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So facebook is now valued at $15 Billion. How real is that valuation? I’m not 100% sure. It’s probably part hype and marketing to fuel Microsoft’s advertising services, but it does go to show that user activity is a good and valuable thing.

This was one of the reasons behind our mantra that users should be paid for their participation. If a company can play people’s participation online into a valuation of that amount, we felt those same people should get at least a piece. In fact, half of everything we earn with our future model.

Considering we’re combining social networking with product reviews here at SharedReviews, I’ve been following the progress of companies like Judy’s Book for a while that focused on the local service space. I thought the move that Judy’s Book made last year to re-focus their business model on local deals versus local service reviews based on mounting competitive pressure was a good one. I noticed on Andy’s blog, and Techcrunch this morning that they’ve announced they’re scaling operations, letting go of most of their staff, and re-focusing efforts to find a strategic acquirer for the assets of the company.

If you’ve ever doubted Andy’s abilities at communication, read his post on the subject here. If I ever have to face such a hard decision and announcement that affects so many, I hope I’ll be able to do so with similar style and grace as he did in his post. Good luck Andy, and we’ll miss Judy’s Book. You were all doing some very cool stuff we’re going to lament not seeing come to fruition.

We launched the referral program over at SharedReviews yesterday. It’s pretty basic to start, everyone who signs up and references an existing member earns a free review credit which is worth about $2 each. The person who was listed during the signup receives a great bonus themselves, earning up to 4 review credits ($8) when their referrals achieve certain milestones of approved reviews themselves. Specifically:

* 3 Approved Reviews = 1 review credit
* 10 Approved Reviews = 1 review credit
* 25 Approved Reviews = 1 review credit
* 40 Approved Reviews = 1 review credit

We’ve also launched some buttons that people can use on their site. When someone clicks on any one of them, the sign up page locks the user name of the account that generated the button so make sure you login and get your own button code. Since I don’t want to earn any referral credits for my own account, I figured I would reward our top 3 reviewers by placing their nicknames behind the sample buttons below.

Here’s the Button:

Here’s the Banner:

Here’s the Medium Rectangle:

We’ve finally launched the beta, quite a while after we had hoped. Little did we realize that to get the necessary pieces in place so that we can release the full site later this year without issue, we would have to build out over 80% of the backend just to expose the portions of the site that launched yesterday. Either way, we’re still on track for our full release which is great, I’m just hoping we didn’t lose any of the goodwill with all of you who have signed up pre-Beta.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t seen an email yet, we’re just working through a couple of things on the email side and testing a few last minute fixes before we send them out this afternoon. If you happen to see this before our user emails go out, you can already login and start the process anytime so, ready… set… Share your Reviews!

Not as easily as some may think. I came across this post today on Jason Calcanis’s blog commenting about a potential reality call in the Web 2.0 market due to the credit crunch that’s threatening the economy right now. I disagree, and wanted to expand on a couple of points that I feel justify my opinion.

1) Credit crunches and economic slowdown inevitably result in less consumer spending. This means that less is spent on entertainment or going out, and any remaining luxury spending is qualified a hell of a lot more, resulting in more consumer research and less impulse buying. Not so good for Walmart, but IMHO a potential short term boon for the Internet. With over 90% of Internet users increasing the efficiency of their spending by researching products online, this will definitely benefit quite a few Web 2.0 startups.

(Disclaimer: Not only am I a founder of an Internet Startup, but our startup is dedicated to helping consumer’s research purchases online)

2) He states “The stock market correction is going to have an impact on advertising…”, implying a negative effect for the Internet ad industry. My experience is that businesses that see a downturn in sales tend to get more aggressive with their marketing tactics to find those consumers that are still spending in the short term. This means that even though they may start to cut ad spending, a need to increase efficiency with their remaining marketing budgets will inevitably lead them to focus on one of the most highly measurable and effective advertising verticals… Internet Advertising. More consumers spending time online combined with more advertising dollars being spent to capture a decreasing revenue stream in a more measurable way, to me equals enough of a boon for Web 2.0 companies to offset any consumer negatives in spending.

He closes off his article speaking to the pains and scars he received from the bubble. I can tell you I personally have a few of those myself, but even with the fear built from the last explosion, the one thing I take away from the trending downturn is that things aren’t the same as when the bubble burst. Instead of tech companies leading the charge down that rolling bear of a hill, this time we’re a bystander and actually in a pretty good position to see some insulation from any shakiness in the market.

