In video: spanioli, arabi, polonezi, japonezi, taiwanezi, romani, prieteni de aici. :-)

I’d like to make a bet though, I think the song of the summer will be this one from Daft Punk (with Pharrell). What do you think? :)

We’ve still got a good batch of work ahead of us, mostly polishing the existing feature set, and wrapping up the work we have in progress. We’re keeping the product as clean and as intuitive as possible, working hard  to build your best experience using it.

The feedback we got from our private beta users has been amazing, and we’re now ready to release another batch of 50 activation keys.

• 106 afe489c77197ff42b8ff005aae6d6bd9 Key not used
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If you use any of these keys, please post it’s number below, so other users can skip them. Thanks! :)

Bike Rides

Say what?

It works, cool!

Bike Rides

Poze Instagram, Flickr, Facebook

Hope it works! :)

Anyways, I’ve been playing around with Blogvio to make sure it runs smooth while hundreds of Private Beta users take it for a spin. So I created this, with some photos from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr – just to make a point about the continuous number of sources we add to Blogvio, where you can load your content from.

And if you read this far, here’s 3 Activation Keys you can use! Try each until they run out.

Activation Keys:
292662d126dfc3e290110863541adca0
29cbec3439ffcf0b1616d9828f31a5ed
74389f745396f69cfb040d3411e67caa

And allow me to embed the same widget again, just because I want to test it. ;-)

All you have to do is go to Blogvio, and use one of the key provied. If you’re the first one to use it, please post a comment so we know which is consumed. :-)

If you don’t see the Beta Page, it means you’re reading this post after we’ve launched to public, so you don’t need any key to join us. At any point, we appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

Riding a bike is both healthy and fun! More so when you have the sea on the right and a long distance you can ride uninterrupted by cars or other obstacles.

At home, we have a Brompton bike we absolutely love. It’s small, it can be stored in a small place so we don’t have to keep it outside (hello to the tief that stole my previous bike), and it’s easy to ride both in the city and outside of it.

There’s a lot of misconceptions about pliable bikes, about the small wheels and the ease of speeding, but after owing one for almost a year, I definitely recommend it as an alternative transportation method. It’s easy to handle and easy to store. Plus the joy of riding is definitely there.

Si pentru Blogvio, am facut exact asta. Enjoy si va rog dati-mi feedback in comentarii!

Povestea e oarecum fun. Initial am avut un alt clip facut, insa am primit feedback ca nu era suficient de bun. Asta dupa doua ore de lucru si multe, multe incercari. Saracii actori – dubla 1, dubla 2, …, dubla 30.

Bun, am zis sa incerc si alta idee, si o vedeti mai sus. Insa nu a fost simplu, si aici au fost multe duble. :-) Fie ajungea liftul prea devreme la destinatie, fie il chema cineva inainte sa ma sui in el, fie mai suiau in lift si alte persoane, fie nu ma incadram intr-un minut fix, fie se auzeau zgomote in cladire. Aici tocmai incepusem din nou clipul din cauza ca am pierdut liftul. :-)

The Why

So, you want to build a start-up. Why?

Do YOU have a problem now? Are you sure – and by that I mean, isn’t there an alternative, although not so trivial, but good enough?

Would YOU pay someone if they came up with a solution for this problem? Be honest about it. Most startups fail because of failing to answer this simple question: why? If it’s about making money, trust me, the reality is that you will loose money. If it’s about being independent, working for yourself, and the like, these are only buzz words – and an entire industry is being built around this type of false thinking (it’s called motivational speeches, drives people to suicide, or to question sanity when not being able to keep up). The truth is, you will be working many more hours than you’d expect, and earning much less than you would expect. So set your expectations right, because this thing can play with your mind, and it isn’t for everyone. Serendipity has an important role, and it’s the reason why most tech companies are still built in USA. And it’s the reason some startups that are built in Europe succeed.

