I figured since its been forever since i last posted, and even though I promised to do better, that was  clearly not true. So I figured instead of telling you all my BS about being a better blogger, I would just jump right in.

And what better way than to jump in than with a borderline appropriate topic!

Last week, I noticed a strange thing happening on on Facebook. Many of the women in my news stream were posting a color. Just a color and no more. The colors varied, but there was no explanation about the meaning on the colors.

So I Googled it, and didnt really come up with much and no one was talking. But then I found a source. A blogger who spilled the beans on what is going on. Sadly I dont remember who it was but the Washington Post did write about the camapign.The colors represent… Bra Color. It was in support of breast cancer to encourage women to do exams. No one seems to know where it originated from or who started it but rumors have been circulating that it was someone in Michigan. And, apparently the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation , but were thrilled to see it happening!

And why wouldnt they be! It was great for their cause.

What was truly amazing was how viral it went and so quickly. People generally get excited about a well thought out idea that they can relate to. And this one had every aspect to make it a successful campaign. It was engaging, creative, and best of all, there was an objective for a great cause.

I dont know if anyone knows how many people it reached, but it seems like it was alot.

Either way, although the exact source for it is currently unknown, the outcome is clear that this would be an excellent campaign to reference when going about any viral campaign.

While it appears that I have completely abandoned my blog, its not as it looks. I have been involved in lots of exploration (online tools, social media, blogging etc.) and digging (some may call it soul searching) as to what I want this blog to be about. And I have come up with some ideas.

So, to sum it up and give you an idea of what I am thinking, take a look at the caption. The caption under the title “wellsofvariety” which reads “b/c life is full of variety” will stay and continue to define my blog. Because frankly, “life is full of variety”.

But here is where I will begin to change things up:

For starters: I will be more on top of posting. No reason why I cant come up with a good post. 

The topics: while staying consistent with what I have been doing up till now, are going to be further developed. Example being “my first blog experiment” post. What happened to the second third and fourth experiment. Basically, they happened but they never were really reported on, and by this point, I am not sure I remember the out come well enough to report on it.

Finally: I am sure there are more changes and things that happen. Like, I could probably clean up my categories and it may be helpful to finally add that about me page (which is still a work in progress). I know all this and I know there is lots to be done, but for now, I want to get the content up and running.

So bear with me. It will be fun. And I will not disappoint.

Lately I have had this sneaky suspicion that I have been living a life in “The Matrix”, or something like that… perhaps?  And recently, my suspicions are proving more and more true. 

Just the other day XBox rolled out what they are calling Project Natal at the E3 conference. Its a highly interactive game that responds to our basic human movements and actions.

So who is this boy named Milo?

Milo is a little boy who lives in a virtual world and interacts with us. We are helping to shape the direction of the conversation. It is all new. Its personal.

In the Milo demonstration at the conference, we see a women named Claire who basically enters a virtual world. She sends objects into it, and in one instance actually puts herself in Milo’s world when she is playing with the water (her reflection in the water).

Now imagine for a second the kind of potential this technology has. What if we could feel objects, taste food, smell scents except in this virtual world using some kind of sensor. These senses are all responses of our brain. So, what if those senses could be artificially created and we could actually exist in an different type of reality? And if that reality was constantly changing and adapting, that would be living in another reality. If in this virtual world, the season changed from summer to winter and we actually began to experience the feeling of a chill on our body, how much more real would that be!

I am not exactly sure where I am taking this just yet. I am just so friggin blown away by the technology. So for now, enjoy the clip and let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Just remember, “There is no spoon”.

After taking a minor sabbatical from posting, it is now time to reenter the blogosphere full force. New name, new look and new focus.

And as I am all prepped and ready to embark on my personal branding journey, I sadly come to a horrifying realization. Check the screen shot from Google below.

It appears as though I am not the only Aaron Friedman who is active in the digital space.

I only made it to the 4th spot on Google Profile. And then there are the various search results for Aaron Friedman M.D.,  Aaron Friedman Comedian, and even Aaron Friedman musician or Artist! Not to mention the Aaron Friedman who hosts LivefromNJ.com which I am very often impressed by.

I couldn’t even buy a domain name like “AaronFriedman.com”. It was taken by a different Aaron Friedman. And he obviously beat me to it.

So begins the content war! In my journey to rebrand myself, my goal is to make such a presence online that not only do I take over page one of Google,  but I make it known that while there are other Aaron Friedmans out there, none can defeat me in the online world.

