Ravi’s Rants

I was recently in the market for an “e” fax solution. I looked at quite a few services. My basic requirements were these:

• Reliable
• Low cost (not necessarily free - because I wanted the service to be reliable and accountable)
• Didn’t need a local area code - anywhere was fine, as I don’t receive too many faxes
• Offer a free trial - so that I can experience it first-hand
• Offer a decent number of incoming pages in the package
• Offer a low-cost pay-as-you-go model for additional use

• After hunting around the web, looking up various forums and wasting time on made-for-adsense spam and junk-review sites, I stumbled across MaxEmail.com.

  You can get your incoming faxes sent to your email address as a PDF attachment.

  I went through their 1-month free trial, was highly satisfied with the quality of their service, and just now signed up for a whole year at $24/year (their “lite” plan).

  If you are looking for something similar, go check out MaxEmail.com

If I had to pick just one blog, and could read only one blog for the rest of my life - including my own blog (the one you’re reading right now) - I would pick Seth Godin’s blog.

Seth’s blog is (hyperbole alert) amazing, educational, informative, remarkable, mind-blowing, extraordinary, purple, eye-opening and goose-pimple-raising good.

Seth’s books, his blog and his words have become such an integral part of my life, that I ended up creating a separate category here. I still have to go back and tag some of my older posts, but you can read all of the posts where I’ve written about or referred to Seth Godin, by going here.

But don’t read just Seth’s blog. You don’t have to.

Read some of the best blogs out there, along with Seth’s, all on one page by clicking here.

It’s not really purple in color. But I did mean that it is Purple.

Why?

It’s because of the way it was successful in creating an entirely new industry of “athlete marketing” like never before. Because of how it created a frenzy among consumers. Because of the innovative ways Nike marketed it [for instance, they paid $5,000 in fine for every match that Michael Jordan wore these banned (then) shoes on court].

Not even Apple - to this date - has been able to match the hysteria that these shoes created (have you ever heard anyone getting mugged or killed for an iPod or iPhone?)

And yes, I was a teenager when I read and watched news about people getting mugged and killed for Air Jordan shoes.

Now go make your own Purple shoes.

My question was very simple: I wanted to know how I could promote products using CPA (Cost Per Action) on the Google Network and allow publishers who have access to “AdSense Referrals” to promote my products by placing a piece of code on their web sites, and when someone clicked over to my web site and purchased one of my products, the publisher would get a piece of the sale.

Classic “Affiliate Program” stuff - where this time around, I wanted to be the merchant, and not the affiliate.

I contacted a Google AdWords Specialist on chat - who turned out to be not as much as a “specialist” as you would think they would be.

Read the chat transcript below to see how long it takes for the rep to even understand my question, and give out a meaningful answer. It is painfully obviously that I know more about Google Products than her!

But I am glad that she eventually gave in and deferred the question to a “technical specialist” (read: someone who knows their $hi#).

Completely unedited except for minor reformatting for readability, and removing of private content.

Chat Information: Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. Please hold a moment while we route your chat to a specialist who will help you with your question: “”.
Chat Information: AM has received your message and will be right with you.

AM: Hello Ravi. Thanks for contacting Google AdWords. I’m happy to help you.
AM: Could you clarify what you mean by referrals?
AM: Ravi, are you there?

Ravi Jayagopal: yes
Ravi Jayagopal: I meant, how would I advertise through Adsense Referrals?
Ravi Jayagopal: I’m currently using Referrals as a publisher
Ravi Jayagopal: I want to advertise my product through Referrals, so that publishers can promote my product, and then I would pay them a commission based on sale
Ravi Jayagopal: you there?

AM: Well, I am actually an AdWords specialist so I am really not familiar with AdSense Referrals.
AM: However, you can find out more at https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/Referrals.html?gsessionid=N8x_KdsMNys.
AM: Referrals Help Center
AM: In the Help Center, there is a Quick Start guide.

