Interesting new feature has appeared in Google Ads. There are now links to swap the ads to a slightly different set.

The ads are turning into content. In one sense, it’s a promising evolution. Advertisers (or Google on the advertiser’s behalf) are starting to see their message as something people will want to read. At the same time, as the ad-bar becomes a kind of contentful space controlled by Google. What else might they choose to put there?

I advertised! Although only in a blog comment.

Free from 9 to 5 � Everyone wants to be free from 9 to 5

Nevertheless, I feel kind of embarrassed. Thanks “Eric” for making it easy.

This is what’s hard about entrepreneurialism for people like me. I don’t like asking for stuff. And “ask for the sale” is the first rule of selling.

The world is divided into people who don’t mind asking for things, and those who do. And being willing to ask is a necessary condition for success.

This troubles me, because it’s not clear that the skill of asking is actually “productive”. It doesn’t create value or bring new things into the world. It’s a completely zero sum competitive activity. The most succesful “asking” (advertising, marketing, retail positioning) is succesful at the cost of a lost sale to another supplier.

Now, I don’t see any harm in competition between suppliers as to who is going to make the best stuff, or the most useful aggrograte package of stuff. But when competition hinges on who is able to shout loudest, or who employs the salesman with the best Jedi mind-tricks, this just looks screwed up.

Obviously people need to get the message out. And maybe blogs and Cluetrain will make it so that engaged “Gonzo” marketing which actually makes all communication channels between suppliers and customers, informative and useful, will save us.

Update : if you hear a muffled thudding sound as you read this blog-entry, that’s my commercial super-ego who wanted to make the above “Cluetrain” link into an Amazon link which pays a kickback. This time, I managed to have said commercial super-ego stuffed into a box and the link goes to the online version of the book.

Getting Things Done: “Official” Definition

David Allen has a go at pinning it down. Now, in one sense, since he wrote the classic book, he has every right to try to control the definition.

On the other hand, GTD is beloved of the disorganized and creative. Often these people are fairly relaxed about allowing terminology to wander and extending ideas through metaphors and analogies but still aspire to a little more self-control.

Possibly a fairly loose definition of GTD has been part of its success. People think they know what it’s about, but are really mapping it onto ideas they received second and third hand, and which they’ve personally remixed with other intuitions. Maybe they’ll prefer a fairly loose notion.

Having said all that, the actual definition Allen gives waffles like Belgium. So maybe he knows his market pretty well 😉

On second thoughts, I’m not very convinced at all that Google’s AdSense is any sort of business model for this blog. Ads needs loads of people. Whereas self-describing Smart Disorganized Individuals are probably rare as hen’s teeth.

Not only that, but after casually glancing at some of the ads so far, I don’t think they’re that well matched to the content yet. Maybe they’ll get better. (Is AdSense adaptive?) But how many times do I need to mention “wiki” before I get a wiki related, rather than blog related ad?

Hugh Macleod has news of some ideas that might help on the modelling front.