Local social media uber early adopter and twitter cognoscent Ben Young has made an interesting offer that reminds me of something I heard at the Christchurch World Busker’s Festival yesterday. A street performer there, when asking for tips said that street performing is the most honest commerce in the world – you only pay after the event, and you pay what you believe the show was worth.
Taking a line from street theatre, Ben is offering free marketing advice to companies. As he says;
Given all the doom and gloom in the media at the present.
A rough start to the year for some.
I thought I would offer Free Internet Marketing Advice.
That is you email me with your problems, questions, advice on strategy.
Anything Internet Marketing related.
Who is this suited for? Any kind of business, maybe your a small business who hasn’t ventured online, a tourism business, owner operator, b2b, b2c….
You probably have made cuts of your marketing expenditure.
And so you should, if it has questionable returns.
BUT with internet marketing you can measure your returns. Down to the dollar.
If you know how.
So to help clear misreprentations about it and encourage spending in internet marketing I am doing this.
The catch? Well the catch is I ask you to pay me what you think my information to help you out is worth to you. If its worth nothing pay nothing, if its worth $50 pay that. Up to you, no pressure, my aim is to help you.
I just want to repeat that, my aim is to help you!
Overnight some 70000 jobs were axed in the US and Europe with some big name big-cos involved in the cuts.
Here in New Zealand we’re yet to see the sort of tumult that the rest of the world seems to be facing. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s summer and everyone is to busy having barbeques and hanging out at the beach to read the news, or perhaps were a little naive.
I was talking to a friend on the weekend who is involved in tech in Silicon Valley and is currently talking to a New Zealand company that wishes to expand into the US this year. In an example of the gulf that exists between New Zealand and the US her reaction was to wonder whether the company concerned actually realises what is going on in the US. “Our economy is absolutely tanking” as she described it “people are fighting for their very survival”.
Sorry for a completely off-topic post, but then again a few people who read this blog are athletically minded so it may interest them.
After a 13 year hiatus from mountainbike racing, I decided to go out and do The Vulcaniser race on Saturday, near where I live. 37 degrees Celsius didn’t make for a whole lot of comfort, and the aforementioned hiatus didn’t make for a whole lot of speed or technical prowess on my part. That said it was a whole lot of fun. Cheers to AdventureQuip for snapping a bunch of photos – here follows some of me suffering on the day!
Must be early on because I’m looking vaguely aware of my surroundings!
Sweet single-track downhill
Suffering on a not overly steep, but exceptionally hot climb
Diligent Board Member Services (lots more info here) yesterday announced that they’d been successful in raising another round of funding. Diligent is positive saying that;
[Diligent] hat its ability to raise capital under such severe market conditions underlines the quality and potential of its Boardbooks product. This investment will strengthen Diligent’s financial position through the current fiscal year so it can continue to drive sales and build its corporate governance focused business.
But funding at what cost?
Looking at the terms it seems like a pretty predatory sort of a deal – vulture-some even
Spring Street Partners gained 20000000 shares at 10cents a pop – remember that original investors paid $1. SSP shares are also preferential further eroding the investment of the original shareholders
SSP receives a guarantees 11% dividend. This despite no dividend being paid to other shareholders – win/win for SSP: if diligent flies their shares rocket and if it doesn’t they still get to scrape all the cash out of it
The SSL shares rank a higher priority both in the event of a liquidation and a general dividend payout
SSL can require Diligent to convert it’s shares into cash any time after 60 months
Get this – upon a liquidation of DIL, a sale of the majority of DIL’s issued stock or assets, or a merger by DIL with another entity, DIL will be obliged to make a cash payment to Spring Street equal to 1.5 times the face value of all Preferred Shares, after which point the Preferred Shares will convert to common stock and participate pro rata with common stock in distributions to stock holders
SSL must consent to a liquidation, a change to the constitution, new borrowing or the issue of more equity
The tale of two listings huh – at the same time that Diligent listed so to did hometown success story Xero. One has built a global product and is ramping up revenue in number of markets, while the other is struggling for its very survival.
I always welcome comments on my posts from vendors – after all they’re the ones with the in-depth domain knowledge about areas I’m writing about.
I can even live with a bit of a commercial bent to the comments – after all there is a reason the vendors spend their precious time writing comments, it’s only fair that they get to push their own message a little.
But when the commenting system gets subverted and becomes a complete public relations exercise it’s time to call the offending party out.
So today’s brickbat goes to Interprise and specifically Evolve Systems that distributes the Interprise product in Australasia. On two of my recent posts (here and here) they used the opportunity to comment on a SaaS accounting related post of mine. Unfortunately the opportunity to comment with a relevant and pithy observation was replaced with the pasting in of a glib press release pushing their product.
Guys – social media in general, and blogging in particular is a fantastic opportunity to capture the thoughts and needs of the community and to join them in a dialogue relevant to your business – when you use that opportunity however to shove marketing spin down their throats you immediately lose and “new paradigm” mojo you might have had.
Webstock from all accounts rocks the world (or at least Wellington). I’m stoked that I’ll be attending, and blogging extensively, from the event on the 19th and 20th of February.
Check out cloudave.com for coverage (tag #webstock)
We’re nearing the end of three amazing weeks on the road in the North Island – from the Wairarapa to the East Cape, on to the Coromandel and back through Rotorua and Taupo it’s been a great trip. However an event in Rotorua yesterday motivated me to write this post.
Nearing the end of the trip we were a little time constrained so decided to visit Wai-O-Tapu, one of the several Rotorua based thermal reserves. The entrance fee was pretty steep (for these Kiwis anyway) but we thought we’d treat the kids. As part of the entry we got to go and see the Lady Knox Geyser yesterday morning.
For the uninitiated the Lady Knox Geyser is a moderately large steam vent that shoots water a fair distance into the sky, my doubt was raised a little when I read that the geyser goes off at 10:15 each morning – methinks mother nature can’t be timed quite so tightly!
We turned up and came upon a large amphitheatre replete with several hundred camera toting tourists all waiting for the main event. Our “guide” then turned up and told a little tale about the geyser before throwing a few hundred grams of chemicals into the geyser vent to create the show – about as authentic a natural geyser as the Bucket Fountain in Cuba Street, Wellington.
The experience leaves me with two distinct questions:
Authenticity
My belief is that in all commerce people are looking for authentic experiences. A human created geyser event doesn’t fall into that category. If New Zealand has to prostitute itself in order to attract visitors, are we not doing ourselves more long term damage than good?
Cultural Sensitivity
Wai-O-Tapu is run by the local tribe I believe. Maori hold geysers, and the thermal areas generally as sacred or Tapu – I was incredulous that they’d allow the sort of desecration to occur that I saw there – maybe a few thousand visitors a day (and the tens of thousands of dollars they generate) absolves one of cultural sensitivity – if so it’s a sorry example of where our values as a nation lie. How far does cultural sensitivity extend in New Zealand – just till the US dollars or Euros appear?
Ah well…
Luckily some things never change. I’m writing this from an amazing and (almost) free campsite on the banks of the Rangitikei river at Mangaweka. It’s camping the way it used to be – a nice flowing river, very limited amenities and a bunch of trees to climb and walks to go on – the real New Zealand – 100% Pure!
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