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Posted 7/22/2008 by PeterV, VP, Marketing
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There are a ton of hosting shops out there, as I'm sure you're aware if you've ever search for hosting. And, if you've ever chosen the cheapest, I'm sure you're also aware there are some fly-by-night shops. Downtime, poor backups, bad customer service...you know what I'm saying.
As a developer, we've spent a ton of time looking at hosting. We originally did it in house (in a room with wooden beams under the server rack and a fire sprinkler overhead...yeah) and then moved it to more capable firms. Of the various shops we've worked with, and there have been tons, none comes close to Rackspace.
At first we just sent Rackspace the high-end projects that were mission critical. We figured they weren't competitive for smaller shared-hosting environments. Shame on us! Rackspace has become our go-to vendor now for hosting of all shapes and sizes, from a site with a few hundred users to sites with thousands of concurrent users across multiple boxes.
And now Rackspace is returning the favor. They've setup a page where our customers can request pricing. Those customers that come through our page will receive special pricing.
So if you're in need, take a look. It can't hurt, but it can certainly help!
Here's the page in question: http://www.rackspace.com/partners/solution_partners/index.php?partner_id=89
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Posted 7/21/2008 by PeterV, VP, Marketing
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I've been advertising on Facebook for a few months now, and overall have been really pleased (see my post about setting up the advertising account here). So I was very curious when I heard they'd be launching a redesign of their site very soon. I'm sure the redesign went through rounds of focus groups for usability, but how will it affect advertisers?
I got an email last night letting advertisers know about those changes, and I have to admit it raised some red flags. I'm not saying things will turn sour, but I am concerned. To give you some background, Facebook offers both PPC and impression-based advertising. I went with PPC for a few reasons. First, I know people aren't coming to facebook to find a Web designer, so I knew the click-through rate would be low. So I just wanted to pay for impressions that went somewhere.
Also, I see a real opportunity here. Facebook lets you target down to the company that a person works for, so I'm able to do some image awareness advertising to large companies that already employ us. They don't need to click the ad, but I'm still getting our logo in front of their face and therefore to top of mind. In fact, I've had over 3.65 million impressions since I started, but have paid less than $1000 to date. Talk about best of both worlds...tons of quality impressions (I know only the target audience I set sees them) for a PPC price.
So back to the email...there was one paragraph in particular that made me worry:
"The most basic change that you'll notice is that ads will now appear on the right side of Facebook pages instead of on the left. The new placement integrates the ads into the new site design in a meaningful way. As many as two ads may show at one time on any given page."
Unless you're viewing Facebook in Hebrew, you're reading from left to right. Naturally the eye starts on the left side of the page. With the ads going to the far side, I think less people will see them before moving on to the next page.
The second concern here is with multiple ads. I really liked how, unlike Google adwords, only one ad was shown per page. It was less intrusive and more likely to get noticed. I'm sure ad costs aren't going down, but now you're sharing space. It's like getting a roommate without a rent savings. Oh, and you don't get to pick your roommate. Hello, competition.
After looking at the new design, which is up at www.new.facebook.com, I saw one other thing that concerned me. Take a look:
Not only are the ads now on the right, but they're also separated by a large line. No other divider on the site is that thick. While I'm not asking facebook to present ads as editorial content or anything deceitful like that, I don't like how isolated the ads are. You can see the old look here, where ads were divided the same as any other content block:
Another thing I noticed while writing this post are the ad ratings below each ad. I'm not sure how long they've been there, but they do exist on both versions on the site. They let you say whether an ad was relevant to you and why. I'm very curious to see if facebook shares that info with advertisers or just uses it as an internal tool to determine which ads to share to which users. Here is the box that pops up after you click thumbs up or down:
So I'm not saying our return on investment will go down with this change, but I will keep a close eye on things. Who knows...maybe this will improve things. I'm sure this new design went through rounds and rounds of focus groups and beta test to make it easier to use. It just appears to me there was less focus on the advertiser. We'll see. For a company like facebook that operated with virtually no income for years, I'd be surprised to see them bite the hand that feeds them just months after launching the PPC ad service.
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Posted 7/15/2008 by Geoff, Pres/CEO
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I was asked the other day to give a speech to an Entrepreneurship class at the University of Florida about starting a business. While getting some notes together, I came across the video that Will Bisanz and I put together back in 2003 showing the opening our of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Scoop Shops in Gainesville, Florida. As I have mentioned on this blog before, I live a secret life as an ice cream scooper! Actually, the Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shops are a small side venture compared to 352 Media, but they are fun nonetheless!
The video is pretty funny and certainly brings back some memories. Take a look:
P.S. -- My favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor? New York Super Fudge Chunk! Yummy!!
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Posted 7/15/2008 by PeterV, VP, Marketing
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Can you believe it? Three months after writing this post (Apparently We Are Your Typical Web Development Company) about blatant plagiarism of our Web site, and nothing's changed.
"Liquid Eye Media" I'm not surprised at. I'm mean just look at their site - www.liquideyemedia.com. They clearly haven't had an original idea in years. There are so many things the anger me there from the animations to the repetitive sound effects. What is especially interesting is how the text they copied from us is below the copyright line. It's not intended for human consumption, but rather for search engines. They've no doubt seen our great rankings (which were earned the old-fashioned way) and wanted a taste for themselves. Too bad google frowns on duplicate content.
But "Cubic 360", I expected more from you. I actually left your name and Web site, www.cubic360.com, out of my previous post because you responded to my email with an apology and promise to rectify it. You even asked for work. I felt bad, but now I don't. 3 months later and the duplicate content is still there.
