jwesley

And why should they get the web better than any other bunch of middle-aged business guys? Microsoft is a desktop software company, the web isn't in their DNA. The web is a threat to kill their primary revenue streams!

Goes to show that realizing there is a lot of opportunity somewhere and throwing an obscene amount of money at it is not enough to succeed.

She got Techcrunched because she is a 17 year old girl. Her promising website currently displays a blank page: http://internshipin.com/search.php

It's a nice story for bloggers and journalists, but I don't think she's someone I need business advice from.

I was hoping the included spreadsheet model would be enough to secure funding.

I'm sure Big Mike would have no problem going back on that if it looks like this thing could make a mint.

I agree no one will pay for friends. You can get them easily enough without paying, just by interacting with people and searching for users that Twit about relevant stuff.

As much as people here think advertising is boring, I think Twitter could actually have a great contextual ad business. As long as the ads are relevant. If someone Twitters about HD TVs, would they not be especially be engaged by an ad for TV's? What about people who tweet about flights seeing ads from airlines? There is a lot of potential there.

It's good to see a counter balance the "OMG Developer Made 100K in 3 Weeks!" mania we've been seeing lately. Still, there is clearly opportunity in these apps. You just shouldn't overestimate the odds of having a big hit right off the bat.

I think he's saying that a cushy job can lead to a mediocre career. Once you get used to high pay, perks, and having it easy, it gets extremely hard to leave for a risky (but likely more rewarding) opportunity. That situation is the norm at many large corporations in highly regulated industries (government contract, aviation, etc). My first job was just like that, and I'm so glad I left.

Personally, I've had to start searching Craigslist posts with Google in order to find listings I'd visited recently. They should just outsource their internal search to Google, and if they feel like making many millions of dollars, run Adwords ads along the search results.

Yes, I can't resist saying that maybe with a college education you could spell rudimentary words like "business".

That's because it's an affiliate page, and a brilliant one at that. Where is the column for referral payout?

Advertising is a medium of information, not a substitute for it. I think the moral is that people love free trials and it's essential to test your landing pages.

Maybe he does not have any big ideas right about now and wants to collect some massive paychecks from Google? Nothing wrong with that.

Florid satire filled with clichéd tech references. Not really funny or clever at all.

In my mind, the definition of a social media consultant is someone who sells consulting services related to social media. This does not require that they actually know what they're talking about. Personally, I think it's a good indicator for who you can safely ignore. Give it a few months any they'll all be on to the next fad career label.

Have to give it to them though for getting Zuckerberg, Ozzie, and Marissa Mayer to show.

1. If a novel is intended to be realistic fiction, it should reflect reality, not the author's philosophical agenda. (My opinion, but I think this is the only way serious art reveals truth. Imagine if Marx had written a novel.) This is distinct from fantasy. I'm a Tolkien fan too, but I don't think anyone would turn to LOTR for economic guidance.

2. Artificially low interest rates reflect Greenspan's belief that given enough liquidity, markets will be self correcting. He thought banks were in the best position to protect themselves from risk because they bear the greatest consequences of failure. (He has since admitted the failure of this belief.) Clearly they were not, as the low interest rates lead to further inflation of the credit bubble.

There is millions of dollar being made every day with Facebook ads. You can target them very specifically and drive large amounts of traffic cheaply.

No, it is certainly not Adwords. For some offers it doesn't work. For some it works better than search. Just because it's not search does not mean it's not an incredibly valuable marketing channel.

They will never be as profitable as Google because the CTR of the ads is pathetically low (compared to search) and the clicks are much less valuable, but there is massive traffic there. Even if they never develop the killer ad product there is still a big business there.

Ha. As reality based as any other Facebook valuation.

Atlas Shrugged is propaganda masquerading as art. The characters are thin shells used to promote Rand's thinking and in no way reflect reality.

The idea that unbridled self interest leads to the greatest good guided Greenspan's monetary policy and got us into this mess.

There is certainly a lot to be said for enlightened self interest and personal freedom, but the absolutism of objectivism is just as wrong as communism.

"The whole purpose of this article is to refute the thinking that you obviously subscribe to (given your comment)."

What type of thinking is that? That VC companies are required to shoot for the home run exit? That's not a mode of thinking, it's the reality of the VC industry. Lean, efficient, profitable companies are great, but unless they aim to become big businesses they are not VC worthy.

As for the other side of the argument, I must be too stupid to see it. All I could glean from that convoluted mess was that Digg and Facebook should be more like Google and eBay.

Don't reveal that you wouldn't mind the investment. Act like you have no want/need for it.

"Web 2.0 is not like Web 1.0. It's in a special (ed) class of its own."

The author clearly does not get it. Profitability is not a "pipe dream" for companies like Digg and Facebook. If profitability was the only objective, I'm sure they could achieve it. The pipe dream is attaining the massive scale necessary to build a publicly traded company.

The whole concept of learning to be a savant by reading some interview is ridiculous. You would have better results with Tim Ferriss' Brain Quicken product.

Some interesting bits though. I hate how knowledge gets degraded into self help pseudo-science to sell books.

This blog post made my day. Now if only he can be retroactively removed from the NYT bestseller list. As bad as The Secret...

Unremarkable lifehack-type article, but still a good reminder to cut out distractions and do some actual work.

Very clever and has already garnered loads of media attention, but I always wonder with ad campaigns like this how much it really adds to the bottom line. Might just be an amusing waste of money.

"All I did for marketing in 2008 was email existing users"

Seriously? That does not make any sense. Why not try a paid search campaign? Or networking with teachers via twitter? What is the purpose of building a business and then not doing anything to market it?

The 10% increase in CTR from having the badge in your ad is a big incentive to search marketers. Theoretically that should decrease your click costs 10% or allow your ad to display in a higher position for the same bid.

The 40% conversion rate increase seems dubious, unless it applies only to current G-Checkout users, which as other have said are few and and far between. Amazing with Google's clout and advertiser perks like this their market share is still pitiful.

Very nice! Now we just need a plugin that automatically silences troll commenters.

PageRank is a tool used to rank web pages in search results. But maybe Google is a Ponzi scheme. Users create all the content, Google sells all the ads!