Regular readers of this blog know I love (I mean L-O-V-E) print-on-demand and customizable products. I think it is revolutionizing the way the products can be brought to market and enabling all sorts of new business models.
One is called Ponoko. You think up a design. You send it to them. They use their tools to make it out of wood, acrylic, etc. You can browse though designs that others have updated and they can be made in quantities of one. You pay for the materials, making, and shipping costs. Some of the designs are free. They provide templates. Very cool for those who like unique things in the their home or office, or those who like to design furniture, jewelry, or other stuff. Products available for sale today range from $2 to just under $1,000.
The company is in New Zealand and they are giving free shipping to anyone who can refer someone with a laser-cutter. Apparently they are trying to grow their network of production locations.
Apparently it is very common for corporate recruiters to Google (the verb) a candidate's name. I am sure it is common in other circles as well (if I, heaven forbid, was on the dating circuit right now, Google would get a work out searching for skeletons in the closet of any would-be boyfriend). Not only that, but if you want to make a name for yourself in any field, reinforcing your expertise online is critical. So, the good folks at TheLadders have put together their recommendations on how to build your online brand and I thought it was worth summarizing here. The authors are William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson nauthors of Career Distinctions.
Publish: Get articles or white papers published in online publications, preferrably those highly ranked themselves.
Posting: Post a review on Amazon or BarnesandNoble on subjects that are "on topic" with your expertise.
Pontificating: Post comments on other people's blogs. You can find relevant blogs at BlogSearch.Google.com. You can subscribe to the best ones in your field directly or you can keep your eye on the entire landscape by subscribing right on BlogSearch to any blog that contains your keyword choices.
Publicizing: Write a press release and post it. PRLeap or i-Newswire will release them for free. Check out an earlier article I wrote about doing your own PR.
Partnering: They recommend networking sites like LinkedIn, Ryze, ecademy, and Facebook. I personally like LinkedIn.
Profiling: They recommend creating the basic online profiles at Ziggs, LinkedIn, Naymz, and ZoomInfo, which I have written about before to make sure that they are complete and show your expertise clearly.
I guess I have some work to do...this personal branding thing could be a full-time job!
"Anything, but beige" you say. If you love color and like to experiment, you will enjoy a site called ColourLovers. You can mix palettes (naming the colors yourself, which I always thought would be the best job at a paint or finger nail polish company) and see other combinations that people have come up with. You can search for the post popular palettes or select by colors that you are trying to match. Then you can use the palettes in your website designs or the like.
One of the top ranked palettes when I visited is featured here. It is called Chupacabra and it was submitted by EnaBean (who interestingly enough is 16 years old according to her profile and has put together what seems like thousands of combinations most of which are beautiful).
There is a new product from Snapfish that looks pretty cool - talking greeting cards. You personalize the card on their site with your pictures and then you record your voice in the little microchip with the card arrives. In case you are interested, they are offering a 20% off special with the coupon code TALK20 until November 30th.
However, I just can't help but think there is a better way to do this in the future. Why not allow the person to pre-record the message by calling into a number (or similar to how GrandCentral lets you set up your voice mail by calling you)? Then instead of receiving the card yourself, you could have them send it to your recipient directly.
If you'd rather not record it yourself, why not have a celebrity recording you could choose from? Marilyn Monroe's singing Happy Birthday or Clint Eastwood saying "Make my day." They could be pre-recorded or the technology exists to have a personalized greeting in a celebrity voice. Remember those voice mails for Snakes on a Plane with Samuel L. Jackson?
You will now find a new site posted at http://www.creativeoutletlabs.com/ with some features you should check out. The most exciting of which is that we are now collecting volunteers for an upcoming beta test of a new service called Remarkable by Creative Outlet Labs. There will be more on this posted on the site and on the company blog in the coming months, but in the meantime sign-up and make sure you are on the list to be notified when we have something to look at.
While you are on the site, you can also read the company blog and take the survey that is posted there. This will help set the direction for the product offering, which we believe will provide a better way to appreciate, collaborate, and celebrate.
It started with the band Radioheads and extended to Paste magazine. I blogged about it here. Now, you can subscribe to the company blog for Creative Outlet Labs and pay whatever you want.
Well, in all seriousness, you can’t pay for it even if you wanted to. However, if you are interested in keeping tabs on the development front, go to http://creativeoutletlabs.wordpress.com/ and add it to your RSS reader.
So, save your donations. There will be something for you to buy soon enough.
One is called Ponoko. You think up a design. You send it to them. They use their tools to make it out of wood, acrylic, etc. You can browse though designs that others have updated and they can be made in quantities of one. You pay for the materials, making, and shipping costs. Some of the designs are free. They provide templates. Very cool for those who like unique things in the their home or office, or those who like to design furniture, jewelry, or other stuff. Products available for sale today range from $2 to just under $1,000.
One is called Ponoko. You think up a design. You send it to them. They use their tools to make it out of wood, acrylic, etc. You can browse though designs that others have updated and they can be made in quantities of one. You pay for the materials, making, and shipping costs. Some of the designs are free. They provide templates. Very cool for those who like unique things in the their home or office, or those who like to design furniture, jewelry, or other stuff. Products available for sale today range from $2 to just under $1,000.
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