Blipfish - behind the coffee cup. The business of my business.

Don’t get caught using a screwdriver when you need the hammer. You have a full toolbox for a reason.

I performed my checklist:

1. Coffee? Check.
It’s a mild, Ipanema Bourbon from Brazil.

2. Breakfast? Check.
Whole wheat bagel and a Chocolate Myoplex. Mmmm.

3. Full moon? Nope. Check.
It’s daytime.

So, I’ve eliminated potential grumpiness as a possibility so I guess this qualifies as a legitimate and necessary rant. Wow, I finally get to rant on my own blog! Happy, happy, joy, joy!

I shall proceed.

Are some online POD users living in a bubble? I fear they are.

This isn’t the first time but it’s the most recent string of multiple times I’ve encountered fellow Print on Demand (POD) retail sellers missing out on opportunities because they didn’t think outside of their established bubble. In particular, the recent subject (but not the only one) was about a chance to sell a large, bulk order to an organization but it was not practical given the lack of cost-effectiveness in using a POD service. It was suggested that the POD company was at fault for not being cost-effective to make their opportunity worthwhile.

Print on Demand services have come a long way. They’ve come so far that practically any person can produce products for sale online without a modicum of talent, business acumen, or experience - and potentially make money. It also means that talented, experienced, and driven individuals can really do well if they learn to bring-to-bear their skills, too. In other words - anyone can try and succeed on an equal playing field and that’s unusual in many business models.

The problem is that POD’s can often give an illusion that business is easy and that everything should be able to be done within the scope of that one service. Granted, a great many things can be done within a single POD service: varied products, online ecommerce website, analytics, promotion, advertising, awareness, production, fulfillment out the shipping door, customer service, hand-holding, you name it.

That’s the thing - it’s too easy for inexperienced business people to get comfortable operating within this vast, convenient system. They forget (or never realize in the first place) that many businesses reach, grow, develop, spread, and expand - and I’m not talking about the POD service I’m talking about our business as the online seller.

The best example would have to be myself.

I began using a POD service because I wanted to print promotional items for my other business of the time. I wanted a few tshirts and coffee mugs - and maybe the odd mousepad to give away as promotional items and gifts to help spread the word of my business. In the end, for other reasons, I sold the first business and was excited at the prospect of using POD services to start another business - which I did.

However, over time, the fact that my origins are in physical, offline marketing and “pounding the pavement” I came to find business opportunities in the brick and mortar world. Actually, I came to find more and better opportunities than I did online - not that online hasn’t been good. It’s just that my tendency is to deal with people more than pixels… it’s just my default.

So, it wasn’t long before I had sales opportunities that couldn’t be handled through my online POD resources because the very things that made a POD so appealing were also the weak points for these other sales. Sometimes PODs are great because they help unfunded startups set up shop right away with no cost, no prior skill set, no experience, and still have a fighting chance of making money. However, PODs, in order to make that work, have to instead pad their prices on each sale to account for their initial expenses.

By contrast, established print companies are set up differently - on entirely different business models to be used for entirely different sales types: bulk.

When I first began getting orders for hundreds of shirts it was obvious from the start that a POD would be painfully low-profit due to the higher cost-per-unit and shipping expense. Bulk printing by a company that specializes in this was far, far more lucrative for me - but I was a newcomer and really wasn’t in a position to bargain my way out of the initial investment. So, I bit the bullet and used my credit card to pay the few hundred dollars to the printshop to complete my order and I also got them to agree to package and ship for me - not an unusual service these days and one I’m very glad to see offered. Yes, I made sure the group making the order (a 10 year class reunion committee) was contractually committed to the sale and that I also got a sample shirt first to sign-off on the final product before shipping.

I had already done the easy math to determine that the money I spent upfront would be justified because the due-date and payment-by dates were such that I’d only be “out” that money less than a month and it’d obviously bring me better profit than the cost-prohibitive POD alternative. These were details I worked out with the print company as well as the reunion committee before hand and I was sure I’d make my profit early on so my initial expenses wouldn’t be on my shoulder longer than a week or so (well before my monthly credit card payments were due).

