CBS Buys CNET; “No” Joy
Posted by Mitch on May 15, 2008
It was announced earlier today that CBS is buying CNET, one of the top internet media companies in the world, for $1.8 billion dollars, ending a potential hostile takeover from some outside investors.
At first glance, this deal doesn’t make any sense to me. It would seem that CBS has learned nothing from the failed AOL/Time Warner merger of the past or any of the other television media companies that have bought online companies before. The two mediums don’t even seem all that compatible, though I’m sure someone would beg to differ.
The purchase at this price comes from the same people who, a year ago, claimed that they weren’t going to spend big money on online companies, and balked at purchasing YouTube for the same amount of money. That one would have made more sense to me already being a video masterpiece, especially with the vast reserves that CBS has to have at its disposal. Instead, they’re buying a company that, while I’ve loved going to their site and reading their reviews and recommendations on both software and hardware products, has hit some hard times, recently announcing layoffs to come.
Of course, this isn’t their first foray into buying other companies, as they also picked up last.fm for around $280 million, but that one also makes sense, being another media company where CBS has vast reserves and many clients it could promote.
Frankly, I’m not sure I like where all of this is going. Big companies are buying up a lot of these independents and suddenly the thing that made them unique is gone. I still lament Dell buying Alienware and taking away what Alienware stood for, turning it into a milksop version of its former hip and wild self and allowing companies such as Falcon Northwest to replace them. Specialization that we have all enjoyed is going away, and very soon, like AM radio, it’s going to seem like we’re all listening to the same thing everywhere we go.
But don’t get me wrong; if someone offers me a million dollars for any of my websites, I’d sell in a heartbeat!
The Truth Behind The Oil Crisis
Posted by Mitch on May 14, 2008
I’m not usually a conspiracy theory kind of guy, but sometimes a guy comes along with a delivery and a message that’s just so compelling that you want to share it.
Lindsey Williams is the author of the book “The No-Energy Crisis“, and he seems to have been an inadvertent insider, of sorts, on some of the conversations about oil and it’s future way back in the early 70’s, around the time that the Alaskan pipeline was just starting to make a name for itself. He’s a former preacher who undertook a goal of becoming a counselor for the men who worked on the pipeline, and was invited to become a non paid board member, where he heard some of the most amazing stuff. It bothered him greatly, and thus he’s made it his crusade to tell the world, or at least the United States, what’s going on, and offers his own opinion as to what needs to be done about it, but why it won’t be done.
I was fascinated by it, and I have to admit that parts of it are hard to swallow. But he’s got some proof, and that’s more than most conspiracy theorists have, so everyone can watch this and make up their own minds. It’s kind of long, so either watch it in chunks, or watch just the first five minutes and make a decision off that. But if you actually make it through the whole thing, well, it will give you lots of stuff to think about.
As a teaser, there’s supposedly a good chance that, before it’s all over, we could see gas prices between $6 and $8 a gallon; that’s worth watching this bad boy.
Do You Avoid Scams?
Posted by Mitch on May 14, 2008
I was talking to a friend of mine last night in Australia and he was telling me how he once fell for an online scam where he thought he was getting a list of companies that would pay him to do surveys for them, and of course he got nothing of the sort. He was out $40, and had no recourse in getting his money back because the people went through some hidden source in setting up their chopping cart.
I told him that often in my adult life I’ve been tempted to do something that just didn’t quite sound right, and in every instance except one I didn’t follow through. The first time I did follow through was right out of college, where a friend and I paid some guy $20 to become wholesale marketers, and realized within hours that it wasn’t the job for us. For our troubles, we got to each keep one thing the company was selling, with my “gift” being a backgammon set that I still love to this day, so I feel as though I got my money’s worth out of it.
Also back in the day, I was trying to be a big time songwriter. I’d spend hours writing songs of all sorts, some I thought were pretty good, some I knew were just for me. I did research at the library for publishers I could send some of my music to, and I did. I even entered song contests, and had one of my songs finish in the top 600 out of 35,000 songs, so I felt pretty good about that.
