New Web Teks Commercial
by Tom Anthony on Oct.19, 2008, under Internet
Tom Walker and I filed a commercial for Web Teks this morning. I thought it turned out really well. Take a look!
New Dawn, New Day, new life
by Tom Anthony on Oct.04, 2008, under Music, Personal
There certainly have been a lot of changes lately. This is a time for introspection for me personally as I begin a new life.
The focus of my world recently has been to transition to living solo which is going well. I am now living in Chesapeake, close to my office. My professional life continues to flourish along with the success of Web Teks.
I guess the biggest news is the Open Source Music Project. With more time as of late to devote to my music, it brings me great comfort – and surprisingly – others seem to enjoy it as well.
The Open Source Music Project was actually germinated during my association with a group knows at A2 in 2006-2007. Although I am obligated to leave out most of the details, A2 is an effort to launch a new kind of digital entertainment. As far as I know that is still an effort in progress.
So what the heck is open source music?
I made it up. But the concept is to allow the free use of any individual tracks as the ingredients for a new song. When you record and produce your own music it is usually a series of separate audio tracks blended together. My inspiration came from getting such different results when mixing certain tracks together and leaving some out of the mix. Some of them are not so great – but a few really shine.
On the Open Source Music Project site I encourage anyone interested to download these tracks and use them any way they like (under the Creative Commons Attribution License). If you take a listen let me know how abysmal that stuff really is. You may comment on any track on that site and if you really are a glutton for punishment subscribe to the RSS feed.
The FTC Hands Down New CAN-SPAM Rules
by Tom Anthony on Jun.17, 2008, under Internet
I follow a lot of blogs, including one by Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey. Silverpop is a email marketing company the provides users with wizard driven email marketing campaigns – and a lot of reporting features. IN a recent posting Nussey talks about new rules which may affect you if you do any kind of list based email. This is a direct partial copy of that item, and a link to the blog is found in my blogroll. Enjoy.
In case you haven’t heard yet, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last week enacted new rules intended to clarify the original provisions of the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act. The supplementary ruling, which goes into effect June 26, may have important ramifications for your email marketing program. I encourage you to seek the advice of your legal counsel about how these new rules may affect your programs. In the meantime, here’s a summary of the key provisions for discussion purposes:
Mandated Simplification of Opt-out Processes
The new rules clarify the opt-out required under CAN-SPAM. You’ll want to examine your opt-out process to determine if it is in compliance with this new rule, which states:
The opt-out may not be conditioned on the payment of any fee.
The recipient must not be required to provide anything more than email address and associated opt-out preferences for that email address (i.e., no password, account number, name, etc. can be required).
The opt-out mechanism must rely on either a reply email or a visit to a single Internet Web page and nothing more (i.e., multiple Web page opt-out processes are no longer allowed).
P.O. Box Usage Confirmed
Businesses may publish a sender’s P.O. box or private mailbox in a commercial email message to comply with the valid physical postal address requirement.
Designated Sender Rule Established
This new rule provides a framework whereby multiple advertisers that appear in the same commercial email message, each of which normally would satisfy the Act’s definition of “sender,” may designate a single sender among them as the sole sender of the message. If you routinely engage in list rentals or joint promotions, you will want to examine this provision closely.
Rules Regarding Incented Forwarding
The new rules confirm that if a company offers something of value (e.g., sweepstakes entry or discount) to incent a user to forward a commercial message to a friend, the company providing the incentive is held responsible for complying with CAN-SPAM as a Sender of the resulting message.
The FTC was widely expected to collapse the amount of time senders have to comply with an opt-out from 10 business days to three business days, but no change was issued. The 10 business day opt-out rule remains in effect.
The Email Sender & Provider Coalition has issued a summary of the new rules, which you can check out here. Or, you can access the full FTC text by clicking here.
What is a podcast?
by Tom Anthony on May.14, 2008, under Internet
This is a real email I answered from a client – I just left out the name
Hi V!
It is like a radio talk show – usually on a very narrow topic. For example apple has a podcast about the original recordings of songs selected by American Idol Contestants I listen to – you have to love American Idol to even be interested – and thankfully (so I don’t feel like an idiot 
I am not alone – it is downloaded thousands of times apparently.
From what I can tell it looks like my podcast is downloaded an average of 143 times a day after not quite two months and five shows posted. To tell you the truth I can’t believe that many people are interested in this stuff! If I get listed in the Apple website as a “top 100″ most popular podcast the downloads would go up exponentially – some business podcasts are downloaded tens of thousands of times. It’s stunning.
You don’t have to have an iPod to listen, you can hear it on the website at http://webstrategiespodcast.com/ but you may personally find it a little dry.
Let me know what you think! Thanks!
Tom
Budding Steven Spielberg
by Tom Anthony on May.01, 2008, under Personal
Austin is Tom and Dyanne Walkers son, and a budding Steven Spielberg. This video was part of a school project. I just wish I had the five million bucks to purchase a cloaking device for myself !
Walking and Dancing with Parkinsons
by Tom Anthony on May.01, 2008, under Internet
This report aired on the NBC Nightly News on Wednesday, May 30, 2008. It discusses how ordinary dancing ha extraordinary benefits for people with Parkinson’s Disease. As some readers may already know my wife Marsha and her daughter Traci founded and personally operate the Melvin Weinstein Parkinson’s Foundation dedicated to helping victims of Parkinson’s Disease and their families.
