I’m consolidating everything under one domain – my name: pmorganbrown.com. I hope you’ll continue the adventure with me over there.

On an overheard conversation today at Kaiser Permanente’s hospital.

How much do people hate Kaiser? Here’s an example.

In my Twitter stream tonight was this interesting tweet from Jon Henshaw (RavenJon) which said:

And it got me thinking – he’s exactly right.

As Google culls businesses that are outside of it’s core mission (“to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”) such as Dodgeball and Jaiku, the company still needs to look for and find growth in areas that align with it’s Adwords-driven, info-collecting and sorting model. Evernote is a compelling case in this regard. Why? Because Evernote shares a similar mission – which is to help you organize your information. Evernote lets you:

Capture what you like, find it when you want

Stop forgetting things. Capture everything now so you will be able to find it all later.

Things to capture:

• Tasks and to-dos
• Notes and research
• Web pages
• Whiteboards
• Business cards
• Scribbles
• Snapshots
• Wine labels

And then find them all any time across all the computers and devices you use.

This is the personal information sphere that Google has made great strides towards with GMail and (to a far lesser extent) Google Health.  It makes perfect sense for Google to want to get right to the heart of the daily information flow.  You may access Google a few times a day (if that) but how many times a day do you go to your calendar or to-do list?  The number of interactions and transactions with that data far exceed  your exterior data needs on any given day.  If Google was able to help catalog and manage this data for their users they’d have far more:

• Knowledge about their users’ habits, likes and dislikes
• Opportunities to serve ads and product recommendations, etc.
• Opportunities to extend to the phone in a more seamless way than their current apps do now

Admittedly, Evernote has a small user base.  But the application is seeing greater adoption and its stable iPhone app puts it ahead of many of the other PIMs out there.  That technology advantage combined with it’s Google-congruent goals could make it just the type of product that Google could purchase and succeed with.

Re: This adage survey.

And, of course, listening is only step one. Engaging and participating is step two.

If your life is anything like mine finding the time to blog regularly is a luxury that just doesn’t exist day in and day out.  With a full-time job at a start-up, a son, two blogs, keeping up a social media presence and a handful of other side projects to keep me busy blogging regularly just doesn’t exist in my life.  But with so much good information being created each and every day and a strong desire to participate and contribute and track I’ve turned to another outlet to meet my content needs: FriendFeed.

Using FriendFeed Rooms to Create Value

I’ve recently created three new FriendFeed rooms to track three subjects that I am passionate about: finance, the job market and online video.  Finance because of my blog on the subject and the job hunt because of my recent side project, and online video because of my day job.  All of these subjects have incredible content being created continuously, and my desire to track it, comment on it and share it led me to create rooms on the subjects in FriendFeed. You can view the rooms here:

• Online video
• Finance
• Job Hunt

I got the idea when Scoble quickly created a room to track the Davos World Economic Forum and while I’m a member to a bunch of rooms already it really sunk in that this was a great way to instantly create value for not only myself but for my friends, followers, co-workers, etc.  I’ve kept the rooms relatively low profile as I try to find the content mix that makes them a representative sample of some of the best information in all three topics.  But now I intend to share them with those that are interested.

Sharing and Building Authority

For the online video room I’ve shared the link with all of my co-workers.  They’re not FriendFeeders yet, but they can still access the information and news flow that comes through that room.  My finance room will be integrated in to my new blog redesign as a way for my readers to get real-time finance news on my blog without me needing to blog every relevant news item in the space.  These are all about sharing.  The third room, “Job Hunt” is a bit different – the “Job Hunt” room is about building authority in the space for my side project, Resume Donkey.

Resume Donkey is a boot-strapped side project between my brother and I to help people get interviews by improving their resumes.  Because of the limited budget of the project I’ve looked to social network tools to get the word out.  A massive opening-day Twitter-bomb, Facebook fan page, LinkedIn ads, and a helping hand from LouisGray.com are really all that we’re using to generate business. We’re now using FriendFeed in that mix.

