Thoughts of an Email Junkie

As per many marketing-oriented people, one of the sites on my list of Things to Read is Seth Godin's Blog. The other day, I stumbled across these tips, which are so very true. I'd write my own, but as usual, he's already done it better.

A large part of my job as Marketing Lady is to email appropriate sites with content I think they'd like. If that's your job too, read that sentence again. And again. Now understand it. '...with content I think they'd like.' This is without a doubt the most important part of that sentence. If you're emailing people - I don't care how many - to ask them to place something on their blog, you have to tell them why, and you have to tell them like a human being. Which, hopefully, you are; on your days off, at least. And if you're human on your days off, you can be human at work too. Trust me.

If you have a piece of information that you're sending to a number of people, always remember that you are sending it to people, not to the site. It's amazing how many people forget this. I was on the receiving end of some really quite rubbish marketing about a week ago. I received an email that began:

'Hi Scarlett de Courcier,

We're interested in involving http://scarlett.blogspot.com in our affiliate scheme...'

Whoah. Stop there. Firstly, my name is Scarlett de Courcier, yes. But either call me Scarlett, or Mrs. de Courcier (or Scar, if you read my posts and know how I sign them). Working out that I am married is really not difficult. Nor is working out that I'm not averse to being called by my first name. That's why I have one, after all. If you're too uninterested to read the 'About Me' section before you click on it to find my email address, I'm too uninterested to read the rest of your email.

Secondly, my blog has a name. I'm aware that its name is in Romani, and that this is not a language with which many are familiar. But you are able to copy text, I'm sure. Do it. Or just use the first word. Even just saying 'your blog' is better than copying and pasting the address from your toolbar.

The email then rambled on for the equivalent of a couple of pages. Being fairly busy, I skimread it and found it to be very vague and annoying. Having some sort of understanding of the life of someone who sends a number of emails a day, however, I was ready to be nice. So I replied, saying that The Daily Blast seemed to be a better fit for the content, and stating why. I also asked for a clear, concise idea of what exactly they wanted me to do. And received an equally indecipherable email back, still referring to 'http://scarlettdecourcier.blogspot.com', and with no indication that the person behind it had read my reply. At which point, I gave up. If you can't be bothered to act like a human being, nor can I. I have better things to do with my day than read reams of boring text written in grammatically incorrect English with no hint that there's a person behind it.

Rant over. Thoughts?

Very True

I was over at Andy Beard's blog today, when I noticed this post. Or, more specifically, the first few lines, which are absolutely true:

'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

How many people have old fishing rods in their shed or loft?'

I was talking to the husband about this today, in fact. Many of the things I learned years ago have slipped gradually out of my mind, and I wonder where they've gone and whether they'll ever return.

What have you unlearned? What have you relearned?

What the English can learn from the French

After all the Heinz-ad hype of a few months ago, in which an advert was removed from TV because it happened to feature two gay gentlemen kissing, I think I can be forgiven for believing the English to be a bit too politically correct at times. Especially when this commercial advocating safe sex is being shown on French TV. Vive la France! 

iControl my iCar

Well, who'd have thought it? The new iPhone application has been developed, and... no, wait. It's weirder than that. It's a car that thinks it's an iPhone app. Well, sort of. 

The Rinspeed iChange is a sports car unlike any other. An electric car weighing just over 1,000kg, it allegedly gets from 0-60 in under four seconds, and has a top speed of 137. It has no doors, instead relying on a roof that tilts back to let passengers climb inside. A car for the nimble, then. And not one to climb into after a night on the tiles. But the most surprising part is how it's controlled: no keys needed, just an iPhone. Which, if everyone else has a similar problem with their iPhone to my own - namely, that often it presses the key next to the one I'm trying to press because it's so damn fiddly - may not be top-of-the-range when it comes to road safety. "If you can dream it, you can do it" seems to be the Rinspeed motto. Unfortunately, dreams often seem to be intrinsically flawed when it comes to the 'real world'. 

I can't wait to hear what Clarkson thinks of this one. 

An Interesting Video

Thoughts? 

Sex Sells

You have to admit, it's funny.

Work it. Or don't.

I received an email today inviting me to pay around £60 to learn how to 'work a room with ease and style'. I didn't read the email fully, but it seemed to be a workshop to tell you how to act when going to networking events. This confused me a little; when I go to networking events, I just go. Granted, some people may be shy, and need a little help. Others may need 'toning down'. But this is just part of life: it's what we do to fit in with any social group. 

I'm different when I'm with my husband, when I'm at work, when I'm at a networking event, when I'm with the research team, and so on. I don't believe any of these people see a deceptive version of myself, merely an edited one. But it's not a conscious thing, and I'm not sure that making it into one would be of any use. How are you supposed to network when it's not really you who is networking? 

People are attracted to others for a variety of reasons. This is why we don't all end up going after the same men. Something one person might find attractive will drive another person crazy. Something that catches one person's eye will pass entirely unnoticed by someone else. 

If I go to an event and see someone standing alone, looking like they're watching what's going on intently and paying attention, whilst not really engaging with anyone, they'll immediately catch my attention. Why? Because I like people who listen, who understand, who ask intelligent questions and who don't bound into the office with energy bursting from every pore and enquire about my personal life. For someone else, this may not be the case. They may notice those who are moving around, glass of wine in hand, chatting happily away to everyone they come across. Perhaps they prefer an enthusiastic, bubbly extrovert; whether this be for personal or professional reasons. 

