MyBrainBlog

Paying for News Online

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:03:49 PDT

I liked the interview and feel this guy (Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of WSJ) is on the right track, but I also think he is still waay too obsessed with the old newspaper subscription business model (I have what I feel to be a MUCH better model in mind), but at least their company JournalismOnline.com appears to have at least put some thought into the process and is approaching it as a potential platform for all online content providers (instead of just a solution for a single newspaper company.)

Unless the people behind this idea gets pushed to go after the NEXT right answer, I don't think this is the model into which online newspaper content distribution will eventually evolve, and may even delay the development of a better model. There are better ideas out there to solve this problem -- my feeling is that these guys just stopped thinking about solutions too soon.

Turning into the Skid

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:10:20 PDT

When a game changing event or product threatens the well-being your company or industry, sometimes the best thing you can do when you feel like you're losing control is to "turn into the skid."

Early on in your auto driving experience, you were told that if you ever start to lose control of your vehicle on an icy road, you should turn your wheels into the skid in order to correct your direction and reclaim control of the car. I think that creatively, this principle can be used to course-correct for your business innovations, as well.

One example...

There's no arguing that harsh economic realities and advancements in virtual meeting technologies has dramatically impacted the business travel industry. Companies that once had no other option than to physically transport a representative to an event across the country, now have many other options at their disposal. They can choose not to attend the event at all, they can arrange conference calls, video calls, purchase DVDs or CDs of the events, create online meetings, trade emails, create wiki sites, blogs, podcasts, meeting summaries, and even follow along in real time via Twitter or web video sites like uStream... and probably a dozen other ways I haven't thought to list.

What if one travel company turned into this skid in order to correct their course? Instead of offering just another 'promise to match the lowest price' -- what if one of these business travel specialists stepped up to help their clients determine which meetings they really needed to attend, and facilitated virtual meeting options on their behalf for the ones they did not need to physically attend?

What's stopping Uniglobe from embracing the innovative tools of companies like Webex, GoToMeeting, PBwiki, uStream, Skype, and Dabbleboard to construct a simple link collection of all the best virtual meeting tools to benefit the changing needs of their clients?

What if they took it a step further and created a private-label version of these utilities and offered them for free (or fee) to their client base? If their travel clients already think of this company as their means of getting to meetings in the physical world, why not carry over that thinking into the virtual world? Why wouldn't a client use a TravelSolutions, Uniglobe, or Travel Partners branded online meeting tool instead of having to potentially create a new account and incur separate billing from some other company? Especially if the travel company has already established trust and reliability with their client (and made the tools easy and convenient to use.)

Remember, the next time you feel like you're losing control of your business, try turning into the skid to correct your course using innovative ideas -- and regain control of your destiny.

Quirky Way to Sell Your Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:29:27 PDT

Brand new website I learned about via www.springwise.com this week. It's the latest crowdsourced business incubator. Quirky.com allows anyone to submit product ideas, plans, etc. for $99. The community then decides which submissions to develop, and the top votes result in a new product released WEEKLY.

It's certainly a bit bold to announce you'll be producing a product every single week, but the concept is certainly promising. Obviously spawned from concepts like threadless.com, Quirky stands a chance for survival if the submissions are creative, yet boot rooted in enough reality to justify production and sale to a supportive audience.

I think Quirky will need to quickly grow their consumer base beyond their site subscribers in order to maintain any long term viability. Unlike the crowd at threadless.com, not every member is going to be a prospective customer for every item produced.

Learn more by visiting the Springwise summary page or the company website at Quirky.com. A video produced by quirky to provide a quick overview of their concept is embedded below.

Bally High

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:35:07 PDT

I've really been enjoying the new show on the Discovery channel, "Pitchmen" in which each episode follows the successful (and sometimes not-so successful) course of one or two "as seen on tv" products. Legendary hucksters Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan guide the inventors through the surprisingly interestingly (but sometimes murky) waters of direct response advertising. Think of them as part PT Barnum and part Sacajawea (good article from CNN Money on these guys.)

