Warning: Friday rules apply to this posting. Terms and conditions apply.

When I was a young boy, growing up in Manchester (England), the summer holidays from school went on forever. Everyone knew everyone else around them by name, the streets were safe, there was no real crime, and people never used to lock their front doors.

Nowadays many of us don’t know their neighbours well, the streets are full of dangerous people (neighbours?), crime is rampant and our houses are fortified like small banks. Kind of.

Has the world become a more dangerous place than it used to be? I don’t think so. I think that most of the bad things that happen nowadays have always happened. The main thing that has changed is that the world is a more open place.

In every war there have been soldiers that commit crimes. Nowadays the evidence is plastered all over the world’s newspapers and websites within weeks, days or even hours.

Good news also has the possibility to spread like wildfire, but one of the more intriguing aspects of our species is that we seem to enjoy reading more bad news than good. Odd.

But the web is also used to spread good tidings too. We use the web to send and receive emails to and from friends, to share photos of our loved ones, click on links to amusing web sites that makes us laugh, keep up with our favourite sports, immerse ourselves in our hobbies and share good news.

There’s also a fair amount of evidence to suggest that there are an increasing number of interesting people with a growing amount of free time on their hands. These people also seem to have an amazing knack for focusing on the finer details in life.

MousePrint.org aims to expose the strings and catches in advertising fine print. And does so quite well.

The point they makes is a good one:

“Imagine spending $25,000 for a new car and then having buyer’s remorse. To give customers more peace of mind, Chrysler has begun offering a 30 day return program. TV commercials promise “if not satisfied, simply return it within 30 days.”

The truth is, it is not quite so painless a process, particularly to your pocketbook.

*MOUSE PRINT: “Customer responsible for 5% MSRP restocking fee, 50 cents per mile driven, and all financing, insurance and tax charges.” [TV commercial airing July 10, 2006.]”

Ouch.

Chrysler Satisfaction Program: Just Return it in 30 Days

Other scandals exposed include Scott Toilet Paper who are allegedly making each of their toilet paper sheets 0.3 inches shorter, making each roll 300 inches shorter. Shocking. The point is that they claim to be offering “improved long-lasting value”.

Scott Toilet Paper: Still 1000 Sheets

Downsizing is an irritation. Leave no stone unturned.

MousePrint.org

Today is one of those days when every other headline features Microsoft rather than Google.

Microsoft signs agreement with BBC. Somewhat vaguely referred to as “a non-exclusive memorandum of understanding”, the main idea appears to be that the BBC wants to develop their digital services. Potential areas of collaboration are said to be search, navigation, and distribution.

Microsoft signs deal with Peter Jackson. Remember the bearded man who directed Lord of the Rings and King Kong? Well, he’s now signed a deal to work with Xbox on a “new form of interactive entertainment”, based on the Halo video game. Apparently Jackson is “bored with films”, and wants to create something new that appeals to more than just hard-core gamers.

Microsoft sues over source code theft. A federal lawsuit has been filed against a hacker who broke through Microsoft’s copy protection technology, and it is now claimed that he somehow gained access to their source code. The hacker, known only as Viodentia, denies using any copyrighted code.

That should be enough to satiate your Microsoft hunger over the weekend!

Regular readers of this blog will know how often we talk about, and link to, Matt Cutts. But unless you’re as obsessive about the world of SEO as we are, you may not be sure exactly who he is, where he works (well, Google – but it’s a big company!) and what he does. Thanks to an interview over at John Battelle’s blog, all your questions can now be answered!

It’s an interesting interview, because Cutts appears to be focusing on the human aspect of search, rather than the algorithms. He emphasizes the fact that all hyperlinks are created by people, and says that he wishes that there could be more human input into search at Google – but admits that it would open the system up to even more abuse.

Yet again, Cutts also stresses the fact that Google does not approve of selling links purely to boost rankings:

“I’ve said this before in a few places, but I’m happy to clarify. Google does consider it a violation of our quality guidelines to sell links that affect search engines.”

No doubt there, in other words.

Finally, he mentions a new and wonderful meta tag, and over at his own blog, he’s been kind enough to provide readers with this example.

Go on – you know you want to try it!

A Brief Interview with Google’s Matt Cutts

There’s a good chance that most of the people reading this entry already know who Sharon Housley is. Whether because of FeedForAll, SoftwareMarketingResource, the Shareware Industry Conference or any of her other (many) projects and commitments.

In this exclusive interview, Sharon reveals her thoughts on the most effective marketing areas for software developers, how she alleviates her workload, her top tips for software developers selling their products online, and her theories on the most commonly made mistakes by software companies.

Well worth a read.

Sharon Housley Interview

There are times when I feel as though I live in a slightly different reality.

A few examples.

(1) Knocking imagination on the head.

One of the companies that we work with sells Windows Automation Software. It’s a great piece of software that’s been around since 1997, but they’re always looking at new ideas. Recently they decided to post a job resume for the product itself – titled “I work 24×7 for no pay. Got a job for me?”

It’s obviously not designed to be taken too seriously, and struck me as quite an imaginative experiment.

Some of the Joel on Software forum participants didn’t think so. One accused him of spamming.

Sigh.

Missing the point anyone?

I work 24×7 for no pay. Got a job for me?

(2) Biting the hand that may feed you for years.

I’m a member of an association for professionals within the shareware industry that will remain nameless.

Every now and then, a member would send an email to the other members, usually detailing some sort of offer or service that they may be interested in. They could only do so to the members who had specifically entered an email address for this purpose. Those who didn’t could not be emailed.

Invariably, a number of the members of the association for professionals within the shareware industry that will remain nameless would then erupt with anger, complaining that they were being spammed by fellow members.

