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The Geeks Shall Inherit the Airwaves – Why Economics Are Killing ‘Old Media’

John P. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:15:36 +0000

For a long time now I’ve been hearing people predicting the death of traditional media (you know: television, radio, books and newspapers). “Old Media is dead! Long live New Media!”

This is 50% crap, but it’s also 50% true. And since I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about this lately, let me see if I can break it down for outsiders in terms that are a little easier to understand and have some actual logic behind them.

The real magic of “new media” has nothing to do with the people. It is quite simply all about the delivery mechanism.

An Academic Explanation Using Simple Economics

In any industry, the cost of goods produced are ultimately borne by the buyers of the finished product. So, for example, if the price of steel goes up, the price of automobiles goes up as well.

But imagine a situation where a radical new material is developed that costs 1/100th the price of steel, but which is actually stronger, can be made in an ordinary kitchen, and can be used to build cars just as well!

What happens to the auto industry?

Vendors who spent billions tooling up and staffing to work with the old technology have a huge investment problem on their hands. All of a sudden, their tools are essentially worthless.
Their staff, which is equipped to deal with the old methods of production suddenly require massive retraining. They’ve essentially been obsoleted.
Buyers learning of the new “upcoming” technology will stop purchasing the old stuff and begin waiting for the new ones.
The value of obsolete products will plummet, and the price will follow.
However, in the midst of industrial ruin and falling prices, an even greater demand for the new technology will emerge to fill the void. It’s simple supply and demand. As the price drops, more buyers emerge – but now they want the new stuff!

With the introduction of this disruptive new technology, the auto manufacturers who quickly recognize that the game has radically changed and who are tough enough to make very difficult decisions and retrain / retool for the future have a chance at survival (those who don’t will cease to exist). And because of the new radically decreased cost structure, new entrants will emerge in the market.

What’s All This Got To To With New Media?

Let’s apply the same exact logic to the Television industry. Consider that for most of the last century if you wanted to deliver programming to a large market, the barriers to entry were substantial.

You had to purchase broadcast rights for airwaves from some governing body.
Substantial investments in recording and broadcast equipment had to be made.
Global reach required actual satellites! Mucho dinero!!!

Well, the good news is that the advertisers who supported the industry (the buyers) understood the cost to produce the end product and were willing to support it because there was, after all, no competing technology to deliver the same results.

But one day a few years ago, the industry woke up and learned that something had fundamentally changed. All of a sudden anyone with a camcorder, a computer, and an internet connection could reach the exact same audience – but for a tiny fraction of the cost! (The invention of the internet is like that new steel replacement we just discussed, for 1/100th the cost!)

The results of this radical change in technology? Well, its exactly the same as our auto industry above:

Vendors who spent billions tooling up and staffing to work with the old technology have a huge investment problem on their hands. All of a sudden, their tools are essentially worthless.
Their staff, which is equipped to deal with the old methods of production suddenly require massive retraining. They’ve essentially been obsoleted.
Buyers learning of the new “upcoming” technology will stop purchasing the old stuff and begin waiting for the new ones.
The value of obsolete products will plummet, and the price will follow.
However, in the midst of industrial ruin and falling prices, an even greater demand for the new technology will emerge to fill the void. It’s simple supply and demand. As the price drops, more buyers emerge -but now they want the new stuff!

In this case, the buyers are simply the advertisers, who are deciding to hold off on the old advertising expenditures and shift some of that spend to the online medium to try and reach the same number of eyeballs at a dramatically reduced price.

The Real Impact of Decreasing Production Costs

Now, it’s not that the viewers or the advertisers have actually gone anywhere. In reality, there are more people willing to watch, and more people wanting to get their advertising message out now than ever before! But the reach of “new media” personalities has now matched their “traditional media” counterparts, and is threatening to overtake them. For example:

I personally reach an audience of hundreds of thousands each month with this little blog.
Cali Lewis reaches an audience of millions each month with GeekBrief.TV.
Leo Laporte likely reaches tens of millions each month with his various shows.

But our costs to reach these eyeballs are radically lower, so advertisers now have the opportunity to pay a lot less to reach the same end goal, while Cali, Leo and I can easily maintain the same or greater margins for selling our services.

