business

In case you’ve forgotten, the US economy is ginormous. Strange Maps tells why:

Although the economies of countries like China and India are growing at an incredible rate, the US remains the nation with the highest GDP in the world – and by far: US GDP is projected to be $13.22 trillion (or $13,220 billion) in 2007, according to this source. That’s almost as much as the economies of the next four (Japan, Germany, China, UK) combined.

For even more context, click on the above US state map renamed for countries with similar economy sizes. Amazing…

Hat tip, USA.

Viral marketing goes by several different names — buzz marketing, disruptive marketing, guerilla marketing, annuity effect, long tail, media leverage and even word-of-mouth marketing. But adding the word “marketing” to viral or any of the aforementioned names is a bit of a misnomer as the act of marketing typically describes a direct and conscious act on the part of companies to pitch their products to consumers. Viral marketing is anything but conscious. It is indirect marketing managed by consumers and consumers alone.

By definition, viral marketing is a phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message, usually — though not exclusively — online. Like a literal virus, the product message gets passed along from one user to the next and is easily shared in rapid fashion. Hotmail’s mandatory “Get your private, free e-mail at Hotmail.com” message on every outgoing e-mail is widely accredited as the first viral marketing campaign. Its strategy included:

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Wow. Just wow. The 4-Hour Work Week is the most influential book I’ve read in years. Author Timothy Ferris, though a self-proclaimed extremist, dishes on slowing down your life, getting out of the rat race, outsourcing menial tasks, ditching your RSS feeds, batch processing email instead of checking it every 15 minutes (if not more), reducing unnecessary information consumption in favor of productivity and real learning, how effectiveness trumps efficiency, and how the idea of “retirement” is grossly flawed. In short as the book description tells, “Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.”

Ferriss defines the new rich as those who favor mobility, experience, and service in favor of materialism. He counsels in great detail how to setup an automated online company for newbies (easier said than done, though possible) and how to focus your daily work efforts without letting fluff work get in the way. Best of all, Ferriss delivers it all in a very grounded, balanced, and hilarious way despite what his sensational title and clever tagline suggest. Overall, the book is unthinkably smart and of value to any person over the age of 18. I resolve from here on out to work smarter while striving to do what I love further still. That and more world travel, of course. :)

On that note, I’m planning my attempt to ditch the Internet for an entire year. I don’t have all the kinks figured out, and twice weekly email use will have to stay, but I will triumph within the next five years. Just you watch.

Those who know me well know I like video games. I don’t get to play them as much as I’d like to, but I do have the opportunity to write about them as a freelancer. So why is video game dialogue so cheesy? Why do I get embarrassed sometimes when my wife comes in the room only to find me suffering garbage line reading and poor scripts to get to the action? This is something of a pet-peeve for me as a hobbyist and something I recently wrote a feature on. From the article:

“The once fledgling video game industry with its minuscule budgets forced early game makers to wear several different hats, including storytelling ones even if they didn’t have prior experience. “When video games began, particularly on the PC, they were made by one, two, and three-person teams,” says Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal, a vocal proponent against amateur game dialogue. “Very few of these people had professional writing experience.”

As gaming grew to more than $14 billion a year, its storytelling failed to grow up with it. You can read the full article on Edge.

See 10 cons of the Web 2.0 movement. My favorite one: “Spelling and grammr (beta) have gone to hell in a handbasket. I’m in ur domainz, droppin’ ur vowelz.”

I’m guilty (during one fleeting moment in time). Are you?

A recent survey showed that 57% of respondent executives view user-generated content as one of the greatest threats to existing business models. Why is that? “Because they can’t control user-generated content, and they only know how to make money when they are in control of people,” says Jason Calacanis in an email to Smooth Harold. “Over time they will learn you can make money when your not in control–but that will take years.”

No wonder. Not being in control is a scary thing, especially when trying to turn a profit.

[Thanks, Jason]

Lon Safko has created one of the coolest, most efficient business models I’ve ever seen. He sells paper model designs to kids for $10 on his Yahoo! store.Here’s how it works: a kid logs on the site, selects a structure he wants to build, buys the pdf file using Mommy’s credit card, prints off the design, and builds it in under an hour using only paper, Elmer’s Glue, and scissors. Lon then makes off like a bandit only having to pay server fees and the cost of contracting new paper designs (if any). He markets the site using good ole fashion PPC arbitrage and proper SEO.Sweetness! Forget these fleeting, unproven “Web 2.0″ companies. Money 1.0 for the win.

[via Scobleizer]

AOL launched a new tech blog on March 20 called Switched. In case you didn’t know, AOL also owns Engadget, the world’s largest tech blog that just so happens to be the world’s “most popular blog” according to Technorati in terms of linkage. Sources close to Smooth Harold report that Switched is even being funded better than Engadget in terms of salaried individuals despite having zero traffic (read: no ad sales). Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Venture with me — if you will — into the mind of one of the slowest internet dinosaurs in existence. “CEO: Okay, Switched spearhead. You think we should start a new tech blog even though we already own the number one tech blog that’s also the most visited weblog in the world? Okay. But won’t that cannibalize our traffic, at least with the non-tech savvy crowd (because you and I both know Engadget will continue to be the best tech blog unless we suffocate it)? And where Switched isn’t cannibalizing our efforts, won’t we just be wasting money rather than reinvesting into Engadget to further secure its dominance? No? Okay, I’m sold. I don’t know why we didn’t think about this before. Matter of fact, didn’t CNN.com just launch a new world news website to compete with itself? No? Well, they should have.”

Way to support your $25 million purchase of Weblogs Inc, AOL. Your CEO should be fired for letting this thing even see the light of day. I’m amazed by the stupidity and behind the scene agendas that are going on here. Peter Rojas and Ryan Block must be reeling from this mediocre move.

Friend, colleague, and referral ninja extraordinaire Chris Knudsen outlines six ways to become a better salesmen, Zig Ziglar not required. He writes: “Bottom line: solve problems, sell benefits not features, sell value, show value, listen, educate, have empathy and build real relationships. By doing these things correctly, I promise you will see a dramatic increase in your sales.”

I especially like Chris’s counsel to ask good open-ended questions that show the client you’re thinking about their pain areas and how to improve their business.

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USA Today: “Vonage has finally confirmed what many had feared: The embattled Internet phone company has no ‘workaround’ in hand to sidestep Verizon’s patented Internet phone technology… While Vonage has studied methods for designing around the patents, removal of the allegedly infringing technology, if even feasible, could take many months to fully study and implement.”

So unless a judge grants Vonage a permanent stay in light of the Verizon VOIP lawsuit, the company will most likely go under. At least for a few months, and I can’t wait that long without an office number.

Any other Vonage customers out there following the news?