I’ve tried them all.

GotoMeeting works, but is total overkill for my 1:1 conversations and is expensive at $40-50/month. Yugma works, and is cheaper, but thanks to its Java interface, 8 of 10 times I wanted to use it with clients they couldn’t launch it. The web marketing discussion turned into a frustrating Java Virtual machine discussion. Using Windows Remote Desktop works, for one person - the one doing the connecting.

There are other tools too, but most of them are “in the way” of the conversation - distracting noise with tabs hanging off the windows or floating configuration boxes, blah, blah blah!

VNC has Been Around Forever. But It Was Designed for Geeks.

VNC is old school. But in the past it required a well choreographed dance of launches and clicks to make the listening viewers work. And the client/customer had to install the whole app - faced with a myriad of confusing features.

So I had never really considered VNC (Virtual Network Computing) because it was too geeky for clients. In my mind it fell into the same category as telnet, SSH, and navigating VI. Stuff I took great pride in being able to master but would simply frustrate my clients. I’ve used VNC and tunneling of various types for 15 years, but things had to change when less tech-savvy clients were waiting for me to show them something.

The Solution.

The other day I ran across UltraVNC (typical VNC server/client) and it’s little “applet-maker” for the client-side called Singleclick IT ROCKS. And it works every time.

Here’s How Singleclick Works

The client has to do this:

1. Unzip it to their desktop.
2. Run it when asked.
3. Done.. nothing else

You (consultant) need to install it: This took me 20 minutes including configuring the Singleclick config file

1. Download it and Install it on your Windows based PC.
2. Configure your firewall to accept connections. You can configure it on a variety of ports for security.
3. In the install directory there will be a folder containing a configuration file, some icons, and the core of an application.
4. Adjust the config file and add your company logo. Here you identify the ports you’ll use, the host name of your VNC server, and other information. I used the funny cat because I can always tell when the application has been run for the first time on their end. They chuckle.
5. “Compile” the applet at the UltraVNC website’s “SC Creator Tool.” It spits out an .exe file ready to run on any Windows computer.
6. Run a virus scan on the resulting application just in case. This is one time.
7. Give that file to all of your clients using Windows. Tip: You need to ZIP the EXE so it will pass through email and anti-virus systems.

Using The System

1. You run the Listening VNC viewer on your end whenever you’re about to do a call.
2. When you want to do a connection, you ask the client to run the program, and click on “Internet Support” on the SingleClick applet. It is configured to hit your IP address (or in my case host name) thanks to the info you put in the little config file.
3. The system pings my VNC server and a dialog appears….”are you sure you want to allow a connection” I click “Yes”
4. I’m now looking at my clients’ desktop along with them. Clean, fast and no confusion. No windows or tabs hanging off the side. You can do it plainly or with 128 bit encryption.
5. When done, the system shuts itself down and uninstalls itself from memory. It can never be initiated without permission at both ends of the wire.
6. By the way - you don’t have to use an ugly cat. You can use your nice corporate logo. :-)
7. If the client has a webcam, you can run Skype and have a pretty decent virtual meeting!

What about Firewalls?

Not an issue as far as I can tell. The client’s initiation of a conversation is akin to a simple ping, and since I initiate the inbound connection on my end, things just work.

After struggling with Yugma for months, this system now works wonders. Every single client has been able to use it flawlessly and we’ve saved hours (and gallons of $4/gal gas) getting little things done. It’s transparent tech the way it’s supposed to be - out of the way of what you’re actually trying to do.

It’s spontaneous and well designed for a busy consultant.

What’s the Catch?

The downside is that the system is not intended for multiple viewers. It’s really just a quick and simple way to get your clients’ screen in front of you. It’s at least 10 times easier than any other method I’ve seen now that Singleclick is in place.

I have been doing SEO for almost 12 years now. In that time I’ve done dozens of Yahoo! Directory submissions under an embarrassingly large number of Yahoo! Ids (remember when the SPAM solution was just to change IDs?)

But my credit card number has remained the same. So each year, $299 charges appear for Yahoo directory submissions I did after they started charging for it (I have dozens that were grandfathered in.) The trouble is, I am unable to identify which URL they go with - and in a few cases I used my clients’ Yahoo! ID for submissions. I realize now what a horrible mistake that was.

None of the charges appear on my Yahoo! billing screens for any of my current Yahoo! ids. I assume that the most recent charges were done on a client ID, but somehow my billing info was used. So I call the billing department…..

