Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Online Reputation Management The Latest Craze

When suppliers or people fall prey to unfair rivals, irate ex-employees or disgruntled consumers, then a SERM will become crucial inside financial survival of the online business.

Firms like SERMs are essential in keeping, and in some situations salvaging and restoring suppliers or person's reputation and very good identify.

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This tends to be a very sturdy marketing position for organizations at the same time as people today, to know that they're cleansing and defending their reputations and cyber photos, even while at the same time working an extremely successful advertising initiative. At times organizations entirely disregard their former promoting efforts on line and go for the advantages of Online Status Management.

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Monday, January 24, 2011

Making Money Ideas

So Christmas has been and gone. Are you now facing the New Year and wondering how you can keep up the Christmas spirit and goodwill for the coming year? Well, it certainly helps when you know how to do so for free from your own home.

There are so many simple ways to volunteer or donate to charity by giving up a small amount of your time or re-purposing some money you would normally have spent. So here’s a list of five of the best quick and easy ways to volunteer or donate to charity. Bookmark the list of charities and use it to do the rounds weekly!

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Skip1.org

This is a great concept — it’s a site which makes you think about how much money you waste on frivolous things. You nominate something which you will give up, say a lunch or newspapers for a month. Then you donate that same amount of money to feeding a hungry child.

Yes, you’re handing over money to charity, but it’s money you would have spent anyway. It’s also easy to share news of your donation with your friends via social networks, and hopefully convince a few of them to skip something for charity too.

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Free Rice

Free Rice has been around a while, but it’s so good it’s worth making sure it’s on this list. Play a simple, addictive trivia quiz and Free Rice will donate rice for each of your correct answers. This is a free and simple way to give whenever you have a free moment. Read more on FreeRice here.

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Causes

There are a number of things you can do using Causes, including raising awareness for your chosen charity and helping to raise funds for them. By far the easiest way to donate money with Causes is to set up a birthday or holiday fund. This way, instead of receiving presents from friends and family, you simply ask them to donate the money on your behalf. It takes about two minutes to set up, since you can log in with Facebook Connect – just choose the charity and you’re set!

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Charity Gifts

Here’s another easy way to spend your money on charity instead of something you were already going to pay for. Instead of giving gifts to your friends, give them the knowledge that you have donated to charity on their behalf. The Donation4Charity website searches all the big charity gifting sites (such as UNICEF, WWF and Oxfam) and lets you search the gifts according to how much money you have available to spend. Buy a goat for charity for about the same price as a modest gift!

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Sparked

Spend 5-10 minutes donating your expertise to charity: Give website feedback, brainstorm fundraising ideas or help design an awareness campaign. This is what they need help with – if you can spend a few minutes working on it then you’ve made a difference to a real charity with just a moment of your time. Read more on Sparked here & get going!

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And many, many more!

There are so many great ways to donate your time to charity — the sites listed above are just a few. Here’s some more great articles which introduce many more you might like to try.

Introducing Jumo – The Social Network for Social Good
How To Easily Coordinate Volunteers Using Volunteer Spot
5 Crowd Funding Websites To Support Your Favourite Charities, Bands & Projects
Find Volunteering Opportunities Near You with VolunteerMatch
10 Search Engines To Help The Environment
5 Cool Edutainment Games You Can Play and Also Donate To Charitable Causes
5 Websites To Lend A Hand & Make A Difference To The World

What are your favourite sites for donating your time to charity? Do you appreciate charity gifts given on your behalf? Let us know in the comments!

First of all, you can always go out to dinner, send flowers and the like, but I am talking about some different ideas that maybe you haven’t thought of to create a spark of romance between you and that special person in your life.

If you have some cash, you can plan a romantic getaway for the weekend, maybe to a resort or even somewhere warm. Or if that is too pricey, you could take your significant other out for a romantic dinner (McDonalds doesn’t count!). Try to do something that you do not normally do. If you live in a warmer climate you can rent a boat and plan a romantic dinner on the boat or take a dinner cruse or even picnic on the beach. But if you live in a colder climate, why not plan a picnic in your car (with lots of warm blankets) down at the beach. How about going as a couple to a book store and purchasing a book on romance or you might want to go and rent some movies and make a big bowl of popcorn (feeding each other of course) and stay in for the evening. If you are lucky enough to live in a wine region like I do, you can plan a romantic getaway and visit wineries and do some wine tasting of your own (and get a tour of the winery while you are at it.) Perhaps you can go for a balloon ride or enquire about a half an hour airplane ride for two. How about signing up for a class together in something that you are both interested in? If you haven’t had time to purchase something special for each other, you can do that on Valentine’s Day. What about giving back to the community together. Spend some time at a soup kitchen or do something else worthwhile and do it together. Or you could go to a specialty coffee hangout, get something tasty that you can share, sit, hold hands and talk. Even if you have little or no money, all it takes is a little creativity. You could go to the library on a date or go for a walk and split a sundae. There are plenty of ideas!

