IT Milk

Check out the new Maiselog by Matt Maisel. This is the first blog that I’ve seen so far arise out of the Security & Risk Analysis program at Penn State. I hope that he continues to write posts like the recent one on the i2 Analyst Notebook software.

However, one horrible mistake on the Maiselog is, Matt, why the hell are you using frames? I can’t see the permalink url’s for posts unless I right-click copy a link for a post title.

Matt Maisel is a freshman double-majoring in Security & Risk Analysis and Information Sciences and Technology, and he is also one of my teammates for the Google Online Marketing Challenge.

Update: Lion Launch Pad has been rebranded as The Blue Line, and their website is located at http://www.bluelinenetworks.com. This new site could use some basic SEO because it’s practically invisible to the search engines.

What happened to the open and driven atmosphere that first attracted me to the Lion Launch Pad? The blog is dormant, the site hasn’t been updated, the Facebook group is dead, and I haven’t heard anything at all (rejection or acceptance) from the board.

I did notice that 3 new companies have been added to the LLP companies page: Go2Entrepreneur, MateoBlu, and 8trk. But it’s weird that no announcements have been made.

I recently teamed up with two programmers to leverage the current trend in social media. This means researching social networks like Facebook and Myspace and developing custom applications on those platforms. There is a tremendous amount of potential on social platforms because of the large, well-defined user bases and all the interesting sorts of personal data we can integrate into the applications. We want to dig our hands into this pile of so-called web 2.0 before the bubble bursts.

Today, we launched our first Facebook application called Crush Mail. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, this app lets you send secret messages to your crush that include random clues from your Facebook profile. For instance, I would send a message to you and it would have a) my message, b) a picture of a jigsaw puzzle with more pieces being revealed with each reply, and c) a list of clues about my identity.

Although our team happened to launch Crush Mail together, all the props for the application go to our two developers. I stepped into my position just as they were putting the finishing touches to Crush Mail, so I didn’t get much of a chance to get involved at all with this one.

Crush Mail has a nice concept and its launch is perfect timing for the Valentine’s Day season. However, the profit model on this app is weak and the target market is limited. We are just testing the waters with our first Facebook application.

Our developers are talented and, more importantly, driven by commitment so I am confident that, for each subsequent application after this, we will be able to go from application concept to working beta within a very short amount of time.

I also write for our Facebook application blog at Meezik, so I’ll probably be writing future updates about our products over there. So keep the Meezik blog bookmarked because we’re going to be rolling out some serious apps in the near future.

A couple of months ago, I had a great business idea that would leverage the tens of thousands of students here at Penn State University. I was confident about its success so I took the idea to the Lion Launch Pad (Penn State’s student business incubator) to apply for funding and business assistance.

Along the way, I discovered another startup that was taking the same business model to a broader scope at the national level and doing it with the same goals that I had envisioned. I was impressed by what they had done so far and immediately took a liking to it.

Instead of pursuing my own business idea, I thought it would be better to use my potential energy to help out this new startup make their product more successful. Meanwhile, I figured that I could still pursue my goal of targeting Penn State University by offering a localized marketing campaign for this startup. This product is a nationwide movement of students. It would be extremely valuable for any student-focused product to gain even a fraction of Penn State’s 40,000+ students for its user base.

So I applied for a campus representative position for this company and, if everything proceeds smoothly, I will soon be responsible for pushing this product at Penn State.

Originally, I had a lot of hope for my own plans for developing this business idea. But, in this case, I immediately recognized that this other company had already developed a great product, and that they were doing it better than I would be able to. I will be able to accomplish more in the long run by swallowing my pride and offering my help.

I will be writing in more detail about this in the next couple of weeks. I am excited about launching this product at Penn State and I can definitely see it catching on quick with our students here.

Have you ever tried to search for bloggers from your own school? I’ve tried it using Google, Facebook profiles, Facebook groups and Technorati. But the results were limited in each case. Most bloggers don’t even mention what schools they go to, so search engines don’t pick up on keywords. Meanwhile, blogger groups on Facebook are pretty pointless. Joining these groups and having them show up on your profile is essentially the same thing as slapping on an egotistic bumper sticker.

Dan at Rochester Institute of Technology has come up with a solution to organize a network of college blogs. It’s called The College Blog Network. You register your blog under your school’s name, then you can browse and keep up with blogs in your own college network. My blog is the first entry at Penn State University.

Meanwhile, the TCBN BlogWire aggregates all the RSS feeds for the registered blogs on the network. This feature will be really useful once more blogs join and Dan implements filters and a Digg-style voting system.

If you are a college student and you keep a blog, I suggest that you join The College Blog Network now. This site will drive high quality traffic to your blog and you’ll be able to find other hidden gems at your own school.

Network with other Facebook developers at Penn State. Meet a programmer who can create your dream Facebook application. Pitch your product idea and get valuable feedback from people with the business or technical know-how.

The Facebook Developer Garage is coming to our campus in March at the Lion Launch Pad. The actual date will be announced in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled for flyers around campus or keep checking the Garage Calendar.

The following is an email I received after writing the post about dropping out of college to pursue my business. I thought that I would share this with you because it helped put me back on track with academics.

