Thought Sparks

Monthly Archives: September 2007

Blog Stats that Rock and those that Don’t

Posted by Phil on September 29, 2007 – 7:56 am

Filed under Reviews

Doing the job of webmaster for a business-to-business website has trained me to be a web stats fiend. I daily check Google Analytics for the latest trends across all the sites that I publish or manage. The proof is in the pudding and stats give you some great feedback for decision making in what to publish, how to manage the layout of the site, what content to feature and generally how to focus ones energy.

The stats for the last 30 days have revealed some interesting trends and decision points for thoughtsparks.net. The report from Google Analytics is very telling in the traffic flow as the site has seen a whopping 100% increase from the previous 30 days.

StumbleUpon rocks. Do you see those major peaks in the graph? Those are Stumble surges. A full 688 visits to the site during this period came from stumbleupon. Stumble traffic average time on the site was 1:25 compared to pownce.com being 9:01, so there is some question of quality of traffic. The shear numbers however are compelling.
Blogrush doesn’t rock. Blogrush sounds like a great idea but the implementation seems to be a bit lacking with only 8 visits for this entire time period. I think at least for now their free advertising on my site is a goner. Let me know if you have better luck statistically with their widget.
Pownce rocks. Everyday I’m finding Pownce to be more of an asset, with great folks offering engaging conversation.
TechFires.com rocks. If by chance you haven’t caught wind, Scott Blitstein over at MyThermos.com and I have launched the site for rapid tech reviews.
YouMob.com rocks. This site referred 52 visitors to my site. Pretty cool.
MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog kind of rocks. Now don’t get me wrong, both sites have brought me some great blogging friends for which I am thankful. I just don’t find either site compelling to spend great volumes of time as a social networking site. I love the avatar system and check-in every other day or so.
Thereisnospace.blogspot.com rocks. The top blog referral site with 19 visits, this young lady writing from Dubai is a worthwhile read. She’s an original and engaging blogger.
Kellementology.com rocks too. Kelly is another one that is her own woman who is a pleasure to know and an interest to read. If you are looking for run-of-the-mill blogs, pass hers by.
Technorati and Digg aren’t rock’n. These sites seem to have too much gaming going on and I just don’t get into that stuff. I’d rather spend my time writing content.
Advertising isn’t rock’n. You could probably say because I haven’t given it a great effort, but honestly I get bored trying to manage it. I also struggle to find effective ad systems that don’t bug me. I regularly get offers for freelance web dev work. If I want to pick-up extra cash, I think I’ll just do some honest work and let you folks read my site without those distracting ads. I’m not anti-ads or anything, just where I’m at with thoughtsparks.net, at least right now. The main reason for hosting ads is to pay for bandwidth which may become more and more of an issue, but we’ll see.

In the end analysis, this site is not about stats but about readers, about you. It’s about "Igniting Ideas for the Common Good". The web stats along with your awesome, well-formed and thoughtful comments give me some sense of whether I’m on track or not in accomplishing this goal. Truth is that I gain more from your stimulating feedback than any ad system ever could. Thanks for reading and engaging.

So what’s rock’n your stats? Are you finding any social communities or bookmarking sites boosting your traffic?

Make Images Look Right with Attributes

Posted by Phil on September 28, 2007 – 7:20 am

Filed under Tutorials, Web and Tech Helps, WordPress

When uploading an image to your blog, it’s important to include some essential attributes. Using a WYSIWYG editor like FCKEditor for WordPress gives you preset elements. The screen shot above is a typical example of some of the more common attributes that you should employ.

URL is the location online where the graphic will be posted. The upload tab allows you to send an image from your desktop to the web server.
The html code looks like <img src="http://www.domain.com/subfolders/image.jpg">.
Alternative Text or Alt text as it’s abbreviated is an important element and should always be employed. It accomplished two very important tasks.
- Provides visually impaired readers an explanation of the graphic, which was it’s original intent.
- Enables search engines to more effectively index your site for more effective optimization.
The html code looks like alt="Photo caption"
Width and Height are optional attributes. I always reduce my images to the appropriate size in a photo editor before uploading as it reduces page load time. But in the case of slight modifications, these attributes are very helpful.
The html code looks like width="150px" and height="150px" where px stands for pixels.
Border is often used to remove a border around linked images. In some cases it’s helpful to add a border to an image. To remove a border the element would be 0.
The html code looks like border="0" or border ="1".
HSpace and VSpace elements add horizontal and vertical space, which creates white space around images.
The html code looks like hspace="10" and vspace="10".
Align is primarily used to position an image to the left or right of the page. This allows text to wrap in a natural fashion around the image.
The html code looks like align="left".

