Archive for May 2008

• Stay out of the Recession with Email Marketing
• A New Game! What happens when self-published books skip the editing process. [Link: Lori Cates]
• 70 Million Definitions of “Blog” and Counting: I love an intelligent discussion and this is one.
• Friday Word Fun: Why do we drive on a parkway and …
• Where to Find Quality Web Templates and Blog Themes

And for fun because we’re allowed:

• 89 useless facts [Link: Ritu B Pant]
• 10 real-life superheroes
• Caller complaints: Fight back against telemarketers
• RadioTime: Listen to radio… local, international, and internet. Site relaunched with a new design. Disclaimer: I’m one of the guilty parties behind the site changes. The content, of course. Free service. The only thing that costs anything is RedButton, which is TiVO for radio. You can try it for 14 days.

Remember to join the birthday celebration! Lots of prizes and easy to enter.

It may be this blog’s birthday, but the presents will go to readers like you. All the birthday details here. Here are the games up for winning!

• Reflexive contributes a total of 10 copies of three games! Some are for Mac.
  • Big Kahuna Reef 2: 4 copies (2 Mac and 2 PC)
  • Ricochet Infinity: 2 copies (PC)
  • Airport Mania: 4 copies (2 Mac and 2 PC)
• One full copy of Orchidia PC game from Joyboost. See Meryl’s Orchidia review.
  • One full copy of Spinword PC game from Joyboost.
  • One full copy of Astraware Classic Collection, which includes Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Solitaire, and Astraware Board games. Astraware is one of Meryl’s favorite — if not the best — developer of handheld software.
• Two full copies of Magic Farm Game PC games from Oleg Kuznecov of Meridian’93.
• Unicorn Castle from PC game from Oleg Kuznecov of Meridian’93.
• One copy for a reader and one copy for a guest blogger. My Magic Farm review.
• One Alawar PC game package including full copies of Virtual Farm, Curse of Montezuma, and Alex Gordon.
• Full copy of First Class Flurry PC game from Chanon Sajjamanochai of Viquagames. Meryl’s First Class Fury review.
• Full copy of Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper PC game from Mark Kanter of Bang Out Games. Meryl’s Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper review.

What a week to be busy serving clients! I’ve hardly social networked this week, so it’s a good thing Twitter hasn’t been feeling well.

Oh man… $100 from $5,000. No more prizes! Hurry up, June 1!

Anything you do from now through most of June counts toward entries for the prizes. So you don’t have to wait until June 1 to do anything. (Initial birthday bash entry)

Reader entries

• 25 entries: Create a video mentioning meryl.net and post it on Youtube (send us the URL. Add 5 more if we can see the meryl.net mention for those of us who can’t hear.
• 10 entries: Follow me at Twitter at http://twitter.com/merylkevans
• 10 entries: Make a blog post about the birthday celebration, the prizes, and link to this page.
• 10 entries: Link to any May or June meryl.net blog entry.
• 10 entries: Subscribe and activate to our RSS feed by email.
  • Subscribe to both meryl’s notes blog and games
  • Subscribe only to meryl’s notes blog
  • Subscribe only to games
  • Subscribe to Bionic Ear Blog
  • Subscribe to meryl’s notes, the newsletter (not the same thing as the above)
• 5 entries: Twitter about meryl’s notes and link to this page (Need to comment a link to your twitter so we can verify it)

Post-specific Prizes and Rules

Some prizes will be given away on a specific day (the post will let you know). So check back often to get a chance to win these prizes. Since only those responding to the post receive an entry for these prizes, your chances for winning are higher than the rest. Plus, you can win more than one of these prizes. A person can only win one of the rest of the prizes.

These prizes are those with specific requirements that not everyone has. For example, software may only be available for Windows users and not Macs. I will put these up in a blog entry and anyone who comments within five days of the blog post (to be fair to those on vacation) will get an entry for the prize of the blog entry. Comments must be at least 30 words to ensure they’re valuable to readers.

Here are the prizes that will be up for specific posts (more prizes may be added… watch the blog for more prizes given away for commenting on a post).

• $800 DVD set from marketing extraordinaire Seth Godin.
• $450 basic WordPress customization package from Kim Beasley.
• Lifetime subscription for RadioTime.com RedButton software — TiVO for radio where you can pause and record live radio.
• One full copy of Orchidia PC game from Joyboost. See Meryl’s Orchidia review.
• One full copy of Spinword PC game from Joyboost.
• One full copy of Astraware Classic Collection, which includes Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Solitaire, and Astraware Board games. Astraware is one of Meryl’s favorite — if not the best — developer of handheld software.
• Ted Demopoulos: One copy of Secrets of a Successful Blogging System digital audiobook with What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting (in which Meryl appears).
• Two full copies of Magic Farm Game PC games from Oleg Kuznecov of Meridian’93. One copy for a reader and one copy for a guest blogger. My Magic Farm review.
• One Alawar PC game package including full copies of Virtual Farm, Curse of Montezuma, and Alex Gordon.
• Full copy of First Class Flurry PC game from Chanon Sajjamanochai of Viquagames. Meryl’s First Class Fury review.
• Full copy of Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper PC game from Mark Kanter of Bang Out Games. Meryl’s Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper review.
• Big Kahuna Reef 2: 2 copies (1 Mac and 1 PC)
• Ricochet Infinity: 1 copies (PC)
• Airport Mania: 2 copies (1 Mac and 1 PC)

You can still be a guest blogger and earn 25 entries. Just contact me.

