Daniel McClure

Themes from The Next Web Conference 2013 – #TNW2013

Daniel McClure — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:48:49 +0000

The Next Web Conference held annually in Amsterdam (although branching out later in the year) is one of the biggest European gathering of entrepreneurial minds and start-ups in the tech scene. This year was no different and there were appearances from many famous & soon-to-be famous techpreneurs, some really interesting new startups and even an appearance from Willem-Alexander, the new King of The Netherlands.

It kicked off with a bang and The Next Web Conference co-founder @Boris explained how there is never a set theme for the conference but rather themes tend to emerge from the featured presenters. Whilst there is still no official word on what the themes of the conference were, several became apparent to me throughout the keynotes and I will touch on these throughout…

Seven Key Themes from The Next Web Conference 2013

Quantified Self Movement & Wearable Devices

There is a lot of talk about how wearable computing will allow for frictionless data collection to build up a knowledge base around personal data. This has already been seen on a smaller scale with devices such as the Nike Fuel Band and the little known Memoto however with devices such as Google Glass and the rumoured Apple iWatch hitting the consumer market over the next year there is set to be an explosion in the popularity of wearable computer devices and as many as 100 million wearable devices sold annually by 2016. It is predicted that soon data chips and sensors will be so cheap that the cost of including them in a product becomes effectively zero, meaning you may find them in many more consumer goods than you might expect as they become like the LED clocks put into pretty much every electrical device and all white goods in the 80s and 90s.

Human/Machine Partnerships for Decision Making

Whilst artificial intelligence isn’t quite at the stage that it can be fully trusted to offer the informed judgement of a human, it can still rapidly collect lots of information and present it in a useful way so that users can interact and make the final call. In some cases these devices are expected to learn from our input in a similar fashion to the way that you can select default computer applications and settings. This should allow for much more efficient use of the deluge of data that is being collected by so many devices.

The Loyalty Revolution & Data Driven Marketing

As businesses start to collect more data about their users and integrate their various data sources there will be much more known about he consumer automatically. If you frequent visit a coffee shop in London and then you fly to New York and get a coffee in the same brand of coffee shop, they will be able to know that you are a regular customer and potentially even learn about your preferences and cater to them. This can be especially powerful in big-ticket service offerings however it will soon easily be utilised by everyone down to the new brand with just two stores.

The Power of Social Media

An important shift to understand about consumers is that your highest spending customers are no longer necessarily the most important for long-term business success. Often times your most vocal customers can have a bigger impact on your bottom line so if you can ensure that you go the extra mile in your service and then amplify their output. This trend may lead to social media CRMs that link customer data with publicly available social information so you can effectively track mentions of a brand. As an example some wineries already offer users on Instagram a more visual tour than those who are simply there for the wine tasting.

The Evolution of Social Publishing

Within the world of online publishing brands like The Huffington Post are starting to realise that the social element is just as important as the premium content. For that reason comments appear front and centre to get full attention and encourage interaction even as users engage with the content. This emphasises the need for live updating pages that don’t refresh for every interaction especially where content such as video is being presented.

Exploiting the Media Game

Ryan Holiday spoke of how easy it is to abuse the media desire for information by using sites such as HARO to get mentions in the press. In many cases it could even prove to be more beneficial than a traditional press release by acting as a Trojan horse for product advertising. To take advantage of the system you should create a story that generate fear, anger or excitement and most importantly that actually features your product as part of the story to ensure its inclusion. The media are hungry and don’t have time for fact checking in many cases. However on the other side of the equation it is important to consider whether we actually want things like this to be possible and whether we should be doing more to present and protect transparent journalism that isn’t simply based on pageviews and ad impressions.

DiSSS: A Framework for Accelerated Learning

This is Tim Ferriss’s model for accelerated learning and becoming world-class in almost anything you want to achieve. It’s important to note that he classes being world class as being within the top 5% of people in a field. This means of any 100 people trying something you would perform within the top 5, however you would still potentially suck if going up against a real professional in a field sitting within the top 1%. When applied to business this model and its weakness suggests if you are going to hit a market where you are still learning it’s important to adopt a blue ocean strategy or hit a niche market if you want to gain prominence and become a leader within your market.

