Theideais.com - Shay Rosen’s Ideas’ Blog

Work Overload

Published February 11th, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Wow, it has been long since I last logged in here. about a year ago, it felt like I’m gonna post every day. or maybe twice a week even once a week is enough. but hey, it’s now over 9 months…
It took me a while to admit it but, I’m not going to do it, not now. 2 kids, 2.5 hours everyday on the road and a startup to run does not leave me with blogging time (this is why I admire Michael Eisenberg at sixkidsandafulltimejob so much. I wonder how he does it)
So, officially, today I’m letting it go, I may post from time to time just for the fun of it but no more than that.

I had so many things to say about so much stuff such as the Microsoft - Yahoo! deal, the great trend we see in streetunes, the huge progress 8hands is doing and off course about Vidmo, my new baby. But I guess it’ll have to wait.

So bye all for now, I guess my thoughts, my insights and ideas will continue wondering in space un blogged for some more time. Hopefully, not too much.

Microsoft & Yahoo! Vs. Google

Published May 13th, 2007 in google, Microsoft and Yahoo!. 1 Comment

Ok, so I’m late. Everybody has been talking about the thing I call “The Big Deal”, Microsoft planned acquisition of (Or Merger with?) Yahoo! The rumors about it are over a year old but when you hear S teve Balmer talking about the price I think it’s going serious now. I can blurb a lot about the reasons, pros and cons of this deal, about Microsoft terrified by the giant of Mount View who’s breathing down it’s neck with Google docs & Spreadsheet free service and with the huge acquisitions of youtube and Double Click etc. But as I thought about it more and more I realized what I find interesting is that we see 2 empires fighting here. One can argue about the advantages of Microsft-Yahoo! and the other about the advantages of Google But I think it’s just a matter of bravery and innovation. My feeling is that we are looking at is a declining empire Vs. a young, fast growing, brave and rude one. It’s hard to say who’ll win but I think that if you take a look at the leaders of both parties you might get the same felling I have…

The Microsoft - Yahoo! Trimurti

The 3 G’s

Google Analytics’ V2 - new Interface

Published May 10th, 2007 in google, content optimization and Google Analytics. 0 Comments

Have you seen Analytics‘ new interface already? As one who spends hours with the graphs and numbers of GA, I was stunned, shocked and been spending even more time struggling with it. At the beginning my first reaction was “Wow”, I can’t argue that the new intrerface is much more good looking than the old one. But then again I’m still not convinced it’s more comfortable to use. Luckily I found this Step-by-Step guide to the new Interface which I hope will help everyone who like me is is still looking for some lost reports in the new interface. Good luck!

Web2.0 Risky business?

Published May 4th, 2007 in Web2.0 and Community Marketing. 0 Comments

I read this post saying most Web2.0 companies will fail. As a Web2.0 Product guy I had an immediate urge to write a contradicting answer claiming Web2.0 is heaven for successful new products. Then my laptop crashed, my draft was deleted and I was left only with my thoughts. Hours went by and I have changed my mind a bit. I think Aaron�is partially right, if a product is built only as an add on to an existing high traffic community site then yes, it will be extremely difficult to create an asset and maintain a competitive edge. It will also be almost impossible the survive if the high traffic site you are based on decides to develop your feature on it’s own and block yours (Not to mention the risk of a cease and desist letter like in the case of SingleStat.us).

So, what now? Is Web2.0 really just an illusion? How come it generates so many success stories and so many hopes? First, it’s a culture thing, users like it and this is why it’s not a bubble but a real and firm trend. Second, It’s a marketing heaven, and here comes my answer. If you base your�hopes only on being an add on to a popular traffic or service than Aaron is right. But if you use an add�on that generates awareness for you product and use it right to create real traffic on your site and provide a new service then you are on the right path. A good�way to determine if your Web2.0 product is a firm one or just an addon is to ask yourself what happens if myspace blocks you. If it means you’re dead then something is not good. If the answer is “It’s OK Myspace is not�our promary goal, just one of the sites that can benefit from our service. we’ll do just fine without them” then your product is in less dabger.�A great example is off course Twitter�that burst to new heights�on March after it’s Mini-blog feature was adopted by top bloggers. You can see the affect on alexa.
Call me optimistic, but I think 8hands is just one of this kind and that it will see this kind of burst as well:)

Mobile post

Published May 1st, 2007 in Mobile Blogging and Cellular content. 0 Comments

Didn’t post anything yesterday, didn’t have the time. No time today either but I must post something, I’m developing a blogaddictis so I’m posting from my cellphone. I’ll just say that Istrongly believe in mobile blogging, but this post is taking me forever! will someone get me a QWERTY keyboard for crying out loud!

