Jordan Has a Blog

So I’ve finally got my latest project done enough to go into beta testing, so I want everyone to know about it.  It’s a service called Craigstweets that will notify you whenever new listings for a particular search are put on Craigslist.

I made this because I got really sick and tired of Craigslist searching the same thing to find 1 new listing that didn’t interest me, and I’m always using Twitter so I figured I’d save myself some time and make something to do the searching for me.  This works amazing if you use a Twitter deskop appication that notifies you about new @ replies (I currently use TweetDeck).

Here’s a short video that explains it a little bit more.  Be on the lookout for some updates within the next week, I’m adding email notifications and a premium option that will allow you to have more than 2 searches.  Let me know what you think in the comments, I really appreciate any input.

Check it out at http://craigstweets.com

The X-Men Origins movie destroyed the box office making $87 million this past weekend. I feel like this has a lot to say about how people feel about the movies experience. Despite the fact that this got leaked and plenty of people saw the movie prior to release, and the fact that it’s received terrible reviews, people will still dish out the money to see it. We’re in an economy crisis and many are still willing to drive to the movie theaters and spend $15 per ticket to see something they can get for free. I personally would rather go see 17 Again or Hannah Montana The Movie but if those were sold out, as they should be, I suppose I would go check out X-Men Origins on the big screen.

It goes to show that there’s something to be said about the experience of going to the movies, even when the movie to be seen gets terrible reviews and could be seen for free, it’s the experience people pay for. Watching live music is an unique experience, which is why people will pay upwards of $150 for a ticket. Same with going to the movies. However, listening to music or just watching a movie on a TV is something we get for free all the time, which is why many are very hesitant to pay money to do either.

No one wants to pay anything for a song that they just heard 5 times within the last hour on the radio for free. The record industry and movie industry need to realize the game is changing, and in order to keep up they are going to have to change their ways of doing things. It’s a sad fact but any movie out on DVD I can get for free in 5 minutes. Despite this, I wouldn’t ever pay $10 for the actual DVD, even if I couldn’t get it for free. I don’t feel I get enough for that $10.

Instead of fighting against the people who do get it for free, why not offer more to the package to give the customer a different experience than they are generally used to. Give more than just the movie and some extra bonus clips that no one even cares to see. When I see a DVD with an alternate ending I don’t look at this as added value, I look at it as the ending that wasn’t good enough for theaters, so why would I want to see it.

Nine Inch Nails has experimented with a similar idea where they gave more content for those who paid more, and the results were quite positive. It’s sad that more people in the industries haven’t adapted a similar model. Maybe the results of X-Men Origins will show them that they need to stop wasting their time fighting piracy and put more time into making me want to spend my money on something with real value.

Wow, this is some awesome viral marketing.  A video response to the “Jizz In My Pants” song by The Lonely Island called “Puke In My Mouth.”  This is advertising a fake engagement ring that ladies can wear in order to keep creepers away.  This is going after an incredibly small market so making a video like this is almost necessary to make some noise and get the word out about a product. I think traditional advertising is worthless when there is such a small market for your product. I guarantee this video will have over one million views by the end of May.  These people probably got a better response than paying for ad space somewhere, and it cost them nothing. Well done.

Here is a great money saving tip by yours truly.  Watch and learn!

“So tell me, what’s this Twitter thing all about?”

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me this, I’d have $4.38.  Many people have different views on it.  I always hear people describe it as micro-blogging, or that it’s “kind of like an away message on AIM or like your status on Facebook.”

I think it is much more than this.  I always describe it as an open conversation about everything.  So much information flows through Twitter that it boggles my mind.  Of course whenever a new social network comes out, every tries to find ways to profit from it.  I’ve noticed, however, that few businesses have figured out how to leverage Twitter and join these conversation to connect to possible costumers.  Firstly, if you own a business and you don’t have a Twitter account for your business, you are CRAZY and simply don’t get it.  Secondly, those companies that have an account and simply follow as many people as possible in hopes that some return the follow are even worse!  If you are trying to sell something or promote something and you think that following 17,567 random Twitter users (I call this follow spamming) is going to help you, then you don’t get it either.  If you’re not genuine and you’re just looking to sell your products, promote your site, make money, etc. then you are not going to get close to the results you want.  Maybe 5 people of those 17,567 will really be interested in what you have to say.  You just wasted a whole lot of clicking for no results.  So how can you really make use of Twitter?

A lot of good companies out there that really understand Twitter have already built their brand and don’t need to do much more than be awesome to grab peoples attention.  But a lot of companies fail to really get peoples attention, or more importantly, fail to get the right peoples attention (potential customers, subscribers, viewers, etc.).  Maybe you’re just a little startup company, how do you get heard?  As I said in the beginning of this post, Twitter is an open CONVERSATION, so you need to join the conversation.  If you sell toilets, you better be using http://search.twitter.com and searching “toilet seats”, “toilets” and any other variation to find out what people are saying about them.  Why?  Because these are the people who might actually care what you have to say about toilets!  You need to engage in this conversation, @reply people, give advice, and be genuine!  Also using http://wefollow.com, which is a Twitter directory which groups people by their interests, to try and find people who are interested in your particular niche can help connect you to the write types of users.

Anyone who ends up following you in response to your help or comment is a much more valuable follower than one of the random people that might follow from follow spamming.  Engaging in conversation and being genuine will make people listen and respect what you have to say.  Use the many Twitter tools out there correctly and you will be able to connect with more valuable followers who will actually be interested in what you have to say.  Because let’s be serious, 99% of those random users who follow in response to follow spam won’t give a crap what you have to say, especially if you sell toilets (no pun intended).