Kinda weird to be in Bloglines and not be able to get out …
And I so wanted to visit Scoble today!
[tags] bloglines, scoble, movie, john koetsier [/tags]Tag - social media
OK, I’m the last one in the world to see it, but it’s still cool:
Love the tagline: “Your World. Sorry about that.” Very Douglas Adams.
[tags] first life, second life, john koetsier [/tags]I did something today I haven’t done for over a month … visit Slashdot.
Two, three years ago, I used to visit Slashdot about 15 times a day. Now it’s Original Signal and popurls.
[tags] slashdot, original signal, popurls, john koetsier [/tags]On a bit of an edtech kick lately. Noticed these today and wanted to save them:
- E-learning infiltrates the classroom
- Gradefix (“the easiest way to get good grades”)
- Google for educators
- stu.dicio.us (collaborative classnotes sharing)
- Digital printing press
Intranets that work – as opposed to those that just sit and gather dust – are near and dear to my heart lately.
Innovation Creators and Read/Write Web are running a poll to determine which are the best new read/write intranets:
One change I wouldn’t mind seeing: a subset that are open-source or free.
[tags] intranet, read/write, john koetsier [/tags]Robert Hruzek’s Let’s be Brief contest is starting today, for which I am a judge (along with the estimable Shawn Callahan).
All you have to do to enter and win undying fame, massive linkage, and maybe even something of a more pecuniary nature (dream on!) is write a comment on this post.
An early favorite of mine is this one:
Addicted to blogging. Seeking new job.
There’s just so many ways you can read that!
[tags] contest, lets be brief, robert hruzek, john koetsier [/tags]Skype rocks and making group podcasts together could be so easy … if only you could record easily. Here are two apps I’m looking at that will fit the bill.
(Why Skype doesn’t include this option as an extra I’ll have no clue.)
[tags] skype, podcast, mac, record, john koetsier [/tags]This is the best IBM advertising I have ever seen:
I can’t remember where I saw it – sorry! – but someone was blogging about this as the Jon Stewartization of corporate communications. Smart, funny, ironic, not too self-serving, not too serious, very aware of stereotypes and opinions of others.
Love it!
Not only is iPhone the most popular search term today at Technorati, the number of posts tagged iphone is exploding:
I guess that’s what a Jobs keynote and a revolutionary tech device will bring you …
[tags] iphone, technorati, blogging, john koetsier [/tags]Robert Hruzek is running a Wired-inspired writing contest that I’ve agreed to help judge.
Alright, readers, let’s see how many budding writers there really are out there. Are you willing to take the challenge? If you had only six words to tell an entire story, what would you say? Take your time, but when finished submit them here via comments and they’ll be posted for all the world to see. (At least, for all who stop by the Zone, anyway. *Sigh* One day, the world.) Please bear in mind, this is a G-rated blog; I’ll delete inappropriate entries. (I have the POWER! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!)
The fun all starts on January 15th, so be sure to tune in to Middle Zone Musings in about a week and enter your hemingway (sorry, shameless neologism).
Oh, and btw, I am eminently bribable. New MacBooks and HK audio equipment are best.
The best one I can think up on the spur of about three moments?
Too fast. Overpass. Not passing over.
[tags] contest, hemingway, middle zone, robert hruzek, john koetsier [/tags]
This post is a follow-up to my recent web2.0 monetization post.
In order to make money in the web 2.0 world, you need to reduce the cost of product to almost zero. That’s because the means of web monetization are almost all very marginal.
(See my list in linked post above if you don’t agree. If you don’t – great! Share your secret.)
So how do you reduce your cost of product to almost zero? There are three ways I can think of:
- Outsource
Get your infrastructure built cheaply, at least when starting up. India, China, Eastern Europe, developing Asia, whatever. Get it built cheap. - Crowdsource
Build something that increases in value as people use it and share it. (And, as should be obvious) build something that has enough value that people will use it even before other people have started using it.) Note that when I use the term crowdsource, I don’t mean use people to build your empire. I mean providing something with enough built-in utility that people will freely decide to use your services because your services meet a need they have. - Automate
Google has two huge assets: a great search platform and a great advertising platform. Both are almost completely automated … they run by themselves. Build something that runs by itself – the fabled perpetual motion machine – and find a way to make penny every cycle, and you’ve just built yourself a wealth engine. (Of course, it’s the almost completely part that some people forget.)
