My friend just sent me an e-mail with a link to BlastoffNetwork.com and simply said “Yah, its going to be big. Its all over the internet already.” Intrigued, I probed further…

What Is BlastOff Media Group?

Not to be confused with the domain name BlastoffMedia (which I can imagine is going to get a lot of free traffic), Blastoff Network, is apparently going to be the next big thing in social networking. Imagine a world where you’ll get paid to Facebook, Tweet, Link & More. Henceforth, prepare for BLASTOFF! It’s an affiliate/MLM style company…with zero upfront fees! The benefit of this affiliate model is you get paid for up to 20 levels, (so if you sign up Jon who signs up Mary who signs up Jake who signs up Bob…etc…you’ll get paid every time that 20th level makes a sale through their site). This almost sounds too good to be true…which is not always a good thing.

“Facebook has grown to over 200 million users and no one has ever received a check! Blastoff is really a no brainer Its FREE, FUN and way for everyone to SAVE MONEY and MAKE MONEY!” (-Blast Off Media)

Quality vs. Quantity: Do We Really Need More Clutter?

The question is, WHO WOULDN’T TRY THIS? This isn’t a good statement, considering it seems their goal is to get more quantity than quality members. This will ultimately clutter the space. In an effort to recruit quality people…why not charge a small upfront fee? This will help keep away slackers and extra clutter.

The real question here is “are you ready to become an affiliate?” The porn space was built on affiliate style sales, billion dollar MLM companies thrive on the ‘get rich quick’ within us all, and Blastoff  is just another example of something tempting and valuable…but in order to pay itself off, you’ll have to slave away. Get rich quick DOESN’T MEAN EASY. You’ll have to to find a way to drive a substantial amount of traffic to your site and then CONVERT THAT TRAFFIC to sales via tempting promotions, links, etc. Good luck! There’s an industry built on trying to figure it out.

Feedback? Thoughts?

AFTER FURTHER DISCUSSIONS…I’M BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND:

Okay…I get it now. All this “slaving away” to get traffic to your site, well, it might not be as difficult as first perceived. Think about it: Blastoff will be a 1 stop shop for all of your social networking needs AND MORE. You’ll have access to 400+ vendors in a virtual mall, there are video games, sports watchers, widgets, and more.  The best way I can describe it is like having an iPhone styled experience on the internet. Everything can be done within 1 site. Take a look to see what I mean. Here’s a Blastoff Live Launch Example: http://ppl.blastoffnetwork.com/livelaunch.

What about bandwidth? speed?

Running Facebook, Twitter, and more in one website will take a lot more than a good looking interface. I was able to find a write up that addressed this issue: “Blastoff has the newest servers and large bandwidth to accommodate all the people who log in the blastoff communications site. The speed at which the people can log in the site is great too!” (Ezine Articles). I still have a feeling speed will be an issue…but if they want things to run faser, they’ll have to sacrifice. I’m interested to see what they consider ‘waste’ and cut-off.

What will stop people from coming to this website?

I don’t know? Maybe people are unwilling to give up the multi-tab browsing, having Twitter and Facebook opened in two separate windows. Plus…unless Facebook and Twitter gave permission for some “SUPER-API”, then there’s no way the Blastoff interface will be able to as comfortable as Facebook and Twitter on their own.

(Possibly more discussions to come soon….feel free to share your opinions)

Posted under Online Marketing, Social Networks, Tech2.0

The vast majority of money spent on advertising is wasted, and that includes what you’re spending, dear reader. The key is to keep a watchful eye on all your advertising efforts and quickly reacting to fix what isn’t working while leaving alone that which is generating a return on interest.

Here’s one lesson I learned the hard way.

My page, 50 Tips to Make friends was perfect, or so I thought. It’s on something almost everyone is interested in, and almost everyone feels at least somewhat bad about their social skills. It’s just how people are. So if I just got the word out about this post, people would naturally want to share it and link to it. It was the perfect marketing opportunity.

To make sure it went as planned, I wrote a brief introduction on the page explaining that if people found it useful, showing their appreciation with a link would be great.

And so I set it off.

A week – and hundreds of paid visitors later – not one link or mention was picked up by my detection tools. What went wrong?

Simple. People don’t link or mention stuff that they’re embarrassed about. For instance, no one mentions their porn habits, something that I was recently reminded of. Looking at the 50 most popular websites, I saw two porn sites that I had never heard of, and almost certainly never will, despite their huge popularity.

The fact is people aren’t going to link to something they aren’t proud of reading or using, even if it is high quality. The “Content is King” doesn’t always apply, not even when combined with marketing, which is an essential part of success even on the internet.

There is an interesting addendum to this point. Another article, titled something like “50 Ways to Make Friends if you Have ADHD” actually did manage to get some good backlinks. I thought about it a little and realized that there was a key difference. That article had a rational for people to link to it. It fit in nicely to websites that were trying to provide resources for people with ADHD.

And because ADHD is recognized as a problem you can’t control, and ostensibly shouldn’t be shamed about, people were willing to link to it. Even if that article was basically the same as mine – ideas to make friends – one slight difference made it that more marketable.

Take home this message. When you want someone to link to your material, make sure that it’s high quality ,well written and interesting. But also make sure that it’s something that people are happy to have associated with them when they link to it.

David has a deep appreciation for the subtleties of marketing. You should check out Health and Life, a Medical Blog if you’re interested in medicine or health-care.

Posted under Blogs, Online Marketing

Females have played a significant roles in blogging, social networking, and shaping the internet…but apparently not Wikipedia. A recent study conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation found that only 13% of Wikipedia contributors are women.

The results were presented last week at a conference in Buenos Aires. (The study itself was taken last Novemeber.)  A total of 53,888 respondents indicated that they were Wikipedia contributors, but only 6,814 of them were women. According to the Wall Street Jorunal,  “among the reasons for not contributing, many respondents cited time constraints, satisfaction with just reading entries or simply not knowing how to edit the pages. One quarter, however, said they’re afraid of making a mistake “and getting ‘in trouble’ for it.”

It wasn’t just fear that stopped them…According to Jennifer Van Grove of Mashable.com, it may have been their educational background as well. “The research also showed that women are less likely to read articles as well, with 31% of women and 69% of men reading entries, but not writing or editing them.” Here are even further statistics to support that claim:

• 69% of respondents were motivated to contribute to Wikipedia to fix an error
• Nearly 73% contribute because they “like the idea of sharing knowledge”
• 19% of Wikipedia contributors hold Masters degrees

My Opinion? Women have better things to do…

Honestly, I hate to say it…but why can’t the answer simply be “B/c women have better things to do”? It makes sense. They’re busy writing blog posts about wikipedia stats, or doing other forms of work. I mean yea…they could be busy on MySpace or Facebook, but I highly doubt that’s the reason. For now, we can all agree this study is far from over. Anybody out there have their own opinion? I’d like to hear it.

Posted under Blogs, Online Marketing, Social Networks