PC4Media

Your Startup Was My 3rd Grade Science Project

Amen. That post says it pretty well. I was thinking about this the other day. All 'us web geeks' have figured out how to do is speak one word sentences into a big machine that spits back a list of crap, broadcast music, upload videos, write short rants, publish innane thoughts in broken english, collect fake friends, organize pictures and rank shit.

The "tech" blogosphere blows. It's just a bunch of surface skimming idiots in a bar w/ no alcohol. All you "consumer-focussed" venture capitalists and computer-focussed entrepreneurs are to blame. Actually, it's mostly Michael Arrington's fault. Short returns. Simple business models. One form performing a simple task. Completely reviewable in 3 minutes flat. Simplicity is good in the UI. And simplicity of business model has served the internet-industry well in the last few years. But, at some point, you're going to have to gaze beyond your own navel and come up with a business model; an application that connects people in meaningful ways to accomplish goals beyond instant self-gratification.

Update: Might as well link to this linkbait article on TechCrunch. I guess I was a little clairvoyant. I think Arrington is looking for constructive criticism about TechCrunch. This probably qualifies more like sarcastic lambasting of the ecosystem that is TechCrunch.

Yeah! Google Goes CPA!

Google just entered the PPA (ie CPA) (ie lead generation) market. Not that it's rocket science or much of a leap, but I had predicted this a long while ago. I don't feel like digging for the post. Ok. It wasn't that hard to find.

They just took the "smart-requirement" out of using their system, as well as the "you need to invest $500/month and wait 2 months to figure out whether it makes sense to use their ad network" out of the equation.  I imagine there's still incentive for the advertiser to optimize creative so that it gets clicks and conversions, and gets publishers to sign up. But, there's no risk now. Forget adsense arbitrage. Just set what you're willing to pay for a lead or a sale and g-g-gooo. No need for the advertiser to manage risk. 

I got excited when Turn launched. But, they haven't gotten much traction from the publisher side. Without inventory or affiliates, CPA doesn't work. Google has a HUGE network of affiliates, not to mention their own inventory. So, this is finally an automated CPA system with access to inventory.  Or it least it could be.

I'd be interested in some smart people in the biz's take on this: Andy, Greg, Pat, John DeMayo?

Why Revenue is Important

If you were doubting that. As cool as Youtube, Myspace and Skype are/were, they weren't making any cash. Webex was doing quite well. And that's why Webex got a lot more $ when Cisco acquired them. (Of course, they were/are wasting a lot of money on online advertising.)

And this, an arguably very odd purchase, has potentially zero synergy. Unless you buy this one. Or you think will really be able to pull off an enterprise social networking coup.

How Webex Wastes a Lot of $ On Advertising

Raise your hand if you've ever hosted a webinar. Out of the 1000's of people I've been in contact over the last year, I am sure that less than 20 have hosted one.

Yet, Webex spends a shitload of $ on online banner advertising. (I don't have the numbers. But, I see the ads everywhere.)

What they should be doing is buying a company like mine or BullDog solutions that helps people manage online advertising and handle registration for public webinars [usually designed to educate prospects about a service or product]. Then, they should put their name on webinars like this, and provide some co-op marketing/sponsorship dollars for public webinars.

Side Dish at Web Innovator's Forum

We're demo-ing our service at the Web Innovator's Forum on March 28th. Our prospects won't be there, I presume. But, we're interested in recruiting some people and mingling with angel investors. And getting some feedback from some fellow geeks.

300 Review

I would have probably forgotten about promising the review. A few friends and I went to see 300 last night at Cinema De Luxe. It's a fancy theatre w/ assigned bucket leather seats and a good 12 inches between seats. They even have an outgoing young person who welcomes the patrons to the theatre before starting the previews and someone who sells concessions out of the front of the theatre. It's somewhere between the experience of going to a ball game and a play.

Anyways, I probably wouldn't have actually written the review, except that Brendan Mellican - aka Buck Paxton - and the lovely mother of his child, Iris, were sitting in the seats next to our assigned seats. Brendan asked me if he should still read the review. Thus, reminding me that I blogged I'd write. It's still weird when I run into people that read my blog.

Brendan and I ended up catching up a bit before our seats were re-assigned. They moved us to sit next to other friends who we had come with - who ordered their tickets separately. Yeah. They'll even move you around at this fancy theatre. It's de luxe.

Anyways, the movie. Here it is. Short and sweet. Visually Awesome. Every shot reminded me of a Bierstadt landscape painting w/ paintings of Paul Cadmus' human figures overlayed.  The story, since it's mostly modelled after history, was quite predictable. We knew the 300 Spartans were going to die. So, there wasn't much left to do but enjoy the action. I was expecting to feel like I do when I'm in a competitive soccer game: a rush of testerone and sometimes the urge to hurt someone who screws with me. But, I didn't get that. Probably a good thing for my friends and the other cars on the road during the ride home. 

I actually fell asleep for a few minutes until my buddy Josh woke me up. But, that's not any indication of the movie. I can and do fall asleep anywhere. Anyways, it was good. I'd see it again. In fact, I just watched the theatrical trailer a few times and got slightly aroused. Not in a sexual way. But, in that "These guys had something to fight for. I wish my life had that much meaning" way.

There was an erotic scene between the king and the queen which verged on soft porn. I think I counted about 5 positions. And there was some amazingly nasty humungous and disfigured characters. Xerxes was one tall dude. Great use of boils on faces. And of course, the 300 men who purportedly trained for 12 straight weeks to get 6 pack abs, made me feel guilty for drinking 4 beers before the movie. All in all, I'd give it 4 stars... for what it was: a great visually arousing, slightly meaningful, romanticized-sorta-historical action flick.

Cannabilizing My Company w/ My Blog

Update: Looks like it's already fixed.
Update II: Looks like it only happens when I am logged into google. Must be part of their search personalization thing.

I noticed that my blog ranks higher than my company in a google search for my company name.

Regarding the title of this post, I guess this is what I did. Coincidentally, I found that article on techmeme today.

300

How amazingly awesome can a movie be? I think we're about to find out. I'll review it here on Sunday.

A New Kind of Speakers Bureau

Anyone out there who'd like to start a speaker's bureau? Here's some examples of them. I have an idea for a new kind of bureau, which heavily takes advantage of what we've built at WhizSpark.  Here's the negatives I see with current bureaus:

• Speaker's bureau's haven't innovated in decades from a technology or business model perspective. They rely on Corporations to book celebrity speakers. Their websites are designed to sell speakers like amazon sells books. Just bigger #'s.
• They sell their clients. But, they don't market them very well. Worse, they don't take advantage of public appearances very well... They have a perfect opportunity to push their clients through web and email based PR by marketing their speaker's current activities.
• Many aspiring speakers can't get representation. Long tail is totally ignored.
• They take a top down approach to booking. There's a huge opportunity to take a bottom up approach to booking great speakers. Even more important, there's a huge opportunity to "bottom up" FUND the appearances.
• They are missing the opportunity to book speakers that have something to sell. There are many amazing speakers out there that don't speak for the few grand they can make from a speaking gig. They speak because they have a company behind them and speaking engagements impress prospects, who spend $ on much higher ticket items than $50 at the door or $10,000 speaking gigs.

Given current priorities and resources, we won't be launching anything. But, I thought it'd be a good Sunday post along the lines of Noah Kagan's Free Idea Friday. And if someone wanted to take it up, it could make money very quickly. Person would need good sales skills to launch it. After that, easily-teachable web based marketing skills would be the main activity.

Wow. That's Important!

I love what I do. And I am making a difference in people's lives.

But, this is what finding meaning in your work is all about.

Well done, Tony. And it's good to see you blogging again. Especially about what you're working on at Healthline.