DID WE KNOW IT WAS THIS GOOD? Back in 1996, it seemed so harsh... 1 October 1996. The San Francisco Chronicle states: "[according to I/PRO], only about 2.6 percent of the people who see an advertisement are likely to click on it."

Transformation Resources

Case Studies  Mistake-Based Marketing I'm often asked if I conform to some formal process or other for product research and development. The answer is, yes and no. Yes, I strongly adhere to principles of quantitative market research and the proven positioning principles of Trout and Ries.But that alone doesn't do it. Here's the rest of the story, as I see it. The Panda Rocket Ride Panda Software - what a rocket ride. I engaged personally in February to expand US operations - and in 8 short months we doubled the revenues and created a new software player in the US. How did we do it? Well, the first problem that any growing, self-funded company faces is how to upgrade its sales, marketing and operations practices to meet the incredibly tough US national market - which is a global market in disguise The EarthWeb Papers Everyone at EarthWeb knew that the many specialized sites that made up this company had to be united, or the company would never become the premium 'infomediary' it wanted to be. Here is a unique glimpse into some of the planning. The TriVida Story This is an account of how a pure technology got turned into a pure marketing play - with the avid support of the technologists. The BIGWORDS Story Two articles in Wired, one praising a new venture, the other damning it - and a self-examining account by one of the players. Who said high tech wasn't fun? The Technology Archive  Next-Generation Online Marketing Post-2000, a new market has emerged - a HUGE, speedy market where you're either quick - or you're out of it. In this series of articles written starting in 2004, we make some sense of it - and how to win at it. What About "Free" Marketing? "Free Marketing" is the base of all major technology marketing plans. However, you've got to do it right. Here are some articles based on what works well. Interactive Marketing - What Works Few companies take full advantage of every interactive marketing tool available. This is a collection of studies and resources to help document all these tools and how they can be effective. Product Management Resources The science of Product Management was nearly lost in the dotcom boom, and poor or lacking product management was a major contributing factor in the dotcom crash of 2000. In many software companies, Product Managers were (and are) the "virtual CEOs" of their products. Some of their tools are collected here - about the only one missing is the Product Road Map. Writing Guidelines In the end, you have to write, and write so you'll be published and read... and that's a challenge that's increasing daily. This collection will help along the way. The riggs.com Articles A pretty useful collection of tech marketing articles written back in the day. Advisory Alerts  Occasionally we feel the need to alert you on what's important. Things like Backups, and how to generate PDF files inexpensively. Enjoy! Use! Best Practices for Opt-in/Opt-out Here's a post from the invitation-only Old Timers Network of online advertising veterans.The best "best practices" guide for opt-in/opt-out is probably the one published by the ESPC... Traffic Comparison Sites Need to do traffic comparison without subscribing to expensive services? We all know about Alexa, but here are some great industrial-grade comparison sites that are all free. Outlook Shortcuts One of those little things that, once mastered, saves an incredible amount of time. Online Backups I’m hearing more and more horror stories about people not backing up daily. One guy here on the West Side lost a million dollar sales deal when his HD went south. Inexpensive PDF Publishing Here’s an inexpensive utility to help you publish using the popular PDF (Portable Document Format) standard. The benefits: no one will see your formulas and tables and editing changes, and the format won't break the way Word can. Optimizing Websites Did you know that you can compress your website so it delivers faster pages and costs less to serve? Seems a no-brainer, but few websites actually do it. The Dangers of Hidden Data More than once I have seen a major proposal from a possible partner that showed all the changes from a previous proposal! Unprofessional and a potential deal-killer. Did You Know?  Every once in a while we stumble across something that helps explain some acronym or mysterious tech term or other. Here is a collection that we'll try to add to over time. (For starters, check out "Fascinating Facts and Figures About All Aspects Of The Information Society" here.) Snipes and Violators I've noticed that many people don't know what a violator is, or a snipe. Both of these are used in Marketing Communications to add impact to an advertisement or package. Petabytes A petabyte of data is difficult to fathom. Think of it as the equivalent of 250 billion pages of text, enough to fill 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets. Or imagine a 2,000-mile-high tower of 1 billion diskettes. Whatever you do, don't stop there -- because it's the amount of data many businesses will be managing within the next five years. What's SOAP? "Yeah, so we'll use soap to interface our tracking system with WebLogic". If you've ever nodded understandingly at this type of statement but had no idea what soap was, here's your quick primer. Writeable DVD Recordable DVDs are a big trend in home video production. But ... know what you're looking for. Here's an excerpt from an LA Times article that gives the story. Wireless Soup Ever wonder what all these wireless standards are? David Coursey, executive editor of ZDNet's Anchor Desk, helps out. Bandwidth Terms Ever pretend you knew what an OC-48 was? Here's your chance to bone up, courtesy of W2KNews. The K in CMYK Thanks to the Nando Times for explaining this peculiarity of color notation. What's the RSS Symbol? RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for syndicating news. This symbol helps you subscribe to this publication through a special browser like RSS Reader.