Effective Press Releases and Distribution Channels

posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 12:50 PM by PetePrestipino

by Milind Mody, eBrandz

It is widely believed that the first press release was issued over 100 years ago by Ivy Lee on behalf of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had just suffered a tragic accident. The press release was issued to prevent alternate versions of the accident from being spread among the press. And, 100 years later the intent of a press release hasn’t changed. It remains a valuable resource in any marketer’s tool kit. But its importance in the Internet age and the world of search engine optimization has never been greater.

Top 5 reasons to write a Press Release

1) Organic Traffic: With their Universal Search protocol, Google has started showing press releases in organic search results. If your press release is well-optimized, it can rank for two to three days in Google organic results. The press release can also get traffic from Google News and other news aggregator websites.

2) Link Building: You can use your important keywords as anchor text and link them to relevant pages on your website. When the press release is distributed these links will be picked up by distribution partners. Links from many of these sites will not be counted, but some of them will.

3) Reputation Management: If someone has criticized your company, one sure way to get the criticism off the first page of Google Blog Search or Google search results is to issue multiple press releases. Of course, if you want to do a professional job, then you need to get external links to your press releases and bookmark and tag these releases.

4) Bloggers and Web 2.0 Audience: Many bloggers subscribe to online press release distribution services like PRWeb. If your press release interests them, they might blog about it and give a link to your press release or your website. If you consistently reach out to this audience, you can get significant links, traffic and sales from them.

5) Traffic from Traditional Media: If your press release interests journalists, they will follow up with you and write a story about your business. This will most certainly lead to a short term boost in your website traffic and sales.

Wire Services and an Online Distribution

Wire services distribute press releases to traditional media outlets like newspapers, magazines, radio stations and news agencies like Reuters and the Associated Press. If your main objective is to target journalists, then use a traditional wire service.

The other option is online distribution — targeted to journalists or bloggers who sign up to receive emails from a particular industry, category or sub-category. Popular news aggregator websites like Google News and Yahoo News are also targeted. Additionally, many bloggers subscribe to distribution and news feeds.

Chances are one press release from a good online distribution service will get you multiple listings spread across Google News, Search and Blogsearch. For the widest reach, consider both wire services and online.
The difference in distribution methods can be summed up as push vs. pull. Wire services push press releases to media outlets, while consumers pull information from online services like PRWeb through email alerts and RSS feeds.

Press Release Basics

Most wire distribution services charge by blocks of 375 or 400 words. That includes title, a brief summary, body of the release and contact information. If the release is more than the word limit, you will be charged extra per 100 words. Images, video, documents or podcasts are also charged extra. But many online PR distribution sites do not have the typical 400 words limit. Image and document attachment is also commonly provided with the basic service.

Before turning loose your press release, decide where you will make the most impact. Wire distribution services classify a press release into:

1) National Release: Targets all national media outlets for a particular industry like Automotive, Consumer, Sports, Technology or Travel.

2) Regional Release: The four main regions are Northeast (includes New York and New Jersey), Southeast (includes Florida and Virginia), Midwest (includes Illinois and Ohio) and West/Southwest (includes California and Texas).

3) State and Local Release: New York State and New York Metro can be two different options. In general, New York-related distribution is expensive, because of the high number of media outlets in the region.

4) International Release: Again, there are many classifications and sub-classifications of an international release based on countries and/or continents.
Apart from the above categories, some wire services also target Hispanic, African-American and North American Chinese media outlets.

Keep in mind that you should draft and submit your press release two days in advance, because most wire services will call for a verbal confirmation before distributing.
With online services you can specify 5-10 industries to target. By default, the region is set to global but if your release applies to a specific city or region, you need to choose the appropriate setting. Any journalists or bloggers who have subscribed to releases for that region will then receive your release.

Now that you have decided what type of distribution service you will use and where you will target your audience, it’s time for the most important part — creating effective, compelling press releases.

Seven Tips for Writing a Press Release

1) Unique Value Proposition: Instead of writing a press release for simply the launch of your product or service, create a press release around your unique value proposition. This should include those special attributes making your service better than the competition.

2) Avoid Hyperbole: Keep your language natural and tone conversational. Nothing is more counter-productive than a jargon-filled sales pitch. Report facts.

3) Optimize your Press Release for Search: Include your most important keywords in the press release title and first paragraph, but not at the cost of important information. Hyperlink important pages with suitable keywords as anchor text.

4) Create an Online Press Room: Because only limited information can be included in a press release, it’s a good idea to create an “Online Press Room” on your website. It should list your media contact with an email address and direct phone number, contain a high-resolution logo of your company in various formats (JPEG, PSD, CDR) and high-resolution photos of key people in your organization. Point links to important products, case studies, client comments, press releases and media coverage. Provide a link to this page on all press releases.

