Green - Tamar & Doron - Photo by @Amitos
Archive for Here and there
03
Oct 2011
How to Write to Bloggers?
This will be a two-part series. In the second part which I will post later, I will discuss writing and blogging. In this, the first part, I will cover the subject of the bloggers themselves. Specifically, How to talk to and engage with these mysterious creatures.
A good first step is to first recognize the vastly different styles and try to figure out all those ‘inside jokes’.
Then the question is how to engage with them without coming out looking a fool, or at least aim to appear an affable fool.
(BTW – Mashable published a good post regarding this subject yesterday which I suggest you read: http://mashable.com/2011/10/01/blogger-outreach-tips/ )
Blogher 2011, meeting LOTS of amazing bloggers
I started writing this post as I began sending out emails to blogs about Vikido (and I used my experience from the time I worked with Wix.com). It was all written and edited recently, all the while continuing to send and respond to letters, to talk and to put up posts, to write about ourselves and ignore ourselves. I waited before putting up this post out of a fear that this ‘logic’ will turn out to be a great disappointment. To my relief, after a few classic marketing letters, responses began to trickle in. I then decided that, if I believe in something, I should trust it – a lesson for me as well as for all who read this post.
Here’s a general rule of thumb to remember: the blogger who is writing is a human being and the dialectic rules that I lay out below are theoretically interesting, and logically sound. That said, each blogger could be a particularly irritating individual (or not a “human being” at all) so, in each and every case, take it all with a grain of salt… 
1. Try to know, more than loosely speaking, what you are talking about, sending emails in a production line method will bring, in the best case scenario, to failure and a global scandal in the worst case. Send only things you can stand behind them later.
Me, trying to look like I know what I’m talking about while pitching
2. What the hell do you want?! Don’t reach out to anyone before you know how to communicate what you are and what you want in a single sentence, two sentences or a brief paragraph . First, know exactly what you want to say, as well as what exactly you want from the blogger (That they will write back? Do you need contacts? Do you need a link? What?). After a while it becomes some kind of a Stockholm syndrome, you LIKE those bloggers! You don’t want anything, just to keep hanging around them. I like it, I am a blogger too… Sometimes it is nice NOT to want anything (yes, contradiction rules).
3. Write to the right person directly, don’t use a ‘contact us’ form. For those who have a strange inclination to open themselves up to the whole web, you will find your post next time you google yourself. Scandals (not that I have not done it, but still with great trepidation). Find his name, its not that hard!
4. Try to know to whom you are talking. Most bloggers have a strong presence on the web. Study their Flickr, their Twitter. Add them as a friend on Facebook. Do all this before you write them. Read the comments that they have written – not in order to elegantly remark, “Your little Megan is so cute!” (and in turn be suspected of being a crazy pedophile), but rather to get a small sense of the person. They are active and write, you want something from them and, according to the dialectic blogging rules (of which you want to be a part of rather than be identified with instead of), you must conduct a dialogue, and a dialogue must have interlocutors. By the same token, represent yourself. You and blogger alike are thinking, ‘Who are you? What do you want?’ Everything is personal, as well as businesslike.
Remember – they can talk back! (from BlogHer 2011) Rednackmommy talk back
5. No templates. So now that you know roughly what you are going to write, it’s time to compose a general letter, but write a separate letter to each blog which you personalize to the specific blogger you are writing to.
6. Tell a story. You have a story; an angle, the blogger has a story; where do these stories develop into a third story that will interest the reader? If you don’t have a story, it’s game over.
7. Think of the audience and whether your story really interests them. If it really does not interest them, move on to other blogs whose audiences are more relevant and will find your story compelling to their personal lives.
8. Quality, not quantity. There are small, high-quality blogs with a loyal audience which also lead opinion. A TechCrunch article is always nice, but 95% of the users that it brings will be people like you. Perhaps that is what you want, but with your product you need users who fit *your* product.
9. Sharing is caring. If you know someone who knows someone, that is always a good start. Do not be afraid to use connections and always make sure you return favors. There is nothing like an internet acquaintance – I’ve had my share of thrilling ones in the last few weeks. I love those folks, have I mentioned it before?
I went to a LOT of conventions…
10. Do not overload it with files, a million examples, a drawn-out letter. You will lose the blogger and the whole blog after two seconds. If they get back to you with an expression of interest, then go on and overload it (but even then, be careful!). We have our stuff on air too.
