Facebook « Christopher Ross

Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

08
Jan
2010

Marketing Mistakes & Bashing Your Sponsors

Welcome to my blog, please feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed, join me on Twitter or leave a comment.

I love reading new blogs, especially ones that have little or nothing to do with my area of focus, that way I can always get to see different points of view! This week is no exception, I’ve found a great collection of marketing blogs since I started this year and I’d love to share some with you.

Laurel Sutton has a great article on Marketing Profs called 10 Best and Worst Internet Company Names of the Decade that reads like a dummy’s guide to naming your business. I wish I could say that these are common sense examples but a lot of the companies Laurel references spent HUGE money to screw up. Speaking of “common sense”, there’s a good piece at Knowthis.com about common mistakes in marketing, I wish I could say that I’ve avoided these in the past but … I’d be lying.

I’m a sucker for Ruth Mortimer’s blog about marketing, it’s not just that she’s a wickedly cool writer or that she got a sense of humour about her industry. I think it might be because she’s hot. Speaking of which, I read an article in the fall about the ratio of clicks on Facebook for ads with attractive girls vs. normal ads which I can’t find now but … her rock’in blog reinforces that data.

Those wacky Aussies have a great article about marketing (or the lack thereof) and cities, which again reinforces my opinion of most civil servants but also leaves me wondering why cities can’t seem to get the hang of technology. Speaking of people who can’t get the hang of technology, staff at the VANOC (Vancouver Olympics) can’t seem to understand bitching about major sponsors is a bad idea.

Tags: Attractive Girls, Aussies, Bad Idea, Civil Servants, common sense, Company Names, Decade, Facebook, Internet Company, Laurel Sutton, Marketing Mistakes, Marketing Profs, Mortimer, Naming Your Business, Olympics, Sense Of Humour, Sucker, Technology Staff, Vancouver, Vanoc
Posted in Marketing Advice

31
Aug
2009

Four Quick SEO Tips

5 Comments

I received a great question this week via my Model Mayhem account (it’s like Facebook for models and photographers) from a website owner named Bella Valentine, here’s her email and what I had to say about it, I’m sharing this (with her permission) because I believe Bella’s questions are the same questions many people have about Search Engine Optimization and online marketing.

Hey,

Saw your post in the forums and I was hoping you could help me out with a few questions that I have…

How do you find related blogs?

Do you write your site’s link as the signature when posting a comment on such blogs? (I’ve been looking for blogs that have the slot for your website’s url but have come only across one that was set up that way)

Wouldn’t that be considered spamming?

Should I try to stay away from sites that have a worst ranking then mine on Alexa or do all links back help?

Thanks,
Bella

Hi Bella, thanks for asking!

You can find related blogs using Google’s blog search function, it’s found under the “More” tab on Google or at http://blogsearch.google.com/. If for example you’re hoping to improve your ranking with Denver models, search Google for that phrase and you’ll see 92,000+ blogs appear but you’ll want to play with the keywords until you find the right combination to return the best results for you.

Many of these blogs will have a comment form at the bottom of the page and on these forms you will see a space for your name, email, website and comment. Now you have to be careful, some web masters such as myself frown on “keyword spam” which is when you replace your name with keywords such as “Denver Model”, so instead I always suggest people using their name in addition to the keywords they’d like to leave. For example, I will always delete people using “Denver Model” but look the other way for “Bella, the Denver Model” or “Bella a model from Denver”. I appreciate self promotion is part of the game, but not at the cost of my site’s reputation.

On that point, I will also point out that 75% of people surveyed prefer the Ben & Jerry’s brand vs. Häagen-Dazs yet … 75% of people surveyed prefer Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Why? Because as people, we like people … so website owners and other surfers are far more likely to “connect” to you if you’re a person rather than a keyword.

There is a fine line between blog spam and self promotion. I tend to think of it as the same line men often cross in a bar, keep it genuine and nobody gets hurt but when your comments are fake, false or generic … web site owners will reject you. Instead of leaving generic comments which will get flags as SPAM, only leave comments which add to the texture of the article or benefit the website owner. You’ll be surprised how quickly your comments get you traffic when you’re helping others in a positive way.

Commenting on websites with a lower PageRank value will not hurt your website, in fact each successful link regardless of where it comes from is either positive or neutral, but never negative. This is because Google knows that you can not control who links to you, so they don’t punish you for poor incoming links.

That said … the higher the PageRank of a link coming to you the better.

For example, if you can get a link from Model Mayhem (5) to your website it’s better than a PR 1, but a link from Apple (9) is better still. There’s a complex math formula that is used … way to complex for me to explain or even understand but basically, in the simplest terms possible assume that every PR point is worth double the value before it so … a link from a PR1 is worth 1 point while a PR2 is 2, a PR3 is 4, PR4 is 8, PR5 is 16, PR6 is 32, PR7 is 64, PR8 is 128, PR9 is 256 … OK, so that scale is completely made up but it holds some analytical water and more to the point, it reinforced that incoming links from high ranking sites is better but lower ranking sites are not worse.

Chris

If you have a question about SEO, why not ask me? I’m always happy to answer your questions and look forward to hearing from people!

Want to learn more about Bella’s website? Visit her at http://www.BellaValentine.com.

