Cute Clever iPhone App Concepts That Are Real

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/accent-detector-free-prank/id590829844?mt=8

"I can't think of anything to invent."

Is probably the most common excuse you use to justify not having made something remarkable. But remember, remarkable is totally in the eye of the beholder. All you have to do is amaze and surprise your immediate audience and you've got something that broke up their day -- something remarkable.

Well, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/accent-detector-free-prank/id590829844?mt=8 does just that.

At first, I thought, "kids will love this. It's like a iPhone app magic trick!"

But then, I thought, no. The entrepreneurs will also love this as it opens up a whole new way of thinking of disruptive technology. In it's purest IA sense, what "Accent Detector" does is

1. automates communication

2. leverages human cognition

How to Invent

While we're all trying to make an app or product that does something like Google: simulates human search decision making via a complex algorithm, Manol took what humans to best and simply automated the delivery of the result.

Think about what this means as far as

1. language translation

2. crowdsourcing design / art selection

3. transportation and delivery

You don't have to make your app or product replace a human. You just have to make a human more joyful doing what they do best.

Learn Three Reasons Why Facebook Sucks From Poor Privacy to Growth

Top Three Reasons Why Facebook Sucks

Using online social networks to keep in touch with friends, family and business associates can be beneficial and for some, even addicting behavior. For those who are interested in the reasons why one should not join online networks such as Facebook, there are plenty to choose from that can deter anyone from registering and signing up themselves.

• Privacy Matters
A major reason why Facebook sucks is its issue with user privacy and the ability to search nearly anything on a user within an instant. Unless the registered user has manually set all of his or her own privacy settings to stop others from viewing their profiles, seeing their interests and even getting their contact information, the information remains public and is visible even by those who are not friends of the user. Privacy issues also arise from Facebook now being a public company with shareholders, giving other businesses access to information regarding users including advertising insight, virtual "likes" and shares", interests and even the friends that each member has on the network. Setting privacy on one's account must be done manually to ensure that all of the sharing, updates and even photos of the user on Facebook is entirely hidden from those who are not within their group of friends or personal acquaintances online.
• Employment Issues
For those who have an account that is public on Facebook but may not realize this, it can often deter employers who are seeking to hire a new employees, especially if photos and updates on the user's Facebook are inappropriate or unsettling to the potential employer. Not being hired due to a Facebook profile is not only invasive to one's own privacy, but it is quick way to lose out on potential job and career opportunities that could have otherwise been extremely beneficial to the user. Ensuring all privacy settings are updated and that one's page is appropriate and without any potential offensive or belligerent behavior is the only want to prevent the chance of being denied a position due to one's account.
• It's a Fad
Although currently Facebook is the most popular social network across the globe, many marketers predict that it is simply just another fad that will slow down and essentially "die off" when something bigger and better comes along. Facebook sucks as a fad because of the hype that it is extremely valuable to advertisers and companies looking to gain more insight into users and their activity each day.

Using Facebook may be ideal for those looking to stay in touch with long-lost relatives and friends from the past, but it can also be truly invasive and in some cases, it can negatively impact your chance for a career in any field you are interested in regardless of your skills, education and qualifications

Guest Blogged By

gary brewer

president, ceo | digital eye media 

3132 airway avenue | costa mesa, ca | 92626

p 949-333-8953 c 949-355-6394

digitaleyemedia.com

Dangerous Youtube Marketing, Sales Training and Tutorial for Men Only

You do what you do to put food on the table. To you, it's second nature. You get a kid out of college- even a fancy ivy league college to try to do what you do and it will take him years of additional blood sweat and tears to do it well. Then another decade to do it as well as you do.

That's because for you, what you do as a pro is autohabit. 

For him, every little step and every little decision is a nerve racking stressor.

So, now that you've decided that you've got to start producing youtube videos to promote your firm, products, and services, what have the most effective Youtube video marketing pros picked up along the way that drives the highest number of conversions and sales? If there was a Youtube marketing tutorial or a sales training video that could raise your sales by 5%, would you watch it?

The above tutorial will raise your sales by at least 25%. It's for manly men only.

