September 2010
3 posts
2 tags
Skip the Checkout, Should Google Create its Own...
While it’s too early to call the game on Google Checkout because Google is committed to making it work, even if it means forcing Android users and developers to use it, it’s not exactly a huge success. For those of us clamoring for a PayPal competitor to make the market more consumer friendly, Checkout hasn’t delivered yet. Rather than just being a PayPal clone tied to Google...
4 tags
How HTML5 Will Save Podcasting and Make it a...
For all its promise, podcasting is still a niche form of content on the web. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into trying to make this a more profitable medium, but the end result is that in 2010 just a handful of players are just getting by. Its popularity is growing for sure, but not in the dramatic way we’re used to seeing with the web. This is despite the fact that...
4 tags
My Apple Predictions (updated)
1. Yes to the iPod Touch with FaceTime rumor. I’d expect a $299 price for the Touch with the cameras and the retina display. $199 iPod Touch gets faster processor, more memory and retina display. Maybe an iPod with 3G. That would be revolutionary too. You can own and Android and an iPhone. This was the obvious one. I was surprised that Apple was able to release it at $229. The lack of the...
August 2010
8 posts
1 tag
Chatroulette: contextualize or die
Beyond Chatroulette’s well deserved, deviant reputation as an online Mos Eisley Cantina (now with more male nudity!), there is an undeniable value to randomly interacting with people, one on one from around the world. The instantly intimate connections matter and if the service is alive five years from now it will be because they are known for the tech that make those possible.
On the eve of...
1 tag
Is Google's Book project just another content...
Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Geoffrey Nunberg points out some serious flaws in the Google Book project. I think it can be summed up by this: “The ad placement on Google’s book search right now is often comical, as when a search for Leaves of Grass brings up ads for plant and sod retailers…” Google’s intent for the project seems to be two-fold: Have an...
2 tags
Why do we refuse to believe Mark Zuckerberg can...
Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t live in his Harvard dorm. He isn’t 20. His creation, Facebook, is a modern institution. It has changed. He, like anyone else, has probably changed. After all Bill Gates today isn’t the introverted, arrogant guy he was seen as in the 90’s and Steve Jobs is clearly a different man then the one who left Apple in the 80’s.
With Gates and Jobs it took the...
3 tags
Beware of anti-social social media
Are you a social media spammer? Do you let applications like foursquare and Farmville take over your Twitter and Facebook account and send updates that are really just marketing messages? Are your friends calling you the Mayor of Doucheville behind your back?
In my opinion, every time you let those services use your social media platforms to communicate something with absolutely no content to...
2 tags
Twitter isn't your audience. It's your community.
So Leo Laporte woke up yesterday and realized that his Google Buzz account was broken and nobody noticed. That’s the end of social media for Leo. Paul Carr over at TechCrunch noticed this and opined that all of his twittering has come at the expense of his soulful blogging. Paul too has decided social media has run its course.
With all due respect. I think I perceive social media a...
4 tags
3 tags
Why we forgive Facebook
Facebook often acts like a bad friend. We’re never quite sure we stand with them. One day they’re making life awesome, the next day they’re telling our secrets to people we don’t want to know. Telling us to pay attention to our privacy settings is like a friend that tells everyone who you made out with last night because you didn’t expressly tell them not to tell anyone. They win on a...
4 tags
The Trillion-Dollar Metaphor
Search is dead. People click less. Growth is only supported by adding users and getting us to spend more time online. We reach peak users this decade and probably peak time next week. After that growth stops. ‘Nuff said.
Then what happens? Text ads die too. Finally we give up the current metaphor and find a new one that better fits how we use the web.
The future has always been social ...
June 2010
1 post
1 tag
paidContent: Marketers Can Expect Long Delays In... →
To quote Ashe from Army of Darkness, “First you wanna kill me, now you wanna kiss me. Blow.”
April 2010
5 posts
4 tags
Apple's iAd will probably not destroy life on this...
Before the even the first iAd has been served, panic over Apple’s iAd platform has begun. Dave Johnson at BNet has decided that the mere suggestion of it is reason enough to switch phones right away (BNet). He fears that because it functions at the “platform level”, it’ll be too easy to put ads into every app in the App Store - even the paid ones.
He’s making a...
2 tags
Redheaded Ring of Death: Why a Conan O'Brien XBox...
After the announcement that Conan was going to TBS word got out that Team CoCo was seriously considering a jump to XBox Live (Deadline.com). While that may sound like a hip and edgy thing to do, it would have been a step backward and likely a complete disaster. Media pundits weighing in on the issue put it into the same context as Revision3’s offer to get Conan on to their network (An open...
4 tags
How to build your multimedia empire on the cheap
The online world is very different than it was just 5 years ago. As a content creator the landscape has changed dramatically. It’s also made what would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years ago essentially free.
Five years ago:
YouTube didn’t exist…
There was no such thing as Twitter…
There was no Facebook…
Hardly anyone owned a smart phone,...
3 tags
Counterintuitive: Why Murdoch's overpriced Wall...
