Going green for the cheap bastard

I have a pretty jaded outlook on carbon emissions, reducing my footprint and green initiatives in general. While I understand intellectually that we are all in this together, at the end of the day I have to stand alone and pay my bills and support my family. For this reason I approach any investment in carbon reduction strategies with a very simple question: "What's in it for me"?

With this in mind I set out this year to lower my carbon footprint and make some money at the same time.

In looking at a very wide reaching assortment of possibilities only a few rose to the top of the list when looked at in the cold hard light of the "ROI" day...

1. Buy the most efficient hot water heater you can find. In my case I purchased a heat pump "GeoSpring" heater from GE and have been mightily impressed. It drove my monthly electric bill down to $40/month from upwards of $145/month - resulting in a 10 month pay back. This is a no brainer and something almost everyone should do.

2. Seal up your basement. After reviewing many other options the one that rose to the top of my list was having a layer of foam applied around the inside of my foundation in the basement. Sealing up your basement may seem like an odd way to save money - but this prevents cold air from being drawn up into the house from your basement and can keep the whole house warmer. Since I spend upwards of $2500/year on heat - saving $500/year for a $2500 investment has the next quickest payback period (and keeps my feet warmer).

3. Up next will be replacing some of the older windows on my house and applying more insulation to the attic.

4. A high efficiency clothes washer is on the list as well. There is no real payback on this but for $400 i can get a cheap HE washer and should save roughly $50/year on electricity. In this case I needed a clothes washer anyway so it made sense paying the extra $100 for a HE model.

Sadly - this is a far as I see going. I've explored going solar and at a 10+ year payback (even with tax incentives) it just doesn't make sense. Solar hot water might have been an ok idea - but since my new high tech hot water heater (which would have been necessary even with a solar hot water heater) the payback for this investment is too far off as well.

Electric vehicles just don't work for my lifestyle or northeast climate, drill well heat pumps are really expensive and digging out the entire foundation and applying external insulation is really really expensive.

Good luck and happy dollar hunting.

In search of happiness

A few weeks ago I posted this on my facebook page:

I hate two things above all else: 1. My fucking complex life and 2. Slow internet.

A few people chimed in - most to basically say "quit your whining you 50 year old bastard". On one hand they were right. Compared with 90% of the world I have nothing to be sad about.

1. I have never known real hunger. I might have eaten my share of ramen and rice, but I've never really been hungry in my life.

2. I have never gone without shelter. Be it a tent or 71 VW bus or my current ramshackle house, I've never had to make it through rain or snow without reliable shelter.

3. I have never know true poverty. Even in the midst of making huge spousal support payment to my ex and working 3 jobs to make ends meet I could still enjoy good beer and skiing. That might be tough times, but it is a far cry from poverty.

4. I have never had to go without health care. Even when I broke my hand in the 80's and had to pay for the care myself, I still didn't need to worry about the quality or availability of health care.

So here is the kicker. I'm still up nearly every night staring into the darkness wondering what the fuck I'm doing with my life. Why? Because it turns out happiness has nothing to do with all the bullshit things I've been working towards.

Happiness in life - once you have the basics taken care of, require things beyond work satisfaction and affordable health care.

1. You need a stable and happy family life. If you aren't getting along with your wife or children your life will suck even if you can afford ski trips.

2. You need to feel good about your body. Groovy jackets and boots don't hide a lame and slowing body.

3. You need to get past regrets. I've got no suggestions here.

4. You need to be able to sleep reliably. Oddly enough I don't ever recall having trouble sleeping when I had a belly full of cheap ramen and rice and was sleeping on rocky ground in the midst of the Joshua Tree desert.

So while my whining seems trite compared to the plight of much of the rest of the world I'd happily eat more ramen if I could make some progress towards any of the previous 4.

Google online survey tool - Invasion of privacy or marketing miracle?

Your boss has just asked you to survey a representative sample of all dog owners in the US to help decide between one of two new logo’s for a new line of dog food. No pressure, just a make or break decision that might impact the rest of your career. And by the way, you have only 3 days to get the data and a total budget of $500.

For years (or maybe even centuries) marketers have faced the knowledge dilemma. Getting really good statistically valid data to inform good decision making from potential customers takes a long time and is expensive. The time and money allocated to gathering this type of data is frequently an afterthought and is rarely enough. This leaves marketers stuck with less than perfect data (usually gathered from friends, “personal experience” or the ever popular “WAG” technique).

When Google quietly launched their online survey tool (http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/) earlier this month they ushered in a new era in market research – one that promises accurate, timely and affordable information to guide nearly any marketing decision. The most surprising part of this news wasn’t the creation of the tool, but rather the low key way it was announced. As you understand how the tool works the reason for the “soft launch” may become clear.

For website owners, the google survey tool offers a new way to monetize website traffic through the creation of a “survey gate” in front of protected content. The google survey tool allows website owners to force website visitors to answer one survey question in order to proceed to view the content on their websites that have been “survey gated”. This promises to generate revenue from traffic in a less obtrusive fashion than requiring payment and a more consistent fashion than the traditional low paying “pay per click” ad units.

For web visitors the act of answering a simple survey question to proceed to interesting content seems like an easy trade off – so everyone wins. Sort of.

The catch to all of this is the fact that Google pairs the website visitor’s DoubleClick cookie information with the survey answer. This means that even though the website visitor only answered one question, the survey tool can pair this answer with the demographic information that Google can glean from the DoubleClick cookie. What sort of demographic information?

In addition to raw data, charts summarize responses and insights highlight interesting differences. Using the DoubleClick cookie and the respondent’s IP address, Google Consumer Surveys infers demographic and geographic information for each response so you can easily segment by age, gender, location and more.

To see what Google means by “more” take a look at an actual survey that Google has made publically accessible:

http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/view?survey=vy24qoa4gkhpu&question=3&insights=1

You can see that Google has determined the survey respondent’s income level, gender, location (urban or rural) and age – all without the survey respondents having to answer a single demographic question.

As is frequently the case with Google tools – as a marketer I’m excited by the prospect of inexpensive and accurate information. As a consumer I’m concerned about the information that I’m essentially giving away online. I suspect that we will be seeing other companies follow suit with similar products and the concept of a “survey gate” will gain increasing popularity.