Startup Revolution

Sharing Holiday Ecom Secrets
Holiday Ecommerce Tips Magazine shares our secret trends, ideas and tips so you can have a record-setting holiday sales online this holiday season.

Watch our preview video: 

http://www.curagami.com/holiday-ecommerce-tips-magazine/?v=7516fd43adaa

Joi Ito's Ted Talk is a must view for web marketers. The shift from invading Russia in the winter to becoming a NOWIST is fundamental, sweeping and a tsunami of change in our thinking, actions and marketing. 

No surprise a post I wrote a year ago popped up out of Curagami's long tail today. Great TED Talk video embedded in the post.  

Two of my 3 #mustfollow content curators will be familiar to many Scoopiteers:

@Guillaume Decugisand @Marc Rougierare visionary startup entrepreneurs and content curators. I'm learning how to use their latest tool - Content Director - tomorrow and can't wait. If you don't follow both Guillaume and Marc on multiple platforms you should.

Denis Labelle is a great G+ curator (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DenisLabelle/posts ) and a March #mustfollow too. Denis has a great eye, understands what is happening online and his growing G+ community is proof of his skills.

Why Do People LOVE & HATE Startups?
Biggest startup haters? Answer: Other Startups. To be fair the VAST majority of fellow startups at the American Tobacco Campus and American Underground are AWESOME and HELPFUL.

Some have been abusive and mean. We got to thinking about what might be making some fellow #startups so snarky and angry. We think it may be the process.

This post shares the strange WALK THIS WAY undercurrent inside the startup ecosysem and wonders if David Amerland's New Value System might "beat the dogs" less and accomplish more.

We've been down this road so many times in life. Going to football camp as a kid first thing everyone had to know was if you could get hit. The next thing everyone wanted to know was could YOU hit. So much testosterone so little time (lol).

Why do you think people love or hate startups? Share your experiences and I will curate into the post. Thanks and have a great weekend. Marty

Every Startup Is An Elephant High Jumper
Every startup entrepreneur reading this knows what I'm talking about. Everyday team Curagami (http://www.curagami.com) tries to make the graceful dancing and jumping elephants we see so well in our mind, dreams and brainstorms.

We rub the bottle hoping for I Dream of Jeanie.

We know ODDS and OBSTRUCTION are against us. In the boring world of limited possibilities elephants don't dance. In our world elephants sit at the table and worry about their hair before a night of Disco Inferno.

It is not that our dreams are unrealistic. All dreams are unrealistic. No, the real challenge is in turning the crank ONE MORE TIME. When we rode bicycles from Durham to Santa Monica there were days when that single thought was all we (really me since the rest of the team was 20 years younger lol) could think about.

Turn the crank one more time.

Don't give up. Never give up because you can ONLY discover what it looks like to see NO MORE ROAD by continuing to turn the crank. And on that day, the day when you see nothing but ocean, you will have achieved something NO ONE can take from you ever - the knowledge that YES Elephants can jump of the moon as every startup knows.

Here's hoping YOUR startup elephant is a jumper :).

Marty & Team Curagami,
American Tobacco Campus, Durham, NC

The Startup Factory fundeded startup Curagami launches its new content marketing roi tools into "friends beta". What's your Curagami Score? #helpastartup

& THANKS from Team Curagami

http://www.curagami.com/friends-beta/

What's it like to "graduate" from the Startup Factory at American Tobacco Campus in Durham, NC? Amazing & highly recommended. Startups apply for Fall 2014.

5 Things You May Not Know About Crowdfunding
* 75% of funds typically come from person who launched the campaign's network.
* Roughly half of all campaigns succeed.
* Average ask for successful campaigns is below $10K.
* Campaigns with 25% or more raised in first week or less have an 80% chance of reaching their goal.
* See our exclusive market share and fees estimates http://sco.lt/5fBvov for the top 3 crowdfunding sites. 

Should your company create a crowdfunding campaign? Enterprise crowdfunding is different than entrepreneur or startup crowdfunding. Enterprise crowdfunding was one of the ideas fueling our Triangle Startup Factor funded startup http://www.curagami.com .

We see crowdfunding as a new marketing channel since no vote counts as much as money. We wouldn't recommend Big Brands place crowdfunding campaigns on existing platforms since they would be out of sync with visitor expectations.

We would recommend Big Brands think about how they can create their own crowdfunding channel and give Curagami a call to help.  

Should Startups CrowdFund?
I think the answer to this question is always yes. Startups have little to lose and everything to gain from crowdfunding. Crowdfunding creates an effective way to introduce your startup and it helps identify your 1%eers - those people willing to support your new idea with advocacy, social shares and money.  

Phil's Digital Marketing For Business [#DMFB14] in Raleigh, NC was a big this year. Phil, one of the cofounders of the event, shares information about Curagami's name change and reception to the idea by SMBs at the conference.

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Feedly Weekly Summary
This week's summary features friends and fellow Scoopiteers @Guillaume Decugis, @Ana Cristina Pratas and @Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com. 

http://feedly.com/curagami

Every Saturday we will summarize the week. Hot content? Have some great blog post or find we should share? email your hot content to martin(at)Curagami.com or @Scenttrail or @Curagami.