Big Data Visualization and Analytics Major Players

There are so many new startups in the big data world, I decided to search and find a simple visualization of the people in the space. As you'd think, all the big players, Amazon, SAP, Oracle, etc are in the game. But the truly exciting people are the small guys who are agile and nimble. Get to know them. If you want and introduction, we know a lot of them personally: http://sparkah.com/contact

hi. can you see this?

hello! If this post worked, can you reply by just hitting FAV? thanks!

Bob Wan Kim's Google+ for Entrepreneurs

Hi. If you're an entrepreneur, and you track new and disruptive technologies that will effect your business, follow my Google+. I cover everthing that will make a difference in your business and career. From 3d printing to OLED organic technologies and nanotech, join me for the latest interviews with PhDs and CEO from all the biggest industries that are changing the landscape of business

Spider Projection Computer for Cloud vs OLED and AMOLED?

One of these days, a projection computer like this will be feasable. Afterall, any white paper surface can reflect both the display and keyboard. But with AMOLED and OLED technologies speeding up, you may not ever need a projection computer. Afterall, you're going to need massive battery power to project light strong enough to work in daylight whereas OLED displays actually save energy while being brighter than anything on the market now.

via http://www.yankodesign.com/2012/03/13/get-a-spider-for-cloud-computing/

Mission Hockey Trade Show Exhibit is the Perfect Kid's Treehouse

I wonder how much this trade show exhibit for Mission Hockey would have cost if they decided to produce it? It's one of those things you would want to house fully erected in a warehouse in the valley. You'd kids would love it. But I'm sure your prospects would be impressed too. Unless you're trying to portray a frugal and spartan brand image. Via http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Tjxf10pBY

As an adult, when you go to your corporate trade shows in Las Vegas or Barcelona, you're attracted to other things. You're certainly attracted to glitter and pretty racing models but what really gets your attention is anything that actually communicates well. Ask youself how many trade show booths you have to pass before you find one that just makes sense instantly?

Sadly, if that booth isn't your company's then you've got a major communication problem. Give it shot. Try a real litmus test. See what your results tell you when you poll passers by that you paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to stand in front of. 

Swiss Re Trade Show Booth Builds Attention Oasis Well

If you're a woman, even if you're a beautiful woman, you know the feeling. You're sitting there at dinner with your date or husband and he can't stop rubber-necking over at that other woman in the short skirt. Well, Swiss Re has solved that problem with high walls and created a space you'll actually want to escape into.

via http://www.csandl.com/lightD_SwissRE.htm

Architectural Trade Show Displays by Epic Displays: Solar

We all know beauty when we see it. It makes us feel amazing. Epic Displays scores on the amazing meter with their Solar display. The only thing I'd like to see is them being able to produce in volume and lower the price.

via http://www.epicdisplays.com/servlet/the-56/Trade-Show-Island-Exhibit/Detail

Innovative: Using Dried Flower Petals for Trade Show Partitions

Technically, you don't even have to have these transparent tubes. All you have to do is apply fast-dry spray adhesive onto a board then sprinkle your petals. If you use slow dry, you'll also get tons of lint. But the petals should cover that any ways. Brilliant idea for creating visual trade show displays.

via http://pinterest.com/pin/122230577356370163/

Stainless Steel Ice Cubes So You Get Zero Dilution

Only trouble with stainless steel in your drink is that stainless steel can cause an Immuno-inflammatory tissue reaction in your body.Oh, and it can transfer other substances that ice won't.

Advanced Guerrilla Marketing Strategies for High Risk Profile Aggressive Companies

Guerrilla Marketing is applied guerrilla warfare for marketing and advertising. I think most of us know as much. Che Guevara popularized the term "guerrilla warfare," meaning, "little (agile) warfare." And before him, Sun Tzu, the Chinese Philosopher wrote an entire treatise on the topic. You know it as "The Art of War."

And these are the core principles:

1. Never fight when the enemy outnumbers you

In marketing, this means that instead of trying to sell to millions of people, attack small niche groups of fan-bois, Otaku (Japanese term for "reclusive fanatic"), and Mania (Korean term for obsessive product zealots).

