Kansas City SEO and SEM

by: Anne Haynes

While this might not be a “totally” funny story, it’s interesting to say the least based on the look I received when I said “Twitter” in public.

So, I’m in the process of building out a big pay-per-click campaign. My client just launched a radio ad and the PPC campaign needed to be up ASAP. I called on one of my trusty industry friends to ask for help in making things happen within the time constraints and the phone calls started. Last night, when I was in line at Whole Foods, my friend called me. She was going into all these details and I was focused on placing my items on the conveyer belt and queuing behind the woman ahead of me. During this time I noticed the woman ahead of me was wearing a “Sprint” t-shirt. For those of you that don’t know Kansas, Sprint has a huge campus. If you’ve been to Cisco Systems headquarters it resembles Cisco but with a college look and feel. If you’ve ever visit Kansas for an extended period of time, you will meet someone that works at Sprint.

So, I’m in line talking back and forth on the phone about the PPC campaign and it dawns on me that – I’m not focused and for those of you that manage PPC campaigns you know how focus is tied to ROI. I quickly ask my friend, “Are you going to be on Twitter?” When I said Twitter, the Sprint woman did a drastic head move towards me. It was as if she was thinking – are you following me? Ahhhhahhhahhaa I laughed to myself.

Twitter is fun, Twitter is cool, Twitter is more interesting when in line for food!

I have 8 BrightKite invites if anyone wants one – just shoot me a message.

by: Anne Haynes

Tonight I came home, logged into my iGoogle and within my FriendFeed gadget I found a link from Jason Calacanis. I clicked on the link and was sent to revision3.com – poof I was taken back in time 13 years to 1995 and my days on CU-SeeMe . In 1995 I was a San Jose State University college intern working at KSJS and being mentored by Dan Fortune; the first guy to play guitar over the internet. It was a crazy time! I was the production assistant managing the Sound Byte radio talk show that aired over the radio waves and internet bytes. Dan Fortune introduced me to CU-SeeMe and the PowerPC, so I decided to purchase a MAC and in retrospect I wish I purchased an AV model. Within weeks of my home computer purchase listeners/internet viewers were sending 14.4 modems and Connectix quick cameras to the station. Did someone say free gear? I had free electronics and these guys were helping me configure my stuff over CU-SeeMe. At this point, I knew I was one of the first women on the internet. Let’s remember this was before instant messaging. Cu-SeeMe was instant messaging with a video enabled option. While the 14.4 modem had resolution issues, the black and white streaming video was totally cutting edge at the time. Think about it like air brushing an image or using a filter when you take a picture. You could look like hell and still look good on CU-SeeMe. Following is the Cornell University photo for CU-SeeMe – this University created the technology and later sold it to WhitePine Software.

When I arrived at revision3.com and tried to get into the chatroom I received a message, “Room Is Full – Try Joining This Room Later“ thanks for the message, but someone please fix this issue! There is nothing more frustrating for an internet user than to NOT get into the chatroom! It brought me back to 1995 when I had to keep clicking the ENTER button to get into the BikerBar on CU-SeeMe.

This morning a message from Twitter came through my FriendsFeed and I read, “Amazon.com Is DOWN”. I didn’t give it a second thought because systems go down and come back up within seconds. Well, I’m still reading about Amazon being down and at 2:41PM Central. So I visited Amazon and yes it’s still down.

When I worked at Kintera (recently purchased by Blackbaud) and the system would go down accidentally the business side of the house would joke about going home; “Sphere’s down”, “someone unplugged the internet”. But then there were times when internal teams were alerted of a scheduled maintenance and it was routine not to notify the customer. While most of the times the clients wouldn’t even notice, when they did project managers would back peddle and make up excuse after excuse. So, with Amazon being down it’s hard to say what’s really happening; accident or scheduled maintenance. When Sphere would die and all our clients became unable to access the back-end – the Error Page was always the last thing to edit or fix. One time there was a typo. Typos and misspellings are always a good way to showcase the brains behind a system when the sites go down. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not much of a speller, but I’m not a software company either….

