Good idea.
Glad I thought of it.
Innovation Tools' latest newsletter hit my in-box today. Always a favorite, I dove right in and checked out the featured links.

An article titled "The Romance of Creativity" by Mitch Ditkoff of IdeaChampions.com caught my eye. Nice concept.

...And when I say "nice concept" -- I mean MY concept. I published basically the same content in a February (Valentine's Day!) blog post.

So, what do you think --
Homage or Hijacking?

Etch-A-Scotch
We've all seen the oh-so-cute and initially innovative charms for wine glasses. Those little baubles that attach to the stem of your bubbly, reminding people to keep their mitts off your merlot -- but what if your affair is more casual, or your attendees demand to express a little more creativity while in their cups? Just pick-up a pack of Etch-it Party Cups from Plum Party!

Etch-it Party Cups are available in clear, red, or blue and each cup features an etchable black surface upon which guests can scratch their own personal message using just their fingernail. The look is somewhere between a "Hello my name is..." sticker and those magic crayon scratchings we used to make when we were kids.

Definitely a creative idea that could be used as a group ice-breaker or as a networking tool at your next Chamber of Commerce meeting. Etch-it Party Cups can be purchased from PlumParty.com.

Join The Best Seller List
The best sellers (the best salespeople) all seem to have the right answers at the right time. But, where do they GET all those great answers?

Now there's a resource where all the best sales answers are collected in one place -- Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Red Book of Sales Answers. If you've read (red!) Jeffrey's Little Red Book of Sales, you know it's a pint-sized powerhouse of incredible content in a really cool red-cloth hardcover binding. The Little Red Book of Sales Answers offers the same compact size and quality cover (and contents!) while still leaving plenty of room in your briefcase for all those CHECKS you'll be cashing.

Actually, it's a REALLY good thing there will be some extra space in your case -- if you buy your copy today (Tuesday, April 4th) Jeffrey and a few of his friends have a ton o' bonus material they're going to give you absolutely FREE. You'll receive Gitomer's exclusive ebook "Why People Buy", as well as materials from Ty Boyd and Joe Calloway.

Probably my FAVORITES on the list of bonus content are from Scott (That Guy With The Name Tag) Ginsberg's and Personal Brilliance author Jim Canterucci. Scott's provides his new ebook "66 Priceless Pieces of Business Advice" (the pdf document is formatted in true name-tag-guy style!) and Jim supplies in the innovation-inspiring "100 Days of Personal Brilliance" daily computer wallpaper. I use those 100 Days images EVERYDAY (I'm in the middle of 'reruns', having finished my original 100 days looong ago.)

Brilliant bonus content for buying a book of ANSWERS. Not a bad deal.
Get the details here!

SPAM: Defined
Dictionary.com defines spam as "Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail." So why do so many of these stooges just not "get it?"

Within the past month I have received two separate pieces of spam from individuals completely oblivious to the fact their practices are spam. Not only did they not feel they were spammers, they both wrote back in complete surprise that I would consider their missives unsolicited junk mail. You see, they feel that since they wrote "Press Release" at the top of their message that it shouldn't be consider junk mail. Nevermind the fact they sent it to a group of people who never asked to be on their list, nor did they take the time to actually address it to an individual (my name is pretty easy to find on every page of my website), nor did they make an attempt to draw a parallel between their message and anything I'd ever written on my website.

Here's some advice to any persons considering the shotgun approach to emailing press releases. Don't do it. It pisses people off. If either of you had bothered to contact me personally, at least pretending to be a regular reader of my blog, and claiming to have some information that might be of interest to other readers, I would have gladly agreed to receive your information and been predisposed to posting a blurb or two on your behalf.

Spam/press releases will not achieve this. Stop doing it.
Sending random press releases is and old rule for OLD media. Offline media. NEW media has new rules. Learn them and abide by them.

Stop sending crap about yourself to people who don't care about you.
Start by building a relationship. Make me care about you by showing that you care about me.

Zig Ziglar said it a helluva a lot nicer than I just did:
You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.