We’ve finally launched our startup SharedReviews.com. We’re all exhausted and a bit wiped from burning the midnight oil trying to ensure everything went smoothly today. So far everything’s gone extremely smooth (knock on wood), but there’s definitely a mental note in there somewhere to invest some additional time prepping before the next launch.

We’ve had some blog exposure that’s helped the generation of consistent signups since we opened the doors late this morning, although we do hope to get even more soon. Such a long road, but we are extremely excited to see all of the positive reactions we’ve received to what we’re trying to do.

Here’s a link to our first corporate blog post. The excerpt is below and I’ll keep posting as more developments happen or when I catch my breath, whichever comes first.

It’s been a longer road than I thought it would be to get to this point (isn’t it always), but we’re finaly here and really look forward to throwing our ideas into your hands for some feedback. I thought long and hard about what to put into this first post and decided to start off with the ideals behind what we are attempting to accomplish before getting into the gritty details of how we plan on doing it…

I’m an avid reader of Guy’s blog and I have to say I’m a huge fan. I’ve posted about how my favorites were his posts on the top ten lists of lies by both VC’s and Entrepreneurs that elicited a few smiles to say the least. Although, there was one thing that kind of perturbed me as I read them. It almost appeared to me that he had a bias against or negative perception of entrepreneurs in general.

Now I’m not saying Guy intended this negative tone on purpose. He was on the other side of the table for many a “pitch” by hungry entrepreneurs, and I’m sure a few of them left their ethics hats in the closet that day incorrectly thinking it would get them closer to achieving their dearly needed capital. Although I never agree with a “ends justifies the means” approach, it does happen with the unexperienced and desperate so I could see how facing it repeatedly could lead to some negative stereotyping.

That’s why I found the newest post on Guy’s blog especially interesting. He’s switched sides and became an entrepreneur himself with a new venture called Truemors. His latest post was about a previous request he made for testers, and a few of the resulting comments that blasted the business idea. His new post basically stated that as an entrepreneur you have to take negative criticism with a grain of salt, and if every entrepreneur believed all the ‘naysayers’ then nothing truly innovative would have ever been created. Very true, and it’s great to see that he now sees the playing field from the other side of that table.

I can support that by highlighting some of our experiences. I’d say that out of all the startups I’ve worked on, the new one we’re launching next week has the best foundation from an operational, user value, and potential revenue perspective than the others combined. I know, like I would say anything different, but we’ve had some extremely positive feedback from experts in many Internet verticals so these aren’t just a bunch of pie in the sky statements I’m making here folks. We’ve even been in the unique position (at least for me) of having to turn down investment offers due to a lack of strategic fit. (Disclaimer: We already secured enough seed capital to get to launch so we wanted more on the table than cash alone.)

With all this going for us you’d think the skies the limit, but I’ve been both successful and unsuccessful with investment groups that gelled strategically. No matter how solid your business idea or the fit, you will come across those that just don’t “get it”.

That’s why I can’t extol the need to grow a thick skin more, especially when dealing with critics before your business model’s been tested. Be prepared for those that make negative assumptions without doing their research, those that misunderstand your goals or vision, and even those that will break your efforts down just for the sake of not wanting to see you succeed.

No one will believe in your ideas if you don’t have unwavering faith in them yourself, and for those that will never believe, your proof can always be in the pudding.

So I made the arduous decision to switch blogging platforms as you can tell by the shiny new digs. It was a tough decision but one that was coming for a long time. I still love Blogware, it’s a great platform and something I would recommend to anyone starting out or new to the blogosphere, but my requirements have matured over the years and I felt it was time to graduate to something a little more versatile. With a fantastic supporting community, and really cool widgets / plug-ins I can play with, Wordpress is the new platform I tapped for the next iteration of Sales Mindset.

Needless to say I’m still working my way up the WordPress learning curve, and I’ve lost allot of the links built over the years due to some quirkiness in the way Blogware created permalinks, but thanks to Frank (Thanks Frank!) and his wonderful DNS skills, I at least have my feed redirected and all of my permalinks go to the monthly archive for the original posts so you shouldn’t get lost trying to find the right article.

My next step is to look for a good stats package since the one my Hosting Provider gives by default melds all of the domains I have associated in the account. If anyone can share any recommendations on something free I can try, or something that doesn’t cost too much but does a fantastic job, let me know.

Goodbye Blogware, after over 3 years I’m truly going to miss you (sniff)

The last time I posted about this, I was supposed to call Tracey the next day to find out the status of my delivery. I’m not sure if it was luck, or the fact that my rant is listed number three on Google for “Staples Whiteboard”, but I received a call from Tracey the next morning informing me that their supplier no longer made the specific board I ordered, and that she would try and find a replacement promising a call later that day.

