Daniel Dessinger

Category: Internet

  • The Internet, Anxiety, and Poor Writing Skills

    lighted tree

    When I began copywriting for websites, I started by searching through some how-to articles for pointers. I was aggravated and disappointed to find everyone recommending simple, direct, and action-packed. Not that I have a problem with engaging content, it’s just that all the classics of literature take the time to establish the setting and characters. The most reputable authors wrote from a totally different perspective than authors today.

    Who else can we blame except the expanding media channels? With the advent of information access came the simultaneous dilemma of information overload. An author 200-500 years ago had no television, radio, Internet, or telephone for news and information updates. They had word of mouth, some newspapers, pamphlets, letters, etc. The pace of life was such that the literature produced reflected a life of contemplation, observation, and stillness. There was no sense of frantic suspense or blistering action to be found.

    Traveling was so inconvenient that many people only traveled into town once a month. They stocked up on supplies and news and headed back to the family farm. Of course, there were city dwellers who had weekly access to gossip. Still, cultures worldwide knew nothing of the mind boggling pace we endure in the 21st Century.

    I blame the Internet and the television for poor writing skills. First, the television sucked up the hours of daily life previously spent on reading and communication with family and friends. Then came the Internet, Instant Messaging, and Text Messaging. With the advent of the Web, we have access to billions of information soaked pages, yet we have to choose a minuscule percentage of information available that we will actually give any attention to. This leaves authors and marketers around the globe scrambling to liven up available content. Competition is fierce (as in the publishing industry), and the selection is so plentiful that people don’t have to spend time on lengthy descriptions and soliloquies. With thousands of voices vying for our attention every day, we give time to those few that are most compelling and immediately accessible.

    The art of writing has largely been lost as we fight against the clock to absorb and distribute unprecedented volumes of information. It seems that nothing short of a return to agrarian society could deliver us from our ADD-based writing and reading skills. In other words, either choose to read hyper-focused drivel or remain oblivious to the world today and return to the classics. Or live in the wonderfully frustrating tension of balancing the relevant with the artistic.

  • EnerMax Inc Launches New Site Design on CMS

    Congratulations to the team over at EnerMax Inc! Their new design has just gone live. For an independent oil and gas company in the Dallas / Fort Worth area, they’ve done an excellent job of providing a deep site with rich content about oil and gas drilling, oil and gas development, oil and gas investment, and the future of the industry.

  • New Joost Invites Available!

    That’s right! We have more Joost invites to give away. So this is how it works. In order to receive a Joost invitation, add a link to CultureFeast using the phrase “Dallas copywriter” as your anchor text. It doesn’t matter if you link to the Home Page or any other page on the site. Whether you just add one sentence about your favorite Dallas copywriter or your least favorite, if you make “Dallas copywriter” the anchor text for a link to our site, we’ll hook you up with an invite to Joost.

    For those of you who are still unaware, Joost is Internet television access. You can watch all kinds of shows online through Joost. It’s a growing phenomenon which we expect to gain global popularity within the next 18 months. Get in on it now, and get in by linking to CultureFeast.com.

    Thanks in advance for the link love! Post a comment with the URL in which the anchor text and link are located. Once we’ve varified that the link exists, your invite will be on its way!

  • LifeChurch Creates a Virtual Church on Second Life

    I’m writing this for the benefit of my friends and the masses that are similar to my friends – i.e., those who have no clue about the latest and greatest news on the Web. I’ve briefly mentioned Second Life before, so use the site search engine on the right to find the other post.

    Second Life is no joke. You may mock people who join online communities, but it is the wave of the future. When Reuters creates a website for the sole purpose of covering virtual community news, you know it’s worth a second glance.

    LifeChurch, an Edmond, Oklahoma based church, is one of approximately twenty churches that have already bought Second Life real estate and formed virtual churches. The idea is to reach people wherever they may be.

    My first reaction was that there’s no way a virtual church will thrive as an actual community of believers or as a successful evangelistic tool. I thought of the Christians who would jump on the Second Life bandwagon under the guise of “reaching the lost”, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them.