5) Create Google and Yahoo Alerts: Create Google and Yahoo alerts with your company or individual name. This will help you see which websites are covering your press releases.

6) Decide your objective: If the primary objective of your press release is online reputation management, then you might want to go for a service like PRWeb. However, if you think there is an angle in your press release which can appeal to journalists, use a wire service that also has SEO options.

7) Use Stock Tickers: If your company is not publicly listed, but associated with a listed company (i.e. if the listed company is your client) you can ask their permission to include their stock ticker in your press release. This will help you get visibility across all journalists who will be searching for the listed company.
Press releases can be extremely valuable for both short- and long-term purposes.

If you are not yet convinced or feel that you need some practice, start with a free service, then move on to professional service. However, a single press release will not give you much exposure. Try to write at least six press releases a year that will cover your unique value proposition, good customer experience, and awards and recognitions.

Distribution Services

PR Newswire: PR Newswire is the biggest name in press release distribution service. It is also the most expensive. A 400-word national release can cost $680 and $185 for additional 100 words. A 400-word release with a photo will cost $1,325. Regional distribution will cost less. The national release includes SEO, but for other distribution options, add $255. If you don’t want a national release, search for PR Newswire partners

like WebWire, which offers a 15 percent discount.
Business Wire: Business Wire was taken over by Warren Buffet’s Hathaway Berkshire last year. In general, Business Wire costs 8-10 percent less than PR Newswire. Business Wire has partnered with Vocus/PRWeb which powers their Enhanced Online News Text optimization tool. Through PRWeb, Business Wire can produce SEO-friendly press releases while PRWeb can now provide traditional wire service to their clients.

Marketwire: A 400-word national release on Marketwire costs $460 with $150 extra for additional 100 words, less for regional and state/local distribution. Additional photos cost $50, SEO enhancement costs $75 and audio/video links cost $75 each. Customer service is good, making Marketwire is a nice option if you are price conscious.
PRWeb: PRWeb is not a wire service, but an email-based service. Journalists or bloggers who signup with PRWeb receive a daily email from PRWeb based on their preferences. The release is also distributed to other websites that subscribe to PRWeb feeds. The basic service at PRWeb starts at $80 per release. Their SEO visibility service starts at $200 and there is a podcast interview option for $100, where one of PRWeb’s staff will conduct a four to five minute interview with you. This is a great option for business owners who want their press releases to stand out but don’t have time or energy to produce their own podcast.

Free Distribution: Apart from these main services, there are some free online distribution services like openPR.com and PRLog.org. These websites are regularly crawled by Google News. But a word of caution: These free sites make money by displaying Google AdSense ads alongside your press release. It’s entirely possible that your competitor’s ads are shown alongside your press release!

About the Author: Milind Mody is founder CEO of SEO firm eBrandz Inc. Part of eBrandz’s service performs search marketing for a division of United Business Media, parent company of PR Newswire.

Technorati Tags: Milind Moody,Website Magazine,Press releases,News Services

Beer, Blogs And Bias

Beer, Blogs And Bias (Say That Again)

by Michael Masnick from the i’ll-drink-to-that dept on Friday, April 25th, 2008 @ 7:40PM

The Wall Street Journal has an article focusing on a blog set up by Miller Brewing Company called Brew Blog. There are a few different, interesting points worth discussing here. First, the blog isn’t used as a blog about what’s going on at Miller Brewing. Instead, Miller hired an experienced reporter, and told him to just cover the beer industry as if he were a beat reporter. In other words, it’s reporting news — and even breaking stories on the competition. In fact, it revealed that main rival Anheuser-Busch was planning a new beer before A-B was able to make the announcement itself. This is certainly a recognition of how content is advertising. The blog clearly isn’t “advertorial.” It’s full-on reporting about the industry, in a way that’s interesting and relevant to those in the industry.
What may be even more interesting, though, is what the article says about journalism. In an age in which journalists are whining that their jobs are disappearing, here’s yet another example of where suddenly there are new types of jobs for journalists appearing every day. But, even more interesting, is a quote at the end of the article highlighted by David Card. It’s from Harry Schuhmacher, the editor and publisher of a fee-based trade publication on the beer industry:

“I tell Miller you’re subsidizing a free publication, and it hurts the trade press,” he says. “But they don’t care.”…Mr. Schuhmacher adds that he writes fewer positive pieces about Miller than he once did because he knows Brew Blog will always publish the same stories.

