Help Our Friends in the Philippines

Elliot Silver
-
7

PhilippinesBy now, you’ve probably heard the news about the devastating storms that are severely impacting the Philippines.   I know of several people with family, friends, and business colleagues in the Philippines. In fact, my friends at Offshoring.com, RickLatona.com, and TechFilipino have significant amounts of employees and business operations in the Philippines, and I know of several people who read my blog that live there.

During this difficult time, our Filipino friends can really use our support – especially some financial support if you have the means. The Philippine National Red Cross is actively assisting victims of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) and Typhoon Parma (Pepeng), and they accept donations via Paypal to make it even easier to help.

Whether you know someone personally in the Philippines or not, they can really use our support. In addition to the Philippine National Red Cross, there are a few other organizations that are helping storm victims:

Google has set up a Typhoon Ondoy information page as well, so you can stay informed about what’s happening in the Philippines. Our friends in the Philippines can use our support.

Wibiya Toolbar Added to Elliot’s Blog

Elliot Silver
-
16

I was just approved for an account at Wibiya, a company currently beta testing its toolbar. I have tested the toolbar on a couple of different browsers, and I haven’t found any glitches, and I would appreciate your feedback. Please let me know if the toolbar is causing any technical issues that might cause problems for you (or your browser).

I’d also like to know if you find the toolbar helpful, annoying, slow loading, ugly…etc. This is just a test for now, so I’d really appreciate your honest feedback.

Top 10 List of Top 5 Lists – Nice Idea, Bruce

Elliot Silver
-
18

Bruce Marler posted his top ten list of top five lists, and I think that’s a cool idea. Although a few of my lists are different than Bruce’s, check out mine and check out Bruce’s lists. I would be interested to learn more about your favorites, too.

Top 5 Domain Tools/Forums I Visit
1) Domaining.com
2) Snapnames
3) DomainBoardroom.com
4) Google Adwords Keyword Tool
5) Adsense

Top 5 Domain Names I Own or Sold
1) Lowell.com
2) Torah.com
3) Burbank.com
4) FrenchRiviera.com
5) Customs.com

Top 5 Non-Domain Related Sites I Visit (not including my own sites)
1) Boston.com
2) ESPN.com
3) Yahoo Finance
4) NYPost.com
5) Twitter via Cotweet

Top 5 Places I Get My News:
1) NY Post
2) Boston.com
3) CNN
4) Wall St. Journal
5) NY Times

Top 5 Domain Extensions
1) .com
2) .com
3) .com
4) .com
5) .com/.org (tie)

Top 5 Favorite TV Shows
1) Entourage
2) House
3) Monday Night Football
4) Grey’s Anatomy
5) Desperate Housewives

Top 5 Sports Teams
1) Boston Red Sox
2) New England Patriots
3) Boston Celtics
4) Lowell Spinners
5) Whoever is playing the Yankees

Top 5 Areas in the World (other than New York City)
1) Tuscany, Italy
2) Lav, Croatia (Le Meridian)
3) Jerusalem, Israel
4) New Orleans, Louisiana
5) Palm Beach, Florida

Top 5 Restaurants in the World
1) Cafe L’Europe (Palm Beach)
2) La Locanda di Pietracupa (San Donato in Poggio, Italy)
3) My Mom’s kitchen (New Hampshire)
4) Atlantic Grill (New York City – Upper East Side)
5) Dinosaur Bar B Que (New York City – Harlem)

Top 5 Beers I Won’t Ever Turn Down
1) Abita Purple Haze
2) Yuengling
3) Sam Adams Cherry Wheat
4) Hoegaarden
5) Negra Modelo

How Fast Do Hot Chicks & Dogs Go Viral

Elliot Silver
-
3

By now, many of you have probably seen PeopleOfWalmart.com, a viral website with photographs from interesting folks doing their shopping at Walmart. After being live for a short period of time, a number of news organizations wrote articles about the site, and it took off from there. Millions of visits later, and it was another viral phenomenon.

When I first heard about the site, I didn’t bother to check out the registration date to see just how quickly the word was spreading, and it was something I wished I had done just out of curiosity. This morning, a couple of friends sent me links to a new viral site as well as its sister sites. Some of the links might be inappropriately suggestive for some, although there isn’t any nudity in them:

  • HotChicksWithHotDogsInTheirMouths.com
  • HotChicksPickingUpDogShit.com
  • HotChicksWithDogsWithBoners.com

The links are for websites that have stupid funny sophomoric photos, which is probably why I found them amusing. The domain names were all registered between September 15 and today (September 24th). I don’t know just how viral they’ve gone, but I am sure it’s spreading pretty quickly.

It would be interesting to have followed the route it took to get to me. I bet there are people studying how quickly something on the Internet goes viral. If not, I think it’s something that should be studied by big brands and marketers.

Perhaps this is actually a case study in the making, since the registrant’s email address is associated with Mekanism.com, a NYC and San Francisco-based production company.

Eat Healthy & Get Exercise

Elliot Silver
-
11

Ever since my Dad had a heart attack a few years ago, I have been even more vigilant about my health. Fortunately for my family, my Dad fully recovered from his heart attack, but it served as a valuable lesson for me, and it’s something I urge you to take to heart.

As a domain investor, I sit behind my computer for much of the day – drinking coffee of course. Running a business can be stressful, and with the tough economy, things can be even more stressful. Working on a computer for 10+ hours a day can lead to bad posture, poor eyesight and carpal tunnel. I really don’t think there is anything physically good about working on a computer all day – except the fact that I am not spending my day lifting heavy objects. Coupled with added stress, this can lead to bad health and physical conditioning.

Anyhow, it’s important the we realize how much we need to take care of ourselves. I do my best to eat healthy meals and get enough exercise. Since my wife is a great runner who encourages me to run and work out, it’s not too difficult to stay in shape. However, if she wasn’t pushing me to do so, I would probably never get any exercise, while drinking and eating too much.

This is just a friendly reminder that you need to take some time to look after yourself and stay healthy. Get an annual check up and cholesterol test, and make sure you listen to your doctor’s advice.   Working alone can be somewhat isolating but it’s important to do what you can to maintain your good health.

I am now training for a biathlon, so it’s now time to go for a run at the gym and then take a 12 mile bike ride in the park. I challenge you to challenge yourself physically. It will stimulate you mentally and gives you time away from your computer to de-stress.

Facebook is Personal & Twitter is Public

Elliot Silver
-
3

Facebook TwitterA few weeks ago, I received a message on Facebook from a domain industry friend with an urgent message. Apparently I had befriended a person who was posting Anti-Semitic links on his Facebook page, and my friend wanted to know if I knew the guy and/or if I had seen the links he was posting. The answer to both questions was, “no.”

I receive a number of Facebook “friend” requests each week. I typically look to see if we have friends in common, and if so, I approve the request without anything further. I figured, if you’re a friend of a friend, you can be a friend of mine. I had around 500 Facebook friends, and when I went through the list a few days ago, there were many names I didn’t recognize, let alone consider a personal friend.

I thought about it for a few minutes and realized that I generally use Facebook to keep up with my friends. I was a late adopter and didn’t really use it until a year ago, (although I established my account in grad school), but it has allowed me to keep up with high school friends, college friends, and other random friends I’ve made over the years. Of course, there were also many domain industry friends, too. However, I really don’t do any business or talk about business on Facebook to spare my friends from seeing business updates in their news feeds.

Twitter, on the other hand, is a very public outlet for me to share information. A majority of my posts are business-related, and I don’t post much in the way of personal information. I am not against posting personal things, but my primary Twitter objective is business and marketing. I have a lot of followers, and I follow a whole lot of interesting people. The more information I can get from Twitter, the better.

That said, I’ve decided to draw the line and make Facebook more of a personal spot, only accepting friends and colleagues I know on a personal level. I feel that I share much of what I am doing on my blog anyway, but I wanted to draw the line, and I think Facebook is the place to do it.

If we are no longer connected on Facebook, it’s nothing personal. Connect with me on Twitter instead 🙂

1...323334...49Page 33 of 49