Twitter for Marketing Your Business

See more content at http://www.tangentinitiatives.com

Davis Entrepreneurs to Host First Meeting

The Davis Entrepreneurs, formally known as the Jacksonville Entrepreneurship Club, have reorganized to launch themselves as the premier business organization at the Davis College of Business at Jacksonville University. The organization plans to help students compete against some of the top schools and entrepreneurship programs in the world. "Business competitions, conference opportunities, and renown speakers are all part of our newly rolled out plan," said president Chris Salley.

The organization could not have come at a better time. With students looking for competitive opportunities to apply what they are learning in the classroom, organizations like the Davis Entrepreneurs are there to make it happen. "Students often take the concepts they learn in the classroom and file them away. We don't let that happen. We're preparing students to be better than the competition. People in our organization come out with the skills to start, run, and grow any type of business. You don't find these types of skills in most recent grads, who spend their summer breaks working in the retail or the restaurant business," said vice president Grant Deken. "We are aggressive, organized, and know what it takes to set ourselves apart."

If you're in the Jacksonville area, the organization's next meeting is January 22nd at 7PM at the Davis College of Business at Jacksonville University. For more information you can contact Chris Salley at Csalley@jacksonville.edu or Grant Deken at Gdeken@jacksonville.edu.

So You Want to Sell Advertising

Many people start sites with the preconceived notion that they can make tons of money by selling advertising. Don't be fooled, the road to riches is more detailed and complex than you know. For those of you moving forward, here are some tips for getting started.

What you need prior to selling anything is a detailed breakdown of your traffic. Understanding the types of visitors and members you have is going to be essential to successfully finding advertisers. You want a user base that is targeted, but not so targeted that you are limiting advertising prospects.

You need to know that in addition to users being interested in your site's primary focus, they are also within 'x' age range, 'x' income level, gender, etc. You absolutely need to understand figures such as bounce rates, the average time spent on your site, where the majority of traffic is coming from and the rate of growth/month.

Being that the economy is presumably slower than it was in the ad boom we saw about a year ago, you can be pretty sure that budgets for advertising are somewhat smaller. The rate of spending is still increasing, but at a slower rate than before. Because advertisers are a bit more cautious, a Pay Per Click (PPC) package may be more attractive, since the ROI is much more tangible.

CPM advertising (cost per thousand impressions) is the other alternative. Advertisers looking to maximize exposure in a specific market will likely flock to this option. Again though, the ROI is less tangible, and MOST companies, in my humble opinion, are looking at PPC options.

When you structure deals you want to emphasize the uniqueness of your audience and understand who your key prospective advertisers are going to be. Offer all encompassing advertising packages in addition to a single banner, like what you see on sites such as break.com, where a company gets the banner, in-video ad, and perhaps a "free offer" opportunity from the advertiser. Sponsorship is a great word to use and paradigm to embrace since it feels less "advertisy" to consumers.

Traffic: this will be a tough barrier to overcome given that you probably don't have start up capital to spend on advertising yourself. My suggestion is to structure a vigorous grass roots campaign Which is often much better for long term results and for generating a consistent user base.

Blogs are a great first step in spreading the word and building natural traffic. Submit value based content to article databases as well. Original videos are also an emerging tactic that can build viral traffic to your site. My suggestion is keep it somewhat short, and very funny. Humor is key. Submit releases to other websites that may have an interest in your site. Offer to write stories on other companies in order to get them to post your story on their blogs.

Be creative. The more creative you can be as far as distribution methods the better.

Be patient! Don't expect your traffic and page rank to skyrocket over night. But also know that the harder you work and the more time you put in, the faster you will see results.

Visit Grantdeken.com to get more ideas and information on how to boost your company's marketing efforts!

Jacksonville University Creating CEO's

The Davis College of Business is out to make a name for itself and this past weekend was no different. The College of Business, along with the JU entrepreneurship club, sent three students to the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization’s annual conference in Chicago, Illinois.

Roughly 1,400 students, faculty, and entrepreneurs gathered together for three days of networking, workshops, and keynotes by some of today’s most prominent business leaders. “It was a rewarding experience to be surrounded by a group of people who have many of the same goals as you, that think the way you do,” said Grant Deken, a senior economics major and founder of a small marketing firm, Tangent Initiatives, LLC. “We came out of the conference with a different paradigm. The three of us feel energized and confident we can take our businesses and our organization to the next level.

The conference featured more than twenty workshops from basic concepts to more advanced subjects such as venture financing and search engine optimization. Veteran attendees competed in business plan and elevator pitch competitions for large cash prizes. “The workshops and keynotes were amazing,” Said JU Entrepreneurship Club president Chris Salley, “but the opportunity to network with peers and business leaders was truly invaluable. We are really thankful to have the support of Dr. Rossiter, Dean McCann, and the whole College of Business.”

The JU Entrepreneurship Club currently meets once a month and focuses on bringing in local entrepreneurs to discuss different aspects of starting and running a business. “We have big plans for our organization this year. We want to continue to bring in speakers, but also move towards bigger things, like competitions, more conference opportunities, and social entrepreneurship within the city,” Salley said. “Our organization encourages anyone interested in starting their own business to attend our events and meetings.”

