As usual, Seth Godin gets it right and articulates it well.

Yahoo reported the other day that “the U.S. online population has hit an all-time high: 73 percent of adults, or 147 million, now use the Internet.” This represents “an increase from 66 percent, or 133 million adults, in January 2005, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.”

“Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.”
—Ray Kroc

Tom Peters (no relation) has posted a new manifesto over on ChangeThis: “111 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts On Selling.” Of course, “ridiculously obvious” can apply to so much of business writing in general, but Peters has a style all his own that makes his stuff very readable food for thought. And sometimes it’s just a focus on the basics that’s all you need to get through the next step in whatever you’re up to. Here’s a taste:

18. Work incessantly on your “story” — most economic value springs from a good story (think Perrier)!

38. You haven’t a clue as to how this situation will actually play out — be prepared to move fast in a different direction.

46. Keep it simple! (Damn it!) No matter how “sophisticated” the product. If you can’t explain it in a phrase, a page, or to your 14-year-old … you haven’t got it right yet.

69. The way to anyone’s heart: Doing a nice thing for their kid. (But, gawd, does this take a gentle touch.)

85. Master — yes, you — the “PR” Game. “Word of Mouth” is not accidental! You want Word of Mouth? Make it happen!

106. Beware complexifiers and complicators. (Truly “smart people” …. simplify things.)

This is what blog comment spam looks like. Automated bots post crap comments to countless blogs in an attempt to get more clicks to their crappy sex and pseudo-drug products. Yesterday, this pissant blog of mine received precisely 117 spam comments. If anyone knows of any effective ways to boomerang this garbage back to the originating sites or IPs, please let me know.

Takeaway for marketers: If you’re blogging, make sure your comments mode is set to “moderate all comments.” That way, none of this garbage will hit your public site, and you can flush it away relatively easily.