Tags: alexa, blog, Denver Model, email, Facebook, google, Model Mayhem, Models, photographers, phrase, reputation, Right Combination, Search Engine Optimization, Search Function, self promotion, Signature, spam, Valentine, web masters, Website Owner
Posted in Questions and Answers, Search Engine Optimization

29
Jul
2009

5 Free iPhone Apps that I love to play

3 Comments

Last week I started reviewing a whole host of tools to get ideas for the new series of cookbooks that I’m programing and I have to be honest and tell you that I went and got hooked on some really cool, free games for the iPhone:

World War™ – 40 Honor Points FREE!

It’s the year 2010. A nuclear war has broken out. Most countries in the world have fought and many have been vanquished. 5 countries have emerged as the major superpowers in the devastating war. Which one will you be?

Start as a general defending your base from the enemy and fight to become the dominant military presence in the world as you march your way to victory in World War.

Waterslide Extreme

Feel the speed as you negotiate your way down the serious twists and turns of a massive waterslide in this unique racing game brought to you by Barclaycard. Nine stages await you, as you race against the clock picking up as many points as you can.

Glide through cool modern cityscapes and ride the skies as day moves into night. Twist and tilt your way round tight corners and huge loops, following the natural velocity of the slide. The faster you go the more points you win.

But watch out, the edges are steep and there are some little surprises along the way.

Facebook

Facebook for iPhone makes it easy to stay connected and share information with friends. Use your iPhone to start a conversation with Facebook Chat, check your friends’ latest photos and status updates, look up a phone number, or upload your own mobile photos to Facebook while on the go.

Do Not Press The Red Button

Almost all of us saw this unusual and fascinating application about the “Red Button”

Now you have unique chance to know the true story about the “Red Button”, right on your iPhone/iPod Touch.

There are doors shouldn’t be opened, there are secrets shouldn’t be told, there are buttons shouldn’t be pressed…:-)

Mega Man® II Lite

ons of options allow you to play Mega Man II Lite your way! Take on Dr. Wily and his robot army in both portrait mode and landscape mode. Test your mettle in Classic mode with all the enemies and action you remember, or toggle it off and enjoy a rebalanced gameplay experience with more forgiving controls, scaled-down enemies and an auto-fire option.

Tags: Cityscapes, Cookbooks, Cool Free Games, Countries In The World, Facebook, Free Iphone, iphone, Iphone Apps, Military Presence, Nuclear War, Programing, Race Against The Clock, Racing Game, Share Information, Superpowers, Surprises, Tight Corners, Twists And Turns, Velocity, World War
Posted in What I'm Reading

12
Jun
2009

Organic Marketing is Free Marketing

1 Comment

Fresh Post at thingsidoformoney.com: Organic Marketing is Free Marketing

Remember the old saying Content is King? Well, nowhere is it more true than here on the Internet and in particular when it comes to a special kind on online marketing called Organic Marketing.

Tags: Advertising Advertising, Advertising Techniques, amount of money, digg, Digital Versions, Distinct Areas, Facebook, free marketing, google, Google Adwords, Google Search Engine, Online Marketing, Organic Content, organic marketing, Piece Of Advice, quality content, search engine results, serp, Types Of Marketing, Website Publisher, Word Of Mouth
Posted in Learning

08
May
2009

Social Networking – Can You Control It?

9 Comments

I have not been too fond of Social Networking sites for some time. As I recently joined Twitter, I started wondering why I have come to dis-like such networking sites. I found that there were several reasons why I stopped networking and why I never signed up for facebook or myspace: I lost control. I’ll spare you for my deep thoughts (they can be both scary and boring) and just give you some pointers that might help you avoid the mistakes I have made and maybe you will become a happier networker:

Kick, block and un-follow!

Don’t allow persons who are just networking for fun, or even networking because they have nothing better to do, to take up your time or poison your network. A person who is not networking in a proper manner can have a negative impact on your reputation. Kick, block, un-follow as soon as possible. Don’t feel evil when you do, feel good that you have eliminated a treat to you and your fellow networkers

Restrain yourself.

Do not join to many networks or sites. If this happens you will constantly be to late for joining conversation and discussions. It will just lead you to feel stressed because you have to spend too much time checking for new posts, and keep up with the discussions you have become a part of. You don’t have to join sites like twitter, just because so many else does. If you have no time for it, it won’t do you any good, but it will steal time from your other network activities.

This also goes for commenting on posts and joining discussions: Don’t just post a comment because you can. If you have nothing interesting to say, then don’t. There are plenty of things to discuss, so find something you actually want to comment on. This way your contribution to a discussion will actually be a contribution. Also keep in mind there is a reason God (or evolution) has placed two ears and one mouth on a human face, so before you get into a conversation make sure you have “listened” to the entire post (including comments) or the whole conversation. If you don’t, your comment or posts will have lesser impact, or even worse: make you look like a fool.

You may have more time for networking that I have or many more interesting things to say and share with your fellow networkers, so these four steps are just some things to consider and can only be judged by yourself. So go out there and share your opinion.
Happy networking.

Casper Christensen
http://www.mymoneyblog.info (Marketing, advertising and forex blog)

..Thanks Chris for this opportunity. It has really motivated me to write new articles!

