February 4, 2008 at 12:53 pm · Filed under Online Marketing
Since the middle of last year, all posts about the Mac/Apple have been published directly on my new(er) Macintosh-specific blog, On a Mac.
I also recently started a new online marketing blog - Online Marketing Performance.
These blogs were started as they held two of the main themes on this blog which were intertwined with a lot of posts of a fairly random nature. I’ll continue to post to this blog, but both of the aforementioned blogs will likely bet getting more and more attention as time goes on.
Tags: AdSense, Advertising, AdWords, Affilliate Programs, Analytics, Apple, Apple TV, Beacon, Black Hat SEO, Blog Promotion, Blogging, Branding, Design of Experiments, Facebook, Facebook Applications, Facebook Platform, Facebook Platform Architecture, FBML, Google, Google Analytics, Google Labs, Google Website Optimizer, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Mac, MacBook Pro, Macintosh, Make Money Online, Monetization, Multi level Marketing, Multivariate Testing, Online Marketing, Page Rank, PageRank, Paid Content, Semantic Search, Social Media, Social Networking, User Generated Content, viral, Viral Marketing, YahooShare This
September 17, 2007 at 11:01 pm · Filed under Web Applications, Usability, Web 2.0, Alpha, Social Networking, Beta, User Experience
I like participating in betas for web sites and web-based applications. Trouble is, I’m just a regular guy. And, historically hunting for invites has yielded a relatively poor return on my time investment. Thankfully, a new site has made it easier for us regular guys to participate. It’s aptly called InviteShare. Here’s how it works:
How Beta Invites are Distributed
When a startup with a killer moves into a limited beta phase, they delve out a small number of invitations to friends or people who have requested participation online. Each of the people receiving the invitation are granted the ability to invite a few more people. And so on… And so on…
Enter InviteShare
InviteShare’s has formalized (and in essence taken control of) the whole process by creating an exchange for beta invitations. Since the distribution of invites usually proliferates exponentially, if a user who receives an invite simply returns the favor to other InviteShare members, the ball keeps rolling.
My first experience with InviteShare was great. After creating my account I logged in, and, after a bit of fumbling around with the site I arrived at the Streamy.com invite page and gave my last Streamy invite to the next person waiting in the queue. Then, I searched on Mash and requested an invite. Less than 5 minutes later I had an invite in my Inbox from another InviteShare member named Ian. Genius.
Any negatives? One glaring one: This ain’t no 37signals app. InviteShare’s user experience needs an intervention. Applying some sound usability principles would go a long way for InviteShare.
Tags: 37signals, Alpha, Beta, Beta Invite, InviteShare, Social Networking, Streamy, Usability, User Experience, Web 2.0, Web Applications, Yahoo, Yahoo MashShare This
September 5, 2007 at 5:52 am · Filed under Online Marketing, Social Networking
A month or so ago at a presentation someone asked what the relevance of social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook actually carried. LinkedIn serves up public versions of profiles (here’s mine), which, of course, is indexed by Google and other search engines. So without dumbing down to a level to low, there is relevance in the greater search marketing picture. In this case, largely around the individual and their professional history. What about Facebook?With the creation of a new Internet Gold Rush with its recent shift to an open, monetizable platform, opening its content to indexing by search engines was a natural next step. In the wee hours of the night, Facebook announced that start of that move, with the introduction of Public Search Listings on Facebook on The Facebook Blog. Public Search Listings are currently, liked LinkedIn, focused on the user specifically. And, the information Facebook is providing is even more limited than what LinkedIn is providing, targeting the user’s online status (with additional links allowing you to interact with that person).The post by Philip Fung on The Facebook Blog shows an example of a public search listing, and, it is not a standard search result. The visual from Philip’s post:
I haven’t seen any in the wild, and likely no one has yet-that’s because they haven’t hit the search engines yet:
In a few weeks, we will allow these Public Search listings (depending on users’ individual privacy settings) to be found by search engines like Google, MSN Live, Yahoo, etc. We think this will help more people connect and find value from Facebook without exposing any actual profile information or data.
As noted in the quote above, privacy settings are available to the Google-shy. Insofar as greater search engine exposure, easy money says this is just the beginning.
Tags: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, MSN Live, Online Marketing, Philip Fung, Social Networking, YahooShare This
