He’s right that having a distinct name online can be extremely helpful. It has plenty of search engine results implications. Not enough people think about this issue when naming a company or product.
This is a really smart tip.
Month: February 2008
Lee Odden’s Top Ten Online Marketing Tactics for 2008 Survey
Lee Odden has posted the results of his online marketing survey. The blog result is likely directionally correct, but is likely skewed on the high side a bit due to the survey being on a blog. Go figure. 🙂
- Blogging (25%)
- Search engine optimization (14%)
- Email marketing (12%)
- Pay per click (8%)
- Blogger relations (6%)
- Online public relations (5%)
- Viral marketing (5%)
- Corporate web site (4%)
- Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn) (4%)
- Webinars/Teleconference (3%)
Continue reading Lee Odden’s Top Ten Online Marketing Tactics for 2008 Survey
2008 Mobile World Congress Barcelona (MWC08 – formerly 3GSM)
I once again find myself here in Chicago instead of in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress.
The conference tag appears to be MWC08. I must make it to this event someday as I must experience the crush of 100,000 attendees.
Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive and Other Potholes
The Chicago Tribune has a nice user generated content piece where they allow readers to input pothole locations. It is an open thread that simply says: “Tell us: Where are the worst potholes? Potholes seem to be everywhere this winter, but who has the worst — the city or suburbs? Tell us where you’ve seen the biggest and deepest.”
What’s upsetting is that just like the mismanagement of the CTA for decades, many of the comments allude to years of neglect and mismanagement by the government of the City of Chicago. CBS put together a story on how to file a claim for damage. Why must everything become a crisis before anybody does anything about these things? Maybe the city and state will put in resources to fix the lack of easy access to entrepreneurial grants and angel investor tax incentives like Wisconson has next – while we still have an economy…
Here are a few answers Chicago Tribune readers gave (some make you laugh and cry at the same time):
Potholes on my entire way to work on Devon Avenue Between Northwest Hwy and Caldwell Ave. Noticed several vehicles with flat tires this morning causing a traffic jam
Westbound on North Ave, there are are at least 2 or 3 massive potholes just before and after Elston Ave. Stay out of the right hand lane
On Webster between Clybourn and Ashland. There is a fifty foot section with about 25 potholes
One more vote for Lincoln Ave. between Petersen and Devon — avoid at all costs if you care about your car
Central Road, from Milwaukee west to River Road. It is like driving a road in a third world county. Cars bob and weave into oncoming traffic. You can’t driver over 20 mph. Someone at county should be fired for letting a road deteriorate to this degree
Just as you get off LSD on to LaSalle North exit going south right lane is full of potholes
Park Ridge: Cumberland Avenue between Devon and Higgins
Worst — take your pick, LSD Irving Park Road to Foster. Second worst — Oak Street underpass northbound to LSD. Third worst. 47th underpass to LSD. Some of these above holes are a foot deep and several feet across
Cicero Ave and Lawrence, in the left hand turn lane on Cicero… it’s like an unavoidable abyss
On westbound Lake Street between Ashland and Western there are so many little potholes the drive seems like you are off-roading
Under the pass to get on Lake Shore Drive from Oak it’s been like that for over a year! Disgraceful! The CTA ride is awful and 311 doesn’t do anything about it! The drivers try to drive on the left side when possible as the busses bounce horribly!
Western bridge going over Belmont, southbound, west lane. They’ve been there for at least a month
Have you seen the pothole on the bridge at Division and Halsted… Big enough to make a person disappear
Westbound on Grand just east of Milwaukee Ave. The whole thing is one series of huge potholes
The pot hole at Archer & Cicero in the northbound lanes just cost me $550 in repairs – yeah lets spend some more $$ on the Olympics -idiots
Like others have said, Cicero between 21st and 51st is a landmine. It’s so bad, I saw a small car driving along and it just disappeared into a hole….lol
I CANT BELIEVE DALEY HAD ALL THAT MONEY TO USE TO TRY AND BRING THE OLYMPICS TO CHICAGO BUT DOEST HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO FIX OUR STREETS. WHAT ABOUT THE BRIDGE ON 31ST BETWEEN PULASKI AND CICERO IT LOOKS LIKE MINES WENT OFF
Southbound on N. Clark Street, just north of Upper Wacker Drive, right lane swallowed my car. Still can’t find it
Right lanes of Ridge Road in Evanston. Very bad in both directions
The worst pothole is on the east edge of the southbound Fullerton entrance ramp to LSD. A close second are numerous potholes on Halstead between Chicago and Erie. You have to drive like you are going through an obstacle course
Almost all lanes of LaSalle Street between the Lake Shore Drive ramps and the intersection of LaSalle and Clark
4200 South Ashland. Even the CTA bus won’t go near it! And avoid at all costs Pershing Rd. between Halstead and Ashland
Bridgeport – 31st street between the Dan Ryan Expressway and Halstead (especially under the viaduct near Canal St) and the ENTIRE 31st St ramp getting onto the inbound Ryan. I’ve already replaced two tires this year.
