Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Seth's Blog: More on stamps

I haven't been able to think the whole concept of "stamps" for email. Seth Godin has a pretty good argument for them (Seth's Blog: More on stamps). I'm starting to agree that it is a good idea, but as a marketer at a small business I do start to worry about the overall costs. For our average customers, we probably communicate via email at least 7 times:

1. Pre-sales
2. Purchase Receipt
3. Free webinar training announcement
4-6. Additional offers for opt-in customers
7. a technical support incident

So, we're only talking $.07/user. That's probably worth it for a good customer experience.

But Seth brings up another concept: RSS feeds. Here's an opening for an entrepreneur. Right now, RSS is one-to-many communication. In order for RSS to work as one-to-one communication is has to be secured with encrypted URLs that can be only read by the intended recipient.

Once RSS has that, it will be a viable option. Until then, I think we'll have to pay for email stamps.

Monday, February 06, 2006

PXN8.COM - Photos Made Easy

How cool is this:

PXN8.COM - Photos Made Easy

A server license doesn't cost much more than a single photoshop license. If you're building a photo service online, you'll be buying this.

Free WiFi Everywhere?

Fon (the wifi exchange company) just got some major backing. It will be very interesting to see if it takes off.

I can certainly see it working, but it may be difficult for Fon to penetrate locations such as airports that may have exclusive contracts with some providers (such as tmobile) or will charge very high rates to lease their airspace.

As it stands today, wireless internet access is much too expensive for the average user. Whether it be Verizon EVDO or T-Mobile wifi, the costs are just too much unless your company is paying for it.

Saturday, February 04, 2006