Although I never received a call that day, or the next, or the next… actually, I totally forgot about it again for a few weeks since I made due with some ‘Post It’ Easel Pad Papers, one day last week I received another call from Tracey again. She informed me that they finally found a store with one in inventory and my white board was going to be delivered the next day. The next morning I held my breath in sheer anticipation, and sure enough that afternoon I heard a knock on the door and there was my shiny new white board wrapped in a slinky outfit of sexy brown packing material. I just finished installing the unit and it looks great, so although it wasn’t as easy as it was supposed to be, I’m happy we have it and thanks to posts like these, hopefully Staples will always be listening in the future…

A somewhat interesting fact has come to light as we go through the hiring process to fill gaps in our infrastructure. One of the key things I personally qualify through the interview process is the fact that a startup usually has a fun, relaxed, results oriented environment that allows participants to acquire equity, and be rewarded for their contributions in making passionate ideas become a reality.

This can be a double edged sword, and although I highlight the benefits I like to make sure the negatives are clearly communicated since it takes a certain personality type to thrive and contribute in this structure. It’s important to note that a startup can also be a hectic, stressful, chaotic environment with a lot of pressure on your adaptive skills to conform and succeed in an ever changing landscape.

When going through this process, it was surprising to me when asking applicants why they wanted to become a part of a startup to hear a few of them state that a flexible work structures was something they found most attractive. Meaning, working from home, leaving early, and taking days off were benefits they expected as compared to their current or previous structured corporate lives that required minimums of work hours on a weekly basis.

I have to disagree, and its import to note that although a relaxed process does translate into a more flexible results oriented “fun” approach to accomplishing goals, due to limited resources the environment is usually more labor intensive. With a vested interest past just a salary, there should be incentive to put in as much effort as possible while still balancing your personal life to offset burnout.

In either event, the important note is to ensure you qualify both the positive as well as negative aspects of a startup work environment so you can find the right people who will be successful in helping the project become a reality.

As I assumed, the whiteboard was never delivered on Friday, it's been postponed until Friday March 30th. I now have to talk to a “Tracey” in the mississauga “Insight” office after a coworker, who didn't appear the least bit interested in helping, stated she was the only person who I could speak with about this order.

Tomorrow, Tracey will receive a call, and hopefully if I pound enough of those ”Easy” buttons at the Staples alter I may actually receive a whiteboard shortly thereafter…

As we went through the office build out, we ended up buying some office furniture from staples which we found pretty cheap yet not bad quality at all. A couple of examples would be the desks and the office chairs, where for a leather manager’s chairs $69 CDN was a fantastic deal. I guess the only bad experience I’ve had with Staples Canada is their online store, and the frustrating story that started on February 9th when I ordered a whiteboard…

I went online, and when comparing a few retailers found their pricing for a decent sized 4’ by 6’ whiteboard to be competitive at just over $100… comparable sizes from other suppliers ranged from double to triple the pricing so I was pretty happy I found a good deal. Staples promised next day delivery so I decided to go for it.

The next day I get a call from a very nice lady stating the whiteboard was on backorder, and I’ll have it delivered in about a week and a half. I thought why not, no super rush so no problem. A week and a half goes by; the Friday February 16th comes and goes, no whiteboard, no phone call. Hmm, that’s strange; they’ve been very responsive so far, so on Monday February 19th I give them a call and spoke with a nice gentleman who tells me the whiteboard was on backorder, but they do have stock now and it will be delivered on Friday February 23rd. Great, I thought, so I went about my business working on all the myriad of things that had to get done and next thing I knew it was Tuesday February 27th before I realized that they still hadn’t delivered the whiteboard. I gave them another ring, spoke with someone… “The whiteboard was on backorder. It will be delivered Friday March 2nd. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but it is showing up in stock now and you will receive it this time”. Although it's a little funny, I have to admit I was also getting a little frustrated by this point as well.

I had been so consumed by work that it was Wednesday March 14th before I was reminded of the elusive whiteboard again…  of course no deliveries on either Friday since my last communication, nor any phone calls. So I call them up and this time, understandably, a little miffed to say the least. The response I get? “Sorry sir, the whiteboard was on backorder, but they have stock now and it will be delivered on Friday March 16th”… yeah right… I explained that this was the 4th or 5th time I’ve heard the exact same story, and the person tells me “You’re right, I’m not exactly sure why but *someone* at the warehouse keeps delaying your order by a week every week. Let me look into it and call you back” Thankfully this time I did receive a phone call a couple of hours later “The Mississauga location that was earmarked to make your delivery has been out of stock, and although we're showing a shipment being received on January 27th, it was never delivered so we’ll call you when we receive stock.”

