I'll never pay roaming charges again.

I wanted to give a shout out to a new client http://www.brightroam.com

I've had a few run ins with different cellular companies, but I think that by far their worst sin is the roaming fees they charge. Even when they offer a "discounted" package the rates are still ridiculous. Seems like almost every day I hear a new horror story, but the worst was the person who was charged a $300 roaming fee even though she didn't use her iPhone for anything except taking a photo.

The Brightroam.com international SIM card is a great choice. It's very convenient. Use it anywhere. Save money every where. If you are traveling to a specific country the in country cards are a great option: Australia SIM Card, China SIM Card, France SIM Card, German SIM card, Greece SIM Card and Netherlands SIM card.

The first card I hope to use is the Mexico SIM Card. If everything works out, I'll be using it on the coldest day of winter.

If you are going to the Olympics, try the UK SIM Card. Every Canadian should have a USA SIM Card. I mean we all travel across the border regularly and there's no reason why you should have to pay a fortune just to use your phone in Buffalo.

There are no contracts or monthly fees; your phone works upon arrival and there is English language support. You only pay for the calls you make. In many countries, incoming texts are free and Brightroam.com offers attractive data packages that make using your smart phone and tablet affordable.

(If that last paragraph sounds like ad copy, it's because I wrote it.)

How much experience should a community manager have?

Many marketers are strongly tempted to assign social media to a junior person who is willing to work for a low salary, because the ROI on social can be difficult to quantify. (I know some marketers who have pushed this logic to the extreme. Because the CFO won't approve additional salary without increasing the marketers’ revenue objectives, social media is assigned to interns.) There's no shortage of applicants, even for intern positions, because tens of thousands of recent graduates believe they are social media experts simply because they spend all day on Facebook.

I recently spoke with a marketer, however, who was disappointed with the minimal results achieved by this approach. The junior community manager was social, but struggled with the marketing aspect of social media marketing. (Establishing relationships is just the first step. Ultimately, the company must generate revenue.)

So how much experience should a community manager have? Everyone needs to start somewhere - I worked very hard to make sure that the people who gave me my first chance didn't regret it - and social media is rapidly evolving so even experienced marketers will need to learn on the job. Nonetheless, before writing "must live on Facebook" in a job description I believe it makes a lot of sense to think about the qualities that make a community manager successful, including:


Ability to write in a variety of styles. In a startup, the community manager will end up writing press releases, webcopy and blog posts. But even in a larger firm where the roles are more defined, if your community manager can only write conversationally, and is incapable of writing sales copy, there's a pretty good chance he or she won't be able to generate revenue.

Ability to improve Search Engine results. A community manager should be capable of generating high-quality links.

Sales or customer service experience. A community manager should have experience influencing people: getting them to take new actions or at least change their opinion. The ability to deal with unsatisfied customers is particularly valuable.

Capable of conversing with your audience: This is where my colleague had a problem. If you're a consumer focused web company, your community manager is going to be dealing with university students who use their iPhone to complain on Yelp while they're still in a restaurant and senior citizens who are not sure which version of Windows they have. If your target audience is partners at a law firm, your community manager must be capable of having an intelligent conversation with them. In my opinion, the most single most important criteria for hiring a community manager is making sure they are able to converse effectively with every member in all your different target audiences.

Understand the value of thought leadership and innovation. You can leave the writing of thought leadership pieces to your CEO or senior technical people, but your community manager must be an evangelist. (The community manager doesn't need to perform technical miracles, but they need to get nonbelievers excited about your miraculous technology.)

Understand the difference between tactics and strategy. I don't think the community manager needs to develop the social media strategy, but they need to understand that tweeting isn't a strategy. They need to understand what your company is trying to achieve, and the role social media plays in an overall strategy

Understand, and be capable of influencing, all the metrics. They need to understand that number of Twitter followers is a secondary matter and only matters in so far as it influences the primary metrics which the Director of Marketing, CFO and CEO care about.

Capable of measuring ROI. You should be tracking all your leads, by source, all the way through your sales process. The community manager should understand cost of lead acquisition and length of sales cycle by lead source. They should be comfortable comparing their metrics to other types of lead generation. Most of all, they need to be able to suggest ways they can improve the impact social media has on the bottom line.

The fastest way to grow wealth in the history of mankind

Yet another example that the fastest way to grow wealth in the history of mankind is to combine killer technology with a killer brand.

Another Sprouter lesson learned.

Building a great community does not lead automatically to monetization.

Start up lessons learned: Sprouter and prostitution. Why one monetized better than the other.

I was sad to hear that Sprouter is shutting down. I met a lot of great people at SproutUp, but whenever a startup closes there are many lessons to be learned. The first piece of advice for startups is always solve a problem and Sprouter did that. They offered advice to startups. Startups need a lot of advice.