2. Never fight when the enemy is on higher ground (uphill)

The uphill part can be applied to long difficult sales cycles

Probably the most hated and unpopular dictator in history said something smart, and it's quoted by American and English politicians to this day, "If you have to explain, you've failed." Use marketing that's so clear and instantly compelling that you score a kill (conversion) by just dropping your weapon (since you're uphill now). 

Just drop a headline. Just drop a 5 second demo video. Just drop an impactual photograph. If you have to explain your game, app, product, service, company, or website, you've failed. Keep improving your position (messaging clarity and delivery) until you're standing on your enemy's bald spot.

3. Lure your enemy onto terrain that is favorable to you

While you can struggle to capture the higher ground, what's even more strategic is to seduce, not force, your enemy to lower ground.

Forcing your enemies to lower ground requires exhaustion of resources: weapons, manpower, food, time. So instead, lure. Seduce. 

Sun Tzu did this by sending a small force to attack one of his enemies major cities. This caused his enemy to abandon his hard earned position. In another event, he simply used food to seduce his enemy off of high ground. The trouble with high ground is that resource delivery becomes more challenging as the ground gets higher. So Sun Tzu killed all the food delivery troops on their way up. 

In marketing, this is what Apple and Google did to Microsoft's userbase. Remember. In guerrilla marketing, your target (enemy) is NOT your competition. It's your competition's marketshare. Instead of attacking a dominant platform on it's dominant ground (like Wolfram Alpha tried to do against Google's market), Apple waited long enough to make the public starved for tasty UX. They came in hordes. Google did the same to Microsoft. Instead of developing a new Google OS for Intel platform PCs, they started attacking an undefended capital city: the bloated browser called Internet Explorer. You forget that browser still exists didn't you? By changing the battle focal point, Google made making a new OS (fighting Microsoft's market penetration where they are dominant) irrelevant. Google did this by introducing apps that you don't even have to leave the browser for. The top of the mountain is no longer important when you've jumped mountains.

4. Kill without using weapons or troops where ever possible

This sounds to me like marketing automation. What Sun Tzu meant was to hunker down and let brutal winters, viscious disease, bitter starvation, internal betrayal, and if possible, acts-of-god destroy your enemies.

The principle here is to leverage the enemy's (your target market) relationship with their product or service product against them. 

Don't try to sell your prettier-shinier-cheaper product to your market under the narcissistic preconception that "that's what they want." If you're wrong, it's going to require every single bullet in your arsenal to convince the market that that's what you got.

Instead, find the winter, disease, starvation and internal discontent in your enemy. 

Set up search filters in Yelp, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest using the leading company's name and product name. You might be amazed what your target market is actually pining away for.

5. Sun Tzu said a lot more stuff

See how Guerrilla Marketing applies to:

a. Google SEO

b. PR and Press Releases for Blog Coverage

c. Social Media Marketing

d. Trade Show Marketing

e. eCommerce SEO

f. Kickstarter and Venture Capital

By Robert Wan,
VP Strategy.
http://sparkah.com/contact
310 598 1606

The Best Content and Article Spinner Is? For Human Quality Rewriting

So I just got done rewriting 18 different versions of the same blog posts. Why? Because I'm a member of 18 different online communities on marketing and social media strategies. 

I contribute what I've learned to my communities and they do the same. It's like a brain trust.

The trouble is, if I just copy and paste and then just repost the same exact blog on their site as I do the other 17, Google not only penalizes me, Google penalizes them too. 

Google penalizes sites with a large amount of duplicate content.

If penalizes is a strong word, let's just say, "ignores." You've seen that link in the bottom of all their Google search results pages, "120 similar results ignored," they say. And for me, being ignored is as strong a penalty as any.

So I'm going to try this today: a human quality article and content spinner.

I'll let you know how that goes.

Cool. A High PR Social Media Marketing Website That Let's You Link Your Sites

I just joined Chief Marketing Officer.

I wasn't expecting much but the members seem like they are the real deal. CMOs and CEOs of major corporations. But for me, the immediate payoff has to also be there. I don't like being strung along for long periods of time just HOPING for a big eventual payoff or contract. That's why I love the profile page for social media marketing strategy professionals. 

