FocuSoft Tech Blog

Century’s all-in-one dock gives your netbook a greater sense of value Posted: 02 May 2009 04:57 PM PDT For those who need a little something more from their netbooks, at least while at home, Century’s all-in-one dock should help out in that department. It fits just under the little laptop and features a pop-up fan to help with cooling, 8x DVD-writer, and a slot for a 2.5-inch SATA HDD or SSD drive, beacuse let’s face it, your digitized copy of the complete Doctor Who series probably isn’t gonna all fit on your portable. It’s compatible with XP and Vista, but no word on how well it’ll jibe with Linux. It looks to be on sale now in Japan for ￥9,980 (US $100), and if you’re needing some more intimate shots, Akihabara’s got a hands-on with it. [Via Everything USB] Read - Product page Read - Hands-on More here: Century’s all-in-one dock gives your netbook a greater sense of value

How To Grow Your Blog Through Customer Development Posted: 02 May 2009 04:53 PM PDT This is a guest post by Neil Patel, co-founder of KISSmetrics and blogger at QuickSprout.com. He also does consulting work for a number of major Internet properties, including TechCrunch. When you think about growing your blog, whether it is a personal, professional or company blog, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Chances are it is something related to traffic or subscribers. Getting more traffic or subscribers is never a bad thing, but if you really want more sustainable traffic you first have to understand the people coming to your blog. If you can't make them happy, how can you expect your traffic to grow? Stop Assuming! You have a vision of how you see your blog and where you want it to go. The reality is that your vision may not match up with what your readers are expecting. So instead of assuming things about your readers, start getting feedback from them. Feedback – Through services like Skribit your readers and customers can provide post suggestions. The feedback is posted publicly and other readers can vote on it whether they agree or disagree. Polls – Polling services like Poll Daddy can allow you to figure out what direction you should take your content. For example, if you have some ideas for your blog, you can create a poll and have your reader's vote on which ideas they would like to read more about. Reader surveys – No matter how small or large your reader base is, you can survey them. Eric Ries, who is a big advocate of customer development, started surveying his readers when he only had 5 RSS subscribers. He asked them the following things right within his blog post: On a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is most likely), how likely is it that you would recommend this blog to a friend or colleague? How did you hear about it? What led you to become a subscriber, versus just reading an article and leaving like everybody else? (Or, if you're not a subscriber, what would it take to convince you?) What do you hope to see here in the future? As shown above, there are many ways to get feedback from readers. Another example of getting feedback was when Michael Arrington first started TechCrunch. He began having meet ups at his house just months after starting the blog. The face-to-face feedback that he must have received proved to be valuable and effective in helping TechCrunch grow. As a result, the content on TechCrunch, which started with primarily basic company profiles, has also been expanded on and improved from there. Track, Analyze, and Execute! Analytics solutions like Google Analytics, Feedburner, and Lijit are great, but what's the point of having them if you aren't really using them? You probably log into your Google Analytics account every once in a while and look to see if your traffic is up or down, but do you ever get down into the nitty-gritty details to try and understand your readers? Do you know what changes you need to make to increase your readership and engagement levels? Traffic sources – analyzing the traffic sources that are bringing you visitors, such as referring sites and search engine keywords can help you understand the type of people visiting your blog. If most of your traffic is coming from tech blogs, it is likely that your readers are somewhat sophisticated, which means if you geek out you may win some brownie points with them. On the other hand if you notice that most of your readers are coming from celebrity blogs or other types of non-tech sites, you probably don't want to get too technical with your content because they may not understand what you are talking about. Additionally, with the rise of Twitter clients, URL shortening services are becoming increasingly popular, so it is important to understand how this affects your analytics and referral traffic. Referral traffic can also help you identify conversations related to your blog occurring on social media sites such as Digg, Twitter, Facebook and even forums. Visitor loyalty – Metrics such as time on site, bounce rate, and percentage of return visitors should give you a sense of how loyal your visitors are. You will never be able to please all of your visitors, but you should be able to please a good percentage. Dig deep and see what's causing your high bounce rate and try to improve it. Internal search data – Services like Lijit and Google Analytics Site Search do a great job of tracking your internal search data. If you have a search box on your blog, they can track the number of searches per day and what keywords your users are searching for. This should help you understand what they are looking for and what you need to provide to these readers. Geographical data – Looking at your geographical data may actually shock you. Although most your traffic may come from the U.S you should drill down to see what worldwide cities bring you the most traffic. For me it is a few major cities in India and London. Analyzing this data helps you understand the background of your readers and what you should or shouldn't write to grow your readership. Remember, language and religion play a big role in many people's lives. RSS subscribers – Feedburner doesn't just show you how many RSS subscribers you have, it also gives you data on what your RSS readers like and dislike reading. You can look at data such as click through rates on specific stories. This will help validate what you thought the most popular stories were. In most cases the stories that you thought were your best, aren't your readers' favorites. Feedburner also lets you track things like when people unsubscribe to your feed. This is a great feature because if you notice tons of people unsubscribing at once, you can try to understand why and adjust accordingly. After you analyze the data provided by your web analytics solutions you need to take action. Whether it's modifying your design to decrease your bounce rate or figuring out what new content topics you should be writing after looking through your Feedburner/Lijit stats, you have to take action. If you don't, you shouldn't even waste time tracking your stats. Engage, Engage, and Engage! Blogging is a two way street, you can't expect to understand your readers if you don't interact with them. Polls, surveys, and feedback tools are great, but that is only half the battle when it comes to engagement. Here are few ways you can engage with your audience: 1. Respond to every email – Gary Vaynerchuck spends most of his time responding to every email he gets. Just try sending him an email… he may be a bit delayed in responding to you, but no matter what, he will respond. This is the main reason he has been able to build a strong brand and a popular blog because he takes the time to listen and respond to every person that emails him. 2. Respond to every commenter – every time someone comments on your blog, you should respond to him or her. How do you expect to create a conversation and a community if people are just talking to themselves? This is a time consuming process, but if you want to develop a relationship with your customers, there is no better way. You can even use comment systems such as IntenseDebate and Disqus to help improve commenting on your blog. 3. Leverage your competition – just because someone isn't reading your blog, doesn't mean you can't get to him or her. Start reading other blogs in your industry and all of your competitors' blogs and comment on every one of their posts. Respond to the comments and win over readers. Conclusion If you want to grow your blog, you need to first understand your readers. Without understanding your audience you won't know what they like and dislike. Take the next few hours and start analyzing your blog and create a game plan on how you can grow your blog. If you find yourself getting stuck, just leave a comment and I'll do my best to help you out. J Lastly if you want to learn more about customer development, I highly recommend that you check out Steve Blank's blog, he pioneered the concept of customer development and even wrote a book on it. CrunchBase Information Neil Patel Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it's time for you to find a new Job2.0 Original post: How To Grow Your Blog Through Customer Development

