How to Pitch to a Top Blogger

A down-trodden economy is no time to pull your marketing muscle. If anything, it’s a time to keep flexing it.

Though some cost-effective (read: cheap) marketing methods surely wouldn’t hurt. Million-dollar Super Bowl ads are nice and all, but cheap marketing tactics are totally the way to go.

With that said, I found a few blog entries around pitching your web start-up to influential bloggers like Michael Arrington, Pete Cashmore, Robert Scoble, and the ilk. There are already tons of tips on pitching to VCs. So it’s refreshing to see so many posts on pitching to bloggers. (There are actually way more than I’ve listed here, wow!)

There are a ton of great tips here. A few notable ones are:

  • Build a great product
  • Start a buzz on smaller blogs first
  • Perfect your elevator pitch (helps with VCs and bloggers, apparently)
  • Make your pitch relevant & timely to the blogger

I hope this helps. Good luck pitching your business!

Good, Fast and Cheap: Pick Two

Life is about trade-offs. One more bite of that delicious ice cream means more calories. Buying that expensive suit means a regular dry cleaning bill. Spending more time at work means less time with family & friends.

The same is true of building products. Which is why we have the project triangle.

It basically says that if you are building a product, you can build it good and fast, or good and cheap, or fast and cheap – but not good, fast, and cheap. In other words – Good, Fast, and Cheap: pick two.

Why can’t you have all three? Typically because of resource, time, and cost constraints. If you had an unlimited supply of each, then, well, send me and email and let’s be friends! hehe.

Another way to describe this project management concept is to think of it this way:

  • If you build it good and cheap, meaning of high quality and within a tight budget, then it will take a long time (it will not be fast).
  • If you build it good and fast, meaning of high quality and very quickly, then it will be fairly expensive (it will not be cheap).
  • If you build it fast and cheap, meaning very quickly and within a tight budget, then it will not be of high quality (it will not be good).

This is a typical problem for any entrepreneur. You want all three, but know you can’t. So which trade-off is the right one to make?

I believe it depends on the stage of your business. Let’s take a web start-up, for example.

  1. In the ideation stage, where you are still forming your idea and doing research into its viability, it may be important to build a proof of concept to test it with potential users. At this stage, quality isn’t very important; you’ll have time to build it right later. For now, you just to make sure a market actually exists for your product. Also, you don’t have much money yet because you’re just starting out. Therefore, you want it fast and cheap.

  2. The next stage is building the first version (or beta) of your product. Just as with before, it is crucial to get your product out the door and into the hands of consumers quickly. But you also want enough features & quality to be a good product. If your first version is weak, consumers will ignore you and competitors will surpass you. Start-ups used to go for good and fast at this stage, with lots of VC-based money. Personally, I think the sweet spot is fast, fairly cheap, and pretty good (listed in priority order). Picture the dot floating somewhere in the middle of the triangle, though a bit closer to fast and cheap.

  3. The next stage is the next version of your product. This would involve iterative cycles of consumer feedback, new feature development, and bug fixes. Where the prior stage targeted innovators, this stage is aimed at early adopters, as defined by Crossing the Chasm. There is much debate over what the trade-offs should be in this stage, but I tend to favor cheap, fairly good, and pretty fast (listed in priority order). Most companies probably aren’t rolling in the dough by version two or three yet, unless you’re Microsoft (MSFT) or Apple (AAPL). So cheap is always a highly-prioritized constraint. Speed is still important, but not as much as quality now. The dot is still floating in the middle of the triangle, but now closer to good and cheap.

  4. When the product and industry mature enough to begin enticing the early & late majority, then it’s time to focus on quality. This crowd isn’t as tech-savvy or tolerant of bugs & difficult-to-use products. So now it’s important to provide them with a high quality solution. Hopefully, you’ll have enough income to be able to hire more resources now. Depending on your industry, you can be good and cheap or – especially if you’re in the high-tech world – good and fast.

Quick disclaimer: I realize that sometimes it’s important to denote a fourth constraint too: scope. Many project managers do this and I think that’s a great tactic as well.

What do you think? How would you make these trade-offs?

Real Life Adobe Photoshop

Now for some Friday fun.

This is cool. Very cool. Especially if you’re a user of Adobe (ADBE) Photoshop.

Trend Hunter features a cool slideshow displaying how the Indonesia office of the design agency Bates141 built this amazing replication of the Adobe Photoshop UI using boxes, paint brushes, and other stuff. Another set of work-in-progress photos are on Flickr too. Check it out – it’s a huge replication.

This was done as a print poster for the Indonesian software distributor Software Asli. I had no idea software distributors went to such great lengths to create ads. According to the info on another Flickr photo, the team who built this was creative director Hendra Lesmono, art directors Andreas Junus & Irawandhani Kamarga, copywriter Darrick Subrata, and photographer Anton Ismael. I’ve never heard of any of you, but great job guys!

