Kevin Ohashi

Video Game Music is basically done.

The only thing missing is a header image to replace those silly looking coins.

Drupal Amazon Store module was a lot more painful than I expected. I had to:

• hack around the default sorting
• edit a lot of CSS to make it align properly (#edit-submit {margin-top:20px;} in amazon_store.css if anyone is having trouble)
• hack the item processing because the thumbnails linked to the bigger picture for some reason instead of the item (amazon_store_search_results.tpl.php on line 54 change the print value to url("amazon_store/item/{$result->ASIN}"); instead of $result->LargeImage->URL;)
• finally changing titles on pages from Amazon Store and Amazon Cart to something else in amazon_store.module (its in function amazon_store_menu()).
  

As I was working on Video Game Music, I ran into a problem with the Amazon Store module.

It default sorts by best selling when you search. Good in most cases, but in a small niche like video game music I was getting popular stuff showing up that was completely unrelated. I thought perhaps I was missing an easy setting (I may still be). Nothing in the admin lets me change a default sort for search.

So, the hack that fixed it for me:

Line 533 of amazon_store.module:

  // Grab the URL args that we'll allow and put them in as parameters for Amazon search
extract($_GET,EXTR_PREFIX_ALL,"get");

Ad Proof - Ad Blocking Software and Reviews

It's live.

What's done:

• Setup - Drupal 6 and CCK+Views worked like a charm
• Content - there are 10 pieces of software listed to help you block ads and keep better privacy.
• PPC Ads (Google AdSense)
• Google Analytics

What's left:

• Affiliate Programs - still signing up for/getting approved with various companies
• Design - theme is installed, I modified header image, need a logo
• Marketing - I realize I didn't include this in my last post, it needs some links and *real* content

What Didn't Work:

• Reddit and Quora both failed me. I got one response on each saying AdBlockPlus. My personal opinion is it's a pretty damn good tool, but I thought there would be more options/responses. Maybe it was when I asked it or how I phrased/tagged. May try again later.

Video Game Music used to be a developed site using the Amazon API. I was using a script called Associate-o-Matic. It wasn't open source (encoded) and wasn't particularly friendly on the backend. My license ran out and Amazon changed the way their API works.

Long story short, the site has been broken for a while.

I want to get it functional again on something open source that I have a lot more control over.

Plan

• Technical:

Drupal 6 with Amazon+Amazon Store

I may use CCK and Views again, not sure. I will probably use a youtube module of some sort. Need to see how well the Amazon store works and what sort of content I can include around it.

Standard other modules will probably be used again like Token, Pathauto, etc.

• Monetization:

Logo is being designed at LogoNerds.

I searched around at a lot of options, I didn't want to troll the forums for someone because that's not really scalable. So I looked at companies. I used Logo Design Creation in the past but I found LogoNerds cheaper (27$ vs 39$) and it gives me 1 more concept (3 vs 2). The only downside is a potential for up to 2 more days in turnaround time (3 days vs 3-5 days).

Another interesting option if I wanted something more professional rather than a quick affiliate site I found was pre-made logos from Biz Logo. You pick a shape/design you like, browse the categories for something. Some really nice looking stuff in there and since it's pre-made, you're buying something you can see what you're getting.

I want to start with something simple to warm up. This fits within my comfort level quite well because I have built many comparison sites before, for example:

• Host Charts - Web Hosting Information
• Proxy Host - Proxy Hosting Inforation

Plan

• Technical:

Drupal 6 with CCK+Views

This gives me the flexibility to create my own content types like 'Ad Blocker' which could consist of: Title, Description, Link, Operating System, Browser, Price, License, etc (That's my list of fields so far, but CCK allows me to change any time).

Views should let me display/sort the data any way I want.

I feel like I need to challenge myself. Since I moved last month, I have been doing a lot of little things here and there (see: consulting, freelancing). My own projects have stagnated and I haven't been nearly as productive as I would like.

I have a lot of ideas for different websites I own but have had a very hard time committing to one. I enjoy projects, building a first implementation and testing a concept.

In an effort to try and get creative and find a project or two to really work on, I decided why not build a lot of websites/projects and see what happens?

Seven Sites in Seven Days Challenge:
1. I will try and build 7 websites in 7 days.
2. There is no limitation/minimum requirement on what each will be.
3. Some will probably suck (likely most/all of them).
4. I may get help from freelancers (paid).
5. I may use existing resources - old code, domains, servers, etc.

Jeff Cohen is the CEO of CampusBooks.com. He has worked in the textbook industry for the past 7 years. His previous company was MBS Textbook Exchange where he worked in advertising and promotions and later was promoted to General Manager of Textbooks.com. He is credited with the online marketing efforts such as their PPC campaign and wildly successful affiliate program which went from 0% of sales to 40% of sales in the first year alone. After joining Campusbooks.com in 2007 he was promoted to CEO in 2008 and is still currently growing the business.

I will be posting interviews I have done at MO.com. They are at least two weeks behind what is on MO.com but I like to keep a record for personal purposes and as a record of my work.

In the least statistically significant sample ever (1), I noticed something interesting that fits well with marketing theories.

Nobody wants to list you first on Twitter
(qualifying statement: if they don't know you)

I have multiple accounts and some aren't really 'people' but services. I had one service with a couple thousand followers that has been at that level for over a year and is on zero lists. I have many similar accounts with equal or more followers that are on hundreds of lists. They are all very similar, but some are wildly successful and this one seemed dead. So I had another account that I own follow it, and within days, it got onto other lists.

Mind you, the first was automatically generated, but apparently just getting on one list got recognized by other automated systems somewhere as a form of tagging or social proof.

So for anyone trying to build a twitter account: