Marketing Pilgrim

It’s almost a bit ironic that Aol would announce their new deal site at about the time that the world figures it can’t take another one of these things. American Express is along for the ride on this one with its new Serve platform.

ReadWriteWeb reports

The recently launched digital payment and commerce platform from American Express known as Serve has just announced a new partnership with Patch, AOL’s big bet on hyperlocal news and content. Under the new partnership, Serve will power the Patch Deals platform, which will now offer Patch users deals and discounts, Groupon-style, with local merchants on the American Express network.

Now that Lebron James has fallen, who is the world going to turn to vilify? Well, if the information that was given by the Business Insider is correct it could be that another one of the mighty is beginning to show some wear and tear. That entity would be Facebook.

Business Insider’s SAI reports that Facebook is actually losing users in the countries where its meteoric rise to importance began.

Something strange is going on: Facebook is losing customers.

Lots of customers. According to Inside Facebook’s data service, Facebook lost 6 million users in the U.S. last month, dropping from 155.2 million to 149.4 million. That’s the first time U.S. numbers have dropped in more than a year.

Have you noticed that things seem to be getting easier? With open source programs like WordPress you can easily start your own web site with a multitude of different features for hardly any money. With services like PayPal and Freshbooks you can invoice your clients through email. With social media we are finding new ways to engage with users. Even Google is making IT easier with Google Docs and Gmail.

As marketers and entrepreneurs this is all supposed to make us better, right? If you are Douglas Rushoff, then the answer is no. In Rushoff’s book he tells us that the more you use, the more likely you are to be used. He says that if you aren’t a programmer then you are part of the program. These are pretty strong words for a time when marketers are investing record amounts in one channel that is dominated by one corporation.

Earlier this year, Apple launched a program that allowed digital magazine publishers to easily sell subscriptions through iTunes. Unfortunately, the deal came with some hefty restrictions that made it hard for small publishers to make a profit. Now, Apple has decided to relax the rules and in turn, will probably make more money than ever.

The original rule required publishers who used iPad or iPhone apps to sell their subscriptions through the app, giving Apple a 30% cut. Under the new rules, this is no longer a requirement.

Even harsher was a requirement stating that publishers who did sell through iTunes, couldn’t offer a cheaper alternative anywhere else, including their own websites. The new rules allow publishers to set the price points any way they see fit.

We’ve all been told not to take candy from strangers, but advice is a whole different matter. According to a new report from Meebo, more than half the people surveyed went to someone they didn’t know when looking for advice on the web.

Here are some of the stats:

• 53% of people said they want to get advice from someone who is knowledgeable about a topic, but whom they don’t know.
• More than a third of the population (38%) turn to anonymous sources for product and service recommendations.
• 41% of people would prefer to connect with “everyday experts” on travel information, whereas only 17% would turn to people they already know.
• 43% would turn to unknowns for recipes or cooking-related content, while only 22% would connect with people they know.

Big business in the Internet space is all about scale. How a business can effectively reach scale without losing its shirt is a pretty obvious indicator of their ability to succeed moving forward. Why do you think there was so much hand wringing over the Groupon numbers recently? Scale is costing money which means they are losing money. Not good.

Well, Twitter wants to do things a little differently and it’s about time. The still mythical revenue bird is getting more attention especially since Twitter and Apple are sharing a nest. So what is Twitter looking to do to pump up the revenue volume? Be just like any other Internet monolith: automate.

Mashable reports

Twitter plans to offer an automated ad-buying system for small businesses that should lead to a torrent of new advertising for the platform.