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

For the past few months, HBO has been talking to Aaron Sorkin about his long-gestating drama set behind the scenes at a nightly cable news show. However, with him busy on the awards circuit with his latest film, The Social Network, ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

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Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Making Money Now

Fragmentation. Curation. Recommendations. Take your pick: Android is getting all three, compliments of a new Amazon-run application marketplace due to launch later this year. Today, Amazon has launched the developer-facing part of the store, inviting devs to submit their applications so that they’re ready when the app store is ready for its consumer debut later this year (Amazon isn’t giving a firm date on the full launch). The developer portal is at http://developer.amazon.com.

We reported on this impending news back in September, so it isn’t a huge surprise. But it’s going to bring some very interesting dynamics to the way Android applications are purchased and distributed. In some senses, this is the Android equivalent of Apple’s App Store — even more so than Google’s official Android Market.

I spoke with Aaron Rubenson, category leader for Amazon Mobile Services, and

Ameesh Paleja, general manager for the Engineering Division of Mobile Services, about the new store, and it clearly has the potential to be a big deal.

First, some background for those who don’t follow Android too closely. All Google-endorsed Android devices ship with the Android Market, along with a suite of other Google-made applications like Gmail. Android Market is a lot like Apple’s App Store with a few key differences: it doesn’t have an approval system, so developers can quickly submit and iterate on their applications. It also tends to have a lot of junky applications that Apple would reject — things that crash on launch on certain devices, or apps with that occasionally have features that don’t work as expected. While Google’s terms do require descriptions to be accurate, the general attitude is to let the market decide what works, and it surfaces the top rated applications (most of the time) while letting the junk sink.

Amazon is taking an approach that is more in line with Apple’s. Developers who wish to appear on Amazon’s store have to get approval (Amazon says that the process is currently taking about a week). And Amazon is going to have slightly more stringent guidelines: your application has to work properly (i.e. it can’t crash right off the bat) and it has to do what you say it does. It also has to be safe. Android Market has many of these same requirements, but the difference here is that Amazon checks apps before they’re deployed to its store, while Google does so after problematic applications are reported.

However, unlike Apple’s screening policies (which were largely a mystery for years and are still pretty wishy-washy), Amazon says it’s going to take a more liberal stance as far as what’s allowed on the store. Porn and illegal apps are not allowed, but your satire apps should be okay. And developers won’t have to make any changes to their .apk files, either — it sounds like you can upload the same ones to both Google’s and Amazon’s marketplaces (neither has any exclusivity requirements).

The biggest departure from the mobile app stores we’ve grown accustomed to involves pricing. Unlike Apple’s App Store and Android Market, where developers can set their price to whatever they’d like, Amazon retains full control over how it wants to price your application. The setup is a bit confusing: upon submitting your application, you can set a ‘List Price’, which is the price you’d normally sell it at. Amazon will use a variety of market factors to determine what price it wants to use, and you get a 70% cut of the proceeds of each sale (which is the industry standard). In the event that Amazon steeply discounts your application, or offers it for free, you’re guaranteed to get 20% of the List Price.

The bottom line here is that Amazon will be offering discounts on some applications (possibly making them much cheaper than the same application on Android Market or elsewhere). That sounds like it could be a recipe for frustration for some developers, but Rubenson and Paleja say that they’re going to do everything they can to maximize the amount of money developers make, and that sometimes that involves adjusting pricing. They also say that Amazon has an incentive to keep developers happy — and that developers can remove their apps from the store with ten day’s notice. We’ll have to wait and see if the system works.

So why, aside from these pricing differences, would consumers want to use this Amazon App Store at all? There are a few answers to that question.

The first is that there are manufacturers making Android devices that decide not to partner with Google to offer the official suite of Google applications (including Android Market). Amazon is happy to offer their store to these manufacturers, and it will work on any Android device version 1.6 or up. So if, for example, Facebook releases its own flavor of Android down the line, they could include Amazon’s App Store.

