Recently I read an article on How to pick up followers on twitter and disagree with the approach and “tips” offered by the author. Here’s why:

Tip 1: Follow the “smores (social media whores).”

Translation: Follow people who you don’t care about, as long as it exposes you to more people.

Tip 2: Send @ messages to the smores.

Translation: make it look like you’re friends with popular people so you will get follows by association.

Tip 4: Follow everyone who follows you.

If a follow is a type of endorsement, then what does who you follow say about you? Are you actually interested in what the people you follow are saying?

Tip 5: Always be linking.

Translation: It doesn’t matter what you say, as long as you’re saying something.

Here’s the underlying assumption to all of these tips: More followers equals more influence. It’s simply not true. You’ll have far more influence if your followers actually value what you have to say.

To that end, follow people who you find value in following, not simply who follow you. If the people listening to you share your values, interests, and actually care about what you have to say, you’ll have a far bigger impact with your audience.

If you try to appeal to everyone, you won’t appeal to anyone, and you’ll lose your individuality in the process. When you’re no different than anyone else, why should anyone listen to you?
Be yourself.

See the difference?

Do you remember when friendster was all the rage? These days my interaction is limited to the occasional email that I receive from them. They're irrelevant. Everyone's gone to a new party. Is the MySpace party the next to end? Did they peak when they were sold for hundreds of millions of dollars? Based on the data from Alexa the new trend is favoring Facebook. I wonder how long will they be king of the hill.

I’m a long time fan of the computer trivia game series, You Don’t Know Jack. Recently Jellyvision has decided to end the free online versions of their games after their 100th episode of the online YDKJ game. I’ve always wondered how the games can be so engaging when they use almost no graphics at all, relying heavily on moving text.

In the void of time I used to spend each day enjoying their games I’ve started reading the Jellyvision blog and found this post about why moving text (turns out its called “kinetic typography”), can be so effective.

“We sometimes catch flack for the text-heavy appearance of our conversations. “Why don’t you use video?” we have been asked. And I guess it’s a reasonable question. Video is inherently more active than text. I mean, look at these words here. They’re just sitting on the screen. Oh, sure, you could scroll up and down, but that’s not really the same thing. . .But you can make text dynamic: make it move and fill the space in a way that gives the words themselves personality” (more).

Here’s a good example: check out this audio excerpt from Fight Club. You wouldn’t think just seeing words move could bring the whole scene back in your head, but it does.

In October 2007 we published an article titled, Don't be fooled by the SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The point that we were making was that the way to be loved by Google and the other search engines was to be "relevant".

One project that has been completed recently was the launch of Dane Sanders' book Fast Track Photographer. Here is snapshot of a search for "Fast Track Photographer" (click for larger view):



Results 1-28 all about Fast Track Photographer. You have to get to the bottom of page 3 to see anything else. How much did the SEO cost? ZERO!! This shows how being relevant is the best way to be noticed by the search engines (like we said).

Our web gurus have acknowledged that the one benefit to SEO is when you want to be found for generic terms that relate to prospecting. Sometimes SEO works to generate non-paid search referrals but if it's really generic or valuable then paid placements are the way to go (if relevance doesn't work as well as you want).

So what does this mean for you? It's better to focus on your content than Google. If you do that then Google and the others will find you. If you just focus on SEO you might just get a lot of fluff and no traffic.

Rangefinder Magazine recognized Dane Sanders' array of websites as being the BEST in Steve Tout's recent column Profitable Website Management. Make sure to catch the article here. It includes complements on his brand experience, blog, Fast Track Book, and pDNA, all of which have Elevation fingerprints all over them.

While it's always nice to have our work recognized in a national publication, the kudos definitely go to Dane for having a brand which connects within the photography community. It's clear that his signature style is refreshing in the industry and the resources he's providing fill a wonderful service to empower developing photographers.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that licenses used for OpenSource projects can be enforceable under copyright law.

Here are some excerpts from the summary document published by the Court:

... Open Source software projects invite computer programmers from around the world to view software code and make changes and improvements to it. Through such collaboration, software programs can often be written and debugged faster and at lower cost than if the copyright holder were required to do all of the work independently. In exchange and in consideration for this collaborative work, the copyright holder permits users to copy, modify and distribute the software code subject to conditions that serve to protect downstream users and to keep the code accessible ...

... Traditionally, copyright owners sold their copyrighted material in exchange for money. The lack of money changing hands in open source licensing should not be presumed to mean that there is no economic consideration, however. There are substantial benefits, including economic benefits, to the creation and distribution of copyrighted works under public licenses that range far beyond traditional license royalties. For example, program creators may generate market share for their programs by providing certain components free of charge. Similarly, a programmer or company may increase its national or international reputation by incubating open source projects. Improvement to a product can come rapidly and free of charge from an expert not even known to the copyright holder ...

... Generally, a copyright owner who grants a nonexclusive license to use his copyrighted material waives his right to sue the licensee for copyright infringement and can sue only for breach of contract. If, however, a license is limited in scope and the licensee acts outside the scope, the licensor can bring an action for copyright infringement ...

Source: Jacobsen v. Katzer Appeals Summary

Copyright holders who engage in open source licensing have the right to control the modification and distribution of copyrighted material. A copyright holder can grant the right to make certain modifications, yet retain his right to prevent other modifications.

This decision is important because it reduces the legal uncertainty regarding OpenSource rights and will make it a more attractive option for software development and OpenSource distribution models.

Elevation continues to support the OpenSource ideology. Litigation about OpenSource is rare so it's good to have this legal precedent on the books. August 2008 will likely be looked back on as the start of the next wave of OpenSource collaboration.

In the post .me we mentioned how this was one of the worst web auctions of all time. It's nice to be able to say, "I told you so". Today they published a notice of a change in the auction policy that is effective August 11:

The update is being made to comply with .ME Registry auction rules regarding Lead Changes, which state that "Any lead changes in the last 24 hours result in an automatic 24-hour extension of the auction."

With the update, the auction platform will no longer consider as a lead change bids placed that are higher than the current price but lower than the current leader's maximum bid.

For example, if the current auction price is $100, and the leader's maximum bid is $1,000 and another bidder places a bid for $105, the system will automatically update the auction price to $110 by applying the leader's proxy bid, thereby maintaining the same leader. This will no longer be considered a "Lead Change." If a bidder places a bid higher than $1,000 then a "Lead Change" will occur and the auction will be extended (if such a bid takes place in the last 24 hours of the auction).

The minimum bid increment of $5.00 will not change and this update is no guarantee that an auction will end sooner. This update is being done to better align the auction platform behavior with the auction rules and we thank the participants who brought this to our attention. There has been no evidence of fraud by any participant and this update will not affect the status of any closed auctions or those that began prior to the update.

While this change is wonderful it does not reverse the damage that was caused. Elevation would most likely have won an auction if it hadn't been for this rule. It's a day late and a dollar short. Which is not a good thing for an online auction!

The top ten active domains right now at the .me auctions are:

• insure.me ($34,535)
• hug.me ($15,005) 
• style.me ($9,580)
• dna.me ($9,054)
• brand.me ($8,605)
• surprise.me ($8,505)
• entertain.me ($7,610)
• ride.me ($7,085)
• coach.me ($7,060) 
• match.me ($7,005)

At these prices, I doubt if it is just a land rush. The people who are bidding on these domains must have some sort of business plan or strategy behind it. Some of the business opportunities are obvious. But how is hug.me going to be exploited?

The new .me domain is out. It is one of the only top level domains that is a pronoun. Is this a marketing dream or a waste of time and money? The jury is still out on that but over 20,000 domains have been registered so far. One thing has been verified: The auction is one of the worst web auctions of all time!

Only the people who submitted applications during the land rush period are able to bid which is fine. The bad part is that anytime there is an increase in the price during the last 24 hours of the 3 day auction it is automatically reset at 24 hours. So the only way to close an auction is to have submitted a request during the land rush, be the highest bidder, and not have any changes in the price for 24 hours. This means that 3 day auctions are lasting weeks. The only benefit is to the seller of the .me domains. They're taking the phrase literary, "It's all about me".

Take a look at the current auctions and recent sales. Some interesting ones that are selling are secure.me that sold for $10,005 and insure.me that is currently at $26,195 Also check out elevation.me (one of the best .me sites so far!)

To see the action visit auctions.domain.me or you can check out the .me addresses that are still unclaimed at GoDaddy

Take a few minutes to consider your client touch points today. Every interaction with your client, whether in person, in print, or via the web, creates a touch point that leaves a lasting impression. Consider, in detail, all possible points of contact, so that you can intentionally build the client experience that you’re hoping to accomplish. Remember, every contact you, your staff, or your brand makes with the customer, is a touch that has the ability to enhance or destroy your brand’s ability to grow. Don’t just manage your products or services, make sure to also manage your touch points for building unequaled brand equity and loyalty.