Deconstruct – Take out all obstacles for first five sessions of starting anything new to give yourself the biggest chance of developing a habit.
Selection – Keep in mind the pareto principle ak.a. the 80/20 rule and attempt to focus on the 20% of things that will give you the biggest/fastest results. You can even completely remove certain elements to simplify the process.
Sequencing – If you don’t have to learn skills in a certain sequence then try to play around with the order, just because you are taught in a certain sequence doesn’t make it the right one. / Remove elements
Stakes – If you really want to succeed with something then you need to fully commit with accountability in place. Hold money with a friend or use services like Stickk to encourage long-term commitment.

A final note…

Many of the themes discussed at The Next Web Conference 2013 seem to tie into the idea of a Converged Web where data on the web is structured and integrates seamlessly with various devices, analytics platforms and personalised portals. Another way to think of this can be seen in this tweet…

This! – “@werner “no longer you will put content on devices, instead devices will act as window to your content on the cloud” #tnw2013

— Daniel McClure(@danielmcclure) April 25, 2013

A Photographic Journey Through The Next Web Conference 2013

The Next Web Conference 2013: A Photographic Journey #TNW2013 from Daniel McClure

Visual Notes from The Next Web Conference 2013

A nice touch throughout the conference were these visual notes projected onto the main screen of the stage after every keynote summarising the discussions. I got a few photos however this slideshow from the creator is a little more comprehensive.

The next web conference 2013 Amsterdam; a visual overview in sketch notes from Esther Gons

The post Themes from The Next Web Conference 2013 – #TNW2013 appeared first on Daniel McClure.

The Converged Web: The Internet’s Next Wave?

Daniel McClure — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:04:13 +0000

Whilst browsing the blog of John Saddington, an entrepreneur I recently backed on Kickstarter and co-creator of the Standard Theme, I came across an interesting question. His post described the history of the Internet in waves and pondered what the fifth wave might be…

The history of the internet can be summed up easily into four different stages, or waves:

Directory

Search

Social

Mobile

First it is important to set the situation in which we find ourselves. In recent years the leading platforms have developed powerful APIs, HTML5 has brought advanced capabilities to the standard browser, cloud computing and SaaS have begun to replace traditional software, and websites are beginning to add microdata behind the scenes to categorise and structure content within a webpage. When combined with the fact that many consumers are now using the Internet across multiple devices throughout the day including; desktops. laptops, mobile, TVs and with wearable devices, such as the smart watch and Google Glass, set to explode there is a lot of fragmentation and standardisation occurring simultaneously.

Whilst I definitely don’t have all the answers I think that these factors will mean that the next wave will be something that I call The Converged Web. Just as content management systems like WordPress allowed publishers to hold a central database of all the content and unique information whilst allowing themes and front end systems to control the output, The Converged Web is based upon people controlling their unique digital identities on the web that can connect with a multitude of services no matter what device they are accessed from and the final output is optimised appropriately for the access device. As interaction is linked to a core digital identity the experience becomes persistent allowing people to jump from device to device and slip in exactly where they left off.

There will inevitably be privacy and security hurdles to cross as consumers adapt to using a single identity across multiple services and products. However the seeds have already been planted with the likes of Facebook and the open graph integrations using a single accountable identity, services like DropBox and Evernote mirroring the thoughts and files of millions of people around the globe and even databases where consumers are paying to host DNA data.

One topic that gets a lot more attention now than a true converged web is that of augmented reality (AR), however another possibility is that AR and wearable computing could actually act as the catalysts for the converged web as people realise that focusing on a single platform, device, or solution in isolation is no longer recommend or even feasible in some cases.

The Converged Web is a big step and there will undoubtedly be a lot of competition for controlling the devices and identity systems that hook into this converged web. The level of inter-connectivity and standardisation that will be required will likely mean that the winner(s) will likely be someone who already has strengths in managing identities but for consumer acceptance it is likely there will be some level of competition and openness in the standards.

For an entrepreneur approaching the converged web I can imagine opportunities in creating unique ways of presenting and manipulating data and content from mixed sources, smart behavioural advertising and security/privacy solutions for enterprise and general consumers to protect data amongst others.

I’d love to hear other opinions on The Converged Web; How long till it gets here (if it arrives at all!)? Who do you think will come out on top? Who will lose out? Where are the opportunities? Or perhaps you expect something entirely different?

