The Blog of Hans Eisenman

Light A Fire, If At First You Don't Succeed... - FeverBee

This is a great blog for anyone who is working to create an online community.  He's really got your back here, making sure you succeed by avoiding some of the pitfalls one can fall into.  Attracting a community is all about just that: attraction.  That's a very specific and possibly multi-faceted skill.  FeverBee does a great job of breaking it down.

Light A Fire, If At First You Don't Succeed... - FeverBee

Light A Fire, If At First You Don't Succeed...

Creating an online community is very similar to lighting fire. You sometimes need a few matches.

Many branded communities fail because the creators only try once. They invite a lot of people, they get a group together, but nothing really becomes of it. This happens, quite often. 

Posted via email from Hans's posterous

How to Make Extra Money Online

via lifeoptimizer.org

This posting from Life Optimizer has some good ideas for making a little extra cheddar online. I like it because the focus is on how to do so in short order and gives some websites that are focused on facilitating your doing so.

Posted via web from Hans's posterous

An example of Google's Live Search

Posted via web from Hans's posterous

Attracting Traffic or Understanding Google's Mission Part II

Want to get more followers oline?  Real traffic?  Here's a follow up to my Understanding Google's Mission video blog post.  Here I'm kind of hitting on the same point somewhat but from a different angle.  Both videos should help you begin to formulate a more effective plan for attracting people organically (not having to pay for them to come see you) and keeping them around.  Things have changed so much in the last few years by way of how informaiton is shared and this posting is about how they have changed and what it means to you as a publisher (and by the way, you ARE a publisher).

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Apple - iPad Video Worth Watching

via apple.com

If I had to pick one reason why Apple is gaining so much popularity, it's because "their stuff just works". It works so well that you kind of sit there(or at least I do anyway) wondering "what makes this a better product? Why is this so much smoother to use than a Windows PC?" If you have ever switched from Windows to Apple like I did, you probably know the feeling, but may be as challenged to describe it accurately as I am.

This video from Apple showing their geeks geeking out about the new iPad product and provides a little more insight, I feel, into what makes Apple products great. Notice that they are taking ownership for the entire product and not just the software by developing new tech all the way down to the core and guts of the iPad. As a result, they are able to take their innovation to a whole new realm.

Note, there are a couple of words (acronyms--of course!) which pop out of the geeks' mouths.

One is "UI". That's "user interface". The UI is the part you use as a, you guessed it, "user" of the product. It's the part of the software (and probably to Apple the hardware) which the customer touches, looks at, feels, etc. to make the product do what it does. UI is a whole arena unto itself and the Apple folks are at that top of that world for sure. How the icons move, the movement from page to page or application to application, how the device acts right in front of your face and fingers, that's all about user interface.

The next acronym was SDK. That's "software developer's kit". SDKs are what software providers give out to other software developers that allows those developers to create more cool software. So most of the applications that are available for iPods came from a lot of other developers who used Apples SDK to know how to create their software product to make it work on the iPhone, etc. Apple provides their SDKs to the world, so does Microsoft and any other developer of software or hardware who wants other developers to create software for the original developer's clientele.

Take a moment to watch this video and see "how it's done".

Posted via web from Hans's posterous

What is Android vs. DROID vs. Nexus One

Here's a bit of news about the new Google phone. Personally I'm considering getting a DROID (Motorola manufactures it).

And that reminds me: maybe I should take a second to explain the landscape here because I get a lot of questions regarding the difference between a DROID, Android, etc. First, Google created a new operating system for phones (the software that runs the phone itself) called Android.

So you have that which happened a few years ago and recently has become more and more popular.

Then Motorola created a phone to compete with the iPhone called the DROID (available on Verizon--not sure who else offers service for it). It uses the Android operating system to run and do all the things that phones do these days.

Now, for the first time ever, Google has created it's own *physical* phone called the Nexus One which, of course, also runs the Android operating system Google developed a while back.

So:
Android = software
DROID = Verizon phone + Android software
Nexus One = Google phone + Android software

I haven't check out the Nexus One, but have heard some very good things about the Verizon DROID. One of my uber geek friends calls it the "iPhone killer". That's a pretty tall order so I at least want to try it out and see for myself.

I'm also including this article too because I thought it was interesting regarding sales of the Nexus One Google phone and the lack of ad spend for the phones sold.

Flurry: Google Sold 20,000 Nexus Ones In First Week

Posted by: Olga Kharif on January 13

Google sold 20,000 units of its new Nexus One smartphone in the first week since the phone was introduced on Jan. 5, estimates Flurry, which tracks applications loaded onto new mobile devices.

At first glance, that may not seem like much. Apple sold 1.6 million iPhone 3GS devices in the first week. Motorola sold 250,000 Droid handsets in the first week they became available last November. But here’s a difference: iPhone carrier AT&T and Droid carrier Verizon Wireless have spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting the devices in their TV ads, on the radio, and online. Google and its partners, T-Mobile USA and HTC, have spent virtually no money on advertising the Nexus. Google has promoted the phone on its search page. For a phone promoted and sold exclusively online, Nexus One has likely done quite well.

The unit volume may also have been affected by some stumbles, as Google and its partners figure out the best way to sell phones online. Some Nexus buyers have complained of confusing customer service and other issues. Some potential buyers may be waiting for Google and its partners to iron out the wrinkles before snapping up the device.

via businessweek.com

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Understanding Google's Mission

via youtube.com

This is a video for folks who are still trying to get their head around what Google is all about. It contains the one key fact that's more important to know than all the others if your goal is to get traffic without having to pay for it.

Posted via web from Hans's posterous

Is it Illegal to Send Spam?

I was looking for a summary of the Canned Spam law and found this website.  If I had time to read the law I would, but it's not short.  Posting this to the blog in case anyone else has been looking for information on spam and the legalities thereof.

Spam - Is it Illegal to Send Spam?.

Is Spam Really Illegal?

Spam is one of the most annoying things about using the internet. Lots of people think that it's annoying but don't realize that it can actually be illegal. There are lots of people suggesting that spam is illegal but if it is, then why are there so many unsolicited messages still being sent? Is it that people simply don't care about these laws?

Trying BlackPing out from my Blackberry. Doesnt seem to know how to auto-capitalize/- punctuate like other BB apps.

Just added the ability to post updates to Twitter, Typepad and all sorts of other services via Skype.