So, yes you will see new personalities emerge in the New Media era. These are the ones who recognized the change early, tackled the learning curve, and effectively carved out their space. But you’re also going to see the old personalities stick around, if they are able to adapt in the same ways.

As I said, it’s not about the people. It’s about their technology.

The End

Damn, that was a long winded explanation. I’ve got nothing left. But if you care to add to the story please drop a comment down in that little chatter box below cause I’d love to hear it.

John P. on Net@Night with Amber Mac and Leo Laporte

John P. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:30:09 +0000

About a week and a half ago Amber Mac and Leo Laporte were kind enough to have me on the net@night show to discuss Woopra.

We had a great time and they were very gracious hosts. I’m embedding the audio podcast from the show below, although we did do the show live and there was actual video demonstration taking place at the time. Needless to say Leo and Amber were very enthusiastic about Woopra, and we’ll be getting it installed on their sites very soon.

John P. on Net@Night with Amber Mac and Leo Laporte

If you skip to around the 35 minute mark you should jump in where I’m coming on the show. But you could also listen to the whole thing because Leo and Amber are actually entertaining. :-)

Google Wave – It’s New! You’re Gonna Want it! But What Is It?

John P. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:34:30 +0000

First of all, before you even watch the video you should go to the Google Wave home page and request access. You’re going to have to wait in line, but like all other Google stuff, you know you’re gonna want it.

According to Google:

What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Now, I want you to watch the following video, and then think about the fact that this is free open-source software that Google will be releasing soon. If your business isn’t among the first to adopt this, you are going to be left behind – big time!

I’m Lecturing Friday 8/28/2009: The Social Web Made Simple

John P. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:04:38 +0000

Folks, this Friday August 28th from 8:30-11:30, along with Mitch Savage from Nomee, I’ll be speaking for the Frisco Chamber of Commerce members about “improving customer connections to benefit the bottom line”. I hope you will all come out and join us! And by all, I mean only a few of you because seating is limited and you definitely won’t all fit. :-) In fact, the event is almost full, so if you would like to come please hurry up and register!

This is a three hour session in which we will cover the business benefits of the social web and show you step-by-step how to get started. By the end of this easy to understand workshop you’ll be ready to put the social web to work for your business. So, bring yourself, and bring your boss if you have been looking for the opportunity to convince them that you should be doing something with social media. This is one of the few times this year that I’ll be taking time out to do this sort of thing…

The cost to attend is $25 for Frisco Chamber members or $30 for non-members. You can register online and here is a PDF version of the flyer for the event.

We’re having this event at the Collin College PRC Event Center at 9700 Wade Blvd. in Frisco, TX. It’s right off of Preston Road just north of Lebanon. The Event Center is kind of at the back of the campus as you can see in this map. It’s up at the top and labeled “Event Center”. Surprise!

Here’s the Google Map to get to the campus:

View Larger Map

The Frisco Chamber of Commerce is now on Facebook and also Twitter, so friend me and join in the fun.

The Woopra 1.3 FINAL Release Test Team!!!

John P. — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:36:45 +0000

Ok. This might not be all that super secret, but I guarantee its going to pass a lot of people by this evening…

OH! Before I get started here, I hope that everyone is following Elie Khoury on Twitter and go and show him the LOVE! For God’s sake, he and Jad Younan (who we can’t get to use Twitter or anything else) have been working for like 48 hours straight to make this a reality for the rest of us!

Now, I’m happy to announce that the long awaited Woopra desktop client version 1.3 is complete, and about to be pushed out to all Woopra users. But before that happens, we need you to go over the final build one… last… time.

So, we’re going to use my little blog here as our super secret gathering ground for the Woopra Special Forces Testing Team tonight!

Please grab one or more of the appropriate links below and start testing everything out. Leave comments below for anything you find that appears to be broken or otherwise non-functional. If you come up with a feature request we’ll take note of it, but that will have to wait till a later version. We just want to make sure that 1.3 isn’t breaking anything.

If you want to test it but you don’t have an approved site… well, I’m feeling generous tonight! Send me a tweet to @johnpoz with the URL you need approved AFTER you set up your account on Woopra.com and I’ll manually approve it.

