Colt 45 – It Works Every Time

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

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

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

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

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/