It was all about using the right tool for the right job. In the end my business still provided the service and made the money, I took my profit, and a customer that found me got what they wanted. It was just a matter of not being tunnel-visioned and using available services that fit the job rather than trying to cram a square peg into a round hole with a POD service.

To this day I sell more bulk than I do single POD units. It also didn’t take long to establish a line of credit with my printshop because they knew I had paid upfront or on-time and established myself as a long-term customer. They were happy to work with me on a credit basis to allow me to keep my cash flow favorable knowing it meant I’d regularly use their service. This was another benefit of working with a service that operated under a different business model than a POD must.

I’ve since branched out when the need arises by using printers in Canada or England for the occasional non-US sales. I still must operate under pre-payment but that’s to be expected. I still make a profit in the end and eventually, I hope to improve my relationship with their services so I can begin operating with a modest line of credit or better payment terms.

It pains me to hear about lost-opportunities because someone didn’t think to find the right tool for the job or were, perhaps, afraid to step out of their comfort zone of familiarity.

We all would agree that a “successful” business is what we desire but successful often means it lives on a diet of not only perseverance and commitment but also expansion, branching, diversifying, adapting, and growing beyond single resources.

It’s with this that I hope I can help you further develop your success by sharing my experience (and of course answer any questions you might have). Success is a process of building and growing - not remaining static and confined.

It’s been a long time since I’ve geeked-out. Actually, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a reason to geek out.

However, today I had a great excuse to visit a side of town I haven’t been to in seven years - and my first, ever trip to an Apple Store!

I know, I know, it’s not like I actually purchased anything but for a PC-user of 20+ years to walk into an Apple store with the intention of making some final purchasing decisions before going all-out to new hardware and apps is a big deal. It’s also probably the last step before I make my next post on the subject… the actual purchase.

I started life on an Apple ][e when they first came out. Well, I guess I should admit I used a TRS-80 "back in the day" but the ][e was really the beginning of it all. Like most people, though, it was pragmatic to switch to PC's in those days to do any real work and I've been on a Windows system ever since (survived Windows 3.1/DOS all the way to XP now). I refuse to go Vista.

However, it seemed an important time of transition for me, my business, and our household and frankly, the benefits of transitioning to Macs (now that they're Intel) far, far, far outweigh the process of extracting myself from the Windows/PC world I've been entrenched in for so long. I can barely believe it's been 25 years since I began my love affair with computers. The last time I touched a Mac was in college and those were early Mac System 7's. Not exactly the "glory days" for the series (like Windows or DOS were any better).

At any rate, my little visit to the Apple Store was short, but productive. A nice fellow answered all my questions (and I didn't even have an appointment) and helped me define my next courses of action. I do realize I'll probably keep my current XP system to be practical and help me transition out (I still have a business to run without interruption), but I think it'll be a good move and enjoyable one.

I’m thinking a MacBook Pro (undecided on 15″ or 17″) with all the goodies for myself and a MacBook standard-issue for the wife. Maybe throw in a Time Capsule for extra good measure?

I’d be grateful for any feedback, suggestions, advice, warnings, or comments you might have about this. So, if you have something to let me know - I’d really welcome it!

*CC Photo by Kevin Thoule - Thanks Mr. Thoule.

A few months ago I had someone ask me if I ever considered audio posts? At the time, I didn’t anticipate it but then again, back then the blog was sadly underdeveloped.

Recently, I had another person ask the same question because her text-reader wasn’t working as well as it might and her eyesight was such that listening was easier than reading.

Hmmm…

Well, with the feedback I’ve received about the previous audio and video casts I’ve done it seemed like it was the easiest decision I could make - yes - I’d very much like to offer audio versions of the text posts. If I can keep up with it (because it involves my narrating my text posts) then it’s my pleasure to help get the information to you in a different way.

