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Pure Genius

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a post about the Genius Bars located in Apple Stores.

The stat that caught my interest was "50% of the people visiting the Genius Bars are experiencing trouble with their iPods". With 10 million in circulation, I think that stat can be a little misleading.

What also made the post catch my attention was that I was recently one of those visiting to get my new iPod replaced. The new 20GB was DOA and Brian at the Mayfair Genius Bar got me straighten out in a snap.

I can't find the post, but I also saw recently that Genius Bar visits also generate more sales for the stores. During the exchange, I also bought a Griffin iTalk.

Returning Scheduled Programming

The reason I started this blog was because I enjoy seeing companies do innovative, interesting things. I would share these stories with my wife and she would say, "Oh, that's great, honey". I thought if I started blogging I could find some people who liked the same things. I thought if I could find 50 people that would be great. I found the audience, but see I don't talk about that much anymore. I am going to get back to that.

Today, let me point you to an excerpt I pulled from Category Killers. Robert Spector was talking about independents fighting against the big box stores and the example of Wild Rumpus Books shows there are ways to do it. My brother lives in the Twin Cities. On my next trip up there, I will make a stop in Linden Hills, take some pictures, and post them here.

Back Home

I got back late last night for Seattle.

The trip was well worth it. As with most conferences, it was about the people. I missed the last couple of sessions, so I am interested in what people are saying. I almost stayed, but it would have required a flight change, another night in the hotel, and the complete loss of today.

The BBBT today is at Brand Autopsy. They like the book and as always pull together a great stop.

BBS05 - Good Blog Design

Here are some suggestions from DL Byron and Keith Robinson for good blog design:

I would like to have seen some other examples that were not sponsors or speakers at the conference.

Blog Business Summit - Monday

I am attending BBS for the next couple of days. Here are my thoughts on the morning.

Robert Scoble gave the keynote. Here are two important points.

First, he makes the point that stories are bubbling up from the blogsphere and into the mainstream press. He mentioned that many SEA tsunami stories made that move in a day or two. I loved this quote - "If a product sucks, people will know in 24 hours". This has huge implication for companies.

Second, he talked about pitching to A-list bloggers. He says there is no problem pitching the big guys. Consider pitching the people he reads. He says when he seeing five bloggers talk about something he knows something is up.

I have no idea what Marc Canter and Chris Pirillo were doing on stage. They were filling in for someone who couldn't make it, but I have no idea what they were saying that was of much use to the audience.

Molly Holzschlag gave a building traffic pitch that covered alot of basics. She liked that she talked about options for things like comments and trackbacks. What I missed where some convictions about what business should do.

I had a great lunch with Erik Hansen. I met him at the Re-Imagine Summit and it was great to talk more.

Steve Broback and Glenn Feishman gave a interesting talk on monetizing your blog. Their answer is ads, whether it be Google or direct sponsorships. They were really talking about entrepreneurs writing about what they are passionate about and using AdSense to get paid for it. I think they missed the option that bloggers can be hired by companies to write about their passions. That is another way to get paid for what you love. I have some experience there.

I couldn't sit through "Picking a Platform: Blogging Engines Compared". I chatted with Evelyn and Scoble instead.

Halley and Stowe ended the day with "True Voice: The Art and Science of Blog Writing". My thought here is that more people are writing more than they ever have in public. People need to get thicker skins and stronger convictions. I totally agree with their idea - "If you write more, you will become a better writer."

More tomorrow.

BBBT - Spector in Seattle Times

Robert is feature on the Business Section of the Seattle Times website. There is a Q&A and an excerpt from Category Killers.

BBBT - Spector's Bibliography

Robert has written 18 books. He is different than many of today's business book authors. He is a writer and a journalist.

He is best know for The Nordstrom Way. He has also written a great book on Amazon.

Here is his bibliography:

Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and Its Impact on Consumer Culture

The Nordstrom Way: The Inside Story of America's Number One Customer Service Company

Lessons From The Nordstrom Way: How Companies are Emulating the Number One Customer Service Company

The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: A Handbook for Implementing Great Service in Your Organization (new from Wiley in February 2005)

Amazon.com: Get Big Fast: Inside the Revolutionary Business Model That Changed The World

Anytime, Anywhere: How the Best Bricks-and-Clicks Businesses are Delivering Seamless Service to Their Customers


Corporate Histories

The Space Needle: Symbol of Seattle

The Legend of Eddie Bauer

Shared Values: A History of Kimberly Clark

Family Trees: Simpson's Centennial Story

On Course: Chevron's Century at Sea

More Than a Store: Frederick & Nelson 1890 tp 1990

Banking Without Boundaries: A History of Security Pacific Bank of Washington

The Legend of Frango Chocolate

Seattle Fur Exchange: 100 Years

The Ale Master: The Story of Bert Grant (pioneer of America's craft brewing industry)


Editor:

John Sarich's Food and Wine of the Pacific Northwest

Business Blog Book Tour - Day 1

I want to welcome everyone to the first Business Blog Book Tour of 2005. I am changing the format a bit this year. You will find fewer stops with tour running five days. I thought there got to be some repetition in content when a tour went on for two weeks. You can let me know what you think after this week.

Kicking off our 2005 season is Robert Spector and his new book Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and its Impact on Consumer Culture. The book is about the rise of the big box stores. The book gives you history, strategy, and cultural implications of this retail phenomenon. I chose the book because of Robert. Our first phone conversation lasted an hour and he has been great to work with ever since.

Today, I am just going to introduce you to Robert and the book. You can see the schedule here for the other stops this week.

More later...

Safely in Seattle

I am safely in Seattle.

I had a great day checking out the Science Fiction Museum with Evelyn.

We then had dinner at Lola with Curt, Lisa, and Robert.

It was great to meet so many people in person from the world of blogs.

There is going to be even more of that tomorrow.

Leaving for Airport

Can't wait to meet so many people at Blog Business Summit!

I forgot how early 4AM was though.

This was the only decent flight that didn't have me flying east to go west. A quick stop in MSP and then on to SEA.

This also gives me a little time to see Seattle.

More soon...