Disqus - Latest Comments for thewordpainter

Re: Some changes to how I’m managing my time

Adam Wexler — Fri, 30 May 2014 14:41:51 -0000

I love my routine, and it's unfortunately compromised far too much by my travel schedule of late. When I can stick to it though, I avoid morning coffees as the AM is me-time, but I try to always have a productive lunch planned. When it comes to other windows for outside meetings, I'll open up a 6p slot first so I can have a productive afternoon, and a post-lunch meeting would be next available if necessary. Have to block out time in the afternoons for internal meetings or blocks of personal productivity, otherwise late-night work sessions pop up a little more than I would like.

In general, I love this weekly routine layout from Michael Hyatt, and I look forward to thoroughly implementing something similar soon enough: http://michaelhyatt.com/how...

Re: Advertising is no Marketing

Adam Wexler — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:39:07 -0000

mhilg - you should read this one: http://mashable.com/2013/08...

Re: The Don’ts of Social Automation: Timing is Everything

Adam Wexler — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:37:12 -0000

Hui, you're exactly right. timing is highly important -- that's why automation services that allow for scheduling into the future are so powerful :)

Re: Today, we sold Engauge

Adam Wexler — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:58:07 -0000

Congrats, Jeff. More digital power in Atlanta!

Re: What to look for in CRM software

Adam Wexler — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 14:38:01 -0000

yep, the CRM space is pretty mature...unless you put marketing under that umbrella. there's a reason salesforce and oracle have moved upstreamed and snatched up marketing automation providers. don't be surprised if enterprise-grade social media management companies are the next to see acquisitions with sprinklr likely being the most attractive acquisition target in the next 12mo.

Re: The Convergence of Email & Social in Drip Marketing

Adam Wexler — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 09:07:16 -0000

good comments. to your first point, i believe most people have their default notifications still turned on so you have a better chance of catching their attention than you think. also, if they don't follow normal people than their social inbox will not be full of spammy DMs. -adam

Re: Twitter leads Fortune 500 social media surge

Adam Wexler — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 17:57:19 -0000

thanks for sharing all this, Mark. interestingly enough, we're in the process of compiling a study at http://insightpool.com on fortune 500 usage of twitter. sounds like we should reference this study as a building block.

Re: Having Twitter Followers Isn’t Enough, You Need Actionable Intel On Them (Like This)

Adam Wexler — Fri, 03 May 2013 00:52:00 -0000

intersting...one note: a lot of companies are tossing around the phrase "actionable insights," but i'm not sure how actionable they actually are -- better phrased as "informative insights?"

Re: The Twitter Inbox Could Be A Bigger Business Than Twitter Advertising

Adam Wexler — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:45:52 -0000

agreed about the existing hurdle, but notice you said you "pay attention to twitter DMs..." -- because of the scarcity (esp if you follow the right people), it's a great medium to catch a target's attention. beyond that, the messaging determines action you may take.

Re: The Twitter Inbox Could Be A Bigger Business Than Twitter Advertising

Adam Wexler — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:39:14 -0000

brands can't invest in 1by1 communications -- that's why they've stuck to marketing to the masses for so long. at the same time, there's a reason marketing automation has become such a big space in recent memory. there's surely a fine line to automation.

Re: Advertising is no Marketing

Adam Wexler — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 02:09:04 -0000

we're cooking up some interesting social studies to be released in the near future. stay tuned...

Re: Advertising is no Marketing

Adam Wexler — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 02:08:23 -0000

promoted tweets are essentially equivalent to sponsored stories on facebook. also, promoted tweets = advertising; brand tweet stream = marketing

Re: Band Search Engine Facilitates Music Discovery

Adam Wexler — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 09:43:59 -0000

unfortunately, we still can't find !!! (<-- worst band name of all-time)

i'll still with http://gorankem.com to get into artists that i'm not familiar with

Re: The MBA Mondays Curriculum

Adam Wexler — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:08:42 -0000

fred- i think going back and further tagging the posts would be a great start. i know nivi & naval have done a wonderful job of neatly categorizing the venturehacks archive: http://ht.ly/3tJTv

i've heard a number of references to the startup incubators as the new form of grad school. i wonder if there's a way to correlate your writings? obviously techstars & y-combinator are highly selective, but your series could be a great stepping stone?

-adam

Re: imeem Founder Dalton Caldwell’s Must-See Talk On The Challenges Facing Music Startups

Adam Wexler — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:40:30 -0000

Thank you, Samora! I understand the sentiments that Dalton has after experiencing it for himself, but I've been proudly bootstrapping a "music startup" @ Rank 'em ( http://gorankem.com ) for the last couple years.

At the same time, our startup does not fall under some of the main fail-zones described.

1) We're not reliant on artist digging into their pockets
2) We don't depend on licensing streaming content
3) We don't expect advertising to take us to the promised land

We allow the fans to rank their favorite songs from their favorite artists, and after aggregating the collective opinion for each artist, it creates a resource-like 'Wikipedia for Music Discovery.' Nobody else is gathering the valuable data straight from the horse's mouth.

As evidenced by the most recent VC raises by The Echo Nest and SoundCloud, there are a number of models that can work in the current market.

Hopefully others can thrive as well, but it's a shame that all of the good ones are overshadowed by the ones that start with their backs against the wall from the beginning.

