Why pay for anything with Web 2.0
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
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.
Facebook Ads - A big FU to Flyer Advertisers.
A few days ago we discussed some of the terms and polices of Facebook Flyer ads.
We are going to expand on this discussion and observe the double standards Facebook is pulling when it comes to serving Ads by its Facebook Flyer users and serving Ads sent forth by Mighty Microsoft.
According to Facebooks’ demographic information I am an unemployed 30 year old male. This means that I a prime target for crap home online degree courses. A Huge money maker in the affiliate world. Unfortunately according to Facebook Flyers Terms and Conditions, I am not allowed to advertise such things on Facebook.
Microsoft however is. Every other damn Ad I see served up by the MSN banner engine is for that non-accredited college crap. The EXACT same ad that gives 32.00 per lead on Hydra.
So what does this mean?
It means that the cock(rooster) don’t know what the balls(eggs) are doing. Read more
Stumble never Sticks on Sundays
Having thrown my hat in many directions, the successful internet marketer will experiment with many things until he finds one that HITS. Then he will ride this hard until it is dry.
One of these methods I have tried is Stumble Upon Marketing. I don’t know if it even deserves the name marketing as all I did was click a little button and put an icon on my site.
Over the last week, SU has been sending approx 500 uniques a day spread out between two articles on this site. One about Google SERPs and the other about ADsense.
Based on this test data of approximately 4000 unique visitors from Stumble Upon, this is their typical behavior on this site
a small amount will leave right away, but the majority will stay 1-3 minutes and read the article, give it a thumbs up or whatever and then leave. What does this mean? Read more
