C’mon, give me some credit. Not even I would write an article that cheesy!
1
Sep 09
Even with a GMail outage, I’ll still take it over MS Outlook
Yep. It’s down. Image below via Google Apps Status.
GMail is down! Ahhhh! People are freaking out all over the internets.
As a PC user, I’ll gladly take an occasional GMail outage over:
- Outlook and waiting for messages to download
- Upgrading my spam filter regularly.
- Downloading Outlook upgrades via Windows download and rebooting my computer.
- Paying for Outlook version upgrades every couple years
- Random freezes and resource hogging.
And … it gave me time to write this brief blog post.
Thank you GMail 
17
Jun 09
Amazon Associates to Terminate North Carolina Members.
For those of us that still have some affiliate marketing sites using Amazon.com, this is unwelcome news. Will it also apply to Google AdSense and other online revenue generating tools?
via email from Amazon.com on June 17, 2009
We regret to inform you that the North Carolina state legislature (the General Assembly) appears ready to enact an unconstitutional tax collection scheme that would leave Amazon.com little choice but to end its relationships with North Carolina-based Associates. You are receiving this e-mail because our records indicate that you are an Amazon Associate and resident of North Carolina.
Please note that this is not an immediate termination notice and you are still a valued participant in the Associates Program. All referral fees earned on qualified traffic will continue to be paid as planned.
But because the new law is drafted to go into effect once enacted – which could happen in the next two weeks – we will have to terminate the participation of all North Carolina residents in the Amazon Associates program on or before that same day. After the termination day, we will no longer pay any referral fees for customers referred to Amazon.com or Endless.com nor will we accept new applications for the Associates program from North Carolina residents.
The unfortunate consequences of this legislation on North Carolina residents like you were explained in detail to key senators and representatives in Raleigh, including the leadership of the Senate, House, and both chambers’ finance committees. Other states, including Maryland, Minnesota, and Tennessee, considered nearly identical schemes, but rejected these proposals largely because of the adverse impact on their states’ residents.
The North Carolina General Assembly’s website is http://www.ncleg.net/, and additional information may be obtained from the Performance Marketing Alliance at http://www.performancemarketingalliance.com/.
We thank you for being part of the Amazon Associates program, and we will apprise you of the General Assembly’s action on this matter.
Sincerely,Amazon.com
5
Jun 09
Journalism and Authority
True story:
- Article which peaks your interest appears on some big newspaper.
- You like it so you Tweet about it, or link to it on Facebook.
- Someone in your network of friends reads it and says a couple facts are wrong.
- You go to Wikipedia and read about the topic.
- You follow some links out of Wikipedia to some research papers and/or niche sites and skim these.
- Meanwhile a rather large comment thread has developed on the article, and you get a few more opinions and links out to supplemental information. You read them.
- One of the “experts” quoted in the article has a Twitter and/or Facebook account. This “expert” links to the interview and claims a couple of facts were a little bit off and he was quoted out of context or incomplete.
Final Verdict?
The original article that started you on this journey was mostly right, but due to about 20-30 minutes of your own research figured out the author’s bias (a few years ago he did some consulting in the industry he wrote the article about).You also learned the facts were a tad off, but generally accurate. You also learned more from the extra research of value that you can’t believe this information wasn’t included in the originating article. You click over to the original article to offer feedback and realize several others already found the same thing.
What did the newspaper provide?
This third person experience happened to me.
The newspaper started the discussion. Got it rolling. But ultimately that journalist was not the authority – to me.
That is the single biggest noticeable change for me personally.
Before Web 2.0 an author of a “researched” article was perceived by me as an authority on a subject.
Today, they are simply someone who gets the ball rolling.
Can newspapers change and adapt to this?
8
Jan 09
Nintendo teaches Microsoft and Sony a lesson in Marketing 101
Forbes offers up insight into the game console battles that teaches a few important lessons in marketing. After a complex overengineering battle for the new set-top juggernaut between Microsoft and Sony (with Microsoft winning), Nintendo snuck by – focusing on family friendly games and letting the industry leaders beat the hell out of each other trying to be the biggest fastest and best.
Distraction.
If you can keep industry leaders in a protracted pissing match long enough you can find your opening. In war, this is finding your opponents weakness and seizing the opportunity. Pouring everything into that weakness and coming out victorious.
Sure, the Wii’s graphics aren’t the best. You also cannot play many of the popular games you can on the other two consoles. But it doesn’t matter. Nintendo made a human connection. It is those human connections that defy “processor speeds” and “graphic acceleration” which tend to quantify the two industry leaders.
It’s the same reason why, during the summer movie blockbusters, some innocent family friendly movie ends up being number one. While the latest superhero pics, sci-fi epics, and biopics on the latest hipster obsession-of-the-month vie for your attention – studios often forget that families like to go to the movies too. The studios that don’t usually end up laughing all the way to the bank.
Yes, the movie blockbuster’s strength is also it’s weakness. In the music world it happens all the time. Look at SubPop, Kranky, or Dischord – labels that create entirely new music scenes – ignoring what contemporary industry may define as “popular” music. (Interestingly, the music industry is in one of the most exciting rule changing eras in decades.)