Last weekend Marsha, her amazing 85 year-old Mom and I joined an estimated 10,000 people gathered in New York’s Central Park for the 14th annual Unity Walk. It was both wonderful and sad at the same time. We greeted friends we have known for many years, some of them have declined in health dramatically. Still they fight on, and it was truly inspiring to see people who struggle to take three steps walking three miles to show solidarity to the Parkinson’s community – and more importantly to help raise over one million dollars toward the cure. I hope you take a few minutes to visit the foundations website at www.MWPF.org
Urban Myth TIPS ON PUMPING GAS
by Tom Anthony on Apr.11, 2008, under Internet
Many times, I delete forwarded email without even reading them. This one from my brother in law made me think. Thanks Allen!
TIPS ON PUMPING GAS
I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline…but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon…
Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.
Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.
A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money. One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.
Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some f the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.
DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!
Makes sense – right? Well no matter how humble these things sound there are damn few that are for real. Here is another view:
From the Rumor website – Snopes.com
Origins: This collection of purported money-saving tips for buying gasoline is another item difficult to classify as strictly true or false. It’s not completely false in that one or more of the tips might actually result in some savings (however modest), but it can’t fairly be classified as true either, as the practical utility of all of these tips is disputed, and the economic gains to be had from following them is highly questionable.
this myth has been around since the late 40′s when gasoline storage tanks were just starting to be buried underground. in the early days the tanks were buried just below the surface, and thus temperature did have an effect of the volume of fuel in the tank, but mostly due to the amount of vapor released due to the higher temperatures. these days the storage tanks are buried much deeper to the point where the tanks are kept at a steady 55 degrees regardless of outside temperature, and thus has no meaning these days.
Now's Not the Time to Slow Down
by Tom Anthony on Apr.02, 2008, under Internet
I read an interesting take on the current economic situation in an automobile dealer’s vendor newsletter I subscribe to. It had the message right up to the point it started selling a particular product the publisher offers, then went off the tracks – anyway – here is the top part with my commentary below…
Now’s Not the Time to Slow Down
According to a recent J.D. Power and Associates forecast, new-vehicle sales in 2008 are expected to reach their lowest levels since 1994, dropping to 14.95 million cars and light trucks. This obviously isn’t good news for our industry, and your first instinct may be to cut back on spending (including marketing and advertising), ride out the rough times and wait for sunnier weather. But if you do that, you’d be missing a huge opportunity.
First things first… if you’re experiencing a slow-down in sales, the last thing you’ll want to do is to cut back on the only thing that can drive sales – namely advertising and marketing.
Second, slowdowns like this are an opportunity for the marketing savvy among us to capture market and mind share so that when things rebound, as they most certainly will, you’re in the driver’s seat.
Here is where the author went off the tracks in my opinion:
One way to accomplish this is to ramp up your traditional media spending during this lull. Chances are you’ll even probably see some favorable media rates…
O.K. first, traditional media like what? Newspapers? A bad investment for most businesses – readership is in a deep decline especially among folks under 40. (I can defend that stat with facts)
Traditional media like local radio? National statistics show overall use of radio declining, and with the rise in Satellite radio listenership the only logical deduction is that the audience for live local radio is also in decline. (And I can defend that stat with facts)
I could go on, and you could probably argue both sides of the media penetration issue. That being said the Internet is the 900 pound gorilla in the room. I would consider placing shrinking budgets into growing media, not declining media. But how?
O.K. – that’s another blog for another time – better yet – a Web Strategies Podcast J
How Much Does A Web Site Cost?
by Tom Anthony on Mar.21, 2008, under Internet
This is a real email from an old friend and colleague of mine – Chandler Turner
Tom, I think you told me that you were looking for e–business sites in the $10,000 to $15,000 range, is that right? I have talked to a 75 year old company here with loyal clients that IS NOT cross-selling its divisions at all and one manager who ″gets it″. However, they really do not need an e–business site but moreover; they would NEVER agree to spend that kind of money.
Here is my response
Well, first it would not necessarily cost them a do–over price. Actually it will not necessarily cost them anything at all – not if they currently have any budget allocated for generating sales. Most of what I do is strategic – not building the web site –but getting people to go there and then do something (like buy or call). If they spend money now on marketing or branding or advertising or public relations then all they need to do is shift some allocations around and get a better return on investment by using the web properly.
That said – it’s not a build it and forget it deal. In fact it is the exact opposite. I can’t tell you how many companies I work with that tell me their web site does nothing, only to find they built it three years ago and have not updated a single word. For me it’s about results. Like measuring visitors to the site, determining where they came from, and why they went to a particular page. It is counting how many sales came from the web and figuring out what works with their particular target market. It’s not about graphics; it’s about conversion from visitor to customer. Besides, these days just about anybody can build a web site. The thing I bring to the table is what happens next.
Sounds like that manager friend of yours could use a lunch with you and me to put perspective on his particular issue. What do you think?
tom
Google Video in Local Business Center
by Tom Anthony on Mar.20, 2008, under Internet, Media
I just read a report in a feed from Web Site Magazine about an incredible announcement made by Google this week.
Google Maps has a section for business owners allowing them to update and enhance their listing. Before this week you could use Google AdWords to advertise when someone looks up your business category in your geographic vicinity. That cost is determined by a budget you determine in advance and on a per click basis.
For no cost you could correct your listing or add information – like store hours, or what category your business belongs in. You could also upload up to 10 photos showing off your business. For example if you go to local.google.com and type in gym 23454 you should see Face the Pain Gym near or at the top – with a picture. You can click on more info and see an overview of the business – reviews and photos. And starting this week you can view videos if they are there.
What an unbelievable opportunity to feature customer testimonials, product demonstrations or how about a personal invitation from you the business owner to visit your store?! I have not actually tried it yet, but it is described as being similar to the process of adding photos, businesses are allowed to display up to five videos in their Maps record and pull videos directly from YouTube. I like where this is going.
