From the Network Solutions FAQ:

Major bummer!

Then there’s the second Horseman of Apocalypse: Apple. The deals MS and Apple are inking, and likely to pen down in the future, are bound to put a hole in the Googly mothership. Does this mean Google is going away? Not anytime soon. Google is freaking huge.

One thing to understand about public company financing is that the amount of money you have to fund your business has a lot to do with your stock price, and your stock price is tied to what the market believes your stock will be worth in the future – not now. The companies that are better managed from a financial standpoint – maximizing what they do with the money they have available – are the ones that succeed. When the market believes you won’t deliver on the earnings goals of the future, it means the returns on the stock won’t be there and thus your stock is not worth as much as the investor thought when they bought it, so they may sell it before other folks find out you’re not going to make your numbers, which cascades in share sales at ever-lower prices down to the point where the market expects you will be. In a sense, the market corrects itself for its over-valuation of the company. The problem for a publicly-traded company is that a drop in stock price is like someone going into their bank account and literally taking money out and throwing it away; it causes the company to have less funds to fund its operations, which in turn causes it to miss its targets. Its not a death spiral, but you get the picture of how companies can crash to the ground.

The tech industry is a place where disruptive models and tech cause things to literally vanish overnight. Anyone remember when Altavista was hot shit?

What goes around… Comes around…

I wonder who will be the Third Horseman of Apocalypse in this story.

Post Sparked by Shoemoney’s post titled: “Is Google’s One Trick Pony About To Be Euthanized by Microsoft“

The logo:

What my perverted mind sees:

Some points to ponder:

• Jeremy Schoemaker started humbly and slowly learning the ropes and succeeded while maintaining his integrity and honesty in a field where its pretty much a big medieval melee.

• He built a brand around his name.

• He is putting the brand behind a very public offering of a training, the Shoemoney System. Would you put your last name and a picture of your face to something you have even a shadow of a doubt might end up flopping? Lets say you might – lets say you think in a very shortsighted way and believe that this “one shot” might be enough to screw everyone over and take a permanent Caribbean vacation; and lets say you can’t imagine why anyone would do differently. Then the reason Jeremy is not thinking the way you are is because he is kinda dumb (at least in your book) and has been showing he is kinda slow for a few years now – He has put his name behind dozens of things and none of them flopped and he hasn’t moved to Bermuda just yet – Being dumb is not something that goes away overnight, so this latest thing he is doing is probably another one of those things that actually delivers on its promise.

If that’s not enough endorsement, how’s this for an endorsement: I convinced my mom to sign up. Yes, I did and its not a joke. I signed up myself and had already talked to my mother about it at length. Endorsements don’t get much better than stuff you talk your own mother into.

Head on over to the Shoemoney System sign-up page and see if there are some spots left.

Looking for a quick way to rewrite an article and bumped into Human Spinner – Really cool. This saved me the time of going to e-lance or other similar options and wrestling with folks while waiting days for results.

More than a quick re-write, these guys have a system that will chunk down an article into paragraphs or sentences (your choice), then submit these for re-writing and iterative reviewing over at the Amazon Mechanical Turk, where a couple thousand people work on these little tasks. This works remarkably well for what Human Spinner does. Since the pieces of your article go out in parallel, the article gets re-written in a flash – I’m talking a few minutes for a 2,000-word article – much faster than what any single person could do. You could paraphrase an entire book before dinnertime using this chunking idea.

The main aim of HumanSpinner, however, is not simple one-shot re-writing – their aim is to take an article and output “JetSpinner” or ‘spinner’ formatted stuff. You can tell the system how many “alternates” of each sentence or paragraph to get from the workers. This all gets compiled into a document that looks like:

The {quick|fast|speedy} brown fox {jumped over|hopped across|skillfully dodged} the lazy dogs.

With just two alternatives of “quick” and “jumped over”, an article spinner can now generate some nine articles. For an article like mine, the number of “spun” possibilities is enormous – of course not all of them would be significantly different from each other. I’m wild guessing 30% of the total number of possibilities is likely to be sufficiently unique – still a fricking huge number. The system even gives you the option of downloading a zip file on the fly with your article “spun” – So you get a zip file with a thousand (yes, a thousand) different articles in it based on the combinations of content. I didn’t stop to look at how unique the algoritm makes the versions – I was just poking around – but I suppose there’s specialized software for finer control.

I’m not into Article Marketing, content spinning or that stuff – I don’t quite get the full ‘circuit’ there or why I would want to have five billion shitty articles, but I can appreciate what these guys are doing is pretty cool for those that do understand how to work this.

