Best apology ever
Clearly, there is no place in modern reporting for this kind of unregulated, unprotected access to readily available facts, let alone in capriciously using them to illustrate areas of concern. We apologise unreservedly, and will cooperate fully in helping Google change people’s perceptions of its role just as soon as it feels capable of communicating to us how it wishes that role to be seen. – Link
Recent items.
Amazon has ‘em: a sidebar that shows the last few books, DVDs, or CDs I looked at.
Salesforce has ‘em: a sidebar that shows the last few accounts, contacts, and opportunities I looked at.
Every web site needs a “recent items”. Every application needs a “recent items”.
My email client needs a sidebar with the 5 most recent emails I viewed. iTunes needs a sidebar with the most recent songs I played. My web browser needs a sidebar with the most recent web pages I viewed. My calendar program needs it. My IM program needs it. Et cetera et cetera et cetera.
Why? Because if you looked at something recently, there’s a good chance you want to look at it again right now!
The recent items need to be in a sidebar. Not hidden behind any menus. There should be exactly zero clicks required to get to the recent items.
Sayonara, babycakes.
Great idea. Especially for contact management software.
The impetus for this started a little while ago at Cybernet Expo.. I was lucky enough to win the top spot on Sleazydream during the traffic seminar. (Thanks Sleazy!)
Prompted by Sagi from Adult Friend Finder I started thinking about what sponsor to use. He being the good rep that he is suggested that I use AFF, and even suggested a specific approach that he thought would work best. A conversation with Sleazy on a bus in Mexico (trust me it’s slightly less odd than it sounds) sprang to mind reminding me that Sleazy promotes AFF heavily on his site. I started thinking about his traffic being already exposed to AFF vs the great conversions, and spun off into an internal debate.
As I considered it more, 2257 concerns vs effective galleries, which sponsor is best to use for the traffic, what sort of template to use, and many other questions came to mind. For some adult webmasters this would be just another gallery spot. I on the other hand don’t submit to TGPs. I primarily do organic SEO because it allows me to spend as little or as much time as I have available. It also means that I haven’t had to deal with some of these issues before.
Working for AVN has brought me a network of contacts at the top of the industry. Naturally, I thought to consult with them and get their advice, especially those who focus on TGP. Then I started thinking how useful their advice, and the results would be for everyone in the industry. I decided that I should document the process, and blog about it. I brought up the idea to a couple of people and got very positive feedback. However, like so many “good ideas†it kept slipping in my todo list.
During a conversation with Jack from ProfitLab we decided to synergize my TGP Case study and his “Impoverished Noobs†showcase project. We agreed to follow this rough outline:
* The Catch. I get the data & publishing rights. The entire process is documented every step of the way. Advisor discussions, gallery submissions, sponsor submissions, traffic stats, sales stats, screen shots – the whole shebang. Of course I’m not planning on keeping this to myself, hence the case study.
With the time and energy of the Noobs, the advice/resources of the advisors, and help from the sponsors I think this could turn out to be a very interesting project.
Some comments
Understanding of the Long Tail is not required in order to benefit from it. “millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.” – Chris Anderson is the way the online adult entertainment industry has been evolving before the ideas ever hit mass consciousness.
Paysites have gone from from mega sites, to niche sites, to micro-niches, and even the membership model has been evolving. Many adult webmasters find themselves now functioning as filters using everything from porn blogs to Niche TGPs, review sites even Yahoo groups and the like to generate traffic.
It may not always be apparent right away which of your projects will have the best ROI over the long haul. The Long Tail is very useful as a building block concept for analysis of the market & choosing the best strategies for current conditions. By understanding the concept of the Long Tail, then you have another tool to use in looking at the expected value of your projects.
Do yourself a favor. Close the door, turn on your speakers and devote seven minutes to watching this flash movie .
When I first came across this about a year ago it blew my mind. It’s a tiny bit dated, but still incredible. Go ahead, watch it now! (then read the rest of this post)
While I think some of the specifics are unlikely (or even silly) the examples of the New Media Economics and business models are brilliant. The personalized content meme is definitely out there.
Today at SEO Blackhat I saw a very interesting question tied to the Googlezon idea.
“Who is really pioneering the computer generated content, the rewording and content scraping technology of the Web?
Search engine spam technology keeps improving, so search engines keep evolving. The best SE spammers are the ones who provide as close to EXACTLY what the search engine is looking for as possible. The best search engine is the one that finds as close to EXACTLY what the user is looking for as possible. Therefore as search engines improve, SE spammers will have to evolve as well to deliver EXACTLY what the user is looking for, transforming them from a hated nuisance to a valued resource.
