I’m writing for Fast Company magazine
I just learned that I’m a new columnist for Fast Company magazine where I’ll write a monthly piece, about 700 words. Still don’t know what the title will be, but we’re thinking “Naked Conversations.”
My first column will probably mirror my new speech I’m working on, titled “Living in a Google World.”
For both I’d love to hear how your business is using, or being affected by, Google. For instance, Printing for Less’ CEO, Andrew Field, told me how he used Google ads to get new customers.
If you have a story about how Google is changing how you do business, please post it here in comments or email it to me. Thanks!
This is a big thrill. Fast Company has 700,000 circulation, which will bring a whole new audience to my blog.
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April 24th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Wow, congratulations. That’s a big deal. Great magazine, I’m one of those 700,000.
As for me, google allows me to monetize my blog (even though it’s not that much) and pay for my dog’s expensive, organic food.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Congrats Robert!!! That’s a cool gig!
I work for Live Search org as you know so it’s self-evident how Google impacts my business. ;-)
Cheers!
Betsy Aoki
April 24th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Congrats Robert - that’s a big feather in anyone’s cap!
As for Google’s impact: its made me expect simplicity in execution, tools that “just work”, and shortshortshort update cycles in all aspects of my life.
The only other company that’s been able to consistently deliver on those expectations to this point has been Apple.
Google changed by online world, but has impacted the offline as well.
April 24th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Congratulations! I just tag surfed and will come back and check out Naked Conversations.
April 24th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Congrats.
In that case, I may consider becoming their 700,001st.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Fast Company is 90% hype, wheeling in suckers, for quick ‘hits’, every other article, err, every single article reads like something from 1998. What crash? Sky is always blue, markets always up, no one cheats ever, happy happy, see no evil. Can’t stand that magazine, but all the same congrats…you can talk Web 2.0 rot all the live day long, it’s a fertile audience.
April 25th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Totally happy for you Robert, rock on! Looking forward to your column.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:54 am
Rober, please: “For both I’d love to hear how your business is using, or being affected by, Google. For instance, Printing for Less’ CEO, Andrew Field, told me how he used Google ads to get new customers.”
No, surely not. He uses ads to get new customers? Now, why didn’t I think of that? Stunning.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:00 am
Ivan: oh, please.
Do I really need to spell EVERYTHING out in excruciating detail? Or can I just IMPLY that something is different about what Printing for Less is doing with Google ads?
I don’t remember any other advertising in history where the advertiser only pays if an action is taken.
I don’t remember any other advertising in history where the advertiser knows intimately the value of each customer based on his/her clicking behavior. A click on “business card” for instance, is only worth about $200 in economic value. A click on “four color brochure” is worth 10x as much. This is the first time in history where you can so carefully target ads like these.
April 25th, 2007 at 5:21 am
Glad to hear it, Robert. I am a Fast Company subscriber.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:11 am
Congrats, that is good news for a Fast Company reader like myself.
/kff
April 25th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Google Scholar and Google Books are both ‘highest priority’ for the publisher I’m working for. Once we’re in those programs two things are expected to happen: 1) our reach and sales opportunities goes WAY wider than present 2) our revenue increases. AdWords also worked well for us in trial. We’ll hire a pro to help us improve performance there though.
Also, for a fellow I met on the plane LAX to DEN using Google Checkout is going to be another (maybe bigger) way for him to sell his packaged picante sauce spices (add your own tomato). A little “Google Base” will go a LONG way for him.
The thing about Google though… you never know when a beta program (like Scholar or Base or Froogle) might be discontinued… Regardless, for the right products it’s a wild ride while it lasts (kinda like getting Digg’d, TechMem’d, SlashDott’d, etc)… people need to remember to diversify their channels and not become too dependent on a handfull. Battelle’s cites a couple of interesting bugaboo’s in his book where erosion of positioning in the Google Search results terribly impacted a certain company (shoes or window blinds?… can’t recall). Anyway, pays to have a belts-and-suspenders approach to this stuff.
April 25th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Wow, this is great!
April 25th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Way to go! Congrats!
Rex
April 25th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Congrats Robert! I also subscribe to Fast Company and think it is a great mag, which will only be better with your articles!
April 25th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Before google I had piles of books on or around my desk, to name a few: ‘DirectX in 24 hours’, ‘Advanced Graphics Programming for Windows’, ‘Programmer’s Guide to Windows 95′. Costs a fortune and takes up a lot of space. I hardly buy any books now and thanks to google have the equivalent of an entire library at my disposal. For free!
So without Google, I doubt I would have build programs like CastBlaster, WinPodder, VidBlaster or StudioRack :)
April 25th, 2007 at 8:33 am
From my perspective, Google has set a standard for speed and results that our employees now expect from our own internal IT resources. Our stuff gets compared to theirs all the time.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Again, I’m confused. I thought you said print was dead. Or is it only dead when you can’t get exposure from it?
I mean why in the world would you do something for a product you admit you don’t consume?
http://scobleizer.com/2006/09/05/stuff-printed-on-dead-trees-whats-that/
sell out much?
