November 2012
6 posts
Be Distinctive & Trustworthy
Not everybody is distinctive, but everyone should be. Not everyone is trustworthy, but again, everyone should be.
This doesn’t mean shock and awe or open kimono. It just means be remembered for something and tell the truth. Find your position and let people know what it is, directly or subtly. Find your unique selling point and drill it a bit deeper each day.
The benefits from this are...
Ad:Tech & AppLovin
Just 1 month ago, if you’d have told me I’ll be doing 15 scheduled meetings at Ad:Tech NY, I’d have told you that you were crazy.
But everyone has come out of the woodwork and I can most probably have 10 more meetings if there was enough time.
I’d like to think that it means there’s a lot of business out there now. That I’ve been around long enough where...
The Carpetbomb Strategy
It’s used in politics really well. Wherever you are, you can’t get away from the presidential campaign.
Not attending a rally? We’ll get you on TV.
No TV? We’ll get you on Facebook.
No Facebook? We’ll get you on Google.
No Google? We’ll get you on Twitter.
Nothing digital? Don’t worry. Newspapers and magazines.
And for good effect, we’ll get...
When someone tells me their idea for a new app
whatshouldwecallme:
When I’m drunk:
When I’m not:
Compassion & The Marathon
Yesterday I spoke about charity. I was going to write about the shades of 9/11 inherent in the aftermath. But decided that today should be all about compassion.
The government is doing its job. But where’s the compassion?
The city is moving forward with the NY Marathon. But why?
Maybe the number guys say that it won’t have any affect on the cleanup and re-building effort, but...
Charity Begins At Home
An old expression. Sure. But true. The news cycle is global and the constant negativity and devastation can be dulling. However, what happened to the Northeast coastline communities with Hurricane Sandy is anything but.
It’s easy to gloss over if you weren’t present, but when you see the devastation and can individualize that to a person or family that lost their home, glossing over...
October 2012
11 posts
The Art of Brevity
Politicians don’t really know what this means. Nor do many long-winded speakers. You know the type.
It’s not about being short, but about being to the point. It’s not about elaborating on points, but on making sure that they are understood. It’s not about obfuscating a fact, but on identifying the figure.
Our world increasingly values this and yet some people just...
TinyCo Makes Some Affiliate Moves
TinyCo recently launched a pretty unique affiliate program and it was a very smart move on its part. It’s symptomatic of where user acquisition has gone on mobile apps and makes sense for some very large partners that have bandwidth to handle this sort of personal interaction with a single user acquisition partner.
Let me take a step back. User acquisition is relatively easy to track when...
Android Update Frequency
I’m an Android user (gasp!) and I love many things about the platform.
The flexibility and variety of what you can accomplish.
The intuitiveness and seamless integration of Google products.
The notification system.
The device diversity of choice.
And frankly, the freedom to do what I wish.
But one of the things that bothers me is the update frequency on the apps. It’s never...
The Carriers Are Banking It
The carriers are laughing all the way to the bank. We sit here twiddling our thumbs, pontificating on:
iOS vs. Android.
Feature phones vs. Smartphones.
SMS Charges vs. App Workarounds.
Carrier Billing vs. Credit Card.
Unlimited Data vs. Data Caps.
Yet, what do must of us do about it? We just pay higher bills. But maybe it’s time to shop around.
If not, the carriers will just...
Social Cues are Damn Important
Popular opinion says that we shouldn’t really care about social cues.
But maybe we should.
First impressions are very often misleading. They’re based on pattern recognition. And pattern recognition is right until it’s wrong. It may be right in 99% of the cases. But you’re going to miss the outliers. And the outliers help create opportunity/difficulty. They say...
Communication is About Perception
It’s not about the message you’re trying to get across to your audience. It’s about how it’s received. I was thinking about this last week as I watched the Vice Presidential debate between Joe Biden & Paul Ryan. Or more accurately, was thinking about it after I watched the debate.
Frankly, Twitter has made debate watching just too much fun. Rather than listen to the...
People Prefer to Make Mistakes Passively
This is a whopper and most people just don’t realize it. If someone is going to make a mistake, the human brain would prefer that it be done passively.
I could speculate as to why that is, but it’s not necessary for purposes of understanding this message.
Think about it.
It’s why people prefer to stick with their first choice.
It’s why people don’t want to sell a...
Algorithms & The Short-Tail World
I’ve noticed something interesting over the last few years. Everyone talks about the long-tail world on the web, but we’re seemingly headed towards a short-tail world.
Wherever I go, I see ads based on what I’ve searched for in the distant past (i.e. calling cards and sunny vacations) or maybe what I’ve downloaded (i.e. everything under the sun). On content sites, I see...
Research Your Target Really Well
It’s not enough to just make contact and pitch. You need to connect. And in order to really be able to do that, you need to research.
In an optimal world, you’d like to actually know more about your target than they might even know about themselves. Not because you need to but because you want to.
How’s it possible to know your target better than they know themselves?
Because...
Competition from Incumbents
Sometimes competition comes from lean and small startups. But often it comes from large incumbents. I actually anticipated this a while back in May and something like a year or two prior, but now it’s official: Facebook has entered the mobile ad network fray.
Other than re-reading my third person reference at the end (hate it) or my slant towards a web ad network, this is something that was...
Get In The Weeds
I most probably interact with between 10 and 20 app developers each week. Maybe more. I’ve noticed many differences between the ones that are really successful and the ones that are moderately so.
But there’s one difference that I’d put above all the rest. The ability to get in the weeds and make the tough decisions. To have the experience to know what’s going to work and...
August 2012
1 post
Google is Spot On
So I was taking a break this August from posting here but there was just too much happening in the Google Android space to stay quiet. If you’re an Android developer, you’ve noticed the changes afoot. You most probably read the email you received in your Google Developer account about the updated policies.
These are serious changes and good for Google Play. In fact, really good for a...
July 2012
7 posts
Taking a Break
I know what you’re thinking. Summer’s here.
So what.
Well, it’s important to take some time off. It’s good for the soul.
So I’m off for the summer and will be back come fall.
Lots more to say.
If you come back, that is.
Stay tuned :)
Twitter is an Echo Chamber
The thing that’s so great about Twitter is what makes it so poor. It’s the echo chamber. The retweets. The @mentions. The constant reiteration.
Twitter is awesome at disseminating breaking news really quickly. I saw Microsoft had released some news about a software update yesterday. This was immediately drowned out by the news of Marissa Mayer leaving Google to helm Yahoo. Pretty...
Developers Have Time Limitations Too
Last I checked, mobile developers have the same time limitations that bump up against you and I. Focus, clarity, and vision are all things that mobile developers need to deal with. Getting pinged on multiple inbound requests per day reduces the focus needed for them to win. If it doesn’t sit within the core of what they want to do, there better be a damn good reason for them to take a look...
It's Not You, It's Me
If you’re making a pitch and are completely misunderstood, it’s not an audience issue. It’s your issue.
I pitch pretty often and every once in a while, I get some feedback that tells me I was just way off base, way off the mark, in terms of delivering the core message that I wanted to convey. When something like that happens, you can shrug it off. Or you can change your pitch...
Launch on Android First, iOS Second
There’s only one reason for this, and it has nothing to do with Google’s policies vs. Apple’s policies. It has nothing to do with the flexibility of Android or the openness of the platform vs. the controlled yet high-value environment inside iOS. It also has nothing to do with the size of Android vs. the size of iOS. They’re both quite large.
It has to do with the ability...
Mobile Banners are Really Efficient
So there’s a whole lot of literature that you can read on what works and what doesn’t for mobile banners. Common opinion says that traditional mobile banners, the ones you see at the top, middle, or bottom of any given screenshot are really inefficient.
There’s banner blindness, targeting issues, contextual issues, and many other questions surrounding the effectiveness of mobile...
Twitter. Add LinkedIn Back.
This is incredibly annoying to say the least. I had my whole syndication policy laid out pretty easily.
I write on Tumblr. Tweet on Twitter. And pass it through to LinkedIn, where much of my face-to-face audience resides.
Now, I need to write on Tumblr. Tweet on Twitter. And Post on LinkedIn.
You just added one more step to my busy schedule.
Now, granted posting on LinkedIn actually comes...