“Evolution has a nearly infinite multiplier on its search power and it just happens to invest its search effort in the mathematically optimal most efficient search allocation” link
Sometimes closing your eyes gets you exactly where you want to go. Evolution is blind, in that mutations occur without design. Yet even so, evolution produces the most optimal adaptation for any given environment over time.
“Evolution is an information processing system building vast database of information and synthesizing complex measurements of that information and doing an incredibly powerful search and mining of that information database to discover and refine improvements.” link
Sounds a lot like what some of the Big Boys and others are up to, as well as some of other players.
One of the obvious models that Search can learn from Evolution is consequences.
In nature, adaptations/mutations have consequences. Constant feedback is provided by the environment using signals ranging from prosperity to death.
The adult entertainment industry has been doing this for years via Toplists, TGPs (self sorting based on productivity), and partner accounts (symbiotic relationships).
Google is on the track with the toolbar voting buttons, and others like del.icio.us are even further along.
More accurate/efficient feedback means shorter cycles/generations which means less time to optimization.
Not many people bother to give feedback unless it is automatic, or they see immediate benefit from doing so. Personalization or Customization is terrific incentive for people to give feedback.
Maybe what Search needs is to introduce Death into the equation?
“Gamers approach the business world a bit more like a game. They see the different companies—and maybe the people they work with—as “players.” They’re way more competitive and are very passionate about “winning.” They are both more optimistic and more determined about solving any kind of problem you can imagine; they think there’s always going to be some combination of moves that will result in success. That drives them to be incredibly creative.” – Harvard BSWK
When I think about where I find examples of the gamer archetype outside of the obvious (playing games) I think of adult webmasters.
This article almost perfectly describes many of the type of people that you find in the online adult entertainment industry. Why is there such an overlay of gamers and adult webmasters?
Well for one it’s what gamers called min/max.
Min/max is gamer shorthand for a strategy or even a mindset. Most games try to be balanced. So for every advantage/shortcut/strength etc that you choose, there is some compensatory drawback/resource required/flaw/weakness etc. However, when you focus on ‘winning’ ie achieving X goal, there are often places that the drawback isn’t relevant. So if being able to bring a gun to a knifefight means that your character smells bad, walks with a limp and mumbles therefore isn’t well liked (+special weapon / -charisma, -movement speed) it doesn’t matter if X = win the knifefight.
When it comes to applying this theory to life, I imagine a subconscious calculation that goes something like this:
Let X = Have the best life possible.
Best life = Happiness x Good Times
Good Times = (fun-work+ sleep) x Quality of Life
Quality of Life = (Social interaction x Satisfaction) – Drawbacks
The drawback for adult webmasters usually is found in Social Interaction.
There is a certain segment of society that will not want to openly associate with adult webmasters. However webmasters don’t particularly like to hang around with your average reactionary either so that aspect of the drawback is minimized. The isolated nature of webmastering is overcome through adult industry networking – both using the internet (message boards, IM, blogs etc) as well as industry events.
The work itself is frequently enjoyable.
When the work becomes fun the drawback (have to do) isn’t relevant in the equation because it overlaps recreation (want to do). For some it’s the fact that in essence they get paid to surf the web for porn. Further along the same axis for others it’s because their sex life/love life can overlap their career. For many going to conferences & events to network & party is a recreation or vacation. Sometimes their product or service itself is an adult game.
Many choose or fall into it because it’s one of the least life cost (work from anywhere & high returns vs time) ways to achieve their goals, and it has relatively low barriers to entry.
For those like myself, the work itself becomes a game.
What we call ‘The New Media Game’ (product/service/content/traffic development & monetization) is an incredibly rich, complex, ever evolving, real time game for high stakes. Since I have started playing it has gradually replaced MMORGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), CCGs (Collectible Card Games), and online no limit Texas Hold ‘em poker as my recreation of choice.
There are many subgames that all combine to make the metagame.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization), TGP (Thumbnail Galley Pages), SEM/CPCM (Search Engine Marketing/Cost Per Click Marketing), social networking, business development, marketing and even industry politics can be fun to play.
A gamer mindset means you never lack for inspiration or variety in your challenges.
A gamer mindset allows you to see opportunities, and have competitive advantages that others miss. This mindset is what can drive guerilla entrepreneurism while your product/service is evolving, adapting and integrating along the way. Metagame is another bit of gamer shorthand that is also a mindset. I won’t try to summarize it here, there are plenty of articles about it floating around the web. I mention it because learning to see the metagame is a strength that ‘gamers’ bring that is often overlooked. Learning how to see the metagame allows you to take skills, knowledge, memes, strategies etc from games and apply them to your life. This both helps you to ‘play’ better, as well as enjoy your life more. By making it a game you spend more time doing what you want.