The Bad

My only negative on the system was its non-existent ease of use. There’s a walk-though video which you have to see or nothing in their interface will make sense. I recognize the interface as the type of thing I launched PlayVault with – It had all the levers and buttons exposed to the user, the problem is  users need a “next step” button to guide them, prompts to tell them what they’re supposed to do next and a consolidation of steps into as few as possible. They also hammer you with an offer on the sign-up page, which is very confusing. Just go back to the site, sign in, watch the video you’ll be able to figure it out.

Turking It

I’m a sucker for anything that uses the Amazon Mechanical Turk programatically like this, after all I did my Dissertation for the University of Liverpool based on the system. What they’re doing in the background is submitting those pieces they show you off to the Amazon Mechanical Turk, for the workers there to re-write. I logged into the Amazon Mechanical Turk’s client site and was able to see the HITs that made up the rewrite of my article. They’re paying the workers about 30 cents per paragraph rewrite, which is about 50% of what they charge users of the service -  This doesn’t mean that they’re making out like a bandit; they are not only paying the Amazon fees, I noticed they’re also absorbing some overhead costs of keeping the workers happy. Judging by the speed of completion, the compensation rate for the workers is competitive – otherwise folks just pass up.

The Good

HumanSpinner is really offering a good service at a good price. Technically anyone could go into the Amazon Mechanical Turk and submit these things manually – It would take forever to split the document, submit all the HITs, review and approve and then re-assemble them into the right format. Technically you could build a special-purpose app to do exactly all this – but with the cheap price they’re charging for the use of their system I don’t see why anyone would do that. Their pricing is clearly a cost-plus model, very fair and low cost. Go check them out if this is your boat: Human Spinner.

Human Spinner is one of the services provided by “Spontent“. Looks like they have a similar service for populating a phpBB forum – I’m not trying that one out, but by the looks of the video its also Amazon Mechanical Turk-powered.

Spin This Doc!

Just for fun, I requested a “spun” version of this review… It cost all of $4.00, with chunking by paragraph.
You can see most of the writing is pretty good – You’re definitely not winning a Pulitzer Prize with this one, yet it serves its purpose well.

Spun review:

The Human Spinner tool came as a big boon to me in rewriting articles, efficiently and effectively. Not only did I save time, but also got relieved from the bother of getting the tasks done by freelance writers.

More than a fast rewrite, these men have a system which chunk down the article into sentences or paragraphs (up to you), then make them into a submission for rewriting and iterative reviewing over at mechanical turk, where approximately 2,000 individuals perform these jobs.  This functions amazingly great for what Human Spinner performs.  Because the article pieces go out in parallel, the article’s rewritten in an instant, I am talking about a few minutes for a two thousand word article, a lot more quick than what one individual has the ability to do.  You may paraphrase a whole book prior to dinnertime utilizing this chunking technique.

HumanSpinner’s key goal, nevertheless, it not a basic one time rewrite, their goal is taking an article and outputting “JetSpinner,” or spinner format articles.  You may let the system know the amount of “other choices” for every paragraph or sentence to obtain from these employees.  All of this is put in 1 document which looks like this:

The {quick|fast|speedy} brown fox {jumped over|hopped across|skillfully dodged} the lazy dogs.

With a mere other choices of “fast” and “passed over,” an article spinner may currently approximately 9 articles.  For an article such as the one I’ve written, the amount of “spun” potentials is huge, certainly not each of them would vary much from another.  I am making a crazy guess that thirty percent of the entire amount of potentials is probably adequately individual, still a completely large amount.  This system even provides you the choice for downloading a zip file instantly with the “spun” article, thus you obtain a zip file with a 1000 (yea, 1,000) various articles in it based upon the content mixtures.  I did not halt to peak at the amount of individuality the algorithm creates for the versions, I was merely nosing around, yet I assume there’s a specialized program for greater control.

I am not a fan of content spinning, Article Marketing, etc., I don’t really understand the complete “circuit” there or reasons I’d desire to have 5 billion horrid articles, yet I do appreciate what these people are doing since it’s fairly awesome for individuals who do know ways for using this.

My only disappointment with the system was the difficulty in using it.  If you don’t watch the walk-through video, nothing on their interface will make any sense to you.  It reminds of the kind of thing that I launched PlayVault with.  All the levers and buttons were exposed to the user.  But, users need a “next step” button and some prompts to guide them, and the steps need to be consolidated for minimization.  Also, it’s bewildering how they attack you with an offer on the sign up page.  Well, if you go to the site, log in and look at the video you’ll be alright.

I’m a softy for a thing which utilizes the Mechanical Turk program like this, after all my Dissertation was based on it.  What they do in the background is submitting the articles you see to the Mechanical Turk, for their employees to rewrite.  I logged into Turk’s client website and could see the HITS which created my article rewrite.  They pay workers approximately thirty cents for each rewrite of a paragraph, which is approximately half of what they charge those who utilize the service, this does not mean that they are making a ton of money, they don’t exclusively pay fees to Turk, they additionally must pay a few overhead costs to maintain happy employees.  Judging by how quickly they’re completed, the pay rate for employees is competitive, or else people pass on it.

