Image via CrunchBase

Woohoo, Google fiber is coming to KC. And I had a chance to go to the event.

Free websites for everyone, if you are dumb enough to sign a contract for a free domain that includes a whole 3 webpages and a domain for free for a year. Professional templates? I thought using templates was the sign of being unprofessional, i.e. my site looks exactly like his. Free Google Places listing? Wasn’t it already?

A free website that is about worth “free”. What can you do with 3 web pages? Oh that’s right. Adwords. You can pay for traffic after your free credit runs out.

Google decided to provide their high speed internet to Kansas City. And it will be good for the city.

You might be able to dupe some KC residents into believing they are getting any value, but some of us know better.

I love nothing better than  seeing a recent college graduate talk about the industry I have been working in for over a decade. Gives me that god damn warm fuzzy feeling.

Yes, I know. I tweeted the event. Then I saw it.

Good choice, Google. At first, I thought it will help Kansas City and I still think it will. But I do have a little bit of mistrust of Google and Intuit duping newbies into thinking they are getting a deal when all they are getting are 3 web pages. That will eventually cost them $5 a month to host and $2 a month for the domain. Not really much but since when did domains come with a monthly rate and cost $24 a year. I get mine for about $10 a year. And really, a limit on pages. Since when did we move back in time to the 90′s when hosting nickled and dimed you to death.

I work 3 blocks away and checked out the Google event on my lunch break. End result: “waste of time”.

But Google and Intuit sure got the Kansas City residents in a heat to get there. There was not a parking spot for a 4 block radius.

So, Google, thanks for coming here but no thanks for your favoritism in choosing who will reap the rewards. There are free websites wherever you turn and a lot of developers here in KC that could do real “professional” websites.

“Evil” is now how Google defines in. Google it.

There is no Gutenberg today freeing information for all. Google doles it out. So this is a little test to see if giving Google a hard time will cause this post to drop out of the results.

Image via CrunchBase

The main reason for Google to introduce the Panda Update is that the users across the globe is to enhance their experience by promoting meaningful and original content. Likewise it helps to penalize and narrow down that content which do not consist of real and useful text, text which proves to be beneficial for users. With this update, the sites which are not successful enough in providing users with enough knowledge are restricted.

A major thing which is missed by almost all of the article dealers is the community factor on most of the websites. In most of the networks for article individuals can interact with each other through the help of forums, comments, as well as areas where they can ask questions and anyone can answer them according to his/her knowledge which help them in enhancing their knowledge and the quality of content they write.

Now let’s give a succinct introduction to the purpose of Panda Update. The modifications are applied in order to remove the content which is of low quality, or the spam content through which most of the websites try to come before the other in search engines. Now Google is also trying to eliminate such results which are irrelevant or are not related to the query the visitors search for as well as the update in Panda is also affecting these sites.

Most of the websites which are affected by Panda Update are the articles of Ezine and Wisegeek etc. Whereas, the most stunning news is that Ezine is also affected as they do look over the internet and edit their articles. Now as per their statement they will take strict measures in accepting the articles.

Publication of content just to grab traffic on the website is not a respectable idea. This is the only reason due to which we get to know Panda Update. As many websites just for the sake of generating traffic, publish such contents with a motive behind to generate revenue when the visitors click on Ads on their website. We have to get realistic on the fact that people always want informative and useful contents. This is only possible when the articles are authentic and informative.

First of all find the individuals concerned in your industry by the help of queries area, forums and through examining the related topic written by various authors. Communicate with them, compare their articles within the network and rate them, it is sure that they will return your favor.

Traffic doesn’t only depend on search engines. However, the other sources of generating traffic to your content are Blog commenting, Community media, and forums but they should be used correctly to promote them. Your main focus here should be to just figure out the targeted fans, communities and blogs, in order to communicate with and share your content which will help you in improving your content.

It might take some time for Panda Update to start affecting these sites, traffic data, but this was, which is known to us so far. Apart from the update of panda we should always try to use such material in our article which is relevant, descriptive and helpful for the one who reads it.

Viewers can make any accusation they want, but Google has never come out and admit that favors big brands. Use the company claims that it is serious about cleaning trash and cunning, and not surprisingly, seems to be related to the story. Since it was found the positive feedback, because Panda roll out, we should not expect things to change anytime soon. To cope with this update, the smaller brands will have to adapt accordingly.

Written by a Frank, seo writer and indie music lover who knows a lot about online marketing and registry repair

Screw that balancing writing and developing post. It worked then. But now that I am building my own ideas. And that is where I have been for a while. I developed a few things to automate a few of my jobs in php and was stuck there for a while, but it paid off. While I was doing that, I found that some of the code I needed to build part of my idea had already been written, but in Python. So what the hell, I’d check it out. Sikuli was pretty awesome and I have used it for a few things and picked up the Python syntax.

