LinkedIn DirectAds

I was recently looking for a new day job and, being a technophile, I used the internet to my advantage. At first, I solely used SEO (search engine optimization) so when you Googled my name, my LinkedIn profile would be in the search results and also appear as an ad.  I then received $100 in free LinkedIn DirectAds advertising through a promotional mailing, so I figured that was even better than the Google AdWords platform since folks are only on LinkedIn for professional things whereas they are on Google for many things. My experience with LinkedIn Ads was largely negative. The only good thing about it was that it was easy to set up. Since I had the free Ads to use, I set the maximum budget for my ad at $100, but it quickly used it somehow. When I noticed this, I immediately turned the ad off. The DirectAds platform reported that I caught it before any clicks sent me over budget, but soon after I was charged $79.56 because the system failed to turn my ad off. I spent approximately 2 months dealing with customer service trying to get a refund. The Ads Specialist I dealt with at first, Troy, was extremely rude and unhelpful. I told him I wanted to escalate to a supervisor and he said he was the person who made decisions about refunds. I went over his head and got my refund anyway.


This past Friday I received an email from a LinkedIn Product Manager asking me about my experience with LinkedIn DirectAds. I told him exactly what I wrote above. In fact, I copied most of the above from the email I sent back to him. Now last night I got an email from LinkedIn's "social media guy" asking if I'd like to participate in a social media ad campaign for LinkedIn DirectAds. Really? I mean, you obviously got my information from the Product Manager - the one that knows my experience was bad. You want to share that? Apparently he doesn't want to share it, so I'm doing it for him.


Don't get me wrong, I find LinkedIn to be a fantastic product, but LinkedIn DirectAds is like LinkedIn's step-child that the parents lock in a dog cage so they can go bar hopping every night. The Ads Specialist (read: customer service) was rude and unhelpful. Now, months later, they ask for my experience? Check your records and you'll have an answer. Then I sent the answer that they should already have had and they obviously didn't even bother to read it or else why would they pass it along so I could potentially participate in an ad campaign for them? Come on, LinkedIn DirectAds, and therefore LinkedIn, get your shit together! I'm so glad you chose not to hire me for the position I applied for! I guess they only want incompetent illiterate folks - that's not me!


PS - Google's AdWords ROCKS. If you want to do an SEO campaign, go with Google.

LinkedIn DirectAds fails The Trav Test with an F.


• Category: Products
• Location: Online
• Cost: Expensive since their shit doesn't work properly
• Ease of use:
 Easy
• The Trav Test grade: F

Quick Tip: Twitter Followers

I am addicted to Twitter!  I definitely over-share and love the ability to Tweet friends, companies, and celebrities... sometimes they even reply (friends included in this "they").  I don't like having random followers, though.  One option would be to "protect" my account so people would have to ask for my permission before being able to follow me.  This, however, prevents people who aren't following me from seeing my Tweets even if I mention them.  Since many of the companies and celebrities don't follow me back, they wouldn't see my Tweets to them at all.  The other option takes a few steps and may not be around forever.  First, if you're using the "new" Twitter, you need to switch back to "old" Twitter (you can switch back and fourth freely).  Next, go to your settings page and check "Protect my account."  You'll only leave it protected while you're removing followers.  You see, this is the only way to get the "Remove follower" option.  Next, go to your followers page.  Use the "Remove follower" action to remove the followers you want to remove.  Now, go back to your settings page and uncheck "Protect my account."  You can also switch back to "new" Twitter at this point if you'd like.  Hopefully Twitter will give us a less complicated way to remove unwanted followers in the future, but for now, this works.  Happy Tweeting!


By the way, are you following @TheTravTest?

This is a quick tip from The Trav Test to make every day an A!

Apple's iPhone 4 + Launch

It's no secret that I'm a major Apple fanboy.  I'm one of the people that camp overnight at the Apple store just to be one of the first to get my hands on new products.  June 24, 2010 was my 3rd time camping out for an iPhone launch.  I've owned all 4 iPhones so far, but had last year's 3GS model delivered to my doorstep on launch day 2009.  This year, thanks to a combination of server errors and line nostalgia, I camped out again.

The aforementioned combination of server errors is my first of many issues with this year's iPhone launch.  By now, it's well known that new iPhone models are announced at WWDC, the Worldwide Developers Conference, in San Francisco, California every June.  The iPhone is then available for purchase as quickly as one week later, which was the case for the 3GS last year, or as long as 4 weeks later, which was the case for the 3G in 2008.  Last year, Apple added the ability to pre-order the iPhone and gave the choice to reserve a unit for in-store pick up or home delivery, both on launch day.  The pre-order model was extremely successful last year.  I was able to pre-order my phone and it arrived on launch day as planned, no hiccups at all.  This year was another story.  The time at which the pre-order site goes live is never provided, but rumors were flying that it would go live at Midnight Alaskan time, or 3am for me (Central).  I stayed up.  I tried to pre-order countless times, but it was impossible to do so.  After about 2 hours, I gave up and went to bed.  I got up about 4 hours later to try again with still no luck.  I had pretty much given up, but I tried once more around 9pm that day and got through... for a July 16th delivery, which was unacceptable for an early adopter like myself.

