The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog The GottaQuirk blog is a great resource for information about internet marketing. It’s an up-to-date resource on the happenings in the fast-moving eMarketing industry. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 2 4686

Articles from The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog

Gay Bashing and the Art of Viral Video 2007-05-29 01:02:56 Howdy folks. Welcome to my first post on the infamous GottaQuirk. I have been reading this blog for some time now, so it’s going to be quite surreal to see my words on its hallowed pages. I thought I’d kick off with this video Rob sent me. The idea is really simple, very funny and definitely viral. I only have two criticisms: 1). I thought the production values and acting could have been better. Sure it’s an el cheapo viral video, but in my opinion the idea deserves just a little bit more polish.  2). Why oh why didn’t they upload it to YouTube? I had to. But all in all, a great effort.   Well that’s post 1... short and sweet. Comment on "Gay Bashing and the Art of Viral Video" ...

Rare insight into the world of Google 2007-05-28 06:20:27 In a post last week, Eric Enge filled us in on what happened at Google’s invite-only Searchology seminar. The review gives some great insight and is definitely worth a read but one or two little snippets of info stand out above everything else. The big one is the bit attributed to Udi Manber, Google’s VP of Engineering: “20 to 25% of the queries that Google sees in any given day are queries that they have never seen before. Wow. 20 to 25%. That took a while to sink in. Talk about reinforcing the value of a long tail strategy.” So something like a quarter of the more than 100 million daily queries on Google are unique. That’s a shocking statistic. Surely that trend needs to be approaching a plateau of some sort? Anyway, it’s surely an eye opener for anyone doing keyword research. It also shows the importance of writing “natural” copy, rich in semantically related terms.  The other point of interest was the mention of multi-languag ... Google

Short but Fun 2007-05-27 03:00:28 The “Short but Fun” range of ads for the new VW Fox are awesome, here’s the latest in a range that included short (and yes fun) animated synopsises of Pulp Fiction and Alien. Comment on "Short but Fun" ...

Ignoring it all with Carlton 2007-05-26 03:11:57 Having suffered through a week that'd make one of Jack Bauer's days seem like Christmas morning there's nothing more that I want to do than to go home and numb the pain in my mind with a comforting deluge of soothing beer. I found this clip on Friday afternoon, a couple of agonisingly long hours away from a much needed weekend, and it was most welcome – the best thing since a cold one itself. Comment on "Ignoring it all with Carlton" ...

Facebook - Still hogging the limelight 2007-05-25 07:37:14 Yesterday, in San Francisco, Facebook held a press event to officially announce the launch of Facebook Platform. As Michael Arrington notes on TechCrunch, giving this amount of access to developers is the polar opposite of what MySpace has done, which many have accused of sitting within its own walled garden. Although the move has been widely hailed as an admirably aggressive one that should bring Facebook even greater growth than it is currently experiencing (the latest mind-boggling stat being that it's growing at 3% per week) there have been some concerns that this may spell the end for Facebook's meteoric rise. Some feel that with all of the new development that Facebook is going to undergo the networking site will compromise on what has been the main driving force of its recent expansion – its cleanliness and simplicity. While many of the third-party applications sound like sure-fire winners their integration with the site is more than likely to change the profile of its ...

Don't make me think! Pretty Please! 2007-05-25 05:20:23 Way too often (while browsing) my thought process is brought to a grinding halt and I’m forced to think hard about what I am required to do. Here is a perfect example: Can you believe they say: To get connected. Follow the “Business” tab and click on “MTN Active”. Why (on earth) can’t they just say: Click here to get connected? Why? Am I asking too much to expect a clear path to my goal? Is my browsing process too advanced for South African websites? Am I too obsessed with conversion optimisation? Am I an online freak/geek? What is the problem here? Please tell me I’m not alone on this. Comment on "Don't make me think! Pretty Please!" ...

The future of film: Back to the future 2007-05-24 11:31:39 As the new millennium unfolds, we’re seeing a few industries shudder due to the almost uncontrollable advancements in technology. The oil industry for example, is on the back-foot as a result of the technological successes of the 21st century such as Biofuel. The music industry also had to adapt to incorporate such technologies as data compression, peer-to-peer networking and the availability of domestic tools of professional quality. This digital revolution made music production and distribution possible from the comfort of bedroom studios the world over. It’s even gone so far as to develop an international arena for lesser-known musicians to set up shop alongside the stars and idols. Could video be on the verge of becoming as accessible, abundant and disposable as its brother Audio? Video production and streaming is developing at such an incredible rate it’s undeniably reminiscent of the Napster boom at the tail end of last century. The buzzwords around videop ... Film

Click to get infected??? 2007-05-23 03:49:56 Recently I came across an article on Psysorg detailing an experiment conducted by Didier Stevens who works for Contraste Europe, a branch of the IT consultancy. Stevens did an experiment to find out how easy it is to land on a drive-by download site when doing a Google search. Drive-by download sites typically infect users PC's with spy ware and viruses. In his experiment Stevens signed up for a Google Adwords campaign for six months now and has received 409 hits on his ad, which read: The experiment cost him in total $23, or 6 cents per click/potentially infected machine. That may not sound like much but for every PC infected with a SPAM bot or spy ware, you add another node to your bot network :) that can blissfully send your SPAM, without you having to pay for bandwidth or servers to send it otherwise. Of the 409 people who clicked, 98 percent were running Windows machines, according to the user agent string, which is a text string that identifies a Web site visitor to a serv ...

What if Mother Theresa and Father Ted had a child? 2007-05-22 06:19:59 Somewhere between ’82 and ’84 I was born, named Damian, given a Burke issue haircut and pointed in the direction of the closest suburban Port Elizabethan primary school. After twelve grueling years schooling, and excelling at staring blankly and doodling slightly, Ted and Theresa passed the buck once more and I enrolled in the journalism course at UPE (now NMMU). A blink of an eye later and I was six months into my first permanent job as copywriter for the now aptly defunct Gervans Trading. I was also suddenly paying rent, employing the services of a lawyer and accumulating Clicks Club Card points like a panhandler scrambling for spare change. As time passed, it became clear that I needed a lot more room for growth. As much as I love the Eastern Cape, it was time to put away childish things. A few months later I found myself in an interview at Quirk eMarketing. After a three week stint as Professional Interviewee Extraordinaire (PIE), both interviewer and interviewee ...

Social networking and the art of small causes 2007-05-22 05:17:45 Just over a week ago, I launched an action group to promote awareness about the squirrels of the Western Cape, particularly those in Newlands, the suburb in which I grew up. A particular issue that SAN highlights is the fact that squirrels suffer a high mortality rate on our roads. The action group was called SAN (Squirrel Association of Newlands). I created SAN’s profile on MySpace. Within one week of it being on MySpace, I had over 200 profile views and 40 members, which, in my books, is terrific. A number of suggestions for how SAN could further their cause came from keen members and included: •    A benefit gig •    Making tunnels underneath roads for safe passage •    A ‘squirrel watch’ along Newlands Ave •    Squirrel Association of Tokai – another squirrel haven I also received a vest and logo design, created by another MySpace SAN member. Without social networking sites ...

The Price of Privacy? Ask Google. 2007-05-21 06:17:16 After making a hell of an effort and doing a lot of PR work in order to control the opinions of their sheer disregard for users’ lack of privacy with regards to things like personal search histories and user accounts, Google has introduced yet another piece of technology to the world that will surely have them held up for criticism once again. Google’s new tool is one that automatically transfers information from one computer system to another. Of course, unlike its predecessors, this software does in fact have to be authorised to a certain degree by its users before being administered, because (and here comes the hang nail) Google apparently have to store all transferred user information for a minimum of 30 days. (And here comes another not-so small bump in this uneven road in the quest for user convenience) This might be perceived as not too much of a risky compromise for the user, until, of course, they find out that the Bush Administration is demanding information on u ... Google

Know the deal before you sign it 2007-05-20 04:00:17 Sarah asked me to write this one as she felt that she was too much of a prude to watch the clip. Considering that it was sent on to us by Werner I could fully empathise with her concerns, and I tentatively opened the attachment half-expecting to be greeted by the sight of four naked midgets wrestling in the back streets of Bratislava. Luckily our concerns were ill-founded (this time) and I ended up having a good chuckle at the expense of the poor bloke in the video. Comment on "Know the deal before you sign it" ...

Unsanitary 2007-05-19 01:57:22 I absolutely despise sanitary wear ads. All those silly girls running around in skin tight white pants driveling on about the red robot or not being able to wear this dress or those pair of pants (and we’re all thinking well you really shouldn’t wear white after Labour Day anyway) or pouring that silly blue liquid everywhere. Hate them. But then I saw this, it may offend a couple of people but it is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. Comment on "Unsanitary" ...

Yahoo! goes green 2007-05-18 10:15:16 A few month's ago, after one of my first blog posts, Smith pointed out a pretty cool site, do the right thing.com. Browsing through some of the stories this morning I came across this piece by Josh Catone. So, it seems like Yahoo's wanting to push the green angle. Nothing sensational there as it's hardly the first big corporation to do so, but the campaigns it's running are worth a mention. The first, Yahoo! Green, aims to be a climate change portal. It includes not only information and news regarding climate change, but also a pretty cool Take Action page. Here users can customise their own carbon emission reduction plan by dragging and dropping a variety of CO2 lowering activities onto their personalised courses of action. The site then calculates and displays how much carbon the user's plan will save. The second campaign, Be a Better Planet, is a competition aiming to reward the most eco-friendly city in the States. By performing a number of carbon saving activities users ... Yahoo

Indaba Roundup 2007-05-18 01:42:19 Earlier this week I was in Durban where I spent the weekend at the annual Tourism Indaba, which I believe is the world's 3rd largest Tourism event. And what an event it was. Huge to say the least and really worthwhile, I think, for everyone attending. An exciting part of this year’s Indaba was the first time addition of an online marketing conference aimed specifically at the tourism industry. The event was organised by two amazing women, Fiona Buchner and Bronwen Auret who are responsible for driving the eMarketing for South African Tourism. I have to say that as a Proudly South African guy, I was super impressed by these ladies. They are so organised and understand online marketing backwards. I have a huge amount of confidence and excitement for what they are going to do to market South Africa as a tourist destination. The conference took place on Monday, the third day of Indaba. Fiona kicked it off by reporting back to the industry the findings of the Online Travel and To ...