Here are the results on the effectiveness & popularity of some of the social bookmarking buttons on a couple of our websites:

Social Bookmarking Buttons that are Very Likely to Be Clicked by Readers

• Tweetmeme
• Twitter Retweet
• Facebook Sharing
• Yahoo Buzz

Click rates were 60% or more for these buttons compared to the rest of the ones we put up on the same posts & pages.

Social Bookmarking Buttons that have Moderate Likelihood of Being Clicked

• Technorati
• Digg
• StumbleUpon

Click rates were 20% or less for these buttons compared to the rest of the ones we put up on the same posts & pages.

Social Bookmarking Buttons that will Possibly Never be Clicked

• Del.icio.us
• Reddit
• Newsvine
• Plurk

Click rates were negligible (less than 2%) for these buttons compared to the rest of the ones we put up on the same posts & pages.

A few seconds after a user watches a video on IGN, the page refreshes and brings the user to the next video. This seems like a clever way of encouraging a user to keep watching one video after another. If the user walks away from their machine for a while, it will also drive up preroll advertising inventory. Clever!

OKCupid is a free dating site with some clever user interface details. Their “OKTrends” blog has an interesting social media toolbar that swings into view when a user approaches the end of the blog entry.

Intuitively this makes a lot of sense; designers often place social bookmarking links at the top of the article, but users aren’t likely to respond to the suggestion that they share an article until after they have read it. Sure—seems obvious—but even big-time sites like the NY Times get this one wrong:

I do like the NY Times “Read the next article” widget that pops up as you approach the end of an article:

So what techniques do you use to increase page views and sharing of your content?

As part of my research for school and work, I’ve made heavy use of various online survey applications.

The most common survey programs that I’ve seen are Survey Monkey ($20/mo or $200/yr) and Zoomerang ($200-600/yr). UCLA Anderson makes heavy use of Qualtrics, which is an incredibly powerful application but costs somewhere on the order of $5,000/yr for a relatively limited number of survey responses.

Enter LimeSurvey. This open-source survey application lacks the polish of the paid applications, but it is much more flexible than either Survey Monkey or Zoomerang. Better yet, there’s no set limits on the number of survey responses you can request. Finally, since it’s open-source, it’s free to use. All you’ll need is a domain name and server to host it on, which can be had for $5-$10/mo depending on your source. If you already have a website, the marginal cost of using LimeSurvey is likely close to zero.

So, while the paid survey services have their place (e.g., informal polling for a limited number of people), LimeSurvey is free and carries the weight beautifully for more complex surveying needs. It has a steeper learning curve than SurveyMonkey or Zoomering and lacks some of the most sophisticated tools available in Qualtrics, but when you want something a little more powerful without spending too much money, LimeSurvey is a very happy medium.

(By the way, comment here if you’re looking for LimeSurvey hosting and I’d be glad to help.)

This is a clever approach to parodying carbon emission permits. While I generally endorse the idea of carbon emission permits, I think the folks at Cheat Neutral have an interesting perspective that a) additionality is not guaranteed, and b) “offseting” a transgression does not necessarily make  it acceptable in the first place. Carbon offsets are “indulgences.”

I might take a slightly different perspective. My upcoming study trip to Jouy-en-Josas is going to use a lot of fuel. According to CarbonFootPrint.com, it’s going to introduce ~3.11 metric tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere, which is slightly less than the 3.72 metric tons I’d introduce driving my 2004 Toyota Prius 20,000 miles in a year (a typical usage pattern for me). My personal consumption patterns (e.g., purchase of overseas goods, non-local produce, air-conditioning in the San Fernando Valley) also contribute significantly to my carbon footprint.

I’m unlikely to stop flying because of the carbon output. Buying a carbon offset, even if it doesn’t completely reduce the amount of carbon I “introduced” into the atmosphere by taking the flight, is at least a good gesture. Changing my behavior—such as living closer to work, using public transport, or editing my consumption patterns—would more directly reduce my carbon footprint, making them more valuable than personal carbon offsets in the long term. Obviously, this requires a greater change of habits.

Personal carbon offsets will do a lot of good if they get people thinking about the negative externalities resulting from their consumption, even if their actual offset effects are slight.

Finally, there’s much more to carbon offsets than personal consumption. I am optimistic that they can be a useful tool at the macro level. In addition, a liquid carbon market would allow citizens to decrease their own consumption to buy carbon emission permits and personally “lock them away.”

For all of you App developers (Amy!), TechCrunch had a great article describing sales numbers for AppStore products. Of particular note:
Across 96 developers who responded, the average app sold 100k copies over 261 days with a median price of $0.99 at a development cost of $6.5k.
Removing the top 10% of products, the numbers drop a lot, which is a common in competitive markets. The numbers for the remaining 90%: 11k copies over 44 days. That’s a big difference. The lesson there: Go big. The smaller apps don’t get the same amount of time in the spotlight (44 days vs 261) and don’t make as much money ($11k vs $100k).
About staying in the spotlight, the author suggests providing a compacted, bunched marketing campaign when the spotlight is on your app instead of spreading the campaign out over time. Use any press to springboard your way into other press and maintain your marketing momentum.

