Great story in last week's Business Week about word-of-mouth strategies at Procter & Gamble, which already in test markets has doubled sales of certain products. The story is worth a read for anyone engaged in or interested in word-of-mouth marketing as a legitimate, significant and measurable arm of your marketing strategy. This could very well be the most influential and powerful marketing channel available to marketers in ten years.

Once a month I receive my paper-based issue of the Kirkland Courier in the mail at home. It's the newspaper of record for the suburban Seattle town where my wife and I live. It's a great little newspaper, lots of good local news, and even the ads are worth reading (since they're for local businesses I might be interested in).

But blogs are the future, led by citizen journalists like Steve & Janis Rabuchin. They operate the Kirkland Blog, which focuses on everything Kirkland - restaurant reviews, upcoming community events, local community profiles, etc.

It works so well (as do most blogs) because it's highly relevant, well written, and very timely. I don't have to wait four weeks to read about a new restaurant in the Courier. Steve and Janis give their opinion, based on having been there, and then other readers can chime in to say if they agree or disagree. It's intensely relevant citizen reporting at its best.

You gotta give this guy credit for trying. I've seen other promotions like this on other Web sites, that apparently have success. If it can work for them, why couldn't this guy fund his house? Or at least a down payment?

http://www.startingwithadollar.com/