Blogging Starter Checklist

Looking for tips on how to get started blogging? Need help with what to do next? Want to get more people to visit your blog? This great Squidoo lens will help you get going and keep moving.

Blogging Starter Checklist

Btw, if you haven't been to Squidoo, you're missing a valuable resource. Take a look at over 60,000 lenses that offer personal recommendations on topics from laptop bags to poodles. Plus, Squidoo's Plexo offers an easy way to make up and contribute to top-10 (or 8, 17, 23) lists. Developed by marketing guru Seth Godin, Squidoo is a fun and effective way to leverage the power of personal recommendation online.

4 Seconds or Less!

If you have an e-commerce site, you'd better take a look at this one. Online shoppers have less patience when it comes to waiting for sites to load. You'd better make it fast!
BBC: Websites face 4 second cut-off

Quick Guide to Blogs and Blogging from the BBC

According to technology experts, blogging will peak at 100 million in 2007. At this point, 200 million people have already stopped updating their blogs because they've moved onto other things or have become bored.

"Everyone thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it," Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer said.

Technorati is tracking more than 57 million blogs, of which it believes around 55% are "active" and updated at least every three months.

If you're just starting out, here is a brief guide to a very influential and widely-used part of the web.

Quick Guide: Blogs and Blogging

What's RSS?

For many, RSS is still a mystery. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. I found a really simple explanation on Seth Godin's blog, along with a link to add it to your own RSS reader.

Seth's Blog: What's RSS?

In case you're interested, the RSS readers I use are Google Reader, Sage Feeds, and MyYahoo. There are lots out there to choose from, so try them out until you find the one you like best.

Spam 2.0 - The rise in "image spam"

As if we didn't get enough junk in our email boxes already, now another form of spam jumps into the frying pan. If you haven't seen it already, you will. It's image spam where images are used in place of text.
As anti-spam tools that use content filters to weed out unsolicited e-mails proliferate, those people responsible for creating the messages continue to increasingly adopt image spam. By sending e-mails that contain no text, only pictures, scammers have found that they can evade many security systems, according to San Carlos, Calif.-based messaging management vendor Postini Inc. The messages often include image files that have a screen shot offering the same types of information advertised in more traditional text-based spam.

Depending on what stats you read, image-based spam accounts for 15% to 25% of all spam, compared with just 1% in late 2005.

Unsavory marketers are deploying image-based spam because it is harder to detect than text-based spam, and consumers are more likely to read an e-mail with a picture or graphic, says Craig Sprosts of anti-spam vendor IronPort Systems. Remember, most search engines or other software can't "read" or comprehend images the way the human brain can.

The newest spam uses technology that varies the content of individual messages — through colors, backgrounds, picture sizes or font types — so they appear to be distinct to spam filters. The spam is delivered to consumers and companies through millions of compromised PCs, called bots.

As software gets better at identifying and blocking spam, spammers get smarter at outfoxing software. "It is a never-ending cat-and-mouse game," says Dmitri Alperovitch of e-mail security company CipherTrust.

Why should you care?

Well, for one thing, image spam uses up more resources like bandwidth and storage space than traditional text-based spam. Your email box could fill up more quickly, bouncing messages you want to receive.

More importantly, this type of spam makes it more difficult for legitimate commercial emails using images to get through. It's already challenging to get quality emails through spam filters. As software is developed to filter out image spam, how well will it differentiate legitimate html emails with pictures from crap?

I mean really -- I put a lot of thought and time into my email blasts. They're not spam!

When Unproductive

Commentary to remember on the value of down-time. Again, by Michael Wade.

On those days when you feel unproductive: Consider that you may feel unproductive while actually being highly productive. Samuel Johnson, the author of the first dictionary of the English language, referred to himself as a "castle of indolence."

Work on something - anything - however small, so at the end of the day you can note one thing that was done.

Recognize that being unproductive can be productive. You may be subconsciously preparing yourself to be more effective when you eventually turn to the central task. You may also be refraining from rash action that would be harmful. As Secretary of State George Shultz put it, "Don't just do something, stand there."