Most web2.0 companies struggle with issues of monetization. As I see it, you’ve got about 5 options:
- Sell attention (aka advertising)
- Sell relationships (aka partnerships)
- Sell content (aka syndication)
- Sell services (aka charge for access)
- Sell products (aka old-skewl)
Selling attention requires scale – big scale, because attention is so ephemeral these days people don’t pay much for it. Example: MySpace, Digg, Google.
Selling relationships requires relevance – tight connection to the partnering company. It also helps if the relationship with your clients is a deep one – clients are more likely to follow up on establish a relationship with your partner company if they already have a really good relationship with you. Example: Flickr and Moo (yummy awesome business personal cards).
Selling content requires scale too, but also quality. And, unfortunately, a sales force, which means overhead. Example: BlogBurst.
Selling services requires infrastructure … real value that people can be convinced to pay for, and the demonstrated ability to deliver on them. Example: 37Signals.
Selling products requires meatspace infrastructure. Yuck. Much better to revert to selling relationships and outsourcing the production and transportation of atoms.
[tags] web2.0, monetization, startup, venture, john koetsier [/tags]
Happy new year to all readers and incidental visitors of bizhack. This promised to be an exciting year both for the web as a whole and personally for me.
Interesting, amazing, wonderful (and sometimes ominous) things are happening online. Huge acquisitions and major announcements by the big players are inevitable … as are wonderfully exciting and rapidly growing little things, unnoticed until the doubling effect hits the 29th day and we all stand amazed at the latest startup that went from 0 to 100 in 5 months or less.
Personally, I’ve got 2 irons in the fire: fatboynews and an as-yet-unannounced joint venture with a biz-dev buddy. My hopes are high that those will be blessed and successful (even if not YouTubes!) and that the dawning of 2008 will be even more exciting.
To you and yours: may you have a wonderful, exciting, challenging, beautiful, growth-filled, and prosperous 2007!
[tags] new year, 2007, 2008, 2006, fatboynews, startup, john koetsier [/tags]
Nicolas Koenig recently posted ModernCaptcha, a comment spam protection technology inspired by Seth Godin that is far easier to use than most captchas.
On the one hand, this is great because captchas suck. Hard. They’re difficult to read, annoying, slow down the user experience, and make people feel stupid when they can’t get them right.
In Koenig’s implementation, all you have to do is match a well-known logo to a web address. Simple – right? Probably – if you’re a reasonably savvy web user. Maybe not, however, if you’re not an English speaker or familiar with major tech companies.
But the biggest issue I have with any form of captcha is that they slow down the read-write web. They’re web 2.0 friction. And there’s a better way.
Crowdsource your comment spam problem
Akismet is a simple idea implemented amazingly well: use collective intelligence from all over the web to identify comment spam on blogs and other social spaces online.
It works amazingly well – capturing well over 99% of the comment spam on this blog. That’s about 30,000 comment spams in the past year or so.
What this allows you to do is outsource your comment-spam-control problem. Or, to be even more buzzword-compliant, crowd-source it.
The best captcha is no captcha at all.
[tags] captcha, seth godin, Nicolas Koenig, modern captcha, comment spam, john koetsier [/tags]Here are a few things that have caught my eye lately. Usually these types of articles hang around in Safari tabs for days until I stick ’em up on del.icio.us. Maybe I’ll start just blogging them, link-blog-style, from now on …
- How to have an overnight internet success story
While any compelling Internet service can benefit from word of mouth exposure, not every compelling consumer Internet service possesses the proper characteristics to rely on viral distribution. I’d like to propose a new definition for what qualifies as a viral Internet service. A viral Internet service is one where each new user must involve friends to derive personal value from the service.
- Your company’s social media score
Many companies want to get involved in social media. Some see the promise of building closer relationships with stakeholders (customers, employees, partners, etc…). While others are excited about new marketing methods they must try. The novelty of social media is wearing off. That’s a good thing. Now we can get down to what it is really good for …
- Making sure my peanut butter is thick and crunchy
I was reading Brad Garlinghouse’s Peanut Butter Manifesto about Yahoo’s strategy having been spread too thin across too many opportunities. Quoting the memo:
I’ve heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular. I hate peanut butter. We all should.
- The 20 smartest companies to start right now
Social-networking sites may be sprouting like weeds, but none yet operates as a bona fide marketplace, with members buying and selling their own creations as much as they blog, link, and post. Breyer, who sits on Wal-Mart’s board, is interested in backing an international network for indie artists, musicians, filmmakers, authors, designers, and other creative types from dozens of countries.
Well it’s the morning after and I have to decide if I can still live with myself.
Yesterday, of course, I dipped my toes in the (murky?) waters of paid reviews with Review: Search Engine Marketing Glossary. Today I see that my review has been accepted and I’ll be paid $30.
A buck a minute isn’t too bad – it sure beats Google AdWords – but how do I feel about writing a post for money?
Short answer: I’m not sure yet. It definitely feels different … frankly, it feels a little frightening. Am I OK with this? Is it right?
I don’t think paid reviews are unethical when there’s full disclosure. I think the ambivalence that I’m feeling rises from the fact that my blog, my space, my stake in the cyber-sand, which I have only used so far for personal and professional thinking out loud, now has a commercial feel to it – more than what you’d get from AdWords or banner ads.
I’ll have to think this one through a little more …
. . .
. . .
Some other thoughts:
- Why I won’t use Pay-per-post
- Can someone tell me why?
- Hugh McLeod’s “pimped” wine (read the comments, that’s where the gems are)
- ReviewMe Launches (a paid review of the paid review service!)
- A Better PayPerPost (TechCrunch’s review)
- ReviewMe: Too Good for Deep Jive Interests (a good blog that inexplicably was rejected by ReviewMe)
- Get Paid to Review Product
- ReviewMe to pay bloggers (check the rates of various sites about midway through this article – interesting!)
What are people comfortable sharing with complete strangers in this brave new web 2.0 world? The Attention Company recently released a study on what people are OK with posting on the internet.
It’s a great no-nonsense down-to-earth report that’s easy to read – if you have any interest in online behavior, check it out. (Read/Write Web also has some comments.)
The part I found most interesting was what people are willing to post online:
Stuff about themselves …
- Educational background (66%)
- Job title/function (63%)
- Name (54%)
- City of residence (53%)
- Photograph (53%)
- Place of employment (42%)
- Conversation with people you manage (12%)
- Conversation with your boss (11%)
- Personal net worth, assets and/or debts (10%)
Stuff about their jobs …
- Praise of your organization (72%)
- Events or activities in your organization that are already public knowledge (71%)
- Opinions about the performance of your organization (39%)
- Opinions about your competitors (33%)
- Events or activities in your organization that are not yet public knowledge (16%)
- Trade Secrets (8%)
I’m a little shocked by the trade secrets number there at the bottom, but not at all by the personal information numbers. If anything, they seem conservative.
[tags] attention, company, privacy, web2.0, information, john koetsier [/tags]
If brevity is the soul of wit, this post is hilarious:
- I’ve been a little busy lately
- Making something cool
- It’s still in the oven
- But it’s starting to smell good
- And I wanted to let you know
Pre-announcing fatboynews, and of course, the obligatory fatboy blog.
(For the non-software developer audience that frequents this blog, pre-alpha is freaking bloody early in development. As in not even eat your own dogfood time yet.)
In other words, don’t expect something until perhaps mid-January. Unless I decide to pull a Vista.
Don’t even joke about it.
I’m seeing more and more creative blogging these days … including comic book blogging.
Example: ChouChouShu (see also November’s posts), a blog by Scott Ocheltree, a colleague of mine who adopted an orphaned child from China and wanted to a space to write about it.
Maybe one of these days I’ll try a couple of posts like this … Comic Life makes it easy.
[tags] blogging, comic life, comics, scott ocheltree, john koetsier [/tags]
Are virtual shopping malls returning? Maybe yes. Maybe no.
But not unless they’re social.