In the latest episode, the Pitchmen take a potential next-gen "Billy Mays 2.0" under their wing and show him some of the basics in the art of pitching products to the public. A technique the guys referred to as "ballying" latched on to my brain, and I thought I share a few thoughts on the concept here.

I found a really good explanation of the word and the entire Bally process by searching for "carny terms" and discovering this site: http://www.goodmagic.com/carny/index.htm. A quick search through the listings for "B" and I had more Bally info than I could have imagined.

The "Bally" is the spiel designed to draw a crowd (called a "tip") to see a sideshow. The bally is essentially a commercial which typically features quick appearances by the performers in the show. It is a shortened version of the word "Ballyhoo" which came to mean "to attract the attention of customers by raising a clamor." The word originated at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

This old/new word seems to embody the principles needed to attract clients into our dot-com tents from the new media carnival midway.

There is a lot of information on the GoodMagic.com website, and even though this post is pretty long, this is an edited version of what you can find on their site.

Here are the steps to a successful bally:

MAKING THE OPENING/BUILDING THE TIP
"Making the opening" is attracting the attention of everyone within earshot. The object is to assemble a crowd. They don't have to be eager attendees, they just have to be willing to pause for a moment to find out what you are yelling about.

The word "free" is particularly attractive. The crowd is being separated from their money at every point along the way from the gate to the "back end" where the biggest sideshows are usually placed. Anything they can get free is a real relief (they don't quite catch on that the whole idea is to take even more of their cash).

To keep the crowd once you have their attention, build anticipation -- something very interesting is going to happen and it's just about to be revealed!

The bally should only last five or six minutes, with six to ten repetitions per hour. The goal is to project intense energy and to sense and respond to the crowd's mood.

FREEZING THE TIP
You've assembled a gaggle of freeloaders, but they're not a "tip" until they're paying close and continued attention. "Freezing the tip" is getting them almost immobilized. Get them to move closer to see better, making it difficult for anyone to leave because of the tightly-packed crowd.
A few successfully mesmerized people will attract a larger crowd ("What are all those people looking at? Let's go check it out!") You must keep them amused so they don't drift away.

You might also use a "stick" (a shill) to subtly herd the tip people into a tightly-packed bunch so that it becomes difficult for anyone to fight their way out of the tip (much easier to stay and see the interesting stuff.) Add a "draw" -- a little business, a gag, some bull -- designed to draw the tip inexorably close to the bally platform.

To entertain is not the purpose of the bally. It is to stop people so you can sell the contents of the show. The entertainment is on the inside.

THE PITCH
Now you have a "tip," and it's time to give them "the pitch," the part where you describe in glowing hyperbole the glories to be seen inside. You might want to introduce a "hook", a promise of something that is just about to happen or a feature you must not miss. Refresh the hook from time to time by referring to it or elaborating on it.

Use your authority (people are used to following the instructions of someone louder and higher than they are.) Then pitch what you've got inside, describe the excitement they'll experience, the rare opportunity to see something thrilling. Talkers became experts at painting word pictures. A good talker could at implant the idea that this experience would be "interactive" and personally involving. Use superlatives and florid language, but use it in a calculated way and refine it with practice or it will sound foolish. The bally is both practiced and improvisational. Reading the crowd and reacting to them is an art.

TURNING THE TIP and THE JAM
The turn is the point at which the sales pitch becomes a call to action. The term probably comes from turning a herd of cattle, and what human cow could resist a bargain? For that matter, who could get out of the assembled, tightly-packed tip once the crowd started moving to the ticket booth and the entrance?

This begins the 'jam' and the momentum is kept up by a 'grind.' The jam is the ratcheting up of the call to action by introducing a sense of urgency. ("Just three minutes left to buy admission at the sale price? Gosh, I hope I can get up there in time!") Of course, no one is ever too late, but they think they might be. Think of a modern-day television commercial: "Call in the next 10 minutes and we'll also include a second bottle free!"

