Learning from drug dealers

Addicts or Customers?

I begin my weekdays with a short exercise routine followed by a 20-minute meditation. Then its breakfast, a shower and into my office and online where I look at two news sites, check overnight markets, open my email inbox, AND, take a quick scroll through Facebook.

The last item is contentious. Much of Facebook’s content is odious. It feeds egos, disseminates fake views, betrays a variety of bigotries and provokes ideas I’d call unfathomable were they not so shallow. Yet, I do my morning scroll.

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The power of simply connecting

Why you need to get out more

About thirty years ago, my hometown, Sydney, built a monorail. It was revolutionary at the time. It connected the city to museums, an exhibition centre and a few tourist spots. Trouble was, it didn’t connect to anything else. The city’s main rail terminal was a kilometre away from the nearest stop. Nor did it venture downtown. 

Sydney is harbour city. Tourists want to go the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and their associated ranks of bars and restaurants. They’re all at Circular Quay, where trains, buses and ferries collide in a transport hub. It was easy to get there from anywhere, except by monorail. 

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Instagram: The Entrepreneur's Dream

A Kodak moment for mobile apps.

It’s a story for these times. Young geek collaborates with Silicon Valley network to build simple but popular product. Engages customers with social media to get rapid market traction. Risk-taking venture capitalists provide cash while user base grows to 30 million customers. Within two years, with a total staff of 13 and zero revenues, the business is sold to Facebook for a billion dollars.

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E Marketing & Money: what do you expect for free?

Warning: about making money on the internet; if not interested, read no further

The only thing free about the internet is the method of delivery. Everything else costs – be it your internet connection, or the free downloads you put up to encourage engagement, or the time you put into making it happen. None of that is free.

That’s a good thing. It means that commercial principles still apply. It means that anyone who understands how to run a business can probably make the internet work for them.

Like any marketing campaign, nobody knows if it worked until the results are in. That’s why monitoring return on investment (ROI) is so important. It lets you know whether your investment is creating value or destroying it.

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