We have a really awesome feature coming.

An update of the linkspank system is upcoming soon. There are some cosmetic changes and some boring or moderately interesting features.

I can't wait for our "new feature" to be fully operational

But also coming down the pike is a really cool, really super new feature. It doesn't really have any precedent so we'll have to see if the Procrasti-Nation of Spankers digs it or not (and it may take some tweaking). But I can't wait to try it out!

Top Ten Reasons to Go to the Spank Party on Thursday

10. It’s the best thing going on that night in the Boston area. Editor’s pick on Going.com and Yelp.com.

9. Great support for Linkspank.

8. This is a one time deal.

7. Drink tickets.

6. Schwag. Some real nice freebies.

5. Sweet location.

4. There are spank girls.

3. There is a Spanking booth.

2. You can play a wii on a projector screen.

1. You can take the Wii home.

For all the full benefits, rsvp at www.linkspank.com/party

Data and Reflections on the last monthly newsletter

Recently I listed Constant Contact as a top tool for entrepreneurs. Last week I used it to send February's edition of The Monthly Spank: Surf your Way to Hawaii by Skilled Procrastination (where, you'll see on the link, it's also now archived).

We recently sent this amazingly sexy newsletter.

In this post I'll share some of my first experience and divulge data specific to Linkspank with a boldness that pretty much no one else in the Universe has.

Here's how the newsletter did:

That is, our newsletter was opened by about a sixth of recipients, and about a sixth of them clicked on something in the newsletter; so our open rate was 16% and our CTR (click through rate) was 18%. Anecdotally someone told me that an open rate of 16% was pretty good /average, and there are some old numbers claiming that 8% is an average CTR, which would make our CTR pretty good. Of course, we shouldn't be TOO impressed by that, because our Monthly Spank goes to registered spankers - people who have specifically opted in to Linkspank. So really I think we should be shooting for a much higher open rate and CTR rate.

Or should we? Consider the call to action of the email: Surf your Way to Hawaii by Skilled Procrastination. As indicated by this title, the primary message of the newsletter was about the contest. Realistically, the percentage of spankers who are going to consider gunning for Hawaii will be easily less than 50%, almost certainly less than 30%. So our open rate of 16% maybe is more accurately considered an open rate of 50% or so within our target segment (the one third of spankers who might consider gunning for Hawaii), which would be an insanely high open rate.

The CTR is less ambiguous. People have opened the email because they have some basic interest in the subject. From there, the question is whether we entice them to click. When you put it that way, I feel that the CTR is the main area for improvement in this case: surely we can get more than 1 in 5 who open the email to at least click on something! ...when, in fact, the Monthly Spank was asking much more of them - namely, to complete the checklist, spank on the email, and so on.

So the CTR was the main failure. From here, I dive into more speculative terrain. I think we could have improved in the following ways:

Guide the experience more. There were a lot of links in the Monthly Spank, while the call to action was specific and guided. Essentially we were making it easy for people to get lost. Only 27% of those clicking through "started" with the link we gave them to start with - the Orientation Page. Which invites the question, Why did we even bother providing the other links? We probably shouldn't have.

Rather than providing three steps here, next time I'll try providing one link,
which guides the experience from there

Of course, this takes guts-- sending an email with basically one link. But I think the more you think about it, the more you will agree that it's the right way to go. When people right emails with a bunch of links, I think they are either being chicken about the call to action, or maybe there is no call to action and they are just being informational (in which case a newspaper-like profusion of links makes sense). (I would question whether anyone using Constant Contact is really ever doing the latter goal but whatever.)

People are whipping through their inbox. They give any newsletter they open a brief moment, usually with the intention *not* to click anything but just to give it a glimpse. Hence you want a clear, obvious, seductive link to lead them away from their inbox, into a magical experience where you induce them to get spanky.

In retrospect, the call to action was mixed, which couldn't have helped the cause. Was the call to action really "spread the word about Linkspank" or was it "win the contest"? Surely the ideas are related, but we needed some better Pyramid Principle thinking here with an idea at the top. To make things worse, the call to action that was first in the list (completing orientation / spreading the word) was opposite that of the title (win the contest).

Were I to do it again, I would have focused on winning the contest. I would have cut the intro section, and shaped it as supporting text that explained that your procrastination, Hawaii-winning efforts not only further your sunbathing chances, but also support the startup, enrich the community, and spread the word to friends who will forever be in your debt and love you.