There’s even a hi-res version of this photo that you can use for desktop wallpaper. Nice!

Silicon Valley vs Los Angeles Tech Entrepreneurs

I’m moving to Southern California in a few months. Knowing this, a friend pointed me to Jason Nazar’s latest blog entry, “A Tale of Two Tech Cities – Silicon Valley vs. Los Angeles“.

Nazar, the founder of Santa Monica start-up Docstoc.com, compares the web & technology entrepreneurs he’s met in Silicon Valley with those he’s met in Los Angeles. While they are only his opinions and generalizations (a disclaimer he clearly notes), they are interesting opinions and generalizations. Perhaps fodder to what I should expect when I make the move?

Silicon Vally Tech Founders Los Angeles Tech Founders

“Bay area founders are amazing technologists. They build obsessively user focused products, do a fantastic job at virally driving a ton of traffic, but usually have their head up their ass when it comes to making money.”

“At parties in the Bay people talk about Twitter, Friend Feed, what’s being written on Valleywag and Techcrunch, and kickball games between VC’s and entrepreneurs.”

“Folks in the Bay are generally way more obsessive about their products, work harder/longer, can be a bit snobby about their accomplishments and tend to be clique-ish.”

“Los Angles founders are hustlers and deal makers. They are more focused on the bottom line and care more about their P&L than their products, which tend to be messy.”

“At parties in Los Angeles people talk about a media deal they’re “closing”, what TV star is at the party, and some “gray hat” spam-like technique that made them an extra 100K last month.”

“Folks in Los Angeles are shrewder business people, have better interpersonal skills, but are more full of shit and two faced, and struggle to build products that get virally adopted.”

Utter bullshit? Hint of truth? What do you think?

Photo by: Unobtanium

It’s the End of Instant Messaging as We Know it (and I Feel Fine)

That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane,
Lenny Bruce is not afraid, eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn.
– M. Stipe

Yea, okay, so that title is a little dramatic. Blame Douglas MacMillan on it.

He recently penned an article for BusinessWeek (MHP) entitled, “The End of Instant Messaging (As We Know It)” that discussed the rise of in-browser instant messaging clients like those used on Facebook and Gmail (GOOG).

These IM clients differ from traditional IM clients in that they are, well, in the web browser. Embedded in a website, so to speak. As you type on your friends’ Walls and Facebook Stalk your secret crushes, you can get a little message in the bottom-right corner of the page. It only exists while you’re on the Facebook website though. If you go check your stock quotes on another site, that little message in the bottom-right corner will disappear.

Also, you don’t have to download anything. Or sign up with another account. It’s just there for you automatically, as long as you have a Facebook account.

With traditional IM clients like AOL (TWX) Instant Messenger and Yahoo! (YHOO) Messenger, you have to download some software and create an account. It’s a little more tedious, but lots of people have done it already. Plus, it doesn’t go away as you check out different websites.

The End of Instant Messaging as We Know It?

So what’s the big deal? MacMillan pointed out that traditional IM clients have been seeing a decline in usage. “Instead of spending time with these old-fashioned chat windows,” he writes, “Web users are flocking to sites like Facebook and Google’s Gmail, where instant messaging tools are more closely embedded in what they are doing.”

That’s a good point. Sites like Facebook already have a person’s attention. Instead of asking my friend, who’s using AIM to download YM so I can chat with him, why not just send him an instant message via Facebook (assuming he’s got a Facebook account, of course)?

MacMillan doesn’t supply any data to back up the claim that the decline of traditional IM usage is due to in-browser IM usage, but anecdotally, I have seen an increase in friends using in-browser IMs. The first time I received a Facebook IM, I thought it was some kind of ad. Nowadays, I receive lots of Facebook IMs, some from friends already on my traditional IM lists, others from friends not on my lists.

Those latter messages I’ve grown to appreciate. Since I don’t have them on my traditional IM lists, Facebook has given me an easy way to chat with them. In addition to connecting me with long-lost friends whom I can now email, I can also chat with them in real-time without needing their YM or AIM username.

(Sure, I could call them up too. And I have in a few cases. But sometimes the spontaneity of a random IM chat is kinda nice too.)

And I Don’t Feel Fine

Which brings me to an issue that concerns me greatly. I am a power user of IMs. I use IMs frequently for work purposes. Since I work with people across different geographies, IM has become an important business tool for immediate conversations. Phone is just as good, but when you need to share a URL, IM is much better.

Also, IMs offer a log of chat history. I faithfully archive all of my conversations in case I need to refer to information shared over past IMs. In order to do this, I need a client that has archive ability.