The alternative is, for most people, the right way to go: being part of a team that works on something bigger than every individual in it. And if you can grow in the startup you’re involved in, doing what you love, that should be a great outcome for you.

Otherwise, if you have a good answer for the why question, and you did a reality check, in couple of years – if you don’t fail – the team working on your startup will be doing exactly the same thing: building something bigger than everyone involved. But you’d be doing something different than what you are doing now as well. So I wanted to write some about that.

The What

So, you want to build a start-up. What should you learn?

I wanted to share a bit about SOME of the stuff one needs to learn when working on building a start-up. I’ll try to keep this list up to date. If you don’t like to read, and don’t spend at least 20 – 30 hours reading every week, you’ve got a long way to go, until you do spend that amount of time getting smart about your money and time. There’s no way around this.

The good news is that you can find the information you need on the Internet, and these resources are free. So your browser should look like this.

At any time, I have 40 to 60 tabs opened. I became so good at this that I’m skimming content and figuring out in the title of a story if there’s anything important related to our product. I’m usually spending months (or years) gathering materials, doing market research, analyzing competition, iterating on each idea, and so forth – to properly adapt and ready a concept, before being able to answer the Why?. See this post in 2009 about Blogvio. It’s 2013 now.  If I’m lucky, I figure out in time that an idea was dumb.

Assuming you have the money problem solved (tens of thousands at least), and the idea you plan to go with engraved in your head, I’ll cover some of this stuff. What will you do as a web entrepreneur?

1. First, you will read a lot. If you don’t read, you will fail. This doesn’t apply to serial entrepreneurs as much, cause they’ve got their base most probably already in place. But if it’s your first real startup, and you don’t know what net promoter, growth hacking, transactional emails, search strategy, user activation, user happiness, product roadmap, key performance indicators, churn rate, press release, product market fit, scrum, private beta, vc, angels, heatmaps, value proposition, sign-up funnel, conversion rates, web stack, product owner mean, than do your reading. You should also know Paul Graham, TechCrunch, and most of the guys here. I will not list everything you need to know, or everyone you need to know. But the list is quite long.
2. Engineering – I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to go in depth with technology, but when the awesome guys that are part of your team talk with you about your web stack, than you should be able to not only understand the subject, but have an informed opinion about the technologies used to build your product, and be able to work together with your team to find the best possible tools for the product you’re building. And this is true for mobile nowadays as well.
3. Design – again, you don’t necessarily have to do the design yourself. But if you have the vision for your product, it’s important to have an eye for design as well. And don’t think design means layout. It’s what your users see, experience and feel, when using your product.
4. Marketing – A lot to read about. Start here.
5. Research – know and use Evernote, Instapaper, Quora, LinkedIn, Twitter, a Feed Reader, Little Snapper, Screenr. I mean it, each of these tools is invaluable. These are for research alone. And when I say Feed Reader, I mean hundreds of blogs. You’ll figure them out by reading.
6. Sales / Business Development – you need to grow your startup.
7. Get fit – or better said, don’t be lazy. Your mind is really going through a roller coaster, as I’m sure you’ve read. Your body needs to help you be at your best. I’m swimming, running, cycling, going to the gym, sauna, fencing, working out in the morning (reps of 100 abs, 50 pushups), eating healthy. I wasn’t doing this before, but I can’t put 12 – 15 hours of work daily if I don’t do this now. Why is this something you need to learn? Because it’s a lot to read in order to do the right things. Calories isn’t everything.
8. Being a good communicator. You need to pitch your product, you need to communicate your vision, you need to work with people.
9. Being an editor – you will say yes and no a lot. To product features and to people as well. Be simple and direct.
10. Finance / Monetization. You are creating a business. You need to learn the ins and outs of it.
11. Copywriting – it’s important to choose your words wisely.
12. Networking – you need to connect with people outside of your comfort zone. Often.

The How

So, you want to build a start-up. How to start?

