Marcel Moreau » Commentary

Huge Music Piracy Site Bites the Dust

Marcel — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:47:10 +0000

Well, it looks like Mediafire has been shut down according to the rumor on Business Blunder. RIAA? Something other than music? Maybe it’s just downtime…

Mediafire isn’t the only free hosting website for free music lovers. There’s also MegaUpload, Rapidshare, and SendSpace to name a few. Mediafire was definitely the most user friendly, however.

An Open Letter to Yelp Management

Marcel — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:40:19 +0000

Since Yelp does not publish email addresses for their management team, I’m stuck with writing an open letter on my blog in hopes that they will read it after I target them on Twitter and LinkedIn.

To the Yelp Management team,

I agree with and support a filtering system on Yelp. There was nothing I disliked more than seeing businesses try to game the system and leave dishonest reviews for their own benefit. But after finding all my reviews filtered out without reason, I’ll never use your service again and will persuade others to do the same. Who knew that all my efforts would not be seen by the general public. This will be the quickest way to lose your users.

I understand that algorithms can catch regular, honest reviewers like me. But what’s frustrating is Yelp’s FAQ section basically saying I am out of luck. Too bad. better luck next time. There’s no contact to resolve my problem and no way of knowing if my reviews will ever be read. I’m just caught in an algorithmic black hole. I’m not going to spend my time writing reviews and uploading photos and business information to be treated like a bot.

It’s really too bad because I loved Yelp and was an evangelist for some time. But now I just feel betrayed.

Off to find another review site,
Marcel Moreau

If anyone out there has any comparable services they use for business reviews, please leave a comment with your favorite one.

Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling

Marcel — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:40:30 +0000

Around Christmas, I purchased Bret Hart’s book Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling from Amazon.com. I’m not sure who Bret worked with on it, but the book is a smooth read, with Bret (or whomever) describing the differing aspects on his life in great detail, perfectly placing the reader in Bret’s life. I don’t doubt that Bret wrote most of it on his own, as we find out he kept detailed journal entries throughout his career. In addition, he has a creative streak as he was somewhat of an accomplished artist backstage, drawing elaborate illustrations on the dressing room’s blackboard.

Lots of dirt

Bret tells it like it is. He leaves no stone unturned, talking about his brother Owen’s death, the rivalry with “drug addict” Shawn Michaels, his extra-marital affairs, the turmoil of his family life, and the downfall of so many wrestling peers into drugs and death. He takes the time to praise the great workers of wrestling, such as Curt “Mr. Perfect” Hennig, Dynamite Kid, Tiger Mask, and The Undertaker among others.

If you followed the WWF while Bret rose to prominence (1985-1998), you will love this book. You get to place yourself at every arena, in the middle of all the cutthroat bullshit that happens in the wrestling business.

Obama is the Cool

Marcel — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:16:35 +0000

President Barack Obama fist-bumps custodian Lawrence Lipscomb in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building following the opening session of the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth, Dec. 3, 2009.

Source

A Who’s Who of Build Guild

Marcel — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:03:53 +0000

On the second Tuesday of every month, there is a web meet-up called Build Guild that occurs in Salem, MA. Last night I attended for the first time in a while with my co-worker Tracey. Since I’ve been to more dates than Tracey, I found myself trying to tell her what everyone is involved with as we were leaving. I wasn’t nearly getting to everyone, so here is a blog post dedicated to the names and projects of Build Guild attendees.

If I missed anyone, leave a comment with your name and link and I will add you.

Colt 45 – It Works Every Time

Marcel — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:36:57 +0000

From wikipedia:

Malt liquor is a North American term referring to a type of beer with high alcohol content. In legal statutes, the term often includes any alcoholic beverage above or equal to 5% alcohol by volume made with malted barley.

My definition:

People with no money who like to get destroyed.

