At-home dad Todd (known online as Darth Daddy) has been organizing a “Dads” day for At Home Dads to get together, eat good food and of course share their favorite beverage. The goal of the event is to give dads an opportunity to meet some new friends and have a good time without having to chase children around.
Todd’s original plan was to get a few local dads together for burgers and beer, but the idea began to snowball into a larger “Event” that is planned for June 30th. The name “DadStock” was born and new site was started to spread the idea (www.dadstock.com). Todd’s local media in Illinois has even began covering this forthcoming event.
More and more dads have gotten interested in the idea and the event has spread beyond Illinois to included a few more states: WI, IN, NJ, and MA.
For full information, check out this forum topic on one of my favorite sites, DadStaysHome.com!
You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t posted to my blog in a little while. I’ve recently taken a consulting assignment that has consumed much of my time recently (a good thing!) plus I have been in the process of launching a new site for fans of instrumental rock music, called InstrumentalJams.com.
InstrumentalJams will be officially launched on June 15th, but it is online now if you’d like to drop by and kick the tires. If you sign up for the newsletter or the discussion forums, you will also receive notice when I start an exciting contest to celebrate the official launch. Stay tuned!
As for the EntrepreneurDad Blog, I want to thank everyone for making the site what it is and I look to get things going again just as soon as I can!
I have always said that market competition and product choice are good for the consumer. But this thoughtful article at Blackfriar’s Marketing frames that concept in an interesting way and shows why too much product choice actually can lead to customer dissatisfaction.
Author Aric Winton uses the example of Apple Computer and their wild success with the iPod. He points out that many technology pundits describe Apple customers as “zealots” because of their deep loyalty. But Winton makes the point that they are simply satisfied customers resulting from Apple’s streamlined product line and customer-centric engineering.
As Winton puts it: “Product quality, while important, is only a part of what makes a customer satisfied; the other part lies in knowing that you made the right purchase to begin with.”
But can a customer know they made the right choice if a company offers a ton of product choices that may only have minor differences between them?
For instance, Microsoft currently offers 6 main versions of Windows Vista (8, if you count international versions) and it can take some research for a customer to determine which version is best. Compare this to the single version of Mac OS X Tiger that Apple currently offers. The single version of Mac OS X basically offers everything in Windows Vista (minus Tablet and DVR functions - which aren’t big sellers to begin with) for about the price of the most basic version of the new Windows OS. Now, I fully recognize that Windows owns the bulk of the desktop operating system market. But I also recognize that there hasn’t been a mad rush to adopt Vista, while at the same time Mac OS X is gaining momentum.
But, Winton makes a better example than Windows Vista - Apple’s iPod. When it was introduced, the iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player nor did it have the most features. Apple offered a single model of the iPod with a very streamlined user interface designed to appeal to a mass consumer-electronics audience instead of computer techies. Today, Apple offers three main models of the iPod - the Shuffle, the Nano, and the main iPod - compared to it’s competitor, Creative, currently offering about 16 different models. Five years after it’s introduction, Apple has sold over 100 million iPods - making it one of the most successful consumer electronics products ever. None of it’s competitors has come anywhere close.
The trend of product manufacturers making infinite variations to a product strikes of simply throwing a bunch of things at your customers to see what sticks. Apple has taken the opposite approach of actually sitting down to think about what their customers want and then designing a product that achieves that with a well-designed user interface. Product selection is also kept at a minimum to make the purchasing decision easy, too.
In other words, the correlation between product choice and customer satisfaction would appear to be a bell curve. Offering the right amount of product choices allows a company to maximize customer satisfaction (the top of the bell curve), but beyond a certain point you can offer too many choices that actually confuse the customer and make them wondering if they got the right model even after a purchase. Add to this the fact that manufacturing so many different models increases your manufacturing costs, resulting in higher prices to the consumer and/or lower profit margins.
I am a happy user of Apple’s Macintosh and iPod. So, call me an “Apple Zealot” if you must. But for me it is far simpler than some perceived technological religious war - I’m simply a satisfied customer.
TALK BACK: To talk about offering the right amount of customer choice, please visit this topic in the Discussion Forums.
Yesterday, YouTube announced the winners of the 2007 YouTube Video Awards (http://www.youtube.com/ytawards) - the first-ever awards competition for the leader in user-created video content. The winners represented the most creative and popular original content of 2006 and showed that a single person with a video camera can become an international star.
“2006 was a groundbreaking year for YouTube, user-generated content, and entertaining online videos. With this in mind, we established the YouTube Video awards to recognize the ingenuity and achievements of our community,” said Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing for YouTube. “These individuals put the first stitches in the fabric of the YouTube community. Instead of seeing a way to share videos they saw an opportunity for worldwide visibility and through their success have changed the landscape of how a ‘star’ is defined.”
“It’s incredible how quickly and completely YouTube is changing culture and it’s a surreal honor to be part of something so great,” said Damian Kulash, front man of award-winning band OK Go. “We can’t wait to get our trophy.”
This is my personal favorite! Chicago-born band OK Go blends their catchy pop song “Here It Goes Again” with creative choreography on eight treadmills. This video has been watched by over 13 Million people on YouTube and also won a Grammy for “Best Short-Form Music Video.”
Australian Juan Mann set out to brighten strangers’ lives in Sydney by offering “free hugs” and received a variety of responses - including the police trying to stop his campaign. Yet, due to the video gaining quick popularity on YouTube and elsewhere, Mann’s campaign has spawned a number of other “free hugs” efforts worldwide.
