Just couldn't resist...

Usually don't post pics on here but this one I just could not pass up.

I hope all the current NY Mets take a look at this face and know who their biggest(smallest) fan is.

Lets Go Mets!

Compubeaver case mod: the PC-stuffed beaver

And this, my silent friends, I give you this lazy Friday afternoon...a working computer stuffed into a formally working beaver.



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BritePic - what? why??

The first thing I thought of as I awoke this morning was "boy I wish I could not only look at pictures online, but easily click on ads within the pictures I look at!" That is so brilliant!

Thats the business model of BritePic. You take your already boring shot of your pet sitting in a pot(oh how cute) and add even cheesier comments within the picture. In return for that "value" you are presented with a CPC add at the top of the pic.

WTF?

Why do people need this? Was there an outcry from the masses about not seeing enough advertising on the web? Does BritePic actually believe that its even remotely intuitive for people to think that the photo they are viewing should contain an ad?

Also I love the picture they choose as an example. Its a freaking puppy in a pot on a stove!

This site deserves at least a 4 out of 5 on the craptacular scale.

A redesign and a new direction

I upgraded my Blogger account to the new beta version which forces one to assimilate into the Borg..oops I mean your Google account to log in. No big deal but it feels like one of these days I will wake up and have to inform Google as to what I feel like eating for breakfast, actually they probably will know what I want.

I am forgoing the focus of my posts on online advertising and marketing and instead looking at the more interesting world of (WARNING: buzzword alert) Web 2.0 sites (gasp).

The reason for the change? Well there is more innovation in that part of the web universe right now. I read through the articles about online advertising & marketing and yawn and realize that there isn't going to be a heck of a lot of "innovation" in the near future. There are still articles like "Should you advertise on Podcasts?" and "How to maximize your RSS feeds" blah blah blah.

That's not innovation, its confusion. Its the outcry of hundreds of marketing people who have a scant knowledge of the web wanting to "do something different" without a real thought into why.

So I am moving away from that world for a while and looking instead to the new generation of online apps that are pushing the limits of what people think of as web sites.

I test these apps out and most of the time a voice in my head keeps screaming "WHY?" as in why is this new site/app in existence? Why would anyone use this? Why do I need to do this or that task in a new way in the first place? I like taking a pragmatic, practical approach to this whole idea of Web 2.0 and break it down.

Hopefully I will rattle enough cages on my way there ;)

I don't know what it is with me but so far I have been a complete grump this new year.

It started a few days ago and has lasted until now. I've never been this down on the new year before and I have a few theories why this may be happening:

• Another year older - the new year is a stark reminder of the passing of time. Its even worse than a birthday since you can pretty much ignore your own birthday if you wanted to but with new year's everyone is talking about it. Its an official holiday, there are parties and fireworks and people saying happy new year. Its unavoidable, which makes it worse on your psyche.
• Holiday stress - there is a stress with the holiday season that for me starts about 2 months before Christmas/Hannakuh. This is the time I have to start shopping for the gifts. If you want to stress out a guy to his limits, tell him he needs to find a gift for his wife/girlfriend that she will love. It can't be a cope out gift like a gift certificate to her favorite store, it has to be an actual planned out gift. Then watch as the guy goes from store to store in a mindless stupor looking in sections he doesn't even understand and reading labels written in another language. Is there really a difference between bath gel and shower gel? Is a new oven mitt an actual gift or a subtle instruction to cook more? It doesn't get any better once you find the gift because then the stress builds because the question of "will she like this?" keeping pounding in your head like a sledgehammer.
  
• Back to work - the last 2 weeks or so of the year at most workplaces are like a scene from any of the living dead movies. It includes a lot of people with a glazed look in their eyes just shuffling around without a real purpose. Then one of the zombies mutters the magic word "lunch" and the other zombies follow him out the door. Anything that happens or tries to happen during this dead time is automatically pushed to the "wait until everyone is back after the holidays" mental folder. Then all of a sudden its today and everyone is back and the "woah I've been on vacation for too long so it will take me a while to get to that" mental folder is opened and gets all the work. At some point, around March, everyone realizes that its time to get to work again.

So I'm sure you have some other great reasons why this time of the year gets you down, post some so we can waste even more time on my blog.

Why can't people just know?

You know the situation, you are guiding a project and parts have to be completed by other people, you get their work and it just looks like crap.

I know that I can't expect everyone to get it when it comes to marketing but people use some common sense! If you were to step back and look at the thing you just created would you take the next step and fill out that form?

A simple usability test is just close down all browsers, wait a few minutes, open up that page again and pay attention to where you are looking. Pay attention to your gut reaction, is it one of pride?

It’s just so frustrating when tech people have the mindset of a robot and think "this is my task, complete task, on to next task" rinse and repeat. You need specific instructions, fine but for the love of god think outside that little task box and react to things!

Don’t give me the excuse of “well you’re the marketing expert; you have to tell me exactly what to do.” Should I include breathing in the project request? Why not? Since you are following the task list to the dot how can you include something as complicated as inhaling and exhaling in there?

Ugh…I never feel as alone as when I waste time explaining ever single little infinitesimal detail to everyone involved so something incredibly simple can get done.

I am on to my new gig...well I am officially starting at Kodak on February 27th. I am going to be the Online Marketing manager in their Graphic Communications Group. Leaving LogicalSolutions.net will be hard and I am not looking forward to these next 2 weeks.

So how did it happen? All I did was answer and ad posted by a company called Datrose a few weeks ago. They did not mention who the company was in the ad but I fit the skillset they were looking for. A recruiter called me a few days later and gave me more details on the position.

Turns out it was a contract position, yikes...

My first reaction was, what about health insurance? How long is the contract for? Is this going to work for me?

Well the Datrose recruiter answered all those questions for me and it helped.

Then I had the interview. Got a good rundown of the need and the expectations, things were looking better and better.

Went in for the second interview, this time with other team members. That too went well. I was really feeling it after that. That voice inside your head that tells you "this can work, I can make this work." There are risks involved, but without risk there is no reward. I was comfortable with the level of risk.

After sorting out a few details I officially gave my notice last week. It was very hard to do. Getting the position at LogicalSolutions.net enabled us to move out of NYC and eventually get a house and have our kids. That's a lot and I appreciate that. Even so, its time to move on.

I am starting to work out this years Get Found seminar. We decided the topic for this year is going to be Local Online advertising because I feel like there are more opportunities out there for local businesses, they just need to learn more about them.

I am thinking we can attract a larger group to this years event. Any business who spends almost any level of marketing dollar to market locally would find this event interesting.

John Battelle's searchable: Joel on AdSense

Why wouldn't click fraud be a problem? If the internet is anything at all its the biggest petri dish of human folly that exists. The simple fact is that if there is a way to make money with a given system, then someone will try and figure out how to rip that system off.

CPC is a big money making machine and that guarantees it a spot in the radar of scam artists. Those people will always try and find new ways to beat the system and make a buck doing it.

So now that we are all reminded of human nature, lets see the parties involved here: advertisers, publishers and Google.

For many advertisers its a tough pill to swallow that they just paid Google $10,000 to drive 845 people to their site and 10 people "converted." So where to point the finger? Well it must be fraud! Why else would someone get to our site and not buy our solar powered flashlights? Its never the sites fault right? We spent $$$ to redesign our site and we have flash!! I could go on but you get the idea. I think that a big part of this issue is that advertisers are driving people to very bad websites and can't see the pink elephant in the room, nor do they want to see it.

So is fraud the answer here? Are all those 845 clicks real people? I think most of them are but there is a percentage that are not. What that mix is I don't know.

From the publishers point of view the more fraud the better. Keep clicking! Be it a person, a script, or some poor soul in India working for 3 cents a day. They collect checks and have no legal or fiscal responsibility to their user base or to the advertisers that appear on their sites. If there was fraud, they can just turn around to Google and say "Hey take care of this."

