Most relevant news, techniques and tools for authors looking to promote their books inexpensively off and online. We refer to and utilize many of the Guerrilla Marketing techniques and have created some of our own geared specifically to book promotion and marketing. Our website is the ground where we put into practice our marketing efforts. Membership is FREE.
Blogging is Publishing I wish I could say that "blogging is publishing" was something that I came up with on my own, but that is not the case. However, I have been pondering on this phrase for a while and decided to write an entry on my thoughts.
Four Marketing Tips for Self-Publishers You may have already noticed that self-publishing is very time consuming. Most of your time is spent on marketing and publicity and very little time on writing.
Will E-Publishing Become the New Leader? Let the truth be told I am not a big supporter of e-books even though I wrote an entry earlier with regards to the advantages of them. Though I am not a fan, e-books are good for one thing, and that is establishing yourself as an expert.
Its Name is Zookoda Zookoda is the new leader in professional email marketing for bloggers. It gives you better control on the look and feel of how your feed is sent to your subscribers. The program is similar to what you see in newsletter...
BANS vs phpBay - International Traffic I’ve used both BANS and phpBay for my niche affiliate websites for a quite a while and I’ve experienced ups and downs of both scripts. Both scripts are excellent money makers, no doubt on that. I know that because both made money for me. Because BANS and phpBay basically work similar to each other, [...]
I’ve used both BANS and phpBay for my niche affiliate websites for a quite a while and I’ve experienced ups and downs of both scripts. Both scripts are excellent money makers, no doubt on that. I know that because both made money for me.
Because BANS and phpBay basically work similar to each other, I want to spend some time over the next few weeks to compare the two eBay affiliate scripts. In this post, I want to compare how both scripts deal with international traffic to your site.
Both BANS and phpBay were designed to work with international eBay sites. But the main difference is that BANS doesn’t have the capability to provide the international auction listings by Geo-targeting automatically. What I mean by this is that if you want to display Canadian auctions listings for Canadian visitors, you will have to build a separate BANS website just for that traffic.
With phpBay, you can build one affiliate website and make it display the international auction listings to the particular international traffic. In other words, if someone from United Kingdom visits your phpBay website, it automatically matches the Geo-IP and displays the auctions listings from eBay.co.uk instead of eBay.com.
This is a true advantage of phpBay over BANS. This translates more revenue from your eBay affiliate website. But in order to use this feature, you have to go through some steps describe on Brewsterware’s “Optimising your ebay affiliate profits” post.
Now, it took me a while to make it work right because the instruction was somewhat vague. The download file provided on that post didn’t work for me. Instead, when I used the default geo.php that came with phpBay, it worked. So use the downloaded file for country.php but use geo.php that comes with phpBay. Also, they should be placed inside “includes” folder. I don’t think that was mentioned in the post. If you have problems getting it to work, just let me know. I will help you setup correctly.
5 Manga Movies We Want to See Written by Jeff Lester 5 Manga Movies We Want to See After Akira Blows Everyone’s Mind Just a temporal hop, skip and a jump away is 2009’s live-action big screen version of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, but if the American adaptation of the manga/anime phenomenon that launched a thousand otaku is a smash success, what treasured classics [...]
5 Manga Movies We Want to See After Akira Blows Everyone’s Mind
Just a temporal hop, skip and a jump away is 2009’s live-action big screen version of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, but if the American adaptation of the manga/anime phenomenon that launched a thousand otaku is a smash success, what treasured classics of Japanese culture will Hollywood choose to to adapt next? Below the jump, we put on our robe and cultural raider hat and pick five golden temples of science-fiction manga and anime for studios to pillage and plunder.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Well, yeah. Big ass robots are pretty much a given, what with the success of Transformers. And while the mecha of SDMF don’t transform into cool cars or panty vending machines, they have a secret weapon in the battle for big money franchises: this epic tale of war between humanity and an alien race was adapted as the first segment of the Robotech cartoon. That series, which ran in the U.S. in 1985, gave many Americans their first crucial taste of anime action filtered through a sweeping storyline. As if that wasn’t enough, Super Dimension Fortress Macross features a love triangle between two military officers and a pop idol, enough twists and turns to put Battlestar Galactica to shame, and characters with big, big hair. Like, “hey, I could skydive onto that,” big. Once he’s through having his way with Watchmen, we want to see Zack Snyder take Super Dimension Fortress Macross and make it the big screen franchise of cheesy awesomeness most of us have been waiting for without even knowing it.
Parasyte: Hitoshi Iwaaki’s manga is the strangely satisfying marriage of Spider-Man and Invasion of the Body Snatchers: a failed attempt by an alien invader to take over the brain of Shinichi Izumi has left it in control of his right hand, and teen and alien must form an uneasy alliance to avoid being found out by Shinichi’s culture or killed by the aliens that have infiltrated it. Blending paranoia, frenzied fight scenes, and meditations on what it means to be human, Parasyte takes the most painful subtext of puberty-that your body has become something strange and not quite in your control, and now you’re an outsider as a result-and serves it up as delicious, delicious crazy. (No wonder Del Rey’s current adaptation is the second time the series has been brought to the USA.) Rumors abound that Jim Henson’s studio and producer Don Murphy are already working to bring it to the big screen, but screw that noise: let Peter Jackson get his hands on the material, and make it as a bloody bookend to his adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lonely Bones (and a loose companion piece to his classic Braindead (or Dead-Alive, as it’s known over here)).