The Latest On ShoeMoney’s AdWords Lawsuit Against A Google Employee Posted: 02 May 2009 03:15 PM PDT Last month we reported on an interesting trademark case between online marketing guru Jeremy ‘ShoeMoney‘ Schoemaker and a Google employee named Keyen Farrell, who works as an AdWords Account Strategist. Schoemaker is accusing Farrell of violating his trademark by using the word ’shoemoney’ in the ad copy for Farrell’s own site - something that Google prohibits. AdWords disputes aren’t anything new, but the case is interesting because it involves a Google AdWords employee, who obviously should have been aware of the program’s Terms of Service. And there’s also the possibility that Farrell could have used his administrative access to bypass Google’s filters (which should have caught the trademark). In the latest developments, Farrell has filed an affadavit stating that he did not know that the word ’shoemoney’ was trademarked, and that he was working through Google’s standard system when he placed his ads, which failed to prevent him from registering the word. In effect, he’s saying that the blame lies with Google, which should have prevented this from happening in the first place. It’s worth noting that when Danny Sullivan attempted to use the word ’shoemoney’ in an ad last month the system rejected it, though it is possible that it was added to the filter database in the time since Farrell began using it. Farrell’s affadavit also denies any sinister action on his part through administrative access, stating that he never accessed the Google account for Jeremy Schoemaker and/or Shoemoney Media Group, Inc. Farrell and his father, who is also named in the case, are seeking the case’s dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction (the suit was filed in Nebraska, where neither of them live). The full documents are embedded below. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one. If Google does admit fault, Schoemaker could potentially name them in the suit, and the discovery process in this case could turn up some interesting details on the way the AdWords program is run, and how much data employees have access to. 11-1 Keyen Farrell Affidavit 10 MTD Brief CrunchBase Information Jeremy Schoemaker Google Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Original post:  The Latest On ShoeMoney's AdWords Lawsuit Against A Google Employee

Sap Cap Packs a Blackjack Into a Black Hat [Weaponry] Posted: 02 May 2009 03:00 PM PDT The Sap Cap isn’t just a logo-less baseball cap. It’s also a blackjack, one of those weighted leather weapons private eyes used to get socked with all the time back in the 1940s. The bill is meant to be held like a handle, and the crown of the cap is heavily weighted, in case you want to bust some skulls but don’t have any pocket space for a normal blackjack. It’s not really clear what’s actually providing the weight; apparently it’s a “unique material that is 110% the density of lead and will not rust,” which is thoughtful, because a rusty baseball cap is a dead giveaway that something weird is going on. [Product Page via Fashionably Geek] Here is the original: Sap Cap Packs a Blackjack Into a Black Hat [Weaponry]

SolidLogic GS-L10 Mini-ITX wraps itself in blanket of heat sinks for comfort, fanless existence Posted: 02 May 2009 02:04 PM PDT Okay, so it’s not exactly a looker, but Logic Supply’s SolidLogic GS-L10 Mini-ITX is probably meant to be kept out of view anyway, and given its fanless operation, won’t give away its whereabouts. Culled from a Serener case and MSI MS-9818 motherboard, the heatsink-laden unit supports three different Intel Montevina processors ranging from the 2.16GHz Celeron M CM585 to the 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo T9400, up to 4GB memory, options for either HDD or SSD storage, and your choice of Windows XP, Vista, or Ubuntu. Connection-wise, we’re looking at two ethernet and four USB 2.0 ports, as well as VGA, DVI, and HDMI for video. Prices start at around $861 if you opt out of a pre-packaged HDD, but if you’re wanting the full kit and caboodle here, expect to shell out closer $1,900. [Via Windows for Devices] See original here: SolidLogic GS-L10 Mini-ITX wraps itself in blanket of heat sinks for comfort, fanless existence

