Jack Knows Nothing

Hibernation time

2007-02-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

There's a good reason why bears hibernate in the winter. It gives them a chance to hunker down and rest and let winter run its course.

I am not a bear, but I sure felt like one. I knew I needed a change in marketing tactics. The problem was that I could not bring myself to "sell" JKN to the media anymore. Not only because they were ignoring me, but more importantly, as I was using JKN more and more for my own purposes ("eat your own dog food" and all that) there was a number of design aspects to JKN that I just didn't like. There was also bugs galore which had to be fixed.

So I put the marketing aside for the moment and focused on making JKN better.

Webware Attempt #4

2007-02-08T10:18:00.000-05:00

This post is part of my ongoing marketing experiment.

After I sent the email, I realized that one of the links got currupted. So I resent the email in case I was due for a miracle. But alas, it wasn't my day (or week, or month.)

From	Yaakov Sash
Date	Thursday, February 08, 2007 10:18 AM ET
To	Webware (website)
Subject	re: Trailfire: More-evolved Web stickies correction
Message	I realized after I sent the email that the link for the annotated Trailfire post was invalid. This is the correct link: http://jkn.com/View?j=769774.846698199187 I am sorry for the inconvenience Respectfully yours, Yaakov Sash Founder JumpKnowledge www.jkn.com/

Webware Attempt #3

2007-02-08T10:09:00.000-05:00

This post is part of my ongoing marketing experiment.

I heard nothing back from Webware, so I tried another email. Nothing... (What did you say, it's like I was banging my head against the wall? Yes, you're right, except that this is more painful.

From	Yaakov Sash
Date	Thursday, February 08, 2007 10:09 AM ET
To	Webware (website)
Subject	re: Trailfire: More-evolved Web stickies
Message	Note: I did not hear back from your site, so I am sending you another email in case it got lost. Dear Editor, JumpKnowledge, located at http://jkn.com, is a new annotation tool which builds upon our previous successful email web page tool. Some advantages that JumpKnowledge has over a tool such as Trailfire: 1. Fully web-based. All you need is a browser with JavaScript to create annotations. (To read annotations, you don't even need JavaScript) 2. Comments are inserted "in vivo" (between the words), so nothing of the original page is obscured and comments can be read in context. This means the full page can be printed for off-line reading. 3. Easy emailing, bookmarking, and linking to blogs. We just launched at the beginning of the year and already have blogs using JumpKnowledge to annotate news stories. These are from http://delawarewatch.blogspot.com http://jkn.com/View?j=769689.822373765400 http://jkn.com/View?j=769415.711601110177 http://jkn.com/View?j=768238.596599802649 For fun, I also annotated your Trailfire post at http://jkn.com/View?j=769774.846698199187 Respectfully yours, Yaakov Sash Founder JumpKnowledge www.jkn.com/

Webware Attempt #2

2007-01-31T08:48:00.000-05:00

This post is part of my ongoing marketing experiment.

I was shocked to find that Webware reviewed Trailfire, which has a similar concept to JKN (with a very different execution.) It would've been nice if Webware would've mentioned that there's another site that did something similar to Trailfire. Really, would that have been so difficult? But I assume that either they never read my emails or if they did, they weren't too happy with me.

So I sent this email, which predictably enough, was not answered.

From	Yaakov Sash
Date	Wednesday, January 31, 2007 8:48 AM ET
To	Webware (website)
Subject	re: Trailfire: More-evolved Web stickies
Message	Dear Rafe, Concerning your recent post about Trailfire, I submitted my site JumpKnowledge to webware.com on Jan 10, 2007 titled "JumpKnowledge Webpage Annotator allows you to annotate any web page and then easily email, blog, print and save it" I understand that the editors probably get a ton of email, so you probably missed it. Or maybe you purposely ignored it because I did something wrong. (My example annotation was a bit over the top to which I apologize. I was trying to be cute.) In any case, I posted a comment on the Trailfire post, but I would appreciate if you could review my site in the future. For fun, I annotated your Trailfire post at http://jkn.com/View?j=769774.846698199187 Respectfully yours, Yaakov Sash Founder JumpKnowledge www.jkn.com

Lifehacker Attempt #1

2007-01-21T11:27:00.000-05:00

This post is part of my ongoing marketing experiment.

It took me a few days (okay, longer) to realize that Rafe wasn't going to give JKN any publicity. So I did some research and identified Lifehacker as a popular blog. So I sent them an email... and got nothing.

From	Yaakov Sash
Date	Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:27 AM ET
To	Lifehacker (website)
Subject	JumpKnowledge Webpage Annotator - add comments inside any web page
Message	Dear Editor, JumpKnowledge is a free web-based snapshot and annotation tool and is located at http://www.jkn.com/ For fun, I annotated a page from your site, specifically a review of Scrapbook which I wanted to comment on (but couldn't because registration seems to be invite only.) http://jkn.com/View?j=767191.860930724719 Features: immediate - add comments to any web page right now. Registration is not required. multi-page - you can add comments to multiple web pages in vivo - your comments are inserted between words, so nothing of the original page is obscured and your comments can be read in context. permanent - even if the web page changes, your comments will be shown with the web page as it looked when you created the Annotation. email the web page with your comments to you friends and colleagues with your own email program blog - critique other sites and link the Annotation back to your own site or blog. keep your ducks in a row - you control the order of how people will read your comments within the Annotation. Regards, Yaakov Sash Founder

Webware.com Attempt #1

2007-01-10T20:57:00.000-05:00

This post is part of my ongoing marketing experiment.