I can’t promise anything but I think it’s largely do-able.

If you can tolerate my voice and the fact I am still hunting around for my box of microphones (half my life is still in cardboard boxes after having recently bought a new house) then I’m game. I’ll do my best to up the audio-quality and timeliness of audio versions, too.

Just a quick note, since I was asked yesterday and didn’t have time to answer until now; regarding the difference between Features and Benefits.

Okay, the reason one would care, as a seller, is because the selling process may involve promoting all the wonderful things about your product, service, or information. When you want to highlight what makes you or your product so wonderful you’ll invariably need to tap into features and benefits (preferably tap into both - not just one or the other).

A feature is a specific, technical, quantifiable element of your service or product.
A benefit is a way to suggest advantages or desirable results a customer would gain by using your product, information, or service.

The best example would be in selling a computer.

Features would be:
Intel 3.4GHz chip, 4 gigs of RAM, 250 Gig Hard Drive, 512 meg video card.

Benefits of that computer would be:
Lightning fast, work more efficiently, multi-task on dozens of software applications simultaneously, be more productive, creative, and run the latest software to create movies, music, and photo albums for you and your family. Great fun for the family and effective work platform for home finances.

You see?

In the selling process it’s important to relay, to the prospect, not only the technical features but also the beneficial elements to their life (benefits) they’d gain by having those technical features. They both speak to the same end-product (service, or information) but touch on entirely different “hot buttons” in the mind of a consumer.

Obviously, some people and some products really lend themselves better to technical specifications by promoting features. Other times, however, it’s the list of benefits that seem more appealing. In general, though, it’s important to promote both. This can be done in your advertising, expanded descriptions, promo-text, or anywhere else you have a chance to tell people what’s so great about what you offer.

This is a little something I wrote up for shopkeepers at Cafepress.com - a service whose community I’ve been a moderator at for several years. However, this can apply to just about any retailer - particularly those of us who use 3rd-party POD/fulfillment companies. Essentially, it’s about breaking down the logistics of what is a tangent off the famous “Nigerian” or “419″ scam. This one, however, is tailored to scamming sales people with, what appears to be, an attempt to purchase like a customer.

I’ve updated this to account for some changes in the times (most notably new pick-up lines and sob-stories that have become popular twists in the last year, or so). However, in general, the information is the same even if the flavor changes a little.

So, you got an EMail from someone wanting to order from your online store …a really big order. If it’s legitimate you will make more commission from this one sale than you’ve ever made since you opened your account, huh?

Problem is, you don’t exactly know why they didn’t just order from your store but, rather, they decided to contact you directly, right? Or, maybe the person explained they want to purchase in bulk, or they don’t trust international payment systems, they claim there is a problem with your shopping cart system… correct?

Well, your gut instinct is probably correct. It’s the start of an attempt to scam you.

Now, not every one will be bogus. But, online merchants across the board have reported for years that most of these scenarios are fraudulent. It’s best to play it safe.

You might be wondering exactly how this scam could play out - and how someone could possibly make money off of it?

Often, people’s first reactions are to think it centers around an attempt to get your credit card number or the use of a fraudulent (or stolen) card number. This isn’t likely the case. Nowhere along the way would the sale require you to divulge your credit card information for them to make a purchase… so, that’s not it. Trying to use a bogus credit card would likely get denied by the transaction process and you’d know not to proceed with the sale (providing you have your own merchant account to accept cards). Your POD service would certainly catch it if it went through them directly.

Besides… what is a criminal mastermind going to do with 100 medium tshirts with a picture of a puppy on them??

It’s not about the products. It’s not about your credit card number.

…it’s about turning fake money into real money using you.

Here’s how the scenario would play out if you foolishly took part:

You’d respond to them via EMail (rarely a good idea - now they at least know they’ve reached an active Email account) and you agree to take their money order for 100 medium tshirts. You agreed on a fair price already - let’s say $1,600. They thank you for your honesty and let you know payment is on the way.

