Tag Archives: web

Annoyed by Google Ads with changing domains

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I know I am… There’s this “wrinkle removal” web site that keeps appearing once and again in our Google Ads, in spite of us having removed about 7 different domains that it was connected to. Have you seen it?

Sounds like an opportunity for some Google Ads intelligence to be put in place, where destination pages get parsed for content and if a domain has been blocked for a particular site, any other domains that point to the same content get blocked along with it.

There you have an idea, Google Ads folks! Hopefully soon we will not have to carry Google Ads any more.

10 Social Media Tips for Nonprofits

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1) Join NetSquared: they enable social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web. Through NetSquared you will connect with lots of brilliant folks. When you are done there, join Social Actions.

2) Set up a Twitter account. Want to learn what it is? Read this post and follow me on Twitter if you want.

3) Create a Facebook Cause and tell EVERYONE you know about it, to help you raise funds!

4) Do the same thing with MySpace PayPal… the other half of the people who are not on Facebook are on MySpace.

5) Got an army of followers? Gather them around a social network created using Ning. It’s free and it’s powerful! Once you have it set up, you can also add a ChipIn widget to it, to help you raising funds.

6) Show your face to your constituents: video can help you big time (driving people to your Facebook Cause, MySpace PayPal or ChipIn widgets). So create an account on YouTube, DoGooderTV and GoodTube.

7) When on YouTube, keep an eye on new videos posted in the Nonprofits & Activism category. You can learn a lot by just watching, so you can start producing your own videos to help you with outreach and fundraising.

8) Read Mobilizing Generation 2.0.

9) Subscribe to HelpaReporter.com. It’s the BEST way to get the most PR mileage at the lowest possible cost.

10) Last, before you leave, follow Beth Kanter’s blog. She is the guru of social media in the nonprofit world!

Managing Online Forums: A Great Book!

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Much needed advice for those who run online communities
As many online forums as there are, sadly there are only very few titles out there that deal with the topic.

Until now, the best one (now out of print) was Design for Community. But Patrick O’Keefe has changed this for good with this amazingly comprehensive title that is packed with great (and fairly timeless) advice about how to start, develop, promote and manage your online community. Two chapters at the end deal with tips on how to keep your online forum interesting and how to monetize it.

Personally, the only downside I found in the book is that it has a very heavy emphasis on forums (phpBB, more specifically), leaving outside some of the aspects specific to social media. However, the knowledge that the author has included in here can be relatively easily ported to help folk wanting to manage social networks or other social applications.

As for me, I am getting a copy of “Managing Online Forums” for each of the Administrators in my communities.

Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Review

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Since John Battelle’s “The Search,” I haven’t had such a good read about people that make web technologies happen. But his book was very focused on a single technology, while Sarah Lacy has chosen to deal with a whole period in Silicon Valley’s history: the emergence and glory days of Web 2.0 (arguably those days are not over yet).

Sarah has a provocative style, she knows what she is talking about and she knows the folks that play the game. Her writing flows like the words in her columns, which she has been writing for nearly ten years now. In the course of the book, she carefully weaves a tale that lets the reader see where all the pieces fall: where each Web 2.0 entrepreneur (or “nontrepreneur” as she refers to Blogger’s and Twitter’s Evan Williams) connects with the next one and where did he get the inspiration (or the funding) from to pursue the next big thing.

Throughout the book’s eleven chapters, I found myself referring back to a very useful diagram that she included in the beginning, which shows at a very top level companies and people, showing who was founder, investor and employee of which.

You do not need to be a geek to enjoy the book, but you will if you are. You certainly do not have to live in Silicon Valley to know what she is talking about, but you will get a kick out of local references if you live or work in the stretch of 101 between San Francisco and San Jose. You do not need to be a web entrepreneur to want to devour the book, but if you are, you will find yourself flipping through the pages in search of yet more interesting and passionate anecdotes from the people that made Web 2.0 what it is today.

Sarah Lacy’s book is a must read for anyone using the social web today: in case you didn’t realize it, that means every one of us! Get your copy of “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good” quick.

LaLa: Better than eMusic and iTunes

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Earlier this week, LaLa.com came out with the new service they are offering. They used to stand out for being the coolest and least expensive way to trade your CDs online for “karma” that earned you the right to receive the CDs you wanted from others who were done with them.

Now, LaLa offers something that seems better than eMusic and iTunes combined, to me. Their interface is not too different than iTunes, but it’s all web-based, which means you get to play your music anywhere you want where there’s an internet connection. Thanks to their Music Mover Application, you can “upload” (read, synchronize) your music library with your collection in LaLa.

This is not all!
-You can find music and listen to the whole track once for free (not 30 seconds, the whole song).
-Quoting them: “If you like what you hear, add the web song to your Lala collection for 10ยข. Now you can listen to it online as much as you want. The first 50 web songs are free.” YES! 10 cents!
-For 79 cents more (plus the previous 10 cents this is the same prize that Amazon is selling MP3s), you can download your MP3s.

To me, this is a genius combo that will position them to disrupt the online music delivery scene.

If you haven’t tried it yet, I recommend you register with LaLa: the first 50 web songs are on them.

UPDATE: I just finished running the Music Mover on my computer. Out of the 9,226 songs in my iTunes library, LaLa matched almost 40%. The rest of them I can let the application upload one by one (which will take a while, admittedly) OR I can sit back and enjoy the 3,433 tracks that it DID match. ;)

Why User Experience Rules!

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As I was reading the “Ten principles that contribute to a Googley user experience“, I thought I’d share a fantastic book that I read during the trip to Boston last week. It was the result of the effort of four members of the Adaptive Path crew in SF and it’s titled “Subject To Change“.

If you are into user experience design at all you MUST read this book. They do a phenomenal job at establishing a framework for the creation of products and services that are resilient in the midst of today’s changing and uncertain world. Get a copy so you can see for yourself.

LaLa Setting Out to Change the World of Music… Again

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Lala.com Founders
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez

Today I had the chance to meet three of the founders of LaLa.com today, while I came by for a usability session at their office in downtown Palo Alto.

They are as smart as they are fun to be around and they CERTAINLY have a deep love for music! I cannot tell you HOW MANY CDs I saw at the LaLa.com HQ! :D

I can’t share much more for now, but I will tell you one thing: these guys are here to change the world of music… And I believe they will succeed at it. More to come later.