iPhone 3G: waaay better.

After waiting in line, I had the privelege of giving AT&T and Apple my money for the 3G version. My old iPhone worked great as an iPod, OK as an organizer, and horribly as a phone. In my area the chipset they used for the phone (infineon?) really showed its youth by consistently dropping more than 50% of all calls. The new iPhone drops only about 10% of all calls, so a huge improvement for those with older iPhones in my neck of the woods (Buena Vista & Haight). And the web surfing speed (they say it's 2x fast) actually feels 4x as fast for impatient folk. * the GPS function puts the one in my car to shame..

You wouldn't believe what I ran into on the way home..

such a Geek: shabby chic in the Mission district

One of my hobbies is to bike around mi barrio in San Francisco and find boutique stores to shop at - the other is to find new bars but i think my liver has found them all. So far in boutique-land SF I've found my 5th grade Incredible Hulk lunchbox and a pair of Lakers tennis shoes. Boutique stores fascinate me as they have eschewed the Internet in many ways - how would the Web recreate the experience of walking past a dusty window and stopping for some compulsive reason?

Boutiques seem to come in two types - the modern chic type and the shabby-chic-keeping-it-real type. This photo is a classic example of the latter.. I imagine this boutique owner is way too cool to drive a hybrid (why go green when you went brown 25 years ago with an authentic Ford Pinto) .. really, and you thought you were hip driving a Prius?

Pinto say no.

A/B Testing a Shopping Cart: a real life case study

During a link-building campaign the other day, I got emails from two ladies (at least in name on email, which included contact information) introduced themselves as "link liasons" (instead of link spammers). They explained that they had websites relevant to ours and listed other sites they link off of, all very relevant and on-topic to my client. They were syndicating content across their client websites (and their clients were all in the service/hospitality industry) which was unique, they reacted quickly to my questions (namely - are these sites all hosted on the same block of IPs in the same location & ISP?) and knew how to place content around the anchor-text. They also knew to ask for keywords, how to structure site directories, made sure their links pages all had at least PR3 or higher, and had a fair amount of content around a limited number of highly relevant links. All in all, the best link "spam" I've received so far..

Dinner @ Hills Cafe, Austin
home of the Sizzzler & mac'n'cheese mcnuggets

the Google update recently has caused some havoc out there amongst my SEO network of webmasters. While some website owners groan about algo updates, the truth is that it provides job security for marketers (ha!). We are even seeing mid-day changes in the SERPs - how's that for excitement?

Holiday Cheerz & Beerz are weez havin a'fun yet?

My niece Naomi strike a pose.

JK the Patriot.
I don't care what the dollar is doing - USA is still #1,
and this picture proves it. (roll Rocky IV theme song)

<I have a great idea>

Last week somone from the East Coast hired me for 4 hours of phone consultation on web marketing. He had an idea, actually several, about consumer web-apps that could go "viral." And while one of them seemed useful, we repeatedly had arguments over the worth of an idea - "it's not the idea, it's the execution," I kept telling him. Also told him how hard it was to get an app to get to said defined critical mass, even with a sizable budget. And while his idea truly was a useful app, he had no granular details for how he was going to execute a marketing plan to generate a user base or revenue stream. I could feel the poor guy's heart breaking over the phone, but hopefully convinced him to keep his life savings and not go to China with $80k to develop an application that was going to "be bought by Facebook."

Karnak in L.A. just like Egypt, uh huh

Belly button! Naomi pokin' around.

<I need traffic>

I've gotten a couple of phone calls this month from Web 2.0 start-ups that want traffic to their website. They're exciting ideas with passionate, super-smart people trying to get to "crirical mass," so it made me wonder as to the nature of viral marketing and what it really takes to generate buzz for ventures such as social networking and local search recommendations. Some interesting factoids from Alan Moore & Tomi Ahonen's book Communities Build Brands:

1) Total size of Global social networking was $6.5B (already!) in 2006.
2) Mobile social networks domiante at $3.45B, accounting for nearly half the market (anyone that's been to Korea knows about Cyworld, the first mobile social networking site to gain critical mass).
3) MMOGs (massive multi-player online gamer - uuh, think World of Warcraft!) are 2nd at $1.9B and advertising revenues from the likes of MySpace and Friendster at $835M. Actual paid subscriptions for social networking sites came in last at $280M, and that last statistic shows a slow march upwards and not the explosive growth seen in other pieces of the pie.
4) Success means tightly defining your community, building trust, facilitating communication within said community, and focusing on the user experience. Kind of reminds me of what Jimmy Buck (CEO of Craiglist) is always saying about "pro-community business models."

My pal Michelle at la matiera at 3am.
dos equis. of course.

Hey Hey, Partaay! Le Coloniel, San Francisco

..it's been a crazy 2 weeks so we went out and blew off some steam on Derby Day. post up on SEO for start ups.

da majestic in San Antone. like in da movie. but only real.

<My website is super popular. Who knew?>

No, 5000 people did NOT come to your website last week. Web traffic measurements, whether from a log file from a hosting company to established measurement firms, are somewhat of a joke all around. Even comScore or NetRatings certified websites touted by publishers are at times dubious. Come on, when we Internet marketers get together around the luncheon table at a conference, we ALL laugh at those stats. So I was glad to see Gavin O'Malley report that the IAB has issued an open letter to the industry, asking for a 3rd party audit of their measurement practices. We all understand the publishing industry's need to make money and keep their rate cards intact - but in the long run this is going to eat away at our core business, and hurt everyone involved.

say somethin bout SEO San Francisco

<Pimp this!>

So we've all seen those big Hummers with advertising of their websites plastered all over - but what about on a 1981 Toyota Tercel? Obviously, this guy needs to see the folks at MTV's "Pimp My Ride" and upgrade his moving billboard. A website would help too, unless he's thinking people are writing down his phone number because he's a "Nice Guy," who, "Buys Houses."

And yes, I know some of my very clever and sarcastic readers will point out that by being so bad, he actually did end up on the web after all.

holla

Still, one has to wonder who decided to pay $50 for a stock model image (I think I've used her myself in a brochure or two) for an ad that costs tens of thousands a month.

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