Me: Hi, I have these $299 charges on my card for Yahoo! directory submissions I did.

Yahoo: Can I have your Yahoo! Id?

Me. Sorry. The charge doesn’t appear for any of my Yahoo! ids. However, I do have the charge card information and can PDF you the statement to review.

Yahoo: Can I have your charge card number.

Me: Sure, [I give it]

Yahoo: Ok, I see the Y! directory entry.

Me: Great! [I’m thinking the call will be short and sweet]

Yahoo: Do you know the alternate email address?

Me: I just need to know the URL so I can determine if it should be in the directory or not, and that will probably tell me which client Yahoo! Id I need. I’ve changed email addresses since the late ’90s a few times and in a couple of cases used my client’s Yahoo! ID for submissions. I don’t have access to the old one. But here are my current email addresses [I list them] and my current Yahoo Ids.

Yahoo: Sorry, none of those match the ones on these Yahoo! directory submissions.

Me: Probably not - it’s an oldie. Can you move them to my current account? The billing information should be the same on each account.

Yahoo: Yes, it’s the same

Me: Great!

Yahoo: But we cannot use that information.

Me: [growing concerned] So, even though I’m being charged for this Yahoo! directory entry you cannot tell me which URL it’s for if I don’t have the old Yahoo! id that was used to submit it?

Yahoo: That’s correct.

Me: Doesn’t this seem a little out of whack to you? You have tons of evidence at your disposal to see that it’s me, including my phone number [I offer to have them call me back] and my billing information.

Yahoo: Sorry, that won’t work. I can cancel the Directory listing for you and give you a refund.

Me: [feeling out of options - I don’t want $300 charges for clients I don’t have anymore]

In the end. They would NOT tell me which URL the charge was for. I ended up having to cancel the listing, possibly affecting the SEO performance of my client and waiting to see which one vanished from the directory.

The URL of a charged directory entry is not a security risk. There is no good reason not to tell this to the party who is being charged.

dead end sign by David Joyce used under Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License

If you want to see a company who knows how to work the blogosphere, it doesn’t get any better than what I’ve been seeing over here at Vinny Carpenter’s blog.

David Friend, CEO of Carbonite is all over the blog post answering questions and solving problems for people - and impressing the hell out of me.

I can’t use his products so I cannot say much about them… Why? I used external fixed disk drives and Carbonite doesn’t support right now.

I use Mozy - but now have a far better opinion of Carbonite since watching this guy and if they ever add the support I need, I’ll be in the right mindset to give it a try. It looks to me like they are taking care of consumers and that is terrific to see.

But I now have a new example of doing this right.

From Yahoo Answers..

…it’s okay dude, we know how you feel.

Well, the hotels are filling up, the restaurateurs are looking a bit frazzled, and the traffic is getting a bit worse so it must be that time of year - the Kentucky Derby. While I realize Derby Parties will be happening all over the world, I thought I’d provide a little bit of help to make those parties a bit more successful and authentic. Thanks to Jason for this link, and be sure to check out his Eastern Kentucky Mint Julep video.

I post this today because Julep Bourbon takes 2-3 days to marinade in the freezer. So do this TODAY!!!

Here’s the Maker’s Mark Mint Julep. After having some pretty badly made Juleps, this may just be the one to take home the roses this year. We have been going to derby parties as long as I can remember and hopefully some of you will check this out. And good luck on your horse.

Here are some others posting about this famous cocktail.

Mint Julep Roundup: Kentucky Derby Edition from Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Looking for a Mint Julep in Orange County?
The Perfect Mint Julep on Drink of the Week uses Maker’s Mark recipe too.
Got money to burn?  Check out the world’s most expensive Mint Julep Cup

Yes, that is a lion. In a sidecar. Pulling G’s with some real entertainers. Not a warning sign in sight. Now that’s entertainment. Line forms to the left.

Actually, the setup was a wooden barrel board wall of the “Thrillarena” or “Wall of Death” It’s called Motor Drome Riding and it was popular in the 20s and 30s. Someone along the way said “Hey, let’s put lions in the drome” uhhhh kay… sure, that’ll bring ‘em in. And it did.

Jason Falls had me thinking about this post after I wrote it so I updated it. When you use Gimmicks, you must just keep cranking them out. You must start out with a dog in the sidecar, then a goat, then a friggin’ lion. But what do you do when the lion gets boring?