In a few weeks you receive payment via money order in the mail and an address of where to send the shirts. (You don’t really think this address is legit… do you?)

Either way, you notice the money order is actually for $2,100! Being the good business person you contact them and let them know they sent you too much. (Could they have wanted more shirts than originally thought?).

They apologize and tell you that their secretary must have incorrectly made it for $500 more than needed. They ask, if you’d be so kind, please send the shirts and just mail them another money order for the overage. Heck, they’d even accept a personal or company check from you because they can clearly see you’re an honest person. They apologize profusely and seem embarrassed by their mistake.

[This is where the situation takes the wrong turn]

You deposit their $2,100 money order in your bank, fill out another money order (or check) to return the excess to your customer and then dash home to order all those shirts and have them sent to the address he gave you. (You’re fighting off the urge to yell “Whoohoo!” and order that new 30″ flatscreen monitor you’ve been wanting).

[A few weeks pass]

You have seen the order ship from your POD account status reports. You sent a nice EMail thanking the customer and got a generous EMail back thanking you in return. It’s been a great experience and you pat yourself on the back thinking you were smart and never fell for those obvious “Nigerian scams” asking for your credit card number.

Well, the days of those scams have been over for some time now… they’ve been replaced with the scam you just got hit with.

Don’t believe me? Then why do you think your bank just phoned you telling you that the $2,100 money order was a fake and that you owe them that entire amount back?! (Yes, you do… oh, yes, you do).

You see, the whole scam was to get you to do two things:
1. Step outside of your processor’s highly effective system of protecting shop owners from fraud.
2. Get you to take $2,100 in counterfeit money order and turn it into $500 of real money order or check.

…the tshirts are just the smokescreen designed to take advantage of a naive shop owner anxious for their first, big sale.

Money orders ARE NOT - NOT - NOT as good as cash. They never have been. They are pieces of paper than can be forged. Banks always process and verify money orders, cashiers, checks, and the like. Banks will tell you it can take “x” amount of weeks to do so, in some cases.

Your $500 money order, however, was real - and by the time your bank alerted you to a problem - your money order was processed and you are out the $500 (real money order) plus the $2,100 (bogus) …and whatever you legitimately spent with your Print on Demand fulfillment service to purchase those darn shirts in the first place.

GOLDEN RULES:

1. Never go outside your fulfillment company’s system of purchase and payment. It’s there for your protection!
2. Don’t let excitement cloud your judgment by seeing a big sale come your way. The old adage is still just as meaningful now as ever… If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME:

1. PayPal can sometimes be the mechanism for how the scammer asks for that excess money to be returned. It’s no big deal to them to close down an account after they grab the money. By the time PayPal locks the account down or begins a paper trail it’s in another country where these people are often left untouched by the law. PayPal makes it very easy to be the recipient of money. This means the scammer has a relatively easy role to play compared to you… as you are already set up properly with PayPal.

2. The stories… oh boy, the stories. To get a shopowner off guard you might get a story about orphans, church groups, family reunions, wholesalers, fashion boutique stores, etc. It’s the stories that envelope these scams and help ease apprehensions and any reservations you might have. I mean, who would delay those orphans getting their 100 medium tshirts?

3. They start off telling you they’d like to use their credit card… but don’t relax, yet. This opening line is becoming popular in 2008 because of what I’ve outlined previously… the scammers are getting hip to warnings about Paypal, money orders, etc.

There are two things to look out for: A) What begins as an assurance a credit card is involved will eventually change to an explanation that a different payment needs to be used (silly secretary lost the company credit card… would money order be okay?) or B) It’s an attempt to bang-away at a stolen credit card number after all. Again, this isn’t as likely because once a stolen credit card is validated the culprits tend to burn through purchases very, very fast before it gets canceled and lengthy correspondence to negotiate for tshirts in bulk is hardly the way to do that.

Most likely, you’ll find the circumstances get changed and that the assurance of it being a purchase on credit card was just an initial ruse to get their foot in your door.

