For the average gringo tourist the allure of the lake lies in its different islands. We hired a guide and commandeered an awfully slow boat to hit the high seas and discover new worlds.

Our first stop was the floating islands of Uros. The islands, and just about everything on them including their houses and boats, are made of totora reeds. Every forty years or so this becomes a bit problematic since the reeds sink into the lake at that point. The islands were originally created to isolate the Uros from enemies. If attacked, they could simply move their lands away from danger. These days the main rationale for living on a Party Island made of reeds seems to be purely for tourism.

I can’t remember what’s supposed to imitate what but Uros is more of an amusement park ride than a civilization. Native islanders share just enough information about their home before they aggressively hawk their handmade crafts. The females serenaded us with a stirring rendition of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”. After paying off a bunch of other natives (all you tea party people out there would be outraged) we were on our merry way.

After a uninspiring few hours on Taquile Island (they wear their woven hats sideways to show when they are sad) we inched on along to Amantani. This island is about 6 square miles containing a few thousand people within multiple villages. If the tv show LOST was filmed in Peru, instead of Hawaii, it would be on this island. Terrace farming is the main occupation as small plots of land are worked by hand. There are no cars, machines or hotels. Not much electricity either. There are two dogs.

We arranged to stay with a local family for the night. Our patriarch Angel and his 9 year-old son Wilbur met us at the dock and took us back to their home which had amazing views of Pachamama (mother earth). One of the family’s livestock (five goats) had birthed a new goat earlier in the day. Between the miracle of life and the visit from the tres payasos it was a pretty exciting day for them. Then we showered our family with gifts of grain, sugar, cooking oil, pasta, coco leaves and Oreo cookies. We even brought a soccer ball and toy dinosaurs for Wilbur and his sister. Check out the regalos giving ceremony!

We decided to go for a hike on the island with Wilbur. As we were walking around we ran into Wilbur’s amigo Oliveres who quickly joined our crew. Apparently, the word spread because within minutes we had a slew of rambunctious kids following us. It was time to play some Futbol.

We split into three teams. I named my team after the daring Peruvian striker Jefferson Farfan. I butchered a bunch of Spanish words and terms to my Quechuan speaking teammates. They laughed at me. I played my hardest and stole the ball from my little amigos as much as possible. I chided my sweeper Jose for eating his boogers instead of paying attention on defense. We all had lots of fun.

After soccer we crossed the hill to the school house and taught the ninos about the birds and the bees. It was a one-room schools where every kid between the age of 5-17 learns together. Horace Mann would turn over in his grave. I read Goodnight Moon (Buenos Noches, Luna) out loud in spanish but then struggled to get through the Magic Autobus.

After a long day of living the simple life it was time to eat. Angel’s wife made us pourage and some kind of omelet that Jon couldn’t or wouldn’t eat. The dining room was actually a bit drab. No windows, one candle. Angel and his family ate on the floor while we sat at their only table. To break the ice and lighten the mood Jon sang some of his favorite songs.

Finally, it was time to party. We put on our costumes and went right back to the school house to listen to the sweet, soothing sounds of the native Amantani band. Yes, the Peruvian flute was played. We drank, we danced, we lived!

The next morning I awoke early at dawn and bumped into Angel on my way to the outhouse. We had a pleasant conversation in which I didn’t understand much of anything that he said. I did ask him about the status of his baby goat. A bit later we ate breakfast. I thought it was biscuits, Adam believed it to be potato latkas and Jon was pretty sure it was chicken nuggets! We bid adios to Angel and his family and hopped on our boat back to modern society.

I leave you with these final words of wisdom. The people of the island follow an old ancient Inca saying of ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla. The meaning: Do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy. Sounds about right to me.

I’m writing this post to solicit travel advice and recommendations. Many of you have spent considerable time in Israel and are much more familiar than my family is with the country. My family has all been there at least once before so we’ve hit most of the major sites and landmarks. We have hired a tour guide but it would be great to hear from you about places to visit, people to meet, cool activities, great restaurants and unique experiences. I would love to hear in your own words what makes it such a special place and how we might be able to experience some of that.

Our basic plan is to spend a few nights in Tel Aviv (at the Hilton), go up North to the Golan Heights (staying near Tiberias at Nof Ginosar Hotel) and then head back to Jerusalem. This itinerary is flexible and still evolving as we continue to plan out the trip. I’m especially eager to try and find a real deal Kibbutz for us to spend a few days churning hummus.

Shoot me an email with at least three cool recommendations. I’ll compile all of the notes (anonymously) and then share with whoever is interested. Thanks in advance and look forward to your awesome tips.