Do you remember your promise to me? Here it is as a reminder:
-----Original Message-----
From: Mads Moller [mailto:pda@cubic360.com]
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 12:50 PM
To: Peter VanRysdam Subject:
Re: Please Remove Content
Dear Mr. VanRysdam,
Thank you for your email and bringing this to my attention.
I do appoligize for this and will take the appropiate actions in respect to the copywriter creating content for the site. I will also make sure that the content will be changed and uploaded within the next 48 hours.
Being a creative web design and development company I look very harshly on plagarism of design and content since it's our finest job to provide our clients with the best and most unique solutions.
I took a look at 352media.com and you sure have some excellent work. If you should ever be in the situation where you need to outsource work we do have the expertise within custom programming (web / app), Flash Design, Action Script, Flash Media Server, Graphic Design, SEO and much more.
Once again, thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Kindest regards,
Mads Moller - CEO Cubic360.com
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Posted 7/11/2008 by PeterV, VP, Marketing
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You've probably seen me post links to MSDN's "This Week on Channel9" before. Brian and Dan, the hosts of that show, are good friends of mine. After watching their show for a few months, we decided to start up our own little version here at 352 Media. It's not a parody or competition by any means. Instead, consider it an homage.
We take a look at some industry news in the interactive marketing and Web development space, as well as a look at what's new with our company; blog posts, site launches, etc.
Take a look, learn, and let me know your comments. We want to make this a regular feature that's actually helpful to you as a marketing professional, client, potential client, or developer, so your feedback is paramount.
Enjoy:
4:20 - BBQ Cookoff Results
5:45 - Silverlight Beta 2 Developer Highlights / Deep Zoom
7:03 - Interesting Client Photo
New Site Launches
8:06 - Microsoft's Voip Without Barriers site
8:52 - Mayo Clinic Physician Referral Service Interactive CD-ROM
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Posted 7/10/2008 by PeterV, VP, Marketing
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I guess I didn't make myself clear...that was the problem.
I enjoy barbecueing. Sitting out on the porch all day with a good book and a cold beer, tending to the smoker...that's my idea of a great day. I've even watched a couple of BBQ competitions on TV. Everyone makes the same dish, everyone uses the same style, and their judged blindly. I thought it would be fun to challenge our company CEO, who also enjoys his time at the grill, to a good old fashioned barbecue.
I guess I didn't make myself clear...that was the problem.
First there was the cooking style. I agreed after some convincing to let Geoff use a gas grill. Then, there was the menu. Here's where the fireworks exploded. There was much discussion about what constitutes BBQ; is it anything made on a grill? That was Geoff's position. Is it brisket, pork, ribs, or chicken cooked indirectly over low heat for several hours? That's my take. Apparently there wasn't a consensus...
I can complain all day, or I can show you what happened. All I can say is next time we'll be making identical dishes, and judging will be blind. I'm not saying people voted for the guy who signs the checks...but I'm not saying they didn't. :)
Maybe I just laid an egg in the clutch.
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Posted 7/10/2008 by PeterV, VP, Marketing
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As promised, here is part two of our look at Microsoft Silverlight. In this video Lincoln Anderson, one of our senior developers and resident Silverlight expert, takes us through the main features of beta 2. Enjoy!
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Posted 7/8/2008 by PeterV, VP, Marketing
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The more I think about it, field day is my favorite day of the year. I don't know if it's the bbq, the games, the kickball game afterwards, or embarrassing people afterwards by posting their videos on youtube.com. OK, it's the last one for sure!
Here are a couple of more videos from the event. The first was this years opening competition. In the style of the great potato sack races of our youth, we decided to put a new twist on it, by wrapping our legs in saran wrap. I can't tell from the video who won, but I can see Gary laughing on his way towards the finish after clobbering Jason and Raina domino-style:
Last year's egg relay saw Jodi narrowly defeat Geoff as the team anchor. This year, she won again! Or did she? Not only did her egg come loose as she crossed the finish, but did the closer team cross first? You be the judge:
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Posted 7/7/2008 by Raina, Project Mgr
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Each month the Project Managers nominate a client they enjoy working with (keyword in being "enjoy"). The chosen client is then recognized as 352's Client of the Month.
I've been nominating (ISC)2 for a few months now and July is as good of a month as any to be chosen. The development team has made made comments in passing about how "on-the-ball" this client has been and still is (not to mention working with us as a team player).
(ISC)2 has placed their branding of their new Web site and many other projects in our creative hands and I'm excited to brag that we've made quite the impression! Way to go team!
Kim White and her team came to Gainesville a few weeks ago to shoot some top secret video work for the new Web site. Meeting with the (ISC)2 team in-person definitely reinforced what a fabulous client they are (and continue to be) to work with.
As you can see from the photos we're off to a great start but you'll have to wait until the end of the summer to see the end results....AHHH the suspense of Web development!
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Posted 7/4/2008 by Geoff, Pres/CEO
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Google's big announcement this week is that its search engine can now index text inside Flash files. This is a pretty big deal because Flash has always been a real detriment to search engine rankings. Web sites that want to go all-Flash have a difficult time getting ranked well, unless they put HTML content below the Flash version of the site, which ends up looking extremely ugly. For example:
Yuck!! Who wants their Web site to look like that?
Thankfully Google's move to index the text in Flash files should help deter the needs to do these things. It is still unclear how well Google will rank the content, and also whether Google will be able to differentiate between pages inside an all-Flash Web site (because even though an all-Flash Web site may appear to have several pages to the user, it is really all one big Flash file).
It will also be interesting to see if some Search Engine Optimization experts try to stuff extra keywords onto pages now by adding long Flash movies that have a bunch of text content in them.
Regardless, this is a good step forward for Flash designers!
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