What do right and left wing, Democrat and Republican Americans who use twitter have in common? They’re using a domain registered from the Libyan government. Both bit.ly and ow.ly use the Libyan country domain .ly for their URL shorteners, which people who twitter use to shorten their links to fit in the 140 character limit imposed by twitter. Both are US companies who are using the .ly domain for branding…what were they thinking? Who’s next, .ir and Ahmadinejad’s Iran?

These tools can take this URL
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=156359&cat=12

and create a 2nd link that is much shorter and saves space in twitter tweets.
http://4wrd.us/ahox

We’ve launched an American competitor to bit.ly, it’s 4wrd.US the american URL shortener it’s simple to use and it’s owned, operated and hosted in the USA. So tell muammar gaddafi goodbye.

Tell everyone your know USE http://4wrd.US

So i’m building a site that will be designed to help people find the most popular tweeters in a variety of categories and help rank any tweeter relative to the twitter universe. It’s great for small users like:

Lottery Tweets

or just to check out which hollywood or sports celebrities are the top ranking Tweeters.

Here are a few examples of folks i find funny:
John Hodgman, AKA PC
NBC Latenight host Jimmy Fallon

and my favorite
The Rightest of the Right Wing - Stephen Colbert

So who’s the most followed? Jimmy Fallon. Who’s your most followed celebrity.

I’ve been running advertising for Web By Fred, my consulting business since early July on WCSX 94.7 Detroit. Today i’ve received 4 emails from bicyclists angry over a comment made on by the morning show DJs on August 5th. Well the comment was about throwing things at the heads of bicyclists, ala Grand Theft Auto and in my opinion is pretty stupid and offensive. Anyone inciting violence, whether Glenn Beck on Fox or Deminksi and Doyle on WCSX shouldn’t be placed on the air by responsible broadcasters.

Having said that, remember these DJs are charged with filling about 2 hours of air time, each day,with entertaining conversation. D & D work with a single producer, 3 people to fill 2 hours a day. Letterman, Conan, Jon Stewart all do it with a dozen or more writers/producers to fill 1 hour, of which 30 minutes are interviews and not scripted. My point is that they have a lot of time to fill and a live microphone, i’m sure every day they say things they wish they hadn’t, mostly because it wasn’t funny and sometimes because it was offensive.

So before everyone starts boycotting me, the radio station and the morning show, let’s see what these guys do in the next few days. let’s give them chance to see how they deal with the backlash before we call for their heads. Are there other incidents from that past that shows a pattern of irresponsible or offensive statements? If not, let’s give them a warning, see if they do the right thing and hope that they do.

The great Pitch Man, Billy Mays, has died at age 50. He is the latest in a string of celebrities to die in the last week. He had become extremely well known, loved and sometimes hated by television viewers across the US and Canada. His trademark was to loudly pitch his product on TV, just as he did on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City where he got his start. He strongly branded himself with is loud voice, royal blue polo shirt and his pitch black hair.

This is the first Billy Mays tribute site i’ve found www.ThePitchKing.com

I’ve decided to offer up my online marketing knowledge as a consultant focusing on metro Detroit area businesses who are seeking to improve the performance of their websites. The web site for this business is WebByFred.com.

I focus on Search Engine Marketing, the idea of promoting your website to the search engines, rather than the general marketplace. This is perfect for local, land-based businesses. For most small businesses their website’s purpose is to bring people into one or more retail locations.

Web By Fred for all your Search Engine Marketing.

Toyota announce that they now expect a loss of over $1 billion for their current fiscal year. I’ve yet to hear calls from Richard Shelby that they fire their executives, bust their union or consider reorganization. Of course Toyota isn’t seeking a bailout since they’re sitting on $29 billion in cash, about 3 times the value of the “Big 3″.

My point: If you don’t think the current credit crisis and it’s fallout hasn’t created an extrordinary situation you need to sober up and great real.

I was happy to have been contacted by Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold for my opinion about how the financial crisis was effecting the offset market.

his article was published today: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/05/AR2008100502518_2.html

While I am happy to quoted, unfortunately he didn’t mention my company 4Offsets.com or link to out site.

Here are my words wisdom

“People still come to the site, but where you used to get people signing up [for offsets] every day, now you’d be lucky to get a few people a week,” said Fred Weiss, a small-time offset seller based in Ann Arbor, Mich., who sends customers stickers that say, “Carbon Neutral Vehicle.” Apparently that isn’t as important now.

“Who cares about the environment? Am I going to have a house next week?” he imagined would-be customers saying.

Well maybe I’m on my way to fame and fortune, but I think it will take a bit more before i join the talking heads of the US media.

Can’t Get Enough of Me? ;>) BUY MY BOOK!

I’m happy to read that their is finally some action in Washington and the various state legislature across the US to deal with this outbreak of businesses operating as Non-Profits claiming that the purchase of their products are “donations”. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This fake charity issue is something i face each day as the CEO of an Offset company. There are a number of my competitors who sell the same services as I do, complete with branding, but their business is organized as a non-profit claiming to be a charity. It’s not true in many cases, rather the Non-Profit is a vehicle to enrich the staff of the non-profit, by offering their clients a tax deduction for the purchase of a product is not in anyway charitable.

Fortunately i’m not just a lone voice in the woods, various governments are starting to look into these businesses to put a halt to what are essentally a tax scam against the government and a confidence scam agains Offset clients. How many people bought an offset from a non-profit that was from the Chicago Climate exchange? Most offer that, so do we www.4offsets.com, nothing wrong with that, except that offset, in most cases, was bought from a commericial business. How is this in anyway a charitable contribution? Say the XYZgreen.org sells 1 ton of offsets for $10, that they bought for $6. What happens to the $4? In some cases i’ve looked into, it goes to pay the staff and not 1 dime is used for charitable works In a charity, it is used for charitable works, giving things to community whether money or knowledge.

Join me in the fight agains this abuse of the non-profit system and is a being used to scam million of Americans into believing someone’s source of wealth is really a charity. Don’t get scammed!
Ask for details of the non-profit’s charitable works and ask for IRS filings
Is the board of directors controlled by people who work at the foundation?
Where is the outside oversite?

OK, first of all, I get to be a Grateful Dead fan, no matter what you uptight Wall Street guys may think. If Roger McNamee (the link is the Rex Foundation), Gary Bettman and Al Gore can be Deadheads, any modern businessman/woman can too.

But seriously my trip to the Green Earth Expo in Orlando was a bit strange. First it was the first booth that i’ve worked at a show since AutoFact 1986. Second it was the first booth/show that was for my own company that i arranged myself. Finally i was heading to alternative energy, sustainable business show it turned out to be more alternative lifestyle and products with a large minority of green energy and recycled products exhibitors. So it wasn’t quite the trip i was thinking it would be.

The event was at the Orange County Convention Center (WARNING - The center’s internet service provider, tells you that their $1000 wireless service isn’t really as reliable as their $1500 service. They don’t tell you they sell a $24 a day wireless, that seems to work fine) which is very large place with a lot of one way roads and driveways. The driving was quite annoying until the second day of driving there. This was my first trip to Orlando as an adult and while i hate paying 2, 75 cent tolls to get from the airport to the tourist area, it was a good experience aside from the driveways.

Now, back to the show.
I’m not against alternative lifestyles and other movements that seek to change people’s behavior. I’m not against hippies either. I’m just not sure we’re going to make much of an impact on the folks who drive SUVs, Fly around the world for fun or business and run their A/C full out any day it hits 75, by linking green with alternative lifestyle. Hell, i’m a guy who meet’s 2 of the 3 criteria above, i think i have a more typical american lifestyle than the alternate sorts. I want to save the world, i try to reduce my usage, but i like to have fun and live well too. I’m in favor of sustainability, not against consumerism and that’s where I think linking alternative living with alternative/green technologies doesn’t work at attracting the vast majority of the Americans that need to be engaged.

Now i don’t want this to sound like an attack at Green Earth Expo, it’s not. My friend went to a show in Chicago, that same weekend and had the same observation. Today i was meeting in Toronto (i’m happy to be able to take a train there) and my counterpart was telling me something similar about some shows he’s been to. I guess in short i’m saying the ‘business’ of fighting global warming should focused on environmentally friendly products not on ways to adapt your life to a world with less. While there is plenty of room for both movements, they don’t seem well matched to share a show.

Well i’ve been told by about 10 people that the book is good, so i hope that anyone who actually buys it agrees.

My Book: A Little Green Book of Environmental Quotes and Comments is currently available at atlasbook.com

It is the first of a series of “A Little Green Book” titles. The second title, A Little Green Book of Organic Gardening Tips. is also available at lulu, until our first big printing run is available.

We have several more titles in the works. I’m hoping to make it something that can become sustaining to both myself and our authors. We’re looking to bring bloggers to print, on green focused “reference” books.