Yahoo! Messenger does. And since it allows MSN (MSFT) Messenger contacts to be added, I get to archive conversations with users of both clients. Gtalk does too. And since it allows AIM contacts to be added, I get to archive conversations from both of them.

Unfortunately, Facebook does not archive conversations. I haven’t had any business-related conversations on Facebook yet, so that hasn’t been a problem. But what if I do? What if a client is available on Facebook and decides to chat me over there. How can I keep a record of that conversation without having to copy & paste it? And what about other websites? If they incorporate in-browser IM, will they have archives?

That’s just one problem. Another is having chat archives all over the place. Already, I have one with YM and another with Gtalk. 37signals has a great collaboration tool for small businesses called Campfire which contains its own archives as well. While it’s nice that they all keep a record of my conversations, searching through all of these sources is a major pain in the patootey.

Offer Me Solutions, Offer Me Alternatives and I Decline

What I need is an IM archive aggregator of some sort. Not more in-browser or out-of-browser IM archives. But a way to search through all of one’s IM archives.

Attached to this suggestion is the natural idea of an IM aggregator – a central IM client that allows you to sign in to multiple services in one place. That, fortunately, has been addressed. On the traditional IM client side, there’s Pidgin, Jabber, Trillian, and tons more.

On the in-browser side, there’s Meebo, Soashable, ILoveIM.com, and tons more. (Not to be left behind, traditional IM clients have also created in-browser versions: AIM Express, Yahoo! Web Messenger, and MSN Web Messenger. Gtalk was released as a downloadable client and in-browser app at the same time.).

That’s a whole lotta choices. A whole lotta. Looking at them all is kind of like going through the cereal aisle of the supermarket, except that these require login accounts and passwords and no milk or bowls or… ah, nevermind, bad analogy.

That’s a whole lotta choices. All of them solve the problem of having multiple IM accounts. But now that Facebook and other companies are releasing their own IM systems, we’re going to run into the problem of having multiple IM accounts again. Great. Thanks Facebook.

That’s Great, It Starts with an Earthquake

Having a proliferation of choices isn’t uncommon though, especially not for new markets. Over time, leaders will emerge. Hopefully, global standards too. The current leader, Meebo, is already doing something that I hope will continue:

They just got Flixster to offer Meebo’s in-browser IM client as a feature. This means Meebo is moving into the IM provider business. Since they already offer an archive, any in-browser IMs I get from Flixster will appear in my Meebo account too. Neat!

Now if Facebook integrated Meebo, how cool would that be? Or – even better – if Facebook integrated Gtalk, then I’d be able to combine my Facebook chats with my existing Gtalk & AIM archives. Oh what a happy day that would be.

And not just for me, but perhaps for Facebook and others as well. They’d be able to outsource all of their IM development & maintenance to a IM provider. Sort of like a Disqus for IM, perhaps? (Not sure if that analogy works either, but you know what I mean.)

I’m guessing the folks at Meebo are already thinking about this. I wonder if the Gtalk people are too. If not, I hope so. An IM aggregator that works both in-browser and as a downloadable client, and can be leveraged on third-party websites, and has a common, searchable archive would be totally awesome. And I’d feel fine…

The Haiku Out-Of-Office Email

Yahoo Cube Tchotchkes Now for some Friday fun.

Back at Yahoo! (YHOO), there was an unofficial rule of being able to telecommute one day a week. It was known as WFH, or Work From Home. Along with that was another acronym, OOO, or Out Of Office.

Whenever someone would WFH, or be OOO, they’d send an email to their entire team. Sometimes it would include a reason. Other times, simply a “WFH” as the email subject and nothing else.

Isaac Schlueter of Foo Hack recently wrote about an awesome tradition in his team at Yahoo! – writing haiku emails. Whenever someone is going to be WFH or OOO, they’d send it in the form of haiku.

Some examples:

Sick on an airplane.
Second carry-on: virus.
Infect passengers.

Nothing in iCal:
Must take advantage of this.
Work in pajamas.

Sneezing mightily
Wish not to infect colleagues
Thus working from home

How awesome an idea is that? Wish I had thought of it!

The next time you’re going to be out of the office or telecommuting (if your company allows it), consider communicating it in haiku.

Coworkers boring?
Office drab and tiring?
Why not make work fun!

Even a little
Can go a long way sometimes
Start a trend haiku

Recession Proof Business Ideas

On the Monument Even though some businesses are hurting right now, others are thriving. But which ones?

According to Carlton Proctor’s article “Five businesses for a down economy” in the Cincinnati Enquirer, he quotes the following answers from two members of the University of West Florida’s Small Business Development Center:

I would focus on services-related companies and less on the retail sectors. I would look at needed services that are not discretionary.