In order to continue to push the social networking envelope we created the “Job Hunt” room using the Resume Donkey brand (the logo is the picture for the room, the blog is one of the feeds in the room) while pumping in tons of other job-hunting information.  Our goal is to provide so much valuable job-hunting content that people will think of Resume Donkey as experts in the space based on the value we create in our FriendFeed room.  We’re posting everything in there:

• Job listings
• How-to job tips
• Interview information
• Personal development articles
• Resume tips

The idea is that this becomes a valuable resource to job hunters, who then, if interested, check out Resume Donkey or remember us because of this value.

The Premise

The premise of the experiment is simple.  Can being a filter on information be just as (or more) authorative than simply creating content through regular blogging?  I think it can.  There is so much good information out there that people don’t have a chance to find it because they’re being drowned by the firehouse.  The filters therefore are an important part of the internet ecosystem and can create authority by surfacing quality content.  Robert Scoble is a perfect example of someone who creates a ton of value by the resources and items he shares.  This is the model that I hope to replicate in these areas of interest.

Will it work?

I don’t know if it will drive business, but I guess that is only one part of the experiment.  I’m using the room for myself, to track great information that is being created around the web. I’m also creating it for my friends that are looking for work. So even if it doesn’t drive more business to Resume Donkey it will still be a worthwhile venture.

And the best part?  It’s super-easy to set up and provides those that access the information ways to interact, share and catalog the information that is most relevant to them.  Additionally, the ability to update and add/edit services, include all types of information sources means that the content will only go stale if I choose to neglect the rooms. Even that seems unlikely because of how easy FriendFeed makes it to keep up to date.

Brands should consider the power of filtering and authority

This experiment, if it works, could be a real boon for Resume Donkey.  The brand will be associated with quality job-hunting content.  The work will be less intense then trying to blog everyday and the brand will create value for its potential customers, before they have to pay.  More companies should look to these types of value creation opportunities simply by applying a filter to the firehose of information that is being created everyday on the Web.

Blog ad revenue is down. But are bloggers’ lack of flexibility and innovation to blame?

The noise this week in the blogosphere has been the collapse of the ad market and its impact on high-profile blogs like The Inquisitr and TechCrunch. It also has been the source of layoffs at popular blog ad-network, Federated Media. But is the economy the only one to blame?  This question got me thinking about blogging and advertising, and it seems to me we, as bloggers, are simply stuck in the wrong model? In an online world where performance, high relevance and permission mean everything have we as publishers been talking the talk but not walking the walk?

Blog advertising surprisingly old-school

The advertising techniques that we’re utilizing are heavily based on the print media monetization strategies that we often rail against when trumpeting the death of newspapers. Aggregate eyeballs, sell display advertising against them, maximize impressions, drive clicks to the advertiser and hope that the sales funnel math works out in the advertiser’s favor and they re-up the ad spend moving forward.  Whether the blog is part of an ad network or sells direct, these display ads make up a large part of advertising revenue for the sites.

Additionally, poor-performing Google Adsense units and the negative impact on search of text-link ads has spurred blogs to embrace more display advertising. This has led bloggers to plaster their home page and individual post pages with ad units everywhere.  But it seems that bloggers have become too complacent with the display advertising model. It is no wonder that they are seeing the same declines that are hitting other display-advertising driven revenue models.

Running in to the wind

But this model is the exact model that is facing the biggest headwinds in advertising.  High-cost, display advertising to broader audiences is the exact advertising that is getting decimated.  I argue that it is time to embrace advertising that matches the advertising reality of the new Web economy.  Gone are the gravy days where bloggers could rely on the outmoded print-based advertising schemes.  Now, bloggers must reinvent their ad offerings and embrace the key tennants that we all have been heralding as the new way to advertise on the Web: performance-based, exceptional relevance and permission-based.

