blending the mix

My Sony laptop is on the verge of packing in, after years and years of (ab)use it is at death’s door.

The CD drive does not allow me to burn back-up discs anymore and it is pot luck as to whether or not it will work from one day to the next.

So, I am offering a unique opportunity to sponsor ME.

Apple, Microsoft, Dell, or indeed any company willing to provide me with a half-decent laptop will have their name mentioned as part of my email signature.

In ALL communications in which I participate and which requires me to use the laptop (pretty much all the time!), I will apply the following signature text for a full 12 months (and I WILL provide weekly evidence of this):

Paul Fabretti

Director

Written on an Apple Macbook Pro by Company X.

Or

"Written using the latest Dell Precision M90"

or whatever suits the company providing it! You get the picture!

I may even think about something that sounds good too!

I am a minimum 3-times a day, 3-blog blogger with a (growing) average 800 unique visitors per month (ok, not a lot but growing all the time!). I am an active member of linked-in, openbc, ecademy as well as the pinkomarketing wiki and google group.

I am also an eBay (UK) Gold Power seller. A link to the company providing my laptop will also be included in ALL my eBay auctions.

Some will no doubt snigger at the visitor numbers (and advertisers may balk at the numbers!) but I am an extremely active member of the communities in which I mix, and present you with an opportunity to touch business professionals deeper than any banner ad would.

If this is of interest to you and you would be able to provide me with a laptop, I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Tags: ebay, Dell, Apple, Macbook Pro, laptop, pinko marketing

Steve Rubel reports that AOL has just launched its own myspace entrant, Trading Spaces and I’m not sure if it worth their while.

I feel that there are at least 3 major factors why there will be many challengers but mainly losers to the myspace crown:

1) Users of myspace feel a sense of ownership of the network. It has expanded from the bottom - up. Users created the content which grew myspace organically as their internal friend networks expanded. Myspace is THEIR space, trading spaces is AOL’s space reserved for THEM.

2) Have you seen some of the profiles on myspace?! Truly awesome levels of creativity and design which will have taken days if not weeks to complete. Have you moved house recently? Fun isn’t it…NOT!

3) The momentum which has helped grow myspace is unlikely to be replicated unless there are significant changes/improvements from a new entrant. Even then, unless there is a MASS migration to any one new entrant, the existing mysapce networks just aren’t going to broken up.

4) (told you there were at least 3 reasons!) Given the press furore and word of mouth surrounding myspace, surely anyone who is interested in this type of network has already set up home and is perfectly happy?

I just cannot see how someone has taken the time to embed themselves in a network like myspace will want to move networks UNLESS a new entrant provides some significant freebies or additional features.

Technorati Tags: AOL, Trading Spaces, myspace

TechCrunch reports on the impending launch of a new AOL product termed the “Myspace Killer”.

Too much too late or a welcome relief to the messy world of myspace.com?

I see increasing numbers of complaints of the myspace phenomenon - it is too messy, it is populated by idiots, there are too many “tacky” ads…but it continues to grow at phenomenal rates.

So, given that nearly 130 million existing social network users already have personalised profiles, what can AOL bring to the social networking world that doesn’t already exist?

Is there really anything left for AOL to offer to incentivise the move from myspace?

Technorati Tags: AOL, myspace.com

Steve Rubel reports on an interesting “brand extension” for AOL in releasing the code for their instant messaging system to developers.

Steve seems to be keen on the idea as long as developers add something of value to the product, such as feed alerts. Given the wealth of features already packed into many IM systems, I am struglging with the major benefits of this other than to extend AOL’s reach further…but then again, imagine the possiblities:

IM your customers with instant time-sensitive offers and see instant results, generate viral activity with an IM product shot to select IM users, add product-range specific IM “clubs”, free-up call centre staff for DRTV and Radio ads by having an IM response code…it’s actually quite a good idea!

BUT, as with many new mediums (although this is technically not NEW), be aware that only a certain percentage of your customers will have IM and an even smaller umber will feel comfortable giving out such personal details as their IM ID.

Let’s not make the mistake of mobile marketing and abuse the trust of a product close to the customer’s heart.

Technorati Tags: Steve Rubel, AOL