Well, after more than 2 wks of futzing with Wordpress, fighting webhosts, etc., I’m finally (mostly) up and running again, (still need to get tags to display better on individual posts, but that’s for another day). If you still see any errors, etc on the site, would very much appreciate it if you’d let me know - thanks! 
How cool is this? Thanks to a guy I was interviewing for a PR slot @ SecondRotation, had a very nice chat with Helen Glover about SR. Listen here:
Unfortunately for the potential PR guy, was shown the door right after getting back from this interview, (apparently, was too radical green! ) so no job for him, (or me! ). Ah well, such is life!
Anyone looking for a radical nutcase social mission marketing guy?
Just saw an excellent article on ReadWriteWeb about Yahoo & eCommerce 2.0. Since starting with Second Rotation, is especially poignant for me. We’re actually building a tremendously simplified used consumer electronics buyback service for the purposes of keeping these materials out of landfills, basically sitting right atop eBay, (and others).
We collect data on point and trend individual SKU liquidity from eBay and several other sources, and then use it to basically make selling as simple as 5 Y/N questions, and putting a 1-4 star condition rating on. We then cut you a check, so you’re done, and then _we_ deal with all the hassles of actually using the backend, (i.e. eBay).
For the 1/30 folks who actually sell on eBay on an active basis, (1/125 on a registered basis), they remain an excellent choice to go directly to, just as some folks like to go back and play with the raw database to get ultimate optimization.
For the 29/30 who, whether they could or not, as a practical matter just _don’t_ sell on eBay, (i.e. it’s too much of a hassle for the reward they’re expecting) there’s a great opportunity for companies like us to be able to create much more value by much better matches between user experience and the bits and bites behind.
Nice piece, Richard!
For more on the company I’m working with right now:
We’re a local startup based in Waltham that’s working to keep old electronics out of landfills by offering cash for them. Here’s How it Works:
1) Quote
Go to http://www.secondrotation.com and find your device. We’ll ask you a couple of quick questions, and ask you to tell about its condition - 1 to 4 stars. Click “Calculate” and Bang - there’s what we pay you in Cold, Hard Cash!
2) Ship It - It’s Free!
Wrap it up, Drop it in a box and call DHL at 1-800-CALL-DHL from anywhere in the United States and they’ll come to you to pick it up - No Hassles, and No Charge!
3) Cash It In!
When we get it, we do a quick check to make sure all’s well, then Cut you a Check which’ll be in your mailbox in 2 weeks or less.
Take that money and put it toward something New and Shiny, the children, the mortgage, (you know what to do with it! )
And, if you manage to actually trade in enough stuff to get that next gizmo for free, we’ll send an email to that certain someone, (you know who I’m talking about) certifying that this time, you did indeed manage to get this Shiny New Doodad without a penny in new outlay, (think how that’d go over! ).
3a) Come on Back!
And when that Shiny New Doodad is not so shiny and new anymore, come on back to http://www.secondrotation.com and Spin Us Again!
——-
If you’ve read this far down, here’s a little bit more about what we’re up to. Right now, the average American throws away the equivalent of 2 laptops, 3 iPods and 3 cellphones each and every year; containing some of the most toxic and non-biodegradable materials on the planet.
By making it easier to get cash out of old consumer electronics, we magnify the impact of sustainability by helping folks participate in the mission whether they care about it or not, (i.e. if you care only about the cash, fine, here’s the cash - if you care about the mission too, fabulous - here’s cash and a mission! ) and thus, just like Ben & Jerry’s, The Body Shop and others, we put the power of business to work in making a social difference.
And yes, just like both of those and other values-led companies, we will indeed be making money from what we’re doing. And also, as we grow, we’ll be increasing the impact we’re all having in keeping these materials out of landfills, our groundwater and the food our children eat - not a bad day at the office, at all!
If you have any questions, comments, etc, don’t hesitate to comment, or ping me at dylan [at] dylanhunter.com. Would be more than happy to answer!
Thanks,
Dylan
Just got the below email, and as someone who waited 8 months for an iPhone, despite its ludicrous expense, but then was so horrified by AT&T’s below stance that I couldn’t possibly buy it, couldn’t put it any better myself. Posted in its entirety:
———
At a packed San Francisco hearing today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) defended your Fourth Amendment rights and urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to let our class-action lawsuit against AT&T go forward. The case demands that AT&T stop illegally assisting the National Security Agency to snoop on its customers’ telephone and Internet communications.
There’s much more at stake here than stopping the Bush Administration’s illegal spying and holding the telco giant accountable, though. The President is arguing that thin claims of “state secrets” can trump the courts’ constitutional duty to uphold the rule of law.
Without judicial review, there’s no way to protect ordinary citizens against government abuses of power. No president, now or in the future, should be allowed unfettered authority to evade the courts and trample on your freedom. As Judge Vaughn Walker wrote in rejecting the government’s claims at the lower court, “The compromise
between liberty and security remains a difficult one. But dismissing this case at the outset would sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security.”
For the past 17 years, EFF has been proud to take on the hard cases to ensure that your liberty is not sacrificed unnecessarily. Please support us in this critical case by donating to EFF at http://secure.eff.org/att. And please spread the word to your friends and family.
Join EFF today! http://secure.eff.org/att
For a News.com story from the hearing:
http://news.com.com/Appeals+court+may+let+NSA+lawsuits+proceed/2100-1028_3-6202865.html
For more about the case: http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att
Tell Congress to stop the illegal spying: http://action.eff.org/fisa
The company I’m currently working with - how cool is this!
Brian Cooley, Tom Merritt, Kevin Rose, Alex Albrecht, cnet tv
(Image Courtesy of Valleywag, cropped to <500 px for blog use)
“Facebook is the website du jour, but in Reach Students’ experience it delivers appalling ad clickthroughs.
“We’ve run four targeted campaigns this year using its flyer ads, and each time the results have been disappointing.
“Our most recent campaign saw 1.4 million page impressions delivered at specific universities - and only a 0.04% clickthrough rate. Ouch.”
…..
“Until solved, I think we’ll stick to PR initiatives through the site - such as our work for Avenue Q that generated over ¼ million mini-feed messages through user profiles. And on a budget significantly smaller than it costs to buy the same number of Facebook clickthroughs.
In fact, at least $199,000 smaller!”
Further Discussion on Valleywag
A nice mini-list for some items from Smart Money.
In summary:
Sunday - Groceries, Hotel Rooms
Monday - Cars
Tuesday - Dinner Out, Groceries
Wednesday - Airplane Tickets, Entertainment
Thursday - Books, Clothing, Gas (before 10am)
Friday -
Saturday - Department Store Wares (evening)
To add to, for those buying stuff on eBay, auctions ending during the daytime obviously do better for the buyer than evenings, but as to days of the week, from highest buyer advantage to lowest, (reverse for seller advantage):
1) Tuesday
2) Wednesday
3) Monday, Thursday
4) Friday, Saturday
5) Sunday
For the mathematically-inclined, (or at least those not frightened off by! ) if you have a fairly active forum, and want to start getting a better sense for which concepts / topics are discussed more and less often across threads, you can use this sort of analysis to help surface these, for use for further product development, customer acquisition, etc.
(Note: it talks about comparing a query to a document, but since there’s no conceptual difference between a query and a document - they’re both just bundles of words - can also be used to compare any document in a collection to any other document in that collection).
Just found a mighty fine (MS Word) macro that when you run on any given document gives you a list of every unique word in the document, (minus any words you don’t care about, like “the,” “and,” “or,” etc) with how frequently it occurred. Mighty fine job, Allen!
From eMarketer, (they’ll lock it up soon, but out of fairness, here’s the link until they do):
Search Engines Help Small Businesses
MAY 22, 2007
Small businesses depend more on search engine traffic than larger firms, according to a study conducted by Hitwise in early 2007.
The firm measured the percentage of average monthly traffic companies in the Internet Retailer “Top 500 Guide” received from search engines in 2005 and 2006. Half of the businesses ranked from the 400th to the 500th positions depended on search engines for 50% or more of their total site traffic.
By comparison, none of the top 100 retailers generated more than 40% of their site traffic from search engines, and half had between 20.1% and 30% of their traffic come from search engines.
Web-only merchants averaged 64% their of monthly site traffic from search engines.
Chain retailers and consumer brand manufacturers averaged 28% and 27% of their site traffic from search engines, respectively.
On NPR on the ride to work this morning, I heard a great segment on a book about “Momalies,” (as in things your mother used to tell you when you were younger). Everyone’s got them, and some of the ones from the callers were excellent. The best one I heard, (which the lady said was from her grandmother, so technically a “Gramaly!” ) is just perfect for any teenager in the midst of standard teen angst, (and/or some eldens, as well):
“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think if you knew how often they did it.”
