First Impressions.

First Impressions are a funny thing because you can't change them. People make real world decisions (just ask any HR person) based on that first encounter or even just appearance. I have been thinking a lot about this recently because it is election time around these parts. I am not really into politics. I follow it causally so I can make informed decisions but I am far from a know it all but the two topics (Politics and First Impressions) seem to fit together....at least I am going to try to make them fit here.

Being a one car family (doing my part to save the world) I catch a lift with my wife to the subway every morning. For the last two weeks there has been one of the candidates standing on the same corner waving at people in their cars and chatting with folks on the street during the morning rush.

I am not going to say who it is because that part isn't really important but the thing that stands out to me every morning is that he looks tired....sure this is early in the morning but in the game of politics appearance is important and what I see as "tired" others may see as "beat down" or just plain "beaten".

Being out with the people is a great way to be seen and very "grassroots" but in this case it may work against this man. One solution would have been to have volunteers be the ones on the corner waving and handing out the flyers (and there are but the focus is still on the candidate) or do something to make people never forget the candidates name but not really look at him.

If I was consulted on this I would have suggested the following :

-Have the candidate get a good night sleep!
-show up every morning doing his waving and kissing babies routine while standing next to one of those gigantic inflatable signs that they use at car dealerships except this one will have his name on it or the snowman or Santa can be holding a sign for the candidate.



You may think this is silly (and in some ways it is) but I guarantee this image will not be forgotten.....people will tell friends......not one person will look at the candidate........and when it comes to time to vote you will see the name on the ballot and it will take you back to the image and invoke emotion and a warm feeling.

All from a first impression.

-saul

"Selling Out" isn't as cool as you would think.....

I have mentioned a bunch of times on this blog that I am interested in selling out and trading space on my blog in exchange for a little cash or just do a barter deal and have advertisers send me stuff I like and I will talk about your products every single day and not rest till every man, woman and child are familiar with the advertisers product/place or thing.

Well I got my first offer and even though the money was pretty good (I could've easily bought a pair of custom Nikes out of this deal) but after really thinking about it I decided to turn down the opportunity. I am not going to say who the advertiser was but it was the equivalent to an item you would regularly get spammed about and they wanted me to make a conversational testimonial about how much I loved using the product (it wasn't anything penis related.....but if you are a penis related advertiser I would be happy to endorse your stuff!) and even after writing the post (and yes it was compelling and you would've all purchased this without hesitation) I just decided that I value my readership too much to push spam and/or undesirable products.

I still want to carry advertising but since I have a new outlook on it at least you can all rest assured that if I do try to sell you anything it will at least be something I dig.

Hope you are all well

Saul

All this money being spent on Advertising................

After watching this video and seeing how much money advertising costs it really makes me wonder why no one has taken me up on my offer to trade advertising on my blog in exchange for Nike Air Force Ones!

See for yourself!

Monetizing my blog and a question about RSS feeds....

I have been doing a lot of thinking about how to monetize this blog. I tried earlier in this blogs history to "sell out" (and am still interested...hint hint) so I could gather all the free stuff I could handle and never have to buy another birthday present again. Now this would be cool but I have also been thinking a bunch about how to make a little money as well.......not much but enough to allow me to buy something sill and unnecessary once a month.

This has gotten me looking into a bunch of different things and this brings me to my question (took a while I know but maybe it will be worth it).

Do you guys subscribe to RSS feeds?
Do you click through to the site or do you just read then in outlook and avoid all the ads etc?

This is going to be far from a scientific study but I am curious to know your preferences.

Me personally, I subscribe to about 20 feed and click through to the sites because I like to experience the site the way it was intended but I suspect not everyone does.

Please respond in the comments section or email me. Also if you have any offers for my Sell Out offer please send them my way!

-saul

p.s. This site is now read by 3100 people a week....not bragging just trying to get free stuff!

I am ready to sell out!

I have been thinking of blowing out this little blog with a bunch of ads and stuff so I can finance my addiction to shoes, dvd's and books. My expectations are pretty low but I do think this is an offer all you people of power out there should jump all over!

I am willing to trade space on my very well read blog (the 26,123 most read website in Canada.....and read by folks all over North America) in exchange for free stuff. Send me your products (ya hear that NIKE?) and I will not only give you ad space but I will also talk about your products no less then 20 times a day to people I meet throughout my day........or even better, send me a bunch of shoes (Nike size 12 would do), dvd's or books and I could be convinced to give you naming rights to this here little blog!

This is a great offer for forward thinking companies, (perfect for movie promotion) looking to reach over 1700 (and growing every day) happy, sexy, and smart readers a week. Drop me an email at saulcolt@gmail.com or leave me a comment and we can work something out!

Just so we are clear....if you are a car company like MINI, I don't expect you to give me a car. I am cool with some MINI clothes or something.

Don't be shy people this is a great opportunity!

saul