Mediology Blog http://www.mediology.com/blog Thu, 26 Oct 2006 01:40:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Mediology.com website is launched http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/07/19/mediologycom-website-is-launched/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/07/19/mediologycom-website-is-launched/#comments Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:10:36 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/07/19/mediologycom-website-is-launched/ The launch of Mediology.com was an important step in our maturation as a company. Although we have been actively working on a variety of projects, many of which are listed on our site we never found the time to work on our own Internet presence.

Although most of our products and services are developed for our own use it is nice to be able to refer someone to our company homepage.

Check back for new sites we are developing as well as the release of ongoing projects.

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/07/19/mediologycom-website-is-launched/feed/ iPals - Not enough hours in the day! http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/28/ipals-not-enough-hours-in-the-day/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/28/ipals-not-enough-hours-in-the-day/#comments Tue, 28 Mar 2006 20:40:46 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/28/ipals-not-enough-hours-in-the-day/ The popularity of the beta of iPals.com has been fantastic.

I had mentioned in a previous post that we had an influx of about 400 new users. That number topped 550 in a very short time. This popularity just from word of mouth and maybe type in traffic has been a pleasant surprise but not completely unexpected.

Moving forward we will be slowing things down a bit. The roll out process is going to take time and will be done in stages as time permits. This is one of the drawbacks of not seeking VC for a project like this but then again not having anyone to answer to makes it well worth it.

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/28/ipals-not-enough-hours-in-the-day/feed/ iPals.com Styles http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/23/ipalscom-styles/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/23/ipalscom-styles/#comments Thu, 23 Mar 2006 19:38:57 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/23/ipalscom-styles/ iPals beta has been promising. Plenty of traffic and posts. One of the members decided to set up a site for members interested in custom styles. Catchy name too http//stylemyipals.com.

Although a “true” launch won’t be for a while these are the type of spin off sites which are vital to the existence of any social networking site.

The more options a new member has with regard to custom skins and cool enhancements the more they’ll share the site with their friends further increasing our visibility.

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/23/ipalscom-styles/feed/ iPals.com picks up over 400 users in beta launch. http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/20/ipalscom-picks-up-over-400-users-in-beta-launch-2/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/20/ipalscom-picks-up-over-400-users-in-beta-launch-2/#comments Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:21:53 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/20/ipalscom-picks-up-over-400-users-in-beta-launch-2/ Wow, I never anticipated we would beta launch the and have over 400 users sign up and begin testing in just a couple of months time.
Unfortunately, we dont anticipate a REAL launch for several months due to some other projects which are slated to begin more or less right now. We are hopeful the layoff doesn’t competely kill the project but realistically we could not launch right now without finishing the movie and video players.

Any programmers need a job? (Im only half joking).

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/20/ipalscom-picks-up-over-400-users-in-beta-launch-2/feed/ iPals.com - Media http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/13/ipalscom-media/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/13/ipalscom-media/#comments Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:28:43 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/13/ipalscom-media/ The ipals project had us pretty busy all winter. The last of our major module additions is working in beta however we are not making it available to users until we work out all of the bugs and are able to button up the back end.

The music and video players work. There are some bugs uploading video however those can be worked out. The design is a little clunky so that will need some attention.

People have been asking me if allowing members to upload and share their videos and music will be cost prohibitive. We’ll be extremely pleased if we receive enough page views to warrant an increase in bandwidth.

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/13/ipalscom-media/feed/ Why are some domain names so valuable? http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/10/why-are-some-domain-names-so-valuable/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/10/why-are-some-domain-names-so-valuable/#comments Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:47:50 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/10/why-are-some-domain-names-so-valuable/ Recently I was involved in the negotiations for a domain name. The buyer had already contacted the seller however she, the buyer, was not willing to shell out the $10,000+ and wanted me to negotiate a more favorable price.

The buyer owns a ecommerce site which is successful. She sells “widgets” in a variety of styles and this particular domain name was a very popular, generic “widget” name. For example, “BlueWidgets.com”.
I contacted the seller and to make a long story short, after viewing the stats and earnings I concluded that the domain was receiving 80 type ins per day and over 100 unique visitors per day. Bluewidgets.com was earning more than $1500 per year from a half optimized parking page.

