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.