AU Interactive Blog

Want the Ultimate Headline Copywriting Cheet Sheet? Last Days to Get it

2008-07-03T14:17:47Z

One of my favorite copywriters (besides Brian Clark) is Paul Robb. I’ve had the pleasure to work with him over the past few months and he’s a copywriting genius.

He decided to retire his old copy blog last month, but as his last post he’s made an offer you shouldn’t pass up: if you follow him on Twitter and direct message him, he’s send you his personal PDF cheat sheet of some of the best headlines ever written for magazines like Cosmo, Maxim, etc. This is thousands of clippings that he’s saved over the years as templates for writing killer headlines.

But Hurry, there’s only a day or two left before he pulls this offer for good - and this pdf will never be available again.

I’ve been seeing a lot of Copyblogger headlines reused in social media recently. While they are effective, I think other marketer can often see right through them and are less likely to vote for them. If you want some fresh material to emulate, check out the details on Robb’s last post (and hurry).

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.

Yay! I’m Finally Getting Verizon FiOS to My House

2008-06-04T14:30:10Z

A few months ago I saw a bunch of Verizon trucks and human sized gophers digging up grass in my neighborhood, which meant only one thing - I would soon be able to get FiOS!

Fast forward to today and I’m finally able to order Verizon FiOS to my house (which I did this morning).

I signed up for both FiOS TV and Internet. The HDTV picture is supposed to be awesome which is something I actually care about ever since I got my Samsung 42″. The Internet is 10Mbps down, 2 Mbps - and that’s just on their basic plan. I might up it to 20/20 Mbps symmetrical later just for bragging rights.

I’ve been with Comcast for the last 2 years and have been itching at the chance to drop them like a bad habit.

In my old house I had to have a cable run into my house under the door since Comcast technicians never came out to the house to fix my cat5 issues, no matter how often I called them. I had to get Comcast Cable again in my current house since it was the fastest option available and I got the discount for bundling it with TV.

Coincidentally last night and this morning my Comcast internet connection has been going in and out (maybe it knows what’s up).

I don’t know how Comcast hopes to compete with all the horrible press they’ve gotten recently (that throttling mess, impending overage fees, hacking, etc.), not to mention that their coax technology won’t be able to handle anything near what Verizon’s fiber optics will be able to in the coming years.

I’ll try to do a more-in depth post once I get FiOS actually installed and have a chance to test it out, so check back in a few weeks. Pssst, subscribe to my RSS feed if you haven’t already.

Has anyone else upgraded to FiOS recently? Have any input on Verizon vs. Comcast? Leave a comment below.

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.

The Lazy Startup’s Guide to a Horrible Domain Name

2008-05-13T03:07:26Z

Are you starting your very own web 2.0 website? Has your thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters taken the day off. Are you too drunk to come up with your very own random string of vowels and phonetic spellings?

Well, my friend, you’re in luck.

You can now outsource the creation of a typical “2.0-sounding” (and cleverly unpronouncable) company name for a small fee. Apparently there’s a company called Brand Bucket that’s trying to commoditize the art giving your startup a really really terrible name just because the domain is not registered.

I thought the whole reason a company chooses something really bad like qeeglixtr.com is because it’s $9/yr to register, not because it’s actually worth branding with, or worth paying money for. But maybe that’s just my narrow-minded pro-pronounciation, pre-1.0-thinking. Branding shmanding.

Here are some domains/company names/branding nightmares you can purchase from BB:

exaact.com
flizo.com (F to the lizo, V to the izz-A fo’ shizzle my nizzle?)
fluidux.com
galxz.com
leadspool.com (presumably so Mike can eventually rhyme it with deadpool)
linqto.com
noqeo.com
tilili.com

And if you buy now, they’ll even throw in a web 2.0 logo (and not just the standard one either). It’s a startup in a box! All you need is a social graph, something with RSS, throw in a widget and BAM, you’re in business.

I sort of have to give Brand Bucket props though. The idea is kind of entrepreneurial. Or should I say zntrepreneurial? (Psst, that’s not yet registered).

P.S. This is yet another reason I’m bullish on domaining.

P.P.S. Can someone please explain their “photo gallery” graphic to me?

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.

3 CSS Coding Tips That Will Save You Hundreds of Wasted Hours

2008-04-19T19:24:48Z

I got into CSS-based design sometime around 2002-2003 and have wasted literally hundreds of hours of my life dealing with various CSS and browser-compatibility issues. Back then we had far fewer tools at our disposal so the process of testing was a lot more tedious. Over the past 5 years I’ve picked up some tips and tricks that have made my job 100 times easier.

So without further adieu I’d like to share some of these tips:

On any given div, if you specify a width, do NOT specify padding or margins (and vice versa). Specify padding and margins on the elements contained in that div instead. Ex: leftcolumn {width:200px} lefcolumn p {padding:10px;width:20px;}
Use Firebug and Web Developer Toolbar together. In Firebug, use the inspect button to see element names, styles, and inheritances. Then use Wed Developer’s CSS > Edit CSS panel to change the properties in real time. If anyone wants I can probably make a video screencast and show you some examples of what I mean.
Don’t obsess about validation or having perfect code. I know some coding Nazis might hang me for this one, but if you need to stick a clearing div here or use a IE6 hack for a specific issue there, do it. I used to have CSS OCD once too, it’s ok. But if I can save myself an hour of tearing my hair out trying to fix one small issue just in the name of perfect semantic markup - it’s not worth it (especially if your users will never notice or know about it). Life is short. Don’t spend it obsessing about CSS.

