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When Content Partnerships smell funny

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Funny job descriptions turn up these day – have you ever heard of a “blog relations consultant”? I sure did today, and I can't say it was an enjoyable encounter. Just know this: unloading your backlink-ridden postings upon a popular blog is not called a “content partnership”. I would call it backlink scraping, but that sounds a lot more unfriendly, doesn't it?

Could it be there are altruist blog angels, interested in leveraging your popularity rank for utterly unselfish reasons? Unlikely, even though the first paragraph might sound tempting to some:

We're currently reaching out to bloggers like you to form a content partnership, or a guest blogging partnership, where our Professional writes can contribute guest blog posts on your blog once or twice a month.

Hang on, it's getting a lot funnier:

Our Writers would not be writing marketing material, but would like to provide Unique content for your blog. Please fill out this form if you are interested so that we can set up an editorial calendar.

Two note-worthy facts:

a) I had no idea that the difference between marketing and “great” content lies solely in the “uniqueness” of the latter.
b) This difference between the two mentioned content categories sounds even weirder considering that the person who sent me this e-mail works for a company which is “marketing” in its name.

So, sadly, I'm not going to start a “content partnership” with you. But I have a free consulting advice for you: set up your homepage before you start pestering innocent bloggers. Somebody might actually take a look at your URL, and read the following sentence:

We will use a unique combination that will allow you to fully utilize the Internet.

And then he might click around the bit and start to wonder, if a completely empty homepage is indeed “he latest trends of marketing that will literally put our customers first”…

Facebook kicks st00pid numbers, allows unique names

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But if you actually want to secure your unique name, you gotta be quick, because:

Starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, you'll be able to choose a username on a first-come, first-serve basis for your profile and the Facebook Pages that you administer by visiting www.facebook.com/username/. You'll also see a notice on your home page with instructions for obtaining your username at that time.

That's what the official blog says – and what's even more important: once you chose your unique username, it's here to stay – no change of mind later on. And it's first come, first serve – so be quick! Read more

Fluid Forms: New Design Interface

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When Walter Benjamin wrote his famous essay on technical reproduction of art pieces, he couldn't have anticipated a trend that is currently redefining the relationship between designer and consumer. Unique products, designed specifically to the users wishes, are going to replace ready-made products of everyday life. Sounds too theoretical? Just think of T-shirts: online-retailers like Spreadshirt made single unique prints available at a reasonable price and they became extremely popular in no time. Fluid Forms is taking the whole concept of unique design to a new level – this week, the company launched their new design interface.

There's an intro video on my German blog, but unfortunately it's only available in German yet. But luckily, the makers of fluid forms run an in-depth blog on unique and generative designs which is a must-read for everyone who wants to be up to date on the current transition from fixed to fluid design forms. I really like the usability of the new interface – check it out at fluidforms.com: to try the editor, just chose a product and then select “start”.

Fluid Forms on Makerbot