What Tech Do You Want? is a post from Chris Pirillo

Earlier, I posted a video asking which format you prefer our YouTube videos to be recorded in. Going a step further, I can't help but wonder what it is that will make the community one big happy bundle of joy. What do you want to see? What directions do envision our community taking?

For instance, if I post an article or video related to Apple, the Windows fans go ballistic. Likewise, whenever I posted something Windows-related, the Mac fanboys blow a gasket. It's like there's no happy medium these days. I cannot possibly make everyone happy all at once. I'm not even going to try!

However, I DO strongly believe that what we're doing is about the community, not just for the community. So I want to know what YOU think. What do you want to see more of in the coming months? What things can you live without? Leave a follow-up comment here, or drop me an email with your thoughts.

• What is Homeland Security monitoring now?
• Is it difficult for a printed book to keep your attention?
• Could a mobile phone series based around Windows 7 be a big hit for Microsoft?
• Hawaii has said YES to Google!
• What, exactly, is the appeal of so-called reality shows?
• Very soon, Apple will have sold their ten millionth song.
• Redwood trees are being threatened by a lack of fog.
• We definitely need a tax cut!
• Could Intel and Nokia be entering into the mobile phone fray?
• Where can you go online to listen to music, and read the lyrics at the same time?
• What 97 things should every programmer know?
• What will you look like with a 4G network?
• What could possibly be better than Google.
• New research reveals that burglers have changed their shopping lists dramatically.
• Even Barbie is a Geek!

Don't forget to stop by our software center to see what new deals we have for you today!

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These days, the words "social media campaign" are on the lips of everyone around, from media professionals to small business owners to college students in coffee shops. While the idea of a social media campaign is becoming widespread, the tools to manage one are often left for the former, while the latter look in awe at the price.

ViralHeat, a social media analytics firm, hopes to fill the space left empty by other, far more expensive services.

Sponsor

The Basics

ViralHeat has been around for just over six months, providing a low-price but full-featured social media analysis for the budget minded. We had a chance to chat with CEO Raj Kadam and founder Vishal Sankhla today before the relaunch, which is unveiling support for Facebook monitoring, a new user interface and API support.

The fully Web-based app gives full analytics by monitoring an array of blogs, over 200 video sites, Twitter and now Facebook for mentions of your brand, which is set up as a profile. Each profile exists as a simple logic search, wherein you can keep track of your brand by searching for phrases, domains and hashtags, all in the syntax we've become accustomed to from using from sites like Google.

Champagne Tastes on a Beer Budget?

While ViralHeat compares itself on price to services like Radian6, there is a primary difference between the two services. ViralHeat offers a full set of analytics features, from standard mention monitoring to sentiment analysis using a natural language algorithm, but this is where it stays. It does not venture over to the content creation side, where we find the more expensive and extensive services like Radian6. Other services might offer workflow management, scheduled content delivery and other conversational tools, but this would be overkill for the users we imagine at this app's usability sweetspot.

We see that as an additional merit: ViralHeat has both the price point and the feature set fit for the company that wants to get on top of its image and perception on the social Web but can't afford to bring a social media expert on board - and on salary. The learning curve is suitable for the DIY set and the analytics it provides are self explanatory, not riddled with indecipherable, industry jargon.

For those of you that like the pricing but want to do a little more with the data, the service also allows you to export data into Excel format and access your data using the API.

The Price is Right

Speaking of pricing, this is a point that really brings it home for ViralHeat. With today's relaunch of the site, ViralHeat offers a three tiered pricing system, starting with a basic package for $9.99, a professional package for $29.99 and a business package for $89.99. The Basic package offers standard mentions analysis for 5 profiles, while the other packages offer sentiment analysis and API access for 20 and 40 profiles, respectively.

If we haven't drilled it in enough quite yet, here's the bottom line: ViralHeat looks like a solid social media analysis tool that is priced and designed for the more casual user, while offering simple features like export and API interaction that keep it flexible enough for the more serious user.

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Five years ago I wrote my first Content Management System from ground the ground up. After forty-five days of coding day and night I diagnosed myself with coder's elbow'. The main symptom being a sharp and agonizing pain in on the inner elbow the ulna meets the humerus.

It was in the middle of one of these painful episodes that I was working on the database and the trying to figure out how I was going to transfer that content to the display layer that my a-ha moment occurred. I wasn't building a content management system to circumvent the issues and limitations I was having with WordPress, I was creating a distribution tool.

Once I had the content in the database the display layer could be anything that I chose it to be. It could be sent anywhere that I choose. The greatest of all these bursting thoughts was that it could go places that I didn't even intend it to. The content would have a life of its own. No more was I restricted by developing a site architecture and held to the constructs of a storyboard with A to B to C or D back to A.