If I had known these things earlier, I would probably have saved a lot of hours - literally hundreds - over the years. Those are probably my top 3 that have made the biggest difference in my coding career. Bonus: I also like using * {padding:0;margin:0} at the top of my CSS sheets to clear everything out, then specify margins and padding explicitly for divs and classes. Bonus #2: Faux columns can also be a lifesaver.

For more helpful tips, check out these posts:

Feel free to share any of your own time saving CSS tips in the comments.

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.

Airfare Search Simplified - Announcing Airdig Public Beta

2008-04-10T03:25:35Z

Finding Cheap Flights with AirDig

Here’s the scenario. You’re sitting down to look for a cheap flight from New York to San Francisco two weeks from now. You’re smart so you go to Kayak, put in your airport and dates and wait for the fares to pop up. You also know that there’s no such thing as a sure bet in the airfare game.

You then search a number of competing sites that get slightly different airfare data from the airlines. You go to Orbitz, Cheap Tickets, Expedia and retype your searches into each and every one. You also know Jetblue serves your cities and would like to compare their rates since you like the extra legroom. That’s 5 different sites, 5 different windows, 5 different searches - all taking precious time out of your busy day.

You know rates might be different later this evening and even tomorrow. So later in the day you go through the routine again. And then again tomorrow. Yadda yadda yadda.

Enter AirDig.

You type in your airports and dates once. You’re 1 click away from searching any of the 10 most popular sites on the web. A few clicks later you know the prices from all the important sites on the web. You even take notes in the sidebar so you can compare fares.

Maybe the fares will be lower later today. You come back to AirDig. Your flight info is saved so you’re just 1 click away from all the searches (again). The same tomorrow. You save a ton of time, you find the cheapest possible fare. You fly happy.

W00t! As Jeremy would say “It’s like fishing with dynamite”.

So what are you waiting for? Be one of the first people to take AirDig for a spin. (Oh, and if you like it, please share it with a friend and/or bookmark it and/or blog about it. Thanks!)

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.

Bling out your Domain. Go Ethiopian.

2008-03-25T22:32:50Z

Welcome to the Colbert Platinum section of AU Blog. Today we’re gonna talk about flossing your riches with the hottest new status symbol - crazy expensive ccTLD’s. (And maybe, just maybe - before we’re done here.. we’ll all be wearing gold-plated diapers.)

Here’s a little known fact: Ethiopian Domain Names are the Crystal of ccTLD’s.

Yes, we’re talking about the .com.et ccTLD.

It belongs to Ethiopia - and apparently it’s the Crystal of Domain name extensions.

Why you ask? *Queue Robyn Leech voice*

This gem of a domain extension is so exclusive, it costs an eye popping $380 to register a domain under it. And what’s more, DNS modifications cost $30 each. (presumably because they change the DNS by writing it on a scroll and dispatching it by falcon to the registry where a butler inputs it into the internets via a golden keyboard). It’s like Crystal of TLD’s. Why pay $10 for a .com when you can impress your friends with a $380 .com.et?

Everyone will be uber-impressed when you say “Look me up on Internets. It’s iamawesome dot COM [insert short pause here] dot ET!” Jaws will drop, ladies will swoon. The rich dude with a monocle will faint. Everyone will know just how much of a baller you are.

But maybe you’re saying, “Markus, but what if Jay-z is at the party rolling with like 3 .com.et’s, and I really want to blow everyone away?”

Well, my friend - do like Ma.tt does.

Matt, you ask? No. Ma.tt!

If .com.et’s are the Ferrari’s of the internet world, .tt domains are like Gold plated Bugatti’s with diamond spinning rims chauffeured by P’ditty. A .tt will run you $1,000-$1,250 to register (for 2 year min).

Ma.tt, (the ~~artist~~ developer formerly known as Matt) Mullenweg recently switched his domain to ma.tt

You know what that says about him? He’s so f*cking money. He’s like a bear with claws. And everyone knows it.

So there you go. Get yourself a ballin domain name like irule.tt. And instead of buying your old lady a diamond ring, a fancy car, or a house in the hills (cuz you know that sort of gift don’t mean anything), get her an Ethopian domain name.

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.

A List of County Code TLD’s that Anyone Can Register

2008-03-25T19:38:39Z

This is a pared down list of county code TLD’s that allow foreign registrations.