Another of my favorites! The “Ask a Ninja” series was created by L.A. comedians Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine and features a high-energy warrior answering fan questions - the answers are always off the wall! As the Ninja would say: “I look forward to killing you soon!”
College students Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox developed the number two most-subscribed channel on YouTube of all time. Their channel features a variety of comedic videos, including music videos spoofs, comedy sketches, and their award-winning video about a man who finds himself on a “stranded island.”
This interesting video short was Dony Permedi’s master’s thesis in animation and is about a flightless kiwi bird who nails trees to a cliff so he can achieve his dream of flying.
If you have the need to make business presentations, there’s a high likelihood that you use PowerPoint. Yet, with so many people using the same tool, it is easy for a presentation to look and feel like millions of other presentations - making your message get lost in the sameness.
Marketing guru Seth Godin has taken an in-depth look at what can ruin a PowerPoint presentation and steps you can take for your next one to deliver a powerful message. Overall, I agree wholeheartedly with his analysis and suggestions. However, since solo entrepreneurs are often dealing with a more intimate setting, instead of large audience, I think a few of his ideas may need to be altered a little for this specific scenario.
For one, Seth suggests using cue cards rather than using the presentation screen as a prompter. This is worthwhile advice if you are standing in front of an audience to present. However, if you are sitting amongst your audience at a client meeting, than it may seem more natural to read from the screen while discussing the content with those sitting around you.
In another case, Seth establishes a hard and fast rule that you should never put more than six words on a slide and avoid bullets altogether. While I agree that presenters should try to avoid bullet overload, I also feel that certain concepts and discussion points simply cannot be distilled down to six words.
Nonetheless, I feel Seth is spot on with his advice. If you need to make presentations in your business, his blog post is a must read. However, be sure to tailor his advice to your specific situation.
TALK BACK: To talk about these suggestions and your favorite presentation tips, please visit this topic in the EntrepreneurDad Discussion Forums.
An unassuming southern New Jersey town of 12,000 has a distinct honor - it is the “eBay Capital of the United States”. Lumberton, NJ has the highest number of eBay buyers and sellers per capita of any municipality in the United States. A quarter of Lumberton’s residents are active eBay members and during a three week period last November more than 46,000 items were listed on the auction site by residents of the town.
eBay has begun using Lumberton in its marketing efforts and will hold a party for the town in May. Based on the feedback of Lumberton’s eBay members, the auction company also made a $100,000 donation to a local animal shelter.
Lumberton got it’s name from the lumber mills that were once prevalent in the area and as little as two decades ago it was largely an agricultural community. The town post office - the transportation hub for the town’s eBay sellers - is located in a converted Victorian-era house. eBay’s Capital of the United States is surely a great example of how e-commerce can empower small-town America with the ability to reach the world.
Way to go, Lumberton!
TALK BACK: To talk about selling on eBay, please visit this topic in the EntrepreneurDad Discussion Forums.
Things continue to look bad on the Microsoft Windows security front. Out of seventeen computer anti-virus products tested by well-regarded AV-Comparatives.org, Microsoft’s own OneCare was shown to be the weakest. By comparison, the best anti-virus programs were G-Data, AEC’s TrustPort, AVIRA’s Antivir, F-Secure, Kaspersky, and microWorld’s eScan.
According to a Microsoft spokesman:
“We recently learned that AV Comparatives conducted tests on Windows Live OneCare and the service did not pass their testing criteria. We are looking closely at the methodology and results of the test to ensure that Windows Live OneCare performs better in future tests. We will also determine whether any learnings from these tests can be used to improve our services as part of our ongoing work to continually enhance Windows Live OneCare…”
So, to translate Microsoft-Speak back into English:
“We understand that a credible industry expert looked at our anti-virus product and determined that it sucked. We don’t know why we suck, because we really don’t know what we’re doing with regard to securing your computer. Hey, you’re the one who didn’t buy a Mac - don’t blame us.”
OK, so maybe the spokesman didn’t say that part about the Macs. But, his statement doesn’t really give me the warm and fuzzies, either. The next time I hear Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates utter the words “innovate” or “security”, I think I’m going to gag. These guys are so behind the Eight Ball and they don’t seem to even realize it.
Heck, even the Federal Government seems to be getting a clue. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is part of the Department of Transportation, has put a halt to all upgrades to Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7. Reportedly, they are looking to migrate their computers to the Linux operating system.
TALK BACK: To talk about Microsoft security, please visit this topic in the EntrepreneurDad Discussion Forums.
Marlo Boux, business coach and work at home entrepreneur, runs the very informative Small Business Moms Blog. She recently posted a great set of tips for building e-mail marketing list and providing an e-mail newsletter that your customers will value.
Five of my favorite tips are:
“Use double opt-in email services like Aweber that is in Can-Spam compliance.”
“Promise a niche benefit in subject line and deliver in first 2 lines.”
Do you know what “P911″ means? I didn’t either. To your kids, it means “my parents are coming” and is a signal to their online friends not to watch what they say.
Kids have their own online lingo that is foreign to adults and it can be a challenge for parents to keep their kids safe from online threats. Fortunately, NetSmartz411.org is a new site offering online safety information for parents. Launched by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, this site offers a wealth of useful information about keeping your children safe online.
NetSmartz411 offers a range of information, including how to secure your computer from malware, what to do if you think your child is talking to a predator online, and a complete list of online acronyms. Any parent with kids online should check this site out!
TALK BACK: To talk about online safety, please visit this topic in the EntrepreneurDad Discussion Forums.