If you would like more information about this topic or to schedule and interview with Grant Deken, please call him at 904.254.5768 or e-mail at Gdeken@jacksonville.edu

Bad Break Causes United Airlines a Billion!

September 10, 2008, 12:09 pm

By Mike Nizza

From left to right, the journey of old news that would cost $1 billion. A Sun Sentinel story from 2002 resurfaced in an automatically generated area of the Web site, soon landed on Google News before getting posted to Bloomberg terminals.

What made a six-year-old article about a bankruptcy filing by United Airlines reappear on Wall Street traders’ screens on Monday as if it were fresh news, prompting a sell-off that erased $1 billion in the company’s market value in a matter of minutes? The path the article followed from forgotten archive entry to present-day stock-killer has begun to emerge, and it raises some interesting questions about how news rockets around the Web.

Both human error and far-from-foolproof technology seem to have played a role in the episode, which involved a 2002 Chicago Tribune report; the web site of the Sun Sentinel, a Florida newspaper owned by the same company; the Bloomberg News financial wire service; and Google, all apparently unwittingly.

The Tribune Company laid out the results of its preliminary investigation into the incident in a news release late Tuesday afternoon, beginning with a line that painted its newspapers as victims of circumstances beyond their control:

The December 10, 2002, Chicago Tribune article on United Airlines’ bankruptcy filing, along with thousands of others stories in the searchable database of the Sun Sentinel website, was accessible for years.

The trouble seems to have started on Sunday, when a link to the old article turned up on a page on the Sun Sentinel site that automatically lists the most popular business stories of the moment. Why did such old news suddenly garner enough attention to land it there? Tribune hasn’t offered an explanation so far, except to say that the story was not promoted elsewhere on the site. So one open question is precisely how many clicks it took to earn a spot on that ranking — dozens? hundreds? thousands?

Any effort to find out more would lead down the many roads that readers may follow before converging anyplace on the Web. Sometimes, there’s an obvious answer tied to the news. Sometimes, it’s seemingly random phenomena. Just one look at Google Trends, the search giant’s version of a most-popular chart, would yield both kinds of items.

Had the old article merely spent a bit of time on that Sun-Sentinel list before returning to the archive, no harm would have been done to United. But a second piece of software apparently stopped by to analyze the work of the first one, and it would call the article to the attention of a much larger audience.

Normally, Web sites welcome the arrival of Google’s “bots,” which “crawl” around the Internet, following links and cataloguing the content they find for users to search. Indeed, many sites have been optimized in recent years specifically to make it easier for Google’s bots to detect new material quickly and bring it to Google’s monstrous audience. Most-popular-articles rankings are one place where Google News bots find the headlines they aggregate for readers. Up it went.

And there lies a rather big catch, which constitutes the biggest disagreement between Google and Tribune. Google believes that the fact that the bankruptcy article dated from 2002 was not obvious to either robot or human:

It has been widely reported that many readers were unable to determine the original date of publication of this article, and our crawling was similarly unable to recognize that the article was old.

For its part, Tribune says that no one who actually read the story could have mistaken it for fresh news:

The December 10, 2002, story contains information that would clearly lead a reader to the conclusion that it was related to events in 2002. In addition, the comments posted along with the story are dated 2002. It appears that no one who passed this story along actually bothered to read the story itself.

Neither assertion contradicts the other, but Tribune seems surprised by a reading style that is commonplace in the age of Google. As Nicholas Carr wrote in an Atlantic essay entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” last month, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”

As for preventing another similar incident, leaving sharper date cues for Google would seem to be far easier than changing the habits of millions of readers. In this case, though, it only took one reader to open the barn door for United stock’s shockingly swift decline — the one working at Income Securities Advisers, who saw the item on Google News and sent out a summary of it on Bloomberg News.

Stripped from its original context, the report gave traders who were already nervous about airline stocks just enough information — “UAL Files for Bankruptcy” over the weekend — to start them pounding the sell button, and not enough time to think twice about salvaging whatever was left of their stake.

Of course, software had a hand in the sell-off as well. “The damage was exacerbated by the growing use on Wall Street of automated programs that trigger stock trades without any human interaction,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

As the search for blame returned once again to something rather than someone, it appeared that United and its shareholders will have a hard time getting satisfaction after an astonishingly bad break.

Challenge to lose weight is offering a cash prize

By MAGGIE FITZROY, Shorelines

When Scott Rubenstein stepped off the scale, he got good news. He'd lost eight pounds in a week.
"You lost eight pounds?" asked his wife, Lynne, who was waiting in line for her turn to get weighed. "Good job," she said, slapping his hand in a high-five.

The Rubensteins are among 40 people taking part in a 12-week Weight Loss Challenge program that meets every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at The Players Community Senior Center in Ponte Vedra Beach.

The program, led by personal wellness coaches Tracy and Steve Deken and their son Grant Deken, costs $39 to register. From that fee, $10 is donated to gofitkids.org, an organization that aims to raise awareness and prevention of childhood obesity. The rest goes into a pot, to be divided at the end of the 12 weeks by the three people in the group who lose the most weight.