Tags: Control, Deep Thoughts, Dis, Ears, Evolution, Facebook, Fellow, Human Face, Lead, Negative Impact, Networker, pointers, Proper Manner, Reason God, reputation, Scary, Social Control, social networking sites, There Is A Reason, twitter, Whol
Posted in Marketing Advice

05
May
2009

Why cities are failing on the web

8 Comments

Fredericton New Brunswick is a small city in the heart of a giant forest. It’s one of those cities that you’d miss if you blinked while whipping along the highway, literally and yet it’s a wonderful city with a strong technology focussed community, highly educated white collar workforce and a clean, quality way of life that’s earned out city countless awards and placement on the top ten lists for almost every category of living.

This is also why it’s so important for our city (much like many small cities) to make effective use of the web yet building websites in Fredericton is a funny thing, most businesses here simply don’t have them and the ones that have taken the time to build a website rarely understand the basics of this incredible medium.

It’s no wonder why local businesses make such poor use of the web when our city boasts about being a technology hub but is run by typical civil servants with little understanding of the web. Like most small cities, local Fredericton businesses simply don’t know that they lack an understanding of the online marketing world because the local government has an even greater lack of understanding of the web.

Frederictons brush with the Web

Mayor Woodside vs. Facebook

Recently the mayor dabbled in the world of social media by putting up a Facebook page, designed to encourage support for his administrations desire to build a Costco gas station on a woodlot, when the resulting polls didn’t measure up to his desired results? He took it down demonstrating not only how little he understood the public’s outrage to his plans but also how little he understood social media and the power for it to swing both for and against him.

CIO Gallant vs. Google

When the Google Street View car was spotted here in the city recently, the Chief Information Officer for the city (Maurice Gallant) told our local newspapers, “We’re one of the world’s Top 7 intelligent communities [so it's no surprise that they're mapping us]“.

I’m no rocket scientist but … the reason Google’s mapping us is because Google’s mapping all of Canada as part of the national Street View campaign, not because we’re special. The problem isn’t that Gallant said something stupid to a newspaper (he does that all the time), it’s that it makes the entire city look stupid when this type of thing gets reposted to Twitter and discussed for the world to see.

CIO Gallant vs. the W3C

For a man in charge of spreading the gospel of Fredericton, our CIO doesn’t appear to care if the website (fredericton.ca) is all that good. The website doesn’t just miss when run through the W3c’s validator, it fails with 440 errors and 11 warnings … but it makes sense because he’s the genius who once explained that our local tourism website failed to meet basic CSS and accessibility standards because it’s level one compliant!

Why’s it matter? Because a website that fails the basic W3C test can’t be read properly by the visually impaired or online robots such as Google making it harder and more costly for the city to market itself online, it’s a basic error like this that ensure the city has to spend more on buying ads than building organic marketing.

Chamber of Commerce vs. SEO

A couple years back, I railed against a company who (with the co-operation of our local Chamber of Commerce and Business Development group) built a local business directory using sleazy SEO tactics. Why did it piss me off? Because the type of service they contracted was SEO laden SPAM trap that results in people finding ad sponsored pages for the company who built the directory rather than local businesses. In the end, the organizations spent too much money to hire a black hat SEO team to damage the online reputation of local businesses instead of Googling for local web designers who could have built something useful.

The problem?

The problem is easy and it’s not really their fault, the web changes too quickly for city halls to keep up with. In fact, I would say that the web moves too quickly for anybody to keep up with unless you’re drowning in the technology every day.

There are two major obstacles to cities succeeding on the web.

First, the web moves too quickly for them.

City halls are filled with people who have little experience outside city halls. They plan based on multi year objectives and schedule based on what conferences time tables allow for but Twitter barely existed a year ago and Facebook was just a fledging toy two years before that, civil servants simple can’t move quickly enough because the culture of running a city isn’t compatible with speed the Internet moves at.

Secondly, the web isn’t about technology.

Most city halls assume the Internet to be about technology but it isn’t. A website has nothing to do with technology it’s about marketing to people via technology yet if my city hall is anything to go by, technology teams manage websites.

It’s no wonder that small towns through the US and Canada are failing to make the most of great technology when even a city in the running for one of the top intelligent communities lacks a basic understanding of social media.

What’s to be done?

What’s important for small businesses to realize is that they can’t depend on their cities to help market them online and that you need to step up to do it yourself.

Education

The first thing all business owners need to do is to educate themselves and learn more about the web and how it really works, starting with a basic understanding of how a website is built (Document Structure vs. Document Appearance, the power of CSS) and how it’s marketing affects business. Take the time to read great marketing blogs (from outside Fredericton) and you’ll find amazing online articles such as the A – Z Blogging Guide for Beginners, Chris Brogans great 50 tips for using Twitter for business, virtually anything by Ashley at Upstart Blogger and thousands of other great sites.

Tags: building websites, Chief Information Officer, Civil Servants, Costco, Countless Awards, Desired Results, Facebook, Gallant, Giant Forest, google, Google Street View, Intelligent Communities, Little Understanding, Local Newspapers, new brunswick, Rocket Scientist, Technology Hub, Top Ten Lists, Wonderful City, Woodlot, Woodside
Posted in Web Site Advice

23
Apr
2009

Is Web 2.0 going broke?

