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So I came across something pretty interesting today, and I like to call it “The Twitter Meltdown”. It is the process of completely blowing your top in one or more sequential Tweets. I find this to be a very daunting task, as it’s very difficult to get really worked up in 140 characters or less. However don’t underestimate the power of a cry baby. This all stems from an article I read on Mashable today, which talks about a popular Twitter user, @astrospace, who threw Pity Party 2009 over losing some followers on the popular microblogging platform.

Astrospace claims he lost around 12,000 friends over the course of 11 days. I can see that this is certainly a tragic event. After all it is completely pointless. But Mr. Popularity himself didn’t get mad, he got even! He deleted his account out of spite, then wrote a nice long rant on his blog about how “Twitter is the most badly run and technically incompetent company I have ever seen”. Shortly after he had second thoughts, astrospace then deleted the post from his blog shortly after publishing it. Something’s a little fishy about that. Besides Google caches EVERYTHING, and Mashable knows that. You can see the blog post here.

So you would think that it’s over, but of course it isn’t. This is my favorite part, after @astrospace deleted his account, someone scooped up @astrospace’s username, taking over the account and reopening it (apparently once you cancel your account your username is up for grabs). Bravo to this person for realizing the potential of a popular account. Everyone thought it was genius move except of course @astrospace, who then tried to spin it as a breach of security by Twitter. It is believed the reason the original user deleted his blog post was an effort to cover up that he deleted his account on his own, claiming his Twitter account had been hacked. Sorry bud, you’re just a little bit less important than Barack and Britney.

Twitter is still relatively new, and despite it’s popularity they still have a right to their own growing pains. Things are going to go wrong from time to time, despite their best efforts. Use it for what it’s worth, an additional touchpoint for you and the world. Keep in mind that it is a service they are providing for you out of the kindness of their hearts, free from contracts and at no cost to the end user, so the least you can do is accept their apologies when the occasional glitch is exploited. I tried to steer clear of the Twitter fad, but I (@itsiain) have also fallen victim to the service. Pretty much all Twitter users have a pleasant experience, and as for @astrospace, despite his existence the Earth still somehow manages to revolve around the Sun.

I am currently working with a small team of people on a new business venture, and the question of payment gateway recently passed across the table. We bounced around with different ideas, my vote was overwhelmingly in favor of Authorize.net. They’re familiar to me, and it’s always good to stick with what you know. My friend Alex brought up Google Checkout as an option and to put it lightly I laughed in his face. Well, it turns out that Google Checkout is the WordPress of payment gateways (see my first blog post).

When dealing with any product offering on your website, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider a Google Checkout payment option. My first major problem with it was the perception of it being a Fly-by-night payment service. What it really is, is the exact opposite. People are always going to be wary of buying things online. Yes, e-commerce is growing by the day, but it isn’t like your site is one of the internet’s few trusted names like Amazon or Goog…got it now? It’s likely that your brand isn’t a household name, but good news, theirs is. It gives your customers confidence about giving you their payment information, so why not align yourself with that. Google has way too much money to worry about scamming you out of your $14 Heineken golf tees, so the transaction is probably legit.

Another aspect I really like is the increased visibility for Google searches, something no other payment method is going to give to you. When you implement Google Checkout, a special icon is displayed next to your website on searches, notifying users that you use Google Checkout. The benefit to this is two-fold. The first being that it notifies people familiar with Google Checkout that your site is equipped with it. The second is more subtle, but it’s just a matter of changing the look of your site compared to the results around you. If you had a choice, wouldn’t you want an asterisk or an icon next to your site in the search listings? Of course you would! When it comes to business, you want to stand out as long as it’s for a positive reason. In this case it is, you have an integration with the website they’re currently using to find what they want.

I did highlight one word earlier on and that is product. By product i mean, one-time purchase item. A service usually requires recurring billing, even if it’s not auto-renew, and I would expect a service to A.) not ask for my credit card every time I do business with them, and B.) allow me to update my payment information through my account. Google Checkout allows for a solution to neither of these problems, so it’s out of the question for anything with a recurring fee attached to it. Their TOS speaks to not allowing 3rd parties to process cards on behalf of their customers, so it’s better to play it safe. Besides, capturing the credit card data is a whole different hassle in this type of setting. Some look at this as an additional positive, no liability, no PCI compliance issues, etc.

So if you’re looking for a way to collect payments from your website, “checkout” Google Checkout. I’ll keep you posted on our little project, and maybe you’ll buy something from us and give the checkout process a try yourself.