June 2012
7 posts
Game Developers, HTML5, and The Plague
If you haven’t figured it out by now, then maybe this great and detailed post by Wooga about its HTML5 game strategy will help clear your head.
HTML5 development is a really hard path for game developers, and provides a really slow experience for users. You don’t have access to native functionality. You have major speed issues. And to top it off, you still get to deal with multiple...
Kinecting Microsoft
Microsoft released news about the Surface which, by all accounts, looks like a nice piece of hardware. But again, they’ll still have app variety issues, just like anyone competing with Google & Apple now. They’ll also still have problems getting people to buy it. It’ll likely be as expensive (if not more expensive) than the iPad 2, certainly, and maybe even the iPad 3.
But...
Mobile CPC vs. CPI
If you’ve been in the digital space for just a bit, you know what these acronyms mean. If not, here are the basic definitions:
CPC = Cost Per Click.
CPI = Cost Per Install, or Cost Per Acquisition (tied to some sort of performance element).
So as an app developer/publisher, this type of comparison pops up all the time. Should I go with a CPC based network or a CPI based network? The...
Anatomy of a Response
I talk with a lot of people, on the phone, via email, text, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and many other places. Sometimes it’ll even be an in-person meeting though I try to avoid those for the benefit of both parties unless there’s something really stellar there (another time, another explanation). More often than not, I’m looking for some sort of response. Yes, no, or maybe. The...
Social De Rigueur
I tried giving away this headline to Nitasha @ Betabeat or Jack @ Digiday (you can still use it), but no takers alas. I even posted it on Twitter for the world to grab, but again no takers. I think it was the spelling. It’s a tough one.
When you think about online business, lots of people think social (i.e. Facebook, Twitter). Very often though, this comes from a marketing perspective, not...
Using Twitter for B2B
Twitter is likely one of the least used B2B tools, especially when compared to LinkedIn. But it really shouldn’t be.
Especially when it comes to B2B.
While you’ll still find more people on LinkedIn, you’ll also find that Twitter is a great way to engage business folk in real and relevant conversations. Even a great way to connect if you think there’s a necessity for that...
Maybe Mobile Advertising Isn't Broken
Common consensus dictates that mobile advertising is broken and we need to come up with solutions. And fast!
But what if it wasn’t broken. What if the money driven by advertising is just a facet of the money actually spent via the medium. After all, digital is a performance based medium. Everything can be tracked and so agencies throw CPM based advertising out the window, so to speak.
I...
May 2012
15 posts
Press Time
I never understood why raising money is such big news. Closing deals, gaining customers, subscribers, (whatever your business metric) is just much more insightful. But it seems that what drives lots of traffic and interest is the latest funding round. I can’t go an hour without coming across another funding round. Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice information and, at times,...
India's Growing Smartphones
Everyone talks about China, but what about India?
Last year, smartphones made up roughly 6% of mobile phone sales in India (total sales of roughly 200mm). That number is going to rapidly grow and we should expect widespread adoption of smartphones, especially in regards to lower end Android devices. Spikes of several hundred percent a year in the Android category wouldn’t be surprising.
...
4 Ways to Increase Mobile Stickiness
This post was published last week in Offervault Scoop. Great resource for affiliates!
I had posted a somewhat curtailed discussion about the nuances of push and pull marketing as it relates to mobile on my personal blog. There are times where it’s preferential to use pull marketing, times for push marketing, and times for a combination of both. Ultimately though, you really want to think...
Facebook's Version of Adsense
I can’t remember where I’ve said this before, but I was reading an article about Facebook’s opportunities for growth and here it was, mentioned again. The secret that Facebook really hasn’t let out of the bag but has been surreptitiously moving towards over the last several years. The reason why Google feels the Facebook threat and has bent over every which way to get...
Simple Messages Work
Keep your message simple. It seems pretty straightforward, but it’s usually very hard to do. If your message isn’t understood in literally 3 seconds (ok, maybe 30), you’re not going to be able to get it across in 15 minutes or 1 hour.
Frankly, you can spend all day and it really won’t matter. People are busy and preoccupied and whether they have the time or not,...
