Kris Jones of PepperJam had an excellent post asking if Twitter spam is getting out of control (http://tinyurl.com/d6thzs)

This post made me think of something that been rattling around in the back of my head: “twitter math”

First off, if one has a personal and company twitter account, I think it’s appropriate for the latter to be more of a “broadcast” mechanism for announcements, products, etc.  People can opt-out any time if you overdo it – similar to the company newsletter.

This is where the “math” comes in, and is particularly important for a “personal” account where one could argue the conversation would be more “intimate”.

On my personal account, the first thing I look at is your following/followers (f/f) “weight ratio”:

• 1 to 5 (or higher): “Lean and Mean” – You’ve got twice as many followers than you’re following.  This means people really want to hear what you have to say, and you’re probably engaged in the conversation.  A couple good examples are “affiliatetip” and “shoemoney”.
• 1 to 1 “Very Fit” – You’re following everyone that follows you and you’re semi-engaged in the conversation.  I think this is a decent ratio for a corporate twitter account.  You’re  actively looking for twitter users with similar interests and you always reciprocate followers.
• 5 to 1 “Fatty Fat Spammer” – You’re following anyone and everyone with no rhyme or reason in the hopes they will follow you back and you probably aren’t reading a damn thing anyone posts.

The next thing I look at is the sheer numbers, or your “Total F/F”:

• Below 100 -  “The Quite Man” – You’re either just starting out, don’t really use twitter, or want keep it intimate.
• 100 to 1000 – “A Chatter Box” – You actively use twitter and are actively engaged in the conversation at a personal level.
• 1000 to 10,000 – “Marketing Maven” – You’re using twitter as a tool to engage the twitterverse and build your brand.  And if you’re not over doing it (see below, that’s great)
• 10,000 or More – “Twitteramous” (Twitter-Famous) – These people are basically uber-gurus, Internet personalities (iJustine), or just plain famous (Ashton Kutcher).

Following the Quiet Man and Chatter Box is great, especially if you’ve met in person or have common interest.  The conversation tends to be real, personal and valuable.

The Marketing Maven is great to follow for tips, strategy and advice.  However, unless you know the person, it’s not likely they’re going to be actively engaged in a conversation with you.  Their goal is to add value by way of tips (links to articles, etc…) to build their brand and garner customers.

Follow Twitteramous people at your own risk.  These people have such a large audience that twitter is a broadcasting system to keep them top of mind – building brand awareness.  Effectively it’s like a radio show with a ton of listeners.  Sure, they’ll take calls once in a while, but for the most part they are broadcasting.  Most, like iJustine and ShoeMoney, are good about not abusing this with 3-4 twits a day.  But others, like Jason Calacanis, can drive you crazy with the sheer volume of tweets.  It’s like a radio show is always on and jamming up your twitter stream.

7 Strikes and You’re Out

When you follow someone on twitter, you’re giving part of your life away.  If you’re actively engaged, twitter is an interruption to what you’re doing.   Normally it’s a welcome interruption, but how much is it costing you in time?

Here’s some rough math:  The average word in the English language is 5 letters.  Now, let’s say the average tweet is 100 Characters.   That’s 20 words per tweet.
Now let’s say your average reading speed is 300 words per minute.  300/60 = Five words per second.  This means the average tweet take 4 seconds to read!

I think it’s safe to say that there’s also a “switching time” – how long it takes to divert your attention to the tweet.  So we’ll add in one second and round it out to Five Seconds Per Tweet read!

Keep in mind; this does not take into consideration the distraction time for viewing any articles, pictures or videos linked in the tweet.

So at 5 seconds per tweet, 6 tweets a day (and that’s pushing it) is the most anyone should do.  It looks something like this:
5 Seconds x 6 Tweets x 5 Days x 52 Weeks = 7,800 Seconds!

That is 130 Minutes or slightly over 2 Hours per Year per person you are following!

If you follow 100 of people like this, and read every tweet, that’s 200 Hours per year.  Divide that by an 8 Hour work day and you’ve spent 25 Days following people on twitter!

I realize that the last part is a bit of a stretch.  You’re not going to read EVERY tweet from 100 people doing 6 tweets a day.  And, I’m sure there’s some fudge factor in my math.  Nevertheless, there are two important lessons from this exercise:

1. Be judicious with whom you follow on twitter – particularly if it’s a conversation you want to engage in.
2. Don’t waste people’s time with too many Tweets Per Day (TPD):
   • 1-2 TPD:    You’re right on the money
   • 3-4 TPD:    It better be funny or valuable
   • 5-6 TPD:    You’re pushing it
   • 7+ TPD:    I’m de-following your ass

I love John’s English accent in this video!

