JordanLyall.com

TweetPerView Review →

dasider:

quicklink | periphery, tweetperview and the new preroll tool

super productive day today and i’ve recorded another batch of webperiphery finally after what seemed like forever (actually four months - scary) - part of the problem was the ‘not enough tshirts quandary’ of trying to…

The Google Plus Start-Up Guide By Saidur (Cy) Hossain →

googleplusapps:

If you are new to Google+ then this guide by +Saidur (Cy) Hossain will certainly point you in the right direction. Nicely presented.

nikf.org: Google+ Redirects And Tumblr →

nikf:

So Richard pointed out this excellent post about using HTACCESS files on a server to redirect domain.com/+ to your Google+ account. In his post, he lamented the inability to do is with his domain as it’s hosted on Tumblr, just like this blog is.

However, with Tumblr you can actually hook this up…

Twitter Massive Influence 2.0 Virtual Summit (by missiondrivenbrand)

Short logic: Groupon IPO: Pass on this deal →

shortlogic:

Groupon has filed its S-1 and hopes to raise $750M in its initial public offering. Given they’re currently losing a staggering $117M per quarter, despite revenues of $644M, they’ll be burning through that cash almost as soon as it hits their account.

At the moment, it’s costing them $1.43 to make $1…

(Source: shortlogic)

(Source: emojuanuribe)

gary:

I had the great privilege of being on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning, Watch. What do you think?

workersoftheweb:

Tweet Per View. “Prompt your viewers to tweet before they can watch your video.”

The Founder Institute - A Graduate’s Account

For the last four months I’ve been making a weekly two hour trek down the 5 freeway to join like-minded entrepreneurs plot out a course for tech startup domination.

Tomorrow I graduate from the San Diego chapter of The Founder Institute, an early stage technology incubator.

For two years I’ve been cursed with what Cobb from Inception called “the most resilient parasite.” An idea. It has evolved from its original form, seemingly taken a mind of its own, yet outlasted the multiple attempts to silence it.

I had heard about Founder Institute from a handful of posts on TechCrunch, but it was at Andrew Warner’s recommendation on his show Mixergy that I took action. I applied, took the test, and was ultimately accepted into San Diego’s Season 3. 

As with many things in life, the value taken from it is directly related to to the amount of effort you put in.

Four months of lectures, team meetings, homework, weekly “hot seats”, monthly pitch sessions graded by the mentors - the experience was once in a lifetime.

I walked in with an “interesting concept”, a few lines of code, and no real idea on how to make money. I’ll graduate with an actual business, a solid product offering, a board of advisors and investor attention.

In the next couple months I will launch FanFare, a tool combining digital media with social networking. We’re helping online publishers grow their audience virally.

Stay tuned.

—

Some random thoughts from my experience at FI:

• Amazing connections. Normal entrepreneurs would kill to be able to schedule a meeting with some of the people I’ve met with. Networking is not a strength of mine, but even in the last two weeks, I’ve surprised myself with some of the names on my calendar. All thanks to the mentors.
• The sounding board that is the other founders.  It made it easier being able to interact with people in the same position and with the same struggles.
• Helpful homework. I initially considered the weekly homework “busy work”. But the assignments do help you build your business. It forces you to do the things where you tell yourself “I’ll get to that later” and never get done.
• Pitching is important. I dread public speaking. But being able to clearly and confidently convince a room full of people on the brilliance of your idea and why you are the guy to pull it off, is a skill only learned by doing.
• The Product isn’t as important as you think. I originally had the thought “I wish we spent more time on product and customer development.” But 1) many of the group members are not developers and, like me, have full time jobs and 2) that’s the easy part. Anybody can throw together a mock-up and talk to potential customers. But idea validation, business formation, presentation, publicity, fundraising, etc. these are the things that the structure of FI proves most valuable.

Through Founder Institute I gained the knowledge, experience, and contacts that would have typically cost me tens of thousands of dollars and years of trial and error.

just tristan.: Favorite Companies to Watch in 2011 →

tristanwalker:

I think these companies will have a real breakout year and at the end of 2011 we will say these companies did something really important for their industries. Warning: it’s a very short list. These are companies I observed pretty early on and loved from day 1 using the service.

How can I create a Twitter list of my followers?

Formulists.com lets you create “smart” lists that self-populate and auto-update. One of the options is a list of people that follow you.

How can I create a Twitter list of my followers?