So now Google's point of view. Do we acknowledge this "click fraud" thing or push it off? They seem to be following the M.O. of our esteemed presidents. Deny it until someone has proof, then push blame somewhere else and maybe fire someone. Until there is proof of click fraud that Wall Street will pay any attention to, Google will not have to deal with that subject.

CPC can work well, I've seen it over an over but to deny the issue of click fraud is denying the bigger human nature issue here. There are people scamming Google right now, what will they do about that?

Announcing the unofficial Loquine Glupe SEO Contest Blog

Its been a long while since I last posted here...It's good to see my PageRank has gone up since then. Maybe Google is happier when i shutup instead of blog...

Google has released an API for the AdWords program. While I will probably apply for one soon I don't anticipate getting any programming time to develop anything from it. I am hoping that some smart companies out there can develop some new features for the AdWords program that makes my life easier. Here is my...

Google AdWords API Wish List

• True media planning tool - Let me input a bunch of core words and give me the average searches a month over the last 12 months, the highest month and the lowest month. I know there is seasonality data out there but its a bear to find it(if not impossible). I want to show my client key phrase specifc data that we can build a real media plan around.
• How many advertisers are bidding on a word - show me how many are bidding on that word in quotes, in brackets and just the general buys(like eBay). Overture gives out this info(to an extent), why not Google? *Bonus wish* who those advertisers are.
• Alert me when my ad is offline - I can't tell you how many times I needed to explain why an ad was offline and for what reason. Make an app that alerts me to when and why so I can see patterns and assure clients that their ads are at least running through lunch time.
• Report on more than impressions - let me know how many unique users saw that ad and the avg number of times a user sees it. These are metrics that are being ignored by CPC engines and there is value there.
• Allow time specific buys - dayparting! Kanoodle does it...

These are pie in the sky wishs but hey what are Friday's for?

New York Daily News - Sports - Players insist line is crossed two ways

Punish the fans! Why can't this become a mandate? When you have the combo of alcohol and morons who bought tickets and think that gives them the right to do anything its a terrible situation.

There needs to be some sort of permanent harsh punishment for fans who do this crap at sporting events. Period.

How about this, a fan that gets fingered for this type of crap gets labeled based on the severity of his/her actions?

Maybe people get tagged similar to the way sex offenders get tagged when they commit those types of crimes. Basically whenever these morons try to buy tickets again(at least under their name) they have to pay an extra fee or the tag could give the venue the right of refusing to admit that fan, even if its a different sport.

For some reason people think they are totally anonymous when they are acting this way. Just watch the end of the brawl when the players are going into the locker room. Those fans pouring beer on them are cowards. Find them. Call them out to task, make them an example of being responsible for your actions and not anonymous.

Oh and stop selling beer at halftime, or earlier. The greedy venue owners don't need to squeeze anther 43 cents of profit out of fans for their beers. If you want to get drunk and be an ass run for president.

New York Daily News - Sports - Lenny's pal goes as Isiah's steps in

This is yet another frustrating part of the drama that has become the New York Knicks over recent years. Isiah just take over the job already! What's the point of all this pussy footing around?

Watching the home opener the other day make me physically ill. It was like watching paint dry. The entire Knick team plays one on one, they don't move without the ball and can't guard anyone outside. They are so boring to watch its going to take a lot for me to pay any attention to this "team" the rest of the season. Who do you root for on this team? Maybe that new 19 year old kid and Sweetney but that's about it. I'm sick of almost the rest of the entire roster. Where is Mike Doleac when you need him?

I haven't posted anything about any NY teams lately so here is a quick take on some current events:

• New York Mets - I love the Willie Randolph hiring, I think this is the right move for this team right now. Its not a talent problem with this group, its a leadership one. That clubhouse needs something, I hope Willie has the answer.
• New York Giants - This is a hell of a turnaround from last season. I mean that team just plain quit on the coach and their fans. It's such a testament to what coaching can do to team, since the roster is basically the same from last year. Its also pretty amazing what can happen when you don't turn the ball over, thank you Mr. Barber.
• New York Knicks - the season just started and I am not too sure about them yet. Crawford seems entertaining but I have had a hard time really rooting for this group. There is just something about Marbury and Houston that grates on my nerves.

On a entirely different note, I wanted to give some help out to a friend of mine who just started his own web site helping people sell on eBay. I will write a bit later about how hard it is these days to get a good looking, credible website up and running without professional help.

Balance SEO With Brand Clarity

Martin makes a really interesting point here that gets overlooked: "I asked my search engine optimization (SEO) company what I should do to reach the number-one spot. The answer was simple: Redesign the entire site, rewrite all the copy, and upload content I'd ordinarily never consider including on the site."

That makes me wonder, why is that? If the content is relevant for the business that you are in why not put it on the site? A site is there is establish your brand and in order to do so you have to offer value and value on the web is content, plain and simple.

I really don't believe that there can be too much content on a web site. Of course if its poorly organized then the content overload can be a negative but that is up to the information architecture to clear up. If the content is relevant to your site then put it on there but make sure you understand the hierarchy of how people want to get that information.

If someone only wants a summary of how your product works don't force them to read an entire white paper to do so. Put that summary up front and include links that let the user go as deep as they want to. As long as you give the user choice to get to those different content levels and its in a logical structure no one will complain about content overload. They will probably appreciate your willingness to offer the information, and that would lead to a positive brand experience.

When you say the word "blog" to someone else that isn't that familiar with one, do you just cringe a little? I mean what a blog is is great, but that name, blog. Its just so....silly.

I know blog is short for weblog(which I happen to like better) and to write in a blog is blogging and I am a blogger...ugh......really I feel like 14 years old just writing this sentence. Can't we call it something else? Why didn't online journal catch on as a name?

Now that businesses are "blogging" and finding levels of success this business will mature. How do we move it into the more mainstream thinking of today's business decision makers?

actually I can answer that last question, we don't. Its going to take a few years and a few case studies to get the ball rolling on making blogging get more respect despite the name. Right now I will have to keep enduring those funny looks when I utter the word "blog."

Google Desktop Search Download

I am installing the newest bell and whistle from Google to see whats its all about. After reading the overview in Search Engine Watch it seems like it would have useful functions.

Now if I can only think of some interesting things to look for...

Today was the first of a "Lunch & Learn" series of talks that I am putting on here at work. They are basically designed to spread the word that internet advertising is a highly measurable form of marketing and should be taken very seriously.

It was good to speak to a full room of people about something that I am passionate about and love to give advice on. The questions I got were good and pretty predictable. No one really tried to challenge the notion that you should spend money on online advertising, which I guess is good but I would have loved to start a debate there as well :)

Maybe next time someone will stand up and say "Brian this is a bunch of horse crap, I am gonna go open my yellow pages and look for some ads there!"

How many times have I walked into the IT department and found this scene?

Knowledge management: Are you too busy to think?: September 27, 2004: New Thinking by Gerry McGovern

I always wondered why people put in so many hours sitting behind a desk. You would hear some people say "well you have to work 60 hours a week to show your dedication."

Bullshit.

I could get a monkey to wear a nice tie and work 70 hours a week and still have nothing to show for it. Its the quality of work not the quantity of hours that matters. Show me someone who can produce results and I will go with that person over the guy who is staring at his laptop at 8pm wondering how to complete his projections.

Quality over quantity.

If it took someone all weekend to finish something the first thing I ask is "why?" If there was a tight deadline then would't it have been more efficient to work smarter before that deadline so it wasn't so tight in the first place? Did that person or team stay all weekend to complete work they could have done in the 40 hour work week but didn't? Why did that not happen? Get to the root of the problem, and work more efficiently to solve it.

There are always going to be exceptions to this rule but it doesn't have to happen as often as it does. Work smarter in the time you are supposed to and then you will see better results.