With my coder's elbow I went on another week long journey through RSS to make sure that the content would be in the right namespaces, that it could be personalized with unique URL elements, creating search and keyword feeds, developing feeds that could use Basic Auth to restrict usage and the holy grail of individual content metrics. Imagine throbbing pain in both of my elbows now as these feeds overtook my life.

What came from this platform was a CMS that I began licensing for professional development, blogging, podcasting and for real-time metrics (back in 2005). I literally began my first business with it and continued to use it and variants of it for startups and media companies like MTV.

One thing remained constant in all of these scenarios syndication. Along with that syndication came the monitoring and proof that the programs and companies were getting the most value from the digital projects they had entrusted to me.

I decided to write this post and explain my process after I found a series of posts by Daniel Jacobson (@daniel_jacobson) from NPR. He was one of the individuals responsible for developing their robust, media rich API. It's not an API that I have discussed here at Tech Startups because I don't use it for any projects. I did test it when it launched and found it to be a great way to traverse NPR's archives and deliver legacy content as if it were created that day. Daniel Jacobson gets it.

So to spare yourself a case coder's elbow that could ruin your tennis game, you should start with Daniel's COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere post. This will put you in the right frame of mind to follow with . . . wait I'll list them in order.

COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere
Content Modularity: More Than Just Data Normalization
Content Portability: Building an API is Not Enough

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The NPR Model Is Correct is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

What I am about to say is because I have been a long time member of the eBay affiliate program, now called eBay Partner Network. It is also of value to anyone that is starting or currently responsible for managing an affiliate program for a company.

My affinity for their brand is the result of being a partner for over three years, my wife being a seller on eBay for nearly ten years, API ease of use and the ability to earn revenue consistently for three years as part of the partner network.

But try as they might, eBay has not driven me away from the partner network . . . yet. They transitioned the program from Commission Junction to an internal program two years ago. The metrics and other monitoring tools suffered as eBay had to get their affiliate legs underneath them. No longer could an affiliate view the extensive reports for click monitoring, referrals, purchases, week to week comps, etc.

Then eBay transformed the program most recently from their CPA (where a partner was paid if their link resulted in a sale) program to a CPC program. This isn't your average CPC program with prices set per click it is based on an algorithm that calculates the quality of the clicks from a given link on a 24 hour basis and assigns them a monetary value.

With this most recent transition to CPC and a program controlled by an algorithm (see: bot) eBay developed a Transparency Team. This team has the task of reaching out to partners that have links that aren't performing in a manner that matches the eBay partner agreement (see: fraudulent).

This is a great idea in theory. However, this team wouldn't need to exist if the eBay partner network returned to the same type of reports that Commission Junction used. Instead, when reinventing the wheel, eBay eliminated any useful monitoring for partners. Thus making participating in their program as opaque as it can be. Metrics that provide a payout, ranking or trip the algorithm to send an automated email stating that a partner is somehow engaged in fraudulent activity are nonexistent.

Ebay has removed any substantive accounting for themselves in the process of monitoring or payouts, the crux of a developer or user becoming an affiliate. Hiding reports from users that are accustomed to them as part of other vendor programs.

The problem is a that is a basic customer service issue that has not been addressed by eBay. Reporting, prompt replies and useful feedback data would allow partners to build better programs that meet eBay's standards and can be crafted to drive more quality traffic to eBay.

This example says it all:

Two months ago I was contacted by the eBay Partner Network Transparency Team (see: bot generated email) stating that in their quest to be transparent I should do the same and that I was failing as a large percentage of my links weren't sending referrer data. Meaning that they don't have a record from these links of the website where the link was displayed and clicked on.

Fair enough to ask me about the links. Not fair or right, accusing someone of not being transparent when all of the click data is hidden away. Not fair is waiting two months to reply back with meaningless data stating that eBay is right. See below:

Ebay sure is right that I have a high non-referrer rate and that bots are removed. I guess I should stop questioning their authority . . . sure. I'd do that if I knew what the criteria were or what bots are being removed. Because for nearly two years they didn't remove a single bot from click data.

I've requested more data from the Transparency Team like IP addresses and user-agents of those clicks. Since I can't track the click that is actually going to eBay without breaking the user-agreement with eBay I will be at their mercy to figure out if the clicks are coming from mobile devices or and some proxy bot that has a lust for finding its way to eBay auctions. Maybe the bot master was blocked by eBay for not being transparent enough when scraping their auctions.

Ebay, this isn't how to be transparent or run a valued affiliate program. If my experience hadn't begun with your program on Commission Junction I wouldn't have such high hopes for how the current partner network could operate. As an affiliate, I want to make money, but I also want eBay to succeed.

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Ebay Partner Network and Transparency is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

I am a fan and practitioner of the simple.

In my quest to keep it simple I've found the following 5 ways to KISS:

(I will avoid cliche where possible)

1. Don't reinvent the wheel - find technologies or examples that you can use outright or as inspiration for your needs. Apply this to development, design, implementation or monitoring.

2. Distill design palettes choose two complimentary colors for layouts and utilize a background color as a third. Use negative space like it's on sale at Home Depot by the bucket.

3. Distill site structure one page sites like http://www.zachklein.com do the job just fine.

4. Make dynamic seamless if you need a database to display items or for search use an insert only policy for content by utilizing filters (see #1) before adding content.

5. Accept complexity and automate strip it down, hide it and automate it by attending to items 1-4.

Simple doesn't mean easy. It means trial and error as you work towards an ideal combination of features and usability.

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5 Ways to KISS is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Google News has launched Custom Sections for users to create their own personalized news groupings. This is a big step forward for Google News. They are inching ever closer to a content shopping cart.

As content becomes detached from its publishers and syndicated around the internet it takes on a life of its own. This is especially true for publishers that have their content scraped by Google News. The advent of Custom Sections for personalized news groupings stems from this flow of disparate content.

By allowing users to filter their content at a new level, be it still a pretty high level, Google News is positioning itself as a defacto standard for personal aggregation sans feeds. However, once a Custom Section has been created Google does give access to an Atom feed in the address bar of a browser through auto-discovery. Here is an example feed.

Custom Sections allow users to title the section, choose search terms (keywords), choose a location domestic or foriegn and the ability publish the section to everyone.

A great addition to this list would be publisher, or in Google's nomenclature, author. Filtering news by selection of authors would make this a more valuable tool.

There is one major problem with Custom Sections that Google needs to solve metrics.

Publisher should be allowed to have access to metrics for their content in Google News and across all Google platforms.

Publishers should be able to know what groups, keywords, amount clicks they receiving and the additional syndication of their content in feeds from Google.

If Google really wanted to get publishers . . . sorry, authors, on board with these new tools they could share a bit of the that monitoring love.

Authors could create better content, find verticals they are strong in that had escaped them and share sections with their readers.

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Custom Sections in Google News is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Startups are often in a position of being bootstrapped or strapped for cash when it comes to what is considered outside the core product roadmap.

Often in that category is the marketing of the product site online. The crew at Sitening as an ever maturing offering with Raven SEO Tools that won't hurt a startup budget and could prove a big return on a $79 monthly investment.

Raven SEO Tools is an internet marketing tool set. Designed to be a powerful tool for those in the know and accessible to newbies to manage site marketing, research SEO, monitor linking campaigns, reporting and integration with the Google Analytics API.

If there is one thing that Raven could do to improve upon this application it would be spin off components of the functionality into separate interfaces or other product offerings. Raven doesn't suffer from bloat, but it does put a lot of options for monitoring and reporting in front of a user.

Raven's interface is like opening a tool box to find the shiniest most sophisticated wrenches when you would settle for a rusty vice grip. After some time you can get to the rusty vice grip but you have to know where to find it.

The team at Sitening has begun to address with the addition of a Wizard for entering in a new site for monitoring and some social components. The social monitoring is a must for today's market in monitoring tools and a welcome addition for a startup to gauge the pulse of concerned users.

Beyond the Wizard integration there is something very interesting that Raven has that no other monitoring application I've reviewed has a content manager. Raven has a built in mini-CMS consisting of the essentials, title, keywords and body with a TinyMCE WYSIWYG wrapper that currently will connect with a WordPress blog.

The ability to blog from within a robust set of tools when a users mind is full of ideas, keywords, strategy and tactics is a powerful addition. It turns Raven into a hybrid monitoring SaaS that has the ability to help make your startup budget go further.

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Make Your Site Fly With Raven SEO Tools is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Remember our post about five people that were changing journalism? I do.

And with the very fresh release of Linked Open Data by the New York Times, we begin the next phase of the semantic web today.

The New York Times is in the initial phase of opening up their news vocabularies to the public. Throw in a dash of linked data and some serious structure in RDF and the push begins to become the brand associated with the prevailing taxonomy.

It is important that attention is paid to this release because it is the first salvo of its kind by a new organization that is making a play to maintain it relevance and revenue stream. Next versions of the web will be built on structured and linked data and the ability to make it portable.

The cyclical pattern that content will travel in the future between devices for consumption, the sharing of and the monitoring of will rely on the ability to speak a common language around the language. Ya feel me? I'm sure you do.

The internet needed its own language, terms and definitions wrapped around it simply to be explained. The data that travels on it is in the same need now. The talk of filters and too much content is dominant on today's web and tomorrow's web is lacking codification. Enter the New York Times and a new phase of startups that will shape this new lexicon and how those words link together.

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New York Times Brings Us Linked Open Data is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

This is my attempt to give a small bit of advice when tracking dynamic files with MySQL. Most CMS's and blogging platforms have built in tracking that is not dependent on reading server logs.

Which means they either need to write to a flat file or to a database. And if it is the latter there are some things to keep in mind.

Amount of Data to Be Stored

This is the single most important question to answer. It is the one that leads you to the magic buzzword, 'scale'. Most databases are designed to hold millions of records but the problem comes when writing thousands of records at the same time statistics are being run, etc. The answer to this question should reflect site traffic and anticipated usage.

Remember, if this is an open system and you allowing bots to traverse your content, especially with feeds, that you should take your number and multiply it by 10. You will be amazed at the amount of bot traffic on your feeds.

File Monitoring

Next, setup a portion of the script itself or another script on a cron that monitors the files that you need tracked. You're probably most familiar with this concept from IP or application monitoring. Think of this as the same, simply micro, down to the file.

Obviously, the most vital files should be monitored more often. Vital meaning the most trafficked files, syndicated data or files that power content for partners or your own onsite widgets. Set this monitor up to email yourself or bust out your cURL skills and send yourself a DM with the Twitter API.

Placement of Tracking Code In File

This doesn't need much of an explanation. Put your tracking code before you execute the core function of the file. That way if your tracking code is failing, it will do so before creating output to your users.

Corrupt Data

Once monitoring has been setup you can nip corrupt data in the bud. The key is to act quickly after you receive a monitoring alert that one of your scripts is having an issue with a DB query, insert or update. Most likely the issue will be an insert with some sort of corrupt data or duplicate auto increment id if their are thousands of inserts coming in and the table has failed.

Write that optimization command or fire up your GUI and make that table normal.

MySQL is pretty forgiving when it comes to inserting thousands of records a day into one table. Keep in mind that first question of scale though and when designing your file tracking DB think about efficiency.

This should lead you to optimize queries, write some code to perform statistic functions in your file language away from the database, spread the tracking data across a few tables and an efficient replication method. Because you never know when that next traffic burst will happen.

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Tracking Dynamic Files With MySQL is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith

In case you haven't noticed or cared, traditional agencies, the PR and Marketing types, have been contracting for the last few years. This year has been especially difficult for them with the rise of Social Media agencies. These upstarts are winning business and receiving opportunities that aren't even being pitched to their larger counterparts. This can be fixed . . . but there isn't much time.

What is a Social Media agency?

For those unaware of what a Social Media agency is it is an agency stocked with hardscrabble internet veterans and young talent steeped in the traditions of the tubes. I kid the youngsters, but they are, at this point truly digital natives. They grew up on the internet, were texting years before smart phone popularity and have been enculturated digital simply by being born. Often these agencies are small and their leadership, the aforementioned veterans, participated in the bubble of 2000 and have found a new source of revenue social media.

It didn't have to be this way

Traditional agencies should have seen this coming. This was a trend that they started over the last few years as their clients wanted to experiment with the precursors to social media, blogging and podcasting. During this time they would often offer small budgets to independent producers or find an overworked employee inhouse that knew something about the technologies. The deliverables were forced and atrocious (think astroturfing), poor strategy (if any) for syndication/consumption and zero metrics to show a client return on investment.

What was really happening was the large agencies were incubating social media agencies in the very earliest of stages. Even the social media agencies didn't know what they were yet. What they did know was that what they were producing wasn't working for the end client. And if this new stream of money was to continue coming in they would have to educate their handlers at the traditional agencies and develop their own tools to show ROI.

While budgets for blogging and podcasting began to dwindle, traditional agencies looked at them as passing trends. What they were missing is that the people they had been funding were now off creating tools like FiltrBox, Radian6 and putting their business strategies in place to harness the power of social media. They were going to fill the gap.

Not only have the new companies and agencies filled the gap, they are now taking away opportunities from traditional agencies. All the while, traditional agencies continue to lose money and talent. Much of that talent loss is due to layoffs. Agencies haven't figured out how to begin winning RFP's back and are letting the very people they need the most go. And when they go, they're shuffling off to boutiques and social media agencies to restart their careers with a fresh memory of the bureaucracy that didn't recognize their talent.

Saving themselves

Agencies have to stop thinking that they need more business development. They need solutions.

No amount of biz dev is going to save you when you have nothing to sell. It might work one time. But the client will realize it when they ask what they measurements for ROI are. No more biz dev or placement talk.

What kind of solutions do agencies need? The kind that evolve out of a strategy for engagement. The kind that evolve from a desire to meet the new requirements to participate in social media like listening. They need tools that show competency in measuring the strategy and tactics of a digital campaign.

The key to their continued existence is to prove they are needed. By creating solutions inhouse like monitoring software and metrics analysis hey will be able to monitor new trends and hopefully find themselves riding high for the next wave of competitors.

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Post from: TechStartups.com