megablahblah

I tried sending press releases (as the body of the email) and wasn't sure if I should include a short note with it. Or should I just send a brief pitch with no press release?

It reminded me of one of the pitches in Brewster's Millions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svKq044qrYU

I don't completely agree with you. You need good ideas, and you need to be able to execute them properly.

An alternate quote could easily be "If Zuckerberg had come up with the idea of Facebook on his own, then he would have come up with the idea of Facebook on his own" and the Winkelvosses wouldn't have had even a weak argument to put forth. Zuckerberg's original execution was more along hot or not, correct? And it wasn't until he had input from the Winkelvosses that he solidified something closer to the current Facebook. That's an important contribution. Whether it deserves any legal or financial reward is another story, but you can't just ignore the importance of an idea.

And I am confident in assuming that Zuckerberg also did not come up with his modern mission of Facebook all by himself, for it to be a social, informal version of Google search (for lack of a better description). Without that pivotal idea, Facebook would die or be dead already, just as MySpace has died.

Not everyone can figure out how to code so easily. That's why you have contract work.

I always heard this as "It's better to have a 70% plan and execute it 100% than to have a 100% plan and execute it 70%."

The community, and their comments, has gone downhill, that's his point.

Sorry for the tone, but I explained this to them in one of their Reddit announcement posts about their sponsored links, and their response was such that they had no concept of how advertising worked and acted like I was the one that was wrong. Now a few months later, they're begging their users for donations.

il lays out exactly what they need to do, so there isn't much else to suggest. Simply set up some ad placements on the site and get set up as a publisher with the ad network of their choice. The network does all the sales. (Edit: Later on, they can get into do their own direct sales, sponsorships, etc.) They actually were signed up as a publisher for an ad network for a while, I think, because I remember some ad taking over the screen and everyone freaking out. Maybe that scared them away from the idea because they couldn't control the ad types, I don't know.

I don't know what their mobile numbers are, but they need to get set up as a publisher with a mobile ad network too, such as Ad Mob, Millennial or Quattro.

And since they don't know how anything works, they need to get a few thousand dollars and hire a consultant to explain it all to them. I know they are sensitive about pissing off users, but I suspect that their conversations with Conde Nast and any ad network have ended up in frustrated conversations that go nowhere because they don't understand each other. They need a marketing consultant that understands both worlds to bridge the communication gap. Yes, I'm available.

It's because they don't know shit about advertising. Take a look at their "sponsored link" system. It's impossible for an advertiser to predict what impressions or click-throughs they will get for their ad spend.

He gave an example ... sponsor content, a.k.a. branded entertainment. It's the only thing that works in world of online advertising right now.

But I think one of the main points is, be smart and use restraint when necessary. If a publisher comes to you and says "Hey, we have a new ad unit that takes over the page!" the advertiser should know that it's a bad idea and use restraint instead of buying up any new ad unit that's presented to them.

If you look at mobile advertising, the click-through rates are 10 times better than online. Why? Mainly because there is less screen, so there is less ad clutter. So it's an approach that works.

But basically, publishers and advertisers are lazy and instead of looking at data and figuring out creative ways to grow, they just spend more money to try to increase return.

So no one here thinks Facebook will go the way of MySpace within 1-3 years?

Fair enough. I'm sure that address works and someone reads it, but I would imagine there is an alias address that he actually uses on a day-to-day basis for any meaningful exchanges.

I suppose this one might have caught someone's eye and he responded, but I'm surprised.

How did he get Steve Job's email address?

I will be curious to read about the results. I don't foresee it being very successful. My guess would be 1 in 100, at best, will result in a sale.

I think he'd have more success with iPhone text ads targeting running-related sites on the mobile web. It will cost him $.25 per click, but the conversion rate will be much higher because 100% of the people that click the ad will have an iPhone and be interested in running.