Ravi Jayagopal: I don’t want Adsense referrals, actually
Ravi Jayagopal: I want to “advertise” - so wouldn’t that fall under “AdWords”?
Ravi Jayagopal: Publisher -> Adsense
Ravi Jayagopal: Advertiser - AdWords
Ravi Jayagopal: No?

AM: Yes Ravi, but you asked about Referrals.
AM: Referrals is not a part of AdWords.
AM: It looks like you already have an AdWords account.
AM: What do you have questions about in particular?

Ravi Jayagopal: Ok, here’s my question: Right now, as a “Publisher”, I pick out referral ads and display them on my site, and I make money when my visitor clicks on those referral ads and goes on to buy something. With me so far?

AM: Yes Ravi.

Ravi Jayagopal: Ok, now I want to put my “Advertiser” hat on and promote my product so that “other” publishers can promote “My” product through the referrals network
Ravi Jayagopal: how would I become an “Advertiser” and promote my product?

AM: Through the Content Network.

Ravi Jayagopal: Ah, that’s what I wanted to know
Ravi Jayagopal: So is there a way to say “Referrals” when I put my ad out on Adwords?

AM: You do already have an AdWords account with the email address <>.
AM: All you will need to do to appear on other sites is to opt into the content network when you create your campaigns.
AM: We don’t use that term.

Ravi Jayagopal: But when I opt-in to the “Content Network”, it automatically becomes just a PPC campaign right?

AM: We call your advertisements ads and we call our publisher sites ‘the content network.’

Ravi Jayagopal: I don’t want it to be PPC, but a CPA item

AM: You can also create a CPM campaign.
AM: Cost Per Impression if you’d like.

Ravi Jayagopal: not CPM. I’m talking about CPA - cost per action
Ravi Jayagopal: which is what Referrals is - CPA.

AM: That is not an option right now Ravi.

Ravi Jayagopal: then how are all these advertisers on Adsense Referrals?

AM: Again Ravi, I’m not familiar with AdSense referrals.

Ravi Jayagopal: Is there someone higher up who can help me with this question? Because it is definitely not an AdSense question - because AdSense is for Publishers

AM: If you want to contact the AdSense team to ask them about that, you can email them directly at adsense-support@google.com.

Ravi Jayagopal: and I am talking as an Advertiser

AM: Ravi, they will only be able to tell you what I am telling you, that you can create advertising campaigns that you’ll pay on an impression or click base.
AM: Those are the only options right now for our advertisers.

Ravi Jayagopal: So how are these advertisers advertising on a CPA basis? That’s what I want to know
Ravi Jayagopal: If you don’t know the answer, I would appreciate if you could put me through to someone who does
Ravi Jayagopal: But don’t tell me I’m asking the wrong question

AM: Please hold on just a moment Ravi.

Ravi Jayagopal: Ok, thanks

AM: CPA is not an option at this time in your account Ravi. I just checked with our technical specialist.

Ravi Jayagopal: Why? And when would it be?

AM: It’s a limited beta right now. If you give me the best email address to reach you at, I can email you if it does become available.

Ravi Jayagopal: ok…thanks…it’s <>

AM: You’re most welcome.

Bottom-line:
You cannot yet sign up as an “Advertiser” and promote your products through Google “Referrals”. It is in limited beta, and unless you were invited to be part of the beta, you would have to wait until they open it up to others.

As much as I love Google and probably qualify as a “Google FanBoi”, I have to say, Google sucks at most things not handled by their machines (read: Human Beings).

If you drink coffee at Starbucks, you’ll surely appreciate this: 54 cents Refills For Starbucks Coffee .

If you’ve ever wondered about the power of influence that videos - even free ones - can have in selling commercial products, look no further.

Recently, I was on the receiving end of this power, as I shelled out about $3,200 to buy a Yamaha Motif Keyboard - thanks(!) to two powerful videos on YouTube.

I’ve chronicled it in my rather new blog, MotiFreak.com.

