Aside from 97th Floor, I co-own an action sports news site called 5ones and a live analytics company called BLVD Status.

This week 5ones launched a very cool project that we have been working on for a very long time (initial idea Jul 08). It is called, “5ones Earth” and it is an interactive Google Maps mashup that organizes all of the worlds Surf Spots, Skate Spots, Ski/Snowboard Resorts, Pro Shops and Company Headquarters. The idea is if you are in Hawaii on vacation and you are not familiar with the local surf spots you can do a search and the application will bring back all the relevant results to your search and give you specific information on the break as well as directions. Or if you are in need of some gear you can search for a shop. Maybe you want to find a place to skate while you are visiting friends in a different state? Whatever it is we hope to organize it and share it with everyone.

Check it out and if you are into action sports and have some spots to add then please do so to help it grow and also so you can enter into the contest which has over $1,000 worth of free gear.

Original Post on It

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I will be the first to admit while it didn’t take me a long time to sign up and start networking with friends on Twitter, it has taken me a long time to understand the true power of the website. When I first started using it I saw it as a networking and communication tool. The more I come to use it and the more I watch people from all walks of life using it I am starting to see why Twitter may possibly be the most important website since Google. To help you understand my logic I want to start with some thoughts on Google.

I think it is safe to say most everyone believes Google is currently the most important website on the internet. When I say important I mean the one that has effected how we use the internet the most thus far. Before it came out we were all satisfied with Yahoo, DogPile and other engines and then Google came a long and it got some grass roots buzz, it was the cool new minimalistic search engine that had surprisingly good results with a clean interface. Soon everyone that was savvy enough to know they could choose the search engine they retrieved info from, chose Google. Google didn’t enhance search, Google popularized search. Yes search was around before Google but people didn’t stop using the Yellow Pages and the Phone book and every other method of finding information until Google.

Enter Twitter -
Even among Google, Google Blog Search, RSS Readers, Blogs, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, FaceBook etc. there is still room in our already thin attention span for a site like Twitter. Like Google, Twitter is simple, straight forward and extremely easy to use. I don’t look at Twitter as a micro-blogging service I look at as a literal representation (both through information and networking) as to how small this planet really is. Short 140 character messages isn’t what Twitter is but how it is carried out. Twitter is becoming a behemoth of instant information with the ability to follow up with and talk to the person providing that information. Sure you could say that is the same thing as blogs, but most of what is said in blogs can and is starting to be said through 140 characters and you can digest more info from more people that way. I replaced my RSS reader with Twitter in fall of last year, I have seriously logged in to my Reader less then 10 times since September to read blogs when it used to be a daily occurrence. If someone asked, “what is Google not doing well on the web?” Twitter would be at the top of my list. Twitter is a Real Time engine with personal and live feedback.

#Twitter #Search -
Part of the long term stability I see with Twitter is from search.twitter.com. Anything I need to know about something that is happening right now or has happened in the last 12 hours I use Twitter search for. I used to search through Google Blogsearch, Digg, Delicious, Youtube to get breaking news but now I am alerted to it so quick through someones update, and I can go to Twitter search and get hundreds if not thousands of snippets of info and links seconds/minutes after it is happening. Everyone knows about Twitter and the Hudson River, Mumbai attacks etc. You can’t get that from Google. What takes Google minutes or hours to show you takes Twitter seconds. Google Organizes others content, Twitter creates and organizes its own content. When Jon Stewart ripped Jim Cramer a “new one” I found out about it live from people watching in Eastern time and I was able to go set my TIVO for MST and watch it that night. Before Twitter it would of been a Youtube clip submitted to Digg, Reddit or SU the next day. Danny Sullivan mentioned a similar experience during his keynotes at Omniture Summit and SMX West 09 about an earth quake that hit SoCal, he had tweeted about it and started to get replies and see results with information within minutes. There is no other site on the web that has this capability, and I don’t mean as in software but in software powered by a large and growing organic user base.

Sandwich Tweets -
Tweeting about the homemade panini you made or about the Audi test drive you just took is just as vital to Twitter as live excerpts from members of Congress during the State of the Union. If I wanted a new recipe to make for my wife I would use Twitter in that quest. I am in the market right now for a new car and I have used Twitter to find and reach out to those driving what I am interested in to get real live feedback. You can go to CitySearch or Amazon to see reviews on a product or company, but you can go to Twitter to see less biased reviews and you can talk to the person making those reviews and ask specific questions.