The post The Converged Web: The Internet’s Next Wave? appeared first on Daniel McClure.

NFC Lifehack: Tracking Your Offline Personal Expenses With An NFC Wallet

Daniel McClure — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:23:57 +0000

Whilst recently working on a mobile marketing research paper I ended up drinking all too much coffee and ordering a box of NFC tags from RapidNFC in the early hours of one morning. Today, almost a month to the day after first putting them to use in my dissertation I have found a use to actually start integrating them with my life. So without further ado; the first of these nifty NFC tricks is my very own…

NFC Wallet Expense Tracker

Now unfortunately this thing isn’t magic enough to simply detect the money that the money has left however it does provide a simple way for me to scan my wallet with my phone and easily input expenses on the go. The NFC tag sits snugly inside a back sleeve and initial tests with my Samsung S3 have shown that it can even scan when the tag is inside the wallet.

So what happens when you scan the NFC tag I hear you ask…

Well right now it takes the phone to a very crude form created using Google Forms (shown below) that allows me to input the essential data whilst Google date and timestamps the inputs for me when I hit ‘Submit’ and that is all it takes. From here a spreadsheet is generated behind the scenes that allows for reviewing and manipulating the data at a later time on my laptop or pretty much any web device.

Over time as I’m spending real money, with the tag as a constant reminder to input my expenses, I expect to build a full profile of exactly what I spend that is also categorised for easier analysis. With a few custom formulas I can see how much I’ve spent in total, I can break it down to the last day, week, month or year and can even narrow it down to see how much I’m spending in each category so if something seems to be going overboard I can keep note.

The Future of the NFC Wallet Expense Tracker

I put this together for myself and I’m sure as I use it more I’ll come up with some more interesting ways to use it. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t occur to me after making this that there might actually be interest in a commercial version of something like this however for now, it is just me and my money management :)

The post NFC Lifehack: Tracking Your Offline Personal Expenses With An NFC Wallet appeared first on Daniel McClure.

The First NFC Enabled Dissertation on Mobile Marketing

Daniel McClure — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:03:21 +0000

So that is the title I hope to have claimed with my latest project! Over the past few weeks and months I’ve been locked away at university researching Mobile Marketing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Late one night whilst browsing the NFC research I discovered that NFC tags were relatively cheap and in my caffeine induced state I decided that regardless of the results of my research results I was going to create the first NFC enabled dissertation linked to the mobile web.

What does NFC mean? NFC (Near Field Communications) is a technology that has been around for a while and is starting to pick up steam with mobile marketers as it allows small bits of data such as web URLs and contact details to be transferred just by swiping the mobile device over an NFC tag which can be as small as a sticker.

Unfortunately the results of my research were that NFC is far too early for the majority of brands to pick up although there are already some companies doing fun stuff with it. Consider my NFC enabled mobile marketing dissertation my contribution to its development as a communications channel

In fact the results showed that it was the mobile web that was having the biggest impact in the small business world, more so than traditional mobile channels such as SMS which might surprise some. Whilst I won’t make you endure the full dissertation at over 100 pages including appendices and far too much academic talk, I got permission to share the executive summary so if you’re interested in taking a peek you can find it here (or on the other side of the QR Code/NFC tag if you got your hands on a hard copy!).

12,000 words later the beast is done and its time to take my findings out in to the wild. If all goes to plan I’ll be publishing more research on mobile and digital marketing in general in the near future so make sure you bookmark this blog or follow me on Twitter or Google+.

The post The First NFC Enabled Dissertation on Mobile Marketing appeared first on Daniel McClure.

Mobile in 2013: Changing the Way We Interact with the Web [Infographic]

Daniel McClure — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:40:53 +0000

Recently I’ve been conducting a lot of research into the area of Mobile Marketing as part of my final year research project for university. Along the way I’ve discovered many interesting trends and accompanying mobile marketing strategies and tactics. One thing that has come up repeatedly in web searches however is the infamous infographic, rarely sourced appropriately and often offering a massive bias, the anti-thesis of academic research

Never the less they are still great fun and can be useful for visually representing certain statistics (otherwise we wouldn’t be using them in our DMCM1213 project!) so I thought I’d share another very bold and visual one that I found how mobile is changing the way we interact with the web. I know I was surprised at the level of some of these statistics…

Created by piJnz

The post Mobile in 2013: Changing the Way We Interact with the Web [Infographic] appeared first on Daniel McClure.