FLCL: An Original Video Animation (OVA) from 2000, FLCL has a lot in common with Akira: you’ve got people hollering and jumping off motorized two wheelers while strange growths shoot out of the foreheads of pained adolescents. But whereas Akira takes creator Katsuhiro Otomo’s memories of growing up during the turbulent period of 1960s Japan and transmutes it into a serious sci-fi epic, FLCL stems from the shock contemporary culture can bring to a lonely kid growing up in a small town, whipping the story into a wild-eyed froth of rampaging robots, crazy vespa-riding women, and bass guitar centered fight scenes. Benjamin Button, Shmenjamin Shmutton: we want to see David Fincher in full-on Fight Club mode try to match the brio of this series’ animated anarchy.
20th Century Boys: The toast of scanlators worldwide and a huge hit in its native Japan, 20th Century Boys is the most ambitious work Naoki Urasawa has undertaken, spanning more than forty years, dozens of characters, and twenty-two collected volumes. (His previous work, Monster, was no slouch either-a crime thriller set in Eastern Germany that reads like a cross between The Fugitive and Silence of the Lambs, Monster ran for six years and was collected in eighteen volumes.) While 20th Century Boys takes its name from a T. Rex song, its hook seems like a Stephen King novel on steroids: a group of old friends in the ’90s try to figure out the link between a destructive cult leader and their forgotten childhood fantasies. Meanwhen, in 2014, a young woman tries to figure out what happened to them. While Lar von Trier has the chops to keep so many characters and so many stories moving along, he lacks the warmth and affection Urasawa brings to his characters. Let Best of Youth’s Marco Tullio Giordana give it a shot-his five hour epic from 2003 covers a similarly vast swath of time.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Finally, if Hollywood is crazy enough to tackle such a groundbreaking classic as Akira, why not let it try other works of manga that’ve had an indisputable impact on the medium? Hayao Miyazaki may rule the world of Japanese animation now, but his anime adaptation of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, his own manga, was only able to cover approximately the first quarter of his tale. As long as Hollywood wants to bite off more than it can chew (for the profit to be garnered by pre-chewing material for the masses), why not have it mount a Lord of the Rings style cycle, covering the entire tale of a princess’s adventures a thousand years after our modern-day civilization has destroyed itself. Epic battles, environmentalism, more opportunities for CGI than you can shake a fistful of sticks at-they’ll eat up Nausicaä in the cineplexes, particularly if you get Alfonso Cuarón on board. Having directed such diverse work as Chldren of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Y Tu Mama Tambien, Cuarón’s got the right amount of razzle-dazzle, hippie-dude humanism, and child-eyed wonder. To the extent such a thing can (or should be) attempted, Cuarón is the one to do it.
Google Keyword Tools Now with Real Search Volumes Thanks to Google, you can now view the real search volumes for your keywords with Google’s Keyword Tool. This is a great news for both webmasters and affiliate marketers like us. I’m so excited with this improvement. As you can see from the screen shot, you can view the real search volumes for June [...]
Thanks to Google, you can now view the real search volumes for your keywords with Google’s Keyword Tool. This is a great news for both webmasters and affiliate marketers like us. I’m so excited with this improvement.
As you can see from the screen shot, you can view the real search volumes for June and average search volume for the last 12 month period. Don’t miss the “Highest Volume Occured In” column at the end. With these stats, you can adjust your seasonal ad campaigns easily.
I just wanted to give you a quick update first before I go play with it more. Have fun!
When Choosing a Niche for Your BANS Site… A number of Build a Niche Store forum members suggest that one should target niches that can’t be found anywhere but at auction. But I disagree with this. The majority of my BANS (Build a Niche Store) sites sell things that can be purchased in any retail stores, but I also have vintage auctions that sell only [...]
A number of Build a Niche Store forum members suggest that one should target niches that can’t be found anywhere but at auction.
But I disagree with this.
The majority of my BANS (Build a Niche Store) sites sell things that can be purchased in any retail stores, but I also have vintage auctions that sell only the things that can be bought through auctions.
What I learned from my EPN transaction stats is that people who buy stuff from auction sites already are likely to have an eBay account already. I have more ACRUs generated from a kitchenware BANS site than anything else. That kitchenware I’m talking about averages $20 and it can be purchased at any local stores like Walmart and Target.
The advice given by the BANS members is good, but ignoring the other half of the market isn’t a good idea. I suggest that you build BANS sites for both, because both work well.
Just a quick thought.
People Are Getting Banned from EPN, but Why? EPN (eBay Partner Network) has been actively sending out account termination letters to the publishers. The termination looks something like this… “After reviewing your account transactions, we determined that your account has been generating non-bona fide transactions related to new registered users. This violates our Code of Conduct and breaches the agreement between us. Your [...]
