It’s hardly news that this platinum product is utter dogshit even by heavy metal standards; under direct orders from editors who don’t know Iron Maiden from Wynton Marsalis, my beleaguered colleagues on the dailies have been saying so all year, and every insult goes into the press kit. Still, I must mention Mick Mars’s dork-fingered guitar before getting to the one truly remarkable thing about this record: a track called “Ten Seconds To Love” in which Vince Neil actually seems to boast about how fast he can ejaculate (or as the lyric sheet puts it, “cum”). And therein, I believe, lies the secret of their commercial appeal—if you don’t got it, flaunt it. Follow-up: “Pinkie Prick.” D
Sunday, 2/28/2010
"Mad Libs" Style Form Increases Conversion 25-40%
I like these. I think they are successful because it’s new and therefore more engaging to the user.
I don’t know about the Huffduffer example (there wasn’t any A/B testing to suggest that it works better than a standard form), but my guess as to why the contact forms convert better is that the user has a higher degree of confidence that their information is going to be used responsibly since they can actually see how the data is being used in the form itself. The traditional form layout feels much more like a “registration” form, and may cause the user to be suspicious of handing over their personal information to a site that could start spamming them. I’d like to see some tests run on other types of forms to see if they convert as well.
It’s kind of amazing how fast they can analyze data like this. (via Burrito Justice)
Saturday, 2/27/2010
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Phosphorescent — It’s Hard To Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)
I loved Phosphorescent’s haunting sound up through Pride. I loved the faithful Willie Nelson cover album To Willie. And based on this teaser song, I feel pretty confident that I’ll love their new album Here’s To Taking It Easy. Matthew Houck can seemingly do no wrong by me.
Jesse Schell on the future of games
This talk at the DICE 2010 video game conference is jam packed with completely mindset-altering ideas about how things like Webkinz and Farmville are going to change our society and our selves. Watch it.
Friday, 2/26/2010
An interview with web cartoonists Drew and Natalie Dee
I liked what they had to say about comments and reader feedback:
[Interviewer]: You don’t (appear to) allow comments on your comics or your blog. How do you engage with your audience? How do you know you’re on the right track, or do you not care?
DREW: I totally appreciate feedback. We publish our email addresses, and people can Twitter at us or post on our Facebook fan pages. Having people leave comments directly on the sites just seems counterproductive. Anyone who wants to write about our work is welcome to embed our comics into their blog and talk about them, or link to them from Twitter/Facebook and post their opinion, etc. But nobody’s going to put one of my comics on their own blog and write “First” underneath it.
The idea behind comments is that you learn what your readers think of your work. A more effective way for us to measure this is to see what people are linking to on Twitter, which images get passed around blogs, what shows up on Digg/Reddit, and so on. I have no doubt that a lot of our readers are funny and write well, but like you mentioned, these people get chased out when the signal-to-noise ratio drops.
NATALIE: There’s never a space under paintings in a gallery where someone writes their opinion. When you get to the end of a book, you don’t have to see what everyone else thought of it.
Remove about 10 cans of hairspray, the dance moves and the fog machine, and this could be a Replacements song.
Edit: Oh, of course the marketing wizards at Capitol would prohibit embedding. Just click through to watch it on YouTube.
Thursday, 2/25/2010
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Mötley Crüe — Shout At The Devil
Admit it, this song is pretty badass.
Funniest Facebook ad I’ve seen in a while (In case you don’t recognize Epic Beard Man, here’s some background). I can only assume the “reason” alluded to in the ad is some combination of mental illness and racism.
Tuesday, 2/23/2010
Monday, 2/22/2010
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Epic Soundtracks — Meet Me On The Beach
If, hypothetically, you find yourself in the midst of a hair metal kick and you start worrying that it’s going to become permanent, you’d find that Epic Soundtracks makes for a good antidote. Hypothetically.
Sunday, 2/21/2010
This video I downloaded off bittorrent has tracking issues. Kind of mind blowing.
Saturday, 2/20/2010
Totally my type. (Diane, not Woody. Well, it’s probably Diane as written by Woody. But still.)
Tuesday, 2/16/2010
Someone overnight me some Belle & Sebastian records STAT, because it looks like I’m turning into a completely unironic late-80s metalhead. I have two theories as to why this is happening: Either it’s a desperate cry for help that I need to find a woman who will not let me indulge in my every whim, or it’s a sign that I have already crossed the point of no return and all that’s left is for me to move back into my parents’ basement and start huffing gas.
← Older postsNewer posts → Page 2 of 252
