October 2006
Digg makes it harder to get dugg
Written by Neil Patel on October 31, 2006 | 19 comments
Today Digg made a major modification to their algorithm. With thousands of stories being listed on Digg everyday it seemed like too many mediocre ones were making the front page, so it appears that Digg modified their algorithm (or the algorithm automatically modified itself) for stories to require more diggs before they hit the front page.
The Power of Kids
Written by Neil Patel on October 28, 2006 | 3 comments
Gerber, Huggies, and Cheerios are all popular brands with 1 thing in common. They use cute little kids in their commercials. Many people take the impact of children in advertising for granted but cute kids are very memorable which is why they are used in TV commercials. If you want to create a memorable advertising campaign you might want to think about using some cute kids.
Interview with Chris Pirillo
Written by Neil Patel on October 26, 2006 |
I recently did an email interview with Chris Pirillo who is a well known blogger and entrepreneur. I asked him a few questions regarding linkbait, blogging, his conference and the web. He had some very interesting things to say and I am sure everyone will enjoy the interview.
How to get the most out of digg traffic
Written by Neil Patel on October 25, 2006 | 11 comments
A lot of people consider digg traffic as being useless because they think most digg visitors will never come back to your blog. This is not necessarily true, especially if you do a few tweaks to your blog so you can actually get some benefit from the traffic. These tweaks will not only help you retain visitors from digg, but also will help retain regular visitors as well.
Creative commercials that you'll never forget
Written by Neil Patel on October 24, 2006 | 30 comments
Chances are you spend hours everyday watching TV shows, which means you watch hundreds of new commercials on a daily basis. The worst part about watching all those commercials is that most of them are dull and humorless which is why they are not memorable or effective, but every once in a while a few companies take the time to come up with creative commercials that are worth watching.
5 ways to optimize your design
Written by Neil Patel on October 22, 2006 | 23 comments
Everyday thousands of websites are being created based on the needs of website owners and not the needs of their visitors. Visitors are being ignored which is the biggest reason most websites are not successful; here are 5 ways to optimize your design...
Beer Humor
Written by Neil Patel on October 20, 2006 | 3 comments
Beer companies are in a competitive space filled with hundreds of competitors. If you walk to into a bar or a liquor store you have tons of brands to choose from, so how do beer companies try to convince you to buy their product instead of their competition's product? They use humor. ...
Creative advertising that makes you look twice
Written by Neil Patel on October 18, 2006 | 31 comments
Advertisements usually have a negative connotation associated with them and because of this most people don't like taking the time look at and even read advertisements. The good news is, not all advertisements are bad and some companies have taken the time to design some very clever advertising campaigns.
The first 7 days of blogging
Written by Neil Patel on October 17, 2006 | 34 comments
Thousands of blogs are being created every week and many of them are making critical mistakes within the first week of starting. If you are thinking about starting a blog here are some things that you should think about and do within the first 7 days of starting your blog.
Catchup - 10/16/06
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 16, 2006 |
- Blinkx.tv to Power Microsoft Video Search
Microsoft will be using Blinkx technology to power video search within MSN and Live.com.
Marketing with Nature
Written by Neil Patel on October 13, 2006 | 3 comments
Using nature is a great way to market a product. By creating a soft and warm atmosphere you can make your product have the image of being soft, gentle and warm just like Snuggle fabric softener. So if you want to brand your product as being soft and personal like Snuggle you may want to use nature in your marketing and advertising campaigns. ...
Interview with Lee Odden
Written by Neil Patel on October 12, 2006 |
For quite a long time I have been reading Lee Odden's blog and have had the privilege to meet Lee in person at a few conferences. Lee has been in the industry for 9 years and he has a unique approach on PR and SEO. Because of this I asked him a few questions through an email interview. Here are the questions and his answers.
When will people realize, you get what you pay for!
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 11, 2006 | 7 comments
You wouldn't let your nephew be your accountant, so why would you hire him to build your website? That's pretty much the question Todd Malicoat is asking with his latest post titled "You wear a suit to work, but let your nephew design your website?"
What's your blog juice
Written by Neil Patel on October 11, 2006 | 3 comments
Have you ever wondered how popular your blog is compared to other blogs in your industry? You might be able to figure this out by doing a simple backward link check, but that only shows you a small part of the full picture. Why not compare traffic or even RSS subscribers to get a more complete picture? Today Text Link Ads released a tool that compares the popularity of your blog to others by taking multiple variables into account.