THE BLOWOFF
After you have them inside, fairly captive, and have shown them the best you have, you have a chance to make your real money. Throughout the show, the giant has been selling huge rings, the Mule-Faced Girl and the Lizard-Skinned Man have been selling cards with their photo and bio, etc. Now it's time for a final "surprise" sales pitch. After you've delivered all you promised, the star attraction or the inside talker would always give the people a chance to see something really special -- for an extra charge.

Perhaps the additional attraction would be the chance to come up on stage and look down into the Blade Box, perhaps it would be the chance to see a part of the tattooed lady's anatomy that might not be appropriate for the whole family. Or the talker could suddenly slow the rapid-fire parade of claims to draw attention by contrast of pace � tell a story, and aim the appeal seemingly straight at the emotions.

...which is usually the best connection to the wallet.

Bossing Around Your Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:56:58 PDT

Here's some advice from bnet.com on how you can get The Boss to get behind your ideas.

Summary of their three-pronged plan for success...

1. Present multiple concepts in a fashion that makes the person in charge feel that the ideas originated (or were at least inspired) by them.

2. Allow The Boss time to peruse the options and choose the variation that most appeals to them.

3. Make them feel the selected option was sparked by their brilliance in some past (and perhaps mythical) conversation.

Let me add my own final point to bnet's plan...
4. Update your resume and find a job where The Boss isn't an ego maniac who makes decisions based on puffing themselves up instead of on the merit of the idea and what it will mean to the success of the company.

Why not try my 5-part approach instead?
1. Meet with The Boss to discuss the project for which you'd like to contribute an idea.

2. Come to a mutual agreement on the challenge itself (a problem well-stated is half-solved.) There's no use spending time creating a proposal to increase the spending of existing clients if The Boss believes the problem is failure to convert prospects into new business. You need to both agree that the real solution is to increase sales.

3. Ask questions of The Boss so that you can incorporate the answers into your solution. If you ask "what's the one thing that can't be missing from a proposed solution?" and The Boss answers "it's got to show weekly measurements to gauge success" -- you darn well better incorporate those sorts of analytics into your concept.

4. Now go away for at least 24-48 hours before presenting your solution to The Boss. It doesn't matter if you didn't learn anything new in your conversation and your proposal is dead-on point right out of the box. You want The Boss to feel you've considered their feedback and included their perspective into your concept. Plus, I can just about guarantee that as your brain processes the conversation you're going to come up with some improvements to your idea no matter how much you love it in its current form.

5. Present the idea to The Boss by reviewing your original conversation in order to bring them right back to the same page you were both on at the conclusion of your original meeting. Remind The Boss of both your original perceptions of the problem and the resulting agreed-upon problem statement. Be sure to hit each bullet-point of the 3 or 4 things you both agreed had to be in a proposed solution. Why? Two reasons -- one, The Boss is working on a dozen other projects right now and probably hasn't been dedicating the time you have to this single problem. And two, The Boss has had time to process your original conversation as well. It's quite possible that between your first meeting and this one, that The Boss has changed the scope of the challenge on which you're working. You may have come into this meeting with a brilliant plan to get current clients to spend more or to increase the closing ration of new business, but now The Boss might feel the problem revolves around the pricing of the product or service. You need to make sure you're both on the same page and that the specs of the problem have not changed since you last spoke. If you're both still on the same page, present your idea and seek approval to put it into action.

Now, here's the REAL secret behind my process:
It works for selling ideas to ANY person -- not just The Boss.

Famous Inventions from A to Z

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:10:51 PDT

Did you know the first patent for glue was issued in England for an adhesive made from fish, or that the first television remote was patented by Zenith in 1950 and was called the "Lazy Bones?"

If not, you are sorely in need of a visit to About.com's alphabetical list of famous inventions!

Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:27:29 PDT

On the surface he's talking about comics, but he's really talking about understanding innovation.

Learn from Everyone
Follow No One
Watch for Patterns
Work like Hell

Sounds like a plan.

Make a Point. Make an Impact.

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:08:51 PDT

The short video below makes a helluva impact in a creative and
powerful way. See what you think...

100-Whats Book - Now Available!

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:21:58 PST

My book "100-WHATS of CREATIVITY: One Hundred What-If Questions to Spark Your Creativity, Unmuck Your Mind, and Break Through Your Mental Blocks" is now available through Amazon.com!

For a limited time, you can buy it through my on-demand storefront and save 30% off the cover price of $12.95. Just visit the link below and use the discount code: 7CTTGLG8 --

https://www.createspace.com/3374646

Seeking '100-Whats' Preview Feedback

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:41:36 PST

I'm finally ready to launch a newly revised and updated paperback edition of '100-Whats of Creativity' and would appreciate your feedback on the concept, content, and cost.

I've recently discovered the on-demand publishing site CreateSpace.com and plan to use it as the publishing vehicle, which will make the book available for the first time ever on Amazon.com!

CreateSpace also has a pretty cool preview tool, which makes contributing your feedback a snap using their online form. You get to download the table of contents and a few free pages, and then I hope you'll take a couple seconds to provide a some quick answers to five short questions.

Here's the link -- http://tinyurl.com/dnder2 -- and thanks for your help!

Kibbles and Hits

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:44:31 PST

Most folks are familiar with HungerSite.com and their linked cousins. You visit hungersite.com each day and a small donation is made to feed the hungry. Click on one of HungerSite's category tabs along the top, and you can make additional daily donations toward Breast Cancer Research, Children's Health, Literacy, Rainforest, and Animal Rescue.

Fewer of you are familiar with FreeRice.com, another site that asks you to visit daily to donate rice to help feed the hungry. One of the things I like about FreeRice.com is the fact they make a game out of it. You test your vocabulary by choosing the correct definition from a series of words. For every word you correctly define, a donation of 10 grains of rice is given to the UN World Food Program. Your 'winnings' are tracked in a clever graphic on the webpage that displays how many grains of rice you've contributed. It's a tough game to stop, because you're doing some good with every flex of your mental muscles.

Today I became aware of another site that helps provide food for animals in shelters. Take one part Animal Rescue page from HungerSite.com and stir in a liberal amount of FreeRice.com and you get FreeKibble.com. Like FreeRice.com, this site asks you a daily trivia question and rewards your participation (right or wrong) by donating ten pieces of kibble to help feed hungry dogs living in shelters. Like HungerSite.com, they ask you to return daily in order to repeat the process and answer a new trivia question to win ten more pieces of petfood.

The most interesting bit of trivia about this site is that it was brought into reality by a 12 year old girl named Mimi Ausland from Bend, Oregon. The "About" page doesn't go into much detail about how Mimi put her idea into action, but it says she launched the site on April 1, 2008 and delivered her first round of kibble (240 lbs!) to the Humane Society of Central Oregon on May 14 -- enough food to feed 456 dogs for one day. As of February 3rd of 2009 she's amassed over 50 TONS of kibble through her original site FreeKibble.com, and through her more recently launch feline version FreeKibbleKat.com. The site tally reads over 83 MILLION pieces of kibble have been donated since April of 2008.

Here's a short video of news coverage sharing Mimi's story:

At some point Mimi's project captured the attention of Oregon-based pet food manufacturer Castor and Pollux, the sponsor who now supplies the pet food and delivers it to more than ten shelters in the state (with plans to expand.)

I've said on more than one occasion that there are no "new" ideas -- only creative combinations of existing concepts. FreeKibble.com is a perfect example of that statement.

This is an innovative new combination of ideas from a brilliant young mind. Mimi's concept is making a difference in the world everyday.

How did YOUR ideas improve the world today?

Killing The Group, Long Live The List!

