Not long ago my main laptop died. A river of swear words shot from my desk. I called support and they reassured me that they could have my baby back in working order in two weeks. TWO WEEKS!?? I have several other laptops that all run Linux, but, aren’t connected to the web for various reasons. Yep that’s right I was going to have to rough it off the grid for a whole two weeks.
At first I was really worried about my clients and how they were going to take the news. But I knew I had to tell them soon. So, I grabbed my netbook and hit up a wireless cafe. Their response was awesome. A few were rightfully upset that their projects were going to be delayed 2 weeks, but they were all understanding and I didn’t lose a single client! Sometimes polite brutal honesty really works well.
So now that I had contacted my clients I had to face the ugly reality that for the first time in close to 5 years I would be with out Internet access for longer than a week! What the hell was I going to do?? I ended up reading a few books and writing a bit. But, for the most part I did a lot of thinking. (more…)
WhosTalkin.com is a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations surrounding the topics that they care about most. Whether it be your favorite sport, favorite food, celebrity, or your company’s brand name; Whostalkin.com can help you join in on the conversations that you care about most.
Allen Stern just wrote a post in response to a post that Seth Godin wrote. Both of these men are exploring ways to compensate content creators, such as bloggers. They both are recommending that users click on the ads that bloggers display. Godin calls this a form of tipping. As you can assume there are quite a few that aren’t very happy about this.
Apparently Seth Godin has never worked for real tips, and might have never really appreciated any tips that he might have given. Why you ask? Real tips display gratitude based on transference of wealth. Click ads does not transfer any wealth from the person making the “tip” to the content creator.
To better understand this point lets pretend that I am at my favorite Italian restaurant “Gianotti’s”. If I have enjoyed my meal (which I always do) and if I have enjoyed the service then I enjoy leaving a tip for the server. This transference of wealth from my wallet to the server is genuine display of gratitude, because I am giving MY money for a service that I appreciate.
However, following the teachings of Godin and Stern, I should reach over to the guy sitting at the table beside me, take his wallet out and steal a few bucks from him and use it to tip my server.
If you have ever worked for tips you know that this is not only wrong for the obvious reason but it also looks disingenuous because you obviously haven’t valued their work enough to tip them with your own money, instead in the case of internet ads, you have made a simple click that require no extra effort or expense.
But there is a much deeper dangerous side to this practice that we as internet marketers should be concerned with. Click fraud devalues ad cost. If you really want to help the blogger then you will only click on the ads that you find useful and relevant. Why? Because the very basis for PPC is relevancy and if advertisers see a rise in CTR with out a rise in conversions then they will drop PPC ads like a bad habit FAST! Nobody likes wasting money on marketing!
So the question that Stern asked is still left unanswered. “How do you compensate content creators?” Here’s an idea: If content creators feel their content is valuable enough to receive compensation then why not add a PayPal Donate button to their side bar. This way visitors can actually give a real tip. Or if you would rather you could always give the content creator a bit more publicity by mentioning their post in your blog or telling folks about it There are numerous ways to compensate content creators with out cheating advertisers at the same time.
Not long ago, Marketing Pilgrim posted about some Hitwise data on real estate search terms and real estate web sites. As expected Realtor.com did very well ranking #1 as both the most visited real estate web site and the most used real estate search term. This wasn’t much of a surprise to those in the real estate industry. What surprised some (and still confuses me) is the list of most visited real estate web sites.
Hitwise Most Visited Real Estate Web Site Rankings
1. realtor.com – 9.08 percent
2. HomeGain – 2.44 percent
3. Yahoo Real Estate – 2.25 percent
4. RE/MAX real estate – 2.21 percent
5. Rent.com – 2.19 percent
6. Zillow – 2.06 percent
7. Apartments.com – 2 percent
8. Move.com – 1.91 percent
9. ZipRealty – 1.86 percent
10. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – 1.42 percent.
When I first saw that list I had this gut feeling that something was off. If any of you are familiar with my work in the past you know that I love crunching the numbers. So, lets take a look at what the numbers say:
zillow.comtrulia.comremax.comcentury21.com
As I expected my analysis shows Zillow.com doing better than REMAX.com. And, even more interesting is Trulia.com doing better than remax.com as well! Trulia.com isn’t even listed on Hitwise’s report!
Confused? So am I. But, don’t worry, I will explain all of this and more in a future guest post at Wolf-Howl.com….stay tuned!
Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.
