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March 25, 2007

The Great Lawnmower Caper

Last week I tried a small experiment to determine the monetizability (which probably isn't a word, but you get the idea) of the Mini-Microsoft site. DISCLAIMER: I have no ability (or interest) in actually trying to turn the site into piles of cash, nor do I have any knowledge that Mr. da'Punk intends to. I was just CURIOUS about it.

Anyway, I had a lawnmower I wanted to sell. As I have mentioned, the extremely useful Micronews classified ads were transitioned to an online version which nobody reads. What people at Microsoft DO read is Mini-Microsoft. Someone had even made a comment (which I can't find right now) about how the site would be a great place to look for disgruntled Microsofties to hire. So, it seemed an obvious lateral thought to advertise the lawnmower on Mini-Microsoft.

I was pretty confident that Mini would accept the post, being an enlightened individual. Besides, it was bound to generate some discussion. Naturally it was all about the size of my brainpan, but I was actually hoping to sell the lawnmower. This is what being "agile" is about...put something in front of the customers, see how they respond, and iterate. Unfortunately, the ad didn't work...I did get some amused comments from inside the company, but no buyers (it is a nice lawnmower, really).

I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this. I'm pretty sure a lot of people at Microsoft read Mini-Microsoft, and I doubt anybody would ignore the lawnmower just because the advertising method was tacky. So I guess nobody wants a lawnmower right now...oh well (thinking about it, the reason I am selling it is because I hire somebody to mow my lawn, which might be true of many other employees). If you want a nice battery-operated lawnmower, you know where to find me.

I did accomplish one thing: encouraging KeeperPlanet to post on Mini-Microsoft asking for angel funding for his startup. You can't stop progress.

Posted by AdamBa at March 25, 2007 12:04 PM

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Comments

Did you even try posting your lawnmower on http://expo.live.com?

Posted by: Anonymous Coward at March 26, 2007 10:05 AM

This is hilarious! This is the kind of stuff that keeps me coming back to this blog.

I think I'm almost glad the mower didn't sell through minimsft though.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 26, 2007 10:18 AM

I did not yet post it to expo.live.com. I had no luck posting something else in the @microsoft.com section of it. I have heard that the main site works well, but I was hoping to sell it to a Microsoftie.

- adam

Posted by: Adam Barr at March 26, 2007 11:27 AM

I bought a lawnmower off expo.live.com - great deal. I believe it was from someone from google tho (the kirkland office).

Posted by: at March 27, 2007 10:00 AM