So, here you go my precious peeps! The whole Woopra team is standing by for the next couple of hours manning the comments on this post, so you’ve got direct access to power!

ONE LAST LITTLE DETAIL!!! If you download and install one of these builds tonight, it’s possible that the next time we push out an update you might have to do that one manually too. The auto-upgrade might not work on this one for a variety of technical reasons…. You’ve been warned. :-)

EDIT:
By the way, a few things you may want to take a look at:

The new chat functionality is RADICALLY improved. Multi-chat sessions, beautiful interface, impossible to miss…
Look at your Analytics! MUCH more information than before! Just a thing of beauty.
The new Light colored theme! Click on the little down arrow on the tab at the top to change your theme color. I LOVE “Woopra Light”!

The Most Important Words in the English Language

John P. — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:00:26 +0000

5 most important words: I am proud of you!
4 most important words: What is your opinion?
3 most important words: If you please.
2 most important words: Thank you.
1 most important word: You.

50 Reasons Why We / It / They Can’t Change

John P. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:00:22 +0000

If you ever work for me, and I hear one of the following excuses, you’re fired.

50 Reasons Why We / It / They Can’t Change

1. We’ve never done it before.
2. Nobody else has ever done it.
3. It has never been tried before.
4. We tried it before.
5. Another company/person tried it before.
6. We’ve been doing it this way for 25 years.
7. It won’t work in a small company.
8. It won’t work in a large company.
9. It won’t work in our company.
10. Why change — it’s working OK.
11. The boss will never buy it.
12. It needs further investigation.
13. Our competitors are not doing it.
14. It’s too much trouble to change.
15. Our company is different.
16. The ad department says it can’t be done.
17. Sales department says it can’t be done.
18. The service department won’t like it.
19. The janitor says it can’t be done.
20. It can’t be done.
21. We don’t have the money.
22. We don’t have the personnel.
23. We don’t have the equipment.
24. The union will scream.
25. It’s too visionary.
26. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
27. It’s too radical a change.
28. It’s beyond my responsibility.
29. It’s not my job.
30. We don’t have the time.
31. It will obsolete other procedures.
32. Customers won’t buy it.
33. It’s contrary to policy.
34. It will increase overhead.
35. The employees will never buy it.
36. It’s not our problem.
37. I don’t like it.
38. You’re right, but ….
39. We’re not ready for it.
40. It needs more thought.
41. Management won’t accept it.
42. We can’t take the chance.
43. We’d lose money on it.
44. It takes too long to pay out.
45. We’re doing all right as it is.
46. It needs committee study.
47. Competition won’t like it.
48. It needs sleeping on.
49. It won’t work in this department.
50. It’s impossible.

E.F. Borish
Product Manager
Milwaukee Gear Company
Product Engineering Magazine, July 20, 1959

Ok, Ok… I’m Leaving Layered Tech – But Not Completely!

John P. — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:43:18 +0000

This morning I woke up to several emails from people who read Philbert’s, from Tier 1 Research, report that I was leaving LT. I must say, that was some sharp reporting! I have no idea how he found out about that so quickly. We didn’t really even announce it publicly yet. But he was very kind to me in his writeup (below) and I’m thankful for anything I was able to contribute while at Layered Tech.

Layered Tech chief marketing officer John Pozadzides departs

by Philbert Shih

Chief marketing officer John Pozadzides is leaving Layered Technologies to take the CEO position at iFusion Labs, owners of Woopra, a startup Web analytics and tracking platform. Woopra also happens to be a customer of Layered Tech’s private grid offering, buying a 100-server grid deployment for its ability to handle traffic fluctuations as it moved into a public launch (early in 2008).

Pozadzides came to Layered Tech in Q3 2007 as part of the new management team put in place by CEO Jack Finlayson that included some familiar faces from the older Savvis days. While he was not in the job for long, Pozadzides played a role in raising the company’s profile. Layered Tech had long been somewhat of a secret and that has quickly changed. Pozadzides can also be credited for helping position the company as a leader in virtualized and cloud-type infrastructure – an area that the company has made great strides in over the last few years. Through product development and the acquisition of FastServers, Layered Tech has quickly moved beyond dedicated hosting and built an identity as a total infrastructure solutions provider for the developer, reseller, SMB and mid-market enterprise space. Pozadzides deserves some of the credit for making that happen.

Pozadzides departs at a busy time, as another major initiative – implementation of the Astro automation platform – is well underway. The technology and platform have been built and the next step is to integrate the on-demand benefits into the overall marketing message. This will be high on the next marketing executive’s list of priorities. T1R sees Astro as a critical piece to Layered Tech’s potential success. If the messaging is right, Layered Tech will have a nice differentiator – a truly on-demand infrastructure provider with multiple hosting flavors – that will resonate in the marketplace.

Layered Tech founder, COO and president Todd Abrams will assume most of Pozadzides’ sales and marketing roles on an interim basis as the company searches for a successor.

Philbert got most of the facts correct, but I’ll just expand on of a few of the points a bit:

As most of you know, being a partner in the venture, I’ve always held the CEO position at iFusion Labs, even while working as CMO at Layered Tech. It was OK for a while but the stress and time constraints of two “C-level” jobs took its tole on me physically. In addition, Woopra has grown so big and so fast that I really need to be spending all my time nurturing it. So, this was a very difficult decision for me, but at the end of the day it was absolutely necessary.
I still have a vested interest in Layered Tech. Although I am stepping down, I am friends with basically everyone over there and will be available to them whenever they need advice and assistance. In addition, all of Woopra’s infrastructure is hosted at Layered Tech, so we remain a very signifigant – and growing – client.
Just to be 100% crystal clear, I would not be leaving LT if it weren’t for Woopra. I love the company, the people, and the challenge. It is the best place to get highly personalized and absolutely top notch hosting at fantastic prices.

So, going forward I’ll be concentrating on three things:

Woopra. This is my full time job, and I absolutely LOVE it. My partners, our team, and our clients are all absolutely fantastic! I mean I truly, truly love everything about it. I am really looking forward to spending ALL my time on this project.
Wealth Nation. This is a new radio style podcast that I’m producing along with my close friends Cali Lewis and Neal Campbell. We are going to talk about all sorts of things that cumulatively equal wealth: personal finances, business topics, health, and more. You can download our very first episode now, and subscribe on iTunes if you want.
One Man’s Blog. I always enjoy sharing things with my loyal readers. I think that everyone in the world realizes that I’ve got some fiercely loyal fans (which I appreciate more than you can ever know) and no matter what else I have going on in life, I intend to keep up with this blog forever.

So, thanks for all the concern from everyone, and I hope this kind of clears things up for you guys!

SEDO’s Domain Brokerage Service SCREWS Me!

John P. — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:30:37 +0000

Folks, I’m here to share a story with you that I can hardly believe occurred. It’s the story of a major violation of trust between myself and a company we hired to specifically represent us as the buyer’s broker in a purchase transaction. That company is SEDO, and this story is, well judge for yourself… but to me it’s unbelievable.

The story begins when I decided I wanted to obtain a domain, related to OneMansBlog.com, that was already taken and which I quickly determined was parked and had been registered at Sedo.

Sedo is a large, accredited top level domain registrar. So, I first did a quick search on their site to see if the domain was listed for sale, and when it wasn’t found I decided to check out their offer to “broker” the purchase for me.

Now, I thought about this for a minute and realized that if I were to approach the domain owner myself they would likely see that I own OneMansBlog.com and then be anxious to charge me extra for the related domain. So it sounded reasonable to enlist the assistance of a middleman in the process.

After reading all of Sedo’s documentation regarding rules and policies, I ultimately decided to give it a shot. We created an account and filled out the form to get them started. As part of this form, Sedo asked for the MAXIMUM amount that we were willing to bid. At first this made me very nervous, but they provide a link right there on the page that offers the following explanation:

Question

What is an investment limit?

Answer

When you apply for Sedo’s buyer-side brokerage service, you will be asked to enter your investment limit for purchasing the domain. Your maximum investment limit is the highest price you would be willing to offer for the domain. This information is confidential, and will not be disclosed to the domain owner. As always, your broker will begin negotiations at a fraction of your investment limit and will work to acquire the domain at a fair and reasonable price.

