Ryan Thomas Goodenough

Over the next couple months, I will be attending a few conferences to finish up my Certificate in Direct Marketing from the DMA. As a result, I will have a good opportunity to meet some nice, interesting people. Unfortunately, I’ll also meet my share of bad conference people. Among the many candidates, my least favorite conference attendee is the “Mmm Hmm!”-ers.

So who are these people? These are the people who have to verbally agree with whatever the presenter is saying. Even if they have no idea what the presenter is talking about, even if he or she is sharing a personal story, even if the presenter is telling an inside joke–they have to say “Mmm Hmm!” Of course, these are also the same people who will laugh at any joke the presenter makes, even when it’s not supposed to be a joke.

Thankfully, these people will certainly be in the minority and, in many ways, they make the conference more enjoyable. Not because I enjoy what they do, but because I love to catch everyone else giving them bad looks. It’s nice to know that you’re not alone in getting annoyed. Misery loves company, I guess!

For the last few days, Eric and I have been trying different routes back to Albany in his Suzuki SX4.  It’s a good thing that it has 4-wheel drive, because some of the roads are pretty bad!  One trip led us pass a true beauty of a home–huge excavation/pond digging in the front yard, a hollowed out bus with a slide for kids, and a fairly large pirate ship with another slide.  Now that’s just special.

Also along this road was perhaps the best side road ever–Bloody Hollow Road.  I mean, come on, don’t you want to live at One Bloody Hall Road?  Can you imagine inviting friends and family over?

What follows is the piece I wrote today for AIER’s research commentaries:

Our recent commentary on financial fraud shed some light on what is becoming a bigger and bigger problem:

With more than 468,000 reported incidents of financial fraud in 2006 and another 246,000 reported incidents of identity theft in the United States, according to Consumer Sentinel, an online complaint database, Americans need to redouble their efforts to protect their finances and financial reputations.

One way that some Americans think that they will protect their finances is by not “going online.” Their theory is that creating a username and password opens the door to all sorts of trouble. Now, if you are the type of person that leaves your username and password on a Post-It note pasted on your computer monitor then, yes, this might be a serious concern. However, most of your financial information is already online.

Don’t believe me? Pay attention to the teller the next time you are making a deposit at your local bank. They are logged into a computer, accessing your account by entering your account number, and transferring funds over the Internet. Creating a username and password simply allows you to have access to similar tools.

Here are some tips for entering the world of online finances:

• Practice self-surveillance after going online. Monitor your financial accounts on a daily or weekly basis. Look at charges and make sure you know what they are. Many online accounts allow you to setup email or phone alerts if a suspicious charge is posted. In fact, by going online you will be doing a better job of protecting yourself from financial fraud than if you had made the decision not to.
• Make sure to create a unique username and password for each and every one of your financial accounts and change them at least every six months. While it might be easier to have a single username and password, the modest cost of creating and recording several different combinations pales in comparison to the large benefit of keeping your identity secure.

One of the SEO (search engine optimization) practices that I’m currently working on at AIER is looking through search results for terms on which I know we should be ranking high. For example, we wrote a piece on the Tyranny of the Fed that is quite good, especially given its title. However, one of the things I’ve found is that when you do a Google search for “Tyranny of the Fed,” while it is often at the top of the results page, it lists the following as the detailed text information:

AIER is a nonprofit, nonpolitical economic research organization that conducts educational programs and provides useful and informative economic information…

Why does this appear? Joomla!, the open-source software we’re using to power our site, had an option to fill out a meta description of the site. Joomla! then inserts this information at the top of every page. While this is useful for our main page, it isn’t great for pages within the site. Looking at this example, it would be better if Google showed a preview of the article with some of the keywords in bold. With the meta description dominating the description, it doesn’t create the best user experience.

Needless to say, we’re working on fixing this, but this is why it’s important to look at your search results for terms for which you know you should have a high ranking.

Back when I was working at Bunker’s Wharf a few summers ago, Bill Osgood (the owner) loved to play Norah Jones’ debut album during dinnertime.  At first, it was fine.  You know, nice smooth jazz, with Jones’ unique voice.  But by the end of the summer, I never wanted to hear Norah Jones again.  Yes, it’s smooth jazz, but I’m just not sure if I’m a jazz repeat listener.  After all, the reason why I like to listen to jazz is the impromptu elements–something that you won’t hear on the 50th listen to the same song.

Worrisome Heart reminds me instantly of Norah Jones.  It may be a bit more relaxed than some of Jones’ hits, but it certainly has that feel.  The song has a nice build to it, both lyrically and instrumentally.  That being said, I can’t see myself loving this song three or four listens later.  Not bad for the short term, but I’m not so sure about the long term.

Grade: B-

Does it scare anyone else that Freddie (my car) is in this picture? This is right outside my apartment–I hope he wasn’t too scared of the creepy person taking the photo.

You know I love technology (trans: dork), but there is obviously a line between what you can do and what you should do.  Personally, I’m fine with this, but I do think we are beginning to tread too closely to a major security risk (I could care less about privacy–the only place where I believe I have a reasonable expectation of privacy is in my windowless, tiny bathroom).

After enjoying some nice weather for basketball recently, I decided to take a break and resume my exploration of the woods surrounding AIER with Eric.  As you may recall, we got to the waterfall last time, but had to turn around on the path because it was covered in water.  This time, we were much luckier and the good weather had dried out everything.

We didn’t find anything extraordinarily impressive, but there was one property that neither he nor I was previously aware of–it even had its own large pond.  The path made for a nice hike and it was good to get so much fresh air.  It’s pretty nice to be able to work somewhere where you can take a hike on your lunch break.  Not too bad, I guess!

Keep your eyes out for the next installment of “Exploring AIER.”

This past Wednesday and Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending Matt Bailey’s seminar on Web Marketing hosted by the Direct Marketing Association in New York City (see Times Square on the right). As a proud member of the DMA, I must say that I thought Matt’s presentation hit on a lot of important issues when it comes to web design and maintenance. Namely easy navigation, simplistic (but not overly simplistic) design, and some good search engine optimization tips. For example, he explained to us how important it is that we not use “click here” or “more” hyperlinks. 1) These won’t carry the same weight with search engines and 2) They are simply not user friendly (unless, of course, your user is completely unfamiliar with the idea that a word highlighted in blue and underlined is a hyperlink–if that’s the case, I’m not sure what you do). Overall, it was an excellent seminar and I’m glad that AIER let me attend.

Uh oh, another female version of Jack Johnson. Have I told you how much I don’t like Colbie Caillat?

This is much better however! Prettyman’s voice has a nice tone and she knows how to get the most out of her range. I’m not a big fan of the verses, but the refrain has a good flow. It’s slightly more up tempo than the “I’m in California, so I’m going to sit back and sing the verse ‘bubbly’ slow”-style. The bridge works well, although I would have loved to see an a capella ending to the song.

Grade: B

1991–The second year of the 90s saw the release of plenty of my favorite albums. R.E.M.’s Out of Time, Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes, U2’s Achtung Baby, and, heck, did I mention Disney’s Beauty and the Beast soundtrack? But no album was more captivating than Marc Cohn’s self-title debut. For years, I tried to locate this album. While Cohn won a Grammy for Best New Artist, he sort of disappeared after this album. As a result, by the time I knew who had done the songs, the album was much more difficult to locate.

“Walking in Memphis” is one of those all-time great pop songs. But the great thing about the album is that Cohn shows off a blues side as well on most of the other tracks. “Silver Thunderbird” should have been another great classic, while “29 Ways” successfully switches genres altogether. Fantastic album.