I had bookmarked webware.com when I heard that Rafe Needleman was going to become Editor in chief. I felt I had a connection with Rafe because I used to read him back in the Red Herring days, when he used to write Catch of the day. Of course, Rafe doesn't know me from a hole in the wall, which is why I shouldn't have been surprised when I got no response.

If you read my comments in the sample annotation below, you'll see that I dug my own grave (even if they did read my email.) I agree, I wasn't being very respectful. But in fairness, I did have a point, why were they reviewing all these non web apps?

From	Yaakov Sash
Date	Wednesday, January 10, 2007 8:57 PM ET
To	Webware (website)
Subject	JumpKnowledge Webpage Annotator allows you to annotate any web page and then easily email, blog, print and save it
Message	Dear Editor, Have you ever wished you could add your two cents to a site—anywhere you wanted—not just in an itty bitty blog area? Have you ever wished you could email a web page with your comments inside it? Then welcome to JumpKnowledge: to a world without limits, where the web is your canvas and you can place your thoughts anywhere you want. JumpKnowledge is a complete web-based application that is available at no charge at www.jkn.com This is an example of Webware.com's home page with my comments http://jkn.com/View?j=764860.614901042265 Features: immediate - add comments to any web page right now. Registration is not required. multi-page - you can add comments to multiple web pages in vivo - your comments are inserted between words, so nothing of the original page is obscured and your comments can be read in context. permanent - even if the web page changes, your comments will be shown with the web page as it looked when you created the Annotation. email the web page with your comments to you friends and colleagues with your own email program blog - critique other sites and link the Annotation back to your own site or blog. keep your ducks in a row - you control the order of how people will read your comments within the Annotation. Regards, Yaakov Sash Founder

The experiment begins...

2007-01-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

I admit, I know nothing about marketing. I'm the technical guy--the geek in the back of the room who no one understands.

With your help, I'm going to change all that.

Background

I've been sending emails to influential blogs, websites, online magazines, and individuals explaining them the benefits of JKN and hoping that they get to read it and write about it. The emails I send are not spam. Although unsolicited, I send one email at a time, individually crafted for that person.

The experiment

It takes me a considerable amount of time to write each email and so far, my success rate has been pretty slim. So I started thinking: why not post my marketing emails to my blog and get help and pointers from marketing experts? Also, other web entrepreneurs can learn from my failures (and hopefully successes too) and apply it to their own marketing plan. We can call it ~~Open Source Marketing~~ Community Driven Marketing ("CDM").

How can you help?

Three ways:

Give feedback by commenting. Feel free to use the JKN Annotate buttons.
Send out your own JKN marketing emails. If you forward me your marketing email, I will post it to this blog and give you full credit.
If you have your own blog, email newsletter or are a member of a newsgroups, discussion list, or forum than you are the type of person we are trying to reach! So you can take a short cut and let your readers/colleagues know about JKN if you feel it is relevant to them.

My rules

I will not list any actual email addresses that I send to. Although most of these email addresses can be obtained with minimal effort, I don't want to be even indirectly responsible for extra spam. I will also strip out any email addresses from any of your marketing emails that I post.
For competitive reasons, I may have the remove parts of my emails that I post. But I will keep that to a minimum.

Your rules

If you send any marketing emails about JKN:

Only one email at a time. Absolutely no spam or unsolicited bulk email.
Say who you. Do not conceal your identity.
Be honest about JKN. Please don't exaggerate (yes, JKN can improve your life. But no, JKN cannot brew coffee and walk your dog.)

Let's get started

I started this blog on May 11, 2007 so I will start by back-posting my earlier emails. To make it easier to track, I will back-post with the date I sent out the email. Please be patient with me because it may take me a while to catch up. Don't get discouraged, because at the end of all this, there is a (somewhat) happy ending. It's just going to take me some time to get there. Once I am caught up, I will post the marketing emails when I send them.

Why Jack Knows Nothing

2007-01-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

I hesitated starting a blog for many reasons. Not because writing frightens me. Conversely, it's because I enjoy writing too much. If I am not careful, I will spend all my time writing this blog instead of working on the next-generation of JumpKnowledge.

First order of business: the name. When I told one of my smart alec friends the address of my site when it first launched (J-K-N dot com), he suggested with a snicker that JKN stood for Jack Knows Nothing. (Jack is equivalent to Yaakov.)

I thought Jack Knows Nothing would make a good name for a blog because it has a bit of an edge to it. Also I feel that the name sums up nicely the fact that as much as I think I know (and I can be quite opinionated), I have much to learn. About the web. About marketing. About business. About people. About you.