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:22:39 PST

I'm going to be eliminating the current Yahoo Group sometime within the next 5-10 days.
If you're a member of that Group, your email address has been automatically imported into my new private email list. As with all previous messages, you'll have the opportunity to opt-out from any email sent to the list at anytime.

Frankly, I made this decision based on Facebook's new content policy. I need to ensure that I retain full rights to distribute and control access to the content I worked hard to create. A lot of the content that I have posted in that members-only group holds tremendous value to me, and I wouldn't want Yahoo to flex it's corporate policy and try to claim some sort of infinite permission to post and provide access, as it seems the folks at Facebook are want to do.

If you've been a member of my Yahoo Group for any length of time, you already know I rarely use it to send messages -- preferring to keep info posted on my blog instead. You'll soon see me adopting a more regulated email schedule and providing some exclusive content to list members only. Some things in store for list members:

Free mini-brainstorms in each edition on topics YOU choose
Reduce fees for consulting services
Reviews for media that sparks ideas
First-access to new content
An occasional bit freebie loot given to list members

If you're a member of the Yahoo Group, you're already a member of this new list. If you've not signed-up for the old group, I hope you'll consider subscribing to this new list. I promise not to abuse your time or attention.

Please sign-up today!

PS: If you're a member of that Yahoo Group, I'd advise downloading and saving anything you want from the "free" files section of the site. I plan on shutting down that group and its content as time permits, and probably won't provide any additional warning.

100 Best? Business Books of All Time

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:28:58 PST

I just purchased Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten's "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time" over the weekend. I was suprised by how many of the books I'd read, by how many I hadn't read, and by how many I'd bought and then put on a shelf without reading.

I also noticed some books that I felt were missing from this august list, and few that seemed out of place for being included.

If YOU were going to edit the list, which books would you add -- and which books would you remove in order to make room for your choices?

You can find the complete list on www.100bestbiz.com, or you can buy a copy on Amazon.

For all my unemployed peeps...

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:01:59 PST

Inspiration struck and I setup a new store on CafePress.com with a shirt design honoring those who weren't allowed to make the Mix 97.1 to 97.1 The Fan transition.

Good-bye my beeyotches...
I'm gonna miss you guys!

Click here for a larger image of the imprint.

$5 Brainstorms on Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:02:58 PST

The Five Buck Brainstorm project was a success -- and by "success" I mean I got my butt kicked with requests!

FiveBuckBrainstorms.com still has a few sample bstorms that can be downloaded for free, but the site is no longer accepting orders for new brainstorms until I can complete all the pending requests already in queue.

Watch for a new and improved version of Five Buck Brainstorms to be rolled out within the next 30-days or so.

If you have an immediate need for idea generation, I invite you to avail yourself of the beanstorming services I offer through my Idea Barista website.

THE Best Middle Name Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:57:05 PST

How could Don THE Idea Guy not agree with the latest post from Seth Godin (Godin The Guru)?

"When your middle name is 'The', it means you're it. The only one. The one that defines the category. I think that focus is a choice, and that the result of appropriate focus is you earn the middle name."

Read the rest on Seth's blog at SethGodin.com.

Inventions of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:28:17 PST

Time has announced their 50 favorite inventions of 2008. I must say I definitely have a few favorites among them, but there are few that came in out of left field.

Click here for the article.

They also published a list of 50 favorite websites of the year.

Picky Pricing

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:54:19 PST

Apparently there's a website (PickyDomains.com) out there that will create a list of available domain names for your personal or business website for a fee of $50.

Perhaps someone should tell them about FiveBuckBrainstorms.com?

Don't Hate the Audio Playa, Hate the Game

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:49:53 PST

I just installed the del.icio.us playtagger on this blog and it's pretty cool. It's a single line of code that turns any link to an mp3 file on the page into streaming audio. You simply click the tiny blue "play" button next to the file link and (after a brief buffer period) will begin to play. If you click the file link itself, you can still grab the actual file for download.

Here are a couple audio files to test the feature (...and they have some valuable content to boot!)

Turning Business Ideas into Realities - BusinessWeek Smart Answers
Turn your innovative ideas into practiceInnovation (and the ability to act quickly on new ideas) is a big edge small companies have over larger competitors. Serial entrepreneur Nancy Jarecki talks about how to nurture creativity and make practical decisions about innovative business concepts.

You Can Have Too Many Great Ideas - BusinessWeek Smart Answers
Focus on what your company is best at. Entrepreneurs are great idea people, but some small companies pursue so many trends, products, and strategies that they lose focus on their core competency, says Andrew Graham, head of Kepner-Tregoe, a consulting and training services firm in Princeton, NJ.

Interview with Dave Balter - Personal Brilliance Podcasts
Dave Balter is the CEO of BzzAgent, a community of over 400,000 bringing consumers and markets together to organize and track honest word of mouth. BzzAgent has worked on almost 450 word of mouth campaigns in the past five years. Dave is also co-founder of WOMMA, the Word-of Mouth Marketing Association.

Interview with Chris Brogan - Personal Brilliance Podcasts
Chris Brogan tops of the list of advisors on Social Media best practices. It's all about authentic conversations between co-workers, customers, and even competitors. Brogan is cofounder of the PodCamp UnConference series exploring the use of new media community tools to extend relationships and build value. Find Chris' blog, articles, and more at http://www.chrisbrogan.com/.

10 Reasons Why Scoble is a Twit

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:09:06 PST

My friend @remerge sent me an email asking me my thoughts on Scoble's recent rant against Twitter's Direct Mesage feature. I started to type a reply, but then it turned into my own rant worthy of a blog entry... and here you are.

10 reasons why Scoble is wrong about Twitter DMs...

1. Scoble, your primary point appears to be that DMs should work like email. Everyone on earth already has more than enough email accounts. I don't need another one. DMs are fine the way they are -- private asides between mutual followers.

2. DMs are prioitized: most recent displayed first. DMs aren't meant as priority means of communication. If it was vitally important they would have called or emailed you or sent you a Fedex envelope.

3. IT'S NOT EMAIL! Perhaps you should simply make it know in your Twitter bio that you prefer to be contacted via email. Or use a custom Twitter background to indicate that you despise DMs and will never respond to them. Supplying useful info would be a welcome replacement for that tiled background of your smiling mug.

4. I've never looked at DMs as something to forward. It's a private comment. A whisper in the ear. If the sender wanted others to be privy to the info, would they have @replied? If I DID need to forward it to someone, I don't look at 140 characters as something too onerous to cut-n-paste into an email.

5. People still BCC? What happened to the gospel of openess and transparency? If you're out on a dinner date with one girl, is it still cool to flirt with a girl at another table as long as your date doesn't see you doing it? I no longer use BCCs. I am either open about including the person as a CC, or I forward in it's own message to a third party -- I don't hide someone in a closest to eavesdrop on my conversation. BCC addresses in email seems deceptive to me. (Oh, and DMs aren't email!!)

6. Questions that require more than 140-character replies. Brevity is the soul of wit. Either think of a way to respond within the character limits, or simply tell them they'll have to email their request to receive a proper reply. I doubt the sender asked their question with the intent to confound and frustrate you, but I could be wrong. I'm starting to consider sending a DM to you for just that purpose.

7. You can't respond to a DM unless they Follow you. DUDE! They can't even SEND you a DM unless you Follow each other! In my opinion, that's one of the beautiful things about DM -- no possibility of Spam. If you Follow me, and I check out your Twitter page and decide to Follow you in kind, I've given you permission for interaction (DMS included.) If I didn't find your topics interesting, I simply wouldn't have Followed you. If you're DMs are too frequent or annoying, I can always UN-Follow you (which will put a quick end to your DMs.) It's a two-way ability to contact. A person can't send you a DM unless you complete the circuit.

