Retail Email Reports

This blog has instantly become one of my favorites, and is very useful to anyone interested in email newsletter marketing. The site studies email campaigns from 100 or so of the largest online retailers, and comes up with ideas, trends and reports on what they are doing to win customers. This site is especially important during the all-important Christmas season, and is a great place to start if looking for campaign ideas. They also have done some fantastic studies on things like Send to a Friend Forms, Welcome Emails and Email Subscriptions. Great resource guys!

Ever wonder how they named eBay?

Naming a company or product has to be one of the hardest things I have ever done; especially these days, when it is of the utmost importance to secure the right domain name. I happened to stumble on a blog today called day2dayactivities that researched a bunch of companies, and how they were named. Some of them have some really neat stories, it is worth checking out. Here is one such story about how eBay was named . . . Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. "EchoBay" didn't refer to the town in Nevada, the nature area close to Lake Mead, or any real place. "It just sounded cool," Omidyar reportedly said. When he tried to register EchoBay.com, though, he found that Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, had gotten it first. So, Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com. Read more of them here . . .

The Beauty of Photoshop

Brian Dilg is one of the best in the business at photoshop work, and his website proves it. Take a look at his imaging page and hover over each picture to see the original. I am not sure how I feel about making people look this artificially good, but it is amazing work regardless.

Steve Jobs' First Keynote

Being a big fan of Steve Jobs, this video taken in 1984 was a real treat to find online. From the beginning, he has been such an innovator, and this was inspiring to see considering where Apple is as a company today.