Betashop: 57 Things I've Learned Founding 3 Tech Companies →

betashop:

I’ve been founding and helping run technology companies since 1999. My latest company is fabulis.com. Here are 57 lessons I’ve learned along the way. I could have listed 100+ but I didn’t want to bore you.

1. Build something you are personally passionate about. You are your best focus group.

…

First impressions are important. But keep in mind…everyone knows that. Everyone dresses nice on the first day. But what are they wearing on the second day? If you ask me, that’s much more telling.

— Second impressions (via hiten)

6 Best Practices for Email Marketing

I’ve uncovered a truth about email marketing: It works! However, if you’re just joining the party you may have to adjust your marketing habits. Your focus will need to shift from quantity to quality. For example: Like it or not, the law states that you must get explicit permission prior to sending and email. Email marketers must demonstrate a certain level of agility in handling the opportunities that arise from this very interactive marketing channel.

Here are 6 best practices to consider when developing an email marketing strategy:

1. Deliverability is Key
Even if your customer has agreed to receive email from you, you may find it difficult for your email to get to their inbox. Most large ISPs now use thorough spam protection systems to filter any email it thinks may be unsolicited, before it gets into the customers’ inboxes.

To avoid being flagged as spam, and therefore go unseen by your subscribers, avoid using spam-trigger words like “sale”, “free” and “offer”, etc in both the subject line and the body of your email.

2. One-Click Unsubscribe – Make it Easy
It may sound counterintuitive, but if you want your email marketing campaign to succeed, you must have an easy way for customers to unsubscribe. If you make it difficult, you run the risk of the recipient marking your email as spam. That will make deliverability in the future even more difficult.

It’s actually mandated by law that your emails contain an unsubscribe link. The link should lead the recipient right to a page where they can immediately be removed from your list.

3. The Power of Personalization
When it makes sense for your specific email creative, we suggest taking steps to personalize them. It’s as simple as starting your email with “Hi [first_name]“. By doing this, you increase both your reading and click-thru rates. Why? By addressing them by their first name, your subscribers feel like they already have a relationship with you.

4. Subject Line in Under a Second
You have less than a second to catch your recipient’s attention with your email’s subject line. In this very short amount of time they will either choose to read, delete, or simply ignore your email. As mentioned before, you should avoid “spam words” and consider using the customer’s first name. We suggest you avoid using promotional phrases, ALL CAPS, or punctuation in your subject lines. Make sure your subject line is straightforward.

5. Above the Scroll
Whenever possible, place the more interesting content at the top of your email. Once your recipient starts reading the email, they’ll continue reading and even take action, but only if they find it interesting. Some popular email clients show a preview of an email in the inbox, even before a user opens it.

6. Don’t Over Sell
The goal of an email creative is to get buyers to take action by clicking on a button, signifying that they want to know more. It is only once they’ve clicked and are directed to your website that they can begin the buying process. Therefore, don’t overload them with product information or market data in the email. Give them just the right amount of info that, with a strong call to action, they’re intrigued enough to click.

By following these best practices, doing some of your own homework, and obeying the spam laws, you’ll be on your way to a winning email marketing campaign.

—

What do you think? What else contributes to a successful email campaign?

You Registered a Domain Name for your Newborn?

My one month old son has just learned how to hold his head up. His mother and I are ecstatic. We’ve got a hard drive full of DV to prove it.

Being the forward thinking father, I registered (within just a week of his birth) his very own domain name:  CarsonLyall.com – Don’t go there, it’s a GoDaddy parked domain. It will probably remained parked until he masters HTML (we’re thinking about teaching him English first).

Why did I register a domain name (and gmail address) for my newborn? Two words: personal branding.

Tom Peters wrote in Fast Company in ‘07:

Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

Thanks to his crazy dad, my son will have a head start on creating his own personal brand.

As we all know, employees used to work for one company all the way until retirement. Decades ago this began to change. My generation job hops. My son’s generation will see another radical shift: the era of the free agent.

He may not have one business that he calls his “job.” He’ll more likely freelance, consulting for many companies. I may be going way out on a limb, but I see value in preparing for this cultural change.

Whatever profession he enters into, he’ll have to compete with other “mini-brands”. He’ll need to stand apart from the crowd (again, this is after he learns to stand period).

This may be totally unnecessary. The Lyall last name isn’t extremely popular. He may go his whole life without another Carson Lyall popping up. But you never know. I now compete in search engine rankings with a female photographer in Canada. Hi Jordan!

In 20 years we may shift from domain names entirely (Even now, the shift from the .com TLD continues). But until then, we’ll continue to encourage him to keep his head up.