Saturday, April 29, 2023

Google Play Store contacts for Android app developers

Last update 2024.09.27

Have you published your Android app on Google Play Store? Are you also annoyed by the lack of a decent support for app developers? Keep in mind that your apps are making money for Google, so here's a list of their employees working on Play Store who are on your payroll. The next time a bot bans your app or provides a lobotomized response to your support request, these are the humans that you should contact directly:


Purnima Kochikar - VP, Google Play, Apps & Games at Google
Sarah Karam - Managing Director, Apps Partnerships @ Google
Travis Yatsko - Program Manager, Google Play Store | Software Engineer | Cardano SPO
Kosuke S. - Group Product Manager for Google Play Store
Damion Heredia - Google Play Store Product Management
Steve Kafka - Product Management at Google
Amanda Simon - Trust & Safety at Google
Rebecca Soares - Lead Policy Manager at Google
Jacqueline Hart - Trust & Safety | Google | ex-Apple
Ron A. - Sr. Director, Trust and Safety at Google
Nick Sullivan - Head of Risk Operations for Play and Android @ Google
Vítor Baccetti - Product at Google Play
Marcus Leal - Group Product Manager - Google Play Store
Dhruv Pilania - Strategy and Operations Lead for Google Play Store at Google
Will Zhou - Group Product Manager at Google Play Store for Apps Discovery

Less direct and still legitimate contacts are:
googleplay-developer-support@google.com
@GooglePlay and @GooglePlayBiz twitter accounts.

 

Play Store Horror Stories:

Has Anyone Else Noticed Changes in Google's App Review Process Lately? [archive]
How did our 4 years of work disappear (because of google play account) [archive]

AdMob contacts for Android app developers

Last update: 2024.01.28

Are you monetizing your Android app with AdMob ads? Are you also annoyed by the lack of a decent support for app developers? Keep in mind that your ads are making money for Google, so here's a list of their employees working on AdMob who are on your payroll. The next time a bot bans your app or provides a lobotomized response to your support request, these are the humans that you should contact directly:

Pablo Alvarez - Sr. Product Manager @ AdMob (Google)
pabloalvarez@google.com

Ali Pasha - Director of Product, App Ads Monetization at Google
Dexter Lam - Strategy and Operations - Google Ad Manager, AdSense, and AdMob
Naomi Ben-Ayoun - Director, AdMob and AdSense Engineering at Google

If they can't be reached directly (if they don't respond to InMail messages), try to connect with them first. Also, there is always a possibility of leaving comments on their LinkedIn posts. Speaking of commenting, here are the official AdMob accounts on various social networks:

Admob on Twitter (you can message them directly there as well)
Admob on LinkedIn
Admob on YouTube

And here is the AdMob publisher support email address:
admob-publisher-support@google.com

AdMob horror stories:


Using Quora to promote your product or service

Trick for finding a question with not that many answers and a lot of views. Answering that question might help with your google ranking. So, here is the search query for google:

site:quora.com keyword "1 answer" "k views" 

Similar trick works for youtube:

site:youtube.com keyword "k views"


Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points

Full article at science.org. Archive.

My Facebook post (in Croatian):

Nisam siguran u kolikoj mjeri su potrebna dodatna objašnjenja uz priloženu fotografiju. Ljudi gledaju kako će izvući ovaj mjesec ili godinu. Tko stigne misliti još o tamo nekih 5-10-20 sljedećih godina ili na nekakav jureći vlak na čijem smo se putu našli.
Ukratko, ako nastavimo ovim putem, do kraja stoljeća prosječna temperatura atmosfere biti će za oko 2.8°C viša od temperature iz predindustrijskog razdoblja. Tzv. svjetske vođe tobože nastoje zagrijavanje ograničiti ispod 1.5°C, odnosno 2°C. Ovaj prvi cilj od 1.5°C je napušten, a ovih 2°C su nam garantirani, vjerojatno do 2050. godine.
Ako se gleda pojednostavljeno i izvan konteksta, plus-minus 2°C, čovjeku ne predstavljaju ništa. Jedan rukav više ili manje. Ali, promjena prosječne temperature samo je jedna brojka koja se jednostavno prati i jednostavno komunicira. Ono što se iza nje krije mnogo je kompleksnije. Tih 2°C definitivno ne znače da će temperatura zraka biti za toliko stupnjeva toplija, a da će klima ostati stabilna. Dakle, sve ostalo - količina oborina, vjetrovi, vlažnost zraka ... - biti isti.
U svakom slučaju, tih garantiranih 2°C za sobom donose i sljedeće:
1. Trajno gubljenje leda na Grenlandu, Barentsovom moru i zapadnoj Antarktici. Moguće da vas podizanje morske razine od par milimetara godišnje ne zabrinjava. Ali, ovo je domina koja pada na sljedeću: gubljenje leda znači da će Zemlja manje reflektirati, a više apsorbirati sunčevog zračenja. Što opet znači da će prosječna temperatura još brže rasti, a preostali led topiti se još brže. Gubitak ledenih površna utjecati će na temperaturu okolnog mora, što znači da će se promijeniti do sada ustaljene morske struje. Promjena morskih struja opet povratno djeluje i na klimu i na eko-sustave što ovise o njima.
2. Topljenje permafrosta. U permafrostu su zarobljeni staklenički plinovi koji se sada otpuštaju u atmosferu. Više stakleničkih plinova, prosječna temperatura još brže raste, a preostali permafrost još se brže topi.
3. Izumiranje koraljnih grebena koji se nalaze uz ekvator. Izumiranje koraljnog grebena znači i izumiranje ogromnog broja riba (i ostalih morskih bića) kojima je stanište, riba koje se hrane tim ribama i riba koje se hrane tim ribama. Kompletni hranidbeni lanci ovise o koraljnim grebenima. Mi ovisimo o tim hranidbenim lancima.
Eh, to su ta 2°C. Jednom kad stignemo tamo, daljnji porast temperature biti će još teže držati pod kontrolom. Dakle, osim što donose katastrofu, ta 2°C su domina koja padaju na sljedeću. 3°C, 4°C ...
Anyway, danas je 26. i nadam se da ćete svi spojiti kraj s krajem do sljedeće plaće.


Wednesday, April 19, 2023

SEO tips from Tim Soulo - podcast summary

My notes on the Indie bites podcast episode [archive] with Tim Soulo:

First steps to take:

  1. Conduct an SEO audit of your website. Ensure that it is crawlable, indexable, and does not have any duplicate content. Verify that it is technically sound and does not cause any issues for Google when crawling and indexing it.

  2. Ensure that every page on your website targets a specific keyword that people search for. How would people search for what your product does? How do they search for solution to the problem that they face? Base your target keywords on that and make sure you have dedicated pages addressing them. Do not put all of your content on the home page and expect it to rank for all of the problems your product solves.

  3. To gain authority in Google's eyes, your web page needs backlinks. Check your competitors and see where they are getting their backlinks from. Who is linking to their home pages? Determine how you can obtain similar links for your own product.

    I have expanded this a little bit into a separate blog post Mastering SEO: Elevate Your Rankings with Link Building.


 

Friday, April 14, 2023

Personal branding - podcast summary

Listen to the complete Andrew Warner's (Mixergy) interview with Sasha Strauss. Downloadable podcast episode is here.

Sasha Strauss on LinkedIn
Sasha Strauss on Twitter

My notes are as follows:

Craft your own story. Don't let others do it for you. Control the information that is about you.

  • Define five different main audiences that you have.
  • For each audience, define touch-points.
  • For each audience, think of yourself as a business. Find your competitors (who compete for the same mindshare), both direct and indirect (tangential). Study them thoroughly and find niches that they do not cover. Focus on those niches. You should not sound or look like anyone else.
  • Collect information, but do not process it yet. Do not imagine what the answer is. Now, collect the stakeholders: investment parties, coworkers, buyers of your product or service, press, etc. Create profiles for all of them. Determine where they obtain their information from.
  • Collect existing communication tools and materials for each audience as well.
  • Once profiles and channels are defined, conduct interviews. Prepare your questions in advance. Collect the missing puzzle pieces. Test your message/plan.
  • Now, write your story and define your message. It should align emotionally with your audience. Speak the language of your audience - use social language, not business language.

When you send out information, anticipate the reactions (including negative ones) and have follow-up prepared. Remember that haters are going to hate, so practice replying to negative feedback. Consider what you want people to remember about you when you reply.

 

Monday, April 10, 2023

Where to sell your mobile app/SaaS/startup/website/domain

Updated: 2023.04.25.

In alphabetical order: 

Acquire

[Twitter] [LinkedIn] [Facebook]

Free listing. No commission. All listed startups have revenue. 

AcquireBase

[Twitter] [LinkedIn]

Lasts posts on social networks late 2022. Free listings 0% commission.

Empire Flippers

[Twitter] [Facebook] [YouTube] [Instagram]

Your business has to meet certain criteria. One of them is: "An online business that makes $2,000 per month or more in net profit over a 12-month average". See what is required to sell your business on Empire Flippers.

Flippa

[Twitter] [LinkedIn] [Facebook]

Auction listings starting at $49 USD. Commission 4-10%. Free valuation. 

Indie maker

Free listing. You have to pay (staring from $9 USD) once you want to engage with potential buyers. Pricing details. Broke when I tried to save a listing.