Took me several runs through and more than a moment to think about / digest, but what a truly _excellent_ statement of wisdom!
—–
Note: Would love to toss a link over to the author of Momalies and her book, (not to mention pick up a copy myself) but can’t seem to find it anywhere, not on Google, not on Amazon, not in the show’s program notes, not at the URL that I could have sworn I heard - www.momalies.net, (and tried several spelling variations). If anyone knows the right stuff, let me know.
——
UPDATE (2007-10-20): Many thanks to Patti Londre for helping with the correct spelling / link. It’s actually “Momilies“. And makes sense she’d know - looks like Patti’s running a mighty cool place - Camp Get Away - “Weekend Retreats for Mothers and Others.” Check it out!
This drill teaches players to dribble in high traffic/high pressure situations while staying in control. It’s a great warm-up to focus on dribbling with all parts of the foot.
Soccer Drill contributed by: Chris Johnson
Drill Info:
This is for ages U6, U8, U10, U12. It is best ran with at least 8 players but no more than 16 players. The drill should be ran approximately 20 minutes on a small field. The coach will also make sure they have the following equipment: cones, .
Setup:
Start by making a grid approximately 20X20 yards. Split the team into two groups. Each player should have a ball. Instruct each group of players to line up outside the grid facing inward on two adjacent sides of the grid (half of the group on one side, the other half on the side next to the other group).
Instructions:
On the coaches command, instruct the players to dribble to the other side of the group and back to the starting position (down and back). The first player back in each group gets a point. The first player to 5 wins that set. Play 3-4 sets.
Variations:
- restrict players to touches with a certain foot or part of the foot. (example: left foot only, or outside of the foot only)
- Have the player turn or cut when they reach the opposite side of the grid
- Place even groups on all four sides of the grid and play the same game. - Make the grid a bit larger and have the players dribble with speed
Coaching Points:
- focus on the players getting their heads up while dribbling for awareness and to avoid collisions
- make sure players keep the ball at a close/safe distance. If the ball is too far in front of them they will most often hit another player or lose their ball.
Focus:
Technical Dribbling, Technical Turning, Tactical Vision
This soccer drill focuses on aggressiveness in winning 50/50 balls and fitness. This drill will be more beneficial for younger players under 8 and older.
Soccer Drill contributed by: Chris Johnson
Drill Info:
This is for ages U6, U8, U10, U12, U14, U16. It is best ran with at least 4 players but no more than 20 players. The drill should be ran approximately 25 minutes on a small field. The coach will also make sure they have the following equipment: cones, .
Setup:
Create a grid that is 30×30 yards. Create 4 teams and have them stand at each of the four corner cones. The coach stands outside the grid near the middle of 2 side cones with a large supply of soccer balls.
Instructions:
The coach plays a ball into the center of the grid and shouts out a command (such as “GO”) to begin play. The first player in each of the 4 lines must sprint after the ball in attempt to reach the ball first. Once the ball is won cleanly, the player must hold possession from the other players for 5 seconds before passing the ball back to the coach. If any player steals the ball from the person in possession, that player will then attempt to hold possession for 5 seconds. A team scores a point by successfully holding possession for 5 seconds and making a return pass to the coach. The first team to reach 5 points wins.
Variations:
* The coach can play different types of balls such as flighted balls, bouncing balls, rolling balls, balls with large amounts of top or back spin.
Coaching Points:
* Players should be taught to go after the ball aggressively with speed, determination and vigor.
Focus:
Technical Dribbling, Technical Aggressiveness
For anyone less than U14+, definitely dropping pushups thing, but other than that, looks good for my U8’s.
——-
5v2 Rotating Defenders
This drill will focus on keeping possession by making good passes as well as good passing decisions, moving to open space, and good communication.
Soccer Drill contributed by: Chris Johnson
Drill Info:
This is for ages U6, U8, U10, U12, U14, U16. It is best ran with at least 9 players but no more than 18 players. The drill should be ran approximately 20 minutes on a small field. The coach will also make sure they have the following equipment: cones, alternate jersey, .
Setup:
Start by setting up a 12X12 grid. 5 attackers wear Alternate jersies, and the remaining players should pair up as defenders behind one cone with the supply of balls.
