Great moments in consumer communication:
Over the past year, I would estimate I've seen at least 100 flyers/brochures/messages from Wachovia urging me to use online BillPay. I finally decide to click on the tab. I get an error message, and instructions to call the 800 number. I call. You can't sign up now, "we're down for maintenance, and upgrading to a new version." Ok, how long till I can sign up?
"March 13th".
That's it.
Stunning.

What is a Plog? According to Amazon,

Your Amazon.com Plog is a personalized web log that appears on your customer home page. Every person's Plog is different (hence the name) and just like a blog, your Plog is sorted in reverse chronological order.

Essentially, it's postings by authors who've written books I've ordered.
It seems like a good idea, as conceptually I'd like to see what my favorite authors have to say. Sadly, at this point, I have one author in my "plog" and it's by an author I've never read, who wrote a book I sent as a gift.
There also doesn't seem to be an easily labeled way to change authors, either by removing those I don't want to see, or listing those I might want to read postings from.
I like the concept; it's got a while to go before the beta label gets taken off.

The Virtual Handshake

I've just started reading The Virtual Handshake. The authors are offering The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online for free download. I'm just skimming it so far, and it's a fantastic intro to online marketing of yourself or your company. If you're a financial planner, landscape architect, or realtor, it'd make for useful reading.

I've also discovered the Carnival of Marketing. A different editor each week picks some noteworthy posts...All the reading so you don't have to! I'd recommend this edition.

Your ads in print at the price you set. Google appears to be trying to extend its Adwords model into print. It will be very interesting to see what the bid prices will be for the magazines they have. Hopefully, advertisers who signup will have a trackable URL to see what kind of results they get.

Also, Seth Godin's new E-book, "Flipping the Funnel" is out, and looks like it's worth a read.

John Battelle's Searchblog: AmazonSense? -- This would have 3, or potentially 4 vendors, in the "get paid for ads on your site" space. Google, Yahoo, potentially Amazon and MSN. The more the better for publishers, although advertisers are going to have to manage even more content networks of distribution, which ought to be good news for the folks who build the tools to manage ad campaigns. And, perhaps, not as good for the small company trying to figure out where to advertise online. I wonder if that will solidify Google's hold due to the confusion factor.