Even if nothing else happens from here, it was worth the long registration form.

Change Youtube Channel URL Name or Username

So here's the thing. Just like Facebook Pages, Youtube won't let you change your channel url

1. once you've got subscribers or

2. changed your channel name once already.

This makes sense. It's because bad people will lure you to subscribe to a nice channel name like "Youtube.com/GreenCooking" then suddenly, after they have 1,000,000 dollars, oh. I mean, subscribers, change the name to "DunkinDonuts"

But, if you don't fall into either category, the best way to get subscribers, and hence, viewers to your channel is to 

1. deliver emotionally surprising mentally memorable unique content

2. be highly visible by leaving comments on the youtube walls of all the people who commented on your competitors' youtube videos.

In other words, if you're selling women's clothing,

A. don't make your username or channel url "youtube.com/BigBurlyManWeapons"

B. don't leave on comment on a channel named "youtube.com/Isotopes4Nanotech" 

Anyhow, the picture for how you do it is above.

If you like me, and you want more of me, Subscribe to me at http://youtube.com/viralmarketingexpert

Thanks!

How to Reduce Your Printing Costs Fast

Reducing Business Printing Costs
In the current economic climate it's becoming more important than ever for businesses both large and small to reduce costs in order to remain competitive. There are many ways to do this, but one of the most effective of these is to focus on the costs of printing and how to reduce them. There are many options available when considering your company's printing needs, and we'll examine a few of them here to help you decide what's best for your business.

Reviewing Your Requirements
One of the first and most important things to do when trying to reduce costs in any part of your business is to have a full review of what your company's actual requirements are and then endeavour to minimise any waste. For example, in the case of printing, it may be counterproductive to have an in-house printing department when you only need to do a small amount of printing on a fairly irregular basis. This is often the case for small and medium-sized businesses who are just starting out, who may require large amounts of printing for a short time but then find that their requirements are lessened once they are established. In such cases as these, one may consider outsourcing their printing to an external specialist printing company, the advantage to this being that you will only pay for what you use, and no more than that.

Scaling Up?
Even larger businesses may benefit from outsourcing their printing work; with no need to dedicate space, time or manpower to printing, outsourcing can be a positive boon for just about any business. While companies that frequently require regular printing work done may, indeed, benefit from doing their own printing in-house, the expense of the equipment and materials needed to do so must be a calculated cost. Can your business afford to buy the hardware and materials, pay for any maintenance the equipment requires and train staff to use it? Could the space taken up by these be better put to other uses? Besides all of this, printing also takes time, whereas outsourcing only needs the few minutes it takes to place an order with a printing company. All of these factors must be taken into consideration. 

The option that best suits your business really does depend on your company's individual needs and workload, but one of the quickest and simplest ways in which one can save money - and more, in fact - on their printing costs is to consider outsourcing. Be sure to take a full and measured review of your company's individual printing habits and remember to include all costs incurred, which are often more than merely financial. For instance, if your company partakes in lots of online booklet printing, or pdf printing then outsourcing could save you a lot of money. By considering everything, your business can remain competitive.

Bookmark: How to Deal With Haters, Trolls, and Justified Negative Comments Online

Frustration, fear, and anger are all part of a day's work. As a pro, you've accepted that. What you might not remember thought, in the moment, is that these negative emotions only peak when you don't have a clear action plan for an unfavorable happening. In other words, if you know what to do in the event of a PR disaster, that disaster becomes nothing more than an annoyance-- not the blood-pressure-med-ingesting-causation these things normally become. 

So, to chip in on your own effort to make 2013 the healthiest, happiest year of your life, I'm happy to introduce http://charliepownall.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/12-principles-for-responding-t... by PR and Business Strategy Consultant Charlie Pownall in Hong Kong.

I bookmarked and printed this one out.

Still Using Paypal? Why a Merchant Account Might Be Empowering

https://www.etsy.com/blog/en/files/2012/08/UglyBaby-Etsy-Shop.jpg

When I first started my ecommerce business, the word, "e-commerce" had a dash in it. It was 1998. I came straight out of the dot-com with nothing but online experience.

