Archive for the ‘Asides’ Category

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Something just broke

Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on August 3rd, 2007
 Tagged as: Asides

SNAP!

I heard it as I turned over the last page of The Cluetrain Manifesto.

I need time  to take it all in. But when it comes back out, there’s gonna be hell to pay.

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The Great Internet Crash

Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on July 23rd, 2007
 Tagged as: Asides

OK I was looking at my recent posts and I think I’ve managed to paint a picture of gloom and dismay so I’m going to up the tempo a little to try and get back some of that fizz bang that started me along this journey in the first place.

Besides, it also gives me the chance to send a little link love to Richard who’s just started out on his own.

So let’s get this road on the show with one of the funniest videos I’ve seen in a long while.

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A moment for myself

Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on July 15th, 2007
 Tagged as: Asides

It seems like I’m facing one of life’s moments.

I have to decide whether the money’s worth it.

I have to choose between yes and no.

I have to see beyond the safety of a contract.

I have to listen to my heart.

I have to deal with back-stabbers.

I have to read the signs.

I have to know when the time’s right and when it’s wrong.

I have to understand I might just have grown too fast.

I have to admit that maybe I just run out of room.

I have to open my eyes.

I have to fight my fears.

I have to believe in myself.

I have to defend the truth.

I have to go beyond where I’m heading.

I have to continue to love.

I have to face the facts: now or never?

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Be who you really are

Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on July 14th, 2007
 Tagged as: Asides

  • If your personality isn’t in what you do, its value dies.
  • If your personality is somehow repressed, contained or - worse - controlled, your value dies.
  • If you’re not given the possibility to express your personality where you work, your job’s value dies.
  • If you prize your value, be who you are.

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Why I’ll never be a great online marketer

Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on June 29th, 2007
 Tagged as: Asides, Internet Marketing

It all started with a video from the late, great Ken Giddens. It was amazing how this man played the system. And buy system I mean the way people searched for information.

He showed in the clearest way possible, that the way to make money through pay-per-click systems like Adsense was to collect traffic looking for something particular, give them a little more information than they already knew and then point them in the direction you want them to go.

The (obvious) secret to making money with AdSense is getting visitors to click on the ads you want them to. Put differently, what you’ve got to avoid is giving them a reason not to.

This sounds dumb but I’ve recently learned some interesting lessons about this on one of my blogs.

To start with I believe in putting up AdSense ads only where they serve a purpose. Take a look round this site and you’ll see no ads. Lots of widgets and things but no ads. For the simple reason that in my view, anyone “lonely” enough to visit this blog isn’t looking to buy anything so what purpose do they serve here? They don’t actually add to the experience so, for now at least, they’re not welcome.

No, the idea is to put ads where they add value to the page. An example is the AdSense block on the right margin over at www.genitoriinfuga.com. Yes there’s an English version but we’re working on this one at the moment.

What this site does is tells of our travels “without the kids”. If anyone else feels the urge to follow in our footsteps, Google is kind enough to provide some pretty good ideas. It’s complimentary and makes the site look a whole lot more professional in the process. Now all we’ve got to do is work on our traffic!

A blog that isn’t lacking traffic is www.theacerguy.com and this one in particular has taught me more lessons than I’ve had hot dinners (and I’m a big guy). There’s steady growth, interest and participation from all involved.

This site has AdSense blocks both on it and off (Swicki). I’ve noticed that if people get onto the Swicki, they’re ten times more likely to try and get away from it by clicking on the AdSense ads. Ken was right.

So what was the lesson?

Recently The Acer Guy had a lot of traffic from people with a support issue. At first I wasn’t able to resolve the issue completely so visitors passed through, often clicking on the Ads when they didn’t find what they were looking for.

Then last week-end I posted a solution to the problem. Almost overnight my AdSense revenue went through the floor and is struggling to show a heart beat.

So at what cost authority? I guess there’s a fine line between giving people what they want in return for building long-term reputation and giving them what you need in return for a quick buck.

I’ll take the former any day.

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Touching base

Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on June 18th, 2007
 Tagged as: Asides, Gab Gab Gab

This blog is becoming a bit of a joke for certain aspects, a war casualty for others.

It wasn’t my intention to have a blog explode on me but The Acer Guy  really has taken me by surprise. In the space of one month, the average number of unique daily visitors has risen from an average of 50 to over 400 and this trend doesn’t look like it’s going to ease up any time soon.

All this with the “paid” job becoming more and more, emm, involving.

It’s been a fascinating trip, even more so as it’s a one-man public show.  I’m having so much fun staying up with the conversations that it’s very hard to make any real progress with user tracking, Adsense CTR and all that jazz.

The one thing I have noticed, as this is  as big a surprise as the growth in visitor numbers, is the fact that the biggest Adsense earner is in fact off-site. That’s right, the Swicki generates at least 3 times the Adsense revenue of the other income streams.

I have a theory for this: The Swicki is a way for users to fine tune their searches once they arrive on a site. But the Swicki results page is a mess, so users click on the fastest way out… Adsense. It’s not quite what I had in mind when I created it so I’ll have to look into a way to clean it up a little.

This is more like me ringing home to touch base than me saying anything shocking but that’s the way things go online I guess.

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