Steve Woda's Blog

Steve Woda's Blog has moved to http://www.stevewoda.com

I have moved my blog, Steve Woda's Blog: buySAFE, eCommerce, Trust & Safety, to http://www.stevewoda.com.  I hope you will continue to following my blog and subscribe to my RSS feed.

Thanks in advance for your continued support.

Best regards,

Steve Woda

From Messes To Successes

One of my favorite VC bloggers is Fred Wilson, and he wrote another great post this past week.  "From Messes to Successes" is an interesting article about his experiences with "problem" portfolio companies.  As you would hope would be the case with any good venture capitalist, he and his team have helped turn many of these "problems" into fabulous outcomes.

Here is an excerpt from his article...

When I look back at my 20+ year history of venture investing, it's certainly true that the biggest successes have been big messes at some point in their life. My most successful venture investment at Euclid, Multex, almost went bankrupt before the Internet came along and provided a cheap way to get it's service to its customers. Geocities, which was our most successful investment at Flatiron, was a total mess in mid/late 1997, about a year after we first invested. And our most successful investment to date at Union Square Ventures, TACODA, was a mess multiple times including when the first build of its software totally failed on them. Delicious also had plenty of messy moments in its brief period in our portfolio.

The core point of Fred's article is that startups are often messy due to the hyper-focus on the product and the market.  He goes on to argue that this may be what ultimately makes them companies great companies once they finally get their act together on process and operations.

I agree.  Building a great product is a pre-requisite for success.  When you get the product right, you can build a company around it.  Without a great product, you will end up throwing a lot of money at something that won't ultimately succeed.

Start with the product.  Make it great.  Build the team the processes and operations around that great product.  That is how you build a great, successful business.

You can read more of Fred's article here >> A VC: From Messes To Successes

Technorati Tags: Fred Wilson,A VC,Venture Capital,Union Square Ventures,Messes to Successes

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-21

• Report: Paid Search Top Acquisition Tool for Retailers - Adotas
  In a year of dismal retail sales projections, a recent report says Americans will continue to snap up clothes, computers and cars online. A Shop.org conducted by Forrester Research found that online retail sales should climb 17% this year to $204 billion.


• TheFind powers commerce in Elle's content community - Comparison Shopping Engine Strategies
  It's been said that content, community and commerce is the holy grail to Internet success, and that's just what TheFind is now doing. The partnership effectively creates a destination shopping site on Elle.com, leveraging TheFind's competency in lifestyle goods, piping in products from merchants that match ELLE's audience.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-17

• Targeting, Ad Network Spending Increase - eMarketer
  More than nine out of 10 US advertising agencies and advertisers buying online media plan to work with ad networks in 2008, according to Collective Media's "Ad Network Study 2008."  Nearly three-quarters of respondents said that they planned to spend more with ad networks in 2008 than they did in 2007.


• ISPs meddled with their customers' Web traffic by Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
  In a paper, set to be delivered Wednesday, the researchers document some troubling practices. In July and August they tested data sent to about 50,000 computers and discovered that a small number of ISPs were injecting ads into Web pages on their networks. They also found that some Web browsing and ad-blocking software was actually making Web surfing more dangerous by introducing security vulnerabilities into pages.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-16

• Does Your Company Need a Chief Blogger? - Advertising Age
  It's a question marketers are still grappling with years after the first waves of corporate blogging flooded the web. But for better or worse, it seems corporate blogging -- and the title of chief blogger -- is beginning to hit its stride. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Marriott and Kodak all have recently recruited chief bloggers, with or without the actual title, to tell their stories and engage consumers.


• Brands Partner With Consumers Online - eMarketer
  These days, online consumers and companies are collaborating on a range of activities, including R&D, marketing and after-sales support.  Here are a few examples of how brands and consumers are working together online.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-14

• Is Yahoo Right to Resist Microsoft?
  Yahoo's resistance to a takeover by Microsoft looks foolhardy to some investors and Wall Street analysts. But the push-back may prove effective in the end—at least by forcing the suitor to cough up a few more bucks a share.  Executives from Yahoo (YHOO) on Apr. 7 reiterated the reasons for their opposition. The $31-a-share offer, made public Feb. 1, "substantially undervalues" Yahoo, and its stock component is even less attractive in light of Microsoft's (MSFT) slumping share price. "We have continued to launch new products and to take actions which leverage our scale, technology, people, and platforms as we execute on the strategy we publicly articulated," Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock wrote.


