Musings

Commercial bloggers – a new cottage industry?

Posted on by charlie

I’ve had the good fortune to spend some quality time with Loïc Le Meur in Madrid, and will be spending some more time with him next week in Paris and Berlin.

It’s fascinating to listen to him talk about blogs. Each time, he seems to pull up another fascinating example of what folks are doing with blogs. Of course, many of the examples are French, but that’s not the point. I think his examples point to the creativity people have with their own blogs.

He pointed out two, this last time in Madrid and it struck me that people are figuring out ways to use their blogs as commercial tools.

The bead-trotter webjournal belongs to a talented craftswoman who makes really cool jewelry. The interesting thing is that she has used the basic photo album on the blog to show her creations and sell them via Pay Pal. Go check it out.

Another one Loïc talked about was La Fraise, run by a guy who is nuts about printed t-shirts. The blog gets an amazing number of comments. He uses a photo album to show designs and get feedback. People can even submit their own design, in true community fashion. Go see for yourself.

But, the key thing that struck me when I saw these sites is that blogs have become true tools for a new kind of cottage industry. Sure, we’ve had individual online stores for many years now, but the stores and the sites related to them were not interactive. Here, we see folks interacting with their customers in a way not possible without such ease of use.

What also struck me is that 5 years ago, when I worked for myself and hadn’t given my brain and energy to a large corporation, I was struggling to build elements of an interactive website that would allow me to publish and sell and interact with visitors to a high degree and so on. I am almost sure that if I had a blog then, I would be doing something entirely different from what I do now. If I had a blog then, I would likely have been doing something along the line what these folks have done: an easy to update blog, with good interaction with the customers, and an easy way to offer my products.

Sigh.

Uncategorized

Airplane airplane

Posted on by charlie
I know someone who collects airplane safety cards
I know someone who collects airplane safety cards
This one was on my flight out of Madrid on Iberia
This one was on my flight out of Madrid on Iberia


I don't know anyone who collects barf bags, though
I don’t know anyone who collects barf bags, though
But on Iberia I might have collected a few bruises on my knees, the space between seats was impossible
But on Iberia I might have collected a few bruises on my knees, the space between seats was impossible



Uncategorized

Standard desk picture

Posted on by charlie


When you’re testing, creating content for software, a phone, or a camera, a lot of the content creation happens at one’s desk. It’s even funnier when the product is a proto you can’t use out of the office – all the content is boring stuff you can make from your desk, since you can’t take it to the great outdoors and use it like a real person.

I remember when Lifeblog was not lauched yet, I had so many pics of my desk, my monitor, the plants, the co-workers, and so on. The SMSs and MMSs were thinkgs like ‘test’ or ‘beep’ (my favorite) or just blank messages to myself. In the end, the Lifeblog that was created was really dull, or at least less dull than my real Lifeblog.

Uncategorized

Standard desk picture

Posted on by charlie


When you’re testing, creating content for software, a phone, or a camera, a lot of the content creation happens at one’s desk. It’s even funnier when the product is a proto you can’t use out of the office – all the content is boring stuff you can make from your desk, since you can’t take it to the great outdoors and use it like a real person.

I remember when Lifeblog was not lauched yet, I had so many pics of my desk, my monitor, the plants, the co-workers, and so on. The SMSs and MMSs were thinkgs like ‘test’ or ‘beep’ (my favorite) or just blank messages to myself. In the end, the Lifeblog that was created was really dull, or at least less dull than my real Lifeblog.

General

Search is great – when you have it

Posted on by charlie

It has been interesting to see how quickly Lifeblog mobile (the Lifeblog app on the phone) and Lifeblog PC (the Lifeblog app on the PC) have been converging in features. From both apps you can browse the timeline, edit items, add notes, send via email, and post to a blog. Sure, there are some differences, such as you can send reply to SMSs and MMSs from Lifeblog mobile. Or, you can blog more items at a time with Lifeblog PC.

But, the key feature I seem to miss on Lifeblog mobile is Search.

Because I can easily search for stuff on Lifeblog PC, I find myself labeling things specifically to easily find them later. For example, I have a running log. Every item in the log is labeled ‘Running’. In Lifeblog PC, all I do is search for ‘Running’ and all the items appear.

But, I also have a ton of stuff in my Favorites that are on the phone. I usually want to show someone something and the only way to find it right now in Lifeblog mobile is to scroll a lot or guess the date of the item. Sigh.

Don’t get me wrong, Lifeblog mobile still does a lot. I think, though, that I might see if I can get in a feature request regarding search on Lifeblog mobile. 😉

PS I’d like to point out that one of the greatest and most dangerous aspects of product creation is when you have all these geeky users (uh, like everyone on our team) who come up with a feature for themselves. My boss calls it ‘the global user group of 1’. Many times one of us proposes a feature that gets quickly knocked down when we realize it is for the specific use case from one of us. Fortunately, the there are a few folks on our team that see that. I, though, am usually oblivious to it. That’s why I am not on the product creation side, I guess.