I’ve been online since 1992 and for the very first time I’m using my blog to make a public complaint.
I purchased a high end Samsung LCD TV three years ago and now it won’t turn on anymore.
The red right in front is on, but it won’t turn on.

After some Google-ing I found tons of posts regarding the same issue so this seems to be a common issue with Samsung TVs. In all fairness I’ve never had a different brand flat screen TV, so having an $800 TV fail after three years could be the norm with flat screen TVs.

In any case, if Samsung wants to do good with this consumer, all I’m asking is that they fix it free of charge. I already contacted them and was told it’s out of warranty so tough luck.

In the mean time, if you want to recommend a brand of TV - let me know your thoughts. BTW, I’m looking for a 32 inch-er.

Thanks
Ophir

A few years ago I decided to get a “video jukebox” type of device that would let me view videos (mostly my daughter’s stuff) without having to switch DVDs all the time.

At the time I got an Archos TV+.

It’s a great device, but is no longer supported and doesn’t support HD.

I’m now on the lookout for a new device that supports the following:

• Built in Ethernet (so I can play from our DS209 NAS Device)
• Can play DVD ISOs with full menu support (so I don’t have to rip my DVDs into individual files / easy subtitle support, etc)
• Supports HD (720 is fine for me, though it seems they all do full 1080)
• Can play the usual suspects (divx, xvid, mp4, aac, etc)
• Not a full fledged PC (something I can put on top of my DVD player)

I’m creating a list and will post here later, though please chime in if you have suggestions.

Thanks
Ophir

I have just accepted a full time position at POP.
My title is Search and Analytics Strategist.

I’m really excited about my new job and will soon be sharing some thoughts on where I think Internet development and marketing is going.

Hi All,

I just found out today that www.prusak.com has been down for about 48 hours

I’ve been with my hosting provider - www.DreamHost.com - since 1999 and they’ve been rock solid so I never had any reason to setup any site monitoring services.

Also, I use Google apps for prusak.com email so that was working fine.

After 6 hours I finally got a reply to my urgent help ticket (they don’t have a number you can call for phone support) stating that:

Your domain is not pointed to our nameservers. Due to that, we cannot
update your DNS information if/when we need to change IPs (such as in the
cases of failing over pf services, moving apache instances, or
circumventing DDOS attacks).

Due to the sheer number of sites we host (700,000+) its not particuarlly
plausable to email our customers these changes, as <1% of our customer
base actually manage their own IPs.

Give me a break!

1 - It’s trivial to check which customers manage their own IPs
2 - When you do need to change IPs (which really shouldn’t be that often) I’m guessing only a fraction of your 700,000 sites are affected.

On a side note:
- I changed my DNS to dreamhost (so this won’t happen again)
- I signed up for a few free web site monitoring services. The only one which kept on sending me email while the site was down is BasicState.com (I figure I own them a free link). I’m not crazy about the user interface, but it works.

- Ophir

A few days ago someone posted a question about job interviews on a list I’m subscribed to. I ended up writing a fairly long response, which could be benificial to other people, so here it is.

Here’s the original post with the question:

I’ve always been puzzled by one particular interview question, and it seems important, because the lead-up always go something like this: the interviewer wraps up his/her speech, relaxes backwards in the chair, and says, ‘now, what questions do you have for me?’

Once you know the technology you’re going to be using, and what you’re going to be using it for, what is there to really ask?   I fail miserably at this, and usually say something like, grumble grumble, I think I have a good overview of what’s going on, so at this point, no, I don’t - but I’m sure I’ll think of some on the way home.  But I never really do know what to ask.

First of all, if you’re currently looking for a job - you need to get these books:

Read the rest of this entry »

It all boils down to this:

Only Advertise Where You Are Able To Calculate ROI.

We track each campaign individually with web analytics tools like google analytics (which is now open to everyone so you have no excuse for not having performance data).

Lets say that on average 1 in 100 visitors will purchase something on your site and that the average purchase is for $50.
The math is pretty simple:
1/100 = 1% conversion rate
$50 (avg purchase)  *  %1 = 50 cents.

This means that 50 cents per visitor is your break even point.

Of course, these are just averages.
In order to know if a specific campaign (or keyword) is actually profitable at a certain price point, you need to measure the actual behavior of visitors from that campaign.

Our main problem is that sometimes it takes a lot of traffic to measure the true effectiveness of a campaign.

Lets say that you have a keyword (or campaign) that has brought in 100 visitors but no sales yet.
Do I let it ride?
Do I stop?

It’s impossible to make a good decision at this point only based on the number of visitors and number of sales.

That’s why you need other performance metrics that can give you earlier indications of performance.
For us, we measure (among other things):
- bounce rate (abandonment rate)
- avg number of page views
- avg time on site
- email leads (signed up for our newsletter)
- viewed any product detail page

When you take a look at the above numbers for each campaign, you can quickly see if the campaign has the potential for being profitable without waiting for actual sales data.

Of course, you need to also take into account lifetime value of a customer, but that to can be factored in if you record the campaign that brought you the customer.

Hope that helps
- Ophir

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