Archive for June, 2009
Billy Mays has left us. Found dead in his Tampa Bay home by his wife, Billy Mays was only 50. His last Twitter update was roughly 24 hours ago. Nobody saw it coming.
The memorable TV pimp for all things useful, Mays spread the love of everything from OxyClean to Mighty Putty and the twist-n’-pop magic of the Ding King. Billy Mays talked in ALLCAPS IRL – and whether or not you loved him for it or hated him for it, you gotta admit, he was good at what he did.
My condolences and support go out to the friends and family of Billy Mays. Although many may write him off as being yet another sleazy TV pitchman, this guy was able to move product like no other (OxyClean is now available in stores!) and his method of delivery – loud, enthusiastic and direct – was something that I tried to emulate and incorporate into my own presentations in college.
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View Comments | Posted in Reblog
Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora have partnered with Iranian superstar Andy Madadian to record a version of “Stand By Me”, dedicated to the people of Iran. The video/song is not meant to be sold. It’s not meant to hit billboard charts. It’s meant to be downloaded, shared, and distributed to the people of Iran as a gesture of support.
I won’t get into a long diatribe about the ongoing turmoil in Iran. There’s enough coverage of that going on from sources that are much more credible/knowledgeable on the subject than I am.
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View Comments | Posted in Reblog, Social Media
YouTube has announced that they’re officially overhauling channel layouts on July 15th. The response on YouTube’s official blog has been largely negative, with users protesting the switch and demanding that the channel designs remain as-is.
We gave the new layout a shot with GTANet a little over a month ago, but received a few criticisms within 24 hours of the flip. So we went back to the old design. (We’ve since switched back up to the new layout since the July 15th announcement was made, fyi.)
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View Comments | Posted in New Media, Reblog
From Mitch Joel’s recent blog post, “This Conversation Is A Blip“:
At some point soon, we’re going to have to make a serious decision: are we creating content for the power of search and to ensure that everything we think and publish is findable over the years, or is that dream about to die and we’re on the verge of creating content in real-time – in short bursts – that are meant to live and die in the moment? It could be a hybrid of both, but being able to index and navigate through the mass amounts of text, audio, video and images seems more and more like a daunting task versus a powerful and easy resource.
Whatever the case may be, the power of content’s value seems to be shrinking in terms of long-term worth and increasing in terms of “what’s happening right now.”
In my opinion, it’s a reality check.
We can’t be everywhere at once, we can’t listen in on thousands of conversations simultaneously, and we’ll never be able to sift through all of the content that constantly appears on a daily basis.
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View Comments | Posted in Reblog
Website Magazine was passing out free copies of their June issue at SES Toronto. I picked one up. It’s an interesting read, as most trade publications are, and it does give a good starting point for discovering new businesses and services in this industry.
One article caught my attention pretty quickly. The editorial from Mike Phillips (Senior Editor at Website Magazine), entitled “Transparency is So 2008“, suggests that the popularity of the “transparency” term/concept is nothing more than a passing fad:
It refers to the idea that we should be completely open about what we do. Our content should be syndicated freely throughout the Web and the inner workings of our businesses should be bare for all to see.
Phillips goes on to draw a correlation between the ideas of transparency and free content:
You might find yourself spending hours creating a stellar blog post. Then you submit your content to every bookmarking service and social site you can find. You might enjoy a spike in the day’s website traffic, and perhaps make a few bucks from the resulting clicks on your contextual or display ads. But too often uninspired professionals resort to adapting another’s content and calling it their own.
This is where I started to raise an eyebrow. I’ve never associated transparency with free content (or “linkbait”) – they’ve always appeared to be mutually exclusive subjects. Here’s how I define them:
Transparency refers to being open and forward about what you (or your business) are doing. When major changes are made to your service, for example, you let your customer/client/audience/users know what changes were made, why they were made, and how it will affect them.
Facebook faced a backlash from users (no pun intended) when it updated it’s Terms of Service without letting users know that the change was coming. As a result, Facebook now involves its userbase in the decision-making process. Users will know what’s coming in advance. They can provide feedback before the changes are implemented. That’s transparency.
Free content (linkbait) refers to unique and relevant content that is intended to draw traffic to a site. As Phillips states in his editorial, this sort of content can often be picked up/covered by other sites with larger audiences. If these other sites are less-than-honourable, the original source (you) may wind up being disregarded altogether. When/if this happens, the time (money) spent on creating that content becomes a waste.
Needless to say, these are two very different things. One focuses on relationships while the other focuses on using content as a way to generate revenue.
I have no qualms with the suggestions that Phillips puts forth in his editorial. Premium memberships and pay-to-access content are viable strategies. I just disagree with the suggestion that free content = transparency.
Agree? Disagree? Are my definitions totally off? Let me know. Kick me some feedback.
View Comments | Posted in Internet Marketing
I’m giving Firefox 3.5 a test run on my home rig this evening. I don’t know much about what new features are being introduced with this version (haven’t looked at the release notes yet), but I’m already sold on the update thanks to one feature alone: the introduction of HTML 5 support.
Unfamiliar with HTML 5? No worries – web dev blog A List Apart provides a solid introduction and overview of HTML’s newest iteration. Here’s a snippit:
To give authors more flexibility and interoperability, and enable more interactive and exciting websites and applications, HTML 5 introduces and enhances a wide range of features including form controls, APIs, multimedia, structure, and semantics.
via A List Apart: Articles: A Preview of HTML 5.
While I’m happy to see support for rich media + expanded application integration, I’m particularly excited about the support for common website elements (header, footer, aside, etc.).
It’s such a simple thing, but damn will it make things easier for collaboration. (No more “what ID did you use for the page header div?” questions, hallelujah!)
Universal support for HTML 5 is still a ways off, but we’re gonna get there eventually.
If you want to take a look at some HTML 5 stuff in action, go download the Firefox 3.5 beta and check out this blog post on HTML5 features from Geek Technica.
View Comments | Posted in Technology
For over a year, Google has been using a new method of distributing PageRank throughout sites. Hints have been given within the past year suggesting that this change had taken place, but few people took notice. Matt Cutts has now come forward to openly announce the change with rel=nofollow, and the SEO community is scrambling to figure out how this will affect their work.
Matt Cutts (head of the anti-spam team over at Google) is one of the most well-known faces of the company. He frequently speaks at web industry conferences/seminars and his blog is filled with useful SEO tidbits and tech developments from Google.
Although his site’s disclaimer points out that everything he posts = his opinion alone, he’s nonetheless seen as a mouthpiece for the almighty GOOG.
Yesterday, Cutts made a significant announcement regarding changes in the way that PageRank is being calculated at Google. Simply put, the significance of the rel=”nofollow” attribute has been nerfed.
Despite the changes being implemented over a year ago, there has been a flurry of discussion within the SEO community (including some heated criticism of Google). I have a few thoughts of my own, of course…
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View Comments | Posted in SEO
I just received one of those good ol’ fashioned mass FW’s from some family members regarding a “HUGE VIRUS COMING!” that – according to the email – is “the worst virus announced by CNN“. Here’s the content of the message:
Hi All,
I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!
You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,’regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C of your computer.
This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
If you receive a mail called’ POSTCARD,’ even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.
It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.
I went ahead and did some quick research, as I often do in these cases. Mass-forwarded emails warning of incoming virus threats are always fishy, so I’d rather doublecheck than help spread the panic.
As expected, the following article from About.com accurately described the email I had received:
False email alert warns of ‘the worst virus ever’ circulating in the form of an attachment labeled ‘POSTCARD’ or ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK.’ – About.com
Thus I quickly went ahead and informed my family members that this “huge incoming virus” is completely bogus. There are some additional articles elsewhere, too: Sector Zero hoax, Virtual Card for You “Virus” is a Hoax (from 2001!). Needless to say, the number of sources disproving the “warning” greatly outnumber the sources supporting it.
Here are some added tips to keep in mind, if you ever receive this email (or any email similar to it) in the future:
- Verify the sources. When someone claims to have checked with a news source (such as CNN or Snopes), they should provide a link.