Then maybe someone can help me understand these searches I ran:
Am I missing something?? Saying that you are bigger than Google is a damn big statement, and I would think that you should have some data to back yourself up!
Search Engine Round Table just pointed out that Google is now displaying a gay rights flag with in the SERPs for the term “gay”. There is much interest in this for various reasons that I am not going to discuss here. In Search Engine Round Table’s original post they stated that the gay pride flag wasn’t coming up in certain states, including South Carolina. Living in SC myself i decided to run the search term and see for myself. Search Engine Round Table was wrong it is coming up in SC, like it probably is else were. My screen shot is below:
So where’s the porn?
Take a look at that screen shot again. The ad in the top right hand corner is for a lovely adult themed gay site (NSFW). Now, don’t get me wrong I have nothing against gays and lesbians. I think they deserve the same rights and privileges as anyone else. However, I think that if you are going to make a corporate decision not to allow adult content in your advertising network then you should stick by it.
Personally I am fine with the gay rights flag. But the porn has to go. I would like a search engine where my niece can do research on diversity and different cultures with out seeing those ads!
One weekend while I was still in college I was hanging out with a friend of mine. He was browsing myspace on my computer and stumbled upon one of the many myspace groups that I belonged to. Next thing I hear is, “Hey man, all these people look like you!” When I looked at the screen I said, “that’s because they all have OI” “OI? Whats OI?” OI stands for Osteogenesis Imperfecta – a rare bone disorder that causes bones to fracture easily some times for no apparent reason. One of the common characteristics of folks with OI are similar facial features and blue sclera (which I have both). As my friend continued to browse he would ask me if I knew any of the people on the site. For the most part I didn’t know anyone on that site, except for maybe a few. This shocked my friend and he asked me, “Well, why don’t you know them?” My response was, “Well, its not like we all come from the same village!” And, then I thought, “but that would be cool!”
Years past and I graduated college with a degree in Political Science. While I looked for an avenue to start my career I began developing web sites for non-profits and small businesses. What started as a small part time way to make extra money, developed into a real business with clients from across the country. As time went on, more of my time was devoted to web development, I started to realize the amazing power of the web. A type of power that can transform individuals’ lives. For the first time I wasn’t reading how the internet was changing the world, I was experiencing it first hand!
One of the things that I realized is that the internet not only has the power to bring together lots of people. But it also has the amazing power to bring together groups of people that share a similar life experience but are geographically separated and isolated (like people with OI). Many times it is these types of connections that can be truly transformative.
As a web developer I am naturally creative and am always trying different things. So, when it came time for me to try my hand at developing a social networking portal it only seemed natural for me to develop a site that’s sole intention is to bring people with OI together.
While brainstorming I remembered the conversation I had with my friend in college. Instantly OIVillage was born!
Ok, so I know that I haven’t written anything here in a long time. I wonder how many times that last sentence is written in blogs? Well, anyways I am writing this entry to update those that care, about a few changes that have been going on. I am now on my second month as the IT Specialist/Web Developer at CENTURY 21 At The Beach. I never thought that I would ever work in Real Estate. However, one of the things that I have learned over the last year is that life is always full of surprises and those that open themselves up to the improbability of the future tend to be happier and more successful. I am not sure how long I will be at CENTURY 21, but I don’t think that Real Estate is an industry I want to make a career in.
I am still doing some web development for clients on the side but for the moment RBM is going pretty slow. I have a few projects that I want to work on. For example I ran across OpenLaszlo this morning and after previewing several of their example projects I am very interested in try to develop something in that platform. I also have been doing a lot of customization of WordPress 2.1.3 for a client and I am considering taking what I have done and packaging it as a separate product for sale.
Up until very recently I have been strictly opposed to Flash as a development platform for many reasons. However, I recently used it on the new site that I developed for my work. And I must admit that it is surprisingly fun to work with. I think that perhaps I will re-explore my issues with flash and maybe use it in the future….I will probably write a blog about it….so stay tuned!
Last night before I went to bed I turned on the TV and saw former President Jimmy Carter talking with Chris Matthews on MSNBC. For an hour the former President sat down and had an honest thought provoking discussion about the Middle East. Never before have I seen a former president speak with such articulaton and knowledge on a topic that he cares so greatly about, as I did last night. While at times his words were a bit to forgiving on the side of Isreal, he reminded me that there are faults on both sides.
His critique of the Christian right’s support of Isreal was both insightful and engaging. It was refreshing to say the least to see an American politician do so well on national TV.
I would advise that you read Carter’s new book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, I know I am!