Instructions:
The first pair of defenders play a ball into the 5 attackers, and step into the grid and become defenders. The attackers should continue passing undil the defenders win the ball, or the ball is knocked out of play. Once the play is dead, the next pair of defenders play into the same 5 attackers, and play resumes.
Variations:
* Adjust grid (larger = easier; smaller = harder)
* Introduce splits (split defenders, defenders do 10 pushups every split)
* Adjust the number of attackers (4 attackers vs 2 defenders)
Coaching Points:
* Vision
* Changes in the direction and speed of play
* Appropriate use of 1st touch
* Appropriate use of short or long passing
* Good passes to feet
* Good first touch
* Good decision making (make play easy)
* Speed of play/decisions
Focus:
Technical Dribbling, Technical Passing, Technical Receiving, Technical Shielding, Tactical Defending, Tactical Possession, Tactical Communication, Tactical Combination Play
Dropping in the “useful” folder…. Will also have to check out some of the blogs listed…
“Lime, a green health and lifestyle Web publisher, has launched an ad network that aggregates inventory across environmentally-focused sites and blogs.
“Included is the green-tech focused EcoGeek.org and the beauty/cosmetics-oriented The Beauty Brains. Additional sites in the new Lime Ad Network include Mongabay.com, an environmental science site; the organic foods-oriented SavvyVegetarian.com; and Eco-chick.com, a blog that covers environmental issues from a female point of view.”
….
“According to LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability Organization), consumer spending for this segment is estimated at $230 billion, and Lime estimates that 139 million Americans are interested or active in the green market.”
(Might help if I actually included the link…)
Simple, nicely designed, and most importantly, right motivation - trying to do their own little part to try to make the world better. And even if they help only a little, they’ve still helped, (not to mention couldn’t possibly agree more with what they said about becoming fathers. )
From their About page:
“….people passionate about a cause can do little more than directly give money. What is lacking is the technological means for an online volunteerism to flourish, where individuals can raise money on behalf of others in a highly personal way. This is why we created Pledgie.com
“Pledgie.com was created by an artist Mark and a programmer Garry…..Garry and Mark are both new fathers and as such the words “discretionary income” are no longer in our vocabularies. Yet, becoming fathers actually increased our desire to make the world better.
“It is in this spirit that we hope Pledgie as an idea directly or indirectly makes the world a better place. “
(Will probably move this over to a more permanent page once I migrate this site over to a more wiki-oriented approach, but for now….)
A couple of the most recent, in reverse chronological order:
Execution - Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan
- Hung this one up partially-read several years ago, but my wife needed room in the drawer I had put it in, so since it was sitting on the floor looking at me every morning thought I’d give it another shot, (even if the cover’s color scheme is truly abhorrent! 
). Seems to be a faster read and more interesting this time than I remember, (s’pose there’s a right and wrong time for all of these more practical books, and since I’m on a bit of an “It’s never going to get done if I don’t get to it” kick lately, s’pose it fits! ). Something to read during my commutes until I can make it back to the bookstore, and we’ll see if more…
Rails Recipes - Chad Fowler
- Just finished a couple of days ago, some very nice ideas/executions to keep in mind. Moving back and forth in the backpack everyday right now.
Agile Web Development with Rails, (AWDWR) - Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson
- Excellent, what more can I say! Also in the backpack.
Programming Ruby - Dave Thomas
- Very nice bridge between Why’s Poignant Guide and AWDWR, just right for what I was looking for when I first read it, and a good resource. And yep, also in the backpack, (can you tell it’s getting heavy? )
Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
- Enjoyed again. Loved the movie, loved the book. How often do you come across a superbly-written, historically believable,educational,foreshadowing religious reform,emotionally and mentally engaging,don’t want to put it down,14th century who-done-it, (and I don’t even really like who-done-its! ).
If you think about as an attempt to minimize losses of current customers, that’s exactly what you’ll get - losses of current customers. If instead, you think about as the beginning of a sincere set of opportunities to thrill and delight the folks who believe in you the most, you’ll find they tend to have friends…
- …for every $1 dollar spent online the average search-user spends $2.56 offline.
- …those who search up to 10 times annually spend an average of $1,789 online while those who searched 31+ times spent an average of $2,943 online. Similarly in off-line transactions, those who search 10 or fewer times spend an average of $2,219 through retail locations, while those who search 31+ times spend an average of $3,839.
- …Search influences 20-30% of purchases made at retail locations
- …among general populace, 49% of money spent online & 42% spent at retail locations are the result of Search
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