Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
A few months ago, things really began coming together for me and the kind of marketing services that I want to offer. Seeing that I have a certain and unique way of doing things well, I’ve taken those concepts of scale, automation, and ontological design to create a new company called öntolo, offering Internet marketing strategy design.
Right now, there is one service that is offered, which is a way of organizing and leveraging search engine query information in order to gain precise insights into your market’s wants and needs, and how your offerings fit within that space. It is called a Market Ontology Design, and is excellent for new companies that are designing their offerings, existing companies redesigning their offerings, and existing companies looking to expand their offerings.
I am currently working on two additional services that will be offered through öntolo.
The first is a large scale link prospecting service. In the thousands (yes, thousands) of SEO campaigns that I’ve worked on over the years, I have found certain patterns to how networks of websites organize themselves and link to each other. I’m currently working on developing a massive crawler and analysis tool which will identify top link prospects for your website.
The last service is a keyword landscape and competition analysis tool. There are already tools that exist in the marketplace, but they all fall short by only providing some of the relevant information, and don’t provide significant analysis and insights that can be gained through complex statistical analysis. That’s where this comes in. With this service, you’ll be able to see exactly what optimization practices will have the most significant benefit to your rankings.
I’m quite excited to finally have this launched. If you have any questions about these services or wish to work together on a project, please contact me here!
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
So, remember that post I made asking how you would leverage local flexibility for the benefit of growing your business?
Well, I found my answer.
As I write this, I’m in Boston. I’ve been here for three days, and will be here for the entire month of July. After Boston, I’ll be going to Chicago for August and September. Denver/Boulder for October.
And so on, and so forth. For 12 months.
Through the trip, I intend to make use of my physical location to meet some great and interesting people, grow my business, and see some fantastic cities around the USA.
Since you subscribe to this blog, you might be interested in that blog, being kept at:
nuudl: Musings of Ben Wills
This blog will still be updated on it’s usual sporadoc schedule, with the atypical quirks you’d expect to leave my brain. Like this crazy trip.
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
Yesterday, I asked the Twitter folk for recommendations of Social Media books to check out. I got a lot of great recommendations, all of which I ended up buying if I didn’t already own it.A couple of people were interested in the book list I ended up with, so here it is, in no particular order:
I also picked up a more fundamental view of the underlying changes that are happening:
Finally, some Social Media books I’ve read that I think should be on this list for potential purchasers:
Let me know if you have any others that you think should be added to the list!Twitterers who helped contribute:
Monday, May 12th, 2008
When I try and explain what Twitter is to people, a blank stare usually follows. Next is: So how do they make money?
The best response that I can come up with (ie: it ends that thread of the conversation) is that it’s a proof of concept and that they’re still trying to figure out their model and their users are still trying to figure out the value offering.
I keep seeing the value proposition of Twitter coming up here and there.
At Blog Carolinas, Andy Beal gave a great example of how a family could use a private account to send text messages to everyone at once with updates/questions like “I’m at the grocery store. Does anyone need anything?”
When I was on a road trip last fall, we Twittered (with almost no followers) for recommendations of what to do in Seattle. 20 minutes later, we were told exactly where to go and what places to see. Without that type of connectivity, that night would have been one of the more average nights, rather than one of the craziest nights we had on the entire trip.
BrightKite seems to have potential at giving new value to Twitter’s base functionality. By utilizing text messaging and online messaging at the same time to distribute real-world locations, it’s certain to add a whole new dimension of functionality to Twitter’s offering. I’m already seeing Twitter messages scroll by of random meetups that wouldn’t have happened if BrightKite hadn’t been used. (Speaking of, anyone have an extra invite they want to send my way?)
Today, an earthquake at 7.8 on the Richter Scale hit China and Beijing today, in what has already killed thousands, and is sure to be even more devastating than we currently know. Robert Scoble points out (still waiting on a source for this) that the USGS was three minutes behind the first Twitters of the earthquake, which you can see here.
It will be interesting to see what pieces of the Twitter puzzle get brought together and what comes of it in the next couple of years. It obviously has a significant value proposition. Hopefully, we’ll see a revenue-generating model that suits users, developers, and companies.
Friday, May 9th, 2008
This was too fantastic to not pass along. I’ve copied this verbatim from a friend:
problem: you’re an unsigned band and you can’t afford any camera equipment to make your music video.
solution: use britain’s network of cctv cameras and the freedom of information act.
the get out clause - manchester’s stars of cctv
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
If you could travel around the country, spending 4-8 weeks in each city you chose, to grow your consulting business, how would you do it?
There have been many conversations about leveraging the flexibility of locations now afforded by technology in order to free up your time for the things you want. But what happens when you want to grow your business? What if you want to use that flexibility to work from many different places, and apply the use of your physical presence to grow your business rather than your vacation?
