Live Oak Blog

Join us for a light-hearted and open conversation about how to use BudURL in your sales and prospecting activities. The call will be an open forum so you can feel free to ask any questions you’d like. Our goal is to share what we’re learning from our BudURL fans so that everyone can share in the knowledge of the collective. The more you know, the more you grow!

Call In Number: 404.920.6604

Participant Code: 65863478

When: Tuesday, December 9th, 11a Central

The call is limited to the first 30 people. If there is demand, we’ll move the calls to an open forum and broadcast via video to open it up to others.

Today is a big release of many of the most requested features for BudURL.

1. Vanity URLS!! http://budurl.com/andy
2. Delete your unwanted BudURLs
3. Reset click counts
4. Edit the destination URL
5. Download your clicks
6. View click details for an individual BudURL
7. Unique clicks per BudURL

We have a lot more coming, but we couldn’t wait any longer to share what we’ve been working on. More BudURL goodness is coming soon!

This is another entry in our series regarding our promotion activities around the launch of BudURL.com. Yesterday, Mashable.com wrote a nice review of BudURL.com. The response was better than we expected - much better. Overall, we saw an 9x increase in traffic to budurl.com and registrations have increased 3x in the last 24 hours (and more are coming in each hour). This was a great boost to some of our grassroots efforts of promoting BudURL.

BUT, we learned a lot more from the results of the traffic we’ve seen.

Once we saw the article at Mashable, we proceeded to run it through our “social media promotion checklist.” This list contains about 25 various social networks that help cross-promote online content.

Traffic from Mashable was NOT the top hit. It was actually second. Surprised? I sure was. Third was RSS readers (no doubt pulling in feeds from Mashable and their subsidiary feeds). So, what was the top ranking source that drove 19% of our traffic following our write-up on Mashable.com?

The answer is StumbleUpon.com.

I’ve heard this statement a couple of times and I know I’ll hear it again. “I can do what BudURL does with TinyURL and Google Analytics.”

While this statement is true, what a pain! You have to create a page on your web server that collects the inbound link, add the Google Anatlyics tracking code to the page, and then go to TinyURL to create a short URL of the desired page. Then, once the click is “collected” you have to wait for Google Analytics to process this data (usually overnight). Then, when you see the number of page views you collected, you aren’t seeing which referrers were used, which networks, cities, etc. All you’ll end up getting is the quantity of clicks you received. This is assuming you understand how to create pages on your server (if you have access) and that you know how to use Google Analytics (again, if you have access).

Here is why BudURL is better than just TinyURL + Google Analytics.

To do this same process, you simply navigate to the page you want to track and click the BudURL bookmarklet in your toolbar. The URL is converted and automatically added to your list of BudURLs and tracking is automatic. As clicks are made on your BudURL, we track the click count the moment it happens (stats are real-time) and we also pick up all kinds of detail about your click so we can tell you that the tweet you posted Twitter got picked up by Facebook and Google and Yammer and spread like wildfire via email. We can tell you which geographies around the world think your link is important and we can tell you this right now. You don’t have to wait until tomorrow to find out. In fact, you can log into your account, click on the Click Stream tab, and watch the clicks as they flow through.

There is a lot more coming in the next few weeks that will take tracking clicks both on and off the web even easier. Sure, you can do this with TinyURL and Google Analytics, but who would want to do it?

In order to boost visibility to BudURL, we invited 8 “top tweeters” to use and review BudURL. Yes, it’s still a bit early as the best features aren’t public yet, but the core components are working great and the more traffic we get, the better we can test. So, we went ahead and pinged a handful of folks with a request and roadmap for future releases. The folks we chose were in the tech world and have thousands (or tens-of-thousands) of followers. I haven’t heard back from anyone officially, but I’d expect I’m one of a few hundred emails they received in the last 24 hours. I’ll be thrilled if one of them kicks the tires a bit.

sidenote: We also released a couple of bug fixes yesterday to correct some user-behavior that we had not anticipated, but that our original beta list provided over the weekend. Release Early — Release Often.

Interested in launching a web-based software product and not sure how to get started? Maybe you have already launched a product and are struggling to get traction or just want some insight into how others are doing it. Live Oak 360 is often engaged by our customers to build software solutions, however our involvement usually doesn’t span into marketing, promotion, and the business aspects of running the company (although we’re happy to share our thoughts when asked). To help with this process, Live Oak 360 is going to write about our product launch regarding Budurl.com. Why we’re doing it - how we’re doing it - and what the results are from our actions.