I was never big into malt liquor growing up. I’ve had your Colt45 and Steel Reserve, but it never stuck with me; probably because cash flow has never been that bad. Being from Lynn, MA, you always had those people who would grab some Mad Dog 20/20. Those people would eventually vomit later on in the night. My friends from Lowell usually go with some Old English (O.E.). I remember having my first Hurricane in Manchester, NH with Rev. Johnny C years ago.

If I want a 40 these days I usually grab a Budweiser, it’s easier than carrying a 6 pack around.

Do you still drink malt liquor?

Colt 45 It works Every Time

Avoiding Sobriety Checkpoints With Twitter

Marcel — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:40:37 +0000

USA Today reports that Fresno, California police are aware of younger drivers avoiding sobriety checkpoints not only by using Twitter, but also Facebook and other mobile applications.

There’s nothing new about the police alerting the public about sobriety checkpoints, but it’s usually announced under vague conditions like “The Acme Police will be conducting sobriety checkpoints this weekend to combat holiday drunk driving. Now drunk drivers have the ability to avoid checkpoints altogether.

Too Drunk to Drive, Too Drunk to Tweet

I don’t feel this will be an ongoing trend that will have a detrimental effect. Anyone who is really too drunk to operate a motor vehicle won’t be checking their phones for checkpoints. These are the people will will just get in the car and drive without thinking.

ESPN’s Call to Action Problem

Marcel — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:07:45 +0000

One thing I can’t stand: when I don’t know where to click on a website. ESPN, as great a site it is, tends to this have this problem with their main news story carousel. Take this example below on their NFL homepage.

Where am I supposed to click to read this story about the man behind the meltdown? The large headline gives me nothing – it’s not even a link. Should I assume the first link with the phrase Seiifert: Vikings’ issues will give me what I want?

I think ESPN needs to rethink such a simple problem.

The Khan Academy; Using YouTube to Teach

Marcel — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:21:11 +0000

I always tell my friends we’re living through the most important innovation the world has seen: the internet. You wouldn’t have known it from the early days of the net. Splash pages, bad design, and poor connection speeds was what many people became accustomed to. But slowly over time, we’ve crawled a long way into online banking, online video, websites connecting old and new friends, and the obliteration of snail mail. Transparency now rules, and the freemium business models are rampant among start-up companies.

On my ride home from work tonight, I learned of the Khan Academy from All Tech Considered on NPR Radio. Run by former Hedge Fund Analyst Salman Khan, the Khan Academy is everything the internet should be – the democratization of knowledge. With over 1,000 videos on subjects ranging from chemistry to the Pauson Bailout, Khan is putting a quality education on his YouTube Channel. Coupled with his website donation link, Khan brings in $1,500 of revenue a month.

In this video, Khan explains what the EBITA acronym means:

Monetizing Your Blog by Todd Garland

Marcel — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:33:04 +0000

Last Friday, I listened to a segment of Webmaster Radio with Todd Garland from BuySellAds. I met Todd a while back through Dan, a mutual friend. Todd’s a nice guy who has had success with his ad network he built from the ground up. Check out the site if you’re in the web industry to see a really polished interface.

The topic of the segment was “Monetizing Your Blog”, which interests me as I have a project in early stages that could potentially sell ad space in the future. Here are some notes I took during the interview. I missed the last 10 or so minutes.

You need to figure out how to build a site that brings people back for the quality content.
Once you drive the traffic, then you can open up your master spreadsheet.
Google Adsense is easy to drop in and you can potentially make money the next day. However, it looks tacky and can reduce a site’s trust.
Charging a flat rate tends to bring in more serious buyers who will commit for a month than the CPM crowd who can be fickle.
If you aren’t part of an ad network, you could use Paypal Subscriptions.
[Question from chatroom]:
Personally, I use the OIO Publisher plugin to manage my advertising. I set it up and forget about it. All I gotta do is approve ads when they are purchased and I keep all the money. Why would I use BuySellAds?
With an ad network like BuySellAds, you get network value. Not only are people finding you from visiting your site and advertising with you directly, they find you through a reputable network.

Hear the archived interview at http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/press-this/2009/09/29/monetizing-your-blog/