symptic's comments

Facebook: Do some evil.

I bought a Steelcase Think about 3 years ago. It's been amazing up until recently, where I feel I am sitting too long in the day and I feel pressure behind my knees. When I move into a new place in the coming months, I'll be using a standing desk to work.

What concerns me is when I am lounging around with my legs crossed or sitting indian-style, my legs go a little numb. I work out rigorously and play soccer often, so being healthy during long workdays isn't enough; I think standing will help with my legs and help maintain my good posture.

Lustig makes a few great points, but it's important to keep in mind there are some who argue he is a "fructose alarmist" and argue it's not as simple as "blaming fructose alone." A good quote from Alan Aragon: "I would add that fiber is only one of the numerous phytochemicals in fruit that impart health benefits. Thus, it’s not quite as simple as saying that fructose is evil, but once you take it with fiber, you’ve conquered the Dark Side."

Some links: http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of-...

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-ab...

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/straight-ta...

I personally don't take sides with either. Like most things in the nutritional field, a healthy balance is more effective for me than trending behaviors and ideologies (i.e.: no-fat diet, "slow carb" diet, Atkins diet, etc.).

This game is for a young or unknown designer. It's their chance to establish themselves and build their portfolio. As a professional who makes a living in design, you are not obligated to compete. Though, you are still invited.

It was Skype's choice to put on this contest, and it should be assumed they know it is possible they won't get as quality a final product as possible. There are plenty of projects out there for quality designers to work on, and it bothers me that so many designers complain that free/cheap client work is such a pain in the community's ass.

Without a doubt, the type of client who wants to go that route is someone a designer of your talent wouldn't want to work with in the first place.

Right?

If you plan on making it a larger operation, check out Austin based amplifier.com. They were great in producing the LEAN shirts for SXSW and I believe hey offer print on demand and fulfillment for you.

As a student, entrepreneur, and frequent payer of bills, I tend to take on small gigs under $200 whenever my time allows. This way I can get in and get out quickly, not have to devote too much mental energy to the client, and be able to block myself out from clients while I am working on my own project or studying.

For me this yields the highest dollar per minute spent working and allows for the least amount of stress. Because I work quickly and have accustomed myself to this system, most clients are pleasantly surprised when they receive a product on the same day the project was requested at a higher quality than most other designers they've worked with.

Sell t-shirts and mugs with some of the more popular facts. Github was able to sell out of tees and mugs with just their logo on it, so I imagine people would want them with interesting content rather than just a logo.

Additionally (or alternatively) you could create a fmylife.com equivalent for your facts. Even if you don't let users submit content, it's a place where the community can vote on their favorite bits of info. Doesn't even need tons of ads, and you can take private advertising and make sure they are all in good taste for your audience.

I'll be more than glad to answer any questions or comments!

Pride. Sounds to me like everyone knew what they were signing up for and fighting to make the accomplishment goes a long way in building the group.

Check out http://www.qbn.com/ and http://www.behance.net/.

The company originated in 2005 and has raised several smaller rounds of capital in the past. They're not a startup anymore; they're a full-fledged business.

See Zynga.

Ninja rockstar awesomeface.

Typical conversion rate is 1-2%. That's at least 40,000 paying customers. At $10/mo (that's the maximum revenue per subscriber) that's $400,000 a month, or $4.8M a year. The key here is they are a growing, revenue-generating company.

The losers are the waiters and employees of the featured businesses. I know plenty of people in the service industry who dread the days their restaurants or shops offer discounts on Groupon. Sure it makes money for the company, but in many cases a Groupon deal kills morale within the business.

That on top of the exploitative nature of many (most?) Groupon users, where they buy a Groupon and never revisit the business after they use their discount.

Groupon is a great business, but some concerns about the quality of the leads arise. We need the Glengarry leads.

100,000 at $1 CPM = 100,000 * .001 = $100

If you are just throwing up a generic banner ad network, it's probably close to $.10-.25 CPM. Then multiply by how many ad units displayed per page (networks usually don't allow any more than 2-3).

So: 100,000 * .00025 = $25; x3 = $75

Very rough estimates. With a site with such a particular niche, he can probably get a higher CPM. I also count 7 ads on the home page.

Industry self-regulation. Affiliates need to in most cases, to preserve "traffic quality."

I was referring more to the black hat tactics many affiliate employ successfully. That as well as how many affiliates can easily shark a product with negative smear campaigns and SEO tactics to remove their competition from top Google spots. A reason you see many sites with generic Google listings in the first 10 results.

In most cases, the only reason an affiliate will send a viewer to a landing page is AdWords' strict rules about arbitrage, or some other rules set by the affiliate network. Google wants to provide its users with as good of content as they can manage, but they know affiliates are a large portion of their AdWords spenders. It's a delicate balance.

Many affiliates send users to landing pages or their own sites for their own tracking and data collecting purposes as well.

I used to make a healthy living designing landing pages for affiliates. Several of my clients were making several million a year (all made a "healthy" living) and I was bringing in several hundred a day from just designing landing pages. I left because I couldn't handle that "gray area" people talk about, but I swear those are some of the most intelligent and hardest working people I've met. Shame many are missing that deep entrepreneurial spirit many here on HN have.