The State of Mobile Content Marketing

Daniel McClure — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:14:54 +0000

The State of Mobile Content Marketing infographic

The post The State of Mobile Content Marketing appeared first on Daniel McClure.

Common Sense QR Tips

Daniel McClure — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:01:12 +0000

Whilst I love the idea of QR, or Quick Response codes, the actual implementation of them is often way off the mark. Today I was (un)lucky enough to come across this beauty…

They had me interested that was the first hurdle but the only real call to action was the QR code in the corner. I pulled out my phone in the busy high street and unfortunately my first casual attempt at a standing scan failed due the size. Reluctantly I knelt down (true commitment right there) and made another scan and was taken to this beautiful site…

As you can see not exactly the treasure trove of information that I was hoping for! Such a wasted opportunity, especially after getting me to jump through so many hoops. All it would have taken is a brief landing page optimised for mobile that gave me a bit more information and a opportunity to buy either online or offline and I could have taken the next steps. Instead I’m left sharing this negative review of their QR usage. So how can you avoid annoying your potential customers with QR codes?

5 Common Sense QR Code Tips

Ensure your QR code is posted at eye level or at the very least can be reached without kneeling or jumping!
If your QR code is going to link to a website make sure it actually exists — looking at you Bose!
Ensure that the landing page is optimised for mobile devices and smartphones.
Don’t make your QR code too small or large to capture with your average smartphone.
Make sure your advertisement is placed in a location where Internet access is available (3G or WiFi)

Armed with this information, a little creativity and some common sense you are already poised to overtake some larger companies QR marketing efforts. Go cause some disruption

Posted with Blogsy

The post Common Sense QR Tips appeared first on Daniel McClure.

Creating SaaS Solutions with WordPress

Daniel McClure — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:07:21 +0000

What if you could use WordPress for creating more than simple websites? About a year ago I had the idea of creating a hosted Facebook Page creation tool using nothing but WordPress and a myriad of other plugins and custom coding. I filed it away in my big book of ideas and left it to “consider later”…

However recently when I set up the WordPress Business Community on Google+ @ https://plus.google.com/communities/103801882930141737443 I was lucky enough to come across +Stuart Frank . He not only came up with the same idea as me (probably a couple months before) but he actually got started and actually built the thing. The site can be seen at http://fanboom.net and I wish him all the best with it.

I started to wonder…

If he’s already managed to bring that site to life, were there others out there already?… From there I came across an article by Digital Telepathy on how they launched the popular Hello Bar application using WordPress @ http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/dt-labs/wordpress-saas-application-platform I’d seen this product before, even signed up for it and had been completely oblivious to the fact it was made with WordPress. Not only is #WordPress #SaaS possible, it’s been happening right under my nose.

The WordPress Economy is Evolving…

Recently I’ve been looking at the WordPress market as a whole, there are millions of sites, thousands of themes and plugins, and hundreds of WordPress product creators. When WordPress was just a #Blogging platform, innovative developers were quick to create the tools and systems that could make it do more until you could pretty much find a tool for almost anything you’d want to do online. However many product creators began to feel the sting and realised that they needed to charge annual fees for their plugins and themes if they were to keep up with the development and support costs.

The Next Big (WordPress) Gold Rush…

A couple months ago a guy named +John O’Nolan published his idea of a simplified blogging platform forked (essentially: derived from) called Ghost which would offer a whole new way of publishing for people that are overwhelmed by the possibilities of WordPress. Although I could see his point, I wasn’t fully convinced. It just didn’t feel like it would have wings. But what if someone were to take this idea and begin creating niche publishing platforms in the form of SaaS. Now there is something I can see really taking off…

It turns out that #Automattic (creators of WordPress.com) have already seen the light and begun creating their own niche offerings. There is http://en.wordpress.com/portfolios/ and http://en.wordpress.com/restaurants/ And they are not alone! Since looking into it a bit more I’ve also found http://openbnb.net/ , http://www.happytables.com/ with their own take on how it could be done.

Why spend hours researching the best tools for your business, installing and managing them yourself, and all the time whilst continuing to pay multiple plugin developers $100, $200 or more a year when you can pay one company and get the best of everything for a specific purpose and for a lesser price?

