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If you like rootsy, bluesy, rocky, folky music, then check out the new record Captain Bob’s Guitar.

If you are a stylish woman with bohemian sensibilities, then you owe it to yourself to check out Unika Butika. This is a new source for hand-painted handbags, purses, hats, belts and more. Each item is unique- no 2 are alike! What a great way to attract attention with fashion that you’ll just never find at the mall.

Unika Butika offers a large gallery filled with detailed shots of each item so that you know exactly what you are buying. Take a step out of the ordinary and add a fresh new purse or tote to your collection right away.

Great holiday gift idea as well!

While we’re on the topic of marketing… a little self-marketing experiment. I took the plunge and put some of my music up on youtube. You can check out my youtube channel here, or check out the song Change For You:

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How funny is this… Microsoft’s new ‘I’m a PC’ ads were apparently created using Apple computers. See Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Ads Created On Macs for the details. Great move guys. Crispin Porter Bogusky may have jumped the shark upon picking up the Microsoft account. While they have a history of game-changing campaigns (see: Burger King), they are causing more head-scratching than opinion-altering this time around. 

Maybe their next can feature their famous Blue Screen of Death, which is a system feature where MS certainly has Apple beat. Maybe a new tagline: “I’m a PC, and I look great in blue”. That’s a freebie, guys, grab it and run with it.

Here’s a good one I came across tonite for all you would-be entrepreneurs out there… A Couple of My Rules for Startups.

A few other tips for startups I’d add to this list…

• Spend lots of money on chairs, but cheap out on the desks (I would cite wherever I saw this recently, but I can’t remember). If you have a good chair, you can sit tight and get stuff done for hours. A cheap chair will have you whining within days. On the other hand, a desk is pretty much a desk.
• You really shouldn’t need to spend more than $50-60 per batch of business cards. Check online, there are some great, cheap printers out there.
• Save money on software, try out OpenOffice.

What’s in a name? A whole lot of importance, really. An article from Wall St Journal today called Name That Firm covers examples of a few do’s and don’ts for naming your company. The name can really play a role in predisposing people towards doing business with you (or not), so be sure to put some thought into it, and try not to settle 100% on names that come to you while you’re trashed at a bar. A few of the critical factors from my perspective:

• memorable
• can be pronounced by people in your target market
• somewhat unique/distinctive, ie. keeps you from being confused with other companies
• at least hints at what you do

Wondering about where you can gather current information on Pennsylvania mortgage rates? Then get over to MyHomeLoanMortgages.com, where they have tons of information on mortgage rates in every state. You can click through for even more detailed info on your own city. You’ll find info on local mortgage brokers and real estate agents, along with interesting tidbits such as: in PA there are currently 60,362 homes for sale! This is a handy tool for starting your buying or selling process.

Jakob Nielsen has a great new article up called Bridging the Designer–User Gap. I highly recommend this for anyone involved in product design or web development. Consider these observations from the first paragraph:

Designers are not users. Vice-presidents are not users. Users are not designers.

In other words, designers (and v-p’s) should not assume they know anything about what the user needs. Simultaneously, don’t assume that the user knows how to solve his/her own problem, either. Nielsen goes off to explain varying levels of designer/user overlap, and how this can or should impact the design process. Really thought-provoking.

There are thousands of people out there who are really into fantasy sports such as fantasy baseball. I know guys at work who spend hours and hours working on their fantasy rosters. It’s really hard — you are competing against scores of other players, and your ability to win is dependant on both your skill and your luck. Kind of like managing a team for real. So, if you really want to win your league, you need to look for an edge. And if that edge can save you time as well, so much the better.

That’s where Fantasy Sports Prophet’s Fantasy Baseball software comes in. This software is loaded with features. First off, you access it from anywhere (including work, although I’m sure no one works on their fantasy teams at the office…)! The software will rank players using predictive modeling developed by math geniuses with phd’s. It has a draft tool which helps you draft the right players for your team, as well as ongoing team roster management. The software keeps you current with what is happening to your players. See the detailed player card data available below:

Overall, this is a minor investment which not only saves you time, but can also help you win any cash reward your fantasy league provides. Even better, you can buy the software now for a special $10 off– just use promo code BMC200 when you order. Good luck with your team!

Just this weekend I finally checked out for myself this whole people-to-people lending thing you may have heard about. In a nutshell, a company named Prosper has basically created a marketplace which brings together people who want to borrow money with people who want to lend money. Typically, that function would be filled by a bank, which would layer on all kinds of overhead, thereby increasing the rates charged to the borrower and reducing the rates paid to the lender. Prosper cuts out that middleman and just fills the role of exchange.

From a marketing perspective, this is just a brilliant idea. It creates an eBay for money. One of the charms of eBay is the personal aspect of it– instead of dealing with a faceless mall, you actually deal with real people. Same on Prosper– you can communicate with the people who want to borrow or lend the money. This is giving lenders a greater sense of playing a role in the borrower’s life. Kind of like ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’-era America banking. Check out Prosper for yourself.

 I’m sure I’ll have more to say on it in the future. For example, if you want to borrow money, what are the best ways to market yourself to a community of lenders?…