Why pay for anything with Web 2.0
Posted on May 23, 2008
Filed Under 2 Point What? | Leave a Comment
Welcome to Webgenome - it is our goal to map the face of the web! I strongly recommend to subscribe to my RSS feed to keep updated with the latest progress. Thanks for visiting!
In the latest development of our stealth 2.0 company- we are going to need to be able to grab thumbnail screenshots of various links. This could of course be done with a dedicated server setup to snap and deliver, but no need to do that yet in our scaled and controlled infancy.
Thus we looked to services on the web to deliver. Our criteria was the following.
- White Labeled - meaning no ads or domains on the shot
- Prefer that we would own or cache the result and serve it ourselves - or a very very low rate for them to serve it as we would have an average of 5 shots per page impression with millions of impressions so a price per shot served could get expensive.
Spending some time searching on the web came up with a few choices
- Websnapr - They give it for free with an ad and white-label for a fee (somewhat expensive)
- Webthumb - Better prices and I think they would allow to cache
- Amazon/Alexa Thumbs - Best prices - about 20 cents per 1000 - but no caching
These were all ok- businesses trying to provide a service for a price - but then I came across the new web 2.0 entry into the field. Web 2.0 meaning that they will give you for free what others make you pay for.
Shrink the Web gives up to 250k snaps for free and allows us to cache with complete white labeling. Everything we were looking for for no cost. By the time we get up to 250k snaps we will be ready for a dedicated server as well. Not bad
This brings me to the point regarding Web 2.0 and everything being free.
You can see what is happening in the landscape is that TV/Newspaper/Radio is slowly being eroded by the new media web landscape. Meaning that the billion $$$ media giants of today are being replaced by companies started by two guys in flip-flops. These guys being able to get the users.
What this means is that there are hordes of venture capitalists who are willing to throw horrendous hordes of money at anybody that they think could be the next hit - the logic being that with a 1 million dollar investment there is a chance that these guys may be the next CBS and worth billions.
Due to this landscape - money is being thrown left and right for the sole purpose of providing the user with lots and lots of free service in order to gain their attention and loyalty.
It is all a matter of where the music stops.
There is Nowhere to Click
Posted on May 20, 2008
Filed Under 2 Point What? | Leave a Comment
What amazes me so much about so many professional (sometimes multimillion$) websites is how they forget to include a clear call to action.
In case you forgot - the call to action is what you want the user to do once they hit your (landing) page. What is your best case scenario for the user? This is your call to action.
The design of the page and the site need to made in a way to drive the user to this result. People that engage in PPC (pay per click) advertising know very well about call to action because they are paying anywhere from 10 cents to 10 bucks for each visitor - therefore they clearly optimize the result. Even if you are getting organic traffic- it is leaving money on the table not to do so. So let us now look at some sites and their ability to properly implement call to action. I will focus on a web 2.0 social site as that is my current project and I have had time to study the competition.
CASE STUDY:
UBER - Uber is a hosted make your own webpage social place thing for cool artsy people. Kinda like MySpace with a degree in Fashion Design. Upon hitting their front page everything above the fold drives me to the little red button that says ‘Start your Website’
(for you that don’t know - the fold is the place where you have to scroll down on a web page )
What about below the fold? They have some AJAX that will show you cool sites to browse if you click it - but for the purposes of our discussion that is irrelevant as we are assuming that you only get a split-second to capture a browser. Even so - these only show some handpicked editor pages - but there is no obvious (meaning there may be, but I didn’t find it) option for browse and explore.
Meaning that a first time browser to UBER only gets one choice in their split second. All they are allowed and recommended to do is ‘Create your own Website’ If they had no intention of creating their own website that day then they are lost. UBER is relying on the idea that people will come to the UBER site already pre-introduced by a friend or something and will show up with the need to create their own site.
FAIL
What UBER does not realize is that people like to browse before they buy. Meaning that the best way to get someone to create their own page is to give them tools and encouragement to browse others pages.
RECOMMENDATION:
Forget about ‘make your own website’ taking up your real estate - if people want to do this, they can look in the header or footer. Focus on exploration. I mean look at My Space with its horrendous design
But they are doing something right. The entire front page is devoted towards exploration. People want to waste time. By giving the users that tool go and explore- MySpace will have users asking to make pages in order to emulate those that they have already explored.
I picked UBER for this case Study because they have a fantastic tool for creating sites, but to put it this way - I have been to their site maybe 10-15 times and most of the time I just stare at the front page and then leave.
THERE IS NOWHERE TO CLICK.
Rise of the Mentat Search Brain
Posted on May 17, 2008
Filed Under The Startup | Leave a Comment
The idea is that currently search engines are powered by giant AI brains - computers programmed to select the best of the links -based on numbers of inputs then covertly shaped and rated by their in-house teams. This is good to a certain degree and G is in the everlasting process of mastering this method
However it be not the only market. If we reference beloved F. Herbert, then we can discuss the Mentat model - Mentats being of course humans pumped up with various aroma in order train their brain to replicate the processes of the computers. This of course due to the nuclear development of AI which made computers hyper-intelligent but without the moral framework (read soul) in order to exist in harmony with humans who they viewed as inferior.
Coming back to this present reality; we can look at the natural evolution of search. Del.ici.ous has the right idea but too many dots (sic) in their name to be mainstream. (read this more ways than one) But their model being that humans select what is their favorite sites and mark them - the more humans that mark a site - the higher it shows up in the delicious results for that keyword search.
Take a search of my current home of ‘Thailand’ for example
Google computer results are the usual suspect of a Gmaps at the top of where is Thailand- along with some nice photos - then the official tourism site, wikipedia, cia factbooks, Bbc
All good and sterile results considering that ‘Thailand’ is a highly generic term and the user could be searching for anything.
But compare to the user generated results of delicious. There at the top we have a backpackers guide to Thailand - then we have a hotel reservation service which has been spammed in there through exploitation of human bookmarking.
After this we have links to Thai recipes, some random record label that happened to be tagged as Thailand, some photos and a guidebook.
All in all comparing the first page results of G to Delicious we see a few things
- G is assuming that by searching for ‘Thailand’ we are searching for generic factual information regarding this term. As a result this is what we get
- Delicious is returning results of anything that humans tagged as ‘Thailand’ with minimal sorting and AI via other factors. Since the majority of Delicious users are younger and mobile - thats how we get a backpackers guide on the first result as opposed to maps and wiki facts.
The point being that with D - the results are shaped by the users input - so the results are only as good as the other users within the system.
This leaves us to the major cross-roads between D and G. Overly objective versus overly subjective.
So where is the solution?
Well the solution is literally the 40 billion dollar question for the person or team that can come up with the right answer. Both models are perfect, yet flawed. The winner will be that who is able to take the best of both of these worlds and with the correct twist create the ultimate search and organization experience.
Without saying too much at this point, I have founded and been working vigorously for the past 6 months on a concept that will present the solution to the described problem. Within the next month we will be beginning a limited beta testing in which to perfect our system. I will need the best and the brightest of my readers to help with the testing.
Some traits that we will need
- Those involved on the front lines of the industry - pushing the web towards its natural (r)evolution. Those that play with the new toys as they are put forth, embracing the best and discarding the rest. Those who want to see a better web and have the experience and knowledge to give constructive criticism in order for us to achieve this way.
- People that are do internet marketing for a living and frequently do the directory, article, link-building thing. Even those of you are into OMG!!! Spam. Why am I asking? Because we need help to perfect the system to only allow quality links in our system. And who better to ask than those who work on the weaknesses everyday. (if you help I may even throw in some permanent PR6 backlinks
) - Common non-savvy users - The type of person that turns on their computer 3 times a week and reads yahoo news and checks the auctions on ebay. We need to test out usability and cleanness of interface
- Anybody who would have a little bit of time to use and evaluate the system to make constructive criticism. We will need 50-100 users for our first run and would hope that each would devote at least 20 minutes to evaluate a first impression and give us basic feedback. (of course if it is compelling you will spend days)
We can say that we will be ready early-mid June. If you can offer your help please send an email to me at
neyma (at) webgenome.com
and we will be in touch.
Professional eBay Affiliate Jacking
Posted on February 20, 2008
Filed Under Damn Affiliates | 4 Comments
In the last few days there have been several instances with the incorrect reporting of eBay affiliate commissions through CJ. No doubt this will soon be resolved, however during the forum discussion, an important issue has been touched on how some very large Powersellers and organizations with close ties to eBay are engaged in Affiliate cookie jacking. Let us discuss.
First to define the goal of the eBay affiliate program
- The goal is that by use of the affiliate program, eBay will be acquiring customers and sales that would have never bought from eBay if not for the work of the affiliate
- For this referral, the affiliate is entitled to %50-%75 of the eBay revenue from the final sale and $25-$35 for each new referred ACRU (Active new user Registration)
Seems pretty simple? Basically without the good work of affiliates, eBay would have never had this business and therefore they pay up to %75 for the referral. Not bad and pretty generous on their part.
The standard eBay affiliate model involves creating a content website and through this website- users clickthrough to eBay and purchase. Now before we review the following mal-practices I want to say that I am not an expert on the eBay Affiliate TOS, but what I can tell you is that these practices are causing both eBay and honest affiliates to be losing quite a bit of revenue to wasted money paid to cookie-jackers
The bad models
- Ad-ware Cookie Stuffing. Companies such as Zango and others get the user to install a tool-bar, screen saver or other semi-virus that is stuffed with cookies for eBay and also every other major shopping site they can think of. What happens is that the spyware stays in the background on the users computer, but when that user visits eBay or other shopping site of their own accord, the ad-ware does an invisible pop-up of the exact same eBay page, but stuffed with their cookie.
- This means that If I have the ad-ware on my computer and visit eBay to buy something, the ad-ware is going to trick eBay to make it think that I was referred by them and then they get paid %50+ of the eBay fees.
- This is very bad for honest affiliates who will spend their own $$$ to refer a user to eBay only to have their cookie overwritten
- To note, that eBay is well aware of such practices and does their best to stop, however there is question of the commitment of of the commission partners who get paid more for such a thing because there are more commission
- Browser Cookie Stuff. In practice a user has to click on the eBay rover link in order to have the cookie placed on their computer, however there are certain high-traffic websites that all you have to do is visit the page in question and automatically your browser is stuffed with cookies from eBay and whoever else they can get away with. It is a quite easy piece of code to implement. This practice is highly against the TOS but still continues.
- Ebay Application Stuffing. This is a common semi-approved/mostly ignored tactic used by numerous eBay application developers. what they do is create some helpful application either PC or browser based and give it to you for free or a small fee. While this application may be useful, in the process of performing the action, it will also stuff your browser with the eBay affiliate cookie, effectively stealing the commission from eBay and other honest users.
- The most common application of this is Bid-Snipping software. Almost all bid-snipers are stuffed with an affiliate cookie, so even if they are giving it to you for free, be aware that they are stealing from eBay in the process
- Officially approved Powerseller Cookie Jacking - famous auction companies such as Auctiva and others are famous for introducing tools that they give free to the sellers, but in the process of using the tools they steal away the eBay commission.
- A common approach is to create a gallery software and give it free to sellers. When the buyer clicks on the gallery to inspect the items a new window is opened in which the items are displayed embedded with the companies cookie. Whether this is against the eBay TOS or not I am not sure as I am sure that they have lawyers figuring out exactly what they can do. However allowed or not it is not fair towards honest affiliates who will spend time driving sales to eBay only to have their cookie overwritten by a parasite.
- Large Powersellers are also notorious for multiple re-directs of traffic that end up with the buyer using their cookie even if the buyer came to eBay on their own.
The Social Contract of Affiliate Linking
Posted on February 12, 2008
Filed Under Weblosophy | Leave a Comment
Recently I had good chat on Skype with one of my valued readers about the nature of posting Affiliate links.
In non-tech industries, the average reader won’t know the difference between an affiliate and non-affiliate link. They will click on the link, goto the site and purchase all the while having no idea that some guy is getting paid %%% just because they came through that link.
However in this industry almost all readers (expect the total noobs) will be aware %100 that any link to paid product/service from my site will eventually get me paid in one way or another.