    Perhaps I was too hasty. I’ve joined Second Life and look forward to seeing the sites, so to speak (that is, if I ever complete the stupid training exercises!). Unlike other Christians, I’m not a member for any reason other than sheer work-related curiosity. Too many SEO and interactive marketing companies are still playing catch up by joining MySpace. Forget that. MySpace is old news. It’s so old, in fact, that I don’t waste my time on it unless I want to search for new music. That is the #1 contribution MySpace made to my life: free and convenient access to music sampling.

    Second Life represents Web 3.0 technology. It’s not been said much, but it’s true. Virtual communities are the new frontier (to be followed shortly, no doubt, by 3-D holographic virtual communities). You don’t have to participate, and you won’t be “less cool” if you don’t, but you will be clueless.

    And for those of you who still think Second Life is “just a game”, Second Life users spent nearly 1.5 million dollars within the past 24 hours (according to Reuters). Major brand names, including sportswear and automobile manufacturers have swept in to take advantage of the virtual advertising space.

    This whole thing is huge. You’ll see. Soon enough Second Life will have its own doomsday prophets, referring to it as the path to Armageddon and the Antichrist… I know it sounds premature, but it’ll happen. I have absolute faith in the paranoia of the public.

    Though I have to say, be careful if you decide to venture out into the virtual space of Second Life. There is a lot of X-rated stuff going on there that can sneak up on you. That’s actually one of the main reasons why LifeChurch has a presence there. They know that it’s a place for people to hide their sins, and they hope to be a light in the virtual darkness. Kudos to them for trying. As long as they don’t attempt to become the virtual TBN, I wish them the best.

  • CBS Solves My Dilemma with InnerTube

    I just read on Search Engine Land that CBS has announced that they will be posting full episodes of shows on web portals like MSN and AOL. This is great news for me, since I have despised InnerTube since I first attempted to use it. InnerTube is the name of the player CBS currently uses on their website to play full episodes of NUMB3RS, NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, etc.

    Let me be as blunt as possible: CBS’ InnerTube is by far the WORST media player among the top 4 major network websites. ABC’s is probably the best. FOX uses MySpace, but since they refuse to provide episodes of House MD online, I give them the cold shoulder. NBC’s media player is middle of the road.

    And then there’s CBS. I tell you, I have gotten so frustrated with CBS for their stupid media player. Unlike every other network, it’s shows drop off and require restart over and over and over until you just want to throw your laptop against the wall and curse CBS until you’re blue in the face. Well, you get the picture.

    So now that they’ll be distributing their shows on other web portals, I can only hope that they don’t infest those portals with the scummy InnerTube. Here’s hoping each portal utilizes some sort of media player that actually works. Yeah… that would be nice.

  • Joost 0.9.1 is Gone Forever

    Without consulting me, Joost just threw up a new version – 0.9.2. My apologies to those who just recently received invitations. Your invites may still work on the newer version. I just don’t know. Please post a comment here if your invitation is not working and I will see what I can do about getting updated invites.

    Thanks.

  • Joost 0.9 Invitations Available!

    Joost sent me an email today announcing the release of the latest version of the online television software. Leave me a comment if you are interested in watching the new shows on Joost and I’ll choose a couple people to receive invitations to download the Joost 0.9 software.

    If you don’t speak up, I’ll give ’em away to somebody else!

  • What is Second Life and How Did It Get Compared to MySpace?

    I’m doing my thing the other day, reading my RSS feeds to catch up on the news, and I read this article about War Games and MySpace. I think to myself, that’s an odd phrase… hmmm… and I decide the title alone makes the post worth reading. Turns out there’s this group of smart kids at Harvard, MIT, and London Business School who annually participate in this conceptual business challenge. They select a topic and each group involved takes on a different business to calculate which business moves the company is likely to make and which company is likely to become the most profitable.

