Sunday, May 9, 2010

Coffee time

The best ingredients for a delicious coffee time.

Some great coffee, freshly grinded from a local coffee shop and a
delicious cake from the local bakery.

I wish Everyone a great Sunday and enjoy the great small moments in
life :)

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Orange socks in Amsterdam

Orange socks outside the window in Amsterdam during queensday. 

Due to the fine weather at the queensday celebrations many people where enjoying the great weather. 

What is better then sitting in the window and chillin with your friends while your legs are floating in the air outside the window? 

Taken by Jaap Willem

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Appli iAd preview article How Apple’s iAd Could Blow Marketers’ Mobile Budgets | paidContent

Dozens of questions remain about Apple’s plans to get into the mobile advertising business, from how much a campaign will cost to which applications will they run on.

Based on information Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is telling advertising agencies, we were able to get answers for at least one: how much a campaign could potentially cost on the iAd platform—and the results are startling. According to our number crunching, CPMs will be highly variable but in some some cases could wind up being triple what marketers are used to paying for banners, and double the price of a video ad on mobile. In another scenario—a very successful campaign that generates an unusual number of clicks—a marketer’s ad spend could easily wind up being more than seven times what it had anticipated.

There are plenty of skeptics who say that iAd’s high prices and other restrictions may drive interested marketers away. But if Apple gets its way, iAd could mean a financial landslide for the mobile advertising industry, which was been bouncing along the bottom for years, totaling only $416 million in 2009, according to eMarketer.

For starters, Apple is setting the minimum annual spend at $1 million, but the price could go much higher if the ad generates a lot of clicks. For comparison sake, luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover last year budgeted a combined $1.6 million for mobile marketing. With Apple asking for that much on just its platform, advertisers will have to weigh the attractiveness of the company’s user demographics and premium ad experience with how much they are really willing to lay out for mobile advertising.

For Apple, the key lies in iAd’s model of charging marketers based on a hybrid of CPMs and click-through rates, rather than one or the other, as is standard. Apple is said to be charging 1 cent per impression and $2 per click, reports the WSJ. Using those figures, we tried to determine how pricey a campaign would be, assuming a few different scenarios. The biggest variable is the click-through rate. Today, the mobile industry commonly sees anything between 1 and 3 percent, but iAd could easily be higher because of its novelty factor. Using this information, and assuming a marketer spends no more than $1 million, we calculated the CPM, which is the industry standard for cost per thousand impressions (see chart).

On the low-end (assuming a 1 percent click-through rate), the CPM would be $15. On the high-end (with a 3 percent click-through), it would jump to $70.

Jumptap’s Chief Marketing Officer Paran Johar says mobile banners today garner between $6 and $30, while mobile video on the high end falls between $20 and $40. “I have talked to a dozen or so agencies and there’s going to be a lot of push back. They’ll probably be some that engage for the sexiness, but not for the ROI,” he said.

While our calculations demonstrate what occurs when the budget is fixed and the ad impressions fluctuate, Johar said that’s not typically how a deal is done. Rather, he said advertisers dictate the budget and how many impressions they want. In that scenario, the same outcome exists: Costs will increase dramatically as the campaign becomes more successful.

Once again, if we do the math: The CPM will be fixed at $10 if the advertiser has a $1 million budget and is buying 100 million impressions at a penny each. But in addition, the advertiser will have to pay for the clicks—at $2 each. If 100 million impressions draw a 3 percent click-through rate, the advertiser will have to pay around $6 million more. The $1 million year-long iPhone campaign becomes a $7 million campaign (many more times Land Rover’s and Jaguar’s combined 2009 budget).

Johar says the fluctuating cost structure discourages advertisers from producing a very engaging campaign when there’s a $2 fee associated with each click. He figures you are better off providing a branded message that doesn’t encourage a call to action. But that’s contradictory to what iAd is proposing, which is a very engaging advertising experience that includes videos and games. “If you are incentivzing people to click, but then disincentivizing people from a cost structure perspective, they don’t work well…The cost structure could get very expensive, very quickly.”