HumanSpinner is really offering a good service at a good price. Technically anyone could go into the Amazon Mechanical Turk and submit these things manually – It would take forever to split the document, submit all the HITs, review and approve and then re-assemble them into the right format. Technically you could build a special-purpose app to do exactly all this – but with the cheap price they’re charging for the use of their system I don’t see why anyone would do that. Their pricing is clearly a cost-plus model, very fair and low cost. Go check them out if this is your boat: Human Spinner.

 

 

 

 

I should be one of the first “100″… I signed up within three minutes of the opening – yes I was refreshing the page. Once I had made the decision to try it out, no point in delaying – plus I’m curious to see what the “bonus” is.

Then yesterday I found an incredible set of tools – Just what I was looking for: WP Smart Tools while browsing the Wickedfire forums. One for the good guys.

Then the little niche I was targeting… I’m not so sure anymore. Was listening to a reasonable webcast that had a bit of math in it… Along the lines of: If the payout on the offer is $35, and you expect a conversion rate of 1-2%, then you can’t afford to spend more than $0.35 to break even on keywords. They suggested to estimate conversion rate at 2% – I’m a conservative kinda guy, so I estimate 1%… That means most stuff on Clickbank sucks, except some crazy forex stuff that has some strange stats when checking cb-analytics. That can’t be entirely right – it doesn’t match what I see on other places and the clickstreams you can peek at with Alexa and Quantcast. I’m guessing I’ll have to find out.

Too many choices, too little time.

The little experiment is still moving forward. I’m discovering a ton of things which I want to dump on my blog…

However, I can’t “do” normal blog posts. Its irritating. It always happens, I have flashes of inspiration or connect two and two together and want to write a quick quip about it, not a well-researched piece of SEO beauty – Forget Twitter – 140 characters is too short – Someone suggested Tumblr, which I tried a couple of times – Nice, but there’s not that much difference to just posting to my blog- which is exactly what I’ll do.

So here we go. We can call this a a move to a more short from blog.

If we should dance like no-one is watching… Should we write like no-one is reading?

I have to admit I didn’t know what a “Squeeze page” was until just a few months ago when I asked a group of friends where the hell people learned that a 3-mile-long webpage that looks built in 1996 is a way to sell anything. Nobody knew but eventually I found out what it was called.

The Affiliate Marketer Pyramid

First I took a look at what affiliates do and the first obvious realization is that there’s a 1:many pyramid in here. Many affiliates multiply the effort of fewer merchants, which in turn feed the wheels of affiliate networks. Usually the place to be is as high in the machine as you can get. Clearly I can’t jump into owning an affiliate network when I’m clueless and connection-less into that space.

Technically, I could jump into the publisher/merchant space. I have put together all the needed elements for other projects in the recent past. I am knowledgeable on a rather large yet still obscure niche where I actually have a nice site that sells on eBay and just recently through Adwords, generating about 2K yr. This is really peanuts, but it’s nice that I can use it now to finance this experiment. I feel if I jumped on the publisher space, the chance of flopping and never knowing why is large and I can’t afford the time to have a string of flops in hopes of landing some wheels on the ground; You can’t learn (or profit for that matter) unless you have something to tweak, modify and evolve. That something should be at least mildly successful to be a meaningful starting point. There’s no tuning of the segmentation, the targeting, the price point, the venue, the value prop or anything when you’re operating in a vacuum – There’s no way to figure out which path works, and which path doesn’t work according to your key metrics when your metrics are simply all zeroes – all paths are equal and the distance to “success” is impossible to quantify – it’s like awakening in the middle of the desert on a cloudy day, naked and hungry. I sort of did that a couple of years back with PlayVault.com and while I did learn a tremendous deal, I lost big time really-really-really-really big on several fronts.

The need to evolve whatever I do into the publisher space seems obvious, but it’s also not-so-common since I don’t see it plastered all over – I mostly see “make money as an affiliate” touted everywhere. Maybe its because the entry costs are significantly lower. Its seems obvious that owning a converting product can be just as good as having a converting offer to promote – but in the long run being the publisher should beat being an affiliate hands-down. You get a chance to develop a relationship with your customers and move from transactional to relationship selling, you get to build synergies across a range of offers, you can help and profit from the same customer more than once, increasing their Lifetime Value while maintaining the acquisition cost relatively steady, – no-brainer. The factor that would propel me the most, however, is speed and stability.