May the best Aaron Friedman win!

While my last post may not have been very interesting to many, there was a reason behind the post. I wanted to conduct a little experiment and teach myself a thing or two about directing traffic towards my site.

Here is what I did

I saw something that caught my eye. Nothing big, just that Nintendo has decided to release a new Zelda video game. As a little boy I used to play the original and as I got older Nintendo continued to release new games. The last one I played was a game called Ocarina of Time which was terrific.

With my limited Zelda knowledge, I decided this is a simple enough question to post and see if I can think of clever ways to drive traffic.

After writting the post, I googled Zelda Chat rooms and Zelda Forums. There must have been hundreds. So I chose two, registered myself and entered the chat room/forum.

In the chat room

My first stop was a chat room. When I first posed my question, I sensed a little aggression. Lots of comments like, “Where did you come from?”, “We don’t actually discuss Zelda in here”, and “Leave the chat, we don’t want your kind here” ( not sure what they meant by that last one).

After I calmed them down a little and they listened to what I had to say, a huge argument broke out amongst the chat room on this topic. There was name calling, Zelda insults etec. It was a disaster.

So I decided it was probably time to sneak out while I could.

In the Forum

Next I decided to try out a Forum. This was a much better idea. I could post what I want and just let it sit there while people viewed it and commented.

So I posted it under the title “Should Nintendo keep making more Zelda games?”

In less than 24 hours, I had 104 people view it and 13 responses (not the best stats but it was my first time trying it out and didn’t make a very sexy post).

Here are some of the comments I received:

“Seriously, you come to a Zelda fan site and ask if Zelda should stop being made?! How ’bout going back to it’s roots? Nintendo not making Zelda anymore would be worse than Nintendo keeping the Zelda’s this easy. Sure, I’d like them to be hard again, but an easy Zelda is better than no Zelda.”

“Getting rid of Zelda would completely get rid of the purpose of Nintendo, and the reason why we are all here.”

“If you want to dis Zelda games, and in extension, Nintendo, then go to a Zelda-dissing forum or something, but leave teh hardcore Zelda fans to their ranting about timelines and general concepts that after all these years still makes the game series a magnificent success! “

I didn’t realize my post would get so many people ticked off and I probably should have thought this through a little more before I did it.

In Conclusion/the results

I had a chance to analyze some of the metrics from this post. I saw a huge jump in visitors to my blog and almost all the new viewers came from the one forum I posted it on. So in that regard it was a huge success.

However, I intended to have these people visit my blog and then post their comments onto my page. This did not happen so in this regard I failed.

What I learned

I got many takeaways from this experience:

1. Zelda forums are not for discussing Zelda.
2. My thought process was good but my delivery was flawed. I should I have put more thought into the experiment before hand ( I will know for next time)
3. Driving traffic is very effective. If done properly you can expect to see some high volume brought to your site. With a little more time/effort I could have increased my viewers by huge numbers.
4. In order to drive the traffic, you cant just show up and expect people to visit.
   You need to build up rapport and establish yourself as an expert or knowledgeable in that space. If you do, they get pretty ticked off. So watch out for that.
5. I asked people to post responses on my blog and they didn’t. But they did respond on the forum. While they didn’t respond where I wanted, they did respond, which is a start.
6. There is a crowd for everything.

I will need to try this a couple more times to really get good at driving traffic to web sites. . .

But I will say that the first attempt was rather successful.

I see they are making a new Legend of Zelda for Nintendo DS. Now, while I am not one to oppose change or improvements on that which needs to be improved, there are some things that don’t need to be redone.

I make no judgments here, I am simply just making an observation.

The original Zelda was a fantastic game and I believe Nintendo outdid themselves with Ocarina of Time (I really don’t take up all my time with video games, but this Ocarina of Time was really quite amazing! See for yourselves here.)

What I am getting at is a simple question and take it as you will. Should Nintendo leave some things sacred or continue to resurrect them on new systems with similar plots?

Please share your comments.
Thanks!

Without getting into the whole debate on where our current modes of media are taking us, whether positive or negative (and this is a big discussion), and while it looks positive in the direction of Social Media, all of us in favor of where the world is headed can still poke fun at the jokes “flying” around there. Like this one. I just stumbled upon this. It comes from Super News! (Similar to JibJab minus the singing).

I guess I just never imagined the Twitter bird would sound like that!

FAIL WHALE!