Upon the start of negotiations I was told flat out that the price was firm. The asking price was equal to 7 years revenue or approximately $10,500.
I told my client to write the check as fast as she could!

How did I come to this conclusion?

I had a little more information form my client. I knew she was spending approximately $7,000 per month on PPC search engines. Of that budget I knew she was spending about 9% for the keyword “blue widgets” or $630 per month. This produced an average of 550 monthly clicks which equates to $1.15 per click. We know that “bluewidgets.com” is generating more than 100 unique visitors per day with 80+ being direct type ins for a total of about 3000 unique visitors per month.
Based in what my client was paying for PPC click throughs the domain was worth far more than the asking price even if the conversion rate was a fraction of that of her PPC.
This is a perfect example of how valuable a generic domain name is even if it is niche targeted.
So the next time you see a domain sell for $xxx,xxx even if it seems like a ridiculously high price remember this post.

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/10/why-are-some-domain-names-so-valuable/feed/ Completed iPals features and coming features http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/03/completed-ipals-features-and-coming-features/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/03/completed-ipals-features-and-coming-features/#comments Fri, 03 Mar 2006 05:17:39 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/03/completed-ipals-features-and-coming-features/ 1. Multi Blog Support
2. Custom Styling using css
3. AJAX Comment system with custom ajax client side javascript.
4. Validation System for input forms.
5. Interest Sharing
6. Favorite Lists
7. RSS Support
8. Friends - ( Add, remove, activate, block )
9. Image Gallery - Full album support with private and public albums
10. Groups ( Private, Public, Limited ) - Beta
11. ATOM Feeds
12. CSS ( multiple css / share css )
13. Custom Image Gallery

Probably doing in the next few months:

* Cell Phone Updating
* Cell Phone Browsing

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/03/03/completed-ipals-features-and-coming-features/feed/ Last of the Major iPals bugs - Fixed - Or almost fixed http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/26/last-of-the-major-ipals-bugs-fixed-or-almost-fixed/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/26/last-of-the-major-ipals-bugs-fixed-or-almost-fixed/#comments Sun, 26 Feb 2006 05:49:52 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/26/last-of-the-major-ipals-bugs-fixed-or-almost-fixed/ 1) Adding a user photo is a little bugged and needs some work as it does not always work.
2) Adding multiple photos to your photo gallery does not always work. Maybe due to size being to much. Need to figure out a better way to adding photos that are larger or have to many photos.
3) Being able to upload bitmaps. (bmp). This should be done by uploading and converting over to JPG and then adding to the photo gallery.
4) Adding group icon does not work fully.. Needs work so it works like how the avatars ( user photo ) works.
5) Groups need photo galleries. Also allowing them to add image or other attachments to the posts on the groups.
6) Adding images to posts needs to be clearer, and maybe an ajax thing for uploading images to iPals and being able to add them in the post in 1 fluid motion.
7) Adding bbcode buttons to all input fields that use bbcode to be parsed out.
8) Fix on group posting where you add a post and it escapes out newlines.

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/26/last-of-the-major-ipals-bugs-fixed-or-almost-fixed/feed/ Some of our recent domain acquisitions http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/25/some-of-our-recent-domain-acquisitions/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/25/some-of-our-recent-domain-acquisitions/#comments Sat, 25 Feb 2006 15:45:12 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/25/some-of-our-recent-domain-acquisitions/ Late 2005 and early 2006 we found ourselves particularly active with regard to domain acquisitions. We purchased approximately 150 over a 3 or so month span.
Among my favorites in no particular order are: ipals.com, gametopia.com, bloggerlines.com, amatureweblog.com, notebook-forums.com.

Although the preceeding were MY favorites they are not necessarily our most valuable pic-ups. Many of our purchases were keyword domains which we in turn redirect to our ecommerce sites and informational sites.

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/25/some-of-our-recent-domain-acquisitions/feed/ More ipals fixes done http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/09/more-ipals-fixes-done/ http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/09/more-ipals-fixes-done/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:23:01 +0000 John Ansart http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/09/more-ipals-fixes-done/ Ok, fixed all email issues. Fixed almost all CSS issues. Made it easier to figure out how to update CSS. Fixed links.

We’re getting there! It’s going to take a while to work through all of the bugs but so far so good.

]]> http://www.mediology.com/blog/2006/02/09/more-ipals-fixes-done/feed/