No More Red tape -
Twitter will replace a lot of media outlets or at least steal a lot of share from them. The way companies can communicate and react to customers via Twitter is Gods great gift to customer communication and loyalty. Before Twitter and partly due to sites like Digg Comcast was the Cable provider ran by Lucifer himself, now because of the outreach that Comcast has utilized via Twitter it is on its way to Saint Hood. Dell has similar experiences. Twitter is finally helping companies be agile who without it were stiff and slow. Social media and blogging in the large corporate space has always been hindered by Red Tape, Twitter forces companies to break that Red Tape. Large companies put review and approval processes before publishing blogs, can you imagine if tweets had to go through legal first? Not going to happen, Twitter forces companies to put someone capable and trusted at the helm as it cannot be regulated it like other mediums.

Twitter Tipping point -
Twitter is mainstream, the nature of Twitter allows every user to utilize its power in their own way, if you are a stay at home mom, CNN, Ashton Kutcher, Jimmy Fallon, small business owner, or the President of the United States you can use Twitter to better your objectives no matter what they may be. This is why it is Mainstream and why it isn’t going to stop, and you think there are a lot of people on there now? I guarantee you that in less than 6 months the user base will nearly double, and instead of people with 400k followers we will have people with over 1M followers. Before Twitter where else would you be able to talk to Shaq or get a late night link to a live streamed jam session by Shawn Ptwitty Combs. People that have influence on Twitter will have influence on the world especially in media. If I was hiring in any kind of business that needed media/marketing presence and I had two nearly identical resumes on my desk and one applicant had no twitter account and the other had 15,000 followers who do you think I am going to hire?

Embrace or be Replaced -
Every company needs to embrace and leverage Twitter before Twitter replaces them. Twitter is already been said to take a chunk out of Job sitesit could do the same to Social Sites, classifieds, dating sites, search engines, aggregators, and so on. FaceBook knows that Twitter is their biggest threat, and it is carving out a strong hold as the most powerful Real Time Search Engine that Google cannot Duplicate.

Conclusion -
There will be a new media darling in a year just as Digg was before Twitter, but Twitter will take on its own role and it isn’t going anywhere. Soon pretty much anyone with an internet connection will be using Twitter if not to tweet but to find Real Time information. In my opinion it is the most influential and important site since Google.

@chrisbennett

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I love swimming, and I practically live in the pool from May - Nov. so when i was asked by my friends at Presidential Pools, an Arizona pool builder what kind of things their local Arizona swimming pool company could do to go viral - I had some great ideas!

I am in the process of finishing up my landscaping and everything around my pool, so I have been looking at design after design and trying to come up with something amazing. While doing all that - I have come across some pretty amazing pools, and have found my self day dreaming and doing a little more surfing for pictures then I think I needed to. I am amazed at what some people do with their pools these days. I also found some funny (and very dangerous) things that people do in their pools that I know would be a huge success and hit with social networks - especially YouTube.

Based on my research - here are some of the titles that I think would do pretty well in the swimming pool industry -

1. Top 10 Celebrity Pools.
2. The Worlds 10 Largest Pools.
3. The Top 5 Most Exotic Pools in Las Vegas.
4. The Top 5 Most Luxurious Backyard in Arizona. (local based idea)

You could include 10 pictures of amazing pools like the one above, and give details where they are (like this on in Tahiti) and why you feel they deserve to be in the top 10. It could be a vote, or based on cost, or location? It really is up to you - this is your post and idea. I think anything you would do would be amazing and make people want to keep reading on (staying on your site longer).