It was one of these tiresome debates that used to pop up a few times a year.

Eventually steps were taken to prevent this abhorrent practice, and nowadays if a member of the association wants to offer something to the other members, they have to either post it to the specific newsgroup (that many members never go to) or place it in print, that may not be ready for another 6-8 weeks.

Personally I’m happy to receive offers and information that are relevant to me. I don’t want any more double glazing offers or herbal viagra alternatives, but I’m all ears for anything that is relevant to me and my business.

(3) Duplications = spam.

Another company that we work with is very active in writing original articles and content for the industries that they work in. The idea is simple. Write good content, publicise it, and people who may be interested in your software will come. And it works well.

Article syndication is an effective means of increasing brand awareness, pulling in targeted visitors, and even increasing link popularity.

But this same person is now under attack from an individual with more paranoia and imagination than sense.

He keeps seeing “these articles” all over the web (admittedly after searching for them) and is now shouting loud and clear to anyone bored enough to listen that the author is a spammer.

When article syndication starts to look like spam, it’s time to take a long holiday. Or retire from an industry that you don’t understand.

(4) Rules that are written in stone.

Last week I posted details of a 30% discount for the BB FlashBack software.

I publicised the deal in a carefully selected handful of private newsgroups, whose members might be interested in the software and the chance to save money.

On one of the newsgroups, I have been admonished for not including the price of the software. The URL that I linked to committed the same sin.

I would agree that it’s generally a good idea to include price information when trying to sell a product.

However:

(i) I wasn’t selling the product. I was offering a discount.

(ii) Sometimes publicising a price may dissuade a potential customer. Sometimes it’s better to show them the product’s features and selling points before showing the price.

The key word here is sometimes.

Even rules that are written in stone get worn down with time. Sometimes they stand resolute until the day they crack and eventually fall apart.

Sometimes people can’t see the fruit that’s on the trees that they can’t see for the forest.

The latest issue of BusinessWeek features a long article on the subject of ClickFraud, telling the story of a certain entrepreneur who spent $2 million on Google and Yahoo advertising, and started to wonder why so many clicks were coming from places like Mongolia and Syria. Surely they weren’t interested in US insurance and mortgage quotes?

A very interesting story, indeed, and somewhat chilling. It certainly shows that you can’t just leave your advertising campaigns to run themselves without close supervision – it could be costing you a fortune, quite literally.

Click Fraud: The dark side of online advertising

A News.com story that’s creating a lot of discussion today:

“[Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales asked senators to adopt “data retention” legislation that would likely force Internet providers to keep customer logs for at least a year or two. Those logs, often routinely discarded after a few months, are intended to be used by police investigating crimes.”

Hmmm. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out.

Gonzales: ISPs must keep records on users

Is it me, or is September quite a dull month? I don’t know, but I keep seeing attempts to liven things up by creating national and international days to celebrate everything under the sun. In the last few weeks, residents of the UK and/or the US have witnessed (or been blissfully unaware of) National Grandparents’ Day, National Wife Appreciation Day  National Play-Doh Day, and National Respect for Shopworkers Day. And that’s only the beginning.

Online, this week saw the return of Talk Like A Pirate Day, celebrated by everyone from Matt Cutts to Linus Torvalds.

Today, OneWebDay, we’re supposed to celebrate the world wide web by reflecting on how the web has changed our life and uploading photos to WebShots and Flickr.

I don’t know. I think I’m with Green Day on this one. Wake me up when September ends.

For anyone else who’s feeling like they’ve had enough and just wants the weekend to start, I can recommend WordSpy. Learn lots of entertaining new words such as “Christmas creep” and “cot potato”, while you wait for October to begin!

Rightly or wrongly, the appearance of an application can make or break the sale.

You’re already familiar with the concept. You arrive at the website, and the product looks good. You click on the link to the screenshots and:

- shudder. It would have looked old and tired in Windows 95. Clunky icons, bad colour scheme, odd layout. The whole thing reeks of amateurism. Back to Google.

- things look good. Nice layout, good icons, makes use of Windows conventions. You bit the bait and you’re hooked.

The next obvious step would be to further explore the website, and then download the trial version. But there are too many hurdles. You may lose interest during your website experience. You may be put off by the size of the download, or how long it’ll take to you to setup the software. You may be put of at the thought of jeopardising your system by installing the software.

An online video of the software in action could be the perfect solution. It’ll further reinforce how good the software looks, and let you see just how well it works in action. Without having to download the demo. Without having to set it up. And without risking your system going belly up.

BB FlashBack is an excellent means of creating such videos quickly and easily.

The software takes the pain out of what should be a complex task, and makes the whole process a remarkably quick and easy one.

Text, Images and Sounds can be added and edited after the screen recording, and the final output can be exported to Flash, AVI, WMV, EXE and PowerPoint.

It’s ideal for software demonstrations, screencasts, tutorials, training and more.

It’s also a great application, which is why we use it ourselves. More of that at a later date.

Blueberry Software have generously offered a 30% discount to readers of this blog, but I don’t know how long the offer will last. So I’d advise taking advantage of this sooner rather than later.

The following discount code can be used in order to receive 30% off the standard price for BB FlashBack:

3192-1019-76

It really is a great application and a great deal.

Need further proof? Take a look at the software in action.

Very, very slick. Highly recommended.

BB FlashBack – 30% discount

If you’re interested in social bookmarking sites, but unsure which ones are worth your while, have a look at this post over at Read/Write Web. They’ve compared the most popular sites, in terms of features as well as user number estimates.

Well worth a look.

The Social Bookmarking Faceoff