Year: 2007

Youth Ministers and Future Preachers

I’m at my “office” in the Broad River Coffee Shop sitting across from a group of young ministers and youth ministers.

Eaves-dropping on their conversation, I’m reminded that we Religious Studies folks should be thankful that Adonai chooses to work with slackers and jerks like Abram, Jacob, Joseph and Moses or Divinity Schools would not exist.

God works in Mysterious Ways…

Epoch of Juxtaposition

Doing some Sunday reading and came across this from Michel Foucault’s work “Of Other Spaces” (page 22)…

The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space.  We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed.  We are at a moment, I believe, when our experience of the world is less that of a long life developing through time than that of a network that connects points and intersects with its own skein.

That is life changing.  Read it three times to make sure you at least see the direction Foucalt is pointing towards.  When I try to explain to people “what I do for a living” (academics, teaching and online marketing), I should point them to that quote.

Back to burying my nose in Foucault on a snowy Sunday afternoon (could life be any better?)…

Teaching College Students Versus Teaching 8th Graders

Wow, what a difference.

I’m enjoying the college students at Gardner-Webb Univ (harrelsonreligion.com if you want to follow along) and we’re starting to get the questions flowing.

However, teaching the 8th graders at Hammond School for the previous two years was mesmarizing because I was constantly having to think on my feet, adjust and react to the crowd.  It was a bit like playing jazz.

Teaching college is more like a staged  and choreographed production where the script stays the same every day and includes little audience interaction.   I’m sure that it’s my fault that the crowd isn’t clapping and dancing in the aisles… need to work on that…

Influencer Networks: Local Search Living Up To Potential in 2007

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Local search has long held a tremendous amount of promise but shown disappointing results for Yahoo, Google, Ask and MSN. However, the major search engines have continued to put R&D into the local search space, and things might be turning around.

What has happened to make this turn around possible is the quick user adoption of social networking features within a local search structure. Yahoo, in particular, has been keen on this idea and has implemented tools such as Consumer Submit to allow for a more interactive local search experience.

We will see even more of this type of development in 2007 as search continues to undergo market pressure to stay relevant. Search will become more socialized, more niche-minded and more local.

One practical example is SuperPages.com.

Idearc’s SuperPages.com has launched a “Reviewer of the Week” feature as a step towards providing local content within a social networking environment based on geography and location. Users of the site in the same city “compete” against each other to be featured as the “Reviewer of the Week.” That person gets featured in a special section on the SuperPages.com homepage.

“Local search is hot and so is social networking, so it makes sense that we combine the two,” said Robyn Rose, vice president of marketing for SuperPages.com. “Whether you’re talking about finding the best Italian restaurant or a reliable plumber, SuperPages.com provides robust local search capabilities, along with ratings and user reviews, to connect circles of trusted individuals.”

To be featured as a Reviewer of the Week, users must write reviews of their favorite businesses during the prior week. Results are updated each Wednesday and precedence is given to reviewers who have written the most reviews. The tactic attempts to draw more repeat reviewers over time rather than just one time users.

Users who submit the most reviews are highlighted on the home page of SuperPages.com according to where the reviewer is located, which is based on the ZIP code provided in the registration. So, the effect is geo-targeted according to location.

SuperPages.com currently has more than 324,000 reviews and listings with consumer-provided content. And, they have even developed a Firefox plugin for users. Nifty communal web2.0-ness. Now all we need is a Superpages.com widget!

Linkshare Updates Deal Dispatcher: Are Clean Interfaces Selling Points?

According to the Linkshare newsletter emailed out this morning, Linkshare has cleaned up their Deal Dispatcher interface. Based on suggestions from the recent affiliate survey, Linkshare writes that it has redesigned the Deal Dispatcher to make it easier to use for affiliates. Consumer and affiliate promotions now are categorized by type and listed alphabetically. In addition, the Deal Dispatcher will be emailed out once a month.

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The improved site is much cleaner and does partition the content into “New Merchants,” “Consumer Promotions” and “Affiliate Promotions” which was needed.

How much influence does interface have on the network you use? In large part, Google’s simplicity has been hearlded as one of its strengths against Yahoo, and the reason it became the most used search engine. Is the same true for affiliate marketing in terms of preferring simplicity and ease of use?

By the way, Brian has updated the ShareASale blog with the second installment of “Month of the Interface” which features some drill-down features in the merchant stat report. Follow along there.