I think the excessive grooming of yourself in order to fit in with what other people might like may, in fact, end up being detrimental and will quite possibly seem fake. If the aforementioned quiet, watching person morphed into the bubbly, chatty one, then I'd be less inclined to approach them, because they may not be what I'm looking for. 

There have been far too many 'I's in this post. Tell me what you guys think. 

Possibly one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen

Watch right to the end. It gets worse. 

Women's Rights to Handbag Ownership

My husband occasionally accuses me of being a traditionalist. To an extent, I do not disagree with him, though it's not a word I would necessarily use to describe myself. I don't believe men should work whilst women should stay at home, but that's more because I don't believe in 'should' than because I don't believe they're worthy values to uphold. 

At times, I find it difficult to relate to my fellow womenfolk. Almost all the time, in fact. Bags? I don't care. Shoes? I don't care. I recently acquired a new pair of (free, hand-me-down) boots because the bottom of my old ones fell off for the third time. Fashion? Well, the pictures are pretty sometimes. I suppose. Women's rights? I'm all for them, sort of, though I do believe that if women didn't whinge and moan so much as just stand up for themselves occasionally, we wouldn't have half as many problems as we do. Or as we allegedly do, anyway. I've never experienced any. 

By now you're wondering where this rant is going. Here, is the answer. Or, more precisely, here. Today, I was looking at leadership blogs online, when I found Workerette, a site for working women. It's a nice enough site - I might even write something about it on The Daily Blast at some point - but soon after arriving on the home page, I noticed a 'Related Resources' tab. Thinking it would be something interesting, like business development advice, I looked underneath the heading. What was written there? 'Upcoming conferences'? 'Business development'? 'Career sites'? No. It contained a single word: 

'Handbags'. 

Inwardly, I cringed. I thought about it for the next couple of hours. It was beginning to disturb me deeply. Then I remembered that I am sometimes a little too quick to be scornful of such things, so reasoned with myself that it was possibly a resource for something useful, like how to find bags big enough to fit your laptop in that don't kill your back. My mind a little more at peace, I summoned up the courage to click on the link. And went through to Purseblog: 'Authentic Designer Handbags'. 

Whoopee. Don't get me wrong, the site's lovely in itself - but as a 'related resource' for business development? Really? A designer clutch you'd be hard pressed to fit your ultra-skinny phone in, for $1,195? 

No wonder women complain they don't get paid enough. I'm happy with my job. I don't want a designer handbag. Perhaps any likeminded ladies out there could think about putting that on subsequent cover letters: 'Not a fan of handbags and frivolity.' 

What a killjoy I sound like. Never mind. 

Keywords

Google Analytics informs me that one of the top five searches to arrive at this blog is "what have you done to Sweden". 

I'm trying to work out what this site could possibly have to do with that. 

Continuing with Analytics, the most popular search on Whatif Books is "sweetness at the bottom of the pie". 

Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. 

Sintesi Concept Car

So. Very. Beautiful.

Electric car faster than McLaren F1?

A former McLaren employee has manufactured an electric car which he claims to be faster than a McLaren F1, capable of reaching 60mph in just 2.9 seconds. The snappily-named P1-E was originally made as a petrol-powered counterpart to the Lotus Exige, but the current wave of enthusiasm for electric cars seems to have made the manufacturers reconsider.

Skeptical? Me too. But you never know. 

Failed for the 771st time

A woman in South Korea has just failed her driving test for the 771st time. 63-year-old Mrs. Cha says she hopes to pass on the 772nd try. 

My question is, should she be allowed to? 

Prayers being outsourced to India

It is 6.30 a.m. in Kerala, God's Own Country.

A Holy Mass at the St Joseph Catholic church in Kochi is being conducted. The language is Malayalam, but the intentions are dedicated to a departed soul in Germany.

At the end of the mass, the Catholic parish that conducted it will be richer by 50 euros because it was a memorial service that a German couple had 'outsourced' for their son who died of cancer two years ago.

Welcome to religious outsourcing!

The protests over the emotional, controversial and now political issue of outsourcing of American and European jobs to low-wage countries like India is assuming epic proportions. But the lure of saving mega-bucks to remain competitive in a cutthroat global business arena has proved too strong for Western companies to resist. Outsourcing goes on despite the protests, the propaganda and the pain.

From manufacturing to information technology services, a lot of work is being outsourced, but the trend has now spilled over on to religion.

India is now home to spiritual outsourcing too. The Roman Catholic church in Kerala has been outsourcing various religious services to various parishes and churches in the state for years now. Churches and pilgrim centres in the United States and European countries are outsourcing hundreds of thousands of masses to parishes in Kerala, which has the largest number of churches in India.

Last week, a Catholic parish in Kerala's Thrissur diocese conducted the morning mass for an unusual cause: to end the marriage woes of soccer star David Beckham.

A Beckham fan from London paid for the mass so that the football star gets manages to come out of the media storm that has whipped up due to his 'affairs.'

The Holy Mass, however, was not held in a London parish, but was 'outsourced' to a remote church at Anthikad in Thrissur diocese.

Read the rest of this article here

Copyright Law as you've never seen it explained before

Mysterious Stranger

A banned children's cartoon, of which the moral seems to be 'if you meet a guy called Satan, don't help him create a new world'.