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Climbing. It’s such a trivial little thing isn’t it? We go up. We come down. Sometimes we fall before we get to the top, and then sometimes we’ll try again from the bottom to see if we can make it in one push. It seems silly when you think about it. As most think though, including ourselves at the mag, climbing is actually one of the only things that really matters. Trivial? Inane? Hardly. One of the greatest things we’ve ever happened upon? Most definitely. Treat yourself to a little extra of the greatest thing.
- Urban Climber Magazine
If you’re a rock climber, this speaks to you.
If you’re a marketer or copywriter, you may understand why.
I think a lot of companies could learn a thing or two from that simple block of text, from that simple little magazine.
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
While there’s significant evidence (aside from the obviousness of experience) that communication quality online is significantly reduced from in-person communication, I continue to be reminded of the inherent power within the simplicity of communication that the Internet has to offer.
Three times in the past two days, I’ve made new connections with people (One through Twitter, another through this blog, and another through e-mail) who I would consider highly respectable, and would have likely never had contact with otherwise. Are they high quality interactions? Not necessarily, but they were simple and as powerful as they needed to be.
I think that perhaps the reason that more people don’t know more people is that they just don’t try. It’s easy to shoot off an email, to give a compliment to another through your blog, ping people through LinkedIn, etc. My amazement never ceases in regard to the openness of others to want to help, accept help, or just shoot the breeze about an interesting topic.
So, next time you’re curious, reach out.
Friday, March 28th, 2008
If you Click Here and watch this two minute Chevy Malibu video, Chevy will donate to Autism Speaks.
Go. Do it. Two minutes of your time.
Good.
Now, think about this: Some people came up with, and approved, a great idea for aligning their business with a great cause. Those same people said “This video is perfect. Let’s use it.”
I wanted to stab my eyes and ears out after I sat through that.
Compare it to this BMW video.
Does anyone actually wonder why Detroit is suffering? It’s not just their marketing, but I would imagine that their marketing is done with the same spirit as their operations. And, well, that may explain some things.
Friday, March 28th, 2008
Instead of the usual nutrition/fitness stuff, I figured I’d put together a list of some things that have caught my eye over the past week or so.
- PatrickRhone.com - One of my new favorite blogs. One of the best designs I’ve seen in a long time, great writing, and similar interests. I’m not quite there on the GTD stuff, but his interest in it seems to bring forth other great things like this 37 Signals article on Workplace Experiments. For those that have worked with me in the past, it’ll be quite clear why I like that post.
- Confident Goal Setting - I’m currently constructing an ontology for improvement, and this post references a great experiment that took a person of “average intelligence,” worked with them for 3-5 hours a week, and brought that person’s memory level (tested by memorizing random strings of numbers) to that of the best memories in the world…well, within the realm of random number. I’m waiting on the specific details of the experiment, but you can see how well this fits in with deliberate practice and expert performance.
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sleep - When it suddenly hit me that sleep was simply a series of chemical reactions in the body, I started researching further to see how it could be hacked for more optimal performance (ie: less sleep, more benefits). This article is mostly geared toward the chemical process of sleep, and is certain to help lead you to more specific research and questions.
- AnyWired.com - A new blog I found today about the cross between lifestyle design, entrepreneurship, and doing business online. Sounds comforting.
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
“The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” - Peter Drucker
“I skate to where the puck is going to be.” - Wayne Gretzky
“Getting fit is about nutrition and exercise.” - Everyone
People, and especially us Internet businesspeople, seem to forget fundamental concerns of the things they care about. They get so wrapped up in these complex ideas, and want to do these complex things, simply because they can.
The interesting thing is that when you look at what works and what succeeds, it’s when everything you do relates directly back to the fundamental concern of your objective.
I see this happening all over the place, and especially with social media marketing. The problem is that people get lost in the gliss (that’s not even a word, but it sounds like it should be and it sounds like the kind of word I’d like to use. So I’m keeping it) and forget why they’re on Twitter, Facebook, or even have the business that they have.
What fundamental concerns does your business address for your customers? Do you reach out to them in ways that resonate in those areas 100%, or are you farting around, exploring new opportunities without the fundamental concerns of your business at the top of your mind?
This applies to everything. For example, in rock climbing, everyone who has climbed more than once knows it’s about your finger strength and shoulder strength. Everyone who has climbed more than twice knows that climbing is all about your footwork and balance. But few people focus solely on these things. Ultimately, the ones that practice yoga to improve their footwork and balance, that exercise their grip to improve their finger strength, and practice pull-ups until their shoulders are burning, succeed much more quickly than others.
If you’re trying to succeed at something that is seeming overwhelming, take a step back. Outline the fundamental concerns of the action (hint: it’s usually 3 things), decide which practices will most quickly develop your skill in those areas, and start practicing them more than anything else.
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Sometimes, I find it useful set goals that are contingent upon other goals.
What I mean by that is that if I am unsure if I can develop the capacity to achieve a larger goal, I’ll set an interim one that will give me an idea of if I can develop the capacity to hit the larger one. There’s no use in having a goal of $10M in the bank, if you can’t get $10k in there.
In January, the morning of this (and before I found out about his death), I decided I wanted to do the same thing…ascend Everest, and two other difficult peaks in the world. The reality is that, other than rock climbing, I hadn’t intensely training for anything since playing hockey in high school…almost 10 years ago.
So, what I did is I set an aggressive goal, with an aggressive time frame, to ride my fixed-gear, brakeless bike a full 20 miles in an hour. I chose this because it would force me to exercise my legs in a similar way as mountaineering, and it would force me to develop my lungs - which I hadn’t taken care of with 8 years of heavy smoking (I quit last April).
Today, I hit that goal. More than three weeks ahead of schedule. (it sucked) (and I did it on 3 hours of sleep and after 3 hours of climbing/weight lifting last night…more on that later.)
The point is: If I had only focused on the larger goal, I probably wouldn’t have progressed nearly as quickly. Sometimes, making a larger goal contingent upon a smaller goal (rather than the smaller goal merely being an interim milestone) forces you to perform at a faster rate.
As a personal note, if you know anyone who has ascended Everest, K2, Kilamanjaro, or done any similar alpine mountaineering/climbing (ie: Patagonia, Africa, etc), if it would be possible to arrange some sort of meeting/communication that would be awesome. As much as informal education is a wonderful thing, there are some things that just can’t compare to the experience.
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
“We will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to be social,” says Charlene Li at Forrester Research, a consultancy. Future social networks, she thinks, “will be like air. They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be.” - The Economist
As much as I’m a marketer and would love to believe this, I think it’s just flat inaccurate.
This prediction completely discounts the fact that part of what makes the Internet the Internet, is because of commerce. Commerce exists by the nature of creating significant value to others.
Because of this, there will always be newer networks with newer technologies. Newer networks with different demographics. Newer networks with varying costs (not just currency) to participate.
Whenever I see claims like this, I come back to other functions that exist due to the fundamentally social nature of humans: BBS systems and message boards. While certainly widespread, they are separate and distinct in their own markets. You do not see my message board posts on Yahoo!’s customizable home page.
Will there be aggregators, such as with RSS and e-mail? Absolutely. But they will be separate functions and networks of their own.
Is it archaic that we go to coffee shops to be social, when we can make coffee or hang out with others in our own homes? What about going to restaurants to eat food, when we can eat in our own homes?
The reality is that a portal exists because people want disparate information aggregated. A social network exists because people want to socialize online. Search engines exist because people want to find things more easily.
There’s a reason why Starbucks isn’t known for their dinner meals.
Monday, March 24th, 2008
So, I don’t really like sleep…other than the fact that it’s nice after significant physical exertion. But still, it kinda cramps my productivity. So I’m going to try and do less of it.
Those that know me, know that I’m fairly particular about sleep. I usually keep uncommon hours and often have no sleep schedule whatsoever other than “when I’m tired.”
This year, I’ve been trying to hack at the system of sleep a bit more precisely. I’ve done a fair amount of research and have discovered that, simply put, sleep is a series of chemical reactions in your body. I’ll explain more about what those are and what they do in a later post.
I’m definitely not up for polyphasic sleep in 20 minute cycles. It’s just not socially convenient in any way, shape, or form, and I can’t even imagine not getting into a longer flow-state.
However, 3 hours of sleep at night, with a 90 minute nap, like this guy, seems plausible. It would also fit in with my natural sleep habits.
So, my question to you all is this: What sleep experiments have you done? What research do you know about that I may benefit from?
I’ll be putting together the results of my research before next week - which is when I plan on starting the new sleep habit.
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
This year, I’ve taken significant steps to reduce distraction and allow for greater focus on certain things I’ve decided are important in my life.
Some examples are wearing the same clothes every day, getting rid of more than half of my possessions, eating the same nutritious meals six days a week (that’s a future post), eliminating alcohol, trimming my files from two huge cabinets to a 3″ folder, etc. I also got rid of my TV a year ago. I’ve never really been one for TV or movies anyway, but selling it was still a significant step.
The process has been great, and it has allowed me to more easily gain a mental clarity that I don’t know I’ve ever had. And despite the fact that I rarely recommend such “drastic” things, I think most people would do well to consider taking similar steps.
Yesterday, I watched a movie with a couple of friends. Blue Ray, flat screen awesomeness. When I left their place, it seemed like it took a few minutes for me to regain my mind. It was definitely palpable and awkward.
After noticing the juxtaposition of mental control, I realized that I had, in effect, stopped my mind for an hour and a half during this movie. I didn’t really think much…I let the moving picture box do the thinking for me.
I don’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. But it was definitely a thing…
Mind-numbing, if you will.
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