The biggest loser will receive $500, the second will get $300 and the third will get $200.

So many people signed up for the program, which began July 16, that the Dekens began a new class Monday at the senior center on Landrum Lane. Classes are capped at 40 participants, and people can still join that one if it's not full. If it is, the Dekens, who run the program as volunteers, plan to create an additional class.

"We embrace any healthy method of weight loss," said Tracy Deken, who teaches the program with her husband according to guidelines of the company they are affiliated with, Herbalife International.

They offer a "lifestyle" eating plan for participants to follow, but she said their plan is not mandatory for the program, no products must be purchased and many people follow their own diets, some at the advice of their physicians.

The first week, they weighed each participant then took chest, waist, hips, thigh and upper arm measurements. On July 23, Grant Deken weighed everyone again, since getting weighed every week is a big part of the program. Then he took two full-length photographs of each person, from the front and side. During the last class, everyone will be photographed again for comparison.

After the weigh-in, Steve Deken led a 45-minute class on nutrition and exercise advice, gave a quiz on calorie counts of common snack foods, and then everyone stood to applaud each other for completing a successful week.

Some were more successful than others. Scott Rubenstein had lost the second-most amount of weight; a woman who didn't want to be identified lost 81/2 pounds. Leisa Atkins of Ponte Vedra Beach, who is taking the class with her mother, was happy that she'd lost 6.6 pounds.

Her mom, Charlene, wasn't as successful. She gained 2 pounds. Since the rules of the program stipulate that participants have to pay $1 for every pound gained, she had to put $2 in the pot.

Unlike some reality television shows, "we don't announce measurements and weights, and we don't ship anybody off any islands," Tracy Deken said. "We celebrate success."

Jeffrey Rubin of Nocatee, who is taking the class with his wife, Nancy, said so far he's happy with the 4 pounds he lost.

"Coming in to get weighed every week is motivating," said Nancy Rubin, who lost 1.8 pounds.

"Getting the appropriate education and exercising will hopefully do the trick."

"It's all about changing your eating habits," her husband said.

He doesn't expect to win any money, but "I'm not here for the money," he said. "I'm here to lose weight and feel better."

Maggie FitzRoy can also be reached at (904) 249-4947, ext. 6320.

Link:http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/073008/nes_310610012.shtml

Idea of the Day

If you already know what I'm talking about, then you're probably mumbling and rolling your eyes as you think about that boss or manager who had serial entrepreneurial tendencies. The rest of you are thinking, "what is he talking about." Let me start off by saying that entrepreneurs truly are some of the most influential people in today's society. Fortunately we live in a society that rewards free thinking and creativity. However, in the business world - especially the small business world - the prevalence of the "Idea-a-day" mentality can be seriously hurtful to a business's longevity.

As an example, think of the stock market. Sound investments are typically well thought out and formulated for consistent long-term growth. The majority of day traders who are trying to buy and sell and make the quick and easy buck typically - although a few beat the market - grind their savings into sawdust.

The same goes for business strategy. You have to plan the work and work the plan as the old adage goes. Ironically, you would be surprised how many leaders get caught up doing just the opposite. People tend to get an idea and become excited and want to get it in place as soon as possible but typically observe the opposite.

My suggestion: Team accountability. Get together as a team and spend time to formulate a long term plan. Where is your business now, and where do you see it in five years? Write down the goals and vision of your business. Then work on a shorter term, 90 day plan to orchestrate your sales and marketing strategy. Take time to really plan things out. Often times I see excitement rush a project from conception to launch in just a few days and as a result it typically falls apart after a few weeks.

My step-by-step prescription for success:

1. Set your organization's goals. Make sure they're on paper. Ideally, you should have them hanging in every office. Open goals lead to more accountability. Where will your company be in 5 years?
   
2. Create a 90 day plan. This is where you formulate strategy. How are you going to grow the business? This is where you fill the proverbial tool box with the necessary items to be successful.
   
3. Stick to the plan. Work the plan. It's OK to have ideas, but develop them slowly and launch them accordingly. I can't tell you how many times Managing Directors and other executives have come to me with the next huge idea that they can't wait to start. Nine times out of ten they are a waste of time (the other one idea is the reason why they are managing directors).
   
4. Measure performance and make changes as needed. Monthly is ideal.

Do the research, plan your "investment" and attain consistent growth. The days of the day traders are few and far between.

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft/Icahn Proposal

Saturday July 12, 11:08 pm ET

Yahoo! Suggests Microsoft Make A Proposal To Acquire Whole Company SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News), a leading global Internet company, confirmed today that it has rejected a joint proposal from Microsoft Corporation and Carl Icahn for a complex restructuring of Yahoo! that would include the acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business by Microsoft.

The proposal was made on Friday evening and Yahoo! was given less than 24 hours to accept the proposal, the fundamental terms of which Microsoft and Mr. Icahn made clear they were unwilling to negotiate. After reviewing the proposal with its legal and financial advisers, Yahoo!'s Board of Directors determined that accepting the proposal is not in the best interests of its stockholders.

