John McCain has taken an interesting step to get people signed up for his email alerts. He has posted his NCAA college basketball tournament picks and is encouraging his supporters to fill one out on his site as well. The important part of this is that you have to sign up for email alerts to see his picks. It’s an interesting gimmick that is likely to drive up the numbers of people receiving his updates. In an ever competitive world online, little things like this can go a long way in helping your cause.

Now for the bad. What is up with his picks? He picked a couple of 10-seeds and I think a 9 and that’s it. Anyone who knows college hoops knows an 11 here or a 12 there is going to win too. Picking the highest ranked teams to go all the way is a sure-fire way of losing your office (or online) pool come end of tourney time.