So I’ve turned into the Web 2.0 specialist at work, and I like that. It gives me a false sense of security with my job, it’s really quite lovely. So from time to time I get a question that I have to pretend I know the answer to in order to maintain my title. The other day at work one of the staff designers approached me with a very specific question. What is an em (pronounces like the letter “M”)? At the time I knew very little other than that it was an alternative measurement to pixels. I did a little research to get a real answer together, and here’s what I came up with.

What is an Em?

According to Wikipedia An em is a unit of measurement in the field of typography, equal to the point size of the current font. In other words, it’s a relative measurement. So if your font size is set to 12px, 1em = 12px, 2em = 24px, etc. Here’s an example:

Which is Better Ems or Pixels?

The em can be a real hassle to use, but it is academically the more ideal unit of measurement. That being said, I don’t use ems. The reason: Internet Explorer. There are some bugs in IE that can cause text size to do strange things when declared in ems. It seems to not effect padding or element dimensions (width, height), but font sizes are susceptible to bugs in IE. So until that piece of the puzzle is solved, you’re better off playing it safe with pixel size declarations. IE currently has around 70% of the web browser market share, so there’s no reason to take any chances.

One thing to note is a common misconception that ems are a relative measurement and pixels are an absolute measurement. Keep in mind that pixels are also a relative measurement. Don’t believe me? Change your resolution and reload the page. Relative or not, pixels are better. Save the headache and use them instead.

Every time you turn around, a new internet start up is throwing itself into the market. The e-commerce world is relentlessly trudging forward as new businesses join the web marketplace. The competition is fierce. A low start up cost, flexible work environment and extensive reach of the internet has compelled millions of people to do battle in the e-commerce arena. I guess you can say the term “business” loosely, because the model described here is more applicable to the non-traditional internet start ups. What I mean by that is they are not “stores”. There’s a product or a service involved, but there’s typically no transaction taking place. I’m referring to the Twitters and Youtubes of the world. These start ups have a very interesting approach to becoming successful. As a result, I think there is room for some support services to really benefit from their unorthodox internet business model.

Step 1: Market Share over Profit

If you are going to be a major player on the internet, the word market share is probably a staple of your vocabulary. In e-commerce, market share is everything. Getting traffic to your site is your most important task, especially when you first launch. The reason for this is because browsing on the internet is not like shopping at the mall. When you go to the mall you are exposed to other establishments even if you are not going there directly. If you need a birthday card, you will stop at the closest Hallmark or CVS and buy it. In other words, proximity can dictate preference. This doesn’t happen online because everything is in principal the same distance away. In the end, you normally end up paying for the majority of your initial exposure.

The extra attention towards gaining market share from online business owners has turned into a common trend of online start ups. Get people to the site and the rest will fall into place. No harm done, right? Wrong. This increase in popularity is almost always at the expense of the company’s bottom line. Many internet start ups end up going under without ever becoming profitable. While some would tell you traffic is the most important thing, its usually after that fact when businesses face significant challenges trying to monetize their popularity.

Step 2: Bank Account Damage Control

Anyone could see this a mile away. The first step was not admitting you have a problem, so the second step must be. You’re in the position of having an extremely popular website, but your venture capital is quickly being eaten up by your marketing budget and operating costs. You have to put on your top hat and monocle and figure out a way to pass “Go”. Most of the time that means one or more of these three things:

1. Advertising
2. Premium Services
3. Buyout/Merger

I really set the table for you this time. The objective is laid out. Come up with a program or service that is revenue generating for businesses that participate. These businesses are always looking for new ways to grow their cash flow. The best part is, they have already done the leg work for you by capturing market share. If you can come up with an original idea that can benefit users, business owners and you all at the same time, you will have no shortage of interested clients.

This is a topic I would have never expected to write about. I picked up Ruby on Rails a little over 2 years ago, and between then and now I have managed to fall in and out of love with the whole Rails experience. My Rails journey first began in fall of 2006. At the time I was working with HostRocket.com’s Senior Architect and all around web guru Justin Mazzi on developing VTWhite, Viatalk’s turnkey reseller platform. We had begun development in PHP when he presented the Ruby on Rails idea to company executives. They agreed that it would be a good avenue to explore, it was new and cutting edge just like a VoIP reseller system. The pieces fit. Ruby was here to stay.

We hit the ground running by taking advantage of the one positive aspect of Ruby on Rails, it’s effortlessly fast development capabilities. In a matter of months we completed a three tiered, fully functional reseller platform. It was complete with a billing system for Viatalk’s backend, a customizable content management system for the resellers, and a reseller branded account control panel for the end user. It’s obvious why people like Ruby on Rails, the results are really impressive. I am still very happy with the outcome of the project. The system is nice enough that we eventually migrated Viatalk’s billing system to the platform, you can see how it looks here.

So if Ruby on Rails is so fantastic there must be a good reason why I’ve decided to shy away from it. There is, and that reason is that it is single threaded. In case you don’t understand what I mean by single-threaded, let’s use an example. Let’s say you’re at a basketball game and trying to leave. So you go to the nearest open exit and walk out. No problem, right. Well let’s say 50,000 people are also trying to leave. When you get to the door, only one person can walk through at a time. You have to wait your turn, which is inconvenient. In this case you represent someone trying to load a page of your website. Each door represents a Ruby instance. In a normal setting the process is fine, but as more people want to view your site, Ruby doesn’t expand to accommodate those requests. It doesn’t spawn another process the way a typical LAMP set up would.

What this means is that in simplest of applications, one request can be handled at a time. To combat the limitation you must run multiple instances of mongrel and load balance. This is not only really annoying, but also extremely resource intensive. The bigger the site, the larger the burden. Is there a word for “really not scalable”? The answer is yes. That word is Rails.

Having a large Rails application under my belt, I don’t see myself ever using it for any future projects. The scalability issues are enough to turn me off from considering it an option for future web development. That being said, I feel obligated to mention that Viatalk has taken the necessary steps to solidify their system. Their Rails platform is robust and scalable. It is a possible thing to accomplish, it’s just not easy. So if you’re a real Rails freak and you’re willing to take on the burden of supporting it, go crazy. I wouldn’t be surprised if you someday find yourself feeling just like I do.

It’s time to dedicate a little blog space to another Mountain View, CA internet startup that has some relevance to both web marketers and consumers alike. That company is TrialPay. Their focus is customer acquisition for primarily subscription-based web services (that’s where the trial comes in). They currently have $15 million in hard earned venture capital and their gearing up for a significant change in the way the consumer bargains with your checkout process.

In my last post, I talked about Fetchback and their retargeting, so we’ve covered the process of getting quality traffic and repeat customers. TrialPay is the other half of the puzzle, because it’s sole focus is sealing the deal. Getting people to visit your site is a challenge, but turning those visitors into customers is an even higher mountain to climb. With TrialPay your transaction flow is better equipped to reel in a visitor once they bite. The secret is to entice the user with a better offer to save them from changing their mind. It’s essentially like programming your order form to haggle with a customer who finds themselves on the fence. How does it do this? By presenting them with a free trial to your website in exchange for taking part in another program TrialPay is offering.

Here’s a scenario, say you’re looking for market statistics on a company so you turn to Vault.com for some data. In order to get the data you are looking for, you need a gold membership which costs $45 for 3 months of access. You don’t really need 3 months of access for something that takes 20 minutes and $45 is a lot of money. You sit on the site’s checkout page where you deliberate and stew over whether or not to just sign up until you finally come to your senses and slide your mouse over to that “X” of freedom. Instead of closing, a popup from TrialPay presents you with an offer to sweeten the deal. A free trial at Vault on them if you sign up for Netflix today. It’s the holiday season and your aunt needs a present, so you scoop her up a year of Netflix and your Vault info is on the house!

The “buy something, get something else” offer is far from a new tactic. The concept is simple, we’ll cut our profits by offering you something extra because its better than getting nothing. The innovative part of TrialPay is two-fold, it is automated and it is conditional. It allows you to automatically give incentives to customers that need the extra push for conversion, while not affecting people who already find your offerings compelling enough to participate. It’s a step towards catering your offer to suit the client needs, without any intervention or “selling” on your part. Feel free to check out the TrialPay site, they have information for buyers and sellers. Who knows, you may be able to pick yourself a little something extra.

Fetchback has now been up and running for 18 months, and that is enough time for me to be convinced it is a powerful marketing option for ecommerce. For those who don’t know, Fetchback is branded as a “Retargeting Company”. They focus on capturing users that actually visit your site, thus reaching out to people that are more familiar with your business and more likely to actually turn a conversion.

In the words of Max Kellerman, targeting people that are familiar with your brand has “tremendous upside”. Think about the way you browse the web right now. You can probably classify websites into 2 main categories, sites you visit religiously everyday, and sites you visit only when you are interested in a specific piece of content.

To clarify let me give an example using Facebook.com and Zappos.com. Lets say that you are a user of both sites. One is a social network, one is an online shoe store. You probably log into Facebook pretty much everyday, but you only go to Zappos when you need a pair of shoes. So think about how valuable it would be for Zappos if everyday when you went to Facebook, there was a Zappos banner on the page. Zappos is familiar to you, so theres a chance the banner may inspire you to visit the site to see what they have to offer. More importantly, it will be there on the day you are on Facebook AND looking to buy shoes. So how do I accomplish this? The obvious way is, I can buy a banner on Facebook so that every visitor sees it when they are on the site. That’s an expensive investment, and I’m not guaranteed the people seeing the banner are interested in buying my product. With Fetchback, I trade a higher CPC cost for improving the quality of the user I am exposed to. If I own Zappos (unfortunately I don’t), I’m more than willing to pay a higher cost per click if the person doing the clicking is a repeat customer, or at least a repeat visitor. It’s a a no-brainer.

Web marketing costs all come down to your budget, your business and your target audience. But if you have some money to spend and all of your traditional marketing campaigns are fatiguing, give Fetchback a try. It’s a new approach, with a different advertising network and a unique business model. If you are a current Fetchback user or have tried it in the past, please reach out and let me know how it has worked for you.

College graduates are a special breed, something about having your name written on a piece of paper in a large fancy font makes 22-25 year old Americans motivated. That being said, it can be assumed that you are also literate, so it would be a good idea to get your hands on any of these three books to fill up your homework-free evening time. Here’s the very selective list:

The World is Flat Written by Thomas Friedman, this book is about Globalization. If you are working as part of a large organization, it’s likely that some aspect of your business will be outsourced to somewhere else. It’s time to get acquainted with that ideology. Thomas Friedman is a columnist at the New York Times, so he’s interesting, don’t be intimidated by the book’s size.

Blink and/or The Tipping Point both titles are by Malcolm Gladwell. Both of these books basically explain how people think, which is valuable. But in reality these books are attention grabbers because it’s focus is a topic you’re very fond of. You. The Tipping Point breaks down the timeline of a “social epidemic”. I’ll spoil the ending, you’re a sheep after all. Blink focuses on the human unconscious instinct for making decisions. It turns out you’re smarter than you thought you were, but only if you read at least one of these. Both books use good examples like cigarette smoking, television shows and even suicide to drive home the concepts. At the very least, it may make you look smart in a meeting by dropping some crazy fact you may pick up, which these books are full of.

Good to Great by Jim Collins. Good to Great dissects what makes companies excel and what makes companies tank. This book may be geared more towards the business owner, but it explains reasoning for why businesses do the things they do. I found it very valuable from the employee perspective. Everything that’s discussed in this book is based on a real life example from a fortune 500 company, so evidence backs up all the concepts.

Hopefully at least one of these titles will help you to think like an adult. After all, you are in fact an adult now, right? If not, maybe a future date will spot one of them on your book shelf. Girls like ambition and they ALWAYS go through your stuff.

Looking over the Google blog this morning and I found a post highlighting their “new” tool for researching your keywords. I say new loosely, because it’s been available since August.

The Overview- Google Insights allows you to see how many searches have been done for any given keyword, in relation to the total number of searches on Google over a certain period of time.

I searched for “magazine subscriptions” to give it a try. The search for magazine subscriptions seems to be on a slow decline, gradually sliding from 70% in the beginning of 2004, to around 20% currently. What was even more interesting however, were the spikes that occurred every 4th quarter of every year. This would imply that people are looking for magazine subscriptions, or at least content related to magazine subscriptions, much heavier around the holiday season. Don’t feel bad, dad appreciates his -annual subscription of Consumer Reports- stocking stuffer.

So this is already a pretty powerful tool, you can get a decent overview just from this graph. You can also see that it includes markers for major news articles that relate to your topic. These obviously can relate to the volume of a search. For example, OJ Simpson was a much more popular topic when he’s in the news for committing a crime than he is when he’s flying under the radar minding his own business.

The overview gives you a birds eye view of a keyword, but my favorite part of the Google Insights tool is by far the “Rising Searches” tool. Rising Searches lists out the searches containing the keywords you are looking for that are gaining momentum. They are the searches that are becoming more popular, but may be less targeted by advertisers. You can compare them with the overall top searches, which are displayed side by side, and help formulate a good hybrid of keywords to focus on.

So you might want to consider including Google Insights in your SEO optimization. You may get a closer look at what is relevant to the end user. If it’s relevant to them, it’s relevant to you.

Having worked at a hosting company (HostRocket) for almost 4 years, I’ve known about WordPress for a pretty long time, but after seeing ignorant moron after ignorant moron set their site up with one of these things, I refused to ever take the plunge. I always felt as though it was a taboo alternative to programming a blog yourself. So earlier this week I began coding away, reinventing the wheel. I got about half way done with a basic scaffold when I decided to give WordPress a look for “inspiration”. I’m now happily up and running in a third of the time, with no headaches. Don’t be stupid, if it’s already done, don’t do it over.