ben robison

Why Folks Read Blogs

None of this is original, I just uncovered this article in the archives of the internet. It answers the question I’ve been pondering for awhile, and it also cautions against something I’ve been thinking of doing lately (no I’m not a CEO).

The bottom line is this. If you’re a blogger and you expect people to read your blog, you must have 4 of the following 5 things:

1. Candor
2. Urgency
3. Timeliness
4. Pithiness
5. Controversy

I had to look up pithiness and this blog definitely doesn’t have that. To that Seth adds a 6th, for the sake of having a 6th. Utility.

I’ll add Familiarity as #7 on the list. If you’ve got some kind of personal connection to the blogger, that’ll keep you coming back. I assume that’s why most of you read my blog right?

KPMG vs. Omniture

So after our the recent win at the Omniture Web Analytics competition, there was nothing set in stone, but several different Omniture employees (relatively high-ups) came around to talk to us and ask us if we had jobs. Again, nothing was settled, but they made it quite clear that they were hiring and they would be very interested in hiring any one of the team.

Now As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve already signed with KPMG to go to Silicon Valley to work in their Contract Compliance Services group.

I find myself in an interesting position. I originally began to look for employment outside of Utah because there just wasn’t much here in my field. It became clear that the bulk of opportunities lay elsewhere, and even though I didn’t really want to leave home (my family and my wife’s family are both nearby) I was OK with the idea, thinking that a few years down the road, we’d be coming back. The Omniture “offer” opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

I know what the work at Omniture is like, and I know that I like it. It’s in a field that is very hot right now, but only in it’s infancy. I know that with some experience at Omniture under my belt, I would have a very marketable skill set that could be profitable at Omniture or just about anywhere else. What big company doesn’t want to improve it’s online marketing presence?

At KPMG, after a few years, I’m marketable because I worked there, but I don’t know what my particular skill set would be. I wouldn’t have specialized in anything at all. I would have some experience managing teams to get jobs done, but I can get that at Omniture. In essence, I would be working so that I could get a name on my resume. I’ve been told that I would come out with marketable skills, but I don’t know what they would be, and honestly, I’ve got no idea what I would even be doing for them.

So honestly, even though I’ve signed with KPMG, I’m seriously leaning towards Omniture. I will at least go through the application and interview process and see what turns up. My contract with KPMG is at will employment, and though I would have to refund my small signing bonus, it could definitely be worth the price.

I have a few serious questions to ask of the folks at Omniture before I go work for them. I want to know about growth potential inside and outside the company. How quickly do I advance to positions of greater responsibility? How much does income increase and how often? What kind of benefits do they offer?

Anyway, the decision is not made by any means, but I find myself in a situation I never expected to be in, faced with a decision that I never prepared myself to make. I’ve been soliciting advice from many people whose opinions I respect, so if you’ve got some input for the great debate, please let me know.

Now Listed on Technorati

So now that I’m really starting to get serious about this whole blogging thing, I’m suddenly interested in driving traffic to my site. I think this is partially a result of some of the things I’m learning in class. In support of my efforts I’m now joining Technorati. When I asked a friend about Technorati, he described it as “Google for Blogs.” With that kind of an endorsement, how can I resist? With this in mind, you can now view my Technorati Profile.

Apple Turns the Cell Phone Industry Upside-Down?

I read a few articles today that got me thinking. I’ll reference them up front since the ideas I pulled from them are a little intermingled. The first article was How Apple Could Rock Wireless on CNN. The other was on MacRumors called Cingular/Rogers Not Subsidizing iPhone Cost.

I realize it’s unusual to have two articles, but it took both articles to paint the whole picture. Currently, cellular service providers subsidize a large portion (if not all) of the initial cost of a cell phone when their subscribers signs a 1-2 year contract. Cell phone manufacturer’s don’t like this practice because it devalues the phone itself. Rogers will be the sole provider of iPhone service in Canada and reportedly they aren’t allowed to subsidize the cost of the phone.

When Apple announced the $499 and $599 price tags for the iPhone models, many assumed that this was the subsidized price, but given this new news (and the rumors that Cingular is drastically reducing the cost of service) it begins to paint an interesting picture. Apple consumers are typically willing to pay a premium. That being said, if Cingular subsidized hundreds of dollars on the prices on iPhones, it creates an interesting situation where an iPhone and an iPod Nano cost about the same although the devices clearly are not equal.

So what does all this mean? It means that Apple could potentially flip the cell phone industry upside-down. It possibly provides leverage where the cell phone manufacturers can gain a bit more power in the industry and gain a little more control over where things are going. Granted, this is speculative, but the possibility is there. If Apple can convince consumers to pay a premium for their cell phones, then potentially even competitors like Samsung, Sony Ericson, Nokia, LG, and others may even be rooting for the success of the iPhone.