Mobile Social Waves
We’ve seen some crazy growth numbers recently from companies like Instagram, Viddy, Socialcam and many others that have integrated the Facebook Open Graph into their mobile user experience. Now, these are inherently social apps and integration into the Facebook timeline has made a lot of sense for what they’re doing. Let your friends know what you’re up to, what you’re...
Extrapolating Too Early
We’re all guilty of it at launch. Mostly because the early trend is really easy to read into. It’s working or it’s not working. The numbers look great or they don’t.
But that’s not really the mark of a good analyst. You need to wait. Here are some tips to get the most out of your data.
Compare apples to apples. If you launched a new product, make sure you have the...
Economic Agendas
I love economics. Always have. Not the type to study Keynes vs. whomever, and I really couldn’t care less about the ideologies per se. Data on which ones work are just too hard to prove, or too easy to prove. There are too many variables that affect real life situations gravely more than they do clean models built with the help of a statistician and excel. Sure, I have my opinions, but not...
Rise of the Independent Creative Class
There’s no question. Even within the last five years, we’ve entered into a new world. I call it the rise of the independent creative class. Hundreds of thousands and millions of people earning their keep as independent creative people. But it’s moved way beyond just the digital and into the physical world as well.
So whereas before, you would think about writers and graphic...
LinkedIn Linking
It’s strange. LinkedIn is by far the most useful sales/business development tool available today. It’s great for prospecting/expanding your network, scanning your network, keeping in touch with your network.
All things business networking.
But I get the sense that they can be doing so much more. Take Twitter. That’s great for expounding to your network, perhaps building out a...
Yahoo's Resume...
Regardless of the veracity of Scott Thompson’s resume, I think we can safely say that Yahoo’s resume has more than a few pockmarks. And this is just one small item among a litany of items, certainly starting before Yahoo turned down the Microsoft offer, but definitely more pronounced since then.
People often ask. Is there a better person? Are you qualified? Are you replaceable?
The...
Push Marketing vs. Pull Marketing
Or should I call it direct marketing vs. branding?
I spoke yesterday about attacking different markets and moving where the demand is. If you’re in a market with tremendous demand/interest, use pull marketing. If you’re in one that has limited repeat engagement, and marginal interest, use push marketing.
Examples?
Push Marketing - Email marketing companies. Push notification...
Stick to What People Want
There was some recent news that Flurry released about people spending as much time in social networking apps as they spend in mobile games.
Sounds about right.
If you told me anecdotally that either games or “social networking” type stuff was more popular, I wouldn’t really have a problem with it. Frankly, they’re both popular and when you’re building a service,...
Dealing with Rejection
Rejection hurts. It’s a common cliche, but very true.
And you have to learn how to deal with it.
I don’t need to go into the particulars about why it hurts, because we all know that it does. We all know that it’s difficult to pick ourselves up from a no. But if you work in the world of business development and sales, it’s not only essential that you move forward, it needs...
Revenue Quality
Unless you have your head stuck in the sand, you’ve seen talk of tech bubbles. I don’t think the talk is wholly undeserved as the majority of companies are going to find it difficult to sustain some of the valuations that have been put out there in private and public markets.
But one of the key factors to look at when assessing some of these companies and their valuations is the...
April 2012
12 posts
Creativity is Hard
Writing something daily actually requires some level of creativity. Not in the sense of verbal creativity, but in the sense of ideas, thoughts, and insights. It requires a certain mindset, a certain mental flow if you will. And if that gets disrupted, your writing gets disrupted.
So I apologize for some of the last few weeks where the writing has been somewhat spotty. One week off, one week on,...
Cable & Sports
The only reason why cable TV still exists today is because of sports. Nothing else really matters, even the reality shows don’t hold a candle to what sports is capable of on a heavily repeated basis.
Everything else you can just watch later. Timeliness is not self evident. Sports, however, is the one thing that drives right into that inner sanctum and brings out the fanatic in all of us.
...
Think About the Watch
Google. Forget the glasses or don’t forget the glasses, but think about the watch.
Wouldn’t it be great to have watch and phone completely synced? Read all my messages. Check the time. Set the alarm clock. Send voice messages. In other words, I could accomplish a whole bunch of things that I could do by taking out my phone, but don’t really want to. After all, I don’t...