But I also got contacted by a lot of people who said they wanted to record my song and put it on a record and market it to publishers and radio stations, which sounded pretty good. However, they all wanted me to pay for it, for someone else to record my music, and that didn’t sound right. The books I was researching at the library all said if someone asked you to pay for something instead of them offering you money, it was probably a scam. The pull was strong, I have to admit, but in the end I didn’t go that route, and I feel pretty secure about it.
Most of us are inundated with the latest and greatest thing online on a daily basis, and some of it sounds quite intriguing. Just a few weeks ago a friend of mine kind of ambushed me into a phone conversation with this other guy to start marketing online travel services, and it was “only” going to cost me $500 to join in. I still consider the guy a friend, but I was disappointed because I didn’t see that coming, though, after he asked me if I’d watch a couple of videos and if he could call me back and ask about it I will admit the Spidey senses did kick up.
I don’t go for glitzy presentations, video or written. If I get through the first 3 paragraphs of something, or into the second minute, and I haven’t been told what the product or pitch is, I leave. There are so many people marketing MLM products and services, and let’s face the truth, most of them aren’t getting by with that stuff. But they purchase it, try to push it as hard as they can, usually to their family and friends first, then they get beaten down by the resistance and bail out. It’s not that the products or the services are always scams, but the prospects they dole out to you as far as telling you how much money you can make is unrealistic.
Internet marketing isn’t easy; I’ll tell you that one right up front. Heck, regular marketing isn’t easy. Even if you’re an exclusive, where no one else does exactly what you do, there’s a world of competition out there doing something similar enough to make it hard for you to break through. So, any time someone else comes along and says you’re going to make a world of easy money if you just do this, or pay for that,… take a second minute to think it over with your non-greedy mind.
Now, books might be something different, because I’ve purchased a lot of ebooks and have learned a lot. I talked recently about the Joel Comm Adsense Secrets book, which I think is a pretty good book, and for the price I paid, it was a great book. The most I’ve ever spent on an online book was $40, and I thought it was worth every penny. But before I’ve purchased every book, I’ve done my research online, because I don’t just buy into the hype of something. I need to find at least two or three reviews before I’ll pull the trigger, and I don’t mean ads that look like reviews either. If everyone took a little bit of time in checking some of these things out first, we’d all be a whole lot happier.
Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m not still going to pitch a product or two at you; I am marketing on the internet after all. 
Meme - Passion Quilt
Posted by Mitch on May 13, 2008
Today I’m Going To Have Fun
I really do believe in the power of self motivation, but I also believe it’s hard to do on a consistent basis. The above is a mantra I created for myself some years ago, which I originally had taped to my computer. Once I changed my office around that didn’t work anymore, so my wife put it in a black frame, then put it on the wall next to my desk at eye level, so it’s the first thing I see every time I get ready to sit down at my desk. Why not create something for yourself like it.
This “passion quilt” thing seems to go way back, as people post a picture, title it, then send it on to 5 other folks while also giving the person that sent it to them some props. I figured I’d play along; I can be a good sport,… sometimes.
- Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
- Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry (as I’m doing here.
- Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.
So, now I have to tag 5 people; hmmm, I think I’ll go with:
Josh Shear
Ivo Jackson
Sue Tosto
Kristen Andrews
Krystal Thomas
And there we go!
When Blogs Aren’t Cool
Posted by Mitch on May 12, 2008
Lately I’ve had an interesting occurring with some of my posts. As soon as I write it, do all the background stuff I’m supposed to do to help the search engines find it, then save it, I’m already getting notified of a comment. Since I’m not vain enough to believe that someone is sitting there waiting for me to post my next bit of brilliance so they can read it, I decided to track back the trackback, as I noticed that’s what it was, rather than a regular post. Oh, a trackback is when someone likes what you’ve written in your blog, and they copy the link into a post they’re writing so others who read their blog will come to your blog.
In this instance, though, what was happening is that my post was ending up as a new post on someone else’s blog, based on the topic. All four of my posts on blogging ended up on another site, as well as the post when I alluded to a certain video about Britney Spears. I’m not naming the blogs because, well, I don’t want them getting this post also, since neither one of them had a place where you could write someone to complain, and of course they didn’t have an area for comments either. They did have Google ads on the site, though, which I’d thought was a violation of the terms of service, since they don’t have any original content.
