Come for the Ride…

I hope this isn’t an invite for spam from the unqualified…

After getting a great start on our phase 1 technical development, we are now looking for a new technical lead to take what we have already established to the next level.  The ideal candidate should have previous experience working in a startup, (meaning you know this is high speed and low pay) and would be willing to work for part equity and negotiable pay.

Below are some the requirements for what we’re looking for:

Required:

Deep understanding of LAMP (Linux, apache, mysql, and PHP) development
Deep understanding of Linux server management with enterprise level experience (multiple servers, tightened security, load balancing, etc.)
Deep understanding of HTML, JavaScript, CSS, ajax, XHTML, RSS/XML
Some understanding of Amazon Web Services including EC2 and S3
Some understanding of Sphinx Search, or be able to learn it quickly
Basic understanding of SEO and online marketing stuff

We prefer someone with a genuine interest in working with web 2.0 websites especially one who is interested in all types of web 2.0 services.  Unlike traditional classifieds, we’re looking to do something different so if you play with various web 2.0 services or have worked with Facebook, Twitter or iPhone API’s, we want to hear from you!  We also prefer someone who has managed websites with high volume in the past because we’re looking for someone who understands scaling and design for scalability.  Most importantly, the candidate needs to pick up exactly where we left off.  (If you can only code by starting from scratch using parts of old code you had written for other projects, please do not apply.)

Last but not least, we would like someone with SSL or e-commerce experience and someone who is a self-starter that works well with a team.  Ideally, you can anticipate problems and solve them before they become huge bugs.

As far as hardcore development, we’re only anticipating about 3-4 more months of work before the site is “complete”  After that point, it will basically be maintenance and minor upgrades so if you’re a ninja hacker, and this interests you, please shoot us a message.  Here are our previous messages seeking php programmers: 1st time, 2nd time.  Referrals would also be greatly appreciated!  Thanks.

There’s not a lot of “web 2.0″ sites that get me excited. I’m perfectly happy with my “web 1.0″ forums. Facebook is nice for keeping up with friends and Twitter is a pretty novel idea too. However, this is one site that I believe WILL infact have a long and lasting impact on at least one section of our society and that is Pandora and it’s possible effects on the future of the music business.

Sure, Pandora is great because it’ll match up your “musical DNA” with that of others and uses the information to create a database of artists that you’ll like to listen to. In a way, it’s a Google for music. It’s not about advertising and money in order to get airtime. It’s about a conflagration of the musical likes and dislikes of everyone else who listens to Pandora. It’s “SongRank” (my term, not theirs) database is pleasing to my ears as it not only keeps out the stuff I don’t want to listen to, but more importantly, and more to the point, it introduces me to music that others who like the same stuff I do listen to. So, what does this have to do with “the revolution” you say?

Let’s say you’re a small rock band in Ireland, trying to make your way into the big time. You play at local pubs and have a nice weekend gig, but your dream is playing at Madison Square Garden. Even if you do get “big” in the UK, getting into the US market is still a huge undertaking. Unless you have a huge amount of money to tour and promote yourselves, the odds are you’ll just be another indie rock band. However, you and your 4 band mates signed up for Pandora accounts. You each add yourself to your favorite music and then pick out some similar music from U2, Keane, The Rolling Stones and similar rock bands. You’ve now melded yourself into the Musical DNA of Pandora. It’s not a full proof method of becoming the next Springstein, but it’s yet another tool that will move the power away from large corporate labels and into the hands of the bands themselves and it will surely get people listening to your music who may have otherwise never heard of  you.

Now, getting your music onto Pandora will be a task in and of itself. I don’t know where they extract their music from, but the point is that indie bands have a VERY powerful tool in getting their music to people who might not otherwise hear it. I can’t see Pandora shunning small bands as they would, concievably, want as much music on there as possible. By no means is a search engine marketer going to replace a band manager, but unique and trend-setting tools like Pandora, YouTube and MySpace make being a small, emerging band just a little easier these days.

At the most recent meeting of the Atlanta Gang of 5, the subject of marketing using SEO/SEM came up.  Like most conversations about SEM, the discussion went something like this:

Person 1: I spent $$$$ testing Adwords but I’m not sure if I’m doing it right.  It drove some sales, but it didn’t really pay out so we stopped it after X weeks (or months).

Person 2: I also spent $$$ testing Adwords.  It worked but I think I need to hire someone to do it for me cause I’m sure it could be doing better.

Person 3: (Nodding)  We dropped $$$$$$ into Adwords but it really feels like a full time job monitoring it. I wish we had the resources to do it but we don’t.

As someone who used to manage pay-per-click campaigns for various brands, it makes me cringe a little to hear entrepreneurs dive in head first without checking to see if there’s water in the pool.  However, they really can’t be blamed because sometimes large brands do the same thing - the only difference is they have more budget and therefore, more room for error.

Confession: I’ve even done the same… throwing some money in the pool just to see how things would run without properly setting up all the metrics.

The truth is most business owners test Pay-Per-Click to check one thing - Will this drive me more traffic? The answer to this question is a 100% YES! Just like any other marketing tactic, if you throw any money at it, expect to see a lift in traffic through that medium.  However, if that’s the extent of your test, most of you will feel a little empty inside even after getting the answer you want.  After all, it’s similar to playing the slots - will this machine pay me if I put in some money?  Eventually yes…

So how do you REALLY test PPC marketing and when should you hire external help?

With so many things that can be tested and refined in a PPC campaign, if you are new to SEM and can not optimize your campaign in at least 10 ways (seriously, that’s 10), you should probably outsource your campaign creation and let them run the show for at least 2-3 months until the campaign is somewhat optimized.  At that point, if the contract is in your favor, you can hopefully keep the campaign and the work and continue running it on auto pilot for a few months until it needs to be tweaked again.

The reason I would recommend this technique is because most entrepreneurs take risks and many dive into PPC without being properly trained in it. (Let’s face it, it’s what we do.)  Unfortunately, this means throwing money away at an unoptimized campaign and giving up on the whole thing weeks or months later when the ROI doesn’t work out.

Pay-Per-Click can be great at helping you make money!  In fact, the only reason it’s popular IS because it has helped so many mom and pop shops reach the right audience amongst the masses on the internet.  If you’re still not convinced at hiring a professional is the right thing to do (at least for the setup), my next post will highlight some of the things you should look out for when setting up PPC campaigns.