Chinese manufacturer Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. failed to get clearance from Chinese regulators to complete acquisition of GM’s flaming turd Hummer. For the last year, GM has been seeking suckers to purchase their losing brand and signed a deal in October 2009 with Tengzhong. China’s auto industry is booming, but regulators are working to streamline and slow investment rather than attract newcomers.

In a statement, Tengzhong said it was disappointed that it could not pursue the opportunity to build attractive, greener vehicles for sale in China and other new markets as well as Hummer’s traditional bases.

John Smith, GM vice president of corporate planning and alliances, stated shortly after, “The Hummer line is the only brand in the world that can claim a ‘most fuel-efficient’ model (H3) and still only get 16 mpg. I think they’re going to be really sorry they missed out on this.” More »

“BRING THE OLD FACEBOOK BACK!!! NOT THE LAST ONE BUT THE ONE BEFORE THAT, BUT DEFINITELY NOT THIS ONE!!!”

Every time Facebook makes an update, something terrible happens….

Users break out random garden tools, light the torches and start marching toward the rash of new Facebook Groups springing up declaring their hatred of the improved layout and convenient features. I get it, Mom packed you a sandwich for lunch and you always get PB&J. WHY, today, would she choose to change it to strawberry jelly, when you’re happy with (and expecting) grape?? It’s a comfort zone thing. It’s a new learning experience. But the end of the world, it is not.

Before you sharpen the tines on your pitchfork and do something foolish like threatening to return to MySpace (where nothing ever changes), try one of these and if they work for you, consider suggesting them to the village people in your anti-change Facebook Group as well: More »

A couple months back, Microsoft unloaded 80 to 100 million dollars on commercial advertising for their new “decision engine” Bing. I have to admit, I might have lol’d a little at their campaign. But come on, it was awesome. They must have hired someone with a Mac sense of humor. In case you missed it, here’s some examples:

So what does this have to do with SEO? More »

Lou Holtz’s famous quote that gets thrown around for inspiration daily online is: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.”

I respectfully disagree.

If 90% of your life is reacting, you’re spending too much time getting acted upon. If you live your life making things happen for you, much less of your life will consist of things happening to you.

So the next time you hear someone quote that lay-down-and-die until you have something to do mentality, you fire back with this:

Life is 50/50. 50% what you cause to happen, and 50% how you react to what’s happening.
Unreasonable Rule #2 – Nathan Cheeley

Tweet This Rule!

Because in a nutshell:

I’d stop talking to my best friend online if he had an agenda.

There, I said it.

I don’t care how carefully you tip-toe around, unless you’re “socializing and making friends” online with a bunch of other internet marketers, no matter how friendly or inviting your money-links are they will (almost) always be highly irrelevant to me when I’m busting someone’s chops online for liking the latest Black Eyed Peas single. More »

Does it ever bother you that Facebook seemingly has a death grip on your pages? I mean sure by default they give you a little text box you can sort of put text or absolute links into, but …. c’mon, right?

Ok so check this out – I created a quick video for Site Source 101 on how to customize your Facebook Fan page to include a HTML widget (note: This is not currently applicable to your profile page).

If you aren’t doing this yet you need to be, especially if your fans are throwing your page around to their friends’ feeds. Think of all your options here. You could: More »

Conventional wisdom tells us not to bite off more than we can chew.

I say, go for it.

Provided, you are better than average at chewing.

Bite off more than you can chew. Then chew like hell.
-Unreasonable Rule #1, Nathan Cheeley

Tweet This Rule!

July 19, 2009 is a date that has already taken on meaning to all Best Buy associates. For them, it is the official launch day for getting paid to tweet to existing and potential customers – the day @TwelpForce goes live, according to Bloomberg.

Twelpforce is Best Buy’s answer to leveraging employee downtime to harness a little social media power with the intent to bring more customers in the doors. One awkwardly positive post praises Best Buy for their innovation in this initiative, though it should be noted that Dell actually pioneered this form of customer service in 2007 well before the Twitterverse explosion and saw a ROI of over $3M (source). But of course, I’m writing this because I’m not so optimistic for the ol’ boys in blue. Especially not after today…
More »

A fire in Fisher Plaza, Seattle has cause a massive power outage causing leading IP-based payment gateway solution Authorize.Net to go down around approximately 11:15pm PST (last night).

A traffic reporter for KOMO News that operates out of Fisher Plaza tweeted that a fire set off the sprinkler system which fried the generators. (source)

One forum post says firefighters have not yet allowed re-entry to the area, so no emergency backup plans have begun as of 10:26am EST. This is according to an informant who spoke to the UK branch of Authorize.Net. (source)
More »

I see this every day.

“I have a business and people depending on me but I want to finally commit to being a rockstar and start making music. How can I do this?”

If you’ve asked this question, or something similar, you’re missing the ultimate point of your aspirations.

The most popular is, “I want to go back to school.” But do you really? Is there a real need, or just a want to feel like you’re moving in the right direction? There are two simple questions you need to ask yourself before committing to a life-changing event, no matter how good your intentions are that will unearth the less obvious and more realistic path to success.

More »