Try driving on Cicero Ave. anywhere near the Stevenson. Pot holes deep enough to strand tanks. Been this way for weeks.
Robert Peck – Bear Stearns: Mobile Spectrum Auction C Block Results Likely To Be Delayed
Robert Peck and his research team at Bear Stearns has been doing an amazing job of explaining, tracking arcane information and sending out brief snippets regarding the ongoing FCC mobile spectrum auction process. The volume of information they are tracking is both significant and lacks immediate transparency as the bidders are not immediately named.
This morning he pointed out that the D auction block is well it’s minimum and will likely be re-auctioned. What is significant about this is that the results of auction 73 can not be shared until all of the blocks are completed. Here is the exact text of what Robert Peck sent out this morning (emphasis added):
GOOG – 700MHz – How D Block Impacts Google…. Auction 73 completed its Round 35 bidding yesterday – results are posted on FCC website. We have previously alerted you to the fact that the PWB regional bids on all 12 regional licenses add up to $4.75B, higher than the $4.71B on the nationwide package which was entered in Round 17. Hence, the original bidder on the nationwide package is Google or another carrier, that bidder no longer has the obligation to purchase the spectrum. Industry advisers think Auction 73 could rap up as soon as the next two weeks.
However, we also want to point out that there are 5 blocks of spectrum in this auction and the 4th one (the D block) is currently set at $472M, below its $1.3B reserve. Many assume that this block will NOT meet the minimum reserve and will need to be put into Auction 76 to be re-auctioned. While this does not DIRECTLY impact Google or other block bidders (those blocks will be locked in at the end of the auction 73), it does INDIRECTLY impact Google in that no Auction 73 results can be disclosed until all 5 block are complete. This means that investors may be significantly delayed in learning who won the C block, as the only timeline deadline statute for the FCC statute in this auction is for all of the spectrum must be over and the money collected by June 30, 2008
Knowing Robert as I do, he probably wishes that they would have put this whole thing on Ebay. 🙂
Have We Entered The Era of The Functional Web?
The New York Times has an article on how the potential sale of Yahoo! to Microsoft could be bad for minnows, i.e. small Silicon Valley companies looking to be acquired. I think this is a short sighted viewpoint.
In the late 1990’s dot.com era, the web was slanted too much towards wall street involvement that led IPO’s that were questionable and in retrospect not advisable.
A force outside the web, namely Sarbanes-Oxley in the Enron aftermath, has made the IPO considerably more challenging to achieve and costly to navigate – even for highly legitimate ideas.
In the web 2.0 era, the slant often went way too far to the left in terms of engineering. Some ideas with little actual business purpose have received unwarranted acclaim and without artificial sources of acquisition, some might not even exist.
Before I go onto explain why that development might create an alignment that I’ll tentatively call the functional web, let me state that I think there are plenty of other companies out there that could emerge to pick up the slack such as Fox, Intuit, Apple or any of a number of traditional media companies who “get it”.
This web might emerge even if the Yahoo! acquisition does not take place. If the functional web emerges a place where engineering and business purpose mix in equally important parts instead of the excesses in one direction or another, who potentially gains and who potentially has something to lose?
Potential Gainers:
– Strong Internet business skill generalists with strong system architecture, product management and the ability to network with geeks and non-geeks alike and iterate from feedback will be in higher demand.
– Companies who would like to challenge the big three who would get an opening.
– People who understand how to create revenue models that could provide for great stand alone businesses.
– People pushing for Sarbanes-Oxley reform to reopen the IPO spiggot a tad. They will push even harder.
Potential Losers:
– Funding sources who either fund ideas in a me-too fashion or just because they’ve known the people since the dot.com era and/or those who can’t define and lead a path to monetization or bring strong execution partners to the table.
– Domain name squatters and sellers.
– Passive executive recruiters who will have to actually analyze comprehensive skill sets instead of simply poaching from a direct competitor.
How to Be a Startup Marketing Warrior By Josh Kopelman
Josh Kopelman writes some extremely effective and highly useful blog posts. This one happens to be about what startup marketing really means.
I’m planning a series of venture capital interviews in the near future, I’d be flattered if Josh was one of the participants in that series.