If your application is approved, your broker will use your investment limit to determine a strategy for negotiations.

So after reading that, I was reminded of eBay, where I often put in a maximum price and have never felt cheated. I figured that I would go ahead and give them some latitude, and instead of the minimum bid of $500, I went ahead and upped their limit to $1,000. This was because I trusted them to do the right thing.

Now, according to Sedo’s Domain Brokerage Service Terms and Conditions, the first step after acceptance into the brokerage program was as follows:

2.1.2.3. Assignment of Domain Broker

Upon the successful application to the Buyer Brokerage Service, you will be assigned a domain broker in accordance with the approximate value of the domain you wish to acquire. Your domain broker will then seek to establish contact with you through the contact information you have provided in your Sedo user account and shall explain the domain brokerage process and a schedule for providing updates on the course of negotiation.

So our expectation was that, within a couple of days, we’d have a little e-mail or phone chat with the person who was going to be “negotiating” on our behalf, after which time that person would begin to attempt contact with the domain owner to open a dialog and see if we could acquire the domain.

Imagine our surprise when the very first response we received after our automated sign up e-mails was as follows (personal information hidden, obviously):

—————————————-
From: XXXXX XXXXX
Date: Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 5:25 PM
Subject: Brokerage request for XXXXXXXXXXX.com
To: XXXXX XXXXX

Hello,

A client of mine is interested in this domain and is prepared to offer you $1,000 for it.

Please let me know if you would like to accept their offer.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.

To reply to this message please visit the Brokerage Status page: https://www.sedo.com/member/brokerage/status.php?XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Best regards,

XXXXX XXXXX
Domain Broker
–
Sedo.com, LLC
tel +1 ( 617) 499 – XXXX • fax +1 ( 617) 499 – XXXX
http://www.sedo.com • mailto:XXXXXXXXXX@sedo.com
—————————————-

Now, I don’t know how that strikes you, but even if we forgive the fact that our “broker” skipped the formality of getting in contact with us and setting our expectations, I still see two glaring issues:

He sent the e-mail to us, not the domain owner. Presumably this was just an error (a really, really bad one).
There was absolutely no “negotiation” taking place on our behalf. Despite the promise to, “…begin negotiations at a fraction of your investment limit….”

I mean, why in the world would we “Hire an experienced Sedo broker to negotiate an acquisition…“, if all that really means is “we’ll send an e-mail on your behalf with your maximum offer to the domain owner”?

Keep in mind that they charged us $69.00 the minute they accepted us as clients, and that there was going to be a 10% commission fee on the final negotiated price.

Now if that commission fee bothers you, as it did me initially, remember the previous promises they made. And remember that this is a large, well known domain registrar. Besides all of that, as far as I’m concerned, the terms I agreed to with Sedo created a Fiduciary Responsibility on their part. What is that?

In a fiduciary relation one person justifiably reposes confidence, good faith, reliance and trust in another whose aid, advice or protection is sought in some matter. In such a relation good conscience requires one to act at all times for the sole benefit and interests of another, with loyalty to those interests.

Now the question is, what should I do about this entire affair? Feel free to share your opinions, and I’ll follow up with another post later as the story unfolds…

John P. Makes an Appearance on WHIR tv

John P. — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:25:01 +0000

Here is a little interview snippet with Larissa, from The Web Host Industry Review, which we did while at the Parallels conference in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Enjoy…

LayeredTech TV Episodes 3 and 4… Where I Embarrass Myself Publicly

John P. — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:49:47 +0000

Uugh. So bad. So bad….

Well, here are the latest episodes of our award winning Layered Tech TV. If by award winning you mean we might win an award for my really bad acting. In these episodes we see part 1 and 2 from the Parallel’s conference in Las Vegas where I got the opportunity to sit down and interview a few folks on stuff that is pertinent to the hosting industry.

So, sit back and grab some popcorn. You’re going to need some real entertainment while you watch this!

