Sdwys

Boxes for Buzz

This is an awesome idea to create buzz in the blogosphere.  The creators of Coraline sent out 50 handmade boxes to some of their favorite bloggers.  The boxes contain mysterious items from the movie that allude to the plot.   NOTCOT highlights some of the boxes and their contents here.

Ring Pop...literally.

We've all done it before -- popping things out from perforated paper like paper dolls or insurance cards.  But would you pay $99 to pop out seven, stainless steel rings (one for every day of the week)?  Apparently, many people, like this blogger, would.  Introducing Ring A Day.

According to the site:

Simply pop a pre-cut ring from a silver sheet, polish rough edges with the included sandpaper, and voilá! The sheet itself makes great wall art once all the rings have been removed, or can be worn as a necklace. Just attach a chain to the piece.

 

Hey, to each his / her own.

Stocks Meet Social Networks

When many of us think of web 2.0, we think of mainstream social network communities like Facebook and Myspace, or even vertical networks like AllRecipes for food and LinkedIn for business.  However, one area that we may not often think of is investing and the social networks that revolve around the stock market.  Despite the fact that more than 50 social investing sites currently exist today, only a handful is achieving tangible success.  Below, we take a closer look at some of those companies that are leading this relatively new frontier.

COVESTOR

Previously only a reciprocal relationship where members had to share stock information in order to see the information from others, Covestor recently announced that any user, regardless of whether he or she shared their stock information with the site, would be able to track live trades of their self-directed investors.  The Covestor community is one that centers around these experienced investors, and serves as a learning environment with professional grade tools where users are able to monitor their progress and inevitably build their investment reputations. An interesting feature comes in the form of a premium fee paid to users with the best stock picks on the site by members who wish to invest alongside them.  As far as looks are concerned, the site has a clean and intuitive interface that brings a fresh approach to a typically conservative realm.

CAKE

Bringing people together through common investments is the main idea of Cake, another social investing site that allows users to track the performance of others and receive notifications if there is activity in their portfolios.  However, with Cake, users build a network of trust with friends, family and other investors where rankings can help them decide who they wish to follow. In addition, Cake allows users to import data from multiple brokerage accounts and grants access to view historical portfolio data to help users make the best investment decisions. Cake has a simple clean interface that favors graphics for text; however, its bland appearance leaves something to be desired.

ZECCO

With a name that stands for “Zero Commission Costs”, Zecco prides itself on offering excellent customer service, including 10 free stock trades per month.  To replace commission costs, Zecco earns revenue from interest earned on account balances of its members, charges from special services, advertising, and cross-selling products with other financial-minded institutions.  Zeccoshare is the name of their investment community where, like some other sites, users can share their real portfolios and trades on individual profile pages, join discussions in forums and groups, post blogs, communicate with other users directly, and compare member performance.  With a hip, irreverent attitude and a clean, intuitive interface, Zecco looks to be the voice of the ‘new school’ of investing.

SOCIAL PICKS

With SocialPicks, the stock market really is a game—a social, fantasy stock-market investment game where users pick the companies they expect to perform well on the market.  Then, based on their predictions, they receive a ranking that allows others to know how they measure up in terms of their investment decisions.  The site’s appearance is not dissimilar to Covestor—white and clean, but not really inviting.

UPDOWN
UpDown, another fantasy stock market game, is unique in the sense that it is the only free investment platform that allows members to earn money with zero risk of financial loss.  Users do so when they ‘out-trade’ the major stock indices using the $1 million they are given in fantasy money to play.  The goal for the founders is to cultivate the right mix of online members in order to obtain the data they’ll need to run a multi-billion dollar fund capable of ‘outdoing’ the markets.  With the site’s social networking features, users also improve investment skills through collaboration to get them ready for when they decide to try out their investing skills in the real world.

VESTOPIA

Another site similar to Covestor (do we see a pattern here?), Vestopia allows users to track the investments of trading veterans, including some from Wall Street.  Although there are few investors to track, the site claims that their sources are ‘more credible’ with profiles replete with histories of experience and success.  Users can even interact with these pros via blogs, videos and live chat.  Like some others, Vestopia’s appearance is bland and conservative with no sort of interactive appeal.

