[Disclaimer: I have zero first-hand information to provide and minimal second-hand information to form a proper opinion... So I'm totally guessing at circumstances surrounding this.]

Update: I just got an email from one of my peers who does have first-hand information. As soon as I get notified that they have a statement or comment on their blog I’ll post the link here. At that point – I’ll defer the topic to them.

FINAL UPDATE: As promised, here’s a link to Nitsupak’s blog regarding the issue. Since this artist is directly involved in the matter (and clearly affected by it) I will let them describe, define, and update on the subject, as they see fit.

My original post, prior to updates above:

I’ve had only two conversations now (hardly makes for a comprehensive review of the topic, I agree) but here’s what came from them.

The first person gave the impression Zazzle was trying to encourage more “adult” level designs by wanting PG-13 or stronger material.
The second person gave the opposite impression that the contact was to encourage friendlier, milder material… mostly G-Rated.

Truth be told – I am having a hard time not seeing this as anything other than a non-issue. I don’t work for Zazzle. It’s not my company. It’s not my place to tell them what to do. I’m not saying that others might not have an interest in the issue (if there is one) either way, but I don’t.

There’s a benefit to a company desiring to promote family-friendly products on their publicly viewable marketplace (or wherever). However, there’s certainly nothing wrong with a company deciding they want to appeal to a demographic that appreciates adult humor or themes.

From my perspective (again, having very little to go on) I’d say it’s a good thing when a company decides to delineate, one way or the other, how they want to present themselves to customers when it comes to the subject of family-friendly versus mature products.

So (and I’m making a guess here), Zazzle may (may) simply be fine-tuning their publicly viewable presentation (what shoppers might see who are not logged-in). Zazzle, from what I’ve ever seen, doesn’t lean strongly either way. They’re not the Disney Store but they’re also not TShirtHell.

In the end I haven’t seen anything to indicate this has a strong impact either way for the average Zazzle shopkeeper.

It would appear that, unless someone demonstrates otherwise, the Z is just working on their shopper-experience like any company would.

I suppose it must be that Spring is settling in? I don’t know, either way my wife, a couple of friends, and myself all seem to be shopping for new computers – most notably portables.

Therefor, in the interest of anyone else doing the same I thought I’d post a few links we’ve come across for, what appear to be, really excellent cases and bags. I haven’t decided on one yet because I’m still deciding on exactly what portable I’ll be getting. It was only a few days ago that I decided, with 90% certainty, that I’ll be getting a Mac (have been a PC user for years). I suspect I’ll be grabbing a 17″ Macbook Pro as I really need a robust portable and don’t want to buy a new machine for as long as possible.

So, if you’re shopping for cases or bags for your portable – may I help you with the following (no, none are affiliate links… this is purely a handy list):

BooqBags

Brenthaven

SFBags

Tom Bihn

Axio (I’ve seen several recommendations of this company but they appear to be unveiling a new site at this time… so it’s just a promo page. Kinda’ silly to dump a site for a promo).

For me, I’ve traditionally been a guy that prefers to pack a bag similar to something between what James Bond and a Navy Seal would carry… except with even more pockets, if you can believe that? However, in looking at some of these seriously stylish offerings I’m tempted to go down a different road. I’m not sure. My whole switch to a Mac portable from a gigantic PC tower system that could launch a Space Shuttle is a big change for me. I’m entertaining new ways of working, new tools and manners in which to do things. So, I might be doing early shopping for a carrying bag but it represents a major change for me.

Good luck to you, if you’re doing the same, and wish me luck.

UPDATE: Newer post about this here.

This is very preliminary information and I only had the most tertiary review of the subject but one of my peers said that an email from Zazzle indicated they were flagging, to some degree, designs that might be considered stronger than PG-13. The preference being toward more family-friendly PG-13 or milder designs.

We’ll see what comes of all of this. The Zazzle forums will surely be abuzz talking about it sooner or later.

I thought I’d be over this cold by now but it’s beating me up pretty good.

Actually, it’s thrown me down, taken my lunch, and given me an atomic wedgie. I won’t even pretend to know when I’m going to be back to my normal self so please, accept my apologies for slacking off and could someone please help me down from this fence post? …the splinters in my shorts are really killin’ me.

I had a quick exchange with Robert Sandie of Viddler.com. but that’s all it took – I’m convinced – Viddler is for me. Good attitudes, healthy sense of experimenting with new ideas.

Highly recommend their service – great features and innovative.

Damn, I’m looking forward to this.

If you want to find a painfully easy way to record and blog/embed videos for your site or blog – just cut to the chase and use Viddler.

TRReflectionPromo

Originally uploaded by blipfish.

A little shameless, but proud self-promotion.

If you’re here because of a post I just made over at the Cafepress forums …you might have made my point about “Call to Action.”

I think I know what my next blog post will be about. Stay tuned and have a totally groovy day.

What it is and why you want to be doing it.

I was having a conversation with one of my peers the other day. We were talking about his advertising budget and wanting to make certain he was spending money wisely… best publications, best type of ads, most bang-for-the-buck duration, etc.

It brought up the subject of keying and tracking – the process of proving the effectiveness of one promotion (or sales mechanism) over the other. Or, alternatively, validating the effectiveness of one. This is something that everyone from tshirt sellers to tractor wholesalers should be doing.

Here’s the routine most business people (online or offline) follow:

-They decide to start advertising. They want to advertise their business or maybe just a product, service, or information. Either way they decide it’s time to spend money and advertise.

-They give a little thought to what it is they want to advertise, pick the place (a magazine, newspaper, website, ad-word-type service, etc.) and then sign up.

-They chose whatever they can afford that seems reasonable (an arbitrary term, by the way) for what they get ($20 for 10 days, 3000 impressions for $100, six column inches for a weekend @ $250, and so on).

….then they let it run its course and decide (again – arbitrarily) if it was worth it.

That’s not the way to advertise. It’s not the way to spend your hard-earned money on advertising.

In many cases a more effective way is to start small, do your research, validate and so on. Then Key & Track.

Now, a side note about validating: validating is a big subject but here’s some things go consider. For example, an classified ad in a newspaper has some things to check first. Newspapers always claim numbers for how many people you’ll reach with an ad. Frankly, in my experience, you can usually cut those numbers in half because they often count “papers printed” and call that a readership. That gives a false sense of value because they might print 200,000 papers a day but 30% of those remain unsold in at news stands (they line bird cages the next day), not everyone who subscribes to a paper reads the classifieds – some just want news, sports, living, etc. to read. So, when you’re deciding if $300 for a classified ad over the weekend to reach 200,000 people is worth it? …factor in you’ll probably be reaching far, far fewer people for that money.

This example is the point, which can hold true, for many mediums… online and offline medium. So, first things first – do your homework and make sure you know what/where/how your money is going for in an ad.

Okay, the keying and tracking is actually quite simple.

The easiest way to explain it is with an example. Remember watching commercials on TV or hearing ads on radio that direct you to “Ask for department “J” when calling?” Or, email “KevinThompsons@….?” Those were keyed and tracked ads (aka Kevin Thompson = KT = Keyed & Tracked). The advertisers are wanting to see how many emails ol’ Kevin got because they know that only radio stations in Las Vegas, Nevada ran ads with the email for Kevin. Ads on the radio on Denver, Colorado directed prospects to phone and ask for Daisy Conners, instead.

…it’s all a more sophisticated version of “where did you hear about us?”

It’s also effective to use two, identical promotions (say: the same banner ads on website “A” and more on website “B” and you want to see whether A or B was a better place to have your banners on). So, you create a unique link-to for the one website and another link-to for the other… but leave everything else about the banner the same… same duration, same graphic, same text, same launch date, etc. You want to see how many links the one site gives you over the other. If you have Statcounter or some similar tracking service in place you’ll be able to validate this even better.

…it’s all about seeing where your biggest bang-for-the-buck comes from – all things being equal.

For some, this is old news or a variation on what they already do. For others, this might be the first time you’ve thought about it. It can apply to print advertising as well as online, obviously. Newspaper, Google AdSense, Banner, Exchanges, etc. It’s all the same end-goal.

Old schoolers have some rules about keying and tracking – the least of which is all factors need to be identical except the one, internal device you use to distinguish one ad from the other. If website “A” generates more email inquiries to “Alan’s” email than does website “B” to “Bob’s” email… you have the beginnings of a keyed and trackable ad. You can now begin to test the effectiveness of those websites and how much one is worth spending your money on over the other. Remember, too, on the internet traffic is great – but sales often are more important. So, test how much money you make from A-versus-B not just traffic.

I key and track ads on small scale frequently for headlines and general content. I want to make sure that a print ad, a banner graphic, a text-only website ad, are the best they can be so I often run two, nearly identical versions on the same website and see which one brings me the best results. Once I tweak and do this routine a couple times I can be pretty confident I’ve got the best version I can. It’s at that point I can feel confident paying for more expensive, longer duration runs on larger websites. The last thing one wants to do is pay $500 for a graphical ad on BoingBoing (for example) and have it be the first time you’ve ever run that promotion. No, when you pay good money for a major ad on a major online service you want to know that it’s proven itself on other, smaller service – and it’s the best version of that ad you can craft. Keying and tracking help you do this with confidence.

If you found this little bit of information useful, please email “Bob Fisher” in department B. Thanks.

Sorry to anyone who was expecting more articles or posts about particular subjects – but I have a good excuse. I won’t bother yo u with details but I did want to just say that our immediate and extended families have some health issues. So, as we spend time and attention on those family members it’s inevitable my blog time will slow a little.

I’m sure you understand and I thank you for that.

I expect to have some more organized time shortly for the blipfish blog. I’m not taking time off – just taking things slowly.

As always – feel totally free to contact me if you have any questions or comments. It’s no intrusion during this time – it just means it’ll get responded to a tad slower but that’s fine with me if it’s fine with you.

-blip

Sorry belated, but I hope you had an excellent, awesome, and work-free birthday!