Performance, Relevance, Permission

These three tenants have been heralded as the keys to success in Web advertising. And I would argue that bloggers have not been demanding enough of themselves to take full advantage of these innate capabilities. To make it through this economic downturn bloggers must embrace them immediately and aggressively to spur ad revenue and open up new opportunities for ad growth, rather than competing over the shrinking display pie.

• Performance – Bloggers must look to take pages out of the affiliate marketer’s playbook.  By looking for products and services that align with their audience needs and selectively choosing to promote the best of breed, bloggers have the opportunity to create additional revenue while bringing value to their audiences.  Now, I’m not here to debate about journalistic integrity and affiliate marketing.  1) People already believe that blog reporting is biased (and for the most part it is). 2) By clearly marking and identifying posts as sponsored you are able to eliminate any confusion about the content (simply look at the ‘Advertorial’ model in magazines/newspapers.)
• Relevance – The long-tail continues to splinter in to even smaller niches.  Bloggers must realize that they must sacrifice sheer traffic volume in exchange for the most relevant eyeballs for their niche.  Instead of trying to become another online generic content center, and writing articles across a variety of topics just to drive search traffic, blogs must refocus on their core audience and drive quality audience and then sell advertising that aligns with that audience.  By being too generic or by not daring to be more targeted bloggers lose out on advertising opportunities.  Smaller audiences mean smaller ad buys (which advertisers like) and better return  due to increased relevance (which advertisers like) and more repeat buys (which bloggers like).
• Permission-based – Display advertising interrupts the experience.  People are trying to filter out ads so that they can read the valuable content.  Bloggers need to work more closely with advertisers to find content of relevance and provide permission-based advertising opportunities around that content.  For instance if you’re writing about a hard-drive give manufacturers an opportunity to purchase “learn more” links that lead to content. Or develop advertising-based content sections that can be sponsored by relevant advertisers.  The Philips-sponsored digital frame section on Amazon is a perfect example.

Two Opportunities: Scoble and NPR

Bloggers should look to the advertising models employed by Scoble and by NPR for opportunities to increase and improve ad performance.  Scoble’s Seagate sponsorship is the perfect example of how bloggers can look to cut larger, longer-term sponsorships that give a level of exclusivity to the sponsor for an extended period of time.  This allows bloggers to lock-in revenue and gives their sponsors maximum exposure to their audience.  While the sponsorship doesn’t have to be all-encompasing, it can be done by section of the Web site, category of posts, the RSS feed or email notifications.

NPR’s sponsorship model is similar, but more interesting is their member-listener model.  Bloggers should look for ways to bring added value to their listeners in exchange for their patronage.  NPR has made this model their life-blood in raising funds for stations.  And the premium items don’t need to be content.  Take TechCrunch for example. Would I pay $100/year to get access to a TechCrunch networking group, or discounts to special events, or swag or a chance to hear Mike talk at a town-hall style members-only meeting?  Absolutely.  Will everyone do this? No. But not everyone needs to.  NPR has listeners and then member supporters. You can listen (read) all you want, but if you want to get involved in a more intimate way you have a chance to do so (and it’s not just getting extra radio programming).  Bloggers need to look for ways to leverage their passionate members of their community.

Challenging times demand creativity

In addition to these two opportunities bloggers need to get more creative about working with their community and advertisers to generate value.  Why can’t a tech blog team with a new technology provider to conduct a study on a business segment by polling the blog’s audience?  Invite people to participate in a survey about, say streaming video, then give all participants a private copy of the report that can be published and sold.

Chris Brogan and the Walmart Mommy bloggers have found opportunities to sponsor brands in exchange for sharing their experiences with audiences.  While people have debated the ethics of these relationships, I believe with clear disclosure and transparent, honest feedback these types of arrangements can be very valuable to all parties involved.

Bringing it all together

Clearly, old-world advertising will not get bloggers through the recession.  These economic times demand that bloggers get creative in finding ways to bring value to their advertisers, their audience and themselves while maintaining the integrity of their brand and product.  What do you think they need to do to make it through this downturn?

I love this cartoon, courtesy of The Joy of Tech: