Ellis blog

Wikipedia: Volkswagen Eos

2006-05-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

Here I added the specifications of the engines in the Volkswagen Eos, a new hardtop convertible for the Volkswagen line. I also changed some grammatical and spelling errors that the previous edit had. I'm expecting the Eos to be a big hit in the United States seeing that Volkswagen has never produced a hardtop convertible in the states before. Who knows, I might end up buying one in the future...with a good job of course.

Soundgarden #2

2006-05-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

I added some of my own stuff to this edit. Considering that Soundgarden is one of the greatest bands ever, in my mind, I felt that I had to add my own personal touches to this wikipedia entry. It kills me that Soundgarden is no longer around, but they'll still always be one of my all-time favorites.

Wikipedia: Marvin Williams of UNC

2006-05-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

In this edit I added the height and weight of the former UNC Basketball player, Marvin Williams. Also, I gave Marvin Williams' points per game and rebounds per game in his first year as an NBA player for the Atlanta Hawks.

Modern Marketing: Look at Me!

2006-05-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

Even though this was a relatively short blog posting, I believe that the simple message it conveyed was very powerful. They could not be more correct in saying that, "if you can't sell your product, fix your product! Don't try to change the situation by advertising." This is a situation that every company in the world will have to face at some point. Therefore, it is extremely important for them to take this simple quote to mind, because it will surely help them out of some bad situations they may face.

Click-Z Stats: Google Breaks out the Movie Promos

2006-05-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Google is now hosting their second movie, "The Break-Up." This movie is the second movie only to "DaVinci Code" to be hosted on Google. It seems to me that having Google host the promotion to your movie is going to become a common trend in the future. The huge swing to internet usage over the past 5 years is enough evidence for me to believe so. Also, as well-known as Google is, and how many millions of people use it each day, it is a genius marketing idea. Other marketers will catch on to this brilliant idea and do the same to their advantage in years to come. You can count on that.

Naked Conversations-Around the World in 23 Days

2006-05-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

It takes a very motivated person to want to travel across the world to view how other nations are operating in the marketing sense. I do find it humorous, however, that the person who posted this blog claimed to be a writer when he obviously didn't bother to proofread what he had written. Anyways, it is obvious that this guy has a goal in life and is doing anything he can to accomplish this. I believe everyone should go about life this way.

Dana VanDen Heuvel Post

2006-05-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

In response to Dana's recent weblog, I found it fascinating how much the click-through rate varied for different ad placement frequencies. Never would I think that ad placement frequencies would have anything to do with the amount of clicks that ad would produce. This bit of evidence proves to me that marketers have to look at even the smallest things when trying to market their product effectively. I enjoy hearing about these kinds of things, being a marketing major and all, and I feel that everything I learn will truly help me in the future.

Wikipedia Edit: Keystone, CO ski resort

2006-05-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

In this edit I added that the Keystone Ski Resort occupied 3 separate mountains instead of only one. Also, I added several other statistics such as the base elevation of the resort, the summit elevation of the highest mountain, and also the difficulty ratings of trails found at Keystone. Lastly, I found that Keystone had 19 ski lifts and not 20 as it was previously stated. Not a big deal, but I felt it needed to be changed. All of the statistics I used can be found at http://keystone.snow.com/info/wintermountaininfo.asp#statistics .

MySpace Presentation

2006-05-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

Prior to the Skype presentation we received from Travis Katz, the person in charge of overseeing international expansion of MySpace, I never knew what a busy site it was. In fact, MySpace is the largest social networking website on all of the Internet, and is the second largest overall website behind yahoo! I, like a almost every other student in the class, has a facebook account as opposed to MySpace. This in itself was why I thought facebook was the real deal and MySpace was just a wannabe. However, MySpace has over 19 times as many monthly page views than facebook. This makes facebook look like the wannabe here.

There are currently 75.5 million registered MySpace members worldwide and a whopping 250,000 new members each and every day. Of the current users, 85-90% of them are actively using their account. On average, the typical MySpace user logs onto their MySpace account 8 times a day. The many features that make up MySpace is surely why they are doing so well. Besides having the ability to be socially connected through the Internet, MySpace is really successful with their music feature. Here a user can be connected to the current trends in music. MySpace has a music player, a messaging forum, and also has a link to upcoming shows in the area. Also, MySpace is able to premier new albums for free a week before the album is on sale in the store.

With all of the success that MySpace is having in the United States, they still strive to expand their network. The main thing they are trying to accomplish now is to tap into international markets. Right now MySpace generates basically none of their revenue outside of the United States. They recently launched their site in the UK and they will be launching their site in Australia come June 1st. Expect to see MySpace begin to launch in other countries as well. I expect to see MySpace become the most heavily trafficked network on the Internet in the next year with all of the international expansion that is taking place now.

Kolinka.com

2006-05-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

The guys who brought us the popular dealcatcher.com are also in the midst of completing a new website called kolinka.com. This is a new kind of search engine that only searches forums and message boards. These forums and message boards can range from anything about car and audio forums to book reviews. Dan informed us that the goal of this website is not to compete on the same level as Google or Yahoo, rather to provide people a quicker way to view all of these forums across the web. Kolinka.com has very few competing websites at this time, and the ones that Dan showed us were very out of date. This only leads me to believe that Kolinka.com will soon become the same kind of success that dealcatcher.com is.

Presentation from the reps at DealCatcher.com

2006-05-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

Not knowing anything about the website "dealcatcher.com," i had no idea what to expect when attending the class in which they presented to us. Hearing the name of the website, I assumed it was a website similar in nature to an amazon.com. Dan Baxter and Tim Patton gave us some very interesting information on how they successfully made their website service available to anyone. Dan started this all up in 1999 from a computer in his bedroom. After finding help from friends of his, dealcatcher.com was off and running. In order to keep costs to a minimum, the first year they were free of advertising. They now budget about $200,000 a year for advertising purposes. Dan informed us that dealcatcher.com is the most up to date service of its kind that can be found by using the internet. Their website is based upon working with many large companies, such as Dell, to find the best deals at this given point in time. Every sale they are able to make, they earn, on average, between a 4-6% profit. Expect this website to continue to boom as more customers use the site and more large companies start to work with dealcatcher. Also in the works, Dan and his fellow employees are working on a new website called "kolinka.com," and I will expand on that in my next post.

Volkswagen MK IV Golf/GTI

2006-04-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

Being the owner of a 2001 Volkswagen MK IV GTI VR6, I am very interested in the brand and I enjoyed editing this particular Wikipedia entry with my own insights and facts. I believe the editing I made was more specific than the prior edit, therefore more valuable to the reader. The edits I made are shown in italics.

The Golf IV was made in Germany, South Africa, Slovakia, Brazil, Mexico and Belgium. The Golf IV was also made in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Vogošća (near Sarajevo) in TAS, where Mk.I and Mk.II models were also made. This Bosnian Mk.IV was for local market only. Engine choices included 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.3, 2.8 and 3.2 L gasoline engines, and a 1.9 L diesel, with power ranging from 68 to 150 PS (50 to 110 kW). A choice of three and five-door hatchbacks or a five-door station wagon was available. Note that the European Golf wagon is shorter than the American Jetta wagon.
This model was introduced to North America in mid 1999. Available engines for the Golf at its introduction to the American market were a 2.0 L gasoline and a 1.9 L turbocharged diesel TDI. A 1.8 L turbocharged gas engine was introduced in 2000, along with the 12-valve 2.8 L VR6. The 2.0 L gasoline was the base engine in the sportier GTI only as a 1999.5 model. For 2000, Volkswagen opted for the relatively new 1.8 L turbocharged gasoline engine as a base engine for the GTI. The top of the line GLX model was equipped with Volkswagen's signature, torquey 2.8 L VR6 which put out an impressive 174 hp. The VR6 engine was unique to the Volkswagen brand due to it's narrow 15-degree angle camshaft design. The benefit of this design is a lighter engine that helps out with the handling characteristics of a front-wheel drive car. In 2003, Volkswagen introduced a 24-valve version of it's VR6 engine. This engine had the same torque characteristics of the older 12-valve version except with an extra 26 hp. This engine featured the first 6-speed manual available in the MK IV platform. The 1.8T and VR6 models continued until 2005 when the MK IV platform came to an end.

Loocsixela

2006-04-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

As discussed in class, loocsixela is a very interesting webpage that will provide it's viewers with countless hours of entertainment. Don't believe me? View the website to see for yourself. Just click on the link here, loocsixela, and you will see what I am talking about. No need for me to embellish any further. Just go.

