A Purpose Driven Life? Only If It’s Free….

Hoping to capitalize on the success of pastor Rick Warren’s A Purpose Driven Life, in January Reader’s Digest Association (RDA) launched a quarterly print publication to complement Warren’s Purpose Driven Connection. For an annual fee of just $29.95, the project offered a shebang of goodies - DVDs, study group guides and access to its website – all necessary in the quest of finding purpose!

10 months in, and RDA turned off the life support. In spite of A Purpose Driven Life’s rapid online audience growth, it seems that not enough purpose-seekeers were willing to pay for a subscription.

Is it because, like the Wiccans, Christians believe that spiritual knowledge is universal and already belongs to everyone? Or maybe they thought they should get a rebate on their 10% tithe? Perhaps they felt bad about the environment and wanted to save some trees? Or just plain skint?

I believe it’s because Christians - along with the rest of us - have grown so accustomed getting whatever information we want for FREE that consciously or not, we resent having to pay for it.

Is that fair? Absolutely not. In any other transaction or business process, NOBODY GIVES ME ANYTHING FOR FREE. NOBODY. Somebody, somewhere has to pay for the content that we voraciously consume by the megabytes, the research and journalism to accumulate the information, the cost of creating and updating and editing, SEO, advertising, brand building..... and the list goes on!

Quality content is created and presented by professionals – real people whose livelihood depends on real income from their work.

If the public, regardless of their faith or purpose does not support the development of intelligent and informed content, then where is it going to come from?

And more importantly, will it even be worth reading?

Unlikely.

4 essential tactics for wooing mommy and daddy bloggers

The opinion-shaping group is powerful—and idiosyncratic

Mommy bloggers, despite their unfortunate moniker (it makes them sound frumpy), have become a fixture in the marketing and PR landscape.

It’s only natural that we seek endorsements and testimonials from them. Mommy (and daddy) bloggers are a natural outcropping of the blogging phenomenon, and smart marketers have been looking for ways to capitalize on this digital voice, as they do with every group that gains consumer-influencing power.

The downside to the phenomenon of these blogs, however, is that the ethical guidelines that apply to mommy and daddy bloggers, and the products they review, have been incredibly slow to coalesce. It’s become a free-for-all: The FTC’s recent ruling, which requires bloggers of all stripes to disclose whether the products they review were provided free, has brought to the fore many examples of what not to do. But given that mommy and daddy bloggers aren’t going anywhere soon, what are the best ways for marketers to pursue these coveted endorsements?

For my 4 essential tactics, click here.

There Will Be No Renaissance Without 21st Century Education

I read an op en in the NYT by Susan Engel, Director of the Program in Teaching at Williams College. In her article, Teach Your Teachers Well she cited academia's "turning its nose up at education" as one of the core issues that keeps the field from attracting and sustaining the brightest minds to teach in our public school systems. Hence the dumbing down of our youth - and our international status as laughing stock when the topic of education comes up. I happen to agree.

This isn't the only issue to be dealt with, but it's a good start.

Engel says we need hybrid teacher programs that demand a high GPA in order to participate and that teachers should undergo an extensive application program. This would, invariably, weed out the ones signing up for the long summer hols and highlight those individuals with a passion not only for teaching, but for learning. I teach, therefore I learn should become the motto.

Engel also recommends that teachers be taught in-depth about the development of children at specific ages and how to relate to them. She recommends mentoring programs under masterful educators and that the students, like psychology students, should be taped and critqued on their in-classroom performance.

Another of her brilliant ideas was to hire teachers in groups (of 7 or more), so when they are placed in a new school environment they’ll be surrounded by an (incoming) support group – new teachers - not left to fend for themselves or be ostracized by seniority or under-performing teachers threatened by fresh meat. This in turn would raise the bar, and set a much higher standard for all – newcomers and old.

Of course, there are other issues that hamper the process and keep our education system malfunctioning – overcrowded classrooms, unmonitored teaching practices, curriculums that don’t engage students or address urban issues, lack of innovative (or even new) technology for students to learn on, diminished arts and music programs, and dysfunctional or apathetic parents and teachers. You get the picture.

But Engel's ideas map out a beautiful plan of action that could easily tackle several of these seemingly inherent problems.

America needs a Renaissance, desperately. And for that, the country needs passionate, educated and competent teachers to create a generation of vibrant, educated and fully-functioning people – ready to re-enter the global workforce and compete, competitively.

"The student is only as good as his teacher " . We can do better, a lot better.