Joel Comm's Blog, page 27

iFart App Now Available for Android – Now the Whole World Can Let ‘er Rip!

It’s been a long time. Too long, in fact. Back in 2008, my team and I blasted to the top of the Apple iOS Appstore charts with iFart Mobile. It became one of the most talked-about and notorious apps of all time. Since its explosive release in 2008, iFart® has been used by millions of people. In fact, iFart scientists have calculated that over a billion virtual farts have been served via the app with no discernible impact on global warming. Oh, there are just so many puns that go with the success of this app! iFart® once named an Apple All Time Top 20 Paid App continues to be mentioned in dozens of publications and media sources from around the globe. It is currently the most popular flatulence application in iTunes, has achieved pop culture status and even has its own Wikipedia page. Arguably the funniest, most infamous and copycatted app in history, Android users can now download the Original and Most Popular Fart Sound App ever. Now, after eight long years, I am pleased to announce that Android users will now be able to join the fun. That’s right, you can now install iFart for Android for free! The app for Android is a truly a blast. With over thirty fart sounds at a user’s disposal, as well as signature features such as Sneak Attack, Security Fart and Record-A-Fart it’s fun for all ages. For those who want more stink and laughs, the Fart Store contains a number of themed Fart Packs available for instant purchase. Themes include the Movie Pack (Harry Pooter, BraveFart and more), the Bands Pack (Van InHalen, Poo Fighters and more), the Fart Wars Pack (Darth Vapor, The Kessel Runs, Storm Pooper and more), there are currently six fart packs containing 10 sounds each. What are you waiting for? If you’ve got an Android device, I welcome you to 2008, a year that will live in infamy. Download iFart® right now for free on Google Play.

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3 Reasons Flying First Class is Worth Every Penny

The first-class cabin at the front of the plane may be just a few yards from your economy seat, but it might as well be in a different world. While you’re trying not to bash your knees on the tray table, to eat plastic food, and to get to sleep with a couple of tightly-packed strangers, on many international flight those at the front are lying on a bed in a private cabin, having just enjoyed a dinner prepared by a chef. Served on real china. Of course, they’ll have paid a fortune for those luxuries. A first class ticket from Singapore to New York on Singapore Airlines can set you back around $15,000. Along with the bed, you also get a dining table behind your private sliding doors, a 23-inch entertainment system, and a proper wine list. But a touch of luxury isn’t all you get when you cash in your air miles, dig deep into your travel budget, or demand the client upgrade your ticket. When you stay in economy, you miss out on three other benefits that are way more valuable than a better class of reheated meal. 1. Time and Energy First-class passengers arrive at the same time as everyone else. You’ll get off the plane first, but that will only save you a few minutes. The hours it can save you are in the recovery from the flight. David Liu, founder of TheKnot.com, described in The New York Times how, in the early days of his business, a venture capitalist he met was shocked to learn he had saved money by booking a red-eye with three layovers. Instead of being impressed by his thrift, she told him the company couldn’t afford a stressed-out CEO, and booked him on a first-class flight home. If you’re flying economy class long-distance, your next day or two are going to be a washout. You have to factor in the cost of lost productivity and maybe even a lost deal, if you roll off the red-eye and into a presentation. Bear all those expenses in mind and that economy class seat doesn’t look so cheap anymore. 2. Networking The first-class areas are the ultimate networking rooms. It starts in the lounge, where you get a proper place to relax, alongside people who are at the top of their professions. It continues on the plane, where you might find yourself sitting alongside the founder of a multimillion-dollar company or the chief executive of a Fortune 500 business. That’s valuable. Last year, Chinese gaming company Da Lian Zeus Entertainment paid $2.35 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett. You’ll pay a lot less to spend several hours sitting next to someone guaranteed to be a success in his or her field. Those networking benefits are worth grabbing even on domestic flights. The comfort levels might not be much higher, but for a little more money, you’ll get to chat and exchange contact details with people at the top of their professions. If you want to meet and chat with people who have deep pockets and plenty of knowledge, you have to sit at the front of the plane. 3. Work If you’ve ever tried to work in an economy-class seat, you’ll know it’s almost impossible. There’s barely enough room for your lap, let alone your laptop. A first-class seat is a real office, complete with power outlets, privacy, and Wi-Fi. While you’re squinting at a movie on a small screen in the back of the plane, the people at the front have a chance to pull even further ahead. So should you be splashing out on a first-class plane ticket next time you travel? If you’re traveling for business and can afford it, it’s worth it.

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Why You Shouldn’t Start Your Speech with a Joke

