Madison at Newburyport

Not my personal choice, but more a relection on how utterly busy I have been.  Some great stuff going on, some not so great, but such is the natural progression of life.

I have an interesting comment from my 11 yo daughter Madison on my about page:

“hi, dad! Whats up? So……can I have an account for All Things Cahill,or the family website,pretty please with 100,000,000,000,000 CHERRYS on top.”

My first knee jerk reaction was pretty much what you’d expect…then I thought about what my objections are:

• Controlling what she posts – kids don’t generally understand what’s appropriate to share and what is meant to be kept private.
• It’s my site, and my byline – she might post or do something on my blog that would reflect on me.

After a little thought, I realize that both of these concerns are easily dealt with.  By setting her up as a contributor to the blog, I would have to publish her posts, affording me the chance to read them.  Similarly, if I were to enforce upon her a particular category, I could exclude it from my main page, and force her off onto her own page, something like http://www.allthingscahill.com/madison and if I wanted to, I might even make that page password protected so that I could be sure I knew who was reading her posts.

So, for now, it looks like I’m going to grant her request.  More on this shortly…

In other general news, I have been tweeting a lot of Reel-Time.com under the Twitter handle Reel_Time – and I have found that tweeting as an informational stream for a site is pretty cool.  I’m using CoTweet thanks to Esteban and I’ve found I really like their service.  Hootsuite is similar, and is currently open to the public as well.

I'm lucky this didn't happen to me

I got in my truck to go to the office Monday morning and tthe brake pedal went to the floor.  Very lucky to have had it happen there, rather than on the road.  The mechanic described it as a “catastrophic rear brake failure” which required replacement of all the rear brake components.

A few random observations:

• Rss becoming even more important to the interoperability of websites and content tools. I’ve got 5 separate projects for different sites, all of which seem to need a decent script to process. The funny thing is  that I wrote just such a script in 2003 for Reel-Time.
• Google Wave will be a force moving forward – but I am always concerned about committing to components in my sites that are not under my control.  Their reliance on javascript which allows for asynchronous processing goes a long way toward answering my questions.
• Twitter is becoming the cesspool I predicted – retweet bots and dm spammers are making it a place I wish to associate with less and less.  Perhaps it’s time to give my friends list an enema.
• Developers may force HTML 5 adoption - there are lots of very cool things that can be done, and I suspect many of us do not want to wait 6 more years to start leveraging them.
• I miss my boat – okay, maybe not so much that boat, but the fun I had on it.  I really need to find something, but unfortunately my finances have a different story to tell.  Even worse, read the first paragraph again, and that bit screams “time for a new truck.”
• There simply aren’t enough hours – so I guess I may have to give up sleeping.
• Fishing with my daughters is one of my favorite things to do.

(Disclaimer: I work for Namemedia, Inc. who is one of the largest owners and resellers of domains in the world.  I don’t work in that end of the business, and I don’t speak for them.)

I picked up an interesting article today via David Churbuck’s Delicious.com feed, from USA Today with the salacious title “‘Cybersquatting’ crooks profit on marketers’ brand names.”

Now I hate cybersquatting, but I have to say this, which I said yesterday and have said ad nauseum over the years: your domain name is a business asset.  A corollary to that would be that you need to protect it, just as you would any business asset.

Simply put, if you’re planning to launch a new brand and you haven’t secured the appropriate domain names that are associated with that brand, you are a fool.  At the very least, you’ll be increasing the value of something you will most likely need to buy at some point.  So do your homework!

The thing that ticked me off about this article was the fact that it appearred as though the writer had written it right off a Marketing Association press release. It showed almost no thought about the issue, and in appearance, seemed to aim at driving home a single, shop worn idea: cybersquatting is bad.  Wow, hold the presses.

There are several other sides to this, none of which are considered, mentioned, or apparently, even though of.