Neil Strother, an analyst with ABI Research, says the typical mobile campaign is $100,000 to $200,000 over a two-month period, putting Apple’s million-dollar asking price in the right range. However, the WSJ reports that Apple even has its sights set on some $10 million campaigns. “Clearly, they are pushing the dollar amount up.” Strother agrees that the CPMs sound high, “but if you are getting a highly creative ad that’s interactive and you are the first ones to move, you will probably be written up on every blog from here to Hong Kong,” he says.

 

Interesting Article from PaidContent over the new iAd platform and the potential costs.
The platform will definatly be High end what I suppose will increase the likehood of quality ads...
Looking forward to have some more information about this though..

Posted via web from JaapWillem Blog

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Marketing and the Facebook OpenGraph

Marketing and the Facebook OpenGraph


Over the last few days we’ve heard many things about Facebook and all their plans.

Basically Facebook would like that every page on the Internet would be connected to the Facebook system and they could track you down over all the pages.

There are many privacy alarms going over this, mainly as well because every Facebook user is automatically opted-in.

I do suggest any person to reconsider their privacy settings on their Facebook Profile, if you have any issues with setting up the correct way please let me know.

Now the marketing part.


Howly Mowhly, now we have a 2nd holy grail to work for...

It’s not anymore all about Google but we can now serious include Facebook as well. And not anymore with only making a Facebook Page but we can bring Facebook Data to our website...  Get me that other champagne bottle :)

Why am I so happy about these developments. I’ll bring it down to a few points for each new Facebook option:
  1. Open Graph:

This is the basics of the whole new idea. Basically with a few new Metatags you can let anyone interact with your page like they would do on Facebook. And furthermore it means that they have now more more pages to obtain information about, apart from their own Facebook pages. But more on that later at the Insights for your Domain point.
  1. Social Widgets:

The social widgets lets you integrate all kind of Facebook options within your website. They have launched a set of Social widgets at the moment:
Like Button: this one is the most important at the moment, people can like for example your page, a book, a photo and so on. Their likes will be stored within their profile and is accessible with applications.
Activities and Recommendations: Hereby can a visitor from your site see if one their friends have already accessed the website and what they liked.
Even more they can see which of their friends are online at the moment and discuss the content. This is as well related back to their profile from the user.

Furthermore this data is accessible later on as well within their profile. Very powerful for Content sharing and going viral of content.
  1. Open Graph API

This is the API for the Open Graph System. In short for the non-techies among us, it’s a channel for applications to obtain information and integrate the new possibilities within their application. This has been extended greatly as well so expect soon more possibilities and mash ups from the Facebook data.

At the moment it’s not sure what will be possible with this option but soon there will be more information available and hopefully some very interesting apps to use.
  1. Facebook Insights for your Domain

Data is nothing and useless without a good and clear way to get your information out of this. That is why Facebook Insights for your Domain is so important.

Here within you can see and analyse what has happened with your content on your website and how the persons have been interacting with your website. Everyone with a Facebook Page analytics knows that it’s still very basic data by in comparison with Google Analytics.

But you would be very stupid out of your mind not to use them both together. Because it already gives some very valuable information about your visitor. Have you ever tried to obtain gender and age from your visitor? Do you know for sure if someone likes a certain page because they have been there for more time then average or they just went to the toilet?

This information will be available for all website owners and can be very helpful. It is more then probable that in the future this product will become the most important part of this whole new push from a Marketing perspective and gonna be replacing even Google Analytics or whatever else....
  1. Marketing and Advertisement possibilities

What are the Marketing and Advertising possibilities with all these new options?
This is actually where all the above points are coming together. If it’s all well implemented and great interface, it will be big. It will be Adwords big if you know what I mean.

What do you think about CPC bidding for Advertising only not on Keywords but on Keywords and Categories and Segments.
For example I want to target someone who has visited my site and like something on my site. Furthermore he should be male and between the 25 - 35 year. A preference of his should be including Pop music.
Because of all the targeting options on this, I get some real interesting Target Groups back and sure I’m willing to pay top euro to obtain a conversation from this group.