So basically you get connected with a person. As soon as you (or the other person) want to bounce, simply hit next (F9) and you’re on to a new random cyber conversation. There is absolutely no way to know or control who will pop up on your screen next. The magic occurs within the actual connection and also anticipating what will come next. Seems fun and cutesy, right? Not quite.

Spend just a few minutes on ChatRoulette and the first thing that will grab your attention are the erect penises. Yup, you read that right (BTW, I advise against checking out this website at work!) About one in every 6-8 encounters involve a webcam focused on a penis. For every 10 penises you might get a vagina here or there. Most of the penises click next as soon as they see a non-pervert on the other end. I’m not really sure with whom the penises are looking to chat but thankfully it is not me.

If you can get past the penis, things really get addictingly weird. ChatRoulette was created by a 17-year-old Russian kid named Andrey who wanted to help alleviate the boredom of teenage angst by creating something fun. Many of the non X-rated interactions on the website revolve around groups of teenagers who are messing around online. There’s a bunch of people, usually 20-something guys, who are alone in semi-darkness looking forlorn and emo staring into their webcam. There are also some non-perverted attention-seeking exhibitionists who are usually in costume, masks or performing some kind of act or skit. Here’s some screenshots of goofy chats. Most conversations last for just an instance as one person clicks off looking for something other than what they see on screen. It can be a bit demoralizing as one random dude after another clicks past you without blinking an eye.

So, why even go on ChatRoulette? To be honest, I’m not sure other than curiosity.
What I do know is that it can be exhilarating. The idea that you can talk to anybody, anywhere in the world is mind expanding and the exact type of thing that makes me dig the net. Making a connection and sharing a fun or interesting moment with a stranger is exciting. The other day I met a teenager from Michigan who was a Wolverine fan and we talked smack about Dick Rod. Last week after a Passover Seder my sisters and I convinced a dude to start the virtual “wave” and we completed it. Roy, Bwetty and I talked trash to a group of teenagers in Denmark.

I’ve visited the website about five times. Each time it was with other people to whom I was showing off how it works. I am too frightened to go at it alone so I recommend you employ the buddy system when spinning the wheel. It’s easier to dismiss the peculiarity when you can share a nervous laugh. The reaction of my friends varied from fascination to repulsion. My buddy Roy picked it up immediately and exhibited the boldness, aggression, penchant for vulgar slurs and a trigger happy middle finger that his 140 lb frame has never been able to support in the 3D world (Who knew that Roy had some Blakebone in him?). My sisters were so intrigued after our first experience that we went for an encore after our second Seder (in which I wore the mask!)

Awesome stuff does happen on ChatRoulette. A talented musician posted a video on YouTube singing to strangers. Ben Folds picked up on it (many thought there was an uncanny resemblance) and incorporated into his live concerts. Ashton Kutcher and other celebrities have been spotted chatting it up with random strangers.

The potential is certainly there for something more to come out of this new type of random communication. Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson is fascinated by it. Imagine being able to chat with strangers who share your interests or passions. I could talk to Johnnies fans all day about the Steve Lavin era! Imagine connecting with someone for an engaging one-to-one conversation when choosing a college to attend, moving to a new city, networking into a different career, or learning a new skill. Imagine ChatRoulette combined with LinkedIn. Is it possible that communication like ChatRoulette can be used as a device to transfer knowledge, customs, culture or philanthropy?

But for now ChatRoulette is what it is. A website for the lonesome, perverted, outrageous, bored and curious. Apparently, that’s a large group as ChatRoullete web traffic rises quicker than…you get the point.

Hope you’re bold enough to check it out!

Small business owners have long ago figured out the key to advertising and marketing while brilliant MBA’s, award-winning agencies, and self-proclaimed “marketing gurus” hopelessly manipulate the 4 P’s of marketing into buzzwords of mass destruction. The simple principle: only spend money if it leads to making money!

Local businesses are advertising the same way that they did a decade ago. This includes the obligatory phone book ad, penny saver coupons and local print publications. If they want to go Hollywood (think car dealers) they pony up with a super cheesy thirty second radio or television advertisement. Case in point…

Until recently, there have been few truly effective (effective = money making) digital platforms for local small businesses to advertise efficiently. The one true success, Google, happens to also be the greatest company of this generation. For those who think Google is just a nifty tool to help pickup French chicks, the true value is that it enables businesses to place small text ads on relevant search result pages AND allows the advertiser to easily track the result of their advertising expense. But there is a tremendous opportunity that goes way beyond Google. Just ask your local pizza place, neighborhood bar, barber shop, arcade or bowling alley. My guess is that many small business owners just aren’t nerdy enough to be advertising through Google. In fact, small businesses often look at their web presence as a cost center in which they have to pay to develop and maintain their own website rather than as a revenue generating marketing play.