5 Comments

There was an interesting article on Slate.com (which I can’t seem to find using their search engine) which got reprinted on the Global website entitled Everybody’s surfing. No one’s paying “User-generated content may have changed the Internet. But ‘Web 2.0′ sites such as YouTube are suffocating under the costs of storing it” which talks about the state of the Internet and how big companies such as Facebook and YouTube are essentially going broke offering access to content. Now I’m not entirely sure that I believe they’re going bust but here’s a few interesting tid bits:

Google will lose $470-million on YouTube this year alone
YouTube spent about $250-million to acquire licenses this year
Yahoo’s investment in Flickr is equally unprofitable
Facebook spends $1-million a month on electricity

This of course is not good news for Web 2.0 but it reaffirms the questions I’ve raised in posts like Could somebody explain Twitter to me, please?, simply put … if the purpose of a business is to generate a revenue, what is their Revenue Model?

Tags: 1 Million, Bust, Electricity, Facebook, flickr, Global Website, google, Internet 2, Internet Sites, Internet Web, Investment, News 2, revenue model, search engine, Slate, Tid Bits, User Generated Content, yahoo, youtube
Posted in Blog Posts

18
Apr
2009

What the hell is wrong with young people today?

9 Comments

OK so a few days ago I posted an ad on Kijiji, a free online classified ad tool (very similar to craigslist.org) for an Online Marketing Assistant, here’s the ad:

Our dynamic online marketing company seeks a part time marketing assistant to help make a great website even greater. With over 30 years in our selected industry we’re looking for people who are passionate about working with services such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Your task will be to help optimize and organize over 30 years of television for the online market, build online profiles for industry leaders, create content on leading websites and help build the best site possible.

Hours are flexible, this is an ideal position for students or working parents with important schedules to keep. Pay is $10 per hour.

http://fredericton.kijiji.ca/c-jobs-part-time-students-Online-Marketing-Assistant-W0QQAdIdZ120586983

In my defense

Now, I know the pay isn’t much but I figured at $10 per hour I would be able to find a couple qualified students, possibly some stay-at-home parents or even a few people who are willing to take this on as an “earn while you learn” situation. After all, $10 isn’t great but it’s a lot better than the $7.50 you’ll earn flipping burgers so …

I purposely crafted the ad (which is actually for a client) to be appealing to part time workers and reinforced the notion that this wasn’t for a startup, so I was hoping to see a bit of effort put forth from some of the applicants (after all this was an online ad for an online marketing person right?) but here’s what I got:

Hi,

I saw you ad and thought that it would be something I would be interested in.

thank you,
P–

– really? You thought that you might be interested in me giving you money? That’s really nice P.

I am currently the marketing communications officer of a software and consulting company and I would like the opportunity to work part-time for you. I would really like to hear more about the position. Thank you, L–

- Yep, nothing says hire me like promoting the fact that you’re already in a job, mmmmm …. loyalty.

Hello,

My name is A–, and I’m a University student [edit]. I am currently looking for a summer job, and I saw your ad.

I would like to know more information on this job please. What are the duties? Where is it located?

Thank you.

A–

– OK, in truth this kid’s at least got a chance of me being nice to him.

What does the job entail?

– I kid you not, that’s all she wrote

I would be interested in this type of part time work. Roughly how many hours per week would be required? Please reply with this and any other pertinent information. Thanks.

– Again, this wasn’t so bad.

Hi
Where can i get more information on this job?
Thanks
L–

– Not too painful but pretty dull.

Notice a trend? Not one of them sent me a link to their resume, their qualifications or why I should care. Actually, what really kind of pissed me off was that almost all of the responses felt like a cut-and-paste response.

How should you respond to a job ad?

OK I can’t believe that I’m writing this but … I make a lot of money responding to people on websites, especially when I see a posting like the one above for something that I can easily do (ie fix WordPress) so how do I respond to these people?

I assess what they need
I determine if I can assist
I write a three to five sentence summary
I paste a standard two paragraph response complete with links

So for example, if I was going to apply for my own online marketing position (and keeping in mind that the space to reply is fairly limited) my response would look something like this:

I came across your posting today and believe that I’d be perfect for your marketing position. I have over 15 years experience on the web, have published content YouTube and created Facebook ad campaigns. My experience with Twitter is limited but I’m eager to learn and my schedule allows to me work when needed.

I’m a self starter, hard working and passionate about online marketing. My resume is online at http://thisismyurl.com where I blog about WordPress and online marketing daily.

Thank you, I hope we can talk about your opportunity and how I can help. – Christopher

Was that really so hard?

Tags: Burgers, Classified Ad, Communications Officer, Consulting Company, Facebook, fredericton, Industry Leaders, kijiji, Marketing Assistant, Marketing Communications, Marketing Company, Marketing Person, Notion, part time, stay at home, Stay At Home Parents, Time Marketing, Time Students, Time Workers, Working Parents
Posted in Marketing Advice

05
Apr
2009

Why are websites so hard to make?

22 Comments

Wow, I’ll tell you honestly that one of the questions I tend to get asked a lot (and drives people to my website) is Why is a website so hard to make? Actually, that question (or a version of it) accounts for a few unique visits every day so to help answer the question, I’ve explain a few of the reasons that websites are so hard (or expensive) to build.