We'll see if we get those numbers up in future months!! As for you - winning a Hawaii trip all starts at the Orientation Page, which will educate you and win you points. :-)

Top 10 Tools for Entrepreneurs

Based on my Linkspank and prior experience, these are my top 10 tools that I would recommend to another entrepreneur without knowing anything about his or her business.

Here’s the countdown:

Tool #10: An all-in-one printer. Mine is an HP. The need for this is a vestige of the old fashioned world. But hey, you need to print stuff, fax stuff, and SCAN stuff. Scanning stuff is awesome. And it’s a great substitute for faxing things, especially if you don’t have a land line, because who needs that caveman stuff. Scan it, email it, and then you have a record as well.

Tool #9: An iPhone, Nokia N95, or Blackberry. They are not equal, but the tradeoffs among them are tough to settle depending on your needs. The ability to capture video with a N95 is pretty awesome. And taking pictures (and uploading them to Flickr or wherever!) tends to come in handy for guerrilla marketing, and solves the problem of owning a camera but never having it on hand. But my N95 randomly turns off, sometimes when I’m receiving a call. File that under the Bad Feature category. iPhones don’t have that feature. Using an iPhone puts you in a constant state of arousal, which is a I guess a plus and a minus. All three are needed because you need to be plugged in to the Matrix. People cite the addiction factor: have one and you can’t escape the internets. But I think if you have a little control it can be the opposite: having these puppies can enable you to stay away from your computer longer, because you can check in without booting up.

Tool #8: Google Docs. This online document and spreadsheet system is far from perfect. But Word increasingly blows chunks. Meanwhile, Google docs is pretty awesome when it comes to collaboration. You can edit the same doc simultaneously with someone else. And collaboration is really the essence of existence. All the fancy features of Word? You don’t need them, because you aren’t publishing anything with this tool (other tools for that on the way).

Tool #7: Constant Contact. I just signed up for this service yesterday so maybe I'm overly pumped about it. It’s so clearly the way to go if you have customers or people that you would like to email on any regular basis. It’s a reliable way of formatting sending HTML formatted messages, managing contact lists, being generally considered reputable by humans and spam filters, endearing yourself to readers with a quick unsubscribe option, and tracking the effectiveness of your communications.

Tool #6: Photoshop. This product is absurdly expensive, and absurdly difficult to learn. But I can’t even begin to fathom how anyone would get by without it. You should have Photoshop if any of the following are true: you have a logo; you have a website; you publish documents; you have schwag. Sure, you could have someone else take care of this stuff for you. But as CEO you are probably Head Marketer and these functions can be pretty core to it.

Tool #5. Your Blog. I don’t really like any of the blog services a TON, but Blogger has suited me ok. (Though composing and adding photos in here makes me want to kill myself.) Unless you have opened a business as an independent intelligence operative, you need a blog. Everyone’s holdup is wondering whether it’s really worth the effort. It is true that a LOT of people still don’t really know what a blog is, even when they visit one. (This is a blog by the way.) But here are a couple reasons why you must have one. First, marketing these days is complicated, and all the best ways of marketing are basically untrackable. You have to give up on being able to know exactly what the payoff is for all your actions. Instead, you figure out your strategy and go with the things that are in strategic alignment with it. So, if rapport with literate humans plays a role in your strategy, you write a blog. Second, writing shapes up our thinking, and it’s nice to have a clue about what we’re thinking.

Tool #4. Social Networks. Blah blah everyone talks about this. Some of the blog thinking applies here: it’s tough to measure the efficacy of all the things we do. But you should be on these puppies. Which ones depends on your business. I’ve used LinkedIn for job postings with some success. Probably every entrepreneur ever should be on MySpace and facebook. But it depends a bit on your business. E.g., if you’re a yoga teacher, you should be on Zaadz. Facebook is quite relevant to our user base and that’s why we have the best facebook app ever, enabling to join the Spank through facebook, login through facebook, and spank your facebook friends. Linkspank was recently written up as a way to be a part of the buzz.

Tool #3. Gmail. Email is pretty important, you know? Linkspank is an email-related business, so I have made it my business to use a variety of email solutions, including webmail, Outlook, Thunderbird, most of the stuff you know. It is no joke that Gmail is *head and shoulders* above the rest. Just the facts. It’s much much much faster, for one thing. After using Gmail, when I log into the other stuff I’m practically tearing my face off. And it wins on features, such as group chat (although that didn’t work for me today) and sending emails in the name of other email addresses, forwarding and on and on and on.

