A New Study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research found that consumers are twice as likely to make purchases from brands that they follow on facebook(51% more likely to buy) or twitter(67% more likely to buy). (via Econsultancy Blog)

Facebook Twitter Report

Still think social media is over-rated and over-hyped?

Today we found out from analytics service Hitwise(via techcrunch) that Facebook.com received more U.S. traffic than google.com.

For the critics and naysayers – who think social media is just a fad and will soon be forgotten, you can no longer (Read more...)

According to Hitwise (via TechCrunch ), Facebook has now surpassed Google as the most visited website on the internet. When I read this I got a bit overly excited, not that I’m a huge Facebook fan, but that Google can be challenged. A part of me hates the big guy and always routs for the underdog. Though Andy Beal brought me back down to reality.

Apparently these results don’t include traffic to Youtube, which I’m told is a pretty popular website, nor do they include the traffic to Flickr as part of yahoo. Which makes the (Read more...)

Hirosito is an interesting word. Why am I blogging about Hirosito?

Tonight I was searching for niche keywords. I’m a big fan of the tv sitcom heroes,  so I put heroes into my webceo, under the ‘get suggestions’ tab. What I’m looking for are good niches with a high KEI.

Heroes yeilded Nada. After heroes, I tried the word “hero”. Still nothing. My favorite character on the sitcom is Hiro Nakamura. So the next term I put in was Hiro with an “i”.

I was flabbergasted when it pulled up the term: Hirosito.

I had no clue what Hirosito means but the kei is: 9,501,221.183. This is huge it’s the largest find I’ve ever found. Of course my blogging about Hirosito may create an influx of competition for this word, but I’m curious to see what may happen if I can rank in the top 10 for Hirosito.

According to webceo there are about 234,215 searches for Hirosito daily, however there’s only 5,770 competing websites.

I’m not the first to capitalize on this term obviously. According to hirosito.info – hirosito means internet marketing or seo. Someone who practices hirosito is an expert internet marketer.  Because I found it while using “Niche Marketing”, I personally am going to use it to mean Niche Marketing.

In the spirit of that, I am going to replace ‘niche marketing’ with the term hirosito, in future blog posts,  as an experiment in seo. Of course some believe hirosito, may actually mean HI, Rosito, which is definitely a possibility. Anyway you look at it, it is a cool word.

What are your opinions on Hirosito? Do you know any other meaning for Hirosito?

Want to help my hirosito experiment be a success? Blog about it, and link to this post.

One side note, my wife says Hirosito is a name, and that could certainly be the case, but it is a cool niche search anomaly.

Originally posted 2008-04-24 00:02:28.

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Image via Wikipedia

The Obama campaign has just released a statement that Obama’s maternal grandmother Madelyn Dunham who was influential in raising him, has passed away.

Barack Obama visited his grandmother a week ago, as she was severely ill. I’m just glad he got that chance, in his busy schedule to at least say his goodbye.

This is the official statement from the Obama Campaign on behalf of Barack Obama and his sister:

“It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer.  She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility.  She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances.  She was proud of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and left this world with the knowledge that her impact on all of us was meaningful and enduring.  Our debt to her is beyond measure.

“Our family wants to thank all of those who sent flowers, cards, well-wishes, and prayers during this difficult time.  It brought our grandmother and us great comfort.  Our grandmother was a private woman, and we will respect her wish for a small private ceremony to be held at a later date.   In lieu of flowers, we ask that you make a donation to any worthy organization in search of a cure for cancer.”

This is a sad day, it’s sad that she will miss seeing her grandson become President of the United States. I think it’s sad that she came this close, but didn’t make it to the finish line.  I am greatful for the woman, she raised a wonderful grandson, and her integrity shows through in the way Obama leads.

I wonder though, if this will affect the election at all – what say you?

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Originally posted 2008-11-03 17:50:34.

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Post tags: barack obama, madelyn dunham, maternal grandmother, president of the united states

Magic Members is a premium Membership Plugin for Wordpress. Magic Members can turn your wordpress blog in a fully automated membership site and comes with features including:

• Different membership access levels: Give your customers access to different areas. For instance let some have access to the forums, some to the downloads section, and another group have full access.
• Different membership billing options: Choose from unlimited memberships, or charge by the day, week, month, or year. You have complete control over how and when to bill your customers.
• Multiple Payment Processing choices: You can choose to use Paypal, WorldPay, or Clickbank, you can accept payments from all or one, just deactivate the plugins you don’t want to use. It’s an easy, fast way to accept payments for any membership site.
• Coupon Codes: Generage coupons for your customers. You can either offer a fixed price, or a percentage based discount on current subscriptions or on newly generated subscriptions.
• Administration Statistics: View detailed statistics, see all of your members, their status, levels, contact info, billing methods, and more in the easy to read administration panel. Also features easy ability to upgrade, deactivate, pause, or delete members.