You’re probably wondering how to find the great idea that sticks, that is your destiny to build. My answer is I don’t know. It’s about living your life and being open to experiencing different things. This way you might encounter many problems, and someday, the problem that might be worth your time, years of your life, and money. At least that’s how I came up with all the products we’re working on. All of them are problems I encountered while living my life. If it doesn’t happen to you, it’s okay. Being part of a team that works on solving these problems isn’t much different than being part of a team that solves the problems you came across. Same thing, but a different you.

Again, I don’t think startups are for everyone, and I don’t see it as a better alternative necessarily. It’s just happens, or it doesn’t. Remember, it’s almost impossible to fail at doing what you love, as part of a team, but failing is the highest possibility if you pick the start-up route.

What usually happens is that you lose focus, and then instead of moving forward as fast as you can, the progress becomes much slower. And it’s not because you don’t love your first idea, it’s because you love all the other ideas that come afterwards as well. So the same energy and enthusiasm is now split between all these little babies.

The good thing is that you don’t let a single idea stop you from thinking big. Most of the succesful companies do more than one thing good, and I think any company should try to pursue this goal. Focus on results, not on individuality. Results matter.

While some might consider them interruptions, we decided to build the best ideas as well – sure, we still filter them before putting any in production. So, while working at Blogvio in our free time, let’s see what else we did.

• we built our mobile division, and launched our first app (several in progress)
• we changed focus from a Flash based company, to a web company – basically we get flash stuff done
• we launched a marketplace, and we’re now working on a complete rebranding and redesign
• we’re wrapping up with our first SAAS start-up (a month’s worth of work to see how we do)
• we’re working on several new ideas, and rethinking Blogvio as well, since the demise of Flash on mobile/web
• we’ve got some cool clients :-)

So all in all, I think if we would have focused on Blogvio, it would have been launched as a Flash based start-up. And that would have killed it, because of the perception of people.

My general idea is that every project has it’s place and time. And it wasn’t Blogvio’s time before 2012. It is now.

It’s amazing what people are able to do when they work together. The web is the only project built by the entire human kind. It’s a work in progress, and this is what makes it exciting! With no users, there would be no internet.

It’s unexpected that we’re connected by technology instead of nature. It’s unexpected that people of any age, gender, rase or social statute take part in this amazing project. And I am sure it’s future is unexpected, in a good way.

You can be a creative who builds a website, or an artist that creates an image, a song, a video, something, that goes online, and you are part of it. We’re so far now, and yet we’re just touching the tip of the iceberg. We love the internet! We all do! No exception. :-)

I love how open it is. I’m browsing amazing photos, while listening to music, and at the same time putting down some ideas on my Evernote account. I don’t know how far things will be in the next 5 years, but I have a strong feeling it’s going to be even more exciting than it is today.

I bet that it will be interactive and we’ll not only read stuff, but engage with the content we consume. I am sure it will be everywhere.

Offline

When you want to bring users to your website, to a niche such as ours (Flash Components), there aren’t many ways of doing it offline, because the products we offer don’t exactly fit everyone. :-)

So we did two things:

1. We went to a conference for start-ups, called Webstock 2009, where we did what every start-up would do, and that is draw as much attention as possible, so we dressed in our Flabell branded t-shirts! This was a conference for nerds, so we fit perfectly!
2. We published an ad in one of the most targeted magazines we could FLASH & FLEX DEVELOPER’S MAGAZINE. We also got two copies, which we keep at the office, to show-off! :-)

The bad? We don’t know how many users we brought to Flabell, because there’s no way of tracking them.

Online

This is the interesting part! We started with a 9 months long advertising campaign, on the biggest website in the Universe dedicated to Flash, which is theFWA. Then, we also advertised on the second biggest website dedicated to Flash, and on some more blogs for Flash, which I will disclose in the second part of this article, with real data. I don’t want to make you click on the ads, because that won’t help us track down every real user. :-)

We also used Google Adwords and SEO. Search for xml banner rotator, xml image slideshow, simple flash mp3 player (to name a few) in any search engine you wish. Flabell is on top of those lists.

