Bailout Costs

Today the House is voting again on the $700bn Wall Street bailout. In the midst of that, here's something else to think about. It comes from a quote from Bono from earlier this week.

It’s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion dollars to saved 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.
- Bono

Thoughts?

HT: Justin

SAS and Internet Marketing

SAS, the company I work for, does not do much advertising. Occasionally, I'll see an ad in a business magazine and rarely, I'll see something on television. However, today, I saw an ad in an interesting place. An ad for SAS showed up in my Google Reader. I saw this at the bottom of a feed.

They're out there and they're watching you.

This morning I started reading Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill. Underhill and his research company have spent two decades compiling and analyzing data, trying to determine if there is "a method to our madness when it comes to shopping".

They have been gathering data around the globe in malls, grocery stores, banks, fast-food peddlers, and anywhere else you make purchases. The data is collected methodically via cameras, interviewers, and "trackers". Trackers are the people that follow you around the store marking your every move without you even knowing it.

Here's an example...

[A] tracker can record... that a bald man, in a red sweater and blue jeans entered a department store on a Saturday at 11:07 a.m., walked directly to a first floor display of wallets, picked up or otherwise touched a total of twelve of them, checked the price tag on four, then chose one, moved at 11:16 to a nearby tie rack, stroked seven ties, read the contents tags on all seven, read the price on two, then bought none and went directly to the cashier to pay. He paused for a moment at a mannequin and examined the price tag on the jacket it wore. He entered the cashier line at 11:23 as the third person in line, waited two minutes and fifty-one seconds to get to the register, paid with a credit card and exited the store at 11:30.

It's kind of weird to think that someone could follow you and keep that sort of detail without you even knowing it. It might make you think more about how you act in a store.

I'm reading the book because it relates to a project that I have been assigned to at work, but beyond that, I am a dork and this sort of stuff interests me.

Blog Marketing

I've mentioned the American Consumer News blog a few times before on here. In a recent post, they highlighted an interesting new service that allows you to get paid to blog. Here's the amazing part, you get to choose what you blog about.

The site that is offering this service is Snapbomb.com. The goal of Snapbomb is to connect advertisers who want to create buzz about their product with bloggers. The overall concept is called blog marketing. You can read more about what Snapbomb is doing on their blog.

Here's the gist of how Snapbomb works. They, Snapbomb, have a group of advertisers who sponsor campaigns to create buzz about a new release, an event, or just to generate brand awareness. Then, they have a group of bloggers who have signed up to blog about the aforementioned campaigns. As a blogger, you get to choose which of the campaigns you want to blog about and what you say about them.

The goal is not to turn your blog into a bunch of posts about products or services you, or your readers, don't care about. Optimally, you would be able to select buzz building opportunities that fit in with your normal blog content. That way you wouldn't chase off all the readers you have worked so hard to gain. In my case that's you.

So, what do you think about the idea of blog marketing? Have you ever thought that you could use your blog to generate extra income? I mean, you're going to write about something. Why not get paid to do it, right? I'd love to know what you think of the idea.

My New Job Pays $166,400 Per Year

Tomorrow I start my new job. It pays $166,400 per year.

Or, at least it would pay that much if I we to work at this job eight hours a day for an entire year. The bad news is that it is not steady work. I'm only guaranteed half an hour of work.

What is this great paying job? Well, I am going to get paid forty bucks to watch commercials for half an hour and give my opinions. It is some sort of marketing research. Last time I go to eat dinner and they gave me $5.

Matt Rowe started doing these surveys a few years ago, and now he has given them my name. I can't complain, though. I have to drive out to the mall, watch television, and give my two cents.

Forty dollars for two cents. Now, that is a good exchange rate.

Working for the Man

SAS has always been looked at as a great place to work. This year Fortune ranked SAS as the 29th best place to work in America. Google topped the list this year. You can see the full list here.

From the Horses Mouth: "We want to be partners."

I saw an interesting article on the ONE blog yesterday. It's from this week's edition of Business Week. It discusses how Africans "want skills and a leg up, not handouts." It's definitely worth the read and would only take about ten minutes of your time.

Africa Wants Opportunities, Not Handouts
IBM's Nicholas Donofrio has heard it from Africans themselves: They don't want aid, they want a chance to develop their own businesses