We were not made to be speed-reading minute-fillers. We were designed to be distracted and to ponder; to mess around and approach problems from different angles. Few lives and careers proceed in a straight line; instead, they resemble mountain climbers who occasionally move sideways in order to gain the better grip or clearer perspective that permits them to proceed upward.

In short, there are days when "being unproductive" is the most productive thing you can do.

The Career Manifesto

When pondering your career, here's some food for thought, whether you're employed by someone else or yourself. By Michael Wade from Execupundit.

1. Unless you’re working in a coal mine, an emergency ward, or their equivalent, spare us the sad stories about your tough job. The biggest risk most of us face in the course of a day is a paper cut.

2. Yes, your boss is an idiot at times. So what? (Do you think your associates sit around and marvel at your deep thoughts?) If you cannot give your boss basic loyalty, either report the weasel to the proper authorities or be gone.

3. You are paid to take meaningful actions, not superficial ones. Don’t brag about that memo you sent out or how hard you work. Tell us what you achieved.

4. Although your title may be the same, the job that you were hired to do three years ago is probably not the job you have now. When you are just coasting and not thinking several steps ahead of your responsibilities, you are in dinosaur territory and a meteor is coming.

5. If you suspect that you’re working in a madhouse, you probably are. Even sociopaths have jobs. Don’t delude yourself by thinking you’ll change what the organization regards as a “turkey farm.” Flee.

6. Your technical skills may impress the other geeks, but if you can’t get along with your co-workers, you’re a litigation breeder. Don’t be surprised if management regards you as an expensive risk.

7. If you have a problem with co-workers, have the guts to tell them, preferably in words of one syllable.

8. Don’t believe what the organization says it does. Its practices are its real policies. Study what is rewarded and what is punished and you’ll have a better clue as to what’s going on.

9. Don’t expect to be perfect. Focus on doing right instead of being right. It will simplify the world enormously.

10.If you plan on showing them what you’re capable of only after you get promoted, you need to reverse your thinking.

Thanks, Michael!

Apologizing for something I didn't do

This domain spoofing is really getting out of hand! Things seemed to be quieting down a bit and I was getting less and less bounces for emails I didn't send.

But today things are heating up again. I've gotten nearly 300 bounces and it's only 11:00 a.m. MST. No, I don't have a virus. I have triple virus protection on all my computers and run a full scan at least once a week. No, I didn't really send out all that f***ing spam!

I feel like screaming, "I DIDN'T DO IT! IT'S NOT ME! I'M SORRY!"

There's gotta be a way to stop this. It's making me crazy! And my ISP says there's nothing I can do.

So, I'm apologizing to the world for something I didn't do. Anyone out in cyberland who's gotten some stupid spam from someone @wholebraintech.com... It wasn't me!

'Truthiness' is the word of the year - CNN.com

How "truthy" is your favorite talk show?
Have you ever "jumped the couch?"
What do you think of "Katrinagate?"
Have you ever tried "podcasting?"

These were among the words considered by the American Dialect Society as the 2006 Word of the Year.

'Truthiness' is the word of the year - CNN.com

‘Truthiness’ voted 2005 word of the year - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

Save the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom

Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment -- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on what site pays them the most. If the public doesn't speak up now, our elected officials will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign.

You can help fight for Internet freedom. Contact your legislators. Donate to the coalition. Add a link to your blog or web site.

Visit this web site for more information and why you should care.

Save the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom

The check is in the mail

Here's an innovative way to support nonprofits. You can promote your organization as well as other worthy causes at the same time. Instead of sending a box of candy or cheap shwag as a thank you to your clients, friends and associates this year, why not try this instead? Let them pick their favorite charity, then see where their interests lie when the checks clear the bank.

Seth's Blog: The check is in the mail

Email Spoofing - I Hate It!!!

