Fix Your Own Interweb!

The communist state of China has been struggling with the free flow of information granted to it’s citizens via the Internet. This does not make the government happy. As you know controlling information provides control over your flock. If you only provide them with rice, they’ll eat it up and think it tastes like candy. However more and more everyday the Chinese government loses it’s iron grasp over it’s citizens thanks to the Internet. The free flowing lifeblood of all that it is good and bad. In China’s case they squarely place the blame on porn, which of course is to be blames on companies such as Google and Yahoo, which of course are part of a larger conspiracy by the U.S. to undermine their authority. Sadly this is the Chinese way, blame others for your own mess.

Fix your own Interweb! Or better yet, make your own porn. Let your sex craved citizens see other asian folk going at it rather than some blond white chick and some big black guy! Isn’t that the real problem? The Chinese government is upset that THEY didn’t come up with the whole bangbus idea? Or would the China version simply be the bang-bicycle? How about this for an idea: the setting, a pirate dvd factory. You’ve got one hot chick slaving away at the dvd line, then she drops a dvd, she bends over then of course you know what happens. There you go, one great idea for a home grown movie that is both relevant and uses local talent. How about this one: the setting, government office of a high ranking official, say the guy in charge of milk products. Then have his young hot secretary come in to give him the latest test results from various factories under investigation. She drops the report (oops!) bends over to pick it up and then bang! You know what happens! Ok, so it wouldn’t have to be so scripted, so let’s just call it a documentary then.

I got tons of ideas. Hey, listen up China! I got the answers to your Internet problems. Make your own porn! Asian porn. Green dam getting death threats.

Get Paid While You Can

The jig may soon be up for sponsored blogging. The Federal Trade Commission is looking into the business of sponsored blogging. Which means the way you get paid for doing your SEO magic might soon end. The practice has seen increased activity as of late but the economy sucks, you gotta do, what you gotta do. So your hands get a little greased when you give a favorable review for a product, big deal. Since when did that become a crime? It might come down to a simple disclosure statement. Something like “I got paid to write this review”. In any event, it’s a huge market to try to police, and if the FTC has it’s way, it will be delegated to a 3rd party to do the dirty deeds. So get paid while you can!

Should Yahoo Just Give Up?

Google continues to dominate the search arena. Microsoft search (re-branded to Bing) made a bit of a splash with a friendlier looking page continues to toil away at the search biz. Yahoo just continues to plug along. Should Yahoo just give up already? More and more it seems that Yahoo will never recover to it’s glory days of dominating the search industry. Don’t get me wrong. Yahoo is still a valuable piece of real estate and can earn revenue from it’s other sources but the search game may already be over. Perhaps it’s time to move on and spend those dollars developing other segments of the Yahoo portal. The growing mobile search was a feature Yahoo was late to join and perhaps is only now realizing the mistake. Strategic blunders continue to plague Yahoo management and the stock is slowly slipping. At least they had their moment at the top.

Social Networking URL’s High Value

It may be taken for granted. Your Facebook vanity URL or even your Twitter URL. Increasingly cyber squatters are targeting social networks and their properties. Over 200,000 Facebook URLs gone in 3 minutes. Some even already showing up for auction. I managed to get my second choice but what can I do? I slept in and missed out. Oh well. Even celebrity Twittering properties are high value. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few had to purchase their Twitter URLs in order to hop on the bandwagon with their peers. Hollywood is all about following the trendy thing to do. Might be a good idea to think ahead and jump on the next big thing. You might make a few bucks out of it.

Some of the more interesting Facebook URLs taken.

Freshen Up Your Site

If Microsoft has taught us anything with Bing, it’s that a fresh look can do a lot for your site. Certainly a little bit has changed behind the search engine but it’s core remains the same. A different look, promotion, and pizzazz and Bing has shot past Yahoo. The initial buzz has been positive for Microsoft and you can make it work for your site too. Follow the same model and you can be ranking in no time.

Get some professional images, fonts, and perhaps a bonafide website designer. Looking good is 80% of the battle. The other 20% is the actual product. Long term results however do take substance. You have to be able to back up your word, meet obligations, and exceed customers expectations.

SEO and Terrorism

Think SEO is just for the private sector? The British government is putting SEO tactic to help fight terrorism. A lot is misunderstood about the religion of Islam the British counter terrorism is working to flood the Internet with positive information. It’s the new battle ground against radical religions attempting to recruit new members.

Climbing the Google charts to rank ahead of the sites in question in an effort to sway those sitting on the fence. The SEO tactics aim to manipulate Google algorithm traditionally utilized by online marketers. However the success of the new age method is still in question. Whether convincing impressionable youths to take the least destructive path.

Hmm, suicide bomber or moderate Islamist … the virgins do sound tempting …
(link)

Use Twitter to boost sales

Twitter is all the rage nowadays. Heck, even Barbara Walters is tweeting, and Stephen Colbert has “twatted”. Nice. For a company that stocks a lot of products Twitter can boost sales significantly. Simply tweeting current stock or new stock can catch the eye of a customer who’s looking for that exact product. And believe me, word gets around quickly. If even one person gets one of your tweets and picks up a deal because of your tweet, they are going to spread the word.

It’s not just about spamming your products, well, not completely. The trick is to actually have a really good deal every now and then. I mean a door crasher. Limited quantities of course. Remember, you’re running a business. You do need to make money. People love deals and if you give them some, they will come. Add on sales and extras will boost your bottom line.

So Twitter can be useful even for companies. Announcing products, new stock, sales, company news, even the occasional interest topic can build a relationship with your shoppers and consumers. It’s definitely worth a look. Give it a try, I mean a really good try, before you write it off.

Twitter can be dangerous

Sure micro blogging can be extremely useful and fun but it can also be detrimental to relationships. Take for example Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer (link). I guess John was too busy tweeting to his followers when he should have been arranging a booty call with Jenn. Damn, who’s dumb enough to pass up tapping some Aniston ass? John Mayer apparently. Hmm, Twitter or sex with hot Jennifer Aniston … simply decision for me.

Youtube, MySpace, then Yahoo

ComScore recently announced that Youtube topped the traffic charts for January. Followed by Myspace and Yahoo. In addition they estimated that each Internet surfer watched an average of 100 videos during the 30 day period. Each video last just over 3 minutes.

I’ve always had a hard time believing numbers from ComScore, Alexa, and other Internet statistics keeping sites. The accuracy of the sampled data is subject to large variations. It’s really hard to take the data and make conclusions due to the fact that it’s based on such a small relative sampling. Unfortunately, it’s the best we’ve got right now. Anything is better than nothing. So take the data and run with it. Just remember to upload your videos to YouTube.

What’s in a domain name …

Wow, just wow! Who says a domain name isn’t important in corporate america. Looks like some companies still have money to burn.

ToysRus pays $5.1 million for toys.com domain.