Ways to Save Money

The economy being what it is, I've been doing some research recently on easy ways to save money without completely altering your lifestyle. Here are a few tips:

Save on your car insurance. Remember that Geico commercial about "15 minutes could save you 15 percent"? Well, that was actually good advice, but to get the best rate you shouldn't just call Geico. You can save hundreds of dollars a year by spending a few minutes comparing rates between car insurance companies. It's a competitive business and hey definitely want your business. Two of the better online sites to compare car insurance are Really Cheap Car Insurance and if you want to get even less expensive, Very Cheap Car Insurance. Both allow you to compare quotes from multiple companies with the click of the mouse.

To save money you really have to get handle on how you spend it. The single best online application I have found for this is Mint.com. Mint links in to your checking, savings, and credit card accounts to track where everything goes. You can easily see trends and create budgets. Mint an even send you an alert when you have exceeded a monthly budget item, or your bank account is getting low. Clearly a lot of time and thought was put into the creation of Mint because it combines ease of use with very powerful features.

Make your own lunch. Sounds simple, but it really does save you lots of money over the course of the year. I used to always go out and buy lunch and inevitably the bill could come to at least $10 when you throw in chips and soda. You can make lunch at home for less than $2 per meal. So over the course of a week you're saving $40. Over the course of a year you're saving more than $2,000!

If you turn down your thermostat by just one degree you could save 10% on your heating bills. Over the course of a cold winter that really adds up.

So there you have it - a few easy to implement ways to save money that won't take a huge change in lifestyle.

iPhone: The Good and the Bad

I've had my iPhone for about two weeks now. Thought I'd weigh in with what's great and not so great about it:

Great:

• Overall interface rocks! Who knew a cell phone could be fun to use? About 90% of the phone is completely intuitive. I glanced at the manual for about 30 seconds and was able to figure everything out. That's a feat of user interface design!

• Maps. Who knew you could get so dependent on a phone mapping program in a matter of a week? I'm in New York for the summer and the iPhone mapping feature has been awesome in locating restaurants, stores, etc. This weekend I'm using it for driving directions. Just great all around.

• Web browsing. I switched from a Treo to the iPhone and I hated, hated, hated trying to surf the web on the Treo. The iPhone's hi-res screen combined with Safari makes web surfing a joy, especially when on a wi-fi network.

• Email is awesome. The interface for checking Gmail is beautiful!

• Photos. The entire interface for browsing and zooming in on photos is amazing. Can't say I use it that much, but it's nice to show off. :-)
  

The Not-So-Great:

• No task lists! I had become entirely dependent on the Treo's task list feature. It keeps bugging you to do something until you have actually got it done. The iPhone has Apple's iCal program, but no efficient way of adding tasks. I've started adding tasks as appointments in the calendar, but this takes awhile and there's no way to dismiss a reminder and have it remind you again later, like there is on the Treo. I definitely hope Apple adds this functionality to the next version of the iPhone.

• Keyboard. There's been endless discussion about the keyboard or lack thereof on the iPhone. I find the on screen keyboard very hard to use, at least so far. I had become pretty adept at typing with two thumbs on the Treo. This seems to be virtually impossible on the iPhone. I have to hold the phone in one hand anf then tap the keyboard with the index finger of my other hand. Not very efficient. Even when using my index finger I find that I type the wrong keys on a regular basis. Hopefully this will get better with time, but so far it's pretty annoying. One thing that Apple could do on the next release is allow the keyboard to swivel horizontally when you turn the iPhone on its side.

• The AT&T network. Painfully slow. I was already on Cingular, so I knew how slow it was going in to this, but since the iPhone makes it so much easier to surf and check email I find that I'm using the network much more now.

So, overall, would I buy the iPhone again? Yes, I think I would. But I tend not to use the phone too heavily for business applications. If I was depending on the phone to type the majority of my email or keep up with tasks, I would have stayed with the Treo.

3 Ideas to Get CNET Moving

As a long-time CNET shareholder, I was more than a little disappointed by the company's most recent lackluster quarterly earnings report. Quarterly revenue rose just 10% year-over-year and CNET broke even on a continuing basis. Not horrendous, but certainly not what one expects from a fast growing Internet company.

It's been quite awhile since CNET displayed real signs of life. Here are three ideas to kickstart the company:

• Pare down. While CNET has undergone waves of layoffs, it's still not enough. CNET needs to focus on more efficient ways of creating content. The company has to take a hard look at its business lines and ruthlessly cut those that are underperforming. Any division that's not growing revenues by at least 15% year should be axed. Is this easy? Of course not, but trimming the dead weight allows CNET to focus its resources on areas that have the potential for rapid growth.
  

• Harness user-generated content. One of CNET's biggest successes in recent years has been TV.com, a site that attracts 19 million users a month and is powered almost entirely by user created content. There is a built-in advertiser base of TV networks and an incredibly low cost to run the site. Why not take this unbelievably efficient model and apply it to complementary areas? CNET has a huge user base (144 million people visit CNET properties each month) that could be leveraged to get community sites going on a variety of topics. How about a user generated music site? A gadgets site? Let users connect in areas that are important to them - that's what web 2.0 is all about. To its credit, it looks like CNET is starting to do this with its new FilmSpot site. But the company should be running 100 miles an hour in this direction, not taking baby steps.

