Google is your God

2 Nov
2011

Aaron from SEO Book has been talking about this for a long time – Google has been slowly but methodically using its monopoly to destroy entire internet niches.

I noticed the other day while searching for ‘what is my ip’ that Google now directly responds to the IP. Check out whatismyip.com’s traffic:

For the past year I’ve been doing my darndest to get away from anything that relies on Google – for traffic (eg DealCatch) or anything they would directly compete with (eg Examine). I’m not there yet, but I’m feeling more confident as time passes. I’m hoping that 50% of our revenue by 2013 will have nothing to do with Google (at any point of the transactional funnel).

I hope you are doing the same.

Broken Contact Page

17 Aug
2011

Oops.

Seems like my contact page has been broken for … forever. So if you wanted to contact me, do so now.

The Fun in Researching Supplements

10 Aug
2011

Who knew that Marijuana could be one of the best things you could take for overall health?

101 citations to back up the assertion.

LeanGains FAQ

27 Jul
2011

As an update to my post on weight loss not being just about the number, I’ve created a LeanGains FAQ, a quick and easy summary of the LeanGains protocol I’m on.

I’ve gone from ~35% body fat to ~12%. I should hit 9% in the next 6 weeks. I’ll post comparison pictures when I finally hit 400 DL and 300 squat.

It isn’t hard, and it does not take up a lot of time. Best of all, it has a ton of science backing it.

Weightloss, Revenue, and Oversimplifying.

4 Jul
2011

For the past few years, the latest rage seems to be blogging/tweeting about weight loss. Somehow people have convinced themselves that declaring their plans publicly will make it happen.

I won’t get into that (there are enough scientific studies that show the opposite happens), but what gets to me is the complete focus on an arbitrary number. If I was to say “Hey I have a website that generates $100,000 revenue, do you want to buy it?” you obviously want context for that revenue. So when people start criticizing Groupon because their margin isn’t as good as some other (not-competing) company, you have to shake your head. Mark Cuban does have the right idea … most of these guys only care about pageviews, intelligent discussion be damned.

And so back to losing weight, it’s the same foolishness. Except at least in the case of business and finances, such simple minded thinking gets called out. Weight loss? Never. Would you rather be 150lb at 25% fat or 160lb and 15% fat?

We seem to be living in a world of context-less sensationalism, slowly rotting away any and all meaningful intelligent thought. What a dour note to end on :)

Canceling your ESPN Magazine/Digital Subscription

28 Jun
2011

I’m a huge fan of the NBA … in fact one of my projects for winter (once I’ve moved) is to build an automated predictor of NBA results and see if I can use it to beat the spread. Something fun to do, but for another day :)

I just spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to cancel my ESPN subscription. Turns out you can’t do it online (you have to call them at 1-888-549-3776). The actual phone call etc was pretty easy, but it completely boggled my mind that for a subscription I began online, I had to go offline to cancel it.

Every time I start to think that companies have finally figured out that using the internet only makes life easier, something like this reminds me how asinine they can still be.

My Timing is Decent

10 Jun
2011

I was talking to a friend of mine about Examine when we both came to the conclusion that my timing (in general) seems to be pretty decent.

Amongst other things, I:

  • Pulled out of MMO/virtual currency just around when WoW came out. WoW became so big it spawned a ton of Chinese gold farmers that significantly hurt margins.
  • Pulled out of blog directories etc right before Google slapped them all out.
  • Pulled out of CSS just as it went from “cool” to “commodity”
  • Pulled out of local before Google slapped everyone around with Panda

Really though, the above post was just so I could pimp out Examine. We’ve been getting the most random search engine phrases as referral, a sample of which include:

  • “dimethylamylamine drug test” (for DMAA). A stimulant used to increase workout performance. It also causes you to fail drug tests as it results in a false positive for amphetamines. An ingredient in the popular pre-workout supplement “jack3d”.
  • “quercetin dihydrate bioavailability” (for Quercetin). A “healthy to have” supplement found in fruits and veggies, especially apples and onions).
  • “Alpha 2-antagonist compounds and lipid mobilization: evidence for a lipid mobility” (for Yohimbine). A popular fat-loss supplement that helps you target fat loss in stubborn areas like your stomach.
  • “Ketonic Bodies adrenergic lipolysis” (also for Yohimbine like above). This one is cool because the Google results specifically link to a section under our “Compleat Summary” that explicitly discusses Ketogenesis and Lipolysis.
  • “fish oil protein synthesis” (for fish oil) A popular blogger recently summed up scientific research that indicated omega 3 fatty acids could help in adding muscle.

Anyway, completely random stuff, but the sheer breadth of information and the million+1 combinations of keywords has me pretty excited. The site performance is quite solid (4 pageviews per visitor, over 3:00 on site per average user, ~50% bounce rate), and I think in the long run this could end up being one of my biggest sites ever (and not to toot my own horn, but having done this for 14 years, I have built some pretty big sites).

Group Couponing is Dead, Daily Deals are Here

1 Jun
2011

Read over at Mike’s Blog that Google has finally gone live with its daily deal equivalent.

What I find interesting now is that the entire concept of “tipping” (need X buyers to get this deal) seems to have disappeared. The entire shtick of Groupon was that you needed at least X buyers to get a deal … and thus you had to tell your friends, spread the word, etc.

Instead the reality has become with so many people buying deals now, instead of tipping, the bigger concern is quantity. The deal has a limit of 2000 – something that was pretty rare to see before, but with AT&T (via YellowPages.com), Facebook, and other giants starting to really move into this space, the demand problem will no longer remain a problem. Instead the supply of specific deals will likely become the more pressing concern.

HasOffers & Daily Deals

31 May
2011

HasOffers has a nice, simple, and powerful interface. Sites like LivingSocial, BuyWithMe, Tippr, and others use it.

Considering how many daily deal sites are completely technologically inept (which just causes us headaches at DealCatch), it is always nice when we find one that uses HasOffers.

Their latest blog post caught my eye – $18,500/day in commissions! Assuming even a healthy 20% cut, that means daily deal sites are generating roughly $100,000 per day in revenue just through their affiliates. $35,000,000 a year.

Impressive numbers.

Examine.com – Supplements et al

9 May
2011

I finally have a new website to show off: Examine.com.

After I came back to Toronto (wow it’s almost been 2 years … and I am moving again soon), one of the things I really focused on was my health. I spent hours every day reading up on fitness and nutrition. The amount of anecdotal information was quite stunning – absolutely incorrect information was repeated with no consideration of the source or even the logic of what was being stated.

Thankfully, there are communities where science-backed information is valued, and I have learned an amazing amount over the past two years. My friends have noticed, and I am asked quite a bit about how supplement X works, or how the body reactions to Y. So the idea had been bouncing around for a while, and when I found out that the domain Examine.com was for sale, I decided it was time to act on it.

What we now have is a Wikipedia-inspired site, complete with citations and no nofollow garbage for SEO purposes. Just a legitimate site with valuable information, backed by hours of research and investigation.

Will the site make money in the future? Likely. But at the most it will just link to various sites where you can buy Supplement X – BodyBuilding.com, TruePortein, etc. Product endorsements are best left to companies like Consumer Reports and ConsumerLab (I am a paid subscriber of both). I am at a level in life now where I can focus on something most people tackle later on in life – their legacy. I honestly believe that Examine can have a solid impact in combating a lot of the myths out there (before I knew any better, I had heard many times that taking creatine could give you cancer).

So if you want to learn more (or know friends into fitness), be sure to send them to Examine.com.

Older Entries
Newer Entries
top