11. Write simply and coherently, assuming you know how to write, of course. Alternatively, write out enough coherently so that you won’t sound like a an online translation application, which translates at its leisure to something resembling pure Haiku poetry. If your English is not up to scratch, turn to someone whose is. (use your friends who can write, please)
12. Keep in touch. A network of relations with bloggers is not limited to ‘bang-write-done’! Be sure to update your favorite bloggers on new things that are going on (in proportion, please). Be sure to continue correspondence and the personal basis of your relationship with them. Also, be sure that they also write to you down the line (it doesn’t matter what company you work in) and (no less important) get to know some truly heartwarming people, for whom the internet flows in their blood. You’ll gain – it’s worth it.
I could have listed a number of other significant things but the most important thing is to be flexible and attentive, and to really get to know the surroundings you are facing. Be real, it takes time.
2 more interesting links:
HOW I PITCHED @TECHCRUNCH AND 13 WAYS TO GET PRESS WHEN YOU LAUNCH YOUR
Robert Scoble tells about one good pitch
20
Sep 2011
‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’ – and what about us?
Ye, Sarah Jessica Parker is great, but don’t we all have the same feeling from time to time? I want to invite you to MY “how she does it” moment -
Looking back, it was the ultimate scene:
Captain’s Blog – Startdate 29.1, Location: The largest hospital in the city, The Participants: One exhausted father with one over-3 years old girl, lying in his arms like a maiden, all sluggish from distress, bumped head from a fall at nursery school, vomiting intermittently, crying frequently, the father wandering in and out of the emergency room, since the emergency room is flooded with sick children at different stages of the flu, and the maiden in his arms is insisting on falling asleep, and as we said previously, vomiting. Every once in a while I run to the children’s emergency room to find out when somebody can check the bump before she falls asleep or covers the floor with vomit.
Me, I’ve been hospitalized since Sunday with a mysterious bug.
A doctor from the emergency room has been interrogating me since I first arrived: “Do you raise poultry? Did you come back from a country that raises poultry? Do you know any poultry? If it cackles, flies, or swims, is it poultry? Do you like grilled chicken?” Understand this, I had a fever of over 41 degrees (centigrade) at this stage, and it was during the period that bird flu was really hot and people liked trying to cause others to look as if they’re ill with it, so as to give them a magnificent cure “house” style.
Armed with a drip stand that I’d succeeded in getting out of a good-hearted male nurse from the ward (“Understand me, my daughter is in the emergency room” ) my left side looking like something between a hamster and The Elephant Man (in the wonderful scene from “The Tall Guy” where Jeff Goldblum plays The Elephant Man in a low-budget marginal play), chasing after my little daughter all over the maternity emergency room (the most-not-sick place in the hospital), my daughter determined to play her best at the most wonderful game of all, “Let’s Pull Out Mommy’s Infusion”, and the next-best game, “Let’s Try Squash Ourselves in the Automatic Door” – and the third-most enjoyable but intellectual – “Let’s Knock Over the Doctors and Take Their Papers Away From Them” while shouting out “I want boobie, I want chips” , and summarizing, in her special way: ” I want everything”.
During all this, while still not certain if I should die immediately or wait to see if my eldest survives, since she’s fallen into a deep sleep in the last few minutes in spite of the fact that her younger sister is trying to pull her to the floor, A’ calls me (Boss A’), all joy and happiness, and informs me that they’ve solved one of the problems we’ve been working on over the last two weeks “we used what you suggested from the start”, A’ rejoices as if there is no cosmic justice in the world, I mumble thank you (and a curse) and hurry to catch my younger daughter by the tail-end of her clothes once again – group after group of women with round and wonderful pregnant stomachs are passing by in procession, in my humble opinion some are regretting the entire pregnancy business at this precise moment, others are deciding that their children will never behave in such a provincial and barbaric manner, and second, third and fourth-time mothers nod towards me as a sign of commiseration.
I finally pull out my doomsday weapon, and sit down to breastfeed.
(no pic here, sorry)
Imagine the following scene: a hamster-resembling mother is sitting there, wrapped in a few meters of infusion piping that’s still attached to a bag and a peeling stand from the best of the Salvation Army surplus, holding an over-one-year old girl, burning with fever, next to her an over-three-years old girl with a contusion the size of a ping-pong ball on her head, a monstrous pink penguin doll sitting beside her, with a realistic baby doll in his transparent belly aimed to amaze all who see him with the miracle of birth, on her other side is a dolphin, opposite her are two toddlers wearing skullcaps that arrived from somewhere and are staring at her while she suckles.
It’s superfluous to point out that during all this, work called at least three times, in order to make sure that I wouldn’t forget them, God forbid, or even worse, remember that there are more important things in life, unheard of, not in the startup nation.
