About this Author
Gwen Smith Ishmael, Sr. Vice President of Insights and Innovation at Decision Analyst in Arlington, TX, has led marketing and new product development activities in the CPG and technology industries since 1986. She also conceived and developed ground-breaking Web-based promotional vehicles, two of which are patent pending. Gwen holds an MBA in Marketing and is a featured speaker on insights and innovation around the world. Her writings have been featured in international text books, most recently in Managing 4 Ps of Marketing FMCG Sector, and Product Innovation: A Strategic Tool for Growth, by ICFAI Publications, 2006 and 2007, respectively.
Founding Author
Renee Hopkins Callahan started IdeaFlow and serves as chief blog-wrangler. She is
Director of Innovation Services at Decision Analyst in Arlington, Texas, is a former journalist who worked as an editor and reporter for The Dallas Morning News and the Nashville Tennessean, and was managing editor of D, the Dallas city magazine. She has a master's degree in rhetoric and has also taught college-level English and informal logic.
1. Jim McGee on October 2, 2005 8:32 PM writes...
While this looks intriguing I find the price for an e-book is too high and the samples available too limited for me. The value equation doesn't compute even though I am a long time mind map user.
I follow Chuck's blog, but the copy pushing the book feels too much like the stuff I used to get trying to get me to sign up for over-priced professional newsletters.
Permalink to Comment2. Terry Frazier on October 3, 2005 12:03 AM writes...
I have to agree with Jim, the price is well beyond what I would pay for such an eBook and, based on the TOC provided, well short of what I would expect for the money.
That said, the marketing copy (and the general style of the entire sales page) looks to be formulated from one of the popular web marketing books. It's a style with which some people seem to have a great deal of success, but I think it has to be appropriate for the audience. The fact it's a single-page site on it's own URL makes me think Chuck is experimenting. Different messages for different audiences. Be interesting to see what sort of response he gets.
Permalink to Comment3. Chuck Frey on October 3, 2005 11:35 AM writes...
Indeed, that is the case. I am new to this whole arena of e-book marketing, and my e-book site's marketing copy is something of an experiment. I took some advice from the "leaders" in e-book marketing, but I can now see that people who read my Innovation Weblog are somewhat put off by the aggressive sales pitch. I plan to rewrite it soon to make it a bit less intrusive and provide more details on the value that my e-book actually provides.
I'm also in the process of developing 2 additional reports/tools that will be offered together with the e-book, to provide more value to potential buyers. Ultimately, I want to do the best job I can of informing businesspeople on how to get the most out of mind mapping software. It's just turning out to be an iterative process to arrive at the best approach.
Permalink to Comment4. Bob Elliott on October 5, 2005 1:22 PM writes...
I would agree with Jim about limited samples available. I even was not able to find out if our product Mind Pad was mentioned in this book.
On the other hand Chuck Frey is running a great web-site and blog and I'm sure the book is good. More over, mind mapping itself is priceless technique too.
Permalink to Comment5. Bob Elliott on October 17, 2005 6:37 AM writes...
Chuck Frey, author of “Power Tips&Strategies for Mind Mapping Software” provided us with opportunity to review his new e-book. Please, find our review here: http://www.mind-pad.com/blog/post/mappingtech/42/Review-of-Power-TipsStrategies-for-Mind-Mapping-Software-ebook
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