First, the Web is inconsistent.

This is possibly the worse news for people just starting out, but it’s the horrible and sad truth. Web sites are nothing more than code, it’s not terribly complicated once you understand the basics of it but it’s still just a bunch of gobbly gook until it’s read by something else … and there’s the problem. Each ’something else’ is different. Web code is read by popular web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome and FireFox but that’s only the tip of the iceberg because Internet Explorer has several versions in common operation today (versions 5,6,7 and now 8) which all display the web dramatically differently.

Once you get past the basic issue of browsers, you need to think about operating systems. How many computer operating systems can you name? Obviously there’s Windows and Mac right? Great … except … you also have Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 7 and Windows Lite to content with, Macintosh OS X Leopard and Macintosh OS X Pather. That’s got to be it right? Not so fast, what about Linux and Unix? There are hundreds of variations of computer based operating systems, each running one of a dozen web browsers for countless combinations but at least that’s all there is to worry about … except for handhelds (iPhones, BlackBerries, Windows Mobile Devices) and gaming consoles (Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBox, XBox 360, Sony PSP, Sony Play Station 3) and TV based internet consoles … I hope that I’ve made my point, one of the reasons the Internet is complex to publish for is because there are too many “things” to publish for, instead we’re forced to practice failing gracefully.

The Web lacks a standard language.

Problem number two for somebody just starting out in the great big world of the web is that there is no standard programming language for the Internet. At it’s core, the World Wide Web is programmed in a language called HTML right? Everybody knows this, except it’s wrong.

The web is published in a language called xHTML which is based on HTML, but some people in the community didn’t agree with xHTML so they created other strains of HTML. As a result, we have HTML 1.x, HTML 2.x, HTML 3.x, HTML 4.x, DHTML, xHTML, xHTML 1.1 and xHTML 1.1 SE. Soon we’ll also have xHTML 2.0 as well as xHTML 5.0 … don’t ask.

Now, as we discussed above, there are at least a few dozen major operating systems and each of those has at least a handful of web browsers, plus a ton of mobile devices all designed to interpret some or more of the languages that the web is built on but it’s important to note that not all web browsers agreed on which standards are acceptable or for that matter which codes, structure, text or tags from any standard would be accepted. As a result, a web page developed to be viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 may (or may not) be visible in other web browsers including other versions of IE.

Scripting on the Web

Now, once you get past the basic problem of coding for some browsers while ignoring others and you pick one of the standards to adhere to, you’ve got to take the time to start writing more than simple content and for that you need what’s called a scripting language of which … there are many.

Most scripting languages such as PHP, Python, ASP, ASP.net etc. execute on the web server (where the website is hosted) but some such as JavaScript execute on the web browser after being downloaded (not to be confused with Java which is not a scripting language but a programming language and completely different). These scripts are what power everything from a simple email form to complex social media giants such as FaceBook.

After you’ve picked the scripting language you wish to use and ensured that it’s compatible with your hosting account (where you store your website for others to access it) you’re all set and ready to start building your first website.

How to handle it all

I’m lucky, I’ve been building websites since 1996 which means that in my very (very) long career I’ve seen countless technologies come, go and die. So my advice to people getting started in the industry is a lot like Benjamin’s in Animal Farm, Web Masters much like Donkeys know that times change but stay the same, simply pick your standards and be the best developer in that selected field. You will be mocked, scorned, insulted and ignored by others in the industry for your choices but in just a few years … everything you know will be outdated and you’ll have to relearn new tools anyways so don’t worry so much.

“Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse – hunger, hardship and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.”

- George Orwell, Animal Farm,

Tags: advice, book, building, coding, content, create, design, ebook, email, explorer, face, Facebook, firefox, hosting, html, iphone, mac, media, mobile, php, site, social, tag, tags, website
Posted in HTML Programming

03
Apr
2009

I don’t get Twitter.

28 Comments

This morning there was an article by Erick Schonfeld called Biz Stone Plays It Cool On Colbert and I have to admit, I feel a little foolish professing this on a technology blog but I don’t really ‘get’ Twitter.

I think my problem ‘getting’ Twitter is that to me it’s a bunch of noise distracting me from my daily objectives. I already have an Instant Message client running as well as Skype, Facebook, an iPhone, iChat and my office phones. Not including my email, RSS subscriptions and usernet group updates … I guess in truth I just don’t understand the need for another source of chatter.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s got to be a purpose to it … I just don’t get it. I don’t think I’m alone either.

Biz Stone (Twitter) was on The Colbert Report last night and even he seemed unable to truly explain what the purpose of the popular social networking tool is. Jeremy Lichtman Lichtman has a point where he states there’s a high ‘noise to signal’ ratio, so maybe my issue with Twitter is the same issue I had as a kid when my uncle tried to get me to listen to the old Ham radio … maybe Twitter users are the modern, Internet version of dorky middle aged men talking to each other in closets?

Tags: Biz Stone, blog, Closets, Colbert Report, Facebook, Group Updates, guess, Ham Radio, Ichat, Instant Message, Internet Version, iphone, Lichtman, Message Client, Networking Tool, Plays, running, skype, social networking, Subscriptions, technology, Truth, twitter
Posted in Blog Posts

31
Mar
2009

What image format should you use on your website?