Think about this for a bit. People complain that when you have a company-sponsored publication it will inevitably be biased — but the sponsorship of that site is totally open and in the clear. The site’s content stands for itself. Yet, at the same time, a supposedly “objective” traditional journalist is admitting that he writes fewer stories about Miller because he’s upset that it’s competing with his own publication. From that, it would certainly seem like the Brew Blog is a lot more credible (it’s biases are out in the open), while this fee-based trade pub admits that story choices are sometimes based on personal vendettas.

3 Comments

Technorati Tags: TechDirt,Michael Masnick,Miller Brewing,Beer

A Couple of My Rules for Startups

Mar 9th 2008 2:13PM

My buddy Jason had a GREAT post about rules for startups. Read it, love it learn it.

Of course, anyone who has started a company has their own rules and guidelines, so I thought i would add to the meme with my own. My “rules” below aren’t just for those founding the companies, but for those who are considering going to work for them as well.

1. Don’t start a company unless its an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, its not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cures All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but are cheap

6. An expresso machine ? Are you kidding me ? Shoot yourself before you spend money on an expresso machine. Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keeps everyone in tune with what is going on and keeps the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show them how to use the lock on the john. There is nothing private in a start up. This is also a good way to keep from hiring execs who can not operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over their secretary, run away. If an exec wont go on sales calls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the cheapest way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista… ask yourself why, then use it. Its a startup, there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

9. Keep the organization flat. If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.

10. NEVER EVER EVER buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, its ok to buy for your own folks, but if you really think someone is going to wear your Yobaby.com polo you sent them in public, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money

11. NEVER EVER EVER hire a PR firm. A PR firm will call or email people in the publications, shows and websites you already watch, listen to and read. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them an email introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communications with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

12. Make the job fun for employees. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. My first company, MicroSolutions, when we had a record sales month, or someone did something special, I would walk around handing out 100 dollar bills to salespeople. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, we had a company shot. Kamikaze. We would take people to a bar every now and then and buy one or 10 for everyone. At MicroSolutions, more often than not we had vendors cover the tab.

Vendors always love a good party

These are all off the top of my head. But they have worked for me so far.

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Technorati Tags: BlogMaverick,Mark Cuban,Tips for Start ups

Angels at work on East Coast

A group of Maritime investors has decided to keep their cash at home to assist young businesses trying to get off the ground. Already, eight firms have benefited.
By CLARE MELLOR Business Reporter
Sun. Apr 6 - 12:41 PM

Jim Mullen. president and CEO of Adventus Interactive, says his company recently benefited from angel capital investment. He says the money allowed the Halifax-based company, which operates MusIQ Club, to expand and implement a new business model. MusIQ Club is an enriched after-school music program that allows young students to use computer software and keyboards in unison. (Blake MacEwan)
 

Holly Bond, owner of Bulldog Interactive Fitness in this 2006 file photo, was a beneficiary of angel investment. Bulldog was sold to DHX Media.(Eric Wynne / Staff)

MARITIME ANGELS are starting to believe that there is strength in numbers. Just a few years ago, Halifax business groups were lamenting the lack of an angel business organization in this area.

But it seems one has taken flight, and since September 2005 it has attracted 76 members, who have funnelled $2.7 million into Maritime businesses ranging from biotechnology to educational software companies.

“We know for a fact that our money going into those (eight) companies has leveraged at least $10 million more for them,” says Ross Finlay, a business consultant and one of the founders of the First Angel Network Association, based in Halifax.

“So much money goes to Bay Street every year. Why not keep it at home to support our businesses and support the growth of the region?”

Finlay and Halifax entrepreneur Brian Lowe came up with the idea of the non-profit network one day in the spring of 2005.

The two had just finished raising $1 million in private equity for ImmunoVaccine Technologies, a Halifax biotechnology company of which Lowe is vice-president. That endeavour involved pounding the pavement and cold-calling potential individual investors.

“(We thought) it would have been a lot easier if there had been a network that we could have gone to,” Finlay says during an interview over coffee at the association’s sparsely furnished headquarters in downtown Halifax.

“So we decided, well, why don’t we do it? Nobody’s done it. Why don’t we give it a shot?”

The term “angels” was coined in the 1920s, when it referred to wealthy people who sponsored Broadway plays. It is now used to describe people who invest in mostly early-stage businesses that need a cash infusion to start up, expand or get their product to market.

Most major cities have organized networks of angel investors. The networks began to emerge after the burst of the high-tech bubble, which resulted in many investors losing their shirts.

“A lot of people lost a lot of money because they ignored the fundamentals of why you invest and doing the due diligence that is required on any investment. It scared a lot of people,” says Finlay, a friendly, enthusiastic man whose crisp purple shirt and matching tie are a contrast to the drab office.