Since my friend and I were unable to pre-order our iPhones, we decided we would camp out.  We had gone back and fourth about what time we wanted to get in line.  At first, I suggested 2am since that was 5 hours before the store opened and, after reading the launch forums at MacRumors.com, I was confident that this was early enough.  Launch day eve came and I called my preferred Apple store (at Bayshore Town Center in Milwaukee).  I was informed that mall security prevented lines from forming prior to 3am.  My friend and I decided to still go at 2am because we could wait in the car for an hour if need be.  Around 10pm or so, however, my friend got a text message saying that a line had already formed and about 30 people were waiting.  The sourced seemed pretty unreliable and considering the 3am line time was confirmed, I mostly shrugged it off.  My friend and I decided to get there by midnight, though, just in case.  We figured that if the source was indeed wrong, we could have a drink at Bar Louie, a nice bar that overlooks the Apple store area.  When we arrived, however, the source was unfortunately correct.  Arriving just after midnight, we were 51st and 52nd in line, respectively.  We were slightly annoyed, but I was still confident that Apple would have more than 52 units available.

The launch line was pretty fun - which is why I had launch line nostalgia from missing it in 2009.  I began talking to #50, a young male who was buying the iPhone for his mother, not himself.  Once I learned that, I asked him the questions that Apple employees would be asking a few hours later.  I pretty much saved his iPhone life since, had I not told him he needed to be an authorized user on the AT&T account, he would have been turned away after 12 hours of waiting.  I also began talking to #53, Matt, and #54, Ericka, whose names I actually didn't learn until after about 10 hours.  I've met up with both of them since the launch and am happy to have met them so I guess I will wait in line next year, too, just to meet cool Apple-minded folks!

Once Apple opened at 7am, madness ensued.  They were processing 30 pre-orders for every 1 non-pre-order.  The pre-order line was zipping by while we sat, sweating and waiting.  Once the sun rose, it was extremely hot outside.  Apple employees were nice enough to pass out bottled water, coffee, umbrellas to create some shade, and eventually even some snacks.  Thankfully, no one passed out at my store, but 80º and direct sun made that a possibility.  Approximately 5 1/2 hours later, I finally got inside.  Completing the sale was effortless and I was evan able to cancel my mother's July pre-order and snag her one that day, something she was very pleased with.

For the most part, I love my iPhone 4.  I definitely prefer the industrial design over the former "pretty" plastic shell.  I wanted a white phone like I had for the 3G and 3GS, and was pretty pissed off that Apple didn't speak up about it's disappearance until too late, but I'm fine with having black.  I purchased a Bumper as well - in black since colors are not yet available - and hate it.  It is ill fitting and just ugly.  After a few days, I ditched the Bumper to see how it would handle being naked.  So far, so good.  I have noticed the reception issues that people have been talking about (see this lawsuit for more on that), but have not experienced any screen yellowing or broken glass - and yes, I have dropped it already, from about 3 1/2 feet onto hardwood.

If I was just reviewing the iPhone 4 itself, I'd give it an A-.  It's definitely the best iPhone yet except for the signal issues.  If I make sure to hold it differently, I get the best signal AT&T can deliver.  The 5MP camera with flash, Apple's A4 chip, and 512MB of RAM are really nice additions.  I'm also reviewing the launch, however, so the grade is going down.  The fact that Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, told us that White iPhones would be available on June 24th and they weren't is more than just annoying, it seems like intentional and negligent misrepresentation as the lawsuit claims.  If Apple had come clean earlier, I would have been slightly less upset, but the fact that Walt Mossberg got a white one and I didn't really pisses me off.  Second, misrepresenting line formation information is unacceptable.  If I had waited until 3am and then not gotten an iPhone, I may have been uncontrollable.  While this may not be Apple's fault entirely, they know lines will form and as such, should communicate with the various store locations' security.  Third, if you're going to take pre-orders, make sure the system works and if it doesn't, nullify those that did get through so launch day is fair.  Fourth, do not allow pre-orders and non-pre-orders into the store unequally.  They know they have a phone waiting, they can wait or come back later.  Fifth, set up some tents along the line.  Protecting your loyal customers from rain or direct sun should be a priority. Sixth, do not allow customers into the store for other products.  I know, it sounds like bad business to turn away people who might want to buy a $1000 laptop, but they can do so any other day or online without taking away employees from launch activities.  Seventh, be honest about your supplies and tell those people in line that will not be able to get a phone.  I was told that when I was in the store, only about 10 phones were left.  If this is true, the 100+ people still in line would be turned away.  I'm surprised a mob didn't break out with 100 tired people being told to go away.  All in all, the launch was a mess.  I had fun, but it was a big mess and gets a F.  Averaging the launch grade and the actual iPhone 4 grade results in a D.  D's are passing, but I expect better from Apple.

Apple's iPhone 4 and Launch barely passes The Trav Test with a D.

• Category: Products, Wireless, AT&T, Apple, iPhone, launch

• Location: Apple (specifically at Bayshore Town Center, Milwaukee)

• Cost: $199 or $299, plus 12 hours of my time and 3 gallons of sweat.

• Ease of use: iPhone-easy. Launch-difficult

• The Trav Test grade: D

HTML Goodies

I spent some time thinking about what I would review as my very first post.  The first post is going to set the theme for posts to come, right?  Well, maybe.  I was leaning towards a post about my recent experience at Superdawg's new Wheeling, IL location because it was great, but then I thought about HTML Goodies.


HTML Goodies is a really simple site that I have used for YEARS to help me with web design.  I can remember back to 6th grade when I used HTML Goodies to teach me how to write a link code.  I memorized it and, of course, still use this knowledge today.  I have not memorized other things - like color codes (except black and white) - and HTML Goodies is a great resource to look these things up.


Whether you use HTML many times a day as part of your career in web design or only every 3 months when you change your Myspace page (actually, does anyone use Myspace anymore?), HTML Goodies is a great place to get help.  The creator, Joe Burns, writes in a way that is fun and easy to understand.

HTML Goodies passes The Trav Test with an A+

• Category: Tech, How To
• Location: Online
• Cost: Free
• Ease of use: Easy
• The Trav Test grade: A+