• Yahoo Gets a Deadline
  Microsoft (MSFT) just dropped the bomb on Yahoo (YHOO). Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Apr. 5 sent a letter giving Yahoo's board three weeks before it initiates a proxy fight, including nomination of a new slate of directors likely to approve the deal.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-10

• Eyeing Prices as Search Keeps Growing - eMarketer
  Even as some marketers rein in spending to hedge against further economic problems, search engine marketing (SEM) is in great shape—at least for the moment.  Search engine advertisers and agencies surveyed for the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)-sponsored "2007 State of the Market" survey listed multiple reasons for the SEM spending growth, including advertiser demand, rising keyword and pay-per-click campaign costs, small-to-midsized business SEM use and increased behavioral and demographic targeting.  The study was conducted by Radar Research online using an IntelliSurvey panel.


• Your Former Boss Can Kill Your Job Offer: Vault Job Search Career Information
  Many job seekers are blithely unaware that their former employers all too often say things that can damage or halt their career prospects. Most of this is due to the erroneous belief that it's somehow illegal to ask about things other than title and dates of employment during a reference check.  This is simply not true.  Today's courts have literally invented a whole new body of law called "Employment Law." Bundled in this tangle of law is employment pre-screening, otherwise known as reference checking.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-08

• Just What We Needed, Google on Speed - Google Everflux
  Is it just me or has Google gone into overdrive? As a professional full-time online marketer I have to keep my mind firmly placed on what Google is doing. As much as I try not to because Google has probably driven more people around the bend than Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz put together. Like any professional marketer, I monitor my numerous keywords on a daily basis - especially my major targeted keyword phrases that bring in the most sales and subscribers. For years now, I have had top rankings in Google for my chosen phrases; they move up and down, but mostly they don't leave the first page.


• Beam it up: Tiny projectors to magnify cell-phone cinema - Technology Review
  Recognizing that it is not much fun to watch movies on a tiny cell phone, a number of companies are racing to develop gadgets that project what's playing on the small screen onto walls, table cloths and other handy surfaces. ''Pico projectors'' that are small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket are expected on the market later this year. Eventually, the technology will be tiny enough to be built into phones and portable media players, the companies say.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-07

• Busting a Rogue Blogger
  Of the many blogs born last May, Patent Troll Tracker seemed as innocuous as any. Its focus: the obscure but controversial subject of "patent trolls," a derogatory term used to describe businesses that make money by purchasing patents and then suing big companies for infringement. The author was clearly no fan of the practice, but his or her identity was a mystery. The "about me" section of the blog noted that the writer was simply "a patent lawyer trying to gather and organize information about patent litigation."  Through regular, copious posts, Troll Tracker quickly drew a devoted following in patent law circles, even among those who disagreed with its point of view. What readers didn't know, however, was that the blogger was Rick Frenkel, in-house patent counsel at Cisco Systems (CSCO), the Internet infrastructure giant.


• Ad Spending Grows on News Sites, But... - eMarketer
  Ad spending on newspaper Web sites increased to $3.2 billion in 2007, up 18.8% over 2006, according to preliminary estimates released by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) in late March.  The trade group said that online ad spending accounted for 7.5% of all newspaper ad spending in 2007, up from 5.7% in 2006.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-04

• Google's Gamble
  Can fewer clicks on its search ads lead to more revenue for Google? That is the question investors, analysts, and the company itself are trying to answer. The debate was launched after a Mar. 26 report from researcher comScore (SCOR) showed a decline in the number of clicks from the prior month on Google's search-related ads. According to the research firm, clicks on ads declined 3% in February from the prior month and were up just 3% compared to last year. Some analysts cautioned investors against buying additional Google (GOOG) shares; Google's stock declined 3% on Mar. 27, to $444.


• Mashup Security - Technology Review
  Mashups--online applications that combine data and tools from different websites--are becoming increasingly useful. Although they started out as simple consumer programs, such as a tool that placed housing listings from Craigslist onto Google Maps, mashups have grown in complexity and are becoming popular with corporations, too. As a growing number of tools are released to help people easily build mashups, experts are also taking a look at how to head off the security risks.

Google TiSP - A FREE in-home wireless broadband service!

Google launches new services with astonishing speed, and today's announcement is no exception.  The latest Google invention is designed to help budget in these challenging economic times.

Starting today (4/1/08), you can sign up for Google TiSP. With Google TiSP, you'll get a speedy broadband connection for free! You can also pay extra for a faster connection.

Of course, there are a few fine print details to Google's TiSP service. For example, you'll need to install TiSP yourself. So read the details carefully. Obviously, you will want to understand what rights you're giving away when you use the TiSP service.

Google's TiSP only works with Windows. But Google promises that support for the Mac is coming soon.