Conclusion

The great thing of this is that there is only way from here for Facebook Advertizing. That is way is only up. 

At the moment they are cementing their base for CPC advertising on Facebook.com. But in the (near) future I’m expecting an Adsense type advertising platform, for all the websites who have been integrating the Facebook codes. This would make it a direct a competitor to Google in their most lucrative area, advertising.

These moves will definitely improve the competition among Google, Twitter and Facebook with each their own advertising solution.

Online marketing always change, often with large and huge ruptures and new technologies. This one is definitely one and will cause a lot of rupture in the current Advertising market.

Where is the other bottle......????

 

 

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Spring is here

The spring is finally here with more sunlight.
So now we're going outside and enjoying the nature. So at that moment
we came along this lovely bee nurturring himself from the flower
nectar of this plant.

Enjoy the upcoming spring and all the lovely moments.

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Thursday, April 8, 2010

iPhone OS 4 preview and iAd

iPhone OS 4

The iPhone OS4 preview show is gone and finally multi tasking is
getting there and more possibilities for the developers.
Even the ability for Skype to run in the background and hello to
spotify as well.
If they want to launch their us access on Any good moment, this summer
should do the trick with a brand new iPhone app.

So I'm happy about the progress for the OS 4, only now just wondering
why my itouch ain't supported anymore. That pisses me off. And
furthermore the iPhone 3g is gonna to get a bloody cripled version as
well. Not funny.

Then the new iAd platform.
So basically apple wants to bring the mofo flash banners to the iPhone.
But it's all good because it's in HTML 5.
I earn my money with ads, but I really need to see more before getting
really happy with that. Because at the moment what I do see a full
screen ad coming up in the form of interactivity.
That is what the flash always have been about on the net.
But I'll get back to this when I've tried it myself and get some more
initial impressions.

What was your impression from this event and which part got your
utmost attention?

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Black and White Panoramic

Black and White Panoramic. 


This Panoramic photo is taken with an Angle of 180 degrees and is basically the view from our window. 
During the easter we had some horrendous weather and this was taken during one of the moments when the sky broke a little bit open. 

I took in total 5 pictures and stitched it later on together with Photoshop. After making the Panoramic photo within Photoshop I exported it back to Lightroom and made the Black and White Adaptations. 

Enjoy this Black and White Panoramic picture and let me know if you like it. 

Jaap Willem

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Friday, March 26, 2010

Location: Facebook + Nokia Ovi Maps

Location: Facebook + Nokia Ovi Maps

The other day I had a blog post about the Location wars and of course the next day there was some very interesting news from Facebook and Nokia Ovi Maps. 

Basically they've worked together to get location directly from Nokia Ovi Maps Application into Facebook. The same way how twitter broadcast a location, it is now available as well on Facebook. 

Why is this huge? 
  • Nokia Ovi Maps has more then 200 million users worldwide and is soon becoming together with Google Maps the top GPS solution for the mobile user.
    This helped as well with this year announcement that all GPS navigation will be free of charge for user of Nokia Ovi Maps. This was a huge announcement and if they start now as well to extend this towards Facebook and more integration it will be very but very nice. 
  • Facebook is the largest social network in the world, no introduction necesairy.
    But untill this event, location have been very low in the priorities of Facebook. Basically they only wanted to copy first Friendfeed and then Twitter when they bought Friendfeed. But this is the first time they are developing into a new area. 

Prognosis
With their highly successful iPhone and Android app it will be very easy to connect this one through to their own mobile application. This all on basis of the Ovi Maps data, what they could license for a fee. 

This combination would throw them from back in the location field towards straight into the top position in no time.

Let's see what the next steps will be but in the first view, it's becoming more and more interesting all the different parties. 

What do you guys think about it? 

=====

Jaap Willem
http://www.jaapwillem.com
Twitter: jaapwillem

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Monday, March 22, 2010

Marketing Location - The possibilities

Marketing Location - The possibilities. 

As I'm preparing for another Location blogpost, after my last one about Friends and Location, I would like to dive into the Marketing possibilities. 

