DISQUS

This is good advice, because if you don't believe your product is worth it, no one else will. I am guilty of doing this sometimes when I quote people computer repair prices, but I am getting better. I think, like you said, as long as you are realistic about your pricing, you will find people who will accept it.

It is really interesting to look at the stuff that makes the front page of Digg. I think, and this is largely true across the board, that the "Top 10 List of ____" is one of the more common types of link bait.

I think a lot of people do really get caught up in the "OMG what if I fail" mindset, which can keep you from trying things. You should never be afraid to fall on your face.

A few months ago I was working on a van and trying to get the Rear Anti-Lock brake light to go off.

After a little research, I ended up replacing the brakes and one of the sensors. About $40 and several hours later, I drove the van and the light didn't come on right away, but about the time I thought I had succeeded, the light came on again.

I decided to leave it alone for about a week. After further research, it turned out that on older Ford Aerostars if all of the rear brake lights are out, the Rear ABS light comes on. Armed with this knowledge, it took me $5 and 15 min to fix. This is of course after I had already spent hours/days messing with it.

This experience reinforced the concept that you should start small and not start tearing stuff apart until you have checked all the easy stuff. I knew this, but I guess I can be hard headed sometimes.

While this probably isn't the biggest lesson I learned from failure, it is the most recent, so sticks out in my mind.

I don't know if they ever got it working, but OLPC was going to try to integrate a hand crank into their laptops.

I think I like your idea better though. It wouldn't even have to power the computer, but if it could be used to power a coffee machine or something. You might have hit upon something with that one ;)

I think this is a pretty neat way to get some publicity and even though pushing traffic to the independent blogs is in the self interest of Kmart, it is also surely appreciated by the bloggers. Judging from the comments on some of the blogs, it looks like it has definitely been successful.

BTW, your link to Feldman's blog and Madhok's blog appear to be the same...

That is a really awesome way to do an initial interview. You get the speed and efficiency of an Online interview, but you don't loose the personal aspect that hearing someone answer the questions affords. It sounds like a great product.

This is a great guide! Personally, I am a fan of adsense, just because it does such a remarkable job serving relevant ads. This is really important, but you are right about it not always paying that much. Some niches are still really good though.

Wow, I have 35 folders, nested of course, in my link bar.I actually use most of them, or at least visit the sites anyway.

I do have two though that I fill up with stuff I think is interesting at the time and fully intend to come back too, but never do. I think your carnival analogy is pretty spot on.

If it were me, I would use Joomla instead of Wordpress for this type of venture.

Wordpress is great for blogs, but for a multi-faceted site, Joomla offers many more options. It looks very professional and is much more flexible. I think it would probably be a better fit, but the learning curve is steep. Some of the nicer extensions/modules require a license fee, but there are plenty of free ones that work well.

There are also several open source directories that you could use. phpLD is one that is used a lot.

Man, you're not kidding about the politics. 4.25 more days :)

Ahh, the good old days(?). I remember having to leave the computer running for days, just to download a game.

I used to always switch back and forth between the various free offers, but I think there was a while where I was actually using the paid AOL service...

You are right about the personal interaction really brining a community together. Even just a few blog posts every month and some pics of how the site is run can really make a difference. Helps to show they are really a lot like their users.

I will have to check out socialmedian. Just reading a few of the comments, it seems like there is a pretty good user base. I look forward to giving it a more thorough look over...

I think you are absolutely right about the direct approach. This is true not only of marketing, but really dealing with people in general.

If you make people jump through hoops to find out what you are selling, they will be tired of jumping, and possibly upset, by the time they get to the actual 'product'. I have found that it is a whole lot easier to live with, deal with, and accept a problem if you know it going in.

"The only people who make money off of "get rich quick" schemes are the people selling those schemes."

It would be funny if when you opened the e-book it said "Write an e-book" and provided instructions for converting a word document to a pdf...

It is amazing how big of a market there is for e-books. Pretty much every market is saturated with the "Buy my book to make instant money" sites. It is amazing that these are successful, but apparently people buy them up.

What gets me is that if they were really successful, why would someone be wasting their time selling them, when they could be making "instant money." I guess the get rich quick schemes have always been popular though and the internet is the perfect place to sell them.

I was doing some Affiliate researching a few weeks ago and you have to do a pretty specific query to not to have the first 30 pages packed with the "buy my book" sites.

I am registered as unaffiliated, and I completely agree that there really isn't all that much different between the two main candidates. Unfortunately, and this is sadly usually the case, it comes down to choosing the lesser of two evils. In this case the lesser of two evils is blatantly obvious to me.

In regards to embracing technology, I think this is something all candidates should do. I have been impressed with Obama's keenness and ability to utilize the Internet, but there are still many things that he has not even touched on and there is room for much improvement.

I think, and admittedly my knowledge about Twitter is limited, that the lack of content is probably one of the reasons Twitter is not as quickly to be embraced by candidates. I imagine it could serve as a good place for traffic though and a way to show a personal side to the voters.

I think your analysis of the 4 types of blog posts is pretty much spot on. It is a great way to classify the blogs and is very accurate.

This is one of the reasons I like using social sites, well really there is only one I like to use now. There are some quality ones out there, where users post and vote enough that quality articles make it to the front page and spam gets, largely, suppressed.

I have found a lot of great blogs this way, because you can sort out a lot of the noise and find people with substance. People that answer the how and the why.

For me, it is not so much about the shiny paint job, but what is under it.

In regards to computers, I don't want my hardware to be so intertwined with my software, that I am forced to only buy from one vendor or am unable to use software that does not have a relationship with my hardware.

I usually go outside and play with my dog whenever I start to get stressed or just need a break. I agree that getting some sun and fresh air really makes a difference and I usually go back to what I was doing with more enthusiasm.

I had completely missed the Walmart social network, which appears to not be such a bad thing...

I had always had a disliking for Moore, and never really liked his documentaries. In particular I found that there was a lot of FUD in his documentaries.

With that said, I do sort of have an appreciation for him now that I have read some of the stuff on his blog. I will probably end up checking out his documentary, but I don't think it was released for altruistic reasons.

The stock one sounds sort of interesting and sounds like it has a lot of potential, I might have to give it a try.

Someone might be doing it already, but it would be cool to set up an experimental site that let you invest and track imaginary funds in the stock market. It could be used to teach people about the stock market and has educational applications...

I agree with JBO that the process idea, if done correctly, has a lot of merit. This is also something that IE8 is doing. This has a lot of potential and I am sure if it works well, it will be adopted by the other browsers.

I use too many plug-ins to switch though, but like you have been keeping my eye on Flock, because it seems very promising.

I can't remember if it was on NPR or if it was on a website, but recently a reporter went to China to test the new protest laws, which were set up for the Olympics to give the appearance of a more open government.

Basically the law requires anyone who wanted to protest to come to the police station and fill out some paperwork.

Most who go were arrested, but this reporter, because he was a foreign journalist, was not arrested, but informed that anyone who went to the protest that was a Chinese citizen had to come to the police station most likely to be arrested.

This seems marginally better than the way they traditionally deal with protesters, but China still has a very long way to go.

I had just learned about the google 411 service not too long ago and think it is really cool that they offer it. I try not to use 411, but inevitably their comes a time when using it outweighs the hassle of stopping to find a phone book or computer to look the number up.

I think the Pre-Event is really important to having a good experience. It makes a huge difference going into the convention prepared, rested, and comfortable.