Wikipedia Edit #1

2006-03-13T10:40:00.001-08:00

In 1986 Sundquist left the band, to be replaced by Matt Cameron, who had been the drummer in Skin Yard. The band signed to Sub Pop, releasing the Screaming Life EP in 1987, and the Fopp EP in 1988. A compilation was issued as Screaming Life/Fopp in 1990.
Though the band was being courted by major labels, in 1988 they signed to SST Records to release their debut album, Ultramega OK, for which they earned a Grammy nomination. In 1989 the band released their first album for a major label, Louder Than Love, released through A&M Records. After the release of the album Yamamoto left to go back to college. He was briefly replaced by Jason Everman, formerly of Nirvana, who appeared on the Louder Than Live video, but Ben Shepherd ended up in the band as a permanent replacement.
The new line up recorded Badmotorfinger in 1991. Though successful, the album was overshadowed by the sudden popularity of Nirvana's Nevermind. At the same time, the focus of attention brought by Nevermind to the Seattle scene brought the band wider attention, allowing "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage" to find an audience at alternative radio and MTV. The band toured with Guns N' Roses to support the album, and later released the video Motorvision which was filmed on that tour. The band also took a slot on the 1992 Lollapalooza tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and Ministry, among others.
The band made an appearance in the movie Singles playing "Birth Ritual". The song appeared on the soundtrack album, as did a solo Cornell song, "Seasons". The film also featured a clip from the demo version of "Spoonman", a song from the band's 1994 album, Superunknown.
Superunknown was the band's breakout, driven by the singles "Black Hole Sun", "Spoonman", "The Day I Tried To Live", and "Fell on Black Days". The songs on Superunknown captured the creativity of their earlier works, while showcasing the more radio-friendly aspects of the group. Lyrically the album was quite dark and mysterious, as many of the songs dealt with substance abuse, suicide, and depression. Many songs had a Middle-Eastern or Indian flavour, such as "Fell on Black Days" and "Half," the latter featuring the vocals of bassist Ben Shepard.
The band's final album was 1996's self-produced Down on the Upside. The album was notably less heavy than the groups preceding albums. This album still featured hit singles like "Pretty Noose", "Blow Up The Outside World", and "Burden in My Hand". Soundgarden explained at the time that they wanted to branch out and explore other sounds. However, tensions within the group arose during the sessions. As a result, Chris Cornell ended up playing several of the guitar solos on the album. Despite strong reviews, the album did not top its predecessor's sales.
Tensions continued to increase during the band's ensuing tour in support of the album. At the tour's final stop in Honolulu, Hawaii in February of 1997, Shepherd threw his bass into the air in frustration after suffering equipment failure, and subsequently stormed off the stage. The band retreated, with Cornell returning to conclude the show with a solo encore. On April 9, 1997, the band announced its disbanding. The band's final release, a greatest-hits compilation titled A-Sides, was released the following fall.
Cornell went on to make a solo album, Euphoria Morning, and later formed the group Audioslave with former members of Rage Against the Machine. Cameron turned his efforts to his side-project Wellwater Conspiracy, and later toured with Pearl Jam for their 1998 Yield Tour, subsequently joining the band as a permanent member. Thayil joined forces with ex-Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra, former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Gina Mainwal for one show, performing as the No WTO Combo during the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle on December 1, 1999. Thayil later contributed guitar tracks to Steve Fisk's 2001 album 999 Levels of Undo, as well as Dave Grohl's side-project album PROBOT, released in 2004. Shepherd toured with Mark Lanegan and released the long overdue second Hater album in 2005, while also occasionally appearing on the Wellwater Conspiracy albums.

Edits appear in italics

Wikipedia Edit #1

2006-03-13T10:40:00.000-08:00

Purpose of this blog

2006-03-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

This blog will help me keep track of everything I am doing that relates to the course. By using a blog, I will be able to track my progress. I plan on creating many posts for my blog throughout this semester to keep me occupied on the class. The link to my blog is http://ansonellis.blogspot.com.

First Entry

2006-02-26T20:17:00.000-08:00

Here is my first blog entry. Good thing it's only a week and a half late... Now that I actually understand what I'm doing, hopefully I can enjoy the class.