Tip of the Week
High reps and low weight create high levels of endurance, whereas low reps and more weight produce strength.
Funk Roberts
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Group/Travel organision sites on a (cash) roll: Dopplr
The money and VC interest in group and travel organisational tools is rolling in faster than I can type. We have touched recently on the latest for Groople, a round for Kango, Ex-Expedia staff pouring into TripHub and early on an interview with Travelgator. That latest to join this trend is the Helsinki based Dopplr who announced on their blog an angle round of funding from Martin Varsavsky (who also backed Ya.com including viajar.com), Joichi Ito (serial entrepreneur who's investments include Technorati and Last.fm), Reid Hoffman (the father or linkedin) and The Accelerator Group led by Saul Klein (former Skype senior exec).
Again we have a deep in private beta site so cannot tell you what they do but the description follows this trend we have been tracking around group travel and online organisational tools.
Not sure how to put my head around this trend yet. The growth of enhanced organisational and collaboration tools fit with my theory that we are moving into a period of online travel where consumers are confronted with too much information and need ways to digest, understand, share and manage it all. But I had anticipated that this collaboration would initially come out of the large scale social networks (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo etc) or out of tools from the large OTAs, not niche product specific providers because travel organisation would form part of a consumers general online social interaction or online travel purchasing behaviour. Now I begin to wonder if we are moving to world where these niche providers can either stand on their own or connect to social networks as applications or connect to the OTAs through distribution deals. A lot more to think about and track in this area. Would be interested in your thoughts.
Thanks to the new UK version of paidContenthere I first saw this story.
UPDATE - TechCrunch are also carrying the story and provide a screen shot of someone's page on the private beta and a link to an InviteShare page with (maybe) some invitations to the Dopplr private beta (login required).
UPDATE 2 - alarm:clock have brief little piece called TripLife vs. Dopplr vs. TripUp
Again we have a deep in private beta site so cannot tell you what they do but the description follows this trend we have been tracking around group travel and online organisational tools.
"Dopplr lets you, via an invitation system, share your future travel plans with a group of trusted fellow travellers whom you have chosen. It also reminds you of friends and colleagues who live in the cities you’re planning to visit. For example, Dopplr might tell you that three of your trusted friends and colleagues will be in Barcelona when you are there next."Founding staff are Lisa Sounio, CEO; Matt Biddulph, CTO Matt Jones, design director; and Dan Gillmor, "founding traveller" (not sure what that means).
Not sure how to put my head around this trend yet. The growth of enhanced organisational and collaboration tools fit with my theory that we are moving into a period of online travel where consumers are confronted with too much information and need ways to digest, understand, share and manage it all. But I had anticipated that this collaboration would initially come out of the large scale social networks (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo etc) or out of tools from the large OTAs, not niche product specific providers because travel organisation would form part of a consumers general online social interaction or online travel purchasing behaviour. Now I begin to wonder if we are moving to world where these niche providers can either stand on their own or connect to social networks as applications or connect to the OTAs through distribution deals. A lot more to think about and track in this area. Would be interested in your thoughts.
Thanks to the new UK version of paidContenthere I first saw this story.
UPDATE - TechCrunch are also carrying the story and provide a screen shot of someone's page on the private beta and a link to an InviteShare page with (maybe) some invitations to the Dopplr private beta (login required).
UPDATE 2 - alarm:clock have brief little piece called TripLife vs. Dopplr vs. TripUp
New Features in Website Optimizer
Today, we've released our first major update to Website Optimizer, our free site content testing tool. Based on feedback received from advertisers and agencies, we've added three highly requested features:
1. We've added the ability to create A/B split experiments. This new feature is designed to make it faster and easier to optimize your website, and improve conversion rates. A/B experiments are ideal for testing different page layouts and pages with less traffic. Take a look at this multimedia demo to learn how to set up an A/B experiment.
2. You can now access Website Optimizer directly from the My Client Center. You can find more information here.
3. The experiment list is now automatically sorted so the most recent experiments appear at the top. We've also added the ability to delete experiments – by far our most requested feature.
We hope you enjoy these updates to Website Optimizer. If you would like to learn more about Website Optimizer, please visit the Website Optimizer homepage.
1. We've added the ability to create A/B split experiments. This new feature is designed to make it faster and easier to optimize your website, and improve conversion rates. A/B experiments are ideal for testing different page layouts and pages with less traffic. Take a look at this multimedia demo to learn how to set up an A/B experiment.
2. You can now access Website Optimizer directly from the My Client Center. You can find more information here.
3. The experiment list is now automatically sorted so the most recent experiments appear at the top. We've also added the ability to delete experiments – by far our most requested feature.
We hope you enjoy these updates to Website Optimizer. If you would like to learn more about Website Optimizer, please visit the Website Optimizer homepage.
Make Money With eBay Items on Squidoo
I blogged a little about Squidoo a few months ago, but I think it's time to mention it again.
Squidoo consists of individual pages, called lenses, each created by regular people called Lensmasters. Cool thing is that Lensmasters make money when people click on links in their lenses and, especially, if said people buy the things they click on. A good lens contains a lot of good information as well as some great products or items to click on.
