Macalua.com

One more reason why we need marketing-focused developers. Missed opportunities and brand erosion in a seemingly harmless under maintenance page.

• A carefully worded message in the brand’s tone would have been “cuter” (think Flickr); machine-language needs to go.
• Branding elements, e.g. logo need to be here; the current implementation makes it look like the site was defaced.
• Better to remove the +/- 6 hour promise because you could either be under/overestimating your uptime schedule

Hate it when somebody broadcasts your dashes-and-keyword-heavy domain list for everyone (including Google) to see… yes all 400 of them! I know PowerReviews is really just helping get the word out and score some marketing points (look at all our clients) but come on. This is risky stuff right here!

It’s actually a nice “review raffle” promotion that PowerReviews is running. I wonder when BazaarVoice would sponsor one for their clients.

Here’s a slightly OT post dedicated to one Ryan Soriano or djwoblely, originally from Alaska, USA and currently a DLSU MBA graduate student. The short summary is this: he is in possession of my stolen MacBook Pro and was selling the same in clear violation of the Philippine Anti-fencing law.

The story actually starts October of 2008, when our home was broken into by unidentified suspects. The MacBook Pro was one of the items stolen. Last March 17, friends pointed out a Sulit.com.ph ad (inactive now) posted by one djwoblely that was selling a MacBook Pro with the same serial number as my stolen laptop. I checked out the local Macintosh Users Group forum and saw that the same person had posted a similar ad on Philmug.ph. I immediately tried contacting the seller and the Mandaluyong PNP to arrange an entrapment operation but decided against it at the last minute (the 14 green years in me told me to take a more compassionate approach). Good for Ryan Soriano, bad for me, as I would soon find out.

I talked with Ryan Soriano twice. Our conversations (1 and 2) plus the messages he left on the Philmug thread and through PM all indicated that he was going to return the stolen MacBook Pro to me. But as luck would have it, this Ryan Soriano had other plans for the MBP. I agreed to give him a week to downgrade and get his files. Mr. Soriano probably used the 1 week to get his girlfriend’s mom, Atty. Epifania “Fanny” G. Obias to help him come up with a plan to keep the laptop. Ryan Soriano later PMs me that mommy dearest is now the custodian of the stolen laptop. Touching no?

Fast forward to today. After countless attempts to get Ryan Soriano and Atty. Epifania Obias to return the stolen laptop failed, I’ve decided to get help from the cops, the media, and the Philippine online community in general. If there’s one thing that should stick, it’s the fact that Ryan Soriano and Atty. Epifania Obias are in possession of my stolen MacBook Pro and have chosen to ignore all attempts to peacefully surrender this stolen item to me, despite providing all legal documents to prove that I’m the laptop’s rightful owner.

Me and a handful of Philmuggers believe that Internet vigilantism can ultimately force Ryan Soriano and Atty. Epifania Obias to return the stolen MacBook Pro. If you want to help out, blog about the case. The more people talking about the specifics of the case in public, the more painful it becomes for Ryan Soriano and Atty. Epifania Obias to hold on to the stolen item.

Read the epic Philmug thread detailing the case of Ryan Soriano and the stolen MacBook Pro, all 560 posts (and counting). It makes for one interesting Holy Week read.

Thanks for your support:

• Stolen Macbook Pro Being Sold on PhilMUG!
• Ryan Soriano Does Not Return Stolen Macbook Pro, Betrays Trust
• Story Of A Stolen Mac Book Pro
• Stolen Laptops, Car Robberies in Ortigas Center, The Fort

Not sure what Verisign was thinking. But the massive penetration of the Verisign Secured Verify widget must have tempted their SEOs to use this as a link delivery system. And why not? You get 4,309,470 keyword-rich dofollow links (and counting) in one relatively easy stroke, without the website owner even knowing. (more…)

You have a need. You realize your word-of-mouth marketing initiatives need a little social media push 2.0 style. The only time people talked about and linked to you was during some ho hum swag swap meet your friend arranged with some bloggers who looked and behaved like this was their first time out in years.

You start conversations with your new buzz ambassadors and realize that they’re not really the best that blogger 1 was into stamp collecting, while blogger 2 was into celebrity news. You walk away resigned to the fact that your 5 minutes of blog fame would never have the WOMM ROI you were hoping for.

