There are so many excellent items from Mark Mayerson’s site. The ones I’m passing along here are of interest to microISVs and other entrepreneur types, but I recommend you just subscribe because they’re all noteworthy.

Paraphrasing the first item, the heads of large media companies can’t tell what audiences want. So they produce all this content and then try marketing gimmicks and special effects to ram it down your throat.

Here’s the kicker:

They’re stuck having to guess what creative properties will attract that audience. If you can attract your own audience, you’ve beaten the system.

The point for entrepreneurs is not to follow the examples of the big guys, trying to sell another spreadsheet or social networking site, but to sell your own story. Then you won’t need to use pricing, or coupons or marketing gimmicks to win customers.

The last link to Mark’s site I plan to post for a while is a pointer to some really good specific marketing ideas from a guy named Scott Kirsner. Boiling it down, the principles behind his action plans are develop for niche markets and be part of the community you’re marketing to (and market to the community you’re part of).