Monthly Archives: March 2011

100 Million LinkedIn Members

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When any site reaches over 100 million members that is amazing. LinkedIn just announced they reached over 100 million members, read more about it here at LinkedIn 100 Million.

I realize there are other sites that have hit this mark. However what I find most interesting is that I consider this to be a niche site. By niche I mean that it has a specific purpose and audience and has potentially limited it’s total audience size because of the niche. I would not compare the member count of Facebook to the member count of LinkedIn. The target audience for Facebook is not limited, it is anyone that has or wants to have friends. LinkedIn is for those working or looking for work, more of a professional niche.

linkedin logoIt is for that reason that I am amazed at their member base. Congratulations to them and to me, as I was their 563,149 member – one of the first million. I knew I was special. Here is my note, actually in all honesty it was interesting that they sent these out. No doubt typed personally by the CEO as I doubt this was an automated email, and also I left out the part about how handsome and smart they think I am. I left it out because it is so obvious there is no reason to draw attention to it.

Dear Brian,
I want to personally thank you because you were one of LinkedIn’s first million members (member number 563149 in fact!*). In any technology adoption lifecycle, there are the early adopters, those who help lead the way. That was you.

Mobile App Rating System

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CTIA is a nonprofit organization that represents the wireless communications industry and is located in Washington, DC. They call themselves The Wireless Association. A recent press release of theirs entitled “CTIA-The Wireless Association Announces App Rating Initiative” which discusses an App rating system to assist parents in determining which applications may or may not be suitable for their children.

The CTIA is asking for voluntary ratings on apps by the end of this year. They had developed a guideline for app content classification. Part of the CTIA proposed system would allow developers to enter information so the application could be rated automatically based on the supplied information. They noted that today there are more than 800,000 apps available from numerous stores on at least 11 different operating systems.

This may not be a bad idea, the alternative is that eventually it is mandated somehow by someone (how is that for specific) and not voluntary. I always prefer the voluntary way as opposed to having it decided by someone else.

Washington Post Online Censorship?

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I recently read an interesting article by the WashPost PR blog which discusses various news about the Washington Post, new features of the post and more. Having lived in Northern Virginia for the majority of my life I am obviously very familiar with the Washington Post. I think they have done some very interesting things with their web presence and have been staying at the forefront of newspaper companies when it comes to their online presence. This post I found to be interesting as it is entitled The Washington Post Furthers Engagement, Conversation with New Website Design, and while that sounds boring I still read it for some reason. Here is what it says regarding comments to their articles online, and I quote:

washington post logo“The enhanced comments system allows each Post article, column or blog to feature and highlight top commenters. While commenting is open to everyone, Washington Post editors and staffers identify select commenters, based on the quality of what they have previously posted, and invite them to take part in open forums around articles with other readers, Post reporters and columnists. Readers can also request to participate in these discussions.”

At first glance this seems to make sense, everyone who has an online site with commenting has to deal with messages that are often irrelevant. In other words I may receive a comment to this article that talks about ordering a new coffee machine at another site. That is just someone trying to obtain more visitors, more sales, and other advantages by commenting on articles and post even if completely off-topic. As an editor of a site you can have approval rights which allows you to approve or disapprove a comment. It can be held in a moderation queue. It is your site and you can do what you want.

Invitation Only Commentary
However I believe, although I may be totally wrong, that many perceive newspapers as a more open forum without any type of censorship. I can understand they do not want comments that are completely off topic and they can remove them if they like. I do not think that is the problem they are trying to solve with this feature. This features allows a moderator of the conversation to highlight top commenters and invite them to take part in what they call (ironically) open forums around articles. This is essentially a new type of commenting. This creates three categories of participants when we have been used to just two. There is the author(s) of the article, the commenters, and now an elite group of invitation only commenters.

Abuse of Invitation Only Commenters
Here is the potential problem. This allows the author of the article who may have a particular view to censor those that do not agree with them. It also allows the author to take it one step further and only allow initial comments to a select few individuals that they know already agree with them. This is not what I would expect from a newspaper which stands on free speech as it’s number one defense to any type of censorship placed upon them. Is this a good thing, bad thing, and what could or should be done?

Good, Bad, Solution?
I am not of the opinion that this feature should be abandoned. I actually find it very interesting and when utilized properly and not abused it may lead to a much more enjoyable debate and lively commentary for myself as a reader. Therefore I cannot say it is bad per se but should be openly disclosed. Whenever this type of moderated commenting is utilized I would hope they disclose openly and in an obvious way that the commenting has been moderated. I would also hope that the comments they may not have agreed with are not removed in the process or the newspaper, in my opinion, loses all credibility.

Now that I have said that, how do I implement that on my site? haha

Best Android App Wins $25,000

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Paypal has a contest with a total of $50,000 in prizes. First prize wins $25,000, second prize wins $15,000 and third is $10,000. As PayPal is a payment processor they would like you to add a PayPal mobile payment solution to your Android application. To enter you submit application by May 14, 2011.

By the way, not only will you win the cash but each of the three winners will receive marketing and PR support from PayPal to promote your application. Here is a link to their developer network with mobile libraries to help you integrate payments quickly. Good luck if you choose to enter.

