No such thing as bad publicity !

Oscar Wilde once commented that; "There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is NOT being talked about."

This is certainly true in the case of such internet entrepreneurs as the 22 year old who made $1,000,000 simply by having an idea and thoroughly publicising it, Million dollar home page creator Alex Tew, or Facebook’s founding father Mark Zuckerberg who wouldn't be where he is today without the viral publicity created through his then nascent social networking website.

Let me take you back now to a simpler time; in 1979 at an age not so far from my son David’s’ current age, I was fortunate enough to acquire and build a Compukit UK101.

This nurtured my enthusiasm for the technology and by 1983
the exchange of software, developed ‘in my spare time’ whilst at Polytechnic, for a 128K Sinclair spectrum, a tentative contract to supply additional programs and with a friend some game controller hardware, may lead you to believe as I, that Bill, Paul and the two Steve’s (yes there where two, Jobs and Wozniak) had competition this side of the pond.

Sadly it wasn’t to be, 1983 was to be a turning point in the technology, the raft of exotic ‘home’ computers that then existed, had reached a zenith and the more standard IBM personal computer was about to commence, along with its clones, its domination of the personal computer market.

I, no doubt with many others had missed the boat. – Some say it was marketing, some say talent, some say timing.

Timing and talent, for me it’s too late to do anything about, but the early 21^st centuries ascendant technology is the internet, its media its delivery and its content.

This blog in some small way is David’s first foray into that realm. The timing is prescient, the talent to be determined the marketing at least I can assist in.

With this in mind this blogs got ‘Branded’ and in recognition of 50 years on the planet and the highways that lie ahead of us, the brand had to be a route sign.

As David and I travel from stop to stop we now have public presence emblazoned across our chests and backs, albeit we only have the one T shirt each, so publicity may be limited to locations that include laundry services.

Craftily however we have considered this obvious flaw in our mission to maximise the potential blog audience and free with every bill paid and tip given, a subtly proffered card proclaims the blogs URL.

A pair of luggage tags proudly display our brand and a miniscule (more by miss-representation than by design, thank you Vista Print) removable window sticker announces the presence of the blog on our rental car.

What better way to be talked about, a tale of two Brits, a route and a blog site, do fame and fortune await are we the next Alex,  Mark, Bill, Paul or Steve’s, here’s hoping….

Posted in: Computers,Internet,Publicity