Talk about the epitome of lazy. Probably the only people they get to their blogs are people who are wondering where they’re tracking back to, like myself. Being a repository for posts of someone else without writing anything won’t keep anyone on your site for long, and it certainly doesn’t encourage anyone to check out any advertisements you might have on your site. Yet, it must be some kind of viable model, otherwise there wouldn’t be as many of them out there.
We all love bieng quoted; we hate having our stuff stolen. Not sure what to do about it, though, other than decry it and move on with life.
Weasels.
How Not To Be Rich
Posted by Mitch on May 11, 2008
And while we’re on the subject of wealth, so to speak, there’s this post from Kevin’s No Debt Plan blog called 10 Steps To Avoid Being A Millionaire (who got it from Jonathan at Master Your Card [man, we all steal SO much from each other]) that details the behaviors one needs to exhibit if they don’t want to be wealthy.
Some of these sound really familiar, and I’m happy to say that I’ve eliminated a bunch of them from my life. Some of them don’t apply to me, since I work for myself, but the rest,… man, I need to get an IRA. Anyway, read either one of them; except for some minor stuff, they’re actually the same thing.
I’m Going To Be Rich!
Posted by Mitch on May 11, 2008
Yup, you read that right. I’m going to be rich; or so this says,…
17,521,874
How much money will you be worth?
This comes off a site called How Rich Will I Be, where you answer some questions and you receive something like what’s above. And the questions are easy; matter of fact, a couple of them are kind of goofy, which may make you think a bit, but it’s all still fun.
Of course, one of the questions I’m asking is how the people who created this site are making any money, since I don’t see a single ad, I don’t see where they offer the chance to follow up with questions or sign up for a newsletter, or even to write anyone. Maybe they’re already rich; one can hope, right?
I Wish I Could Do The Beat Box
Posted by Mitch on May 11, 2008
How many folks remember the early days of rap when one of the most popular members of rap group was the guy who could do the beat box?
For those of you who don’t remember, or aren’t hip to this, the beat box guy was the one who made all the sounds that sounded like, well, whatever he wanted them to sound like. Some guys could make themselves sound like record scratching; some sounded just like drums. Some could sound like other instruments; it really didn’t matter. They helped keep the beat when music wasn’t available, and then they would carry it over when there was some music later on. These guys were essential for adding a whole heap of flavor to the beat, and it probably made some groups like The Fat Boys viable in the industry.
Well, a blog post from The Assimilated Negro titled More Beatbox Assimilation; Where Da Ladies At has captured a nice cross section of current masters and challengers to the throne. I thought it was better to link to his blog rather than post them all here.
And, though I once referenced the song in another post on this blog, why not share the real thing, right? So, below, here’s Push It:
Blogging Step Four; What And How To Write
Posted by Mitch on May 11, 2008
This will be the final installment of the blogging series for now, and I hope it’s helped illuminate what blogging can be about. If you have questions or other topics you’d like me to address, leave me a comment and I’ll see what I can do.
If you’ve read all the previous installments, then you remember that step one dealt with think about what you want to write about. Now we get a bit further into it. A recommendation I’ll make is, if you’re not sure how to get started on your topic, write down 10 thingsyou believe you can write something on. If you can’t think of at least 10 topics from the beginning then you’re already in trouble, and you didn’t learn anything from step one.
This part should be fairly easy, though. For instance, let’s say your blog is going to be on show dogs. One would assume your first post is going to be about dog shows in general, just to get started. Then you could write about what judges look for in individual dogs, or you can pick specific dogs to talk about, which would be a bunch of topics. You could talk about the history of certain dog shows, or previous winners of the dog shows, both the dogs and the trainers. Heck, you could talk about trainers, and families of winners throughout history. For someone who may be thinking about this as a blog topic, I’ve just given you at least 100 posts.
