Diary of a Market Hacker

A good idea

August 8, 2008 – 7:43 pm
I owe you all (especially you zencart folks) a third installment of the e-commerce check list. I've had too much kick ass stuff to do an not much motivation to write when I have leisure time. I'll get it done and I'll throw in some more very valuable tips sooner then later. BUT! For now, I want to toss the gauntlet, raise a flag, put an offer on the table, etc. About three months ago I completed Bid Master; my firm's PPC bid management software. I had been using various pieces of the system to help me manage PPC spend but the process was still tedious and error prone because I was doing it manually. The commercial bidding systems available do not address core business needs. By putting the formula, methods and bits of software together the process became automated. I really hoped to free up ...

Posted in Search Marketing Perspective | No Comments »

installing Piwik - Open Source Web Analytics

June 9, 2008 – 5:11 pm
I just wrapped up a couple of installs of Piwik, the open source web analytics software. I've used my share of web analytics systems from the old school Webalizer to Google Analytics to aggregate web analytics systems designed for specific business purposes. In this case I needed something as stylin' as GA without all the tie in to Adwords, Goals and other promo stuff pushed out by Google. Oh yeah, there's also the fact that I don't trust Google with my data (I don't trust a company that says it's motivator is to not be evil or anything so subject to the bottom line). I quickly concluded that Piwik was the best place to start in the middle of the year 2008 (holy shit, I'm getting old). Piwik is a tag oriented system that links to your pages with embedded image and js. At this point ...

Posted in Things that help we work, Everything else | 2 Comments »

I stuck my Drupal in my Zoop.

May 20, 2008 – 11:06 pm
I recently rounded up some of the fundamental applications and methods that I've created over the last few years and decided putting them together into a useful website that would serve me (and others) well. The problem I have with any such project, along with no immediate payout, is that I have limited time to spend on it. So, I decided to first build this marketing mash-up using a development frame work to save some time doing it the right way. I chose a lesser known php framework called Zoop. Zoop provides a lot that the others didn't and it was really easy to learn. Something I really liked was the zoop zone development methodology. The code just flowed once I learned the basics. Everything I needed, including javascript effects and ajax controls provided by Scriptaculous and Prototype, respectively, was there without ...

Posted in Everything else | No Comments »

Flash on a Landing Page

May 18, 2008 – 6:05 pm
I don't particularly like flash on a landing pages because it has a greater chance of not displaying than does an image and html only page. That's not to say it's a bad idea. I'd rather not use it unless it's necessary. Additionally, technically speaking, unless vector graphics are used, it makes the page bigger as well. At least that's what a Flash guru told me. This means slower page loads and possibly a negative impression of your company and your product. According to Leichtman Research About 43% of US households do not have broadband and a 600K page will be too slow on dial-up and isdn. With the value proposition in the flash, it'll be the last thing to load!

Posted in Landing Page | No Comments »