EPN (eBay Partner Network) has been actively sending out account termination letters to the publishers. The termination looks something like this…
“After reviewing your account transactions, we determined that your account has been generating non-bona fide transactions related to new registered users. This violates our Code of Conduct and breaches the agreement between us. Your account will be terminated immediately and no pending commissions will be paid to you. You are not permitted to rejoin the eBay Partner Network.
Almost all of the publishers who was banned claim that they’ve done nothing wrong, but I found a pattern from their explanation. People who got banned from EPN usually purchased traffic from unknown sources. I don’t know if this triggered a flag, but I think this is why their account was banned; Not from purchasing the traffic, but from the quality of traffic generate from these traffic brokers.
Like I said, I don’t know the definite answer, but it seems like purchasing traffic to your EPN affiliate website is a big risk. Don’t do it. If you really want to do it, you should filter purchased traffic with a landing page. I think that should be safe.
Please share your thoughts. Why these people are getting banned from EPN without an apparent reason? I hope EPN gives out a warning first before closing an account.
New PageRanks Coming Matt Cutts said on his blog that we should see a new Google Toolbar PageRank update over the next few days. He also mentioned that Google will be lifting some old penalties on websites. I’m not quite sure which one he’s referring to, but I think we will see some happy faces soon. To [...]
Matt Cutts said on his blog that we should see a new Google Toolbar PageRank update over the next few days. He also mentioned that Google will be lifting some old penalties on websites. I’m not quite sure which one he’s referring to, but I think we will see some happy faces soon.
To check your PageRank, you can use one of the online PageRank tools, but there’s a PageRank checker that I want to recommend to you. It’s called PaRaMeter. It is a free desktop software that tracks PageRanks on your websites. Instead of typing out a URL at a time, you can store all your domain information and have PaRaMeter update PageRank. It’s a neat software.
PhpBay 3.0.7 Available for Download Another phpBay update. PhpBay 3.0.7 is released today and it’s available for download in your member’s area. It is a maintenance release so unless you need to use the new features, you don’t need to upgrade. phpBay 3.0.7 release includes: 1) Fix on items displayed by country. 2) Added “free shipping” as a parameter. 3) Fixes a [...]
Another phpBay update. PhpBay 3.0.7 is released today and it’s available for download in your member’s area. It is a maintenance release so unless you need to use the new features, you don’t need to upgrade.
phpBay 3.0.7 release includes:
1) Fix on items displayed by country. 2) Added “free shipping” as a parameter. 3) Fixes a minor issue with the sidebar widget where the closing tag was not working correctly.
To update, upload all files and overwrite all existing files. Auction.php is not affected by this update.
Personalize Your Blog with .ME Domain Name As of today, .ME domains are open for public registrations. .ME has been the talk of the town because of its potential for internet users. .ME domains are just perfect for blogs. Just think about it, with a .ME domain you can register YOURNAME.ME. .ME domains are not just limited to personal websites. It can be used as a catchy [...]
As of today, .ME domains are open for public registrations. .ME has been the talk of the town because of its potential for internet users. .ME domains are just perfect for blogs. Just think about it, with a .ME domain you can register YOURNAME.ME.
.ME domains are not just limited to personal websites. It can be used as a catchy marketing tool. For example, verb-oriented domain names such as Contact.me, Drive.me, Date.me, Help.me, Love.me make perfect sense to visitors.
Well, you can purchase those premium domains only through the auction that’s coming up, but you can still get good .ME domain names if you hurry up.
It is little bit expensive and requires 2 years of contract, but it will be well worth your investment. I was going to register “Prayfor.me” but as I thought.. it’s gone. But I’ve found a couple of really nice domain names already. So register a .ME domain name now!
Mistakes - Site Updating I’ve been blogging about niche marketing since 2005. After a few years, I’ve expanded my blog with several other blogs in subdomains because there was too much information to share in too many different categories. Since the move, I’ve lost my focus and got sidetracked. It was a big mistake. Before it gets worse, I’m merging [...]
I’ve been blogging about niche marketing since 2005. After a few years, I’ve expanded my blog with several other blogs in subdomains because there was too much information to share in too many different categories. Since the move, I’ve lost my focus and got sidetracked. It was a big mistake.
Before it gets worse, I’m merging all my marketing-related blogs into a single blog. Everything’s imported to MarketingSyndrome.com, but all posts need to be reorganized into right categories. It might take me a few weeks to finish it. Everything’s in mess right now, so please use the search tool to find information on this blog.
I’m even bringing back the old design I’ve used last year to refresh my memory. :)
WordPress 2.6 Released WordPress 2.6 was released today. I thought it was going to be released in August, but the developers really pushed it. WordPress 2.6 comes with a number of new features such as post revision tracking, live theme preview, Shift Gears, and Press This! Watch the WordPress 2.6 release video to learn more about it.
WordPress 2.6 was released today. I thought it was going to be released in August, but the developers really pushed it. WordPress 2.6 comes with a number of new features such as post revision tracking, live theme preview, Shift Gears, and Press This!
Watch the WordPress 2.6 release video to learn more about it.
phpBay 3.0.6 Released Along with WordPress 2.6 release today phpBay also released its 3.0.6 version. It is a minor update and if you do not use the sidebar widget, you don’t need this update installed. This update comes with a sidebar widget that displays auction listings of your choice. This feature was requested many times [...]
It is a minor update and if you do not use the sidebar widget, you don’t need this update installed. This update comes with a sidebar widget that displays auction listings of your choice. This feature was requested many times by the users over at the forum. I’m glad Wade really listens to his customers.
If you've been wondering how to figure out what content works and what you could write about to attract visitors to your site, try digging into your analytics program.
Every website should have at least a basic analytics package from your host, but if you really want to get in-depth competitive intelligence from your log files, try something like HitWise.
I chatted with Heather Dougherty, Director of Research for the US for HitWise last week about her upcoming panel at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose in August.
You can hear the interview here. (Be patient while it downloads)
She made some great points about using analytics to track your online reputation, find out how people talk about your company and your products, what language they use when they search and where they go before and after they visit your site.
SES San Jose is just around the corner now. I'll be there from August 18 - 20. I love meeting my readers at conferences, so stop by my session on storyteller marketing on Monday the 18th after lunch.
The 5 Most Underrated Simpsons Characters Written by Yankee Pot Roast Recently, we noticed that our old friends from Yankee Pot Roast had written a book called Underrated: The Yankee Pot Roast Book of Awesome Underappreciated Stuff. At first we assumed that they’d misspelled overrated, and that their book making fun of lame stuff had an insanely ironic title. But as we [...]
Recently, we noticed that our old friends from Yankee Pot Roast had written a book called Underrated: The Yankee Pot Roast Book of Awesome Underappreciated Stuff. At first we assumed that they’d misspelled overrated, and that their book making fun of lame stuff had an insanely ironic title. But as we got deeper into the book (or rather as our interns read more of it to us while we lifted weights), it became increasingly clear that they had gone and done something totally and utterly insane. They were writing about things they … liked. In a daring move that will probably break the internet (which is overrated anyways) we decided to let them try it on our website. Behold, for maybe the first time on the internet: nice things being said about stuff.
If you’re thinking Comic Book Guy or Moe are underrated, you’re obviously not a Simpsons fan. Wacky supporting characters of that sort are cult-classics, universally recognized and beloved. They’re rated exactly where they should be. We’re running down some of the truly underrated Springfieldians: those who remain underused and are still rife with potential for unexpected hilarity.
#5.
Gil Gunderson
Aw, c’mon, do it for ol’ Gil! Essentially a parody of Jack Lemmon’s desperate, beleaguered real-estate agent from Glengarry Glen Ross, poor old Gil is the ultimate sad sack: A salesman whose only asset is his expired charm. The poor guy’s an inch away from losing his job, wife, house (that is, his shitty job, cheating wife, and whatever roof he currently calls home). All he needs is one more sale–just one sale, please, pretty please?–but he is completely unable to seal the deal. He practically sweats desperation.
Gil is great because he makes you feel good about yourself. No matter how miserable your life, at least you’re not that guy. Like many of The Simpsons‘ finest characters, Gil fills a niche you didn’t even know was empty till he appeared. He’s like a grownup version of the Squeaky-Voiced Teen in that he pops up any and everywhere, never holding the same crappy job twice. He sells shoes, used cars, doorbells, even Coleco computers (”Now, let’s talk rust-proofing. These Colecos’ll rust up on ya’ like that, er … shut up, Gil. Close the deal … close the deal!”).
Gil is best when used sparingly; the perfect one-joke cameo. Pop up, make us laugh, disappear. Of course they gave him a starring episode–even Crazy Old Cat Lady is due her leading role–where he moved in with the Simpsons (and who hasn’t yet stayed at that house?), but we like Gil best when he’s tried to sell us something obsolete, failed, and limped away, dejected but eternally optimistic he’ll nab the next one.
#4.
Arnie Pye
If you’re saying “Who??,” Arnie Pye in the Sky is Springfield’s traffic-copter newsman with the perfect closed-nose news voice. (”Look out at the corner of 12th and Main because I’m going to be sick!”) Arnie is hilarious as a second-rate reporter with an inferiority complex and a chip on his shoulder; he’s jealous of Kent Brockman and so desperately wants his job. (In fact, Arnie once got to take over the anchor’s desk, whereupon he instantly dropped the nasally newscaster voice and adopted the smooth tones of trustworthiness.)
Arnie Pye’s best moment (fleeting as it was) was an early sign of the budding rivalry. Flying above Homer’s disaster with a van full of kids, Kent asks him “How are the children, Arnie?” to which he snaps “I can’t see through METAL, Kent!”–yes, it loses something on paper, but old Arnie Pye spits it out with such venom, such acidic hatred, you get years of professional and personal contention in those seven syllables. Kudos to Dan Castellaneta’s greatest vocal performance. We want more Arnie Pye in the Sky and we want him now.
#3.
Lou the Policeman
Springfield can be a dangerous place to live. Between the two-bit criminals (Snake), organized crime (Fat Tony) and the random shysters that swing through (monorail guy?), there’s a veritable Rogue’s Gallery of Villains inhabiting the town at any given time. And that doesn’t even include some of the normal citizens who seem to regularly commit felonies, like Homer, Moe and Mr. Burns.
Keeping the order and protecting the town is a woefully understaffed and ineffective Springfield Police Department. They’re essentially a three man show: Chief Clancy Wiggum, the rotund blunderbuss with extremely poor marksmanship and a talent for making clever, on-the-spot puns; Eddie, the white patrolman who barely utters a word, presumably there to make the Springfield Police Department look slightly more robust from a personnel standpoint and an underdeveloped recurring character if there ever was one.
And then there’s Lou: rock steady, the man that keeps the whole thing going. He’s fully aware of Wiggum’s incompetence and is constantly angling for his job, going so far as to write letters to the editor of the Springfield Shopper (under the pen name “Worried in West Springfield”) calling for the chief’s resignation. Lou has no reservations about making fun of the chief to his face either, insulting his poor deductive skills and making fun of his ill-fitting pants.
#2.
Luigi Risotto
He’s the chef that looks like he jumped off the pizza box, constantly belittling his staff and conversationally berating his customers, doing it all with a misleading smile and sing-songy Italian accent. Being an asshole isn’t confined to his restaurant, either: when Marge entered a cooking contest with her “dessert dogs,” Luigi sabotaged her oven with “how do you say, malice of forethought.” He’s a complete jerk, but he comes off as lovable because he sounds happy and he’s kind of roly-poly.
He pops up in episodes here and there. During the Springfield Mayoral recall election, Luigi threw his hat in the ring, promising to “make you the good government, just how you like it.” Luigi’s character works because he’s used often enough that you know who he is, but sparingly enough that his “Italian chef as Italian stereotype” act and his being a total dick don’t get stale.
But in the end, there’s only one thing to know about Luigi: his English isn’t bad because Italian is his first language. He doesn’t even speak Italian. Luigi’s first language is “how do you say, fractured English. It’s what [his] parents spoke at home.”
#1.
Lisa Simpson
Bart and Homer are the crowd-pleasers, no arguing that: their misadventures dominate the show, and their faces hog the merchandise. But it’s Lisa, the second-grader reading at a 14th-grade level, who is the heart and soul of both the family and show.
We love Lisa because she yearns for something greater. She wants to better herself, her family, her town. Sure, she’s a nerd–who among Simpsons fans isn’t? And without this little overachieving genius and hopeless do-gooder saving the day (on a weekly freaking basis!), our favorite family would’ve been killed a dozen different ways, the town of Springfield would’ve been destroyed, the very earth itself lost.
Let’s hear it for Lisa! Nobody’s favorite character, but the most UNDERRATED SPRINGFIELDIAN OF THEM ALL.
For an obscenely long rant on the lovable lil’ Lisa’s underrated quotient, check out the Underrated blog here.
Blog Post Idea Farm... How many different kinds of blog posts are there? If you're wondering how you can spice up your postings, think about these: There are: The link and bait, the 'me-too' copy and paste post The 'stir-up-the-pot' post (also known as...
Marketing on a Budget: An open letter to entrepreneurs Recently I was contacted by a client who was frustrated that her marketing efforts were not producing results like she expected. In an attempt to address her concerns, I realized how many other professionals are in the same boat. What...
Beginner�s Guide To Free For All Sites (FFA's) For those of you who don't know what an FFA site is, it's basically a website where you can post a link/add to your website for free. Generally it is also posted to many other sites at the same time ... [Author: Valerie Garner - Site Promotion - April 28, 2008]
What Are Pay Per Click Reports? A pay per click report will inform you of how many visitors you have had to your website, what keyword they used to get there, and some monitor how long they were there. These reports can be daily, w... [Author: Derek Rogers - Site Promotion - April 28, 2008]
Your Checklist To Search Engine Optimisation Reports The most important online marketing strategies that can help you be successful with optimizing your business on the web include building a plan, blogging, an email list, press releases, and much more... [Author: Derek Rogers - Site Promotion - April 28, 2008]
How to write an effective copy Finding just the right words to describe your product or service isn\'t as easy as it looks, says Puneet Mehrotra. Published on 12th October ..
Viral Marketing Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others... Published in HindustanTimes.com 13th S ..
Link popularity and tools for link building Link popularity and link quality are important because all search engines consider them as a part of their ranking algorithms, says Puneet Mehrotra ..
Content is King on a Website Content can make or break a website. The power of the written word has been witnessed many a time. Products have become success stories, resumes trans ..
Split Run Testing If you are a webpreneur, split testing is a definite recommendation. Not only it increases sales but also lets go of unnecessary graphics and copy. A ..
Tips for a New Website It\'s not easy not easy to promote your website or get sales initially. Following the tips given in this column can at least give your Web site ..
If you've been wondering how to figure out what content works and what you could write about to attract visitors to your site, try digging into your analytics program.
Every website should have at least a basic analytics package from your host, but if you really want to get in-depth competitive intelligence from your log files, try something like HitWise.
I chatted with Heather Dougherty, Director of Research for the US for HitWise last week about her upcoming panel at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose in August.
You can hear the interview here. (Be patient while it downloads)
She made some great points about using analytics to track your online reputation, find out how people talk about your company and your products, what language they use when they search and where they go before and after they visit your site.
SES San Jose is just around the corner now. I'll be there from August 18 - 20. I love meeting my readers at conferences, so stop by my session on storyteller marketing on Monday the 18th after lunch.
The Next Big Thing Embedded software, Wireless Net, P2P, Real time movies, and Medicare are some of the often heard phrases used to describe the next big thing on the ..
Four Marketing Tips for Self-Publishers You may have already noticed that self-publishing is very time consuming. Most of your time is spent on marketing and publicity and very little time on writing.
How to Get Your Book Published: Quicktime Video Find out how Arielle Ford has helped launch the careers and create bestselling books for Deepak Chopra; Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul series; Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God; Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers; and Dean Ornish, Love and Survival and many, many other notable authors.
How to Launch Your Career as an Author, Get Your Book Published and Get Book Publicity: MP3 Audio Find out how Arielle Ford has helped launch the careers and create bestselling books for Deepak Chopra; Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul series; Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God; Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers; and Dean Ornish, Love and Survival and many, many other notable authors. Visit www.EverythingYouShouldKnow.com for more details
Blogging is Publishing I wish I could say that "blogging is publishing" was something that I came up with on my own, but that is not the case. However, I have been pondering on this phrase for a while and decided to write an entry on my thoughts.
How to write an effective copy Finding just the right words to describe your product or service isn\'t as easy as it looks, says Puneet Mehrotra. Published on 12th October ..
Arielle Ford, Publicist biography Arielle Ford has helped launch the careers and create bestselling books for Deepak Chopra; Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul series; Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God; Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers; and Dean Ornish, Love and Survival and many, many other notable authors.
How to Get Your Book Published: Quicktime Video Find out how Arielle Ford has helped launch the careers and create bestselling books for Deepak Chopra; Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul series; Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God; Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers; and Dean Ornish, Love and Survival and many, many other notable authors.
Tips for a New Website It\'s not easy not easy to promote your website or get sales initially. Following the tips given in this column can at least give your Web site ..
Split Run Testing If you are a webpreneur, split testing is a definite recommendation. Not only it increases sales but also lets go of unnecessary graphics and copy. A ..
Write a Book and Get Your Book Published: Subscribe to America's Most Successful Book Publicist's Newsletter Today Sign up for the free HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED and PUBLICIZED newsletter from Arielle Ford. In case you don't know Arielle by name, she's publicized hundreds of authors and books. 11 of which are #1 Bestsellers. Her clients include Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch, Dean Ornish, Jon Gordon, Debbie Ford, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Arielle has compiled a list of nearly every question a first-time or experienced author wants to know about publishing, publicity, building a platform and the book business. Every issue is jam-packed with answers to the questions that get your book published and you booked on radio, television, newspapers and magazines.
If you've been wondering how to figure out what content works and what you could write about to attract visitors to your site, try digging into your analytics program.
Every website should have at least a basic analytics package from your host, but if you really want to get in-depth competitive intelligence from your log files, try something like HitWise.
I chatted with Heather Dougherty, Director of Research for the US for HitWise last week about her upcoming panel at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose in August.
You can hear the interview here. (Be patient while it downloads)
She made some great points about using analytics to track your online reputation, find out how people talk about your company and your products, what language they use when they search and where they go before and after they visit your site.
SES San Jose is just around the corner now. I'll be there from August 18 - 20. I love meeting my readers at conferences, so stop by my session on storyteller marketing on Monday the 18th after lunch.
Link popularity and tools for link building Link popularity and link quality are important because all search engines consider them as a part of their ranking algorithms, says Puneet Mehrotra ..
The Next Big Thing Embedded software, Wireless Net, P2P, Real time movies, and Medicare are some of the often heard phrases used to describe the next big thing on the ..
Viral Marketing Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others... Published in HindustanTimes.com 13th S ..
How to Launch Your Career as an Author, Get Your Book Published and Get Book Publicity: MP3 Audio Find out how Arielle Ford has helped launch the careers and create bestselling books for Deepak Chopra; Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul series; Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God; Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers; and Dean Ornish, Love and Survival and many, many other notable authors. Visit www.EverythingYouShouldKnow.com for more details
Content is King on a Website Content can make or break a website. The power of the written word has been witnessed many a time. Products have become success stories, resumes trans ..
How to Get Your Book Published: Windows Media Video Find out how Arielle Ford has helped launch the careers and create bestselling books for Deepak Chopra; Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul series; Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God; Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers; and Dean Ornish, Love and Survival and many, many other notable authors.
All About GPRS Dickens once said, \"never close your lips to those to whom you have opened your heart.\" Perhaps we can now say, \"never close your ..
Four Marketing Tips for Self-Publishers You may have already noticed that self-publishing is very time consuming. Most of your time is spent on marketing and publicity and very little time on writing.
The Corporate Blogging Book Stop what you are doing and run out to your local Barnes and Noble bookstore. Why? Because you need to have in your hand at this very moment The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil.
Blogging is Publishing I wish I could say that "blogging is publishing" was something that I came up with on my own, but that is not the case. However, I have been pondering on this phrase for a while and decided to write an entry on my thoughts.
Its Name is Zookoda Zookoda is the new leader in professional email marketing for bloggers. It gives you better control on the look and feel of how your feed is sent to your subscribers. The program is similar to what you see in newsletter...
8 Opening Ceremony Moments That Made Me Crap My Pants Written by Sara Schaefer During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies, we witnessed the sheer power and brilliance of what it looks like when thousands of inpiduals come together for one purpose: to blow your f*cking mind. Throughout the event, I felt a mix of wonder, awe, surprise, joy, inadequacy, terror, and self-hatred - in [...]
During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies, we witnessed the sheer power and brilliance of what it looks like when thousands of inpiduals come together for one purpose: to blow your f*cking mind. Throughout the event, I felt a mix of wonder, awe, surprise, joy, inadequacy, terror, and self-hatred - in other words, I was either whispering through tears “It’s just so…beautiful!” or I was sh*tting my pants.
I’ll admit it, it’s a little frightening to see what a country as big as China can pull off when they put their minds to it. I wondered what was responsible for such perfection: a culture of teamwork and self-pride? Or an authoritative regime with significantly more control over their people than we realized? Either way, I had a hard time imagining the U.S. pulling off something with such human precision, and half the time I felt like a fat, lazy slob. In the end, however, there’s no doubt, I’m JAZZED ABOUT CHINA! Who needs human rights when you can have human LIGHTS?
Here are the most pants-crapping moments from the ceremony:
IF GOD HAD A DRUMLINE…
…this is what it might look like. As 2,008 drummers beat on drums that were thousands of years old (outfitted with some space-agey lights), Matt Lauer noted that the men were told to smile, because they realized this could be mistaken for a Persian-Army-esque battle cry.
MY FLAT SCREEN TV DOESN’T ROLL UP LIKE FABRIC
The ceremony featured several light displays, screens, and electronic surfaces that seemed to flow as smoothly as silk. The grandest of all these was a giant LED screen that unfurled like a scroll. Do you think Circuit City will be selling these any time soon?
PIN ART ON A MASSIVE SCALE
Remember those little Pin Art things we used to stick on our faces? Imagine it the size of a football field. While watching this, I couldn’t tell how on earth they were doing it - it didn’t look real. It was too fluid for machines, but I couldn’t comprehend how people could be doing this. Given what we’d already seen, I should never have underestimated them. At the end of this segment, thousands of men popped out from the boxes, waving happily.
MY CURVES CLASS COULD TOTALLY DO THIS
From above, the 2,008 men doing Tai Chi in unison looked like crop circles. Because let’s face it, only aliens could make circles this perfect.
LITTLE GREEN MEN
These guys lit up like Peter Gabriel’s light bulb suit from the Sledgehammer video. They moved around the floor like swirling beads of water, eventually forming a beautiful bird. Then, they came together and formed a replica of the Bird’s Nest stadium, all standing on each other, for at least 3 minutes, while a small girl flew above them with a kite. Seriously, how did they HOLD THAT FORMATION for that long??? Communism, that’s how.
THIS OAR ISN’T HEAVY AT ALL! SERIOUSLY, WE’RE FIIINE.
These oars were probably over 12 feet long each, but they waved them this way and that as if they were feathers.
WHAT NOW? I KNOW! LET’S BRING OUT A GIANT GLOBE!
I kept wondering what the HELL was going on underneath the stadium - to house all these thousands of people, and giant structures like the globe. And I thought backstage at my college’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was chaotic! Then, during the song, pictures of children from all over the earth appeared above and on umbrella-like things held up by another hoard of people on the floor. Was it super cheesy? Yes. Was I sobbing uncontrollably? Maybe.
TINY EARTHQUAKE HERO + GIANT BASKETBALL STAR = HEART BONER
NBA star and Chinese Olympian Yao Ming walked alongside a tiny boy, who had not only survived the earthquake, but had saved two of his classmates from his school, where most of the children died. It’s just. Too. Much.
Needless to say, it was a grand, beautiful, and inspiring event that I’m pretty sure made London say “Well, f*ck.”
More pictures:
The torch bearer shows us a new sport: fly-running! Also, note that this happened at the 4 and a half hour mark on my DVR.
Wouldn’t it be creepy if your saw yourself on one of those?
The Tai Chi men do a move called “Collapse From Exhaustion.”
Last time you checked, little Fei Yen was in the backyard flying her kite…
I was at a party like this once in Prague.
I feel like I am at the Electric parade in Disney World!
Pop goes the army of two thousand men!
How did they know when to stand up, and just how high to go??? It boggles the mind.
At this point we heard the first of about 1 million references by broadcasters to the metaphorical “great wall” coming down in China.
The torch burns bright, symbolizing China’s firey passion for perfection and pollution.
I'm the CEO/Founder of Guerrilla Marketers Cafe - Free Book Promotion Site, Where Authors and Readers Mingle. I'm passionate about helping others succeed.
Just a temporal hop, skip and a jump away is 2009’s live-action big screen version of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, but if the American adaptation of the manga/anime phenomenon that launched a thousand otaku is a smash success, what treasured classics of Japanese culture will Hollywood choose to to adapt next? Below the jump, we put on our robe and cultural raider hat and pick five golden temples of science-fiction manga and anime for studios to pillage and plunder.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Well, yeah. Big ass robots are pretty much a given, what with the success of Transformers. And while the mecha of SDMF don’t transform into cool cars or panty vending machines, they have a secret weapon in the battle for big money franchises: this epic tale of war between humanity and an alien race was adapted as the first segment of the Robotech cartoon. That series, which ran in the U.S. in 1985, gave many Americans their first crucial taste of anime action filtered through a sweeping storyline. As if that wasn’t enough, Super Dimension Fortress Macross features a love triangle between two military officers and a pop idol, enough twists and turns to put Battlestar Galactica to shame, and characters with big, big hair. Like, “hey, I could skydive onto that,” big. Once he’s through having his way with Watchmen, we want to see Zack Snyder take Super Dimension Fortress Macross and make it the big screen franchise of cheesy awesomeness most of us have been waiting for without even knowing it.
Parasyte: Hitoshi Iwaaki’s manga is the strangely satisfying marriage of Spider-Man and Invasion of the Body Snatchers: a failed attempt by an alien invader to take over the brain of Shinichi Izumi has left it in control of his right hand, and teen and alien must form an uneasy alliance to avoid being found out by Shinichi’s culture or killed by the aliens that have infiltrated it. Blending paranoia, frenzied fight scenes, and meditations on what it means to be human, Parasyte takes the most painful subtext of puberty-that your body has become something strange and not quite in your control, and now you’re an outsider as a result-and serves it up as delicious, delicious crazy. (No wonder Del Rey’s current adaptation is the second time the series has been brought to the USA.) Rumors abound that Jim Henson’s studio and producer Don Murphy are already working to bring it to the big screen, but screw that noise: let Peter Jackson get his hands on the material, and make it as a bloody bookend to his adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lonely Bones (and a loose companion piece to his classic Braindead (or Dead-Alive, as it’s known over here)).
FLCL: An Original Video Animation (OVA) from 2000, FLCL has a lot in common with Akira: you’ve got people hollering and jumping off motorized two wheelers while strange growths shoot out of the foreheads of pained adolescents. But whereas Akira takes creator Katsuhiro Otomo’s memories of growing up during the turbulent period of 1960s Japan and transmutes it into a serious sci-fi epic, FLCL stems from the shock contemporary culture can bring to a lonely kid growing up in a small town, whipping the story into a wild-eyed froth of rampaging robots, crazy vespa-riding women, and bass guitar centered fight scenes. Benjamin Button, Shmenjamin Shmutton: we want to see David Fincher in full-on Fight Club mode try to match the brio of this series’ animated anarchy.
20th Century Boys: The toast of scanlators worldwide and a huge hit in its native Japan, 20th Century Boys is the most ambitious work Naoki Urasawa has undertaken, spanning more than forty years, dozens of characters, and twenty-two collected volumes. (His previous work, Monster, was no slouch either-a crime thriller set in Eastern Germany that reads like a cross between The Fugitive and Silence of the Lambs, Monster ran for six years and was collected in eighteen volumes.) While 20th Century Boys takes its name from a T. Rex song, its hook seems like a Stephen King novel on steroids: a group of old friends in the ’90s try to figure out the link between a destructive cult leader and their forgotten childhood fantasies. Meanwhen, in 2014, a young woman tries to figure out what happened to them. While Lar von Trier has the chops to keep so many characters and so many stories moving along, he lacks the warmth and affection Urasawa brings to his characters. Let Best of Youth’s Marco Tullio Giordana give it a shot-his five hour epic from 2003 covers a similarly vast swath of time.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Finally, if Hollywood is crazy enough to tackle such a groundbreaking classic as Akira, why not let it try other works of manga that’ve had an indisputable impact on the medium? Hayao Miyazaki may rule the world of Japanese animation now, but his anime adaptation of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, his own manga, was only able to cover approximately the first quarter of his tale. As long as Hollywood wants to bite off more than it can chew (for the profit to be garnered by pre-chewing material for the masses), why not have it mount a Lord of the Rings style cycle, covering the entire tale of a princess’s adventures a thousand years after our modern-day civilization has destroyed itself. Epic battles, environmentalism, more opportunities for CGI than you can shake a fistful of sticks at-they’ll eat up Nausicaä in the cineplexes, particularly if you get Alfonso Cuarón on board. Having directed such diverse work as Chldren of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Y Tu Mama Tambien, Cuarón’s got the right amount of razzle-dazzle, hippie-dude humanism, and child-eyed wonder. To the extent such a thing can (or should be) attempted, Cuarón is the one to do it.