The “how” is somewhat different. A question I’ve heard asked over and over is how long a blog post should be. The true answer is a blog post should be as long or as short as it needs to be. If you look at the last 10 posts on this blog, for instance, you’ll see that four were long, four were short, and two were somewhere in the middle. A blog post really can be one paragraph; probably shouldn’t be one line, unless you’re highlighting an image, movie, or sound file of some type. A blog post can be long, but just how long is long? If you’re writing a dissertation it’s too long; no one is going to stick around that long reading a blog post. It’s too much like work; blogs aren’t supposed to be that detailed.
That’s why I’ve broken this up into a series, instead of putting it all into one post. But another reason for doing it is that it’s given me four posts instead of just one, which obviously helps me build up my content, but it gives me more opportunities to advertise some stuff; yeah, it’s a little crass, but hey, a guy’s gotta try to make a buck, right? If you can break a very long post up, you still get to say everything you wanted to say, but spread out, you give people a reason to keep coming back for more.
And there you go; we’ve made it through a whole short series on blogging. Now I can chill and maybe post a video of something; yeah, we all need more videos. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Blogging Step Three; How To Create Your Blog
Posted by Mitch on May 9, 2008
This particular post isn’t going to detail the process of downloading software or how to set up a blog on a blogging site. The “how to” is regarding how you want your blog to look, based on the purpose and your personal style.
As a for instance, when I decided I was going to create this blog, I knew that I wanted to have the middle for the content and sidebars on both sides of it. In other words, I knew coming in I wanted a 3-column template. You can get a blog without any sidebars, one sidebar, or even 3 sidebars, giving yourself four columns.
What are the purposes for all those columns? Let’s look at it in a little better detail, starting with only the one column. Basically this means you just want to write your blog and don’t want anything taking away from what you have to say. You’re not looking to advertise anything. The problem with this is that you probably won’t have many people link to your blog because many people like to at least have the opportunity to receive a link back, and a one column blog wouldn’t have a place to link. Also, blogs will keep archives of past posts, and it will break them into both categories and date ranges, but there won’t be a place for that to display so you can’t even show people that information. What I don’t know is how one would get into a one column blog to sign in, though there’s obviously a way. Overall, you lose a lot with this format.
Looking at a two column blog, usually it means the column where you’re entries are is wider than the other column, which can be on either the right or left side. This is the most common template, as it allows a person to show everything that’s meant to be shown, such as all the things I mentioned above, as well as allowing for some type of advertising if one so chose. The problem with only having one column is that you may end up having too much stuff in the one smaller column that your site looks junky. At the same time, since your content will probably be long, you have a lot of room to get things on there.
A three column blog offers more flexibility if you’re looking to advertise and also want to keep all the other stuff mentioned earlier. You can also add a calendar and many other things, and it offers you the ability to have some balances with your blog; I’m all about balance. What you have to think about, though, is whether you want the sidebars on each side of your main content or both on one side or the other. There’s no negatives to either, so it’s more of a personal choice.
A four column blog allows you to break things down even more, but in my mind, it’s too much and it’ll take away from whatever you’re writing about on your blog. A four column blog allows for the most diverse type of advertising, because you could have all your Adsense in one column, and all your affiliate ads in another.
The final thing to talk about, no matter which style you choose, is deciding on color. Overall, it doesn’t really matter what colors you pick depending on what you like, but you need to think about the readability of your blog for everyone who visits. For instance, picking green and pink for your blog might impede someone who suffers from color blindness from being able to read your blog easily. If you have a dark background with your blog you’ll want lighter print to offset it. Things always work best when there’s enough of a contrast to have either dark print against a light background or light print against a dark one.
Finally, be sure that the title background fits the image you’re trying to project in some fashion. I picked the background image for this blog because it was red and red is my favorite color. I saw some that had nice picture backgrounds, but those didn’t fit my style. I saw some that I thought might look pretty nice, but in the end decided they also didn’t fit my style. If you have the knowledge, you can always change the pictures or colors later on, though, so the most important thing overall is choosing the style you’d like.
And there you go. What’s coming up next about blogs? Stay tuned.
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