WheelMan Press Reviews

Making Marketing Accessible to the Masses

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott - $16.47

The New Rules of Marketing and PR is an in-depth exploration of the principles and philosophies behind marketing. It begins by examining the "rules" of the past, and exploring the mindset that went into the ways in which marketing was handled and why, and contrasts them with the new "rules". The book then explores the various avenues open to today's marketers: blogs, press releases, podcasts, forums, wikis, viral campaigns, and content-rich websites of your own.

Although I must admit that I found Parts I and II of the book a bit dry to read, they do an excellent job of providing insight into the ideas behind marketing, delves into the differences between the old and new rules, and providing a general understanding of each of the marketing avenues listed above.

But for me Part III, "Action Plan for Harnessing the Power of the New Rules," is where the book comes alive for me. It's there that we transition from the passiveness of discussing philosophy into actually putting the New Rules to work for you. At first we learn how to build a marketing plan, and then we transition into creating the content for our marketing materials, the kind of content that will distinguish you from the rest and earn your potential buyers' respect and loyalty. From there we move on to each of the avenues previously mentioned, giving each a chapter of its own so that we learn how to utilize each of them to great effect, always keeping the customer's needs and wants at the forefront of our thinking.

I don't feel that The New Rules of Marketing and PR alone will teach you all that you need to know to be a successful marketer. One of the book's "flaws", such as it is, is that it has more of a corporate business-minded slant, making some of the ideals it presents not as accessible to those of us who run smaller businesses. Nor will it teach you all you need to know to write effective ad copy or press releases, although you will come away understanding the goals to strive for when writing them. But what the book does very well is introduce you to the world of marketing, and give you an understanding of the "old rules" as a foundation to teach you about the "new rules," and if you are a small business owner like myself with little to no knowledge of the ins and outs of marketing, it will provide you with the mindset necessary to become a better, more savvy marketer.

As a primer to begin your study of marketing, this is an excellent resource.

An Example of Truly Great Horror

Not Quite Hell by E. Robert Orn - $0.49 (from Amazon Shorts)

Great horror, in my book, does more than just give you a superficial fright. Great horror touches upon things that are meaningful to you, things that for some may even be considered "too close for comfort." It doesn't just scare you briefly and quickly fade from thought, or resort to merely inducing a gag reaction through gory, gross-out visuals. Instead, it gets under your skin and in some way lingers long afterward. And in some cases, the most frightening stories are the ones about the most mundane yet real experiences, the ones that revolve around the kind of nightmares that, in our day and time, can be all too real.

"Not Quite Hell" is "not quite" the most terrifying story I've ever read. But it is an excellently written, literary tale about love, loss, and the oft-repeated tale of a life cut tragically short, but with the kind of sad twist worthy of a Shakespearean tale. This is not meant to compare the author, E. Robert Orn, with Shakespeare. Far from it. But Shakespeare had the ability to bring great drama and character to what at their root were simple tales, and I think that's what Orn has managed to pull off here in this Amazon Short about a convenience store owner named Buddy and his golden retriever Caesar.

By the time you've finished reading "Not Quite Hell," you may find that your perception of the world around you is not quite the same. And sometimes, that's not such a bad thing.

The embodiment of simple elegance

Stainless Steel Inspirational Ring by Eve's Addiction - $28.00

I've been wanting a new ring for a while, but it wasn't until the other day that I found the right selection of rings on Amazon that appealed to me. I'm a Little Person, and have small fingers, so finding male rings that fit my size 5 finger isn't always easy. I also wanted something nice, but not flashy. After looking over several choices, this ring perfectly fit the bill.

It came within five days of order (which included the weekend), and was packaged inside a nice Eve's Addiction felt pouch inside a sturdy little box. The ring is bright silver in coloring, and looks very attractive. The words "soul", "dream", "joy", "hope", "love", "peace", "live", "grow", and "faith" are etched on to the outside in black script, and although it's a bit small for my aging eyes to read without bright light overhead, it adds a depth of meaning to the ring for me, and I look forward to wearing it for years to come knowing those inspirational and motivational words are always there.

I would recommend this ring for anyone who is considering purchasing it, especially if you are like me and prefer simple elegance and meaning instead of "flash". For $28, it appears to be worth much more. Would make a great gift for either the man or woman in your life.

An Exciting Adventure for Loyal Stargate Fans!

