April 22, 2006
primal longing
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Hugh MacLeod
Hi, I'm Hugh.
My life is committed to drawing little illustrations that spread messages, inspire people, help businesses kick butt & support causes.
Gapingvoid is based upon the science of how these cartoons work.
If we can help you or your business, please email us here.
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Archive for April, 2006
April 21, 2006
you never loved me
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if jesus had your job
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everyone’s got
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square and circles
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christ vs christ
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i have measured my life out
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[Hat tip to The Master.]
corrosive braincandy
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virtual online community
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hughtrain stormhoek
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A little Hughtrain-inspired piece of Stormhoek marketing collateral. What do you think?
if in doubt outlaw
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i don’t have a blog
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April 19, 2006
LE1600 lust
For the last two months, I’ve been drawing my cartoons on the M1400 PC Tablet [the cartoon above was the first Tablet cartoon I published], which Motion Computing no longer makes.
It has been replaced by their new LE1600 model, which I now find myself lusting after [naturally].
The spec diffferences between the two models are posted here in PDF. Enjoy.
[PS. Thanks to Ron Hayes at Motion sales for sending me their specs.]
[NOTE TO SELF: I wonder if Motion would ever hire me to blog for them professionally, the way Scoble does for Microsoft. I bet I could do a pretty good job.]
somebody hire tom raftery, dammit
Got an e-mail from Tom Raftery today:
Hey Hugh,
I read with interest the report in the Boston Globe how blogging can improve your chances of getting a job so I decided to try an experiment this morning — I am looking for a job through my blog — http://www.tomrafteryit.net/gis-a-job-seriously/
It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out — can I market myself as my own global micro-brand?
I’m not holding my breath!
Rock on, Tom. As somebody who started blogging during an unemployed period of his life, I can certainly relate.
And sometimes it works. The Economist liked Megan McArdle’s blog so much they offered her a job. I love it when that kind of stuff happens.
how to market to geeks.
How to Market to Geeks.
1. Start at the bottom of the corporate food chain. The further down, the better.
2. Forget about the “decision makers”. Connect with the “thinkers”- that’s the way forward in this new age of ours.
3. If in doubt, go read this. from an IBM employee.
[Full Disclosure: I own equity in Thingamy.]
black and grey 419
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[Bonus Link:] From The Guardian:
Ignore bloggers at your peril, say researchers
abusive editors and meagre paychecks
Oh Jeez, here we go.
“Can Blogs Make Money?” in The Wall Street Journal.
Blogs have a lot of buzz, but there’s still considerable debate about whether that can translate into profits.
While many blogs remain little more than amateur diaries, several bloggers have tried to parlay their online ramblings into branded businesses. One, Jason Calacanis, co-founded Weblogs Inc., a network of blogging sites that was acquired last year by AOL. Mr. Calacanis has been an outspoken proponent of blogs as business vehicles, arguing that quality content can drive enough traffic to attract advertisers.
But longtime Internet entrepreneur Alan Meckler is skeptical. Mr. Meckler, who is chief executive of Jupitermedia Inc., believes that some blogs may achieve a measure of success, but doubts most blogs will be able to generate meaningful profits.
Sure, it’s lovely to see Jason making all that money from Weblogs Inc [Full disclosure: I’m a big Jason Calacanis fanboy], but Mssrs. Calacanis and Meckler’s debate just revolves around the argument that the only way to make money via blogs is through advertising, and only for a lucky few.
The other major way to make money with the blogging platform is to use it to market your Global Microbrand, like Thomas did with English Cut. That to me is far more useful to far more people, yet it gets no mention in the Journal article.
As I’m fond of saying, blogs are good for making things happen indirectly etc.
But journalists seem to have a problem getting their head around it. “Indirectly” is too foreign to them. They’re too used to living in the “directly” universe:
Wake up. Commute to office. Write stuff. Take abuse from Editor. Collect meagre paycheck. Go home. Complain to long-suffering spouse about abusive Editor and meagre paycheck. Go to bed, sleep, wake up and repeat etc.
That’s not what blogging is about, Guys. Blogging, at its best, is about freeing yourself from that crap.
[Bonus link:] The neuroscience behind Robert Scoble’s new blogging policy.
April 18, 2006
two questions
Two hypothetical questions:
1. “How do I use blogs to change the world?“
2. “How do I use blogs to preserve the status quo?”
I speak at a lot of blogging conferences and whatnot. Seems to me, as these gigs get more mainstream and corporate, I’m asked Question Two A LOT MORE than Question One.
Plus
smarter and faster [high-res]
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Just did a high-res version of one of my old “Hughtrain” cartoons. Enjoy.
April 17, 2006
well-meaning corporate schmuck
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become my flesh
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starving is good
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two ways of expressing myself
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the inner fire
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2.13 billion blogs?
From David “Technorati” Sifry’s quarterly “State of The Blogosphere”:
* Technorati now tracks over 35.3 Million blogs
* The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months
* It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
That means if the ‘sphere keeps growing at its current rate for another 3 years:
2,130,000,000 blogs i.e. 31.5% of the global population.
If the curve starts to significantly dip anytime soon, it won’t because blogging jumped the shark. It’ll be because the planet has run out of smart, passionate people with cheap internet access.