Tool #2. Air card. This is a device that you plug into your laptop, that enables you to be connected to the Internet wherever you get cell phone service. Really it's not a device so much as the service you get from your cell provider. Example: AT&T's. Ok, this one definitely does not apply to all entrepreneurs. But I refuse to bump it up or off the list. It is too sweet. Even with the advent of the iPhone, nothing beats actually being able to get on the computer and get on the Internet, basically whereever you are, and be able to be productive. The wifi network gets too slow somewhere or goes down: you switch to your air card. At the airport, you are productive at the terminal, and actually sending emails on the plane before the folks make you unplug. You are driving and get a phone call: there is a problem. You pull over to the side of the road and get online. Welcome to the world of entrepreneur ninjas and commandos. You have numchucks on your belt, submachine gun cartridges strapped across your chest, and an air card in your computer. One caveat: while these tend to offer slow but acceptible broadband in major metropolitan areas, the connection speed in more rural areas is unacceptible and you will be the slowest ninja ever.

Tool #1: The Human Ear. Ok, maybe this is super cheesy. But there is a pattern and a paradox in this list of tools and it all is summarized by my choice for the number one tool: the strangely shaped fleshy listening devices attached to your head. Here’s the pattern: basically every tool I’ve named here is a communication tool. Maybe everything boils down to communication. As a person, you process information; inside your company, you all collaborate; and on the outside, your company engages the world, markets to it, and learns from it. The trick is that all these tools are useless unless you are actually listening and processing. They just facilitate getting great information to your brain, but if your brain is encased in protective stone there is no point. Conversely, an inquisitive, exploratory attitude – that involves speaking with the primary purpose of getting other people to talk – can get you everywhere. Most specifically, to an ever-improving understanding of your customer. I’m always working on this and our recent beer & laptop event was an example that I would like to continue, to the extent that I can afford to buy other people beer instead of myself.

I mentioned a paradox, as well as a pattern. I think the paradox is that entrepreneurship, in distinction with other ways of spending your time professionally, is different most in that you have to be brave and willing to act. All these tools are about listening, learning, and thinking. If these tools had personalities, they would be cautious creatures, probably not entrepreneurs. So in that case, maybe your number one tool is your Fist. Nothing cheesy about a Fist.

And now, some runners-up for the list:

Pidgin – IM is a great communication tool, and Pidgin helps you chat with anyone without spending 20 minutes logging into everything or burdening your computer. Downsides: doesn’t stay connected perfectly, it’s ugly, and no group chat.

Jott – this thing transcribes your phone messages and sends text to you and other people. “note to self” kind of stuff. Makes you feel important. Huge drawback: transcription quality is not quite there.

Twitter – fits in the blog and social network category, and is useful for similar reasons.

Jawbone – you want to be able to have meetings on the phone, even if your changing your baby’s diaper or driving. This is part of why you want to be an entrepreneur, right? Jawbone helps you do that, by cancelling noise and giving you both hands free for unarmed combat. Downside: doesn’t work with my N95.

Firefox – for PC users, using Internet Explorer is like smoking – WHY???? with the distinction that using Explorer doesn’t even make you seem cool. The current version of IE takes about 10 second to load a tab. What exactly is happening during that time? I wonder this, for a good ten seconds, every time I open Internet Exporer or a new tab therein.

Launch will probably happen in next 24 hrs.

So get our your evangelism hat.
And your Hawaiian shirt.

Beers and the User Experience

This week we hosted an event where we gave people free beer to bring their laptops and Join the Spank. The objective was to test the user interface and user experience of joining the spank and trying out the site.

We had 6 or 8 people, which was about a perfect number. The event was hugely useful and easily worth the $70 bar tab. There were many comments and little discoveries. Here's a sample of some of the more interesting ones:

• Some of the Ajax (fancy technology) was prevented a couple people from joining, so a lower-tech (and faster, actually) process for Joining is coming soon.
• Multiple people, once they logged in, ignored the orientation page and went straight to "Start a Spank." Not what I expected but oh so reasonable in retrospect.
  
• After spanking or adding a link people wanted to see their Wall. Once you get used to spanking you don't look much at your own Wall (you know what's there!) but it's of primary interest initially.

All in all, lots of good improvements in the process for our upcoming launch. I shudder to think how many people have tried and failed Joining due to the first part above! Though the positive flip side is that our growth rate should increase.

It also goes to show that this method of learning gives different results from the pipeline of feedback from friends and users (though that pipeline is quite important).