davemick

All-white bike, painted in place? Maybe it’s a memorial...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:28:35 -0400

All-white bike, painted in place? Maybe it’s a memorial … 59th and Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn.

Check out Aaron Hobson’s brilliant portfolio of Google...

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:25:18 -0500

Check out Aaron Hobson’s brilliant portfolio of Google Street View shots taken around the world, in “enchanted and remote lands” typically only seen by locals. Such a great idea! http://aaronhobson.com/gsv.html (h/t thenextweb.)

thenextweb:

Check out the full collection of photos on Aaron’s site. (via Photos Taken by Google Street View Cameras)

Fred Lebow and the NYC Marathon: Thinking Big and Scaling Up a Start-Up

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:50:10 -0400

Today, on Thirteen (TV, not online), I saw Run for Your Life, the documentary on Fred Lebow, the runner who dreamed big, lived what he loved to do, and created one of the most successful start-ups the City has ever seen: The New York City Marathon.

Most years, we head down to 4th Avenue, in Brooklyn, to watch the marathon, but I had never known its history or thought about what a huge task it must have been to get thousands of runners to cut a 26-mile path through all five boroughs - let alone to get permission and sponsors for it!

Try to see the film, if you can, whether or not you’re an entrepreneur … or a runner. It will replay on Thirteen at 7:30 a.m. and midnight on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011. (But don’t forget to set your DVR clock to fall back :o)

Music break: From a 2011 release by Des Ark, an intriguingly...

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Music break: From a 2011 release by Des Ark, an intriguingly lush, raw, dissonant, harmonious, humorous, ferocious band from North Carolina. http://lovitt.bandcamp.com/album/dont-rock-the-boat-sink-the-f-cker

On ComputerShopper.com: My Review of the Kobo eReader Touch Edition

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:30:00 -0400

On ComputerShopper.com: My Review of the Kobo eReader Touch Edition:

At $129, the Kobo eReader Touch Edition is $10 cheaper than the Nook Simple Touch and $30 more expensive than the Kindle Touch coming in November. With powerful font controls, a slim/light form factor, and ePub compatibility (allowing it to read the most universal ebook format, available through public libraries), the Kobo remains a compelling alternative (even though it may become less prevalent in the US market following the demise of Borders).

On Entrepreneur.com: My Roundup of Four Gas Price Apps

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:32:00 -0400

On Entrepreneur.com: My Roundup of Four Gas Price Apps:

On Entrepreneur.com, I wrote a roundup of four apps that help you save money on gas, based on your location. Here’s the grain of salt: “Unfortunately, these apps won’t point you to free gas or truly cheap gas — only gas fairies can do that.”

Let me know if you’ve had luck with these (GasBuddy, TripTik, Mapquest, Poynt) or other apps.

Women Over 40 - This Book's for You: Get DARE From Here!

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:45:00 -0400

My MBA classmate Liz DiMarco Weinmann just released her first book, Get DARE From Here! ($23.95, 330 pp.: https://www.createspace.com/3626200).

Soon after we started our MBA program at NYU, in 2007, Liz told me she was thinking of writing a book someday. She knew I’d been in book publishing/marketing for 15+ years at that point - and I knew she really would write that book (unlike most folks who consider writing a book - myself included!).

Check it out and order copies for all the ladies in your life! I’m ordering my own copy (and I don’t get any kickbacks - I’m just psyched for her! :-)

Here’s a snip from the description:

Get DARE From Here!(tm) is for all women over 40 who are fed up with being called cougars, cobras and crones, and who want instead to mash the myths, bash the biases and slam the stereotypes. The book is easy to follow, with energizing insights, ideas and exercises for developing a personal strategy, action plan, leadership profile and hopeful vision for an enduring legacy.

New experiment: Wearing my special occasion shoes every day.

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:45:00 -0400

In 1996 or so, my newly wed bride and I were invited to my boss’s husband’s 50th birthday party.

We were excited. It was our first grown up party since our wedding, to be held in Ponte’s, a nice restaurant on Desbrosses, in Tribeca.

I got a haircut, a new shirt, and a pair of Florsheim oxfords. The memory stands out because those are things I rarely do. Two years earlier, I was in a post-punk band and roamed the East Village in a motorcycle jacket, black boots, and similar grungewear.

Then and now, I wear shoes until I get tired of wet socks on rainy days. When the most recent iteration of this ended - and I set aside some wingtips - I dug out the Florsheims. My special occasion shoes.

So, does it feel like every day is a special occasion?

Yes, in that I’m burning my reserves and enjoying the sense memory of that youthful evening, knowing I don’t have a nicer pair waiting in the wings, when the next big night arrives.

My daughter recently discovered this in a sketchbook -...

Mon, 30 May 2011 17:42:00 -0400

My daughter recently discovered this in a sketchbook - it’s a portrait of me from two years ago, when she was eight. Propped up with my laptop on a lap desk, I’m well stocked with news and candy. She knows me well :o)

My Entrepreneur.com Article Is Up: Four Sales Lead Generators

Mon, 30 May 2011 16:48:00 -0400

My Entrepreneur.com Article Is Up: Four Sales Lead Generators:

If you use e-mail marketing, telemarketing, or direct mail, check out my roundup of four services (Jigsaw, InfoUSA, Hoover’s, and Sales Genie), “When You’re Hungry for Sales, Consider These Lead-Gen Tools.”

Here’s a snippet:

Using a mix of advanced online searching and old-fashioned elbow grease, sales-lead generators gather, cross-reference, clean, and deliver email, phone, and postal data, often matched with business intelligence, such as employee-growth rate, initial public offering history, office square footage, and salary information. Besides selecting targets by number of employees and industry, you often can aim within a radius of ZIP codes you designate.

Whether you want to shake out new contacts on your home turf, or cast a wider net, your dollars can buy you time to spend on the rest of your to-do list. Below, we survey four of these services, Jigsaw, InfoUSA, Hoover’s and Sales Genie.

Here Comes the Sun - It's Taking Initiative

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:46:00 -0500

Three friends just had babies, two nieces and an honorary nephew had birthdays, two friends dodged an earthquake, and a friend with a wife and two kids just landed a finance job after a long post-meltdown stretch. Let’s keep that sun coming.

Let’s keep it going. One friend just opened a new office for her practice, and one friend left a giant company to co-found his own company - and was pleasantly surprised to win the giant company as one of his first clients! And one friend’s long-time dream start-up was just funded by investors. Woo hoo!

I have to go on: One friend switched from real estate to filmmaking and is writing/directing/starring in his own movie; one friend is finishing a two-year career plan to go work in China; one genius songwriter friend is posting her own videos to YouTube; one genius technical author friend is self-publishing his fiction; one genius painter friend is on the wagon and creating some of his best work ever …

Boy, you can see a lot once you start looking :o) I’m getting a boost just reciting their accomplishments. Actually, it’s not so much about accomplishments or good luck or things or money - it’s the initiative they’re taking. (Gotta tip my hat to Seth Godin on that.)

Join me in a Velvety Sunday … Nice VU playlist on YouTube.

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:08:55 -0500

Join me in a Velvety Sunday … Nice VU playlist on YouTube.

Remembering the Real Mick

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

My Grandpa passed away on January 12th. He would have been 96 yesterday. One summer, he played this song for me (Stevie Wonder’s I Just Called), in between some Tennessee Ernie Ford and country classics, while he drove me through my family’s hometown of Monticello, Indiana. Always up for hard candy, a snort of brandy, some KFC, and a laugh, Papa John - or Mick, as they called him at work - had a tough childhood, orphaned as a teenager. Leading a mule cart at the limestone quarry, delivering papers, laying railroad track in the CCC, becoming foreman at the RCA TV cabinetry shop - crafting products that were truly Made in the USA. His forearms had the girth of my legs. We had great times shooting baskets out by the barn, sitting on the porch swing, going to Dairy Queen. The man would eat raw onions from his vegetable patch. He wasn’t perfect, and those closest to him knew him best, I know. But I only received love and generosity from him, much undeservedly, especially in his last years. May he rest in peace.

My Review on ComputerShopper.com: Your New York Times Subscription May Pay for a Kindle

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:29:00 -0400

I just wrote my first review for ComputerShopper.com: Amazon Kindle (Third Generation, 2010 Version). Take a look!

Toward the end, I look to newspaper subscriptions as a good way to rationalize the purchase (in addition to an estimated overall savings of 30 percent on e-book purchases versus paper books).

For example, the savings from subscribing toThe New York Times on the Kindle is large enough to pay for the Kindle itself — with money left over for books:

… if you subscribe to paper newspapers or magazines and would be willing to switch to reading those on a Kindle (and they’re available), the rationalization could be a bit easier. For example, the Kindle edition of The New York Times costs $239.88 per year ($19.99 per month), a savings of about $300 off the paper edition. For The Wall Street Journal, the Kindle edition saves you $183 off the $363 paper subscription. Both ways, Kindle practically pays for itself. (Note: That Times amount assumes a new-subscriber discount, but for the Journal,new subscribers would actually pay less for paper—just $119 for that year.) You might miss the ink on your fingers, but perhaps not the higher cost and the inconvenience of retrieving a wet newspaper from your doorstep in your pajamas. (For the record, the Nook and the iPad can deliver both papers, wirelessly, too.)

Although I read Nook e-books and (via free RSS) newspapers on my Android G1 phone, the rationalization above may move me to buy an e-reader. My paper WSJ subscription recently ran out …

How about you? Does your consumption of books (and periodicals) merit a dedicated device — or would a multipurpose device, such as a smart phone or tablet, be easier to rationalize?

Got Trash? Reframing with Price and Packaging

Sun, 02 May 2010 03:00:00 -0400

As this Rocketboom story explains, nycgarbage.com sells cubes of NYC trash — artfully arranged — at $50 a box. What’s interesting is that what started as a proof of the power of packaging turned into a proof of the power of pricing — increasing from $10 per cube to $50. Ultimately, the success of the product and the pricing seems to have improved its quality, too — it’s somewhat curated, and more than a careless scoop of litter.

So, think about your content, services, and products. What’s trash to you — and could it be repurposed into something meaningful to others? Could the process of packaging and pricing lead you to view it as more than trash — as a product worthy of your brand?

Comments on the iPad Launch

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

I do some editing and copywriting for a computer-book publisher, Pragmatic Bookshelf, but I was pleasantly surprised when its magazine editor, Michael Swaine, asked me to comment on the iPad for PragPub magazine, just a day after Steve Jobs’ announcement.

Click here to visit the PragPub Website.

“This is an Age-of-Aquarius moment for publishing,” I say. “Authors will have more freedom (and some expectations) to realize those multimedia dreams of the 90s.”

Web 2.0 Summary Video

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Professor Michael Wesch created the following video - it’s “Web 2.0 in five minutes” - using “CamStudio for the screen captures and Sony Vegas for the panning/cropping/zooming animations.”

Beyond the content itself—remarkably current for a March 2007 release—we should study this use of media. It represents an emerging (if not “new”) way for businesses and thinkers to present information.

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

Book Promotion, the Gary Vaynerchuk Way

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:00:00 -0400

From my perspective, Gary Vaynerchuk—the boy from Belarus who grew his family’s liquor store in New Jersey into a multimillion-dollar business, and who is now teaching others to use customer service (especially via social media) to grow their businesses—has set a new standard for all authors supporting their books.

I’m piecing together a write-up of his efforts—and maybe a college course—but check out GaryVaynerchuk.com and his Twitter account to see how he spent several months engaging his audience and building anticipation for the October 2009 release of his book, Crush It!, which as Gary announced should hit #2 this Sunday in The New York Times.

For an example of Gary’s promotional efforts, consider his “experience” bundles, offered through his site: http://crushitbook.com/crush-it-the-experience/. If you buy 35, you get a personalized video; if you buy 150, you get an hour on Skype; and so on. This sets an expectation for bulk sales—which I think motivates single-copy sales—and demonstrates the way premium/ancillary offerings will help authors sell books in a world in which content is expected to be (nearly) free. [Authors: What experiences or ancillary offerings can you share?]

In line with his belief in contact and word-of-mouth promotions, Gary hosted a launch party last night at The Bell House in Brooklyn—very cool bar and performance space—exposed brick and rafters, cement floor, set in a warehouse. Gary went through the crowd, thanking everyone.

On stage, Gary said he sees himself benefiting from the “thank-you economy,” in which the people who have received his free videos and advice are purchasing his book out of gratitude. He said that his success comes from actually caring about his audience—by giving, he is getting. [Authors: How can you give to, care for, and support your audience?]

He showed a video preview of the “vook” edition of his book. The vook combines text, animation, music, voiceovers, and still photos. Then, with help from the crowd and verification from the yellow-blazered judges from the Universal Record Database—Gary set the universal record for most glasses clinked in one minute! Closing out the night, Clabo performed the “Crush It!” rap for charity—each $.99 download will feed six in Haiti. See below.

Let me round out this post—a sort of long thank-you to Gary, actually—by embedding two other videos: His powerful presentation at MediaBistro’s Circus in August 2009, and his adventurous Wine Library tasting of the best pairings for breakfast cereal.

See the full-sized version here: http://tv.winelibrary.com/2009/09/08/what-wine-pairs-with-cereal-episode-734/