May 23rd, 2008
by
Brett Bumeter
Here are some tips posted and reposted over at Utterz for Titling and Tagging posts at Utterz, a service that I find invaluable for many reasons.
Here’s a list of ways RandyCorke
http://www.utterz.com/…rofile.php came up with a few months ago and are still just as invaluable now.
1. Put titles on all of your posts: providing a captivating title is THE BEST WAY to get people to view your Utter.
2. Add a picture or video when possible: the more pieces of content, the more likely your creation is to find appeal with the largest number of people.
3. Time your voice Utterz between 30 seconds and two minutes: once another member of our community establishes a connection with you, they’ll get used to your style of delivery, and look forward to your latest contributions.
4. State your Utterz handle at the beginning of your Utter: a lot of experienced Utterz users do this extremely well and it’s one of the reasons they’ve developed such expansive followings.
5. Cross-post to other sites: creating an Utter and pushing it out to other blogs/sites is a surefire way to increase traffic to your blogs/sites from search engines.
6. Find your style: one of the things we’ve come to most enjoy about Utterz is all of the little idiosyncratic details we share, some people are funny, others offer razor sharp insight, getting this across in your Utterz is a great way to connect with individuals in our Utterz community, as people with shared experiences and viewpoints.
7. Invite replies: an excellent way to invite replies is to ask a question, this follows the same reasoning as Tip #4.
8. Utter regularly: keep your friends and followers engaged with regular updates.
9. Reply to other people’s Utterz: nobody likes driving the wrong way down a one-way street, right?
10. Follow other people…
Chris’s Mobile post sent by 001brettbum using Utterz. 
Replies.
There you have it, some very good advice and practical too for bloggers that are using the Utterz service to gather information, communicate and network and then publish or republish out to many different locations on the web. Its a very useful place for getting writing ideas, developing a following, working out concepts and debating everything from politics, race, religion, love and everything in between. The only thing that I think we have not covered yet is the Polar Bear Club Events for 2009 and weight loss pills.
April 29th, 2008
by
Brett Bumeter
This month I finally had a chance to really put my Verizon Air Card and Wireless plan to the test. I uploaded a great deal of video resulting from some of my travels and ended up pushing about 200 megabytes of data in a 5 day period.
Now Verizon only offers two cookie cutter plans.
One is for a measly 50 megabytes of data (or about 10 viral emails with video attached from someone that proves to be a little embarrassing to know). That costs $39.99. At that price you are basically paying for the air card you purchased on an installment plan with interest.
The other offers 5 Gigabytes of data at $59.99 per month. That is the plan that I am on and that could be a good thing. If I had been on the lower plan I would have paid $39.99 for the first 50 megabytes and then $150 for the next 150 that I have used!
The overage rates on both of these plans is really ridiculous, but when you start pushing video around the internet (upload or download or streamed from youtube) you better know what you are paying for and when you are paying for it. You Air card and Verizon plan is probably not a good choice for downloading porn or even viewing sexy costumes from Victoria Secret or something. That is probably obvious, but paying for flash pages at the beginning of a website could surprise you as well.
If you see a flash page pop up at the beginning of a website, skip the intro immediately or else you might pay for it. Its the voice equivalent of calling an 800 number and sitting on hold for an hour!
March 22nd, 2008
by
Brett Bumeter
Like many people I have a number of notes on my white board listing things that I need to investigate. One of those that has been on my board for a while slowly getting covered with white board dust, is the need to find a good tool for performing multivariate testing on blogs.
Blogs are cheap and easy websites, but they are websites and there are times when it is important to make gradual and continual iterative improvements. This is one thing that I do not hear a lot of talk about in the blogosphere.
I know some experienced webmasters that have access to more expensive tools that are using those tools upon occasion on websites that have blogs, but I know of no down and dirty, cheap and simple solution.
For example I’ve looked at SiteSpect, which offers something of a virtual option for running SiteSpect Multivariate Testing, A/B Testing and Landing Page Optimization, but this does not seem to be the solution I’m looking for.
I can tell right away, because they do not have prices on their website. Anyone that offers a product or service and doesn’t list a price is going to be EXPENSIVE.
Just a little due diligence tip I learned as an accountant years ago.
I do like the concept they offer though. They essentially offer a way to insert a virtual presence that serves up alternative versions of websites and collects analytics.
I would very much like to find a nice simple service like this targeted at blogs. I am not trying to run tests to see what converts better on a shopping cart page when I’m trying to sell a Technomarine watch, but I do want to get a better sense about how people are navigating through my sites, what is working for them and what could work better.