Okay, obviously I’m biased about the power of online video, but this weekend was such a nice jolt for me.

I think a start-up is a bit like having a young child.  You want your kid to grow to be strong and healthy, and as a parent you often wonder if you’re even doing the right thing half the time!

But then, every so often, you get glimpse of something special.  Something that your child does or shows you that reveals their potential.  Funny thing is, it probably doesn’t have anything to do with you!  It’s just something innate in their DNA, their dreams and aspirations.  When it happens, you just want to jump out of your own skin and burst with the excitement of possibilities for your baby!

Well, I had such an experience this weekend for our Start-Up child ShopWatchBuy.com.  It was a glimpse of its potential along with the power and promise of online video.

We attended a local craft fair.  It was something fun to do with the family along with the chance to talk to people about ShopWatchBuy.  Now granted, as I chatted with people some didn’t “get it”, but a quite a few did.  And some were even great sports and we did a video right there on the spot!

Like this one by John of Galactic Images.  He has so much knowledge and passion for what he does it unbelievable.  You just can’t get that from static images and text.

Notice also how the “Go To Store” button in the video widget takes the viewer right to the product page on his website.  It so powerful because we’re so flexible with that link it can be any URL or PayPal address the Seller chooses!

Here’s another great example.  Mark at d’marie is a MASTER at working the crowd at these shows and this video captures it.

It’s also proves something else.  While a professional video may be nice, it’s NOT necessary to capture the essence of a Seller’s personality and expertise!  I did these vides off the cuff with my little Flip Video camera. Sure, the video’s short and there’s a bit of background noise, but it’s so authentic!

This is the power of online video.

Just listened to Gary Vaynerchuk keynote address at Affiliate Summit West 2009, and not having heard him speak before I was pleasantly surprised. (one caveat – the amount of foul language was a bit over the top. I’m ex-navy and friends know I’m not delicate with language, but there’s a time place for everything)

Anyway, I really liked Gary’s positive message about work, patience and building brand equity. However there was one question he didn’t fully address that I’m still dealing with as I try to grow ShopWatchBuy:

When building your “personal brand” versus your “business brand” where do you draw the line in the sand?

Do you have 2 facebooks, 2 twitters,etc…

Gary’s message seems to be roll it all together – you may have different businesses, but they are all extensions of your personal brand.

Here’s the problem, if YOU become the brand how do you exit?  I think Gary would have a harder time exiting from WineLibrary.com if he no longer hosted tv.winelibrary.com.

Perhaps this is the difference of Brand as Celebrity versus Brand as a Business. What’s a Brad Pitt movie without Brad Pitt?

Some guys like Jason Calicanis and Guy Kawasaki are using previous success to create personal brand and leverage that into new ventures. However, it’s clear that Mahalo and Alltop are brands in their own right.

And maybe that’s the answer – use one brand to grow the other, but just make sure the Business brand can stand up own it’s own &  “survive the founder.”

Sent from my iPhone

(edit & update 1/14/09)

That’s right, after a few bumps along the Road, ShopWatchBuy.com is now live!

Overall I think we’ve got a great site that can help independent sellers like local merchants, affiliate marketers, inventors and e-tailers drive more traffic.

Once you sign up, it works like this:

1. Upload your video
2. Enter the listing information
3. Select your images

The listing is available immediately, and the video will show-up in a few minutes after transcoding.

What’s cool is that YOU get to select the “Transactional Link”.  If you choose “Buy Now” the shopper is directed to your PayPal address and pays you directly.  If you choose “Go To Store” you insert the link of your choice (such as an affiliate link) to direct the shopper to the transaction.

Now, if the video gets embedded in another site, that transactional information travels WITH the video.  So, let’s say you make a really cool video explaining an HP Laserjet.  You put it on SWB with an Affiliate Link to HP.  Then, someone with “MyHomeOfficeBlog.com” likes your video and puts it on their site.  When visitor at the blog clicks on “Go To Store” they are directed straight to HP using YOUR affiliate link!

You’ll also find our “image selection” is pretty cool.  You can select images from the video, upload your own, or point to a URL image.  This type of flexibility should help you get some great pics to go along with the video.

That’s just a couple of features – we’ve got big plans and more on the way!
So, take a moment to check it out at www.ShopWatchBuy.com.  And, if you’ve got a product or service you’d like to promote using online video, then sign up and “Show the world what you’ve got!”

Well, we’ve been hard at work on getting ShopWatchBuy.com up and running, so I’m a little behind on my Blog posts (I always was late turning in my homework ☺)

We’re a couple weeks behind schedule, but have made great progress overall!

The site is looking good, but we just need to work out a few kinks.  One of our criteria is making it cross browser (IE, Firefox and Safari) compatible.  It’s amazing how many little issues this can create.  And here I thought the browser wars were over!

Last week we did some shooting and editing with our friends at Creative Liquid.  We made a few “internal” videos for the ShopWatchBuy site.  In fact, here’s a sneak peek to the 60 Spot we did – hope you like it!

ShopWatchBuy.com 60 Second Commercial

We also did videos for Kinder Haus Toys, Icon Jewelry and Everett Hills Studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia.  I can’t wait to get these videos up on SWB!

We also got our Terms of Service finalized, a Press Release and some articles related to Online Video ready to go.  Being a start up the judicious use of outsourcing sure comes in handy!

On top of all this, I’ve been working on a little side project – a game for the iPhone App Store!  Believe it or not, I had a game I invented as a kid that’s perfect for the iPhone.  It should be out by the end of October, so stay tuned for more info on that!

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been investigating the world of Payment Processing for accepting Credit Cards online.  I’ve come to a few conclusions.  First, it’s an interesting industry.  Second, there are lots of details that make it tough to compare providers (akin to comparing cell phone plans).  Third, what a racket Visa & MC have!

If you’re considering accepting payments online,  you need three primary components: A Merchant Account, A Payment Gateway and a Shopping Cart. I’m not going to discuss shopping carts here – haven’t done the research (i.e. Zen Cart vs. OS Commerce), and probably won’t need anything sophisticated.

A Merchant Account is an account with a service provider (Bank or underwritten by one) that is part of the Visa Network.  A Merchant Account allows you to accept payment by credit card.  This is different than your bank account to which fund are actually deposited.  So, you could sign up with “MerchantAccounts4Less” which is underwritten by HBSC, and funds are deposited to your Bank of America business bank account.

A Payment Gateway allows you to accept credit cards over the Internet.  Think of it as virtual Point of Sale (POS) or Credit Card Scanner.  As an online business, you don’t have a physical terminal for buyers to swipe their card through, so you need a “Card Not Present” or CDP method of accepting transactions – phone or internet.  On the net it’s a Gateway.

The biggest name in the game is PayPal, the second is Authorize.Net.

The nice thing about PayPal, is that it’s the Merchant Account and Gateway rolled into one.  You sign up with them on “PayPal Standard” and you’re off to the races.  The only problem is that buyers need to use PayPal for the purchase.  They CAN use a credit card, but will be setting up a PayPal account in the process.

PayPal standard also includes subscriptions (aka Automatic Reoccurring Billing – ARB).  However, subsequent payments will be through the users PayPal account not their Credit Card.  PayPal Standard also means the check-out is on a PayPal page not your own.

You can avoid this “PayPal-ish” nature using PayPal Pro or PayFlow Gateway, but the level of implementation effort appears to be significant using the PayPal API’s.

The other nice thing about PayPal is the pricing is pretty straight forward.  One thing to note – if your average sales price is below $12 ask for Micro-Payment rates!  Instead of %2.9 + .30 per transaction, it’s %5 + .05.  When you do the math, $12 is the cross-over point.

Authorize.Net is well known and a favorite of many development shops.  Plus there are a TON of Authorize.Net Resellers (and they have a nice Affiliate Program), lots of supported shopping carts and form level integration.

The challenge becomes comparing all these resellers.  Each one as it’s own mix of Transaction Percentages, Transaction Fees, Monthly Minimum, Transaction Percentages etc…  To help make sense of these fees, I’ve put together a Spread Sheet called Merchant Fee Calculator.  The items in Yellow can all be changed and the rest of the numbers are calculated.  After talking to a few resellers and banks my head was spinning so I found this useful for a side by side comparison.

One extremely important thing that the spreadsheet obviously doesn’t take into account is reliability, customer service, etc…  For this reason, I would not recommend just trying to sign up for a Merchant Account online.  You should call each provider ask about fees, service, etc… and get a feel for the company.

Hope this was helpful and please comment if you see any errors (or errors on the spreadsheet).

While working on the business model for ShopWatchBuy.com, I’ve come up with a few thoughts and ideas about pricing models.  Here are key criteria for pricing models:

1. Profitability
2. Simplicity
3. Enticing
4. Technology

1. Profitability. Many argue that FREE is the new pricing model for Web 2.0.  I have my doubts.  The old adage “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” is alive and well, and holds true for Web 1.0, 2.0, “Whatever.0″

Somehow, someplace, somewhere along the value train someone has to pay.  Weather it’s bandwidth, storage, or development time, someone’s got to pay.  It reminds me of the internet before the bubble – users where the new currency and eyeballs were more important than dollars.  Well, we all know how that turned out.

Sure, you’ve got to have traffic, and if you do you can monetize it, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be profitable.  I don’t know the exact numbers, but I think the dirty little secret of things like Google’s AdSense is that unless you have MASSIVE amount of traffic, you’ll get a little revenue that’s hard to calculate the real ROI on because of click leakage.

The other thing about Free is the cost incurred from abuse.  YouTube illustrates my point above – lots of traffic, but no yet profitable – but I also wonder how much they spend deleting inappropriate videos?

2. Simplicity. Can your customer understand the pricing model?  It seems today that so many companies such as Cable and Cell Phone providers operate under the “if you can’t convince ‘em confuse ‘em” model.

I consider myself a pretty smart guy, yet sometime my cell phone bill is beyond me    What if cell phone companies worked the opposite?  I tell you how much I’m willing to spend and you give you a way to manage that?

That’s why I love iTunes – $.99 for a song – pretty straightforward.

I’m not going to disclose it just yet, but this is what we’re hoping to achieve with the ShopWatchBuy pricing model.  It’s definitely a difficult task though.

3. Enticing. This is another obvious one.  You’ve got to have the ability to entice customers with an attractive entry level price point and then up-sell.  Another great example of iTunes – $.99 is pretty enticing for a song I really love.

Where companies miss the mark on this is either A) the entry price is too high or B) the entry price is low, but has no real value.  For a customer who is really evaluating a product or service, ethier one is an enticement killer.

Again, I’m not going to unveil it here, but I think we’ve come up with a great starting point for sellers who want to use videos to promote their products.

4. Technology. Okay let’s say you’ve got the simplest most enticing and profitable pricing model you can come up with.  Can you actually implement it on-time and within budget?  This is critical.

The Google AdWords pricing model has got to be one of the most brilliant of all times.  But actually implementing it: PPC, Quality Score, Revenue Algorithms, etc…  has got to take an incredible amount of development muscle.

You’ve also got to consider the technology and structure of your suppliers.  Things such as bandwidth usage, storage and payment processing are examples.  Storage and Bandwidth are usage based, payment processing is transaction based.  Your pricing model has to account for these differences with enough of a contribution margin to cover both fixed and variable costs.

Overall it seems that pricing is both a Science (cost, margins, etc…) and an Art (marketing, pyscology, etc…).  Hopefully this post gave a few things to think about for your next perplexing pricing problem!

Just had a great meeting with Jeremy Palmer Super Affiliate and author of the Black Ink Project.  What a great guy Jeremy is!  He’s just got lots of integrity, does a great job with Black Ink and provides lots of great advice for affiliates.   We talked what I’m working on with SWB and he was very supportive – just a real good guy.

This message was originally from Jott.  Transcription worked pretty good – but needed to edit by hand.  Original is here:  listen

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I made it home to friend’s place in Boston – I’m really starting to get the hang of the “T”!

Yesterday at Affiliate Summit was good.  The Meet Market was packed (they need to make the aisled wider) and based on my informal survey, I got good feedback on the use of videos for Affiliates.  Some of the networks such as Share-A-Sale are already starting to incorporated video by letting Merchants upload videos to the network.  Their next phase is to let Affiliates upload videos.  Overall this will be very complimentary to ShopWatchBuy.

I was also very encouraged by Merchants willingness to let Affiliates make videos to Promote Products.  One merchant, American Greetings, even indicated that they would send Affiliate Product samples – very cool.

We’ve also made some headway on the pricing model.  One that is profitable, fairly easy to implement, and, most importantly, a win for ShopWatchBuy.com Sellers!