A group of men who’d escaped from their wives’ birth preparation course raid the coffee(shop), they’re all called Michael, it seems. They happen upon a travelling freak show and sit down opposite me, in the most natural of ways (for them), burst into lively conversation, I recognize a few key words from within the feverish mist I’m in: “Breastfeeding, Yuck, Birth, My Wife, Never, Disgusting, Me, Boobs, Boobs, Boobs, Unnatural,” please children, help these young men put the sentence together.
That was the ultimate scene.
Many other scenes came before it, building on and intertwining with each other, piling up like a tower of cards (for instance, I’m on my way to the emergency room, falling asleep anywhere I’m left for more than a second, burning up with fever, for instance, – I’m on the heartwarming, “Skin and Sex” ward, neighboring the desirable “Internal C” ward, for instance, my father, whose philosophy of life determines: “If you’re ill, you must have not eaten enough, if you want to get well, you have to eat, how will you not get ill in the future? Eat.” And in accordance with this philosophy he broke in with an enormous box of gummy sweets and a flask of rich meat soup, soup that could awaken the dead, soup that only my father can prepare. A bunch of amazingly good-looking doctors will also be remembered, well-done hospital. – What? You can’t bring them by again when I look like a human being? And not like The Elephant Man??
I don’t remember what happened at the end of that day. I eventually got well, my eldest managed to get a minor concussion and my youngest finished destroying the maternity emergency room – but I can promise you that this bundle of incidents will never be forgotten.
What was your impossible parenting day?
21
Aug 2011
Life with feedback – an act and reaction in a children’s application
Anyone working with designing and building websites and applications knows how important feedback is. An application without feedback is vague, mysterious and sad. When you design for children you have to pay special attention to the right feedback and internal reward. Kids aren’t small adults; they believe and trust even interfaces they see. One of my saddest experiences as a parent was the day when Tamar ran to me enthusiastically from her computer to tell me there’s a chance to win a quarter of a million dollars because she’s the 1000th surfer on some despicable game site. At that moment I was overwhelmed with sadness and fear – it’s hard to describe the feeling, the trust she had in what she saw on the computer broke my heart.
Even so, kids are much smarter then we tend to think and they know much more than most of us would expect.
They have small hands that need to be taken into account, and other insights about the world, they don’t have the same conception we do about the internet, its content, and the scope of information it contains. In this sense, planning an interface for children is a most wondrous adventure, and it takes you to new and fascinating places in both the product sense and the psychological sense. The introduction to iPhones only doubled the size of the problem and expanded its characterization.
Just as in education, consistency brings the best results in applications as well. When we teach a child to expect something and then we rattle the ground beneath his feet, the results can be devastating, and since we’re talking about common and very impatient users, inconsistency can lead to fast tempers and an uncontrollable will to throw the device and that’s bad for both the parent and the application.
Whatever doesn’t happen – didn’t happen
Sometimes kids are very much like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (“… it assumes that if someone cannot see it, it cannot see them …” – from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) if they don’t see what’s happening, they assume it never happened. Therefore, when you are about to design something for children, be sure to leave distinct signs that something happened, that the system noticed an action – did you send something to someone? Did you move something from place to place? Did you click something? Something different has to happen.
Example – nickjr: hovering with the mouse on every character makes it pop up and do something identifiable with it, this creates a reactionary feeling and non-stop action – generally this site is one of the best in my opinion, as far as the interface design is concerned.
A mall will be built here
In the lifecycle of every big web project, there’s a stage in which everyone sits, bleary-eyed, regarding the features and express whatever comes to mind. “Here”, says the product manager, “here will be a banner with five air directions, fountains, and touching illustrations”, everyone nods enthusiastically. Careful! You have reached the “A mall will be built here” stage.
In the beginning it’s an exciting stage, everyone fantasizes differently about how the mall will look. One has a McDonalds and marble fountains, the second has fashion stores, and the third has goods shops. Everyone has a predisposed expectation on what’s going to be there. The problem is that everyone has a different idea, different opinions and different fantasies.
Kids don’t know malls. If you leave grey areas (in both the physical and theoretical sense) in applications, as far as they’re concerned, they don’t exist. Don’t let them err in their path and reach places no other man has been before. The child needs to understand where he is and where he’s going throughout his use of the application.
If you try to tell them that “here is something else”, they will immediately demand to know what that something is, they aren’t strong with time or imagining what you want them to imagine.
In times of embarrassment – stress!
Kids, like certain adults (um… guilty as charged), tend to assume that whatever doesn’t work by force will work with more force and whatever doesn’t work with one click will work with four hundred clicks. If something doesn’t happen the second they expect it to, they assume it doesn’t work and their logic implies that if they press the mouse or keyboard button again and again and again, the reluctant application will run and something magical will happen. Since applications aren’t built to such absurd use scenarios, they will react like most programs and will likely most luxuriously collapse. Therefore you need to solve the problem before it even comes up and give immediate feedback (even if nothing will happen anytime soon).
