New Media

Political Re-Education Boot Camp

jnarvey — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:46:40 +0000

The latest good stuff from those freedom-fighting bad boys (and girls) at The Propagandist.

The Propagandist Goes To War It’s a weird, scary world out there. Hugo Chavez fanboys...
Political Power Does Not Flow From the Trajectory of a Pie When you consciously align your movement with anarchists, don’t be...
Essential Propaganda This Week. Ground Zero, Gay Pride and Liberalism’s Long Walk The Propagandist continues to unleash a barrage of fiery rhetoric...

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My Copywriting Life

jnarvey — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:49:08 +0000

Just a quick update for my family, friends and colleagues about what I’ve been up to professionally. I know, I run too many blogs. Well, if you’d just start using Google Reader, you could keep up-to-date instantly. That’s assuming you care.

You do care, right? Here goes:

By the way, my website copywriting company also just got accredited with the Better Business Bureau of the Lower Mainland. Take that, San Fransisco!

Need someone to write all the content on your new website, or hook you up with some dynamite newsletters or press releases? Look no further. I’m with BBB, baby! Check out all my nifty web copywriting services

Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Vancouver Meetup of Meetups The year-end Vancouver Meetup of Meetups is happening on Tuesday,...
How To Influence People, Make A Buck And Not Get Divorced For my entrepreneurial colleagues, my latest business newsletter went out...
Eight Simple Rules to Make a Gazillion Dollars In my other life as a copywriting nerd, I’ll be...

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Why I Love YouTube

jnarvey — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:54:43 +0000

Bored on a Saturday night? There’s always YouTube.

No related posts.

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Why Are Palestinians Still In Refugee Camps?

jnarvey — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:52:55 +0000

Throw out your first answer, give your head a shake and read this insightful piece in The Propagandist from a refugee from Arab lands:

My thoughts turn to those savage days when my family fled Libya in 1967. We narrowly escaped death at the hands of a bus driver who, instead of taking us to the airport, tried to burn us alive inside the bus.

I am one of nearly one million Jews indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa who were forced to flee their ancestral homes in the last 60 years. I am now the voice of an Arab minority culture that has been ethnically cleansed…

Lessons from the World’s Most Successful Refugee Camp We learned this week that Canada is the first Western...
The Theory of Alienation Alienation is part of life, even in highly livable societies...
Will Israel Become a Pariah State? It’s looking more and more like a strong possibility. The...

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God Ordered This Census, You Say?

jnarvey — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:51:28 +0000

You’ve got to be kidding. First, just about every hard-boiled secular (or at least non-Christian) political opponent of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already implied he’s some kind of nefarious theocrat with a hidden evangelical agenda that’s sort of modeled on Iran’s Islamic Republic.

But what’s the latest criticism of Steve-O? The PM is ignoring the will of God by making the census voluntary.

Our government is wrong-headed in its policy direction because it refuses to be influenced by cherry-picked verses from the Old Testament? What?

You can’t make this stuff up. Thanks, Globe and Mail.

Waking Up to the Challenge of Post-2011 in Afghanistan The Canadian nation endured an awful, endless sleep occasionally punctuated...
The System Works After All If true, this is very, very good news: The controversy-plagued...

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Notes On Netsquared Camp Vancouver

jnarvey — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:18:10 +0000

I was one of the social media nerds hanging out at Netsquared Camp in Vancouver over the weekend. The un-conference was targeted at non-profit people looking to learn more about how to promote social change with Web 2.0 (and some old-skool) tools. I must say, I felt like I was in my element. And I was more than pleased to see old friends and make new ones at the event. So many smart, enterprising nerds (and a few prospective nerds).

Here’s an excerpt from my writeup at my communications strategy and copywriting blog:

I gave two presentations. One was a case study on how an organization I work with, the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee, used social media and more traditional marketing methods to help change public opinion in Canada.

The second event was a facilitated discussion about the Cost of Social Media. We took input from social media consultants and related contractors as well as from the managers (or people role-playing managers) of various types of organizations. While we did float around some costs for various social media tasks and positions, it’s clear that the compensation for these sorts of jobs will vary widely. That said, I stressed the importance for contractors of at least being able to provide a ballpark figure — simply responding, “that depends” may be realistic and pragmatic, but it’s going to turn off the people willing to buy services.

Meet Geeks. Drink Beer. Vancouver Blogger Meetup April 28 I help organize a semi-regular little local event called the...
Why Criticize Social Media for Being What It Is? Social media is not and cannot be a sort of...
Blogging to Build Your Company Brand A reminder that Vancouver social media expert Raul (Hummingbird604) and...

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Propaganda We Can All Feel Good About

jnarvey — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:07:12 +0000

From The Propagandist magazine, here are some stories about issues you’d think we’d all agree on by now. I mean, why would anyone in the world be against these things?

Sadly, these things are considered “controversial” – even worth fighting over - in some circles.

Confusion to our enemies!

Get Your Propaganda Here. On Chavez, Slavery and Dancing IDF Not getting enough political re-education in your breakfast cereal? Read...
Madman Deterrence Works for Israel. But For How Long? Having a well-publicized reputation as the most unpredictable and ultra-violent...
Better Translation of Taliban Propaganda Requested It seems as though Pashto-English translation at the Associated Press...

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Blood Diamonds, A Geeky War Criminal And The Propagandist Manifesto

jnarvey — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:39:30 +0000

It’s been a wild, weird week and it’s not even half over. A regulator that’s supposed to prevent the sale of blood diamonds in Zimbabwe does exactly the opposite. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is up for a Taliban Award. And The Propagandist reveals its master plan for destroying the enemy.

The Propagandist Goes To War It’s a weird, scary world out there. Hugo Chavez fanboys...
Blood Libel in British Columbia? The Al-Ameen Post, an online media branch which appears to...
Retreat at Any Price? Death. Destruction. Terror. That is the Taliban’s response to the...

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Business Advice From Successful Entrepreneurs

jnarvey — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:07:27 +0000

Ever thought about starting up a business and selling it two years later for $20 million? Here’s how you might get started.

From an article I wrote for SFU Business on BC entrepreneurs who presented their big ideas at a New Ventures BC seminar series:

One key theme of this year’s seminars was planning to succeed. When you put together your business plan, according to seminar presenters, don’t be skimpy with the details.

“Many companies can describe where they want to be in five years, but less can describe what they’re going to do to achieve this in the next year and a half,” says Rocketbuilders’ Thomas. “To plan well before you go to market, you have to have good market research.”

So what do you focus on? First, “how big is the marketplace?” Thomas says. “Is it growing? What are the trends? How do you divide it into segments?”

Understanding the customer pain that your product will solve is also key. And get a handle on how people normally buy your kind of product.

What about capital? How do you get investors to show you the money?

First of all, maybe you don’t need pesky investors getting their hooks into you after all. “Bootstrap,” says Vancouver-based angel investor Dr. Basil Peters. Dr. Peters was an Adjunct Professor of Engineering Sciences at SFU from 1985 to 2000. “The most spectacular start-up business models started with no capital. Most companies today really don’t need very much capital.”

“Plenty of Fish got started in an apartment,” he points out. “MetroLyrics (the online lyrics database founded by SFU Business EMBA graduate Alan Juristovski and undergraduate Milun Tesovic) started with no capital and is probably worth tens of millions of dollars. The world has changed. You’ve got resources even if you’ve got no money.”

Eight Simple Rules to Make a Gazillion Dollars In my other life as a copywriting nerd, I’ll be...
Vancouver Blogger Meetup An Insanely Successful Event Better late than never, right? This time out, the Vancouver...
Lessons from the World’s Most Successful Refugee Camp We learned this week that Canada is the first Western...

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Essential Propaganda This Week. Ground Zero, Gay Pride and Liberalism’s Long Walk

jnarvey — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:43:17 +0000

The Propagandist continues to unleash a barrage of fiery rhetoric upon the enemy. How much longer can they withstand the blistering assault?

A little while longer, anyway.

Are You Getting Enough Propaganda In Your Breakfast Cereal? Some recommended reads from The Propagandist, for underground conservatives and...
Get Your Propaganda Here. On Chavez, Slavery and Dancing IDF Not getting enough political re-education in your breakfast cereal? Read...
Better Translation of Taliban Propaganda Requested It seems as though Pashto-English translation at the Associated Press...

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