Marketing

The WSJ has a Q&A with legendary infomercial king Ron Popeil that covers measuring ad results. (This link’ll work for 7 days even for non-subscribers.)

Along the way, Popeil reveals Ronco’s next product will be a turkey fryer. (A great idea considering the popularity — and danger — of this prep method.)

WSJ: Sounds like you’re trying to sell me a turkey fryer.

Mr. Popeil: No, I’m not trying to sell you on it. If you see it enough, maybe you don’t have need of one, but if you’re looking for a gift for someone and that person doesn’t have a turkey fryer…

Just got an e-mail informing me that Judy’s Book, one of those local search/recommendations firms has launched its public beta test. Other players in the space include Idealab’s Insider Pages.

The guys behind Judy’s Book — Andy Sack and Chris DeVore — have a pretty good track record. Andy co-founded Abuzz, which was sold to NYTimes Digital, and he was also a Softbank entrepreneur-in-residence. Chris was a partner in Adjacency, a Web consulting and design shop acquired by Sapient.

My gripe as a consumer? Judy’s Book started gathering members and recommendations in Seattle — too far North. And Insider Pages started up in Los Angeles — too far South. Thankfully, there’s Berkeley Parents Network — though it could be organized a whole lot better. Looking forward to seeing how these community/social networking/local search plays do as they gather more members.

Heard some interesting stories yesterday evening on Pacific Time (KQED program on Asia) about telemarketing in South Korea and Japan.

I am out at the Media Center Emerging Technology conference in Palo Alto – organized by blogger Susan Mernit. No live blogging but will post later if it is warranted.

The controversial BzzAgent posts on the basics of online community participation: lurk before speaking up, only join if you really intend to participate long term (don’t pop on once just to shill a product), and make sure your product mention (bzzing) is appropriate to the forum. Kind of crazy that the company hasn’t laid out guidelines like this before, since they seem so obvious to anyone who has participated in an online community.

Still, it’s a good step. Also perhaps foreshadowing the Word of Mouth Marketing Association‘s soon-to-be-released ethical guidelines document. BzzAgent’s Dave Balter is a co-chair of the committee putting the guidelines together.