4. Variations can be abundant. Essentially, it’s about turning bad money into good money and you need to think ahead to that moment to see if you are being set up for a fall. The red-flag doesn’t always show up immediately. It happens after you’ve started the process. That’s part of why it’s so hard to avoid being scammed once you have your hopes up and momentum going.

NOT EVERYTHING IS A SCAM.

Of course, not every contact is bogus. Wholesalers might well contact you. People wanting bulk-discounts will ask you what you charge. It’s your responsibility to sift through what’s real and what’s not. Ask the opinion of your card processing service or bank representative if you are unsure. There are ways to conduct business safely - without putting the risk on you - and without making you miss the genuine sales opportunities. I hope this explanation gives you one more line of defense in protecting yourself.

First, I’d like to thank all those who voted in the poll a week or so ago… regarding topics you’d like me to cover sooner than later. It wouldn’t be a usual blipfish day if everything was cut-and-dry so, I shouldn’t be surprised that when the votes were tallied… it was a roughly 3-way tie. To that end, the three most requested topics were: Press Releases, Website Stickiness, and Co-Venture deals (oooh, don’t they sound un-exciting when typed together like that?). Have no fear - they really are interesting topics and I can see why they were chose. Press Releases are a powerful tool toward gaining interviews and publicity; Site Stickiness is important because it means gaining and maintaining visitors (and repeat visitors!); and Co-Venture deals, as drab as it sounds, is also interesting: it’s all about combining forces with someone else, for mutual benefit, to take a business or project to a new level.

So, I now know what you want to hear about soon and I promise I’ll oblige.

Along these lines is another note I wanted to make. I know that some people are anxious to hear about one of those topics very, very soon (you’ve been very patient)… Press Release. In particular, the interest is in using PR’s to help, somehow, in improving sales to their online POD stores. Well, the good news is that I’ll make that my first article-priority.

It also speaks to my final note. In the spirit of sharing and spreading the support I’m preparing either an article or mini audio tutorial on PR’s (specifically aimed at POD/online retailers) to be available soon (”soon” measured in days, not weeks). There will be a nice twist to this and I’ll make the announcement when the time comes - but I can’t say much now. However, it has everything to do with providing you with more, great information and resources to help your business grow.

Alright, it’s time for me to get my nose back to the grindstone. As you might have noticed I might be slow in producing articles but I hope it’s obvious I’ve been working “behind the scenes” on new features for blipfish.com - most notably building up video and audio features.

So, rest assured I’m not resting - just working in the behind the coffee cup.

Okay, so I’ll admit… there’s a lot involved in producing a video for the web.

Lesson #1: Be Prepared.

In all seriousness, I’m not an expert at video (obviously). I used to do radio but my chops are long-since gone… what little an FM music radio DJ might have in the way of chops. However, the best advice I can give is the best reminder I must give to myself… be prepared. I’m not saying that every video a person produces for the web must be perfect but it helps to:

Be prepared: know the topic you want to cover, have audio settings at least sufficient to listen to, have video distractions to a minimum, post accompanying text along with it if it helps better define the point.

Twitter: the online, 140-characters-or-less way to broadcast or listen to comments from other users around the world. It’s social, business, personal, and everything in-between. It’s a real-time connection between real humans and the things they are willing to share in short, quick blurbs. If you “follow” a person on Twitter you’ll be able to read what they type into their Twitter account and others can do the same for you. Think of it like a lot of people around a virtual water-cooler chatting, talking, or picking up bits and pieces of other conversations. It’s a big deal. I find it interesting. I’m fascinated by it all.

…I’m a little concerned.

Perhaps what kicked it off was a good article from Robert Scoble entitled “The secret to Twitter.”

Essentially, I interpreted his post to be about the value of exchange… of listening - not just of being listened to. What I took away from his post was that the true value of Twitter is that so many people can share and learn from one another - that he (as he would remind any of us) grow more because expanding our circle of who we listen to is more important than who we try to gain the attention of. I also took away that there’s value in not just listening to those we might normally hear… the value is in variety and different points of view.