I can tell from a distance that “where the rubber meets the road” is at the individual affiliate marketer level, and there is a huge amount of friction and inefficiencies there – things move fast and whatever worked today from an ROI perspective is guaranteed not to work three months from now: Google slaps, Social Media mergers, rules changes, customers attitude changes, search engine algorithms, advertising techniques – it’s a machinery with literally thousands of moving parts and each and every one of them offers a unique contact point. It’s very hard to scale anything when you have to deal directly with that level of complexity – you need an abstraction layer so you can drive the ship, instead of greasing the wheels… If you’re too busy in the engine room, tending to each and every sprocket in there, then who’s driving and dodging the icebergs?

This abstraction layer can be internal – a structure of people to manage the process, or the other attractive model: Externally outsourced on a pay-for-performance basis. Affiliate marketers, in other words. I’m simplifying things a lot, and clearly being a product publisher is no piece of cake either – they have a mixed model of B2B and B2C, potentially higher fixed costs, and much higher development costs – take a look at this UberAffiliate post on the matter. Still, it’s helpful to understand where to aim your ship when you’re about to set sail – even if it’s just an experiment.

See my problem? I go off on tangents! Back to the first step: Affiliate marketing. I don’t have a whole lot of time so it’s going to be critical that I power though my Dark Side Traits – especially the excitability which can derail me long enough to squander all my time. I’ve also noticed I sometimes over-analyze (hello, long post!) – to my own detriment. So my goal for the next two weeks will be to SPEND over $1.5K in this experiment – If I don’t manage to spend it, I will donate whatever is left to ACCION International, so someone else in need can put it to work for them (full disclosure: I have no financial ties to ACCION, but someone I know well works there). That and a public posting like this gives me some leverage on myself to overcome risk-aversion and maybe the excitability part. The way I see this: I’m spending $1.5K on hands-on marketing education – weather it turns out that I do something cool in the affiliate space or not, I walk away with $1.5K of learning on both marketing online as well as managing myself. Can’t beat that last one.

I’m going to divide my budget so I don’t mess it up: 20% to training, 30% to tools and outsourcing whatever I may need to get going and 50% to running live campaigns. I may change this allocation as I go, but it’s a good idea to have thresholds which when crossed cause you to re-examine what you’re doing.

I’m starting off with a bit of training already on my drive and some tools:

• PPC Bully – Got a subscription to the premium PPC Bully package – I subscribed about a month ago – Jumped the gun a bit there (again, that ‘excitability’ problem), but it actually helped me tune a site’s ads. Still, I’m wondering why the heck their interface looks so much like KeywordSpy. This also gave me quite a bit (about 30 hours!) in training materials and a couple of additional pieces of software, including Traffic Travis and Content Bully
• Affilorama AffiloBlueprint 2.0 “summary” I guess
• Up-and-running Adwords and clickbank accounts
• Access to the War Room at Warriorforum.com
• Some other stuff… Not sure how relevant it will be.

I’m well aware I can fall into the trap of reading too much on the Warrior Forum, or too many eBooks and trainings – this is especially true since I get easily excited! (see above) – Hence why I’m setting the money to go away whether I use it or not and, I’m going to lock-down my learning to balance “academic” style learning with experience. Yes, I already have an MBA focused on Marketing – So you might wonder why I need to be reading some more – Simply put, the MBA prepares you in business and marketing all around – not into specific areas, and we never touched online affiliate marketing. Sure, I’ve got plenty of wacky ideas to bring to the table and some nice background, but actually performing as ‘ship engineer’ in a highly competitive field requires some specialized knowledge and experience – hence the learning here. I’m hoping to devote about 30% of my time to learning, 10% to blogging and tooling and 50% to experimenting. I’m going to sprint though the material I have on hand – namely the AffiloBlueprint thing I’ve got here, the PPC bully courses and then check out the KeywordSpy videos I saw on their website. There’s tons of other stuff that looks interesting – like MarketSamurai and SpyFu, and a ton of other little eBooks, but I’ve got to focus. So here we go! I’m hoping I have enough time to provide good updates along these two weeks.

The low-down on TOMS: They will make a tax-deductible time-delayed donation if you buy their shoes.

The low-down on Tropicana: They will save a piece of the rainforest if and only if you buy their juice.
Now, if they had read the research Robert Cialdini penned into Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive on chapter 12, they would have found out that their appeal is falling largely on deaf ears.

As Cialdini puts it:

There’s little social obligation to cooperate with someone who offers you something only on the condition that you initiate the cooperative effort. That kind of exchange is simply an economic transaction

For Tropicana’s or TOMS’ appeals to be as successful as they can be, they have to stimulate reciprocity a bit, perhaps by stating how many shoes have been donated by other TOMS shoe-people or roughly how many acres of rainforest are being saved by Tropicana. Experiments Cialdini points to showed a tremendous difference in results when all that was changed was the description of the eye-for-eye exchange into a description of what the company had done in the past.

In a nutshell: Pay it forward, and communicate you’re doing so.

TOMS shoe tag "an-eye-for-an-eye" offer

Tropicana carton "You pay me, I save you" offer