Tri-lingual? The Travis Diaries XXXV

"She could speak three languages, but there were three words she couldn't say in a one of them. 3-3=0." - Travis

My problem: I Know Who I Am

And that should be a problem? To some it is - because maybe they don't know who they are, and in some way, wish they were more like me. It makes others unhappy that I know exactly.

I know who I am when I am happy. And I know who I am when I am sad. I am master of my own psyhchology and even when drunk or provoked, never far off from the truth. I am part of my dad and part of my mom and part of my adopted dad and mum. I am kind and essentially truthful, although being totally that way can sometimes be bad PR. And I am totally, absolutely behind what I am good at, and where I should be putting my energy and where I should be wasting no energy.

Last year I spent a lot of time with someone who is now off far away again trying to find herself and I am not sure that is a valid concept at all. Isn't it rather that we all truly do know who we are but try our whole lives trying to find the place where we belong? And that's not a physical place mind you - maybe more a metaphysical place - a place in the hearts of others. I think that's where the energy should be spent rather than wasting time trying to prove to others that we are who they want us to be - sons, daughters, students, good soldiers - whatever.

I was inspired to write this today by a visit from the lost girl yesterday and this post on finding ourselves by Jonathan Harris.

RIP Saigon Digital Marketing Conference: How not to Market in Asia IV

We hardly knew ye - A little over a year ago I wrote a post called, "A Tale of Many Marketing Conferences in Vietnam"and this year there is at least one less, The Saigon Digital Marketing Conference, or SDM. And unfortunately, that's not a surprise. I had laid out the warning signs well before the actual event, starting with the idea that they had nicked the entire concept from a worldwide series of conferences called ad:tech and ending with the idea that if they didn't pay speakers, they would get rubbish for content. And so that has come to pass.

In a conversation recently with one of the still standing Saigon digerati he summed it up like this: "They went belly up. They spent too much money, charged too much money, not enough interesting content and nobody behind it seemed to know anything about digital."And wow, a year before, I had said this:1) Concept (1 star) - Nicking a business model from the US and just sticking it in Vietnam is not a concept". And the organizers weren't even from Vietnam - Singapore it seems.

But I had outlined three other key points to organizers well before the actual event in May of 09: #1 - Paying real speakers when you're actually in it to make money shows people that you are serious and have a real business plan. #2 - making sure the event has legs, ie: you could run it in Shanghai or Bangkok or Mumbai after it's finished here gives you a real business all year. #3 - Building a community is what Internet marketing is really all about.

And unfortunately, they had failed at every single one of those tasks before they were even out of the gate a year ago. And that's sad. Because they had good advice, and none of us want to see another of us fail, and what they were able to pull off last year, for a first event, was a pretty good start.

So to round this off, I'm sorry they're gone. They had my, and the whole of Saigon's digerati behind them, but needed to pull partners together, pay for better advice and build a real community of business people, all making a buck together, to keep it going. I was wary from the start when they wanted to make money but seemed to think all the participants should work for free - and you should be too. When the only party in your next business deal making money is the other guy, beware - there are too many places to run when it's all over. These folks went to Bangkok.


For more on digital marketing and social networking see:

Xing vs. LinkedIn: Round II
Trial and Error: The New Normal
What's Wrong With My Social Networking? Xing vs. LinkedIn I
Low Tech Germany. Who Knew?
Advertising People and Blogs
How to Write the Best Blog in the World
What If Gutenberg Had a Blog?
If Blogs Are Free Does That Make Them Worthless?
Detri-Viral Marketing II: The Top 10 Social Media Blunders
Bright Lights, Big Internet and the WWED
Saigon Digital Marketing Conference Successfully Avoids Plumbers Convention
A Tale of Many Marketing Conferences
Detri-Viral Marketing I: How Web 2.0 Can Go Against A Brand
Marketing Predictions for 2009
Barcamp Saigon 2008
"Ignore Everybody" is Born: A Plug for Hugh MacLeod
Are the Bloggerati Missing the Market? Asia has Risen,
Into the Gapinvoid - Web 2.0 Social Networking Born 20 Years Ago

How (NOT) To Write The Best Damn Blog In The World III

I had done a post back in December of last year called "How To Write The Best Damn Blog In The World" and it's high time for an update because I have new info. I now have the secret to "how (NOT) to write that blog" and here it is, with a plain graphic to explain it all to you.