There’s no way I’ll argue with him.

I’m concerned, though, something got taken the “wrong” way - and it might be unfortunate because, if I’m correct, his lesson was intended to be the opposite.

…”follow more people and they’ll follow you then everyone will eventually be focused on you!”

I fear that’s the message some people walked away with - or they ignored the message and went with a tactic they could use.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because the day Robert made that post was also the day I noticed other people’s “followers” count skyrocketed. It’s just something I paid attention to. I’m noticing the increase as well - along with some Twitter spam and seemingly unrelated people following me.

It’s not really quantifiable, yet, so I’m not saying this is something definitely happening. However, I’ve read other blog and Twitter comments to the effect of “How I gained 100 subscribers in 24 hours!” or “Gain Twitter Fame Overnight” …or similar.

No, no… I’m not saying Robert Scoble is to blame. There may not be anything to blame at all. I just think his wise words timed out to something I’ve observed and, the nature of people being what it is, makes me suspect a certain segment of the Twitter universe took those words and ran with them. I could be totally wrong, too… his post may have no bearing on what I think I’m observing but he does have a large following and makes good points which, by some, could be appealing to pervert.

So, are we going to see a rash of people using the tactic of following thousands of others in hopes of expanding their circle for the sheer purpose of being listened-to when they talk? Is the hope to create a built-in marketing machine where gaining listeners (followers) is the next big thing since email spam?

…or, since Twitter is all about voluntarily listening and following it’s all good and we get out of it what we put into it? No harm done?

I just wanted to get a video up because I was falling behind in my planned schedule and had mentioned the upcoming videos to a few people.

Other than getting over a nasty cold, the sound quality and voice will have to improve as soon as I find the microphones I packed when we moved. I think they’re in with the towels.

More, proper videos are on the way.

Okay, I’ll admit this is a totally “if a tree falls in the woods” train of thought here but it got me thinking about the stages of development I went through with my first few businesses (the first being a hired-gun composer and the second being the publisher of an entertainment publication).

Growth. That’s what I was after. It’s been a few years since I’ve thought about my lessons learned. Recently, though, I watched an interview with SearchMe developer (founder?) Ray DeAdams (hope I got that name right?). The SearchMe project is essentially a new company in the search engine sector. It must be exciting because it’s a competitive, if not lucrative, business to be in. It got me thinking about the stages of some of my own businesses and the things I’ve done differently now.

At any rate, the interview noted a few concepts that I fell victim to when I began my business ventures and oddly enough, the pitfalls were brought on by growth and success.

(Here’s where that whole “tree in the woods” bit comes into play).

What I mean is that often an individual, or group, starts off with an idea (not the same thing as a plan) for a business. They have an idea of, perhaps, what they’d like to do as part of the work or how the business should look in some idyllic future setting. The truth is, we often only make immediate plans and specific steps for the beginning and then take a “see what happens” attitude to fill in the blanks from there.

The problem being, “see what happens” leaves the door open for changes that we may not have truly wanted to make if we would have had a clearer vision of the business earlier on.

What frequently happens is that early efforts, if all goes well, meet with success. Great! Whatever you did to start with is meeting some definition of success and it encourages you to do what? …do more of the same?

Ah, that’s the rub. It’s great when success happens but don’t confuse “successfully meeting goals” with simply “being successful.” The former means you’ve had a plan and successfully met markers along the way toward your dream business. The latter being that you let success arbitrarily define your next step, then the next one, and the steps after that. When that happens you may find yourself in a position I am familiar with - a business that is doing well but doesn’t bear a resemblance to what you envisioned those many weeks, months, or years ago.

How does this happen? It’s usually because we allow the success to dictate the next step rather than let predetermined markers (goals) tell us whether or not we’re on the right course. You see, it’s easy to let incoming dollar signs give us the illusion we’re doing well but, as startling as it may sound, it’s possible to be unhappy in a successful business down the road. Even scarier is to think that we could end up not owning a business but rather we could end up owning a job - and it’s the worst job imaginable and believe me - if you want to get out of it there’s nobody out there that wants to buy a job.