April 25th, 2007 at 10:57 am
I work for a small, 80 year old, family business that happens to be one of the big 2 or 3 in our space online - nutsonline.com. Obviously a huge piece of our success id thanks to Google AW, and organic Google search, but what’s espeically interesting is how a little company like us gets taken seriously by a big company like Google. We’ve been invited to join their PPA trial - not because we’re a fancy giant brand, but because we’re a small, important, long tail era brand that does huge business, quietly. This is an important piece of the story - that it’s not all about the Amazons, etc, that can own all the top keywords.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Thats great!
re: “Fast Company has 700,000 circulation, which will bring a whole new audience to my blog.”
Fast Company will also see a huge increase in circulation, no doubt. Good luck!
April 25th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
We are using Google Earth to help provide better service to citizens of San Jose with out spending any tax payer money on developing our own on-line air photo viewer.
Check it out. Google Earth rocks!
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/planning/data/google/default.asp
April 25th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I’ve gone to Google for all my desktop apps, because I live in two places and work on multiple computers. I can see everything from anywhere. But more important, I work with a not for profit and we are thinking of implementing an entire Google social media platform for its community, which is health policy oriented. Stay tuned.
April 25th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Our company has seen tremendous growth through both organic and paid listings on Google. In a traditionally less than technologically savvy industry, bolt manufacturing, we have been able to easily connect with new customer all over the world. Google’s vast reach allows us to quickly communicate in a way we would have never imagined two years ago.
I look forward to seeing you in Fast Company.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Congrats, Robert! That’s pretty cool.
Also, I want to print this thread out and stick it to the wall of my office at Google. It makes me that happy. :) gwhiz, sarah, and francine hardaway in particular, thanks for making my day.
April 26th, 2007 at 12:35 am
I think they should have held out for someone who can actually write. Maybe David Pogue is too busy to write for Fast Company or has heard bad things about it. Still, Fast Company could do much better than you, Robert.
April 26th, 2007 at 12:39 am
Podesta: Fast Company is an “it” not a “they.”
Now, if you’re talking about the editor who hired me, well, it’s still not a “they.”
I thought you could write…
April 26th, 2007 at 5:34 am
[...] I?m writing for Fast Company magazine [...]
April 26th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Congratulations, Robert. I like Fast Company. Great fit for you. I’ll look forward to reading your column.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Well, it looks like it might change the way McKinsey does business he he
ttp://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/17/HNgooglecalendardata_1.html
April 26th, 2007 at 9:08 am
oops
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/17/HNgooglecalendardata_1.html
April 26th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Ivan’s post from above; “No, surely not. He uses ads to get new customers? Now, why didn’t I think of that? Stunning.”
What is stunning is how Google Adwords allows us to know exactly what we will pay for each new customer, what they will spend on their first order with us, how long they will stick around, and how many friends they will refer to us once they place their first order with PrintingForLess.com. Our marketing team uses our own database and reporting tools in conjunction with Google’s Adwords reporting to understand what type of return we can expect from each dollar spent on Google search advertising.
Google’s Adwords program is great right now, but I think that we’ll see its effectiveness wane in coming years as people become increasingly skeptical of marketers and interruptive advertising. Where Google really has the power to drive someone’s business is through their natural search results.
Google the word “Robert.” Look who’s #1 (That’s pretty cool!)
Google “brochure printing.” Look who’s #1. This is where PrintingForLess.com really benefits from Google. (Disclaimer: No SEO tricks used.)
I’m looking forward to seeing your new column.
Nick Runyon
Director of Marketing at http://www.PrintingForLess.com
April 27th, 2007 at 10:48 am
hello all,
three quick points, over and above a big welcome to Robert to the FC blogsquad:
1. Our circulation is actually more than 750,000 (not that we’re counting!)
2. Re: Mr Coulter’s assessment that FC is nothing but “hype, wheeling in suckers…every single article reads like something from 1998.” i gotta say, you haven’t been reading the magazine for a while. feel free to contact me if you’d like a virtual tour.
3. grammar aside, when you get right down to it, FC is a “they [us]“, not an “it.” all are welcome to join in.
April 29th, 2007 at 1:42 am
Congrats - who said we can’t live with a little print too?
April 30th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Congratulations Robert! I think AdSense would be worth highlighting. It allows sites like mine (mongabay.com) to monetize extreme niche content without having to line up direct advertisers, a time-consuming process. I can spend all my time working on content, not ad management systems or sales. Further, because the ads are so targeted, they can even be a useful to readers as a form of supplementary content, something you can’t often say about conventional advertising. AdSense have really opened up a new set of possibilities.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Congrats Robert. I own a few restaurants in the Bay Area and we use google adwords to bring new customers to our restaurants. In particular, our restaurant
First Crush which is located close to union square gets a lot of tourist business and corporate events. Google Adwords has been extremely effective in getting our brand out to people all across the country with minimal expense. We obviously can’t take ads out in publications all across the country so google adwords is the perfect way for us to reach millions of people all across the country.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Tnanks for demonstrating my point, Robert.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Speaking on seo traffic, do not consider redzee as a source of viable click through. We did a campaign with them and all the traffic never went past the first page. I think they are doing some shady stuff. We own a printing company, AREA Printing & Design http://www.areaprinting.com and we have instant online chat, none of the clicks ever requested a chat session. It was a waste of money.
printing