You May Not Always Be in Control of Your Tongue

When you go to sleep at night, do you really know what your tongue does? Does it really stay in your mouth? Or does it get lonely and want to come out and play? Does it get thirsty? Or does it know you are thirsty? Does any of this make any sense? Of course it doesn't. Just watch the clip and you'll understand.

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Spike TV...Uh...I Mean TNN's New 'Strip' Wins With Viewers

The two hour time block on TNN, referred to as The Strip, delivered 1.4 million viewers during its June 26 premiere. That's up (over last year) 83% for Men 18-49 and 200% for Men 18-34. I guess seeing a cartooned Pam Anderson in a bikini and listening to Spike Lee bitch about his name got a lot of attention.

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Marketing, Weblogging, and the Truth

In this Star Tribune article, Dave Weinberger, long time Internet guru, speaks to the benefits of business blogging

"If companies allow their employees to blog, [they] have the opportunity of engaging their customer in the sort of genuine conversations that build real customer loyalty,' Weinberger said. 'There is a risk that a weblogger will criticize a product, but in the post-marketing world of the Internet, being frank even when negative can build a stronger relationship than when they are mindlessly positive."

It's very simple. Real sounds real. Fake sounds fake. People know the difference so why try to fool people in the first place with advertising and PR blather when you could hold a conversation directly with your customers?
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Up2Speed Officially Launches

Well, even though everybody already knows, today is the official launch of Up2Speed, a business I co-founded with four other partners as MarketingFix and sold to Andy Bourland, co-founder of Clickz. Here's our overview and mission:

The mission of Up2Speed LLC is to help marketers and media professionals save time and do their jobs more effectively by keeping informed of important industry news and best practices.

Up2Speed is a hybrid media and consulting company. On our web site, we offer free and paid content services. These do and/or soon will include daily news aggregation about Internet marketing and media from sources around the web and beyond, a daily newsletter, a thriving discussion community, comprehensive coverage of case studies, a directory of e-marketing service providers, a thorough index of industry research reports, original research and how-to guides, as well as other pending content initiatives.

Our consulting services include Internet marketing plan review, web site review, search engine optimization review, vendor evaluation and request-for-proposal support, custom research, business weblog strategy and development support, online ad creative review and more.

Up2Speed.com launched in July of 2003 after acquiring the assets in June 2003 of Adventive, a popular series of email discussion lists focused on Internet marketing founded in 1995 by John Audette, and MarketingFix, a site dedicated to e-marketing news analyis founded in late 2002 by Rick E. Bruner, John Engler, Steve Hall, Robert Loch and Olivier Travers.

I'm extremely excited about this new venture and "thin-media" business model. I have the greatest respect and admiration for my partners and look forward to a long, exciting, and prosperous endevour. Visit us soon and often!

Read out much better than average press release here.
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