Dangers Related to Upgrading Customers

by Tom Markiewicz on February 1, 2010

…from a business perspective, account limits like Basecamp has for the number of active projects can be a double-edged sword. On one hand it’s an opportunity to upgrade customers and have them pay you more money each month. On the other hand, it forces customers to revise their position, and if you’re not doing a really great job, it can prompt them to question the value of an account they may have otherwise carried on using for years.

(via Moving from Basecamp to ActiveCollab — All in the head)

Gently Introduce the Product

by Tom Markiewicz on January 31, 2010

Respect your customers, but gently introduce them to a better product:

Oskar’s didn’t just bring in its own selection of hand-crafted brews, though; the tap line includes draughts from competitors, such as Left Hand and New Belgium. “We’re all about promoting great beer in general,” Gray said. “Introducing craft beer to the consumer is so important to us. When someone orders a Coors Light, we serve it with a 3-ounce sample of Mama’s Little Yella Pils.”

(via 43 beers and a Cajun Creole menu | Boulder County Business Report)

It’s not the platform, but the creative idea

January 30, 2010

‘‘Organisations will start this year to get less obsessed about what site they’re on and focus more on whether the content they’re producing or the interactivity, especially around customer service, is engaging.”
(via The Post.ie)

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Interesting Quotes on the Apple iPad

January 29, 2010

Those who are worried that the iPad will cut into sales of the iPod Touch or the MacBook are the same people who worried that McDonald’s (MCD) chicken nuggets would cut into hamburger sales. Successful expansion into new categories is always a good thing. Apple did it. They created a new category within the mobile [...]

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My Technology Prediction for 2010

January 4, 2010

This is the time of year when everyone gives their predictions for the upcoming year. I usually shy away from this for the simple reason that if I could accurately predict anything I’d be much wealthier.
That said, there is one trend that I believe will truly take shape in 2010 the way it has been [...]

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The Secret About Writing

December 19, 2009

Peter Michaud on the secret about writing:
If you’ve never written anything thoughtful, then you’ve never had any difficult, important, or interesting thoughts. That’s the secret: people who don’t write, are people who don’t think.

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Upgrading to Snow Leopard

September 19, 2009

I upgraded my MacBook Pro (February 2007 model) to Snow Leopard last week and I’m just starting to finish finding all the small issues as well as improvements. Here’a a brief overview of what I’ve found so far for anyone considering the upgrade.
Improvements

The upgrade freed up over 10 GB of space of my hard drive.
Snow [...]

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Study Shows Self-Employed Most Happy in Their Occupation

September 18, 2009

Two recent articles report that business owners and the self-employed are the most happy in their occupations. The results are from a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index poll data.
The findings, psychologists say, reflect the importance of being free to choose the work you do and how you do it, the way you manage your time, and the [...]

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Steve Jobs on Marketing the iPod Touch

September 14, 2009

It makes me feel better about my own marketing efforts to read that Steve Jobs and Apple had trouble with the initial marketing of the iPod Touch:
“Originally, we weren’t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us [...]

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Lean Startup Dinner with Eric Ries

August 20, 2009

Last night I attended the Lean Startup Dinner with Eric Ries hosted by TechStars. If you’re not familiar, Eric writes the Lessons Learned blog and actively promotes ideas for running lean startups based on his experiences.
I’m particularly fond of the minimum viable product (MVP) concept and have been using that from the beginning with my [...]

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