Well, isn’t this the best news we’ve had all day?

Apparently, real researchers have finally found the rosetta stone of public speaking, and it’s intercourse. That’s right, all your visions of fright and peril are awash in a warm glow with only a quick brush of love in the back seat.

Volunteers who’d had PVI [penile-vaginal intercourse - ed.] but none of the other kinds of sex were least stressed, and their blood pressure returned to normal faster than those who’d only masturbated or had non-coital sex. Those who abstained had the highest blood-pressure response to stress.

Check out the new truth here. Then get busy.

Marketing in a Barrel

For those who don’t know much about University of Phoenix marketing, if you haven’t run across a banner or pop-up, let me bring you up to speed. Organization’s like UOP are cost per lead shops; advertising has only as much value to the company as can be assigned each individual new prospect on a volume basis. For example, if we do 20,000 blow-in inserts in a market that costs us $10,000 and see a return on that of 50 new leads, our cost per lead is $200. If we do a direct mail drop to 75,000 that costs us $30,000 and we see 200 leads, our cost per lead is $150. Internet? I’ll spare you the volume, but shooting for a cost per lead between $45 and $80 is pretty darned good. These are all just broad strokes examples.

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A List Apart: Articles: Web 3.0

A List Apart: Articles: Web 3.0: Yeah, I read Zeldman. Most of the time, I don’t understand him. In this case, I don’t understand him.

Until the end. Then it all comes together and affects me. If you are wondering what AJAX is, this isn’t the piece for you. If you’re wondering whether it’s OK to keep going to work in the morning and serve your customers with integrity even though you haven’t stumbled on the next Pet Rock, give it a read. That Zeldman. Good guy.

Where do they get it…

Sophie’s in school, if I haven’t said anything about that already. She’s attending the Goddard School in our neighborhood four days a week. So far, we’re thrilled about the experience. Sophie loves it, she’s making some good little friends and the program brings the world to her, right in the playground: everything from the Oregon Zoo’s petting zoo program to the Children’s Museum.

Each week, the kids work on one letter of the alphabet. They write it, the bring things to school that begin with that letter, etc, then they bring homework that consists of tracing pages full of dashed glyphs of that letter for them to trace.

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Smart. Seth Smart: “People don’t care, certainly not about marketers.”

This is good stuff.

The Myth of the Product Adoption Lifecycle

One of the giant insights of the new marketing is that the only way to introduce a new idea is to move across the curve. Sell to the little tail, they tell the next group, which passes the word on to the mass market. That’s why the little tiny green tail is so valuable… these are the people who are listening, these are the people who will become your marketing force.

So, where’s the myth?

The myth is that marketers think these people actually care.

People don’t care, certainly not about marketers.