A few years back, Microsoft flew me out to their headquarters in Redmond. Twitter was just starting up and my book about the platform was flying off the shelves. They wanted me to talk to their executives about social media. I walked out on stage, as I had done so many times before, took the microphone, looked out over a room filled with some of the world’s smartest engineers and most dedicated managers, and the first words that came into my head were: “Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the bride and groom to the dance floor for the first time!” I didn’t say it. I managed to bite my tongue but those post-college years as a wedding DJ have left an impression. I also didn’t start with a joke. I might have started with a humorous story. I might have thrown out a question or praised an audience filled with people who create the products that we all use every day. I might have used any one of a dozen great ways to dive into a talk, but I didn’t start with a joke. There are a few reasons for that. Have You Heard The One About… Oh, You Have… For one, it’s hard! It’s hard to tell a joke that will get everyone in the audience laughing. Even professional comedians miss sometimes, and they’re trained and their audience are waiting to hear something funny. Even if you’re good at telling jokes, and not everyone is, some people will always roll their eyes instead of doubling up with laughter. Those people are lost. When you start a speech with a joke that fails, they’ll be less inclined to listen when you move on to describe your company’s plans, your product’s benefits or your staff’s achievements. Start with a joke and you’re betting the success of your entire speech on an attention grab in the first sentence. And even if it works, you can still do damage. Unless you’re guest hosting on The Late Show, your audience will want to be informed, not entertained. They want to leave with knowledge and a sense that they’ve learned something. Of course, they want to enjoy the experience, and you’ll need them to enjoy themselves if you’re going to hold their attention. But the success of a business speech is down to how much your audience learns, not how loudly it laughs. That doesn’t mean you can’t use humor. You should use humor. Great anecdotes can educate as well as amuse. Laughing at your own mistakes–hey, we all make them–will show that you’re human and approachable, and get your audience chuckling too. Everyone who has ever run a business will have a story to tell about a funny customer, a product launch that went wrong or a promotion idea that was so ridiculous you thought would work. It didn’t. When each one of those mistakes taught you something, you’ll have a lesson for your audience, a chance to raise a smile… and a start to a speech that will hold your audience and keep them listening.

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Top 5 Ways to Generate Outrageous Attention – Episode #54

When it comes to getting attention in a noisy world, it’s all about the story. And in #54 of The Top 5 Scope, Joel Comm shares his strategies for marketing in the digital age

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Top 5 Unethical Marketing Tricks – Episode #53

Some people will do just about anything to appear more influential than they really are. The marketing world is full of trickery that can accomplish this. But in episode #53 of The Top 5 Scope, Joel Comm calls out various shenanigans which are used by some in ther marketing space.

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Microsoft Is Shaking Up Search Marketing With An All-New Bing

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bing Network for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. Microsoft is finally going alone. It’s taken off the training wheels, put both hands on the handlebars… and it might even have attached a rocket to the back wheel. Last month, the company announced the end of the Yahoo Bing Network, the advertising network it ran with Yahoo, and the launch of Bing Network, an advertising network it’s running alone. It’s a big step for a giant company, and it’s been a long time coming. For years, we’ve all grown used to Google being the standard for search and for search marketing. But over the last few years, Microsoft has been quietly growing its search tool. As PC users have upgraded to Windows 10, searches with Bing have grown by 30 percent. About 60 million people in the US only use Microsoft’s search engine, and a quarter of the clicks on ads that run across the Bing network are the result of queries that were looked for exclusively on Bing. That’s a big audience for marketers that’s only available from Microsoft. The company also says that those searchers spend 22 percent more than average. That’s a stat that should win all of our attention. Microsoft has built that audience by not being just on websites. It also powers the search fields on the Xbox, inside Windows 10, in Apple’s Siri and in Microsoft’s PC assistant, Cortana. It’s also used on Yelp and Foursquare and it’s Bing that drives the translation of tweets on Twitter. Bing has long been the default search on my browser and apparently I was also using it during my experiment as an Uber driver: Bing powers the company’s mapping units. Who knew? If you’re not using Bing to make your online searches, there’s a good chance that you’re using it somewhere else, and you probably didn’t even know. This is all good news, and it’s news that every marketer needs to pay attention to. The search market is big enough for than one giant player and we need to know about all of them, especially when we’re engaging in digital marketing. If 60 million people are only searching with Bing, then I want to know if my audience is among that 60 million. If people are breaking off their alien-bashing to look for a new game controller while using their Xbox, then if I’m selling games controllers I’d want to be there. I’m always talking about the importance of testing. It’s the only way to find out for certain which strategies work best for you. Microsoft seems to be breathing a new breath of life into Bing so this is the time to begin testing. If you’re buying traffic or leads through search marketing you should create an account and experiment with Bing Network’s ad settings. Play around with the content network and the search network, and compare the results with what you’ve been receiving in the past. This is an exciting time. Change is coming to search marketing, and we all need to stay on top of it. Learn more about Bing Network

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Snap Frenzy with John Lee Dumas

John Lee Dumas is the host of the wildly popular Entrepreneur on Fire podcast. He’s also a Snapchat fanatic. On this episode of The Joel Comm Show, John and I swapped our Snapchat accounts for the day. It led to all kinds of great discussion about this social media powerhouse app.

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Becoming a Happy Solopreneur

Michael O’Neal is the host of the top-rated business podcast, The Solopreneur Hour. In this episode of The Joel Comm Show, Joel speaks candidly with Michael about being a Solopreneur as well as his feelings on Snapchat.

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Top 5 Product Launch Mistakes – Episode #52

Launching products, whether digital or physical, takes a great deal of effort. It’s always shame when someone has something worthy to sell, but makes mistakes in bringing it to the public. In episode #52 of the Top 5 Scope, I’m joined by launch expert Sean Vosler, and we explore the top five mistakes people make when launching products.

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Why You Should Go to Live Events – Top 5 Scope Episode #51

I’ve discovered that attending live events, whether I am speaking or not, is one of the fastest ways to grow my business. In episode #51 of The Top 5 Scope, I share my top five reasons for doing so.

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