Marketing Monday: Goop

Editor’s Note: Thank you all for your kind condolences about the death of my dog. I appreciate your compassion, and am happy to report that I am feeling much better this week. Many thanks.
Know an individual or business doing something cool to promote themselves online? Let me know about it and they might be featured as part of Marketing Monday!
Goop's front page. Flash driven and a little vague (bad) but graphic and simple (good).
I’d first of all like to keep this blog a positive one. There are so many people doing so many good things online, to promote their business or otherwise.
Today, I wanted to review Gwyneth Paltrow’s website called Goop. It’s mission is to ‘nurture the inner aspect’ and is supposed to be about things in Gwenyth Paltrow’s life.
Recently, her post about a New Year’s cleanse recieved some media attention at both Nerve and Huffington Post and just this past weekend, the site came up in conversation over lunch with two of my friends in the media.
The only reason this website seems to work is because it belongs to Gwenyth Paltrow. I haven’t found anyone who ‘gets it’.

What Would Jesus Buy?

What Would Jesus Buy: Whether you agree with the tactics or not, this movie reminds us all the reason for the season.
I subscribe to the Daily Worth newsletter, where I was alerted today that the movie “What Would Jesus Buy” was streaming for free on Snagfilms. Being that it was Friday afternoon and I was getting much else done, I decided to watch it.
It was a pretty good tongue in cheek look at our consumerist culture, which ramps up to new levels during the holiday season. Seeing clips of crazy shopping footage, encouraging television anchors (buy now!), and pervasive holiday commericals all together made me realize just how bad it was. Sometimes I forget about these things since I don’t have cable!

Four Great Ways Ways I Saved And Wasted Money In 2009

Daniel Scocco, author of Daily Blog Tips, is running a group writing project on his blog called 2009 in Review. I thought it was a fun idea so here are my best and worst ways I saved money in 2009.

 

Here are some of the best lessons I learned in saving money over the past year:

 

Asking for something if I need or want it.

 

When I moved into my house, I couldn’t help but notice my neighbors left a cool looking bookcase outside in the rain.

 

Maybe they were putting it outside while they moved furniture around or were giving it to someone else. Really though, I didn’t ask at first because I was worried I’d look like some cheap vulture.

 

I hopped onto the Ikea website to look at pricing some options. The cost was $69 for a Billy Bookcase… and $250 to ship it. Even my cheap local options still involved similar costs and the hassle of transport and assembly. Was my pride really going to get in the way of saving $100 or more?

Book Review: Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel

A clever little book that'll teach you a bit about money and make you laugh.

One of my favorite things of being a money blogger is getting great books to review. I always manage to learn something and having to review the book forces me to read about financial stuff, which honestly I find boring a good part of the time.
I read Phil Villarreal’s book in stolen moments these last few weeks, out of pleasure and not out of obligation (this review is already a couple months late). It was a busy time and the one to three page chapters were perfect for a quick fix.
Phil reminds me of John who I consider one of my very best friends. Like Phil, John used to work in newspapers and has this snarky sense of humor that comes from intelligence and self deprication (rather than stupidity and making fun of others). Phil is the exact kind of guy you want to be friends with, and also the kind of guy you can learn a thing or two from.
A few of my favorites:

Why Renting A Bigger Place May Save Me Money

It’s really interesting to shop for unique things like apartments or cars. Each is so different it’s hard to compare, you can’t exactly hop online and find the best deal like you would for, say, a certain model of digital camera. The whole thing is a bit more nuanced than that.
Clearly costs are an issue to me and, in looking at larger spaces, my rent is going to cost more. But there are some additional features that a larger apartment can accomodate that might make this move actually less expensive than where I live now.
I’ve attempting to assign some monetary values to some of this stuff, if only so I can fairly compare apartments. What do you think? Have I forgotten anything?
Washer and Dryer access- $25/month
Currently at the Bar Harbor Laundromat, I am paying about $6 for a load of laundry. A big load, sure, but $1 for 16 minutes of dryer time? Come on!

Naming Your Own Price: How Much Does It Rock?

Nothing like figuring travel logistics over email to drive connected people to save a few bucks.

My friends Lydia and Travis are getting married this weekend. About a month ago, ten of us who went to college with Lydia tried to figure out group hotel rooms through a series of emails over the course of about a week.

I had first seen my friend Bailey use Priceline to get us a cheap rental car in Vegas. I was impressed with her internet savyness and her ability to save us about 25% on the rental. When Bailey suggested we use the site for the hotel room, a few of us jumped on it.

Four of us formed a Priceline bidding team, each taking a turn to bid on a two star hotel in Ellsworth Maine (hint: there’s one on Priceline so we knew it was the hotel the others were staying at). If you bid on something and Priceline doesn’t accept it, you are locked out of bidding for a certain amount of time so having another person or two can be critical.

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