After Kickstarter success, Ouya CEO just getting started

Ouya, a $99 Android-based video game console, has picked up more than $5 million in the biggest Kickstarter campaign to date. It’s also received plenty of doubts from skeptics as well. In an interview, Julie Uhrman, the CEO and founder, said Ouya is the real deal.

Kickstarter’s records have been smashed by Ouya, a $99 Android-based video game console that promises to bring affordable games to the television. The project, which originally set out to raise $950,000, is now up to $5.7 million pledged from more than 47,000 backers with 10 left to go.

Built using standard components like a Tegra 3 quad-core processor and hackable, Ouya will create a new platform for developers looking to bring both casual and hardcore games to the living room. The console, which is being designed by famed designer Yves Behar, will work with a standard controller that includes a touchpad. Developers will be able to use an SDK to create an array of titles, which will all have a free component to them.

While the project isn’t expected to debut until March 2013, it has started revealing some partnerships, including a deal Friday with OnLive, which will offer its cloud-based streaming games at launch on Ouya. Ouya has also announced its first exclusive title Human Element, a zombie game from developer Robotoki.

I talked by phone last week with Ouya’s CEO and founder Julie Uhrman, who first conceived of Ouya while leading digital distribution and business development for gaming site IGN. We talked about the rising skepticism about the project and how Ouya is working to deliver the goods.

Ryan: Talk about the deal with OnLive. How did that come about and does that change the nature of your console?

Julie: There’s a lot of content and games that we want for Ouya and we listen to our audience. They wanted OnLive so I made it a point to go out get them. OnLive signals some of the types of partnerships we can have on Ouya. The idea is we can have streaming and downloadable content. Because it’s open and built on Android, all different kinds of content would be available: games, videos, streaming and music content. Ouya is about being open and bringing the best content to gamers and anyone who enjoys entertainment. We don’t think OnLive’s content cancels out any publishers or developers, it enhances the platform.

Ryan: Some people are skeptical of Ouya and wonder if it will pan out. Will this project deliver on time?

Julie: We have every confidence that we will do this. The technology isn’t rocket science, it’s standard stuff combined in a new way and wrapped in a beautiful package. It’s been incredibly embraced by gamers and developers. We get hundreds of emails from developers wanting to develop for the platform; the idea of openness of Ouya has resonated. Until we have things on store shelves, we can’t prove things and there will be questions but most (developers) say they want Ouya or something like this to succeed. We have vetted our process, capped the amount of units we are shipping on day one and we have great advisors, who have built great hardware and software. We feel very confident we will deliver in March.

Ryan: So where did this idea come from? What was your vision?

Julie: I was part of the game industry for a long time and I saw AAA developers leaving for mobile. But if you interview gamers, the number one platform is the TV. The most time is spent in the living room, even for mobile games. The experience is better on a TV but all the excitement and growth was in mobile. I grew up on TV games and I wanted to bring it back and I saw an opportunity for a device that has Android as its operating system. The value proposition is there. People don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on a console. Ouya is $99 and games are free to play. What’s not to like?

Ryan: But building an ecosystem is hard work. Trying to court and keep developers and convince them there’s money to be made here is not easy. What are you planning to do to ensure that Ouya is appealing to developers?

Julie: The one thing that is always important to remember is this is still a product in development. We are focused on creating a great product. Kickstarter is opening up a two-way dialogue with folks who will benefit and we’re incorporating their feedback. People are incredibly excited. The developer conversations are incredibly well. You aint seen nothing yet.

Ryan: What has Kickstarter meant to you and what does the added money allow you to do?

Julie: It’s been a phenomenal platform for us and allowed us to create a dialogue with an audience of gamers and developers. We knew this was the only way to get to market quickly, raise money and bring this idea to fruition. Our goal was to hit $950,000 and we knew we could deliver units and even provide tools and support for developers with that. Anything over that is truly unbelievable and it means we can build more tools.

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Android Application Development: The Rising Trends and Reasons of Success

Android is one of the most popular software development tools for mobile app development. It offers a plethora of benefits for mobile application developers. It is easy to handle and fantastic for developers who have previous experience in programming languages to work out the game logic and app logic. The Software Development Kit offered by Android is open to inventive uses and one can get a head start to creating an app in an instant and implemented swiftly too.

Mobile phones work nowadays as pocket fit PCs because the Android operating system offered by Google is flexible and is based on Linux Kernel. Apps can be easily created for smart phones without having to go through complex procedures and offers a great deal of returns on investment. There are many mobile application development companies which have come to the fore and are offering extremely lucrative and cost-effective app development services.