If you want complete control of your own Membership site, then Magic Members is definitely the plugin for you! Download Magic Members Now!

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Maybe I should save this post for April Fool’s Day, alas the novelty of it would be past done by then.

I was reading a blog post(The Best of South by Southwest SXSW) from a Cyberjournal.com a blog that I subscribe to, and well lets see if you can find anything wrong with the following paragraph:

CNN, MTV, Mashable and Facebook Discuss How Crowdsourcing Is Affecting Reporting: Facebook’s Zuckerberg said she sees crowdsourcing in two ways: ideation and distribution. She gave the example of actress Betty White being asked to hostSaturday Night Live due almost completely to efforts on Facebook. Getting her on the show is “ideation,” while the “distribution” is people reacting to the decision and the show online.

I hope I didn’t it make it too hard to spot. Did Mark Zuckerberg have a sex change I’m not aware of? This just goes to show that a little proofreading can go a long way. The failure to proofread can lose you blog readers, because it can cause your credibility to go down.

If I were new to this blog, and this was the first post I’ve ever read, I could easily say to myself

“Wow, this guy doesn’t even know what sex Mark Zuckerberg is, does he even know who the ceo of facebook is, or did he just see someone else mention the last name, and decide to blog about it to get some search engine traffic.”

Though I’m certain had this happened on the last day of March, I could’ve turned it around a bit and made for an interesting April Fools day Joke. Speaking of April Fool’s anyone got any good ideas for blog pranks?

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Post tags: Betty White, CNN, facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, MTV, Online Communities, Social network, SXSW

You’re presumably reading this blog because you want to make money as a blogger.

Whether you want to make a lot or a little is irrelevant. In the world of blogging it is very possible for the average Joe blow blogger to make at least $1400 a month. The only major secret is constant effort.

To be successful and make fat cash – you absolutely must post blog posts frequently!

With twitter, and the 100+ blogs in my feed reader, I myself sometimes find distractions are a dime a dozen. How often do you find yourself doing something non-important (theme-tweaking, reading, games, twittering, etc..), in place of the important task of writing?

[poll id="2"]

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Originally posted 2009-04-23 03:29:08.

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Post tags: Blog, Distraction, Productivity, Social network, Twitter

When you need a quick, simple screencast, but don’t want to bother with installing and configuring software, a new service called ScreenCastle may just be the app you’re looking for.

ScreenCastle is an extremely simple screencasting tool. ScreenCastle is so simple to use. Just visit their website, click the big red button, load the java application, decide how much of the screen you want recorded, and whether or not to include audio from your microphone.

Those are the only settings, after your settings are chosen a small black bar appears at the bottom of your screen. This is your recording control mechanism. Just push record when you’re ready to record, and move the mouse to the very top of the screen when you’re done.

If you’re not recording in full-screen mode, then you’ll have a small window which you can click on to end the recording.

Currently there is no size or length limits of screen-casts – but be aware the videos are uploaded from your computer after the recording is finished, and lengthy videos will take time to upload.

Screencasts are given unique urls to share. You can link directly to the screen-cast, download the screencast, or direct link to the file for downloading purposes.

The downside of ScreenCastle is that there’s currently no way to edit screencasts, so if you’re not happy with the results you will have to start over. Alternately you could download the file and edit it locally using video editing software. Currently ScreenCastle is completely free, and only requires a web browser with Java Script support.

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Originally posted 2009-04-12 06:03:27.

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Post tags: Application software, Browsers, Java, Screencast, Shareware, Website

Is Twitter Dying?

According to Barracuda networks an internet research company via Readwriteweb, Twitter looks to be an app that the majority of users pick up for a second, play with for a minute, get a puzzled look on their face then never touch again.

Yet, other numbers show that the number of Tweets per day is higher than ever.

So how can a resource that’s losing momentum and growth gain in use?

Is Twitter doomed? Or can it be saved? What can Twitter do to bring back the users it’s lost?

First off – I (Read more...)

I have an idea for a new business network revolving around social media, application development, and blogging.

My idea is to get some application developers, wordpress theme developers, bloggers. Start a site dedicated to coming up with new ideas for applications. Visitors will be able to submit their ideas for applications. Each idea will be submitted under the terms that we will not use any idea without compensating the person submitting an idea.

The idea came to me because there have been many times when I’ve thought of brilliant ideas for an application, or site but lacked the php knowledge to get it off the floor.

What do you think, will this idea Fly, or will it die?

Recap: Entrepreneur has idea, submits it to us, and we build the software application and bring the entrepreneur  on as a consulting member for that project.  People can also submit ideas for wordpress plugins, and themes which we might do for free or profit. All free stuff will basically be used for branding of the main service.