Keep the clicks from being devastating – no action that a child does needs to bring upon the collapse of the application/logout/change of operation mode/deletion without feedback and more. The less you allow your child to destroy, the more you’ll be able to keep the application alive and well.
Talking Tom hears a who – fast response with every click, every speech, every touch
Break Routine
There is no chance your child will be ready to accept an unimaginative and boring routine, and between us, in your applications you have to take the same approach. There are millions of applications for children, the best of which are frequently updated and upgraded (e.g. Talking Tom). Take care to show the child all the changes that have occurred, invite him (via the opening page, or banners in the applications, or best of all – through a content game) to see the new and exciting things he can do. But please – don’t be assholes and try to squeeze money out of him, any application that once downloaded offer the child millions of things for money and use the previous appendix (when embarrassed – stress!) to make the child download fruit for the mice for one hundred dollars – shame on you! (I just heard about a kid who bought things at “tap zoo” worth $100)
And again, Talking Tom shows us how worthwhile it is to download more friends, and it works.
Behind every child is a parent
When it comes down to it – behind every child is a parent and the design needs to be aimed at him as well. The hints to what the parent likes, plays or uses himself will give you extra points. On the other hand – use that “requires” a parent to be present and active will drive the average parent crazy very fast and will make him secretly erase the application from the device or at least make sure the child never reaches it again. I always like to try and wink at the parent by creating an interface that will awaken nostalgic feelings. I want the parent to thing: “when I was a kid, I had fun and this and that… and I want my own child to experience similar things”. I want to awaken this feeling in the parent without them realizing that I’m doing it.
From bitter experience – make it fun for the parents too. Don’t force them to use it, applications for children are babysitters in smooth disguises, don’t forget that.
In the picture – nostalgia
Mom, look
Despite what is said in the previous appendix, it is important that your application will be something that will make the child run to their parent all the time so that can “see” what the child built, the prize he won, sharing option, a picture he took where he looks more amazing than usual, a picture he took and added things too, a painting, and more. Anything that makes the child run to their parent for positive reinforcement every several minutes is positive for your application as well.
In the picture – Tamar is sending me a Vikido message
Accessibility
Kids approach devices different and at different times than adults, mostly they’ll have limited access to devices of all kinds. That is why there should be a fast and satisfying enough way for them to be able to approach it again when they can. When designing the application, take into account the context of their action: where and when will the child be near the application? Vacations, kindergarten, schools, and more – we need to take everything into account because the world we all live in does not match the world of the average child. He does not have available internet, a device of his own, outgoing calls to his friends on programs and devices and more (though the amount of mobile phones kids have today is changing, buy it’s still something to take into account).
All the rest
Oy vay, I haven’t even talked about the most important issue of all, for example the connection between the parent and child, online safety, the need to explain things carefully to the parent, combining the application with school and daily life, and the big game question (even Google ads a gaming edge to their gray services…) and more and more and more. These past years I’m working a lot on products that are for kids of all ages – and I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
09
Aug 2011
BlogHer 11, It Was Amazing!
It was my first trip to the US and it was overwhelming Actually, I saw just the inside of lots of ugly jets and the beautiful San Diego, but still it was fun… I will write another post describing the convention itself but I wanted to share some pictures and some of what I felt before I will start writing about the serious stuff – and serious it was!
So I arrived
I wasn’t the only one with flip-flops!
I had a few hours in LA so I went to see Tim Burton’s exhibition, what else can can a girl do in LA? Well, it was amazing, you MUST see it. It opens a gate to one talented, disturbing, beautiful and magical mind. I spent there 3 hours and couldn’t get enough. It was one of a kind experience for anyone who loves art, movies, and likes it when someone is messing with their mind…
But I was there for something completely different – BlogHer 11, The world’s largest bloggers convention, which took place at the ridiculously-good-weathered San Diego. To get there I took a ride with my friends and co-workers from BabyFirstTV.
Here is Kristin from BabyFirstTV, I love her!
It was great to see how blogging empowers women to be far more than “stay at home moms who from time to time play on the internet”. They are a power to be reckoned with and you can feel it in every corner – the thinking behind the stands, the conversations, the atmosphere – it was totally exciting.
