Hey Darren Barefoot just pointed me in the direction of Zoomii.com.

Zoomii bookstore shelves are pulled from Amazon data and you can zoom in, scan the shelves and click for book details. This is a cool idea: browse 22,060 books, search 156,580 books.

Got feedback? Pop over to the forum.

I’m going somewhere special on July 10.

Know all those photos, music files, documents and videos on your PC? Are they backed up regularly?

I’m a bit lazy when it comes to protecting my stuff. It’s like I’m in my teenage, invincible years. I haven’t been bitten yet by losing stuff.

One of my Boxcar Marketing clients, PutPlace is running a photo contest for a chance to win 100 GB of free storage and a $200 Amazon gift certificate.

You “Pull a Face” for PutPlace. I had some fun creating my own short photo story. And now I’m downloading PutPlace …

Wow, it’s July. What happened to June?

June 7: Scott’s Birthday

30 years old. Still a kid.

Out with the Lads

Racing Cars, Paint Ball and Batman

Babies and birthdays

Visiting Bob & Joan

Lots of Green in Winnipeg

June 10-14: Book Expo Canada in Toronto

Kissing Hands and Shaking Babies

Books are like babies. See the “holding pattern”.

Dot: Rep of the Year

Cocktail Party After Cocktail Party

Robert J Wiersema and Sandy Cooper: Two Publishing Folks with Whom I’m Always Happy to Share a Drink

Looking for Greenery in Toronto

June 21, 2008: Chad & Gillian Got Married

Turner-Riggs Babyspace made it out.

June 23: Calgary

Visiting a client and another little dude

June 23: Where the Hell Is Matt? Video Released

I was there. Here’s Matt Harding and I on film day, September 5, 2007.

June 27: Milkshakes at Modern Burger

June 28: Making My First Perfume

June 29: Strawberries

You Pick. You Pay. ($45 chiropractor visit + strawberries by volume picked)

Much more sensible. (1 flat, $27)

Who doesn’t like that.

Plus there were strawberry milkshakes.

Welcome to July …

The Amazon ranking for your title gives you an idea of how popular your book is in the past hour. A rank of 1 = the best, hottest selling book. The challenge with tracking your rank is that it changes over the day and doesn’t really tell you overall how you’re doing, just how you’re doing that hour.

Admittedly you can make assumptions about how well your book is doing by looking at different ranges, 1-1000 being damn good.

You can track your Amazon ranking by RSS or Twitter:
Booklert from MCQN.

Soles United is taking used Crocs (those holey shoes) and recycling them into new shoes, then donating them to people in need around the world. To date, Soles United has donated over a million shoes to people in need in places like Armenia, Cambodia, Chad, Darfur, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Philippines, Romania, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Quite the list.

Check out the Soles United website for a video on how it works and how to donate.

You may have seen it in the Globe and Mail or heard about it on the tv or radio, this week (June 9-14) was National Blood Donor week.

Canadian Blood Services, the national, not-for-profit charitable organization that manages the blood supply in Canada (except for Quebec), is running a campaign called “Because”. It’s purpose is to encourage people to donate blood, but also valuable platelets and plasma.

I like that the campaign ties the process of giving blood to the process of receiving it. Part of the campaign portrays blood recipients thanking the donors who have improved or even saved their lives.

Thankyourdonor.ca is a place where recipients can share their stories, photographs and videos about how receiving blood or blood products made a difference in their life.

Quote: From Canadian Blood Services:

Since blood donation is an anonymous gift, recipients normally have little opportunity to thank the people who may have saved their lives. “It is such a moving experience when recipients visit blood donor clinics to share their stories and thank donors for their generosity,” says Steve Harding, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at Canadian Blood Services. “With this social media initiative, we are trying replicate that experience on a wider scale so that more donors can witness first-hand the power of their donation.”

Personal stories can have a powerful impact on people’s motivations to donate. It can come across as a cheesy, overt play on emotions, or it can be a true heartfelt story from donors and recipients.

I like this video. It’s informational and personal.

Do you have a story to tell?

ThankYourDonor.com or YouTube.com/thankyourdonor or post comments here.

Have you given blood before? Do you regularly donate?

Have you ever received blood? I don’t know if I know anyone who’s received blood. Have you received blood?

Quillpill is a micro-blogging site, which is currently in private beta. The service lets users write and read content on mobile devices. Yes, it’s another version of Twitter, but Techcrunch had an interesting article about how Quillpill takes a totally different approach by wanting to know what stories you would like to tell. The site is primarily aimed at aspiring authors and readers of fiction.

See the full TechCrunch article …