Sam Lessin started a paid newsletter service that has gotten some uptake. I’m going to join the craze. You can sign up here: http://letter.ly/jonsteinberg I’ll continue to blog some, but focus for the next couple months on trying the newsletter format. O hope you sign up and look forward to your feedback.

A lot of companies wait too long to monetize using the argument that they need scale. This is true for some businesses but the extent of scale needed is often exaggerated. In general, the long awaited monetization products fall short of expectations. Google is the one example everyone points to. Google took it’s time and released a lightening in a [...]

I’m reading David Olgilvy’s 1963 tome “Confessions of an Advertising Man,” and I haven’t been as inspired by a book since I read Atlas Shrugged. He stresses the importance of creativity, hard work, client service, and clarity in explanative selling. It’s a great companion to my time spent working with the team on our ad products. For example, Olgilvy writes, [...]

Yes we can help you build your yoga brand…create a feed. I’m good at returning email…bad at returning phone calls. Why do you want to come here for lunch…it’s not Google, everyone gets their own lunch, but we have parties sometimes Ask me about about Buzzfeed

I remember in English class teachers always said, “show don’t tell.” Rather than writing, “Jeff was despondent,” you would better serve your readers by writing, “Jeff stared blankly into his cup of coffee, his body listless.” I’ve always found claims unconvincing. I much prefer to see demos, play with a product, look at traffic numbers, or talk to users. When [...]

I strongly believe in NOT filing. I once read that if you keep everything in a pile, your search time cost is much lower than filing + retrieval. Having everything searchable in gmail also makes this easier. Also, I’m a big believer in writing and producing materials (decks, docs, etc) quickly after I’ve already worked out the message in my [...]

I like the expression “you need to skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is.” If you’re building your business in terms if Foursquare or Quora analogies, it’s already too late. I think skating to where the puck will be is a turn off to some people because it requires making betstimates, and in some [...]

[originally published on the BuzzFeed Blog] There are two thematic shifts in advertising that we’re particularly interested in monitoring and participating in: branded original content finally coming of age and the branding of existing viral content. We’re seeing advertisers and marketers create branded media sites in the hopes that individual pieces will resonate with consumers, spread on the social web, [...]

[This post was originally on the BuzzFeed Blog.  Cross-posting it here] Buzzfeed.com is just one part of the BuzzFeed business. We have a big audacious goal of helping creative people launch and spread their ideas across the web. We have been thinking for years about how media spreads on the web, and our technology provides a unique way to launch, [...]

When I started spinning in 1999/2000 there was only one place to do so in the Hamptons, The Zone on Newtown Lane: View Spin Places in 2000 in a larger map Classes were always sold out and expensive, Memorial to Labor Day. Ten years later, there are 4 or 5 places to get your spin on, with most of the [...]