Update: I just published this post and refreshed my Amazon.com browser and poof it’s back 2:56PM Central.

Ok – so this is how it goes. I have gadgets all over my iGoogle and during my gadget twitter or digg experiences I ran across FriendFeed. I found the Google gadget and added it to my dashboard. I just watched FriendFeed for a few days then I started adding Favorites to my YouTube and Twittering and I noticed that all my stuff was showing up there…hence the “feed” in the name. I’m not a Super User – infact I’m a good tester because features that engineers and spec writers think are common sense, are not to me. Tonight I started looking closer at FriendFeed. I asked myself, “Yo Anne, why are there gray texts and black texts and the gray texts are indented? Honestly, if you knew me – you’d think I knew better, but really I’m overwhelmed with the internet – so sometimes I’m passive and tonight I took some time. FriendFeed is now my bestfriend! With Friendfeed it’s like being in a room with people in their lives and with twitter it’s like shouting from across a room. And here is the best of the best:

I decided to participate in the discussion tonight. I threw out a couple of comments and then added additional comments on inviting people to DropBox. A person named Defcon asked for an invite and within seconds, I had music sent to me from last.fm and digg shouts – it was awesome! It’s amazing what draws people to people! It’s about ideas, logic, feelings and just words. It’s official, twitter is lower on my iGoogle and FriendFeed is uptop and centered.

Need an invite to DropBox? Send me a message-6 more DropBox beta invites left.

Finally, a tool that integrates email, IM and soon social media sites. Orgoo allows you to access your email and IM without downloading any software. If you use GMail for Email and Yahoo! Messenger for instant messaging, then Orgoo is the tool for you. Check out the video below to learn more about Orgoo’s technology and features.

My most recent invite to DropBox was to Nathan Bollinger. He sent me an email stating, “Thank you so much! I have been looking for this for a few days now!” Nate, your welcome enjoy the next technology that will eliminate flash drive storage devices. Remember if you need a Beta DropBox Invite send me a message.

I have 8 more invites to DropBox Beta. send me your name and email for an invitation.

Well, it took time, but I received an invite to the Dropbox Beta. Thank you Derek Quenneville! Once I sign-up, I can invite 10 friends. Fernando Prado receives the first invite. I have 9 open, so if you want an invite, send me your name and email for an invitation.

Email Excerpts from Dropbox
We’re excited to let you know you’ve been invited to the Dropbox Beta by Derek Quenneville!
We’d love for you to try it out — just click this link to get started.
Your beta signup code is:

What is Dropbox?
Dropbox is a desktop application (for Windows and Mac OS X) and storage service that just works. It’s the easiest way to share and store files online and keep files in sync across your computers (quick dropbox video demo here).

Share the Dropbox love
The beta is still invite-only, but we’re no longer keeping the details under wraps — and you’re welcome to invite up to 10 friends to the service (they’ll be able to download Dropbox too.)

The Dropbox Team

by: Anne Haynes

I joined a beta testing group today and ran across Dropbox. I’m in the market for a new computer and I’m definitely torn between the PC and MAC. Dropbox is giving me some comfort regardless of what operating system I decide to purchase.

This tool is great for remote computing and gives you a safety net when deleting files. After editing a file, it only sends the changes which reduces bandwidth resources. Its syncs file changes over the internet and it seems pretty sweet. I’m trying to get an invite to the beta test. If anyone has one, please send me a message.

by: Anne Haynes

It’s times like these that I wish I lived back in Silicon Valley! I just received an invitation for the SearchMonkey Developer Launch Party on 5/15 and I’m in Kansas

Following are the invitation details:

Thanks for your interest in SearchMonkey- Yahoo!’s new search development platform. You’re invited to the SearchMonkey Developer Launch Party on Thursday, May 15, where we’ll be doing product demos, sharing schwag, and serving substantial amounts of free food and beer! Come meet the guys who created the product, and feel free to monkey around with them as you wish.

When: May 15, 2008, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Where:Yahoo! Headquarters – URL’s Café, 701 First Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089
RSVP: Please reply to this email with your full name and company name (needed for security badges).

So sad, I wish I could be there over video conference or something!