Thursday, March 22, 2007
Lorna, of Lornamatic, has posted some fantastic sketches she drew at the recent TED Conference she attended. I chose the one above because it’s of Michael Pollen who wrote one of my current favourite books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Why did Lorna draw the sketches?
It’s another very strange time now, while our society transitions to the role of technology in our lives and homes. Every moment is duly recorded and digitally collected in a fraction of a second, and I’m not sure what shape that leaves us in for making good decisions and actually experiencing the here and now. Sometimes (usually when I find myself mindlessly reaching for my blackberry) I start to worry that we’re all in danger of disconnecting from ourselves and our own thoughts. Putting down the technology for a few days was really refreshing and restorative.
I mention it here because I find the same thing—putting down the technology is refreshing and restorative. As much as I love what my tools let me do and know I also relish being away from them and living only through my body.
Whenever I’m at a tech conference I’m always amazed at how many people are working on their laptops, disconnected from the world around them. I wonder, why did they come?
This year I made all kinds of notes from my conference experience at Northern Voice (with Kate Trgovac, published on One Degree: Day 1, Day 2) and I found that just having my laptop open to make notes isolated me from the people around me. I tried to open it only to make a note and then to close it right away, but I’ll admit that I may have checked an email or two at the same time.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
I read a fantastic article today at the Guardian called The gentle art of selling yourself. For anyone concerned with marketing, online or off, with strategy and communications, it’s an article not to be missed.
That was the beginning of my self-invention, but it is not just me. We are all at it. We are all works of art, or, perhaps more accurately, works of architecture with those three essential elements of core, frame and envelope. For the moment, I am most concerned with the envelope. As Machiavelli knew, appearances are real.
...
In all of this self-invention, confidence plays a part. The great thing about confidence is that it is self-perpetuating. Get a little and you will soon have some more. It’s a cumulative process; as people respond positively, your confidence builds.
One of the things I’m enjoying thinking about right now is how personal identity is influenced by online relationships and avatars. It seems to me like in this new world of explicit identity creation our tools are back to baby steps in creating, understanding and communicating meaning. Email signatures, voicemail messages, profile photos, bios, blogs, ratings from five stars—all these hints contribute little pieces to our online identity. Yet each feels like such as a small cropped snapshop, out of context from the full picture.
So I guess my favourite part of The gentle art of selling yourself is the re-reminder of how rich a subject we all can be.
And what does this have to do with web marketing? Nothing and everything. You decide. It depends on what you get from the article.
To me it reinforces the long way we have to go in making the online experience richer. And, at the same time, it makes me think that we judge websites just like we judge people—from first impressions, making value judgements that are very hard to later overcome—and that, just like clothes, websites communicate the values of the people who build and run them.
Thanks to Malingering for the photo.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Today I came across the Buxfer website and liked the product. The name could definitely use some work, since it doesn’t pass the simple tell test (Say the name and someone hearing you shouldn’t have to ask you to spell it.), but I liked the clean graphics.
Most of all, I liked the idea of making your money visible, and had the following thoughts:
- Buxfer looks to me like a personal cashflow manager. The team behind the product don’t call it anything, so I’m calling it a personal cashflow manager, which is a brilliant idea. I want one!
- I wonder what the pay-to-play-more version will look like? What kind of pricing will it feature? (About $15 / month seems about right to me, though you could also have tiers at $9, $20 and $40 for graduated features.)
- What they should do is make this a small business cashflow manager. I know from experience that it’s hard to manage the cashflow of a small business. There’s a huge market opportunity available for someone who does it right. I’ll pay for it! Cashflow management at the moment is a DIY Excel proposition that works but is far from elegant.
- Why can’t my bank do this for me? They already have me logging into their website to manage my accounts. They already have all the incoming and outgoing account management functions. Why don’t they offer an added software service to manage my account in a more relevant and valuable way? In fact, that would open a huge host of services they could offer. And I’m not talking about unlimited ATM withdrawals.
- I’m going to try to change something with this idea.
What do you think? Any love for Buxfer or suggestions for cashflow management tools?
Update: I ought to mention that there are some options available apart form simple DIY Excel spreadsheets cooked from scratch or from templates. Freshbooks is hinting at providing additional (un)accounting functionality to go with their leading invoice management software. But until they do, the industry standard is Quickbooks from Intuit, although their online edition is only available for Windows users on Internet Exploder (boo!).
James has a great post on reading webstats that you can view in full on the Work Industries website. Here is a brief overview of the most important points.
Reading Webstats
Webstats Software
Most web hosting packages offer a webstats package. Common webstat packages are AW Stats and Webalizer. These are free packages and give an okay overview of your website’s performance, but there are better packages available that give more accurate and detailed information.
I use Google Analytics. It’s free and you can sign up at:
http://www.google.com/analytics/
Webstat packages aside, there are basic measurements you want to understand.
Top 5 Most Meaningful Webstats:
1. Unique Visitors: This is the single best measurement of how many people are coming to your website. A unique visitor is a real visitor to your website (versus a visit by a search engine robot). If you use your work computer, for example, to access the Work Industries website and visit 5 pages on the website, then my web server records that someone using your computer (your IP address) has visited my website.
In the webstats, this would be reported as 1 unique visitor, who made 5 page views. If you visit the site tomorrow using the same computer (same IP address) and view 10 pages, then the webstats show that you are still 1 unique visitor, but you made 2 visitor sessions, and had 15 page views (5 in the first session and 10 in the second).
Unique visitors are NOT the same as hits.
Hits are the number of files requested and served from your server. If you visit a simple webpage with 3 images, this may be reported in the webstats as 1 unique visitor, who made 1 visit, had 1 page view, and 3 hits. If the webpage had 5 images, this might be 5 hits—but it’s still only 1 unique visitor. An increase in hits is not an indicator of an increase in visitors.
2. Visits (or visitor sessions): Visits displays the total number of times people or spiders have come to your site.
3. Page Views: Pages Views are the total number of pages requested and served by your web server.
4. Referrals: The referral log shows where visitors originated from, i.e., what website they were on before they came to your website. A referral could be from a search engine, another website, or a direct visitor (they typed the web address directly into their web browser). You want to be aware of what sources drive traffic to your site. Referrals tell part of the story about how people are finding your site and what websites are linking to you.
5. Search Keywords: These are keyword phrases and terms people use to search for your website. It’s important to know this information and to use those keywords on your website. Web users don’t read, they scan the text for keywords that will tell them they’ve found the right page. Only then will they read.
James’ article is a more complete look at the common stats that are reported and the types of statistical trends to watch. I recommend reading the full article available here.
Ning: Ning.com is a service that let’s people easily create their own online social network. Get the full definition here.
Are you a non-techie in need of support? Email me and I will answer your questions in upcoming newsletters.
James has a great post on reading webstats that you can view in full on the Work Industries website. Here is a brief overview of the most important points.
Reading Webstats
Webstats Software
Most web hosting packages offer a webstats package. Common webstat packages are AW Stats and Webalizer. These are free packages and give an okay overview of your website’s performance, but there are better packages available that give more accurate and detailed information.
I use Google Analytics. It’s free and you can sign up at:
http://www.google.com/analytics/
Webstat packages aside, there are basic measurements you want to understand.
Top 5 Most Meaningful Webstats:
1. Unique Visitors: This is the single best measurement of how many people are coming to your website. A unique visitor is a real visitor to your website (versus a visit by a search engine robot). If you use your work computer, for example, to access the Work Industries website and visit 5 pages on the website, then my web server records that someone using your computer (your IP address) has visited my website.
In the webstats, this would be reported as 1 unique visitor, who made 5 page views. If you visit the site tomorrow using the same computer (same IP address) and view 10 pages, then the webstats show that you are still 1 unique visitor, but you made 2 visitor sessions, and had 15 page views (5 in the first session and 10 in the second).
Unique visitors are NOT the same as hits.
Hits are the number of files requested and served from your server. If you visit a simple webpage with 3 images, this may be reported in the webstats as 1 unique visitor, who made 1 visit, had 1 page view, and 3 hits. If the webpage had 5 images, this might be 5 hits—but it’s still only 1 unique visitor. An increase in hits is not an indicator of an increase in visitors.
2. Visits (or visitor sessions): Visits displays the total number of times people or spiders have come to your site.
3. Page Views: Pages Views are the total number of pages requested and served by your web server.
4. Referrals: The referral log shows where visitors originated from, i.e., what website they were on before they came to your website. A referral could be from a search engine, another website, or a direct visitor (they typed the web address directly into their web browser). You want to be aware of what sources drive traffic to your site. Referrals tell part of the story about how people are finding your site and what websites are linking to you.
5. Search Keywords: These are keyword phrases and terms people use to search for your website. It’s important to know this information and to use those keywords on your website. Web users don’t read, they scan the text for keywords that will tell them they’ve found the right page. Only then will they read.
James’ article is a more complete look at the common stats that are reported and the types of statistical trends to watch.
I recommend reading the full article available here.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Ning is a service that let’s people easily create their own online social network.
Ning.com relaunched their services in Feb 2007. The service allows creators to customize the appearance and features of their website. The user interface is easy to understand.
Creators
1. decide on a web address, i.e., mysite.ning.com
2. drag-and-drop elements—such as text boxes, photos, blogs, video—into a template
3. launch their website and invite people to join
I created workindustries.ning.com in a couple of minutes and I can change the appearance at any time.
Also of note, Ning’s chief technology officer is Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape.
For more:
Read the CBC.ca article on Ning (Feb 28, 2007)
Check out Ning.com
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