Published At Last

It's official, I'm now a published author. The book, Digital Marketing for Dummies, which took up most of last year went on sale on Saturday. Wiley, the publisher's have told us that it has had 1200 advance sales, which apparently is above average so the prospects are looking good. The book's meant to demystify online marketing and explain how companies big and small can put into practice the latest digital marketing principles ranging from search engine optimisation, blogs, online PR to tapping into online communitiies. Following last week's post, we are hoping to launch a blog around the book to enable us to keep it updated but in the meantime anyone interested in the book can buy it from Amazon here.

The Power of the Book Blog

I am increasingly asked, 'What's the point of a blog?'. The answer is of course multi faceted, used in the right way, it can be an invaluable communications tool whilst it can also be used as a key promotional channel. Communications is all well and good, organisations use blogs to talk about what they are upto, their observations on the industry they work in and perhaps even their opinions- if they matter- on the wider world. Countless brands are now using blogging to great effect ranging from McDonalds right through to that Wine brand again Stormhoek.

However the promotional side of blogs is a more controversial area. Individuals such as myself use blogs for both self promotion and to support their credentials and if they have the experience and knowledge then that's all well and good but when you are using a blog to try and sell something directly through it well that's pretty much a No, No in blogosphere..Except it seems in the case of books. I'm aware of two examples (and I'm sure there's lots more) where authors have used blogs to not only promote and sell their books but also to add an interactive channel to the publication enabling them to write later updates based on what they write about and the feedback they get on their blogs. The best two examples of this are Chris Anderson's execellent Long Tail and Mark Earls' Herd, which I have to confess I haven't read yet- but have just ordered it from Amazon. In the case of Earls, I found his blog through erstwhile brand-man blogger, Russell Davies and having read just a few posts, it made my mind up that this was a book that I needed to not only read but also to own...so a few clicks later I bought it.
I guess the question I'm trying to ask is this, why is it ok for authors to use blogs to sell their books whereas if, say a make-up company, tried to flog directly to bloggers, it would probably get flamed?

The UK's Number 1 Blog

I'm not sure if I've actually written about Gapingvoid on here before but having been an avid reader for the last 18 months or so, I wanted to give it a plug. For those who don't know it, Gapingvoid is blog consultant Hugh Mcleod's blog who uses cartoons to get across key messages and business advice. He has made his main client, wine brand, Stormhoek famous and although many people don't know this, he was responsible for the Threshers wine voucher craze just before xmas. Hugh has just finished running a nationwide 'Love' tour on behalf of Stormhoek to promote the brand's new cartoon labeles (Heart shaped for valentines).
During the road trip, Hugh is scouring Tesco's supermarkets around the UK for a date for Valentines.. The tour has been picked up by numerous media local, national and blogs and is yet further proof of just how well offline brand activation and blogging can work together. Keep up the good work Hugh and for those of you who haven't yet checked it out..go now!

Brands chasing the Green Pound

I may be being cynical but today's news here seems to be yet more jumping on the green band wagon. Timberland has bought Howies, the ethical Welsh outdoor clothing company. It's big news in the ethical world as Howies have established a solid reputation for using recycled materials and giving a percentage of its profits to environmental projects. Howies has been particularly good at extolling its green values on its website and I just hope that Timberland takes note of this. Co-founder, David Hieatt says that he and his partner will remain in control of the company but it will be interesting to see how far it can retain its independence. Too often following a takeover, company's lose their identities and uniqueness within the market. In Timberland's defence, it already has an enviornmental policy in place and to build on this, it would do itself no harm at all by adapting some of the successful initiatives, which its new sibling has so successfully run in the past.

Another day, another relaunch

The Mirror, which to date struggled to adapt digital media techniques has finally relaunched its website to try and catch up with rival The Sun, which has been feted for its successful mix of content and commercial opportunities. Unfortunately, it seems the Mirror has got the relaunch badly badly wrong. At the heart of the new site, which incidentally doesn't appear to have any formal design, is video. But that's all it is, the video clips are random to say the least and perhaps the most bizarre decision of all is that the news clips are all supplied by Associated Press complete with US voiceovers...not really what you want when trying to catch up with the latest breaking news. It's hardly surprising, video rights are heavily priced and the Mirror certainly doesn't have the deepest pockets. But surely rather than use foreign video footage, the paper could offer UGC opportunities - or perhaps it should have just ignored video full stop! There's no point offering it just for the sake of offering it if you don't have the content to back it up. The reaction to the relaunch in the blogosphere has been particularly negative, the Guardian's Roy Greenslade puts his case in writing here and he too picks up on this bizarre decision to offer random video.

The Snow has Arrived

Completely off topic but I wanted to post this picture of the scene outside the office window. Who needs the Alps!

The peril of the newly launched site

The Times today announced that it has relaunched its website and has backed the relaunch with a £10m investment- it's biggest ever for its website. The new all-singing and dancing website has more blogs, audio visual content, reader interaction opportunities and has been Web 2.0'd.. I'd love to show you a screengrab of it but that's just it- I can't. The Times is the victim of its own PR. The website can't cope and all afternoon, thousands of people have been trying to log on only to get half loaded pages. According to the story here on the MediaGuardian, the Times has had a 500% increase in traffic and the site simply has not been able to cope. This is becoming a major problem with not just new sites but old websites as well. With brands and media organisations determined to establish themselves at the forefront of digital content, all singing, dancing websites are increasingly crashing. It's not good news for the industry nor is it pleasing the consumer; some of whom remain skeptical of just how useful the web is...