“Business angels decided to come together and invest as a group and look at opportunities as a group. (It was) a little more disciplined approach to analyzing investment opportunities. and it proved to be successful.”

Finlay and Lowe spent that spring studying different angel models from around the world and came up with one they thought suitable. They then set out to ask some local business types what they thought about the idea.

“They said it was a no-brainer — a great idea. So we said, ‘Great, here is your invoice for membership.’ We weren’t going to do anything until we had 10 cheques because we needed office space and we needed equipment. There is no better commitment than a cheque,” Finlay says.

In just three months, the network, which charges a membership fee of $850 annually, had 50 angels signed up.

“When we started out, we said, well, if we get 30 people in this network, we will have some fun. That’s all we wanted, just a comfortable little fun thing that we could do in our spare time and have a little bit of an impact, but it just took off. Unbelievable.”

Finlay now spends much of his time away from his paper-laden desk, travelling in the region, meeting with investors and entrepreneurs.

There is no shortage of Maritime entrepreneurs. The network scrutinizes about 80 businesses a year, but introduces just one new business each quarter to its members at business dinner meetings held all over the region.

So far the First Angel Network has invested in eight businesses. They include Origin Biomed, BullDog Interactive Fitness (recently sold to DHX Media); Adventus Interactive, Intelivote Systems Inc., Green Imaging Technology, Safeharbour Security, Open Ocean Systems and Insightfoods.

Iraj Fooladi, a professor of finance at Dalhousie University, says it shows a real thirst for credit among small- and medium-sized businesses.

“(Angels) definitely fill a gap. Every time you see something like that growing that means there is a market for it. Financial institutions basically almost don’t loan to small business for a project. Commercial banks don’t loan for projects; even when they think they are, they are not really loaning for projects, they are loaning for collateral and so forth.

“Here is where the angel investors would come in.”

The First Angel Network sizes up the business, but it’s up to the individual investors to decide if they wish to invest. It is considered high risk investing. Some angels take a portfolio approach, reducing risk by investing a little in all the businesses.

“We don’t have an (investment) ceiling. The floor is typically $10.000,” Finlay says.

Unlike some other angel networks, the First Angel Network will work with and mentor a promising Maritime company, advising it how to become investment-ready. Once the network invests, it forms a strong relationship with the business and often positions an angel on the company’s board of directors. It owns a piece of the business, ranging from five per cent to 40 per cent.

Jim Mullen of Halifax Adventus Interactive says the angel investment in his company last fall came at a crucial time.

The company operates MusIQ Club, a music education program that uses interactive software. In business since 1996, Adventus required an infusion of capital to launch a new business model, says Mullen, president and CEO of the company. “It was very helpful and it helped the business turn a positive cash flow.”

He declined to reveal the amount of the investment but said it was about 10 per cent of the business.

“There is a limited time span to see the fruits of your new model and there is also a much higher risk when you don’t have reasonable amount of capital to work with,” Mullen says.

“If we were left to our own devices with an investment here and there it would take considerably longer to expand and that is a big risk.

Adventus will still require working capital in the future, but is seeing new markets open up around the world as a result of the capital, Mullen says.

So just who are the angels? It is difficult to find out unless you are a member.

Finlay believes the network’s quick growth is at least partly due to its policy of keeping its members’ names confidential. (They must waive that privilege to sit on the network’s board.)

Finlay estimates just over half the angels in the network are from Nova Scotia, 30 to 40 per cent from New Brunswick and the remainder from Prince Edward Island. Newfoundland and Labrador has its own angel network.

Finlay says there is a good mix of investors from rural and urban areas. Some are downright wealthy and others just well-off.

“They are from all walks of life. They are lawyers, doctors, very successful business people. People that have had businesses and sold the businesses. People who have inherited money.”

Maritime angels are “patient investors,” expecting a return on their investment in three to five years, he says.

“One of the benefits of membership is that if you are known to have money, you are hit on a lot, so they are able to say, ‘Look, I am a member of the First Angel Network; submit your business (plan) there.’

“It gets (people) out of their office.”

The overwhelming majority of members are men, says Finlay, who seems somewhat embarrassed at that fact.

“It was never meant to be gender-specific. We would love to have more women. Put that in,” he says.

The network has received support from several companies, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Progress Media Group. It also receives funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the National Research Council.

Last year the group received $180,000 over 18 months from ACOA to provide seminars on how businesses can improve their readiness for Angel investment. Recently, it received $450,000 over three years to support operating costs and to host the National Angel Summit in Halifax in October.

“The reason behind our getting involved in the First Angel Network Association is, it is a very interesting — I guess we call it a micro-lending, mentoring, coaching initiative,” said Richard Gauthier, an ACOA spokesman based in Moncton.

“It makes a whole lot of sense to ACOA to get involved in this, basically to have another option of venture capital but on a very small scale, backed by existing entrepreneurs who have a very keen interest helping to grow small and medium-sized businesses.”

Fooladi says that since ACOA’s mandate is regional economic development, the support makes sense.

“If another organization belonging to government does that, you could question why would they spend taxpayers’ money for this, but isn’t ACOA established for this sort of thing?”

The First Angel Network was recently asked to join a group of 22 angel networks in the New England states, known as the North East Angels. It will bring one of its companies, Green Imaging of Fredericton — ready for another round of financing — to that group’s upcoming meeting.

“It gives us more access to capital because all of a sudden the door is open. . . . There is a clear path to angel money that is in the New England states,” Finlay says. “That’s a lot more money than we’ve got.”

How successful the network becomes depends on membership growth, he says.

“It has grown to something way more than Brian and I thought it was going to be. I think we are starting to have considerable positive influence with what is going on economically.”

( cmellor@herald.ca)

Technorati Tags: Angel Investors,Halifax Chronical Herald,C Mellor

Satellite Abandoned Thanks To Patent On Lunar Flybys (Legal Issues)

by Michael Masnick from the promoting-the-progress dept on Friday, April 11th, 2008 @ 9:28AM

A ton of folks are all submitting different versions of this story this morning (from a variety of sources), but the original appears to be at Space Daily, where it discusses how satellite company SES Americom has to abandon a satellite that had a botched launch due to a ridiculous patent on the concept of a lunar flyby. Basically, what happened is that SES had a problem with a satellite launch, such that the satellite did not reach the proper orbit (it was intended to be a geostationary satellite used by Echostar). SES then figured out that it could get the satellite into a proper orbit by making use of a lunar flyby. That part is just basic physics. But, at that point, SES discovered that Boeing happens to own a patent on doing this sort of lunar flyby, despite the fact that you can’t patent physics. As someone notes in the article, Boeing merely used some jargon to make basic physics appear as a “process.” If that sounds familiar, you’ll note that it’s the same thing that many patent holders are doing to turn math into patents using software patents. So, rather than just doing it and having to deal with patent infringement lawsuit, SES tried to play by the rules (no matter how ridiculous) and asked Boeing to license the patent. Unfortunately, the two companies are engaged in a separate legal matter that has SES suing Boeing for $50 million. Boeing took the opportunity to tell SES it would license the patent only if SES dropped the lawsuit. Apparently, SES figured that the $50 million was worth more than saving the satellite, and will instead try to collect the insurance for the botched launch, abandoning the satellite. This may get more interesting, as apparently a third party is interested in buying the satellite and potentially taking on Boeing (or maybe just licensing the very questionable patent). Also, the insurance company apparently was not aware of these alternatives and may push SES to take one of them. Either way, thanks to a patent on physics (which, last I checked, is not something “made by man”) SES has felt the need to abandon a perfectly viable satellite. I’m sure that was exactly how the Founding Fathers expected the patent system to be used. Update: The patent in question is available here. 90 Comments

Ten tips for business buyers

By MARK CROSSMAN Guest Columnist                    
Mon. Mar 24 - 6:55 AM
EVERY PROFESSIONAL involved in the process of buying and selling of privately held businesses has a list of items they consider important. This is the list I suggest buyers consider. I also believe that potential sellers can learn a lot by “thinking about their business like a buyer will.” Only by considering the buyer’s point of view, can a seller maximize the value in their business. The 10 commandments for business purchases are:

1: Buy a good business and make it great. There are certain common features all good businesses possess — look for them. Buy a business with a strong foundation where you can focus your resources on building strength. Don’t look to buy a cheap business; it’s like a bad used car. You’ll spend all of your time and money trying to patch “leaks” and you’ll still have a “leaky car.” Buy strength and build upon it.

2: Pay for the past, consider the present, but buy for the future! Focusing on the past will only blur your vision of the future. You don’t buy a business for the past unless you’re planning to go backwards. Your business will tend to go in the direction that you look. Buy a business where you can look to the future and take it there.

3: A business is more than just numbers. Buying a business solely because of the numbers can be a recipe for disaster. You need to look forward to getting up in the morning and going to work.

4: Understand what it’s worth to you. Only you can truly evaluate the benefits of any venture. Get advice, but also take a realistic approach to this crucial exercise. The goodwill and assistance of the seller through the transitional process may be worth more to you than that last dollar.

5: Understand the cash flow and what it will take to improve it. A good business should have an existing, stable cash flow. Be confident in the effects change will have. Sometimes the smallest improvements yield the greatest results.

6: Buy a business that makes you proud. You must be able to speak about it with confidence and pride! You must be able to enthusiastically explain it in simple terms.

7: You must have faith in the information supplied to you. As a buyer, you have the right to all information necessary to make an informed decision.

8: You must be able to learn the business. While 80 per cent of all businesses are the same, it is important that you have the ability to grasp the 20 per cent that is different.

9: Have a plan. From the day you take over you need a plan for the future. Good businesses seldom suffer from lack of vision or planning.

10: Do what you do best and manage the rest. Be sure that you posses some of the skills that the business really needs and you can hire the balance.

Mark Crossman is president of M&A Canada Inc., a Nova Scotia firm dedicated to assisting owners of successful private companies sell their businesses.

GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com

 

 

 

 

 

By Kevin Poulsen March 11, 2008 | 8:42:42 PMCategories: Censorship, Cover-Ups

A new web service that lets users rate and comment on the uniformed police officers in their community is scrambling to restore service Tuesday, after hosting company GoDaddy unceremonious pulled-the-plug on the site in the wake of outrage from criticism-leery cops.

Visitors to RateMyCop.com on Tuesday were redirected to a GoDaddy page reading, “Oops!!!”, which urged the site owner to contact GoDaddy to find out why the company pulled the plug.

RateMyCop founder Gino Sesto says he was given no notice of the suspension. When he called GoDaddy, the company told him that he’d been shut down for “suspicious activity.”

When Sesto got a supervisor on the phone, the company changed its story and claimed the site had surpassed its 3 terabyte bandwidth limit, a claim that Sesto says is nonsense. “How can it be overloaded when it only had 80,00 page views today, and 400,000 yesterday?”

Police departments became uneasy about RateMyCop’s plans to watch the watchers in January, when the Culver City, California, startup began issuing public information requests for lists of uniformed officers.

Then the site went live on February 28th. It stores the names and, in some cases, badge numbers of over 140,000 cops in as many as 500 police departments, and allows users to post comments about police they’ve interacted with, and rate them. The site garnered media interest this week as cops around the country complained that they’d be put at risk if their names were on the internet.

“Having a website like that puts a lot of law enforcement, in my eyes, in danger because it exposes us out there,” Officer Hector Basurto, vice president of the Latino Police Officers Association, told ABC television affiliate KGO.

Since undercover officers aren’t in the database, and the site has no personal information like home addresses, that fear seems unfounded. Chief Jerry Dyer, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, voices what sounds like a more honest concern: that officers will face  “unfair maligning” by the citizens they serve.

Sesto says police can post comments as well, and a future version of the site will allow them to authenticate themselves to post rebuttals more prominently.  Chief Dyer wants to get legislation passed that would make RateMyCop.com illegal, which, of course, wouldn’t pass constitutional muster in any court in America.

Unfortunately for the startup, the company it chose for hosting is known to be quick to censor its customers. In January of last year, GoDaddy took down entire computer security website – delisting it from DNS — to get a single, archived mailing list post off the web.

On that occasion, at least, it gave the site’s owner 60 seconds notice. GoDaddy notified Seto by posting its “Oops!” message to his public website.

“You put on my website for me to call you, when you have my phone number?,” says Sesto.
A GoDaddy spokeswoman says the company can’t comment on the RateMyCop takedown due to its privacy policy. Sesto says he’s already arranged hosting elsewhere, and hopes to have the site online Tuesday night.

See Also:

• GoDaddy, Meet NoDaddy
• MySpace Allegedly Kills Computer Security Website
• GoDaddy Defends SecLists Takedown

Technorati Tags: Wired,GoDaddy,RateMyCop.com,K.Poulsen

Make Your Web Marketing Work

Marketing & Sales | March 06, 2008

Quick — where does you company appear in a Google search?

• If it’s not on the first page of search results, it’s time to rejigger your Web marketing strategy.
• Your first step could be a search audit, says BNET’s Jonathan Haeber.
• Next, you might want to look over MarketingSherpa’s 2008 search marketing guide, and then check out how well your site attracts visitors.

Retool Your Web Marketing Strategy

Make Your Web Marketing Work BNET’s Jonathan  Haeber on the search audit and why every company needs one to stay competitive online.

Sponsored Application development execs need visibility to become more reliable business partners Read this Forrester Consulting paper to understand how other IT executives achieve successful application delivery, and discover how to capitalize on new projects and innovation to forge ahead as a true strategic business partner. (Compuware)

MarketingSherpa’s 2008 Search Marketing Guide
A 360-degree view on what works (and what doesn’t) in search marketing.

Check Your Website’s Search-Engine Friendliness
A free tool to that analyzes your site’s ability to attract visitors.

The Business of Eliminating Junk Marketing
Protecting privacy and helping advertisers reach their target markets may sound like a conflict of interest, but tech entrepreneur Steven Gal is proving he can do both — and make a profitable business doing it.

Did Starbucks Shut Down to Get Good PR? The coffee chain made much ado last week about an “historic” closing of all of its domestic stores for three hours to retrain its baristas. But was the move truly about quality or just an attempt to change the tide of recent bad press?

Sales Machine

How to Focus the Sales Process on the Customer
BNET’s Geoffrey James culls sales wisdom from Michael Bosworth and outlines the perfect process.

Your New Sales Strategy: Authenticity What the rise in anonymity on the Web means for B2B selling.

Pitch Perfect

Eyeing More Authority?  CNET’s exec coach Leila Bulling Towne on how to express confidence and expertise by using effective eye contact.

Make a Powerful Impression  Author Carol Kinsey Goman explains six ways to build trust and credibility with colleagues using body language.

Polish Your Personal Brand  In today’s super-competitive business environment, it pays in cash and career advancement for you to self-promote your skills and capabilities. It’s time to take another look at “Brand Me.”

Technorati Tags: bnet,Brand,Sales,Pitch

LiveUniverse Trying To Acquire Stage6 From Divx

Mar 08, 2008 02:09:38 GMT

After we thought the bizarre story of Stage6 was over, Brad Greenspan’s LiveUniverse has gotten involved, and the plot gets even thicker.

According to a release from LiveUniverse, the company offered to acquire Stage6 prior to the site being shut by DivX 25 February. The offer was $11 million in cash & carriage plus an equity Stake in Stage6 and Promotion of DivX Software. LiveUniverse then claims that the DivX Board “refused to engage in any direct dialogue with LiveUniverse for over 5 days, and during this time, DivX shuts down Stage6.”

Despite the site being shut for nearly 2 weeks, LiveUniverse still wants to buy it and is appealing to DivX shareholders to pressure the company into selling. DivX shareholders can visit www.livevideo.com/SaveStage6” to take initiative and proactively push the Board to do the right thing for shareholders.”

LiveUniverse is claiming that “despite daily outbound calls and emails, LiveUniverse was and is unable to reach any of the DivX executives including General Counsel David Richter who LiveUniverse was originally referred to for the purposes of buying Stage6.” The go on to say that “Directors of public companies have a fiduciary duty to shareholders to try to get the best deal and represent their interests, first and foremost” and “DivX Board’s decision to destroy website and its community when there was and is a firm superior offer on table from LiveUniverse raises questions of whether proper sales process was followed.”

The one part missing from LiveUniverse’s statement is why? why do they want to buy Stage6? Sure, it was a great site with a ton of traffic, but it was only great because it offered a BitTorrent style smorgasbord of pirated content without the need to download it. Without the pirated movies, the traffic on Stage6 means nothing. Either LiveUniverse knows something we don’t about the site, or they’re taking a big risk.

CrunchBase Information

DivX

LiveUniverse

Stage6

Brad Greenspan

Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Startups Must Hire The Right People And Watch Every Penny. Or Fail.

« Previous post

March 8 2008

Michael Arrington

97 comments »

Yesterday Jason Calacanis, the founder of Mahalo (and, full disclosure, our partner at TechCrunch40), wrote a blog post titled “How to save money running a startup.” Boy was he attacked. Bloggers lined up to take their shots at him. Examples are here, here, here and, especially, here.

Our own Duncan Riley also wrote a post criticizing Calacanis and a firestorm of comments blew in. He took a more humorous approach to make his points, but his opinion on the matter was clear.

I happen to disagree with Duncan and the others criticizing Calacanis, though. Our writers have complete editorial discretion, and I would never ask him to change his overall tone or message. But I do want to chime in with my own thoughts because this is an important cultural issue and worthy of further discussion.

Some of Calacanis’ points were probably written in haste, like his statement “Fire people who are not workaholics” (he later changed it to “Fire people who don’t love their work”). Others were not controversial, like his advice to “Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs.” Overall, I get the impression that if he had spent just a few minutes editing his post, he would have had a 100% different reaction from readers.

I’m not that interested in analyzing each of his 17 suggestions - some I agree with, some I don’t. But I am interested in adding my thoughts to what I believe are (or should be) his underlying messages:

Startups Must Hire The Right People

Startups that hire incorrectly fail. They don’t probably fail, or maybe fail. They just plain fail.