I recently asked a very close non-blogger, never-blogged-before friend to start his own blog on my new multi-blog site, YehHaiIndia.com (driven by WordPress Mu - very cool software).

His immediate response was:

The problem with blogging is you need ideas and thoughts you want to write.

And you are assuming I have thoughts that are worth writing about….

The biggest problem with publishing a blog, is not that you may not have enough or something worthy to say.

The biggest problem is actually “fear”.

“I can’t believe he wrote something that stupid!”
“What the heck was she thinking when she wrote that?”
“He has no idea what he is talking about!”

Fear of criticism. Fear of being judged.

We don’t want to put our thoughts and opinions “out there” for everyone to judge; and for some to call us “a moron”, “clueless”, “totally wrong”.

Whereas blogging is like thumbing your nose at this fear.

You put yourself out there in every post. Every thought and comment and opinion in your blog is yours - and yours alone. You are setting yourself up for criticism and judgment and name-calling. And you want people to read your posts, criticize you, judge you, interact with your blog and give you feedback.

As long as we fear this feedback, we simply cannot do remarkable things.

No, it doesn’t mean you ignore common sense and do something stupid (like putting crazy photos of you on your blog while somehow involving your employer).

It means that if your post makes sense, and all you fear is being judged by your colleagues, friends or family - and fear about what others might say, then I say, just get over it, thumb your nose at your fear, and get ‘er done.

“Bacn” - pronounced as “Bacon” - is spam (kind of), but not really the lewd, disgusting, “killing my inbox” type.

From Jargon Watch at Wired.com:

It’s not really spam. You want to read it (and probably would), you just don’t have the time. Thanks to the folks at PodCamp Pittsburgh, there’s a new web-term you can now use specifically for these types of e-mail notifications. Things like bill-payment receipts, Twitter requests, newsletters, project notifications—all are bacn.

Here’s more if you want more.

My “Video Unit” link wasn’t available yesterday when the announcement was first made.

Was able to see it today.

“Linked” my Adsense account with my YouTube account.

Got the confirmation from Google in a few minutes (they do warn that it could take up to 12 hours).

Created my “player”, got the code.

The ads load asynchronously, and they seem quite on target from the other sites I tested so far.

Way to go Google!

Going by the PageRank (PR 6), you can guess how many sites are linking to this post on JoelOnSoftware. The content is that powerful.

Here’s the summary:

1. Fix everything two ways
2. Suggest blowing out the dust
3. Make customers into fans
4. Take the blame
5. Memorize awkward phrases
6. Practice puppetry
7. Greed will get you nowhere

Post: 7 Steps To Remarkable Customer Service

In this era of the open web, it is hard to monetize information that you can easily get elsewhere.

Want to read about what’s going on with the presence of Iranian dictator Ahmedinajad in NY City? Just Google-News it up (yes, that’s different from Googling it up), and you’ll get all the latest relevant news stories you can handle, in reverse chronological order.

So why would people pay for accessing the NY Times?

Not too many would, and not for long, figured the NY Times - and finally opened up the gates.

It’s official: the “Adsense Model” is in.

Open up your content, make money from ads. This same model didn’t work for most sites just a few years ago, in what I call the “Pre-Adsense Era” in my book. But now, it can work for all sites - whether you are NYTimes.com with millions of impressions, or a LinkOverLoad.com with just tens of thousands of impressions.

Usually I never follow NYTimes links that show up in many of my searches, because I know that 4 times out of 5, I will hit a password-protected story. But today, knowing that they have removed the wall, I read a very interesting article about the new model of outsourcing, a glimpse of which I had gotten earlier looking over the shoulder of someone reading the NY Times paper on the subway.

If you want to charge for your content, make sure your content is not easily available, not easily validated, or that there is too much information that cannot be easily made sense of.

In my book “No Business Like E-Business“, I write about the Google Supplemental Index (GSI - Ravi’s acronym). Basically, this is like the “alternate” Google database, where sites that are “on the way in” or “on the way out” show up.