Stargate - The Ark of Truth (Starring: Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping) - $16.99

As a long time Stargate SG-1 fan who has come and gone throughout the ten-year run of the series, and had been watching quite regularly for the last couple of years, I was sad to hear that the show was finally coming to an end. When you grow so close to characters that you feel they are as much a part of your life as the real people in your life, the thought of losing these characters can really instill an impending sense of loss within you. And in some ways, I was feeling this very thing as the show neared its end.

And then I began hearing about the Stargate movies. While excited to see the films when they came out, I was also apprehensive, because the fatal flaw inherent in the act of anticipation is that such things can rarely live up to one's high expectations. But as it turns out, Stargate - The Ark of Truth far exceeded my expectations.

The film picks up and completes the Ori saga which had dominated the series for its last two seasons, and takes us into the Ori galaxy in search of The Ark of Truth, the only device capable of stripping the Ori of their powers by revealing the "truth" to their devout followers. The movie is classic Stargate, except it feels bigger, more grand in scale and scope. Even though it wasn't shown on a big screen, you get a bit of the cinematic experience when watching SG-1 travel to the Ori galaxy and doing battle on several different fronts, as always walking on the brink of disaster. While each of the characters get their just moments in the spotlight, Cam Mitchell (played excellently as always by Ben Browder) steals the show with some of the best action scenes I've ever seen in a Stargate show. The movie is a fitting ending to the series as a whole, and also puts a nice cap to the Ori saga.

The DVD extras are also nice. My favorites were the behind the scenes special which runs about half an hour, and the footage of the Q &A session filmed at ComicCon. Getting to see Ben Browser, Amanda Tapping, and Christopher Judge as themselves was quite fun. And for those not familiar with the series or the Ori storyline, there is a prelude which will catch you up on the storyline and lead you right into "The Ark of Truth."

So if you are a fan of Stargate, or of good adventurous Science Fiction, give "Stargate - The Ark of Truth," a try!

A Remake That Should Have Been Left Unmade

The Andromeda Strain Miniseries (Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Eric McCormack) - $16.99

Although my memory of them are vague, I have fond memories of both the original Michael Crichton novel and the 1971 film adaptation. So when I learned about the remake of the story, a four-hour miniseries, no less, I was very excited to see what would be done with this new incarnation of the Crichton thriller. Unfortunately the answer is "not much."

Probably the prototype for the classic "plague-sweeping-the-world" thriller, The Andromeda Strain in its original form is an exciting roller coaster ride of a thrillfest that kept you on the edge of your seat. The Andromeda Strain Miniseries, while not the worst film I've ever seen, or close to it, was a big disappointment compared to the expectations I had. Much of the plot and some of the characters were far too contrived, more like extraneous elements thrown in for effect than being integral parts of the tale. Although I enjoy a good government conspiracy story like the next guy or gal, the one woven into this piddling plot left me expecting to see the bad guys don black hats, grow long, thin mustaches, and cackle evilly as they grin into the camera for effect. Eric McCormack's character, the obligatory "whistle-blower, drug addict" that the government goes to the utmost ridiculous efforts to eliminate seemed so unnecessary that I began wanting to kill him myself.

Another flaw of this film is that it's practically got the words "deux ex machina" branded visibly onto every twist and turn, and some of those twists were as confounding as a dog trying to catch his own tail. If anyone sees this movie and thinks it even remotely reflects the writing skills of the original author, Michael Crichton, they will be grossly mistaken. In fact I feel that the author should the makers of this film for defamation of character, libel, character assassination, and any other trumped up charge humanly possible. In fact, the more I write about this movie, the more I realize just how much I dislike it.

In reality, the movie's no worse than a high budget "B" movie, somewhat like those that have become the staple of the Sci Fi Channel. The problem is that this film had much more promise, expectation, and a far higher foundation to build upon than most of those films, and somehow wound up being worse than those films. Those films knowingly don't take themselves seriously, but this film I feel wasn't taken nearly seriously enough. I hope the actors in this movie got paid well, because they certainly won't be getting any big time starring roles based on their work here. They all did their best with what they had, but unfortunately something from nothing is still nothing.

This is a first for me, but if I have to rate this film on a scale from 1 to 5, then I'd give it a 1. And except for those who are fans of completely mindless fun (and I'm not even sure this film qualifies as such), then the movie should be rated a negative 2. And since I rarely watch a film I find so many faults with, I think this film's failure is really sad.