Why Android application development?

Some of the main reasons for the surge in number of Android app developers are as follows:

Android application development is cost-effective because it is open source.

Android Application developers are allowed to let their imagination wild on Android SDK for developing creative Android applications.

C/C++ and Java programming languages are used in Android apps development. Hence developers find it easy who have experience working in these languages.

Developers can replicate their code so that they benefit more from multiple apps creation.

Android helps developers to divert their time not in development but in understanding clientele needs.

Performance stability and security is great here and hence the operating system is smooth to operate without having to worry about security.

The porting of the apps becomes hassle free.

The investment involved is lower than app development for other systems and even the time required for creating an application is less.

Android facilitates quick information gathering and precise information.

You can get your apps created with the help of an experienced and professional Android application development service provider. Be careful when you finalize on whom you are hiring as hiring an average mobile app developer might result in disaster and total loss of money, time and resources.

The process of Android application development involves programming through Java. One can integrate various apps and features on a smartphone including the GPS, accelerometer, and video camera. It also facilitates the developers to create new Android apps through different marketing strategies which are based on public interest.

Designing applications for Android and Android Application Development is a genuinely enjoyable experience. The developer toolkit allows us to work with your brief to create a work of art. We've designed everything from games to personal organizers to photo editing apps.

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The Key to Success With Keywords

In the beginning there was a word, and that word was KEYWORD.

To begin your journey to finding winning keywords, lets explore the the thinking process that goes into selecting, refining and creating a final list of keywords for your company based on the industry, business, services offered, target audiences and the competition faced.

As the CEO of a company you would obviously want to excite any user or a company who is seeking products or services you offer on a search engine like Google to find your website easily.

Eg. You are a property developer in Dubai, so you would want anyone typing in that phrase in the search box to reach your website.

Adding location in the keyword is very important. In the above example since the company is based in Dubai, it's highly probable it will attract the users who want to find a property developers in close vicinity. So property developer in dubai is primarily a KEYWORD.

It's the KEYWORD that will drive potential customers to your website or blog that will translate into traffic, and eventually sales.

As the CEO your plans do include going global, but having the location in the keyword ensures targeted traffic from the city of your business, and that's a good start. Any SEO expert will tell you that targeting common terms like property developers without location would be very difficult to achieve as the website will have to compete with thousands worldwide for that keyword.

The individual keywords should also form part of your domain name. Having your primary keyword in your domain name is one of the key factors in achieving high rankings for a particular keyword phrase.

For those who are cringing about now, thinking they already have a domain and it does not include the keyword, don't worry, there are ways of getting around, one of them being, you can setup sub domains.

Simply put search engines rank sites higher which contain the keyword the user is searching for in their domain name. There are various other factors like optimizing each page around a keyword, building quality links and fresh content that will influence search engine rankings, but that's another story.

Since Dubai is located in UAE it also makes sense for you to target users who are searching for property developers in uae, so you now have another important keyword.

So you can see how you started with one keyword, and additional keywords phrases got created in the process of reading this article.

You should also target mis-spelt words like proprty developers in dubai which means that even when a user mis-spells by mistake you ensure your website comes up. This is becoming soon out of date with Google suggest and their new browser Chrome that suggests possible keywords based on each letter you type.

This is just the beginning into a wonderful journey of finding the right powerful keywords that will generate business for you, where you start with one keyword, and eventually create hundreds of powerful keywords that become traffic funnels to your website.

Having hundreds of focused keywords around your business would mean... you do the maths.

Analyze your Services/ Products

Now how would someone searching for residential properties in dubai find the website? You got it, by searching for residential properties in dubai or buy home in dubai. In this way you can list out all the services offered and create compelling keywords that the user would type to reach your website. The above list could have been created based on products you offered as well.

As you can see, by adding the services in the keywords you have created focused keywords based on services that you can actually offer. There is no point in targeting keywords just for the additional traffic and then having no value for the user on the link. The search engines dislike that and many websites that capture keywords, but have no content are soon being banned from the listings.

Don't think that you have to focus ONLY on your products or services. What are the other USP's you have (Unique Selling Proposition), something you offer and no one else can? What are your customers looking for when they come online?

Give them the information they're looking for and you'll be pulling in targeted traffic from keyword areas that you may never have considered before.

And, most times, those keyword areas are much less competitive than trying to target your individual goods and services. That doesn't mean that you should not target your service/products - only that you need to look at other avenues from which to pull traffic as well.

Analyze your Target Audience (TG)

The next step for you is to create new keywords focused around the users you expect to visit the website and use the services you offer. Always ask yourself questions like why will the target segment come to your site, what do they expect when they reach the website, and do you have the content/services required to satisfy their needs and questions.

Each target segment may belong to different age groups, different vocations, different mindsets, and different requirements.

Additional tips for choosing keywords:

1. Use powerful two word or three word phrases

2. Use distant related keywords

3. Use mis-spelt keywords

4. Go regional, think global

5. Use longest variations of your words

6. Use industry specific short forms or less popular terms for the same word

Analyze your Competition

While analyzing the competition for the purpose of finding new keywords that could drive traffic to your website, keep in mind that competition in life is rather unnecessary and a futile attempt "one" makes to feel better that the "other".

You need someone to lose, to feel you have won! Have you ever considered why? Somewhere within there is someone who feels rather small, and to feel bigger, it needs to become better at something, and to become better at something, someone needs to be smaller than you. So we compete in the workplace, in our homes, with friends, in love and in life. If that seems lame, it is, look within and you find that someone small inside you trying to make itself feel bigger, by making someone else look smaller.

Now let's see check the competition:

1. Study the keywords your competition has used and are ranking well, and why?

2. Check to see if you have those keywords in your list of winning keywords. If the competition has used a keyword and you have not, analyze why you did not come up with the keyword. Is your competition using services of a seo expert, keyword analysis tools and insights that you are unaware off?

3. Study the top 5 to 10 sites for each of your keywords (what seo strategies have they used, is the keyword placed in the meta tags and body content, is their title and description inviting you to click the link)

4. Check your optimized pages, are they missing something - then ask why is the competition ranking higher than you? Have they done something different? What page optimization strategies have they used? Have they used link building strategies?

There will always be keywords you would have missed out, so why not steal a few from the competition. It's the easiest thing to do. Right click to view the source for the page and check for the keyword tag on that page.

From the keywords list created so far:

1. How many users are actually searching for your keywords?

2. What is the search trend and search volume for your keyword over the past 4 years across top search engines?

3. What competition are you up against for your keywords?

How important do you think it is to know the above metrics? How will the above data assist in planning a seo strategy for your website? How will the above data affect your rankings?

If you are still reading further, you have obviously understood the importance on knowing the metrics of success. So here goes...

Each keyword you target becomes a funnel of traffic to your website, each keyword will have its own competition, and each keyword targeted is potential business.

Till so far you have managed to create a list of keywords that are focused around your business, products/services, target audiences, and the competition.

The key to successful search engine optimization begins with a simple keyword phrase. Everything depends on that keyword phrase. You'll be including those keyword phrases in your META tags, your title and other important tags, as well as in the body content of the page itself.

So the KEY to SUCCESS... is in the KEYWORDS you select!

Tools for finding Keywords

Google Insights:

Google's recently launched Google Insights offers search marketers and online businessman a chance to look at the vast amount of user search volumes in Google universe over the past 4 years. With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames for a keyword, and even compare it against other keywords.

Wordtracker:

Wordtracker is a Web-based service for anyone who is serious about identifying the right keywords. Be sure to check out WordTracker's KEI, Keyword Effectiveness Index, which is an index factor built into WordTracker that compares the 24-hour results (the *potential* for traffic) with the number of competing Web pages to help identify which keywords are most effective. The higher the KEI factor, the more effective the phrase will be, based on the phrase being both popular but having low competition.

Thesaurus:

Use a thesaurus to discover keywords and phrases you've never considered.

Yahoo! Search Marketing (Overture):

Offers a Search Term Suggestion Tool, which is available through the advertisers' area. Simply enter your keyword phrase, and you'll learn how many people actually searched for that term during the previous month. This tool won't tell you how many people are searching for your keyword phrase at other engines, but give you an idea of how popular the keyword phrase is.

Nevil Darukhanawala, SEO Expert Mumbai, SEO Services Mumbai http://www.seo-optimization-experts.com/seoblog.html

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Keyword Article Writing: the Key to Your Success!

Ready to jump on the keyword article bandwagon? Billions of companies are using keyword articles to gain free exposure on the internet. Whether you're a netpreneur marketing a product or a writer seeking freelance work, odds are you can benefit tremendously from keyword articles.

Why use keywords? The point is to be "found." Internet users across the globe are searching for information. How are they searching? The same way you do; they type specific words into a search engine. If you don't incorporate these words into your web content, the other guy will... and then your reader is lost on someone else's copy. Help them find you... with keywords!

Never written a keyword article before? Have no fear. The process isn't much different from writing regular articles. Don't let lack of experience stop you from profiting through keyword-rich content. Just follow these easy keyword-writing guidelines, and get ready to key in some great article copy!

1. Learn the buzzwords. Every industry has its own jargon. If you're well-versed in a particular subject, it's likely that you already know the buzzwords and you don't need to read up on it. If it's a relatively new topic for you, do some research. Read four or five different articles to get an idea of the lingo used and the most popular sub-categories of the industry. I'll give you an example. Let's say your article is going to be about... keyword articles. Some of your keywords might be: keyword, "keyword article", keyword-rich, "web content," "web article," RSS-feed, "keyword writing." How do I know this? Not because I did a keyword lookup. Because I read lots of articles! Reading is a great way to load up on catch-phrases and terminology. You can get your fill of keywords without even trying!

2. Write the article without paying attention to keywords. Don't bother trying to plug keywords into an article the first time you write it. Just write it, period. Keep the flow going, craft your sentences without paying particular mind to word selection. It's likely that if you know what you're talking about, keywords will very naturally fall into place as you write. Those sneaky keywords... they tend to just slip right in without your even knowing it happened!

3. Select your keywords. Once your first draft is written, you can concentrate on building a list of keywords to insert throughout your text. Sit down with a pen and paper (or a blank document if you prefer) and write down words that you frequently come across in the industry you're covering. Imagine if someone were doing a search on the web for your topic. What words and phrases might they key in to the search box? Don't forget search terms that contain two or more words. Such words work together and would be placed in quotes if someone were typing them into a search engine box. Suppose you were writing an article on email marketing. You would include terms like "drip list" and "email newsletter" to name just two.

4. Assess the popularity of your keywords. Find out how many times internet users searched the web using specific keywords, with the Overture Keyword Selector Tool. The tool is free and available through this link: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. Just type in the word and hit return. The higher the rank number, the more popular the keyword, and the more likely you'll want to use it in your article.

5. Select keywords that are specific rather than general. Let's say I'm writing an article about negotiating fees with a freelance copywriter. My goal should be to include popular words related to that particular topic, and not just the general category of copywriting. "Freelance copywriting rates" is a much better keyword phrase to use because that's probably something a user would actually type in when searching for such information. "Freelance copywriting," on the other hand, is more general and therefore might bring up thousands of higher-ranked sites than yours. Burying your article is no way to be found... so, keep it specific if you can!

6. Scan your existing text for keywords. Your article draft is complete and your keywords have been selected. Now, just put them together. Scan the article copy for the first keyword. Did you find it? Great! If you know your stuff, you probably slipped the keyword into a few places without even realizing it.

7. "Find and Change." Suppose in your article about copywriting, you included the word "writing" several times throughout the piece. That's no serious problem by any means, but "copywriting" is the term of choice among marketers and advertisers. Consequently, it should be one of your keywords. Locate where you've used the word "writing" or "writer", and replace with "copywriting" or "copywriter." Do this for each of your keywords and keyword phrases. You may have to reorder some of the sentences, but this shouldn't be a big deal.

8. Proofread your article. Now that you've added keywords, the article is probably somewhat different from its original form. Do a thorough read-through for mistakes, correcting as needed. Check for spelling errors, grammatical inconsistencies and repeated words. Hey, did she say repeated words?? Yes, even in keyword articles, a good writer should try to vary his vocabulary. Your article should be keyword-rich, not dull and repetitive!

9. Write a keyword-rich headline. Why did I wait until the end of this article to mention the headline? Because the best headlines usually come to the writer at the end of the writing and researching process. With all this talk of keywords, you should be primed to write hard-hitting headlines!

Keyword article headlines waste no time. Get right to the point with a headline that uses your three or four most popular keywords at the beginning, not at the end. Allow me to critique an article from my own collection. The headline: How to Negotiate Rates with a Freelance Copywriting Expert. I confess, this headline could have been better. Why? "Negotiate rates" is not a keyword term that someone might type into a search engine. "Freelance Copywriting," however, is. The better version of this headline: "Freelance Copywriting: How to Negotiate Rates." If I had simply reordered the words, this headline would have been that much more powerful and achieved a higher web search ranking. Live and learn!

Feeling a little more comfortable about keyword article-writing? Great! Now get out there and start making money writing keyword-rich content for the world!

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

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