Nathaniel Ward » Marketing

Wednesday links: Rule of law and the zoning code

Nathaniel Ward — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 23:42:41 +0000

Photo: Flickr/lynx81

The District of Columbia government has sometimes been commendably lenient in enforcing its arbitrary zoning restrictions. Except sometimes it decides to enforce the regulations for political reasons.
Mailer Mailer debunks seven common myths about e-mail marketing. They point out, for instance, that sending lots of messages doesn’t necessarily lead to more unsubscribes.
Reach Mail, meanwhile, offers advice on the best time of day to send marketing e-mails.
Phew: demand continues strong for workers with MBAs. (Not so much for JDs, though.)
Last but not least, Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than physical books.

Friday links: Mysterious symbols explained

Nathaniel Ward — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:41:04 +0000

Photo: Flickr/Emily Lewis

Keith Houston’s Shady Characters offers the secret history of glyphs like the octothorpe (#), the interrobang (‽) and the pilcrow (¶).
The Washington Wizards have new uniforms. It’s about time.
Megan McArdle suggests Groupon isn’t really a good deal for businesses, which may explain why deal quality seems to have declined of late.
How Rand Paul is reshaping the debate in the Senate to promote limited government.
Last but not least, the Pew Center is the latest group to release a superficial online quiz that tries to group people politically based on 20 questions. How does it categorize you?

Friday Links: How Well Are You Marketing?

Nathaniel Ward — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:33:27 +0000

Loren McDonald asks if e-mail marketers are sending too many messages and offers some ways you can tell if you’re over-sending.
Target Analytics has released its 2011 index of non-profit fundrasing performance, based on 83 organizations. Roger Craver wants to know what these organizations’ direct marketers are doing wrong.
You thought America had a real estate bubble? China’s central planners have built whole cities that now lie empty. Via Tim Cavanaugh.
Dan Mitchell passes on a slightly bawdy joke about unions.
Last but not least, Pierre LeBrun argues that Alex Ovechkin’s diminished numbers this year reflect a player newly committed to team victory over personal success. The Capitals, perhaps not coincidentally, have clinched the Southeast division for the fourth straight year.

Online and Offline Fundraising Go Hand-in-Hand

Nathaniel Ward — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:02:26 +0000

Kevin Gentry of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation was kind enough to include my take on the role of online fundraising in his “Fundraising Tip of the Week” e-mail:

Direct mail and new media are complementary and reinforce one another. Even with the best online fundraising campaign, you’d still be leaving money on the table without an offline component, just as with the best direct mail campaign you’d be forgoing funds without an online effort.

What I’m Reading — January 6th

Nathaniel Ward — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:25:01 +0000

Rock Solid HTML Emails How to build e-mails that work in every e-mail client.
How Apple Leaks Information “Often Apple has a need to let information out, unofficially. The company has been doing that for years, and it helps preserve Apple’s consistent, official reputation for never talking about unreleased products.”
Todd Zywicki on Proposed New Credit Card Limits. “What would happen if the Merchants Payments Coalition gets its way and politicians squeeze interchange fees? Credit cards are essentially a closed economic system: A reduction in interchange fees will have to be offset by increased revenues elsewhere or a reduction in costs. For example, issuers could try to increase the revenue generated from consumers through higher interest payments, higher penalty fees, or reinstating annual fees.”

What I’m Reading — December 11th

Nathaniel Ward — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:10:59 +0000

The History of the London Underground’s Typeface.
10 Ways to be a Copywriting Jedi. Star Wars-themed advice for copywriters.
Sarah Palin Has a Sense of Humor.

What I’m Reading — October 5th

Nathaniel Ward — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Fixing ‘Too Big to Fail.’ “During the crisis it was often said that officials at the Federal Reserve and Treasury would do ‘whatever it takes’ to avoid a Great Depression. Now they must do whatever it takes to address one of the key causes of the financial crisis: the existence of financial institutions that consider themselves too big to fail – but which are run in such a way that they are bound to do so.”
Why the Left Won’t Really Tackle Inequality.
Crowds Are Really Individuals. “What really happens in crowdsourcing as it is practiced in wide variety of contexts, from Wikipedia to open source to scientific research, is that a problem is broadcast to a large number of people with varying forms of expertise. Then individuals motivated by obsession, competition, money or all three apply their individual talent to creating a solution.”
John Thune: Time for a TARP Exit Strategy. “It is time to bring an end to the TARP emergency measures and come up with an exit strategy to get government out of the business of running businesses. The administration owes the American people a timeline for how it will do this.”
Nile Gariner on the Great Irish Surrender. “The Irish ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon will pave the way for the biggest erosion of national sovereignty in Europe since the Second World War.”

What I’m Reading — July 8th

Nathaniel Ward — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:26:10 +0000

Does More Prevention Mean Lower Cost? Not necessarily, argues Mark Steyn.
How Facebook is Gunning for Google (And Killing SEO)
Echoes of Herbert Croly’s Promise of American Life. “For nearly a century, California offered ordinary people better lives than they could lead perhaps anywhere else in the world. Today, reflecting our intensely stratified, increasingly mobile society, California affords the Good Life only to the most gifted and ambitious, regardless of their background. That’s a deeply undemocratic betrayal of California’s dream—and of the promise of American life.”

What I’m Reading — May 25th

Nathaniel Ward — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:28:08 +0000

Spending Restraint? Never! “The New York Times says tax increases, not fiscal restraint, are the route out of recession. Their reasoning? Government will spend your money better than you will.”
Words of Warning from 1940. Herbert Hoover: “Directly or indirectly they politically controlled credit, prices, production or industry, farmer and laborer. They devalued, pump-primed and deflated. They controlled private business by government competition, by regulation and by taxes. They met every failure with demands for more and more power and control.”
E.J. Dionne on Obama’s Goals. Can President Obama create a new “centrist” alliance? And can a program really be called centrist if its principal aims are to make everyone more dependent on government?
Useful tips for writing subject lines.