Some video ideas would be:

1. 10 Of The Most Dangerous Things Ever Done In Pools
2. 10 Things Dumb Kids Do In Pools
3. The Top 10 Things Your Kids Do That Will Void Your Kids Warranty

Then you could share some videos like this one I found: You would find 10 other videos similar to this one, and I would title it “10 Diving Board Jumps That Hurt To Watch”

If you are in the swimming pool industry you are lucky when it comes to viral content. There are enough stupid people out there, that there is a never ending supply. If you do some research and really dig into some of the examples I have given you even here - I think you will do well! Could probably do some cool infographics here too. As always - let me know if you have any other viral marketing questions in the form of comments here!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

I usually don’t go on rants here, but this one has been brewing in my mind for a long time. A recent trip to the Apple store made it that much worse for me too. I was one of the suckers that got the iPhone way back in the day, and own the old school, non 3G one. The one thats a piece of crap now … right?

I hear the commercials about how the new iPhone 3G is half the price, and twice as fast and the only thing I can think of is how I got 100% screwed by Apple. I go into the stores and hear from the Apple “specialists” that I can sell my old iPhone for good money on eBay or Craigslist (average of 400 on eBay) and I even heard of a service that will make it even easier to swap your iPhone (just today).

I have a problem with all this, and wonder why more people don’t. I have to worry about going through all the trouble of getting all my stuff off the old iPhone, make sure its clean and clear, go to drop off spots, figure out the shipping, worry about getting screwed or scammed on eBay or Craigslist (WAY MORE HASSLE THEN I WANT TO DEAL WITH)… especially when I feel I should just be able to go into an Apple store and exchange it right there, and have them take care of the customers that were loyal to them from the beginning.

Besides the iPhone, I own an iPod shuffle, two Mac books, a powerbook, and am about to buy an iMac so I am starting to feel like Apples little bitch with things like this going on with the iPhone. I feel like they should take care of me, let me bring in my iPhone … clear it out for me, get all the files moved over and upgrade me for free - and NOT have to pay 10 bucks more for the unlimited data plan. I mean … COME ON!!!

I just keep thinking about how I paid twice as much for an iPhone that is twice as slow as the new 3G ones and Apple just keeps laughing at suckkers like me (all the way to the bank) that keep doing it and making them even more money. Ok this was a rant, and there is nothing I can do about it, and will probably go and upgrade because the old iPhone is incredibly slow and horrible, but I do feel better now!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

I have been working along with my brother Patrick (who is an insane web designer) and a kick butt programmer named Charles Berube for the past seven months on an analytics tool. I am happy to say that it is finally ready for anyone and everyone to test out. We have had it in private beta for about two months and it is stable enough now that we want you to give it a try.

It is called BLVD Status it is a killer tool with a lot of features that no other analytics tool offers, it is also extremely easy to set up and get running. To put it simply it is has the live stats like you are used to with products like Have a Mint, but with conversions and in depth info. There is a dashboard that has live instant stat info somewhat similar to Mint but with a conversion section that shows you the latest conversions. It also has a killer Keyword section showing the latest hits from keywords as well as what search engine and what your rank is for that term both live and on average.

Here is a Screen Shot of the the Top Row of the Dashboard:

Features
RSS Conversions:

You heard me right, we have it set up to track your referrals to subscribing to your RSS feed. Until now you had to set up complex Google outbound click reporting, or set up your own special java script or guess as to whether StumbleUpon, Digg or a blog link brought you the new subscribers.

Digg This Conversions:
If you love social media like I do you have to have live stats as you don’t want to wait til the next day to find out you are on digg with only an hour left of voting time. You want to know the second you are on Digg, so you can send that url around or watch your comments etc.This way you can best welcome and utilize that influx of traffic. But we took it a step further, in the dasboard you can set up Digg This buttons that have our analytics tied to it so you can treat it like a conversion and see which referrals bring you the most Diggs. If you are on Reddit, Stumble, Sphinn and Digg at once which one of the other communities brings you extra votes. If you see that Reddit will bring you more Diggs and help you reach the front page easier you should start tweaking your strategy accordingly. Right now this is only available for Digg but soon it will be most if not all Social Buttons. We have done a lot of studies in this area and will be releasing some sweet data on the BLVD Status blog talking about conversion rates to the Digg This button.

Live Keyword Tracking:

This is a favorite amongst most people that have tested it, there is a dashboard in side BLVD Status dedicated to Keyword referrals. It will show you the most recent referrals, all time referrals, what engine they came from and what your live or current rank is. It also has a filter so you can just view Google Referrals, Google Blogsearch, Live, Yahoo and pretty much all the main engines. It uses Googles API when getting the ranking so for now it will only let you go to number 32. So anything that ranks further back than 32 will show up as >32.

We will be adding a ranking reporting tool that will let you see what your rankings are, how many hits, conversions etc. you got for that term as well.

Traffic Allotments for Beta:
Right now we have now limits as to your levels we want to get as many people using it as possible and not limit your stats. As we grow if our servers start to take a beating at it could effect the reliability of the product we will announce a new traffic level structure.

Feedback:
We want your feedback we want to make this the analytics product that offers all the tricks and trinkets you could ever want. When we look at feedback and decide whether or not to do anything about it we will always lean towards the side of the feature helping someone better understand and ultimately improve their web site.

For now please send any and all feedback to - chris@blvdstatus.com or leave comments at the BLVD Status blog it will be live this week.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

Quick update: Social Media for Firefox 3 is ready. You can download it here.

Right now it is just the update with Del.icio.us working better. We will be releasing an update soon that will be adding Mixx and have some new options with StumbleUpon. Then after that we will be working on another Kick A version that will have all kinds of crazy stuff it is going to be rad.

When we release the next version I will be uploading a video on how to use it at all the different sites and how you really can use it to build top profiles. Last year I used it to build a good Digg profile, one of my friends is in the top 15 Stumblers and he used it to do that, and I have had literally hundreds of people say they have used it to help them build more powerful profiles.

Nearly 100k downloads of the old version can be bad right?

Stay tuned, make sure you subscribe to our feed for updates. Also stay tuned I have a really cool beta analytics product for blogs that is about a week or two away from release. If anyone wants to help beta post in the comments or email me.

Thanks to Marios for lighting some fire.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

I think I have outdone myself this week with finding the absolute most boring industry on the planet. If you are a part of the fixed assets software community then please accept my (not so sincere) apology for poking fun at your boring industry!

After having a pretty good talk with a friend of mine who happens to own a fixed assets and depreciation software company I realized that this industry does have some pretty interesting things that could in fact go viral.

One of the more interesting parts of the conversation led to the things that people try to claim as fixed assets, or more surprisingly what could be claimed as a fixed asset for tax purposes. I really was surprised on both ends of the spectrum. So what could a catchy viral title be for this industry? I would start with these: “10 Things You Never Knew Were Fixed Assets” and “The 10 Stupidest Things People Have Ever Tried To Pass Off As Fixed Assets” and you can even spice up the post with really cool videos you find, and pictures rather then just listing out the items. Its fun for us to look at the silly things people try to claim.

I was told a story of a client trying to claim his “hooker” during his businesses trips as a fixed asset because he always went back to her every business trip. He joked with this client that even though he could take her for a ride, it is not the same thing as a tractor (which would be considered a fixed asset). The client did not appreciate the joke! The funnies thing of all is that he had receipts (or documented invoices) and all to prove it too!

There you go - I gave you way to much info that you can have fun with today for this industry. Remember, even the most boring industries can go viral and I think I proved that one today! Please continue to email us, and leave comments with your viral marketing idea Friday requests.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

If you own a photography company, and are trying to go viral, I think you have one of the easiest industries (and biggest opportunities) there is to go viral with. I have had more posts hit the front page of Digg that were pictures then anything else, but the key here is to make sure you have some good link bait, and most importantly - let people know what you are offering them [Unbelievable PIC] - for example.

From the work I have seen of a few of my friends that are Photographers, you probably don’t have to look to far for something that could do well in a viral marketing scene. For example, I have a friend that is an Alabama Wedding Photographer, and he has showed me some of the funniest, non flattering, and “oops” type pictures he has taken (of the wedding goers) that I am sure these families do not want to end up in the family album. Without me even giving any ideas, I know you are starting to think of ways you could turn this into a viral post.

With permission (of course) he could use some of these photos on his blog, and give the post the title - “10 Pictures You Don’t Want To End Up In Your Wedding Album!” or “10 Things That Went On During Your Wedding That You Have No Idea About” or how about taking the cute route - “The 10 Cutest Kids Ever Caught On Film - Doing Something Bad” and then share a picture of the kid throwing a fist full of cake at Grandpa (while being very cute).

It would all depend on how long you stuck around taking pictures during a wedding, but at weddings where alcohol is involved, I am sure you could come up with a huge post laying out some of “The Funniest Pictures Of Drunk People At Weddings You Have Ever Seen” or “What Happens When You Are Drunk At A Wedding And Don’t Know Your Picture Is Being Taken”. You see, these would probably be some of the funniest pictures you have looked at in a while, but just telling people in the social networks to look at wedding pictures is not going to cut it. You have to make sure you are attracting users to click with these catchy “link baited” titles that make you want to click.

I have done case studies where I have shared pictures that were super funny, but gave them a boring non descriptive title, and no one ever saw them or knew about them. I would then use the same picture with a sexy title, and they caught like a wild fire and made it to the top of most social bookmarking or sharing sites. I know a lot of this may seem like common sense to us who understand this industry, but to a Photography business owner whose main focus is to take pictures that make them money, may not understand the power they may already posses with their photos when adding a blog and catchy title into the mix. That is the purpose of viral marketing idea Friday, and for me sharing this information.

Take this picture (below) I found after doing a simple Google image search of funny wedding photos - could have the funniest title ever “Just Imagine What The Wedding Night Is Going To Be Like”

As always, please feel free to send any viral marketing questions in the form of comments! We would also love to hear how you would add to the ideas we give (if you have suggestions). I love viral marketing, and the world is a much funner place (in my mind) because of it!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

An interview of a two part series was published over at Elance, 13 Ways to Make Your Blog Viral. I will be doing another interview this week that will go live in the coming month about basic SEO.

If you are not familiar with Elance they are one of the largest market place websites for Freelancers and Outsourcing. Everything from Virtual Assistants to Copywriters and Programmers.

It is pretty cool, when I first started offering seo services as a consultant I used Elance everyday to grab new clientèle and now Elance is one of my clients. Pretty cool how stuff like that works out.

That is my blogging Disclosure as well

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I don’t think very many people even know what Postum is, but it is a coffee substitute for those that want a hot beverage in the morning, (or anytime) but do not want the buzz of a regular cup of coffee. I happen to know of Postum very well, having a Dad who was an avid drinker of the beverage.

You may be asking yourself what does Postum have to do with this SEO blog of mine, or viral marketing for that matter? I don’t know exactly how I can tie it in, but here is the lesson to be learned - If you want to survive in marketing online, you must be aware of any, and every kind of marketing opportunities that may present themselves. You must also keep up to date with everything that is going on around you. Pay attention to things that people are talking about, blogging about, doing anything about!!

A few weeks ago my Dad told me he was having a hard time finding his Postum anywhere anymore. Me being the marketer I am, I decided to investigate, and found out that Kraft was discontinuing their coffee substitute after many decades in business. I guess because they just don’t sell enough anymore. I know of a handful of people who drink it on a regular basis, but not many so I can see why it would happen.

My Dad was not a happy camper about it, so he decided to stock up before it was all gone. I also decided to stock up too, but not to share with my Dad (and no I don’t drink Postum). I thought that this might be the perfect opportunity to make some decent ROI, and at the very least have something fun to blog about.

It turns our I was right in my hunch, and these jars of postum are hot items on eBay right now selling for (in some cases) 5 times what they cost on the shelf. I remember my Dad saying they cost him about 4 bucks or so for a jar, and those same jars are going for anywhere from 35 - 50 bucks a jar right now. I bought a case of them, and am holding onto them a little longer, who knows I may end up giving them to my Dad after all, but it was a fun experience for me to test out. (I had to do something to make me feel better since all my Barry Bonds cards are no longer worth much!!) I can see why these kind of marketers do what they do, its kinda fun to see something like this happen! You don’t feel like you were the one who bought a house one month to late just before the market decided to go south!!!

I guess the real point I am trying to make is that if you are always on top of the market, searching out trends and other things like I just explained, you can make a pretty decent living on places like eBay and Craigslist. Just think about this - the people (who I think were crazy) that bought the Xboxes for thousands, (or Wii’s or PS3s - you name it) even 10k (one listing I saw when it was going down) when they first came out years ago. It’s the people who are taking advantage of the market situations (and paying attention to all the trends etc) that are making the real profit and money online!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers