Digital Interactif

Tech Cocktail Boston 2 - Tickets Available

Tickets to Tech Cocktail's 2nd Boston meet-up are now available.   I missed the first one but fortunately was able to score a ticket for this one.  Be sure to get your FREE ticket asap...they'll probably be selling out in the next day or two. 

For more info visit http://techcocktail.com

When: Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST

Where: Tequila Rain by Fenway (Boston)

What: A "cocktail of TECH people"

Price: FREE You must be 21+ to attend and must be on the RSVP list for the event to get in.

Tool For Easily Sorting Through HTML Code

Monte Brown, co-founder of Fearless Development, recently recommended to me the Firefox Browser plug-in FireBug.  The plug-in is fantastic because when you scan over the HTML code of a webpage, Firebug highlights on the page the area that the HTML code refers to.

Who's linking to your website?

Ever wonder who is linking to your website?  Well, Yahoo makes it easy to find out where those links are coming from with Yahoo Site Explorer.

Yahoo Site Explorer provides great info on your incoming links.  Incoming links are very important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as they increase the 'quality score' that Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) assign your website. Therefore, one way to increase your search engine ranking is to increase the amount of sites that link to your website. 

HTML email

*Nightmare*...That single word explains HTML email's relationship with Outlook 2007.

Thanks to Microsoft Outlook 2007, HTML email template designs/code that have worked for years with Outlook 2003 are now *obsolete*.

The repercussions of such a code change are nothing new.  It has happened many times over the lifespan of computer programming.   

"obsolete" - adj -  perfectly good  HTML code but unrecognized for what it is by the typical Microsoft-Coding-Decree(Mcd) business strategy. 

All U C - The new 'TV-Links'

It's been a few months since UK authorities shut down the website TV-Links.co.uk for hosting pirated content via embedded video players from websites such as Chinese Todou.  I, along with many others, was a big fan of TV-Links and I have never found a suitable replacement.  I tried finding content myself on Todou a couple times but it proved problematic. The trouble with Todou, as you'll quickly notice, is that it's in Chinese and very difficult to navigate. 

That's where alluc.org steps in! (Thanks for the tip Tom)

'All U C' is a German website hosted just north of Hamburg.  Though not as pretty as TV-Links, 'All U C' provides interesting functionality such as voting on which versions of a movie are the best quality.  You can also comment on the specific versions, which users appear to be doing quite often. 

Essentially, 'All U C' trolls Chinese websites, such as Todou, and directs users off of the 'All U C' site and onto the Todou site to watch the videos.  I am not 100% on the legal issues that brought down TV-Links, but I suspect that 'All U C' may be playing by the rules since it directs the users completely off of it's site.  Also, 'All U C' provides the following disclaimer before you watch the video:

Disclaimer

The author is not responsible for any contents linked or referred to from his pages - If any damage occurs by the use of information presented there, only the author of the respective pages might be liable, not the one who has linked to these pages.
Allfg.org and Alluc.org doesn't host any content

All Allfg.org/Alluc.org does is linking to content that was uploaded to popular Online Video hosting sites like dailymmotion.com/Youtube. All youtube/dailymotion users signed a contract with the sites when they set up their accounts wich forces them not to upload illegal content. By clicking on any Links to videos while surfing on Allfg.org you leave Allfg.org, Allfg.org cant take the responsibility for any content hosted on other sites.

If in the past couple of months you've found other suitable alternatives to TV-Links, drop a line in the comments section below.

Hitler the Cowboys Fan

New York Yankees Legacy Jacket

Next time I go to Yankee Stadium I'll be sure to bring a bunch of "Asterix" patches for those lame "World Series Champions" Yankees 'super fan' jackets.

 

 

 

"Hey Gagné...Baise le gros cul vert poilu de Wally."

Here's some beautiful French phrases to throw at Eric Gagné is you ever walk by him. 

Eric Gagné - Biggest Jerk in Baseball

        Eric Gagné is a relief pitcher who began his career in Major League Baseball with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1999 and played with the Dodgers through 2006. In 2007, he playedfor the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox, and in December he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers. In 2002 and 2003, Gagné was the Los Angeles Dodgers Player of the Year. In 2003,he saved 55 games and won the Cy Young Award and the National League Rolaids Relief Pitcher of the Year. In 2004, he saved 45 games and again won the National League Rolaids Relief Pitcher of the Year. He has played in three All-Star games

    Paul Lo Duca and Gagné were teammates with the Dodgers from 1999 to 2004. Although he is not sure when, Radomski recalled that Lo Duca called Radomski and told
Radomski that Gagné was with him and wanted to buy human growth hormone. Gagné then came onto the phone and asked Radomski a question about how to get air out of a syringe. This is the only time Radomski spoke to Gagné. Radomski said that Lo Duca thereafter placed orderson Gagné’s behalf.

        Radomski said that he mailed two shipments to Gagné, each consisting of two kits of human growth hormone. One was sent to Gagné’s home in Florida; the other was sent to Dodger Stadium. Federal agents seized from Radomski’s home a copy of an Express Mail receipt showing a shipment to “Dodger Stadium, c/o Eric Gagne – L.A. Dodgers Home Club,
1000 Elysian Park Ave., Los Angeles, California 90012” dated August 9, 2004. Radomski said that this was for one of the shipments of human growth hormone to Gagné. Lo Duca paid Radomski for one of the shipments to Gagné by cashier’s check in the amount of $3,200. The Lo Duca checks supplied by Radomski reflect two payments of $3,200 (each the cost of two kits) within a six-week time frame during the summer of 2004. Radomski said that, on one other occasion, Gagné sent Radomski $3,200 in cash by FedEx.

        According to notes of the October 2003 meetings of Dodgers officials, it was reportedly said of Gagné that: “he probably takes medication and tendons and ligaments don’t build up just the muscle.”

        When the Boston Red Sox were considering acquiring Gagné, a Red Sox official made specific inquiries about Gagné’s possible use of steroids. In a November 1, 2006 email to a Red Sox scout, general manager Theo Epstein asked, “Have you done any digging on Gagne? I know the Dodgers think he was a steroid guy. Maybe so. What do you hear on his medical?” The scout, Mark Delpiano, responded,

Some digging on Gagne and steroids IS the issue. Has had a checkered medical past throughout career including minor leagues. Lacks the poise and commitment to stay healthy, maintain body and re invent self. What made him a tenacious closer was the maxeffort plus stuff . . . Mentality without the plus weapons and without steroid help probably creates a large risk in bounce back durability and ability to throw average while allowing the changeup to play as it once did . . . Personally, durability (or lack of) will follow Gagne . . .

        In order to provide Gagné with information about these allegations and to give him an opportunity to respond, I asked him to meet with me; he declined.

Good riddance.

Update:

Actual list of players named in Mitchell Report

French Youths Online - Forrester Study

I came across an interesting Forrester report on the French blog, Sortez du Cadre!. 

Forrester polled 1000 French youths, aged 12-24, and found that:

• 89% send email
• 72% read blogs
• 69% use search engines
• 57% utilize major web portals (ie. Yahoo!, MSN...)
• 55% research products online
• 51% comment of blogs
• 43% use chat rooms
• 40% use reference sites (ie. wikipedia)
• 37% look for news online
• 37% Maintain an online blog
• 29% look for sports results
• 29% download freeware
• 27% take part in discussions in forums and chats
• 26% prepare itineraries online (ie. directions, maps...)
• 24% use comparison sites (ie. Kelkoo)
• 24% use social networks
• 22% research/apply to jobs online
• 22% look at consumer reviews online (ie. Amazon, Ciao, DooYoo)

 

One small yawn for Yanks; One giant leap for Froggies

Monabanq, a subsidiary of 3 Suisses International Group and Groupe Cetelem, is a French bank that exists completely online and allows customers to manage all of their affairs through the Monabanq website.  Though this is a huge "yawn" for an American, this type of service is practically unheard of in France.  An interesting feature of this online bank is that they utilize Skype so that communications with the banking agents is free, essentially creating a cost-free operation.   

Whereas the typical French bank closes at 5pm on weekdays, Monabanq is geared towards the typical Internet user/full-time worker and offers live support until 10pm at night.   

The website itself offers a great interactive video that serves as a tutorial for new users.  If you want to test out your french skills, check it out.

Monabanq's main benefits include:

• No more paperwork : Digital copies of all your paper work
• No more mail : Interface for scanning and sending your documents to Monabanq via the Internet.
• No more pens : Electronic signature allows you to fill out bank requests without leaving your home.
• No more transfer delays (sort of...) : Transfer large sums of money in only 2-24 hours
• No more trips to the bank : Cash checks online (check must be sent to bank by mail though.  Once received, the account is credited to the date when the online form was initially filled out

Many of these features already exist in the American banking world but they are truly unheard of in France.  I lived in France for a year and learned to deal with a Bank (Banque Populaire) that closed it's doors for 2 hours during lunch time and closed at 12pm on Saturdays...I guess they never realized the beauty of running "lunch time" errands.  To see this type of change occurring within the French banking services industry is encouraging.  Hopefully, this level of consideration for customer service will spread like wild fire over there as the Internet forces the hand of traditional operating hours.   

Procruiting - Recruiting 3.0?

Dean Whitney has an interesting post about how recruiters advertise job opportunities on social networks such as Facebook and LinkdIn.  The Internet's affect on the recruiting process is beginning to come to light, but we still have a lot to learn about employee/employer behavior in a recruiting 2.0 environment. Nevermind the old story about employers "googling" prospective candidates - today, we face a world in which candidates are "facebooking" a prospective employer's employees to see what type of people work there. 

I recently came across a great example of how the Internet can affect the recruiting process at WebInno XIV.  Oncero, a Boston-based Internet start-up, operates a social network geared towards connecting employers with qualified job seekers through the trusted contacts shared by the users.  Essentially, employees post their company's open positions on the site and Oncero tracks how the positions are shared within the community.  When a position is filled, all the Oncero members involved in a the referral process receive a fraction of the employee referral bonus offered by the employer.

How it works:

1. my company has a $2,000 referral bonus and I post a job opening for a Marketing Associate position on Oncero.
2. Oncero-user "Bob", who is already happily employed, spots my posted job opening and sends it to his unemployed friend "Sam". 
3. "Sam" applies for the Marketing Associate position through Oncero and gets it! 
4. 90 days after "Sam" is hired, I receive $2,000 referral bonus, a percentage of which goes to "Bob" because he helped locate "Sam". 

Oncero is an outstanding idea because it brings the benefits of social networking and word-of-mouth/viral marketing to the recruiting process and then injects it with steroids by offering a monetary incentive to take action. 

Oncero is currently invitation-only.  If you would like an invite, leave a comment below and I will send you one.

When Writers Attack

Some of the writers on strike are blogging!  Blogging is a good first step for the writers because it allows them to bypass the traditional media and speak to the general public.  While this is an effective and proactive measure, I would like to see more writers using their time and energy to produce video content and post it online (ex. Clark and Michael and Funny or Die).  Now, I know this is no simple task (I certainly couldn't write/produce a show)...but I am expecting very talented and capable professional writers to pull it off, not the average person on the street. 

Check out this News Cast written and preformed by writers from The Daily Show (tip of the cap to Tom).  Aside from picketing, blogging, and drinking, this is exactly what writers need to be doing while they are on strike. 

For more info on the strike, I suggest going direct to the source: the strikers' blogs!

*Ironically these blog don't have advertisements

• Strike Points
• United Hollywood
• The Artful Writer
• Animation Writers
• Wannabe TV Writers
• News From Me
• others? (Post 'em if you got 'em)

Hulu let the dogs out!

Pardon the pun but I couldn't help myself. 

I received my invitation to Hulu's website last night and I am very impressed. Hulu is a video site that has signed content deals with major studios(MGM, Sony), television networks(NBC, Fox), and 15 Cable Channels(such as FX, SciFi, USA). 

Unlike Joost, Hulu actually has shows that I want to watch!  Hulu features full length episodes of TV series such as The Office, Arrested Development, Family Guy, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, SNL, Chuck, The A-Team, Airwolf, Scrubs, and the movies Blue Brothers and Conan the Barbarian among others.

Hulu creates new channels of distribution for TV Shows.  The best feature I have come across so far is that the site allows you to embed the videos on your own site.  Not only can you embed full episodes, but you can also create customized clips from shows and embed them as well.  It is very easy to create a clip. 

FAMILY GUY CLIP: This joke from Family Guy about Ringo Star is hilarious:

FULL OFFICE EPISODE: And it you have the time, watch the most recent episode of The Office (word has it that until the writers strike is over, there will be no more new episodes of The Office):

Advertising revenue generated from this content will strengthen the arguments underlying the Writers Strike.  It blows my mind that the studios would open up this site while negotiating with the Writers Union over online advertising profit made from television content posted online.  Though the ads in these shows are minimal, they go wherever the clips go.  eCRM for each video likely runs $40 - $120 for sponsorship.  Therefore, if a given video receives 100,000 views, Hulu stands to generate, at a minimum, $4,000 in ad revenue from sponsorship deals.  Considering that these videos can now go anywhere on the web, this estimate may be too low.  Regardless, this revenue source will grow at a near exponential rate in the next couple of years and this definitely supports the Writers on strike in Hollywood right now. 