16 Comments

There is nothing more complex about publishing on the web than the concept of images, they’re quite possibly the hardest part of HTML for the general public to get their minds around so let’s take a quic look at what makes an image complicated and how we as web designers and publishers can approach them in a simpler way.

Image Format

The first step to web graphics is to appreciate that images come in dozens (or hundreds) of file formats from BMP’s to TIFF’s and everything in between but when it comes to the web, there are really only three formats for you to think about:

The CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) format (pronounced giff)
The Joint Photographic Experts Group format, JPG (pronounced jaypeg)
the Portable Network Graphic file format, PNG (pronounced ping)

Close up of the GIF file format

These three file formats encompass the entire spectrum of Internet based graphics. The first format, GIF was introduced way back in the very first days of computer graphics (1987) and allowed people to exchange graphic files via an online community similar to America Online (AOL). The GIF format was limited to 8 bits of color (255) with some reserved for core data. It was a loss-less graphic format ideal for the graphics of 1987 but could hardly produce quality photos.

The GIF format stores each pixel of an image as one of 255 possible colors resulting in a crisp image. The GIF format however also had a number of unique benefits such as the ability to have invisible (alpha) transparent pixels which when place overtop of other colors would allow the backgrounds to remain visible and the capacity to store multiple GIF images in a single file as pages. When displayed in a web browser or other image viewing tool these pages would appear as animations similar to old ‘flip book’ style animations.

In 1992 the Joint Photographic Experts Group created and issued the JPEG standard to the world. These days we tend to call the file format JPG since old Microsoft based computers could only hand three characters as a file extension but the format is also known as .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, .jif, .jfif and .jfi. The .jpg format was an instant success, it quickly addressed the primary failings of the GIF format by allowing 24 bit graphics (16.7 million colors) and smooth transitions between the these colors using a lossy compression method … which is a fancy way of saying the graphics blended together.

Lossy file saved as both 20% and 80%

In effect, how the JPG standard worked was to rapidly reduce file sizes by averaging the color values of a pixel with those around it. This caused massive reductions in file sizes allowing photographers to post 500kb images in extremely small (20-100kb) files while controlling the loss of quality. To the right you’ll see an image saved at 20% quality to the left and 80% to the right, both the difference in quality and the method JPG uses to reach the results should be evident.

Before I go on, I want to pause and take note of a statement I made in the above description because I’m sure most people missed it or brushed past without much thought … the JPG file format was introduced to the world in 1992. This phrase is critical because it reinforces how much the world has changed in just 17 years. For those of you who are under 20 years old, you’ll most likely have never known a world without Facebook or YouTube but for the rest of us, we sometimes forget the Internet is for all purposes a fairly recent addition to the world. I’m 35 years old and I remember the first JPG photo that I saw, the introduction of this format changed the way we shared images over computers. Notice that I said it changed the way we shared images over computers? There was no Internet, or at least not what you see today.

In 1996, Unisys became uppity and started threatening to sue over the LZW compression found in the GIF format so the world invented the Portable Network Graphic format (PNG), along the way the format improved upon most of the qualities of the GIF and lost the capacity for animation. The PNG format has 8 bit graphics similar to the GIF but also has 24 bit like the JPG and introduced a new level with 32 bit graphics. While it lacks support for animation, it includes transparant pixels like a GIF. Unlike a GIF, where those pixels can be on or off the PNG allows for alpha transparency making the format extremely flexible and also capable of compressing images. The problem with the PNG format, is that it produces large files.

So which is best? Actually that depends entirely on what you want to accomplish with the graphics. As you’ll see from the image above the file size of the graphic can range from ~25k to ~430k depending on the quality you’d like to achieve. Photographers for example should use the JPG compression most often to ensure their images are strong, crisp and colorful while illustrators and others who work with line art will benefit from the GIF format. In the end, practicing and experimenting are the best ways to determine what you should be using.

A quick thank you to the Old Shoe Woman for posting the a wonderful photo Sunlight Under a Live Oak Tree on Flickr for me to use as part of this tutorial.

Tags: content, design, designers, exchange, Facebook, file, flickr, html, images, million, photographer, photographers, photos, png, tutorial, web browser, web design, web designer, web designers, website
Posted in HTML Programming

04
Mar
2009

25 Things to Do to Increase Your Website Traffic Right Now

57 Comments

Everybody wants to be successful on the Internet right? Of course we do, nobody want’s to be sitting at home on prom night especially when there’s money involved so how do we do it? Well, here’s a list of 25 things you can do right now to increase your website traffic …

Make Your Content Accessible

Use the SEO Checker I built to see what Google can see. This tool will also help you understand what visually impaired people in your community can see … they make up almost 10% of the population, so can you really afford to only appeal to 90% of the market?

Use Valid xHTML Markup

xHTML is the language web pages should be built in. If you write your page in sloppy code, it’ll be harder for web browsers to display it properly so just like a Word document, you have to save it in the right format for your audience to read it.

Translate Your Content

thisismyurl.com is available in 20 languages, 40% of my traffic comes from outside the US and Canada and is viewed in a language other than English using a free online translation service, I know it’s flawed but it’s the best I can offer and people learn from my postings.

Understand Keywords

Keywords are the heart and soul of the Internet, they’re like fresh pasta in Italian cooking or eye shadow to drag queens … if you don’t understand the value and application of keywords, get off the Internet.

Build Relationships with Other Websites

Almost half my traffic comes from Google, the other half? Came from other websites and referrals from great people that I taught something to and in turn taught me a lot.

Add a Google Sitemap

Google want’s nothing more than to know about you, it’s the companies only goal in the universe, so help them to help you.

Help People

Speaking of helping, help people. When you see a website with an error or run into a problem on a site, let them know. If you can fix a glitch, tell them how … I’ve picked up countless readers and sources of inspiration by simply being supportive.

Use Analytics

Back to Google for a second, they have a tool called Google Analytics. It’s free, it’s powerful and it’ll help you understand your audience.

Join Social Networking Sites

Websites like LinkedIn and Facebook are powerful tools to help people. Helping people leads to trust, trust leads to prospects and prospects lead to clients.

Add Fresh Content

Ask yourself, why do people come back to your boring old stale content? They don’t. If you ran a restaurant you’d have daily specials right? Well I think running a restaurant is easier than running a website, so make sure you have fresh content served daily.

Know Who’s Better Than You

There are a lot of web sites out there that are better than me:

Andy
Chris
Ben
Ashley
Yan
Heck, even Lorelle is pretty awesome.

Know who’s better than you and read them every day. The best way to learn is to know you need to learn. (btw, if you didn’t make the list don’t be sad I have hundreds of sites I read every week, these are just the first ones I though of)

Respond to Criticism

There’s a lot of things that I write on my blog that are not as well researched as they could be, and when I’m corrected I love it. You’ll notice if you pan through my comments that I don’t remove the negative … in fact I relish them. If people take the time to point out your flaws, thank them and you’ll grow.

Write Good Content

The best way to build traffic to your website? Make people want to come back. It’s harder to get new visitors than to keep your old ones.

Be Timely

Write about things that you know will be timely but don’t chase trends, it’s not relevant what others are writing about … only what your readers are reading about.

Get to Know Yourself

The past five months of blogging have taught me a lot about myself, I look back at some of the early pieces I wrote and know that I’ve changed. That’s part of what blogging is, it’s about growing not only as a business but also as a person and learning new things.

Make your Title Tag Valuable

Your title tag is a critical piece of the organic marketing puzzle, if you don’t understand how or why to use it properly … excuse my french but vous êtes vissé.

Add an RSS Feed

I don’t care what type of business you are … if you can add an RSS feed to your web site do it! Let people know what you’re up to if they want to know. Same goes for Twitter, use it to exploit your interests.

Give Stuff Away For Free

I love giving things away for free. I have website templates, plugins and artwork people can download for free as well as over 600 pages of advice here on my website. Guess what? It cost me nothing and it put me on Alexa’s radar without having to do anything complicated.

Respect Your Audience

There’s only one thing more important then you on your website, your audience. Take time to get to know them and help them.

Know Your Goals

Why do you own a website? You’d be surprised how many people have no idea why they want to run a website … it’s a little sad really.

Use a Content Manager

Websites that are build on a content management system (I use WordPress) make it easier for people to update their websites. Websites that are updated more often get more traffic.

Read Matt’s Articles

Matt Cutts is Google. Actually he’s not but he’s the face of Google, the man who talks to all of us and tells us what Google is thinking, explains what they’re up to and helps lowly web masters to interact better. His job … to help the public make the most of Google, so why don’t you read his blog?

Join Forums

Forums are a great place to generate free traffic to your blog. They help you build relationships with other bloggers, build respect in the community and get into endless conversations about topics that interest you.

Comment on Other Websites

One of the most overlooked methods for building traffic to your website is to simply comment on other peoples websites. Remember my point about helping others? Point out flaws or add to the conversation and you’ll be generating great traffic back to your website.

Analyze and Adapt

Finally … the most important point … look at your analytics often and improve your website to help your audience make the most of your content.

Tags: advice, analytics, blog, building, comment, content management system, content manager, Facebook, forums, google analytics, html, Learning, lorelle, matt cutts, organic marketing, Plugins, search, templates, translate, web browsers, web master, web masters, WordPress
Posted in Marketing Advice

16
Feb
2009

Is it time to close my Facebook account?

20 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote an article entitled The dark side of Facebook, how social marketing will go wrong. but this morning while surfing through a web article about nude Malaysian nurses (it’s not what you think, I swear … I read it for the article) I came across an article by Peter Mychalcewycz about a Teen who Blackmails Classmates With Nude Pics on Facebook. There’s a similar story about it on Fox News website which just begs the question, has the negative aspects of being on Facebook finally out weighted the benefits?