Microns

[Twitter] [LinkedIn]

Free listing. No commission.

Motion Invest

Content web sites only.

Quiet Light

[Twitter] [Youtube] [Facebook] [LinkedIn]

Free valuation. Established businesses only.

Sedo

[Twitter] [Facebook]

Free buy now fixed price listings. Free make offer listings. No initial fee for marketplace auction. Direct auction starting at $59 USD. Auction events starting at $10 USD. Pricing details. Commission 10 - 20%.

SideProjectors

[RSS] [Twitter] [Facebook]

Free listings.

Tiny Acquisitions

[Twitter] [LinkedIn] [Facebook

Not for domains.

Transferslot

Listings from 3 years ago.

? Acquisitions.com

 [Twitter] [LinkedIn] [Facebook]

Friday, April 7, 2023

Open-source app alternatives for Android

Google Keyboard → Open-source keyboards for Android
Google Translate → TranslateYou
Google Calendar → Etar
Google Docs → Librera Reader, Collabora Office [Play Store] [Github]



Open-source keyboards for Android

Updated 2023.07.29.

OpenBoard

Supports swipe/glide typing - NO. (YES! Read below)

OpenBoard on F-Droid.
OpenBoard on Play Store.
OpenBoard on GitHub.

Looks like OpenBoard is abandoned [?] but it is forked and updated by Helium314, with support for swipe/glide typing.

OpenBoard by Helium314 on GitHub.

AnySoftKeyboard

Supports swipe/glide typing - YES. 

User comment:

AnySoftKeyboard needs the languages to be installed as “plugins” via apks, this means after uninstalling the app, you need to uninstall a bunch of “apps” which are just languages/keyboard layouts. The languages are all named wrongly in F-Droid and there seems to be no Bulgarian language. The actual layout of the keys (size & spacing) causes me to mistype more often than on any other keyboard.
AnySoftKeyboard on F-Droid.
AnySoftKeyboard on Play Store.
AnySoftKeyboard on GitHub.

FlorisBoard

Supports swipe/glide typing - YES (English only). 

User comment:

Florisboard is pretty neat for alpha, but it currently mixes the suggestion dictionaries for all installed languages and it’s prediction is generally bad.
FlorisBoard on F-Droid.
FlorisBoard on GitHub.

 

Marjanska skalinada - osobni rezultat

Datum Trčanje Brzo hodanje Komentar
2023.04.04
14:57
2023.04.06 12:05
U nekoliko navrata prešao na brzo hodanje.
2023.04.20 11:52
-- || --
2023.05.10 11:09
-- || --

 

8. Skalinada rezultati
9. Skalinada rezultati

 

Thursday, April 6, 2023

Building your advisory board, better product selling - podcast summary

Listen to the complete Andrew Warner's (Mixergy) interview with Christine Comaford. Archived downloadable podcast episode is here. My notes are the following ...

If company is struggling, it's because of one of the following reasons:

  1. PEOPLE

    You don't have enough people or the right people. Internal or external. External = advisory board. It gives you credibility by association, additional skill set that you don't have.

    [23:00] Ask potential advisors for 15 min every month either over phone or over email. Show them that you value their mind. Ask for two year term and offer them .25 percent of your common stock, vesting in equal monthly installments over two years.

    Don't ask them to invest in your company, ask them who they know who might want to invest.

    Do not ask for favors, ask for advice - people love giving advice. It engages their ego and their emotions.

    Building Your Advisory Board worksheet.

    [28:00] Establishing new mentorship relations by palm-up networking: find out what people care about and help them get it.
  2. MONEY

    [34:00] Quota busting process:

    1. There are only three reasons people buy. They buy to make money, to save money, or to reduce pain and frustration. Find out which of those three reasons. 
    2. Present your product or service focusing on that reason.
    3. Present your offer.
    4. Shut up. Otherwise customer might thing that we are not at the decision point yet.

    Figure out not only who is your client, but who is not your client as well. Disqualify them by asking them to make a commitment at every single point through the process.
  3. MODEL

    Have a product path to guide the customer through the increasing value.

 



Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Expected global suitability of coffee, cashew and avocado due to climate change

Full article. Archive

From the abstract:

We found shifts in suitable growing regions due to climate change with both regions of future expansion and contraction for all crops investigated. Coffee proved to be most vulnerable, with negative climate impacts dominating in all main producing regions. For both cashew and avocado, areas suitable for cultivation are expected to expand globally while in most main producing countries, the areas of highest suitability may decrease. The study reveals that climate change adaptation will be necessary in most major producing regions of all three crops. At high latitudes and high altitudes, however, they may all profit from increasing minimum temperatures

Tables 3-5 seem to be the best quick summary for potential changes in suitable land overall and by relevant nations per crop:

 More on coffee: