Why Apple should crush Hollywood

Ok, Cult of Mac may be full of Apple propaganda but this article on why they think Apple should use its Billions to Crush Hollywood, is right-on in regard to the dying Movie/TV industry.

Hollywood deserves to be taken over by Apple for the same reason the music industry deserved it: Because Hollywood spends all its time and energy clinging to the past, actively blocking the future and cynically exploiting, manipulating and abusing its customers.

The music industry, and by extension a lot of dying dinosaur, did put all their efforts to block the digital revolution. Stop the innovation to bring a better experience through your products/services often means loosing its focus and more importantly you start being irrelevant.

I’m a Netflix subscriber and love it, also using iTunes Movies from time to time.

Code validation and SEO

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Samuel Lavoie

That topic has been discussed at length in the SEO community but recent events got me back to it. I have to tell this story and get it off my chest as I found myself both on the validation advocate side and the seo side.

So a few days ago I stumbled upon a huge traffic drop over the week-end, like half of the traffic was gone, gone. That evening, I checked all the possibilities on why the heck half of a site traffic would suddenly disappear; maybe some referrers? search position drop? email delivery? etc. to no clear signal. Everything was going the same direction: down. Continue reading →

Writing Advice

Found that on Ian Stewart’s blog today, quite interesting way to put the blank page syndrome we all come across:

“This is going to suck. Whatever I put here. I might as well start putting something down.” And I do. And it doesn’t always suck. So don’t worry about not sucking. Accept that sometimes you might suck and know that you probably won’t in the end. Just start writing.

Montreal 2010 Web Conference and Events

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Samuel Lavoie

Spring’s just about here with a great weather, Montreal is warming up for Internet, Web Conferences and Tech Events. And this is a crowded Conference season this year. Obviously we don’t have the humongous Events like SXSW. But lot of last year biggest events are taking place once again with larger and better speaker line-up. It’s also good to see that new smaller events are taking place pretty much each day of the week covering a large set of subjects, from Usability to Java.

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I suck!

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Samuel Lavoie

Photo credit: Rickydavid

Focus on your passion

This video from Gary Vaynerchuk and his book, Crush it, have been an inspiration for me and this personal random post is kind in the same spirit.

I’m bad at so much things. To make it as clear as Gary V. said in his ecstatic video, in my style :

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2010 New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Samuel Lavoie

I will keep thing short, as 2009 was a good year overall with tremendous opportunities that may lead to great things in 2010 and beyond. Connecting with great Montreal entrepreneurs and people through all sort of event and of course the Web Standard organization W3Qc.

Looking back at 2009

Looking back at 2009, I’ve started a new full-time job in 2009 as a Digital Strategist at TMP Worldwide… which I ended on December 24th, to work full-time freelancing - more on that in the coming weeks of course.

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Passed the Google Analytics IQ Certification

Posted on December 31, 2009 by Samuel Lavoie

Edit: July 2012 – new GAIQ Test released by Google

I have passed my Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) test on 31 December 2009. It has been on my to-do list since it was announced earlier this year. Happy that I’ve been able to check that out of my to-do for the new coming year, with a respectable score of 91%.

You can view my Google Analytics IQ Certification and my online test records.

The Google Analytics Individual Qualification is a proof of proficiency in Google Analytics that is available to any individual who has passed the Google Analytics IQ test.

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Basic Search Engine Optimization for Recruitment Site

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Samuel Lavoie

This post is somewhat in the beginner range of SEO. Did that to help TMP Worldwide clients to have quick actionable item. As the Digital Strategist for the Montreal office it’s definitely more toward people new to this and especially HR people. I’ve cut all the extra stuff to just keep it to the core elements. Of course these principles make complete sense for every site, not just recruitment.

The importance of websites to a recruiting strategy is indisputable. The websites’ efficancy and effectiveness is imperative and is growing more valuable every day. A unified Web presence, part of a long- and short-term global marketing and communications strategy adapted to recruitment needs, is key.

Let’s look at some important basic technical website marketing guidelines you should consider when marketing your Web presence to future employees. Most of these elements involve search engine optimization (SEO), using a site’s integral elements (title, HTML code, incoming links, outgoing links, etc.) to improve its ranking in search results.

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