The first two attributes, the URL and Alternative Text should always be set when uploading images to page content. Border, HSpace, VSpace, Align and other attributes can be set with CSS styling. Sounds like another post. Gee, I guess you’ll have to check back soon for styling images with CSS.

I am 80% Addicted to Blogging

Posted by Phil on September 27, 2007 – 8:50 pm

Filed under Just for Fun

80%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Wring a bell anyone? Interesting and revealing little test . So how did you rate?

I Don’t Work for a Living

Posted by Phil on September 26, 2007 – 11:05 pm

Filed under Just for Fun, Philosophy, perspective

Do you work for a living? You know it can kill you don’t you? Maybe quitting is a good idea. Stress is a major killer in its many forms and a job is a sure fire way to end your life early.

As for me, yeah I have a long-term arrangement with a company to show-up everyday and go about doing cool projects that they need done. In the end, I play with technology, learn new stuff, put it into practice and the company benefits from the process. It’s a win/win deal and as long as it is so, I’ll show-up and keep experimenting. At the moment I prefer no other road.

Now the income thing, it has its merits and I need to pull in some income in one way or another. My wife and kiddos certainly appreciate the fact that I do so on a regular basis. But living is so much more than making a buck. I could certainly make more money shifting my efforts away from blogging. Compared to what I can make as a freelance developer, blogging pays peanuts and that’s if I do a bang-up job of publishing the site. No, I don’t do it for the money.

I often tell my girls, "find something you love to do, become good at it, people will pay you to do it and you’ll never work another day in your life." You’ve probably heard it before, but I think it’s a good reminder and plumb-line to evaluate ones life. How close is that description to your life?

I’ve certainly had some jobs that were a less than perfect fit. It’s been a learning process that brought me to this point. The overall equilibrium I sense during this season is nice, but I don’t count on it remaining indefinitely. Who knows, I may be in major re-evaluation mode at any moment. The touchstone for me is to pursue the passions in my life. I just don’t have much patience for spinning my wheels doing trivial tasks that offer little avenue for growth.

So I’m thinking through the things I enjoy doing. Some have a revenue producing stream, some less so. Stuff I like to do includes; writing, playing the guitar, gardening, coding sites, designing sites, reading, researching, biking, playing with my kids, spending time with my wife, hanging-out with friends, chatting online, being a part of a church, traveling. It’s all good and important stuff in my life and it all has its place. It’s part of what makes me uniquely myself.

Many of these mentioned are possible careers. The web developer mode seems to be working well for me at the moment. I’ve been a landscaper, don’t want to repeat that. Used to aspire to be a musician, amateur status is fine by me. I’ve worked as a gourmet chef, no thanks. I was at one time a youth pastor, not the right fit in this stage of the game. Writer, researcher, yeah those kind of fold into my current gig with coding and design. Being a webmaster is an all encompassing position. I do a number of diverse things with the main theme of finding solutions. That is a central core to my passion, I love to solve problems. It keeps me up at night and gets me up in the morning. The greater the hurdle, the more stoked I am when I get over it.

I’d love to hear what you do and how it fits your passions. I believe learning from the stories of other people gives insight back into one’s own life. What do you love to do? How much of your job is wrapped-up in those passions?

Sparking Thoughts in New Places

Posted by Phil on September 25, 2007 – 10:29 am

Filed under Just for Fun, Writing

Recently, I was accepted to author articles on rustylime.com. Rustylime is an online magazine of editorials, reviews and news briefs. For regular thoughtsparks.net readers, most articles will be reposts from this site. It will come as no surprise to you that I will most often be writing topics in the technology and communication categories. Catch my first article, which is a recent repost of the article Photo Sites Must Adequately Inform Copyright Usage.

I had the privilege this last month to speak with a web design class at a local private high school. There was a nice write-up on ets-lindgren.com on my presentation entitled "Web 2.what?"

13 Good Alternatives to Email

Posted by Phil on September 25, 2007 – 7:04 am

Filed under Productivity, great use of technology

If I were to take a pole I think we’d all agree, Email is the bane to our existence. How much time do we spend dealing with email that is sucking the life out of your productivity. I know I have other things I’d rather be doing than wading through spam, vendor notifications and the like. It’s time we, on an individual and organizational level take a hard look at our communication modes and break away from the leach known as email.