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and MyblogLog

photo credit: luc legay

This question may seem a little crazy in light of the fact that Facebook now boasts 175 million users but when the top celebrates can’t change their profile without it making news and Facebook considers itself worth $3.7 billion, it raises the question, who am I worth $21 to? If the conspiracy theories are right, it’s the CIA (Facebook’s CIA ties, Facebook, the CIA, and You, Facebook – the CIA conspiracy) or the great video here:

I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, so I don’t believe Facebook is evil or part of some great inter governmental X Files project, I think it’s most likely even worse … it’s about giving us something that we want (contact with our friends) in return for everything marketers want … access to our data, which I’m actually OK with but it leads me to the inevitable conclusion that Facebook does have some negatives which I have to be more careful with.

ps, this morning Frank Reed posted a piece on the Marketing Pilgrim about Facebook’s TOS … Facebook Terms of Service Switcheroo?

Tags: cia, cia conspiracy, cia ties, classmates, conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorist, Facebook, fox news, marketers, negative aspects, nude pics, social marketing, web article, x files
Posted in Questions and Answers

23
Jan
2009

Twitter Me … I dare you.

4 Comments

Twitter has to be the weirdest, coolest, strangest, most addictive, insanely inane tool ever added or created in the history of the Internet. OK I know the Internet isn’t that old to most people but honestly, Twitter is like a food court without a mall. For those who have no idea what Twitter is, it’s like Facebook but without the Face … or the book. It’s the new millennium version of a photo hut, here’s what you do on it:

Sign up, it’s free.
Tell people what you’re doing in 140 words or less.
Click send.
Watch your friends do the same.

See? It’s like a status update on Facebook but honest to silicon valley … that’s it. There are no photos, no notes, no app requests, no events … nothing else. So why’s it so addictive? What’s the coolest part of Facebook other than finding out that your high school sweetheart got really fat and checking out photo’s of your buddies drunk girlfriend? The status updates. For those of you who are Facebook Virgins (FV’s), there’s this little box on everybody’s profile that reads “Christopher is …” and users put in the rest. They’re short, one line bursts of details such as:

Christopher is in the shower.
Christopher is off to the movies.
Christopher is thinking of a new status message.

You get the hint (actually, they no longer need the is but I still like using it). All day long people updated this little box to tell you everything from how much they had to drink to where they’re thinking about eating dinner and that’s exactly what Twitter is … 24 hour a day updates from hundreds of your friends, co-workers, fat high school sweet hearts, family and businesses you care about in one constant stream of really cool voyeuristic mess.

Oddly where Facebook tends to annoy me, Twitter is the exact opposite. Most people I follow (or who follow me) are into the same things that I am, so by following them I get to know who’s updated a portfolio, or added a new blog entry or finished watching the latest episode of Battlestar.

Frankly I love it and so I’m going to skip all the protocols here at jump straight to it … I triple dog dare you to Twitter me.

Tags: battlestar, blog entry, buddies, co workers, drunk girlfriend, Facebook, food court, high school sweetheart, history of the internet, millennium version, new millennium, photos, silicon valley, status message, status updates, sweet hearts, virgins
Posted in Marketing Advice

22
Jan
2009

How Can College Students Make Money on the Internet?

6 Comments

OK, so we all know that college students are broke right? So what’s the story with them not making money on the Internet? I get old folks (anybody over 35) not making money on the web but what about college kids? If university students can’t make money on the web, there’s something seriously wrong with the world.

Beyond the obvious methods for nimble young co-ed’s to make quick cash on the super highway, there’s got to be more family friendly methods to help pay for books right? Of course there is!

Last night I was talking to a second year media student from the local school and it baffled me that he wasn’t raking in the cash. See, this kid is a movie buff … the type of kid that knew almost everything about films and not just the main stream shots. Better yet, he had access to thousands of free movies at the local library and was studying … media. Yet, there’s no blog and without a blog there are no ads which means there is no money … and … well, that’s about it. No money.

So here’s my quick tip for any college kid who wants to make money on the Internet without taking his or her top off … blog.

Step One – Setup a PayPal account at http://www.paypal.com this will allow you to accept online payments and spend money at most websites.

Step Two – Follow my website posting on setting up a website for less than $100.

Step Three – Step up an AdSense account with Google. Grab the code and put it all over your website. It’s free and you’ll make money with it.

Step Four – Sign up with Analytics on Google. Put the bottom in the footer of your website. It’s free and it will help you make money by helping you understand your market.

Step Five - Write. Write about your subject every day, even ten times a day … write everything you can thing of about your subject.

Step Six - Tell everybody you know about your blog. Post it on message boards that are related, post it on your Facebook, post it to Twitter, post it here on my website … just post it everywhere you can think of that people might care about it.

Then, repeat Step Five and Six … repeat again … and again, and again. In fact, just keep repeating it until you’ve paid for your tuition.

If you want to take your top off while blogging, or blog live on a web cam feed or something like that, fine but it’s not part of the process … unless your blog is about porn, which is also OK but I’m not endorsing that. The trick about making money on the Internet is that anybody can do it. You don’t have to be successful in the stock market or a big name, you just have to be passionate and write quality content that people want to read. Then, once you’ve written what people want to read? Just keep writing more great content until more people read it.

(BTW, the image above was taken by a high school kid named “Eric1192″. If a kid in high school can be successful on the Internet, why can’t you?)

Tags: analytics, co ed, college kid, college kids, college students, Facebook, google, local library, local school, making money on the internet, making money on the web, movie buff, old folks, paypal account, setting up a web site, studying media, university students
Posted in Marketing Advice