The Board’s rejection of the proposal was based on a number of factors, including the following:

1. Yahoo!’s existing business plus its recently signed commercial agreement with Google has superior financial value and less complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal.

2. The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would preclude a potential sale of all of Yahoo! for a full and fair price, including a control premium.

3. The major component of the overall value per share asserted by Microsoft/Icahn would be in Yahoo!’s remaining non-search businesses which would be overseen by Mr. Icahn’s slate of directors, which has virtually no working knowledge of Yahoo!’s businesses.

4. The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would require the immediate replacement of the current Board and removal of the top management team at Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Board believes these moves would destabilize Yahoo! for the up to the one year it would take to gain regulatory approval for this deal.

Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! said, “This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders in mind. Clearly, Microsoft, having failed to advance in search, is aligning with the short-term objectives of Mr. Icahn to coerce Yahoo! into selling its core strategic search assets on terms that are highly advantageous to Microsoft, but disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. Yahoo’s Board of Directors will not allow that to happen. Yahoo!’s Board remains open to any transaction that delivers full value to our stockholders – we just do not believe such a transaction should be dictated by Microsoft and a single short-term investor.”

Mr. Bostock continued, “After negotiating among themselves without the involvement of Yahoo!, Carl Icahn and Microsoft presented us with a ‘take it or leave it’ proposal under which we would be required to restructure the Company, hand over to Microsoft Yahoo!’s valuable search business and to Carl Icahn the rest of the Company, giving us less than 24 hours to respond. It is ludicrous to think that our Board could accept such a proposal. While this type of erratic and unpredictable behavior is consistent with what we have come to expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our stockholders.”

Mr. Bostock also noted that Microsoft’s position that it would not deal with, or otherwise engage with, Yahoo!’s management to reach agreement on this proposal or to implement it, is completely absurd and irresponsible given the complexity of the deal – one that requires the removal of half of Yahoo!’s business from Yahoo! and then the integration of it into Microsoft.

Yahoo!'s Board points out that a transaction to acquire the whole company would be much more straightforward and involve far less risk than the new proposal or any similar alternative. The Board believes a whole company transaction could be negotiated and executed prior to August 1^st. In rejecting the Microsoft/Icahn proposal, Yahoo! not only repeated its offer to sell the entire Company to Microsoft for at least $33 per share, but also offered to negotiate an improved search only transaction. Microsoft rejected both offers.

Ironically, Carl Icahn, who jointly with Microsoft developed and presented this proposal, had previously urged Yahoo! not to sell its search business to Microsoft. Specifically, in an interview on CNBC's Fast Money program, on June 4, 2008, Mr. Icahn said, “... it's crazy for this company now to do this alternative deal and give the store away, because obviously, an alternative deal is a poison pill because once you've done an alternative deal and given the search to Microsoft, you don't need Microsoft to buy you anymore. So, that would be a poison pill….”

Significantly, the Board believes Microsoft and Mr. Icahn are overstating the value their search and restructuring proposal would deliver to Yahoo! stockholders and are substantially understating the risks. Yahoo! noted that a transaction that would separate the Company's search and display businesses is an undertaking of great complexity. While the Board acknowledges that the current proposal contains a number of improvements over Microsoft’s earlier proposal, the Yahoo! Board's conclusion that the current proposal is not in the best interests of stockholders is based on a number of factors, including:

• The revenue guarantees suggested, which are conditional and subject to reduction, are well below the search revenue that the Company is expected to generate on its own and in association with its announced commercial agreement with Google. That agreement alone is estimated to generate $250 to $450 million of incremental cash flow for the first twelve months following implementation, while allowing Yahoo! to remain a principal in paid search;
• The success of the remaining Company is critically dependent on Microsoft’s ability to effectively monetize search;

• Microsoft/Icahn’s proposed Traffic Acquisition Costs rates are below market;
• The proposal calls for Yahoo! to sell its industry-leading algorithmic search business and its related strategic and valuable intellectual property portfolio for no incremental consideration; and
• Many of the components of the headline value that Mr. Icahn and Microsoft put forward, such as the spin-off of the Yahoo!'s Asian assets and the return of cash to stockholders, are steps that could be taken by Yahoo! on its own and the Board continues to evaluate these options.

Mr. Bostock concluded, “Microsoft and Mr. Icahn are trying to dismantle the Company and deliver our search business to Microsoft on terms that would be disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. We are prepared to let our stockholders, not Microsoft and Carl Icahn, decide what is in their best interests and we look forward to the upcoming vote.”

About Yahoo! Inc.

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This release refers to operating cash flow (operating income before depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, and stock-based compensation expense, or OCF), which is a non-GAAP financial measure. The most comparable GAAP measure is income from operations. With respect to the OCF numbers provided in this release, the estimate of income from operations is the same as the estimated OCF, as the Company does not expect to incur any additional depreciation and amortization or stock-based compensation expense related to this agreement.