Learn more about the Google TiSP (BETA), a FREE in-home wireless broadband service>>

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-31

• How To Create Your Own Wikipedia Page - Search Engine Guide Blog
  Most savvy SEOs know that Google is placing an increased weight on links from “authority” websites. Wikipedia, a free internet encyclopedia that can be edited by any user, is certainly one of the top authority websites in the eyes of Google and I´m certainly not the first SEO to observe that an awful lot of Wikipedia pages are currently ranking quite highly in the SERPS. Many of you likely have tried to place your website link on a Wikipedia page. What most probably happened is a zealous Wikipedia editor likely removed your link very quickly because the prevailing view is that appending your external link to the bottom of a previously created page adds little to the community and likely only benefits you.


• Wild Planet Toy Store Boosts Conversion Rates by Using buySAFE Seal
  The results are in: Wild Planet Toy Store (Shopwildplanet.com) has reported an increase of 10.4% in conversion rates since the site adopted the buySAFE Seal. Wild Planet Toy Store partnered with buySAFE, Inc. in early 2007 to test the effectiveness of the buySAFE Seal. The store has integrated the buySAFE trust solution into its ecommerce website so that all of its pages display the Seal. Its shoppers are able to guarantee their purchases with a buySAFE bond up to $25,000 . After testing for almost six months across a base of over 150,000 store transactions, Brian Almashie, CEO. of Wild Planet ssaid that “The results speak for themselves: Conversion and revenues are both up more than 10% … I can’t think of anything else I could have done so easily to have such an impact on my business."

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Improve Your Web Site

At buySAFE, our web site is one of our greatest assets.  It is the main avenue by which we communicate with prospective buyer and merchant customers, partners, the media, and investors.  It is the main tool we have for defining buySAFE for the rest of the world.  It is the vehicle we use for creating action with respect to our unique eCommerce trust and safety and advertising services. 

I spend a fair amount of my time thinking about how to better leverage this asset, and then working with my team to improve upon its utility.

Therefore, when I ran across this article, "101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site" by Inside CRM Editors, I thought you would enjoy it too.  Here are their first 10 web site improvement tips, and if you are interested in learning more, you should definitely click through to read their other 91 tips as well.

1. Tell readers why they should perform a task. If your site is full of passive suggestions, toughen it up. People are trained to follow a request, as long as you give them a good reason to do it. 
2. Make the most highly trafficked pages easier to scan. If your current site consists of large blocks of text, break it up so that it's easier for the average Internet user to read. 
3. Convey a sense of trust. If you're experiencing skepticism, offer social proof like testimonials or risk-mitigating offers like a free trial. 
4. Stress benefits. Ensure that your copy always shows users exactly how your site will benefit them. 
5. Make headlines meaningful. Be sure to change any vague or cutesy headlines to something more up-front and meaningful. 
6. Repeat yourself. Check over your copy to make sure that you're really driving the point home by making it in a number of ways. 
7. Tell visitors what to do. Revise your site to ensure that people know exactly what the next step is. If you want a visitor to click a link, tell them 
8. Keep the reader engaged. Make sure that your current content gives visitors a reason to keep reading throughout the entire piece; otherwise, you need to spice things up a bit. 
9. Stay consistent. Check your copy for consistency, or else your site may be seen as unstable or flighty. 
10. Stay simple. Simplify your message simply to avoid confusing visitors, while at the same time improving conversion rates.

Read the other 91 web site improvement tips at "101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site" - Inside CRM >>>

 

Technorati Tags: Website Tips,Inside CRM

So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?

I have discovered the hard way that blogging is not an easy endeavor, and this is especially true for folks that have real jobs during the day.  At a minimum, it takes time, dedication, and creativity.  I have often wondered how to others do such a great job with their blogs while still maintaining excellence in their day jobs.  To that point, I thought this article was very interesting, and it included a number of practical tips for all of us aspiring bloggers.  I hope you find this useful as well.

MARK CUBAN, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a full plate. Besides his basketball team, the busy billionaire also owns part of a media company, and serves as chairman of the TV channel HDNet. He recently competed for five weeks on “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC. How on earth does he find time to blog?

Yet his site, blogmaverick.com, is one of the top 1,000 Weblogs, according to the search engine Technorati. Thousands read Mr. Cuban’s posts every single day. If he can do it, why can’t you?

Read more of "So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?" - New York Times >>>

 

Technorati Tags: Blogging,Mark Cuban,Blogmaverick.com,Technorati,Ted Dziuba,Uncov.com,Xeni Jardin,BoingBoing.net

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-25

• Region's Venture Capital Rank Slips - washingtonpost.com
  Regions of the West Coast and Midwest moved ahead of Washington as top destinations for venture capital in recent years, as the local venture economy grew more slowly than the national average, a Washington Post analysis shows. In 2001, the year the technology bubble popped, Washington ranked sixth among top destinations for venture capital, after Silicon Valley, New England, the New York metro area, Texas and the Southeast. Last year, it was ranked 10th, overtaken by the Northwest, San Diego, the Midwest and Los Angeles/Orange County.