So, how does this affect you as an eBay seller? Let's say you have a niche on eBay. That makes you an expert in that niche, right? Sure it does! You research it, you describe it, you list it, you sell it. You should know as much about that niche or that type of item as anyone, and more than most. So, take that expertise and turn it into a Squidoo lens.
Your lens doesn't have to be about eBay, but it can contain a module, or section, that features your eBay items, those same items that you have written about and shared your expertise about, in the Squidoo lens. For instance, I sell Arkansas Razorbacks fan items (among other teams) on eBay. To get those on Squidoo, I made a SquidWho lens (SquidWho is the new people lenses part of Squidoo) all about Darren McFadden. (If you're a college football fan, then you've probably heard of Darren McFadden, last year's Heisman Trophy runner-up.) When people find that lens on Squidoo, they'll see my eBay listings. What great free advertising!
Keep in mind that Squidoo pays the lensmaster a commission on other people's eBay or amazon listings, too, so feel free to promote those items on your lenses as well, as I do on, for instance, my Shirley Temple lens.
So, choose a person, a niche, or an eBay item you would like to promote, go make a lens and make some money.
Squidoo consists of individual pages, called lenses, each created by regular people called Lensmasters. Cool thing is that Lensmasters make money when people click on links in their lenses and, especially, if said people buy the things they click on. A good lens contains a lot of good information as well as some great products or items to click on.
So, how does this affect you as an eBay seller? Let's say you have a niche on eBay. That makes you an expert in that niche, right? Sure it does! You research it, you describe it, you list it, you sell it. You should know as much about that niche or that type of item as anyone, and more than most. So, take that expertise and turn it into a Squidoo lens.
Your lens doesn't have to be about eBay, but it can contain a module, or section, that features your eBay items, those same items that you have written about and shared your expertise about, in the Squidoo lens. For instance, I sell Arkansas Razorbacks fan items (among other teams) on eBay. To get those on Squidoo, I made a SquidWho lens (SquidWho is the new people lenses part of Squidoo) all about Darren McFadden. (If you're a college football fan, then you've probably heard of Darren McFadden, last year's Heisman Trophy runner-up.) When people find that lens on Squidoo, they'll see my eBay listings. What great free advertising!
Keep in mind that Squidoo pays the lensmaster a commission on other people's eBay or amazon listings, too, so feel free to promote those items on your lenses as well, as I do on, for instance, my Shirley Temple lens.
So, choose a person, a niche, or an eBay item you would like to promote, go make a lens and make some money.
The Airline Industry - BusinessWeek Style
My "now I admit it is a series" series on the the US Airline industry continues. As the US comes to the end of what people are calling the worst summer travel season ever we now have BusinessWeek chiming in with a view on who is at fault and what do about it. It is often said that when BusinessWeek spots a trend you know it is too late to do anything about it a very mature trend. This week's cover story is Fear & Loathing at the Airport and all about the US airline industry. I caught the story through the interesting series of podcasts they run on their cover stories.
The problems are well known - endless delays, constant cancellations and horrible customer service. There have been a few highlights but mainly an antiquated system collapsing under the weight of mismanagement and inefficiency.
The central question discussed in the BusinessWeek podcast is "who is to blame?". I sat starring at my ipod in anticipation of an answer, to have a name/body/group to blog about under the heading "here is the culprit!". Unfortunately in an expected but disappointing conclusion, the answer is everyone and no-one. The BusinessWeek journalist Chris Palmeri describes the problem as a result of a "fundamental organisational failure". The result of deregulation and industry neglect is that between the FAA, TSA, Airlines and Airports no-one has sole responsibility and the problems need a fix from all four.
A great example from the podcast of the hell caused by all this is the editor John Burn discussing a recent trip from JFK where the backlog of planes trying to take off was 4.5miles (7.2kms) long. So long that it had to take up a whole runway having the double whammy effect of reducing the number of planes that could land and increasing the diversions.
The conclusion of the podcast is that no longer can the online travel consumer just make flight purchase decisions based on price and time of departure. The on-time record has now become as critical a piece of information and how much, when and who is flying.
The problems are well known - endless delays, constant cancellations and horrible customer service. There have been a few highlights but mainly an antiquated system collapsing under the weight of mismanagement and inefficiency.
The central question discussed in the BusinessWeek podcast is "who is to blame?". I sat starring at my ipod in anticipation of an answer, to have a name/body/group to blog about under the heading "here is the culprit!". Unfortunately in an expected but disappointing conclusion, the answer is everyone and no-one. The BusinessWeek journalist Chris Palmeri describes the problem as a result of a "fundamental organisational failure". The result of deregulation and industry neglect is that between the FAA, TSA, Airlines and Airports no-one has sole responsibility and the problems need a fix from all four.
A great example from the podcast of the hell caused by all this is the editor John Burn discussing a recent trip from JFK where the backlog of planes trying to take off was 4.5miles (7.2kms) long. So long that it had to take up a whole runway having the double whammy effect of reducing the number of planes that could land and increasing the diversions.
The conclusion of the podcast is that no longer can the online travel consumer just make flight purchase decisions based on price and time of departure. The on-time record has now become as critical a piece of information and how much, when and who is flying.
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