Musings
POST and IP checking tool
As a developer you can send POST variables to Post Parrots home page and it echos back what was in the post. This is a great tool to help you debug. It also show the client IP and the headers that were sent.
4Mar2010 | Brian | 0 comments | Continued
Helpdesk and Contact Email Autoresponders Done Wrong
This holiday season has been one of the most interesting when it comes to retailer email. Here are two companies that appear to be using either auto-responders or canned answers and it is damaging their reputation.
23Dec2009 | Brian | 0 comments | Continued
East Coast Startup Event Was Excellent
Local Startup / Online Company Events
For the last year since returning to the east coast I have been attending local events. As I was looking or local startups and online companies in the Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia area we started Beltway Startups to focus on those companies in this particular geographic area.
The events I found varied in format and attendance. This particular event, Startup Rockstars #6, allowed local online companies and startups present their ideas, current development, fully launched sites/services, and any in between stage to the audience. The event was started and can be found as a meetup and well attended. Here is a list of these local startups and I encourage you to find similar events in your area as it is always good to meet other entrepreneurs.
 Earth Aid – track and improve your consumption (electric, gas,water) in one place by importing, much like a financial site, your utility information. The information is imported for you and shown grahically, suggestions are also presented to assist you in conserving energy.
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 SEC Watch – bringing transparency to ~800,000 annual SEC Filings. In 2008 they indexed over 15 million pages. Instead of searching the governments site for data, try their search as it is real time and in some cases they have the data before others. |
 BandsInTown – allows you to discover live music and concerts in your area. You can also purchase tickets, and they scan all the various ticket sellers so you do not have to. You simply find the events in the area you happen to be in at the time, using their site or iphone app, and then with one click purchase tickets without having to visit the ticket selling sites.
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eBay – How Much We Owe You
My Favorite Site
My favorite site happens to be eBay, whether I admit it or not. Let me explain, some people may believe one thing about themselves but then do another. It is their actions that show true behaviour. I just realized after logging into my eBay account that I have been a member since 1999.
A Member Since 1999
Wow, I knew I had used eBay for a while but after looking at my profile I did not recall having signed up on June 24, 1999. Over the last 10 years I have bought and sold 129 items. Now that is not a lot however I do not utilize eBay as a business but I do use it to buy and sell items. More buying than selling.
So let us analyze me as a typical customer. I have been a member for 10 years and bought or sold a total of over 129 items. That is more than 12 items a year, or at least one item per month. That is one good customer to come back and interact every month for the past 10 years. Let’s just say we wish every site we operated or company we worked for had that kind of customer loyalty and lifetime value.
Are They a Success?
eBay is a huge success in my opinion. Their site and service have grown over the years and I am sure they have modified their customer outreach and site look and feel, but done it with such grace that I never had a reason to complain or notice their constant upgrades.
As a business they are worldwide, and as a company they own some of the top online properties such as Skype, StubHub and many many others. Not only did they perfect the online auctions and have one of the best, if not the best, eCommerce online platforms, but they also pioneered corporate communications online. Follow the eBay Ink Blog, my personal favorite and Mr. Brewer-Hay as he keeps everyone apprised of the goings on at eBay corporate.
Model Yourself
If ever there was a business case to review and study, this is the one. If ever there was a site communication strategy, look and feel, and overall user experience to imitate, this is the one. Model yourself after the best.
Roam and Study
I suggest you roam around the eBay site and study how they do what they do. Enjoy!
Build in Metrics and Reporting
You need to determine the metrics of success for your business, then what drives them, then design your site to assure you can achieve them efficiently.
As an example, if you wish to have people register for a free service then later subscribe via PayPal to a monthly subscription to obtain additional features (a freemium model), you should plan out an optimized registration process and build it into your site as soon as possible.
Therefore, where do you promote the registration and how. What is the call to action, the registration path, and the path of least resistance in terms of collecting information to assure high conversion rates. Define that, build it in, and create your reporting.
Do not let reporting become an afterthought. Reports on your key metrics should be built in. How many registrations do you have per day, how many subscriptions, how many unique visitors, how many went to the registration page, how many converted, what percent. Then you can test once you have basic statistics. You may have to generate some information from your system and add information from a statistics package such as Google Analytics.
At the very least please determine what your metrics are, just take a look at your business plan. You can usually look at 1st year projections, or 2nd and 3rd and back into quarterly, monthly, daily goals. Then determine what metrics from your site/service need to be tracked to determine the progress in relation to the goals. Next create a simple reporting interface, then comes your dashboard and now you can run your business.
Start the above as early as you can and as early as makes sense, not 90 days after launch when the board questions your progress only to scramble and throw the office into chaos mode.
In my past 10 years of online start-up experience I have seen too many start-ups spend 90% of their time on development and features only to later realize that they need revenue and reporting on metrics to evaluate their business progress.
Take the time to evaluate your business metrics and design them into your site as well as create the necessary reporting to gauge progress.
Ooh yeah and don’t forget revenue 
Twitter Dictionary Twittords
Twitter Dictionary
Twittords is more than just a dictionary for words created by those using twitter. It is for all the shorthand created due to the character limitations of Twitter, IM clients, SMS and more. Any IM client or micro-blogging platform that limits your total characters per message will naturally spur creativity.
Twittords was conceived due to the volume of new creative words being generated by Twitter users. Twittords was launched recently on April 20th, 2009.
Add a Word to Twittords
Due to twitter’s popularity, when you add a word it will link to your twitter profile. The Twitterverse, IM and SMS users have created their own lingo, find and add your best and be one of the first to add the latest words. The words do not have to start with a âTâ, just anything commonly used since you are limited to a specific number of characters.
Find and add the best words you see in Twitter, IM clients, and SMS – to Twittords the Twitter Dictionary
19Apr2009 | Brian | 1 comment | Continued
GoDaddy Hosting Promo Code
GoDaddy Hosting Promo Code
GoDaddy hosting promo code FPT20 for 200% Off website hosting. You can also use code FPT2 for $5 off of $30 or more, but I am not sure whey they offer that one. The FPT20 hosting coupon for 20% off on hosting is always the better deal. With the free online advertising credits you actually make money on this deal. Go to GoDaddy Here
Most think of GoDaddy for domains, but they are very competitive in their hosting. For 12 months of hosting you get a great package and it ends up only costing $45 with the promo coupon FPT20. Simply enter the promo code at checkout, here is a box to enter and then you click the recalculate button.
Free Hosting?
With the $45 a year package you also get $95 in free advertising credits. These are credits with Google, MSN and Facebook. Looks like you can make $50 after you redeem the credits. Same information can be found on the Squidoo page for GoDaddy Hosting Promo Code.
Here are GoDaddy Promo Codes for domain purchases also.
Might as well host where you get your domain discounts.
3Apr2009 | Brian | 7 comments | Continued
Beltway Startups Site for VA, MD and DC Startups
We started a news blog entitled Beltway Startups to focus on start-ups and online businesses in the Virginia, Maryland and District of Columbia region.
20Nov2008 | Brian | 1 comment | Continued
Blogging Statistics by Technorati
Technorati published what they call the State of the Blogosphere, full of interesting information. I find the term “blogosphere” and their definition of a “blog” interesting.
10Nov2008 | Brian | 3 comments | Continued
Teaching my Twins Online Commerce through Fundraising
This was a great experiment of those who want are thinking about creating their own blog, twitter account, following etc. We were able to obtain a domain name, create a new WordPress site, create a twitter account and following, then create the proper messaging to drive supporters to the fundraising website to purchase items, all within a week. If my 6 year old twins and I can do it, so can you