Crazy future projections notwithstanding, methinks the next three years are going to be VERY important for the history of communication.
I hope the big media companies are paying attention. What sayest Rubel?
“the gillmor gang with hugh macleod”
From Crunchnotes [Michael Arrington]:
This just released Gillmor Gang was the most fun I ever had on a podcast. Hugh MacLeod joined us and we went on and on (85 minutes total). Lots of talk about his famous cartoons.
Michael was right; it was a lot of fun. Hope you’ll give it a listen.
Thanks to Steve Gillmor for having me on.
tiger tiger etc.
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[William Blake: “Tiger, Tiger”. My favorite poem of all time etc.]
[Bonus Link:] And while we’re on the subject of great English poets…
April 16, 2006
happy easter
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I was meant to be going to church this morning, what, with our Lord & Savior [not to be confused with Lord & Taylor] rising from the dead etc. However early this morning I got buried in this idea I’m working on, and lost all track of time.
So I’m there typing away, and suddenly I hear the church bell clanging in the nearby village… I’m still in my pyjamas and haven’t even showered yet. Bugger. Missed it.
Oh well,… Maybe if I make it to the Christmas service next year, God won’t send me to Hell. Then again, I hear he doesn’t cut deals.
Life is an amazing thing. We’re very lucky to be here. And happily Easter, like Passover, has always been very good at reminding us of that.
Happy Easter, Everybody.
gloomy hamish
Well, I enjoyed the planet while it lasted, and it puts it in perspective that I‘m kinda wistful for the good old days when the opposition was the Russians, who at least knew how to play chess.
I watched Dr Strangelove again the other night, it‘s looking more and more like a documentary.
aldo coffee
Aldo Coffee in Pennsylvania is a fine example of a global microbrand:
Aldo Coffee Co. is a new, Italian-style coffee bar and cafe located just south of Pittsburgh in the beautiful, vibrant community of Mount Lebanon, PA.
Aldo Coffee Co. serves up the South Hills’ richest espresso and fine coffees and teas, all from the award-winning Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters. We feature espresso made with Intelligentsia’s renowned Black Cat Blend ™.
I’d be interested in finding out if and how their blog is helping their business. Seriously.
Secondly, if any of y’all know of any good GMB’s, your own or somebody else’s, please feel free to share by leaving a comment below. Or even better, add it to the GMB list I just set up on the wiki. Rock on.
April 15, 2006
if in doubt 2
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[Inspired by Techdirt’s recent post.]
stormhoek cartoons
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I’ve been asked to mess around with some cartoon ideas for Stormhoek’s marketing collateral etc. See what happens etc.
oh susanna
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When Susanna left her comment, I quipped, “Wow, that should be a cartoon in itself.” So naturally, I couldn’t resist. Apologies to Susanna in advance 
social pressure
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A great 2,000-word article in American Way [American Arlines in-flight mag] on one of my current heroes, Seth Godin, written by Joe Jarvis:
This quick rapport helps keep Godin booked for speaking engagements up to 65 days a year, when he
yummy
A big Marketing Begins At Home thank you to Jeremy Pepper for the Red Vines. Taking a page from a certain well-known experiment in wine marketing, Jeremy
hold an unconference
[Thanks to Dave and Marc once again for inspiring a cartoon etc.]
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April 14, 2006
paranoia management
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this country wouldn’t suck so much
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free movie tickets
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One of the things I’m going to recommend to the Hallam Foe execs is that they hand out free movie tickets to bloggers.
As with my Stormhoek meme from last year, I would utterly insist that bloggers would be under no obligation to write anything, good or bad, if they didn’t want to.
Last September the movie “Serenity” gave out free tickets to bloggers, but only on condition that they write about it. I think that was a big, big mistake.
Here’s my question: Assuming [A] the movie turns out great and [B] is worth talking about, how many bloggers do you think would need to see the movie for it to make a sizable difference to the idea-virus/buzz/marketing efforts?
100? 1,000? 5,000?
I think the more bloggers see it, the better. But of course, I would say that.
[UPDATE:] Just posted my thoughts onto the Hallam Foe blog. That ought to start a few conversations etc.
hallam foe in the scotsman
[My old pal, Peter Jinks.]
From The Scotsman:
The movie, Hallam Foe, is based on a novel of the same name set in Edinburgh and written by former Scotsman journalist Peter Jinks.
Mr Jinks wrote the bulk of the book while living in Stockbridge more than five years ago.
The screen adaptation is being directed by his former flatmate and acclaimed director David Mackenzie — who previously worked in the city with Ewan McGregor on Young Adam.
The dark story follows the life of teenager Hallam, who is just coming to terms with the sudden death of his mother when he begins to suspect that his beautiful step-mother may have had a hand in her death.
I remember fondly hanging out in Dave and Peter’s flat in the early 1990’s… [*Nostalgic Sigh*].
I had this thought earlier: Most film marketing is farmed out to third parties– ad agencies etc. It’s a pity. I have the feeling that if film people found marketing their films as interesting as they find making them, they’d sell a lot more cinema tickets.
April 13, 2006
money doesn’t matter
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predator of human energy
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famous artist
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