Don't write at all.


It's that simple. The chart here illustrates quite clearly what happens when I don't write at all, which is what has happened over the last week due to things I'll discuss later, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. People like consistency and frequency, and without critiquing my own writing too much, it doesn't seem to matter what I write at all. In fact, the more I write, and the shorter I write, the more traffic I generate, and the more time people spend on the site. A week of 5 quick soundbites sells better than my usual diet of three a week with two short and one long. It's now a 140 character world folks. Get used to it.

But keep writing.

I'll get back to my snarky satirical political commentary, my mawkish poetry and my unabashed romantic reflections with a dash of marketing and social networking thrown in, but I've learned my lesson. I will keep writing. You do too.


For more on blogs, blogging and bloggers, check here:

Advertising People & Blogs - The Travis Diaries VI
How to Write the Best Damn Blog in the World
Throw That Blog a Bone!
If Blogs Are Free Are They Worthless?
What If Gutenberg Had a Blog?
If You Like the Blog, Read the Book>/a>
2008 Annual Report - The Wild Wild East Dailies
Blog Redesign WWED
BarCamp Saigon 2008
Attraction vs. Conversion - How to Power Your Blog

For more on digital marketing and social networking see:

Xing vs. LinkedIn: Round II
Trial and Error: The New Normal
What's Wrong With My Social Networking? Xing vs. LinkedIn I
Low Tech Germany. Who Knew?
Advertising People and Blogs
How to Write the Best Blog in the World
What If Gutenberg Had a Blog?
If Blogs Are Free Does That Make Them Worthless?
Detri-Viral Marketing II: The Top 10 Social Media Blunders
Bright Lights, Big Internet and the WWED
Saigon Digital Marketing Conference Successfully Avoids Plumbers Convention
A Tale of Many Marketing Conferences
Detri-Viral Marketing I: How Web 2.0 Can Go Against A Brand
Marketing Predictions for 2009
Barcamp Saigon 2008
"Ignore Everybody" is Born: A Plug for Hugh MacLeod
Are the Bloggerati Missing the Market? Asia has Risen,
Into the Gapingvoid - Web 2.0 Social Networking Born 20 Years Ago

The end of form letters - frog and Sapient: Out of touch?

Now this scares me. I recently submitted onlíne applications to jobs at both frog and Sapient here in Munich, and in both cases I was rejected. But it was not so much that, I can handle rejection - it was that they both sent form letters to do it. Wow. Read their websites.

Frog says: "We help create and bring to market, meaningful products, services and experiences" with one of the ugliest and most non-innovative websites I've ever seen. So why would I want to work there? Maybe to help them. This blog looks better than their site and that's a sad comment, because a lot of their other work is very talented and focused.

Sapient says: SapientNitro is the world’s first customer experience company. We create and engineer highly relevant moments that accelerate business growth and fuel brand advocacy. And their website is ugly and not innovative either. Icky.

So we must be having a joke here. What company in brand experience and brand advocacy sends a form letter, to anyone? I don't care how pretty your design is, simple miscommunications like this simply make you look like shit. And because of that, I'm going to tell a few people about it. And not so nicely. Their fault.

The head of another global design agency sent me this: "Those suckers! They just want bright young things who don't know shit."

So, in this era of social communications I would like to proclaim The End Of The Form Letter. For any company who's in the business of brand experience, this should be business 101.

Next class: How to write an actual letter and inspire and encourage brand devotion.

Less Time: The Travis Diaries XXXIV

"If she spent a lot less time not loving me, I think we'd see some progress" - Travis

When to give up.

Boy that's a tough one. You worked so hard. Your spirit and your heart were in it. You even threw away logic to make decisions that were emotional, and things didn't work out. What to do? As I often explain about computer problems, the only sane thing to do is quit. Quit trying to solve your problem. Because the way you're working at it, just isn't working. No shame. No remorse. You did your best. You really did. Sometimes the problem just doesn't want to be solved, not in your way anyway. So the only sane thing to do is give up. In an insane world, only the sane man/woman is insane. Realize that, and you're on a much better path already.

Last year, I did something that defied logic. Absolutely none of the business parameters made sense. But there was love involved, and a great deal of it. Smart? Not. But emotion is as rational decision as any when business metrics don't add up properly. And the love, just a little icing on the cake (Do make sure you get a lot of it though. The value of prositutes goes up exponentially when you figure the lack of excess pain they cause you. Only hurts the wallet, and makes everything else fairly happy - except your soul.)

Seth Godin did a wonderful post recently called, "Are you rational?" And it goes like this:

"A rational decision is based on testing and data and an understanding of the mechanics underneath the system you're working on. The more you know, the better you decide. An irrational decision is based on gut instincts, conviction and faith."

Not surprisingly, Seth comes out of the side of supporting ones gut feelings. On hope. And the trick there, is not to be afraid again, once it doesn't work out well. How do you get back on that horse, or that 3m diving board, as I learned it, once you've fucked up completely? I had a diving accident once that landed me in six weeks of physical therapy once because I attempted a 2 1/2 flip with a half twist and ended up seeing the sky instead of water out of the tuck and knew I was landing on hard water, flat on my back. Oops.

But I came back. And a bit better, and smarter after that. You might even get me to try that flip again. It's all about timing and not about age at all. But mostly it's about doing it. Once you stop trying, you stop giving yourself the chance to win. I know someone who has that problem right now. She didn't quit me. She quit the concept. The idea. The tactile expression of the idea. She'll sort that out eventually. Maybe not with me. And certainly not today.

And me? Sure, I'm giving up on one particular task, but not the concept in general. And why? Because I know the idea is not faulty. Maybe the execution, or the target was incorrect, but the basic idea is still sound. Millions upon millions guarantee it. It's called love.

So giving up is ok. If it's for a greater goal. If it's basically, for not giving up. That's when it's time to give up. When the circumstances around you, don't support the strength that one needs to not give up - to fly so much higher on another day.

Turn that computer off - but never the feeling. The feeling that the irrational is the exact correct thing to do when all rational means have exhausted themselves.

Can you spot rejection III?

"David, I dont love you. IF you can't accept that, I need to let you go and never contact you anymore. I need much peace and calm to do my therapy and then work."

Well that's pretty clear don'tcha think? Hope that therapy works. Should anybody be in love with this person? Hell, I can write a better 'dear John' letter than that. Why didn't she just say, 'fuck you' that would have been faster.

Reactions:

An old friend:

"Ouch. I think maybe she needs a Daddy, not a lover. You need to cut the cord before you get hurt any more. Not even sure if you should be friends -- at least for a bit -- (you need to protect your feelings too)."

Her Doctor:

"Life has not just only one woman. The right one is waiting somewhere for you in the world, at the most unexpected moment.

Not only did she trash my writing. but she trashed me in the end. Man, life's a bitch. What I thought was a light at the end of the tunnel, turned out to be a train.

For a great list of rejection letters check here. And call me when you grow up honey.

2009 Annual Report: The Wild Wild East Dailies

Well howdy there all. Don't time fly? It seems just a year ago we did our first annual report and now it's time for a new one, and have we got news to report! We're much bigger now, and much more well read as well. Touche - and so without further adieu, I present to you, The Wild Wild East Dailies (WWED) 2009 Annual Report. With plenty of charts and graphs - just like most annual reports.


Overview:





So there you have it. On the left, 2008, and on the right, 2009. From a total of 20,000 views last year to a total of 50,000 in year two, or 30,00 views for the year - that's a 50% growth rate. Not bad. That big spike you see in 2008 was the election and the influence of a lot of political satire I wrote in support of it. But once Obama was elected and Palin banished to talk show fame, things became a lot more boring and then of course, there was that recession, or depression. It's pretty obvious on these charts. Now we didn't make my projected 36,000 for year two but what we have done is almost doubled the daily hit rate and leveled off at around 100 page views per day. And I like that.

Last year Technorati ranked our site at 520,000 which didn't look that hot but did place us in the top .5% of blogs worldwide. This year, I'm more than happy to report that our Technorati ranking has shot up to 40,000 out of over 120 million blogs worldwide. And I have no idea what percentage that is, but I know it's good. The other important thing to realize about Technorati rankings is that they count the number of times that other blogs link to yours and that gives you what they call an "Authority" ranking. WWED's Authority has risen from 17 to 123. Wow. Now we're an authority. What ever is the world coming to? Scary, huh?


Where you are from:

Since last year, and a move from Vietnam to Germany, with stops in France and Africa on the way here, the United states has dropped from 70% readership to around 50% and Germany taking over the number 2 spot from Vietnam last year. Makes sense doesn't it? The stats you see here are just a weekly ranking, but I think they're pretty representative of what normally goes on around here.Gotta love the French down there at the bottom.

	265	53.00%	United States
	110	22.00%	Germany
	27	5.40%	Vietnam
	23	4.60%	United Kingdom
	16	3.20%	Australia
	8	1.60%	Canada
	5	1.00%	Philippines
	5	1.00%	Korea, Republic Of
	4	0.80%	Singapore
	4	0.80%	Netherlands
	3	0.60%	New Zealand
	3	0.60%
	3	0.60%	Brazil
	3	0.60%	India
	2	0.40%	Japan
	2	0.40%	Greece
	2	0.40%	Finland
	2	0.40%	Turkey
	2	0.40%	Malaysia
	2	0.40%	Saudi Arabia
	2	0.40%	Belgium
	2	0.40%	Argentina
	1	0.20%	Denmark
	1	0.20%	Czech Republic
	1	0.20%	Thailand
	1	0.20%	Indonesia
	1	0.20%	France

In terms of real concentration, the Northeast US is the heaviest with New York city and state carrying the bulk but LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas and Chicago all carry respectable weights.

What do you like:

Here's the report again from 2008: Suffice to say that the greatest number of entries to the site come from the main page, but many others come in looking for a particular item. Not surprisingly, anything involving Obama scored well but I have to tell you - Sarah Palin was a more than respectable second - in fact her lunacy sparked the biggest post of the year when she entered the race and she scored a healthy #5 with Kim Jong Il as her WWED running mate. Political satire carried 4 spots out of the top 10.

#1. 08/August/Obama Splits Ticket - Boots Biden! (1,272)

#2. 08/July/Paris In The 30s - Saigon Today (680)

#3. 08/June/June 22 - Happy Birthday Todd Rundgren (487)

#4. 08/April/American Foreign Policy Since WWII (411)

#5. 08/September/Kim Jong Il, Ill After Threats by Palin (381)

#6. 08/July/Obama Brandishes a Bud For The Bubbas! (365)

#7. 08/May/Buddhist Funeral Prayer (346)

#8. 09/January/Chúc Mừng Năm Mới or Happy New Year in Vietnamese (336)

#9. 08/November/BarCampSaigon - A truly impressive start (301)

#10. 08/July/Belgian Prime Minister Quits Over Budweiser Purchase! (281)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, let's see how things stack up for 2009. The big happiness' for me are #2 and #9. The Vietnamese Nuclear Physics Quiz also makes a respectable entry into the top 10 with two entries.


#1. 08/August/Obama Splits Ticket - Boots Biden! (1,306)
Obama keeps his #1 position in 2009 but only grows by 30 views or so. Old news.

#2. 08/May/Buddhist Funeral Prayer (1240)
Jumping from #7 to #2 this makes me happy and will be our #1 post shortly. Every week it's our most keyword searched item. Go Buddha!

#3. 09/January/Chúc Mừng Năm Mới or Happy New Year in Vietnamese (787)
Jumping from #8 to #3 it seems people are always interested in how the Vietnamese say Happy New Year.

#4. 09/April/Is North Korea a Nuclear Threat? - The Vietnamese Nuclear Physics Quiz IV (743)
Making its debut at #4 the Vietnamese Nuclear Physics quiz is most certainly indebted to our wonderful scientists. Check them out, I'm sure you'll understand why they are so popular.

#5. 08/July/Paris In The 30s - Saigon Today (728)
Hanging tough at #5, this post is just a throwback to another time and everyone seems to like that.

#6. 09/February/What's Wrong With The Vietnamese Advertising Association (709)
This one looks like a surprise new entry until you consider the question. Apparently a lot of people would like the answer. And this post gathers more hits than the VAA website, because well, they don't have one. When you search the term on Google, you get this post in the #1 spot. Sad. For them.

#7. 09/September/Is Publicis Group a Dead Brand?(682)
Invoking a Seth Godin post, this story takes a visit to Publicis headquarters on Avenue des Champs Elysées in Paris and doesn't find them doing much of a 360 degree job on their branding - but that's an Ogilvy concept isn't it?

#8. 08/June/June 22 - Happy Birthday Todd Rundgren (581)
Holding its own at #8 this post on Todd Rundgren's birthday makes you wonder who the hell Todd Rundgren is, doesn't it? Read it and find out. Otherwise he's just a guy with the same birthday as mine.

#9. 09/January/Cold Fusion By Hot Sex Injection: The Vietnamese Nuclear Physics Quiz II (540)
C'mon, I get SEO points for the headline don't I? Otherwise I think the photos in this series keep the boys coming, and cuming back.

#10. 08/September/Kim Jong Il, Ill After Threats by Palin (528)
And it's always good to see that our friends Kim Jong Il and Sarah Palin haven't lost their steam yet. Dropping from #5 to #10, I think we can guarantee they'll be gone next year.

2009 Summary

Once again we end our top ten with another political satire piece that just reinforces again that there's always a market in funny. In fact four of our Top 10 are satire. Now some people still love some of the more artful stuff I do, and the business things, but one should never overlook that crass and sophomoric pretty much sell. This year the National Enquirer was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and the Huffington Post is working hard to make sure they never get one. I think the Wild Wild East Dailies still has a pretty good shot.

Who loves me baby:

Our final category today involves quality - the quality of readers that come, come back and spend real quality time. In our first chart we look at "Return Visitors" again. These are people who visit regularly. And look at that - the same as last year we hover at around 10% - but that's 10% of a pie that's 50% larger than it was last year, so good growth, even if it doesn't look it from the chart. Our feed subscribers are up to 200 from 70 and we like that. If you haven't subscribed yet, I urge you to do so. According to stats from both Google Analytics and Statcounter, if 10% of the crowd are return readers based on unique visitors (not just page impressions) of 20,000 that's 2000 regulars - up from last years 1600.

2008 - The second Chart involves "Visit Length". That's how much time how many people spend here. From 76% of the people running away in less than 5 seconds in 2008, we're down to only 38%. And the news gets better - 27% now stay for up to 30 seconds and 10% for up to five minutes. Another 2% for up to 20 minutes and that big block of yellow at 20%? They stay for more than an hour - and boy does that make me feel good. Those people are listening to WWED Radio and I think that's cool. Recently our podcast was picked up by a site called "What Do You Want From Them?" and that made us very happy. Thanks Anna! So all in all, a wonderful year for readers. More people come, more people stay longer and more come back. I call that success by all measures.


Show me the money:

So let's talk money. Google Adsense has now clocked in at a total of $9.12, up from $4.86 last year but affiliate programs kicked in $150 with one site paying that amount for a two word link in a post called Christmas in Vietnam. But the big money maker for the year was a post I did called "Will Work For Todd". That effort, to raise money to see Todd Rundgren in Amsterdam netted a total of $300, pre-show, $100 while I was on the road, and $200 when I returned home for a total of $600. Thank you all so much. You know who you are. Aside from that, $25 came in one day as a surprise donation and another $7 the other day as another surprise. So that brings our current total to around $800. You can't live on that, but it has finally launched the WWED into the black.

Should I ever get around to publishing the book maybe I can start to look at a steady income from this whole exercise. Should you be feeling particularly generous or just thankful for all our work and wonderful statistics please click the 'donate' button in the sidebar and throw this blog a bone. We always appreciate it and will make sure to add you to the WWED Monthly, our monthly newsletter to subscribers of WWED.

This years thanks got to Yen, Joyce, Sylvia, Cheryl, Katy, Richard, Nels, Sis Nancy, Eduardo, Freya, MeeHyun, Anna. Without you all, and a few other thousand people, the Wild Wild East Dailies wouldn't be doing as well as it is. Here's to 2010 - wherever I might be. Thank you all.

For more on blogs, blogging and bloggers, check here:

Advertising People & Blogs - The Travis Diaries VI
How to Write the Best Damn Blog in the World
Throw That Blog a Bone!
If Blogs Are Free Are They Worthless?
What If Gutenberg Had a Blog?
If You Like the Blog, Read the Book
2008 Annual Report - The Wild Wild East Dailies
Blog Redesign WWED
BarCamp Saigon 2008
Attraction vs. Conversion - How to Power Your Blog
Are the Bloggerati Missing the Market?