I went on an incredible camping / ATV trip with two of my brothers this weekend. For the past few years we have made a point to get together for a man trip at least once a year (something I highly recommend if you have siblings). This was our 3rd such trip and by far the best. I am working on a video of the whole experience, but I had to share this little nugget tonight. Yet another reason I love my camera on a stick.
Brothers Don’t Shake Hands from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.
I am going on a camping trip with two of my brothers this weekend. We have been organizing the trip through email and this morning I had an ephinany…my family is just as deranged as I am. From our emails:
Ted
I can’t seem to find any long underwear down here. Will you guys pick me up a few pairs?
Craig
Found some at Walmart. Would you rather have 34 or 38 waist? Top is 34-36, 38-40 or 42-44. Let me know and I’ll pick them up.
Ted
34-36 would be awesome. If they come in crotchless or t-back that would be a bonus.
Craig
I already bit a hole in them so now they’re crotchless.
Matt,
First I want to point out that we have a strict no-follow policy for all links we provide through SocialSpark.
http://socialspark.com/code_of_ethics
If there were any no-follow violations on the Kmart campaign I can assure you they were unintentional. These six posts were done manually outside of SocialSpark but adhered to the same code of ethics. The only reason any of those posts may have had PR passing links is the blogger added them on their own accord without any instruction whatsoever. The only link provided to the bloggers was a DART link that does not pass PR. This clearly was not about SEO, if it was we would have told the bloggers where to link to and what anchor tag to use.
In retrospect we should have forced every single link to be no-follow, regardless of destination and we will do that in the future. We will do this not because I believe in the concept of no-follow, we will do this because bloggers fear Google.
I still believe the concept of no-follow is absolutely ridiculous. There is NO WAY Google can possibly determine paid links from unpaid links, even if you could where does it stop? I work for IZEA, they pay my salary. I link back to them solely because they are my employer. Should that be no-followed? What about parent companies linking to subsidiaries and brands? Vendors linking to clients? Bloggers who get “review units”, free trips, tickets, etc.
If you are going to try to enforce rules tied to “paid links” you need to look at the very fabric of all inks and the commercial relationship between sites….and guess what? You can’t.
Not only is no-follow a lost cause, it is also enforced sporadically and unevenly. When I mentioned TechCrunch using PR passing links to you (on several occasions) you reached out them personally, you didn’t penalize them. In your recent post you point out an article on RWW, a PR 8 site. Guess what? RWW passes PR on sponsored posts!!
What’s the solution? Should Google go slap RWW? NO. It’s a great site that simply linked off to some content that they felt was relevant, which is EXACTLY what the Kmart bloggers you called out in your post were doing. If you are going to slap the bloggers that participated with Kmart I expect to see the same applied to RRW- Publicly.
Don’t do it. It’s wrong. None of these sites should be penalized. These are all good bloggers trying to follow Googles rules.
Here’s an idea. Instead of trying to enforce rules on bloggers and other publishers why don’t you fix your algorithm? Don’t blame the publishers. Don’t make publishers do things differently because your search engine needs help. Buck up and take responsibility, it is the ONLY way Google can win.
While IZEA has agreed to use no-follow it will never be used by the masses and you shouldn’t expect it to be.
This morning Forrester Research released a new brief about “Sponsored Conversations” written by analyst Sean Corcoran with support from Josh Bernoff, Jeremiah K. Owyang, Thomas Cummings and Jennifer Wise. The briefing suggests that Advertisers should “Add Sponsored Conversations to Your Toolbox”, something that I strongly agree with as CEO of IZEA, the company that pioneered the space.
While compensating bloggers was considered taboo a few years ago there has been a paradigm shift in thinking over the past 12 months and this briefing underscores that change. Many major blogs participate in some form of sponsored conversation or sponsored blogging, and the economy is driving bloggers and advertisers to explore this option more everyday. Both advertisers and bloggers have come to the same conclusion – display ads don’t work in social media.
The team at Forrester did an excellent job on this briefing. A few takeaways that I agree with include:
The last bullet point is probably the biggest hurdle for major corporations. Sponsored conversation can get conversations started, but it is up to the company to continue the conversation and develop relationships with their customers.
Forrester says “A New Industry Is Born” and I agree… though I would say IZEA gave birth to it in 2006. Radical ideas take time to gain acceptance, something all of you entrepreneurs out there need to understand. The biggest ideas are often met with the loudest opposition.
My prediction : The sponsored conversation space will reach $1B within 5 years… The question is, how to measure it.
You should check out this related post by Jeremiah. There is also a post by Steve Rubel.
You can download a the Sponsored Conversations report from Forrester for free.
Are you tired of buying $30.00 iPhone cases and arm bands? I have discovered an innovative new product called the ZipIt XSP iPod Case. Save your cash, protect your iPhone or iPod and be the envy of your friends and family. The ZipIt XSP Case features:
This product is available exclusively at yourmommashouse.com and is the least expensive iPod case on the market. If you get one please share your photo, I will be sure to post it and link back to you.
My personal goal is to complete at least 3 officially timed marathons this year. I made it through my first marathon last week, this morning I registered for what will be my second. I will be running the 2009 Big Sur International Marathon in Big Sur, CA. I’m really excited about this race, it should be an incredible experience. Check out mile 13 below:
Over the past few years I have racked up quite a few American Express Reward Points. Each point is roughly equivalent to one dollar spent… you do the math. I have been saving these reward points for a rainy day and with the economy where it is I am sure it’s raining for a few of you.
I’m going to do my best to brighten your rainy day. How about up to 250,000 AMEX points for you to spend how you see fit!!?!? You don’t need an American Express card, I will spend the points and send the winner the merchandise. What will 250,000 Amex points buy? Here are a few examples:
A $500 Home Depot Gift Card is 50,000 points. That’s $2,500 to put towards your home if you went that route. There are literally thousands of products to choose from including travel, entertainment, home goods and electronics.
Here’s how to enter:
1) Follow @tedmurphy on Twitter.
2) Tell your friends about the contest by tweeting “Just entered to win 250,000 Amex points. To enter follow @tedmurphy and RT http://urlbrief.com/00abc6 “
The contest begins today and ends on April 1, 2009 at noon EST. For each one person that follows me the possible award will grow by 5x – up to 250,000 points. I am starting with 6,400 or so followers, so as of today the prize is already at 32,000 points (a domestic coach airplane ticket is 30,000 points).
One lucky person who is following me on Twitter will be chosen live at random on April 1st. It’s pretty simple. The more followers I get the more I give away.
Rules and Other Information
Amex points are not transferabble, the winner will be able to pick items from the Amex site and I will have them sent to the winner. This contest is open to anyone in the world 18+ so long as it is legal in their state and country. Please read the official rules for more information. Void where prohibited by law. This contest is not associated with American Express or any other company.
This morning I took a look at my Google Analytics stats to determine what content people were interested in on my blog. I was surprised to see how many people were visiting my about page. I guess that has something to do with my 70% new visitor rate, mostly from the promotions I have been running with IZEA and our partners.
Do you see the same type of pattern on your blog? If so when was the last time you updated your about page? Your about page is extremely important, especially if you are trying to sell advertising or land speaking gigs. I hadn’t updated mine since I launched this blog so I decided to give it a little makeover. Let me know what you think.
This past week I posted a screenshot from my iPhone to my twitpic account. I immediately had people ask me how I did it, obviously tech nerds don’t read manuals (just like me). I didn’t know it was possible to take iPhone screenshots until my younger sister, an Apple employee, showed me how to do it a few months ago.
To take a screenshot with an iPhone simply press the sleep and home buttons at the same time. The screen with briefly flash and a screenshot will be saved to your iPhone’s camera roll as a PNG. You can get the screen shot off your phone just like any other photo. You will need an iPhone running firmware 2.0 or greater in order to use this feature.
Take an iPhone Screen Shot
This week I spent some time thinking about what a fully Twitterized world may look like. My mind raced in many directions, so much so that I can’t seem to stop. I am bursting at the seems with ideas and want to share them with you. These thoughts keep me up at night:
I had so much fun working on these that I invited my friends at IZEA and MindComet to contribute. My tweeps Marty, Chris and Patrick came up with some great concepts. Check them out:
Marty did the football player, the tattoo and the airplane. Chris did the JP Morgan sign. Patrick did the EMT.
I am going to make this an ongoing series of posts that will feature my ideas along with other tweeps. To submit your idea for consideration please send an email to ted@izea.com with the subject “Twitter 2012”. My only rule is the submission must be a quality manipulation of a real photo that makes me think without a need for a description.
