jkincaid

I asked about this during the Q&A (seemed like a pretty big asterisk) and they said they have every intention of keeping it free as long as they can, provided that the margins on international calls cover the expenses for the free US/Canada calls. Fingers crossed.

I really don't think this idea is so far fetched, but I'm not exactly Rico Suave, either.

That said, I disagree with the linked article's advice on how to personalize a story for the writer you're targeting. Their example is to use a subject line like:

“Cindy – Loved your article on Buena’s robot makers + story idea”

This would be a great idea if it wasn't already abused to death. Unfortunately we constantly get pitches that begin in this format, and I now find it more annoying than anything — the compliments just seem really artificial. The worst offenders are the ones that craft subject lines to be misleading (i.e. making it sound like they have additional news to add to a story I recently wrote when their pitch is entirely unrelated).

All of that said, it's still great if you identify that a writer has expertise in a certain area and say that's why you directed your pitch to them (just hold off on complimenting them on some random article).

UPDATE: Looks like the page is back in action: http://en.pedalbrain.com/

EDIT: Also, I'm sort of interested to hear more about brand theory. I mean, isn't there a reason that Google isn't called "SearchEngine" and Dropbox isn't "CloudFileStorage"?

As for why they may have been passed over in the first place, I don't have a definitive answer, but a few things come to mind. First, the name sounds off alarm bells in my head (or at least, makes it sound mediocre). Given the dearth of good, brief domain names I know this isn't fair, but most sites we see that are 3+ words strung together in a non-clever way are terrible.

Also, I notice that the latest email I have from the founder was sent at 3:40AM on a Sunday (he's out in India, so that would probably explain it). If you're going to send a pitch, try doing it on a Wed-Fri, around noon or afternoon. The news cycle tends to slow down then (and I'm still at my desk), though there's no set rule.

Having seen quite a few pitches myself, one good thing you can do is point out your major flaws/obstacles before you're asked about them (assuming they don't clearly spell out your impending demise).

This may seem a little counterintuitive, but it lets you present the issue in a better light and explain how you're going to fix it, instead of having the investor feel like they've discovered a glaring weakness that you were trying to brush under the table. I believe lawyers use a similar technique.

One caveat to this: I'm a blogger/reporter, so investors may have a different perspective. But I'm guessing it holds true for them too.

For what it's worth, I specifically asked them if it was the kissing itself or the imagery of mens' buttocks that Apple objected to. Didn't get an answer to that question.

Sidenote: my best pick-me-up when I haven't eaten for too long are Triscuits, with a few glasses of water.

For example, with Facebook fan pages there used to be an option to hide which pages/groups you were a fan of. Now you can't do that — all of these are public. There is now no way to hide them without 'unfanning' them.

Yes, before the change if someone started looking through the many thousands (millions?) of fan pages they could have found you listed on one. But now it's just sitting on your profile page.

Exactly. People didn't care much about the granular stuff, just that only their friends could see what they were posting. With the changes FB has made to its settings (namely, the 'Everyone' setting that is now the default), that's no longer true.

For what it's worth, I was in the exact same group as you — Facebook came out while I was in college and I joined the day it came to my school. Exclusivity definitely played a part in helping it catch on, but I think Facebook's reputation as a "safe" site is what helped it make the jump from high school/college kids to everyone else.

This was actually how Facebook got popular in the first place. The whole point was that it was more private than the other social networks out there. As the site grew, one of its big selling points was its privacy control panel, which gave you granular control over how your content was shared.

Perhaps the perception has changed in the last year or two, but I think a lot of people signed up under the impression that Facebook is a safe/private site.

Daily Show gets watched by a more mainstream audience, and I suspect it's a demographic that plays a big part in making Apple's products popular.