You must hire the right people. In particular, the early employees must be perfect. This is more important than anything else, including the product or business idea. Perfect teams can adapt to failing products or market/competitive issues and correct for that. That’s why great teams tend to work together over and over again, and sometimes start companies even before they know what the product will be.

The most important part of hiring correctly is to not hire the wrong people. The second most important part of hiring correctly is to hire the right people. What that means is that it is better to not hire anyone at all if you can’t find the right person. And if your startup fails, all the perks, time off and general coddling that many outraged commenters called for isn’t all that useful.

So who are the right people and who are the wrong people? It’s not that hard to tell. The right people are the ones that really, really want to work with you. You can tell they’re excited to be a part of the team. They actively look for problems to solve, and then solve them. This is a personality type that is very easy to spot once you know what to look for - they have fire in their eyes. They’re warriors.

I’ll take the fired up warrior any day over the more experienced but otherwise meek alternative. Skills can be learned quickly on the job (excluding certain specialized skills, which mostly means developers for a young startup). But if you aren’t already the kind of person who’ll just get the job done no matter what, you’ll likely never be.

Warning signs to look out for during an interview: people who care about status symbols like titles, people who resent the success of others, people who act like they’re doing you a favor by talking to you. And people who want to negotiate salary endlessly but couldn’t care less about the stock options.

If you hire badly, it isn’t just that employee who’s not performing. They poison the entire organization. If everyone is pushing hard to get a product out the door, but one sulking individual is passive aggressive about working late, morale drops across the company. It spreads like cancer.

I’m not saying you should chain people to the desk. I’m not saying you should make them work 24 hours a day. What I’m saying is that you should hire people who work 24 hours a day because there is nothing else they’d rather do. If you’ve got a product to launch and you’re ultimately trying to disrupt a bigger and better funded company, it’s likely that you are going to need a superhuman effort from the team. I doubt Google’s early employees complained about the hours (and take a wild guess as to why Google gives employees free lunch and free dinners).

If something about this doesn’t sit well with you, that’s ok because you are part of the vast majority of people out there who have an appropriate work-life balance. That doesn’t make you a bad person. It just makes you a bad hire for a resource-strapped startup that needs a team of kick ass all-stars to have a hope in hell of succeeding.

The bottom line is this. The only people in the world that should feel warm and fuzzy around you are your customers/users. Your employees don’t want to feel warm and fuzzy. They want to win. If they are warriors, they’ll respect what you are doing and follow you into the wee hours of every morning to mark their place in history and fill their bank accounts with stock option dollars.

Watch Every Penny

Startups cannot waste money. If they do, they’ll fail. As I said above, they don’t probably fail, or maybe fail. They just plain fail.

That means a really cheap office, to start. Don’t even think about an administrative assistant. Or flying business class. Double up in hotel rooms. And even things like telephones are probably not needed. You have cell phones and skype for that. Matching 401k plans? HAH. Three weeks vacation? Not going to happen. You cannot waste money because every dollar is an amount of time you can keep running the business before you have to shut down. Run out of dollars before you reach profitability or convince investors to double down, and you’re done.

However…you cannot be penny wise and pound foolish. Get your developers the hardware and software they need. Pay your employee’s cell phone bills (the nice thing about reimbursing expenses is that it’s tax efficient to both the company and the employee v. income). Attend the conferences you need to attend to push the business forward (but try to sneak in for free)(unless it’s TechCrunch40).

Here’s another tip - make sure your accountants and lawyers know that you are watching every penny. Bring up cost issues to them on every other call. They’ll be far less likely to pad their bills if you do. But also make sure they know that there’s upside - a successful client that raises venture capital, gets sold, enters into a lot of deals, etc. will generate fees for them down the road. Make sure they see you as a partner, not an ATM machine.

Something else that I’ll pass on - when startups raise their first big round of financing, they are at their most vulnerable point. The new investors want results. Expansion. Market domination. Etc. Too many startups start to spend that money on really dumb stuff - new employees that aren’t needed, new office space, etc. It’s incredible how a company that got to launch on $200k will start to spend that amount every month after they raise $5 million. And the results - bad hires who not only don’t perform, but who also bring the rest of the team down. When and if you raise that money, make sure you are doubly cautious about spending.

Push to the breaking point on everything. Pay money out as slowly as possible. Collect revenue aggressively and quickly. And never miss payroll.

If you do all of these things you will have a 2 in 10 chance of middling success, and a 1 in 10 chance of a serious win. Don’t do these things and you’ll fail.

Technorati Tags: TechCrunch,Start Ups,Good People,Money