8. DM auto-responders. I don't know if there's a utility out there or not that enables auto-responses to DMs (if there isn't today, I'm sure someone will build one tomorrow.) But I know you auto-respond to people who Follow. Why not include your "DM hate propaganda" in that message instead? You can also include that sort of info in your Bio blurb and within a branded background (as mentioned above.) Hell, I'll design a free custom background for you if you just STFU about how much you hate DMs.

9. Did I mention DMs aren't email? If you want to CC people on a Direct Message, you can either choose to reply publicly with an @reply and include anyone you want in-the-know in an @ as well -- or -- computers have this really cool feature where you can select text and then hit CTRL+C to copy text. You can then open your much beloved email program and press CTRL+V to paste the text inside.

10. Moving DMs out of Twitter and into other systems (and by "systems" Scoble means EMAIL programs.) Good news, buddy! Since I first began using Twitter, you can sent the preferences to deliver DMs to your email. It delivers the message in it's entirety and you can then CC, Forward, BCC, Tag, File, Archive, and whatever to your heart's content. I saved this one for last, because I wouldn't have need all ten reasons to counter your own ten reasons -- this simple fact puts an end to 90% of your DM complaints (and realizing that DMs weren't designed to replace email should put an end to the remaining 10%.)

Making an attempt to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the tools you use will help prevent jumping to conclusions about what they can (and can't) do. It's like complaining that a hammer is only good for pounding nails and you hate it because it doesn't remove nails - but you never bothered to spin it around and use the claw to pry a nail out. Does the problem lie with the tool, or the user?

PS: Apparently I am not the only one who feels Scoble got it wrong. Fellow Twitterer @DamienBasile also voiced his take on the Scobleizer's strong feelings about DMs in this article.

---
NOTE:
I received a comment on Twitter that I was being a bit ridiculous in this response, in as much that Scoble's intent was to suggest additional features, while I was calling names. I don't fully agree with that assessment (IMHO Scoble's post went to critical, not the creative), and I feel my post was written in the same spirit. In so far that Scoble suggested improvements to the system, so did my own post suggest solutions for his dissatisfaction with the DM feature.

Was it sarcastic? Hell yeah.
That's what I do. Referring to him as a "Twit" in the headline was intended as a pun on the rant against Twitter, as well as a pretty accurate representation (according to dictionary.com) of what we were BOTH doing in our posts:
twit: to taunt, tease, ridicule, etc., with reference to anything embarrassing; gibe at.

Link-baiting? meh.
Will I complain if I get some extra traffic from using Scoble's name? Of course not. Did I rail against his opinion purely for Google juice? Hardly. If I agreed with him, there'd be nothing to write about. I wouldn't have bothered to post a glad-handed "me too" just to hopefully attract traffic. I could have posted a dissenting opinion in his original article, but I didn't. I used my own forum to share my side of the story and I don't disagree with anything I posted.

...Except that last line where I said he may have been "acting like a tool." I did remove that line, as I have no proof on whether or not he was indeed acting.

TED and The Other Guy

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:28:14 PST

My friends at MorningToast.com are relaunching their CAVEradio program "TED and The Other Guy." The webcast begins tonight (12/4) at 10pm ET and someone is walking away with a free brainstorm from DTIG!

You can get all the details HERE, and why not follow their every move on Twitter while you're at it? All the cool kids are doing it.

Gary Vaynerchuk On Killing It

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:26:47 PST

The best ass-kicking you'll get in 15-minutes.

Top takeaways...

The personal brand is EVERYTHING
Patience and Passion
There is no reason in this day and age to be doing stuff you hate
(...you can lose just as much money doing something you love.)
Don't just "listen" to your users -- you gotta CARE about them
Do what you LOVE every single day or your life and monetize it
Hustle is the most important word EVER
KILL IT!

