Web2Submitter is pure genius
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on June 5th, 2007
Tagged as: Jack Humphrey, Jane May, Problems, Social Media, Social Powerlinking
Moving on from my last post, it’s becoming harder and harder for me to concentrate on some of the things I’d like to in this blog as many of the wheels I’ve set in motion are beginning to turn very rapidly indeed.
These wheels are teaching me the lesson of a lifetime but while I’m busy absorbing, it’s becoming very difficult to produce. Or at least share…
Time has become an issue lately with me. Let me put that differently: Time has an issue with me.
I just can’t get around to organizing my day in such a way as to have a start and a finish. It’s just a continual blur, just like one of my son’s frantic scribbles, whizzing back and forth with amazing power and authority only to produce what can best be described as a colourful mess.
I don’t know about you but I’ve now settled into following a few blogs directly on NetVibes rather than slavishly scouring my aggregator for keywords. That at least allows me to keep in touch without taking too much time away from my 9-to-5 (that’s pm to am ;-))
I think some of the best blogs right now are Jack Humphrey’s and Jane May’s, if only because the first talks straight, no-holds-barred authority tactics that go down like a glass of Glenfiddich with no ice. The second is far more gentle and surprisingly encouraging. Their styles are so different yet so equal in their appeal. Maybe it’s just because they know their stuff and write damned well.
Speaking of Jack Humphrey, he’s just launched a new Web 2.0 marketing tool that I like so much I bought it the moment it came out. It’s called Web2Submitter and it’s so clever you wonder why nobody thought about it earlier.
If you’re not clear about the principles of Social Powerlinking and are scared by sites like Go2Web20.net, I thoroughly recommend you hop over to Jack’s site and read this.
Anyway, the beauty of Web2Submitter is that it automatically submits submits your blog posts to Web 2.0 sites like Digg, Netscape, Reddit, Shoutwire, Plime, Newsvine and Stumble Upon , creating countless backlinks, traffic and a whole lot of authority in just a few clicks.
Like I said, brilliant.
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More Net Neutrality videos
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 26th, 2007
Tagged as: Asides, Gab Gab Gab, Problems
More on the Net Neutrality debate.
Keep your eye on this.
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Net Neutrality - coming to a server near you.
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 26th, 2007
Tagged as: Asides, Gab Gab Gab, Problems, Social Media, You Tube
I had no idea this was on the cards.
Just as I started to believe in the power of the many, it looks like some of the few have very different plans for the future of the Internet.
Spread the word.
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No going back now
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 23rd, 2007
Tagged as: Apple, Asides, B5Media, Copywriting, Gab Gab Gab, Internet Marketing, Jeremy Wright, Problems, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing
It’s a fascinating moment for me.
On the one hand I’ve got a great job. Copywriting - and in particular freelance copywriting - has given me both the insight and education that lets me put my thoughts and feelings into words as well as the time, freedom and inclination to explore the outer reaches of web life.
At ‘work’ I have been busy drafting the story behind a few upcoming product launches with various success. I have been studying various ways of approaching the thorny subject of internal communication and recruitment. On top of all this, I have also been looking into creating the master content of a series of web strategies so that the text is both easy to translate and effective across 7 key European markets.
Not a dull moment then.
But just like anyone with time management problems, I have also been distracted by what has in the past been called “blind ambition” but now goes by the name of a “challenge”.
You see ever since I stumbled across the letters, S, E and O, I have been drawn to their power - the fact that words, chosen carefully, could actually change the geography and relevancy of search engine results.
Then there was what you could actually do once you had uncovered this secret. White Hat is my natural colour of choice, of course, but nevertheless these three letters have unquestionably permitted some fortunate few to exploit a system to the detriment of the many.
These letters also have a more sinister side: they alienate you from the “real” world around you. I recently brought to my multi-billion dollar client’s attention that there was precious little activity on their site from any of the search engines. I even went as far as to recommend reformulating their web strategies not only to generate new traffic streams from natural search engine results but also to build enough reputation throughout the entire site to change the formula used by my client when linking to its resellers.
I got a big bunch of nods, a number of smiles and quite a few “wow we had no idea”s but never heard from them again about it. Meanwhile my client continues to pour truckloads of money into individual projects which, because they are disjointed from the overall core principles and are void of any shared values, detract from the performance of the site as a whole.
Ugh!
Either SEO (and SEM for that matter) is still in its infancy outside the US or I’m starting to be earn a reputation as a lunatic.
Best thing is to start my own business and boy do I have a few ideas knocking around. Thing is even then when I talk to friends and neighbours about them, even some who have offered to invest, the “big picture”always remains a few feet out of reach, as if what I see happening across the world in blogs, media companies and other online industries is merely a figment of my imagination, or just part of a game I’m playing all by myself.
‘Slow world’ meets the ‘fast world’, as an Italian web specialist once said, is when those living in a world fed by mainstream media have to deal with the lightning fast reactions of those of us who have chosen a more democratic, if slightly more volatile, path online. It’s never a pretty site and we (fasties) always come out worse off.
The question of whether to continue or go back is a rhetorical one. However the answer opens up a whole new debate: Then what?
I have ordered the near future into challenges I have to face:
- I want and need to master the art of RSS as I believe RSS technology is what’s needed to create the world’s most advanced e-learning platform.
- I believe that niche communities and experience aggregators are the key to entrepreneurial success in a Web 2.0 world. Jeremy’s “No Money in Web Advertising” articles have been instrumental in this decision.
- I believe strongly in a healthy relationship between paid content and free services. E-learning, for example, is an ideal platform to experiment with both.
Each of the above is a open project I’d like to see up and running by the end of the year and if there are any talented writers, teachers or programmers reading this, I could probably bring that forward quite some way.
Want to know why I got buzzed today. Because I read this, then watched it here.
Oh and Jeremy, if you’re reading, I’ll be in touch soon - or you will… 
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The way things work
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 21st, 2007
Tagged as: B5Media, Gab Gab Gab, Internet Marketing, Jeremy Liew, Jeremy Wright, Problems
Jeremy Wright’s response to allegations that there’s no money in advertising is seriously worthy of note for anyone planning on setting up an online media company (like me).
If for nothing else, it was a real eye-opener for relative newcomers, again like me, on the mechanisms used to generate income from similar projects.
Remember I’m the creative one. I’ve got the idea in my head and am working on ways to implement it, yet people with hands-on knowledge of revenue streams are way ahead of me in this field.
What was particularly interesting for me was the part where Jeremy wrote:
They (Jeremy Liew’s figures) don’t hold true if:
- You do more than 25M AdSense impressions per month (you get a better cut, exclusive deals, etc).
- You work with a boutique ad network (like Federated Media).
- Are able to get some remnant inventory providers (which can go from 0.50-2$/unit CPM, giving you an RPM of 1-4$ with just 2 units per page).
- You do any non-performance/metric advertising (like sponsorships).
- You do text links.
- You have any internal sales team at all (which’ll sell those 1$ units for 2-5$, giving you an RPM of 4-10$ on even the most generic traffic).
He went even further:
- For generic traffic, expect a 3-5RPM. To get to 50M$/year in revenue would thus require 800 million pages per month.
- For demographically specific stuff, expect an RPM of 12-15. You’d need about 300M pages per month.
- Huge in-demand areas like cars and sports can net you an RPM of 40-50. You’d thus need about 100 million pages per month.
Now that’s not to say these numbers are easy. But a media company that balances the above 3 properly, does sponsorships, syndication deals, content licensing, text links, feed ads, etc could potentially achieve 50M$/year in revenue on about 200 million pages per month.
The mechanisms at work here make fascinating reading. Sponsorships, syndication deals, content licensing, text links and feed ads are all relatively new business areas for me, but seeing as the project I’m toying with would be used extensively by universities and international business groups, it should be one of the first things I look at.
Maybe I should just give Jeremy a call…
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Last night a blogger saved my life…
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 20th, 2007
Tagged as: IT, Problems
Before I do anything today I wanted to share yesterday morning with you.
I normally get into the office at around 8.00, switch on the PC and either go and grab a coffee or sift through my notes getting ready to start the day.
Yesterday was just like any other only something weird happened when I booted up.
While the PC was going through the usual start up procedure, I noticed a little pop up message that I have seen on three occasions beforehand. On each one of those I had no choice but to reinstall Windows which wouldn’t be so bad if I could have reinstalled a series of other programs I had bought online (thanks Virtual Thesaurus).
Took about two days to get me back up and running.
Now I rack up a lot of computer hours but that doesn’t make me an IT pro, so when the window with the words
“svchost.exe — application error the instruction at “0×745f2780″ reference memory at “0×00000000″. the memory could not be ‘read’â€
popped up, I don’t know where to turn, particularly as the computer becomes unusable (no new executables would start).
As re-installing Windows is almost as traumatic as moving home or getting a divorce, I tried to think of what it was I had done to provoke this but the only thing I could remember was that Windows had run one of its scheduled automatic updates. Bingo. Windows had fried the PC!
Like most freelancers/consultants my PC is my lifeline. Without it I’m in apnoea.
This time I was determined not to lose everything so I googled the error message and found this which led me to a Microsoft patch that fixed the problem
Here’s the link: Download updates for Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Error and I thoroughly recommend you bookmark it for the day I hope never arrives for you.
More than thanking Scott Swigart and Chris Koester, who elicited comments like “You are a GOD!!!†I would like to ask Microsoft to investigate why this happens and STOP PUTTING MY BUSINESS AT RISK!
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