12th Annual MITX Award Winners

Last night I attended the 12th Annual MIXT (Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange) Awards event at the Marriott Copley Hotel.  MIXT sponsors events focusing on emerging technologies and digital media in the Boston area.

Special thanks goes out to EyeWonder for sponsoring the fantastic after-party at 711 Bistro.  EyeWonder has been behind the iPhone Flash Banner ads you've seen online.  Not only do they produce great work but they also employ cool people.   

And now, without further ado...

12th Annual MITX Award Winners   

Awards

• Applied Techology
  • Outsight Interactive LLC
    • FootJoy: DryJoys Microsite
• Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals
  • One-to-One Interactive (OTOi)
    • Start the Talk  Valtrex Unbranded DTC Campaign   
• Consumer Goods
  • Mullen
    • Stanley FUBAR
• Corporate Training and Support
  • Weymouth Design
    • RSA enVision Product Demo
• Education and Learning
  • Six Red Marbles for Merriam-Webster, Inc.
    • Merriam-Webster Inc.'s Word Central web site
• Educational Institution
  • BigBad, Inc.
    • Connecticut College Web Site
• Entertainment/Sports
  • RDVO, Inc.
    • The Gillette Young Guns
• Financial Services
  • Avenue A | Razorfish
    • Prudentials Retirement Income Calculator
• Government
  • RDVO, Inc.
    • MBTA.com | Official Website for Greater Boston's Public Transportation System
• Health and Fitness
  • Bridgeline Software, Inc.
    • Center for Connected Health Website
• Human Resources
  • Staples, Inc.
    • Employment Brand Website - Staples Jobs
• Kids, 'Tweens & Teens
  • WGBH Educational Foundation
    • Curious George
• Nonprofit
  • ISITE Design
    • Solano County (Calif.) Library Website
• Online Commerce
  • Envisa, Inc.
    • Smith+Noble Site Redesign
• Professional Services
  • Kel & Partners
    • www.bicbac.com
• Real Estate
  • Lightfin Studios
    • Fars Realty Group Website
• Rich Media Application
  • Brightcove
    • Brightcove Aftermix
• Social Computing
  • Bit Group, Inc.
    • Web 2.0 Entertainment Portal
• Technology
  • PHT Corporation
    • www.phtcorp.com
• Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality
  • Kelliher Samets Volk
    • Stowe Find Yours
• BEST OF SHOW
  • WGBH Educational Foundation
    • Curious George

"Best of" Awards

• Acquisition/Direct Marketing Campaign
  • Digitas / Make 3D
    • The Home Depot Holiday Decorating Site
• Best Integrated Campaign
  • Carat
    • Reebok "Run Easy" Integrated Campaign
• Best Use of Mobile
  • Hill Holliday
    • Breaking the Code of Silence with Text
• Best Use of Search
  • Charles River Interactive
    • Bernardi Auto Group -  Fuel Efficient SEM!!!
• Best Use of Social Media
  • OTOi, a One to One Interactive Company
    • Comcastic! Island in Second Life
• Best Use of Sponsorship
  • Carat
    • Get it Done with John Deere
• Best Use of Video
  • Pod Design / Mittcom Advertising
    • Raw Talk from the raw bar
• Best Engagement
  • WGBH Educational Foundation
    • Curious George

The next MITX event, Mobile Social Networking: The Next Revolution in 24/7 Personal Broadband Engagement, takes place at the Hynes Convention Center on Tuesday, 11/13.   

Virtual Imaging for the Real Estate Market

Last night at the WebInno XV event I had the chance to speak with Jeff Engel of Panospin Studios, a photo production company that produces high quality 360 degree images of objects and environments.   Jeff founded Panospin Studios with Carlton SooHoo in September 2005 and the startup currently has 5 employees.

Panospin Studios' target market is primarily sellers of high-end residential homes, condominiums, hotels, and commercial buildings.  The technology implemented by Panospin allows users to navigate a high-quality 3D environment, both horizontally (360 degrees) and vertically (180 degrees). 

Panospin's services are expensive but the benefits of selling your house in a tight market would almost certainly outweigh the costs of creating these 3D environments.  The price range for producing a high quality 3D image of a room ($200 - $450) correlates to both the total number of rooms requested and the complexity of the architecture.  Panospin can also set you up with a website to showcase your property and this runs an additional $750 - $3000.  For this fee, Panospin will design the website and will sort out a third party serving solution.

It is my hope that Panospin will look beyond websites and invest in a way to host their high-quality navigable images within the confines of an embeddable widget.  Such a widget would make a great addition to any Zillow profile and would certainly tap into an already flourishing online market. 

There are several local competitors in the virtual imaging industry, namely EveryScape and Boston Virtual Tours.  EveryScape just launched a high quality 'Google Street View-esq' map of Boston which just went live yesterday!  EveryScape is similar to Panospin Studios in that it produces virtual tours of buildings. The main difference between the two companies is that EveryScape is devoting the majority of it's resources to street level views of cities and the interior photography seems to be more of an added incentive rather than a focus.  Though unlikely to ever happen, a combination of EveryScape and Panospin would certainly present an attractive acquisition target to both Google and Microsoft as they continue to build up their presence in the Boston area.

Web Innovators Group XV is TONIGHT!

WOH!  Close call!  I just remembered the WebInno XV conference is taking place tonight at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, MA.  It starts at 6:30pm.

The Web Innovators Group sponsors events every couple of months that showcase various New England-based Internet Start-ups and I highly recommend checking it out if you have the time.

I went to WebInno XIV and it's a great chance to get out, have a beer, and see some local entrepreneurs present their business ideas.

Register here online by 3:30pm today. 

Here are the presenters: 

• Main

  • FlipKey       - T.J. Mahoney
  • Lemonade - Tom Zawacki
  • iiProperty - Owen Johnson

• Side Dishes
  
  
  • Carbon Rally - Jason Karas
  • Mix and Meet - Bruce Franco
  • Panospin - Carlton SooHoo
  • 360Gadget - Vivek Puri 
  • Student Concourse - Steven Bao
  • Untravel Media - Michael Epstein

It's sure to be a good time.  Drop me a line if you're going! 

Mobile Gaming Industry - MIT Interactive Entertainment SIG

This past Monday, I attended the inaugural MIT Interactive Entertainment Special Interest Group (SIG) event.  The speakers on the panel included Mathew Bellows (GM of Floodgate Entertainment), Jeff Burden (VP Digital Media & Games for Hasbro), and Beth Marcus (Founder of Zeetoo.net). 

The panelists painted a bleak picture for the $1 billion mobile gaming industry.  There are currently two major obstacles facing mobile game producers, Carriers and Hardware:

• Carriers
  • There was agreement on the panel that the single largest obstacle facing game makers is the phone carriers themselves.  The "$6 per game" business model has been undercut by the payments demanded by the major carriers.  According to Jeff Burden, roughly 35-50% of a game's revenue is taken by the carriers upfront.
  • Carriers reserve the right to terminate data packets if they deem them burdensome to the network.  Therefore, even if a game is successful, a carrier may pull the rug out from under it because the game is causing too much traffic on a mobile network.   
• Hardware
  • The market for handsets is too fragmented.  Differences in screen size between handsets make standardization of game resolution impossible. 
  • Memory on most cell phones is not large enough to support high quality games.

The margins for mobile gaming companies are small due to the market's small size and the obstacles thrown up by the carriers.  Matthew Bellows observed that there are not many marketing costs associated with getting a mobile game to market, except taking Execs out to dinner!  Matt insinuated that there was no effective way to market to consumers.  But this point of view avoids the potential of in-store bluetooth downloads and other means of getting consumers to download and interact with video games directly in retail environments. 

Mobile gaming companies have a slight advantage over game makers for traditional gaming platforms because of the relatively low cost of creating a mobile game.  The cost of producing a major PC title typically runs from $4 - $12 million.  The cost of Mobile games on the other hand runs from $150k - $750 per title.  The low end mobile games are 2D, single/multi player whereas the high end games are 3D, multiplater, and bluetooth compatible.  This results in mobile game makers throwing a bunch of games at a "wall" and hoping that they'll stick.   

Mobile gaming has yet to see a game with a viral component.  The first real "big" mobile game will probably arise from a synergy of a mobile social network(Mocospace) and a mobile game.  Additionally, there has yet to be a game with any tie-in on the Internet.  The old model of designing PS2 games for a mobile handset is a dead-end and there is a great amount of potential innovation to be seen within this industry. 

One way to move the mobile gaming industry forward is to look outside of the physical handset for motivation.  Local interactive media company Locamoda has developed technology that allows users to interact with LCD screens hooked up to the Internet via local access numbers.  Using Locamoda's technology and a mobile phone, consumers can control the content on LCD screens, whether it be at a mall or a bar.  This technology could radically alter how the industry develops and looks at mobile games because it would allow game users to bypass the carriers and play games via local access numbers against people in the same room instead of having to use bluetooth or data plans.  This work-around would also allow game makers to do what they are good at: producing high quality games!  Since the games themselves would now be embed applications hosted outside of the handset itself, the level of interactivity and social aspect could be increased drastically . Additionally, projecting mobile games onto an external high quality screen would overcome the fact that it's just not fun to play a game on a tiny mobile screen.

The next MIT Interactive Entertainment SIG event, Financial Game - VC Funding in the Gaming Industry, will be taking place on December 5th.   

5 Ways to Monetize Your Web Content

I went to a few of the Podcamp Boston 2007 sessions on Saturday afternoon and I was surprised to see how much of the crowd was not into Podcasting.  When asked for a show of hands, it seemed the majority of folks there were active bloggers but did not actually post original audio or video on their blogs.  Though the economics of blogging is not one-to-one with podcasting, the conference offered up some insights into monetizing online content. 

Paul Kontonis, CEO/Founder of For Your Imagination, gave an interesting presentation entitled Monetizing Your Web Series/Podcast.  For Your Imagination (FYI) is a video production company that creates original and professional quality content.  Since it's founding in November 2006, FYI has spent $700,000 and earned $400,000 from its various means of monetization.  Though FYI is currently losing money, the IPTV market is looking at considerable growth over the next several years as consumers have begun to adapt to the idea of watching TV shows online. 

Paul's presentation addressed the ways in which his company has attempted to monetize its video content/audience and I have summarized the findings below:

1. Advertising
   • Banner Ads
     • Average CTR (Click-thru-Rate) for a flash banner ad located at the top of a webpage is only .25-.3%  Very much due to the Banner Blindness affect.
     • Interestingly, Feedburner ads on an RSS feed have an average of 3-4% CTR and therefore, banner ads could be leveraged better if placed primarily within feeds. 
     • Banner ads yield an average of $1 - $2 eCRM (Ad revenue generated by 1000 actual click-thrus on an ad) for a general web audience.  Niche markets can fetch higher eCRM (ex. $23 for the Business School audience: 26-33 year old, college educated, finance background).
   • Video Ads
     • Stand alone video ads yield an average eCRM of $2 - $3   
2. Sponsorship
   • To make money on sponsorship, a web property must either have a massive audience(200,000+ unique visitors/month) or a good size niche audience (50,000+ for potential Business School candidates).   
   • Product/Company sponsorship typically pays $40 - $120 eCRM. 
3. Merchandise
   • .1% of For Your Information visitors actually buy the site's branded merchandise.  For instance, Patrice O'neals Web Show has sold 70 pairs of branded panties! The average customer purchases $4 worth of merchandise off the site.
   • Resources for creating Branded merchandise: Cafepress, zazzle, and CreateSpace.
     • Ideas for Products: DVD's, Tshirts, Posters, Buttons, Thongs, Buttons, Coffee, Mugs, ect...
   • Set up an Amazon affiliate program.  Visitors will be more likely to buy your merchandise if they associate your brand with a reputable online merchant.
4. Licensing
   • Since FYI is a video production company, the figures they provided do not correlate to blogging.
   • $2k - $5k per episode should a web show be picked up by Showtime, HBO, or another major cable channel. 
5. Franchising
   • Deals for a cable channel buying the right to your video content can range from $250k - $5 million.

For more information on the Monetizing Your Web Series/Podcast presentation, check out Lori Magno's write up.   

Facebook App - Flog

Thanks to George Jenkins I came across the Facebook application Flog.

The Flog idea is interesting because it is targeting the niche of people who have their own blogs.  Essentially the widget provides your Facebook profile with an RSS feed of your blog and automatically displays new posts within a contained box.  Currently the display is rudimentary but the Flog team has stated that they are working on incorporating images, video, and flash into the RSS feed.  According to the app's stats, the application is currently on 551 profiles.  Here's a summary of it's features:

• Automatic For Everyone: Your Flog can be synchronized to your Blog automatically, regardless of your blogging platform.
• Flogroll: Browse the Flogosphere. Read recent posts, or peruse at random! Enjoy great content from other Floggers.
• News Feed Integration: Your friends are alerted whenever you post new content to your blog!
• Customization: Choose how your posts are displayed, down to the number of characters

I added this application to my Facebook page the other day and I think it may have messed up my RSS feed.  I've noticed that my feed on Google Reader is now abbreviated and does not display the entire post.  I find this extremely annoying and I really hope it's not an unintended consequence of adding the Flog app.  Proceed at your own RISK!   

NMDA - New Media Douchebags Anonymous

In between one of the sessions at Boston Podcamp 2007, Blogger Scott Monty showed the video "New Media Douchebag" on his computer to me and Blogger Lori Magno.  Lori, who runs her own personal blog, online jewelry store, and contributes to the Digital Hive, introduced me to Scott who runs a popular and insightful blog on social media marketing.  

 

After watching the video I sadly thought to myself, "wow, I'm a new media douchebag."  But then I looked around the room, realized I was at a conference for Podcasters and Bloggers and felt much better as I realized almost everyone has a little "new media douchebag" in them.

Blogstonians come together at Blogtoberfest

This past Thursday, I had the fortune of attending the 2nd Annual Blogtoberfest held in the basement of the Pour House on Boylston Street. 

I met some great bloggers, both professional and casual.  Eileen keeps up Divine Comedy of Errors a funny observational and anecdotal blog.  John Petit of the Bostonist keeps his site going with the help of a team of enthusiastic contributors and editors.  The Bostonist is part of a larger network of Gothist blogs and it is supported by the Gothist's ad-network. 

I was pretty excited to meet Adam from Universal Hub, an aggregator of local news and opinion.  Adam was the first person to ever link to Digital Interactif online and it was great to get a chance to speak with him, especially about his ninja-like Feed Demon skills.

Another highlight of the event was meeting Wade Rush, one of the three editors of the local business blog Xconomy.  Wade has made a career in Journalism and has brought the same professionalism and dedication to the Xcomony blog.  Whereas the Boston Business Journal will typically rewrite press releases, Xconomy preforms the traditional leg work that is the core of serious journalism (conducting interviews, fact checking, ect) while posting new articles throughout the day.   

I also had the opportunity to speak with Michael Krigsman who runs Project Failures, a blog that examines why IT projects fail and many of the issues surrounding successful implementation of IT software.  Michael's blog was recently acquired by ZDnet so I suggest checking it out. 

George Jenkins keeps up a blog on identity theft.  I've been following George's blog since he began it this past summer and he provides thought provoking and informed comment on issues/news pertaining to identity theft. 

Another great blogger at the event was Ryan Barrett who keeps up her Cheap Thrills blog.  Ryan posts on an eclectic mix of consumer products and events in the Boston area.  Ryan clearly has a flair for writing and I was surprised to find out that she was one of the creative minds behind the ever popular, though currently on DL, BarFrog. 

This event was awesome and I look forward to the one!      
    

President Bush's News Conference

5 Reasons to start a Blog for your Business

Tonight I went to the Tech Blogs with Scott Kirsner panel in Cambridge, Massachusetts and I came away feeling great about both Boston and the future of digital advertising.  Thankfully Dan Bricklin, podcaster extraordinaire, recorded the event and has posted the audio on his website.  If your business doesn't have a company blog yet, listening to this podcast may very well convince you to start one.    

5 - Give your employees/partners a creative outlet for their ideas.  It can serve as a platform for exchanging ideas as well as highlight the talent that your company can offer. 

4 - A blog provides you with greater credibility when speaking with a potential client or investor for the first time.  It offers them a glimpse of the ideas and insights that you can bring to the table.   

3 - Fills the void in between press releases.  This will keep your company in the headlines and create more interaction between you and your clients and investors.   

2 - Adds a human dimension to your business.  Your company blog should let readers know that your firm is run by thinking/innovative/talented people, not a bunch of automatons. 

1 - Three letters: SEO!(Search Engine Optimization) A blog will direct traffic on your website.  Google ranks a page higher when it receives links from other websites and a blog is a great way to generate quality links by hosting original content. 

Wiffiti brings the Interactivity to your Hompage

The above is a Wiffiti screen that exists in the digital realm and can be updated via text messages. 

The website lists all the publically viewable Wiffiti screens and each screen is geo-tagged on a Google map.  Though texting a SMS message to an online message board is nothing innovative in of itself(twitter has allowed this for a while), Wiffiti creates a visually pleasing application that could be displayed on a large LCD screen in a bar, cafe, sports venue, ect.   

For instance, since the application records when messages are put up on the screen itself, this type of device could be used in conjunction with quiz nights at bars.  Instead of long, drawn out rounds at quiz night, the Wiffiti screen could serve as the official judge of who texted the correct answer to a given question.   Not only would this save people time by speeding up rounds at quiz nights, but it would also solve the problem of cheaters who use the long rounds to call/text their friends for answers to questions. 

Go ahead and leave a message, its very easy: Text @DIGITAL to 25622.  Wait to receive back a text from 25622.  Then text your message and it will appear on the board.  Very easy! 

Wiffiti is a product of Boston-based Locamoda.
 

M.A.D about Sedans

I came across this German car commercial for the Renault line of cars.  The commercial itself is pretty captivating, integrating car crashes with a Dr. Strangelove-esq soundtrack.   

The commercial does a great job of making these cars look sturdy and safe, but I can't help but notice that they are running into equally sized cars.  Unfortunately, these sized cars just aren't that practical in America, especially if your key marketing message is safety. 

American society has undertaken it's own automotive version of M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) whereby we buy bigger and bigger cars so that we can protect ourselves and our families from other large vehicles on the road.  In a car accident involving a Chevy Suburban and a Renault, nobody wants to be the poor guy driving the Renault.  It's a weird notion, but I figure most people in America are well aware of this and I'm just pointing out the obvious. 

The ocean is coming!

In honor of Al Gore's Nobel Peace prize, I offer up this interactive map: http://flood.firetree.net/

The map combines Google Maps with NASA geographic data and allows you to see the results of rising sea levels.

For a bit of extra fun, I suggest checking out listings on Zillow in order to find that future piece of beach front property.  Topsfield, Massachusetts just started looking a lot more attractive!

In VoIP We Trust

Today Avaya's stock price went hog-wild, at one point dropping nearly 11% before regaining some of it's strength and ending only 1.73% down.   Currently in the midst of a private equity buyout, Avaya is worrying investors because of continued turmoil in the credit market and the recent collapse of stereo-maker Harman International's own buyout deal.  Fortunately, the Avaya's underlying business is solid as a rock. 

As the economy moves forward over the next couple of quarters, skeptics and investors aplenty will cry wolf, but companies that provide VoIP equipment/software for businesses will remain on solid footing.  VoIP is spreading throughout the business world and this will benefit makers of VoIP equipment and software, especially one's with respected names in the industry. The underlying logic is that even if our economy does enter into a recession,  VoIP communications provides a means to simultanously reduce costs and enhance productivity.  Therefore, the equipment makers for VoIP products stand to make considerable profits as businesses inevitably invest in this cost saving technology. 

Two companies to keep an eye on are Level 3 and Shoretel.  These stocks are a win-win situation in the long-run for two reasons.  Firstly, as described above, high rates of adoption and considerable profit margins will allow these companies to grow over time.  Secondly, this sector of the telecommunications industry will see much consolidation in the next few years in order to take advantage of VoIP's global spread. 

Also, keep an eye on the equipment giants Nortel Networks and Alcatel-Lucent.   Nortel is currently priced at a four-year low and it may still have a few bad quarters ahead of it, thus it's price may still go lower.  Likewise, Alcatel-Lucent is nearing a four year low and is currently having difficulty realizing gains from it's recent merger.  But for all their problems, Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent should not be trivialized.  Their international presence and market size could see them reemerge as an increasingly important players in the next two year. 

FYI: I do hold small stake in AVAYA.  I don't (at least not yet) hold any stock in Level 3, Shoretel, Alcatel-Lucent or Nortel.   

Free Internet Traffic Statistics

If you haven't taken an interest in web analytics yet, there are two websites that may provide a spark for you:  Compete and Alexa. 

Compete
Compete provides a free service that allows you to compare the traffic numbers of different websites.  Essentially the service tracks the behavior of 2,000,000 Internet unique users, runs their behavior through an algorithm, and offers up it's estimate of a site's traffic.   It works pretty similarly to Nielson ratings.  (So, uh, if you are one of the people Compete is tracking...please come back.  Often.) 

A cool feature of Compete is that it allows you to get an idea of a typical user's behavior on various sites.   For instance, thanks to Compete,  you can gather stats on Facebook such as: Ave. Time on Site(14:08 minutes), Ave Pages viewed per Visit(44..3 pages), unique visitors per month(26.2 million people). 

Alexa
Alexa also provides traffic data on websites but it focuses more on a site's traffic rank than user interaction.  It is always good to compare Alexa stats against Compete, and vice versa, to give yourself a range for stats because neither site is perfect.  For instance, whereas Compete states that users visit 44.3 pages on Facebook, Alexa says that users visit only 31 pages per visit.  This 13 page difference is quite significant and therefore you should utilize both sites if ever using the services for a competitive analysis. 

The best feature of Alexa, in my opinion, is the "Sites Linking In" section.  This will show all registered sites that are linking back to the site.  Essentially, the more websites that link to your site, the better your site will do in search engine rankings and quality rankings. 

These two websites are great but there are still a lot of services/features that have yet to be developed, such as a company that provides free insights into RSS feed readership for various blogs/websites.  That would rock.