I Take Issue with Mark Cuban’s Open Source Funding Plan

John P. — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:33:42 +0000

Mark Cuban pitched an idea over on his blog in which he offers to fund business plans for people, but only if:

People completely detail out their business plan in public.
The businesses must show a profit within 90 days.
You use the bank of Mark’s choice and allow him control over expenditures.

Unfortunately, I believe Mark is off base with this concept, and left the following comment over there on his blog. I doubt he’ll respond, but he did at least get people talking – even though he might have done more harm than good.

Mark,

I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while. Never left a comment before. Decided now was the time.

First of all, let’s be clear about one thing. I don’t want your money. Won’t take it if you offer it just on principle of being entirely candid. Now that that’s out of the way.

I’m not sure I understand your impetus for putting this “offer” out there? Trying to figure out if it is a publicity stunt, a VC pitch in disguise, an “off the top of your head” idea, or what? But I fail to see how asking all of these people to pitch an idea in the open and asking them to “open source” the project adds value?

You are asking people, in essence, to forego first mover advantage on any sort of good idea. You are asking them to forego the ability to get patent protection, copyright, or any other sort of valuable intellectual property. This will only serve to weaken fledgling businesses – not help them get launched.

In addition to that, you’ve placed restrictions on cash flow and profitability that will have the exact opposite effect on employment as you purport to be seeking. Anyone looking to hire employees can barely get them up to speed in 60 days much less have the business break even. This means you are pretty much limiting the opportunities to one man shows in fields that have extremely low barriers to entry.

I would suggest that if you wish you really help fund businesses and put people to work you should change your parameters.

- Allow 6 months to reach break even, 9 to turn a profit.
- Ensure that the plan requires the business to actually hire a minimum number of employees (like 3-4).
- Remove the restriction on generating “any” ad revenue in lieu of ad revenue being only a secondary source (if a business can be profitable without ads, why not allow ads as a bonus?)
- Ease up on the cash flow and banking restrictions. You can’t tell people that you won’t be available, but that you have to approve of monetary decisions. You’ll stifle the business.
- And for God’s sake, don’t require them to publish the entire plan in the open and encourage stealing of the idea!

I know that you said that you are “trying not to be a VC”, but frankly these “terms” are worse than any VC terms I’ve ever seen. They are unrealistic when it comes to creating real employment, they are more restrictive than necessary, and they just aren’t going to work.

How about doing something completely different? Why don’t you buy a small building which can be partitioned into “open source office space” and give small businesses a free place to actually get together, work and share ideas. Augment this by inviting successful business people to come in and help with brainstorming sessions, etc. And perhaps organize a group of Angel investors to listen to real business plans. (I’d help, and even consider Angel investing if you did this.)

In short, I’m a fan of the Open Source model. But I think the way you’ve gone about open sourcing this particular concept is a bit off.

Cheers, and good luck!

John P.

Of course, Mark is as free to do with his money as the rest of us are. But I hope that he changes his mind about this particular project because I don’t see anything good coming of it.

Layered Tech TV: Episode 2 – Server Security

John P. — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:45:40 +0000

For those of you who are keeping up with every little piece of bad film I appear in, here is the second episode of Layered Tech TV. In this episode, we talk about security and the actions you can take to ensure that your server is not compromised.

My guest on the show is Layered Tech’s resident security expert Terry Perkins. With a special appearance by some bears. Enjoy!

Cali Lewis, Layered Tech and the Robotic Data Center

John P. — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:24:15 +0000

Oh, my. Cali Lewis, everyone’s favorite video podcaster, stopped by Layered Tech to learn about our top secret project (code named Astro) a couple of weeks ago – even though we made her keep it under wraps until yesterday!

Anyway, Cali interviewed LT’s Director of Software Development, Josh Bosquez, in part one and learned all about whats been under development for like a year. In part two I give a mini-tour of the data center and you get to learn a few things about it. The data center tour was more extensive, but some of the video had to be taken out for security reasons. Still, it’s pretty cool!

All of this happened during the same time that Cali got a tour of the old vault in the Dallas Federal Reserve building.

