
Ask HN: Share an industry secret - ThomPete
Business: Advertising<p>Secret: Most agencies who pitch you several ideas, will often on purpose have one or two ideas they know you wont chose, so they can nudge you into selecting those they want you to choose.<p>Hopefully we can use this format.
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cm2012
Business: Direct Advertising.

Secret: All acquisition channels decline over time, due to audience fatigue
and increased competition as people realize a channel as positive ROI. You can
combat this with fresh creative but it only slows the slide.

Secret 2: All of the marketing psychology stuff, Edward Bernay's "propzganda",
etc., is not really used by direct marketers. A handful of things are useful
"tricks" (risk reversal, urgency, etc.) but marketing is not a handful of
magic spells. The creative itself is half about telling people your Unique
Value Proposition, and half empathy for your customer. Empathy is the root of
all expert creative.

Secret 3: The trick of direct marketing is not persuading people, it's getting
in front of people who already want what you have and making it easy for them
to get it.

~~~
HenryTheHorse
> The trick of direct marketing is not persuading people, it's getting in
> front of people who already want what you have and making it easy for them
> to get it.

Indeed. As we say in the software biz, find out who's already evaluating
products in a given category and go after them. As lucrative as it sounds, the
"educational sales cycle" is not for the young, the under-funded and the
starving.

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samelawrence
Electronic (non-vinyl) DJing isn't difficult at all. With a week of practice,
almost anyone with a good ear can learn the foundations to become a decent to
good DJ. Being a _great_ DJ takes time and attention to the crowd, as well as
creative selections and confidence as you start to involve yourself in the
industry and scene.

But the basics could be learned by anyone. It's also blindingly fun to DJ to a
group of people, so I suggest more people try it.

~~~
dennybritz
Are there any good resources to learn it? I've always wanted to do this.

~~~
ddmf
Get a cheap controller and have a play. I recommend the Numark Mixtrack III
[1] because it has an audio interface built in. I think it comes with Serato
software, but you could download a trial of Virtual DJ [2] too.

The software processes your mp3's to detect bpm. You then select songs with
similar energy and sound (this is what I feel makes a great dj), match the
bpm's together and then using the headphones to cue play them together in sync
and then using the fader you bring the other track in, then at some point fade
the other track out.

Advanced things to do are: 1) Loop the outgoing record - most dj software
allows for a single button to select and loop one bar. This allows you to mix
without worrying about the old song running out of time, and/or lyrics mashing
over one another. 2) Harmonic mixing.

Obligatory Plug [3]

[1] [http://www.numark.com/product/mixtrack-
pro-3](http://www.numark.com/product/mixtrack-pro-3) [2]
[http://www.virtualdj.com](http://www.virtualdj.com) [3]
[https://www.mixcloud.com/ddmfhsuk/june-cd-swap-bonkers-
mixta...](https://www.mixcloud.com/ddmfhsuk/june-cd-swap-bonkers-mixtape-
special/)

------
brianmeidell
Business: Games

Secret: Most game releases, however sturdy and flawless they might seem, are a
snapshot of a cardhouse in a storm, momentarily held together by baling wire,
gum and worn tufts of the souls of overworked game developers.

~~~
hippo8
This would hold true for most complex pieces of software really.

~~~
justinlardinois
Amen. Writing software the "right" way is time consuming and sometimes
difficult. With commercial software, developing more features and content is
often a more valuable use of developer time.

------
ThomPete
After a recent ASK HN thread [1] I've been looking for a different way to ask
that same question. Reddit did a great thread [2] a few days back and I would
love to see what the HN community could come up with.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007)
[2]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/3lh28b/share_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/3lh28b/share_an_industry_secret/)

