Google continues to melt our brains. Today I was tooling around in AdWords and found this:

That’s exactly what it looks like - a custom geographic area mapped out for displaying advertising.

Imagine the potential for this type of highly-specific advertising targeting. If you’re running for office, let’s say, and you know precisely the shape of your electoral district, you are going to clean up with this tool.

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Fun tip: Joffrey’s Coffee is offering bloggers a chance to beta test their coffees.

It’s lighthearted, it’s amusing, and it’s valuable.

Why?

In addition to sending you some java to drink, approved bloggers get an inbound link (without nofollow!) from their site.

Is that a big deal?

Considering that the site has been featured on Mashable, CNET, and Web Worker Daily, it’s got some Google Juice, too.

Sign up, get your coffee, and get yourself a nice inbound link, too.

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Today we talk about:

12 Marketing Tips for Non-Profits:

1. Accept donations in every imaginable way.
2. Make it easy to donate.
3. Make it OBVIOUS to donate. One call to action only on your web site.
4. Tell me how my donation is going to be used - and make sure it’s  consistent with what’s listed on sites like Charity Navigator.
5. Attach your cause to buzz, don’t try to generate buzz. The buzz machine needs no help and you don’t have the budget to feed it, anyway.
6. Create campaigns that fit reality, no matter how much you wish the world were different. Making the world different is your job.
7. Emotion sells, intellect rationalizes the sale.
8. Know what you’re paying for and if you’re paying too much.
9. Liberally copy from your for-profit cousins.
10. The House List rules all.
11. Tell authentic stories. Who is the natural storyteller in your organization? NEVER tell a story by committee.
12. Last but not least, NAIL DOWN YOUR BRAND TO ONE TWITTER.

Rollin’ wit’ Wikipedia, Who’s messing with Wikipedia, Existing customers, hit the list ’til they scream, Mitch Joel on Branding from Podcamp Toronto

The Closet Geek calls in about Twitter, Chicago Mike asks about surveys and demographics

John is happy to say he has no business travel left for 2008.

Chris is at Emerson in December.

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Fry’s Black Friday Shopping Deal: $200 to cut to the front of the line

In Washington State, a Fry’s Electronics store had an unannounced deal for customers: $200 to cut to the front of the line. Critics are calling such a deal unethical and disturbing, and store management is threatening to terminate any employee who made offers to customers.

Here’s the thing: that’s actually a good idea. Amusement parks already offer this premium to guests in the form of premium passes, and for people who value their time more than their money, this is a very good deal. I wouldn’t personally pay $200 to skip to the front of the line, but I might pay $20. It’d depend on how much of a hurry I was in and what the cost was. As long as no one was COMPELLED to pay, it’s just another value-add service that companies can offer.

Here’s the other thing: it gives value to the line and provides an economic disincentive for the store to ignore those few truly rude individuals who already cut in line. You know them, you’ve experienced them, and I won’t rant about them here, but the moment you attach a price tag to line priority, those individuals aren’t just rude - they’re committing theft, in the form of depriving the store of revenues. Truthfully, line jumpers are already stealing, in the form of the time of those behind them in line, but attaching a dollar value to places in line means you can then attach value to the rest of the places in line.

Personally, rather than slink away from this, I would have marketed the hell out of it.

What’s your take on this?

Hat tip to Steve from the Wicked Good podcast for twittering this story.

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Today we talk about: List hygiene, email error codes, appending email addresses, red saber email stuff, LinkedIn for prospecting, Google and Sprint Merger, Open Socket connects Google’s Open Social to Facebook, Amazon’s Kindle gets a thumbs down, how long until Kindle is hacked, jailbreaking the iphone with graphics errors in Safari, John the Engineer, Economics podcasts like Bloomberg and stormclouds for 2008 ($2-3 Trillion next year), next year is Marketing’s chance to sign, make money in China now, Black Friday, retailmenot.com.

John is happy to say he has no business travel left for 2008.

Chris is wrapping up the last of his business travel.

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I just posted up on the Financial Aid Podcast a PDF guide, one page, 5 power promoter tips. If you as an audience member of a new media outlet like blogs, podcasts, or social networks want to help your favorites grow, grab this guide and share it. Oh, and if you’re a Marketing Over Coffee listener, please give us some love re: tip #2. Thanks!

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