•  What happens when I own a domain and one of the big guys decides to create a new brand using the same name, such as yesterday’s example of Blatz.com.  Are we proposing that even with “prior art” I should reassign the domain to them, simply because I otherwise might be considered “cybersquatting?”
• Is it not the companies responsibility to protect their own brand?  There is plenty of history with people setting up shopping sites under unused brand name inspired domains.
• If you didn’t buy a particular domain, you cannot consider revenues made on that site “lost revenues” associated with your brand.
• The assumption underlying this article is obvious, that sales made via third party shopping sites, etc. necessarily would have gone to the brand with which they might have appeared to be associated.  In my experience,  such sales are generally more casual impulse buys.  

Here’s the part that makes me really annoyed:

They drive people to a “squatted” site via e-mails or through paid search. Once they’ve led someone there, they hope to steal credit card information, spur clicks on ads to skim revenue from online ad networks or sell fake products, such as pharmaceuticals or pricey handbags.

Since when did USA Today decide it was a nepharious act to show advertising to people on your own website, in hopes that they might actually click on it?  Is that not THEIR OWN REVENUE MODEL?  Further, is not email or paid search also condsidered marketing?  Why would marketing one’s own website be considered “theft?”

Listen, I don’t cybersquat and I don’t condone it, but this article is simply ludicrous.  USA Today, stop phoning in your work…

One of the key points you need to consider when you are building your Social Media Community is the domain name.  The right name can make your site, while the wrong one brings with it more baggage than you could possibly imagine.  The general list of considerations:

• The shorter the better - If I were building a community for septic tank cleaning professionals, I’d look for something like “septicpros.com” rather than “septic-pro-media-forums.com”  - on the face of it, less letters to type.
• Make the name a Search  Keyword that you’d expect someone to enter into Google to find you.  Hence “Blatz.com” wouldn’t be as desirable as “tennisbuddies.com” when you’re doing a Tennis social media site.  Plus, the domain name is one of the things Google gives you points for in their alrogithm.  Hence, given identical content and in bound links, TennisBuddy.com will do better than the nonsensical blatz.com.
• Try to Avoid the Alternate Top Level Domains - .Com is the gold standard here.  .Net is acceptable, and .Mobi is fine for your Iphone stuff.  I don’t use .us, or any of the other alternates.  Why?  Because they don’t get direct type in traffic, and its really easy to build your site up, only to have someone sharp that owns the .Com TLD siphon off your traffic by constructing a similar site.  How do they get your traffic?  Most of your users will inevitably type .Com instead of .FooBar or whatever you have at some point.  Too big a business risk in my estimation.
• Avoid Misspelling Problems – If it’s hard to type, you’re going to have people ending up at the wrong place.  Once again, keep it simple.

Have  people found success doing the opposite of my suggestions?  Sure, probably the best example was http://del.icio.us – but even they have now given in, having bought delicious.com and directing their primary traffic through that domain instead.

Okay, so your next thought is this:  “Nice advice, but all the good domain names were bought up years ago.  We’re gonna have to go with http://xtrptser.com because it’s the only one left.”

Not so…there is the domain aftermarket.  My employer, Namemedia Inc. owns over 900,000 domain names, which can be bought via BuyDomains.com or at Afternic.com – which is  a “Multiple Listing Service for Domain Names.”  Together with our partners, we list something in the area of 2 million domain names (don’t quote me directly on that, it’s a rough estimate, not exact).  They’ve also got plenty of trained domain professionals who can help you through the purchase and transfer process.

So now you can get access to a whole lot of excellent domain names, which should make your new Social Media Website a winner.

My view on domains is this: they are a very important business asset for any business. In the case of niche social media sites, they may be one of your most important assets.  Thus buying the right one is of utter importance.  There are many places in the building of your site where you will be able to cut a few corners, but this is not a place to do that.

As of yet, I’m not seeing this as increasing the value of the Reel-time.com brand.  Of course, while twitter may be hitting the mainstream, I suspect we’re still on the bleeding edge of Twitter in the saltwater fly fishing niche.  It just seems that where my readers used to find me, I am now trying to find them.  A horribly upside down delivery model it is when you’re starting out!