Daehee,

I came across your website from a link to another link to finally, your site. Anyway, I was reading your post about the possibility of dropping out of school. Allow me to politely, put into prospective, the real-world consequences of dropping out of college, coming from a college graduate.

As someone who painstakingly gone through college, sweat and tears through all the hard work, I know where you are coming from wanting to leave for greater individual freedom and making money - sense you’re probable not making a whole lot now.

There is a business term called opportunity cost.

You probably have heard of this concept before so I’ll expand further on this and explain it even if you haven’t heard of it.

The opportunity cost you are forgoing by going to college and sacrificing your time and energy is making more money for example, at a private website company, and having more freedom and choices to do what you want to do if you dropped out of college.

However, the opportunity cost that you see from dropping out of college, will have greater consequences in not being able to maximize the monetary costs of your true skill sets.

I too had the opportunity while in college to drop out and join a company, to do what I thought I had the skills necessary, for a job I thought would provide satisfaction. Also, I was struggling with motivating myself with having to deal with all the stress of going to college: no money, no life, the pressure to get good grades, no individual freedom, etc.

Thankfully, I didn’t take the job because a few years later, that small company went bankrupt.

Moreover, after I got my degree, I changed companies three times before I finally found the job and company that I could be satisfied to stay with and grow within the company.

Flat out, I would have never been able to get any of those jobs that I switched had I not had a degree…PERIOD…THE END…NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.

Finally…life happens and I understand your personal anguish of seeing the potential of leaving early but, you will make ten times more money and have more opportunities having a college degree than not have one…100%. Graduating from college will probable be one of your personal highlights in life and it will be one of your finest moments when you walk during graduation ceremony getting that degree.

Don’t squander this rare opportunity.

Stay in school and get that degree, you’ll thank yourself in the future.

I KNOW I DID!

When I joined the Google Online Marketing Challenge, I immediately thought of college students/pay-per-click masters like Paul at UberAffiliate who have the potential to totally ream the competition. But Paul’s case is different and fortunately this guru is already disqualified from the Gomcha (Google Online Marketing CHAllenge). Paul is the same age as I am, 19, but he “retired” early from college to take on a full-time internet marketing career. It seems that he’s making more than enough to justify his decision.

Anyway, I sent an email to Paul asking him what his strategy would be to win the Gomcha. Considering that we only have 3 weeks and $200 to generate some traffic and conversions, this is definitely a challenge. Paul provides an answer to Gomcha on his UberAffiliate blog today.

Paul makes some great points in his post.

• Combining offers from two or more businesses to add extra value to the campaign
• Geo-targeting specifically to a local audience to get laser targeted traffic
• Split-testing different ads like crazy with custom landing pages based on the keywords

Since Paul can’t compete in the Gomcha because he is no longer is a college student, he offers his own Gomcha challenge to his readers.

How would you win? Tell me either in your own blog post, comments, or through email. I’ll pick my favorite entry and post about it.

If you are signed up for the Google Online Marketing Challenge, I would definitely check in on UberAffiliate to see a flood of insights from professional internet marketers on how to win the Google Online Marketing Challenge!

I’ve always wanted to use MediaWiki for a website, and I finally launched a site called Tontine Book with it. MediaWiki is the famous open-source software that powers Wikipedia, and it is undoubtedly the most powerful wiki software available. I love the concept of creating huge content websites through user collaboration. Compare this to the numerous niche blogs that I had created before that became too much work for me to handle on my own.

Tontine Book is a complementary website to our successful and growing social network Tontine Nation, which is a community of auditioners and fans for the upcoming reality TV show Tontine. Tontine Book is a collection of knowledge about everything that is happening with the Tontine TV show, and it tries to fill in where Tontine Nation fails.

All the action on Tontine Nation is so fast-paced because members are constantly adding new content to the site. That’s a good thing, but you can quickly become lost if you don’t religiously keep up with the activity on the site. For instance, Tad Patrick Frank, the casting director for Tontine, just logged onto Tontine Nation and posted a couple of messages on his personal wall. But then immediately a swarm of members responded to Tad’s comments and buried them far down into the archives. You would never know about Tad’s announcements unless someone were to tell you to dig through the website.

So Tontine Book caters to the normal user interested in Tontine but who is too busy to participate and follow along with Tontine Nation. Anyone can create or update a page on Tontine Book to collect the history of the Tontine TV show in one convenient location.

However, one snag that I realized with Tontine Book is that MediaWiki can be a bit complicated for a user who is not technically savvy, which would include the majority of members on Tontine Nation. As administrator of the website, I am probably one of the few geeks on the roster. And even I had to take some time to grasp the editing syntax for MediaWiki. So can I expect a deluge of participation on Tontine Book from my folks at the Nation? Probably not, until a few decide to battle the learning curve.

Here are some basic tips to score points with the judges for the Google Online Marketing Challenge.

1. Structure your campaigns and ad groups according to product lines and themes.
2. Use relevant and specific ad text for your keywords
3. Use calls to action such as “order now”
4. Use negative keywords to improve your click-through rate
5. Utilize the Report Center to help you monitor your ads’ performance
6. Make sure your keywords are active by increasing the quality score — improve the quality of keywords, ads, campaigns, and landing pages
7. Create multiple variations of ad text to test what gets the best click-through rate
8. Don’t duplicate keywords across ad groups