A truly social virtual shopping mall would be like Second Life. Here’s what I would love to see:
A virtual shopping mall:
… that provided an instant avatar
… … that you could browse and shop
… … … while interacting with other people
… … … … to check out cool stuff and get their opinions
But it can’t take 5 minutes (or even 3) to get signed in and suited up and oriented. It has to be seamless, instant, easy.
Which is, of course, not easy to do.
[tags] shopping, social, mall, virtual, second life, john koetsier [/tags]
It’s official – the most commented-on post at bizhack is GottaLoveMySpaceErrorMessages.
(If you’ve been on MySpace at all, you’ll grok the reason for the intercaps in that blog post title.)
One post, almost 4 months ago, and almost 40 comments. That’s a lot for a medium-to-low traffic blog. But the most interesting thing is that comments are still being added.
I wrote the post after noticing serious bugginess around creating a MySpace account – specifically around entering a Canadian postal code – and people are still noticing the errors today. However, check out Laura’s solution:
Ok this was really weird, I actually typed in 6 random numbers instead of my real postal code and it worked.
Wow.
This is the site that a hundred million people belong to. This is the site that was sold for the better part of a billion dollars.
If anyone ever tells you that success doesn’t contain an absolutely huge portion of blind helpless luck and mostly meaningless happenstance, refer them to MySpace.
[tags] myspace, buggy, login, john koetsier [/tags]
In case you haven’t noticed, I recently added Snap previews.
Mouse over an external link – like this one – to see it in operation.
Usually I hate widgets and gimmicks, but this is helpful – very helpful. Even in this age of tabbed browsing it’s really useful to get a quick preview of the web page that you might be headed to … it gives you a quick sense of what to expect without actually taking the next step. It’s try before you buy … on a micro-level. It’s dead easy to add, too.
Let me know if you like …
[tags] snap, preview, blogging, bizhack, john koetsier [/tags]Take a peek at this 45-second movie of parents surprising their kids with a Wii console:
Wouldn’t you want that kind of reaction for your product? I know I do. Kids screaming your name? Wow.
(On a personal note: as a parent, this is the one console I might buy … because Wii gameplay is social and physical, not just individual and virtual.)
[tags] social media, marketing, john koetsier, wii, console, games [/tags]
Yesterday I met Joe Laudenbach, a Bellingham, WA realtor who is wondering how blogging might be something he could use in his business. As I prepped for the meeting, I jotted down some thoughts on how blogging will fit into his business.
Note: my goal was not to get him blogging, but to give him information that will help him make an informed decision whether or not he wants to start.
Why to blog
- Better SEO
Because blogs are more frequently updated, they’re a major benefit to your site’s search engine optimization … the factors that help you rank higher in search engine results pages. - More interesting site
A blog is usually much more interesting than a website … it’s not corporate, it delivers content in quick hits, it’s more accessible … - More human face to potential clients
Building on the “not corporate” theme, a blog is where your personality comes through – which is attractive (unless you’re Attila the Hun) - Learn and develop more as a person and as a realtor
I learn more from blogging than just about anything else. Simply the process of thinking and writing and writing and listening and linking makes me much more consciously aware of trends and opportunities. The same is true for realtors or virtually any occupation, I believe. - Creative outlet
People who blog regularly come to love blogging as a creative outlet. And I don’t believe there’s a single person alive who isn’t creative to some degree, in some way. Feeding this impulse has personal and professional benefits. - Contacts, conversations, communication
Through blogging I’ve had email contact with Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, and many other major, well-known technology, business, and marketing leaders. They’ve made me smarter. Plus, I’ve had many more contacts with many more people who aren’t so well known … and that’s had even greater benefits. The same can be true for real estate agents or any professional/business people. Jobs, work contacts, and just plain interesting people: blogging can bring all that. It has for me.