New digital start-ups try to conquer the local space because of the vast untapped market but the well runs dry before they ever see substantial advertising revenue. Dating back to the dot com days with Microsoft Sidewalk, to hyperlocal news sites like Backfence.com and experiments from the Washington Post, the local space has been a digital albatross. The cost to create local content far outweighs the non-existent revenue from the zipped pockets of non-digital local business owners.

Thanks to the ever-evolving digital landscape, local businesses now have a plethora of digital resources they can use to help drive sales. Restaurants have an increasingly significant reputation to maintain on review websites like Yelp, Menupages and Citysearch. Businesses can use Facebook fan pages combined with highly targeted facebook ads. Twitter is a fluent platform to instantly connect with customers. There is also a renewed focus and investment in local email newsletters (Thrillist, Urban Daddy, Flavorpill and enhanced television and newspaper websites. To take the place of failing print media companies, local news (Everyblock, Patch) and relevant blogs and blog networks (Outside.In, Placeblogger) are taking their place. An even more promising development is the progress of the mobile web which is naturally location conscious. New apps like Four Square, Loopt and even BBM have tremendous potential to connect advertisers with potential customers. This NY Times article does a good job sizing it up.

Before we all have a neighborhood block party let’s realize it’s going to take at least another decade for Joe the Plumber or the average small business owner to be digitally-aware enough to do their own online marketing. This creates a neat little digital black hole.

Great local digital applications for users.
Meager local advertiser revenues.

In this situation I think the middle man wins. Who or what can help local businesses advertise digitally through the many new local platforms? How can that scale by city or neighborhood? I don’t think an individual publisher or platform can scale on its own because the unit economics don’t work. By that I mean that the cost of monetizing in an individual market is greater than the current revenues generated from a limited local audience. But if the local sales costs can be reduced, or the audience better monetized, then the unit economics can make sense for individual platform/publishers. I don’t think the “middle man” is a marketing agency. That is too manual for the digital world. More likely, the “middle man” is some kind of automated market place that allows local businesses to efficiently spend on local advertising and see a positive ROI. Yeah, that is kind of similar to a Google Adwords model. But it doesn’t overcome the friction of bringing the non-digital small business on to the web. For once I don’t have all the answers! I would love to understand Google’s local strategy.

I’ve become a true believer that Sportsvite’s success will lie in local. Participating in recreational sports is inherently local. No matter how well we can aggregate a recreational sports audience, the most value to marketer’s lies in how Sportsvite can influence their local activity. As Sportsvite captures the attention of players within their community, it is creating a highly effective marketing platform. Now we just need to understand how to reach the local advertisers and then scale to just about everywhere!

Besides a few random days off I didn’t take much time off in 2009. When I did, I was still attached to my laptop or blackberry. In fact, I just copped a netbook a few weeks ago to alleviate the stress of travelling without my computer – the tribulations of being a geek.

The first bit of luck came when my blackberry didn’t work in Costa Rica. I even gave it a half-hearted effort to call T-Mobile to try and fix it but to no avail. Without me checking my phone, email, twiter, etc. every 20 seconds, I learned that stuff happening within my line of sight is kind of interesting also! I have this vicious habit of checking my phone the instant I wake up in the morning, even before I am fully conscious. It’s a crappy and stressful way to start a day. Sometimes I even fall back asleep after I check my email and then I’m not sure if my overdue cable bill is reality or a figment of my theta state. Anyway, I digress.

A limited functioning blackberry is actually a triple whammy as my BBM and twitter were also down, and without a pressing need to carry around my phone I also lost my source for tracking time. I assured my friends that I could determine time from looking at the sun and that would be correct within a margin of error of +/- 90 minutes. Some might say that is about the same margin of time in which I operate even with a clock.

Interestingly, all the places where we stayed (and some were quite remote) had wi-fi. This is one of the biggest tech advancements in traveling over the last few years (GPS being the other MAJOR improvement). I used to have to seek out a business center or internet café, but now the internet comes to me. This was actually quite comforting as I knew that I could go online whenever I needed too. I was pretty good about checking email only once per day and was also able to use the connection to Skype home every few days to let my parents know I was still alive.

Finally, between the four of us we had no functioning digital camera. We did buy an underwater disposable camera but couldn’t figure out if it worked and felt kind of lame carrying it around. I’m not a big picture taker or picture poser so not having to stop and freeze mid-peak added to the relaxation.

It took a few days to unwind but eventually I realized I was disconnected. It felt fresh. Without digital distractions, I was left to live the life that was unfolding in front of me or in my mind! When that consists of rafting, surfing, fishing, reading and amazing beaches…well, that’s a recipe for happiness.

Without killing time bouncing around esoteric blogs and analyzing Division II box scores on the web, I was even able to polish off a few excellent books including The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, A Farewell to Arms and How Soccer Explains The World.

But even more interesting, was the sheer amount of focused thinking, reflection and introspection I was able to accomplish. An uncluttered mind leads to a new perspective that is often refreshingly clear. I realized that some things that were frustrating or nagging were causing an unnecessary amount of stress in my life. I thought about what I wanted to accomplish in the near future and the far future in much more simpler terms. It felt great.

I hope that all of my future vacations will allow me to digitally disconnect. I also want to figure out how I can do that in smaller pockets of time. It feels great and when I reconnect there is a lot less static.

I hope you had a great holiday season and a festive New Year. I wish you and your family a happy and healthy New Year in 2010. If you haven’t had a chance to do so, I highly recommend you take some time to get off the digital grid.

This lack of a precise itinerary is partially by design. For those of you who have followed some of my travel blogs in the past you have probably figured out that I like to have some understanding of where I’m going but not make too many arrangements or else it takes away from the adventure. Right now, we’re leaning towards heading to the Tamarindo area, renting a car there (Don’t worry – Beyda will be the driver), and checking out the beaches along the Nicoya and the Pacific Coast. But it seems like there is so much to do and so many cool places to go. It’s no wonder the country has blown up as a travel destination. I would love to uncover some of the hidden gems that aren’t in the travel books. For example, Weino told me about his friends who went giant shrimp catching from midnight to sunrise. I’m probably going to skip out on the Volcano, cloud forests and national parks as the pull of the beaches are too appealing.

If you have the scoop on places to go, beaches to see, hotels, restaurants, giant shrimps, activities, etc. I’d love to hear about it. The more random the better. Keeping to my digital geekdom, I’ve set up a Costa Rica Wiki to pull together all the information that we collect from friends and experts. So please share on the Wiki, leave a comment or hit me up directly if you got the dopeness.

P.S. – Doesn’t it seem like all the travel websites on the internet blow. What’s up with that? Who’s going to build the bomb travel socail media website? And don’t tell me to check Trip Advisor!

Before I could lay down my whole megillah, the Detroit Free Press (are they even a newspaper anymore?) decides they want to publish a hatchet job on UM — a shanda fur die goy. When I first heard about this whole shtunk and all the dreck I wanted to blame Dick Rod. Heck, I have blamed him for every other crappy thing that has happened to the program since he rode his wagon into town 20 months ago. But the more I’ve learned the last few days the more this smells of NOR.

I’m willing to wager that every major college program practices just as much as Michigan. One pisher who has transferred coming forward with any kind of negative sentiment surely does not warrant a thorough investigation, ESPN news conferences and the insane tumult that this story has received. My guess (and I usually have a decent pulse on the NCAA) is that this blows over in the next few weeks and Michigan gives itself a light slap on the wrist and adheres strictly to the practice rules in the future. The NCAA doesn’t want to open up this can of borscht as it’s virtually impossible to differentiate between voluntary and mandatory practices.

So let’s hope and assume that this current hullabaloo disappears as quickly as Justin Feagin’s shipment of cocaine. My friend and life long Michigan friend Ben wrote to me that he’s “hoping this in the long run 5, 10, 20 years from now is only a blip on the radar, he will be our ron zook between spurrier and meyer or mike walsh between gene stallings and nick saban”. I agree. If only Rich Rod is our Elijiah Ingram in between Erick Barkley and Marcus Hatten.

Where does this leave the Wolverine Football program heading into 2009?

Talentless. I’m not exactly sure how this happened but the nebbish talent pool on this season’s team rivals a DPhiE date party. Michigan has three legit above-average Big Ten starters on this team – Brandon Minor, Donavon Warren and Brandon Graham. The rest of the players are a collection of backups and shleps, none of who would have sniffed the field in the first seven years of this decade. My buddy Vant was all ferdrayt because he wanted to buy a jersey but didn’t know what player’s number to get. I don’t blame him. It’s tough to get excited to rock Renaldo Sagesse, Boubacar Cissoko or Obi Exeh threads.

