Here’s an easy way to tell. Load up your web site of choice on a mobile browser. Hold the device at arm’s length. If you can’t immediately pick out the call to action and get a sense for what the site is about, then your web design isn’t amazing.
The same is true of photography. Load up your photos in iPhoto or Picasa or the thumbnail browser of your choice. If at a glance not a single photo stands out, then your photos don’t have the famed Tom Peters’ Wow! factor.
The very best way to test this out is to do it with other people. Load up your sites or photos on the mobile device and ask someone to quickly take a peek. If they’re not getting the message you want, then it’s time to go back and sharpen the pencil.
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Well gang, after much, much, much labor, data gathering, and reading the most awful documentation ever produced by mankind – from the US government – my new eBook, the 2009-2010 FAFSA Guide, is now published. It’s 47 pages of financial aid stuff about how to fill out the FAFSA, landmines to avoid, and tips especially for families pinched by the economy.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, please consider this super-easy leftovers tip: whatever you don’t need, whatever’s extra, please donate to a local food pantry, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter. Even just an extra can of cranberry sauce or can of coffee makes a difference, and it’s so easy to do.
Don’t know where the nearest one is? Use this Google Maps query. Go to maps.google.com and type:
As we wrap up 2008 and the interesting year that it was, I wanted to throw out some ideas there for PodCamp organizers for 2009.
1. Use the tools! 2008 showed rapid growth in every social network of note, and as organizers, the more you can help people meet and greet prior to the event, the better. Set up Twitter accounts for your event, groups on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and many others, use search and readers and RSS to keep tabs on word of mouth. There’s no shortage of opportunities to help your participants connect in advance. At MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing Mixer, every speaker’s Twitter handle was bundled on a handout – no reason that every participant at a PodCamp who’s active in social media can’t make a directory listing in the event’s wiki.
2. Separate lecture from conversation. Mitch Joel pointed this out in his Pixelated conference series, where he and others gathered together the talking head portions of major conferences. Figure out what makes your local PodCamp special and what’s just talking head stuff, and provide talking head stuff well in advance so that participants can maximize their time together. Grab videos of folks like Mitch, CC Chapman, Chris Brogan, and many other PodCamp favorites far ahead of the event and share them so that when participants arrive, they’re ready to collaborate and share, rather than passively listen.
3. Go paid. The economy has made life tough for the end user and consumer, but even tougher for the marketing budget. Plan your PodCamp to run 100% participant-paid at the door. If you get sponsors, great, but don’t bet the farm on them, and don’t financially extend your PodCamp beyond what money you already have in the bank. Continue to publish your ledgers publicly so participants can see how every dollar is allocated, but strongly consider going paid and having the event be wholly “sponsored” by the participants.
4. Support your local community. Pick a local charity and find a way to divert time, energy, or resources to it so that your community is a little better off for having a PodCamp.
5. Stay lightweight. Keep expenses to a minimum. We’re all adults for the most part who can locate the nearest Starbucks, Dunkin, or McDonald’s. The magic of PodCamp isn’t in refreshments or epic sponsored parties, but in bringing together people to learn, share, and grow their skills. Some facilities will allow you to unbundle catering from facility rental, which can keep costs way down, as food & drink are typically the most expensive part of any conference.
6. Add pieces along the way. Start with barebones expectations for attendees. As funding becomes available, you can add amenities later. Set expectations low, and you’ll never disappoint.
What things have you learned from PodCamps and other conferences in 2008 that you would pass on to PodCamp organizers for 2009? Leave your comments below!
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One of the greatest lies ever told to people is the fallacy of good debt/bad debt.
“A mortgage is good debt! It’s an investment that will pay off!”
“A college education and student loan is good debt! It’s an investment in yourself!”
“A credit card is bad debt! Stuff you buy with a credit card doesn’t increase in value!”
Let’s break this destructive lie right now.
There is no such thing as good debt or bad debt.