These people REALLY want bloggers to write about them
As for the sessions – it’s always hard to make everyone happy, especially when you have such two distinct groups: the people who came to learn some more about blogging and the people who came to hunt bloggers. I totally agree with Jessica gottlieb who wrote this great post. “I’m not just a blogger” was the second most heard phrase but he prize went to “I am here with agency…”). So some was too shallow, some was too personal and I mostly missed some “soul” (but found it in the halls )
This is Amy from http://bitchinwivesclub.com/
The session I enjoyed the most was “twitterholics” with the beautiful @redneckmommy.It was fun and live, well, like twitter..)
Do you really wanna leave Twitter?
Next year – BlogBaby
So everyone wants a piece of these bloggers and it’s crazy hard to explain in 30 sec of casual meeting why you are different. I was really interested in what people think, far more than their ability to “help” my brand – I came to hear the whisper of the masses, the voice of the bloggers – and had some great discussions. It started with Arrested development and the Disney princess (thanks to @BackpackingDad who was so amused he spent most of our meeting laughing), then the future of kids and Internet, and ended with all the rest…
I heared tons of people had great fun at the parties. For me is was somewhat lame, and I have only myself to blame for it – but than again, met some crazy-funny women outside, so it was all worth it
But for me, the best part was probably seeing the Vikido messages that my girls sent me during my visit, as I missed them so badly every day. Actually, in every moment…
And well, this feeling of ‘the product really works’! Oh my, that was a kick ass sensation!
My Doron saying Hi
I’m at home now, after 20 hours of flight, and I just wanted to give you this tiny taste of my trip More to come…
31
Jul 2011
8 Tips To Get The Best Pics Of Your Kids
Some of the people I know from the web know me via my girls picture, when I meet them face to face they are always looking around me, to see if I’m hiding a girl somewhere. Sometimes I think that my web presence is somewhat more “real” just because of the girls’ photos dotting and lighting up my digital life…
I do have 2 amazing girls, but that’s not the only thing that makes their photos good I have 4 years of photography studies behind me and more than 15 years of experience, so here are some of MY favorite tips - that will help all of you making the best out of your pictures, even if the only camera you ever had is your mobile phone.
1. The best camera is the one you have
I’m a big believer in this phrase. Kids are like small animals at a national geographic movie, you can wait forever to “catch” a good pic, so the best way is to hunt them down whenever and wherever you (and they) are. You should look at them via the camera, take the regular point of view aside for a sec. Seeing them in new light will make sure the pics are different from the regular”mommy and daddy” pics.
2. Point of view
Most of the parents take their photos while standing in front of the kids, so the pics are from above, with the kids look up. It’s like you can see the whole family pyramid of power in one single pic.
What I suggest – pick another point of view, lower your camera, call them when they are walking in front of you – get down! Kids are small, be on the same level with them and they will look at their best (unless you got the cutest baby ever and you want your viewers to feel how small and cuddly he/she is..)
3. Eye to eye, soul to soul
Kids often turn their eyes at the decisive moment, as they see a bird, the sun is in their eyes, whatever – play with their “eye contact”, tell them to look at you, or better, look at something else, let them look at each other - looking into the camera is dull!
4. CUT
Ye. I know. You “shouldn’t” cut peoples’ faces when you are taking their photo, again – dull. Cut like there is no tomorrow. You should always be aware of the “right” rules (like this one) but only so you’ll have the ability to smash them!
5. Think before click
The new cameras are amazing, they allow us to take 100 pics in a second, SOME of them must come out nice, somehow… But it’s not fun and it’s not good practice. Think, imagine, find fun and nice locations, build pics in your brain the THEN go outside and try to create them. Not from zero, from your brain. You’ll be surprise how efficient it can be.
6. Look around you, see what other people are doing
I’m a huge fan of learning from observation. There are AMAZING photographers out there, armature and professional. Look around and learn, try to find what you like and what you don’t like, try to understand what will go well with your own cute object of photography and what wouldn’t.
I can give you some links. Take a look at this amazing pic – the light, the look, the softness, the message… PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA (I LOVE it)
I love Sally Mann too, even that her pics can be really disturbing
7. Play with colors, Play with light
Kids are so colorful! You should take advantage of it. They go amazingly nice with colorful backgrounds and with simple backgrounds. Use their natural colors or their outfit colors to make a contrast, a statement.. Try to find patterns, try to conflict them with the outfit they are wearing.
Use the light, it is your best friend. Look at the way it falls and use it – some of the mobile cameras don’t deal well with light and shadow – take it as a benefit!
8. Take your pictures from your heart
This is the most important rule of all. You love your kids, you can’t breath when you see how small and tender they are, you look at them like no one else does. This look, this empathy, this uniqueness is what makes YOUR pics the best pics of your kids…
Good luck!
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