I used to spend hours (heh, if not days) preparing story pitches for newspaper and magazine editors, so I know it's something not to be taken lightly. Josh Catone offers some tips and ideas for making a successful post pitch to a blogger. A recent survey conducted by a PR firm of Asia-Pacific bloggers (PDF) found that 84% of bloggers welcome contact from PR firms or companies. But ... Read full entry

One Post Wonder is a graveyard for blogs especially reserved for those with just one post. I wonder what became of the author of Billionaire who seemed to be especially ambitious: This site is reserved for individuals who are actively pursuing substantial wealth as their primary life focus. Needless to say, this site is brand new and will be evolving over the next few weeks. Watch for our ... Read full entry

That's not quite one of a series of business tips and observations from communications designer Eric Karjaluoto, but a similar idea applies when he says: Talk to your clients like they are your spouse: when I start to think of others as "them", something is lost. When I can find a way to cut through the formalities, however, something real happens. And for those, I mean, you, who ... Read full entry

What makes some ideas stick, or work, (such as YouTube, Facebook, or even urban legends) while other, sometimes quite similar variations, fail to see the light of day? To succeed ideas need a couple of standard ingredients, including the element of surprise, concrete imagery, and must somehow be emotive, writes Kristen Le Mesurier. A few years ago, two brothers - one a university professor at Stanford and one a corporate education ... Read full entry

Australia's best entrepreneurs aged 30 and under A list of 30 Australian entrepreneurs aged 30 and under, both established and up-and-coming, compiled by Brad Howarth. I'll admit it - trying to narrow down a list of 30 of Australia's best entrepreneurs aged 30 and under is no easy task. So for this exercise for SmartCompany I defined the task as finding 30 entrepreneurs aged 30 and under worth watching. ... Read full entry

Where Do You Draw Inspiration From? About 70 creatives, as of the time of writing this, had answered the Smashing Magazine question. Inspiration means captivate an idea and develop it further. Imitation means identify an idea and use it. As a professional when getting creative, you need to make sure that you pick the right path to follow.

50 Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time While the list only comprises American entrepreneurs, it still makes for an interesting read. And is there anything Benjamin Franklin didn't do? He was a printer and self-taught writer whose witty conversational writing style made his Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanack the most successful publications in the country. His printing operations were so successful that he franchised printing in other cities when the ... Read full entry

10 Dumb Ideas that Made A Lot of Money Maybe not so dumb after all. The Pet Rock was a classic. You couldn't find these things in your own backyard, or at a nearby park, could you? This was a simple, million dollar idea. Pick up a rock, throw it in a box with some hay and sell for $4.99. Who knew millions of people would prefer to buy a rock ... Read full entry

Humans Are Just Machines for Propagating Memes In an interview with Wired, British scholar Susan Blackmore talks memes, ideas, human evolution, and also offers a possible explanation for the enduring "success" of the Paris Hilton meme: Presumably because it presses enough human buttons - you know, sex, greed, celebrity. Some memes will succeed because they make you talk about them even though you think they're bad. For example, a ... Read full entry

"Intellectual property" is a silly euphemism Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow argues that ideas, knowledge, and information, should not be referred to as "property", as they are intangible and cannot effectively be owned by anyone once they have been shared with someone else. If you trespass on my flat, I can throw you out (exclude you from my home). If you steal my car, I can take it back (exclude ... Read full entry