neat pie chart (very eye-catching). I'm curious to know about how many corporate bloggers there are now, a mere 3 months later. I'm under the impression that blogging is on the rise. Dramatically. Anyone with evidence?

Combine this with A Blog Survey from MIT describing how 76% of bloggers do not limit access to their blogs in any way, 36% of bloggers have gotten into trouble because of their blog, and 12% of bloggers surveyed either got into legal or professional problems (or know someone who did) because of what they wrote on their blog.

So more corporate people are blogging, and about 12% of bloggers get into legal trouble. There are going to be some fireworks in the future.

Now this either means that corporate bloggers are going to produce the most positively-spun dribble about their company, or they're going to be like more of the blogging community and stick with the whole honesty thing, and risk putting their foot in it. Personally, I'm going with honesty. And it looks like Jay Rosen (on the Harvard Cyber Law site) is too: especially when it comes to the topic of bloggers triumphing over the traditional News Media. Now this is a pretty heated debate: will the world begin to trust bloggers like "Coldfury" more than a site like CNN?

[Technorati Tags: Technorati Harvard Law CNN MIT Corporate Bloggers]

Market Research, SEO, and resource references

2005-01-31T10:49:00.001+01:00

Right, so the first step in my quest for market research, is to see what bloggers are using as sources. As it turns out from Technorati (a blog search tool), there are about 1261 posts that include the words "market research". Strange. Everyone seems to be saying that blogs are the next big marketing craze, but yet, marketers don't seem to be posting too much. This leads me to believe that I'm a pioneer (minus the log cabin.. i prefer the pre-made, not so customized one that blogger hooked me up with).

From these links, i've found some interesting info! Here's an example of how other people have been using some of the same SEO (Search Enginge Optimization) tools that i've been experimenting with at Clixyplays (a copywriting agency). They go into detail about the tools they used, and how effective it was for them. Here's a page by "Internet expert, author, keynote speaker, and consultant Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A" that lists a couple hundred research resource tools, sites, links, and companies. Frankly, this is going to be the page that I continue looking for information from. Another great tool is the Virtual Librarian, mainly because it has links to tons of resources for researchers, everything from news sites, to competitive intelligence, to medical stuff like diseases, to patent information, and lists of databases on top of all that. OK. So i've found a couple sites for basing my statistical search from, but i'm still looking for data on my target markets. Numbers! Is it possible to get numbers?

[Technorati Tags: Research Resource Blogger Technorati SEO Market Research]

The Start of Strategy Week

2005-01-31T09:59:00.000+01:00

This week is going to be a rough'n' rugged marketing research week. I'm looking for information about market sizes within potential target markets, likelihood of purchase and adoption from within those markets, and also information on the way they like to receive information the best. Needless to say, it's going to be a week of creativity and hair pulling. Not only because we don't use an agency to get this information for us, but also because i don't seem to trust information that i didn't collect myself. Whether that's a flaw or an advantage, let the history books decide.

Any advice on good sources?

[Technorati Tags: market size target market market research]

Blog Marketing, Awards, Great Advertising, and Simple to Create Demos

2005-01-28T16:35:00.000+01:00

So it's always nice to see that other people believe your product is a good one.
Omea Pro 1.0 has been nominated as a finalist for the SD Magazine's annual Jolt Product Excellence Awards. I guess on March 16th I'll find out just how good other people believe it to be, when they host the Awards Ceremony in Santa Clara California at SD West.

I've been thinking about creating some really simple, easy-to-understand demos for people who aren't tech junkies recently, and one of my colleagues pointed me in the direction of Camtasia Studio 2.1. (Thanks Rob!) Now, as far as I can see, this is a pretty cool product that allows you to capture video from your screen, as well as your voice-over, so that you can guide users through the steps of using your software. I haven't given it a shot yet, but i'll be doing it over the next month or so; once we get the strategy debates/cage matches out of the way, and all the blood is cleared up.

As I promised in my first posting, I'm going to talk a bit about some examples of really good marketing out there. EatMail.tv is a cool site that shows a lot of funny ads/vids that are roaming about the marketplace, so since it's friday, and you need a good laugh, go check it out. Oh, also for a good laugh, (though they're trying to be serious) check out Spur-M. (I can't believe i'm actually linking to this site.. well, there goes the last shred of professionalism)

Finally, it's interesting to look at the way marketers and advertisers are handling the world of blogging as a medium. I just saw a couple of sites where a some bloggers, Creative NRG and Bonkey, mentioned how much they like the Omea Reader, so one of our competitors added comments to their site, about his own product. I'm curious to know how bloggers react to seeing this kind of promotion directed at them.

Do comments from marketing/sales guys (and girls) annoy bloggers? Are they just happy to finally have someone looking at their site (and is that why they mention products they're using in the first place?) or is it something else?

[Technorati Tags: Omea Jolt Award Marketing Sales Demo]

Welcome to The Marketing Booth!

2005-01-28T02:29:00.000+01:00

Since this is my first blog, I'm starting with a bit of cold, hard, fact.

90% of the marketing in the world is total rubbish.

Now I'm not talking about beer commercials, because they obviously have their target market nailed. Especially Molson, back when they had the "I am Canadian" campaign for their albeit poor tasting beverage.

As a "marketer" myself, some of the blame for this has to fall on my shoulders. Shameless self-promoting plug in T-2 seconds: Afterall, I did get educated at one of the best Business Schools in Canada (Wilfrid Laurier University), and have now worked for a variety of firms, including a couple really good tech companies. First at the KL Group, which was re-named Sitraka, (a decision that i did not influence, however i did carry out the conversion throughout Europe from their office in Amsterdam), and then bought out by Quest Software, (if you're a Java Developer, check out their JProbe and JClass products) and now i'm at JetBrains (creators of IntelliJ IDEA (a Java IDE with industry leading intelligence features), ReSharper (a productivity, refactoring, and code-automation plugin for Visual Studio .NET 2003), and Omea (an Intelligent Information Environment for all of you who want to manage your information better). It is in fact because I'm a marketer, that I'm writing this blog.

Over the next few entries, I plan on tackling issues like viral marketing (the word of the day for my colleague David Stennett.. check out his blog), corporate absurdity, disconnection with customers, the decision-making process within technology firms, great advertising, google's desktop search (for an interesting take on the issue, check out Gregg's 21st Century Digital Boy comments "Enough with the desktop search already"), as well as anything that just happens to come up along the way (possibly including life in Prague).

Oh, and just in case you're wondering about the fact at the top of the page, it was taken from the same source as:
"58% of facts that people quote, are made up"

[Technorati Tags: Marketing Molson Desktop Search Viral Wilfrid Laurier University]