The weird part is that Michigan has had a top 15 recruiting class in each of the last five years. Early departures, transfers, state law, and the erosion of family values have prevented many decently ranked recruits from staying enrolled in Ann Arbor longer than acclaimed film director Zach Sherman stint in A-squared. The most inexplicable travesty is the inability to trot out a capable quarterback. It was bad that we lost out on Terrelle Pryor to Ohio State. Michigan is actually going into the season opener planning to play all three shmegegges. Nick Sheridan is back with his shmedrick arm, along side QB Force Tres and Shoelace Robinson. Ay Gavalt!

I really don’t want to get too much into evaluating Rodriguez because I’ve said or written it all already. I don’t like him and I’m counting down the days until he is gone. He might be a decent coach and is certainly a real macher. He did a good job at West Virginia – give him kudos for keeping Pac Man and Chris Henry out of prison and there mishegoss in check. It’s just that he’s not the right guy for Michigan. He came into the program with lots of chutzpah and made it clear he wants to run a program his way and doesn’t want to be bothered with the history and tradition of a place like Michigan (He tried to turn their road uniforms into yellow shmattas). That’s certain to be an issue at a school in which the history and tradition is almost as important as winning.

My buddy Da Bwetty took it one step further. “Players recruited by Lloyd and his staff were met with a guy who knew no more about the Michigan program than a freshman girl who traded her ticket away for a salad at Mr. Greeks. Instead of Cinderalla Man and a fatherly figure the players got a rule-bender and his UFC fitness program. Rodriguez may be a good coach, he may be more passionate about football than anyone we could imagine, but the West Virginia way is not the Michigan way, its that simple.”

I’m not sure why Michigan would hire a zhlub who blatantly doesn’t fit into their value system (let alone tradition, style of play, or recruiting methods). Leave it to some gold old Midwesterners to be shmoozed by a slick talking, sun burned West Virginian gonif.

From the highlights of Monday’s press conference, it seems like Rodriguez is starting to feel fershlugina (although that could very well be shtick). He was back to being a hok a chanik during this interview on ESPN this morning on First Take. I imagine one negative story on top of another starts to bare down on a program. But I have no rachmones for Rodriguez’s tsoriss. And boy, have there been some negative stories coming out of A2. Here is a timeline.

2009
9/1 – Rodriguez sued over condo project
8/29 – U-M players allege program broke NCAA rules
8/23 – Michigan eyes quarterback shuffle
8/11 – Rodriguez defends his checks on recruits
8/10 – The story behind Michigan’s dismissal of Feagin
7/16 – Michigan’s Wermers transfers, rips RichRod’s staff
1/23 – Rodriguez cost Michigan $6.6 million last year
1/21 – Barwis reportedly owes West Virginia dough

2008
12/15 – Michigan Wolverines season recap
12/12 -McGuffie reportedly will leave Michigan
11/22 – Final: Ohio State 42, Michigan 7
6/30 – Garrison: Rodriguez ‘very distraught’ in private meeting before he resigned
3/26 – Boren says he left Michigan because ‘family values have eroded’
1/17 – Rodriguez accuses WVU of staging ’smear campaign’
1/8 – Manningham, Arrington likely to skip senior years; Mallett may transfer

2007
12/27 – West Virginia sues, seeking $4 million buyout in Rodriguez’s contract

The Matzah Ball Soup Is Half Full
I hate to be a total kvetcher and it’s always easier to plotz, especially when the going is rougher than a winter’s walk across campus to the Frieze building. So I’ll channel my inner Roy and come up with some happy thoughts.

Michigan’s first four games are manageable and even if they can’t handle the Irish at the Big House there is still a good chance they can start the season 3-1. Hopefully, all that extra practice pays off and the team actually knows what it’s doing this season with one year of the spread offense under its belt. One of the QB klutzes steps up to bring some stability behind center and shows glimmers of hope for the future. The young guys play well enough to keep it interesting all season. Minor stays healthy and breaks out to be the best back in the Big Ten. Michigan manages to hover around .500 in conference play….I give up. What a luftmensh I am! This team sucks!!!!

It used to be dreams of a perfect season and running naked down Vaughn screaming out my allegiance to Philip Brabbs. This season might be my least anticipated college football season since the pre Marvin Graves days (I was a die-hard Syracuse fan growing up). Gornisht helfn.

Rewind back to my senior year of high school. After I was rejected from my top eight nerd colleges and decided to go to Michigan I figured that at the least I’d be able to shep naches for the football team for the rest of my life. Rich Rod is ruining that.

Gai kakhen afenyam Putz Rod. Essen brek drek.