Interested in keeping tabs on us? Subscribe to our blog and our twitter feed to keep up with the details.

I was speaking to some folks this week and they asked, “Why on Earth would Live Oak 360 choose to build another content management system. Aren’t there dozens of them already out there?” In short, yes. But, when you sit down to look at some of the reasons why, it starts to make perfect sense.

In almost seven years of doing custom development work at Live Oak, we have never standardized on a single content management system.

That’s right, never, until now. With each new site we built (and we’ve built dozens), we would start from scratch. Sure, we borrowed a bit here and there from previous projects, but each customer was different and everyone wanted it done based on their own needs. Although in the end, a lot of the components were the same, there was always something different. We sat down one day and figured out what core components were the same across every site. Then we had our baseline. This lets us jump start, even a custom deployment, by nearly 80-90% right from the start.

You can’t forget about the Total Cost of Ownership.

Most people who evaluate content management systems either start with open source (free) or commercial (paid) options. With paid solutions, it is pretty obvious where some of the costs are derived. You buy the software, install it on your server, configure it, implement your template, load your content, etc. When evaluating open source solutions, you still have all of those activities, with the exception of the cost of the software. But, when you ask anyone who has ever deployed a commercial content management system, the cost of the software is usually the smallest investment. In the open source world, you may end up saving a few thousand dollars on software, but you’re having to settle for something built for the world, not something built for you. You end up installing a winnebago when you may just need a pop-up camper, or end up trying to convert your pop-up camper into a 3-story mansion. Architecture is important and to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. (just for the record, at Live Oak 360, we LOVE open source software, use it daily, and contribute where we can to make it better)

Leaving it on the table.

Content management systems are typically designed for one purpose - managing content. Makes sense, right? The problem is that the CMS powers your website. Your website is the most important marketing and communications platform that your company has and it is about so much more than content. Every public interaction that you have on the web somehow drives people back to your website. Every email communication that is had refers to your website. Your contact forms, lead generation, webinars, press releases, demonstrations, etc. — all lead people to your website. So, shouldn’t your website be better integrated with your sales and marketing processes? Better yet, shouldn’t your content management system facilitate the implementation, use, and evolution of these tools?

Built-in Stagnation - CMS as a SaaS

Most websites receive functional updates every 18 to 24 months. Think back in your own life 18-24 months and about how much technology has changed. That means that your website is sitting idle, dormant, and is being covered with more and more cobwebs every day. Bloom CMS is updated quarterly to ensure that your website is continually being updated with the latest in proven web technology. Not necessarily the latest whiz-bang feature or effect that clutters the message, but technology that has been proven to add value. No more moss, cobwebs, or dust — just your best foot forward every single day.

Marketing Activity Augmentation

Marketing budgets are tight and marketers are already overworked. Marketing teams are shrinking and their responsibilities are growing daily. What marketers need are partners who can help them determine what technologies can deliver the most to their top and bottom lines. Bloom CMS eases this concern by researching new technologies, features, and trends and rolls them into each quarterly launch. This gives the marketer a continual refreshing holster of ammunition from which to arm themselves. This replenished arsenal gives them an edge over those teams who are trying to keep the plates spinning all by themselves.

Last Thursday (June 19th) was the first Interactive Austin conference. This year’s title was “Social Commerce at Work.” Live Oak 360 was a sponsor for the event and we were very excited to be involved. The event was sold out, which is always a great thing to hear and the first sign of a good event. The sold-out status was the first indicator regarding the demand and interest regarding social media in Austin. It’s no secret that social media is a hotbed of activity in this town. We’re all in sync with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. SXSW ensures that all the geeks can showcase their expertise by flocking to Austin each year in March. From the list of attendees and conversations that I had with them, social media is starting to make a dent in the enterprise. Small business folks see it as a way to get ahead of their larger competition. Enterprise folks see it as a way to tap into the smaller, but hungry markets. And everybody sees it as the next big thing. We had attendees who were buzzword-oblivious, but we also had folks that were heavily into all the latest social environments. From the back of the main conference call, looking out into the sea of laptops showed a combo of twitter.com and twemes.com/fg2 on nearly every screen.

The panelists were amazing. I thought they did a great job of really helping folks understand the momentum that is building and the amount of opportunity that is out there. What it boils down to is that we’re at the cusp of the social media wave. Those of us who have been “on the scene” for the last couple of years may be growing tired of the buzzword-bingo articles and conversations, but nevertheless, the opportunity is real and the market is ready.

It’s obvious to anyone when a piece of handiwork has been carefully designed. Throughout history, men have recognized in the concept of good design an inherent quality and internal consistency; similarly, when those traits are lacking, a product is described as being designed poorly or, in more extreme cases, not designed at all. Paley’s famous argument regarding the watch and the watchmaker raises an important point: these traits of good design are present in the watch; there’s a quality, beauty, and consistency about the watch that make it suggest that it was crafted, rather than springing into existence.

Unfortunately, in software development, many tools do, for all intents and purposes, spring into existence. It’s not that there isn’t a human developer who writes them; it is the case, however, that developers often write for the short-term and, after realizing a shortcoming in their work, later bolt on a “quick fix.” This cycle continues indefinitely until the work becomes a gargantuan spaghetti monster that is the subject of children’s horror stories.

This trend extends past projects and applications; it’s present in languages, too. The classic example to point to is C (or C++): while it’s an immensely powerful language, it has a lot of errata, backwards approaches, and annoying syntactical inconsistencies. My primary development language right now is PHP, which suffers from similar issues (my usual example is $needle and $haystack arguments being taken in different orders within string functions). This sort of thing happens because the language wasn’t deliberately developed from the start. Few people sit down with the intent of writing a language; often, they only believe they’re writing a few constructs. When your view is that narrow, you’re more likely not to pay attention to issues like internal or external consistency, the primary indicator of good API design. Conversely, languages like Python and Java, which are deliberately designed, show a much greater level of consistency and attention to detail.

And, of course, all these rules apply to frameworks, also. There are hundreds of PHP frameworks available. Literally, there are hundreds. Some of the more famous PHP frameworks available are CodeIgniter and CakePHP. It seems like every developer has written a framework, or at least endeavored to write one. In general, developers write miniature frameworks for themselves to make repetitive tasks take less work (convenience methods); in other words, they are writing just a couple of constructs. As needs grow, so do the number of constructs. Eventually, the developer or group of developers sit down to make their convenience code into something more useful–namely, a framework.

That’s what sets Acorn apart; Acorn was deliberately developed.

At Live Oak 360, the development team realized first that we needed a robust framework to enable us to do custom software development without unnecessary limiting us; since we’re in the custom development business, you never know what a client might want. This framework, therefore, had to be robust and scalable while also being quite fast. The final goal of the framework was to be a philosophical guide and fence for us as developers–we wanted our code to be as reusable as possible, which meant moving to a completely object-oriented environment as well as following preset guidelines to maximize code portability.

With all those things in mind, the Live Oak 360 development team sat down to write “Acorn”, our development framework. Every object, method, and approach was debated; the whiteboard in our conference room was top-to-bottom, right-to-left packed with scribbles. My own whiteboard contained list after list of objects and methods, which I edited and amended constantly, wanting to make sure that they made sense, were consistent, and were as obvious as possible.

The final product was our core development framework. Acorn has now had its chance to run through the ringer a few times; we’ve used it for almost every project we’ve done since, such as Be Green Now (http://www.begreennow.com), Home Auction Live (http://www.homeauctionlive.com), and Austin On Demand (http://www.austinondemand.com). We believe that we’ve created a quality and consistent framework.

Toward that end, we’re going to be releasing Acorn as an open source product in the near future. We’d like to share what we’ve done with others, with the hopes that other developers looking for a deliberately designed object-oriented framework will find what they seek in Acorn, and so that the open source community can improve on what we have begun.

This is just a quick reminder to all of those in the sales world today. When you pick up the phone to make a call, be ready for whatever happens on the other end. Whether it be a voicemail, a receptionist, or the CEO of a billion-dollar corporation, be ready. I recently received a sales-related voicemail message that had the word “Ummm” 15 times in :55 seconds. It was so surprising to me that I actually listened the the message a few times to try and mentally “omit” the “Ummms” so I could decipher the actual message. When I finally realized that it was a sales call and a product I wasn’t really interested in, I was then compelled to count the number of verbal/mental interruptions.

So, my advice to you — be ready. You never know when the person at the other end of the line with have their checkbook out with pen in hand. Be ready.