Comments by Kevin Priddle (Top 82 by date)

Still need to reach out to Top CodeProject authors and build a better list of "influencers" that we can send article/review writing opportunities to, but putting this task on hold for now until I have more time freed up.

Last discussion on this was in an email thread between Eric, Chris, Cheong and I back at the end of April.

Putting this task on hold until we have time to revisit, but the latest status is basically:

- There are two elements: i) ownership and ii) right-to-use. It is possible for DM to own, and give the client the right to use. Let’s focus on what we and the client can and can’t do with the final product.

- The suggested approach is that by default (i.e. unless someone specifically asks otherwise) our T&Cs should give Developer Media ownership of all custom articles, reviews, and other content we produce and give clients right-to-use.

Once this is clear, Cheong can then refine the ownership / right-to-use distinction.

IO has been sent to Intel for signature.

Next tasks to complete before launching the contest:

- Get the contest page designed and set up
- Get banners designed by Marcin
- Figure out prize budget and prizing
- Contest Terms and Conditions

2,100 value-add clicks to their landing page as of today.

This additional promo and the Gear 2 Giveaway finish by end of week.

Neat directory of IoT companies that Meagon forwarded to me: http://postscapes.com/companies/

- As of this morning we've driven and additional 1,130 clicks through to the Samsung landing page via our Gear 2 Giveaway promotions
- Pete O'Hanlon still working on his Gear 2 article, says he will have something together for us by the weekend so we can announce in the newsletters next week
- Waiting on approval from the client to start doing "social media" promo

Working Contest Design and Planning Doc available here:
https://docs.google.com/a/codeproject.com/document/d/1OMMvNWYcvSs-_WImUMIc5qRhBJDs1wiXu28ecbFcccg/edit?usp=sharing

Working List of Proposed Articles available here:
https://docs.google.com/a/codeproject.com/document/d/1M3v4KZWjbIF9F3N53C5eSXsHpHahQditGPF6hlGWqBg/edit?usp=sharing

Samsung Gear 2 Giveaway extra promotions are now live and running. Registration page for the giveaway is here: https://www.codeproject.com/ResearchLibrary/55/Win-a-Free-Samsung-Gear-Neo

I approve of the beer selection here. Excellent choice :)

Assets received and campaign launched today.

Brief summary of the submission stats and contest performance available here: https://docs.google.com/a/codeproject.com/document/d/1-TrMWtw-_m_Kkx1cJqpZt12HU_7p8ppqWd9ujeNnx7A/edit?usp=sharing

Now closing this task.

Will be reaching out to the list of top CodeProject authors that Sean compiled and ask if anyone wants to be included on our list of "influencers" that we send article/review writing opportunities.

Need to draft a basic "sign up" form where authors can fill in a short bio about themselves, areas of expertise, links to blog, links to social media accounts and links to examples of past writing/projects.

Compiling a final report this week and then this task will close.

Planning document in the works and available here: https://docs.google.com/a/codeproject.com/document/d/1OMMvNWYcvSs-_WImUMIc5qRhBJDs1wiXu28ecbFcccg/edit?usp=sharing

Review completed. Waiting for feedback and approval from the client.

Alvin Ashcraft has completed the review (first draft, and second draft with revisions) and client has approved. Just need to confirm when Aspose would like the posting to go live.

Kick-off call scheduled Tuesday June 3 at 8:30am. Have to arrange author agreement and timelines after meeting.

Review completed and posted to Product Showcase and Jon Flander's Blog.

Won't accept any additional leads.

Pete O'Hanlon is working on an article about developing for the Gear 2 wearable.

The Samsung Gear 2 Giveaway that we are planning to give out 5 free wearables to members is on hold until we receive a tracking link from the agency.

Stats report (contracted and value add) sent out by Katie on Friday afternoon.

Need to assemble some stats for reporting and then this task will close.

Week 4 winners announced yesterday. Working with Sean to judge the next round of articles which have to be announced Monday.

Over 50 registrations as of this morning. I've briefed Heidi on how to handle the leads that come through and which ones should be sent the promo code.