Yesterday, Tuesday March 20th I gave them a call to check on the status “Sorry sir, the whiteboard was on backorder, but we do have them in stock now and you WILL receive it this Friday march 23rd”… <sigh>“If you have it in stock, why can’t you deliver it tomorrow instead of Friday?”… “Sorry, the order is locked so I can’t change it, but I am showing it in stock so you will receive it this Friday”

I’m not holding my breath….

I read an interesting article in the globe yesterday where this quote by David Jacobson, a technology director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, struck out at me:

“The world is moving away from capturing people's attention to capturing their intention,”

The article talks about viral marketing, social networks, and the participatory revolution that’s opening up new opportunities in online advertising today. Looking back at the explosion in online advertising over recent years, you’re hard pressed to disagree with the validity of Advertising on the Internet and whether it works or not, so the future in this market won’t necessarily be about any huge revolutions, but more so about innovations to improve targeting and efficiency. Today, billions are spent quarterly by businesses to acquire the attention of internet surfers hoping that they’ll eventually purchase their products or services, but how can we improve the efficiency?

What the quote above highlights for me is that we’re witnessing a subtle, yet powerful change in focus from attention to intention. This means that traditionally I as a business owner wanted my message plastered in front of as many people as possible to increase my sales, but I now realize that the highest conversions and best efficiency for my advertising dollar takes place when my message is displayed in front of a person who’s interested in my vertical. Even more ideal is if you can catch them with their hand on their wallet ready to make a purchase, but that’s another story for a different day.

How can you get your marketing message in front of a pre-qualified buyer? It all comes down to the field of battle, where is your advertisement being displayed and who you’re targeting. The world of social networking and community niche marketing has provided the ability for you to start down the road of testing that strategy today. So, when you spend your next online advertising dollar, think about how to target user intent and you may find your online advertising budget stretching farther than you ever imagined.

I’ve thought long and hard about how I should announce this so I figured I would just throw it out there since that seems the easiest.

I’ve decided that it’s time for change, it’s time for something different, it’s time to leave the herd…

For over 5 years now I’ve called the Tucows barn home, and it was a very tough decision to leave this great company and the even greater people that I’ve had the fortune to work with.

I’ll be playing around with a few startup ideas that I can’t really talk about until they bake some more. You know how it is with the typical Web 2.0 startup, stealth is key until Beta. In the interim I wanted to send a special thanks to everyone who I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work with.

From all the great people who have left the herd, are still here, or have recently joined, thanks, it’s been a blast and I’ll never forget my time here.

For all of those great companies I’ve had the pleasure of calling customers and partners, thank you for your patronage, patience, and support. Tucows will continue to be the great company it always has been so I leave knowing you’re all in great hands.

Before I become all emotional I’m going to cut this post short. It’s been a wonderful experience and I will look back on these past five years with fondness and a weighted heart… but the future has beckoned.

Stay Tuned

A parting Tucows employee sent out a beautiful email today thanking everyone for the amazing and valuable time she spent here with the herd. She gave us all the parting gift of sharing the following words of inspiration from the late Mother Teresa that I had to share in kind;

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

 

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

 

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

 

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

 

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

 

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

 

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

 

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.

 

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

Good luck Tetyana, following these precepts will result in a success for you that's immeasurable.

The rumormill has it that Mazda will be doing another recall for their flagship sports coupe the RX-8 rotary.

Although I've only owned my car for not quite a year and a half now, I've already had problems with water condensation in both headlights and taillights, a neutral switch in my transmission failing, and issues with my air conditioner causing idling problems necessitating a new throttlebody to be installed.

The one thing I have to say is that Mazda has quickly and willingly replaced and / or fixed every one of my issues to date so although most may look at this list and balk at buying one of these cars, I have to say I love the car so much that it hasn't affected my perception one bit, especially since I have a 2004 model which means my car could one day become a collectors piece… until I heard about this most recent recall of course.

The latest recall seems to be caused by the RENESIS rotary engine losing vacuum pressure and leaking oil into the catalytic converters causing premature cat failures. The difference this time is any car tested to have a vacuum loss will immediately have the entire engine replaced… Wow Mazda, now that's great customer service and quite a few car manufacturers could really learn some lessons here.

