Andrew Chen

I need that vacation!

Don't worry. Your muse will come back.

At a loss for ideas? It happens to the best of us. Here are 2:

* Using quantitative methods to measure and improve user experience. (e.g. analytics, metrics, heat maps as a compliment to usability testing, etc)
* Continuation of "The first 6 steps to homegrowing basic startup analytis". I would love to hear about the next stage when you want to augment your home grown systems. What 3rd party analysis tools are available? For example at the company that I am consulting for now, navigation is fairly complex and I would like to understand user movement throughout the site. Perhaps this is the same as my first idea but you could take it in different directions.

good ideas! Thanks for the suggestions.

Hey, how about reimagining education for a post industrial world.

Today's NYT carries an piece about a gal novelist at NYU who is "unschooling" her kid, i.e., not home schooling but rather arriving at an agreement w/the kid about what said youngster wants to learn.

Remember, school, like restaurants, arose only after the rise of industry to service the regimented ranks. Check views of Detroit to see where U.S. industry is headed.

Oh, and Spanky, at our shop we are betting huge that you are right. We are launching www.clubponypals.com as a free to play world. Optional purchases, but always free for basic play. Check out Nick Mitham's KZero for the latest on virtual world stuff. Had a fun lunch w/him this year, he's on to something along with the most trick charts and metrics.

In the spirit of boilerplate, your twitters and blogs are most excellent.

Hi Andrew.. love the blog.

I would love to hear your opinions about leveraging the buying power of a community. I am thinking using deals, coupons etc., as a way of extracting revenue from vendors on your site.

The difficulty I can't get over is managing a system that ensures you get something from a sale or click that happens on, or as a result of your site.

All the best,

Paul

Hi Paul -

I am currently consulting for Savings.com. I am new to this particular business but I will put my $0.02 in. Are you referring to folks pooling their money to get discounts on products purchased in bulk? I have tossed this idea around but haven't researched it in depth.

Regarding coupons, so far I have not seen an affiliate program that rewards this specific type of consumer behavior. To address your technical question, affiliate programs use tracking codes and cookies to payout referrals.

pete

I'd like to hear about social media outside of the U.S. - how's it's being used, who's using it, what's popular. Or what prevents people from using social media (poverty, authoritarian governments, telcom companies, etc.)

Cripes, Andrew -- suck it up! :)
Your stuff is must-read, and esp. during these times when ad budgets are being scrutinized, WE NEED YOU!

Any ideas on marketing strategy for b2b, industrial firms? How progressive can a marketer be?

I love your stuff Chen. Just wish I had time to digest it all :/

How 'bout something that touches on:
recession = escapism = big win for VW/games (as long as your VW/game doesn't rely on ad $$)

I found this post most interesting: http://www.marketingvox.com/escapism-propels-ha...
just a thought...

thanks for the suggestion! I have a whole bunch of blog posts related to VW teed up... I'm definitely going to touch on some of those themes.

More links to blogs like Eric Ries and Dan Cook!

have you seen Altgate? Also a former EIR, he writes about some similar topics as VH: http://www.altgate.com/blog/

October 15th is Blog Action Day. The theme this year is, as you might have guessed, poverty.