Internet Content Connoisseur
Archive for February, 2009
Son of a Tweet?
0If you can’t beat’em, rename’em.
I love TwitPic. It’s a simple, useful service with a real nice guy founder (@noaheverett).
When we acquired TwittyPic, we felt the same way about it. The two services are unrelated, but when TwitPic began to really take off, we wanted to make sure that our service wouldn’t cause confusion, or vice versa.
So we took the opportunity to change the name of the site to: SonOfATweet.com. You read that right: Son Of A Tweet. Same great service, new funny name.
Yes, it’s unusual. It’s weird. And that’s just the way you’re likely to remember it.
Twitter Updates for 2009-02-13
0- Cheezburger API contest winner is picked. Just waiting on confirmation from winner. #
- Contemplating our own version of KittenAuth or ASIRRA http://tinyurl.com/995zpu #
- Hey, developers. Cheezburger API will go live on Monday. (So says our @scottporad CTO sez) Stay tuned for full feature deets. #
- I love u tweetfrenz for retweeting our announcement on a yet-to-be released API
# - Great preso from 37 signals on making money: http://bit.ly/pC2a I should do a preso on how to make money on stuff no one expects you to. #
- Wow. Video of the Continental plane crash aftermath already picked out by TwittyPic. http://twittypic.com/3941 #
- Just finished reading Liar’s Poker. Amazing relevant in these economic times, prescient yet the greed of the 80s feel quaint compared to now #
- Contrarian? Take it to the bank.: This wonderful presentation from 37 Signals on focusing on a REAL business mod.. http://tinyurl.com/c58qaf #
- While I am walking to work… COP: Dont text while crossing the street! ME: I’m not texting. I’m on Twitter! #
- cutesteststs bee ever: http://tinyurl.com/d43r6n #
- #followfriday one of my fave business twitters: @tedr — dogster/catster master #
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Contrarian? Take it to the bank.
0This wonderful presentation from 37 Signals on focusing on a REAL business model inspired me to write this post on making an UNREAL business model.
The cat captioning business is an unreal business — in a good way. So good, that we jumped at the opportunity to buy the site. And we did deals like it again, and again, and again.
If you’ve heard me talk at any conference, you’ll frequently hear me talk about how valuable our users are to us. Any publisher will tell you how much they need their users, but in our case, it’s even more so. Thanks to our users, we have virtually no costs on content production and no marketing costs. For a publisher, that’s a dream come true.
Look at it this way: If we were General Motors, it’d be like getting all the raw materials for free, getting your customers to assemble the cars for free and getting them to convince their friends to buy the cars. Unreal. No bail out needed.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that we turn a profit. But it does. To practically everyone. To be fair, it’s not glamorous earning crappy CPMs in this busted economy, but a lean business is a real business.
I’m not writing this to brag*. I want to share that you don’t have to think like everyone else to make money. In fact, thinking unlike everyone else will help you see opportunities where others see none.
(* ok, maybe just a teeny bit)