Forward Looking Statements

This release (including without limitation the statements and information in the quotations in this press release) contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Yahoo!'s projected financial performance as well as Yahoo!'s strategic and operational plans. Actual results may differ materially from those described in this release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the expected benefits of the commercial agreement with Google may not be realized, including as a result of actions taken by United States or foreign regulatory authorities and the response or acceptance of the agreement by publishers, advertisers, users, and employees; the implementation and results of Yahoo!'s ongoing strategic initiatives; the impact of organizational changes; Yahoo!'s ability to compete with new or existing competitors; reduction in spending by, or loss of, marketing services customers; the demand by customers for Yahoo!'s premium services; acceptance by users of new products and services; risks related to joint ventures and the integration of acquisitions; risks related to Yahoo!'s international operations; failure to manage growth and diversification; adverse results in litigation, including intellectual property infringement claims; Yahoo!'s ability to protect its intellectual property and the value of its brands; dependence on key personnel; dependence on third parties for technology, services, content, and distribution; general economic conditions and changes in economic conditions; potential continuing uncertainty arising in connection with the withdrawal of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal to acquire Yahoo! and the announced intention by a stockholder to seek control of our Board of Directors; the possibility that Microsoft or another person may in the future make another proposal, or take other actions which may create uncertainty for our employees, publishers, advertisers, and other business partners; and the possibility of significant costs of defense, indemnification, and liability resulting from stockholder litigation relating to the Microsoft proposal. More information about potential factors that could affect Yahoo!'s business and financial results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Yahoo!'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, as amended, and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. All information in this release is as of July 12, 2008, unless otherwise noted, and Yahoo! does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update or otherwise revise the information contained in this release.

Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact:

Yahoo! Inc.
Brad Williams, 408-349-7069 (Media)
bhw@yahoo-inc.com
Marta Nichols, 408-349-3527 (Investors)
mnichols@yahoo-inc.com
or
The Abernathy MacGregor Group for Yahoo! Inc.
Adam Miller, 212-371-5999 (Media)
alm@abmac.com
Winnie Lerner, 212-371-5999 (Media)
wal@abmac.com

---

Source: Yahoo! Inc.

I'm a Punk Rocker, Yes I am

I wanted to post this up a while back and forgot. For two reasons. One, Iggy Pop is in this song, and that's reason enough. Also though, this song is super catchy, and you will all walk around humming this at work and think "Damnit Grant!"

ABC - Always Be Closing

This is a great clip from Glen Gary Glen Ross. Probably one of my all-time favorites and definatley Baldwin's best work. This one goes out to all my friends in sales. Enjoy it. Get Motivated. First place is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second place is a set of steak knives. Third place is your fired...

The Power of Blogging

I started this blog in March of this year, not really knowing what to make of it but mostly to learn more about the world of blogging, what it entails, and how to use internet communication as a means of marketing. My philosophy is that the best way to learn something is by diving in. So I jumped, and landed in a crazy world. Not only have I learned a tremendous amount about what blogging really is but I've also come to understand why it's so widely popular.

I remember when I was young my mom would always threaten to write a letter to a business or organization when she was frustrated or had had horrible service. I always laughed and gave her a hard time. "Yeah Mom you tell them what's what," I used to say in a sarcastic tone. The irony is that today's digital age has made "letters" highly replicatable through emails, blogs, newsletters, and article databases. Writing a letter is now a powerful tool.

In my previous post I talked about my horrible experience with Next Student, a Private college loan company similar to Sallie Mae and others. It was a late night when I posted the rant, about three A.M. where I'm writing from. The next day I received a call from a senior manager who had seen the article. It had been found by a member of the company's marketing team and passed on to management in the customer service division. She had called to apologize for the poor customer service and frustrating situation I was going through. To help fix as much as she could, she offered to call my school and speak with financial aid to make sure that they do not drop me from my classes. They also offered to overnight my funds to me in an effort to speed things up and get everything taken care. She understood that student loans are a commodity and people can go anywhere to get them these days. The companies with the best value get the most business. She is absolutely right.

While most of the damage has already been done, it is not to go unnoticed that someone did reach out and apologize. It's just an unfortunate shame that it has to come to what it did to get the value that every customer really deserves. Think about any business. If we treated everyone the way I was treated after I shared my experience with the world there would be some businesses out there killing the competition. The sad truth is that most businesses lack effective training, qualified outsourced services, and experienced individuals (you get what you pay for).

Blogging has made it too expensive for companies to have bad service, because I can tell the world about it instantly. In less than 24 hours over 600 people had read my article. Businesses absolutely do not want this. However, what if I ranted about how great the service was? What if 600 people heard how great my experience was? That's powerful for business. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. Some of the most powerful marketing tools can be customer testimonials. If you have a great service or product, your customers will reward you for it.

The internet has given each and everyone a powerful voice if we choose to use that way. This is what I believe a big part of blogging is about. Consumers finally have a voice. I hope that companies are adaptive enough to thrive in a world that embraces this.

Need a Student Loan? Next Student is Not the Place To Go

With rising tuition costs it's no wonder more and more students are taking out loans to get through college. Because students are dependent on the loans to continue education in many cases, the loan companies often discard the notion of customer service since they know you need them. Let me share the nightmare of my experience with Next Student, a private student loan company with a hip mantra - "College funding made simple".