As always, if you keep a list of what you do to qualify for entries and send it to me before the drawings for the final prizes — it’d be much appreciated.

The suspect: The confusing WSJ subscription page. Click to view larger.

Wall Street Journal meant well when its staff created the email center page. I like that it has all the e-mail subscriptions on for managing. When a resource has multiple e-mail newsletters, listing all of the newsletters in one page serves readers well.

Here comes the “but.” If you’re already subscribed, the WSJ page doesn’t show it. At the bottom of a WSJ newsletter, it shows:

TO VIEW OR CHANGE any of your e-mail settings, go to the E-Mail Setup Center: http://online.wsj.com/email

Everyone sees the same page and options regardless if they have a subscription. Subscribed users should see their subscriptions reflected on the landing page. Sure, they have a link so you can log in to subscriber Email Center to check your settings — but we read fast and I didn’t notice this on the first reading. Only “here” has a link and it’s not obvious when you scan.

So I click “here” and it’s a dead end:

No Information Available
Your subscription does not include access to this service.

If you want to unsubscribe to ALL WSJ newsletters, you have to go through the entire list and click every “Remove Me.” If you want to change subscriptions (unsubscribe to some, leave some alone, etc.), you feel the pressure to select all the “Add Me” and “Remove Me” because you fear leaving it along will automatically subscribe you.

In reality, it won’t do that unless you click either the TEXT or HTML boxes. But that’s not so clear, is it? What do you think? Know of another Web content suspect?

Go to jail and do not pass Go.

Game Music 4 All releases its first free internet compilation. It is called Here Comes a New Challenger. It is a compilation of chiptune, nerdcore, and VG musicians collaborating together as a tribute to video games. Get more info and download the album for free.

I haven’t bothered much with Twitter (not linking on purpose — it’s very sick) lately because it’s in a deep funk. Today, you couldn’t page through conversations, see “Twitter exceeded” messages, or have the annoying bird greeting you with another “It’s down” message.

Many of us have submitted suggestion after suggestion (and plenty of obvious ones at that) to Twitter and never see them become reality. MarketingProfs has a lively discussion about the downtime as do many other bloggers.

But the folks behind Twitter do care. Don’t believe me?

• They’re listening according to Get Satisfaction.
• Twitterblog also tries to interact and inform.
• Twitter status page provides… well, the status… but it does require Twitter to be up.

In today’s competitive world, some would argue that a competitor should and could take away Twitter’s audience. It’s a free service — does it have the right to ask this much of us? After all, this is what happens when it ails:

• New Tweeters get tired of trying to see what the big deal is.
• Current Tweeters give up on posting meaningful messages knowing no one might see it.
• Current Tweeters stop posting waiting for the problems to pass… only to find they don’t return as they move on to other things.

Mack Collier ends the MarketingProfs asking, “Twitter users, what say you? Would you feel better about the constant problems if Twitter was active in the space and giving us feedback and support? Or should we all shut up and take it, since it’s a free service?”

I know I’d feel better about Twitter if they had taken our suggestions seriously back before it started having problems.

Just tried Pownce and it’s doesn’t grab me like Twitter does — let me know if you have an ID so I can hear you talk — it’s too quiet. Find it more work to use. I guess there’s just no place like Twitter and we’ll just have to be patient and seek out each other through our blogs.

We give the casual game industry credit for not going flower crazy. Flower Stand Tycoon doesn’t have the distinction of being the first flower-themed game, but it won’t be the last. At least, we don’t see flower-theme games come out left and right like other themes. Players and reviewers appreciate it when the themes don’t come out in droves.

Anyway, Flower Stand Tycoon reminds me of Fairy Godmother Tycoon without the wacky and quirky characters and comedy. Don’t let the fact Flower Stand Tycoon doesn’t quite measure up with Fairy Godmother Tycoon stop you from smelling the roses. Fairy Godmother Tycoon stands out from the tycoon crowd, so I don’t expect to see one come close to matching or surpassing the game.

In typical casual game fashion, the game starts off with the story of Uncle Potts who wants to grow a flower business. However, he has no business acumen as he specializes in bioengineering and would rather discover new flowers. He hands off what little he has of his business and lets you take over beginning with picking your avatar.