• Hammering out Wikipedia's financial future, argument by argument - Technology Review
  Scroll the list of the 10 most popular Web sites in the U.S., and you'll encounter the Internet's richest corporate players -- names like Yahoo, Amazon.com, News Corp., Microsoft and Google. Except for No. 7: Wikipedia. And there lies a delicate situation. With 2 million articles in English alone, the Internet encyclopedia ''anyone can edit'' stormed the Web's top ranks through the work of unpaid volunteers and the assistance of donors. But that gives Wikipedia far less financial clout than its Web peers, and doing almost anything to improve that situation invites scrutiny from the same community that proudly generates the content.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-21

• Report ranks Washington and Baltimore hotbed for investors - Washington Business Journal:
  The Washington and Baltimore region was the nation's fifth fastest-growing area for venture capital funding in the last decade, according to a report released Tuesday. In 2007, 180 Washington and Baltimore companies received nearly $1.3 billion in venture capital backing, the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association said. That number is up 130 percent from $558.24 million put into 105 companies in 1997.  The report lists Timonium, Md.-based Grotech Capital Group and Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates as the most active investors in the region. The top industries for investments around the region were software, life sciences and telecommunications.


• Affluent Hobnob on Social Networks - eMarketer
  The rate of affluent US Internet user participation in online social networks increased dramatically to 60% in January 2008, from 27% in January 2007, according to The Luxury Institute's latest WealthSurvey "The Wealthy and Web 2.0."  "While some in the luxury industry are still debating e-commerce, search and banner ads, the majority of their customers have leaped into the online dialogue," said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. "Luxury needs to catch up quickly."

The Technology That Toppled Eliot Spitzer - Technology Review

If there is a lesson from former New York governor Eliot Spitzer's scandal-driven fall (aside from the most obvious one), it is this: banks are paying attention to even the smallest of your transactions.

For this we can thank modern software, and post-9/11 U.S. government pressure to find evidence of money laundering and terrorist financing. Experts say that all major banks, and even most small ones, are running so-called anti-money-laundering software, which combs through as many as 50 million transactions a day looking for anything out of the ordinary.

In Spitzer's case, according to newspaper reports, it was three wire transfers amounting to just $5,000 apiece that set alarm bells ringing.

Read more of "The Technology That Toppled Eliot Spitzer" - Technology Review >>>

 

Technorati Tags: Bank Fraud Software,Eliot Spitzer

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-19

• Woman to record industry: Stop spying
  A woman who claims the recording industry's anti-music piracy campaign threatens and intimidates innocent people has filed a new complaint accusing record companies of racketeering, fraud and illegal spying.


• Startup RatePoint bets that people want user reviews refereed - Technology Review
  One of the great things about the Internet is the way people post reviews on just about anything you are considering trying, whether it is a movie, a new restaurant or the local florist.  This also introduces one of the worst things about the Internet: trying to figure out which reviews to trust. Was that effusive praise written surreptitiously by the merchant? Was that anonymous online slam posted by a devious competitor?  The dilemma might be unavoidable in this age of abundant user-generated content, when we have to be smarter about separating signals from noise. But a startup called RatePoint Inc. begs to differ. It wants to play referee, giving consumers more clarity into a business' reputation and protecting the business from unwarranted blights on its credibility.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-15

• HiveLive secures $5.6 million
  HiveLive Inc., a Boulder-based company that integrates social and information networks, secured $5.6 million in venture financing from Grotech Capital Group and current private investors. Joseph Zell, a general partner with Grotech, will take a seat on HiveLive's board of directors.


• ID Security: Secure E-Commerce From First to Final Click
  What's most important to consumers when making a purchase online? Personal identity. Consumers are taking more notice of their individual online security after a string of recent identity theft cases made major headlines. According to a recent survey by the University of Southern California's Center for the Digital Future, 61 percent of adult Americans said they were "very" or "extremely" concerned about the privacy of personal information when buying online, an increase from 47 percent in 2006. Prior to 2007, that number had been decreasing for the past six years.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-13

• Direct Marketers Bullish on Online Ads - eMarketer
  US direct marketers may reduce their media budgets this year, judging by Target Marketing's "Media Usage Forecast" report. Nearly one-quarter of respondents surveyed in January 2008 said they would reduce their media budgets compared with last year. The n


• Yahoo activates smart mobile bookmarks - Reuters
  Yahoo Inc, still fending off a $41 billion takeover bid by Microsoft Corp, unveiled a cell phone tool on Tuesday that lets users keep up with their favorite topics using dynamic bookmarks. OnePlace, to be launched in the second quarter, allows users to ma