I have a bad habit, when I’m using my personal Gmail account, of clicking on the most ridiculous-sounding PPC ads Google decides to serve me.  I know, I need help

One such ad brought me to a very tall landing page with the expected “sales letter” style copy. What struck me, though, was the hilarious call to action button at the bottom of the page.

And so I give you (drum roll, please) the Call to Action of The Day!

Do you Grok…

...continue to read "Call to Action of The Day: Send Us Your Worst"

In my last post, I made use of a brick and mortar analogy to the current online behavior of some e-commerce Websites, and even recommended the use of those analogies when analyzing online persuasion strategies.

And since at least a few readers responded positively to the idea, I thought I’d share one of Get Elastic’s videos  dramatizing exactly one of those analogies, as well as sharing a link to their whole series.

So welcome to The Crazy, Messed-up World of E-commerce!

And…

...continue to read "What Would Online Retailing Look Like in the Offline World"

I guess it was professional curiosity, but I actually clicked one of those facelift-in-a-bottle ads while visiting some blog.  And hell if I wasn’t intrigued by the landing page’s sleaze-bag persuasive techniques.

Take a look at the screen shot I took of the landing page.  What do you think most caught my eye?  Here’s a hint: think layout and bolding.

Straight out of The Ogilvy Playbook

Here are two relevant quotes taken from pages 73 and 90 of Ogilvy on…

...continue to read "Ogilvy-inspired-but-Sleaze-ified Tricks"

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly spoof of a little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their businesses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Your faithful Friend and Servant, The Grok December, 2000

(With all due respects and a wink to the spirit of C. Dickens)

The Grok was from Mars. There was no doubt whatever…

...continue to read "A Commerce Carol – Grok Nostalgia from December, 2000"

First, if you haven’t seen it yet, watch Microsoft’s response to Apple’s infamous “I’m a Mac” campaign.

Here’s the question: what do you want to bet that Apple has been just waiting – even itching – for Microsoft to release that kind of response to their “I’m a Mac” campaign?

Why do I ask that?  Because I’d bet anything that Mac’s marketing was smart enough to engage in what Mike Smock has termed The Three Move Set.  You see, when…

...continue to read "Microsoft’s Ad Vs. Apple’s Three Move Set"

I was firsthand witness to a clever promotion recently, so I’ll share in the hopes it inspires you to turn the Economy’s lemons into lemonade.

Seattle’s Chow Foods runs six restaurants, and recently sent an email blast with an inventive promotion.  The one-day promotion adjusted their menu item pricing based on the close of the DOW and the NASDAQ – the tumultuous DOW set the food menu pricing, and the NASDAQ set the price of house wine, draft beers, and well…

...continue to read "How To Leverage Economic Woes and Promote Business"

There is nothing like social media to make people feel connected. However, that feeling can some times overwhelm people. Social Media Addiction (SMA) is a real concern. Please understand as a former counselor and social worker I have seen the impact that addiction can have.

If you find yourself with several of the following conditions you may be suffering from this affliction.

1. You have more “friends” than the population of Tyre, NY.

2. You find yourself calling family member by their @Name.

3.…

...continue to read "7 Signs You May Be A Social Media Addict"

Did you know that there’s a cool tool called Social History that will estimate your gender based on your browser URL history?

My favorite feature of this tool is how it breaks down by percentage how much of each genders’ browsing habits you exhibit, and correlates them to the results you receive. I cleared my browsing history and visited, what I though to be, a range of sites. Here are my results:

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 54% Likelihood of you…

...continue to read "Estimating Gender"

You gotta love a contest dedicated to preserving the fine art of crafting so-bad-they’re-good opening lines. The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Writing Contest is named after the original author of the line Snoopy made famous: “It was a dark and stormy night,” and continues to inspire the creation of beauties like this year’s winning entry from Garrison Spik:

“Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies…

...continue to read "So-Bad-They’re-Good Opening Lines"

Are you a big fan of fonts. Don’t worry, they captured the humorous event on video. Enjoy.

...continue to read "Did You Miss the Font Conference?"