• Buy or co-opt blogs. How does CNET maintain its user base while cutting back its business lines? Tap into the blogosphere. Blogs are an infinitely more efficient publishing platform than traditional content creation with its layers of editors, designers, copywriters, etc. CNET has two options in this area. It can go buy some of the most prominent (and fast growing) tech blogs. Or, better yet, create a tech blog advertising network. CNET already has the deep ties into technology advertisers. Why not select a handful of the best tech blogs, make them "CNET Approved" and agree to sell advertising for them, splitting revenues 50/50. Even with a 50% revenue share, these small blogs would still be making a lot more money from the higher ad rates CNET could achieve. This gives CNET more ad pages without spending a dime.

CNET has a lot going for it: a strong brand, an enormous tech-savvy audience that advertisers should be lusting after, and a fundamentally sound business model. With the right guidance CNET could a great Internet company. But half-steps won't get you there - bold moves will.

Art & Websites

I went to SFMOMA today to check out the excellent Brice Marden exhibition. If you live in the Bay Area and like painting, do not miss this show. As I stood transfixed by some of Marden's amazing canvases, I saw people flying by, spending just seconds on each painting and it reminded me how much I need art on a regular basis.

Good art, like Marden's, slows you down. It forces you to really look at something - the details, the colors, the shapes - and to be sensitive to the effect it has on you. Marden's colors are so evocative of places and times and memories, but only if you give them a moment to work on you. If you walk by quickly, all you see are boring rectangles or lines of colors and the magic is lost.

The speed by which people passed by these quiet paintings was not surprising. Nothing about contemporary life is about slowing down, so when you're faced with something that demands sustained attention it's hard.

Nowhere is life sped up more than on the web. I was reading somewhere that a typical user spends five seconds in front of a new website. If they don't get it immediately they move on. I'm not criticizing - I do it too. As someone who is currently working on a website, knowing this fact forces me to simplify and clarify the user experience and that's a good thing.

The downside to all this rushing, however, is that it becomes harder and harder to slow down. And that's when we miss really special experiences like being mesmerized by great painting.

10 Worst Web 2.0 Names

Picking a name for a website these days is hard - really hard. I know - I've just been through the process. We went through three different site names before finally landing on YourStreet (which, by the way, launches today). There are so many name squatters out there - people who have registered domain names with no intention of ever using them - that pretty much any name you can dream up is now taken.

Seems like there's an unwritten rule now that to be considered a Web 2.0 company your name has to end in "io", "eo" "ia", etc. But the difficulty in finding a name is no excuse for some of the abominations we see out there. It's never easy to tell someone their company name sucks, but someone's gotta do it. So here is my take on the top 10 worst Web 2.0 names:

10. Blufr, Grazr, SoonR, Socializr, Stockpickr, Talkr, Zapr - enough with "r"s already! Yes, Flickr sounds cool. Blufr does not.

9. Neighboroo, Newroo, Squidoo - what's with all the "oo" names? Are these companies trying to market themselves to kindergarteners?

8. Famster - this is a social network for families. The site's hamster-looking mascot only re-emphasizes what a horrid name this is.

7. PageFlakes - does your site have dandruff?

6. Megite - I'm not even sure why I don't like this one. It just makes my teeth hurt.

5. Citizendium - Believe me, adding "dium" after citizen does not make it any sexier.

4. Agloco - quite the mouthful

3. Competitous - great - have a boring name that you can't spell and means nothing

2. Tailrank - "tail" meaning hindquarters, "rank" meaning smelly or foul. Why on God's green earth would you want to combine these two words?

1. Klostu - where to begin with this one? Quick word association: colostomy, klutz - not good words to be associating with your company.

OK, I will be the first to admit I'm being hard on these companies. And I also want to emphasize that I cast no aspersions on their business models. All of these companies may turn out to be wildly successful. But it will not be because of their names.

Next up: 10 Best Web 2.0 names (and yes, there are 10 good ones out there, believe it or not).

YourStreet.com Launches This Friday the 13th

We've chosen lucky Friday the 13th of April to officially launch the YourStreet.com website.

YourStreet.com is a new online community that brings neighbors together to learn and share vital details about their local area. YourStreet.com is the only real estate website to link up homeowners, buyers and renters at the neighborhood level.

YourStreet.com empowers consumers to make smarter decisions about where to buy or rent. Learning about a neighborhood is a crucial step in the home buying or renting process, but until now community information online has consisted of business reviews or dry statistics.

YourStreet.com brings neighborhoods to life by tapping into the unique perspectives of local experts – the people who live there. Local residents and those from outside an area can gain valuable insider knowledge about a community by learning what neighbors say about topics like the quality of local schools, how the housing market is faring in their area, how long the commute is, and how new developments will affect the neighborhood.

For a press release on the launch as well as screenshots and logos, see the YourStreet Blog.

YourStreet Beta Testing Starts

I'm pleased to announce that the YourStreet real estate site has started public beta testing. Head on over to www.yourstreet.com and give it a try.

We're still working out all the kinks and adding all the content, so the site is a bit rough around the edges. However, you'll be able to experience the functionality that will create the most comprehensive real estate information and community site on the web.

Your feedback is important to help us build a better site, so please click on the Feedback link at the bottom of each page, or leave a comment here to let me know what you think.

I hope you like it!