- Search for more information online. Before you start panicking and forwarding the email to everybody on your contact list (a great way of collecting email addresses for spamming, unfortunately), check to see if there are any other warnings online. When major virus threats are imminent – and when anti-virus software providers are sending out warnings – they alerts are quickly picked up by other news sources. (News agencies are in the business of spreading panic, after all.)
- If you have proof that the email is a hoax, let everyone know. Calmly respond to the bulk email with links to credible sites. Provide an excerpt from the article and politely inform them that the email is a hoax. (Hopefully they haven’t unplugged their computer from the wall yet.)
Cheers!
View Comments | Posted in Technology, Web Culture
Dell has made millions using Twitter as a direct marketing tool for the Dell Outlet store. @DellOutlet has over 600,000 followers, and every single sale has been made via Twitter.
From Mashable (source):
For those unaware, @DellOutlet is a Twitter account owned by Dell that tweets out major discounts for Dell computers and products. All of the deals on @DellOutlet are Twitter-exclusive.
It has gained quite a following (620,000+ followers) and sold a lot of computers – at the end of last year, they surpassed $1 million in revenue, after about a year and a half’s worth of tweeting.
Well throw those numbers out the window, because Twitter’s phenomenal growth and Dell’s social savvy have pushed sales from Dell Outlet to over $2 million, in 1/3 the time needed to pass the first milestone. And @DellOutlet is still on the rapid rise.
I consider this to be one of the first major business success stories for Twitter, and the reasoning is simple: We finally have a solid example of a company using Twitter to turn a profit. The ROI is measurable and the numbers are concrete. This isn’t some intangible “whuffie” factor – this is good ol’ fashioned money in the bank, and it’s been growing at a steady rate.
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View Comments | Posted in Internet Marketing, Social Media
Interested in creating your very first site from scratch? You’re not alone! There are an endless number of lengthy+detailed resources available on the web, but I’m not about to list them all. I thought I’d do something a bit more useful by writing a brief blog post – an introduction to web development, of sorts.
(By the way: the following process sums up how I started to learn HTML and CSS, so I know it works!)
*ahem*
- Download Notepad++. It’s a superb (and free) syntax-highlighting editor for code.
- Get your resources together and start learning. Delicious is a great source for finding sites thanks to that whole “powered by people” thing.
- Learn to love code. Although it may look ugly at first, CSS n’ HTML will soon become second nature. Working with pure code (rather than WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver) is a good habit to get into. Troubleshooting problems is far easier with your own code, too.
- Start small and build up. Start with one page, play around with the HTML and CSS. As you get comfortable, move forward. Start building additional pages and looking at more advanced techniques.
- Expand your knowledge and add to your resources. Bookmarks are your friend – my Firefox toolbar is filled with links to different sites, articles and directories, and I’m constantly adding new stuff as I come across it. (Many of my own bookmarks are saved on my Delicious profile.)
- Find your comfort zone. I can’t stress this enough. If you’re getting into web design/development as a side hobby, don’t overwhelm yourself. This is a huge field of study that branches out in many directions. Your time is precious, don’t spread yourself too thin!
Questions / Answers
Clarifying the questions that may be raised by this post…
- Do I need a webhost and/or domain name?
When you’re first starting to play around with HTML and CSS, having your own host is unnecessary. Browsers can render static (hard-coded) HTML files just fine. When you start playing with more advanced stuff – PHP includes, CMS-driven sites, etc. – then you should be looking at acquiring your own host and domain name.
- What about content, SEO, web marketing, yada-yada-bing-bang?
If you want to dive directly into content development, search engine optimization and web marketing – and have absolutely no interest in coding or development – consider setting up a blog over on WordPress.com. It’s a perfect platform to start diving into self-publishing on the web (including all the benefits of content development and SEO), and if you really get into it, you can start looking at the paid features.
Thoughts? Opinions? (Did I miss something obvious?) Leave a comment and let me know!
View Comments | Posted in Neat Stuff, Technology