Curagami's needs a Chief Technical Officer because right brain marketers with no great left brainer CTO and we get lost (and vice versa). Great CTO's apply today! 

Learn more here
http://www.curagami.com/chief-technical-officer-needed/  

Web Marketing Secrets
Want to know how we made over $30M online? Read our BOOKS and contribute your favorite Internet marketing reads in our new Curagami Book Store:

http://www.curagami.com/books.html

Send your favorite reads to martin(at)Curagami.com

Why Content Curation Is Coming To B2C Merchants
In Curagami's 2nd guest blog post @Cendrine Marrouat - https://www.cendrinemedia.comshares 7 Content Curation Tips online merchants must know including:

• Definition of content curation.
• Why content curation?
• Benefits of content curation.
• Ideas to leverage content curation.
• Examples of content to curate.
• Tips to become a great content curator
• Some curators to follow

http://www.curagami.com/featured/content-curation-7-things-merchants-must-know/

Brief History of SEO
I'm lucky enough to sit across from one of the best SEOs in the world. Latey #seo is much maligned. Don't be stupid. Google and the math always win in the end.

And that is why every startup should have a great SEO on their team or find one to help. Startups get so wrapped up in their widget they forget an important truth - without COMMUNICATION about what a hero your widget will make someone NO ONE WILL CARE.

Without a great SEO to help shape a stsrtup's communication there is a great chance SILENCE will be what happens when doors are finally open and a launch happens. Don't believe in the "better mouse trap" myth.

These days you can find better mousetraps falling from the sky. The KEY to startup success is shaping communication for maximum impact. The key to shaping communication for "maximum impact" is a great SEO.

I'm lucky enough to sit across from one of the best SEO on the planet and host of the largest SEO Meetup in the country - Curagami Co-Founder Phil Buckley.

What makes a great SEO? Here is how I described the characteristics of one of the best SEOs on earth on G+ this morning:

SEOs require a rare blend of talent including:

* Patience.
* As little EGO as possible.
* Einstienian Intelligence.
* Communication Skills of the TRANSLATION variety.
* Courage.

https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/P6AeQZfkN9y

Phil's Truth About SEO post on Curagami
http://www.curagami.com/featured/truth-seo/

So if your startup isn't fortunate enough to have a great SEO on the team like Curagami, find one or get lost in the widget junk yard.

Our Startrup Factory funded startup Curagami, a content marketing tool for merchants and content marketers who "get it", lauched into "Friends Beta" yesterday & we need your help.

We need help teasing out the good stuff and toss the trash. As any startup learns problems multiple. Easy to solve the problem for all the right reasons. Together we can create tools needed by merchants and publishers to KNOW what content matters to who and why.

LESS STRESSFUL is our goal after spending years gambling with millions we want to provide a MAP merchants and content marketers can use to enjoy the journey. Hope you will join our journey and visit our landing page at:
http://www.curagami.com/friends-beta/

Help A Startup Over The 4th of July Holiday
If you have 15 minutes you can help a startup over the 4th. We are trying to keep this, our first, ASK to 15 minutes or less. Click 3 links and answer 3 questions and your feedback will help a startup!

Will post our landing page link as soon as we finish making it (lol). In the meantime checkout our Evolution of Web Design & Marketing infographic: http://www.Curagami.com .

What's Next?
What's next may be the most important and urgent mystery.. Late last night I wandered around in the future a little thinking about how David Amerland's call for a "New Value System" http://davidamerland.com/seo-blog/692-what-if-we-had-a-new-value-system-for-goods-and-services.html might collide with a few other favorite ideas such as:

* David Edelman on Aligning With the Customer Journey:  http://hbr.org/web/ideas-in-practice/aligning-with-the-consumer-decision-journey

* Mark Traphagen on Google Plus https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MarkTraphagen/posts

* Phil Buckley on overcoming FEAR:
http://www.curagami.com/featured/fear/

* @David AmerlandWhat If We Had A New Value System For Goods and Services
http://davidamerland.com/seo-blog/692-what-if-we-had-a-new-value-system-for-goods-and-services.html

* Me on @ janlgordonCuratti sharing lessons in the new #branding from Red Bull: http://curatti.com/red-bulls-branding-lesson-media-companies-now/

Somewhere in there somewhere late at night and when its HOT is where the future starts and every thing changes...again.

Curagami & The Ecommerce Revolution Played Triangle Startup Factory's Pitchday today discussing how how to fix ecommerce marketing with Curagami.

Why OPx Secret To Web Marketing Success
I'm writing on top of a great post by Stone Temple's Eric Enge (Scooped here http://sco.lt/6kep8r ) for http://www.curagami.com right now for a Monday publication.

For #startups finding ways to use or partner with scaled people, brands and companies is beyond critical. No one climbs Everest on their own.

This is why I'm writing about why Other People's ANYTHING (Network, Content, Audience, Money) is biggest secret to winning online for #startups, #brands or companies.

Impossible to BUILD an audience with so much NOISE out there, but you can CO-OPT one.

Look for my @Curagami post on Monday about OPx and read Eric's great post about how to CO-OPT an audience. Marty