Your recourse? You hook up with a social media expert or SME (not to be confused with snake oil salesmen). SMEs come in different forms and sizes. But one common denominator is their propensity to equate expertise with any of the following:

1. Total blog feed subscriber count
2. Daily blog traffic stats
3. PageRank
4. Digg, Facebook, Friendster, Plurk, Twitter, LinkedIn friend/follower count.
5. Total member count of social media app built, bought or maintained by the SME
6. Invitations to social media-focused offline events

(more…)

Was browsing through Yahoo!-related articles and stumbled upon the Peanut Butter Manifesto written in 2006 by Brad Garlinghouse, a former senior executive at Y!. He outlines what he thought was holding Yahoo! back and proposes solutions to these same problems.

It’s scary how generic this manifesto can be. Do a replace-all and substitute Yahoo! with your favorite company and the lessons would still apply. Companies that saw growth spurts and then over expanded to capture perceived opportunities should make the manifesto a must read.

(more…)

With all the reshuffling and uncertainty happening at Yahoo!, one thing’s for certain: Yahoo! Mobile loves the Philippines. Yahoo! Mobile is relaunching with some rather cool mobile apps and has picked the Philippines to be one of its test beds, no doubt due to our outrageous domination in SMS usage.

Initial launch planned for USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, India, Indonesia and Philippines. Other countries will be supported on an ongoing basis.

Go to the Yahoo! Mobile page from your phone’s browser to sign up to be a beta tester.

Speaking of reshuffling, if you work for Yahoo! and you feel you need a change of scenery, this Yahoo resignation letter generator might come in handy!

Also you have to admire Carol Bartz’s optimism. Here’s hoping she succeeds!

This is too painful to hear. Hitwise is reporting that “U.S. visits to online retail Web sites have declined for the eighth consecutive week”. According to the report, US visits to a “custom category of 500 retail websites declined 3 percent for the week ending Oct. 25, 2008, compared with the same week the previous year”.

“These declines have strong implications for the upcoming holiday season as well as offline sales,” said Heather Dougherty, research director at Hitwise. “Everyone is aware of the role that the Internet plays to influence offline sales through research, so this slowdown may indicate a further ripple effect in sales in retail locations.”

Definitely not good for retailers’ Q4 aspirations. As demand shrinks, retailers will have to outspend each other on customer acquisition, which will cut into their margins, which will ultimately cause the biggest Christmas Party budget cuts for the people they rely on for outsourced help (me). Great.

Here’s the full report.

Tis a sad, sad day for Philippine SEOs when a notable local dotcom player starts dissing on the value and merits of search engine optimization.

SEO’s are costs that do not, for the moment, give any form of worthy results. Our experience in e-commerce with myAyala for the past 8 years has indicated that the cost of SEO is better spent on an offline campaign. i.e. print add or TVC about the website or an offline promotion requiring an online fullfilment.

The best way to get good search engine results is to simply build consistent and loyal “visits” to your site. In the Philippine context, an offline campaign is necessary.

I really think that person may have been referring to paid search rather than organic but the last paragraph make it sound like he is really hating on organic.

Strong words from a company whose flagship category homepage (flowers) metadata looks something like this:

<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”flower delivery philippine, flower delivery philippines, flowers to philippines, flowers to the philippines, philippines flower shop, philippines flower shops, send flowers philippines, send flowers to the philippines”>
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”Online Philippine flower shop that allows you to send flowers to the Philippines. We deliver to anywhere in the Philippines.”>
<meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow”>
<META NAME=”Revisit-After” CONTENT=”7 Days”>
<title>Philippines flower shop online |  Send flowers to Philippines</title>

Ano ba talaga kuya?

Will online ad spending suffer because of the bleak economic times? Jury’s still out on that one. But if there are budgets to be trimmed, traditional media seems to be the first choice.

According to a June McKinsey & Co. survey of 340 senior marketing executives worldwide, 91% are using online advertising, and over one-half indicate that their companies plan to maintain or exceed current levels where possible. Even more telling, 55% of marketers said they’re cutting expenditures on traditional media, precisely in order to increase funding for online efforts.

With search adoption increasing, more and more marketers should look at shoring up the budgets for the channels that provide the best ROI, while drastically reducing cost for the ones that ummmmmm give you good branding returns.