So I would give it a try. But first, I had to find an IDE for it. Seems like a simple process. Not with me. I installed about 4 or 5 to check them out and found IronPython. Now I was not looking to write desktop software. I just wanted some dumb scripts I could cron. But if I could kill two birds with one stone… I have written Windows software before in Visual Basic 6, right before .NET came out. I didn’t know much about marketing then and only made a few hundred bucks the first year selling my software as shareware. I didn’t feel like upgrading to .NET was worth the trouble. And that was 7 years ago.

Since then I have played around a bit with AutoIt but found it too clunky for anything but basic programs without much features. I have tried a few macro tools. But nothing seemed worth the trouble to focus on. There are many ways to create windows applications with Python. Since I ran into Python through the Natural Language Toolkit as a piece I needed for my web application, creating desktop software was not a focus, so I wanted something easy and free. And here is what I installed:

• Python 2.6 (for coding in Python and using some of the modules in IronPython)
• The Visual Studio 2010 Shell
• IronPython 2.6.1
• IronPython Tools for Visual Studio
• Pyscripter (for coding in Python)
• Sharp Develop 3.2 (for another way to code IronPython and .NET and actually the first thing I downloaded)

It terms out that Visual Studio 10 does support Iron Python but you can’t use the WYSIWYG form designer yet. But using .NET 3 and SharpDevelop, you get a form designer. There is a beta version of Sharp Develop that supports .NET 4.0 but I tried it on two windows machines and it would not compile my executable. And it turns out that IronPython Tools for Visual Studio 2010 does not have a working form designer. Scratch that, because I am looking for RAD. Screw you purists that use a text editor. We have software for a reason. To make things easier. I make things hard enough on myself. So here is what I really ended up using:

• Sharp Develop 3.2
• The Visual Studio Shell
• Iron Python 2.6.1

And here are some other possibilities I found in free bin:

• QT – If I remember right, Skype and Google Earth are written in QT.
• miniPHP – I am not sure if this one is going to make it. But it would have been an easy way out for me. Writing in PHP and compiling to an executable with windowing capabilities. Why do I wonder about it’s future? I have seen two of these come and go over the last few years, like RoadSend which I invested time in and then updates just stopped.
• MonoDevelop – I have yet to investigate this one more. It’s a .NET IDE like Sharp Develop but it will create applications for Windows, Mac or Linux
• Boa Constructor – A cross platform Python IDE and wxPython GUI Builder.
• VisualWX – A RAD tool for C++, Python, Perl and Ruby

And that’s about that. And, oh yes, I wrote a piece of crap Google Scraper/Url Harvester just for the hell of it, which I am giving away. Why is it a piece of crap? Because it could do much more and I know that. But it is one piece of a bigger software suite I am writing which is why you have to join a list to get it. That way I can inform you when the bigger, better version comes out. Or you can bypass joining the list by downloading the software here, just because your my friend and all. Here is a screenshot of version #2. It is a work in progress and things can change. I finally tracked down a damn ribbon so my program can look all slick and shiny.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why Learn Python? (brighthub.com)
• What an IronPython user should know about Python 3 (itworld.com)
• MonoDroid – Mono for Android Beta Program (tirania.org)
• Python’s Moratorium – Let’s think about this. (jessenoller.com)
• How to Distribute Commercial Python Applications (hackerboss.com)

Reason Not to Blog: Feeling Boxed In

This blog has subscribers. I have followers on Twitter. At one point, I realized these could be real people and I freaked out.

I used to spur of the moment posts about anything I happened to be doing during the day that might be useful to someone else. Then more people began reading and commenting on my blog and I wasn’t sure what to post next. At some point stage fright hits and there is so much you can’t write or at least you may tell yourself that.

Yes, I had just done something pretty cool with Filemaker and it had taken me a while. Should be useful information for someone and I have a good chance to rank in the search engines for specific Filemaker keyword. …But not everyone uses Filemaker. In fact, it costs money and I would not be using it had not the company I worked for bought it for the business. Will it cause subscribers to go away? Am I stretching my blog too thin?

And what if I write the posts I used to, the ones that totally take off on a tangent, that have nothing to do with anything online? What would happen then?

Really, who cares. If you are blogging about something you like, then do so and you will find subscribers. I am trying.

And  the $4000 notebook. It’s analogy. Don’t ever pay $4000 for a leather bound parchment paper notebook. Because you will start weighing your ideas and nothing will make it to paper. And if you end up with one, use it. Just imagine that it is a college rule spiral bound pad from the grocery store.

If you’ve been here before, you may have noticed the blog theme changed over the weekend. I didn’t really plan for that to happen. It was just the final result. It started with a message from my wife, saying that my comment form was down. I went in to fix it and found I couldn’t. This blog was about three WordPress updates behind at the time.

This is the one blog I have that still requires manual updates. For all my other blogs, I just click a button in my hosting control panel and the update is done in about five minutes. There had been a lot of things wrong with this blog for a long time. I had a few plugins installed that just never showed like CommentLuv and Subscribe to Comments. Whether this was a problem with the theme or the WordPress installation, I can’t be sure of.

But all of my plugins are working and up to date now. And I added a new theme just for good measure. The theme is nothing great. Something I whipped up to do the job, which it does. The last theme was a temporary one to begin with.

I also added a few extra plugins. There is not as many on this blog as I have on others, but here is a list of my current WordPress plugins:

About 100 years ago, you would have to wait for a newspaper to get the news or go to the library to look up information. And the information you found was limited to the reach of your local newspaper and the amount of books your library could afford to carry. Another option was to be where the news happened or go to a city with a bigger library.

Being where the news happens was impossible. Not so much any more. Every week, new stories are broken by someone using Twitter. You can track trends in Twitter by using TwitScoop and know most of the story before Google picks it up, let alone a newspaper. If you are using Google Trends to track hot stories, you are at least an hour late if not later.

You see, Google has an advantage and a disadvantage: it indexes everything. Good for being exhaustive. Bad for being now. Indexing takes time. To save time, Google builds more data centers to process the data faster. I can write a post and have it in Google’s index in less than a hour, so they are getting pretty fast, but I can also tweet something, go directly to twitter search as fast as I can click and find what I just tweeted.

Most new things happen on blogs and social networks these days. The chance of a story hitting CNN before it hits Twitter or another network is pretty low. The chance that any  news network picks up the tweet before one of the millions or bloggers do is slim also. And they will usually break the news on their blog and/or a social network.

To get these stories and to be at the forefront of what is going on, you have to beat Google. Another way would be just to index those sites where the newest things happen first.

Before Google, there were a few search engines that claimed to be on top. Then came meta search engines that collected the results of various search engines and presented then all in one place. They were meant to fill in the gaps and give you more accurate results. It seems now is the time for MetaSearch 2.0 and the new meta search engines are searching social networks:

Samepoint Social Conversation Search

SamePoint.com is presently tracking millions of conversations, taking place across in more than tens of thousands blogs and social media sites. User-generated discussions are typically not indexed by major search engines, such as Google, as they do not reside on static pages. SamePoint.com converts these discussions into web pages, or permalinks, and organizes them within a tag cloud.

Daymix

Daymix shows the latest information on any topic. Description, talk, news, blogs, photos, videos, related sections, everything all in one place.

WhosTalkin

WhosTalkin.com is a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations surrounding the topics that they care about most. Whether it be your favorite sport, favorite food, celebrity, or your company’s brand name; Whostalkin.com can help you join in on the conversations that you care about most.

SocialMention

Social Mention is a social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services.

FastEagle

Fasteagle is a web workspace presenting an editorial selection of websites and search tools in a convenient interface. Direct online contents and are fully browseable and displayed inside a frame. Unlike most startpages like myYahoo, Netvibes or iGoogle, Fasteagle does not aggregates RSS, feeds or widgets; instead, it directly links to actual content or conveniently displayed inside our site.

Directory 23

This one is my creation, currently being created. I thought I would added the feature of an exportable OPML file so that searches don’t have to be run over and over. Instead, you can subscribe to them. That feature is still coming.

Addictomatic

Addictomatic searches the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images. It’s the perfect tool to keep up with the hottest topics, perform ego searches and feed your addiction for what’s up, what’s now or what other people are feeding on.

And for the fastest search, go directly to Twitter. Here are a few sites that will show you trends in Twitter hours before Google catches on:

• TweetStats
• Twitscoop
• Twist

Related articles by Zemanta

• Can you ditch Google for a metasearch engine?
• WhosTalkin Launches Social Media Search Aggregator
• Socialmention vs. Addictomatic

I think it is quite ironic that I am writing this post while trying to avoid writing a post. I know why I searched for the topic in Google and while I tell myself it’s to increase the my writing output, I know for a fact that in order to increase, I just need to do it.

Lately I have been testing out both Wikidpad and The Journal. While I used to write more longhand, now I do most of it on the computer. I find it easier to find things I have written and actually put them to use. I can use search.

I do like The Journal because it has a dated Journal function. I open to a new page every day and practice. It is the first thing I see when I turn on my laptop. So my method of teaching myself to write faster is by forcing practice. Each day I just start typing whatever is on my mind for at least 10 minutes. If I don’t want to stop by then, I usually have a post or an article.