Why not to blog
- If you can’t write
Don’t get me wrong. You don’t have to be Hemmingway. But if you absolutely cannot string 2 words together intelligibly, forget it. Find some other way to engage your clients. - If you won’t keep it up
Don’t start if you won’t keep it up. Few things are more pathetic than an orphaned blog. However, don’t get too worried, either. One post a week is not ideal, but it’s perfectly fine for many, many professionals. - If you’re just marketing yourself
If your blog is only going to be about how your company and you are incredibly, stunningly great (not to mention handsome and wealthy) forget it. No-one’s going to read it – one Paris Hilton is enough, thank you very much. - If you’re looking for a quick fix marketing hit
Blogging isn’t a quick fix solution. It’s about telling stories and developing relationships, and those don’t form overnight. Even the blogosphere success stories such as Thomas Mahon blogged for months and months without seeing major results. The good news: all your work is always paying dividends. Old blog posts never die, they just keep attracting hits. - If you’re not comfortable being authentic, real, and non-corporate
Don’t be a stuffed shirt – let your hair down and be real. If you can’t tolerate the slightest mistake, if you can’t speak with anything other than the traditional marcom voice: forget it. It’s boring. It’s just advertising … and people are more adblind now than they’ve ever been.
What to blog about
Note: these are tailored for Joe, who’s a real estate agent. But they’re adaptable to different situations.
- Why people move to Bellingham/Whatcom county
There’s probably 10 or 15 blog posts right here … as many as there are reasons. - What areas are great for kids|seniors|adults
Another 5-7 posts … - Things to do in Bellingham
- Seasonal events
If you do to a harvest festival, blog it. Christmas candlelight parade? Blog it. - House-hunting tips
Keep it to one tip per blog posts … there’s probably an indefinite number of tips here. Organize them in a category so that visitors can see them all. - Top ten house-hunting gotchas
I know I’d love to know what to watch out for when moving … and I’m probably searching for this type of information when I’m about to move, too. - Things you realize AFTER you move in
Wouldn’t we all like to have known this – about a month before moving in. - Stressless moving
How to blog
- Intentional keywords
Be intentional about the keywords you use. Know what people will be searching for when they’re looking to find a home in Whatcom County, WA. Niche it out to the max if you want to rank in search engines, and make sure you use those keywords in titles and posts. - Regularly (at least once a week)
As mentioned above, don’t make an orphan out of your blog. - Naturally
When you’re blogging, you’re a person. Not a company. Talk to people who are also persons as you would talk to someone on the street. Anything else is disrespectful, stuffy, and annoying. - Interview people
Interview key people in your community. This is a great way to expand your circle of contacts, blog about interesting valuable topics, and grow your readership. - Talk to clients
Clients will give you all the blog fodder you need, if you just ask.
Other things to consider
- Other social media
Over time, as you become established in your blog and comfortable with the technology, why not explore other forms of social media? Upload a house video or a neighborhood drive-through to YouTube. Then post it to your blog. Or … - Podcasts
Create a couple of podcasts so that people can hear your voice. This can really give people a sense of who you are and that they know you.
These are a few of the suggestions I had for Joe. I hope that they’re applicable to whatever situations you’re in, whether you’re a small business blogger, a corporate blogger, or a social media consultant. I’d love any feedback you might have, positive or negative.
Questions/opportunties? Looking for help in your social media adventure? Let me know.
Been surfing the last hour or so listening to Jason Calacanis’ goodbye podcast – a little mix of reflection, sentiment, prognostication, consulting.
What a cool way to leave a job.
BTW, good advice to the poor founder of Gizbuzz, who sent a voice email to Jason kind of complaining about working hard blogging and not getting results. (Not like we’ve never heard that story before!)
Jason sorta gently tore a strip off him … the blog is not targeted enough, the entire business is not focused enough, and the “reblogging” thing is just not going to take you to the top. (However, he did like they guy’s youmakemedia blog … which does look like it has prospects to be very cool.)
The reality is that focus and targeting are important things for all of us to consider, myself included … perhaps, myself especially. Some thought-provoking things in that advice.
🙂
[tags] calacanis, gizbuzz, podcast, john koetsier [/tags]I took it … maybe you should take it. At least, check it out:
Dear Blog Reader,
Thank you for reading my blog. You’re here because you’ve clicked on the “Blog Honor” badge on my blog.
What does Blog Honor mean? It means I have chosen to pledge to you the following:
I will endeavor to continue to bring you the highest quality content that I am capable of.
I promise to attempt to disclose or clearly mark any content or advertisements or other monetization attempts that help me keep my blog operating.
I pledge to never write “fake” blog content solely for the purpose of trying to generate revenue without complete and clear disclosure. With exception, my blog may exist for business purposes, therefore I use it to talk about products & services that relate to my business, thus assisting me in generating leads & sales for me indirectly.
In return, I hope that you will continue to read my blog with the knowledge that I produce my blog out of a passion for the topic I write about, and not because I’m hoping to fool you into making money for myself.
Please note, I have nothing against generating revenue from my blog, in fact, your ongoing support of my sponsors and advertisers (text links, partner ads, etc…) helps me keep my blog operating so that I may endure to create better content for you.
I do appreciate your support. Continued thanks for your readership.
Sounds good? Sounds good.
[tags] blogging, honor, fake blog, splog, flog, paid review, john koetsier [/tags]Saw some great responses to this question right over here. Check out the nice pictorial overview (click to see it bigger and download a PDF):
Scoble has already linked to this so the whole world probably knows, but I just can’t resist. This is absolutely perfect 100% genuine beautiful shiny social media marketing in all its amateurish grainy goodness:
What’s so perfect about it?
It’s short, remarkable in a they-did-that!?! type of way, is relevant to the company’s products, builds/reinforces the brand, isn’t too contrived, is well-executed but clearly unprofessional (which is good), and doesn’t try to do too much.
[tags] blender, social, media, marketing, john koetsier [/tags]
How much blog bling is too much?
Context: I was just at A VC – a blog by Fred Wilson, a New York venture capitalist that I follow from time to time.
He has about 5 million widgets and doodads hanging off his blog. He’s even worse, if possible, than Matthew Ingram.
Let me count. In the left sidebar Fred’s got:
- A picture
- Feedblitz RSS subscription form
- Yahoo! search widget
- Assorted other Fred Wilson RSS feeds
- My Blog Community photo widget
- Gotham Gal’s Stuff
- Podcasts he listens to
- Amazon music widget with about 15 albums in it
- tourb.us concert widget
- Streampad My Music widget
- Last.fm music widget
- iTunes music widget
- Shopcasting widget from ThisNext with about 6 products and full descriptions
- Alacra store search widget
- Blog categories
- Blog archives
- Blog about
- Blog stats
- Various links: axis of evil
- Fred’s social networks
- Facebook widget
- LinkedIn widget
- Some other links
In the right sidebar, not to be outdone, he’s got:
- Sitepal voice message widget
- Personality profile link (what a shock, he’s not high on aesthetics)
- Federated Media (FM) publishing banner ad (skyscraper format)
- Flickr widget
- Wallstrip video widget
- Shakeshack widget
- More FM ads
- VC Feedburner network widget
- WordofBlog widget
- Ad for another of his blogs
- Del.icio.us linkroll widget with about 20 recent links, including brief descriptions
- Indeed.com job posting “jobroll” widget
- Another Indeed.com widget, this one focusing on salaries in NY
- Blogroll with about a hundred blogs in it
- Another shopcasting widget from ThisNext with about 10 products, pictures, and descriptions in it
- Recent searches widget
- Contextual text link ads from Yahoo!
- Contextual text link ads from Google (could be against AdSense terms & conditions if Yahoo! is also being used – I think it is, actually)
- Recent posts
As I said earlier: holy freaking mother. Stop the insanity!
Just found Feed Crier – a very cool app to get new RSS feed items automatically sent to your favorite IM application. What a great idea.
If you use IM and this sounds interesting to you, you might want to check it out soon. “Pro” accounts, which let you add more than 3 feeds and normally cost $4/month, are now free.
(The marketing angle on that promo is that eventually the price will go back to $4, and at that point you’ll still get all your feeds for free, but won’t be able to add more. Which, of course, if you like the service, you eventually will. Ingenious.)
Shameless plug: you can try it right on bizhack … scroll down the sidebar, find the feeds section, enter your IM address, and hit Subscribe. Or just go to the feeds tab and do the same thing.
I’ll try this for a while and see if I like it in practice as much as I do in theory.
[tags] rss, feeds, im, feed crier, bizhack, john koetsier [/tags]