GroundUp Bookmarks

Today our largest marketplaces are for website templates as well as Adobe After Effects templates. When you go to the movies and see cool trailers, you are probably watching something that was made in Adobe After Effects. We also have background music marketplaces which is often used in advertising. The marketplaces are very much an exchange. We branched out from Flash into several design marketplaces.

chicken-and-egg

Our approach was to do a grassroots marketing campaign. We started with content we created ourselves, and we commissioned a little bit of content ourselves. Based on that content, we went over to other sites and started chatting with people to get them to check us out.

webinars can be a profitable platform

Those who are on the fence about producing webinars, ask yourself this, "Would my business benefit by educating prospects on the benefits and necessity of my product or service?" If the answer is yes, hosting webinars is a must. 

engage an audience and convert someone's interest into action

For me the biggest challenge is that you are just getting your first visitors. I would go out and comment on other blogs and comment in forums to try and get people to visit my blog. When it came time to launch a new blog, we would harness traffic from the first blog to promote the second.

Digg during its second week of existence. That was a potent source of traffic back in the day. We have concentrated a lot of social media ever since. To do well in social media you have to build up a genuine profile. You have to get on sites and interact on sites as a real contributing user. You need to establish a network and feed in content. We did a lot of that.

We joined Twitter fairly early on. We built up profiles for the company as well as ourselves. I tried to think of Twitter using a 90/10 rule, meaning 10% might be something involving Envato and 90% of the time I wanted to be engaging followers with engaging content based on the topic itself.

It took us six months to build the site. The first night we sold $10. I was disappointed at the time, but looking back I am impressed that we sold something our first day.

We had a lot more people who had joined the site as members but did not transact. There is a group of active users and passive users, and it is interesting to look at that ratio

In 2007 we did a lot to grow our customer base. Some of it was organic growth. The thing about a marketplace model is that buyers stimulate the seller economy, which stimulates authors which in turn stimulates buyers. We also engaged in grassroots marketing, and we tried social media. We started talking about running competitions.

says he has never been to an official networking event. Instead, he advises, join organizations that focus on the events and activities you love.

Under Title III, companies wishing to sell stock to the public will have to provide information to investors and the S.E.C., including financial disclosures that grow more extensive as the size of the offerings increases. They will be allowed to sell stock only through an intermediary: either a broker-dealer or a specialized crowdfunding Web site, or portal. The intermediaries will have to take steps to ensure that small investors are protected, even from themselves. The law limits how much a person can invest in crowdfunding in a year, depending on income and net worth.

protection measures could, if fully adopted, make crowdfunding prohibitively expensive.

According to the company, 55 percent of its users are female, with 85 percent under the age of 35, 55 percent under 25. Illustrating the healthy engagement levels, 30 percent of members return daily, 100 percent of members to date have added photos, and 25 percent filled profile out their profile completely.

“I’m continually impressed at how well they understand human nature and their ability to take existing behaviors and move them online.”

Meeting new people can be intimidating. Sites that offer a bit of intelligent matchmaking have the potential to simplify this process

While Facebook helps users connect with people they already know, At the Pool wants people to connect with strangers who have shared interests.

The new approach showcases bold photos, so if you want to buy a sponsored story for your own business, make sure you have an eye-catching image to go with it

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Michigan Impact. The University of Michigan is having tremendous impact throughout our communities. From the downtowns of Detroit and Grand Rapids and the shorelines of Traverse City and Muskegon, to the community colleges of the Upper Peninsula and the medical clinics in mid-Michigan, U-M is committed to improving the quality of life in the Great Lakes State.

A new $9 million U-M Great Lakes research and education center will guide efforts to protect and restore the world's largest group of freshwater lakes by reducing toxic contamination, combating invasive species, protecting wildlife habitat and promoting coastal health.

Nearly $1.7 billion in support for the U-M comes from donors and gifts from every county across Michigan. Support also comes from alums, and that happened in a significant way this year in the arts at U-M.

Similarly, Intel has achieved global market leadership in the growing global technology education market through its rigorous approach to measuring shared value. Key to Intel’s success, says Barbara McAllister, is understanding “what works” for students and teachers and to incorporate that knowledge into product design and deployment. Ongoing tracking of product performance in the classroom, as well as post-sales measurement of educational outcomes, provides insights to improve the product design and delivery, which ultimately improves the effectiveness of Intel’s education technology solutions and leads to additional sales and greater market share.