December 2011
1 post
Access the twitter bootstrap popover node
I’ve been struggling to find a way to reference the actual node that twitter’s bootstrap popover creates. Just do this:
https://gist.github.com/1512332
November 2011
1 post
3 tags
Run your functional tests with ACLs
For whatever reason, we started getting the following errors when we moved our functional tests (using LiipFunctionalTestBundle) from MySQL to sqlite:
General error: 17 database schema has changed
To get around this, you can simply specify an alternate sqlite database to hold your ACL tables.
https://gist.github.com/1407065
March 2011
1 post
Company's mojo stems from culture
I attended a great Webinar the other day, thanks to the fine folks at Rypple, by Chip Conley, founder of Joie de Vivre hotels. He provided a great framework for thinking about motivation based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, arguing that once the basic human needs (job) and the sense of belonging (career) are met, an individual can then ascend to the “PEAK” of self-actualization...
January 2011
1 post
What is my company worth?
Valuation seems to be one of the tougher questions to answer when starting up a new venture - especially if it is your first time. I understand (for the most part) how many of the various models work, having learned many of them during my MBA. Now that I’m nearly finished school and out trying to get my company, MemoryLeaf, off and running, I’m finding the question of valuation a bit...
December 2010
1 post
Real estate agents, dying breed
I’ve finally sold my condo! In a down market, less than a month before Christmas, and without a real estate agent. What are my secrets to success? I’ve blogged about selling my condo once before, and most everyone who know me knows the crazy story of my building catching on fire the day I moved all my stuff out. Bad luck and crazy good luck all in one neat little water damaged...
November 2010
7 posts
Dealing deals like a dealer
Rumours are floating around today that Groupon has been bought by Google pegging a valuation around $2.5B. Not bad for a company that didn’t exist a few years ago. Groupon is interesting, in that it presents ridiculous deals that people and companies are clamouring to get involved with. I have yet to buy a Groupon deal (mainly because they aren’t yet available in my small town, and...
Make me look good
Want to earn some serious brand loyalty and advocacy? Make me look awesome to my friends. This US Thanksgiving, Agile Web Solutions gave customers some licenses of their products to give away to their friends. I use 1Password on a daily basis and have essentially given up all my credential management to it. So when I had the chance to give the software away to some friends, I couldn’t have...
Foursquare isn't dead, its niche
A class mate blogged about why he thinks Foursquare is dead. I agree with much of what he says, that the “check-in” space is becoming exceptionally competitive and the big guys like Facebook and even Twitter could threaten their user base. However, I think Foursquare’s power is it’s niche usage and merit badge system. Maybe I’m just a geek, but I often prefer the...
How much engagement is too much?
Twitter is fun for me. Certainly more interesting and useful than Facebook (and I’m eagerly looking forward to the ability to remove myself from those damn mass Facebook messages that I didn’t opt-in to). I like the casual, random, and brief conversations you can have with strangers and brands. Recently I was replying to a twitter friend (someone I randomly met on TinyChat) about her...
Vital Stats for B2B
After my interview with Andrew Spoeth earlier this week I started poking around for some interesting B2B marketing tidbits and didn’t have to go far. Andrew posted a link to a great video showing some stats for B2B marketing. Some of the stats were quite unexpected for me. The most interesting stats for me after the video:
Of B2B companies, 82% maintain a social media presence and 75%...
An Interview with Andrew Spoeth on Thought...
Last year, Gartner published a short release proclaiming that thought leadership was no longer the exclusive domain of large consulting firms and that is was a growing marketing field. In this release, they define thought leadership as:
… the giving — for free or at a nominal charge — of information or advice that a client will value so as to create awareness of the outcome that a...
Website evaluations should include accessibility
In our digital marketing class we talked about usability as a dimension for evaluating a website. Our generated list included things like: cleanliness of design, ease of navigation, forms that don’t act hostilely towards the user, etc (on a related note, one thing that irritates me is when a mailing address form asks me for my state/province before my country, but requires that I set my...
October 2010
2 posts
Crowdsource Your Market Research in Canada
In September, a short article made the rounds in the twitterverse. It described an entrepreneur’s use of Amazon’s mechanical turk to “crowdsource” some of her market research.
For $27.50 she was able to survey 200 people and generate some validation about her business idea (to help you with the math that works out to approx. $0.14 per respondent). Great idea! Let’s...
The success of home selling... and failure
So my little experiment with for-sale-by-owner home selling was a great success. In May I had an accepted offer with all subjects removed and a closing date coming up soon. I rented a moving truck, convinced a buddy to help with the heavy stuff and proceeded to move all my things out. That afternoon, my building caught fire which resulted in some minor water damage to my unit. My flooring needed...
February 2010
1 post
For sale, by owner experimentation
So, I’m experimenting with the sale of my home by trying to do it myself sans realtor. There are many reason why, which I won’t go into detail about right now.
I’m trying this out and will write about the success/failure I experience.
For now, go visit http://BuyMyKamloopsCondo.ca and make me an offer :)
August 2009
1 post
Twitter matters, even if you don't
I’ve only been using twitter regularly for a few months now, prior to which I didn’t see the value in all that noise and inconsequential nothing that seemed to clutter the twitterverse. I didn’t really care what you ate for breakfast, or that you just took your dog for a walk, or any of the million other boring things you do in life that you feel the need to broadcast to the...
May 2009
1 post
Time to start blogging
I’ve been meaning to start blogging again for a while now. Though I never really had any useful blog in the past I feel as though I have things to say now but never a proper venue to say them. So what’s been holding me up?
Procrastination for one. I’ve always wanted to design the theme and look myself using the blog as a test bed for some usability ideas. Of course, that...