Archive for the ‘solution’ tag
Answer: Who Is the Trumpeter? [Video]
Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can’t get to with a simple Google query. In his weekly Search Research column, Russell issues a search challenge, then follows up later in the week with his solution—using whatever search technology and methodology fits the bill. This week’s challenge: Who is the trumpeter? More »
Challenge: Who Is the Trumpeter? [Search Research]
Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can’t get to with a simple Google query. In his weekly Search Research column, Russell issues a search challenge, then follows up later in the week with his solution—using whatever search technology and methodology fits the bill. This week’s challenge: Who is the trumpeter? More »
Analogies, metaphors and your problem
Innovation is often the act of taking something that worked over there and using it over here.
Your problem, whatever it might be, probably has a solution somewhere in the world. And your organization is probably stuck because they don’t know what to do, and more important, don’t have the guts to do it.
An example in the real world that’s precisely about your particular problem, then, is fabulous because it not only shows you what to do, it gives you the confidence to do it.
Louis CK had the same problem of many comedians–too much time, not enough money. His pay-on-the-honor-system internet special was a huge success, and of course, dozens of comedians (ostensibly creative risk takers) rushed to follow in his precise footsteps.
What were they waiting for? After all, Radiohead did a similar thing years before Louis did. Of course, they make music and he makes comedy.
“Oh, that’s a fine example of how a company in the hockey stick industry grew, but we make lacrosse sticks. Do you have any case studies of how a lacrosse stick company has succeeded?”
If you’re waiting for a proven case study, directly on point, you’re going to wait too long.
The skill, it seems, is having the desire and the guts to seek out examples by analogy instead of insisting on being a follower of someone with guts.
Archive or Delete Emails That Don’t Immediately Feel Important [Email Overload]
Managing email is a tough task for anyone. If you’re really overwhelmed, it might be time to take a more ruthless approach. Developer Matt Gemmell’s solution is especially brutal, but effective: if an email doesn’t seem important to you, delete or archive it immediately. More »
Apple wins NFC-enabled barcode-reading "shopping list" patent
Apple on Tuesday won a patent describing a complex shopping app that could make its way to the iPhone or iPad in the near future as part of PassBook or a similar eWallet solution.
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The Endgame for Biofuels in Germany?
In a recently published study, the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, issued a devastating verdict on the future of biofuels in Germany, the EU, and the rest of the world. If the rationality for using biofuels is a reduction of CO2-emissions, its researchers argue, life-cycle-analyses (LCAs) of current technologies and processes show that most biofuels are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Considering all steps in production and use of biofuels, including fertilizers, labor and conversion, the study aggressively questions the reasonableness of EU’s 10 percent by 2020 biofuel goals in transportation. (The relevant EU directives are 2009/28/EC, 2009/29/EC, 2009/30/EC.) The study concludes that none of the existing the biofuel options execpt biogenic waste would sustainably help the climate.
Basically, this is not news. Biofuels have been heavily criticized by NGOs such as Greenpeace in the past, and continue to be a campaign target. In Germany, a country with famoulsy ambitious renewable energy targets, there is, however, in addition to these facts an increasingly solid scientific consensus that biofuels should not play a prominent role in the country’s energy transition. Nobel laureate Hartmut Michel of the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt told the F.A.Z. in an interview.”I don’t want to support the nonsense of biofuels.” The press is now mostly critizising biofules.
Ultimately the endgame for biofuels in Germany may be looming, because there is no public voice supporting them. The association safeguarding the industry’s interest on the federal level, Bundesverband Bioenergie e.V., issued a statement against the Leopoldina on their website, stressign the role biofuels can play in the transport sector. But was virtually unheard in the debate. And major industrial biofuel players aren’t taking part as well. If the industry does not publicly make the case why biofuels are necessary and beneficial for Germany’s energy transition, the renewable energy future in this country may be without biofuels.
Answer: Where Was the Sculptor Born? [Search Research]
Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can’t get to with a simple Google query. In his weekly Search Research column, Russell issues a search challenge, then follows up later in the week with his solution—using whatever search technology and methodology fits the bill. This week’s challenge: Where was the sculptor born? More »
Why your PPC advertising may be faltering
I recently had an interesting conversation with the manager of an ad network’s media buyer section. They revealed an interesting insider tip that I thought was worth sharing: most self-serve pay-per-click (PPC) networks are remnant inventory networks, from LinkedIn to Google Adwords to Facebook Ads, etc.
What does that mean?
Remnant inventory is spare inventory, spare ad slots that are unfilled. If you look at any of the major ad networks, there are generally two options available, a self-serve PPC solution and a really expensive media buy solution. The self-serve is touted as best for small businesses, and the media buy is for the big wallet crowd.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the media buy crowd that can pony up for a seat at the big table gets preferential ad slot times and placements. If you buy into these media solution packages, the starting price of admission is anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 per month, and you get the best seats in the house for your ads.
The people who can’t pony up for a seat at the big table can buy into seats at the little table, where we can pay per click in a self-serve environment. The catch is this: we get whatever’s left over after the big players have expended their budgets. If you’re competing for a highly-valued audience or for highly-valued keywords and you’re in the PPC self-serve market, you’re getting silently squeezed out. Your ad for “best Christmas toys” or “best B2B service” will never be seen at prime time; chances are it’ll show at the Sunday at 3 AM slot.
The advice the manager gave? PPC self-serve works best in the first quarter of the year. Each quarter after that gets progressively more difficult as companies, eager to meet their marketing and sales targets, pour more and more money into the advertising networks. By the time the holidays roll around in the fourth quarter, there’s almost no remnant inventory left because big companies are desperate to hit their targets and are buying everything in sight. What little inventory might be possible is nearly worthless, barely converting.
So what do you do if you don’t have 100 Benjamins to lay down on the table every month? Look for advertising solutions that are much more finely targeted and less competed-for. I will guarantee you that if you have a product or service that has any level of mainstream appeal at all, there is a discussion forum, mailing list, podcast, or other network that has a small section of your buyers and is eager for any advertising dollars at all. Take a few hours to Google for them, find them, silently lurk and see if it’s a good fit for your audience, and then make your bid. You’ll exhaust that smaller audience quickly, but you’ll spend a lot less than you will anywhere on the big networks.
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The post Why your PPC advertising may be faltering appeared first on Christopher S. Penn : Awaken Your Superhero.
Challenge: Where Was the Sculptor Born? [Search Research]
Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can’t get to with a simple Google query. In his weekly Search Research column, Russell issues a search challenge, then follows up later in the week with his solution—using whatever search technology and methodology fits the bill. This week’s challenge: Where was the sculptor born? More »
