May 2008 - Page 4 of 6 - Sam Harrelson

Pressroom Theme for WordPress

Sam Harrelson on May 7, 2008

FathomSEO has a nice new clean WordPress theme geared towards businesses that need a pressroom design:

Social Media Pressroom Theme WordPress, Social Media Newsroom Template: Theme Name: Media Pressroom

Description: A clean, minimalist theme designed for use as a media pressroom.

Author: Fathom SEO, which offers search engine optimization and other online marketing services.

Author URL: http://www.fathomseo.com

View a live demo of this theme.

The simplicity and focus on social media is really compelling.

It’s increasingly clear that companies need to be approachable beyond just a “Contact Us” form. The integration of social media (networks, video, Twitter) present on the theme is a nice touch and positive step towards PR2.0.

Todd Crawford’s New Blog

Sam Harrelson on May 7, 2008

Affiliate Marketing Legend award winner and all around good guy Todd Crawford has a new blog…

ToddTalks.com

Todd always has a unique perspective on things going back to his days with CJ, so definitely tune in and subscribe.

Selling on eBay with Video

Sam Harrelson on May 7, 2008

http://www.vzaar.com/users/raak-jr/videos/5928.swf

vzaar is a year old service that allows for eBay sellers to incorporate video into their auctions (example in the video above).

vzaar :: About: “vzaar is an accredited eBay developer and approved video supplier for eBay sellers and the host of thousands of videos for thousands of eBay sellers. Built by eBay users for eBay users, vzaar enhances the eBay experience for both buyers and sellers. vzaar is a free service for casual sellers, with premium features available for more frequent users and PowerSellers.”

While I’m not sure that the service will catch on like wildfire, it certainly is compelling for sellers of products that are looking to give a more three dimensional representation of the object up for auction or for sellers looking to stand out above the pack in a crowded niche.

Duncan Riley posts about vzaar on his new (and subscription worthy) blog Inquisitr giving some details about pricing.

Market Like a Dandelion

Sam Harrelson on May 7, 2008

I’m a huge Cory Dotorow fan.

So, when I read this, I immediately thought of the affiliate community and the lessons we could learn by thinking of our content production in terms of dandelions instead of our typical mammalian (reproduction and production are very costly and should be protected) point of view…

Locus Online Features: Cory Doctorow: Think Like a Dandelion: I know this for a fact. I review a lot of books on Boing Boing, and whenever I do, I link to the Amazon page for the book, using my ‘affiliate ID’ in the URL. If you follow one of those links and buy the book, I get a commission — about eight percent. I can use Amazon’s reporting tool to tell exactly how many people click on my links, and how many of them shell out money for the book, and here’s the thing: when I link to a book that’s out soon, available now for pre-order, I reliably get less than ten percent of the purchases I get when I link to books that are available for sale now. Nine out of ten Boing Boing readers who buy books based on my reviews don’t want to pre-order a title and wait for it to show up later.

The net is an unending NOW of moments and distractions and wonderments and puzzlements and rages. Asking someone riding its currents to undertake some kind of complex dance before she can hand you her money is a losing proposition. User-interface designers speak of how every additional click between thought and deed lops a huge number of seeds out of the running for germination.

Head over to the link above and read the whole piece. It’s short and good, but worth your time to think on how you can improve your own marketing efforts by taking the dandelion approach.

Disqus Video Comments

Sam Harrelson on May 7, 2008

Although I’m not particularly crazy about doing video comments myself, my fingers are crossed that Disqus integrates them soon:

Disqus Adding Video Comments; Will People Use Them?: “We’ve now learned that Disqus, a third-party commenting system, will be rolling out its own video commenting feature, likely later this week.”

I don’t necessarily see video comments catching on like wildfire, but they do provide an outlet for those among us who’d rather just hit record on the webcam and fire away. On my Mac, it’s incredibly easy to do quick and nice looking video and most modern computers are now shipping with high quality integrated webcams.

This isn’t a “game changer” feature, but it will be a nice addition.

BTW, if you’re not using Disqus on your blog, you’re really missing out. I’ve written about Disqus here many times and Scott Jangro has done a series of excellent posts about the comment solution as well.

Can You Be Anonymous on the Web?

Sam Harrelson on May 7, 2008

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GeekCast 17 was literally epic in terms of length. Jim Kukral, Lisa Picarille, Shawn Collins and myself went just over 100 minutes this week.

Despite the length, I think it’s one of our best podcasts yet. We covered everything from the recent Marky Zarc disturbance in the force to Brightkite to Twitter to Hulu.com to politics.

You can subscribe to the podcast to receive it weekly in your iTunes or podcatcher over at GeekCast.fm.

Get a .Me Domain

Sam Harrelson on May 6, 2008

Montenegro is opening up its coveted .me domain to the public today.

I’m sure the good stuff will go quickly, but there’s lots of interesting combinations to be had for blogs and sites…

.Me Domains Now Available to the Public – AppScout: “In 2006, Montenegro was assigned its own domain name extension: .me. Like Tuvalu and Djibouti, sheer coincidence has given the small European nation a potentially high-demand extension. Says EnCirca president, Thomas Barrett of .me, ‘[It] offers real personalization of domains. For instance, why not register follow.me for the born leader? Or perhaps, listento.me for the incessant blogger? EnCirca is excited to be part of this strategic campaign and we applaud Montenegro for making the most of their virtual resources.'”

I’ve always wanted to really get into domaining. Seems like a fascinating business.

–UPDATE–

Turns out I jumped the gun a little (the title of the AppScout post didn’t help).

Trust points out the timeline:

May 6 – May 20, 2008: General Sunrise
May 20 – June 6, 2008: Quiet Period
June 6 – June 26, 2008: Land Rush
June 26 – July 17, 2008: Quiet Period
July 17, 2008: Open Registration

Looks like you’re paying to play in the initial land rush if you pay the $98 for 2 years now (like I did… d’oh!).

Some Merchants Removing NY Affiliates?

Sam Harrelson on May 6, 2008

Thanks to @Trust on Twitter for the link to ABW forum discussing the NY State affiliate tax issue and the possibility that some merchants such as Drs Foster and Smith are removing affiliates based in New York state due to a new state law there attempting to collect taxes (and back taxes) on internet commerce:

The NEW NY Internet TAX Law – ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forum: “It begins

Dear xx:

Due to the new online tax law in New York State we have decided to remove all New York state affiliates until this issue is clarified. We regret having to do this and hope that after further clarification or the law being struck down, that we will revisit this issue and hopefully be able to resume the productive business relationships we have enjoyed with you.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter and look forward to working with you again in the future.

Regards,
The Drs. Foster and Smith Affiliate Team”

Head over to ABW for the full discussion (currently around 3 pages). This is certainly an issue that affiliate marketers need to be familiar with since many cash-strapped states may turn to more regulated taxing of internet commerce to fill their coffers.

NY state is truly a canary in the mine here.

Affiliate Marketing’s RSS Problem

Sam Harrelson on May 6, 2008

Amen, Linda and Ian…

12 Ways Affiliate Managers Can Use RSS for Affiliate Communication – 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Blogs: “Enter RSS. Why aren’t more affiliate programs using RSS? They really should be! There are so many things that would help affiliates generate more sales, if only they could be communicated in a timely manner. How about real-time as they happen – through RSS, instead of saving up the info for the next monthly newsletter, which no one reads anyway!”

RSS is still such an underused technology, especially here in affiliate marketing, with so much potential.

I spend a majority of my screen time in my feed reader (NetNewsWire for the Mac) and wish daily that more affiliate programs and managers would start utilizing RSS.

I can has RSS, please?