Don’t Accidentally Buy Stuff on Behalf of Your Customers

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Today I went to add Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words to my DVD wish list on Amazon.com. A few minutes later I received an e-mail stating that my order was received and would be shipped soon. I did click ‘Wish List,’ didn’t I? How was I suddenly buying this DVD? Luckily, I caught this in time to canceled the order. No harm done.

But darn it, I was pretty sure I had clicked the ‘Add to Wish List’ button. On the other hand, I found it difficult to contemplate how Amazon could make an error like that. I figured it was user error, and I went back and retraced my steps to figure it out.  Here’s what I discovered: Continue reading →

Mobile Is Critical for Audio Podcasters: 3 Tips For Success

Heil PR40 MicrophoneI’ve had a few months under my belt now as an audio podcast producer and my two shows, The Movie Film Show and The Independent Entrepreneur, are off to a modest start. Bootstrapping these shows with almost no budget is not easy and the struggle to grow my audience has been, at times, frustrating.

But I’ve learned a lot so far about what works, and I’m sure there’s plenty more to do. Most importantly, I’m realizing the need to create mobile-friendly versions of my shows. Continue reading →

Privacy Paranoia

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Many are paranoid about privacy, such as how our activity is tracked online.  One of the biggest objections I see is that Web sites and advertising companies will use our personal information in order to display more relevant advertisements to us.

Why are we so scared about that?

Americans, I think, are rightly concerned about “big brother” watching what we do, and many equate corporations watching our behavior and tracking our interests as impeding on our privacy.  But there is a fundamental difference between the real “big brother,” i.e., government, impeding on our privacy and a company supposedly doing so. Continue reading →

Twitter Needs a Bookmark Feature

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Twitter LogoMy biggest constraint when using Twitter is the experience hopping from one device to another, such as from the iPhone to the iPad to the Web browser on my Mac laptop or PC desktop. There just isn’t a good way to keep my place each time I read my Twitter feed. Continue reading →