Verizon Partnering With Boingo to Give Free WiFI to FiOS and DSL Customers [Rumor] Posted: 02 May 2009 02:00 PM PDT According to the ever-popular “sources familiar with the matter,” Verizon is planning to partner up with WiFi hotspot provider Boingo. Now, how’s about you make with the WiFi-enabled phones, Verizon? Boingo is the world’s largest WiFi hotspot provider with over 100,000, and even though I’d never heard of them, it turns out they’ve got hotspots all over the place: Starbucks, McDonald’s, Barnes and Noble, and various hotels all use Boingo. The sources were specific that this offer would be extended to FiOS and DSL customers only, which notably excludes Verizon Wireless customers. Not that we’re surprised, given Verizon’s infuriating tendency to strip WiFi capability from its already unexciting line of phones, but we were really hoping Verizon would step up and finally give its customers what they want. The details are still fuzzy, like whether it’ll be regional or global access (and it had better be the latter), but it seems like a pretty fair bet that Verizon home customers will be seeing some free WiFi hotspot action in the near future. [WSJ via Boy Genius Report] Read the original: Verizon Partnering With Boingo to Give Free WiFI to FiOS and DSL Customers [Rumor]

CrunchDeals: iPod car dock with remote for $13 Posted: 02 May 2009 01:30 PM PDT Here's an inexpensive iPod car kit from Meritline. Normally almost $20, it's being sold at $12.99 with free shipping. The "6-in-1 Car Kit w/Remote Control for iPod" features an LED display for FM channel selection, cigarette lighter power plug, and remote control. I'm not huge on FM transmitters, but mostly because they always seem more expensive than they're worth. Thirteen bucks seems about right, though. 6-in-1 Car Kit w/Mini Telecontrol for iPod, iPod Classic and iPod Nano 3rd Gen. Power supply: Car charger plug Output frequency: All channel stereo transmission LED display Support various audio signal transmissions from iPod, MP3 player, PDA Special connector for iPod, MP3 players Built-in USB interface for battery charger Remote control included in the package 6-in-1 Car Kit w/Remote Control for iPod

Vintage 2-XL Robot Uses 8-Track Tapes, Not as Scary as Teddy Ruxpin [Retromodo] Posted: 02 May 2009 01:00 PM PDT Released in 1978, the 2-XL educational robot was before my time, but it wouldn’t have haunted my nightmares like Teddy Ruxpin did. At least this robot had the decency to look like a damn robot. The 2-XL was an interactive educational robot (by interactive, we mean it had four buttons: question, yes/true, no/false, and “more info) from the late ’70s that used different 8-track tapes for its different functions. Basically, it was just a talking 8-track deck, and the four buttons just selected different tracks. It was later re-released in the early ’90s with cassettes instead of 8-tracks, but that really lessens the kitsch value, we think. [Toy Whimsy] Here is the original: Vintage 2-XL Robot Uses 8-Track Tapes, Not as Scary as Teddy Ruxpin [Retromodo]

Sap Cap offers self defense at the drop of a hat Posted: 02 May 2009 12:30 PM PDT After finally figuring out what "sap" and "blackjack" mean — they're used interchangeably to describe a police baton — this Sap Cap is a bit scary in its simplicity but might make for a good always-with-you self defense tool. That's if you're down with logo-less black hats and don't mind shelling out $30 for something like this. According to the product description: This standard baseball cap can be used as a blackjack or sap. Just use the bill as the handle and the cap as an impact weapon. The secret of the Sap Cap is the pocket of a unique impact material that is 110% the density of lead and will not rust. Velcro adjustment. Ah yes, the all-important velcro adjustment. You don't want to rely on those plastic knob-hole snappy things when you're wearing a weighted billy club on your head. Sap Cap [BudK via Nerd Approved] View original here: Sap Cap offers self defense at the drop of a hat

Terminator: Salvation for iPhone Looks Remarkably Like a Real Game [IPhone] Posted: 02 May 2009 12:15 PM PDT The trailer for Gameloft’s iPhone version of its upcoming Terminator: Salvation game leaked, and we’re pretty impressed. We can’t tell how the controls will work, but the graphics and gameplay really do look great. Early reports indicate the game is very smooth and complex, and we can tell from the trailer than specifics of gameplay will be varied (different weapons, vehicles) and full of shit blowing up. We don’t have a price or release date for you, but Gameloft says it’s “coming soon,” which hopefully means before the end of the summer. [Terminator: Salvation via Boy Genius Report] The rest is here: Terminator: Salvation for iPhone Looks Remarkably Like a Real Game [IPhone]

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