As you begin, the game guides you through the features and how to manage the business. Figuring out the game its controls involves a learning curve, but the competition doesn’t enter the game for a bit giving players time to feel comfortable. While you can build up to buy more stands, it’ll take time to get to that point as you need to upgrade, discover new flowers, and take over several areas of the city.

Stock up your inventory, set the prices, and let the day play it out. You can speed up the day (as you don’t do anything except watch customers, their reactions, and the profit numbers climb (you hope). So often, I just end the day and not bother waiting around. Is the game still playable when I do this? Yes. There are lots to do — I have to figure out which upgrades to buy, study reports, determine how much cash to invest in research and marketing.

I also study the areas to see where I want to sell next. The game provides population, demand, and popular item information. Reviewing this information makes an impact on your sales, one big plus about Flower Stand Tycoon. Make decisions do matter and you see the results of those decisions. News and reports also aid decision-making.

You have a say in how many of each product you want to sell. However, the numbers jump as they get larger beginning with 20, 40, 60, 100 and then 200. No 75 or even 150. At one point, I had customers buying an average of 70 to 80 of a flower, but 100 is a waste. Whatever they don’t buy doesn’t always carry over — a big problem in the game. While it makes sense for flowers to do before we can sell them, the game isn’t consistent in its handling of leftover inventory.

When competitors come to play, the neighborhoods receive different colors based on the company that holds the leading share of the market. Between competitors and all the information available, players have plenty to think about and decisions to make. The game’s strength is its ability to let you go in almost any direction. The only thing you can’t jump around on is buying certain items. Some items call for buying something else first.

Unlike many business games, you don’t deal with goals for every level. In fact, sometimes I’m not sure where I am going except to overtake the competitors and earn lots of profits so I can upgrade everything and discover new flowers.

Flower Stand Tycoon runs for a long time and offers many upgrades and other options. While it doesn’t win gold medals or green thumb awards, the journey of managing a business complete with marketing and reporting makes the game a worthy play.

• Fifteen places you must put your keyword phrase and why [Link: Copywriting Maven]
• Powerful writing in 30 words or less e-book
• Why twitter matters
• Writer’s Digest Annual Best 101 Web Sites for Writers
• AngryJournalist: What not to do.
• The Street-Smart Writer: Self-Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World: Book by Jenna Glatzer available as ebook free — no strings. Just sign up with Wowio (where you download the book).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Doodle 4 Google contest results for kids in grades K-12. The national winner is a middle schooler — wow. I didn’t know about the contest — I wish I had because I was the Arts in Education chair at a middle school and could’ve encouraged our kids to enter. [Link: My mom! Of all people... usually I'm giving her the links]
• Music video with only sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98. Remember the BSOD during a Bill Gates presentation? Classic! [Link: Zo'c]
• Junior High Sweethearts meet in math class 12 years later… complete with captions. OK, so there’s no audio. [Link: PopURLs]
• All Gaping Void cartoons in one long page.
• All my life for sale returns… Reed takes it over from Brian Thompson.

And of course, remember the celebration!

Here are the details about the meryl’s notes blog’s 8th birthday celebration. Yes, that ugly logo up on the blog’s home page is the blog’s original logo.

You’ll get the following amount of entries based on the following guidelines:

• 25 entries: Be a guest blogger.
• 25 entries: Create a video mentioning meryl.net and post it on Youtube (send us the URL. Add 5 more if we can see the meryl.net mention for those of us who can’t hear.
• 10 entries: Contribute a prize.
• 10 entries: Twitter a post and become a follower of my Twitter at http://twitter.com/merylkevans
• 10 entries: Make a blog post about the birthday celebration, the prizes, and link to this page
• 10 entries: Subscribe and activate to our RSS feed by email.
  • Subscribe to both meryl’s notes blog and games
  • Subscribe only to meryl’s notes blog
  • Subscribe only to games
  • Subscribe to Bionic Ear Blog
  • Subscribe to meryl’s notes, the newsletter (not the same thing as the above)
• 10 entries: Link to any meryl.net blog entry.
• 5 entries: Twitter about meryl’s notes and link to this page (Need to comment a link to your twitter so we can verify it)

Sound good? Go!

We’d appreciate it if you track your entries — this way we ensure we don’t miss any. Email them to merylk [at] gmail dot com with subject “Happy 8th Birthday.” Deadline will be on the date of the last guest blogger entry (sometime after June 1). Keep checking here for the deadline.

We’ll use Random.org to draw the entries.

While the games section is new to meryl.net, the original blog has been around for eight years as of June 1. meryl’s notes blog birthday celebration includes prizes and some of them are PC games! Check out the birthday celebration and how you can get entries to win prizes.