Toyota is currently running a series of dealership-focused television ads in our part of the country (I suspect the campaign is national, as the ads have high production value). The ads always show target consumers (usually families with young kids, or a college-aged child) walking into the dealership, where they go to a reception counter that features a seated woman (the same lady shown in the clip below). The customer initiates the conversation. The employee helpfully shows the car that's the perfect match.
It seems as if Toyota is trying to portray dealerships and their employees as being harmless and passive. The customer is in control (starting the conversation, standing over the dealership employee). The employee is a woman, and does not use high-pressure sales tactics, hover over potential customers, etc.
I believe Toyota (and perhaps the dealerships themselves) understand they have an image problem, and the ads are designed to fight this. The question is: Is it enough? The bad tactics over the years have made most people wary of dealerships. It's not clear if a bunch of new TV spots can make much of a difference.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
Mainstream media botched parts of Boston Bombers story, too
There's a lot of criticism right now of how Reddit, Twitter, and other social media platforms were responsible for spreading false information about the hunt for the bombers responsible for the Boston Marathon terrorist attack. I would like to use this post to remind people that the mainstream media had their own credibility problems during this affair.
On the afternoon of April 17, around the time AP, CNN, The Boston Globe and other professional news outlets were claiming suspects had been arrested or were about to be, I took note of what the anchors on local Boston-area TV stations were saying:
WCVB: "I'm seeing the same tweets you're seeing"
WBZ anchor Jack Williams: "We want to clarify so people understand: We're quoting sources, who are quoting sources."
Williams: "Let me speculate out loud as we try to figure out what in the world is happening here."
Williams: "If you don't mind, let me speculate a little more, Paula"
Williams: "We haven't confirmed everything yet. But something has happened."
On Friday, when the city was effectively locked down, speculation and misinformation was joined by over-reporting of operational details. I saw one of the local stations showing a street address in Watertown that police were investigating, while the studio anchor quizzed the on-scene reporter about the position of snipers. This was after the Boston and State police had requested media not to divulge details that might endanger the lives of officers:
Is it any wonder that people have a tough time trusting professional news organizations?
On the afternoon of April 17, around the time AP, CNN, The Boston Globe and other professional news outlets were claiming suspects had been arrested or were about to be, I took note of what the anchors on local Boston-area TV stations were saying:
WCVB: "I'm seeing the same tweets you're seeing"
WBZ anchor Jack Williams: "We want to clarify so people understand: We're quoting sources, who are quoting sources."
Williams: "Let me speculate out loud as we try to figure out what in the world is happening here."
Williams: "If you don't mind, let me speculate a little more, Paula"
Williams: "We haven't confirmed everything yet. But something has happened."
On Friday, when the city was effectively locked down, speculation and misinformation was joined by over-reporting of operational details. I saw one of the local stations showing a street address in Watertown that police were investigating, while the studio anchor quizzed the on-scene reporter about the position of snipers. This was after the Boston and State police had requested media not to divulge details that might endanger the lives of officers:
#MediaAlert: WARNING: Do Not Compromise Officer Safety by Broadcasting Tactical Positions of Homes Being Searched.
— Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 19, 2013
Is it any wonder that people have a tough time trusting professional news organizations?
Friday, April 5, 2013
Excel book: Sales get a boost in March, but why?
Before I put forth some of the hypotheses for March, let me describe some of the things I tried in previous months to boost sales:
- Changed the name: Started with "Spreadsheets In 30 Minutes", changed to "Excel In 30 Minutes", then "Excel Basics".
- Made slight changes to the metadata (keywords, descriptions) in Amazon.
- Posted Excel tutorial videos and other resources on the product website and YouTube
- Lowered the ebook price from $8.99 to $5.99
Out of all of these activities, only the price cut seemed to have any impact on sales, and it was marginal.
Then came March. Sales nearly doubled. There were increases in Amazon, Createspace, and iTunes sales. Even B&N (manufacturer of the Nook) saw a few more sales in March than the previous month.
What happened? I have a few hypotheses:
- A change in Amazon categories (it's now listed under Education, rather than Computers) revealed it to a new group of potential readers
- The Goodreads Giveaway I launched on March 11 resulted in purchases by people who didn't want to wait until mid-April to learn if they had won a copy.
The problem with both of these hypotheses is they are difficult to test. Amazon and the other platforms don't share with authors where buyers come from, or how changing categories directly or indirectly impacts sales. While it's sometimes possible to track activity through the use of affiliate program codes, which I use on my product websites, Goodreads uses its own affiliate codes, meaning I cannot see the data generated by buyer clicks.
In any case, I am happy with the increase and looking forward to seeing what happens to sales of Excel Basics In 30 Minutes this April. The Goodreads Giveaway already has 190 registered readers, and the total should break 200 by the time the registration ends April 11. Of the registrants, 25 will get free books … but there are still nearly 200 other people who have indicated interest in the title. Will they end up buying a copy?
Fingers crossed ...
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Bad data, and a pool problem
We put so much trust into online databases. Oftentimes, the trust is misplaced. I learned this the hard way when I used some expiring American Airlines miles to book a vacation in New York. I trusted the online database used by aavacations.com to display accurate data about the New York Marriott Downtown. Instead, I found out that some crucial information about the hotel (see the circled part below) was incorrect.
I contacted the hotel and American Airlines, but aside from cancelling the reservation, nothing could be done. My family was out of luck.
In the grand scheme of things, whether or not a hotel database displays accurate information about certain hotel in a certain city matters little. But when you consider that hundreds of millions of people make decisions based on what they see in online databases every day, the scale of the problem becomes apparent. Even if only 10% of listings in a travel or ecommerce website have incorrect data, that represents a lot of frustration, misspent dollars, and lost business.
I contacted the hotel and American Airlines, but aside from cancelling the reservation, nothing could be done. My family was out of luck.
In the grand scheme of things, whether or not a hotel database displays accurate information about certain hotel in a certain city matters little. But when you consider that hundreds of millions of people make decisions based on what they see in online databases every day, the scale of the problem becomes apparent. Even if only 10% of listings in a travel or ecommerce website have incorrect data, that represents a lot of frustration, misspent dollars, and lost business.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Startup accelerators aren't for everyone
Today, I got a message from an old friend, asking about applying to startup accelerators. He recently left a job at a large Internet company for the startup life, and with his co-founder have begun to build some prototypes. They have also begun to consider startup accelerators like TechStars as a way to take their fledgling venture to the next level in a short period of time.
Here's what I told him: If you can get in, accelerator programs can bring wonderful benefits. You get some funding, mentors, office space, publicity, and access to experienced investors. The people I know who have made it into Y Combinator, MassChallenge, and TechStars are generally very positive about the experiences and the opportunities that came from being a part of these programs.
But here's the other thing: The application processes around some accelerators can be a huge distraction. My first startup applied to several accelerators in Boston, New York, and San Francisco, and made it to the interview stage of one of them. In the weeks before the scheduled interview, I found myself engaged in time-wasting activities such as writing emails to directors and various influencers every few days, lobbying companies that had gone through the program in years past, and spending time on things that could be construed as progress ("talked with a potential investor!", "discussed an opportunity in xyz!") to share in my email updates. These activities had little or nothing to do with progress on product or getting customers. Not only did we fail to get the nod from the accelerator, we wasted valuable time and effort on things that ultimately did not matter to the business.
I learned a lot from this and other experiences that ultimately led to the failure of the company. I also developed a belief that accelerators aren't for everyone. I have been running my second company, i30 Media, according to a different set of principles based on what I call a "Lean Media" framework. In addition, I have no interest in applying to accelerators. It's too distracting, and the needs of the company are different. I'm not looking for funding, which is the focus of many accelerator programs' "Demo Day". i30 Media is not only growing (Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes, by author Derek Slater, was released at the beginning of this month) but it's also profitable. I see a path to growth and success that does not require the help of accelerators or VCs.
Nevertheless, accelerators are hugely important to some companies. I told my friend he was doing the right thing by learning how to code and experimenting with different online products. I suggested that he take one of these ideas to the next level in a very short period of time -- either by getting lots of traction on users (if it's consumer) or getting paid customers (enterprise/B2B). This is not only the type of progress that accelerators want to see, it's also vital for the future of the company, regardless of whether or not they end up participating in a startup accelerator.
Here's what I told him: If you can get in, accelerator programs can bring wonderful benefits. You get some funding, mentors, office space, publicity, and access to experienced investors. The people I know who have made it into Y Combinator, MassChallenge, and TechStars are generally very positive about the experiences and the opportunities that came from being a part of these programs.
But here's the other thing: The application processes around some accelerators can be a huge distraction. My first startup applied to several accelerators in Boston, New York, and San Francisco, and made it to the interview stage of one of them. In the weeks before the scheduled interview, I found myself engaged in time-wasting activities such as writing emails to directors and various influencers every few days, lobbying companies that had gone through the program in years past, and spending time on things that could be construed as progress ("talked with a potential investor!", "discussed an opportunity in xyz!") to share in my email updates. These activities had little or nothing to do with progress on product or getting customers. Not only did we fail to get the nod from the accelerator, we wasted valuable time and effort on things that ultimately did not matter to the business.
I learned a lot from this and other experiences that ultimately led to the failure of the company. I also developed a belief that accelerators aren't for everyone. I have been running my second company, i30 Media, according to a different set of principles based on what I call a "Lean Media" framework. In addition, I have no interest in applying to accelerators. It's too distracting, and the needs of the company are different. I'm not looking for funding, which is the focus of many accelerator programs' "Demo Day". i30 Media is not only growing (Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes, by author Derek Slater, was released at the beginning of this month) but it's also profitable. I see a path to growth and success that does not require the help of accelerators or VCs.
Nevertheless, accelerators are hugely important to some companies. I told my friend he was doing the right thing by learning how to code and experimenting with different online products. I suggested that he take one of these ideas to the next level in a very short period of time -- either by getting lots of traction on users (if it's consumer) or getting paid customers (enterprise/B2B). This is not only the type of progress that accelerators want to see, it's also vital for the future of the company, regardless of whether or not they end up participating in a startup accelerator.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Reflections: Hacker News 10,000
A little over five years ago (1878 days ago, to be exact) I joined an online community called Hacker News. I don't remember how I heard about it, but I liked what I saw. The design was uncluttered, and the discussion was oriented toward programming, entrepreneurship, and other interesting topics which had a geeky/intellectual bent. From the Wayback Machine, You can see what it looked like in November 2007, which was shortly after I joined.
Importantly, the discussions themselves could be even more interesting than the links. There was a much higher signal/noise ratio in the Hacker News comments than in Slashdot, which until 2007 had been my daily forum of choice. Hacker News members tended to write "long", and even the short comments/questions tended to be thoughtful -- there was almost no trolling, flame wars, or crass one-liners that dominated Digg or Reddit. I have some discovered some standout contributors with strong expertise in startups, programming, and even the law. They include nirvana and grellas.
The quality of the discussion was so good, sometimes I found myself sharing the links to the Hacker News thread, or even writing about them on Computerworld and The Industry Standard, where I worked in the late 2000s.
I began to submit blog posts and articles from my places of work. The very first submission: Computerworld's DOS lives ... Secrets of the Windows command prompt. At IDG (the publisher of Computerworld and The Industry Standard) we were very familiar with the Slashot effect. I quickly discovered that Hacker News did not have the audience of Slashdot, but sometimes there would be a few hundred visitors and some good comments (usually left on Hacker News, not the post/article).
Over time I began to diversify my submissions. By 2009/2010, I was submitting only those articles that A) reflected the news/discussions sources I read most often and B) would be interesting to the Hacker News audience. I submitted 1306 articles and posts in all. Almost all submissions died on the vine, but some resonated. A few received hundreds of upvotes and scores of comments.
For instance, last week I spotted an interesting item in the Chronicle of Higher Education e-newsletter about Salman Khan, the entrepreneur behind Khan Academy. The Hacker News community holds Khan in high regard, partially because of his background (MIT, strong in math and science), but mostly because he has disrupted online learning. I submitted the latest news about Khan's new proposal for higher education, and it received more than 200 upvotes and about 90 comments. It was this submission that pushed me over 10,000 upvotes/points/karma/whatever it's called.
I left very few comments on Hacker News in the beginning. I felt that I didn't have the deep expertise to contribute to most discussions ... and didn't have the time to participate. The exceptions were discussions about online media and some historical topics, or those topics which allowed me to do a little research to add a fact or pose a relevant question. Over five years, I estimate I have made between 100 and 200 comments. Most have only an upvote or two. You can read them here.
There have been other interactions with Hacker News and Y Combinator. A few times I have reached out to other commenters for various reasons -- to use as story sources, or, when I started my first company, I wanted to learn from others in that space. Sometimes, people have contacted me (I leave my Twitter/email information in my profile).
There was another interaction that is worth mentioning. In 2008, I reached out to Paul, who put me in touch with Jessica. By this time, I was familiar with his essays (and Jessica's great interviews in Founders At Work). I was working for The Industry Standard, and wanted to see the Y Combinator accelerator in action. They invited me to their summer headquarters in Cambridge. This was the last year they came to Cambridge. It was great. Jessica was very helpful -- the idea was to make the introductions to the startups, and get out of the way. The space was small (I think there were only a dozen or so teams) but that was alright -- there was a very family-like feeling to the cohort, and I had some great interviews with the founders. Afterwards, a guest speaker came and talked about his observations. I am going to keep my word to Paul and not reveal the identity of the speaker or what the guest speaker talked about.
My final observations concern how Hacker News has changed since 2007.
Certainly, more people are using it, and the front page threads are a lot longer. In the past, there have been discussions about how HN is becoming more like Reddit or the discussion is becoming ruder or more critical. I agree.
Nevertheless, I think the front-page links are great, and the discussions they spawn are almost always thought-provoking. I learn something new every day, and try to make positive contributions from time to time.
Here's to five more years and 10,000 more points ...
Importantly, the discussions themselves could be even more interesting than the links. There was a much higher signal/noise ratio in the Hacker News comments than in Slashdot, which until 2007 had been my daily forum of choice. Hacker News members tended to write "long", and even the short comments/questions tended to be thoughtful -- there was almost no trolling, flame wars, or crass one-liners that dominated Digg or Reddit. I have some discovered some standout contributors with strong expertise in startups, programming, and even the law. They include nirvana and grellas.
The quality of the discussion was so good, sometimes I found myself sharing the links to the Hacker News thread, or even writing about them on Computerworld and The Industry Standard, where I worked in the late 2000s.
I began to submit blog posts and articles from my places of work. The very first submission: Computerworld's DOS lives ... Secrets of the Windows command prompt. At IDG (the publisher of Computerworld and The Industry Standard) we were very familiar with the Slashot effect. I quickly discovered that Hacker News did not have the audience of Slashdot, but sometimes there would be a few hundred visitors and some good comments (usually left on Hacker News, not the post/article).
Over time I began to diversify my submissions. By 2009/2010, I was submitting only those articles that A) reflected the news/discussions sources I read most often and B) would be interesting to the Hacker News audience. I submitted 1306 articles and posts in all. Almost all submissions died on the vine, but some resonated. A few received hundreds of upvotes and scores of comments.
For instance, last week I spotted an interesting item in the Chronicle of Higher Education e-newsletter about Salman Khan, the entrepreneur behind Khan Academy. The Hacker News community holds Khan in high regard, partially because of his background (MIT, strong in math and science), but mostly because he has disrupted online learning. I submitted the latest news about Khan's new proposal for higher education, and it received more than 200 upvotes and about 90 comments. It was this submission that pushed me over 10,000 upvotes/points/karma/whatever it's called.
I left very few comments on Hacker News in the beginning. I felt that I didn't have the deep expertise to contribute to most discussions ... and didn't have the time to participate. The exceptions were discussions about online media and some historical topics, or those topics which allowed me to do a little research to add a fact or pose a relevant question. Over five years, I estimate I have made between 100 and 200 comments. Most have only an upvote or two. You can read them here.
There have been other interactions with Hacker News and Y Combinator. A few times I have reached out to other commenters for various reasons -- to use as story sources, or, when I started my first company, I wanted to learn from others in that space. Sometimes, people have contacted me (I leave my Twitter/email information in my profile).
There was another interaction that is worth mentioning. In 2008, I reached out to Paul, who put me in touch with Jessica. By this time, I was familiar with his essays (and Jessica's great interviews in Founders At Work). I was working for The Industry Standard, and wanted to see the Y Combinator accelerator in action. They invited me to their summer headquarters in Cambridge. This was the last year they came to Cambridge. It was great. Jessica was very helpful -- the idea was to make the introductions to the startups, and get out of the way. The space was small (I think there were only a dozen or so teams) but that was alright -- there was a very family-like feeling to the cohort, and I had some great interviews with the founders. Afterwards, a guest speaker came and talked about his observations. I am going to keep my word to Paul and not reveal the identity of the speaker or what the guest speaker talked about.
My final observations concern how Hacker News has changed since 2007.
Certainly, more people are using it, and the front page threads are a lot longer. In the past, there have been discussions about how HN is becoming more like Reddit or the discussion is becoming ruder or more critical. I agree.
Nevertheless, I think the front-page links are great, and the discussions they spawn are almost always thought-provoking. I learn something new every day, and try to make positive contributions from time to time.
Here's to five more years and 10,000 more points ...
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Image problems with self-published books on the Nook HD
This week I was able to try out the Nook HD for the first time. It's a sharp little e-reader that I would buy in a second if I had the extra cash. It's lighter than the iPad, has a nice form factor, has a far superior UX to the Kindle, and handles video and even gaming graphics quite well. When you open an ebook on the Nook HD, the pages look crisp and have a nice off-white background. But I observed a problem with the way the Nook HD renders images on self-published books.
I observed the problem in one of my own books, a basic Excel manual that I published earlier this year. The images, which were intended to have full-screen widths, were reduced to about 50% of the page width. This made details impossible to read. Of course, it's possible to "blow up" the image by tapping on them, but that ruins the reading flow and also takes time (there are about 100 screenshots in this guide).
I don't have Nook HD screenshots to share, but I'll try to illustrate the problem with some facts and a sample image from the book that was made unreadable. The Nook HD has 1440 x 900 pixel resolution with 243 pixels per inch. This means an image that's half the width of the screen (450px) will be 1.85 inches wide. Here's what a 1.85 inch wide image from my book looks like in a browser (96 ppi):
Do you see the problem?
The file format used by the Nook is an ebook publishing standard known as ePub. Apple's iOS devices use the same ePub files as the Nook. When I was working on Excel Basics In 30 Minutes, I tested the ePub file extensively in the e-reader that I own (an iPad2) as well as in the Nook simulator provided by Barnes & Noble's Pubit service. It looked great in the iPad. On the Nook HD simulator, the images were actually too large for the screen -- Pubit actually warns authors that images may appear strange. I assumed that they would be resized to fit the Book HD screen. Little did I know that they would be reduced to the point of being unreadable.
Any other authors experiencing this problem with their Nook titles?
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