    Late last night, I decided to visit SecondLife.com and see what the buzz is all about. I quickly learned that participation with the site requires a software download and the option to insert your credit card or PayPal information for a bonus number of mythical online currency. I declined to offer my credit card info and proceeded to enlist as a free member.

    A few minutes later, I was in an online video game. I was a person walking around in a world filled with other online users. It’s crazy! Of course, it was late and my wireless speed slowed down the character movement, so I quickly lost interest for the night and turned off my computer.

    From what I gather, you first select the basic appearance of your character. You then walk around these informational areas, learning functionalities before actually entering the world of Second Life. I still don’t know what to expect from the game, and I doubt I’ll be spending much time on it, but I see definite potential for people in their teens and 20s especially, finding this the perfect escape from boredom or routine responsibilities.

    There are currently only a few million members on Second Life, so MySpace doesn’t have to worry about the competition just yet. However, I think Second Life may have figured out an alternative way to retain users online for long periods of time. I’ve yet to see proof of the actual potential to make money with this site, but it’s at least interesting enough to warrant a casual visit (though download time and such aren’t exactly conducive to someone interested in only snooping around for a few minutes).

    If you’ve tried Second Life or have heard a lot about it, feel free to fill in the gaps.

  • CBS Returns to Music

    After surrendering its music label to Sony, CBS is once again in the music business. CBS had found it increasingly difficult to arrange for new artist/song “visibility” in the highly competitive American market. Sony had folded the CBS label into its own, and has since failed to use the label name for any constructive purpose.

    It’s a new day in marketing, however, and CBS officials have raised their expectations of artist exposure and popularity. CBS plans to play music from the CBS label as soundtrack pieces for the shows airing on CBS, CW (formerly the Warner Brothers Network, WB), and other CBS owned stations. Primetime television soundtracks have exploded onto the scene within the past few years. The first show I remember seeing that both played real songs and promoted the artists was the alien / sci-fi show, Roswell, on the WB some five or six years ago. Perhaps there were other shows doing the same thing at the same time or before, but I cannot recall.

    In addition to television promotion, CBS will make label music available for download via Apple’s iTunes and also on CBS’ own website. More plans and strategies are expected to help the now fledgling sub-company get back on its feet.

    Television companies seem to hold a serious edge right now compared to all other non-radio forms of music advertising. People watch their favorite shows, and a good producer will tie in good music to enhance the feel and attachment from viewer to storyline. A well-placed ad at the end of each program (as done by Roswell) informing the audience of the name of the songs and artists included in the episode naturally persuade people to want that music.

    I bought Remy Zero’s album The Golden Hum, strictly because the song “Save Me” is the title song on the Smallville soundtrack. Of course, I previewed the rest of the album before purchasing because I can always buy songs individually on iTunes if the rest of the album isn’t as good. But this album had enough to persuade me to buy.

    It all began with watching a television show, and recognizing that the title song was a real purchasable song (though I don’t recall ever seeing advertising on the band during the show – I probably just wasn’t paying attention). I actually searched iTunes for Smallville because I wanted that song. That is the power of television episode soundtrack advertising.


  • Google Search Handles MySpace

    It’s pretty amazing what all Google has accomplished. From Blogger to YouTube, and I think even Flickr, Google is snatching up companies left and right. And they’ve got their thumbs in even more pies. Google is involved in a project with NASA. I’d give you more details but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. Then there’s Google powering search for MySpace. We all knew that was going to happen eventually. MySpace search was pathetic and it’s simply too powerful of a site to allow such high levels of suck.

    It still doesn’t do anything for my grudge against MySpace, though. One of my coworkers talks about Google like they’re the devil. He prefers to avoid all things Google including Analytics, Search, Maps, Blogs, and Video. He’s like those people who refuse to shop at Target or Barnes & Noble because it’s not fair for the little shop down the street trying to make an honest buck. He’s like that except he doesn’t support any little shops on the corners of streets trying to make an honest buck….

    So Google continues to make headlines. GoogleChat, GoogleEarth, GoogleTalk, Googlethis, Googlethat, Googleeverything.

    I’m all Googled out.