I’ve found myself in the position of letting success in terms of making money dictate the next thing I did or repeating the formula I thought was working. In the end I didn’t have a business I had a job that I had to work in day after day. I originally had visions of owning a business I could work on - rather than a job I had to work in.

So, enough of driving the point home. Just consider that, as you develop, you’ll want to think further ahead and set tangible goals. Even if the dollars start rolling in ask yourself if they represent meeting goals you agreed you wanted to meet, or not? It’s one thing to accelerate down the highway at full speed - it’s another thing to navigate and steer the car in the direction you want in order to reach the destination you desired.

Good morning, all.

Well, it’s almost Spring here, in the Midwest, and it seems like the perfect time to begin allowing comments on the blipfish blog.
Okay, actually, that has nothing to do with anything - it’s time to allow comments because you nice folks seem to have so much to say and I’d like your voices to be heard.

Emails are still welcome, by all means! However, if you want to try commenting on the blog - that’s just fine too.

For the time being, all I ask is you “register” with a name and email. It’s quick and painless and your privacy is absolute. I don’t even need to issue a privacy policy because there’s not a darn thing I’ll do with your email except let the system validate you. Moderation is temporary. Once I get to know you and determine you’re not a giant, evil robot bent on destroying the Earth through my blog - I’ll give you permissions to post freely anytime you want.

Over the next day, or so, I’ll be going back to previous posts and turning comments on. But, as of this post forward - we’ll try the grand experiment.

Thanks to those who read as well as email me. It’s always a pleasure.

Story broke by Adam O’Connor of TShirtChat.com.

My comment on the matter:

This is important for shopkeepers to be able to respond, in a timely fashion, to issues of CUP. This is a major step in the right direction.

Update:

…or does it?

My comment on the update:

Unfortunately, getting close then falling away from the mark is becoming a familiar routine.

I had a very quick exchange with Robert Scoble yesterday on Twitter regarding the inevitability of Twitter introducing ads to monetize the service (I told him I will blissfully live in ad-free denial as long as possible, by the way). This was yesterday.

…that exchange is already searchable on Google!

Adam O’Connor of TShirtChat.com just mentioned that “eBay just announced they are leaving CJ and running their own in house aff program. as of 1st of April.”

I haven’t been able to dig for details or official announcements, yet. However, when I get a fighting chance to get some work done this morning I’ll do that.

I haven’t conducted a survey of this kind before because the emails I get usually dictate my next month’s-worth of topics. However, I thought you’d like some more direct, general input into which marketing topic you feel you’d like me to cover soon?

Some of you have expressed interest in particular ones, some have multiple coaching subjects you’d like to get covered so it seemed a good time to get last-minute votes in before I commit.

No, this won’t detract from my planned list of topics - it just pushes some to the top or creates a new priority.

Oh, and my hope is that if it’s the type of topic that lends itself well to it - it’ll be a video post (or series of video posts).

I hope you’ll take a moment to complete the short survey above. I thank you for your input!

I’m glad Adam of TShirtChat.com blogged about this as it brings up two, important points. The first, obvious one details the issues of copyright and what happens when a service has millions of users uploading potentially millions of illegal, infringing pieces of artwork. It’s something competitive services have in common. The industry, as a whole, is going to have to work together on solutions and standards, I suspect.

The second, related issue is the frustration of dealing with a content usage system that is fighting an uphill battle already but may also be needing some overhauling itself.

Please read Adam’s entire post here.

An interesting quote from Gnat at the O’Reilly Radar forums:

Having Nigerians tell us about unclaimed money in bank accounts is the price we pay for being able to tell our family what the kids are doing today.

John Battelle rightly asks “Why isn’t this part of DoubleClick?”

Thanks to Mary for the heads-up.

Link to Spreadshirt announcement.