DDL:08 was a good experience for us - it was the first time we ever had a booth (though we have sponsored other events), and it was a good experience (more on that later).

Right now though I want to point out to a bonafide ass.

Part of our sponsorship was us sponsoring a Cyber Cafe. At the conference they have two sets of three computers connected to the internet. Two companies sponsor the cyber cafe, setting the homepage on the computer to a site specified by the sponsor. As such, three of the computers were set to www.ibegin.com and the other three were set to www.homes.com.

We noticed this earlier on, and it happened non-stop - some ass kept going over to the six computers and kept setting www.bizclip.com/portfolio/ as his homepage. And by non-stop I mean he would come by every 30 minutes to do this.

I never actually saw the bugger doing this as I was too busy to wait to catch him, but quite a few people let me know what was going on, including one of our employees.

I can only imagine the kind of service and product you would receive from someone who would stoop to such a level. Consider yourself warned.

Update: I should note that quite a few people did this. This one particular individual did it multiple times. At the same time - other than human decency I cannot imagine a way to ’solve’ this kind of behavior. Timers, perma-frames, etc - they all have drawbacks. So really nothing Kelsey nor we can do about it.

So I’m at the tail end of LeadsCon, getting ready to go home.

To me, the best two sessions were ‘Keynote Address: Lessons From the Leaders’ and ‘Uncovering Local Lead Generation’

The first was an interesting story - how things were done, how much FreeCreditReport.com cost (hand regged!), and so forth. Personal stories of success and development are always good.

The second was interesting in the sense of mechanics - the background work required to make local lead generation work. What is expect from businesses, and what is expected from consumers, and match the two.

The rest in the middle, while executed well (I much prefer talk sessions than podium preaching), was boiled down to two core issues:

1. Teeth gnashing at what meanies the FTC are and how they hate us
2. Teeth gnashing at the mortgage industry explosion, and looking forward to the housing market coming back

It was, in my opinion, far too retrospective, when it should have been more forward-thinking. What I got (and remember, this is my perspective), was that the only new thing was lead scoring.

My intent in coming was of course locally-oriented - local lead gen, while a tougher nut to crack than the traditional ‘financial’ categories (mortgage, debt, loans, financing), is also potentially far more lucrative (higher margins, repeat customers, word of mouth effectiveness). Yet every single established company I talked to had the same boiler plate answer - we think it’s great, it’s on our list of things to do, but not in the year 2008.

It reminded me a lot of the domainer industry. All those PPC companies are basically the same (their ads come via Google or Yahoo), and they all sell the same services. Instead of trying to evolve the market in new ways, it seems like everyone is content sitting on their laurels fighting each other for the same leads, instead of trying to work on new areas where there is no competition.

Yes there were most definitely some individuals who want to try new things, who are looking at new types of leads. But the local space requires scale and operations - a one man operation won’t make much of a dent in local lead gen.

At the end of the day, this just elucidates the level of disconnect happening between some of the major industries I travel. Local companies should be interested in domains (readymade traffic - just look at Marchex), and should be interested in getting the most money out of a consumer (lead gen!). Yet I saw almost zero local-oriented companies. Domainers should love local (’unlocking’ the potential of their domains) and lead gen (leaving the Google/Yahoo duopoly) … but again, few domainers. Lead gen should love domainers (source of traffic) and local (higher margins, new areas) - but again, little interaction.

I almost feel like a trailblazer trying to connect the three - anyone else actively participating in these three areas?

So I had two packages to be delivered today, and one tomorrow - all three by UPS.

The one by ground got here just fine. It was ETAed to arrive on Monday, but got Thursday.

The one that was sent by one day shipping - the idiot driver claimed my address didn’t exist. Of course when I called them up it turned out that the full address was there. In the last 10 times UPS has had to deliver something to me, twice they have claimed the address doesn’t exist, and one time they delivered the package to an apartment 2 blocks off.

I really don’t get what in the hell UPS is doing (and who they are hiring).

But today I got a first - a recycled tracking code!

So when I called to yell about my screwed up delivery, I had to yell about this too. It took like 40 minutes to resolve it … which consists of me having to drive to a place 40 minutes away to pick up both packages.

Sigh!