The Bad, or Not So Good:

• Spammers - they apparently target new accounts – a good number of my initial followers apparently thought I wanted to pay for the “secrets of making millions via twitter”.  For the record, I don’t think there is anyone out there making THOUSANDS yet.
• Mostly Shops, Guides and Website Owners - in a lot of ways its me and my competitors talking.  Honestly, that makes me want to share…less.
• Haphazard Marketing – I’ve seen several shops or guides who don’t have a website or haven’t updated that website in over a year.  Yet they have time to tweet on a regular basis.  Tweeting is nice, but take care of your marketing 101 basics first.

The Good:

• Fishing Reports - while my forum users macerate on the implications of posting fishing reports via Twitter, its already happening and there are enough respected industry names doing it that I can say with certainty, fishing reports via twitter are here to stay.
• Immediacy – I’m a big fan of  “right the heck now.”  I hate to wait.  Twitter means I won’t have to wait.
• New Enough That We Can Make This What We Want – I suspect the real gold here is in the hashtagging of reports.  If we develop a way of tagging that makes regional sense (most New Englander’s don’t need reports from Maryland) then we’ll all win.  I generally hate protocols, but this may just be what we need.  Something like #SWF-BOS for Boston area reports…then fight to keep it from becoming another Usenet.

The trial continues…

• Twitter Rule #1 No Hawaiian Shirt avatars until after Memorial Day.
• Twitter Rule #2 – Only religion, social media marketing, politics or other mundane topics allowed.
• Twitter Rule #3 – Mandatory lunch tweets – eating a cheese sandwich? We MUST be told.
• Twitter Rule #4 – When in doubt, Retweet. The truth is overrated…
• Twitter Rule #5 – Retweet your own blog posts at least every hour. Someone somewhere might have missed it.
• Twitter Rule #6 – NO NUDE TWEETING!

First, a definition from Twitter Wiki:

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

When I started about a year ago, there were a handful of folks that were tweeting with the #redsox hashtag during the games.  DougH, AdamCohen, AaronStrout and Fairminder would pretty much be the list.  Most of them aren’t really seen tweeting about the games anymore, and it doesn’t surprise me.  

Early adopters really hate a crowd, deep down, and the numbers of folks that use the hashtag now have soared.  Even Jerry Remy (and his assistant John) are using the hashtag to tweet during games.  However, with the popularity, there are problems:

1. Spamming –  I’m now seeing people using the hashtag to advertise stuff that has nothing to do with the Red Sox.  Last night DaveAndelmann tweeted an ad for his Phantom Gourmet tv show which would air after the game.  Boo hiss, Dave!  If everyone does this, it becomes unuseable.   The problem is that everyone seems to think that Twitter is their own private advertising medium.  Really, c’mon, admit it…

2. ReTweetBots – I really hate seeing accounts (not really people) like Redsoxgame or Yankeesgame or RedSoxTweets mindlessly retweeting scores and articles with the #redsox tag.  The problem is, if the original was already tagged, we’ve seen it before. With these retweetbots, we’re destined to see each article about 6 times.  Stupid…

3. Red Sox Tweets Turn Off My Other Followers – Yup, not everyone wants to hear it.  Since I’ve tagged my tweets, you can filter them in Tweetdeck, (go to the bottom of your friends column and find the filter icon – then select text – #redsox and they’ll be gone.  But most people won’t take the time to do this.

Either we find fixes for these problems, or the noble effort that was live game tweeting will crash and burn.  I predict unregulated this will go the way of Usenet possibly by the All Star break but certainly by September.

I suspect in the long term, the real solution is that live game microblogging needs to be done under the auspices of a website where someone can actually police things help maintain a quality experience.  Perhaps if Jerry Remy were to put a Laconica install on his site, that’d be the place.  Or perhaps the crew at SurvivingGrady.com could upgrade from their current comments system…

Personal Branding is an artificial edifice that is antithetical to the transparency and authenticity expected in Social Media Marketing.

That’s it.  You pimp the brand you, and you’re going against all that we seem to say is important in Social Media Marketing.  Phil Sheard presciently asked what my thoughts were on where the line really is (understanding that deep down, I don’t think all personal branding is bad…).   My answer:

As Popeye said, “I ams who I ams…” I’d draw the line at trying to create a persona that isn’t genuine for financial gain.

I’m a New England Yankee.  That means I expect to be able to take people at face value.  It also means that I realize that for the most part, I’m going to be disappointed.  So perhaps I tend to draw the line a little too far to the conservative side.

Okay, I’ll admit it. We don’t need full “transparency” into your life.  I don’t need to see pics on your blog of you doing body shots off an asian hooker in Vegas right next to your latest masceration on marketing.  By the same token, it is unrealistic to be using all possible avenues simply to tell the world you’re the greatest.

This site has been around since 1995, and frankly, if you knew where to look, it was showing it’s age.  The homepage was left justified, which is something designers haven’t been doing since around 2001.

There were a lot of challenges.  First off, a lot of the content was gnarly hand-coded html of varying quality, which for the most part has had to be moved by hand.  That task will no doubt continue for a while.  Secondly, I didn’t have call on a designer.  As such, what design work had to be done, was done by me…and if you could see how I dress, you’d understand humor in that. A few of the high points:

• Wordpress is my CMS – Yes, I’ve been running a number of sites on a version we’ve customized at Namemedia, Inc., but this is the first time I’ve gone with an out of the box installation.  All customization for the site is done by plugin or theme.  Absolutely no changes to Wordpress code whatsoever.
• Comments, Sharing, etc. – Reel-Time never had comments on articles before, so now it does.  A small change, but actually one that will help to extend the community from the forum out into the  site.
• Syndicated News Feeds – In the past, we always avoided sharing the link love.  No longer – we’re running feeds of pertinent content on our landing pages which gives us more great content from around the globe and shares our link juice, being top in Saltwater Fly fishing rankings.
• Landing Pages – We’ve started doing pages by article category, so now we can present a dense, targeted page on any topic in our vast arsenal of content.  Add to that feeds of content similarly tagged from our forum, and the syndicated feeds, and you’ve got tons of content on any particular subject.  I only have a handful of these pages up, but rest assured, if it swims in saltwater and fishermen like to catch it, it will eventually have its own page.
• A Standard Theme – I went with a base theme from the Wordpress Theme Gallery then customized.  It saved time, and honestly, without it, I doubt this project ever would have happened.
• A Classified Ad System – I’ve thought this was one of the big missing functions on the site for a long time.  Now we have one.  The question is, are we late to the game?
• Vimeo Videos presented in high definition – Everybody has small videos, so I went with really LARGE video presentation.  It looks great, although I need to get more ads on the page.
• New Content – for the first time in a long time, we’ve got new articles coming in.  I have no budget for this stuff, so I asked our community.  They have responded.
• More Social – I put in links to our Facebook Group, Facebook Fan Page and to the Reel_Time twitter account.  Again, there is a lot more to do here.

I still have a lot of stuff to do.  If you read this blog closely, you’ll know that I had a quandry about what to do with our fishing reports section.  I think I have a solution to that, which I’ll be working on next.  Also on my list:

• Develop a Content Team – me working 30 hours a week won’t happen anymore.  The work must be spread around the community.
• Import All the Content - about 50 stories remain to be imported.  From there I have old fishing reports with valueable intro sections by some of the best writers in our sport (many started out writing for us).
• Get More Community Happening – I’ll hold this one close to the vest for new.  I’m well aware that this blog is read by some that participate in my niche, so no need to tip my hat here.

Remember, one of the salient points here is that this was a nights and weekends project, only a 2 days of actual “work” time went into it.  Also, the an important round of thanks to the moderators for the site, Bob Parsons, Sam Riley, Ray Avitable and Shaun Ruge who were of immense assistance in the planning and as always, in providing a firm sounding board for potential ideas.  Without them, the site, I fear, would crumble to dust.

Okay, there was one other MAJOR change and no one has commented on it.  Can you?