75 Million New Facebook Fans

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I read an article in the Compete blog and found the numbers fascinating. If you are not familiar with Compete it is a website audience measurement company. Many think of Quantcast, Compete, and Comscore to be in the same industry, with the same service offerings however their services, cost and methodologies vary between them. That aside the full article can be found here at the Compete blog. In the month of January Facebook had approximately 127 Million unique visitors. Of those visitors 58.9% became a fan of at least one page in January alone. That is a total of over 75 million people. Incredible.

If you have ever thought about the viability of creating a Facebook fan page those numbers should get your attention. A Facebook fan page is free so getting started has a very low barrier to entry. Of course like anything else it becomes a marketing game to get people to like your page. Obviously you need good content and a reason for those individuals to be ‘fans’ you can see the potential audience size is enormous. Once you have created a fan page you can cross market it with your website or blog. Here is an article with step by step instructions to insert a Facebook Widget onto your site. Now go get just 1% of that 75 million people (I had to say that, it’s a common funding phrase for those seeking venture capital to say they just want 1% of a huge market, haha, I guess the joke was just for me).

GoDaddy CO Domain Coupon

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Use this .CO Domain coupon for $13.99 CO Domains. This special offer from GoDaddy is good until until the end of this year (12/31/11). This is a significant discount from the typical $30 price.

.CO Domain Coupon Code: co1399
Deal: $13.99 .CO Domains
Until: 12/31

Take advantage of the .CO coupon here and use the coupon at checkout.

.CO Domain Coupon

co domain couponAs this deal is only good until the end of the year and offers over 50% off you may want to obtain more than one. You can get as many as you desire. Depending on your accountant you may even want to obtain them before the end of the year. You could protect your .COM domains by also getting the same .CO in case someone does not type the “M”. If a competitor obtains it, that could be an issue. You may also just want to assure no one else has your unique domain name in the .CO form. There are many reasons, and if you need some – this is a good deal.

.CO Domain Backgrounds
The domain name is a top level domain and can be obtained by anyone through a registrar such as GoDaddy. Each domain has an interesting background, this particular domain is from the Republic of Colombia. For those that love the details and background you may be interested to know that it was a strategic venture formed between Arcelandia S.A. and Neustar, Inc. Many well known sites have started to use the .CO as a quick link to their site or as their main site domain such as Overstock (O.co), Google (G.co), Twitter and others. So try the above .CO domain coupon.

February 2011 Search Engine Rankings

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Comscore released the February search engine rankings, here is the full report named the February 2011 Search Engine Rankings. The change from January to February was minimal, not even worth mentioning. Here is how the market share breaks down.

Google Sites 65.6%
Yahoo! Sites 16.1%
Microsoft Sites 13.1%
Ask Network 3.4%
AOL, Inc. 1.7%

What do those numbers actually equate to? There were a total of more than 15.4 billion searches, and to give you an idea of the breakdown Google’s share was 10.1 billion searches.

Will Amazon Drop 10,000 California Affiliates

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We wrote about North Carolina and Amazon, the sales tax issue that led to Amazon dropping all the affiliates in North Carolina. Now California is raising the same issue. To learn more about your particular state and the North Carolina issue see our most recent post about the Performance Marketing Association.

Amazon said, through their Public Policy VP Paul Misener in a letter in February that Amazon would do just that. If necessary Amazon would end their affiliate relationship with all the Amazon affiliates in California estimate at around 10,000. This is an interesting issue that should be watched closely, particularly what your state is doing as other affiliate programs may follow California.

Grockit Test Prep Review Courses

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Grockit has entered the market for online test preparation. You can prepare and study for the following: LSAT, GRE, GMAT, ACT and SAT. There are many ways to study. For those who like to study on your own, as it is an online course, you can study any time and any where. There is also the ability to group study with others studying or preparing for the same course. Most interestingly to me is their professional instruction in either groups or as a one on one session to study just what you need. Read more about Grockit and use a grockit coupon to obtain a discount. There is also a free trial so you can go directly there and check out their service.

Become Aware of State Tax Issues and Affiliates

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Finally an association for affiliate marketers. First of all the nomenclature is now Performance Marketing as opposed to Affiliate Marketing. As a Performance Marketer you will find the Performance Marketing Association (PMA) site to be extremely useful and interesting. You can also join as an individual or a company. There are member groups for more granular issues. According to their site here are some statistics, and I quote:

Performance Marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow year-over-year. There are more than 200,000 affiliate publishers and over 5,000 advertisers in the performance marketing space.

What got my attention was an e-mail about the fact that some new state laws are written in ways that may encourage Advertisers to remove Performance Marketers from their programs based on the state the Performance Marketer lives in. They have created google groups so you can stay up to date in the following states:

  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • Massachusetts
  • Minnesota
  • New Mexico
  • Texas

These issues could affect you depending on what state you are in. The most interesting issue now is one of Nexus and state tax, I had been following the Amazon and North Carolina issue that prompted Amazon to drop all the performance that lived in North Carolina. Fascinating. Take a look at the PMA and what they have to offer, follow the bills in your state and be proactive. Here are the articles about the situation between Amazon and North Carolina, a good read to let you understand what could happen to you in your state.