10 Years Ago...

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... I wrote this, which Brad Berens and Josh Messinger helped me track down. Back then, I had my own site called OLAF - The On Line Advertising Forum, and I wrote a semi-regular column there called "The Rant."  I say "semi-regular" because the individual columns had to be hard-coded and it was a big pain to write something and then get it live without the aid of a CMS.  By the time I got a CMS going, I was already writing for other folks.

Back then, I was getting my jollies and keeping my writing chops up by writing "The Rant" and posting long diatribes to mail lists like the O-A Discussion List, I-Advertising and the WWWAC Ad SIG.  Then this guy named Charlie Sayers calls me up and asks me to write for this site called Who's Marketing Online?  I was happy to oblige.

Almost immediately, WMO was scooped up by Andy Bourland and ClickZ.  So I wrote the media buying column for those guys for several years.  After Alan Meckler bought ClickZ, I worked with Nick Friese and Ken Fadner at Mediapost to conceptualize and kick off the Online Spin.  I wrote there for years until I decided to move on and work with the folks at iMediaConnection.

So it's been 10 years since that first column appeared on WMO.com, and it's been a wild ride.  Quite a few people have invested time and effort in me and my column over the years, and I'd like to acknowledge them here.  (Please forgive me if I accidentally leave someone out...)

  • Doug Jaeger spent many late nights with me at the offices at K2, designing pages for OLAF, so that I could keep the information resources and The Rant going.
  • Rich Birnbaum did a lot of the same, but on the CMS side.  Rich essentially wrote an entire content management system for OLAF from scratch, using PHP.
  • Andy Bourland invested in me early on, keeping me aboard at ClickZ when it acquired WMO.
  • Ann Handley was really my first editor, keeping me on track at ClickZ and taking care of my development as a writer early on.
  • Claudia Bruemmer was also a great editor at ClickZ and helped me out immensely with my columns.  She's also a fantastic writer herself and has written things that have literally moved me to tears.
  • Nick Friese has been a friend, occasional bandmate and Mediapost co-conspirator.  We came up with a lot of ideas together for content and community features at Mediapost.
  • Ken Fadner always listened to our ideas and gave them a fair hearing.
  • Masha Geller has been a great friend and the only person to work with me in two places (Mediapost and iMedia).
  • Brad Berens is a fantastic editor who really took a lot of time to tease more interesting pieces out of me.
  • Gretchen Hyman is my current editor at iMedia, helping me develop as the "utility infielder" for iMedia.

I feel really lucky that there are enough people in this industry who like my writing enough to subscribe to my various newsletters and feeds , and occasionally pass one of my pieces around to their buddies in the office.  It really helps me and my main business, which is all about strategy and execution behind the things I discuss every week in my columns.  Clients really dig seeing me, my partners and my staff published regularly.  It's very cool and I thank you all.

Thanks, MTA

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The Long Island Rail Road hikes fares this month, bringing the cost of my monthly ticket + Metrocard to an unprecedented $345.10, and then turns around and delays promised service improvements mere weeks later.  In fact, this announcement came just a few weeks after the head of the MTA was touting these improvements.  It's just wonderful to deflect criticisms about how your quasi-governmental public corporation handles money with promises of improvements, only to turn around less than a month later and fail to deliver on promises made. Among those promises?  Extra trains, one of which may have gotten rid of the many folks on my evening train who get off at Hicksville and take up much-needed seats for those of us in for the long haul (heading to Ronkonkoma).

Want to turn up some money, MTA?  In addition to the wonderful fare hike you just got, you could try cutting the advertising budget.  (And this would be the first time I've ever recommended cutting an ad budget to save money...)

The LIRR spends money on designing and printing all sorts of material, from posters to leaflets, reminding people to be courteous.  That is, as an LIRR rider, you're clubbed over the head several hundred times a month with cheeseball messages like "Don't be Cell-fish" and "One Seat, No Feet."

Known collectively as the "Courtesy Matters" campaign, these mini ad campaigns do nothing but annoy the hell out of riders.  On Wednesday's train, I still see just about everyone putting their bags and feet on seats I would like to sit in.  I stood until Hicksville.  I still heard people talking obnoxiously loud on cell phones or using ring tones that would cause most people to strangle the closest living organism.  But I recognize that it's none of my business and that these problems tend to solve themselves.  (Like when I looked at a guy spread across three seats on a crowded evening train when I was looking for a seat.  I shot him a look and asked him if he was comfy before he stopped hogging the row and let me sit down.)

You know what?  I don't think it's the MTA's job to tell its passengers to be courteous.  We step all over one another when we're walking the sidewalks in NYC.  We run over one another in Penn Station trying to get to trains in order to get a seat.  Why the hell does the MTA care how we treat one another on the train?

Take that design and printing budget away.  Roll it back into service improvements.  Maybe passengers would be more courteous if they weren't so miserable from having to stand on trains they should be able to find seats on.  Maybe they'd be happier if the cost of their rail commute didn't approach the cost of driving to the city every day.

Great Writing Sk1llz

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Some might not like the subject matter, but I love this story: Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World

I love it on so many levels:

  • The subject matter
  • The ability of the writer to take subject matter that might seem dumb or inconsequential and explain the interesting angles
  • The humor value
  • The style and writing skill
  • The quality research and attention to detail