IT’S hard to comment about about something that appears like “ghost” marketing (marketing an “unavailable” product), though this new approach to seems to be popping up more and more these days. You know the basic story: A product or service fails “due to COVID,” and whether the failing is real or not, public response results in a rush of demand, creating a sales boom, often with the product being offered at higher price. Clever, if, in fact, it’s all true. But whether true or ...

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TO follow or lead – that is the question. The publishing world is in such change these days, that much of what we authors used to be able to depend on regarding publicity and marketing is now “out the window” and there’s nothing I’ve seen as yet to replace it. The only solid baseline is and continues to be direct guerrilla publicity and marketing from the author, and, with the rapidly increasing numbers of authors, even it’s impact is slowly being diluted out. I recently finished ...

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OKAY, so this may sound a but surprising, given the title of today’s post, but “I’m Raymond Gaynor and I’m a plant lover” (if you haven’t already guess that). I live in a high-rise condo and have a small two-foot wide outdoor porch upon which I exercise my secret love, openly, yes, in public. Right now I have three pots of Japanese cucumbers, one of Charentais Cantaloupe, one of Japanese onions, one of hybrid bush tomatoes and one of tiny, mildly spicy Oriental green peppers. One ...

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It's becoming harder these days to find unbiased news. What used to be dry factual reporting seems to have swung to its counterpoint: interpretation and opinion. What's missing, in my opinion, is BALANCE. But by balance I don't mean the "mean." 

Good news reporting involves presenting the facts (to be interpreted in various ways by the viewer/listener) and meaning (as be interpreted in various ways by the preparer/broadcaster). "Weighting" the news based on popularity moves it into the realm o...
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"Fake news" isn't new. It's been around for centuries in the form of gossip. But society's never had a platform whereby gossip could be shared on a mass global basis, where its mere repetition and topic popularity could elevate it from believability to assumed truth. Bad news in a rapidly globalizing world, where politics and governments can depend on popular "news" to remain in power. 

The ancient Greeks taught us that there are five appeals that we as humans tend to accept: 1) logos (well-re...
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Let's get something straight right from the beginning. Much of today's stated ideas regarding "investment" is simply gambling.

In my mind -- and admittedly it's an old (and hopefully wiser) one -- gambling is about risking everything for an uncertain return. Few would disagree. But today's idea of "investment" is that any "fees" as well as any "principal" initially put up is liable to loss; in many instances the "investor" can even incur debt! What an "investment" means to me, is that any and...
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