I’m so looking for 8hands mobile version. This will be the end of boring meetings:)

SEO tips & Tricks Vs. SEO methodology

Published April 29th, 2007 in site planning, google, content optimization and SEO. 0 Comments

SEO is the magic word for every new site going live today. Everybody understands that traffic will come mainly from google and that a good positionon top search results page is worth more than any payd advertisement. This causes companies to go into an SEO frenzy, hire expensive SEO consultants and perform many actions in the sole purpose of gaining the desired top position in the search engines. Some of these actions may help, but some, mainly those recomended by over enthusiastic SEO consultants or unexperienced ones can be very risky to the site and may even result in a penalty and a ban from the search engine. My approach to this issue is a bit different - forget the magic that SEO guys promise, SEO is not magic it is just a way of thinking. You will never gain good results with a poor site even if you use the best of breed SEO tricks (and if you will, it won’t help, users will bounce out of your site within seconds). The first thing to care for is quality content. You must Think about users first and then consider search engines and not the other way around. I’m not saying you should ignore SEO considerations, I’m only saying that content and quality considerations come first.
So how should a site manager use SEO? SEO must be implemented in companies as a methodology, a way of thinking that is used whenever adding content to a site. Before stuffing your site with content and patch irelevant texts just for the search engines, take your time to develop your SEO startegy, understand your target audience and build your basic keyword universe. after doing that sit down, relax and write the basic guidlines for adding content to the site. These guidelines can be found anywhere and are basically just simple technical stuff that sum up in the way you should treat title tags, use text and heading tags, etc. Believe me, if you have a great product (like 8hands of course ) and you write your text following those simple guidelines you’ll get your desired search engine positions. If your product sucks, no SEO expert in the world will save you.

I’ll end with a poetic thought, I see google as the never ending stream of thoughts translated into clicks. If google is the stream of thoughts then the words you use on your site is like a butterflies’ net to them. Like butterflies, thoughts are very gentle, if you use a to rough net you might just crash them.

If you are looking for some good SEO resources you might wanna take a look at this great SEO blogs list by Lee Odden at Online Marekting Blog

The end of the homepage

Published April 28th, 2007 in site planning, google and content optimization. 1 Comment

It’s only symbolic that my first post will be about the end of the homepage:)

It’s a common thought that the homepage of a site is the most important page on the site, The homepage is usually used to explain what the site is all about, who’s behind it and is the basic start point for site navigation. Sounds reasonable doesn’t it? Well in part it’s right, of course this is what you should do with your home page since it is, after all the entry point to your site for some of the users. But only for some of them. I bet that if you check your web site stats you’ll see that the majority of the site’s visitors enter it through one of the internal pages. The reason for this phenomena is of course the worlds most abundant homepage - google. The users type a search on google and get the most relevant results. In most of the sites the most relevant page for a given search query is not the home page. For example, If I’m looking for “Smack That Ringtone” there’s no reason for me to go through my favorite ringtone site home page, I’d rather go directly to the songs download page which is the most relevant page for my search query. So, if your site is build like it should be, and if it contains the right content, most people will be entering it through it’s internal pages!
Ok, now what? Does it really matter? hell yes it does! after understanding that every page can be the entry page to your site, you need to design every page so it attracts the user to continue her visit your site. If you won’t, users will fail to understand where they are, lose orientation and most probably bounce back to google in search for a better page. I’d suggest considering including some or all of the following in every page on your site:

1. Introduction of the site’s essence in every page at lease in one phrase
2. Linksto all “About us”, “What we do?” and other background pages
3. If it’s an e-commerce site: assurances for all authentication and secure payment methods

Another thing to consider for e-commerce sites is that users may start surfing from the page where they should buy their desired product. This sounds great, but for some of the users may be a little intimidating, they would want to get to know the site before actualy start buying. Consider including some text that will make the user confident in buying on your site on the products’ pages.

Theideais.com - Shay Rosen’s Ideas’ Blog

Work Overload

Microsoft & Yahoo! Vs. Google

Google Analytics’ V2 - new Interface

Web2.0 Risky business?

Mobile post

SEO tips & Tricks Vs. SEO methodology

The end of the homepage

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