Reason number two: Amazon says that it can offer recommendations using the technology that already exists on Amazon.com. This includes the obvious example of showing applications that are similar to each other, but Amazon will also be looking for correlations between physical products and apps — it might start recommending a popular baseball app to someone browsing for a baseball bat, for example. And it’s going to be promoting these applications as users browse Amazon.com.

Amazon says it’s premature to talk about what the store itself will look like, but they did share a few details about the consumer experience. First, payments unsurprisingly will be done using Amazon’s one-click payment system (which already has tens of millions of credit cards on file), though developers can integrate whatever transaction system they want into the app itself.

Customers will be able to browse through applications from their phone or on Amazon.com using their desktop computers, and they’ll be able to ‘send’ applications they buy to their mobile device. This sounds similar to what Google showed off at Google I/O, but with one minor caveat: the apps won’t actually be pushed and installed immediately, it sounds like you’ll have to fire up the Amazon application to do that.

So how will people actually get access to this Amazon marketplace from their Android device? This is going to prove a bit tricky for some users — Amazon will offer a walkthrough instructing users on how to do this, but it will require you dig into the settings menu on the device and allow installation from “Unknown Sources”. It’s easy to find if you know what you’re doing, but it sounds a bit scary. However, Amazon is also in talks with various partners, and we’ll likely be seeing plenty of applications shipping with the market pre-installed.

Now, Amazon isn’t the only company that’s making alternative Android App Stores — Verizon is also doing one of its own, and there will surely be more to follow. But Amazon is in a position to establish itself as the de facto non-Google App Store — and that could prove to be very important. As Kevin Marks wrote recently (and we discussed further), Android is going to increasingly fragment into flavors that aren’t as closely tied to Google, and we’ll start seeing more alternative versions of the core ‘Google Apps’. Amazon’s App Store would fit in nicely as one part of this alternative suite.

This will also bring pricing battles over the same applications into the equation (which hasn’t really been possible when app distribution is monopolized by a single storefront). And, yes, it could lead to some user confusion, though Amazon has a strong incentive to keep this as straightforward as it can.

Make no mistake — this isn’t going to replace Google’s Android Market by any means. Google’s store will have better international support for some time (Amazon is US-only at launch) and it will still be shipping on plenty of phones by default. But given how many Android devices are going to be out there in the near future (they’re activating over 300,000 a day), there’s certainly going to be enough customers to keep more than one store in business.

I asked a few times about timing for the consumer launch but couldn’t get anything more specific than “this year”. However, the team did say that the mobile storefront is being built with tablets in mind, so my guess is that we can expect this to launch after Android tablets running Honeycomb are on the market (which will probably be around April or later).

I asked the Amazon team how Google felt about the launch — there was an audible chuckle, and they said something about Android being on an amazing growth trajectory and that they were fond of its openness.

Reached for comment, Google gave this statement:

Android is an open platform – and entities other than Google are free to create their own content and marketplaces, much like the web.

I bet they’re thrilled.

On every user-profile page, you will now find a "Donate" button. Click it and you can give some of your available means away. This donation can be made anonymously.

As we suggested last month, Flattr's new feature will likely benefit WikiLeaks, as Flattr remains one of the only ways to make a donation to the site now that PayPal, Visa and MasterCard have closed those paths to funding. Beyond the support for WikiLeaks, Flattr has developed a small but thriving network of users: since opening its beta, it has gained 46,056 registered users and has passed more than €114,057 through its peer-to-peer payment system.

If you're still looking for more ways and more things to Flattr, a developer has taken Flattr's API and built Flattr4Android, a tool that will let users scan a QR code off-line. This code is tied to a Flattr account, making it easy for you to submit and flattr content via your mobile phone.

With these changes, Flattr address two things poised to be big trends this year: the growth of mobile money and expansion of peer-to-peer networks.

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

Perfect Market, news ad firm, lands $9 million in funding round ...

Perfect Market Inc, a start-up that seeks to help news organizations make more money through online advertising, has won $9 million in new funding in a round led by Comcast Interactive Capital, the cable giant's venture arm.

Small Business News: Social Entrepreneurship on the Rise

In recognition of Martin Luther King Day, we present a roundup about an important new trend, the rise of social entrepreneurship. Instead of profit, the.

News of the World feigns shock at new twist in the phone-hacking ...

Who is the paper trying to fool with its 'internal investigation' - the public or Rupert Murdoch?

Friday, January 14, 2011

order Free rental agreement forms online

How do you usually start your morning? Lunatic rush, eternal lack of time, work, where we come sleepy, irritated and seedy? Delaying the time for getting up to the critical moment and again being late, we convulsively invent excuses about a stuck lift or traffic jams.

Getting up earlier you can clear up your head and thoughts. Morning hours carry silence and peace, which we are usually lack of during the noisy day. This is the time of solitude, when we can read, reflect, and just take a breath.

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It can be very hard when you are applying for a bad credit mortgage, and it feels like all the odds are stacked against you. The feeling of going in to see a loan officer just hoping that they will be favorable toward you and that you might just have a chance of buying a home. The situation may be grim and you're feeling completely overwhelmed anyway, but know that millions before you have been in your same shoes. There is light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dark it may seem. Here are three simple steps that you can use to help you apply and possibly get a bad credit mortgage.

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Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Wind warning expires - Chicago Breaking News

A wind warning for northern Illinois expired this evening after two days of high winds, with gusts today topping 50 mph through much of northern Illinois and northern Indiana. The warning was in effect today until 7 p.m., according to ...

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

President Obama's dramatic news at last night's memorial service in Tucson that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' has just minutes before opened her left eye for the first time since the shooting has created some confusion in light of news from ...

Thursday, January 13, 2011

bank foreclosure

It's not like the banks don't have infinite rent seeking leverage with near zero interest FED money, but they have marvelous accounting tricks to make them look healthier. But, anyone who has been in a financial bind knows that simple accounting tricks don't last you forever, and, sooner or later the piper must be paid, accounting or not. Well, what his article points out is that the piper will get his due. The real question is, who is the piper, and who is paying him. Once the interest earned, in accounting terms, vanishes, as it will on each loan to be finally foreclosed, the piper is the hole in the balance sheet. According to those who wrote the financial reform, the payment won't come from government (i.e. taxpayer) funds, but the special mechanisms built in will require a restructuring of any banks whose stability is thus threatened. Really? Well, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. With the new folks in the White House, fresh off Wall Street, the banks are as powerful as ever, having endowed the campaigns for the newly elected Congress. We have already heard that funding for the financial reform agencies and those already existing, is in trouble. Next, we'll get some subtle, small bill come through and pass which neuters the capability of the government to keep the banks in check. What comes next? Collapse and no action or a bailout.

Only the banksters could get away with this:

TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks....

The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.

Ash was in the process of loan modification with Bank of America at the time. And they didn't just break in, they completely emptied the home, even taking "a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words 'Together Forever,' that contained the ashes of her late husband, Robert."

In Florida, contractors working for Chase Bank used a screwdriver to enter Debra Fischer’s house in Punta Gorda and helped themselves to a laptop, an iPod, a cordless drill, six bottles of wine and a frosty beer, left half-empty on the counter, according to assertions in a lawsuit filed in August. Ms. Fisher was facing foreclosure, but Chase had not yet obtained a court order, her lawyer says.

The break-in was discovered when a Canadian couple renting the house returned from the beach.

Turns out these and countless other Americans have become victims again. They're victims of the deficit peacocks.

WASHINGTON -- Despite mounting evidence of big banks committing serious fraud in the foreclosure process, the U.S. Senate eliminated $35 million in legal aid to homeowners trying to keep their homes.

The fund was wiped out in order to meet government spending caps advocated by Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), but will likely end up costing taxpayers much more in the long run, as wrongful foreclosures burn through the balance sheets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The slashing of the foreclosure-assistance fund is just one casualty of Washington's increasing bipartisan push to cut spending across the board....

Recent reports suggest severe, nationwide problems with the mortgage system. A survey of 96 attorneys found that banks started foreclosure proceedings on 2,500 borrowers who were negotiating a loan modification. The survey was conducted by the National Association of Consumer Advocates and the National Consumer Law Center.

There's no relief in sight from the administration, either. Treasury has refused to use any of the funds for the Wall Street bailout for homeowner legal aid. Much worse, the Federal Reserve is actually blocking new foreclosure regulations that would homeowners.

WASHINGTON -- Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve are fighting efforts to rein in widely reported bank abuses, sparking an inter-agency feud with the FDIC and the Treasury Department. The Fed, along with the more bank-friendly Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is resisting moves to craft rules cracking down on banks that charge illegal fees and carry out improper foreclosures. The FDIC supports such rules, according to an FDIC official involved in the dispute.

The new regulations would rein in debt collection, loan modification and foreclosure proceedings at bank divisions called "mortgage servicers." Servicers have committed widespread fraud in the foreclosure process. While the recent robo-signing of fraudulent documents has received the most attention, consumer advocates have complained about improper fees and servicer mistakes that lead to foreclosure for years.

It's the banksters' world, and we're apparently to be considered lucky if we get to live in one of their houses, which is what they and the government consider them. It's hard to arrive at any other conclusion than dday does when it comes to the Fed, "They don’t want to stop the banks from breaking into your house." And your representatives in the Senate are fine with that.

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

The first impressions in light of President Obama's speech at tonight's memorial for the victims of the Arizona shooting, and, at least on Fox News, the reviews are overwhelming positive. Charles Krauthammer, Chris Wallace, ...

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

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Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Winona Ryder Has Disappointing News About Heathers Sequel ...

No! This NEEDS to happen! Back in 2009, there were rumblings of a proposed sequel to the ´80s cult classic Heathers coming to fruition, with original stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater...

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

Monday, January 10, 2011

Making Money From the Internet

You're probably reading this on junk. And I'm not talking about newsprint - industry woes aside, that's high-quality stuff. But if you're on a computer or an iPad, and you're not plugged into an Internet jack in the wall? Junk, then.

But it's not your MacBook or your tablet that's so crummy. It's the spectrum it's using.

Spectrum, in the words of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, is the economy's "invisible infrastructure." It's the interstate system for information that travels wirelessly. It's how you get radio in your car, service on your cellphone and satellite to your television. It's also how you get WiFi.

But not all spectrum is created equal. "Beachfront spectrum" is like a well-paved road. Lots of information can travel long distances on it without losing much data. But not all spectrum is so valuable.

In 1985, there was a slice of spectrum that was too crummy for anyone to want. It was so weak that the radiation that microwaves emit could mess with it. So the government released it to the public. As long as whatever you were doing didn't interfere with what anyone else was doing, you could build on that spectrum. That's how we got garage-door openers and cordless phones. Because the information didn't have to travel far, the junk spectrum was good enough. Later on, that same section of junk spectrum became the home for WiFi - a crucial, multibillion-dollar industry. A platform for massive technological innovation. A huge increase in quality of life.

There's a lesson in that: Spectrum is really, really important. And not always in ways that we can predict in advance. Making sure that spectrum is used well is no less important than making sure our highways are used well: If the Beltway were reserved for horses, Washington would not be a very good place to do business.

But our spectrum is not being used well. It's the classic innovator's quandary: We made good decisions many years ago, but those good decisions created powerful incumbents, and in order to make good decisions now, we must somehow unseat the incumbents.

Today, much of the best spectrum is allocated to broadcast television. Decades ago, when 90 percent of Americans received their programming this way, that made sense. Today, when fewer than 10 percent of Americans do, it doesn't.

Meanwhile, mobile broadband is quite clearly the platform of the future - or at least the near future. But we don't have nearly enough spectrum allocated for its use. Unless that changes, the technology will be unable to progress, as more advanced uses will require more bandwidth, or it will have to be rationed, perhaps through extremely high prices that make sure most people can't use it.

The FCC could just yank the spectrum from the channels and hand it to the mobile industry. But it won't. It fears lawsuits and angry calls from lawmakers. And temperamentally, Genachowski himself is a consensus-builder rather than a steamroller.

Instead, the hope is that current owners of spectrum will give it up voluntarily. In exchange, they'd get big sacks of money. If a slice of spectrum is worth billions of dollars to Verizon but only a couple of million to a few aging TV stations - TV stations that have other ways to reach most of those customers - then there should be enough money in this transaction to leave everyone happy.

At least, that's some people's hope. Some advocates want that spectrum - or at least a substantial portion of it - left unlicensed. Rather than using telecom corporations such as Verizon to buy off the current owners of the spectrum, they'd like to see the federal government take some of that spectrum back and preserve it as a public resource for the sort of innovation we can't yet imagine and that the big corporations aren't likely to pioneer - the same as happened with WiFi. But as of yet, that's not the FCC's vision for this. Officials are more worried about the mobile broadband market. They argue (accurately) that they've already made more beachfront spectrum available for unlicensed uses. And although they don't say this clearly, auctioning spectrum to large corporations gives them the money to pay off the current owners. But even so, they can't do that.

"Imagine someone was given property on Fifth Avenue 50 years ago, but they don't use it and can't sell it," says Tim Wu, a law professor at Harvard and author of "The Master Switch." That's the situation that's arisen in the spectrum universe. It's not legal for the FCC to run auctions and hand over some of the proceeds to the old owners. That means the people sitting on the spectrum have little incentive to give it up. For that to change, the FCC needs Congress to pass a law empowering it to compensate current holders of spectrum with proceeds from the sale.

One way - the slightly demagogic way - to underscore the urgency here is to invoke China: Do you think it's letting its information infrastructure stagnate because it's a bureaucratic hassle to get the permits shifted? I rather doubt it.

Of course, we don't want the Chinese system. Democracy is worth some red tape. But if we're going to keep a good political system from becoming an economic handicap, there are going to be a lot of decisions like this one that need to be made. Decisions where we know what we need to do to move the economy forward, but where it's easier to do nothing because there are powerful interests attached to old habits. The problem with having a really good 20th century, as America did, is that you've built up a lot of infrastructure and made a lot of decisions that benefit the industries and innovators of the 20th century. But now we're in the 21st century, and junk won't cut it anymore.

Thanks God we are done with celebrating and can start working! Here’s one essential checklist for you to start:

1. Acknowledge Your Biggest Fans

Do you have fans that re-tweet your posts, email your articles to friends, and send new business your way? What have you done for them? Have you at least taken the time to thank them?

You should always monitor your brand, your website link and your own name (I use SocialMention). Every time someone says something nice about you, you should thank them. If you can do something else in return, by all means do.

2. Understand the Golden Rule of Blogging

Most blogs don’t appeal to the audience they’re writing for. The writing may be good, but the topics aren’t. Let’s say you sell furniture. Your blog shouldn’t be about your specials, the new employee you hired or about your vacation to Hawaii. Your blog should be about furniture.

Always ask yourself this question: who am I writing for? What kind of content do they want? It doesn’t matter if you don’t offer all the services you write about. For example, I own an Internet marketing agency and my audience is business owners. But, I don’t only write about online marketing; I write about topics that are of interest to business owners, such as lowering costs, motivating employees and off-line marketing.

Find out what your audience wants and give it to them.

3. Use Decoy Offers

Have you ever wondered why some stores sell an item for $100 and in the price tags says “Was $200″? It makes the current price look a lot better. Some people might think $100 is a lot of money for that item, but hey, it was $200, so you’re getting a great deal, right? Well, believe it or not, it works. This is because everything is either a great deal or an awful deal based on what you compare it with.

Psychologists call this “the principle of contrast.” How can you use this to your benefit? My favorite way is to present two or more offers. One will be your current offer and then you’ll add some decoy offers. The decoy offers will be really bad deals, but they’ll make your main offer look great. For example, you can sell one can of your product at $19 and three cans at $25 with free shipping and feature this last offer as the weekly special. Try it; it works like a charm and there’s nothing unethical about it. You’ll keep your main offer and all you’re doing is making it look better by adding some not-so-attractive offers.

4. Write Your Marketing Copy First and Develop Your Product Around It

I’ve found this tactic to be extremely effective. Instead of creating a product and then writing the marketing message, I like writing the copy first because by trying to sell it with words, I get a much better understanding of what the audience really wants and I can give them that product or service.

5. People Buy from People, Not Companies

Your customers might have known your company first, but they bought from you because they liked you or the salesperson they dealt with. This is especially true in B2B. The takeaway here is: do a good job explaining how your company can help your clients but do an even better job connecting with your prospects at a personal level.

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Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

Fashion Industry News, Designers, Runway Shows, Style Advice. Send Tips � Advertise � About Us � Network � Above the Law � AltTransport � Breaking Media � Fashionista. Search for: Home � Fashion Shows ... Posted in: News ...

Transfer news: Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti targets AC Milan ...

Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

News Corp. Insiders Talking About Selling MySpace To Yahoo

News Corporation (News Corp) is the world's second-largest media conglomerate (behind The Walt Disney Company) as of 2008 and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009. The company's Chairman, Chief Executive. ...

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Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

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Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

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Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

Transfer news: Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti targets AC Milan ...

Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

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Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

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Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

News Corp. Insiders Talking About Selling MySpace To Yahoo

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

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Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

Transfer news: Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti targets AC Milan ...

Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

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Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

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Transfer news: Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti targets AC Milan ...

Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

Transfer news: Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti targets AC Milan ...

Chelsea boss targets AC Milan striker, Aston Villa plot player swap for Newcastle star and Real Madrid warn Man United, Man City and Chelsea off defender.

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Grading the Spring 2011 Campaigns, Part 1 – Fashionista: Fashion ...

Transfer news: Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti targets AC Milan ...

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Friday, January 7, 2011

Forum Making Money

Case Study: How Shpongle Went From Yelling At Fans To Embracing Fans

from the a-case-study dept

Over the last month or so, things have been quite busy at Techdirt, and we haven't had time to add to our case studies section, even though we have a few more lined up. However, Bas Grasmayer, sent over the following case study (also posted on his blog), which is a part of his thesis (which we've mentioned before). The case study is about Shpongle, a much respected group of musicians in a very specific niche, psychedelic chill-out, but it has attracted many fans of other genres too and is generally categorized as 'electronica'.

A while before they released their latest album 'Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland,' it leaked onto filesharing networks and fans of Shpongle started discussing the new album on the internet forum of Shpongle�s record label, Twisted Music. Obviously, Simon Posford, the main person behind Shpongle and owner of the Twisted Music label, was very unhappy about this and lashed out:

"So some fucker has released the album on the internet already.... thanks a lot, whoever it was... Maybe twisted will still recoup, maybe not... all i know is that we are teetering on bankruptcy, and are seeking deals elsewhere.... the 12 loyal fans on this forum are not enough to sustain a record label.... How much do you think Twisted has in the bank account? Have a guess? More than $10,000 ? More than $20,000 ? Well it is actually less than $1,000..... Raj and i haven't even been paid our advance for this album.... All the artists on twisted are seeking deals with other labels now... We can't pay a label manager, and we can't pay the artists.... always putting our hope in 'just ONE more release'.... "We'll be ok if the DVD sells"...."Surely the Shpongle CD will sell, right?"

[...]

This sucks, for Twisted, for myself and Raj who have spent 3 years working on the album.... Just as i started looking around and posting on this forum again, i remembered why i shouldn't bother.... I'm outta here... Soon to be followed by Younger Brother [another project by Simon Posford] and probably Twisted...

Enjoy."

He got understandably emotional, but misdirected his anger towards perhaps the most dedicated fans: those who really cannot wait until the release and decided to preview it. After all, Shpongle hadn't released an album in four years and their following is quite fanatical about their music. Later in the same forum topic, he adds some more thoughts, which are also relevant to this case study:

"It's all very well to speculate, but i can tell you as a fact, we made more money before file sharing... we could survive... now not so.... and i think you will find it the same all over the music business... the argument that "file sharing is promotion" is probably valid.... in fact, i agree...in a way it serves a similar purpose to radio.... but the argument that "file sharing is promotion and therefore you will sell more CDs" is clearly absolute bollocks, otherwise the music industry would be booming right now!

[...]

Also i'm sorry that "And if it weren't for the internet, I would have given up on music entirely".... for me, the internet makes me want to give up music wink But i guess i'm from a different generation.... I started making some of the trance that probably fills your 100Gigs hard drive before i'd even heard of the internet... and i didn't need the internet to find a deep love of music... the rush of buying a new vinyl, of collecting every release/picture disc by my favourite artists�. discovering new music i liked, all underground, no radio-plugged mix CDs or whatever... ALL without the internet!"

Later on in the topic, which currently carries over 600 replies, fans started to suggest ideas to Simon. They encouraged each other to buy more merchandise, to replace old t-shirts or hoodies, to buy an extra album to give to a friend and they came up with ideas to help out Simon Posford, Shpongle, and Twisted Music.

And it seems Simon has also learned from the fact that you indeed will not sell more CDs even when filesharing is good promotion, as he noted. Being a fan myself, I was very delighted to receive a newsletter, one year after the leak, which featured some interesting new business models and experiments. It does a few things very well and I'll highlight this bit by bit. The opening paragraph is as follows:

"Dear Twisted fans,

The new Prometheus album has been doing very well on Beatport with 4 of his tracks reaching the Top10 of the electronica charts. If you haven't got your copy yet then Benji and Twisted would be happy if you could get onto Beatport and purchase at least the electronica tracks. We'd love to see him get to Number 1!

Ott is beginning his 6 date tour of the USA starting tonight! You can see and buy tickets to all his tour dates at the bottom of this newsletter. You can also join his Facebook Fan Page here.

We've also got two new tracks of Younger Brother and Shpongle available as a free download, keep reading to find out how to get hold of them."

What a dramatic change of tone, compared to the rants on the forum. This is how you connect with fans! First of all, it acknowledges fan support in terms of chart positions and makes a polite request (as opposed to lashing out or guilt-tripping fans, like on the forum). Also, it tries to unite the fans and give them a purpose; a mission. People love accomplishments, individually or in groups, if only for the little dopamine rewards our brains release.

They then give the fans more information and ways to connect with one of the labels artist's and finally reward fans with free music. That's a great way to open a newsletter.

