Last year (or was it this year? It's all a blurr) Threshers, a UK liquor retailer ran a voucher promotion which ran amock on the internet and forced Threshers to pull the campaign. I don't have the time or inclination to put my own spin on that story but I'd like to contribute to their latest endevour. Go mad people, download the voucher, get pissed. BOKKE!
When I think back to the what must've been close to a couple hundred Rand which I fed into the arcade machine down at the local cafe, watching this teaser trailer really gets me excited. Now I am not exactly a hardcore gamer in any sense and I enjoy computer games as much as any guy with a healthy drinking habit... but the memory of countless hours shouting HADOUKEN! and SONIC BOOM! (Ken, Ryu, and Guile) justs makes me have a quiet little giggle to myself. Those were the days.
A little while ago I gave an update on my company TASS Online and mentioned that our first site TopOf.co.uk, a popularity contest similar to HotorNot although instead of rating people it was purely based on the number of views a particular photo received.
Then when I got home this evening I glanced at TechCrunch to find the following post.
So NextorNot may not be exactly the same, and it is far superior to TopOf, but it does demonstrate to me that our logic was sound. I find it extremely encouraging that a company the size of MTV thought that an idea similar to mine was worth pursuing. It proves to me that I'm not just thinking up silly ideas and fooling myself that they have a commercial potential.
Thanks MTV you not-so-thieving-but-rather-encouraging-bastards!
For a while now I've been considering facebook and their ads. For a site which collects far too much information about people... why on earth isn't any of the information used to at least target me with relevent ads? Here's the latest, a gay dating site using the facebook flyer, (which to be fair is super cheap and you wouldn't expect it to be targeted.) But come-on... interested in...women!!!
(P.S. Ladies as you can see from my dashing profile, I'm both incredibly good looking and single.) (P.P.S. The black thing on my cheek comes off, and the baby blue t-shirt no longer exists)
Okay so... Some of you may now that I started a company late last year with some mates of mine. Essentially we're a group of like minded web entrepreneurs with absolutely no technical expertise (chuckle).
Our first site is up, but not finished. TopOf.co.uk Built on the cheap by an Indian development company, it is our teething site where we have learnt the essentials of getting a site up and running. There is still a few tweaks that need to be done to it (logos, buttons, etc), but the basic framework is there and we're testing it out. The idea of the site is very simple. It's a popularity contest aimed at 14-22yr old UK users. As a user you upload your photo into one of the categories and the more views you get the more popular you become. It's not a rating system, you simply have to get people to look at your photo. So, say at the end of the month you have the most popular photo, I'll give you an ipod! Revenue is generated from a mixture of CPM and CPA campaigns.
Our second site is about to go into development. As it will be SA focused we've opted for a local developer, and we're looking at a live date around the beginning of November this year. So what is it? Yip the highly original idea of a... Price Comparison site! Of course we've got a trick up our sleeve but as you can image that's our little secret. Yes, yes... there are these kind of sites already, and yes we've done our homework. That's where our little secret comes into play.
We've had a third site brewing, however the initial outlay to do it properly would mean we'd be punching above our weight slightly so it's been put in the sandbox.
So there you have it. Progress has been made and over the past year working on this very part-time I'm happy where we are. Our momentum has been steady and the passion has been, on the whole, constant. I know I've learnt a lot already, and it has caused me to want to learn more. Ironically, the tech side is the one area where I remain blissfully ignorant, and for now I'm happy with that. I can happily dream up stuff without the constraints and limitations of my own technical abilities. That- I'll leave to the experts.
I also find the title rather unoriginal but hey- I'm pushed for time here.
