I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords.
Wow, email, chat, RSS and now SMS all in one lovely package.
Game changer!
OMG – Webmonkey (thanks to my pal @bmoore622)
Highrise Deals
http://www.viddler.com/player/fde939d1/
I really do love Basecamp, BackPack and Highrise. All three of these products make up a substantial part of my business life as an affiliate and I can’t imagine having to hack together a “getting-things-done” solution without them.
Even my wife, a physician, loves and uses BackPack on a daily basis.
So, I’m excited to see this new addition to Highrise (a fantastic CRM manager):
37signals Product Blog: Big new Highrise feature: Deals: “Deals let you keep track of proposals, bids, RFPs, and project sales right inside Highrise. Highrise has always been great for keeping track of the people you do business with, but now with Deals you can keep track of the business transactions as well.
Now you’ll know which proposals/bids are pending, which you’ve won, and which you’ve lost. Enter notes about the deals, attach proposals or contracts to the deals, and keep a log of any changes. Now you’ll know how much money a particular customer has paid you over time or how much you’ve left on the table from deals you didn’t win.”
Seriously, if you aren’t using BackPack or Basecamp (at least), you’re missing out.
GeekCast 42: FailList
I had to do real work, so I missed participating in this week’s GeekCast (even though this might be the greatest podcast cover art ever, thanks to Shawn).
Nonetheless, there are still a few good moments in the show.
Go give it a listen…
McCain ’08 iPhone App
The Obama ’08 iPhone app has won great applause from techies and geeks (not just because it’s from Obama) for it’s inventiveness and nifty viral nature for getting out the vote and educating potential or current supporters.
Now it looks as if Sen John McCain’s campaign has gotten into the act (tongue-in-cheek):
Good stuff, my friends.
Affiliate Networks and OpenID?
Google has just announced its support for OpenID across its services. Yahoo and Microsoft have also adopted the “one-sign-in” OpenID platform as well.
That’s great news and great for users and people moving to the cloud with applications like GMail or Google Docs or Google Calendar. Best of all, you can use that same ID to login into a number of web apps that aren’t owned by one company such as Google.
This is incredibly important for the growth of cloud computing as more productivity moves to the web.
However, when will publishers be able to use a platform like OpenID to login to CJ or Linkshare or Motive’s Advent or LinkConnector or Azoogle or ShareASale or even the Google Affiliate Network?
I have a myriad of ill-thought out affiliate network logins that I simply can’t remember. Being able to login to a network with something like an OpenID would make that network a favorite of mine by default!
I can haz?
AAPP: Affiliate Approval Process Problem
Having worked on both the network and publisher side of affiliate marketing over the years, I’ve definitely wracked my brain for a solution to the affiliate approval process problem (hereafter known as AAPP… kinda catchy, no?).
Jamie Birch has a new in-depth post on the issue from an affiliate manager’s point of view. Jamie has just launched his new JEB Commerce OPM company and is heavily dealing with the AAPP now.
Jamie’s previous work at Coldwater Creek and Converseon gives him authority on this issue, so if you’re a new affiliate wondering why you got denied for a program, definitely give his post a read (plus subscribe to the blog because it’s loaded with good content already):
Why is my application to affiliate programs always denied? | JEBCommerce – Affiliate Management and Online Advertising: “Along with the known affiliates applying to your program, there are hundreds and thousands of applications that come through that are either suspect, fraudulent or simply incomplete. If you are an affiliate manager reading this, you’ll probably be nodding your head and maybe even have a chuckle. If you are an affiliate that seems to receive more denials than approvals when you apply to programs, this article is just for you. I’d like to highlight some of the things that managers see every day that you may be doing and need to avoid in order to get your applications approved. So let’s get started…”
Perhaps most valuable of all are the list of suggestions at the bottom. Good stuff.
Kindle Software Update
There’s a new software update for the Kindle that evidently improves (the already pretty awesome) battery life. I can go for days and days of heavy reading and not have to recharge.
And yes, I still freaking love my Kindle. Game changer!
EduKindle » Blog Archive » Kindle Battery Life and Release 1.04 (and 1.08): “What release is your Kindle running? Go to ‘home,’ scroll to ‘settings’ and click. At the very bottom of the settings screen you will see the version of the Kindle software you are running. If it is 1.0, go here to figure out how to upgrade to 1.04 (or 1.08, for that matter).”
So, for all the new converts to Kindle-ism, make sure you have the new update.