My domain name has been spoofed for email and it's driving me crazy! I get tons of bounces every day to email addresses like tuvabc@wholebrain..., email addresses that don't really exist - just random letters at my domain.

Someone in cyber world has hijacked my domain for the purpose of spamming and it really pisses me off! People all over the world are getting spam with my domain on it - my company name! I can tell by the addresses the bounces come from. I imagine millions of emails with my domain as the return address going out everyday with this crap. I feel violated! How dare someone do this to me -- or to anyone!

The worst thing about it is that there's not much I can do about it. It's so frustrating!! Especially for someone who's supposed to be tech-savvy. I can try to find out who is posing as someone from my company and sending this garbage, but then what? Ask them to stop? Yeah sure. Hire a lawyer and sue? An expensive proposition. Cross my fingers and hope my domain doesn't get blacklisted? For now, that's my only option. No matter how you look at it, the alternatives suck.

I've talked with several people about the issue, researched online, and these are the best explanations I've found. Not much help.

Spoofing: Identity Crisis

About Email Hijack, Spoofing and Phishing

Spoofed by Spammers - below article is a reprint from
Doctor Ebiz
Helping Small Business Succeed Online
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor, Wilson Internet Services
A Free Wilson Info E-zine ISSN 1529-3203
http://www.doctorebiz.com

Spoofed by the Spammers
"What can a company do when its domain name has been spoofed? In the past three days, we have received over 1,200 bounced emails that appear to have come from us.

"The e-mails are for a refinancing company. I have tried to trace the e-mails through the headers, but they are masked. I even tried submitting a phony refinance request to see if I can get them to call me.

"How can I get this to stop? How can I report these people? And how can I avoid our domain getting blacklisted as a spammer for something someone did to us? If this can happen to a little company like ours, it is happening to others as well." -- Angie Keating, Reclamere, Inc.

You're not alone; this has happened to me, also. To research your question, I consulted with Laura Atkins of Word to the Wise, LLC, an expert on e-mail abuse and deliverability issues. She said that most public blacklists don't list the spammer's domain name but his IP address instead, that spammers sometimes use open proxies overseas that hide their true IP address

It's possible that your domain might be listed in some blacklist somewhere, but if no one is actually bouncing your mail as a result, you don't need worry too much about it. When your mail is being blocked, however, you must take action.

Unfortunately, there's not much recourse for people with this problem. To nab the spammers doing this to you, you must "follow the money," determine who is benefiting monetarily from the spam. Then get yourself an Internet-savvy lawyer and take the spammer to court.

In California and some other states, there is a specific law that makes it illegal to spoof the return address, making it easier to go after such spammers. Otherwise your court case would have to be based on case law rather than existing statutes, an even more expensive proposition.

I encourage you to lobby your legislators for effective federal laws against spamming that (1) aren't watered down so much by the direct marketing industry that they don't do any good, but at the same time (2) are not so restrictive that they make it impossible to conduct legitimate, opt-in e-mail marketing.

This really should be easier!

Yesterday I wanted to look for a class at my local rec center. I had taken tai chi before, but it was at an inconvenient location so I didn't continue. I wanted to see if the class was scheduled at the center just a mile from my house.

I went to the web site (which was hard to find since it's part of one of those complicated city URLs). I could either download PDFs of each category of classes, or register for the class online. This was where I ran into the first roadblock. I'm not sure what category the class would fall under, and I don't want to download a bunch of PDFs looking for it.

The only way I found a search feature was through the registration system. But before I got there, I needed to log in. I couldn't remember my user name and password, and there were too many hoops I couldn't get through to retrieve it by email. I needed either my User ID (which I couldn't remember) or my Household ID Number (which was supposed to be on the receipt that I couldn't find from my previous class). I also needed to know what my favorite food and my favorite color was (or at least what I told them they were when I registered before. I don't remember answering those questions before, by the way).

I decided to log in as Guest. I couldn't register for anything, but at least I could look around. Ah Ha! A search function! I could search activities by listing or by type. Hmmmm... let's try "listing." OMG! A list of over 1000 classes in alphabetical order came up, with a "search by activity number" at the top. How was I supposed to know what the activity number was!?