That final bit is a good takeaway for any of you who are entrepreneurs/indie developers. Developing a good product is an important part of the business, but harnessing the powers of marketing and P/R (mostly PR for indies) is what drives the revenue that allows you to develop a version 2 and 3.

The link: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/16/iphone-app-sales-exposed/

I just wanted to share a little story with you of how our ancestors planted their trees on our native land 500 years ago.

Remember in the movie Avatar the Colonel says – You are not in Kansas anymore – You are in Pandora – Well our homeland is like Pandora. In the depths of Meghalaya northeastern India, in one of the wettest places on earth, bridges aren’t built – they were grown 500 years ago by our ancestors. One special root bridge, believed to be the only one of its kind in the world, is actually two bridges stacked one over the other and has come to be known as the “Umshiang Double-Decker Root Bridge.” http://rootbridges.blogspot.com/

These living root bridges are being used daily even today by our people living in many villages around Cherrapunjee. You may have seen some of these similar looking hanging bridges in the film Avatar where the Na’vi people jump one tree to the other.

From http://rootbridges.blogspot.com/

In order to make a rubber tree’s roots grow in the right direction – say, over a river – our Khasi people use betel nut trunks sliced down the middle and hollowed out to create root-guidance systems. The thin tender roots of the rubber tree prevented from fanning out by the betel nut trunks grow straight out. When they reach the other side of the river they’re allowed to take root in the soil. Given enough time a sturdy living bridge is produced.

The root bridges some of which are over a hundred feet long take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional but they’re extraordinarily strong – strong enough that some of them can support the weight of fifty or more people at a time. Because they are alive and still growing the bridges actually gain strength over time – and some of the ancient root bridges used daily by the people of the villages around Cherrapunji are well over five hundred years old.

Lum Sohpetbneng or Peak which is 1, 343 m and 20 km from the Capital City of Shillong is regarded as sacred by the Hynniewtrep people and is set amidst a beautiful scenic view against the backdrop of a sacred forest. This ‘Navel of Heaven’ as per Khasi mythology is a heavenly peak which offers to fill the spiritual void and emptiness to those who seek and desire solace and peace of mind.

According to Khasi mythology, Lum Sohpetbneng is an ancient golden staircase linking earth and heaven. This peak is held sacred by the Hynniewtrep tribe. A substantial number of devotees assemble here during the annual pilgrimage, during which several rituals and religious rites are performed. See http://www.culturalpursuits.com/khasi/spiritual_roots.htm

This sacred mountain is kind of similar to the one where the Na’vi hunters have to climb across floating mountains to get to the sacred site where their big birds or tame creatures they call ikran actually live.

But we have to face a massive challenge now as the Central Government of India and State Government of Meghalaya want to cut down 500 ha of virgin forest and mine high grade uranium for nuclear programmes. So while we are trying to protect the rights of our indigenous people to preserve their land and forest, the big state and its state owned Uranium Corporation of India Limited want to destroy our way of living for pure greed and power. I wrote a bit about the nuclear power debate on http://unltdworld.com/blog/view.php?id=158

You can also see the testimonies of indigenous people from around the world on the negative impact of uranium mining on their native lands http://www.wecf.eu/english/articles/2009/12/testimonies-copenhagen.php

Well the epic movie Avatar is about mining for very expensive resource unobtanium that the humans want by destroying the forest where the indigenous people live in a special planet Pandora. But that would be not only be destroying their home but also the rich and sacred resources that exist there. So it was definitely like our own story in Meghalaya, North East India where the government wants to mine high grade uranium by cutting down of our native sacred forests where our indigenous Khasi people live.

So in many ways the challenges faced by our Khasi people in Uranium rich Meghalaya are just like those of the Na’vi people in Unobtainum rich Pandora in the movie Avatar!

If only reality had happy endings like in fictional films! “Avatar” has a wonderful message for humanity, assuming people are willing and able to listen…..

There is a happy turn in the story, however:

Uranium mining blocked
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, May 14: A national panel of wildlife experts today rejected a proposal from the department of atomic energy for uranium exploration on the Rongcheng plateau in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills.

The standing committee of the National Board of Wildlife decided to reject the proposal for exploratory drilling in view of the sentiments of the local people and representations from civil society groups, the environment ministry said.

The Rongcheng plateau falls in the Balpakram National Park, home to elephants, black bear, leopards, deer and the red panda, one of the rarest animals in the world.

Several green groups and NGOs have campaigned against a proposal for exploratory drilling, arguing that it would harm the bio-diversity in the park.

Literally,I came, I puked, I left. A latin transliteration of Google Analytics “Bounce Rate” metric.