Jimmy Z

Peter Carbonara just posted a great article to the Fast Company Blog how Muhammad Yunnus’ Microcredit Is Shrinking Poverty. Microcredit is giving tiny loans to poor entrepreneurs who otherwise would not qualify for loans. There is no collateral required and the loan is payed back in very small amounts. This has been very successful in helping to lift poverty in developing countries.

“Don’t just offer the poor charity, Yunus argues: give them access to credit. Don’t create incentives for villagers to head for the misery of the city; unleash engines of growth in the country.”

The Kevin and Debra Rollins Center for eBusiness has a program called eLeaven which focuses on helping impoverished countries rise above poverty. They have presented several times on the effectiveness on Microcredit.

I think microcredit is a wonderful thing. Does anyone know of a way to get involved so that more of this can happen in the world? It seems that most people in the U.S. would be able to afford to contribute to microlending, if there was an avenue to connect the lenders with the borrowers.

Today I’m a happy camper because Google has re-indexed my blog. It is amazing how much the Google index can affect your mood. I guess it just takes some waiting.

Skype’s free calls to U.S. and Canada land line phones has splashed a wave of visitors to their site. This week, Skype Is Top Mover on the alexa.com top movers and shakers.

My company’s CEO, Paul Allen, says that offering something free is an amazing Internet marketing tool and this proves it. Check out their spike in traffic:

Using Skype to Call Landlines is really easy to do, and a ton of people are now trying VOIP phone calls for the first time. These same people then are more likely to buy something from Skype such as one of their accessories that make using VOIP an even better experience.

They also offer services such as SMS text messaging to cell phones and International calls to landlines and mobiles for low rates. Now that they have a lot more people trying out their free service, they will be able to sell more of their other products to these new customers.

Recently, I’ve been given the opportunity to manage a project of rebuilding mp3books.com. This is really exciting for me, as I get to use some of my project management skills that I picked up in my ISYS 562 class with Ernie Nielsen. I’ve been able to put to practice some of the principles that he taught and are industry standard, and I realized that All Projects Should Pass Through Moscow.

Let me explain. MoSCoW is a process of prioritizing project scope into “must have,” “should have,” “could have,” and “won’t have” categories. Key stakeholders in the project should be involved in making these prioritization decisions. The project sponsor and the people who will most be affected by the success of the project should be included among the stakeholders.

For example, this last week, I sat down with Mark Taggart, who is the database content manager for Infobase Media, and we walked through his entire current system and talked about the critical functionality that it contains. I wrote down on post-it notes each of the pieces of functionality that was desired to be included in the new system.

After we had a mess of post-its, I let Mark decide which of those functions were “must haves” for the new site. We were able to narrow down the “must have” functionality to about 1/3 of all of the features we had discussed.

This list of “must have” functionality has made my job a whole lot easier as we can now set our goals and work towards delivering the most important features first.

MoSCoW also helps a ton with guarding against scope creep. As we’ve discussed new features that could be added in to the system, we have been able to say, “that is a high could have function,” or “let’s put that in the should haves.”

Try it out next time you are managing a project. It will make you happy and your customer(s) happy.

About a month ago, I made a switch from Blogger to Wordpress, and imported my php blog and tech blog into Jimmy’z Blog. In the process I set up 301 permanent moves to my /blog/ address, which worked pretty slick. About a month later, I’ve noticed that my pages are Disappearing From Google. After I had made the switch, I read Paul Allen’s post on Changing domain names “learning the hard way.

I feel like Marty McFly on Back to the Future when he looked at his family picture and one by one his siblings began to fade away. That is what’s happening to me on Google.

The strange thing is that my journal (http://jimmyzimmerman.com/journal/) has also disappeared, and I haven’t messed with that at all. In checking my analytics, I only get about one referral from Google per day, and that is on the search term “Jimmy Zimmerman.”

Lots of my pages are also coming up as “Supplemental Results” as well. I have read a few sites on what that means, but nobody has a clear and official answer yet.
Does anyone have any advice? What can I do?

Yesterday I lost my cell phone, which is my primary means of making long-distance phone calls. Luckily, I had read Michael Eagar’s blog post Free Skype to Landlines and Mobiles. I had also received a newsletter from Skype with the announcement. So I realized I should actually start Using Skype to Call Landlines.

I was surprised at how easy it was to make phone calls. The user interface is very friendly, and, while the option is available, you don’t have to create a contact record for every number you dial. I only experienced some delay and a bit of echo if I didn’t use my earphones.

I began sharing the Skype news with my whole family. I thought, wow this is going to make the Skype network explode! It is true, the Skype buzz has doubled in the bogosphere. Check out this chart by Technorati:

Posts that contain Skype per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Yesterday, Francisco Pascual, Provo Labs‘ Internet marketing guy, presented on the cool stuff that he’s been doing these last couple of weeks. His presentation made me realize the critical Importance of Internet Marketing.

Francisco showed up prepared with numbers, charts, and action items. His findings made it very clear which areas of development needed urgent care. By using Omniture’s Site Catalyst, he was able to show hard numbers on conversion rates and bounce rates, and was able to make some suggestions on pages and sites that need tweaking.

I think web analytics are so cool because you get real proof on what is working on a web page, and what isn’t. Without analytics you have to guess, and web design is based on personal preference without anything real to back it up.

By using web analytics together with your Pay Per Click campaigns, you can more easily find which campaigns are giving you your best ROI and how to better make money on the web.

Thanks Francisco, your presentation was awesome.