So if you’re dependent on gimmicks - keep your foot in it - cause if you slow down, you’ll be lunch.

images from thrillarena.com

Heidi Adams Cool at Case Western produced a terrific introduction to the world of social media.  Written with clarity for the beginner,  I highly recommend checking it out no matter what your level of experience.

Insight:

“Of course the trick with this is the same as it always has been; word-of-mouth referrals are driven by satisfied customers, not marketers. We can pave the way and create opportunities to make this happen more easily, but we can’t put words in people’s mouths or on their social networks.”

Seth Godin recently wrote about how Digg and StumbleUpon can send (boatloads of) unfocused visitors to a site, and how people should probably focus on other things rather than trying to maximize this number.

My feelings are that the number of visits (and votes) you obtain from a strong social media presence have long-term benefits that transcend the spikes and that these deserve a discussion.

Authority Influences Search Influences Increasingly Targeted Traffic Over Time.

People use search to find what they’re after 85% of the time and top search results are obtained through authority and trust. Google ranks things based on its best guess of trust and authority, as does Yahoo!, Live.com, Technorati, and del.icio.us. We want links and votes from important groups of people for their click-traffic, but also so that we rank better in the search engines.

Social media opens doors that other forms of marketing cannot.

Godin may not be considering that this unfocused traffic is just the frothy, chaotic front of a wave after which important, difficult-to-acquire links follow. To use Godin’s terminology, it’s then the “sneezers” who use social media’s ability to sift out important stuff using crowd wisdom (votes in this case.) If you have remarkable stuff, social media can float you through “the dip” of today’s river of news in a way you’d never achieve otherwise.

In Purple Cow, Godin wrote:

• Sell what people are buying
• Focus on the early adopters and sneezers
• Make it remarkable enough for them to pay attention
• Make it easy for them to spread
• Let it work its own way to the mass market.

Sneezers have established trust in their community online - at varying levels - in sort of a steep tail. They resist marketing efforts to influence their words and protect their reputations. Words and Links from these people usually cannot be bought at any price, and they’ve probably forgotten what a press release looks like. They have earned, through authority granted by others, a place in the search engines’ hearts.

So take a fictional moderately popular Digg post that brings traffic to your site…

• Short term Digg Visits: 5000
• Short Term Exit Rate: 90%
• Short term Conversions: 0 (dry those tears, it gets better)
• Rank for your favored keyword on Google before: 40
• Short term Influencer Visits: 200
• Influencer links: 5
• Subsequent sub-influencer links: 50
• Visits (over time) via the influencer links: 5000 targeted visitors.
• Visits (over time) via increased search rank: 5000 somewhat targeted visitors.
• Digg who?

Okay, you can beat up my numbers but the point I want to make is that this traffic is a means to an end, not the end itself. By the time you’re seeing the effects of your work on social media, you have long fallen off of the front page of Digg, and your Stumbleupon traffic may be in the dumpster. The beat goes on.

To sum up…A popular Digg/Stumble/Reddit post has these effects:

• A often dramatic spike in traffic - with a high bounce rate. Noisy.
• Attention granted by influencers who use Digg/Stumble votes as a filter on what’s important.
• Improved search rank due to persistent authority linkages from relevant conversations elsewhere.
• A sustained increase in relevant, high quality traffic through the direct-click traffic of the new links found in the long-tail of referrals from influencers.
• A slow increase in trust for your site as an authority by the influencers (they may look more closely at your next post / product / idea. Darren Rowse calls this a “Digging Culture”
• Increased attention via RSS and newsletter subscriptions.

Anytime someone mentions “Digg” and “Conversions” in the same paragraph, I get nervous. So let me know what you think about this explanation.

So Seth, from a big fan, I say to you that silly traffic might not be that silly after all.

Illustration by geishaboy500 used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License

Ok, it’s the middle of the night and I’m sitting in a rock hard airport chair, but my mind is on the takeaways that I have from the SMX Social Media conference. Much of this I knew, but it was heavily re-enforced.

The bigest benefit, as with most of these small shows, is the contacts and friendships I have started or continued. I think the best in the world were at the show, and for clients who seek out these people, huge success awaits.

While I think the overall presentation quality was high, my favorites were Randy Woods‘ well-grounded discussion and Rob Key’s insightful discussion about tribal culture and Second Life. I was also impressed by Brent Csutoras’ discussion about link building.