-Adam Wexler

Re: Are Music Startups Destined to Fail?

Adam Wexler — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:29:36 -0000

Ben-

Thanks for asking the question as opposed to making an absolute statement with the subject line.

"Being the founder of a music startup isn’t something we’d wish even on our worst enemies."
I understand the sentiments that Dalton has after living it all himself, but I've been proudly bootstrapping a "music startup" @ Rank 'em ( http://gorankem.com ) for the last couple years.

At the same time, our startup does not fall under some of the main fail-zones described.

1) We're not reliant on artist digging into their pockets
2) We don't depend on licensing streaming content
3) We don't expect advertising to take us to the promised land

As evidenced by the most recent VC raises by The Echo Nest and SoundCloud, there are a number of models that can work in the current market.

Hopefully others can thrive as well, but it's a shame that all of the good ones are overlooked by the ones that start with their backs against the wall from the beginning.

-Adam Wexler

Re: You Ask, Jimmy Wales Answers: A Crowdsourced Interview With Mr. Wikipedia

Adam Wexler — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:27:27 -0000

i'm still unclear why jimmy believes crowdsourcing implies "cheap laborers?" if the two have become synonymous then that's a shame. is there a 2010 word to describe "passionate workers who care about something?"

and peter, if you offered to pay $.25 per question, i would have been a lot more inclined to help you come up with some questions ;)

Re: MOG preps a mobile app for SXSW showdown with Spotify

Adam Wexler — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:17:02 -0000

IMO, they could kinda help each other out. the combined hype between both apps could lend themselves pretty well to finally being the "right" time for subscriptions: consumers will gravitate towards the model & labels will take notice...

it'll be an interesting next 6 months to say the least

Re: TechDrawl Exclusive – A Small Orange Hosting Is Acquired!

Adam Wexler — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:57:36 -0000

Congrats Tim! We need more of you in the local startup community!

Re: Rank ‘em Goes Live at Digital Music Forum East

Adam Wexler — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:09:02 -0000

Dave-

Thanks for the great review! I've been tied up with the conference since it came out, but I think you have a solid grasp on our mission to establish the ideal resource for accelerating the music discovery process...hopefully we've done a decent job conveying it to everyone else ;)

I just wanted to make one clarification: "we get better with every successive ranking, so more members makes our site even better.”" <-- it's probably missing a key word: the results improve with each successive ranking as the cream of the crop from each artist will rise to the top as more & more true fans share their favorites. we've already got a great foundation in place though!

Celia & Brendan - thanks for the support...we've gotten to this point on next-to-nothing...i get excited at the possibilities with a little more help behind us :)

-Adam

Re: Why I’ll be spending the day at Startup Riot

Adam Wexler — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:21:31 -0000

thanks for the kind words, jeff. "you're definitely on to something" = the biggest compliment i can receive at this point :)

i'd be curious to know what really resonated with you this time around? was it the led zeppelin example that put it in proper perspective?

love to chat one-on-one some time in the near future & get your thoughts on the direction we're heading

Re: Thoughts On Buzz

Adam Wexler — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:44:05 -0000

i agree that fred's "aside" is a very powerful statement. he echoes the sentiment that i've had for a while now.

think a/b twitter to facebook. they basically recognized facebook's most popular feaure, and built an entire business around it. it's basically the same thing we did with iTunes most popular feature by stripping it down & making it all about the fans @ http://GoRankEm.com

Once companies get too inflated (i.e. Google), they try to do things that aren't their core competencies. you must remain true to what makes you better than everyone or else you subject yourself to being heavily distracted by issues that arise from non-major situations.

Re: iTunes music: Higher prices, slower sales growth

Adam Wexler — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:19:19 -0000

"It’s difficult to know, even today, if it is just consumer resistance to a higher price points"
IMO, not so much the 30% increase as it was the price point in excess of $1. most would not even think twice a/b a $.99 purchase (unless they are habitual pirates...), but at $1.29, most prob think "i can get a better deal."

if the labels/itunes were on top of these trends, they'd realize that the $.69 price point could open up a lot of doors for Long Tail sales....esp through options like http://GoRankEm.com

-adam w

Re: Book Publishers Beware! At iTunes, Expensive Music Equals Slower Sales.

Adam Wexler — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:18:41 -0000

"The positive spin here is that music downloads are a “mature” business anyway. So by raising prices, the labels are simply extracting whatever value they can."
peter, i think with your first sentence of the reply & the above quote from your piece.

from what i've gathered, the breakdown for variable pricing on iTunes is somethign like this:
$1.29 - Top 5-10% of songs available
$.99 - 85-95%
$.69 - <5%

i think there's a natural heuristic for consumers to turn their backs on pricing >$1 (they have to think a/b it)

i've always believed the highest revenue would come if they focused their attention on the $.69 price point where consumers would believe they found "great deals" and also able to acquire quality long tail content at cheaper prices...it would make them dig!

either way, as somebody alluded to below, i think the ideal price point is ~$.25

-adam w.

Re: How Social Media Is Changing the Super Bowl

Adam Wexler — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:48:25 -0000

can't wait to see what percentage of brands will include a message that says "follow us on twitter, facebook, youtube, myspace, imeem.....oh wait, that doesn't exist!