[poll id="3"]

Originally posted 2009-04-24 22:51:17.

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Post tags: Blog, Social Media, Twitter, wordpress, wordpress plugin

Today is the day many a Twihard Twilight fan has been waiting for…well besides the actual release of the movie.

Get your First Look at Twilight Eclipse via Yahoo Movies. (Blogger confession – per wife’s suggestion of course, I have read the books, and seen both movies. I may be the only guy who has, lol. Or at least who will admit to it.)

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Jump in the Social Media Pool – The water is Perfect!

Everywhere you look your competitors are jumping in on the social media bandwagon. Even your plumber, and housekeeper have facebook fan pages for their business. You’ve decided it’s time to jump in and figure out what Social Media is all about.

Learning social media is a lot like swimming, jump in too soon, too fast, or just after eating and you might just drown. Better hope that there’s a social media cpr certified medical squad to bring you back.

One reason many companies fail (Read more...)

 

I gotta say I took a look at a new game that they’re developing for called Real Trophy Hunting, and I gotta say the graphics look pretty stunning.  (Check it out on I-tunes)

This isn’t an unrealistic cartoon graphic shooting game. This isn’t some cheap remake of duck hunt. This is a breathtaking trip into the Rocky mountains where you can almost smell the crisp mountain air. Packing  some major artillery you only have one goal in mind: Take down the Big One!

In Real Trophy Hunting, you can hunt for the deadly North American Grizzly Bear, you can test your tracking skills on the Great Elk, or Moose with antlers over 10 feet long.

The graphics of the game are so realistic, it’s like you’re there. Much more than one might expect from a mobile game.

There’s also a large selection of weapons to choose from, whether you’d like to try the Compound Bow, 44 Magnum, or 300 Mag Rifle, you’ll get your chance, and each gun comes fitted with a scope for long range game hunting.

This game will take you all over the Rocky mountains, you can choose from 16 different hunt stands spread out all over the West. From Colorado to Utah, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

You can use the camera to document your conquests, and share the photos with friends via email.

Some of the other games you’ll find from Sunstorm Games include:

Be sure to Follow @SunstormGames on Twitter for all their newest hit games!

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Post tags: Colorado, Deer Hunter, Hunting, Idaho, Montana, Outdoors, Recreation, Wyoming

I had 26 responses to the following survey on twitter: “What time do you read your feeds the most, or see the most hits..”

My findings were both what I thought it would be, with a few twists.

I was pretty certain that Morning would be the best time of day. Other than that I wasn’t very certain.

According to my small poll, I was correct -  12 of the people polled, said they read their feeds in the early morning usually between 6-9am.

What I didn’t expect was for the second runner up to be the Night Crew(8pm – Midnight). There were 9 who reported the most activity @ Night.

Third is also a surprise, because it’s a busy time, people are coming home, spending time with families, and eating dinner. But third place is Evenings between 5pm-8pm. There were8 who chose this option.

Tieing for third was the mid morning group (9-11). 8 people also chose this option.

4th place was Afternoon (2-5pm). With 6 people.

5th Place was Noon and Late Night with 2 people. (Noon is roughly @ 12, give or take an hour); Late night is considered after Midnight.

All in all it was an interesting experiment, I think the most interesting part is that I asked a question on Twitter, and got 25 really good answers, which turned into a pretty neat blog post. Twitter really is a wonder.

I’d like to thank the following participants for contributing to this post:

• mfelker
  
• ethnicomm
• cocoy
• egbert826
• digitalvision
• mlewis106
• tempyra
• chrisWhite
• maryn
• TheBlogArtist
• kgoyette
• frjohnsen
• ihenni
• nbostic
• amypalko
• dr_pete
• Kforbriger
• samuelbowman
• jasonp107
• deege
• cemcatik
• TwisterMc
• mkoby
• gesteves
• bmckay
• theunguru

Originally posted 2008-03-27 01:37:45.

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Post tags: best time, best time to blog, Blogging, read posts, reading posts, rss feed, time of day, what time of day to blog

Kyle Turley is Not Your Stereotypical Jock by any means!

Hooking up with cheerleaders, throwing nerds in dumpsters, barely getting by in school, lacking of any talent other than football.

These are the stereotypical images of Jocks that we see in shows like Glee.

Now I can’t vouch for depositing nerdy teens in dumpsters, but one thing is certain – Kyle Turley has broken away from this stereotype, with the release of Anger Management, his new breathtaking album launching this Tuesday. In Anger Management, Kyle Turley shows that he’s not just a boring jock with no talent beyond the football field. He’s a Jock that can ROCK!

Whether you’re a Saints fan or not, his moving song “My Soul Bleeds Black and Gold” is a striking tribute to the hard hit community that survived one of the worst natural disasters in modern memory.

Kyle Turley definitely makes an exciting new addition to the Country Rock scene joining the likes of Hank Williams Jr and many others. Listen to “My Soul Bleeds Black and Gold” below, or via the youtube link. You can also find more great music by Kyle Turley via his myspace page, or his record company GridIronRecords.com. You can also follow him @KyleTurley on Twitter.

 Video produced by GridIronRecords

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Post tags: American football, Anger Management, Country Rock, Hank Williams Jr, KyleTurley, National Football League, Twitter

According to researchers at the University of California Berkley (via inhabitat),  Atrazine one of the most common used herbicides worldwide, also one of the most common water pollutants in North America, may cause perfectly healthy, normal male frogs to grow up and become fully functional reproducing females.

The pollutant has consequently been banned in Europe in 2003 after some disturbing studies linking it to prostate and breast cancer. 80 Million+ pounds of the contaminant are dumped yearly in the US every year.

If it can cause frogs to change sexes, I’m sure it has bad repercussions for human, maybe even infertility, ever watch that movie where mankind loses the ability to reproduce?

Imagine the diseases we could cure, if we just stopped polluting our own damn world!

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Post tags: Breast cancer, Cancer, Herbicide, Pollution, United States, University of California-Berkeley, Water pollution

Microsoft announces yet another security vulnerability. This one affects Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003 users who use Internet Explorer.

On some sites a dialogue may pop up asking the user to press F1 (the commonly used help button), this then allows the machine to run code, which may open all kind of nasty vulnerabilities for hackers to use.

A patch will arrive shortly, but until then Don’t Call for Help.

Original Image from Tom’s Guide -  {Microsoft TechNet via Gizmodo and Lifehacker}

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Post tags: Internet Explorer, microsoft, Microsoft TechNet, Server 2003, Vulnerability, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP

Facebook gains a broad sweeping patent for it’s New Feed, Now Google gains same for Location Based Advertising.

Last week we found out that facebook received the patent for it’s news feed technology, which may potentially cause quite a stir among the social network stratosphere. Read more about it here, and here.

Now it seems that Google filed a patent back in 2003 for Location based advertising, which could hit hard companies like admob, who are growing whole businesses around that very technology.

Check out the full abstract below.

“The usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience. Location information is determined (or simply accepted) and used. For example, location information may be used in a relevancy determination of an ad. As another example, location information may be used in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such location information may be associated with ad performance information. Ad performance information may be tracked on the basis of location information. The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using location information. Finally, tools, such as user interfaces, may be provided to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such as location information used for targeting and location-dependent price information. The location information used to target and/or score ads may be, include, or define an area. The area may be defined by at least one geographic reference point (e.g., defined by latitude and longitude coordinates) and perhaps additional information. Thus, the area may be a circle defined by a geographic reference point and a radius, an ellipse defined by two geographic reference points and a distance sum, or a polygon defined by three or more geographic reference points, for example.”

This is all great and well for Google, but what does it mean for progress? Are patents becoming a hinderance to progress? For a company so focused on ‘open source’ i find it funny that when it comes to technology it’s about creating a closed bubble, and stunting progress. More at.. (Mashable, and VentureBeat).

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This graphic from Pingdom (via Rotorblog), shows how Google was once a lowly start-up in a Yahoo world. Now look at our little Google, all grown up..well a teenager at any rate.  It goes to show how a company with a real vision can truly climb to the heights of success,  just look how Google has grown since it opened back in 1998.  I’m excited to see what the next ten years will be like on the internet.

Speaking of growing up, you should check out this video of Eric Schmidt Google’s Ceo, nearly 12 years before Google, it’s definitely an eye opener! What a Nerd!

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Post tags: EricSchmidt, Google, search, Search Engines, Yahoo

Watching this youtube video, makes me want to sing Peter Griffin’s rendition of the Bird is the Word, only slightly modified — cause you know… The Nerd, the nerd, the nerd is the word, the nerd nerd nerd, nerd is the word…

Seriously though, to all you nerds out there in high school, getting teased because of your pocket protectors, just think of poor little Eric Schmidt the CEO of Google, and just remember that someday you will be their bosses, and call the shots. This is a video of Eric Schmidt back in 1986, before Google was even a twinkle in Sergey Brin’s eye..This isn’t new, but definitely is new to me, and I think it’s funny to watch, but then I loved the Nerds movies of the 1980’s.

But don’t worry, he overcame his coyness, and became the giant ceo of Google that we all know and love. Check him out two years later:

Google’s Eric Schmidt Has a Pamela Anderson Video Moment

(via: TechCrunch)

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Post tags: EricSchmidt, Google, Peter Griffin, Search Engines, Sergey Brin, youtube