A Visit to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ Abandoned Vaults

John P. — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:37:55 +0000

Here is a special treat for you guys. Last week I got the opportunity to take Cali and Neal from GeekBrief.TV to visit the old Federal Reserve Bank in downtown Dallas, they brought their cameras so everyone could tag along. Why were we there, you may ask? Well, the Layered Tech datacenter in Dallas is located in the very building that was the old Federal Reserve Bank, which is now designated as a City of Dallas historic landmark.

The seven-story building was originally completed in 1921 to house the United States Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Beaux Arts-style limestone building established Dallas as a center for economic development in the Southwest prior to World War I. The Bank significantly expanded and modernized the property in 1959. Its distinctive architectural style and detailing led the city of Dallas to designate the building a historic landmark in 1979.

In it’s heyday the bank vaults would have been stocked full of gold, and the location in Dallas was a symbol of the city’s power and influence.

The vault may be empty now, but it’s still wickedly cool, and a sight that most people will never ever get to see! Enjoy!

Layered Tech TV Debuts Featuring… Your’s Truly

John P. — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:33:21 +0000

It pains me to share this, mainly because I don’t think anyone really wants to see themselves on video. But we launched a new video blog over at Layered Tech (where we do dedicated server hosting), and this is the very first episode. So if nothing else, I’ll share it for posterity.

The initial video primarily focuses on cloud computing, and gives a few industry updates as well as addresses some of LT’s cloud computing news. If anyone enjoys these shows we’ll keep em’ going. Otherwise, we’ll kill them off. You decide!

Dedicated Hosting or Grid Server: What Should I Choose?

John P. — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:20:32 +0000

I’ve had a lot of friends lately asking me for hosting advice since I happen to work at Layered Tech. Since everyone’s situation is different, I’ve kind of standardized on an approach to explaining the hosting situation…

Since the dawn of the World Wide Web, Webmasters have sought out the fastest hosting options with the greatest bang for the buck. We often start with shared sites that can accommodate many infrequently visited domains (like a $5 per month hosting account), but after achieving popularity on at least one, a Webmaster’s attention usually turns to a dedicated server to avoid the pain of service interruptions.

The logic is simple. If having a shared hosting plan (or a VPS) is good, getting the entire server is better! The only question that remains: is it the best available option? Well, companies like Layered Tech have taken the dedicated server one step further by combining the resources of many physical machines into one large computing Grid. So, if one server is good, surely 100 is better!

The obvious advantage of migrating to a dedicated server is that the machine has far more “spare” resources than an overworked shared server (where you are probably sharing one computer with over 1,000 other people). The less obvious problem is that even a dedicated server will eventually become saturated, necessitating yet another migration to yet a larger physical machine.

Grid based servers avoid this problem by allowing Webmasters to increase the physical resources on demand. This allows the provisioning of a small “virtual machine” initially in order to keep costs low, yet maintains the flexibility of upgrading the power as simply as flipping a switch. No physical migrations to a new platform necessary!

Layered Tech’s focus on selling massive Grids to enterprise clients has not prevented them from also offering individual Virtual Machines to Webmasters of all sizes. Prices start at $49/mo. so there is really no reason to ever get stuck on an underpowered machine again.

So, if you’ve grown beyond simple shared hosting, and you need some help with a larger hosting account, feel free to drop me a note or a comment and I’ll be happy to help you out. I’ve already done so with a lot of my friends, and I don’t mind a bit.

The Real ROI of Online Social Media

John P. — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:44:28 +0000

Jason Falls posted an article over on his blog Social Media Explorer a few days ago posing the question, “What is the ROI for Social Media?”

Jason’s overriding theme was presented early on in the article:

The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.

He sat down with Katie Delahaye Paine and had a conversation regarding this topic.

I believe that Jason summarized his arguments with the following:

This is why every session on measuring ROI in social media is a waste of time. None of the measurement experts are going to make that point and that point alone because without throwing page views and unique visitors and number of subscribers and sentiment and tone, they have nothing to offer.

I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with the entire premise of Jason’s post, mainly because I do not believe that the answer to this question can simply be “there really is no quantifiable ROI model”. That, to me, sounds like an excuse.

Sure, it’s hard to come up with a model – but that doesn’t mean it’s a waste of time. Indeed, there are many flaws in this statement.