What touch points have you found to be the most important in your business cycle? Leave a comment below..

Jeffrey Gitomer wrote a well thought out article about the over-use of the email auto-reply by most individuals (& businesses). To summarize his point…

NOBODY CARES WHERE YOU ARE OR WHAT YOU ARE DOING…THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THEIR OWN NEEDS

Actually, that isn’t entirely true…your competition cares because they become the ones who benefit. I really enjoyed the article and agree that good marketing as well as good customer service requires that you think from your customer’s perspective. What is or will be important to them? How can your organization meet those needs? To forget this, is to lose focus for the reason you’re in business…to serve your customer! This requires you to be creative and use things like the auto-reply only when it would make the customer experience better (not just when it improves your work experience). But on the positive side … killing the auto-reply is a good excuse to go out and buy an iPhone.

From time to time we have clients who ask us to “optimize their site”. If we didn’t have ethics, it would be easy to add a line item to the estimate, make a few extra bucks, and call it a day. Don’t get me wrong, there was a time when SEO was not only important, but imperative. However, searching practices on the web are no longer the same. With so many options now available, people no longer search the web like a phone book. Instead, people mostly know who or what they’re looking for and just need to navigate there for further information. Nonetheless, it is nice to get to the top when possible or appropriate…

So what’s the secret to being found? The best way to be at the top of the list for a particular search on Google or Yahoo is to be relevant. One of the factors which determines the ranking on these systems is the use of the word or phrase compared to the total amount of source code that generates the page. Therefore, if the site is built well using XML tags and CSS your page will rank higher than a page with identical copy and sloppy code. If you don’t know what XML or CSS is don’t worry…we do! Instead of wasting your money on “optimization” we suggest that you invest more resources into a quality site that fits your brand experience and will meet your specific marketing goals.

Another secret of the search engine game is that sometimes you need to “pay-to-play”. Instead of wasting hundreds of dollars trying to “optimize” your site…it’s often better to develop a marketing plan based on specific keywords, phrases, products, or trademarked names, and pay Google or Yahoo to feature those listings. This allows you to reach markets which the search engine system doesn’t find on its own. One of the coolest things about this approach is that you can limit the field to various regions and by doing so increase the probability that this unknown lead will turn into an actual customer. For example, if you own a property management company it would be very difficult to optimize your site to be the highest ranking result on Google. Instead you could focus on driving traffic from people in your geographic area who are interested in “Apartment Managers” in New York or “HOA Management” in California. The chances for an actual sale, or new client, increase significantly when someone in your specific area of influence is able to locate the specific types of services or products you provide.

Remember, the best way to drive traffic to your website is to provide customers, prospects, and leads with clear, consistent communication of your web address and a reason to go there. This can be accomplished in many different ways through print materials, promotional merchandise, marketing campaigns, frequent site updates, educational opportunities and/or customer focused resources, to name a few. Whatever you do…make sure it accomplishes a specific goal which will both improve your business and provide the user with value.

To summarize:
- Build websites that are relevant and well developed
- Focus on your target market (both by niche and geographically)
- Invest in things that accomplish your business goals not the current fad

One thing we hate about the internet (and there are many) is the continued use of “www”. It’s been in decline for some time, but we still run into people using and saying www all the time. If you haven’t seen no-www.org, or you don’t speak geek, here’s our take:

1. www doesn’t mean anything anymore. Really, world wide web? What part of the web isn’t world wide?
2. www is a mouthful. Say it 10 times fast. Not only is “www” significantly more syllables than actually saying “world wide web”, everyone knows when you say “google.com” you’re talking about something online anyway. Adding the www is unnecessary and redundant.
3. you don’t send emails to jared@www.yourelevation.com, so why should you have to type www to visit our website?

What to do about it:

1. At the very least, make sure you can get to your site with or without adding www. before your domain.
2. At the very best, redirect http://www.yourdomain.com to http://yourdomain.com. You’ll notice all of the sites we work on at ELEVATION operate this way.
3. Don’t say www. Really, it hurts.
4. When using your web address for marketing and sales purposes, feel free to remove the ‘www’ and just stick to the important part…your brand!

For more information, visit