I received a comment and an email from a developer in NYC named Kevin Marshall. Kevin has been in the fantasy sports space for quite awhile and had a bunch of very similar ideas on how fantasy sports should leverage the twitter platform to create new types of games. A few lunches later (and the recruitment of a talented designer who designed the site and created a sick logo) and we agreed to go for it and see if we could do any damage.

This week we launched our first actual fantasy game called Pennant Race Drive. It is a baseball prediction game in which a player can tweet up to five predictions per day on which teams will win and which players will hit a Home Run that night. Obviously predicting who will hit the long ball is far more difficult than which teams will win and therefore the payoff is 10x greater.

Win/Loss = 1 point
Home Run = 10 points

I’d love to see all you fantasy sports + twitter heads to give the game a shot. If you want to predict team wins include up to five teams (full nickname), the hashtag #win, and the #gawkit hashtag, or http://gawk.it within the tweet. If you want to predict Home Runs then use players full names plus the #HR. Be sure to include #gawkit or http://gawk.it so that the tweet is picked up by the gawk.it scoring enginge.

Here are a few examples
Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada will all go yard tonite #HR #gawkit

The Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox will all #win http://gawk.it

Only one type of prediction will register for each tweet. Also, the last five predictions that you log each day will count. All predictions need to occur at least 10 minutes before the game starts.

You can check out all the rules and details for the game at http://gawk.it website. Be sure to join the Littyhoops group to compete against yours truly. The game will continue throughout the season and we’re giving away Amazon Gift cards to weekly winners ($25) as well as the overall winner ($100).

In addition, we’re also donating one penny per correct tweet to the DonorsChoose.org organization (a charity that I recently blogged about). The overall winner of Pennant Race Drive will determine which school projects we will donate too. I’m excited by this philanthropic angle. As the game grows in popularity so to will our contribution to a great cause.

We’re excited to have something up and running and see if it sticks. Twitter is an extremely viral platform so if you like the game please just send out a few tweets to your followers and help us spread the good word. You can easily just retweet this message.

The Gawk.It game engine is built upon the twitter platform (using twitter’s open API’s) and this allows us to easily create all different kinds of fantasy games for just about any sport or statistical category. We’re already thinking about what we should do for football season and beyond.

Hit me up if you want to chat some more about gawk.it or the Pennant Race Drive.

Like in many industries these days, the drastic economic conditions are monumentally shifting the media and digital landscape. The paradigm has shifted (I love that phrase although I’m not even sure I know what it means). Below are some of the key fundamentals that I consider when evaluating a new digital idea or opportunity. This post is a starting point and a work in progress so I may add, edit, and update it. It’s great to begin to organize my thoughts though.

Digital Crack
Examples: Facebook, ESPN, Twitter, Perez Hilton, Barstool Sports, Etsy, Fantasy Sports, Pandora

A good digital property has that special sauce that gets people to visit multiple times a day, multiple days a week — kind of like a crack dealer. It is addictive to its users. Digital crack makes it impossible for a user to spend a decent amount of time on the web without instinctively going back to a site to see what is new.

Everyone has their favorite few sites on the web that they visit when they are at their computers. Almost all of those sites have a special ingredient that gives you a small jolt of excitement as you type in the URL. Your favorite sites, or the sites I mention above, they are a mix of e-commerce, online community, communication tools and content. So what’s in the crack? I think it has to do with a site being “alive”. By this, I mean that each time you visit that website you will find something new or different since your last visit. It’s keeps you coming back.

Compete On Strengths
I like to think I “get” social media. I know as much about sports, and being a sports fan, as anyone I’ve ever met. I’m a decent writer and have been trying to cultivating my own unique voice on this blog. I’ve been creating, observing and exploring websites since as long as there has been a web. I can keep an audience interested (well, at least when I’m in South Asia). I can sniff out new ways to make money or create revenue. I can put a deal together. I’ve helped build a digital business from scratch.

I’m not a web developer. I’m not a graphic designer. Therefore it would be foolish to create a website where I rely on product innovation to be successful. It baffles me when a business guy has a digital idea that is technically advanced and needs a superior product to compete in the market. It’s as weird as if an engineer wanted to develop an Ad network. It makes me nervous when I hear of an idea where the key to success relies on the performance of the product team (since I’m not part of the product team).

Steve Nash runs the fast break offense. Put him in a half court set with emphases on defense and your team loses its edge. Your big man gets poked in the eye, your other big man is too busy twittering to give a shit, and you have to fire your helpless lame duck coach at the all-star break. It makes sense to identify your strengths and play to them. Otherwise you end up playing the lottery.

Use Social Media (aka be viral)
Social Media = Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube

The last four years the web has proved that people will use the web to communicate. They chat, they facebook, they twitter, they share links, they blog, they comment, they publish, they take picture of wacky stuff on their cell phones. They = you = everyone. Every website that wants some burn needs to figure out how to play nice with all of these services. This is where the digital conversations are happening and it is the quickest, easiest and cheapest way for your fans to share your website. The challenge is that social media is still developing so it’s hard to figure out what integration is valuable and what’s frothy buzz that will disappear as quickly as Michigan’s NCAA tournament chances after last night’s loss at Iowa.

Search Engine Optimization
If Social Media is Lil Wayne than SEO is Tupac or Biggie. It’s from the mid 90’s but is as relevant as ever. Do you wonder how certain websites come up when you do a Google search? Basically Google has some crazy genius algorithm that crawls every single site on the web and then organizes that data like a stadium full of digital Rain Men.

Imagine you created a website because you wanted to sell the greatest pancake mix in the world. Now you can advertise on television and on the web, use social media features, cut some business development deal with the Food Network, etc. Or you could just optimize your website so that it would appear first whenever anybody typed in “Pancakes” in google. There are 673K searches for pancakes. Around 75% of the people click on the first term when they perform a search. Do you realize how many people you would be able to scam with a bag of baking soda and a slick label? FYI, if you search for Pancake Wikipedia entry is #1`and IHOP is #2 so good luck trying to get that top spot.

There’s a bit of contention and debate in the exact tactics a website should perform to optimize. But it’s not rocket science. In fact it’s more about a clear and solid strategy and trial and error thank any sort of magical potion. It amazes me how many websites are created with an indifference or lack of focus on SEO tactics.

Create A Cult
Let’s say I wanted to create a cult. We’ll call it the YO BRO Tribe (or the YBT). First, I would need to figure out what the YBT is all about. It would need to be something that incites tremendous passion in my followers. Then I would find a few disciples who share my passion and connect them with each other. This would be the key step. If I put an ad on craigslist I might get a few uncommitted loons. But what I really need is a core group of devoted, dedicated and passionate base. Then I would equip my disciples with the message and tools they need to go out and spread the gospel of YBT. I’ll make them responsible to recruit new followers.

As bizarre of an example as that is, I believe that the same properties work on the web. A good online community just needs a few hundred active, dedicated leaders to work together to get it off the ground and build something massive. It helps if the topic is one that people are passionate about but that isn’t even necessary if you can convince them it’s an important or noble cause (community recognition and incentives help). Think about YouTube. For every one person who has ever uploaded a video there are 100 who haven’t. That rule usually applies for most online communities. The key is to figure out how to galvanize a few hundred dedicated users (and give them the ability to publish and share). Often times a website worries about how to get to 500K monthly users but never even figures out how to get their first few hundred.

Examples: Digg, RootZoo, Rivals Message Boards

Aggregate and Organize
Before the web was all about creation and communication it was about the efficient organization of information. Sites like mapquest, Google, eTrade and ESPN provided the world with an aggregation of information that was never before possible. New and fascinating markets were created (eBay, Craigslist, jdate). That’s what happens when information exchange is enhanced.

I spend lots of time thinking about stuff I wish I knew. If I can’t answer a question myself I go to the web. If I can’t find the answer on the web I think about how the web should and will create that answer.

Some examples
How can I find the perfect apartment in NYC?
What book should I read next?
What stocks should I add to my sinking 401K?
What bar should I give all my hard-earned money too tonight?
What is the single most interesting program on television right now?
What are the most expensive places to buy a doughnut in NYC?
How can I get my hands on an authentic Marcus Hatten Israeli league jersey?
Who are the other 103 people on the Steroid list?
How can I get rid of the rats in my backyard?

Each of these questions should, could and will eventually be answered on the web. It’s the world’s greatest problem solver!

Revenue Model
The difference between a website and a web business is that a web business makes money. For some reason, this important tidbit often gets lost in the sauce. There are three basic ways to earn revenue on the web.

1) Advertising
2) Premium/Subscription Service
3) E-Commerce

There was a huge pendulum swing towards advertising based business models in the most recent web 2.0 boom. But the advertising markets have collapsed (and to be honest they were never that great in the digital space). Surely, they will rebound at some point but the freemium model is subject to some scrutiny. My largest concern with giving away a product for free is that it ignores your harshest and most important critic – the user. Once a user pays for something they are vested in your website. You’re also on the hook to delivery a service or product that is valuable or you will lose that customer. In a free service it’s difficult to create as strong of a bond with your users (why do you think gangsters get branded) and it’s way easier to overlook them and view your advertisers as the only customers that matter. This is faulty logic since advertisers will only receive true value if you have a captive audience to connect them with.

If you’re one of the few people who are still reading this post than I’m interested to hear your thoughts and ideas. Who knows, perhaps we will even start something together soon.

P.S. – I have no idea why gangsters, frat brothers or anyone else feels the need to get branded but I felt like Malcom Gladwell when I wrote that line.

The Wedding
Every night from Sunday, December 27th through Saturday, January 3rd there was a huge wedding event and celebration. Some of these parties were more traditional Indian affairs and some really were just huge parties. Regardless, I went all out every night so it seems as though it all blended together in one big spring break like party week/wedding celebration. I would put Hip Hop Night, New Year’s Eve celebration and Punjabi night in this “huge party” category. On Punjabi night, the theme was “Singh Is King” which is currently a hugely popular Bollywood movie and also happens to be Param’s last name. To help celebrate, Param had some of the most popular Bollywood singer’s perform including Mika Singh. Here is a video of Mika performing on stage. They must have played his hit song “Singh Is King” at least a half dozen times and I went wild each time the anthem was played.

The coolest part of the actually wedding ceremony was the Baraat, which is the marriage procession. According to Wikipedia, “it is customary for the bridegroom to travel to the bride’s house on a horse, accompanied by his family members. This often becomes a huge procession, with its own band, dancers, and budget. The groom and his horse are covered in finery and do not usually take part in the dancing and singing; that is left to the “baraatis” or people accompanying the procession. The term “baraati” is also used to describe any invitee from the groom’s side. Traditionally, baraatis are pampered extensively by the bride’s family.”

I was most certainly a baraati. First, all the guest had turban’s tied before the ceremony began. This was really the only time non-sikh’s wore turbans during the wedding. All of Param’s friends and family set up about one half mile away from the wedding. Param, in traditional Indian garb with the coolest looking sword I’ve ever seen, mounted a white horse. A full on military marching band led the charge as everyone proceeded to march, dance and sing our way to the party. Wedding guests (especially the older dudes) were “making it rain” with wads of 10 rupee bills (about 20 cents) and servants and band members would rush to collect the bills. Fireworks went off and the energy was unbelievable. It felt like we were on our way to the Big House for a night game against Ohio State! Here are a few videos that don’t do it justice but give you some idea. Check out the action

The actual wedding ceremony, called the Anand Karaj, was the next morning. It was short (less than an hour) and all the guests sat on mats with napkins to cover their heads at the Sikh temple that was at the farmhouse hotel. A minister/guru was presiding over the wedding and text was read from the Sikh holy book. Afterwards, there was a big brunch that was joyous but a bit more muted then the nighttime parties.

I’m leaving out a ton of other cool stuff like the Mendi where girls get henna tattoos. It was hard to keep up of everything that was happening throughout the eventful week!

Other stuff

Blog Thoughts
It amazes me how closely you all read my posts and followed along on my trip. Often, some of you will mention a post or two in general terms but for these India articles lots of people brought up specific stories or ideas that were buried within a post or video and it’s awesome that people so thoroughly enjoyed reading about the trip. I blogged way more than I thought I was going to and it definitely was time-consuming. The encouragement made it worthwhile and kept me writing even when it started to seem like work a bit. I received so many short notes that just said “this is great keep on writing”. So some of thanks for all these posts go to you guys including Blake, Hillman, Troy, Biz, Neal Bones, Saginaw Bob, Texas Dick, Rosen, Lil’ homeowner, Wolky (great johnny text!), Vant, Weiner, Titanium, Parsa, Mr. Weino (fyi, they didn’t have funnels!), my family and everyone else. It will be cool that I’ll be able to read these posts years from now and jump right back into the moment.

I’m thinking I might take a break from blogging for awhile (maybe the rest of the month). As I mentioned, at times it has started to feel like work and that I HAD to write. I’m kind of scared of this feeling. Blogging is one of the most relaxing, non-work parts of my week and I’m afraid I might enjoy it less if I feel more obligated to post. In addition, there’s a bunch of things I want to focus on in the first part of ‘09 and I might dedicated some of my blogging time to working on these projects. We’ll see how easy or hard it is to not blog. I have a feeling I won’t be away for that long and there’s a good chance that I’ll switch direction and throw something back up here as soon as I get back into work mode. But for now, it’s Namaste (basically that is the only hindi word I know!)