How to make money on websites.

I came across this video today, and as brash as this guy is… he honestly speaks the deepest truth there is about making money for your website.

The ad networks of the world have us all convinced that our website’s inventory is worthless… and that without them we would never be able to sell a single ad on our sites.

This couldn’t be more false.

As he says, sure you need some traffic on your site. You have to actually have a website that attracts real people who either share a common interest in a topic with commercial products, or represent a demographic that could be interesting to someone looking to sell products. At that point, all advertisers ever want is eyeballs… so if there’s people looking at your stuff you can sell the space around what they’re looking at.

I recently attended Forumcon, which was a fantastic event. However, all I heard talked about was ad networks and affiliate marketing. On the flip side, there was droves of forum owners asking the question “How the hell do I make a living with my forum?”. The answer is just as Mr. Vaynerchuk says… pick up the phone and ask for money.

Expect tonnes of rejection. Expect lots of phone calls. If you aren’t super sales minded, then contact someone who can help you do the sales or simply put together the necessary materials (shameless plug, we do that). But for gods sake… don’t think that tossing Adsense or advertising.com on your site and hoping for the best is the only option available to you. Most people doing the advertising are paying Astronomical rates for the ads they’re buying… and lots of that money goes down the tubes.

If you have a good site, you can make money. You can make lots of it. Advertising has an unbelievable amount of dollars floating around, but most of the smaller web people out there are simply letting the big boys take it all.

And it has come…

Color me giddy!  Finally, after all the time handling the Chrome Book… we have a desktop.

Now, it isn’t like the desktop for Windows we are all used to.  Nay.  This is just a fancier way of launching your apps vs. browsing.  Whereas in the past you would have to literally stop browsing to switch to an app, this will allow you to back out of your browser to the “desktop” and launch an app without closing the browsing down.  Nifty.

In truth, the machine fits my net personality like a glove.  Sure I would like it to have a few features (SKYPE- I am looking at you fucker), but it truthfully does what I need it to do.  Side note – the battery life on this thing, after all this time, continues to be amazing.  I can easily get 6-7 hours of browsing once disconnected from the power grid.

Whew… been awhile – Chromebook Chronicles

Ok… it’s been awhile.

I am still chugging away on this Chromebook for TheBishopWay.

I have sort of gotten used to this device.  Learned what it does, what it is good for, what it can do… also, the one thing that TRULY pisses me off about it.  Let’s get the pisses me off part out of the way.  The fucking touchpad on this thing is the size of a football field.  Seriously.  You can’t help but finger this thing.  the keyboard is small, and where you have to rest your hands often sits directly over the touchpad.  Just typing this post out, I inadvertently moved the cursors 10 times without knowing it happened.  This touchpad could be half the size and still be effective.  I even got over the fact that it doesn’t have buttons.

Anyway, this thing travels like a dream.  The long life battery is awesome.  It can be “hidden” in hotel rooms due to being so thin.  It is lightweight and versatile to be used anywhere.

Chromebooks... no windows... no "fun"?

It has been awhile since I have written.  I have really, REALLY been pushing this ChromeBook through its paces.  I have to say, it does feel gimped when compared to my notebook.  I find myself wishing for Windows.  All the speediness and cool factor of the ChromeBook vanish instantly when you say stuff like:

• I’ll just send this to the printer
• Let me install the game for you kids
• If only I could install itunes for my [insert device]

Not to sound like I am bitching, but these are things your average computer user NEEDS to know.  New PC seekers might see the bullet points on this machine… 8 second cold start to surfing the web… SSD speed… same specs as a netbook without the Windows mem sponge killing the available resources.

They would be in for a shock if they knew you cannot do half the things a netbook does.

The ChromeBook Chronicles Continued

I just realized tonight…Skype.  Y u no have a web browser only software.

That can be a problem.

Also, learning the intricacies of this thing, there is no way to locally attach to a printer.  You must use internet print services.  Luckily for me, I bought a wireless HP Eprinter.  So all good.

Gotta tell ya, I am really really impressed with how fast this thing is for web browsing.  I also have to say, some of the limitations are a little difficult to overcome.  I had to resort to my other computers to download and install GPS updates.  If people are looking for this computer to be their only machine, sad to say, this isn’t a good plan.

Here is a simple rule for Chromebooks I learned.  If the software needs an installer, you cannot use it.  Yes, there are some people who have SD card hacks out their to get things to work, but unless you have a good working knowledge of Linux, you shouldn’t even attempt it.  Plus, it isn’t guaranteed to work.

The ChromeBook Chronicles Continued

March 17th

Had to power down the ChromeBook last night.  For some reason it absolutely would not display web pages correctly.  Facebook was displaying like an FTP site and my other frequently visited sites wouldn’t even load.  Kept getting “server could not be found errors.”  Now, this was def an issue with this device, as wife’s laptop went to all places just fine meaning it was not our internet connection.  Luckily a restart on this thing takes a total of like 13 seconds.  Later today, I am going to test out the dual core atom processor in this thing and try some *gulp* Farmville and other Facebook games.  I had all but abandoned them as my Netbook runs them like a cow wading through a pool of pudding.

The ChromeBook Chronicles

As mentioned before, I am Rob Manning, and I work for TheBishopWay as a Community Manager. I have taken on the task of doing every bit of my computing from this little machine. I will be adding to this blog about my experiences as things occur to me, or I get bored enough to write about it.  All of this, of course, done with a wi-fi ChromeBook from Samsung, but shouldn’t deviate from experiences on other ChromeBooks. Some information may repeat, some may be hard to convey until you actually use it, but all of the information posted here is my eyes wide open first look at the tech and OS of this device. If you see it here, it was done with the ChromeBook.

So let’s begin:

First day, March 13th, 2012

Initial impressions of the Samsung ChromeBook

When I picked up the box, I though “Holy shit this box is heavy.  Thought this was a “light” machine.” Tons of packing material made it heavy though, thankfully.  Still, the book feels pretty heavy.  Taking a nod from Apple, we have a Google sticker included, presumably to adorn the case in the event someone misses the Google logo on the cover of the unit.

Sorry folks, no 3G testing here.  Not paying those prices for minuscule data plans.

To be continued…

Don’t judge new technology until you’ve actually used it

We currently have a running theory here at the office.

That theory is that the entire idea of speculation around technology is a complete and utter farce. People in the tech scene absolutely love to judge technology, blog about it, make and influence decisions regarding it – all without ever even touching it. Even after touching it, opinions are quick to form on a review website, forced to throw new tech through a quick blender to maintain the quick status quo of content on the internet.

However, our theory is that these types of opinions are completely meaningless.

The fact about technology, is that it is an incredibly disruptive medium. Generally, technology tends to shatter the status quo, change entire industries, and sweep minds of their proverbial feet. So just where along the line did we as tech people all of a sudden start to think that we can predict how a piece of technology is going to work in production?

I know that in the world of websites – especially ones with lots of traffic – there tends to be a drastically different story between when you’re doing something in development versus when you launch to production. I’ve generalled and watched many a project that launch to production with outcomes ranging from good to bad to completely unexpected, and absolutely every possible space in-between.

I admit I’ve been horribly guilty of this. I will go ahead and put it on record – I called the first iPhone a fad. I had no problem telling everyone around me that it was the stupidest invention I had ever heard of, and my BlackBerry would forever and ever crush a stupid touch screen when answering emails.

I was right – my old blackberry still is better at emails than my iPhone 4s… but the world changed and the BlackBerry is next to irrelevant. The iPhone shaped a mobile content consumption movement like has never happened before. Same piece of logic drove me to buy the first iPad the day it was released… I found myself saying “FAD!” which immediately raised alarm bells of my horrible mis-calling of the first apple device, and therefore decided I would simply buy one to make sure I wasn’t a complete idiot.

I was.

The iPad has this funny habit of creating a new category of tech device you didn’t think you needed before… but now that you have it you couldn’t imagine living without it. And god dammit… the new iPad is a completely necessary purchase.

Enough of the apply fanboyism (which is an absolute piece of hilarity because I’m an apple hater who bought apple products just to figure out what the ‘enemy’ had on their minds) on to the real meat of this post.

We now have a strong policy around this company to try new technology as it comes out. We also reserve judgement for the time that the piece of technology has been used in production. You can’t just test something in the ‘lab’ for a few days and then write a billion blog posts about it. You really need to run it through its paces.

As such, we have some experiments going on at the office, and we’re going to launch a section of our blog dedicated to them. The experiments will be taking pieces of new technology, and deploying them full-bore into the company. The specific test subject will take said piece of tech – can everything else they use in that category – and write about how the experience works out in a work environment.

We figure that a few months of forced time with a piece of technology will give a really solid opinion as to its usefulness. We’ll extend this idea into other areas, from software to management techniques to pre-packaged website solutions that clients want to try.

First up though, is going to be a Chromebook.

Rob Manning, one of our talented community managers is up for the challenge, and he has volunteered to completely give up all other methods of computing outside the office. He has occasional access to a regular windows 7 machine in the day, and used to use a netbook running XP at night. However, for the case of this experiment, Rob is volunteering to scrub both of his machines and only use the Chromebook for a span of 3 months. His trials and tribulations we will document on a semi-regular basis, and I hope you enjoy.

Print vs. Web

I saw this video on the ol’ interwebz the other day (thanks Mashable for finding stuff like this).

What is totally amazing to me is you can see that the baby is trying to mimic what she understands about the iPad user interface with the magazine.

Children are born without the pre-conceived knowledge and baggage that us adults have.   We don’t look at the world and emerging technologies with a fresh eye, free from judgement of situation.   This baby will not grow up lamenting the smell of a book, the feeling of turning pages, or the experience of a cup of coffee on your favorite couch on a rainy day at the cottage diving into the latest issue of whatever magazine.

This baby will grow up and say “God dammit dad, the fucking internet is so slow here.   Why do you read those stupid magazines anyways?   Sure they’re cool, but I have 100,000 of them stored here, and I can watch video.”

She will learn about it in school, and probably enjoy a good magazine or book every once in a while just to be retro.   However, in her world, the pace of content consumption will just be far too rapid and information laden to be satiated from a simple printed page.   Think of a record player – Sure records are totally awesome, retro and have amazing sound quality…you really can’t beat them.   Alas, you don’t carry a record player strapped to a rotary phone with a cable going back to your house in your pocket… you carry an iPhone.

When having this discussion, I always like to use the analogy of the first car.

When the first car came out, it was probably an epic piece of shit compared to the majestic and sturdy animal the horse.    The horse ate grass, which was everywhere.  The horse could get you home if you’d had too much to drink.  The horse could get you home if you were hurt.  The horse could go on all sorts of terrain, including deep water.   Hell the horse could SWIM.     I mean lets face it… the horse could probably swim to rescue you because you were injured from having too much to drink, after filling itself up on naturally growing grass then gallop you back home or to the hospital, depending on where you ask it to go.

However… you will never be able to strap 1,200 horses together and get a Bugatti Veryon.

The Bugatti is not all terrain, it can not swim, it can not take you home if you are hurt, its fuel is extremely expensive and in no way shape or form could it rescue you on its own.

But… the game changed.   All the factors that made that horse important are no longer important when you can cross vast distances in times never before even thought of as possible.   The car simply needed to wait for infrastructure and habit changes to form to get over most of the rest of the hurdles facing it, but as soon as that first car came out the writing should have been on the wall.

In business terms, I think the biggest mistake that companies make (continuing with our analogy) is to continue being the proverbial ranch owner who sells horses, instead of opening up a car dealership division.

After all, how many horse ranches are there vs. car dealerships today?

Community Manager, eh?

I recently have decided that I should understand social media and the entire realm of the way that most of the internet community functions.   I’ve often lost out on my internet ideas because I refused to participate in the raging trends that the E-Hipsters were currently crushing on.   Note: I thought the iPhone was a passing fad…   Whoops!

Anyways, as I delve deeper into the Startup scene, I kept coming across this job title of “Community Manager“.   It confused me as to why a company would have such a thing… especially one that builds software for instance.

It struck me though… it is really important to have someone that is taking your customer’s opinions seriously.   That in actual fact was the basis of this whole “Web 2.0″ revolution… all of a sudden the customer had a voice.  This has not been great for people traditionally used to telling their customers what to do, and the nightmare of handling the amount of feedback now coming out is next to impossible.

Read more…