Five Sites To Feed Your Senses

We come across a slew of websites in our line of work. Most of them are inescapably awful, but some shine through as useful sites that can make using the Internet much more interesting (and easier to use).

Half of the time, we find these sites on our own and the other half, our friends, fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter. However we lay eyes on it, a similar thread runs through our first batch of cool links (and, hopefully, each batch forthcoming) – these sites* can make your time on the Internet more efficiently used and a much more accurately informative experience.

Most sites (including some of the ones we pick) aren’t perfect, so we’ll point out the pitfalls of a website where applicable. And, in line with our non-perfectness, let us know where we’re wrong or sites that you think should be included.

(* we definitely aren’t claiming to have “discovered” these sites. Many of you may already be familiar with these links and you might know of similar sites that you feel are better than the ones we have listed. We’re not interested, though. Keep it to yourselves. Just kidding. Maybe.)

The Facebook Like Hype – Why The Most Popular Social Network Won’t Own The Internet

And who’s guilty of perpetuating the most bullshit about Facebook’s recent announcements

Before we get started, let’s cover the basics. Facebook recently announced a slew of changes at its F8 conference in mid-April. Everyone in the web marketing game has been freaking out since. Here’s a quick background on what we’re talking about.

The State Of Search Engine Optimization In The Hudson Valley

Local SEO Is Often All Bark And A Mighty Weak Bite

At 90MilesNorth, we are firm believers that any blog post worth reading begins with a rant….so here we go:

The SEO industry (along with the social media marketing industry) is too interested in writing books and making speeches to actually have experience with what they’re talking about.

People think that aggregating the experiences and talent of others and presenting it to novices as original thought makes them an expert, maven, wonk or whatever those douchebags call each other. And most people buy it – literally.

And because all these SEO novices and hacks do is read and watch and listen, they soon have no idea how to actually do it. We’ve created a new layer of completely unnecessary middleman – the “guru.” In this case, guru would mean someone who doesn’t really want to work, but wants to be a modern-day techno-philosopher. And then this new pack of idiots aspires to write books and articles…and the beast feeds itself.  We don’t need ‘em. We do marketing…on the Internet. Who the hell needs a mantra for that?

Political Marketing On The Internet In The Hudson Valley

Local Political Campaigns Can Benefit From Smartly Planned Internet Marketing Strategies

Someone way smarter than us once said “All politics is local.” (ed. note – it was Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House of Representatives…yay Google)  It’s true, of course. Here in the Hudson Valley, local politics is fascinating (and often frustrating) to follow. The best true politicking, though, takes place during campaigns. In turn, political campaigning is equal parts art and science – a 50-50 split between delivery and substance.

Facebook Fixer Is A Different Type Of Add-On: It Actually Works

It Doesn’t Give You A Custom Facebook Profile, But It’s Close

Here’s the irony about Facebook – it’s an imperfect site that could use some serious changes, but 90 percent of its users lose their minds at the smallest tweak. That’s where applications like Facebook Fixer come in handy (actually they call it FFixer now…a marginally lamer name).  FFixer is a userscript that allows you to customize your homepage and profile through your browser. It doesn’t change how your FB profile looks to anyone else but you.

The State Of Modern Social Media Marketing In The Hudson Valley

Fakery. Fraud. Posturing. Bluster. Bullshit. That seems to be the bulk of what social media marketing is these days. If you have a computer, Internet connection and posses the basic ability to communicate with others, that seems to be all you need.

Social media marketing actually reminds me a lot of modern art – especially here in the Hudson Valley. We have a deluge of artists here and in some ways that’s a good thing. The downside is that every clown with a paintbrush and a gallery connection is considered an “artist.” The market is flooded by posers with a knack for churning out spare-time eyesores, so eventually no one knows what good art is anymore.

The same thing goes for social media marketing (again, especially right here in the Hudson Valley).

Have a computer? Know how to create profiles and networks? Have the ability to type and spell things correctly at least 65% of the time? Guess what? You just became a social media maven…or guru…or jedi…or whatever fabricated titles people cull from Thesaurus.com.

Here’s a good example of what we’re talking about here (WARNING: Not safe for work. Strong, but incredibly funny, language involved here)

But, unlike the art world, it’s easy to separate the real deal from the imposters in the social media world. If you are a business in the Hudson Valley considering hiring a firm to develop your social media strategy or you are looking for help boosting your existing efforts, here are some things to look (or look out) for:

Why we heart YouTube

We’re always watching…

I know it’s not just YouTube. I have spent countless hours of my life perusing funnyordie.com, collegehumor.com, ebaumsworld, angryalien.com; you name it, I’ve probably wasted time watching one silly video after another there. If I find one particularly hilarious, I post it on Facebook so that my friends can be amused too. I’m good like that.