An interesting article about this can be already found on the AdAge page, but I'll be covering it from a Online Marketing point of view. 

Happy reading on the AdAge article thought, it's a very nice introduction into Location Marketing.

Have a great day, 

Jaap Willem

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring Narcissus

Spring Narcissus, sprouting out of the earth. 

Spring is coming, and how better can you see that when we do have some very nice Narcissus coming up, still inside the house but soonish as well outside. 

At least I know that I'll be planting them outside if they have passed their time indoors. 

Have a great weekend,

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Aperture vs Lightroom

Just a quick update on my quest to get the most out of digital photo
management.

Last week I installed the latest and best version of the aperture
software.

People who are following me on Twitter have remarked it surely and
will know what I think of the whole program. Maybe not the whole
program, but I'm still trying to find out the best parts for me.

Expect soon a proper comparisation post with adobe lightroom 3 beta
nut at the moment it has many minus points. But stay tuned, maybe soon
it will change.

Someone is allowed to dream, isn't? Hahaha

What are your opinions or questions about lightroom and or aperture ?
Let me know an I'll pay some extra attention to those points

Have a great day!!!


Jaap Willem


Enviado desde mi iPod

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Senior Marketers Need Greater Accountability - And Companies as well..

I ran across this survey data eMarketer released last week and my heart sank:

Top Priorities in 2010 According to Senior Marketers 

This first chart looks innocent enough. It's when you look at the next one (from the same report) that things get ugly:

Advertising Performance Metrics 2009

As a CEO, an SEO, a web marketer and a participant in social media, this drives me absolutely crazy. The very last item on the list is "conversions, ROI, etc." If your pulse isn't pounding, you might need to cut back on the pharmaceuticals.

Absolutely nothing in the analytics world should trump conversions and ROI for "senior marketers" or anyone else who cares about the success of a company. If you're thinking in terms of time on site or unique page views as primary metrics - metrics you'd describe in a survey as being those you're "most interested in" - there's a big problem. The web as a medium is designed to let you capture data beyond number of viewers or engagement level. It lets you track return visits and actions and build sophisticated models that predict what activities will drive up revenue and earnings in the most cost-effective ways. Why let it go to waste?

Interactive Marketing Spend 2009-2014

This report from Forrester suggets that the spend on web marketing has a lot of growth, and social media in particular is poised for exceptional CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate). But, I'm tremendously concerned that if marketers obsess over metrics like time on site, unique page views and CTR, they'll miss out on the real opportunity of all these channels.

Cartoon of Senior & Junior Marketers

ROI should be the ultimate metric - it should be the most important thing on every marketer's mind for every project and every channel. I'll grant that prioritizing the projects and investments that have the highest return is challenging, and even the best do it imperfectly. What worries me is that there are marketers who may be taking their cues not from the great analytics data suggesting that, although first-time visits from social media may have low value, over time, they can drive greater brand engagement, predict higher rates of recivism and eventually become buyers and brand evangelists, but from the onslaught of press coverage and media attention around social networks.

If you're taking your clues about where to spend your marketing budget from the media, rather than experiments and data, get ready for disappointment. Likewise, if you're measuring the wrong thing, you'll never know the right place to spend those dollars.

The beauty of online channels like SEO, landing page testing, conversion rate optimization, email marketing and, yes, social media is that the data tells a story we can read. So long as we're willing to hear the message, we can draw the connections to find the traffic sources that cost less and earn more. We can invest in those until the ROI from them diminishes to a point where other channels become viable. But only if we're paying attention to the metrics that matter.

There have been tools, data and experienced professionals in this field, fighting these fights for over a decade now. Tragically, it seems that we're in for a long slog.

p.s. We've filled up about 600/1,000 spots for Thursday's PRO webinar on SEO Analytics - feel free to join in :-)

This is a very valid point.
The problem with senior Marketers is that they are not used to Online Marketing metrics.
Online marketing is a combination of Marketing and Sales. It is not only about creating brand awareness and views (Like it is on the TV and Radio) but on sales and conversions as well.
It is about creating a sustainable business, online.
If you have offline activities, they will be greatly supported by the online effort but in the end it is all about getting these conversions.