ZIGNALS

As the latest entry into the social investing space, Zignals takes a slightly different approach from the rest.  It lets individual investors set up a bunch of rules and conditions that make it easier for them to invest in a stock or sell it at the optimal time. The decision-support tools come with access to a financially-savvy investor community where users can get advice.  The rules, which are the main differentiating factors from other sites, allow investors to set up strategies such as “buy this stock if the price falls below $25 and the price of its rival rises above $35.”  Zignals sends alerts to the users’ devices — PC, cell phone, pager etc. — when triggering events occur so that the investor doesn’t have to stay glued to a screen.  The site is clean and relies on colorful visuals to communicate offerings—a stark difference to many other profiled sites.

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By no means an exhaustive list of all the category players, the aforementioned sites illustrate the present ‘standards’ of the social investing marketplace, such as ranking, tracking performance, etc., as well as the ‘extras’ that make each service unique.  As a general observation for the evolution of this space, the real opportunities lie in the following:

• Improving design:  The majority of social investment networks are, for lack of a better term, vanilla.  They are plain, conservative and far from truly interactive. There is an amazing opportunity for a site to differentiate itself by making the social investment experience fun through an intuitive, yet interactive design that is as revolutionary as social investing 2.0 is.

• Enhancing the learning experience:  For the social networking investor, he/she is interested in the tracking functionalities that most of the sites offer in order to measure his/her successes or failures and learn what to avoid in the future.  Companies can tailor education to specific users and offer peer-generated, pro-generated and / or site-generated suggestions.

• Automation:  As we have seen with sites like Cake, users appreciate alerts to notify them of activity within their portfolios, and Zignals takes this a step further with alerts based on pre-set rules.  Automation like this is a great opportunity for social investing sites because today’s investors don’t want to rely on being near a computer screen to manage their investments.

• Fostering reassurance:  It is no secret that people feel more comfortable doing something if other people are doing it, and when you’re dealing with stocks, following the crowd helps the majority feel at ease with their decisions.  If they don’t already, social investment companies should allow users to see who is doing what in relation to the stocks they own, perhaps not on an individual basis, but maybe an overall activity graph—just a way to reassure investors about their decision. 

 

Everyone Needs a Chumby

The long-awaited Chumby is finally for sale. Having a Chumby is like having your own Johnny Number 5. With a Chumby you can get thousands of internet radio stations, podcasts and other web favorites nonstop on your chumby, including content from MTV, CBS, The Weather Channel, MySpace, Facebook, eBay and more. Wake up to music, plus a personal broadcast of sports scores, news, video clips, photo shares, and entertainment.

Better Way to Lend

According to the Online Banking Report, the peer-to-peer lending market could grow to between $5 billion and $10 billion in annual volume within 10 years in the US alone, thanks in part to companies like Fynanz. Taking a niche approach to lending, Fynanz focuses solely on student loans where the borrower is in complete control, specifying the amount they wish to borrow and the rate they wish to pay. Then, other Fynanz community members bid for the benefit of attractive returns and a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

China Advertising Done Right

Adidas managed to bring everything China thinks about themselves and their athletes together with the socialist dogma. Visit the athletes section and TVC to see the main video.

Better Online Shopping

ThisNext is a social-shopping site where everyday people blog about products they like. You can recommend, share and discover great products.  Every product on ThisNext is picked by the ThisNext community and organized into product playlists called shopcasts.

Black Friday

TGI Black Friday is a repository of one-day-only cheapness, TGIBF lists an expansive range of internet sales and their frequently early start times, allowing you to wake up, groggily time-bomb your credit rating, then circumvent buyer’s remorse by passing back out.

Who Said That the Game is Over!

A recent Time’s article proclaimed, “no genre has fallen harder than rap” and “that leaves the possibility that hip-hop is following the same path that soul and R&B traveled when they descended into disco, which died quickly.”

While the days of the multiplatinum albums may be over, hip-hop is far from dead.

It is true that “rap sales have dropped 44% since 2000  and declined from 13% of all music sales to 10%” and that “Jay-Z's return album, Kingdom Come, sold a gaudy 680,000 units in its first week, but by the second week, its sales had declined some 80%. Nonetheless, rap capitalism 101 is still alive and the entrepreneurial grind is still churning. 