And I happen to know for a fact that I’m not alone. I’ve been very active in social networking… well, since there was social networking. I’ve had a Friendster, a LiveJournal, a Myspace, a Facebook. I Tweet, I’m LinkedIn, I’m hooked up to the Internet for more waking hours of my day than I’m not. I see every funny video that gets passed around, good and bad. The little dancing boy in the red shirt, Ebaum’s End of the World, The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, 30 second bunny theater; they’re all considered Internet classics.

So how does this help you, the small business owner? You gotta grab a piece of that market, my friend. Because if I’m out there watching silly videos, a good portion of your customer base is too. All it takes is one interesting video to go viral, and suddenly you’re all over the web. Now’s the time to get in, and we can help you out there.

What’s your favorite Internet video?

Those videos I mentioned are some of my personal favorites, but I’m more interested in hearing some of yours. What’s the one viral Internet video you simply must spread around and show to other people? Post it in a comment. If nothing else, it will certainly give me something new to watch.

Free Money

Here at 90MilesNorth, we march (lock-step, in fact) to the beat of the following mantra – “Damn, we’re broke.”

Ah, who cares. You’re probably broke, too. If not, get out. We’re not talking to you.

Everybody else can rest assured that this is not a plea for money to help get our fledgling, web-video business off the ground. We’re actually looking to give you some cash.

You’re probably thinking several things: Wow, how can a small start-up offer me money in this economy; I wonder if there’s going to be a point made in this rant; how come nothing rhymes with “orange”?

The answer is no, we’re not just going to give you money. You gotta work fer it, dude. Here’s how it goes: We know you. You know people. You probably know some people that own or work at a small business in the Hudson Valley. Hook those people up with our people. Whatever type of beautiful, cash-spewing relationship results, you get a cut.

And yes, “my friends” (circa John McCain, fall of 2008), your cut will be monstrous. And by monstrous, we at 90 Miles North mean 15 percent, more or less….kinda.

Ok, fine. Twenty percent. Your cut will be 20 percent. I don’t know how we’re gonna have any money left over for our traditional-based media blitz to get 90MilesNorth some friggin’ attention. Oh that’s right – traditional media advertising sucks and doesn’t work because the Internet is now twisting the knife it sunk into TV/newspapers/radio over the past decade. (Zing!) That’s why we make documercials for local businesses and cut large swaths across the Internet with them. (Zing, again)

And that’s the story of 90MilesNorth. Hey, you can use that when you’re arranging for your people to talk to our people**.  Do whatever works. If you are detained, try and ask the arresting officer if he or she has any connections to the small business community. You lose your cut, but damn that’ll be a great story to tell (the judge).

Bottom line – you make a couple calls; drop a few e-mails to your friends; put them in touch with us using the contact information below; and we will actually come to your house and line your pockets with your cut. Amen.

Also, if you want to know more about this deal-io, get in touch with us.

** ed. note: We have no actual people. 90MilesNorth exists through the tireless (more or less) efforts of Andrew, Lori and our cats – Baby Hank (the loudly stupid and awful smelly) and Zelly (the psychotic and unruly Princess). What we lack in outdoor winter apparel, we make up in awesomeness.

90MilesNorth
90milesnorth@gmail.com
845-802-0293

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The tide is shifting

I could tell you all day how advertising industry trends show that web video advertising is quickly picking up speed.

We could spend another day talking about the shortfalls of traditional advertising (print, radio, T.V., etc.).

That would end up being two full days of conversation, so we’d probably be sick of each other at that point. After a day off, we could talk for about five minutes and then 90MilesNorth could get busy shooting a video for your business because there’s no way to deny how badly you need a documentary-style commercial on your website.

But, you probably would want a little more proof…maybe some expert opinion on why more and more advertising dollars are being spent on web video advertising.

I can help you out with that. Whether it’s industry trends or how much money your competitors are spending on their own web video ads. Hey, maybe you want to read about how badly the print industry is doing and how fast advertisers are pulling money away from print ads.

Don’t ignore it. Don’t waste continue to waste your money on traditional advertising.

You have a website, right? Then use it.

-90MilesNorth

Oct. ’08

90MilesNorth will do ANYTHING to get your video shot…

…well, not anything. But we did hop in a JEEP and tear ass around the woods up cliffs, through mud pits and over damn near anything that got in our way. Hudson Valley 4 Wheelers is a group of JEEP nuts who spend weeks whipping their vehicles into fightin’ shape and then just one day breaking it all to hell. Seriously, this is another example of what 90MilesNorth can do for your group or small business – shoot awesome footage, cut it up into killer bits and slap it up on your website. Check it out right here.

After you watch, shoot us an e-mail at 90milesnorth@gmail.com