When the Wall Street Journal iPad app hit the Apple app store most people including myself were taken aback by the price for the actual subscription. Priced higher than the print version and web version combined, it didn’t seem to make any sense. Add to that the fact that the subscription based app also includes ads. An overpriced subscription app that isn’t ad free? ...
5 tags
Is Apple's iAd the biggest thing since Google...
The Apple iPhone OS 4.0 announcement was a big deal. So big that people are having a hard time wrapping their heads around it. The real story isn’t about Apple shutting out Adobe development tools. It’s not even blessed multi-tasking on the iPhone. It’s Apple’s vision for advertising in apps via iAd.
“So what?” Is the response from a lot of people. ...
March 2010
14 posts
4 tags
How focusing within a niche can have huge results
What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles is the top-selling book on changing careers of all time. What many people don’t know about the book is that it was originally written for a very narrow audience; Episcopalian ministers who were losing their jobs in a budget crunch and were looking to find new jobs. That’s about as narrow of a niche as you can imagine. Yet by focusing in that...
3 tags
5 steps to identifying your niche
Before my foray into publishing, the first niche I tried to exploit had mixed results. When I was in high school I decided I wanted to become a professional magician. There are many different directions a magician can take. There’s the general performer who does shows locally for parties and special events. There are close-up magicians that work in restaurants and private parties. Then there...
2 tags
How babysitting a mountain lion helped me make...
Before my first book was sold on store shelves, before my video projects aired on television, way before I created a brand around my name, I was a magician who made a living performing on stage. I got off to a great start and had my first world tour when I was 19 headlining on a cruise ship. Soon after I was performing in resorts and casinos all around the world. I traveled. I made money. I...
3 tags
7 rules to making millions as an Internet talking...
As broadcast television goes through it’s prolonged demise, more and more people are turning to the web for the kind of talk show entertainment TV pioneered. Two shows in particular; What the Buck and Rocket Boom are almost mirror universe twins of shows like The Daily Show and Talk Soup.
What’s really fascinating, not only do they get an audience that some cable networks would love...
2 tags
A jar full of hope: Why Brett Rounsaville of...
In response to my post A jar full of fail on why online donations and tipping don’t work on the Internet, my friend Brett Rounsaville of Greatest Employee in the World (and of AmTrekker fame) has responded with a counter example of how his entire effort to criss-cross the country and live out his bucket list was entirely supported by the largess of people on the Internet.
Hey Andrew,
...
1 tag
How to monetize a YouTube video you're not making...
Sounds like a trick question, doesn’t it? Currently my iPhone Trick video on YouTube has about 1,300,000 views. Since YouTube never invited me to do revenue sharing (and declined my request while offering rev share on my much less popular videos???) it’s not like I was making money directly from it. But don’t feel sorry for me. I figured out a way to profit from it. Not mad,...
1 tag
How my YouTube video got over one million views
Dumb luck. That’s the simplest way to explain it. I didn’t set out to get over 1 million views on YouTube nor was it even the most clever video I think I’ve done (that would be the ultra-violent puppet movie I made: Sunnyland Vice). It pretty much happened by accident when a confluence of events took place and gave it momentum.
It started with the iPhone. Right around the...
7 tags
Are Google fans too cheap to pay for anything?
Does Google=Free?
I consider myself a Google fan. And my reluctance to actually buy anything from them makes me wonder if I just keep looking to them like the rich kid down the street we’re all nice to because he keeps trying to buy our friendship.
I love many of the things Google produces. I even own a small amount of Google stock. I think Google has collected some of the smartest...
3 tags
A jar full of fail: Why tipping and donations...
Online tipping is for natural disasters and not your blog or podcast… I love the TWiT podcast network. MacBreak Weekly is my 60 Minutes and Tonight Show rolled into one. Leo Laporte is a broadcasting god among men. Yet, for the life of me I can’t understand why TWiT uses a donation system to support itself outside of advertising (check out Leo’s latest post where he explains...
4 tags
How to make money on a fan podcast (using Harry...
Let’s say you and your friends are huge Harry Potter fans and have a very popular podcast with thousands of other fans tuning in every week. How do you make money from this? The obvious answer might be to sell Harry Potter book and DVDs. But let’s be realistic, your fans already have those items or have put them on back order on Amazon. It’s a tough sell to sell something...
Making an iPhone app paid versus free
I launched an iPhone app called Lottomatic (iTunes link) a few weeks ago (it’s a scratch-off lottery ticket game). I decided to charge $.99 for it, but contemplated making it a free app supported by advertising and in app purchasing.
Since it’s been on the iTunes store there has been some interesting feedback. Some people really like it, while others have been suggesting features...
5 ideas for making money on a flash fiction site
365 Tomorrows is a flash science speculative fiction blog that publishes a new story every day. It’s audience is lovers of science fiction and people who are interested in the process of writing science fiction. Currently they have a sidebar that features links to related sites and books for sale. What would you do to monetize this blog?
Online writing workshops
One idea would be to...