Casinos and Conversion
Written by Neil Patel on October 10, 2006 | 2 comments
Last week, Matt from 37signals wrote "The casino experience" that analyzes a casino from a design perspective. Matt hits on points such as the fact that casinos have no windows, no clocks, and they are hard to navigate, which are all great ways to keep people gambling. From a marketing perspective you can actually take many of these principles that casinos use to help improve your conversion rate.
Best practices for online customer communities
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 9, 2006 | 3 comments
Communispace, a company that builds private communities for corporations, put out a press release for the 10 Best Practices for Online Customer Communities. Private label social networks and communities that are built around brands & products are starting to become more commonplace as companies begin to realize just how powerful they can be.
MySpace becomes biggest referrer to Viagra.com
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 8, 2006 |
No, not really. But more than half of MySpacers are over 35 according to a study from comScore. That's a wake up call. Although Pete Cashmore from Mashable thinks that statistic is irrelevant...
Stopping the copycats
Written by Neil Patel on October 6, 2006 | 9 comments
Sometimes in business you have competitors that love to mimic and copy all of your moves. The worst part about this is that it makes it hard to show your potential customers the benefits of your product compared to your competitor's product. So what do you do when this happens to you? You can do something so drastic and unexpected that they have no choice but to stop copying you.
Catchup - 10/6/06
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 6, 2006 |
- Google Buys Birthplace Garage
Google has purchased the garage where the company developed after its initial birth at Stanford University. Actually, they've purchased the home of Google vice president of product management Susan Wojcicki. Before she became a Google VP, Wojcicki rented the garage attached to her home to Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Two-thirds of US economy is driven by buzz
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 5, 2006 | 2 comments
The Word of Mouth Research Blog from WOMMA points to an interesting study from A McKinsey & Co. strategy consultant named Renee Dye which shows that buzz drives two-thirds of the US economy. The study is from back in 2001 and was published by the Harvard Business Review. Here are the key findings...
Do customers want to be your friend?
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 4, 2006 | 7 comments
Does your company have a MySpace page? If so, are you "friends" with your customers? Did they friend you or did you friend them? If you do not own a company are there any companies that you would want to be friends with?
Educating through your company blog
Written by Neil Patel on October 4, 2006 | 4 comments
Many companies are starting to create company blogs because it is a great way to keep in touch with customers. There are some good company blogs out there, but many are ignoring their customers by blogging about things that do not really help their customers. One of these companies that I think is ignoring their customers is FeedBurner.
5 more ways to make the digg front page
Written by Neil Patel on October 3, 2006 | 9 comments
Yesterday SEO Black Hat wrote 10 Steps to Guarantee You Make the Digg Front Page, which discusses 10 tips to help you get on the digg front page. Here are the tips he recommended.
Verizon puts all issues on the table
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 2, 2006 | 1 comment
Steve Rubel points us to this Mediapost article that reports Verizon is getting ready to launch an "all issues on the table" blog for consumers. First of all I think this is great because like Steve says...
Paying for diggs
Written by Neil Patel on October 2, 2006 | 5 comments
I was just reading Search Engine Journal and I saw something quite interesting. A site called User/Submitter is providing a service that will help you get on the digg frontpage. If you are a user you can get paid 50 cents for each story you digg and as a submitter you are charged a base price of $20 and $1 for each digg you desire.
Traffic comparison of StumbleUpon, digg and del.icio.us
Written by Neil Patel on October 2, 2006 | 5 comments
During the second week of September I wrote a post called My 50 favorite design resources that got traffic as a result of StumbleUpon, digg and del.icio.us. The article received 11350 visitors from StumbleUpon, 8879 from digg and 2715 from del.icio.us. As a result here are my observations regarding the visitors and overall traffic:
My experience with Dell's homepage
Written by Neil Patel on October 1, 2006 | 11 comments
Recently I was roaming around looking for computers and landed on Dell's website. I noticed that their homepage had been realigned since the last time I saw it. Obviously, Dell.com gets a lot of traffic, so I started wondering why their homepage has gotten worse with this recent change.
Marketing chefs
Written by Cameron Olthuis on October 1, 2006 | 3 comments
Marketing is one of those things where it seems like everyone thinks they know how to do it. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people I talk to that are trying to become marketing consultants when they have no real experience. It doesn't really matter who the person is, but everyone has an opinion when it comes to marketing, and it looks like VCs are no different.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Written by Neil Patel on October 1, 2006 |
I usually do not make off topic posts, but October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Every year, breast cancer claims more than 40,000 lives. By the age of 90 roughly 1 out of 7 women will be affected by breast cancer and roughly 1 out of 1000 men will be affected by it. So if you would like to participate in the National Breast Cancer Awareness month you can educate others, donate money to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, participate in Pink for October or do something unique like Derek Punsalan over at 5ThirtyOne has.