But, because Internet entrepreneurs are desperate for links, and an easy way to get links is by sharing the lessons you learned running your startup with other Web entrepreneurs, there are a ton of people giving away great advice for free. So you might think the lesson to be learned from Sprouter is don't enter a business where the competition is giving away your product for free, but lots of women give away sex and prostitution is a robust business. Why? There is a subset of men who can't get it for free. And another subset who can't get the type of sex they want for free. (I could provide examples, but it’s probably better if you use your imagination.)


Server costs are dropping so low - and the open source movement is so strong - that sooner or later every tech company is probably going to face free competition. Understanding what customers value and don't value is not enough. You need to break your market into segments, identifying all the different types of customers, and how much they are willing to pay for what kind of solution. It’s the only way to figure out if you won’t be able to monetize your venture or if you’re entering a business that will be profitable for thousands of years, no matter how many competitors are willing to give it away for free.

TrainingTracking.net launches

Official launch of the fastest, easiest way to ensure employees are trained to comply with standards like ISO 9001.

TrainingTracking.net fills the gap between desktop apps and enterprise solutions.

Waterloo Ontario Canada – December 1, 2010 – TrainingTracking.net announced the official launch of its web-based training, tracking and compliance solution.

Designed and built by training tracking experts.

TrainingTracking.net is the latest creation from the team that developed TrainTrax: a popular desktop application. Because of the team's familiarity with everything required to effectively manage a training program that complies with standards like ISO 9001, TrainingTracking.net contains the features QA managers, training managers and HR executives need.

Train. Users can create a powerful and sophisticated training hierarchy. Training requirements can be defined by job and employee. Courses can be required, optional or a combination.

Track. Users can track requirements, progress and qualification at multiple levels. TrainingTracking.net tracks all training expenses, so users can manage and optimize their budgets.

Comply. The powerful and intuitive dashboard highlights all critical issues that could jeopardize compliance with ISO 9001, 13485, 1400, 19011 and 22000; AS9100, TS 16949, SQF 2000, OHSAS 18001, QS 9000, QS, QA, GMP, OSHA and HIPAA.
Advanced functionality unavailable in desktop apps.

Software as a Service. TrainingTracking.net is web-based. There's nothing to install, upgrade or maintain. Since it can be accessed from any web browser, it is ideal for managing training programs across multiple locations and in industries where employees are not routinely in front of a computer.
Automate repetitive tasks. Most desktop training tracking applications aren't designed to manage the complexity of sophisticated training programs. They require repetitive data entry to perform routine tasks like updating a training procedure. As a result, users don’t update the database until a compliance audit is imminent, defeating the purpose of having a training tracking app. TrainingTracking.net automates routine tasks, drastically reducing the amount of time and effort required to update a training procedure.

Powerful reporting. Powerful standard reports allow managers to easily track the evolution of their training program over time. Users can also quickly drill down for customizable reports.

Automatic email notification. Another advantage over desktop systems is the integrated email functionality. Employees are automatically sent polite emails reminding them of their scheduled training. If the employee fails to take the training, they automatically receive a more tersely worded email.

Straightforward pricing. Strong value.


TrainingTracking.net fills a gap in the market. It provides powerful features unavailable in spreadsheets and desktop training tracking software. It is priced far below enterprise Learning Management Systems and enterprise compliance applications.
Pricing is simple and straightforward, based on the number of supervisors. An unlimited number of employees, and a single supervisor, costs $US 200 per month.
Free ISO 9000 training compliance report
Companies facing an audit can receive a free report of all noncompliant employees. More information is available at TrainingTracking.net.

Supporting quotation

“The power of technology has exploded while the costs have plummeted," said John Peacock, CEO of TrainingTracking.net, “but few of those benefits have reached the training tracking market. Companies looking to escape the limitations of desktop apps were generally forced to look at expensive enterprise solutions. Since training is fundamental to corporate success, we felt it was important to make powerful training tracking functionality available at an affordable price, starting at $US 200 per month.”

About TrainingTracking.net


TrainingTracking.net is the fastest, easiest way to ensure employees are trained to comply with standards like ISO 9001. TrainingTracking.net is Software as a Service. There’s nothing to install, upgrade or maintain. The application provides tremendous value. It's packed with powerful features unavailable in spreadsheets and cheap desktop training & tracking apps, but priced far below enterprise Learning Management Systems and enterprise compliance apps.

"Join the Conversation” Officially Declared a Cliché.

By the power invested in me by the fact that I have a blog, I officially declare "join the conversation" a cliché. There are literally billions of conversations out there. Give prospects a reason to talk to you. “Talk with your peers about their marketing animation challenges and successes," is compelling. "Join the conversation on our forums," is boring.