Another way to write faster is by typing faster. A mind works much faster than fingers. And once you learn how to get out of your own way and start writing, increasing your typing speed by 100% will increase your output the same. Of course, there is always editing. But you will have more to edit faster. I have calculated it in my head. Writing at my average of 40 WPM will give me an article in about 15 minutes. If I increased that to 60 WPM, it would be done in 10. Not much of a change, but if you have a few blogs you want to write daily for, that’s the difference between 4 and 6 posts in an hour.

But there are other ways to write faster and while I was putting off doing the actual task of writing, I happen to find these posts:

How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes – Incubate a lot of articles and carry a notebook around for ideas.

How to Write Great Copy Fast – Turn your topic into a question that you will answer in writing.

How to Write Fast – Get in the right state of mind and set up your environment.

How to Write Fast – Out of necessity

How to Write Articles for Article Marketing in Less Than 12 Minutes – Use a formula to write faster.

A whole series of article on the writing process from Joseph Sutton.

And then I found Writing FAST: How to Write Anything with Lightning Speed and had to add it to my Amazon wish list.

And look for Zemanta to add a few after the post.

Please feel free to add your favorites tips and posts in the comments.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Process: Drafting
• Twitterville Notebook: My Book-Writing Process
• How To Write An Article
• iReadFast Speed Reader [Featured Mac Download]

Making Money Online?

Maybe it is the economy. Maybe it is the fact that I took on too much work. Maybe it was because I had a system that made me money and when I started getting involved in blogging and social media more, I spent less time actually making money. Well, whatever the reason, I am feeling these hard times also. Last year I made $8000 in December from my efforts online. This year, about $2000.

Of course, keeping your head in a hole and not looking for other techniques is not an option either. The internet moves too fast for that. If you don’t change with it, it passes you by. And blogging is also more enjoyable than numbers, stats and data.

I do have the day job, but it only pays the bills that come in the mail. And things there may have to change. It may be time to move on. To a new job where the true value of my work shows in the paycheck. I will never forget the lesson I learned there.

If you get hired as a webmaster and you have no degree, watch who you work for. If one of your co-workers has worked there for 20 years and hasn’t had a raise in the last six, that is a big sign that there is a ceiling and you must move on when you hit it.

Making Money by Saving It

But there are two ways you can have more money: make more or spend less. And there are a lot of blogs out there that teach you how you can spend less:

• Get Rich Slowly
  
• Tim Ferris’s Blog
• My Open Wallet
• Frugal for Life
• Frugal Zeitgeist
• Free Money Finance
• My Money Blog
• No Credit Needed
• Consumerism Commentary
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
• The Digerati Life
• Savvy Saver
• Sitting Pretty
• The Dollar Stretcher
• Frugal Village
• Off Grid Living
• Poorer Than You
• Mighty Bargain Hunter
• Money Smart Life
• Stop Buying Crap
• Five Cent Nickel
• Personal Finance Advice

These are blogs that I am going to be reading more often.

The Results Thus Far

Me and my wife have never really had a “latte factor” because for the most part, I only travel to and from work and all of our shopping is done one day out of the week. So our options were lowering our bills and finding better prices on necessities.

• We refinanced the house in the one month window we had between the penalty for refinancing and our interest rate doubling. This dropped our house payment $100 from what it would have been and also our property tax and house insurance through escrow.
• We don’t pay full price, unless it is the only way. This laptop I am typing on was a scratch and dent which saved me about $1000. My wife’s was too and that saved about $300. We know were the thrift stores are in the better neighborhoods and my pair of Lucky and Guess jeans cost a total of $15. My wife also got a pair of brand new Juicy Couture jeans at the same store for $10.
• We used to have a Friday pizza night where we ordered out. Now we have a Friday pizza night where we make it from scratch together as a family.
• My wife is the biggest money saver. All of the presents we got this year could have easily cost us twice what we paid had we bought at the first place we found things. But she doesn’t rest until she is sure she has found the right price.
• I am currently going through all bills to see if there is a way to cut or remove them. I am shopping all of our insurances. Blue Cross and Blue Sheild has slowly increased our rates to the point they are getting damn close to our house payment, not acceptable.

And of course, there is the “making more money” part of the equation. And that is what this blog is about. I am going to focus on what I know works and do more of it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Learn Here Useful Knowledge – Consumer’s Guide to Mortgage Refinancing
• Tips For Finding Loose Change
• When not to save
• Things You Must Do Before Getting a Layoff Notice

And to reiterate, yes!

A short post for the weekend, but with lists, you can usually leave them short. This is a list of feeds that I have gathered over the last few months. They are the rss feeds of the hot and upcoming story section of various bookmark and social news sites. And I choose a few new ones in last week out of the following sites: