Ink Blots

Ink Blots are short, interesting tidbits of information, resources etc., that have caught my attention for one reason or another. Things that you may or may not interpret as useful or interesting. Who knows, maybe if you stare at them long enough you’ll actually see something that others don’t.

What tactics are you using to build your list? If you notice, it says that the coupon is FREE. It doesn’t say that the hotdogs are free. Ahhhhh.

If you have frequent flyer miles in several accounts but not enough in either one to get you that free ticket, well there’s a site where people can swap their frequent flyer miles with one another called MileHighSwap.com Not only can you swap miles for miles, you can also use them as cash and swap for items and services as well. It’s like an eBay where the currency is miles. Best of all it’s free. Check it out.

What I find interesting is what each person might walk away with after watching this video. I guess that all depends on where you are in business at the time. What stayed with me was Seth’s position on the status quo.

He raises the question “Who exactly are you upsetting? Because if you’re not upsetting anyone, you’re not changing the status quo.” It’s a very good question, and it hit home with me personally due to my relationship with a new social networking model designed for the corporate marketing community. The nature of the site “bucks” the “close to the vest” mentality of corporate marketing and challenges us to leverage our resources.

In initial Linkedin discussions several self-proclaimed mucky-mucks, or as I like to call them “plug-n-play business card marketing professionals” took to the high ground with the expected company line response to the model. The point is, the status quo at one point in time was considered innovative. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that upsetting the applecart, just might mean that you’re actually responsible for change.

To say that Alan Becker is a talented individual would be an understatement, but does his piece have anything to do with marketing? If your answer is no, then my follow-up question to you is this - Could it? These are questions that I want you to seriously consider. Sure his work is entertaining, but does it go beyond that? Remember, this is an ink blot. Do you see what I see?

To see Alan’s work in action - Click Here

Above, I asked if Alan’s piece had anything to do with marketing. Well consider this, Alan’s piece was viewed over 7 Million times, so you tell me.

According to a study conducted by Memorable Domains, generic website names with descriptive words of products and services deliver significantly higher click-through rates (CTRs) and overall clicks than those with non-generic domain names. This is something to consider when you are developing an alias campaign. A strategy that I will cover in the very near future. Click here for details.