There's some language that might be considered "strong." Deal with it. Strong ideas need to be delivered in a strong manner. Don't be shocked -- be in awe. And then use the information to get awesome.

GitomerGroupies.com

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:02:02 PST

I'm experimenting with a new blogging tool I found at tumblr.com -- not really impressed with ability to customize so far (but it IS very simple to use.)

I get daily Google alerts on a variety of topics, and one of them is set to notify me of anything related to "Jeffrey Gitomer." He's a favorite sales guru (correction, he's THE sales guru) and I thought I'd simply repost the alerts Google sends to my email each day.

Once I got the site up and working for a couple of days, I had the thought to include a Gitomer quote to accompany each day's links. Today I started adding an embedded Gitomer video from YouTube.

I'm having some fun with it, and thought I'd share it with you.
http://www.GitomerGroupies.com

Tell me what you think...

Kukral The Counterfeiter

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:59:15 PST

Did Jim Kukral just become a counterfeiter?

Witness...

My header graphic for my new FiveBuckBrainstorms.com project...

Jim's image used to promote his Affiliate Summit Discount Coupon...

Hmmm...

You make the call!

Yeah, It Was Me

noreply@blogger.com (Don The Idea Guy) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:45:29 PST

Several people have asked me if the text message (via Twitter) displayed during NBC4's election coverage in Columbus, Ohio was indeed THE "dontheideaguy." I've only ever heard of one person willing to claim the name so... yeah, it was me.

The folks at NBC4i.com (Jason_WCMH, Denise_WCMH, and NBCSquire in particular) have done a really phenomenal job in embracing and utilizing Twitter as a way to connect with their audience. On election day, they created a special Twitter account specifically to collect voter's experiences. They sent a tweet to their other followers (NBC4i allows their producers and on-air talent to create their own Twitter accounts) inviting them to share their experiences with twitter.com/decision2008 and see their tweets during the election results that evening. Mine was one of approximately 20-25 tweets featured in rotation, but once results started coming in the tweets disappeared.

Kudos to NBC4i.com for even attempting this merging of traditional and new media. It was reasonably successful, but I don't think they took it far enough. Here are four ideas on how they could have further improved on their efforts.
1. More is More
There really weren't that many tweets featured (I saw mine rotate at least six times.) Perhaps that means re-tweeting the invite and asking your followers to pass it along, or maybe seeking the follower's opinions earlier in the process, or making the question broader -- but I think it would have been better to have more voices heard and opinions shared.

2. Extend The Feature
The Twitters were really only running across the bottom of the screen for a short period of time. Once the election results started filtering in, the tweets were replaced by poll results. A better design of the screen layout would have allowed a single scroll feed of tweets to accompany the voting results. Having both elements side-by-side would have further engaged the conversation of Twitterers. I know my group tweeted through the entire election coverage and through President-elect Obama's speech.

3. Complete The Circuit
The two elements (on-air and Twitter) did not seem integrated enough. The Decision2008 tweets should have led people to the tv coverage and the tv coverage should have further involved the viewers through Twitter. I think adding the Decision2008 Twitter feed to the NBC4i election coverage website would have strengthened the connection between media elements.

4. Keep It Going
The election page on the NBC4i website could continue to stay lively by inviting Twitterers to contribute their AFTER election thoughts during this historic time. There has been incredibly intelligent discourse from all political parties (not just the 'sour grapes' being covered by some/most media) about how, in hindsight, the election will seem like the "easy part." All the really hard work will begin in just a couple months. Discussions on what the President-elect's strategy should be in preparation for taking over our nation's highest office are everywhere, and everyone has an equally valid opinion on what that strategy should be. Be the catalyst for these conversation to continue.

Keep encouraging and spreading these discussions, and the traffic to the politics page on NBC4i will continue to populate with an excited and engaged audience who knows their voice is being heard. And they'll credit NBC4i with helping that to happen.

...if you want more ideas on this subject, you're just going
to have to buy a Five Buck Brainstorm like everyone else!