There is only debt you are capable of managing financially, and debt you are not capable of managing financially. Are there things you’d like to buy or invest in that have a larger probability of paying off dividends in the future? Of course. Few would argue that a college education or a house to live in are wastes of money. But implying the value of a debt is equal to the value of the investment is a dangerous fallacy. It’s one of the main reasons we’re in the financial situation we’re in now.
Which is better? A diamond that increases in value paid for with cash, or the same diamond paid for with credit? The diamond is the same. How you pay for it is the difference. To be sure, there are some things in life which are exceptionally difficult to obtain without using a debt vehicle, like a house. That said, the mortgage on that house isn’t inherently good because the house might appreciate in value. The mortgage on that house is only as good as your ability to repay it without going broke.
Before you borrow, see your financial picture clearly, and break away from the fallacy of good or bad debt.
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I saw this story on CNN about the vetting process for the Obama administration being too cautious and too meticulous:
…some political observers say the president-elect’s similar caution with respect to recruiting new administration officials and key high-level advisers may be turning away a string of qualified candidates wary of subjecting themselves and their families to the most rigid presidential vetting process on record… political analysts say the Obama team’s unprecedented degree of scrutiny could result in several qualified individuals deciding to forgo consideration for a top post. This could especially be true among individuals considered for economic roles in the administration from the private sector who might be more financially entangled than those who have been longtime public servants.
CNN, get your head out of your ass. Look, it’s simple: if someone doesn’t want to be subject to intense scrutiny because their background may have questionable dealings, then they’re not a qualified individual.
We don’t and never should require invasion of privacy as a condition of citizenship. We should require intense scrutiny of those people who want to serve in the highest offices of the country, and require full disclosure of conflicts of interest, ethics problems, and other problems.
Remember, we’re not talking about the Obama administration knocking on Joe the plumber’s door and saying, “hey, want to be Secretary of State? All you have to do is give up your privacy”. We’re talking about people who are close to the halls of power already being very carefully investigated, and for those individuals, they already know it’s part of the game, the price you pay for access to power. If they’ve had questionable dealings, then I’m glad they’re opting out of the nomination process early.
Careful, thorough vetting of appointees can only be a good thing. I applaud the Obama administration for trying to prevent conflicts of interest and known problems in individuals who want access to more power.
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Our economy is in a great deal of trouble. Far more than a problem in financial services, far more than just hype on the evening news, we’re in a LOT of trouble.
Consider a few things:
1. The jobless reports crested today at 542,000 jobs lost/initial unemployment claims filed. This is huge, and indicates that there is severe weakness in all sectors of the economy. This close to the holidays, jobless claims should be declining as the service sector staffs up for the holiday retail season, yet we see the opposite happening.
2. Major companies are getting pummeled, such as GM, Citigroup, and others. A failure of a major Dow component or Fortune 10 has a significant impact on the economy.
3. Mayors Bloomberg and Daley of NYC and Chicago were warned to prepare for thousands of layoffs by the end of the year.
4. We still haven’t unraveled Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers’ exotic financial instruments. A GMAC failure would be very, very bad.
5. We still haven’t unraveled the massive derivatives market.
There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the media, but not all of it is unwarranted. There really is no bottom in sight.
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You must be passionate about what you do and what you believe in. You must be passionate, emotional, even a little overzealous, because it’s that passion that will keep you going when times get rough… like now. The passion to make a difference, to be more than the sum of your experiences, to want to promote something greater than just you will make hard decisions easier, forming friendships faster, gathering allies to your cause smoother. Passion will drive you and awaken in you the hero that cannot fail, that cannot be swayed, that cannot be broken.
Passion will clear your vision, open your mind, and brighten your heart. Passion is a virtuous circle – the more passionate, the brighter shines your light – which in turn inspires you again to shine ever brighter.
These are dark times. We need each other’s light more than ever.
Here’s the greatest secret of all:
Passion, like happiness, is waiting there in front of you.
Will you pick up the mantle and become a champion?
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Yep, another economics crossover. Blizzard Entertainment’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack for World of Warcraft dropped last week, and its impact on the economy has been fascinating. Veteran players of the Auction House (the in-game free market) have been finding that since the expansion came out, very little has been selling. The reason, however, is not because the most advanced players in the game are in a new part of the game. The reason is likely because the most advanced players (and the wealthiest, or at least those with greatest access to capital) are running out of money.