Okay, so let's search by type. Would tai chi be under Adult Activities or Fitness General? Well I didn't find it under Adult Activities, although I did find a bellydancing class that might be fun. Two sessions of tai chi were listed under Fitness General, along with information about the class, fees, how many have already registered, the instructor with his photo -- but no location!

So now I have 3 choices -- I can look for the course catalog that I probably got in the mail, contact the rec center by phone or email, or just forget about it altogether. I'll have to contact the rec center to get my login information anyway.

This process should be so much easier! I registered online for a class at the local community college yesterday and it was so simple and straight forward. It only took me a few minutes.

I think I'll just forget this one for now.

That Damn DAM!

I'm now into the break halfway through the 4-week Work Smarter, Not Harder class. The next assignment was to organize my work process. We do this by creating a DAM.

The DAM is supposed to keep you focused on one thing at a time, only what's in front of you. You put things into your DAM according to when you need to work on them - today, this week, next week, next month, etc.

I'm learning to work with this new system. I can see the value in using it, how it can help keep you focused and organized. My problem is that I find myself moving things around, putting things in, taking things out. Since it's still a new system for me, I keep thinking of stuff that needs to be in there - some small task or project I'd forgotten. I'm sure the process will get better as I get caught up, but for now, I just keep adding to it.

Sometimes I really don't want to work on what's in my DAM. I'd much rather do something else - like clean the oven or water the plants rather than bookkeeping or filing. But I love the sense of accomplishment when I've moved things out of my Today file - not because I'm postponing them or procrastinating, but because I actually got something done. I'm also beginning to get things out of my head and into a system. I don't worry so much about things falling through the cracks, or dropping one of the many balls I'm juggling each day.

Yes, it takes discipline. And I'm hoping this will give me some balance in my life. I'll keep you posted.

Purge, Purge, Purge... Oh Boy!

I started taking a class yesterday - one that I desperately need. 4 sessions over 6 weeks, with a 2 week break in the middle. The class is Work Smarter, Not Harder taught by my good friend Cathi Hight.

The first assignment is to organize my work space. Oh boy!

I'm moving furniture around, sorting through papers, tossing junk mail, deciding what to file, and what to shred. It's really pretty liberating. It feels good to get rid of unneeded junk and clutter. But it's hard to do, for a pack rat like me.

Why do we keep stuff we don't really need or want?

It gives me a sense of security, a sense of ownership. Even if it's junk, it's still mine. And if it's something I paid for, it must have some value. And if I need something, chances are it's in one of my piles or boxes - somewhere.

Sometimes I think that I may not need it now, but I might need it later. There have been times when I've regretted getting rid of something. This usually happens with clothing. I bought a pair of jeans that were a little too tight for me. I held onto them for a year or two, then finally decided that they'd never fit and gave them away. Of course, when I dropped a few pounds and went looking for them, they were nowhere to be found. Bummer. They were really cute jeans.

I hold onto things because I don't want to deal with them now. This is particularly true with mail. I hate sorting through the mail. I get so much junk mail, so many credit card offers I'm not interested in, mortgage refinance deals, and requests for donations to all sorts of charities. Mixed into it all are the bills I'm so happy to get each month. Occasionally, I actually get something I want.

It's always hard for me to get rid of things people have given to me. I feel guilty if I give them away. What if they come to my house or office and go looking for it? This is particularly true for my mother. It's hard for me to tell her that the orange fuzzy sweater just isn't my style, or the AA-battery-powered keyboard vac just won't do the job. She tries so hard, and I don't want to seem ungrateful.

I don't do garage sales. When I purge I throw the stuff away or give it to the local thrift store. I don't really have the time or energy it takes to put together a successful garage sale. And I'm afraid it will give me a chance to rethink my decision to get rid of something. I'll end up keeping more stuff than I sell. And what if no on wants my junk? How humiliating! At least at the thrift store, I'll never really know if anyone bought it or what they paid for it.

What I've discovered over the last couple of days (besides a lot of stuff I wanted but couldn't find and stuff I thought I'd wanted but really didn't) is that all the stuff weighs on you. It's confining, suffocating, smothering. It's stressful to see the piles. Purging may be scary, but it's freeing. Most of it can be replaced, usually with something better, if I really want it later. The things that are irreplacable go into a fireproof, waterproof safe. Anything else will be neatly organized and put in its proper place.

Rrriiiiiiiigghhtt.

15 Moooooooos

Although there are stacks of books I'd love to read, I don't have time to indulge myself the way I would like. This is a great summary of a follow up to Seth Godin's Purple Cow. The book is still on my list, but for now, I'll settle for this.

Memoirs of a Bystander: 15 things I learned from "The Big Moo"

Quantity vs. Quality Web Traffic

Seth's Blog: Different kinds of traffic

So many discussions of the issue of quantity vs. quality, whether it's time spent with children, money spent on clothing or shoes, reading romance novels or War and Peace, or hours in front of the television. Now here's another one for you: web site traffic.

We in the web marketing world talk about unique visitors, page views, and conversion. As Seth Godin illustrates here, it doesn't necessarily matter how much traffic you get to your site, but whether or not you're getting the right traffic.

I worked with a client who had signed a longterm contract with a company who promised to drive traffic to her web site where she was selling an audio CD. I have to admit that they did exactly that. Her site got lots of traffic, but no one bought her CD -- not one!

Now you may think that the problem was with her product, which wasn't the case. Her CD was professionally produced with quality information. You may say that the problem was with her web site, which was partly true. There were definately some improvements to be made that would promote her CD more effectively and allow for a more simple method of purchasing it.

But even if she had a horrible web site and a horrible product, you'd think that with the millions of visitors sent by the company, she would have sold at least one CD from her web site to an anonymous visitor. But no, the CDs she did sell were to people she met on her own or who were referred to her site by associates. Despite the imense quantity of traffic the big and expensive company sent to her site, the quality of traffic was seriously lacking.

Keep that in mind the next time someone tells you how many hits their site gets. First thing to ask is how that translates to unique visitors (since "hits" are pretty meaningless for marketing). Then ask what sort of results they're getting from all those visitors. Are they converting those visits into sales, referrals, phone calls, etc. They may not even know for sure.

As Dr. Phil would say, "How's that workin' for ya?"

Free or Not... That is the Question

An interesting debate over giving away content for free appeared on Seth Godin's blog over a couple of days last year. I find both arguments compelling, and I think the final answer is... "it depends."

Yes, giving away some content for free works great if what you want is to pique interest and spread an idea. However, there is something called "perceived value." In the minds of some consumers, free means flat out worthless.

Who is your target market? What do they want or expect? What sort of information are you delivering? Is it something your market would expect to and be willing to pay for? Or will they see value in it even if it's free? These are all questions you need to ask before you decide which way to go. Or, if you're a research kinda person, you could randomly take visitors to a page that is free or a page that charges and check the results.

I hope you'll read both posts, then let me know which side of the argument you're on.

Seth's Blog: Forty to One

Seth's Blog: Is "free" all it's cracked up to be?

Fraudulent Charities

It seems that with every tragedy, those who prey on the vulnerable come crawling out from under rocks to make their appearance on the Internet. It was reported on the news the other day that since the sudden and shocking death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, hundreds of fraudulent charities have cropped up on the Internet, using Irwin's name and memory to solicit donations from sympathetic visitors. We saw the same type of fraudulent activities after the 9/11, Tsunami and Gulf Coast Hurricane tragedies.

Remember to give generously, but give wisely. Just because a charity has a web site doesn't mean it's legitimate. Check it out before you donate. This is also a reminder to nonprofits to be sure your information on your web site and on lists such as GuideStar, Give.org, and Network for Good is up to date. For more information, read "Give Generously, but Give Wisely."