Blogs

"Hauling" = videoing yourself showing off items you have just bought and posting it on YouTube for the world to see. This clip, from the Al Gore-backed Current TV, contains everything that is right and wrong with America.

"Hauling" = videoing yourself showing off items you have just bought and posting it on YouTube for the world to see. This clip, from the Al Gore-backed Current TV, contains everything that is right and wrong with America.

Jarvis points to one particularly interesting example of how media companies can encourage increased distribution and readership for their online content: The embeddable paper.

In a little over 10 days, we will be sending a fleet of mobile-billboards down the busy streets of inner-city Australia to promote our 2009 Cool Company Awards. I'm talking about Scooter Advertising, courtesy of our friends at Subterfuge. In accordance with my blog post of yesterday on using social media to promote the 'cools', it occurred to me that this exercise presents an excellent opportunity to promote two-way reader engagement. So far, we've developed three potential poster and themes (below).

We've held on to this latest manic instalment of Steve Sammartino's Creative Espresso series since he submitted it for inclusion in the July print edition, which didn't eventuate. Here it is, in all its super-charged, creative glory.

We've held on to this latest manic instalment of Steve Sammartino's Creative Espresso series since he submitted it for inclusion in the July print edition, which didn't eventuate. Here it is, in all its super-charged, creative glory.

While most published articles about social media as a tool for business development rarely offer more than anecdotal advice, we thought it might be interesting to actually 'crunch the numbers'. As strong believers in the power of experimentation and quantifiable results, we used the exercise to measure and compare the impact of each tool on our web traffic and award nominations. Here's what happened:

We all want the best for our families, and building successful companies is one of the best ways to provide for them. But while you're off establishing your empire, will your kids turn into spoilt ingrates?

One more round of beers and I'd pulled out my notepad and we were brainstorming the Top 10 Greatest Australian Television Commercials Ever.

It's on again. Over coming weeks, we'll be scouring the nation for Australia's coolest companies. It's the first stage in Australia's most innovative business awards program - The Nomination Phase.

Mr 1% Spend had an encounter with the CEO of Petulance Corporation recently. It was illuminating. "The silence on the end of the phone was deafening. For any of you who have kids, it was that silent pause you get between saying no to whatever it is your toddler wants and the instant that the tears and screaming starts. Then the screaming started.”

Last year, the continued emergence of online consumer voice and choice collided with the global economic downturn, delivering consumers both the will and tools to demand a greater level of accountability from their financial service purchases. Enter HelpMeChoose.com.au...

If you haven't already been tweeted the news, TechCrunch's editorial staff found itself in possession of over 300 private documents last month, direct from the private email account of Twitter CEO Evan Williams. Questions of ethics and privacy aside, the contents of these documents offer some salient insights on the startup process from one of the world's most successful digital companies (if you view massive user adoption without a clear revenue model as a measure of success).

If you haven't already been tweeted the news, TechCrunch's editorial staff found itself in possession of over 300 private documents last month, direct from the private email account of Twitter CEO Evan Williams. Questions of ethics and privacy aside, the contents of these documents offer some salient insights on the startup process from one of the world's most successful digital companies (if you view massive user adoption without a clear revenue model as a measure of success).

I have several arms to my business, but one of the main ones is the events we run. We're currently in the process of filling a three day event and have been using low-cost preview events to do this. At every single preview event, I get someone asking me, "How do you keep filling your rooms?!"

There are so many examples of exciting Australian companies and initiatives. Why aren’t doing a better job of ensuring their success? Brad Howarth looks at the issue of squandered potential.

It is assumed that exercise is good for our mental health, but does it make us more creative?

I’ve heard it a hundred times. Entrepreneurs need to work on their business as opposed to in their business. However, getting stuck in the day-to-day happens to most of us, and the obvious question is ‘why?’ Especially when we know it is not in the best interests of our company. Are we just inherently forgetful, or is something else in play?

Having a strong market-based business is great. You are a power broker and can often profit from both sides. But how do you get over the chicken and egg problem? From my experience working with more than 12 market-based businesses, there are two things you need to do.

People ask me quite regularly if I can look over their numbers prior to them talking to potential funders. I have generally been happy to do so, but the truth is that I will have no clue. Neither will the potential funders. And, most likely, neither will you. The thing about most new ventures is...well, they are new. So we put down our best guesses, present them as the gospel truth and everyone pretends they know more than everyone else. What a crock.