I’ve heard too many people say, “ROI is not the reason companies should participate in Social Media”. What? ROI is the only reason that any company does anything! These are not charities or governments. A business, by definition exists for only one reason – profit.
Not enough people think about the money spent on social media as if it were coming out of their own pocket. If I asked you to drop $25,000 on something that had “no quantifiable ROI model” you would never go for it. If you would, please call me because I’ve got some GREAT ideas!
If/when someone proposes a general model of social media return, it will surely be the biggest news in the advertising / marketing field in decades. We just need the Einstein of marketing to put the theory out there so we can change the world.
Even the Internet didn’t have a good ROI story in the beginning. Indeed many companies went broke betting on it. Only after a lot of maturation did the ROI models appear and it start making sense.
Just because social media may one day offer returns, it doesn’t mean it will be appropriate for everyone. So don’t listen to people who say ‘just do it’.

As a C-level executive I’m going to tell you that you will never get any (real) budget to run social media programs without a hard and fast ROI model. And I would propose that talking a company into spending money without any framework for measuring ROI is both unfair and misleading. You simply cannot say “invest in this and have faith.” Faith is something you practice in church, not business.

Now, Kathy made some good points during the discussion, the most valid being that measuring ROI is an entirely individual exercise requiring different metrics to be counted, aggregated and analyzed. But neither Kathy or Jason proposed an actual framework for measuring the monetization of social media spend. And I believe that is what people need.

Social media is fun. I know that, you know that, we all know that. But at the end of the day you aren’t going to get money to play around. You get money to produce results that specifically translate to the bottom line. Let me know if any of you build a model. I’d love to see it…

The Massive Business Card Gallery – Over 250 Amazing Business Cards

John P. — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:23:58 +0000

I’ve long been a fan of the business card. I think it is a serious art form because you try and say so much about a person or organization with so little room to work with. It takes a creative genius to really make a fantastic impression with a business card, and after all… that’s what they’re all about!

Since I’ve been collecting these in a directory for years, i decided to upload the entire gallery right here. If I ever come across more, I’ll add them. But until then, have fun wasting your entire afternoon on these!

Now, I’ve never uploaded this many images to a single post (in fact, this may be a world record!!!), and I’m sure this article is going to put some serious load on the server because so many images have to be downloaded by each visitor. Hopefully no one Diggs this thing, cause the server is going to die for sure!

Seriously! 250+ thumbnails on every single page load… well, let’s just say I’m glad I work at a hosting company! Cause I may be needing a whole lotta bandwidth real soon… Thank you Layered Tech!

Freelance Web Designers, Programmers or Graphic Artists – 8 Places to Hire or Get Hired Now!

John P. — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:29:27 +0000

So, you need a Web site developed, you’re looking for a new logo, or you’ve got a business application you need created. OR, you would like to be developing Websites, logos and apps for other people! But you don’t have a clue how to go about matching yourself up with someone who can fulfill your needs?

Don’t worry, I hear this a lot. My recommendation is to create a simple description of the type of work you are looking for, and post it on one of the many freelance developer sites that have sprung up online. I’ve actually used a couple of these myself, and have been impressed with the quality of work that I’ve managed to get done.

So whether you’re looking to get hired or hire someone else, here are 8 sites you should definitely check out:

Elance.com – One of the largest freelance sites around. Membership accounts range from FREE to $39.95/month for large businesses. Elance charges a service fee of between 6.75 % – 8.75 % for paid jobs.
RentACoder.com – Claims to have over 200,000 registered members, and over 2,500 active jobs (as of the day I published this).
GetACoder.com – Large list of jobs available with commissions comparable to the other services listed here.
GetAFreelancer.com – Most projects seem to range from $500-$1,000, with the company charging a commission for paid jobs.
Guru.com – Claims to be the largest freelance site out there. Guru offers FREE, as well as paid, memberships that range from $29.95 to $99.95 per quarter. Guru takes 5 % – 10 % commission.
ScriptLance.com – ScriptLance is FREE but charges 5% commission.
iFreelance – Membership levels vary between $4 – $7/month but that is all you pay. iFreelance doesn’t charge a commission.
ProBlogger’s Job Board – pretty much nothing but jobs for writers or bloggers.