Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten » Twitter http://bomega.com Internet Entrepreneur, Public Speaker, Blogger Thu, 24 May 2012 09:02:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Gurus #11: Twitter Special with Francisco van Jole http://bomega.com/2009/03/17/gurus-11-twitter-special-with-francisco-van-jole/ http://bomega.com/2009/03/17/gurus-11-twitter-special-with-francisco-van-jole/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:49:35 +0000 Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten http://bomega.com/?p=1165 Yesterday I was interviewed by Francisco van Jole in my own show. We talked about Twitter. Enjoy:

]]> http://bomega.com/2009/03/17/gurus-11-twitter-special-with-francisco-van-jole/feed/ 2 GURUS #4 with… my mother! http://bomega.com/2008/11/14/gurus-4-with-my-mother/ http://bomega.com/2008/11/14/gurus-4-with-my-mother/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:03:33 +0000 Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten http://bomega.com/?p=1119 Yes, you can now watch GURUS episode number 4 on BlueShots.TV. Want to know how I learned how to read, how ‘older’ people deal with technology and why my mother has a blog and uses Twitter and a a few other things you didn’t know about me? Watch it now:

]]> http://bomega.com/2008/11/14/gurus-4-with-my-mother/feed/ 3 V3.com VS TwitterCounter.com http://bomega.com/2008/08/06/v3com-vs-twittercountercom/ http://bomega.com/2008/08/06/v3com-vs-twittercountercom/#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:46:25 +0000 Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten http://bomega.com/?p=1004 In 1997 I started working on an idea I had for a redirect service based on domains from Tonga. I registered come.to, surf.to and welcome.to and together with two friends (Hans-Poul and Eric) we started a company called V3.com. We ended up selling our company in 1999 to Fortunecity.

That is a short version of that story as I have talked about it a lot before. What I wanted to talk about is how similar V3.com was to TwitterCounter.com. Don’t get me wrong: they served completely different purposes and technically they were very different too but there are a few very distinct similarities which I would like to show you:

V3.com TwitterCounter.com
TwitterCounter for @bomega
Yes, both services have a button. With V3 only people who were really happy with the service (a lot!) added this button to their homepages. At TwitterCounter you could say that the button IS the service so that makes this viral growth aspect even more powerful.
generated money from advertisement generates money from advertisement
Well, that sorta makes sense right? The funny thing is that most people (now and then) don’t realize how powerful this service is when it comes to advertising. Both services are pretty low maintenance and with every new member you get a few extra new ad views a day. All you have to do is increase membership and with it ad views will increase as well.
Disgarded as ‘funny but not a real business’ Disgarded as ‘funny but not a real business’
Not that I’m complaining here but this one keeps amazing me. When I was working on V3.com I had to defend myself all the time. When I explained the concept I would either get a blank stare or people would say “You are out of your mind, this isn’t going anywhere, who would be interested in THAT’. I never understood that people couldn’t see the potential for the service. Same goes for TwitterCounter. Yeah, it’s a funny little thing I threw together in a few hours. But with every new member I get another banner, and link to TwitterCounter generating a few more visitors a day, generating a little more advertising revenue, and new members. Repeat that last sentence 10 times and you might get an idea of the potential behind TwitterCounter.
Weak spot: Domain prices? Weak spot: Twitter future?
Another similarity is that there was a big weak spot that is easily recognizable in both services. At V3.com it was clear that as soon as domain names would become really cheap we wouldn’t really have a business left. At TwitterCounter I am completely depended of Twitter. If they stumble, close down, change their policies and become less open, or even lose their market share because of the Next Twitter I’m gone.
Excitement: high! Excitement: high!
I’m really excited about Twittercounter in a very similar way as I was with V3.com. It is very exciting to browse the web and just randomly see your own product featured on blogs and websites. My partner in V3 (Hans-Poul) once told me he was driving around in his car and felt slightly depressed for no particular reason. When he stopped for a red light he looked out of his side window, through the rain, and saw a sign on a restaurant. In big yellow letters they had printed “Surf.to/Shoarma” on their window. He felt a lot better right away! I get a similar feeling when I brose to Leo Laporte’s website and see a TwitterCounter (leolaporte has 51,738 followers!) displayed prominently.

Ok, I hope that gives you some insight into what I liked about V3.com and currently like about TwitterCounter.com. To finish this post I will answer a question that you might have right now: Do I think that I will sell TwitterCounter for a lot of money (or shares) just like I did with V3.com?

The answer: I don’t know, but lets find out…

]]> http://bomega.com/2008/08/06/v3com-vs-twittercountercom/feed/ 5 The ONLY Black iPhone In The World http://bomega.com/2007/10/30/the%c2%a0only-black-iphone-in-the-world/ http://bomega.com/2007/10/30/the%c2%a0only-black-iphone-in-the-world/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:11:16 +0000 Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten http://bomega.com/2007/10/30/the%c2%a0only-black-iphone-in-the-world/ Black iPhoneA few weeks ago I dropped my iPhone on the kitchen floor and cracked the glass. I was extremely disappointed and shared my feelings on Twitter.

But then Oscar Kneppers came up with a beautiful plan. I’m not going into all the details here because I want to leave that to Bright Magazine but it involved Mark Hoekstra and you can see the result here:

The Black iPhone:
http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/822/paint-it-black-the-iphone

I am so proud that MY old iPhone is now THE coolest iPhone in the world!

Please also Digg the story:
http://digg.com/gadgets/The_ONLY_Black_iPhone_in_the_World

Now also on Gizmodo:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/iphone/iphone-mod-thinks-differently-316602.php

And on the unofficial Apple weblog:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/29/iphone-or-newton/

Make Magazine:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/10/old_school_iphone.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

]]> http://bomega.com/2007/10/30/the%c2%a0only-black-iphone-in-the-world/feed/ 5 My Twitter Updates for 2007-10-01 http://bomega.com/2007/10/01/my-twitter-updates-for-2007-10-01/ http://bomega.com/2007/10/01/my-twitter-updates-for-2007-10-01/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:59:59 +0000 http://bomega.com/2007/10/01/my-twitter-updates-for-2007-10-01/
  • Started my day with waking up too late. Even the girls were still sleeping at 8:15. #
  • I have a dead iPhone (DOA) here that needs to be exchanged at an
    Apple store in the US. Who is going? #
  • Hacking my new iPhone. My 3rd one actually. Dropped 1st one, 2nd one was DOA, this is 3rd one. #
    • ]]>     http://bomega.com/2007/10/01/my-twitter-updates-for-2007-10-01/feed/ 0     My Twitter Updates for 2007-09-30 http://bomega.com/2007/09/30/my-twitter-updates-for-2007-09-30/ http://bomega.com/2007/09/30/my-twitter-updates-for-2007-09-30/#comments Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:59:59 +0000 http://bomega.com/2007/09/30/my-twitter-updates-for-2007-09-30/
  • @biz: thanks for stopping by and bringing Olivia. Glad that you liked
    my soup… #
    • ]]>     http://bomega.com/2007/09/30/my-twitter-updates-for-2007-09-30/feed/ 0     My Twitter Updates (2007-09-29) http://bomega.com/2007/09/29/my-twitter-updates-2007-09-29/ http://bomega.com/2007/09/29/my-twitter-updates-2007-09-29/#comments Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:59:59 +0000 Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten http://bomega.com/2007/09/29/my-twitter-updates-2007-09-29/ As you can see I installed a plug-in that fetches my Twitter Updates and posts them here once a day. This also means I will be changing the way I Twitter. If every Update I do ends up here it means I should try to make updates that are interesting even if taken out of context.

    I’m not sure if that will work but I will give it a try.

    This is the first batch of Twitter Updates:

    • @thijsjacobs: iPhone sucks. Busy with stuff… #
    • I love the iPhone but I just miss my Blackberry too much. Today I
      switched back. How about that… #
    • Who has bought FD today and wants to send me a photo of the page that
      has an interview with me including Guido van Nispen photos? #
    • Are Twitter and Flickr a distraction or divergence from blogging.
      Look forward to comments. http://tinyurl.com/232c77
      divergence/ #
    • Unpacked my new iPhone today. Dead on arrival. I’m juts not luicky with the iPhone #
    • Shopping for sidenight dinner with picnic speakers. 20 people in 2 hours and no plan…. #

    Just in case you don’t know what Twitter is: Twitter is a website where people answer the question “What are you doing now”. You can have people following your updates and you can follow other people and check out what they do. It can be a convenient way to keep up to date with what your friends are doing. Some people also use it to report on events and others use it to chat. There are no real rules yet on how you should use Twitter which makes it an exciting phenomena to play with.

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