After the Empire Dies...

“Entrepreneurs live for a few years the way most people won’t so they can live the rest of their life like most people can’t.”

Do you agree or disagree?

YT Cracker Makes it Rain

I dunno. There’s something disturbing about this video. I’m pretty sure it’s the laughing from the entourage. What do you think? It’s like saying Thanks for Giving, right? Downtown Chi-town…

I’m a webmaster, so I occasionally find myself after a long night of wanting something quick and unhealthy to eat. So, like many others, I head to the local McDonalds sometimes. Not a lot, but anyway. They have the recession deal hashbrowns two for a dollar. Every time I’m there it seems there’s a big confusion as to how many hash browns I actually want.

I tried one order of hashbrowns (assuming that would be two for a dollar) but that needed clarification. I tried two hashbrowns (which was just as confusing for the counter people it seems.) Anyway, I was thinking I should maybe try to say, $1 worth of fried potato pieces please. That might freak them out even more.

I started thinking, though, about how mainstream McDonalds is and how they must throw tons of money at making things simple for the mass of people who go through the golden arches. That led to me thinking of drive-thru menus. How they’ve evolved. Some are too complicated maybe, but they all strive to make it simple for the buyer.

Then I started thinking about landing pages. Why not set-up a lander that looks like a drive-thru menu? The basic cheapo version would be a PNG imagemap maybe, with a full-blown version being Flash and interactive. Would you like to Super Size your resveratrol?

Chaotic Evil affiliate marketer

The Chaotic Evil affiliate marketer would rush out and get some high quality digital photos of several drive-thru menus and swap out food with product to see what works. The Chaotic Neutral might just throw it up as a joke for link bait. The lawful good would probably not have a lander. The true neutral would take the idea and own it on their own, secretly milking it for as much money as they could before it got out and the copycat gangs got it.

Now, I may get lambasted for giving out ideas like this. If not because they’re a bad idea then because I’m giving them out. Here’s my take on ideas. You give away 10, keep one. Or maybe it’s give away 9 keep two. I never remember. The point is I like to share. It makes this site valuable and may attract the right kind of audience.

So, if you like the idea, run with it. I don’t have time to play with it. It might work, though. You should be quick. I imagine if it works we won’t hear anything about it until the horde finds out about it and tries to copy it. And I guess that’s part of the overall lesson of this post. This may not be the best idea, but it’s an idea. The next step is to take it and do something with it. That’s up to you. I can’t hold your hand the whole way. I have other projects of my own I’m always tending to.

Monies

If you do take the idea and it works, let us know once it’s all dried up. Or just gimme some link love.

Til next time …

LinkRoll for this post:

• Look at the In-N-Out Drive-Thru menu
• Burger King Drive Thru (possibly older)
• Various Drive Thru Menus
• McDonalds Drive Thru Menu

Drive Thru Landing Page

Lawful Evil

Are you tired of there just being three SEO hats and having to choose white, black or grey? (Although there was a big brua-haha earlier this year about Blue Hats or Green Hats or something…)

Well, here at Webmaster Chronic, since I’m boss (as in leader not the 80s boss) I’m going to do away with Black Hat and White Hat and Grey Hat and even Green Hat and Blue Hat SEO.  To maybe make it a little fun, I’m doing to start mark all my posts here with D&D alignments.

That’s right. Billy Gates might be Lawful Evil? This would at least give us a slightly broader way to look at where people are coming from ethically when building their empire online.

SEO Alignments?

Who knows – I may quickly trash the idea. We’ll see. In the meantime, what alignment are you when it comes to making monies online?

I’m not sure how long they’ve been doing this (I’m not a heavy Walmart shopper), but while there today I noticed that one of the reviews had a badge letting me know the reviewer was a Walmart employee. (Or associate or whatever they call them. Almost like a cult, huh? Another post entirely there…)

Anyway, does anyone know how long they’ve been disclosing this information? Does any other large retail operation do the same? Amazon’s review system is getting kinda antiquated even though it was top-notch at one time. There are many, many one star reviews for products there that were given because of problems with 3rd party sellers or something else entirely unrelated to the product being reviewed.

While we’re on the subject, what’s your favorite review site for products/shopping? Leave your answer below.

Disclosure at Walmart

Google and Newspapers: Honeymoon Over?

• If Newspapers Were Stores, Would Visitors Be “Worthless” Then?
  Danny Sullivan to Big Media – “Do something. Anything. Please. Survive. But there’s one thing you shouldn’t do. Blame others for sending you visitors and not figuring out how to make money off of them.” Heh. Indeed.
• Black Friday Sales Ads Drive Traffic to Online Retailers | Search Engine Journal
  According to Hitwise, online traffic for Black Friday sales websites increased by 4% as compared to the same week in 2008. This stat was due to the online traffic directed by Black Friday advertising websites which saw an increased of 87% for the week ending Nov. 21, 2009.
• Google Acquires Display Ad Startup, Teracent | Search Engine Journal
  Teracent’s technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors. These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.

Okay, you’re still reading. Good. The second piece of the puzzle I drop to you is that you shouldn’t blindly listen to people. Especially on the Internet. It’s a big, bad place. It’s where the money is, though. And that draws a lot of people to the pool. It’s good to read (not chasing the magic bullet – but to learn), but don’t take everything at face value.

This goes along with the “be a leader not a follower” mantra I touched on in the Don’t Read This Blog post. At some point you have to realize that you’re only limited by yourself. Well, there are things that can limit you in the beginning, but there are ways to get past them – usually with work/time. Time is money and in the beginning that’s important to remember.

That is Interesting to Me... Really...

Listen to others, but in the end you want to listen to yourself. Call it your inner voice or a sixth sense, whatever you call it, that instinctual feeling is very important in the business world. Take it all in and keep what is good, keep what you can use. Always be thinking of the future – but don’t get drowned by it.

I guess this post is dashed off and I didn’t put a lot of thought into it, but being a webmaster in the 21st century is kinda like that. (Especially with the publishing model I’m currently using across my network…) So, don’t expect too much from this blog and you won’t be disappointed.

That said… (anyone watch Curb Your Enthusiasm?!) I want to try to give you some insight on my successes and my failures. There are plenty of both.

Webmaster Circle

So stay tuned and enjoy the blog. Leave comments.

Tell your friend.

Tell your enemies.

Come partake in the Webmaster Circle at Webmaster Chronic.

Peace out.

Bryce Case, Jr. (b. August 23, 1982), otherwise known as YTCracker (pronounced “whitey cracker”), is a rapper, former cracker, and Internet entrepreneur. YTCracker began producing rap music in 1998 in the genre that has since become known as nerdcore hip hop. YTCracker is a self-proclaimed “jack of all trades”, also making a name for himself as a professional disc jockey, computer programmer, graphics designer and webmaster.

In a rare and exclusive event, CNBC presents Buffett and Gates together taking questions from tomorrow’s business leaders and sharing the secrets to Keeping America Great. (hulu.com)