At PEER 1, we’ve launched today a new video contest and we’re giving away $10,000 in prizes to the winner! Along with the contest, we’ve released the second episode of the award-winning short series “Growing Pains” which follows the trips and follies of a home-based business startup that grows quickly out of control causing new employees and servers to take control of the home.
We’re giving viewers of the episode the opportunity to create their own growing pains video that shows their personal experiences for a chance to win a prize package of 12 months of free Managed Hosting, a 15-inch MacBook, and a Sony HD camcorder, at a total value of $10,000.
To watch the new episode of Growing Pains and enter the $10,000 Giveaway Contest, go to www.peer1.com/growingpain
Episode 2 – “A Walk in The Park.” Some time after being tossed out of the house, Todd and Janet try to mend fences over a nice walk in the park. All seems well and the moment feels right, or so Todd thinks.
Here’s a sneak preview of PEER 1 Growing Pains, episode 2 - ‘A Walk in The Park’ of our humorous (now award-winning) short video series about web hosting. See Episode 1 here. Some time after being tossed out of the house, Todd and Janet try to mend fences over a nice walk in the park. All seems well and the moment feels right, or so Todd thinks….
I was recently interviewed by Dave Young for an article entitled “Blogging for Business in 2008″ that appears in the latest edition of Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine. Below is an excerpt along with a link to the pdf:
I studied their products and services, their corporate websites, but the real studying was done by reading their blog posts. Three of my personal favorite blogs belong to PEER 1, Mailtrust, and MailChimp, names you may already be familiar with if you pay attention to what’s going on in the hosting and software industries.
Okay, so you are probably asking “what’s so great about these companies and their blogs?” I took the time to interview the people behind these successful blogs. The responses I received are quite intriguing. Rajan Sodhi, VP of Marketing and Communications at PEER 1, started “Big Marketing for Small Businesses” and has been posting to his blog (bigmarketing.wordpress.com) since august 2006. Sodhi said, “My blog has been successful in giving me an opportunity to discuss, share and engage with others about my favorite topic – marketing.”
Sodhi enjoys discussing ideas and concepts in marketing on his personal blog. However, blogs are able to do more than just communicate your personal thoughts on whatever interests you the most. For example, Pat Matthews, president of Mailtrust, a Rackspace company, said, “My blog has helped us generate business as well as recruit more effectively.” Matthews has been posting in his “Small Town, Big ideas” blog (patsweblog.com) for over 2.5 years. He believes potential customers and employees like to read about the company they are going to do business with or work for in the future. Matthews added, “My blog has made a big impact on both levels.” Sodhi and Matthews’ blogs are independent of their company’s websites and still help them build business. What happens when you fully integrate your blog within your corporate website?
Microsoft takes the cringe factor to a whole new level. Check out this motivational video for their sales department to pump them up to sell Vista. Maybe there is some truth to those Apple MAC commercials after all
Google has come out with another free cool service called GOOG-411, a voice-activated 1-800 line that connects you to businesses in your area. For example, if you’re looking for ‘pizza delivery’, say it along with your city and state or province, and it will give you available businesses to choose from. Here is a video demonstration of how easy it is. I have already added it to my speed dial.
I think I’m in love. The newly re-designed 2009 Audi A4 is coming to North America in September. Can’t wait to see those beaded headlights face-to-face.
A lot of public skepticism and resistance has plagued the potential acquisition of luxury brands Jaguar and Landrover by India-based mega brand Tata. Looks like the deal is no longer a potential but a certain. According to MarketWatch, Ford will announce the sale of both brands to Tata on Wednesday. It will be very interesting to see how the deal is embraced by employees and more importantly, car enthusiasts. The big question being, will the public accept an India-based company as the people behind these once iconic gems of British royalty, and feel the same intrinsic prestige and confidence in quality associated with them. My personal opinion is that it can’t be any worse than the way both brands have lagged under Ford ownership. Tata is a huge brand in India with lots of money behind it and an ownership with kahunas, who would like nothing better to do than to prove the naysayers wrong. I think North America will be its most difficult market. Building the brands back up in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia likely makes more sense, than build some momentum and credibility to re-establish the brands in the US and Canada. India in general is making a bigger play on the global market, and nothing changes perception faster than success.
Want to find out how passionate your customers are about your most popular product? Take it off the menu. Welcome to the Burger King ‘Whopper Freakout’. Thanks Lance for sharing this. Another brilliant example of a video gone viral.
Just returned from South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX. My first time and what a great event! If you’re wondering where the web 2.0 world has been the last few days, well I found them all on 6th Street. Social media was the talk of Interactive. From the continuing quest for enhanced monetization model ideas to raising VC money, to the increasing adoption by enterprise of affordable, open source online software over traditional proprietary versions. In case you thought social media was just the latest fad for techies and early adopters, many at SXSW would have you think it’s not… more like a cultural movement. And I agree. Users poking around in Facebook, sending mail through Google, and sharing photos through Flickr, are beginning to wonder why the software they are forced to use at work isn’t as easy or available. I see this changing and it will be driven by users of all types as more depend on it in their personal lives. The talk of Interactive, as you have likely heard by now, is the now infamous interview debacle by journalist Sarah Lacey of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a capacity audience. Sarah appeared to have injected herself too much in the interview, plugging her book and wording her questions in a style that irked a live crowd that quickly turned on her, while empathizing with Mark. I wasn’t there in attendance, but you couldn’t walk ten feet without someone asking or talking about it.
Fortune has published a series of excerpts from an exclusive interview with Apple founder, Steve Jobs who reveals among other things, the keys to the company’s success and the prospects of Apple without him. Any one who reads this blog knows I’m a huge fan of Apple. They are the complete package - great products, friendly service, and brilliant marketing.
On the iPhone: “We all had cellphones. We just hated them, they were so awful to use. The software was terrible. The hardware wasn’t very good. We talked to our friends, and they all hated their cellphones too. Everybody seemed to hate their phones. And we saw that these things really could become much more powerful and interesting to license. It’s a huge market. I mean a billion phones get shipped every year, and that’s almost an order of magnitude greater than the number of music players. It’s four times the number of PCs that ship every year.
A lot of public skepticism and resistance has plagued the potential acquisition of luxury brands Jaguar and Landrover by India-based mega brand 
Just returned from 