When finding a niche for your blog, or product, think about Nintendo as you try to battle it out with the A-List players in your vertical market.
Instead of playing on their field by their rules, the best strategy may be creating your own field where you make the rules. Welcome to the world of niche marketing.
Disclaimer: My daughters got a Wii over the holidays. I cannot begin to tell you the amount of laughs, fights, and just plain fun times we have had over the past few weeks.
Read the Forbes article: Why XBox and SONY fell behind Wii
3
Dec 08
Google Blog Search letting other sites slip in their results pages
Today I was looking for unique musician gift ideas.
Whenever I am looking for something offbeat I prefer to search Google Blog Search as opposed to regular search. However, when I typed in “musician gifts”, I was shocked to see the e-commerce powerhouse Musician’s Friend in the list of “Recommended Blogs”.
Say what? See below:
Further on down the page was another suspect search result for – of all things – the homepage of a large Gannett newspaper:
Not sure what the deal is with this. Does anyone know what the criteria is for what makes it into Google Blog Search? Because these results CERTAINLY do not belong there.
What I like about Google Blog Search is the immediacy of information showing up in the search results. I like the offbeat nature of blog posts. They seem to do a good job of weeding out blog spam. Unfortunately it seems these large sites are somehow creeping into the results and it doesn’t make sense at all.
Musician’s Friend? “Recommended Blog?”
Are they PAYING for this placement?
C’mon guys.
10
Aug 08
The drip drip drip of Internet Marketing
Seth Godin has a way of saying so much in so little. Check out his latest post:
I discovered a lucky secret the hard way about thirty years ago: you can outlast the other guys if you try. If you stick at stuff that bores them, it accrues. Drip, drip, drip you win.
No one likes to write content for their BANS sites. Every category? Really? Do I have too? What If I just promote the hell out of it on Twitter or Squidoo? Nope. You need good content. You need to keep people coming back.
Seth continues:
It still takes ten years to become a success, web or no web. The frustrating part is that you see your tactics fail right away. The good news is that over time, you get the satisfaction of watching those tactics succeed right away.
This is why 90% of bloggers fail. This is why people will buy BANS software, setup a couple sites, and give up shortly thereafter. Seth continues on with a similar premise:
The trap: Show up at a new social network, invest two hours, be really aggressive with people, make some noise and then leave in disgust.
The trap: Use all your money to build a fancy website and leave no money or patience for the hundred revisions you’ll need to do.
The trap: read the tech blogs and fall in love with the bleeding-edge hip sites and lose focus on the long-term players that deliver real value.
The trap: sprint all day and run out of energy before the marathon even starts.
There are overnight success stories. There are guys that accidentally stumbled upon something great and now work just a few hours a week for a six figure income. But those guys are the exception. Not the rule. Chances are, if you are convinced you are one of those “exceptions”, you’re not.
Seth:
The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant results. Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that’s how long it’s going to take, guys.
Amen. Seth, I want to have your baby.
25
Jul 07
The “above the pagefold” myth.
BoxesandArrows has a great article about the lingering myth that important content (and even effective advertising) needs to remain above the fold. This is based on the author’s real world experience at AOL. A few nuggets:
On even being able to determine wherever the actual “fold” is:
In the ClickTale study, the three highest fold locations were 570, 590 and 600 pixels – apparently from different browsers running on 1024×768 screens. But the overall distribution of fold locations for the entire study was so varied that even these three sizes together only account for less than 26% of visits. What does all this mean? If you pick one pixel location on which to base the location of the fold when designing your screens, the best-case scenario is that you’ll get the fold line exactly right for only 10% of your visitors.
On the lingering pervasiveness of this myth:
And why? Because people think users don’t scroll. Jakob Nielsen wrote about the growing acceptance and understanding of scrolling in 1997, yet 10 years later we are still hearing that users don’t scroll.
Final thoughts:
Stop worrying about the fold. Don’t throw your best practices out the window, but stop cramming stuff above a certain pixel point. You’re not helping anyone. Open up your designs and give your users some visual breathing room. If your content is compelling enough your users will read it to the end.
Tons of great information in this detailed and realistic article. Check it out.
8
Jun 07
Movable Type 4.0 Released
Now that I have just about finished porting all my blogs over to Wordpress from Movable Type, they go ahead and launch a Beta MT product that actually looks pretty cool.
Here are some quotes from TechCrunch:
The new version of Movable Type is a radical departure from previous versions.
MT4 includes more than 50 new features including a new installation and upgrade wizard, easier and more powerful template management tools that speed site development, all new default templates and themes, and a completely redesigned user interface focused on streamlining common tasks.
MT4 as social media platform allows users to turn their readers into communities through Movable Type’s new community management features, with the ability to give users the right to post, add and share rich text and media posts with photos, videos, and audio. MT4 also includes a new ratings framework that enables a variety of recommendation features.
Scalability is dramatically improved with built in support for database caching through Data::Object Driver and Memcached, incorporating technology that powers Vox, LiveJournal and TypePad, as well as Web 2.0 sites including AOL, Microsoft, Digg, Wikipedia, Craigslist and Facebook.
I might leave my last blog Movable Type and use it as an excuse to really test this new version. Check out the TechCrunch article for screenshots and so forth.