Location : Cleveland, OH
There was a time when I would go to the library and find myself reading the same old authors. Didn't really look around much. Fact of the matter, with so many choices, where do you start? I suppose actually asking a librarian for some recommendations would have been a good idea, but that never really came to mind. And then the blogs started up. Using Ed Brill's blog as a portal to other, mostly Domino bloggers, I find Tom Duff. Tom, while a Domino blogger, writes a lot of book reviews. Using those as a starting point, I discovered Harlan Coben, Lisa Gardner, and Lee Child. I read "The Devil in the White City" and Tom recommended "Empires of Light." I bought that book and some tech books, all based on his reviews. My reading world has opened up and I am enjoying reading again.
Then there is music. There was a time that I worked with a lot of twenty-somethings. They always turned me on to some really good bands. Not working with them any longer, I really had no idea where to find new music, and one friend mentioned a web site where you enter in some of you favorite bands/songs, and it suggested some bands that may be of interest. That was nice, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. Before BestBuy and Wal-Mart came to town, there was an excellent CD store close to me. I was in there so much, that they knew what to suggest to me. That was very cool. My own personal music referral service. Fast forward, and I am cruising around Vowe's Flying Circus, there is a link to Pandora. I tried that out, and was totally blown away. You pick one artist that interests you and streaming off of the internet are other bands that Pandora thinks that you may like. Incredible! Bought quite a few CD's after that. And my iPod is hungrily eating them up.
There are probably 10,000 similar stories out there. You find the blogs that interest you. You create a rapport with some of the authors, get to know them through their sites, and when they suggest something/review something, that is some powerful marketing. Look, I buy books and music based on recommendations from these people. I visit sites that they say are cool/interesting. My productivity suffers from their suggestions (I got hooked on a game linked from Bill's site). I listen to what they say and ask for advice. Case in point, my son has an iMac and wasn't happy that all of his friends have PC's and play these wonderful PC games. I asked a blogger his thoughts and got an answer back that I hadn't considered (it turned out to be on the money). My son is still on the Mac, thanks, in part, to the advice I received from halfway around the world.
This is all really quite amazing.
Update: I forgot to mention that some of the bloggers that I follow posted year end "best of" entries. Those were extremely helpful for the music. An example would be Mike's entry.
Comment posted by Duffbert01/05/2006 07:07:16 PM
Homepage: http://www.twduff.com
It *is* rather amazing to know that people you've never met in real life can have such an impact on you.
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