If you’ve never played World of Warcraft, it’s a virtual reality game, an online role playing game in which you are an adventurer beating up other people or game-generated opponents. Part of the game is buying and selling equipment to make your character better, more effective. Whenever you defeat a creature in the game, you typically get a small reward of some kind, plus some experience points which contribute towards making your character better. Once you hit the maximum level of experience points, money is substituted for experience points. For a long time, since the last expansion pack, top players have been generating hundreds of gold (the in-game currency) a day, and pouring that money into the virtual economy.
Here’s where the expansion pack changed the economy. The expansion pack now allows top players to earn more experience points, up to a new cap. Because they’re fighting stronger, better opponents, their equipment repair bills (yes, you can’t escape bills, even in virtual reality) have increased, but more importantly, there’s not generating capital any longer – they’re generating new experience points to reach a new maximum level. On top of that, a new class of character was introduced, and experienced players have been trying to build up those characters as fast as possible, again taking a lot of money and earning potential out of the virtual economy.
Think about that for a second. Your top sources of capital in an economy have dried up, while expenditures of capital have increased.
You have, in other words, deflation. Deflation, economically speaking, is when the amount of money in an economy decreases with respect to goods and services in the economy. A dollar (or gold, or whatever measure of currency) is worth more tomorrow than it is today, because there’s just less money available. Deflation brings prices down, but that means it also brings wages down, too. Consumers lose spending power. Demand for items drops because there’s just less money to buy things with.
As a result, economic activity slows down. Supply outstrips demand. Items in the Auction House are still being listed, but buyers are getting harder to find. If you look at the moving averages of prices, you also see that prices are falling – exactly what you’d expect in a deflation. This is a double whammy for sellers trying to move goods in the Auction House – fewer buyers and falling prices.
Sound familiar?
This is exactly the situation that the real economy, especially real estate, finds itself in. You have an absence of buyers complicated by falling sale prices due to foreclosures and lack of demand. Because housing has been a disproportionate amount of economic activity over the past 5 years, the collapse of the housing market has in turn spread malaise to the rest of the economy.
This is also why inflation isn’t a concern right now. Governments of the world have been printing money like crazy recently, borrowing against future taxpayer earnings, or just outright inflating their currencies. However, inflation isn’t a concern because capital – money, in the form of credit – is being destroyed faster than the governments are creating it, as investments go bad over and over again. Without the capital generators of top players in a virtual game or an engine of growth in the real game of life, money is being used up faster than it’s being generated.
How will things change? Well, in Warcraft, those top players will again in the near future hit their maximum levels of experience, and will once again return to income generation. As that happens, capital will return to the markets and you’ll see sales and buying rise again. It may take some time to get there, as reaching maximum experience does take time and effort, but it will happen. In Warcraft, at least, the engines of the economy – top players – can be counted on to bring new influxes of currency to the world.
This is the conundrum that faces the real world economy. The practices – irresponsible lending, irresponsible buying, irresponsible investing – that drove the last economic engine are broken. We can’t go back to them. We need a new economic engine that can begin to generate growth and capital. When we figure that out, when we figure out what will bring money back into supply without the danger of another bubble, we’ll see things turn around in real life.
What should you be doing? Both in the game and in real life, in a deflation, preservation of capital is essential, in the form of saving money, reducing expenditures. Both in the game and in real life, if you have a capital base, you should be looking for very cheap opportunities for investment and growth, and spending the money you do have very selectively, looking to pick up serous bargains. If a dollar is worth more tomorrow than it is today, then it makes sense to hold onto those dollars, to not spend beyond necessities, and to find new opportunities for growth. Find that next economic engine, be very picky about where you spend your money, and keep your eyes open.
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Here’s an easy way to tell. Load up your web site of choice on a mobile browser. Hold the device at arm’s length. If you can’t immediately pick out the call to action and get a sense for what the site is about, then your web design isn’t amazing.