This is in contrast to country specific TLD’s that place restrictions on who can register them such as citizenship in that country (ex: .eu - must have official presence in the European Union to register)

(via Wikipedia)

.be – Belgium
.bi – Burundi
.bo – Bolivia
.br – Brazil
.bs – Bahamas
.bz – Belize

.dj – Djibouti
.dk – Denmark

.es – Spain

.fj – Fiji
.fm – Federated States of Micronesia

.gl – Greenland
.gr – Greece
.gs – South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

.kz – Kazakhstan

.ro – Romania
.rs – Serbia
.ru – Russia

.ug – Uganda
.us – United States

.ws – Samoa

.za – South Africa

If anyone finds any errors, please let me know by commenting below.

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.

Wordpress 2.5 Preview: Sweet!

2008-03-24T00:00:31Z

I just downloaded the preview version of Wordpress 2.5 and have been playing around with it this afternoon. It’s a major upgrade and I’m really pleased to see all the new features.

The backend has been really streamlined and is a lot more user-friendly.

Aside from the UI reorganization and improvements, my favorite new feature … the code is not mangled anymore in HTML mode! Finally div’s are preserved. This is huge for me since I always hated how WP stripped out and replaced div tags.

The same goes for embedding YouTube videos. Now you don’t need any special plugins or mods since Wordpress seems to work fine with the YouTube embed code (even if you edit the post later) & I imagine the same probably goes for other types of embedding (js, etc.).

The one downside I see is that a lot of existing plugins will probably be broken due to these dramatic changes (I know mine is). These things will be patched eventually I’m sure, but it will take some time for some of them to be updated.

One cool new feature of Wordpress 2.5 is the integration of native gravatar support. I used to have gravatars enabled a while back but uninstalled them since it would slow down the blog load time considerably. Now that Gravatar is owned by Automattic (Wordpress) I’m sure downtime and lag time won’t be an issue.

Overall I give Matt & crew an enthusiastic thumbs up for WP 2.5 - great work!

If you want to play with a live version yourself, you can do so at this site. If you want to know more about the changes you can also check out Technosailor for 10 things you should know about WP 2.5.

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.

Link Hoarding: How Google And Money have Changed the Linking Game

2008-03-20T07:01:36Z

This post has been in my drafts for a while but I figured this would be a good time to post it, thanks to Arrington’s recent post.

In case you haven’t noticed, a lot of companies and blogs seem to be linking less and less to external websites in favor of directing traffic to their own sites, networks, or affiliated sites.Remember when Techcrunch used to link to the actual startup when they covered it? These days it’s usually a link to Crunchbase instead (the “stats” page for that startup). They are effectively funneling their links through their own network to keep more of the users attention and revenue.

But who can blame them? Even Google is getting wary or losing its traffic to Wikipedia. Why do you think they’re launching Knols? (Notice the irony in that last link?) Even Yahoo has recently made changes to keep more traffic on their own network - the SERPS are now littered with more links to their own properties.

Why is this happening? I would say a combination of 2 things: a desire to hoard more attention (and revenue) and long term consequences of Google’s pagerank algorithm.

Firstly, the web is super saturated with content - there is an overabundance of information and new sites launch every day (see the 30,000 new blogs about “making money online”). This leaves the existing players scrambling for attention and relevance. As these new sites start eroding mindshare, everyone is looking for ways to maintain their own networks’ traffic (and especially if there’s VC money behind the blog/blog-network!)

Bloggers are also becoming more frugal because they are now much more aware of a link’s worth - in actual dollars.

A brief history: 1. Google’s pagerank algorithm equates links with votes. 2. More links/votes = better rankings. 2. Ad networks (TLA, etc.) monetize the value of these links for rankings. 3. Publishers became aware of a link’s worth. 4. (Now) Publishers realize that link equity is (somewhat) finite and they may be better off hoarding the user or better monetizing that link’s value.

While the days of “free link love” are not necessarily coming to an end, there does seem to be more reservation in distributing out links these days.

More recently I’ve come across a lot of statements like “but I don’t want to waste my pagerank juice on this link, can I get a link to my site instead?” Links and their monetary value are now much more tangible.

Google’s Pagerank and value allocation has helped create this monster. By protecting its business with things like bastardization of nofollow, its paid-link witch hunt, etc. they have only added more layers of complexity to linking.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, the web is evolving - and fast. Relevance, links, link value, attention, search engine rankings - everything is changing - and so are the linking patterns across the blogosphere.

What’s your perspective?

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Can’t Delete Wordpress Posts or Comments? iMacros may be to Blame

2008-03-19T22:41:40Z

For the last few months I was having a peculiar problem with Firefox: When I tried to delete a post, page, or comment by pressing the delete link in the Wordpress admin panel, nothing would happen. I would have to switch to Internet Explorer anytime I wanted to delete posts.

I thought it had something to do with Wordpress or the current version of Firefox. Then the same thing happened when I tried to “Export to CSV” in Azoogle. The problem seems to have been caused by any javascript running an onclick command that required a confirmation box to popup.

Duane had the same problem - he even ran his PC in safe mode but nothing seemed to work.

Well, we finally found the culprit thanks to this thread: iMacros plugin for Firefox. If you’re having the same problem and can’t seem to delete things when running Firefox (or having other javascript issues), uninstall the iMacros Firefox plugin.

Flying anytime soon? Find out how to find the cheapest airfare or get on the list for AirDig beta.