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Sohodojo profiled in PC Magazine
Bill Machrone understands 'Small is Good'

21 July 1999: Sohodojo was profiled in Bill Machrone's column, Web Success Formula, in the August issue of PC Magazine. (Sorry, this content is no longer on-line.)

Vice President of Technology for Ziff-Davis Publishing Company and editorial director for the Interactive Media and Development Group, Machrone is most publicly known for his opinion-leading column in ZD's flagship personal computing publication. Among the recurring themes of his influential column, Machrone is well-known for championing the importance of small business and special-interest websites on the Internet.

"Highly focused sites are an uptapped gold mine. Are advertisers paying attention?" writes Machrone, "Targeted advertising and sponsorship would make a world of difference to the fiscal health of many of these sites."

Right on, Bill! We don't know anyone who says it better or louder. Thank you for caring, not just for Sohodojo, but for all the small business special-interest sites, like ours, providing an alternative to the mega-corporate mega-sites. You truly are our favorite guitarslinging techno-journalist.

Thanks has its own reward...

The 100+ word profile, with URL, in the PC Magazine article is the result of a classic guerrilla marketing "long shot."

Machrone's column, Too Big for the Little Guys?, challenged readers to seek out and support special-interest small business websites.

In a move which collapsed the conventional "six degrees" of separation to a single degree, Machrone publicly invited the 1.2 million PC Magazine subscribers to drop him an e-mail pointing him to their favorite special-interest websites.

"I read Mr. Machrone's May column and knew I had to write to thank him for using his loud voice to speak on our behalf," Salmons recalls, "So I dashed off a truly sincere thank-you and included, as you might expect, a plug for our site."

"We knew it was a long-shot," Timlynn reflected, "But we felt good about saying thanks. And then we went quietly back to work on the dojo and didn't think much more about it."

Then, around the middle of July, the numbers started to spike. Jim and Timlynn began seeing qualitatively different e-mail communication from new visitors.

Nanocorper lesson learned? Take that chance. Tell your story to those who will listen. With good folks like Mr. Machrone around, we will be heard.
 

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