Top Ten Email Marketing Must Haves

10 very important must haves for a successful email marketing campaign. read more

5 tips to building a successful user community

If you as a product manager would like to build a user community that will self sustain, here are some tips based on my experience building the foundations of a user community on 3D ContentCentral website that currently has close to 450,000 registered members. read more

Fast Company: Greatest Gadgets of 2008

read more

Support Against Breed Specific Legislation

The Education of an Educated CEO

Twelve years ago, Jeff Koeze surprised his wife, his parents, and himself by agreeing to give up a comfortable life teaching law to take over the then-86-year-old family business. At 36, the professor was going to become a nut man.

His father, Scott Koeze (pronounced KOO-zee), was sick of running Koeze Co., which was doing about $7 million a year, mostly in mail order, primarily in cashews. That worried Jeff enough that he insisted that his father not stick around any longer than two years. If the elder Koeze ended up refusing to leave, Jeff had a golden parachute: two years of salary. Moving from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jeff and his wife, Kate, even chose a house in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Koeze Co. is based, that they figured would be easy to resell. “I wanted a risk-free out if it didn’t work,” Jeff says.

Instead, a few months after Jeff showed up, his father went on vacation and didn’t come back. Didn’t return phone calls, either. “I know your dad — he’s retired,” a longtime worker told Jeff.

Koeze was in disbelief. “That just can’t be,” he replied. But it was. read more

Showdown: Mobile App Stores Duke It Out

Inspired by Apple’s success in creating a mobile application marketplace, nearly every major smartphone platform now has an accompanying app store.

Seeing these stores launches has begun to resemble watching a marathon: Just when you think everyone’s crossed the finish line, you can see a few stragglers making their way to the end.

On Tuesday, Palm became the latest handset maker to launch its own marketplace to distribute mobile software from independent developers. It’s the third to do so, after Apple and Google’s Android. And it’s not the last. Application stores for BlackBerry and Microsoft phones are still waiting in the wings. read more

Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits, Cozy Up To ISPs Instead

After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy. read more

Imeem Gobbles Up A Young Startup, Anywhere.FM

After less than a year in operation, the team at Anywhere.FM reached an early payday today when veteran social music service Imeem gobbled them up for an undisclosed sum, most likely in a cash and stock mix. The iTunes-style web music player had raised under $100,000 in financing from Y Combinator and angels, making an early exit likely below $5 million possible. Anywhere.FM with its 60,000 users and over 9 million uploaded songs will continue to exist as is, but the founders will be joining Imeem to complete their earnout and continue work on their iTunes-style music player at Imeem’s San Francisco office. read more

Nanosilver Paint Promise To Banish Mold And Wipe Out Superbugs like MRSA and Ecoli

THE M COMPANIES, in partnership with EdenFresh, LLC, is developing a similar product (actually more complex and effective) using a hybrid-nanosilver compound, which is added into paint products. Check out ECOATS.NET!

Check out this great article about a similar product in Entreprenuer:

Warm, wet European summers offer the perfect growing conditions for fungi. Species such as Zygomycota, Deuteromycota and/or Ascomycota, responsible for mould and mildew growth, may be thriving in up to a fifth of Europe’s houses, according to a 2006 study by the Federal Statistical Office in Germany. New as well as old buildings are affected, with nearly a tenth of German apartments estimated to have mould and mildew growing in them. read more

Do Brands Belong on Twitter?

Behind every Twitter account is a person. But some of these people ‘hide’ behind organizational brands, obscuring their persona and therefore reducing authenticity and transparency.

While some brands do a decent job of engaging people on Twitter, many don’t, and one could further argue that brand names and logos, as opposed to full names and user images, are not in the spirit of the Twitterverse. read more

Next Page »