Update the Next Day: Evidently once they get into a groove of screwing you, they continue.

I was told I would get a call at around 10 am to confirm that the package (with the recycled tracking number) would be held for me. 10 am came and went whoosh. So I called, and the rep claimed they called me. Except of course I have caller ID - and there was no call. When I caught him with that, he claimed it said they called, but that no one of that name lived there, so they must have dialed it wrong. When I asked him why didn’t they bother to RE-DIAL then … he was left speechless.

And checking online it says ‘Out for Delivery’ … timed at 6:47 am.

If you ever hear about me sending something via UPS - be sure to kick me in the balls. Both result in the same level of physical and psychological pain.

ReachLocal - recipient of $67million in funding.

The footer includes a link to ReachLocal Directory … which is nothing more than an ODP directory.

What exactly is the point of having that?

UPDATE: Fixed the funding - I had erroneously noted it as $160 million. Someone from RL did contact me about this - I was told that it is just an old directory page … but I fail to see why it is linked from their front page still.

It seems like Intel isn’t happy with its visual branding, and (trying) to take a hint from Target (bullseye), Nike (swoosh), Apple (apple), and so forth, is pushing out its own ‘evolution glyphs’

The glyphs were created from recurring shapes that were found throughout the microprocessor’s features as the silicon is processed. They’re hoping that the glyphs help make the Intel brand more recognizable like Target’s red bullseye and Nike’s swoosh.

See for your self:

And the new tune/video for the end of Intel ads: click here.

I gotta be honest - I don’t get it. Target has one image. Nike has one image. Apple has one image. NBC has one image. And so forth and so forth. How do 16 glyphs equal that level of recognition? Perhaps the 16 glyphs could be used as secondary elements, but still have a dominant image associated with the brand.

Then again, I’m not a million-dollar consultant.

Pretty sure this isn’t public yet - so be sure to digg it.

I am so sick of people either deluding themselves, or trying to pull in big words in hoping to get you to look at their [for sale] listing.

Classic example: ‘MV-M.COM a premium name for sale’

In what reality is ‘mv-m’ a premium domain? Hell the domain was registered just over 10 days ago - are you telling me premium domains are for sale like that?

I’ve been a long believer that the easiest way to differentiate between serious and dumbass is price. SitePoint has sort of gone that way - adding a ‘Premium Sites for Sale’ category. The problem is that it still only costs $40 to list there. You still end up with stupid sales like Torrentaholic.com. If the site BIN is $500, that isn’t premium. Quite the opposite - certifiable crap.

Same rule applies to any other marketplace - from DNF to NamePros to WebHostingTalk.

I wish one of the forum operators would be willing to take the flak and create a premium listing that requires $500 listing fee. These are established sites. They push a lot of traffic. They have generated millions in transactions. Why not?

Oh an addendum too - provide an Escrow service.

So - SitePoint, DNF, NP, WHT, etc - please provide us with a real premium listing service, and also a built-in escrow service. You have the traffic and brand - it seems to be an obvious extension.

[I’m good friends with the new DNF operator - I will try to get his response here.]

I’ve been relatively quiet on ILM:07 as I’ve been busy digesting information and getting a chance to reflect on it.

When I came across the Marchex Internal Strategy Memo I couldn’t help but laugh.

So on Day 3 we had “Keynote Address: Marchex and the Vertical Opportunity in Local” It was a decent talk - of everything, what really boggled my eyes was the claim of 25,000,000 unique visitors a month. Not even SuperPages.com, YellowPages.com, etc can claim that.

There was the talk of the difficulties of local data - on how the struggle is both with breadth (quantity) and depth (quality) of data. The approach Marchex has taken is via its acquisition of OpenList - scraping other sites for information and mixing together into coherent text. The talk basically focused on building out various verticals, Marchex’s collection of domains (thus providing them instant traffic), and selling local ads on all these sites (no need to start over - just convert current salespeople into selling online ads).