You have to remember that the music industry didn’t make artist, the artist made the music industry and to quote Jay-Z “the music business hate me, cause the industry ain't make me.” Record companies are build to mass produce and market, not to create kings.

So while record sales may be down, gross income among artist is still up.  Time is money and artist don’t have time to waste minutes so if they are not making money from cd sales they are going to find a way to get money.  Whether it is creating more mixtapes, peddling CD’s at Starbucks, producing a collaboration with other artist or creating their own branded properties. 

Jay-Z’s diversification plan has lead him to become the richest hip-hop artist (followed by Sean "Puffy" Combs, a.k.a. Diddy), having a net-worth estimate of $547 million. In Jay-Z’s world, he sets the agenda, not the record labels. Jay-Z not only still delivers platinum albums but also own Armadale vodka, co-owns the 40/40 club and New Jersey Nets, has his own Reebok sneaker, consultants for Anheuser-Busch and still gets a salary from Def Jam and Rocawear.

So while the industry says that hip-hop is collapsing and artist are overcollaborating, I say you can’t knock the hustle or hate on artist who want to be their own marketing plan. Because deep down “Everybody wanna be Hov” and if Kanye and Timbaland can make more money producing and collaborating why should they rap?

In the Time’s article Steve Rifkin, CEO of SRC Records, said, “the music community has to get more creative and start betting on the new and the up-and-coming.”  I am in agreement with this mentality, but disagree with Chris Lightly, CEO of Violator Entertainment who sees a chance for record labels to generate more sponsorship and endorsement.

It is not about sponsorship and endorsement, but about moving from a world of ”units sold” into a world of conversations. Mississippi rapper Soulja Boy Tell’em is a case in point, having risen from YouTube obscurity to MTV swagger, Interscope has been rumored to recoup their marketing dollars one month prior to the October 2 album launch date. As of date, there are over 11,600 Soulja Boy related YouTube videos and the How To Crank That Soulja Boy YouTube video has over 9 million views, enough to go multiplatinum.

These are conversations started by consumers a local level, not stories told by the record label. And if record companies can positioned themselves within the lifestyle of individual consumers, instead of talking down to the masses, then they can create new revenue streams that take advantage of the interaction, socialization, participation and personalization of individual consumers.

There is a huge consumer appetite for good music and if you can offer consumers something completely new and entertaining then they will ultimately seek it out make it part of everyday conversations.

It all goes back to Capitalism 101: If you tackle the business problem first (generating more revenue from an artist), know the artist you are marketing, and understand the interests, hobbies, habits and lifestyles of the consumers you are marketing to then you create the best marketing format to solve your business problem.

“Got to admit a little bit I was sick of rap
But despite that the boy is back
And I'm so evolved I'm so involved
I'm showing growth, I'm so in charge
I'm C.E.O. and yeah going god.”
--Jay- Z, Kingdom Come

Download hiphops_down_beat.pdf

Athletes with Hearts

Just as impressive as a $100 dollar laptop is a pair of $15 basketball shoes.

Stephon Marbury recently partnered with “Steve and Barry’s University Sportswear” to manufacture a low priced and durable basketball sneaker which will be geared for inner city kids and priced at $14.98. Marbury recently appeared on Regis and Kelly and stated that his shoe will “boast maximum shine for minimum expense” and that “if you take a $200 shoe and take my shoe, cut it in half and it's the same shoe.”

In the same vain Shaquille O’Neal has just signed a five-year deal with China-based Li-Ning Company and announced the launch of the “Shaq Dunkman” series, a new line of basketball products featuring O’Neal’s new shoe along with other merchandise priced for less than $40.

While I applaud the idea of millionaire athletes making their brands more affordable I still think it goes against the whole the "inner-city" sneaker craze. It is not about having inexpensive functional sneakers, but about showcasing those limited edition Nike Dunk Premiums. It is all about how much you paid for your Nikes and how rare they are. Isn't that why you see some inner-city kids walking around with price tags still on their gear?

Good News, Guys

Back in December, I came across an ad in Vogue for the Ralph Lauren Holiday Collection. Pretty standard fare for Vogue: a porcelin-faced blond in a glittering evening gown...flanked by two pretty boys with long hair and bushy beards??
Hmmm….when did the guys from the climbing wall start rocking Ralph Lauren and running around with the It crowd at shmancy holiday cocktail parties?
I had all but forgotten about these bush men until last month, when the New York Times decreed on the front page of the style section:'Paul Bunyan, Modern-Day Sex Symbol.'
So apparently the big holiday face hair was no fluke; beards really are in vogue. And beards have had it so bad for so long I have to say it's about time they got some respect. For years, you could only rock one in good conscience if you were: A) A college student exploring your patchouli side B) A total hairball who has to shave twice a day to avoid the Don Johnson look or C) You grow it as a gesture of defiance, as in 'I'm not gonna shave until they open the hatch on 'Lost.'
According to the Times, guys are sick of trying to look like boy scouts and the oncoming beard trend is building as a backlash to plucking, waxing and mini goatees. It's true; something had to change. The androgynous male model had crept his way into middle America and then you couldn't tell the metrosexuals from the homosexuals from the Tacoma mortgage brokers. Not good if you're a hipster, trying to retain some semblance of your 'unique identity and fashion sense.' So for now, guys who want to be at their top of their fashion game can just sit back and let it grow.

the Birth of Cool...Words

I consider myself something of a wordsmith, being that's what I spent most of my educational time studying, try my best to do from 9-5...ish, and I tend to make up words when I can't think of what to say. Tell me "unfreeing" isn't a word. Anyway, I LOVE learning new words. I'm subscribed to just about every word-of-the-day service I can find. I write down words when I don't know them, look up the meaning and try to use them in a sentence ASAP. However, as I've been discovering more and more words on Urban Dictionary, working with Buzzword junkies, and watching war coverage which is saturated with new words, I'm beginning to wonder, are all these new "words" really a reflection of a new creative class that is thinking differently and making words fit their new way of life, or is this just lazy stupidity? Between urban slang, corporate buzzwords and soldier slang, our vocabulary is getting more colorful everyday. You have to carry several translation guides with you to understand conversations with different groups of people.

Overheard at the office: Lockstep, Socialize, Take it Down the Runway, Reach Out
Overheard in Iraq: Ali Baba, Fobbit, Dad
Overheard on the street: S'Okay, L Trip, Radular, Dafrizzam

S'Okay to Reach Out to the Ali Baba to negotiate.Dig? Seriously, just point and laugh.Doesn't work for me. It's okay. Just keep on laughing. On one hand, I get really frustrated and am left thinking, Why don't you just freaking say what you mean. You want me to call someone, I'll do it. Don't tell me to reach out. On the other hand, I feel like congratulations for taking the initiative to add some color to our language. It's kind of the same way I felt about Ebonics. It adds to the culture of America, but also sounds ridiculous. The average human doesn't speak this way. We speak in a normal language, the we learned years ago that's only been changed through added vocabulary from our education. So does that make us boring that we don't have a cool, more interesting vernacular? If I'm only comfortable saying "sweet" instead of "dope" am I square? If I can't pull of "holla", then am I an old-fart? If no one will find me credible when discussing "Dad", does that mean I don't know anything about Iraq? I don't think so. It just means I'm normal when it comes to speaking, which kinda blows being that I make my livelihood writing. Oh look, I just said "blows" instead of something like  "disappointing". Maybe I've got the hang of this after all.

Cats & Dogs

Putting things on cute and defenseless animals never gets old. It’s easy, cheap and creative fun. stuffonmycat.com is exactly as the name says: a bunch of pictures of cats with stuff on them. So simple it’s genius. For some reason, “Stuff On My Dog” just wouldn’t be the same. Which leads me to ask, why are cats made fun of way more often than dogs? Is the world dominated by dog lovers? If so why? Is there really a bitchiness in cats that inspires us to knock them down? I’m not a cat person, but I never get the urge to tease them – not to mention, torture them, put them in a bag and beat them, or whatever other sick things people do to them that end up on the 6 o’clock news. But loading them down with harmless crap is still pretty funny.