This post refers to the ongoing comedy show that is Trafficdepartment.co.za
Guy has managed to get his site back under control after it was defaced and has responded with some references to some of the points I have raised. The title to his post is:
In his post Guy has made reference to Corey Rudl who in the early days of the internet saw a gap in the market and capitalised on it very effectively. I don't agree with Guy in using this as a reason not to have a visually appealing site. After all, Corey's site was cutting edge in 1994, and it embraced all the technology available to him at the time. Using this logic, sites these day really should be utilising more advanced techniques. (PS, if coded corrected, flash can be SEO optimised)
With regard to "the real reason people have businesses" and "not having a clue", I'm going to have to disagree again. I'm involved in a range of online activity, and I can assure you not everyone has a website online so they can drive sales. I'm not trying to be a smart arse here, but there are various reasons to have a site online. Guy- it's a bit like TV... not everyone is a Verimark shop. (Okay, that was pretty smart-arsed)
With regard to your offering being 'valueless', I'll disagree- it's not valueless, however I don't think it represents good value for money. Guy- you have provided examples of 'traditional' costs of domain registration etc. Thank you for this as I'm a bit out of touch with the SA costs of these. However Guy, from what I gather when a client registers a domain with you, it is registered in your name. Why is this? Are your clients aware that in doing so they hold no rights to their domain? Are they paying for something and not owning it?
When examining your costs you failed to mention my suggestion of osCommerce.com (which is just one of many). You did bring up the point of having to have some knowledge of html and CSS, and whilst this is a valid point it still doesn't cost anything to ask for help in a forum. You've referred to the ego's of designers/developers quite a bit in your post, and you're right, they want nothing more than to show you how clever they are... might as well let them... for free.
I am not trying to prove how clever I am here... in fact take a look at my blog. Does it look like I have the first clue about design/development?
I have taken offence to the fact that you are charging people for your expertise when in fact I don't feel that you are in a position to. I believe that Trafficdepartment'sMulti-level marketing is borderline ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme, take your pick. Even if it is to two levels all of a sudden.
Once again, I think it is a very clever idea, however it just rubs me the wrong way.
Last night I wrote a post about Guy McLaren. Nic liked it and submitted it to Muti... wicked! Other people liked it and voted it up... wicked! It got up to the number two spot... wicked. Then all of a sudden it disappeared from the front page. Shock, horror!
Within 4 minutes the post had received 4 'down' votes... ouch! Statistically speaking without collusion this is not possible... (recommended reading on this type of thing: Freakonomics). This begs the question... was my post accurate enough to cause the legions of Trafficdepartment to act together to vote the submission off the front page?
Was my brief analysis enough to cause concern in the ranks?
Now as a start-up owner myself- I can understand that criticism can be scary. However... surely your business needs to be robust enough to withstand the hearsay of some dude 6,000 miles away in order to be sustainable? Surely the best way to damage control is to confront the points raised in my post and prove me wrong. I invited a response to be corrected, I gave Trafficdepartment the opportunity to engage in a dialogue which could lead to me eating my words. Nope, instead the issue has been hushed-up, and banished to the depths of the muti pages. (Reeks of Zimbabwean political tactics if you ask me.)
What great PR it would be for your business if you could address the issue and capitalise on the current awareness levels. Enjoy your 5min in the spotlight and use it to your benefit. This is currently not the case and you are avoiding addressing the issues in my post.
In doing so, I feel that my assumptions and guesses have been ratified, and now I feel confident that I was in fact correct. (Until I am proven otherwise... pssst... this is another invitation, wink wink nudge nudge)
It’s not often that I feel compelled to write about SA blogosphere topics on my personal blog, but recently I’ve seen something which is worth mentioning.
There is this chap in Nelspruit called Guy McLaren. Guy owns and operates a business called Trafficdepartment.co.za, which sells people websites and the promise of wealth. This I don’t have a problem with and I wish the man all the best in his venture- if he is able to get muppets... I mean- people- to buy his ‘solution’ then hell- why not.
My issue comes in his tactics, premise, and altogether blatant drivel that he is purporting. However this post is not meant to be a personal flaming of Guy but an analysis of his offering, revenue model, and marketing tactics. Albeit with a slightly negative tone. (I stand corrected on everything a say from here on.)
Offering
TrafficDepartment offer domain registration and hosting with their own CMS for R395.00. Fair enough- not a lot of money at all. In fact there is even a 30day money back guarantee! However… not much detail is given on what you get for your money. Ie. Is this shared hosting? Where is it hosted? Most people won’t need to know this info but it does make a difference when you’re trying to run a business which is after all what Guy is offering.
The R395.00 gets you the basic site, however if you want to actually be involved in e-commerce you’ll need to add on extra bits and pieces for just under R2000.00. So in other words your R395.00 gets you a blog! Ummm… did I miss something or did wordpress, blogger, et al just go out of business because I could’ve sworn it was free to setup, run, and maintain a blog. This has been addressed elsewhere and so I won’t dwell on it.
Let’s have a look at the ecommerce offering: It costs just under R2k however… you can get a better looking, more robust, highly trusted solution for the extreme sum of ZERO… free…gratis…osCommerce.
As for the statement that you will be listed on Google SA within 2 days… SFW… anyone can submit their URL to Google (or any major search engine) and the bots will crawl the site. Is Guy honestly charging for a service which anyone with 5 minutes to spare can do themselves?
I don’t know about you but if I had paid for Guys’ services I would be feeling rather bleak right now knowing I had been fleeced of my cash.
Revenue Model
So how is Guy making all this money? Selling websites? Yeah I suppose he’s squeezing a few quid out of this, but the trick lies in how these websites are linked together. Using the trafficdepartment ‘solution’ means you join a little circle of people who also have one of their sites, and their posts are fed into your blog. What happens here is that you get the same users floating around eachothers blogs/sites creating a little community… very sweet! The kicker is that, if, as a trafficdepartment site, you refer someone to buy a site… you get cash…cool… affiliate marketing! Well not really… it’s more multi-level marketing (MLM) made famous by the likes of Amway. Please note I haven’t said pyramid scheme. (But if it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck???)
Marketing tactics
Now I don’t profess to be a SEO guru, but I like to think I know a thing or two about internet marketing having worked in CPC, CPA, and CPM environments. The marketing tactics of Guy McLaren are what initially grabbed my attention and prompted this post. Guy is traffic crazy, and will do just about anything to increase the number of visits to his site, or the sites of his clients. (He wants people to visit his clients because they like seeing the traffic figures, and he likes the exposure which could mean that people will want his product.)
All traffic is good traffic apparently! This post is long enough without having to go into the topic of traffic quality.
Guy submits his, and his clients stories to sites like Muti and others in order to promote them. Now I have nothing against people promoting their business, however these sites are not the place for it. These are community sites where users recommend content which the community is interested in. If people are interested in the content it gets voted up, if not it gets voted down- simple. Now Guy’s submissions are getting much love from these sites and in fact he has been condemned as a spammer. I have to agree with the community that when you consistently submit your ‘own’ content which has proved to be unpopular in the past then you really need to get the message or you will be branded a spammer. Guy has now taken to educating his clients on social network ettiquette.
My problem here is that Guys' clients look to him for professional advice... hell... they paid for it, and in my opinion... they're not getting it here.
All in all, I have to commend Guy McLaren on what is a very clever idea, however it just rubs me up the wrong way personally.
Well they've gone completely legit and renamed themselves Deezer.com. I can't stress how cool this service is. I was lucky enough to meet the owner of the site yesterday and I will be working with them with regard to their UK activity in about 2 weeks time. I'm super stoked! When Deezer goes mainstream and comes up in conversation the way that facebook does (are our conversations that boring that we have to fall back on facebook rather than the old faithful, "so how about this weather") I will be able to non-chelantly say... "Yeah I work with them ona couple things"- Man I'm cool! (Quietly calling myself a dork in my head)
I have been slowly growing my Deezer playlist ( Widget--------->) and discovered some wicked new artists. When I eventually get organised I'm going to start using the widget to let my dedicated reader (note lack of plural) know some of the music I'm currently tapping my foot to.
How would the world change if... someone could create a way to provide free, clean, and constant energy?
Forget cold fusion people... the way of the future is magnets - apparently! Today an Irish company- Steorn- is due to demonstrate their Orbo Technology which claims to achieve free, clean, and constant energy. In doing so they will defy the laws of thermodynamics, and not only, not lose energy in the process, but actually gain energy (claimed energy efficiency of 400%).
To dumb it down considerably- they plan to make things go round magnets and when they get back to where they started, instead of losing energy they will actually have more energy than when they started.
I'm no scientist, but I know enough to know that if successful this will change the world as we know it. So rather than rehash the available info check out these links:
