Review: LogoEase - 100% Free Logo Builder

So on first impression, the website is definitely eye candy. This logo builder was designed by a UK based design firm called Logo Quality. Upon using the tool I was impressed by its ease of use. You do not need to know how to use PhotoShop to use their tool. It is simple enough for a non techie as well as powerful enough to produce a quality logo. I recommend that you give it a try.

Chris

Get Ubuntu 8.04 CDs Free!

So Ubuntu is nearing its 8.04 release. If you act quickly, you can grab yourself a request to receive a cd for free. I requested both desktop and server 64bit cds. I am really excited for them to arrive, but most likely i will download the image as well. :D

Get Ubuntu 8.04

Chris

Review: HotStartupJobs.com - Looking for a new Job?

So I stumbled across HotStartupJobs.com, which aggregates all hot startup jobs from around the web. The application is still in beta and currently they do not offer search functionality, but it is promised that it is coming soon.

So far though they provide exposure for some interesting and promising jobs. So who is up for a job that possibly offers company equity in a fast paced environment? Sounds good to me.

Chris

HowTo: Marketing Efforts of a Startup -- Part 2

This article is part 2 of an article series, discussing how we are building brand awareness for our online property management startup. If you have not read part 1, please do as I will be continuing where I left off.

So I would like to start with a mini-update on Property Stampede's business and product development. We have business cards! We also designed a letterhead. We are about a third the way to our beta goal of 100 testers and 3000 units. We are moving a long quite nicely, and in fact we have had a few of our local beta testers ask if they can become shareholders. :D

As for product development, we are almost near completion of the main core components. We are on target for our May 15th private beta launch and we are looking really good for our public launch in September. We are extremely excited.

So now, lets continue on with the marketing efforts for the soon to be #1 online property management application.

Step 6: Create a Twitter Account
Now I realize that creating a twitter account seems like you are just giving in to the social media trends, but it is a powerful tool to keep followers updated. I am learning more and more about utilizing Twitter to increase our exposure. We created an account that reflects our name, propertystamped. We also used Twitter's Blogger widget to display our twitter feed on our blog. Then we used TwitterFeed to broadcast our blog posts to our twitter account. Lastly, follow other twitter users that make sense and that are related to your startup.

Step 7: Its Time to Get Viral
Once you have a lot of the building blocks in place, it is time to start getting viral. It is time to start offering expertise on your blog in regards to industry related news and topics. If you are not a good writer, then you better start practicing. Your ultimate goal is to create enjoyable content that people will want to reference or post on sites like Digg, reddit, and del.icio.us. You can start the seed by making those initial entries yourself into those sites.

The last component of getting viral, is using a tool like Google Reader to subscribe to blogs and news feeds that are related to your industry or startup. Pick enough feeds so that it builds a pretty handsome list of new posts daily. Go through them and pick ones that you can provide a valuable comment to. Do not spam other blogs, if you do not have something valuable to add to the discussions then it is better not to post than to post something that could possibly tarnish your image.

Step 8: Visit Local Business Organizations
Not everyone has the luxury of starting their company in a startup hub like Silicon Valley, but I can venture a guess and say that there is at least one business organization within your community. Reach out and find out what organizations are in your area.

We are fortunate here in Buffalo to have many organizations tailoring to the needs of general business networking and specific industries. One organization that I used to be in and I still get together with some of my co-participants, is BNI. BNI has a vast network of professionals and most cities have many BNI chapters. It is a networking group that only allows one person from each industry or profession. As a member you are allowed to visit other chapters anywhere in the world twice per year. So part of my marketing strategy is to go to as many chapters as I can and directly interact with professionals that provide the best opportunity for referrals. Remember, it is all about "Who You Know, Who ..."

Step 9: Begin Assessing Your Traffic
I know at this point it may seem like assessing 5 unique hits a day is pointless... but I argue that it is definitely not. You have to gauge what sources are worth your time for viral marketing. If you posted 5 comments in a month on www.whatever.com, and you only got 2 unique referrals, well then I think you should stop wasting your time or figure out why no one is following the link to your blog. Now if you have 2 comments on www.whateverelse.com in a month, but you collected 22 unique referrals, well then you better post more on that site. To be effective in viral marketing you have to know what works, otherwise it is like spinning your tires on ice, you will not get far very quickly.

Step 10: Know Your Target Audience, Create Keywords, and Start PPC
At this point, you are up and running. You are building a brand and making people know about who you are. It is time to use your viral marketing statistics to determine what keywords have worked well to this point. Once you pick your keywords, its time to take a crack at Google AdWords, Overture, or MS' Ad product (can not remember the name, have never used it). Start small until you are sure those keywords are reaching the right audience and increase from there.

I hope the above steps help you get a little bit further. Right now that sums up our efforts to date, but soon we will be exploring making a YouTube Video, hosting a webinar, and releasing Press through a service like PRWeb. It should be a fun ride and I will post my summary on here with Part 3 in the near future.

Chris

Indentured Blogitude?

I was reading Gigaom and learned about Indentured Blogitude. I never knew that something like this could possibly exist, that our society is so hung up on social networking that they would force bloggers to work in such environments and work to death. Its sad.

See the conditions for yourself:



Chris

p.s. h31p m3...

Alexa Rankings Revamped. Are they any better?

Little by little the importance of Alexa Rankings have been dwindling. Based on statistics that Amazon received from its Alexa Toolbar, it generated the Alexa Rankings. From a tech standpoint, this statistics have been understood to be inaccurate. Alexa has recently listened to the call of users to take into considerations external sources for data outside of just its toolbar. Is it too little too late? Many tech bloggers believe it is.

I had a chance to look at Compete and quantcast, which offer public traffic statistics as well. The realm of internet traffic statistics is changing. Pretty much ten years since the release of the alexa rankings, their tools are still less than spectacular and the data offered is hard for the average person to comprehend. These new tools focus on usability and innovation and that is just what they are delivering.

It will be interesting, Amazon has a long road a head of itself if they are going to reclaim their high seat.

Chris

Top 10 Bad SEO Ideas

When I stumbled across the Complete List of SEO Tools, I also stumbled across this gem Top 10 Bad SEO Ideas.

Two of my favorites from the list of 10 are:

2. Stuff Keywords In Invisible Text: An accountant once asked that I take over her professional website and host it for her. She said she wanted to upgrade the website but she was not ready to yet. When transfered the files over and viewed the website to make sure it was working, it was covered with invisible text. The funny part was that the invisible text was only repetition of her company name... not even top keywords. It was really kind of funny and sad at the same time. I could not blame her though because she had no idea, I just wish I was able to meet the person that built her website for her...

8. Implement your site in Flash: This one is for all the flash gurus who build beautiful looking websites yet end users cannot find their sites to appreciate them...

Chris

Complete List of SEO Tools

I was doing my daily crawl of blogs when I found this page listing the Complete List of SEO Tools. It truly is a complete list.

As time goes I will select my favorites from this list and add them to the links page.

Chris

We are in a recession...

So it is official, we are in a recession. But what is interesting is, that here in Buffalo it has not seemed that way.

Buffalo is a phenomenon, the subprime crisis, real estate bubble and credit crunch have not been a factor in the lives of the average Buffalonian. Since most major companies have left Buffalo long before the real estate bubble, we have not experienced large growth in demand for real estate or rising home prices. In fact, home prices and demand has been steady for years. One thing is for sure in Buffalo, there is a great chance that your home value will not change more than 1-4% in either direction, but more often than not it has gone up a mere 2 or 3 % over 10 years. So there was no bubble to burst here in Buffalo.

With a weak dollar, Buffalo has blossomed. This passed holiday season, Buffalo retailers have had some of the best sales numbers they have seen in years. Waves of Canadian's drove the short distance over the Peace Bridge to take advantage of a weak dollar and cheaper sales tax. It was probably one of the strongest influx of out of town funds this city has seen in a decade.

The weak dollar has also created an environment for businesses to be far more competitive with foreign companies, allowing US exports to climb quickly.

Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke has been pushing interest rates lower and lower. That means very inexpensive loans, in fact one of my colleagues in the financial industry has been telling all of his business owner clients to run to the banks and take out a loan. What is interesting is how it is affecting our local economy...

I recently updated my resume on monster.com. Within 2 business days I was contacted by 7 local recruiters and 2 non local. Normally it is the other way around. Every recruiter has had multiple jobs available for me to be presented to. From what I can tell, they are so many jobs available and not enough talent that the companies are accepting less qualified candidates with the understanding that they will be trained. For years, this has been unheard of in Buffalo.

As the Nation as a whole experiences rough times, Buffalo is blossoming... strange.

Chris

Review: SearchWebJobs.com

Through one of my daily news feeds I caught wind of a new jobs site that focuses primarily on web related jobs, SearchWebJobs.com. I like this idea. It allows you to look for jobs that are Full Time, Part Time and Freelance in categories Design, Development, Management, Tech and Other.

Very simple design. Easy to use and powered with minimal advertisements.

It is free for both the job seeker and the job poster. I recommend you give it a try.

Chris