A few years later, after everybody had most of their wounds healed up nicely, Paypal became the go-to credit card sales processing solution for the second wave of online stores. I still use Paypal for many of my own ecommerce stores. But then, I started consulting with brick and mortar stores. I was shocked. 

I found out that they were being charged 20-40% less than Paypal was charging me. They were using a Merchant Account / Processing Service. 

Paypal Charges More than Merchant Services Do

So I called Paypal. I asked why I was being charged so much more than my clients. Paypal was charging me something like 3.5% commission per sale with a $0.33 minimum. On some of my $0.99 ebooks and mp3s, I was left with $0.66 after Paypal took their cut. That's 33%. Paypal put me on hold for 74 minutes.

Turns out that if you didn't come from the retail B&M world and your Etsy store or EBay store just started taking off, at a certain point, getting a merchant account can save you thousands of dollars a month. Even if you're not selling a ton, saving a few hundred dollars a month is as good as your merchant account buying you a BMW.

Do the math. If you're profit margin is 50% and your operating costs are an additional 20%, after you pay your own salary, your business may only be left with a 10% net profit margin. Saving just 1% on your credit card processing fees is a whopping 10% more money to reinvest into growing your business.

Besides, if you work with a company that's smaller than the giant that Paypal is, you'll be able to develop a strong relationship and even get additional benefits like Business Loans and Merchant Cash Advances -- something Paypal doesn't offer.

And no, I'm not affiliated with the company I've linked to above. I just thought they looked useful to you.

ProTip: How To Blog Fast-- Professional Style

I love that my wordpress blog: http://sparkah.com/guerrilla-marketing-strategies gets tons of Google traffic. I hate how hard it is to resize pictures and format embedded videos and media in wordpress though.

So here's how I finish a blog post for upload to Wordpress and syndication in Tumblr, and Blogger in 12 minutes:

1. Set up autoposting from Posterous to your Wordpress or Tumblr or Blogger.
(if you're a guest blogger for http://sparkah.com/blog or http://journik.com/convergence ... I've already done this part for you)

2. Do all your blog posts in Posterous.

3. When embedding a picture, just paste the LINK to the photo into your post.
No more messing with windows or <img> tags. Posterous auto sizes the photo for you:

Just make sure the photo is in it's own paragraph-- alone. It will look like this:

4. Same with Youtube videos:

They will look like this:

What it Looks Like From The "Create a Post" Window:

And this is what it looks like before I hit the "GREEN Publish" button:

Next, Make Sure Your Blog Post Shows Up In Your Other Blogs. If Not, Click:

(i gotta publish this post before i can take a screen shot to insert here!)

Finally, This Is What It Looks Like After Auto Formatting and Upload to Wordpress:

To see a video of this process...

Top 10 Zen Productivity Tips That Made Me Powerful

It's amazing how little I get done in a day. 

It's not to say I do little. I do a lot. But once you get used to your productivity, your output loses it's bang quickly. So here's a list of the things I did to impress myself with my own productivity and skyvault my own self-happiness.

10. Stopped answering the phone

9. Turned off IM and Chats

8. Changed my VM greeting to tell people to use my online contact form for fastest response.

7. Made an online contact form

6. Turned on 2-Step Password Verification with Gmail.

5. Turned OFF IMAP and POP
Above two items were so I don't have to stress about hacking. I already know of 3 attempts.

4. Programmed my most frequently used sentences into my F-Keys. see Marketing Automation

3. Got a wireless mouse. It's amazing how much time you waste fidgeting with the cord!

2. Put a Postit Note on my monitor: "relax, breathe deep, strecth"

1. Got guest bloggers to write for my blogs. see: marketing alliance.

BONUS:
Got a service in Czech Republic to dictate all my VM messages and fill in my forms for the callers. It's not the time it saves. It's my frustration. Listening to those rambling long winded vms is not how I like to start my day. PS. Google transcription still sucks.

Double Bonus:
Started telling my clients when our conferences had 5 minutes left. The ones who take more of my time get dropped-- they obviously don't respect my time.

Continued: http://sparkah.com/guerrilla-marketing-strategies/dangerous-productivity-tips...