…at least when you’re working with Adwords.
Today is the first time I’ve worked with adwords in almost a year and they are still sneaky with their bid “recommendations”.  They suggested I bid $1.25 per click. I remember them being sneaky two years ago, so I decided to low ball them with a 20 cent bid. Of course, the “your bid is too low” errors followed on the keywords page. But it didn’t tell me I needed to bid $1.25 to get on the first page of results, …

Social gaming is a fiercely competitive industry. Just look at how quickly and widely successful models like Zynga’s Frontierville or Playdom’s Social City are ripped off by eager copycats. Even Farmville started off as a clone of another popular title, Farm Town. The rewards of cultivating a captive gaming audience certainly justify the efforts. In the past year or so, Zynga’s estimated market capitalization has risen to over $5 billion and we’ve seen traditional media companies like EA and Disney snap up social gaming companies like Playfish and Playdom for …

This is a guest post by Walter Chen, co-founder of Leasely.  Below he muses over his experiences applying for the Y Combinator & Tech Stars seed funding programs.
Before our Y Combinator interview, Rodrigo, Nathan, Silas and I bummed around in a park.  We each tried to find our zen place, I guess.  I think Nathan was asleep.  The night before, Silas snored like a bear and Nathan proposed that we drink bottles of Guinness.  I don’t think any of us slept well, Silas aside.  Rodrigo got up early to finish some …

It wasn’t long ago that I was envious of others working at coworking offices.  I was living in New Jersey traveling to New York City for meetups.  I was jealous of those working at The Hive at 55 or New Work City.  I wanted to be in an office with cool startups and be a part of “the scene”.  After I moved to Boston, I doubled my freelance workload and soon  felt comfortable enough to purchase space at a coworking office in Boston.  Workbar Boston was the new home of …

The following article takes a look at the state of entrepreneur business models and projections and how they can maximize value by taking notice of the level of distrust in the vast majority of American consumers.
Predictable Irrationality
In Dan Ariely’s Book, Predictable Irrationality, he showcases his experiments in Behavioral Economics.  In one such experiment, Ariely creates a booth at a crowded commercial area in Cambridge Massachusetts.  He erects a banner that reads “Free Money.” and gives away free bills for few hours.
What percentage of people do you think stopped by and …

I read The Dip by Seth Godin a few weeks ago.  For those not familiar with The Dip, Godin’s book helps you figure out when it’s time to quit.  In a typical startup, there will be many dips.  I define a dip as anything that makes you question what you’re doing.  Have 1,000 visitors to your website last week and not 1 signup?  That’s a dip.  Send your startup link to a friend with excitement only to receive “advice” that your idea stinks and you should get a full time job? …