TweetDeck and Friends Lists
I’ve been using TweetDeck as my desktop Twitter client for a while now and have definitely seen the improvements over the last few months.
The reason I support TweetDeck is the ability to easily group people or subjects you are following. In a post-Track Twitter, this is pretty important for me. TweetDeck has Summize integration, making it possible to “Track” terms via the API.
For example, here’s what TweetDeck looks like on my Mac (it has its own “Space” since it does take up so much screen real estate):
You can see that I have an “All Tweets” group for the 300 or so people I follow then a “Pals” group for the 30 or so people that I’m closest to then a “samharrelson” group that functions as something like Track (anytime someone mentions my name, it shows up there), an “Asheville” group for tracking, a replies tab and then a few more off to the side such as a “Chicago Cubs” group, a “Wofford Group (my alma mater),” etc.
It’s an insanely easier and more productive Twitter experience than relying on the Twitter website or even Twhirl.
Besides the real estate size, one of the big criticisms I’ve heard about TweetDeck is the question of why it takes so long for friends to show up in groups.
The folks behind TweetDeck shed a little light (using a Posterous blog nonetheless… pretty nifty… more on that soon):
Group Friends List – TweetDeck’s posterous: “The list of friends in the add group column grows as more of your friends become active, or to put it another way as TweetDeck becomes aware of who your friends are it adds then to the list.
I’ve done it like this since the twitter API only allows me to get 100 friends at a time so if you have thousands of friends TweetDeck would have to do some looping which could be quite slow but, more importantly, counts against your Twitter API calls. You only need to leave TweetDeck running overnight for the list to grow substantially. “
So, if you’re still using the web interface for Twitter, do yourself a favor and stop. Go grab TweetDeck, set up some trackable terms and group people you follow to tame the madness that is probably your Twitter experience.
ShareASale’s Inventive Gift Cards Database
ShareASale has launched a really interesting new platform with the Gift Cards Database. Let’s face it… gift cards are the gift to give when you have no idea what to give. Plus, merchants love them given that the cards are such a money machine.
I’ll be interested to check in with the SaS team after the holidays and see how popular or successful this becomes. I have a feeling it could be a huge hit.
ShareASale Blog » Blog Archive » Gift Cards Database: “Thanks to a wonderful suggestion from our annual ShareASale Think Tank held a few weeks ago in San Diego, we’ve created a Gift Cards Database. Merchants are able to upload specific creatives that direct consumers to specific landing pages designed to sell Gift Cards – a popular item this time of year!
In similar form to the Deals Database, Affiliates can access these creatives from inside their Affiliate Interface as well as through RSS feeds and downloadable databases. Affiliates can also search for specific types of gift cards – and find/join programs that they might not have already been a part of.”
Additionally, it’s these sorts of platforms that will continue to make affiliate marketing more “mainstream” as large publishing sites turn away from CPM ad deals towards performance marketing given the economic slowdown. In a potentially bleak holiday selling season, this could be just the thing to make things a little cheerier for publishers.
Nice work, ShareASale.
Completely Open Android Mobile Device Coming?
Back in my more idealistic days of using only open source operating systems and devices, I wrote a piece about what I thought was going to be a game changer… the OpenMoko. I was wrong on that one.
However, there are still some keeping the open source device dream alive.
One of my favorite blogs these days has a great scoop on a potential device in the works from the people at OpenMoko that leverages Google’s open source Android operating system. This could really be something to get excited about:
OpenMoko at Work on Android Handset | AndroidGuys: “OpenMoko is working with the Android platform as we speak and look to have something soon. Soon like maybe November.
You know who OpenMoko is, right? The Neo1973 and FreeRunner guys. Thanks to one of our readers, we’ve got some nice gems to share with the class. Our source for this information has already proven themselves with previous tips that have panned out rather big so we feel pretty good about this one.”
Why am I so interested in this when we’ve already had the second (3G) coming of the JesusPhone? A couple of reasons:
1) As elegant as the iPhone is, we need competition. Steve Jobs and company will make better products if Google / Nokia / etc is breathing down his back.
2) The current system of mobile economics in the US is downright terrible. Not many people enjoy dealing with their mobile carrier, the rates are insanely high (a megabyte of text data is more expensive than gold…we’re talking printer ink numbers) and the choices offered by the mobile carriers here is stifling adoption of smarter phones. A popular open device could help push the mobile carriers towards needed reform.
3) I still believe in the open movement.
What do you think? Could a device like this work in the States?