Thankfully I've always taken great care of my machine and never had any power loss or issues though, and this seems to be due to the way I drive since the rotary engine loves to be driven at high rpms which I've always been happy to facilitate. This appears to be confirmed with the latest recall since the majority of owners experiencing engine replacement issues to date are due to the way they drive the cars mostly at low rpm where the computer mapping on the cars retards the oil injection at low rpm. If you wind out the rpm's on a continual basis, don't live in a hot climate, and do not use synthetic oil then you seem to be pretty safe so I'm not too concerned.

My only concern is if my car fails the test, what Mazda wants to do is replace the entire engine which is both good and bad. My car came over from Japan, where my engine was made in Japan with all original parts. If they replace the engine the new one will most likely be made in North America and could even be a re-built model versus brand new since Mazda's plan is to rebuild the replaced engines and then re-circulate them.

That's bad news, and something that would definitely affect the collector value 10, 20, or more years down the road which definitely upsets me. Mazda, if you are listening, you should guarantee only new engines be put back into these cars and they should all be manufactured in your Japan facilities to ensure the long ter value of your vehicles in the North American market which is why some of us invested in your brand in the first place.

Some Mindset suggestions:

Ignore the rhetoric and negative ads… Anyone wanting to positively influence your life will only resort to negativity if they have no positivity to begin with.

Almost all politicians have done something they regret on their road to success.

Generaly Canadians are good people, this also applies to most politicians.

Read the platforms… it's not about your “perception of a party's past” but what they want to do with your hard earned money and trust in the future.

I love this country, and I know that if you're Canadian you most likely do as well.  Imagine having to choose your roomate / loved one for the next few years in one night.

Yes it's that important.

Last year I promised myself I would start to adhere to the resolutions I set out for myself after many years of either completely ignoring this ritual or silently giggling at everyone's rush to make promises to themselves that were rarely realized.

It wasn't that I didn't have enough willpower to achieve the goals I laid out for myself at other times of the year, nor that I believe the New Year is some type of magical resolution enhancer providing more fuel than any other time, but more so that the New Year and a resolution combine to create a wonderful excuse for change, and change is an integral part of any growth.

So, last year I started with a baby step of only one New Year Resolution I focused on…. that was to end a 16 year habit of smoking cigarettes. Although it took about 3 months to finally kick it off, I must say it's been a complete success since I've never looked back…. so, with a glowing success on my resolution belt, Resolution Man grits his teeth and sets forth to a fast walk in 2006 with more than one resolution for this joyous year of prosperity….

1) Get Healthier: Many many years ago, in a land far, far away, there was a healthy 6', 195 pound Peter Ejtel with less than 10% Body Fat religiously hitting the gym 5 days a week for a minimum of 2 hours a session. Yes, this was over 6 years ago but one thing I know is that muscles have memory, and even though I'm in my early Thirties and don't have the stamina of a Twenty something any longer this resolution will be a focus for me this year.

2) Infuse even more Passion into everything I do. I don't think there's anything in your personal or professional life that couldn't use more effort or energy.

3) Expand the verticals I've been focusing on. Although it's been an absolute blast, and a real edge within Tucows efforts, my dedicated focus on the Blogging vertical the last year or so has left me wanting a bit as you may have noticed with the topic's I've been posting into Q4. Not that it's not fulfilling or that I won't still focus a good chunk of my efforts in this space for 2006… It's just that there are so many growth verticals happening in this industry right now it's time to spread myself around a little. This included my involvement in the Hosted Email efforts as well as more of an investment in the Domainer / Traffic Monetization space as well.

I look forward to a fast paced, growth oriented 2006 and wish everyone the best with a ton of prosperity for the New Year.

Hopefully some of you will wish me some positivity as well

So finaly there seems to be some progress on the long rumored Time Warner / AOL sale. Tonight MSNBC reports that Microsoft (similar to Yahoo) at least for now has been pushed to the backburner while talks with Google have become much more serious.

The Google-AOL talks would expand on a relationship which analysts estimate account for 2 percent to 4 percent of Google’s revenue on a net basis. AOL uses Google’s search engine, and Microsoft had been negotiating to get AOL to use its search technology instead.

Microsoft has been rightfully eager to displace Google and get their hands on that prime percentage as the online ad wars starts to really heat up amongst these highly tunes search competitors. I'll be curious to see whether not wanting to rock the boat with the current relationship will win over MS who has seemingly bottomless pockets and based on recent aggressive moves into the online ad space seems pretty dedicated to spend their way to the top.