Once you have a site with good, clean URLs, the next step is to make sure they never change. It’s a simple mantra to have, but a tough one to follow through on.

You see, sometimes you have to change URLs. A new content management system might demand a certain structure. You might be improving your organization to have site sections. Heck, your wacky Web Developer might be changing programming languages.

In that case, make sure the old pages remain immortal. Don’t just redirect pages not found to the home page. That’s a cop out. Go to the effort of determining every broken page on your site and make sure it redirects to the new page. This is a lot of work, but both users and search engines like it.

When I switched from Blogger to WordPress, there were all sorts of changes. The whole URL structure changed, which breaks my immortal URL rule. That meant I needed to do some extra work to make sure that the Blogger URLs were not forgotten and that they found their way to the new structure.

The solution was permanent redirects on the server. I have about 100 lines in my .htaccess file that look like this:
Redirect permanent /news/2005/07/trailboss-best-band-that-never-was.html https://adamduvander.com/me/trailboss-the-best-band-that-never-was

Just a couple weeks ago I decided that my Weird Al CD post was more about me than keeping things simple. I switched its category, which changed the URL. Then I made sure the old, broken one would remain immortal by redirecting it.

If your server uses Apache (and most do), check out their docs for more information.

Almost a year ago, I mentioned Save My Finger. It was a certain link-bait scenario. Pretty sleazy, really. There were plenty of people, myself included, who rubber-necked at the accident.

In April, we learned what we already knew: Carl, scheduled to lose his finger, was fictional. It was a viral marketing “experiment.” Using that word is another way of saying it wasn’t an out-of-the-park hit. The site didn’t make it to the two million unique visitors that it needed to save Carl’s finger.

Yet, SaveMyFinger guy calls it a success:

My point in this experiment was to prove that it IS possible to open up a website and within days if not hours be receiving massive traffic. Internet marketing is a numbers game, regardless of what you are selling or how you are monetizing your website, Traffic is KING!

Egads. Anyone ever built a campfire? With a match and newspaper, it’s easy to get a flame. It doesn’t last long. For that you need wood. You need patience. You need to do good stuff.

I wouldn’t write off viral marketing. There will always be hucksters and used car salesmen doing it badly, burning the newspaper, and catching the momentary attention of the rubber-neckers.

I hope I have the patience not to be one.

The Forbes 400 richest people list is out and it’s made entirely of billionaires. The magazine picked out 14 who are self-made and asked them ten questions.

One of the questions hit on something I’ve written a lot about: Idea or Execution?

I was surprised to see three chose the idea, but didn’t elaborate much. Six sided with what I’d call the obvious choice, execution.

Most enlightening is that, despite being asked to choose one, five of the billionaires still picked both. Are they rich because they never take no for an answer? Or, are they demanding because they’re rich?

Other good questions:

• What was your biggest mistake?
• What motivates you?
• If you could be anything else, what would it be?

Read them all at Forbes.

Are you building a Web product? Add the obvious features first.

Let me backpeddle a moment. The most important thing is to get together a first version. Make it have your core features.

Next you may want to add in those pieces from your grand vision. You’ll get there, but I think you should first look for obvious things that are missing. Don’t let yourself regret it later.

TypePad has been out for three years. I have never been a user, but I read what their users write all the time. Often I return to a TypePad blog and want to find a post. Is there really no search in TypePad? That’s an example of an obvious feature. I’m sure the folks at Six Apart (who make TypePad) could even find a search partner willing to give a little revenue share for sending searches their way.

Finding the difference between your core features and frill features is tough. It makes you question how well you understand what your full-grown ideas will look like as embryos.

By contrast, the obvious stuff should be easy. It’s the stuff your gut tells you that you should be doing. If you put it off, make sure you justify it. Then do everything you can to get back to it soon. Your product will be better for it.

In the vein of Steal This Idea come a couple of sites that actually executed.

One, BuildV1 wants to connect like-minded people to work on projects together. Maybe at first they would build something simple together. Once they know each other, maybe they will work on something bigger.

Rather than focusing on ideas, BuildV1 separates the site into two lists: entrepreneurs who need help and people who want to help entrepreneurs.

By contrast to that laissez faire approach, Cambrian House is about giving ideas to crowds and letting them run with it… or tear it apart. If an idea makes it past the first round (called “Idea Warz”), then people get together and make it. Finally, Cambria House markets the product, paying out profits to the idea guy and the others that helped make it. This animation explains it pretty well.

Cambrian House values ideas at five to ten percent of the whole project. That might be high, but I like seeing it in terms of a percentage instead of the idea multiplier.

Thanks to Amit for showing me BuildV1 and Ryan for pointing me toward Cambria House.