But It’s Not Just Niche Platforms…

What if some plugins weren’t even plugins in the first place? I know I’ve seen my fair share of plugins that just don’t seem to have any place within a typical installation of WordPress. People are rolling out their own membership sites, project management systems, ticketing systems, jobs boards and more.

All of these could potentially be morphed into a hosted solution today using just the plugins that are out right now and offered to customers in exchange for a fee. If you actually went a step further to customise the code (add your own secret sauce), offer full support and continuous development then you’ve got yourself the foundations of a powerful, sustainable and defensible business solution built on open source code.

When so much is possible but people start getting priced out of the market or simply can’t keep up with the pace of innovation it leaves a massive opportunity and it is there where I can see the WordPress based Software as a Service economy developing.

Afterword…

Although I’ve thought about this a lot and have a few ideas floating around, I’d love to hear what others think about this and where you can see the #WordPress economy developing…

Google+: Reshared 1 times
Google+: View post on Google+

The post Creating SaaS Solutions with WordPress appeared first on Daniel McClure.

Epic Advertising from the Netherlands

Daniel McClure — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:39:47 +0000

Epic Advertising from the Netherlands – “A dramatic surprise on an ice-cold day” – http://youtu.be/ZIkPeZKP-d4

Google+: View post on Google+

The post Epic Advertising from the Netherlands appeared first on Daniel McClure.

Introduction to Building WordPress Themes

Daniel McClure — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:01:39 +0000

A little introduction on how I got started building themes for WordPress and some extra advice for anybody that has ever thought of doing the same…

Do I need to be a programmer?

The most important thing to get you started is learning some of the building blocks before you even begin to think of creating themes. Arguably the two most important to get started are HTML and CSS so if you already know the basics of these then you are at a significant advantage. It will also do you well to have some knowledge of PHP however it’s not always necessary for the more basic styling and structure of theme creation.

I never took lessons so the main resources that I can really recommend, and that I still use from time to time are - http://www.w3schools.com/ & http://www.webmonkey.com/ for reference.

These days there are a couple of resources that I keep hear being recommended by people learning although I can’t personally comment. These are; http://www.udemy.com/ & http://teamtreehouse.com/

Get Started With WordPress Themes

When building my very first theme I used a set of tutorials that pretty much took you by the hand through every step building a theme. That tutorial was found here - http://www.wpdesigner.com/2007/02/19/so-you-want-to-create-wordpress-themes-huh/ – however I highly recommend that you don’t use this as five years later there have been a lot of changes in WordPress themes.

Right now there are two main sources I would generally recommend if you’d like to learn how to build your own themes; http://wp.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/theme-development/ if you learn well through concentrated blog posts or http://rockablepress.com/launch/building-wordpress-themes-from-scratch/ if you want the whole process laid out in front of you.

Should I Create My WordPress Themes Myself?

Even after reading all of the above this should probably be the very first question that you ask yourself. If you are confident working with computers and have experience with HTML/CSS then WordPress Theme creation can be a great skill to add to your arsenal, especially if you build a lot of your own websites.

However if you’ve never built a WordPress Theme before or don’t consider yourself that techy and you want to start selling themes or offering them for sale in many cases you will be better off hiring somebody to actually make the theme for you. How or where to do this is the basis of a whole other topic in itself however you could start by seeking recommendations from people in this group or at a stretch you could use somewhere like Elance.com although the quality of providers can be very variable.

A final word on WordPress Themes…

Building WordPress themes can be a rewarding but challenging experience. If you are taking it on as a personal project for skill development or your own business it can be a great investment. That said there are lterally thousands of themes out there from reputable sources these days and the premium theme market is highly competitive. In many cases the quickest and most sensible way to get something unique online is by getting a theme from one of the existing marketplaces and customising it to your liking.

Some great sources of themes that are not the WP Repository
- http://themeforest.net
- http://studiopress.com
- http://woothemes.com
- http://headwaythemes.com
- http://elegantthemes.com
- http://ithemes.com

So there you have it…

If you’ve found this post helpful or know someone that might please give it a +1 and/or a share and if course if you have anything to add or any questions then just comment below!

Google+: View post on Google+

The post Introduction to Building WordPress Themes appeared first on Daniel McClure.