If yours is a new site, it may show up in the GSI before it shows up in Google’s main index (google.com). Similarly, if your site has suddenly disappeared from the main index, you may find it here (before it disappears from everywhere on Google - which means your site probably violated their webmaster guidelines, and has gotten banned by the Almight G!).

Here’s more information from Google Webmaster Central about the Supplemental Index.

And don’t forget to subscribe to the feed while you’re there.

“Our invalid clicks rate – the activity rate – has remained in the range of less than 10% of all clicks every quarter since we launched AdWords in 2002. At Google’s current revenue rate, every percentage point of invalid clicks we throw out represents over $100 million/year in potential revenue foregone.”, says Google’s Inside Adwords Blog.

Yep, that’s $1 billion! Is it really a loss? Because that’s billing that would’ve never occurred anyway, if those were truly fraudulent clicks.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Google. You could even call me a Google fanboy. But when you put it like that, it sounds like Google’s taking a huge hit because of fraud. Doesn’t matter how you say it, sure makes them look like a hero.

I found this amazing site yesterday through one of the feeds on LinkOverLoad.com. Awesome video coming right up…

Animoto basically turns your pictures into a fantastic MTV-style video, with some great soundtracks available on their site for free, or you can use your own audio - with your pictures almost flashing in rhythm to the beats of the soundtrack, with some great-looking special effects.

When I signed up, uploaded my pictures, picked a great-sounding track they had on their site (for free) and tried to create my video (remember, their software supposedly creates all of this in an automated fashion), I got this very friendly error message:

Hi there,

We’re sorry to inform you that we have experienced an error in the
production of your recent video, “Beautiful People”. Rest assured, we’re
on the case and we’ll have it rendered as soon as we can–but, depending
on the complexity of the issue, it could take a little time.

We’ll email you the moment it’s ready. Thanks for understanding!

…

That didn’t bother me, as they are still in beta, and still hammering out the rough edges. What did surprise me, is that they promptly sent me this email the next day:

Hi there.

We’ve finished your video, so it’s time for you to go take a look.
Head to:

http://animoto.com/play/…..

We hope you like it! Give us some feedback when you get a chance to
let us know what you liked and how we can improve. Remember, no two
Animoto videos are ever the same so keep making videos and see what unique
pieces you can generate.

…

I excitedly clicked over, and was simply blown away by the results (see video below).

Remarkable idea, great (almost perfect) execution, instantly viral! Pass this along…

Video from Animoto.com

We all knew this day would come, but I had been more curious about the type of video ads that would show up: would they be pre-roll (first show the ads, then the actual video)? Would they be post-roll (after the video) or some kind of pop-up (probably not, knowing their Adsense policy about pop-ups)?

Well, it appears that Google is going with overlay ads on YouTube. I am yet to see an ad on YouTube, but I will update this post when I find one.

James Bond	Jason Bourne	Jack Bauer

Think it’s a coincidence that these three super crime-fighting-machines share the same initials? I think not.

Bourne was bourne as America’s answer to the ultimate killing machine and British super spy who is the only one (other than God) who can save the Queen: James Bond.

Last night, I watched “The Bourne Ultimatum”. Last week, I got through Season 3 of “24″ (I know! I’m trying to catch up).

Bourne and Bauer are the “Bond”s of the new millenium, with Bauer doing the honors for the small screen.

• Bond is super-slick. Bourne is your boy-next-door.
• Bond is stylish - he drives the hottest cars, wears Prada suits. Bourne dresses like a bum.
• Bond has impeccable hair. Bourne sports a close-shaven, military cut.
• Bond drinks “shaken” martinis. Bourne probably drinks cheap, adulterated liquor (especially when in Russia and India).
• Bond gets the ultimate gadgets made for him. Bourne simply borrows a few from his enemies (after he’s knocked them out cold).
• Bond doesn’t blink before killing. Bourne is torn apart when he has to kill someone.
• Bond’s women are plastic bimbos that add nothing to the plot. Bourne and Bauer’s women (except for Kim Bauer, of course) are intelligent, have character, and are a lot more than sex-toys for their men.
• Bond insults women with his use-and-throw attitude towards them; Bourne and Bauer love and respect their women, and mourn for them.
• Bond has no identifiable weakness, but Bourne has his girlfriend, and Bauer his family - and drug addiction problem.
• Bond has a smirk on his face at the end of the day; Bourne has nightmares about the people he killed, and Bauer weeps like a baby (end of season 3) for deliberately killing a fellow-agent.

Bourne and Bauer: These two are every man’s (and woman’s) ultimate heroes. They look ordinary, dress ordinary, their emotions are pretty ordinary (in a good way): they weep, they flinch, they feel guilt, they hesitate, they love and they mourn - just like you and me.

What separates them from the cold, merciless, super-cool bond who will blow up a hangar killing 200 men and bed a super sexy foreign-language-speaking babe - all in a day’s work - is that these guys feel real. Yes, they have extraordinary kick-ass talents, but the way they go about their life, is identifiable by the average person in the 21st century, where Bond comes across as fake (gasp!)

There are a few take-aways from the skyrocketing success of Bourne and Bauer, and the declining fortunes of Bond (until the entry of Craig - but that is another post altogether).

• Yes, you certainly can take a competitor’s product (Bond), localize it (Americanize it), add better features, benefits, or simply make it a better product (Jason Bourne), repackage it, resell it, and be insanely successful. Yes, you can copy your competitors, and still beat them at it.
• Your audience has to be able to identify with your brand. Bond’s brand is tired, old and spent. You just stop wishing he were so darn perfect! Bourne and Bauer have created their own brands - they are quite imperfect, very real, merciful, emotional, humble, vulnerable, think-before-you-shoot and one-woman types.
• Predictability is not always a good thing. That’s why Daniel Craig’s newest Bond is trying to re-invent Bond - when asked by the bartender how he wants his drink, says ““Do I look like I care?”.
• Reality is a lot more powerful than fiction. The ratings-success of Saturday Night Live, Survivor, and even terrible shows like Big Brother is in-your-face proof. Even fictional characters - like Spiderman and Superman - have to be and feel like they are real.
• Credibility comes from being believable. Make your site copy believable, make your “benefits” believable, make your “U.S.P” believable, and when your customers call you, don’t greet them like a pre-recorded voice recording (think: shrill “Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Just a moment” voice of annoying secretary from “Office Space”).

Be true to yourself. Be real. With your your friends, your family, your children, your colleagues, and with yourself.

Please Vote Below:

Watch this hair-raising video that shows a herd of buffaloes trying to fight a pride of lions, trying to snatch a baby calf away from the jaws of 5 lions and 2 crocodiles!

Will the baby calf survive? Make sure you have nerves of steel before you watch it.

I hope this fight inspires you to fight valiantly - against all odds - against whatever adversity you may be facing in your life right now.

Ravi Jayagopal
Author, “No Business Like E-Business”

• Creating an e-business…
• Learning a new skill…
• Being the best at what you do…
• Building something worth building…
• Creating something worth creating…
• Saying something worth saying…
• Doing something worth doing…

All of these take plenty of time - and effort.

It is very easy to just look at the end-result of other people’s successes, ogle at their fortunes, and forget (or conveniently ignore) the painstaking path they had to take in order to get there.

Life is very much like the video you are about to see.

It takes inspiration, vision, persistence, creativity, and most importantly, quite a bit of perspiration too…

Now go create your Purple Cow, Raving Fans, Fanatical Support, Positively Outrageous Service, Mona Lisa - or whatever else you want to call it.

Doesn’t matter what the name is. The idea is to do something remarkable.

Ravi Jayagopal
Author, “No Business Like E-Business“

The sad thing is that along with the “Citizen Marketers” come the “Citizen Abusers”.

Any form of user(citizen)-powered marketing will always eventually be subject to abuse, and then the distinct line between a legitimate “volunteer” citizen and a “paid” citizen suddenly becomes very thin. Point in case: Digg.com, BzzAgent.com or a PayPerPost.com.

As time goes by and more “citizens” go up for hire, all user-driven marketing will be viewed through colored glasses.

So, that’s where trusted networks like LinkedIn will come into the picture.

Ravi Jayagopal, “No Business Like E-Business“

Maybe quite a lot, and mostly not a lot.

“Huh?”, you say?

If you look at this “top bloggers” list, you may end up buying into the fantasy that blogging will make you big bucks.

Not every blog will make that kind of money. Actually, it would even be fair say, that less than a fraction (less than 1%) of all blogs will make big money. Maybe a little more than a fraction will make decent money. But 95% of all blogs will not make any money. Why? I think there are quite a few reasons.

In my new book “No Business Like E-Business” that is being released shortly, I quote figures from Guy Kawasaki, about his self-disclosed ad revenues on his extremely popular blog. Here is a snippet from the book:

Excerpt from “No Business Like E-Business”

Imagine blogging for a whole year, ending up with a very popular blog that has 23,457 subscribers, ranked #45 out of all blogs in the world, and earning (brace yourself) a whopping $3,350 for the entire year!

Now stop imagining - this stuff is real.

I’m talking about Guy Kawasaki’s blog (blog.guykawasaki.com). These statistics only prove my theory further, that:

1. It is very hard to get tech-savvy folks to click on ads the way the average surfers (moms-and-pops) do.
2. It is not easy making a living just by blogging.

I myself own a site targeted at moms-and-pops, and I made many, many times more than what Guy’s #45-ranked blog earned. And mine is a very small niche, and a lot, lot, lot less less popular than Guy’s blog.

Here are some key stats from his blog:
• 2,436,117 page views (about 6,200/day)
• 23,457 RSS feed subscribers
• Total advertising revenue: $3,350 for 1 entire year (= $1.39 cpm)

You’ve got to take these stats with a pinch of salt, because these stats could be skewed due to a number of things – especially due to improper optimization for Adsense (or ads in general). Like mentioned earlier, Adsense optimization requires a lot of continued experimentation and tracking – in other words, a lot of focused effort - in order to make it work, which I’m guessing Guy probably didn’t due for various reasons.

But then there’s the other school of thought that overrides common sense. If you read the actual article, you will see that most of them did not start the blog with the sole intention of making money.

The main take-away here is that blogging may not make you directly cash-rich, but there are a lot of indirect, intangible benefits of blogging that simply cannot be overlooked:

• Build your brand: Develop a group of regular readers who are more likely to buy stuff that you actually sell down the line. Brand yourself as an expert in your niche. You will sell more books, get more paid consulting gigs, and all of that will eventually snowball into…. selling more books and getting more paid consulting gigs.
• Looks great on your resume: Unless you are putting up personal pictures or talking about stuff that you did when you were drunk, it adds a lot of value to your profile, because not everyone is capable of writing, and even among those few, not everyone is capable of writing about a focused subject in a professional way
• Ad-revenue: When you eventually start getting a lot of traffic, there will be plenty of ad-revenue opportunities (mostly CPM types); don’t count on PPC revenue, because tech-savvy folks just don’t click on ads.
• Develop original content: If you sat down to write a book, you may get overwhelmed by the amount of writing that needs to be done, and the sheer amount of effort that needs to put in. Instead, just start blogging chapter by chapter, and you could eventually compile those into a book (or other product).
• Blog posts can be transformed into articles: Writing an article for the sake of writing one can be extremely boring and painful. Instead, write short and crisp posts, and over time, you can pick each one up, expand it a little, and convert it into articles that can get you some incoming links.
• More traffic: Writing great posts that are instantly digestible and usable, and submitting to sites like Digg and StumbleUpon can not only get you tons of traffic, but also potential new subscribers and maybe even sell more of whatever it is that you are selling.

- Ravi Jayagopal
Author, “No Business Like E-Business“