Overall though - I have to agree with the faux internal memo linked above. I previously mentioned it, but there are a ton of questions I would love Marchex to address:

Why bother building out all these domains individually? Why not aggregate all the traffic into one stronger brand? You may lose out on the SEO value of each domain, but with replicated content galore, it seems to be on a rather shaky foundation again

What exactly is Marchex doing with all the other domains they own? Especially non-US geodomains that are just sitting around (eg Beijing.com)

How is the ZIP code blog panning out? (for those that don’t know, Marchex is experimenting on using its ZIPcode.com domains as local blogs)

While the above memo is poking fun, it does have a legitimate point. Your domains alone are arguably worth your market cap (~$500 million). Sahar says .com went up an average of 311% from 2004. Marchex was founded in early 2004 by purchasing Yun Ye’s collection for $165 million. 165 million x 3.11 = $513.15 million. So it actually seems like their portfolio alone is worth more than Marchex and all of its assets. So - why are you guys going sideways (or even arguably down) and not up?

Are you concerned about impending Demand Media IPO?

Will you ever start selling off any of your non-local domains?

Just a few question to get started

I like what OpenList is trying to do, but I fail to see what Marchex is trying to do - redirect the domains to their respective parts of OpenList (or a new brand), build some good SEO structure, and go from there. What you guys are doing (so far) doesn’t seem to add up.

So why are there a ton of ‘make money’ blogs by people who are happy to break $1000 a month?

Case in point: the 45n5 top 100 - a compilation of the top 100 money making blogs.

Just looking at the last few posts on most of those blogs, you can tell it is nothing more than a pool of the same ideas being restated in whatever new fashion. Not to mention the fact that most of them don’t really make much money online.

Yes there are a few intelligent blogs. Darren Rowse has built up quite a few blogs into a decent sum of money. Shoe Money has proven he can make money offline. But people like John Chow? Are you kidding me. His entire revenue stream is stuffing affiliate programs down the the gullet of his readership (I still remember when he was new and got a dozen or so frontpage Diggs and I thought - this smells fishy).

Then again - at least he has the readership that supports his claim of making money. What about those bloggers with 50-500 subscribers that are happy to make $1000? I’m not belittling $1000. I’m not belittling the drive of these bloggers. What I am questioning is how much advice someone who doesn’t make much money online can give to others?

Let me pick on a post - ‘The Best Blogging Tip no one will ever mention’ - whew, what an amazing headline. What is the great tip? “Don’t overcomplicate things.” Great - thanks. He then goes on to list the most mundane basic steps in setting up a blog. He then links to an article about web hosting. Web hosting is a big keyword. It makes sense to include ‘web hosting’ in the link text - but instead it is just ‘hosting.’ I’m nitpicking here - but a professional should know that SEO is important, that link text matters, and that ‘web hosting’ puts the link into more context (as hosting itself can include other things such as a party).

Furthermore, as these people have little real experience in generating real amounts of money online, the topics become rather incestuous (ie - the root point is the same). ‘Write unique content.’ ‘Think about your user.’ ‘Make it easy to subscribe (don’t forget email!)’ ‘Have fun.’ It is the same ‘top X ways of Y’ - where X is 6, 10, 5, or some other oblique number and Y are the same 5-15 different topics.

And a few links to round out my thoughts.

Points out that few of the blogs actually focus on making money. Yep. Just a lot of noise.

A poll on what you would do with $25 and use it to make money online. Huh? $25?

I do want to add - I’m not saying go for it. I started 10 years ago with $0. It’s tough. It’s exhausting. But if you do it right its amazing. And yes the first $100 was thrilling. But - I never thought of myself as a money making expert. Don’t claim to be something you aren’t (and I still am not a money making expert).

And now you can Digg it

Everyone talks about business listings, news, weather, movies, events, etc etc when it comes to local. But it turns out that people care about the obituaries too.

This one took me by surprise. While the responses focused on gags, I did look for some more concrete numbers on how popular obituaries are - with no luck.

I’m confused - what is so special about Agendize?

They enable sharing. Something like Quick RSS links or AddThis.

In the context of blogs it makes sense - it is a mass consumer activity. People use Blogger and Wordpress.com because they don’t have the technical know-how.

But YP companies like Yellowpages.ca are a different breed. How is figuring out the HTML to add to delicious difficult? Stuff like converting to PDF or IM, which may seem complicated, are all open-sourced for you to find online.

Instead of paying Agendize for this little feature, why not just have an engineer build it in-house and be done with it?

Can anyone elaborate the advantages of using Agendize for me?