I don’t ever use this blog to share my political views, but I think this subject is important to every blogger no matter what he or she chooses to write about.  The below youtube video does a great job visualizing the damage that the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)—though, the video doesn’t directly mention SOPA—can truly have on our web ecosystem.

PIPA and SOPA are bills which have been introduced in the Senate and the House to give the U.S. government and corporations the ability to censor the net. This is all done in the name of protecting “creativity” and “copyrights.” The law would allow entire sites to be censored by corporate and government entities. All this is achieved by simply convincing a judge that a website is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”

“I don’t want you with me! I don’t need you! I don’t need anybody! With my strength — my power — the world is mine!” ~The Incredible Hulk

As a kid I loved all the super hero comics, and now, thanks to Hollywood, I can relive them through the movies. Yet, it is even more fun when cartoonist Caldwell Tanner from the College Humor fame turns Internet companies into these same heroes and villains.

Below you will see heroes like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and several others showcasing their unique Internet powers. Unfortunately, I feel that Caldwell has left out some important heroes/villains and some iconic Internet sites. If I were an illustrator I would add them, but alas that is not one of my super powers.

Today is dragging for me so I thought I would post a little humor that my little brother has been emailing me (my type of forwarded emails Ü). Hope you enjoy! ~Paul W.

“The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.” ~Susan Sontag

“You’ll find boredom where there is the absence of a good idea.” ~Earl Nightingale

“Like at Halloween: I knew I’d arrived when I saw people dressing up on Halloween as my character.” ~Jane Badler

Saturday my family and I went to a Halloween party/dinner. However, at 1pm we were still having troubles trying to decide what to go as. A few web searches showed that there are some ambitious and creative people out there when it comes to Halloween costumes.

This got me thinking, and I started typing in Internet marketing costumes ideas. I was surprised (and probably shouldn’t have been) to see that marketing geeks truly show their love for their industry come Halloween. Below are the top family friendly costumes I found that will bring out the web geeky kid in all of us.

I know the economy is struggling, but I was a bit surprised when I stumbled across a NPR story of an Idaho high school selling advertising on their test sheets. It has been over a year since this was reported and I am curious to know how successful this experiment of extreme personalized marketing panned out. Did it help bring in significant amount of funds, and did the advertising businesses feel that they where able to receive an ROI on their advertisements?

This is a unique case study and it makes me wonder how ethical it is to penetrate the academic veil. I know we have advertisements in the schools, like vending machines and other healthy alternatives =), but I wonder what damage we do when we start prostituting the actual learning environment. To me, having interruption advertising on the test teaches the kids that nothing is above the principle of making money.

If you are going to have advertising on the test, you might as well put advertising on the school toilet paper! You definitely would get more views, though you would be competing against the creative artwork and slogans found on the walls of the stalls.

I actually believe this isn’t far from the truth!

Related Posts:

• A Case Study Showing How Bing is Inferior to Google
• Google Trap Proves Bing is Copying
• Website Cloaking At Its Worst
• Google Has Penalized Themselves
• A Strong Case For Google+

Related Posts:

• How To Record Phone Calls For Free (and legally)
• Does Subliminal Advertising Work?
• Netflix’s Bad Marketing & Why I Won’t Return
• 32 Halloween Costumes for Internet Marketing Geeks
• 4 Quick Tips On Making A Video Go Viral

Josh Spaulding wrote a fantastic article about whether or not you should build backlinks to your article directory articles (let’s just call these articles, AD Articles). His answer:

“The answer to the question is 98% of the time, no. And 2% of the time, yes.”

A quick note to wish all the MyMarketer readers a happy Christmas. This year would have been far less interesting were it not for great insights you have contributed, and the comments you’ve made, in this blog during 2009. I hope you all have an excellent time over the festive season.

cog-people

I have concluded that having a positive experience in corporate America depends largely on the people you work with. This was a lesson I relearned while working at CHG Healthcare as their Senior Web Marketing Specialist.

Today is my last day as I prepare to return back to school and receive a higher degree. . .of debt . The day was spent mostly receiving good byes and well wishes. I have worked with this team longer than any other corporate venture and there was a reason for this—they were friends, not co-workers.