– Dan Cavanaugh, Manager

I would look at businesses that provide necessities or high-end luxuries. Even when people are down economically, they will still splurge, especially when they are bummed.

– Larry Strain, Executive Director

With that in mind, I decided to ponder some recession-proof business ideas of my own. Here’s what I came up with:

  • Niche Thrift Store

    This could be an online or a brick-and-mortar store. Both have their pros and cons though. The former would have to compete against eBay (EBAY) and Craigslist.org, two formidable opponents. The latter would require a high up-front capital infusion. But what about focusing on a niche? Say, used furniture? Or used car parts? Or used computer equipment for bootstrapping start-ups?

  • Local eBay Classes

    Speaking of eBay, lots of people turn to selling their 63d belongings when they need a bit of cash. Some may even consider turning this into a formal business. But they’ll surely need some help. You can’t quite compete online, because there are gazillions of how-to guides for eBay. So how about posting some flyers around your neighborhood and operating locally? You can place ads at your local library, university, park, or even Starbucks (SBUX) – I’ve seen some of them offer a community bulletin board.

  • Budgeting Classes

    Some people just aren’t good with budgets. They may realize it’s necessary, they may read about various techniques, but sometimes they need a little more than that – a little push. Or some hands-on training to show them how to do it realistically within their current lifestyles. Don’t just tell someone how to balance their checkbook. Learn about their lifestyles and help them save money while still maintaining a similar standard of living.

  • Health Care Professionals Placement Agency

    Society will always need health care and health care workers, such as nurses, medical assistants, home health aides, physical therapists and medical records technicians. In fact, it’s often cited as one of the fastest growing occupations. That means an agency trained in finding and placing such professionals could do very well. Lots exist already, but the demand is still fairly strong.

  • Auto Repair Services

    Drivers will want to extend the life and mileage of their cars, so they’ll be going to auto repair shops. High gas prices have already been driving lots of customers there (no pun intended). You’ll have to do your homework and research a good location though. It helps to have an auto repair background of some sort too, though you can get around that if you have helpful friends who are mechanics.

  • Computer Repair Services

    Lots of people turn to do-it-yourself projects to save money during recessions. However, some realms are just outside of their expertise. Automobile repair is one. Computer repair is another. (Electronics repair could be a third). Although some may opt to live with glitchy hardware a little while longer, they’ll eventually need it fixed. If you can keep your costs low and market yourself well, you’ll find some good business here – especially in local markets.

  • Alternative Energy Consultant

    As companies work to cut costs, they’ll look to cheaper, more affordable energy sources. Or they could be looking to make their company more environmentally friendly, despite costs – just because they care. If you know much about alternative energy, as well as how to enable it operationally and organizationally (it’s not as easy as saying, “use energy-efficient light bulbs”), then you could find a nice bit of work.

  • Luxury Item Rentals

    I’m keeping this one broad because it could encompass many different things. Even in woeful economic times, people still like to splurge. They look for ways to cheer themselves up. Since they may not want to purchase a luxury item outright, they’ll look to renting it. You could rent vacation homes, luxury cars, fancy yachts, high-end furniture, fashion accessories, tuxedos and evening gowns, etc. The list is endless. Think of something (product or service) that people may want to splurge on and try renting it.

  • Funeral Services

    Though it’s a bit morbid, the cycle of life is a constant, even in economic booms and economic slumps. It actually follows population birth patterns more than the economy. On the tail end of the life cycle are funeral services like operating funeral parlors and handling estate sales. It may not be the most exciting job though, unless you’re, maybe, the Fisher family.

How Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Got Published

Call it Harry Potter with vampires. Call it a sappy supernatural teenage love story. Call it an annoying chick book.

Whatever you want to call it, you can’t deny that it’s gotten damn popular. I have friends who can’t put the book down, dying to absorb every word, every sentence, every drop of blood in the entire Twilight series.

While talking about it one day, I was pointed to the origins of Twilight and how author Stephenie Meyer came to publish these books. Although I haven’t read the books (and don’t intend to), the description of Meyer’s painful publishing process is really interesting.

Warning: There are plot spoilers in the above link. If you want to read the books but haven’t yet, don’t click on the above link.

In it, she describes everything from how the idea popped into her head (literally, in a dream) to how she used Google (GOOG) to do background research to how she finally found an agent.

To put it mildly, I was naive about publishing. I thought it worked like this: you printed a copy of your novel, wrapped it up in brown paper, and sent it off to a publishing house. Ho ho ho, that’s a good one. I started googling (naturally) and began to discover that this was not the way it is done. (Movies lie to us! Why?! A side note: you will not be able to enjoy the new Steve Martin version of Cheaper by the Dozen when you know how insanely impossible the publishing scenario it contains is.)

Pretty informative, especially if you’re interested in publishing a book.