Welcome!

In the spirit of my latest video posting streak here is yet another cool video.

Check this out - I just stumbled across it while surfing the interweb. Man, I would love to help direct a show/video blog like this, but unfortunately I don’t have the time… shit, I don’t even have enough time to post on my own blog. Worthless I know.

Site: www.webbalert.com

Possibly one of the most inventive, creative, and fun games I have ever played. Someone show this to Nintendo please so this guy can make a lot of money off of a Wii game.

Download the game FREE here
http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/crayon/

The deluxe version is yet to be released.

“Magic” Digital Video Brush - video powered by Metacafe

Site Map I’m currently in the middle of an amazing book written by David Ogilvy. He was a leader in the field of advertising, and his name is repeated ad nausea in advertising schools. David Ogilvy is best remembered for his creative work, but he was meticulous in completing research on his clients in order to provide the best advertising. In 1966, he wrote Confessions of an Advertising Man as a guidebook for anyone interested in the field. The book is a wealth of information, and it is cleverly written. He mixes his experiences with the wisdom that can only come from a lifetime of dedication to a field.I’ve found his insights to still be relevant for anyone involved in any form of business. David Ogilvy dedicates a chapter of his book to discuss how to rise in an advertising agency. These tips are geared toward people who want to be an account executive, but I think they can be applied to anyone involved in a corporate job. I’ve expanded on Mr. Ogilvy’s suggestions to produce a list of how to rise in your career.

1. Make yourself the best informed person: This is such an easy concept, but often times people are unwilling to do the extra work. You really are hurting yourself by limiting your knowledge.
2. Your returns will match what you give: If you want to rise within the company, some sacrifices must be made in other areas of your life. Long and productive hours are necessary to show your dedication and investment to the company. You must produce quality work in order to be rewarded with a promotion.
3. Be a leader: In the current team centric environment, it is important to effectively stand out from your peers. You should learn from the other personalities, learn how to accomplish things within a group, and learn how to make other people perceive you as an asset. Take responsibility for your actions, even if the consequences are negative.
4. Wait for the moment when you can shine: There is bound to be drudge work, but it is important to be on the look out for opportunities to show your worth. Give a different approach to a solution, be memorable, and above all, don’t be the lazy one out of a group.
5. Specialize: This will offer you a chance to stand out from the group. Mr. Ogilvy suggests for hopeful account executives to train as copywriters. This would give them a more diverse background than their account executive peers and it would give them insight into how to best work with copywriters. Right now, being multilingual is an asset that will elevate you in the job market.
6. Learn how to present yourself: You will never be able to rise in management if your employer is unable to see you as an affluent speaker. You should be able to speak and write adequately for large and small audiences.
7. Be friendly with your enemies: You never know when those alliances will come in handy. It can be a small world, and you don’t need to isolate yourself. A scorned past employee could return as a client in a few years, and previous interactions will play into your pending partnership.
8. Be willing remain silent on small battles, but fight to the death on the large issues: You will appear as more of a team player by not constantly causing conflict. People will listen on the few occasions that you are vocal, instead of just brushing your comments off.
9. Even when on vacation, work: It is important to take a break and experience something new that will inspire creativity and different ideas. But don’t waste all your time on frivolous activities. Take time to read about your field, and remember why you love to do what you do for a living.
10. Have a hobby: your job. Make it your mission to become an expert on something related to your job and learn the most about it. If you don’t love what you do, then get another job. And if you love what you do, then it shouldn’t be a problem to immerse yourself in your field. Associate yourself with other people in the field, read as much as you can, and always be ready to learn.

A New Widget Could Help

While doing a little research for this post I found out more about a widget I had heard of but never really seen in action, Blog Rush. It’s quite a neat idea and I think we’re going to try it out here for a little while. Here is a video that explains, in detail, what Blog Rush is and how it can help your blog out.

I think it is important to note that there has been some criticism facing Blog Rush. Skeptics believe its glory will be short lived because of people who have already started to develop robots that automatically refresh their homepage to gain them more exposure on the Blog Rush network. Others say bloggers are not inclined to place the widget in a prominent place on their blog so the click through rate is not as high as expected. Nonetheless, I think it’s worth trying out and I believe you should try it out too.

Giving Back

In the spirit of this post, I think it would be nice to give back to both the bloggers who have really made a point to get to know me and to those blog’s that I read frequently. Their efforts are well appreciated.

If you have any blogs you enjoy reading please leave a comment and let us know.

The Blogs:

Jarkko Laine is Insanely Interested in Everything and writes about things from productivity to entrepreneurship.

Chris Seidl from the Verb Hut is an English major with a hobby in photography. His writing spans from intellectually driven personal posts to poetry.

Will Wilkins from IAMWW is an awesome Wordpress designer who’s elegant designs won’t dissapoint you. Stop by and download a few.

Mark Saadine from Desert Money is a friend of mine who is studying abroad in Cairo for the semester. If you are interested in the Middle East you’ll definitely enjoy reading some of his posts.

One of my favorite, quite popular, tumblelogs is Project.ioni.st . The tumblelog includes daily updates of music, vocabulary, and interesting photos.

Vincent Malgione from Big Sweater Design has done a fantastic job with his site’s design. He is a designer by trade and a casual blogger. Thanks Vincent for being one of our top commentators (side note: i just found out commenter is not a word - or is it?).

Some other noteworthy blogs:

Graham Lutz from The Young Capitalist is also a fellow entrepreneur who writes from personal experience. You can read a full review here.

Popular blogs I enjoy reading:

Free Lance Switch - a great resource for free lancers, continuously interesting articles.

Smashing Magazine - smashes you with everything you need to know about CSS, Design, Graphics, Font’s, and more.

If I’ve forgotten about you I’m sorry! Let me know!

Some related reading:

What Can Entrepreneurs Learn from Blogging?

The Power of Leverage: Who is in your network?

I don’t consider myself a Bob Dylan fan, but I learned more about his music when I created emial messages for my friends. A London design firm, Ten4, created an awareness site for the release of his new greatest hits album. It works on the same principles as Youtube or any viral media success. The site is a little hard to find, at least when I Googled Bob Dylan and the release date, I couldn’t find it. It makes you have to hunt for the site and refer your friends to it in the email form.

The site, www.dylanmessaging.com, has an underground feel. It is a gritty red and black stencil motif. There are straight forward instructions on how to create a message. The message is imposed onto cue cards in the preexisting clip from “Don’t Look Back.” Anyone can go to the site and create a message about anything that can be sent to multiple friends. After creating the message, you enter in the sender and receiver email addresses. There is an opportunity at the end of the process to sign up for email updates about Bob Dylan. The video that is sent includes your text in the video, and at the end there is a link back to the site and information about Bob Dylan’s career.

I don’t even remember where I heard about this website, but the fusion of new and old material interested me. This is a creative way to get the word out about the release of a product, and I think it has the potential to spread. It creates awareness about the new album, and it is a more interesting venue than traditional fan sites. This type of word of mouth marketing is also used in voicemails. The cult film, Snakes on a Plane, gained exposure by allowing Samuel L. Jackson to leave voicemails on unsuspecting friends cellphones. It is a creative way to grab attention and experiment with existing media.

I can’t wait till I can own a computer like this!

Jefferson Han - Perceptive Pixel