Having all this data, I dare to say that the current advertising model is broken. From almost one million targeted visitors, one would expect a better click through rate, and a better conversion rate. Is there nothing we can do to make the CTR higher?

My answer: yes, there is.

What’s the Solution?

Innovation. Both on the publisher side, as well as on the advertiser side.

The publisher needs to create outstanding content, in order to attract as many users as possible. (can’t complain here)

The advertiser needs to have exceptional products, as well as presentation websites, for not only attracting the users, but also for keeping a potential customer on the website. (can’t complain here either)

But there’s another side, which needs to be mentioned, and that’s the bounding side. Whatever tool is used to connect the advertiser and the publisher, that’s where the innovation is needed. The tool should allow the advertiser to be interactive, and the publisher to reach as many users as possible, without creating a negative impact on any of the two parts. This is where we have to innovate!

Such tools are Google’s AdWords (for search), or BuySellAds.com for blogs. We used these both, and we are unhappy with the results. There’s a need for an innovative and better tool, to help both advertisers and publishers get better conversion rates! We don’t need a tool that only connects both parties (AdWords, BSA), but a tool that does more than that, a tool that makes the first impressions on the user matter, a tool that will send the user on the advertiser’s website already engaged by their brand.

Lucky Advertisers!

My company, as an advertiser, needs more than just luck, and the tools we have today, make advertisers get new users through luck: the users see the ad or not, they click on it or not, they sign-up, or not.

Let me tell you that we, as advertisers:

1. Don’t want to pay for luck! We want to pay for efficiency, and targeted users.
2. Don’t want 1% conversion rates! We want the users that come to our website, to know what they will find when they get there.
3. Don’t want below 1% click through rate! We want to know that absolutely every user saw our ad, and they saw it without being distracted from the way they used to interact with the publisher’s website. The user needs to enjoy our ads, to understand them and relate to them, and then decide if they should click on the ad or not.

On Part 2, I will share some real numbers of our latest campaign, so you can see how the current advertising model works.

Let me give you some hints if you plan on using one or the other, but I strongly suggest you go with WP, the self hosted service. You can thank me later. ;-)

WordPress.com/WordPress.org

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform online – both the free, hosted version (at wordpress.com) and the free CMS you download and install on your own server (at wordpress.org). It’s easy to use and the admin panel is also very convenient thanks to AJAX technology.

Known blogs:

1. http://www.techcrunch.com (self hosted)
2. http://zainabdullah.wordpress.com/

Movable Type/TypePad

The main difference between the two is that TypePad is a fee-based hosted service and Movable Type is software that you license to run on your own server or web host. This is similar to WordPress (.com and .org).

Known blogs:

1. http://www.boingboing.net (self hosted)
2. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Blogger/Blogspot

The service itself is located at www.blogger.com, and blogs that do not publish to their own websites are hosted for free by Google at subdomains of blogspot.com (it redirects to Blogger).

It offers no software instalation as WordPress.org or MovableType.org. Google gives a way for bloggers to use their own domains though.

Google also allows for FTP publishing, which means the files posted by a user will be uploaded to that user’s FTP. Confusing, right? :-)

Known blogs:

1. http://www.americablog.com (self hosted)
2. http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

There are more than 184 million blogs out there today. Imagine that all these blogs can be connected through a platform that users would choose to use. Through this platform, users will be able to publish interactive content in a way that hasn’t been done before on the web.

Through Blogvio, the bloggers would have complete control over how they display content on their blogs, and what content they wish to display first.

I know it doesn’t make much sense now, but to sum it up I want to say that Blogvio brings interactivity to blogs. You will have to experience it to see what this means.

At the moment Blogvio is being developed, and I will keep sharing more about the project as we get there. This is a start-up that will change the world, we hope! :-)