I first applied for my loan at the beginning of May. After the hullabaloo of document gathering (which is standard don't get me wrong) and time spent waiting for reps to return my calls I had everything signed and sent in. It was May 12th at this point and I was eager to finalize everything since I was taking summer classes and tuition was due sooner than later. Weeks began to go by and my endless calling was answered by a placated voice on the other end telling me that there was nothing that could be done. The department was backed up.

I can understand things are busy, but after 3 weeks I still had no answer, only to be continually told the same thing over and over. Begging my school not to drop me from my classes at the same time I began to feel helpless in the battle to get my student loan. The sight of Next Student's logo infuriated me. "College funding made simple." Soon after I was told that the underwriters had a hard time reading my faxed documents -THREE WEEKS AFTER I SENT THEM - and that I would need to resend the documents to the general fax line and restart the underwriting process. I actually laughed out load I was so shocked.

Upset and perplexed, I worked my way up the ladder until I spoke with someone who had enough intelligence to make decisions on their own. We got the documents into the department without resending them and things were starting to look a bit progressive. I was assured by Next Student the check would be ready at latest June 2.

I am writing this today, on June 5th, frustrated and eager to share my experience because no one should have to go through the stress and frustration of what I have had to go through this last month. Since June 2nd I have left three voice mails, none of which have been returned, and am fearful that despite my efforts I will be dropped from my classes and have wasted the first half of the summer. This will also cause me not to graduate on time.

I hope when you look into private loan funding you look to a company who has a reputable customer service staff. Perhaps a company that still believes in delivering value to clients. That company is not Next Student.

Saving Lives One Dollar at a Time

Many people are not aware, but malaria kills over one million people per year. The most unfortunate part of this is that it can be easily prevented unlike other diseases like HIV. People all over are rallying together to raise support to create awareness and raise funds to help put an end to the destruction causeD by malaria.

Lance Laifer has started an awareness campaign to get more people involved and educated on what's going on. Here is an excerpt from his facebook campaign

"On October 17 - World Poverty Day - we will attempt to blackout all the profile pics on facebook. This will be done to draw attention to the one million faces every year that die from malaria and to draw attention to the fact that malaria is a circular disease of poverty. It causes poverty and is caused by poverty"

This campaign is part of a larger effort to raise money for the proper drugs to prevent malaria. One dollar - notice it's not one dollar a day - will cover the basic costs of getting the right drugs for a child. Africa Fighting Malaria, Laifer and others have launched the highly successful "March of the Washington's" Campaign. The idea behind this is that each person contributes a dollar bill (George Washington had Malaria too). To see more about how to get involved visit

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17178141045

It just never ceases to amaze me that billions of dollars are spent every year on so many things, why can't we use a tiny fraction to help save lives? Below are more recourses for this cause.


Links:
www.malarianomore.org
www.nothingbutnets.net
Study Finds Africans Getting Sub-Standard Malaria Drugs
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/giving/12malaria.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote

"Building sophisticated educational tools out of cheap parts, Johnny Lee demos his cool Wii Remote hacks, which turn the $40 video game controller into a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer." - TED.com

Gasoline Is Cheap: Four dollars a gallon is outrageous! We should be paying much more.

By Robert Bryce
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008, at 3:24 PM ET

The next time you have to take out a loan just to fill up your tank, remember this: Four-dollar-per-gallon gasoline is cheap.

There's no doubt that high fuel prices are hurting low-income consumers, and high energy costs are placing a tax on the economy that is slowing investment while sending billions of dollars overseas. It's unsurprising that presidential candidates and members of Congress issue new proposals practically every day to lower gas prices: Stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve! Suspend the federal gas tax! Open ANWR to oil drilling!

These proposals are delusions, and Americans are living in a fantasy land when it comes to energy and energy prices. Over the past few years, consumers have been inundated with news stories about the soaring price of gasoline. Invariably, these stories include comments from a motorist who is outraged at the evils of a) Saudi Arabia, b) OPEC, c) Big Oil, d) all of the above.

But by almost any measure, gasoline is still cheap. In fact, it has probably been far too cheap for far too long. The recent price increases are only beginning to reflect its real value.

When measured on an inflation-adjusted basis, the current price of gasoline is only slightly higher than it was in 1922. According to the Energy Information Administration, in 1922, gasoline cost the current-day equivalent of $3.11. Today, according to the EIA, gasoline is selling for about $3.77 per gallon, only about 20 percent more than 86 years ago.

Given the ever-increasing global demand for oil products—during the first quarter of this year, China's oil consumption jumped by 16.5 percent—and the increasing costs associated with finding, producing, and refining crude oil, it makes sense that today's motorists are paying more for their motor fuel than their grandparents and great-grandparents did.

Gasoline is also a fairly minor expense when you consider the overall cost of car ownership. In 1975, gasoline made up 33.4 percent of the total cost of owning and operating a car. By 2006, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, gasoline costs had declined to just 17.1 percent of the total cost of car ownership. Of course, fuel costs have risen by about $1 per gallon since 2006, but even with those increases, fuel continues to be a relatively small part of the cost of car ownership. By contrast, the fixed costs of ownership—insurance, licensing, taxes, and financing—have increased nearly fivefold since 1975. Maintenance costs have also quintupled over the same time period. Given those increases and the relatively low price of fuel, it's not surprising that Americans are opting for big vehicles with powerful engines. Considering the overall cost of owning a vehicle, fuel expenses just aren't a very big deal.

History shows that significant declines in U.S. oil consumption occur only after prolonged periods of high prices. Over the last two decades, U.S. consumers have been spoiled by low fuel prices. And those lower prices led to a buying binge that put millions of giant SUVs, pickups, and other gas guzzlers on our roads. Today's higher prices are forcing consumers to adapt. The EIA now expects U.S. gasoline consumption to decline this year—the first drop in demand in 17 years. In April, sales of small cars in the United States were up by 17 percent over the same period a year earlier while sales of SUVs, trucks, and large cars all fell by about 30 percent.

On the environmental front, people concerned about greenhouse-gas emissions should be cheering today's oil prices. Expensive motor fuel is the only thing that will lead consumers to use less oil and make the switch to hybrid vehicles, smaller cars, and public transit. Higher oil prices are convincing automakers to change their fleets. Earlier this week, Nissan Motor Company announced that it will begin selling an electric car in the United States and Japan by 2010. Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan, made it clear that fuel prices were a factor in the company's decision to build electric cars, telling the New York Times that "the shifts coming from the markets are more powerful than what regulators are doing."

American gasoline is also dirt-cheap compared with gas in other countries. British motorists are currently paying about $8.38 per gallon for gasoline. In Norway, a major oil exporter, drivers are paying $8.73. In 2007, out of the 32 industrialized countries surveyed by the International Energy Agency, only one (Mexico) had cheaper gasoline than the United States. Last year, drivers in Turkey were paying three times as much for their gasoline as Americans were. The IEA data also show that in India—where the per capita gross domestic product is about $2,700 (about 6 percent of the per capita GDP in the United States)—drivers have been paying more for their diesel fuel and gasoline than their American counterparts.

(Gasoline is also cheap compared with other essential fuels. A Starbucks venti latte costs the equivalent of $23 per gallon, while Budweiser beer runs $11 per gallon.)

The simple truth is that Americans are going to have to get used to more expensive gasoline. And while they may continue grumbling at the pump, they need to accept the fact that even at $3.50 or $4 per gallon, the fuel they are buying is still a bargain.

Make Room for The Kings of the Internet...In Mobile

Apple plans to release its new 3g iphone in June. I'm sure so many people are excited that their 500 dollar iphone is outdated, but what I'm more interested in is the anticipation of Google's android operating system. While many have been anticipated Google to release an actual phone - which could very well happen - what is for sure is that they have developed an operating system known as "Android".

The goal here is to create a world-class platform that becomes a benchmark in the mobile industry. Right now every phone manufacturer, from Sony to LG has different operating software. Because of this innovation is particularly slow. Another way to think of this is to look back and remember facebook when they opened up their platform to third party developers. Now there are thousands of application that users can choose from and innovation has increased drastically.

This all comes down to expansion. Google is looking to open up the mobile market and continue to expand search volume and advertising revenues. Can they do it? It seems quite possible. Many carriers seem to be receptive. The software would come standard on phones and would be "Free". I quoted free because there's always a price, and in this case it could be more mobile marketing campaigns, and not the ones I talked about in my "Could Mobile Marketing be Good" post.

What everyone wants to know, but doesn't, is whether Google will rival Apple in the mobile market. If they are able to transcend their PC application into a smooth mobile package, I will be the first one to tote around my cool new Android Phone. More information about the Google Phone is listed Below:

My Stock Picks for CNBC Portfolio Challenge 2008

Here are my picks for my 2008 CNBC $1 Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. I'm hoping to win big...

1) Andersons Inc (ANDE)
2) Caterpillar (CAT)
3) Herbalife (HLF)
4) Yahoo (YHOO)
5) CME Group (CME)
6) FTI Consulting (FCN)

If you want to to see more about the contest visit milliondollar.cnbc.com

I'll post up my earning or losses at the end of the week...

Bruce Lee's Five Rules of Productivity

By: CC Holland

Famed martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was undoubtedly an icon and a trailblazer. But did you know he was also a personal productivity guru? Well, maybe not exactly. But The Positivity Blog notes that several of his fundamental beliefs for life can translate pretty well into guidelines for personal productivity.

1. “As you think, so shall you become.” Keep yourself and your thoughts on the right track to reach your goals.
2. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” Don’t overthink, don’t procrastinate, and just do it.
3. “To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.” How people respond to you says a lot — and what you see, hear and feel in other people may be a reflection of you.
4. “Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.” Bragging is an attempt to gain validation from others, but it alienates those around you and makes you look needy. Instead, practice inner validation by setting and achieving goals.
5. “To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” Be proactive instead of reactive; don’t blindly go with the flow. Be willing to take the lead to get what you want.

Track Back: http://blogs.bnet.com/teamwork/?p=226&tag=homeCar

You Can't Just Be an Entreprenuer

Someone told me that. She had asked me what it was I really wanted to do. "An entrepreneur," I responded "You can't just be an entrepreneur. You don't have the experience or have the capital," she said. I didn't know whether to take it as advice, criticism, or an insult. I will say that yes it's harder for young people to run out and borrow millions. Today though technology is cheap, resources are plentiful, and the best start up capital is "know how".

Here is a reaffirming article from BusinessWeek about the "Start-up Itch" and how today's entrepreneurs are becoming younger and younger.

The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Slide Show >>

By Stacy Perman

As the entrepreneurial career path becomes more accepted, its appeal to the young is rapidly growing, as are the resources to make them successful

There was a time, not so long ago, when a person choosing the entrepreneurial career path wasn't exactly greeted with rampant enthusiasm. Among the notable exceptions: Michael Dell famously started his eponymous computer company (DELL ) out of his University of Texas, Austin, dorm room. And what would eventually become software behemoth Microsoft (MSFT ) began life when Bill Gates was still a Harvard undergrad.

Both men eventually dropped out of college to pursue their wildly successful ventures, but their paths to fame and fortune were decidedly not the norm. For the most part, and for the rest of us, conventional wisdom held that to be successful, one got a degree or two and then worked for an established company. Tinkering and dreaming was left to -- ahem -- entrepreneurs, not serious businesspeople.

That was then. Nowadays, "Entrepreneur is no longer a dirty word," says Gerald Hills, an entrepreneurship professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and executive director of the Collegiate Entrepreneur's Organization, a network of student groups on 500 college campuses. "It's nearly what everyone thinks of when they think about opportunities. They think of entrepreneurs now." Shorn of its stigma, the once-risky career route is now viewed as a positive calling, particularly given the wobbly economy and the no-longer-sacrosanct benefits of corporate life -- pensions and job security are fast becoming relics of a bygone era.

OUT OF THE CRADLE. The short-lived dot-com epoch that launched countless ideas into startup ventures before imploding also helped make the entrepreneurial route a viable alternative to the traditional job path. While a more sober reality has replaced the heady New Economy days, entrepreneurs are finding an expansive array of sophisticated resources, tools, and options for helping them start and operate a new business. More simply, the trail has already been blazed.

And while more and more young entrepreneurs may be embarking on the same general path, their destinations couldn't be more varied. Take surfer Matt Rivers, who five years ago used money he had earned dishwashing to buy the Pump House Surf Shop in Orleans, Mass. -- at the age of 17.

Then there's Alasdair McLean-Foreman, who started HDO Sport, a high-tech sporting-goods company in Cambridge, Mass., when he was a Harvard freshman and a member of the track team. And in 1997, Paula Yakubik, then 25, quit her job as a newspaper reporter and founded public-relations firm MassMedia in a rented cubicle in Las Vegas. Today, she has two offices in Nevada and over 30 clients.

DORM LABS. Instead of flying blind, fledgling entrepreneurs of all ages can turn to a number of organizations and resources for help in nurturing a diverse set of ideas. Business-plan competitions with juicy cash purses have sprouted up all over the country. In September, the Small Business Administration announced a partnership with Junior Achievement Worldwide to launch a small-business portal for teen entrepreneurs, mindyourownbiz.org.

A number of networking associations are also targeted to particular communities of likeminded businesspeople and their specific issues. For instance, YoungEntrepreneur.com, based in Blaine, Wa., is an member-based Web site that offers advice, strategies, information sharing, and help in securing funding.

In fact, colleges and universities that once emphasized academics in recent years have established a number of entrepreneurial programs and incubators to help polish, educate, mentor, and develop those dorm-room eurekas into full-fledged businesses. No longer the exclusive purview of MBAs, many entrepreneurial programs are now geared toward undergraduate students (see BW Online, 10/25/05, "Teaching the Startup Mentality").

"I've been in education for 30 years," says the University of Illinois' Hills, "and I've seen a real shift as more and more students want to start a business. They don't necessarily want to wait to give it a go."

VIRGIN VENTURE. Five years ago, the University of Maryland in College Park, launched the Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities (CEO) Program. The two-year course was established with a $2.5 million grant from alumnus Brian Hinman, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. It takes 35 students at a time, who must apply for admission. The program and its students are housed in a special high-tech dorm that's designed to give participants a residential learning environment where they experience an entire business lifecycle, from concept to execution to operation.

According to Karen Thornton, the program's director, while 75% of the students take part as a learning opportunity, 25% have actually gone on to create businesses from the ideas they hatched at Hinman. In recent years, Iowa State and Oregon State have launched similar programs based on Hinman's model.

Being an entrepreneur means making your own opportunities, and there's no telling where a good idea can lead you. After all, Virgin Group got its start when 15-year-old Richard Branson dreamed up a magazine called Student in his native London. Virgin Group is now an $8 billion global empire comprising some 200 companies in 30 countries, and in 1999, the celebrated founder became Sir Richard Branson when Queen Elizabeth II knighted him -- for "services to entrepreneurship."

Big Ideas Need To Be Nutured

This is a really cool commercial I found while watching some videos on TED. Autodesk was the official sponsor and I thought I would post the commercial up for everyone to see. Now, go innovate.