Lisa received a message from Rick yesterday that some of our AdWords messaging was conflicting with their own CL Marketing Messaging. Dina is working with someone on their team to get approved messaging.

We also launched a LinkedIn ad campaign yesterday that seems to be performing well and will be putting more of our ad budget into those ads than AdWords.

We have approximately $363/day to spend on ads for the next 10 days. Rough budget will be $150 into AdWords and $200 into LinkedIn ads.

DevNet Registration Page: https://www.codeproject.com/ResearchLibrary/54/Free-Explorer-Pass-for-DevNet-at-Cisco-Live

1 page PDF document with promo code and instructions for members on how to register in the task attachments.

DevNet Registration Page: https://www.codeproject.com/ResearchLibrary/54/Free-Explorer-Pass-for-DevNet-at-Cisco-Live

1 page PDF document with promo code and instructions for members on how to register in the task attachments.

Rough outlines of plans/stages for the Influencer program available here: https://docs.google.com/a/developermedia.com/document/d/1MJw0UBqg1lM-tI0Mu1VEfTxJrOj76hYtCdPW5ZVQYbs/edit#heading=h.655dg1d8rih5

Proposal has been completed and was sent to Michael Holmlund evening of Friday 25 April. Proposal PDF doc attached.

[Wearables DevCon](http://www.wearablesdevcon.com/)

Justin has responded that they'd like to work with Alvin Ashcraft on this project. Next step is to draft an author agreement for Alvin, secure the product license and get him started on the review writing process.

Signed author agreement has been received. Waiting for some more direction on the contents of the review from the client and then the author will begin writing.

New sell sheets have been released. Gaining access to the website to update the related materials and FAQ still needed (being tracked in a separate task).

75/75 leads delivered as of Monday April 21. Campaign complete.

Will have Lisa follow up to see if the client wants to extend the campaign/order additional leads.

[Oracle/Java's IoT Developer Challenge](https://www.java.net/challenge)

[Cisco Press Release](http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1404230) announcing:

1. The 2014 Internet of Things World Forum will be taking place in Chicago, October 14-16
2. IoT Challenge ($250K in prizes) launching April 21

Products/Deliverables actually being included in the program have been decided. Updated Sell Sheets pretty much done, just need to gain access to the website to update it accordingly.

3 IOs out for the KickStart program now (1 Gold, 2 Silver), waiting for them to return signed and then will begin work on launching these first campaigns.

61/75 leads delivered as of Monday April 14.

This is becoming more of a priority. Currently there is no easy way for AdOps to keep track of leads delivered (other than manually rearranging line items in DART each week) and creates more chance for errors in billing/accounting.

The Zerys solution has many great features that could help streamline the custom content creation process and is relatively very cheap. The whitelabelling options look great from a client perspective, not so much from the author/influencer experience though.

With the addition of ::Docs I'd like to explore using our own Workspaces solution for custom article and product review creation.

Contact at Novalys has returned the questionnaire to help us provide us background on the product they want reviewed and what kind of author would be ideal. Will reach out to our pool of influencers and start the search for a reviewer.

Still need a response on points 2, 3 and 4 listed in the description (copied again below):

2 - Can you provide the list of tags that, when used, will get a Product Showcase article picked up in the Web Dev and Mobile newsletters?

3 - As discussed, I would like to make a more prominent listing of Product Showcase articles in the newsletters. I think this will help drive more views and is a feature that should be added to ensure the product of sensible value.

4 - Under the new pricing scheme for Product Showcase articles, paid content has a set lifespan and then is suppose to expire and be taken down off the site.

We already have functionality to expire homepage rotation and set the length of time an article is “browsable” in the Product Showcase chapter. Do we also now need the ability to expire this content so it’s completely removed from search results, direct URL links, etc? Or should we just run with the functionality we have and just change how the messaging around the content lifespan is explained to clients?

PS articles not showing up in the Daily Build issue should be resolved, as stated in the related "CodeProject Tasks" item: https://workspaces.codeproject.com/chris-maunder/codeproject-solutions/cp-tasks/items/208

14 April 2014 - Client contact (Justin Anderson) sent a list of three potential product review authors to review and select from.