Soon I'll be posting a series of posts about why the Online Marketing is different from the Offline Marketing, so stay tuned..

Have a great read in the meantime..

Posted via web from JaapWillem Blog

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Local Trends Twitter

Welcome Local Trends in Twitter

I Finally got my local trends twitter option. Wow.. I am soooo thrilled... :D

Not really, but I think it's a nice option for me as a Twitter user and Local news follower... Furthermore it will make place for new marketing initiatives, of course for my marketing point of view. 

Mainly local companies will be benefiting from this Local Trends. How? Now you can see where the people are tweeting about in your surrounding and maybe adapt your message rapidly to include the latest trending in your local city or region. 

Furthermore I see that this point will increase the use of Geo-location within Twitter, as it is an option but an option what could benefit more people day by day. Since Twitter is becoming more and more as well a news source, Local trends could be like local news in your daily newspaper. Only Realtime. 
The inclusion of the Local Trends with the geo-location will twitter make more geo and local aware.. 

So, welcome Local Trends in my Twitter surrounding and hope you get soonish new options and places. 

What are your thoughts??

Let me know in the comments.. 


 

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Social Search: Explained

Social Search Explained

So finally we do have social search, it is showing up since this morning in my results, as you can see from the red line.. 
Sorry, about the trembling, but it's that I'm just still surprised about the Apple iPad.. 

Anyway Social Search, what is the idea behind it? 
Basically it is Google looking within your Circle of Friends to see what kind of content they have been sharing or visiting and will put it higher in the results. 
It's kinda cool to see that one of your friends give his opinion about someplace or you can see his pictures.. 

Social Search, when will it work? 
It will work when you are logged in into your Google Account. And of course you have to integrate all your Social profiles into your Google profile to actually see it work.. It is great to get your Facebook Friends, Twitter and Friendfeed friends all together with their opinions.. 

Will it make a difference. 
I think for the regular guy it will make a difference, because in general they intend to have their closest buddies in their profiles, so it will work fine. The question is when you are following that many companies and sites and persons on Twitter and Friendfeed for example, that the results might be changing for the Online Freaks.. 

What do you guys think about it?? Are you willing to put all your friends together within a Google Profile and enjoy the Social Search benefits??...

Let me know your opinion about Social Search.. 

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Proximity Searches in Google

Today I saw for the first time in Google Chrome that my position reflect as well in the searches. 

While I was browsing in Google Chrome and doing some research, what I saw the First 3 results, normal ones, then a suggestion for Paris (because I  had searched before on Google.fr) and then the proximity results..
 
There you go with any good results pages what you should get back.. Proximity and navigation is getting more and more important in Google and I have to say that the quality of the results are actually going up.. 

So I would like to ask you guys, do you think that the Google Experience has improved over the last months?? 

Get back to me in the comments 

Jaap Willem

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Sunday, January 24, 2010

[Jason] Why We Should Boycott ComScore (and *perhaps* why traders should short their stock)

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Calacanis
Sent: 23/01/2010 8:00:20 pm
Subject: [Jason] Why We Should Boycott ComScore (and *perhaps* why traders should short their stock)

Jason's List: Why We Should Boycott ComScore (and *perhaps* why
traders should short their stock)
Location: Brentwood, Ca 90049
Time: 10:45AM
Listening To: Rilo Kiley's "Silver Lining" http://bit.ly/SJIj
Members: About 19,000 of you
Signup: http://www.bit.ly/jasonslist
Angel investments: 5
Bulldogs: 2 http://bit.ly/6sF1WD
=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=

Comscore is the technology industry's biggest bully, and today I'm
calling for an industry-wide boycott of their services.

I'm asking journalist and bloggers to stop covering their stats, I'm
asking advertisers to not use their services, and finally, I'm asking
startup companies to not support their new and widely reported on
"$10,000 to get your stats correct" extortion ring.

If I was a stock trader I would short the stock--but I'm not--so I
won't (I keep my money in bonds and angel investments for the record).
Also, if you own Comscore shares, I'm not going to tell you that you
should sell them, but if I were an analyst--and I'm not--I would
probably tell folks to sell every share they had, and as quickly as
possible.