As for the free tracks, the newsletter featured two images with links to the place to download the song. Once on the page, the page showed a download button, which when clicked, becomes a box in which people must enter their email address (as seen on the left). So actually, they can see which email addresses support which artists, but also, when people choose to use one of the share buttons, they help Twisted Music get more email addresses than just the ones they already had for the newsletter.

Younger Brother's page was a little more complex (see screenshot on the right), with more information, but basically boils down to the same thing.

The newsletter then continues with another exciting way of dealing with the reality created by the internet, which is crowd-funding:

"Many of you have already pledged on the Younger Brother album 'Vaccine'. We're working with pledge to raise money and to set up the best possible foundation to promote and release the record next year.

We're calling on the loyal and faithful to help. In exchange we're offering loads of interesting things from studio time with the band to limited artwork and access to rehearsals."

Again, a great way to involve fans and to offer them something exciting. It basically offers them a reason to do it for themselves, instead of telling them to please buy a CD because the label needs it (see forum post). Some of the 'items' on the list for people that pledge: signed CD (£15), new album and entire back catalogue (£25), coming to one of their rehearsals (£40), studio workshop (£300), being in one of their videos (£150), a unique personal remix of your favourite track of the album (£600), and much more.

The newsletter closes with more standard stuff, such as tour dates and the like.

RECAP

The strategy here is simple, yet complex. First of all, the label releases some very unique, high-quality music, which has given them a fanatical and evangelical following (Seth Godin would call this a tribe). Secondly, this following, together with the label, has turned into an ecosystem; when things were not going well, the ecosystem started figuring out ways in which it could survive as a whole. Thirdly, Simon Posford started paying close attention to his tribe and started catering directly to their needs. When reduced to a communication and business strategy, it becomes the formula of CwF (Connecting with Fans) and giving fans a RtB (Reason to Buy).

Giving away free songs is a good example of connecting with fans by rewarding them. The clearest reasons to buy in this mailing are the mission to get one of the label's artists to number 1, as well as all the rewards for pledging money for the new album.

It is important to note that this should not be done to generate profit, but should genuinely be done to please the fans and to give them what they want. I thoroughly believe that if you betray your fans' trust, you will lose them and your (potential) income.

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Does the 2012 primary campaign really start in January 2011? Perhaps not. Most of the presumed contenders for the Republican presidential nomination have apparently decided to skip the Hispanic Leadership Conference despite its location in Florida, a key state in the early part of the primary schedule. Of the generally-recognized candidates for the ticket, only outgoing Governor Tim Pawlenty has confirmed his appearance next month:

It was billed, in part, as a forum for the 2012 Republican presidential field to speak directly to Hispanics – a replica of the vaunted Conservative Political Action Conference, but tailored to the fastest-growing slice of the electorate.

Yet, when former Gov. Jeb Bush, former Sen. Norm Coleman and former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez open the first Hispanic Leadership Network conference next month in Miami, the only potential presidential candidate confirmed to attend – so far – is Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. …

A poor showing could raise doubts about the commitment of Republicans to court Hispanics, one of the open-ended questions of the 2012 presidential cycle.

It could, but there are some mitigating factors. The conference is being held at about the same time as the RNC winter meeting, for one thing. That won’t usually require attendance by candidates, but the organizers within the party will most likely opt for the RNC meeting rather than the first iteration of this conference. The organizers may want to make this “the CPAC for Hispanic Republicans,” but the actual CPAC is just a couple of weeks later. The activities in Washington will overshadow Miami, and the organizers of the HLC will probably be attending CPAC anyway.

The general timing may not work well, either. Unlike the 2008 cycle, when both parties had an open primaries for the first time in decades, the GOP can take its time putting a pre-primary campaign together. No one will feel rushed into making January announcements; most candidates need time to organize for a national campaign. Some of those sending regrets also hold political office now, such as Senator John Thune, Governor Mitch Daniels, Governor Rick Perry, and Governor Haley Barbour (who hasn’t confirmed his response either way). Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin have media jobs that they will want to extend as far as possible before having to take hiatuses after announcing their intent to run. Pawlenty’s term of office ends this month and he’s been organizing for a while, which means those pressures won’t keep him from outreach efforts like this.

The organizers for HLC perhaps should have rethought their scheduling and picked a date farther into spring, perhaps in April or May for their first-ever conference. Its close proximity to CPAC alone will mean that potential attendees may have to decide whether to spend money in Miami for a limited event or spend it in DC for CPAC where they can network on a much wider basis. The GOP definitely needs to organize to make their case to Hispanic voters, but organizers need to keep logistics in mind, too.

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