Link redirect makes it look nice, but our readers are well aware that they can simply type the name of the good/service into google and go directly to the site in question and get the same value without me ever getting paid and the end-site just keeping the difference in unclaimed commissions. I know this because I sadly admit that I have done this exact same thing in the past when I signed up for a service and I just didn’t like the attitude of the person that wrote the article (i think it was some guy from Vancouver with the wrong attitude whose link I bypassed) Read more
Life after MsnHOO
Posted on February 11, 2008
Filed Under Search Engine Wars | 3 Comments
Today Yahoo announced that it would rebuff MSN 41 billion $$ takeover offer. I believe there are 3 simple reasons for this rebuff
- They want more Money
- They Want More Money
- They Want MORE MONEY
Yes - $31 a share is not enough for Jerry and the Gang to sell their souls to Redmond. I believe that this offer would have actually been successful has not Google got involved. Now Google may or may not be able to Buy Yoohoo due to Monopoly laws, however it definitely do something to C@@kBlock Redmonds bid. Read more
Milestones and You!
Posted on February 11, 2008
Filed Under The Startup | Leave a Comment
On any project, especially a startup, the use of Milestones can be an almost necessary way to keep track of progress and accountability.
A Milestone can be defined as a concrete task within the main project that will be completed by a certain date. In a software/tech development environment Milestones can include but not be limited to the following
- Completion of Specific function/Design or Page
- Deposit of new Funding
- Specific Product release version
A milestone is something that is planned for and then achieved
Many unsuccessful people will scoof at Milestones and say that
“Why do I need that, I have it all in my head.” Read more
Targeting Horizontal Markets w/PPC
Posted on February 8, 2008
Filed Under Pay Per Cluck | Leave a Comment
We will have a short discussion today on PPC targeting.
Generally the PPC business model goes as follow
- Pick product
- Find and target relevant keywords
- convert and get paid
What we are going to do is remind you that there are more relevant keywords for a given product that just the direct and related keywords.
For instance, lets say that I am promoting mens jeans. I would get my handy Keyword tool and find all the relevant terms to mens jeans and bid on these terms and direct to the correct landing page
To take this a step further I then begin to profile my searcher and understand that most people searching for ‘mens jeans’ would probably also be interested in ‘mens belt buckles’ Read more
NoFollows Dirty Little Secret
Posted on February 7, 2008
Filed Under Search Engine Wars | 1 Comment
Through a series of experiments conducted in the Web Genome research laboratories involving a 6 month period and lots of Unique IP’s and servers, we have discovered Googles dirty little No-Follow Secret.
To begin let us define the basis of No-Follow. This means that the web indexing robot will see the link, but not follow it nor index it.
The general purpose of No-Follow is a statement by a webmaster that they do not value the link enough to warrant giving that link credit in the SERPs (search engine results)
So to put it simply, the Link flow is like water, each link in promotes the page in the rankings and each link out decreases the rank. This means that in theory a webmaster wants as many links in and as little links out - hence the NOFOLLOW tag which is designed to allow the user to see and click on the link, but tells the search robot not to look at this link
Typically NO-follow is used by the following types of sites Read more
Adbrite Arbitrage
Posted on February 6, 2008
Filed Under Making Millions | Leave a Comment
Today we are going to discuss something that is going to make the hair stand up on the necks of a select group of Internet Marketers. Why is this going to get their goat? Because I will be telling you in detail how to pull off quite easily one of their easy profit secrets. And guess what? I am not even going to try to sell you an eBook, harvest you email or anything!
So why am I going to share this information? Well lets just say that I have my own twisted reasons, one of them being that as with most of my projects, I make a social contract with my reader. I share the information with you freely and if you chose to sign up for any of the programs I discuss, then you do me the service of signing up under my supplied affiliate link. It is sort of a social-payment good Karma type thing.
So the topic for today is Adbrite and how a certain group of IM’s are leveraging it via arbitrage to create obscene profits by simply sticking up a banner and link. So how do they do it?
Before we get into the actual technique, I want to share a bit about Adbrite and how it works for both Advertiser and Publisher
Publisher Setup. (that means Webmaster)
Much like our beloved Adsense, Adbrite allows the webmaster to allocated space on their page in which to display Advertisements. These are typical rub of the mill sizes, 300×250, Big and Small Skyscrapers, Leaderboard or a space for Text Links. Adbrite then takes control of these spaces and then through a pay per impression system in which you the publisher determine how much you require to be paid for 1000 impressions they allocate advertisments that are submitted by the advertisers. Simple - no? Read more
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Deal of the Day