1. Dirk Strauss
2. Magnus Johannson
3. Alvin Ashcraft

Waiting for feedback on the potential reviewers and a decision on the author.

Twitter has selected Donn Felker as the author for their review.

http://www.donnfelker.com/
https://twitter.com/donnfelker
donn@donnfelker.com

Jon Flanders selected as the reviewer. Secure author agreement and complete review writing process with Jon.

Most critical need is a better way to set up the competition voting forms. Secondary is a redesign of the Monthly Article Competition homepage and winners gallery (see attached mockups).

Contest design and structure has been proposed. Dave has now taken it to the sales team to see if there's an interested sponsor.

If there's no viable sponsor we'll still launch and budget the prizing ourselves.

New spec sheets for Product Showcase and Product Reviews available in the Sales folder and at the links above.

Ran a very successful training call with the sales team today on how everything works now (although there were lots of questions and it ran a lot longer than I had hoped) and I think the team is excited about the new approach for PS and PR pricing and processes.

Rough outline of contest structure available here: https://docs.google.com/a/codeproject.com/document/d/1_d9KFOW8vSrcYojTFvVguzBAzxUClzCWYbxfe1Ny8zg/edit?usp=sharing

Edit Done.

Waiting for feedback from client.

Have worked with Dave to figure out new pricing guidelines for Product Showcase articles and Product Review authoring. Will be announcing to the Sales Team shortly and setting up a brief training session and Q&A with them.

Although similar to Product Review authoring, still need to work out some processes and decide the best way to offer "Custom Article Authoring" to clients. Creating a new task for this project.

Previous cheque being cancelled.

Get banking details for wire transfer.

First run at the list of articles/titles for the Intro to HTML5 article comp available here: https://docs.google.com/a/codeproject.com/document/d/1LeFqK-tsUgbCJe-lg2aLuJLnYozGEW3arH3zqZe-6mw/edit?usp=sharing

As far as I can tell LinkedIn's API terms of service don't allow us to use this data commercially...
> You must never:
> Sell, lease, share, transfer, or sublicense any Content or access to any Content, directly or indirectly, to any third party, including any recruiter, data broker, salesperson, or advertising-related entity.

But look how awesome these output fields are for Company info. I wonder if there is a loophole (or way to pay them for access):
https://developer.linkedin.com/documents/company-lookup-api-and-fields

These tasks have been compiled and broken out into individual child tasks here: https://workspaces.codeproject.com/chris-maunder/codeproject-solutions/dm-tasks/items/67

Please see report which outlines how the current content marketing products work, current issues, and questions for clarification.

There's a page for each product (Advertorials, Product Reviews, Custom Articles, Coder Interviews) so let me know if scheduling a quick meeting to discuss these questions rather than reading through the whole document makes more sense: https://docs.google.com/a/codeproject.com/document/d/1_nEvKBH5yEbWksRdJj3-mvZ9s0dGSotHYWEnAsN_s4Y/edit?usp=sharing

During my search for a new Lead Validation service I discovered some companies that we may be able to partner with or use to provide "filler" leads:

- http://www.ecoastsales.com/
- http://www.insideup.com/index.html
- http://www.netline.com/

The only provider that I've been able to find that supports a global audience thus far is D&B, but their service is very expensive (~$97,000/year for the D&B Direct API service).

We'd have to do some testing to see if their data is actually any better than DOTS, but Infoconnect (http://developer.infoconnect.com/) is the best B2B data service I've been able to find so far and their rates are comparable to DOTS, but still doesn't support an international audience (US/Canada only).

Will continue researching additional service providers.

Microsoft has passed on Day of Azure (citing they love the idea, but lack budget at the moment).

Are there other vendors that would be interested in a similar campaign?

Looks good to me, if you really want to splice down the number of characters a few more it could be:

"I acknowledge that my Professional Profile details may be sent to third party sponsors of Research Library content."

Still need to make some mention that they will lose their Professional status and points if they opt out though. Is this still too long...

"I acknowledge certain details may be sent to third party sponsors for Research Library offers and refusal will suspend my Professional status and related rep points."

I don't know if this is too long, but how's this look for wording? Maybe the part in brackets can be added as a superscript...

"I agree to participate in Research Library offers and acknowledge my Professional Profile info may be passed on to third party sponsors. (Professional status and related reputation points will be suspended from your account upon refusal.)"

Waiting on the client to send assets and fill out asset info form

Just to clarify what you would like done here:

- Is this supposed to be an email notification sent to anyone that has registered for a LeadGen asset in the past as soon as a new asset is posted?

- Should we only send them a notification if an asset in the same category is posted? Or when any new asset is added to the Research Library?

Pinged Jackie at the end of last week to see what the update was from Keith. Still waiting to hear more, will follow up again.

January and February Competitions have been set up with two-tier prizing and voting for January has started.

The next step is to update the Monthly Competitions page so we are able to add the winner's profile pic, a link to their winning article and a short blurb about the article to each the respective category they won. Mockups of how this might look are attached to this task.

I've also merged the original writeup on Google Docs into this task above.

The link was there when this task was created, not sure what document or folder it originally pointed to. Closing this task now.

Many of the Lead Verification services I've researched so far don't offer the kind of validation we need (Job Title, Company Names, Company Size, etc...) most focus just on email or phone verification and are either still US/Canada only or focused on industries like real estate, automotive and insurance.

I have a short list of companies to call and follow up with to learn more.

Need Chris to go through the suggestions for v1.0 outlines on the first couple pages and let me know what's easy can be achieved quickly and what will take more development work and should be moved to the plan for a v2.0.

For example, if creating a whole new "submission widget" to replace articles for contest submissions is too onerous at this stage maybe we can make some minor alterations to the current article system to achieve what's needed.

- v1.0 Contest Product Plan write up available at the Google doc link in the description

- Website mockups images attached to this project

Need to understand what is expected of me here.

Need to follow up on this when time permits.

- Need to figure out Monthly Article Comp prize budget

- Need to update the Monthly Article Comp homepage to better showcase the winning members and de-emphasize the prizes (no more sponsored prizes)

- Waiting for SOW from Microsoft and confirmation that they have a solid automatic process in place to validate Azure registrations we send to them.

- Jackie is following up with Keith from MS

Plan in progress, write up and website mockups almost complete.

Need to sit down when more urgent projects are complete to scope and lay out a new plan.

Have a list of possible services to research and follow up on:

- http://www.netline.com/lead-verification.html Seems like they take your list and clean it up using both their database and a team that follows up manually.
- http://www.insideup.com/ Provides email and phone verification and business data append to score to rank/qualify sales leads. Need to follow up to learn more.
- http://www.accurateappend.com/lead-validation/ Offers validation for name, address, email, phone, and geographic info via IP. Need to follow up with a call to learn more about the service and what countries they support.
- http://www.towerdata.com/ Seems focused on email validation, but need to follow up to see what other demographics they can validate
- http://legitlead.com/ Seems more focused on scoring and qualifying leads than (optimization) than validation, but worth a phone call to find out more.
- http://www.clickpointsoftware.com/salesexec/data-validation.html Seems focused on making lead data uniform and deduplication. May have some some verification services that are useful. Need to follow up.
- https://realleadvalidation.com/ Tool for lead buyers to check age of lead, how many times it's been sold, and industries it's been indexed in (home, auto, insurance etc.)
- http://www.leadspend.com/ For validating email addresses
- http://www.accudatatech.com/index.html Validates only phone numbers
- http://www.intelecom.co.uk/index.html Follows up on your list of leads to ascertain where they are in the buying cycle (manually)
- http://www.jackmedia.com/blog/real-time-lead-validation-services Validates only email address and Australian phone number
- http://www.mxleads.com/ Seems outdated.
- http://voisys.com/auto-lead-validation/ For the auto industry.
- http://www.marketingoptimizer.com/automation/validate/ Validates only phone, email and physical address