Additionally, I'm asking Comscore to drop their "pay for correct
stats" model in the next ten days.

Let's get into why.


Comscore's Reign of Terror
------------------------
For over a decade, I've railed against our industry's leading metrics
company ComScore with little result.

It all started when I was a journalist in the 90s for the Silicon
Alley Reporter. I listened to company after company from Silicon Alley
to Silicon Valley complain about how ComScore's method of counting
traffic websites, via a sample of users, was incorrect.

People couldn't understand why the internet industry, with it's
ability to track traffic perfectly, would ever adopt the failed
sample-based methods used on television and radio. Comscore's ideas
were antiquated and unnecessary.

Entrepreneurs would show me their internal stats, which were typically
three to five times larger than Comscore's numbers, and beg me to
correct them in the Silicon Alley Reporter.

However, I noticed a pattern: the big companies didn't complain about Comscore.

Why?

Well, from what multiple people shared with me, you simply had to
follow the money. According to these folks it was an unspoken truth
for years that if you paid Comscore they fixed your numbers, and if
you were a small company and didn't, well, you suffered. Comscore
would probably deny this, but their recent "pay to play" product shows
their true stripes.


They screwed me at Weblogs, Inc.
------------------------
It wasn't until I started Weblogs, Inc. that I really felt the sting
of not participating in the Comscore protection racket. You see,
advertisers love Comscore and they make advertising buys based on it.

Our small, but growing blogs, were under reported month after month
and Comscore basically told me to pound salt when I complained. It
cost me money, and I promised myself that if I could ever support
another service that wasn't based on payola I would.

Here you can see a smoking gun from 2005 when Comscore did a "study"
on blogs with Gawker Media as a sponsor. Interestingly, Gawker's blogs
did really well in the study. The only problem was that Comscore's
numbers were different than the SiteMeter traffic that Gawker and
Weblogs Inc. were publishing at the time.

Denton privately admitted to me he support Comscore because he had to
because of their reputation in the advertising industry. He thought I
should bite the bullet as well and get in bed with the bullies. Not my
style, sorry.

[[ Some links from 2005 Comscore: Show us the data or get out of Dodge
http://bit.ly/4I7S6i and ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com/3526851 - Fred
Wilson throws me under the bus: http://bit.ly/8BpFnh ]]

I publicly complained about Comscore but no one would really listen.
Actually Jeff Jarvis did support me: http://bit.ly/8zW0GF

My good friend Fred Wilson, who had invested in the firm, turned away
and watched the bullies he invested in pummel me when I complained
about Comscore. Fred is outspoken and an advocate of startups--except
with Comscore. He's turned a blind eye while letting his huge venture
return in Comscore color his objectivity. In fact, it must be obvious
to Fred that Comscore is, in fact, holding back his other startup
investments by extorting money from them!

Fred's been an amazing supporter of mine over the years, but I've
never been able to get over the fact that he invested in and supported
these guys. Fred's continued support of this company is unconscionable
at this point. He needs to come out and say that Comscore charging
$10,000 for this product is a pure shake down.

Do it Fred... you know you want to! :-)


ComScore Tries to Buy Me Off
------------------------
This summer the tough guys at Comscore approached me with a
clandestine deal after I continued to publicly complain about their
methods. The message was clear: if I stopped criticizing them and
publicly supported their server data measurement program they would
not charge me. The $10,000 it would cost a year for this service would
be free for me if I threw my fellow entrepreneurs under the bus.

Their email to me included something out of the a Sopranos episode:
"Normally there is a cost to implement, but in this case we will
gladly waive the charge if you are interested." Yeah, and if you're
not interested perhaps you would like to come on a fishing trip with
us this weekend.

You bastards think that after a *decade* of me trying to stop your
extortion you can by me off by simply waiving some fees? I could
easily pay the $10,000 fee today but I will never give you guys a
dime. I will remember what you did to me when I was coming up forever.

I'd rather lose half my revenue from advertising as Mahalo grows from
a top 1,000 site (2007), to the top 400 sites (2008) and now a top 200
site (2009), and eventually even a top 50 site I hope (2011?)--than
give you even one ounce of my support.

I wrote back: "You guys are evil for charging companies--I would never
support you. Quantcast and Google are going to crush you guys.... And
I'm telling everyone I know to support Quantcast."

They never contacted me again.


Comscore formalizes their extortion ring
------------------------
This week you may have read over at the excellent "All Things D" that
Comscore is now willing to do real metrics on your website if you give
them $10,000 a year. They claim this is to pay for their servers.
More: http://bit.ly/6Fqrhe

This after they spent the last decade criticizing the direct
measurement methods of their competitors like Quantcast and Google
Analytics as being flawed! Now they say pixel tracking--actual
measurement on the server side--is the best method. What a bunch of
slim buckets.

Could it be that enough publishers and advertisers have told you to go
f-- yourself in the past year?

Could it be that Quantcast has a product that is 100x better than your
service and it's FREE?

Could it be that Compete.com is secretly testing a server-side testing
method like Quantcast's and is about to kick your ass?

>From where I sit, this is Comscore's desperate Hail Mary pass to try
and save their dying protection racket. Comscore has ZERO value when
Google Analytics, Compete.com and Quantcast allow you to publicly and
freely track your stats.


Bullies, Ethics & Your Part
------------------------
As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, I learned that when you or your
friends were being bullied there was really only one solution to the
problem: punch the bully directly in the face as hard as you can the
second they approached you. Like really, the second they come at
you--the second the first word comes out of their mouth--punch them in
the face. Don't let them even finish their sentence. If they say "I
want your milk money" your fist should make contact right around the
"want" mark.

BANG!

At a young age I tested this technique and it resulted in a couple of
multi-day suspensions from school and black eyes, but it is a
life-long strategy for success that has never failed me. Do not let
yourself or your friends get bullied--ever. Even if you get your ass
kicked, at least you got your shot in and you held your ground.

When someone from Comscore approaches, you should tell them to go
hell. (Note: do not literally punch them in the face--I'm not
advocating physical violence here, I'm advocating voting with your
dollar.)

I put up a good fight for a decade but made little progress and
frankly got my ass kicked by Comscore in the Weblogs, Inc. days.
However, their obnoxious behavior has finally been publicly exposed.
This means that we--as an industry--can finally run this bully out of
town.

Again, here is what I'm asking for in the Comscore Boycott. Feel free
to republish this article in whole at your blog.


The Comscore Boycott: Play Your Part!
======================
1. Startups: Do NOT pay a single penny to Comscore--ever.
2. Startups who are getting this program for free (I suspect a good
number): Opt out and tell Comscore to f-- themselves.
3. Press & Bloggers: Please do not run Comscore's inaccurate numbers,
and please expose their extortion ring.
4. Advertisers: Do not use Comscore to plan your media buys: use the
free and more accurate Quantcast.
5. Google: Please release your version Comscore killer (based on
Quantcast's model), or better yet PLEASE BUY QUANTCAST!
6. Compete.com: Please release your Comscore killer.
7. Stock traders & Analysts: Please think deeply about the potential
revenue destruction that Comscore could be facing.
8. Fred Wilson: publicly state that you do not agree with ComScore's
mafia-like methods.
9. Republish this email at your blog.
10. If you have information on Comscore that should be exposed send it
to me in confidence (say anonymous up top)


To My "Friends" at Comscore
---------------------------------------
You know I'm right.

As such, I'm asking for complete and unconditional surrender. Make
your tracking pixel program 100% free in the next 10 days or the
boycott will continue.

If you're a current or former executive at Comscore and you have an
opinion on this please send me your thoughts in confidence, and I will
republish them to the list without your name.

If you're a current employee who can't deal with this any more, please
add me on LinkedIn and ask for a LinkedIn introduction to the Google
Analytics, Compete.com or Quantcast teams. I will gladly forward
talented people from Comscore on to companies I think are more
ethical.

All the best,

Jason


You can find me here:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
http://www.twitter.com/jason
http://www.thisweekinstartups.com
http://www.facebook.com/jasoncalacanis
http://www.blippy.com/jason (angel investor)
http://www.calacanis.com
http://user.gdgt.com/jasoncalacanis/ (angel investor)
http://gowalla.com/users/jason (angel investor)
http://www.challengepost.com/jason-calacanis (angel investor)
http://www.causecast.org/member/jasoncalacanis (advisor)
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Calacanis (65% correct!)


Copy editing of Jason's List: Jennifer Engevik http://www.jenniferengevik.com

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Jason Calacanis
902 Colorado Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Office Phone: 310-593-6134
email: jason@calacanis.com

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Oostende Beach Photos

Oostende Beach Photos

This is the final set of the beach photos I took on the beach, all edited within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. 

So we went for a photoshoot in the middle of January 2010 and it was really chilly. 
But still quiet a few people where walking at the beach and enjoying their sunday afternoon. It was definatly a great moment and just in time for the lovely sunset over the northsea. 

It was as well the first time for me to get into Oostende and surprised me pleasantly.. 

Enjoy these beach pics and let me know what you think.. 

Cheers

((tag: nikon, d80, beach, edited, photoshop lightroom, sunset, landscape, january, belgium, oostende, 2010))

Jaap Willem
http://www.jaapwillem.com
Twitter: jaapwillem

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

New website design www.jaapwillem.com

Hi there,

Yes, like I've promised many times before, I've started to move to a total different point for my Website.

Please stay tuned and enjoy these pictures for the moment.

Kind regards

Jaap Willem

Contact me via:

Twitter and Flickr

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Monday, January 11, 2010

End of the Digital Cleanse

Ok, so the last week I've been doing a digital Cleanse, that will say not using Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed anymore. 

The Results are in and it's funny. 

At the end I've been more effective in the things I've done but in other things I've been less productive. 

To stay in touch with the friends was much more dificult and as well getting to know new things have been more dificult. Because of the buzz always around the latest news in Friendfeed and Twitter, feel that I've missed out.. 

Anyway today I'll start with the next point, to filter and sort my Twitter list.. 

How was your digital cleanse??

Posted via email from JaapWillem Blog

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Digital Cleanse

English below the dutch part. 

Digital Cleanse, Wat is het? 

Van de week ben ik begonnen met een digital cleanse op Social Media..
Voor een week ga ik geen Twitter, Facebook of Friendfeed of wat dan ook gebruiken. De enige site die ik wel blijf gebruiken is Flickr, voor mijn foto's. 
Maar nu is het terug naar Gmail en Google Reader. En het lezen van Blogs en maken van lange teksten en geen kleine berichtjes versturen.. 

Nu ben ik op de eerte dag en ik moet zeggen dat het wel even wennen is. Ook omdat ik nu op het werk weer terug ben op een standaard computer. MIjn oude heeft ook een digital cleanse nodig.. hahaha.. 

Ik zal jullie volgende week laten weten hoe het gegaan is, maar ik heb er wel een goed gevoel van.. 

O ja, het 2de gedeelte van mijn Digital Cleanse is het verwijderen van alle automatische feeds op de Twitter.. 

Stay Tuned.. 

Digital Cleanse, what is it? 

Digital cleanse is to be without Facebook, Twitter and all kind of Social website for a week. So I've decided to go into this and started on Monday with it for a week. So no Twitter, Facebook and anykind of Social media website for a week. The only exclusion I made for myself is Flickr, due to the fact I need it for my work. 
But now it's back into Gmail, Google reader and reading the news on dedicated newssites. No more short messages and blurps but decent emails. 

Now I finished with the first day and I have to get used to it. And even more cause at work I had to downgrade my computer.. The old computer needed as well a digital cleanse.. hahaha.. 

Next Week I'll let you guys know how it all went, but the 1st day was a positive experience. 

The 2nd part of my Digital Cleanse will be the elimination of all kind of spam on my Twitter account... 

Stay Tuned for more.. 

Jaap Willem

Posted via email from JaapWillem.com Blog