But the client-marketer relationship was the one thing that bugged me most. Nobody seemed keen on sharing information about this essential element of the SMM profession, yet I could definitely sense lots of folks were seeking it. I often wonder if conference organizers should think more about the harsh, real-world realities of getting programs like these in place. Or perhaps there’s just no way to wrap that up into a single presentation.

20 Take-Aways:

1. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is terrific for link building, not for conversions. This is a major change for many marketers to internalize and incorporate into their offering.
2. It takes a special kind of client/consultant relationship to make SMM work. It’s closer to organic SEO work than any other web marketing in the “grind-it-out” nature.
3. SMM cannot be sold as a one-off service or “by the campaign.” Too many external variables mean you have to execute many campaigns over time to hedge your bets. To sell as a one-off service is to invite failure and client ill-will.
4. SMM requires incredible organization on the part of the marketer. Both to keep track of a campaign and to make sure not to break out of acceptable tribal ‘participation.’
5. SMM link building requires a keen eye for linkbait that relates to your marketing goals and finesse to make sure it’s not overtly sales-like in presentation.
6. Vertical social networks should be an important part of any campaign. Smaller numbers of highly enthusiastic players are using these sites.
7. Explaining SMM to clients is going to be very, very difficult. But those who have an inherent curiosity and willingness to participate will earn a strong competitive advantage.
8. Having a strong network of friends is essential to SMM, and that network requires daily nurturing.
9. Wikipedia makes Digg look like a baby traffic wise, and there are opportunities…but…
10. Wikipedia sessions feel a lot like COBOL classes. Even if the people are smart, that whole thing requires a really strong level of patience and persistence. But 5m+ page views daily makes marketers salivate.
11. People need to create policies to outline who owns SMM profiles, what happens when there is a change of hands.
12. To succeed in social network marketing, plugged-in individuals who know the “tribe’s habits” will win. 20-year PR veterans need not apply if they are still in the mindset of the press release or are unwilling to spend time participating before promoting. Plenty of people have got in trouble.
13. There are a lot of really smart people in SMM. Compared to other forms of marketing, the growth and opportunity aligns with trends towards authenticity, word-of-mouth, and making up for short consumer attention spans.
14. One of my greatest worries is that clients will write off SMM while their competition runs with it. I worry because catch-up is a tough game to play in SMM and you can’t rush it.
15. Even one SPAM slip-up in a social network can ruin an entire branding or SMM effort. Social networks have zero tolerance for screw-ups. Re-building a profile can take 6 months or more of hard work.
16. SMM is risky if your brand is fragile or an easy target - putting your brand out in the public eye requires awareness of the cost-benefits. Almost always it’s worth it - that is if you sell a decent product, but you will need to weather the storm of negatives that will come your way with skill.
17. Advertising agencies don’t get it, for the most part.
18. SEO/SMM are joined at the hip for many things and a link building effort can stack up dozens if not hundreds of authority links…but direct-click traffic itself, independent of the SEO/link advantages, can be significant.
19. Participation in social networks - real participation - is a requirement, and is very time consuming. I left wondering who will pay for this time.
20. Red-eyes suck.

A few other places to get SMX social-media related information. Add more to comments and I’ll add to this list with ‘follow’

Coverage of the Jason Calacanis and Jimmy Wales panel
More coverage of the Social Search: The Human Challengers
Social Media Marketing Essentials
Linkbait - Chumming for Traffic on Social Media Sites
Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites
A Marketer’s Guide to Social Bookmarking

Does your non-profit send less than 10,000 messages per month? Are you looking or a good way to get your non-profit newsletter out the door with a minimum of hassle? Well this deal is going to be sweet.

Here’s the deal:

Any verified non-profit account or sub-account participating in our new program will receive 10,000 email credits in their account. Any unused free credits expire at the end of the month, but never fear, the account will be refreshed with 10,000 new credits at the beginning of each new month. Any non-profit mailings over 10,000 credits will still receive the 15% discount.

To sign up:

• If you’re NOT a Vertical Response Customer you’ll need to sign up.
• Fill out a the VR Non Profit Application form and fax it back to (415) 808-2480.
• Allow at least 3 days for approval.
• Vertical Response will Contact You.

If you ARE an existing Vertical Response nonprofit customer you only need send an email to nonprofits@verticalresponse.com and they will start the program for your next purchase.

If you have questions regarding the status of your application, call VR at (866) 683-7842 6am-6pm PST. Don’t call/email me about it, because I won’t know.

Note: The free offer is only for the excellent Vertical Response email marketing product, not for any consulting services.

Image by DryIcons used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License