Here’s a list of 13 alternative communication methods for consideration as a way to ween ourselves from email as our main electronic communication method.

Wikis – While the best known one is wikipedia, wikis are popping-up on intranets and on the net daily. To get your head spinning, check out wikia.com.
Blogs – Sites published in blog format are growing exponentially as they provide current, relevant information on focused topics. One can start a blog for free using Tumblr, Blogspot, WordPress, Xanga or a whole plethora of other free offerings. Blogging with interactive comments such as transpires on thoughtsparks.net provides a dynamic discourse over the topics of interest.
Micro-blogging – Pownce, Twitter, Jaiku are all great examples of mini or micro-blogging. Like blogging, there is the ability to discuss topics in an open forum with quick posts on topics of interest. Micro-blogging has the potential to be an email killer in many respects. There are a good number of new relationships I’ve made online that transpire largely between blog comments and micro-blogging.
Instant Messenger – Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, GTalk are some of the major services available for instant communication. IM has proven to be a powerful communication method that is inexpensive and effective for quick exchanges that would have drug-out through email.
RSS – Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is so powerful because it is just that, really simple. With sites such as Bloglines or Google Reader one can feed blogs, news and classifieds such as Craigslist. Companies are now feeding information back to their employees instead of notifying via email.
Voice Communication – Skype is the best known service available. With business communication more global than ever it’s easy to see why.
Forums – Everything from general forums like offtopic.com to industry or interest specific like kirupa.com for Flash development, forums provide an excellent resource for a library of answers to problems.
Social Communities – Social communities have been on the fringe of the business sector, but with the mass movement towards Facebook as a social network and LinkedIn as a professional network, the social community concept within major corporations or associations will not be far behind.
Bookmarking – Social bookmarking allows for sharing found resources in an efficient means without unnecessary back-and-forth between users. Services like Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Google Share Stuff are becoming part of industry research.
Online Presentations – Two valuable resource for educational and corporate instruction are Slide Share and Google Presentations (which is part of the Google document suite.)
Collaboration – Online collaboration is huge as it provides a means to park files and threaded discussions in one location for project development. Two free solutions are Google Documents and BaseCamp.
Send Large Files – Bring an end to loading down the inbox with huge files. DropSend and YouSendIt are two solutions that provide a limited service for free with more robust levels for nominal fees.
Photos – Photo sites are an option for posting photos with tighter share controls. While commonly known as a public forum, Flickr and Picasa enable sharing controls.

No one method mentioned above is appropriate for all forms of information exchange. Rather, this list presents a short list of options for segmenting the type of information exchange that is more robust and efficient than email transfer.

Photo Sites Must Adequately Inform Copyright Usage

Posted by Phil on September 22, 2007 – 7:26 am

Filed under Reviews

Never Mind Your Copy Right Here's Flickr

With the exponential growth of photo sites like flickr, zooomr, and stock.xchng, there is a real need to raise the awareness of copyright laws and infringements. I ran across this photo on flickr entitled "Never Mind Your Copyright" (which I’m using appropriately under the Creative Commons some rights reserved). He writes a rant about this issue entitled "Freedom of expression?? Telling the truth??"on his blog. Copyright issues are becoming a very hot topic and will gain more and more press over the next few years. The photographer generated this image as a statement back to flickr about issues related to his photos being used in-appropriately.

Another related story reported by the Sydney Morning Herald states that a Texas family is taking Virgin Mobile phone company to court over their use of the girls image taken from a photo posted on flickr. While the photographer released the image under a sharing license, the company neglected to get a release from the family to use the image. This of course is a major no no.

It is easy to point fingers at large companies like Virgin Mobile and say shame, shame, for not following due process to get a release and offer some compensation to the model and most probably the photographer. In the case of the many other copyright infringements by bloggers who inappropriately re-use flickr and other photo sites, I believe those sites share culpability with the bloggers. There is more the photo sites could do to protect the photographers and to inform the users of the sites.

Some suggestions for photo sites to better inform users

Post copyright guidelines more prominently on their site. If they are following the Creative Commons standards, they should re-state or link-out to those guidelines.
Make the statements for use of a specific photo more obvious. This should not be considered the fine print, but rather a prominently placed tag next to the photo and download button. Of all the sites I’ve seen stock.xchng seems to do this the best.
Raise the awareness through a media campaign. This would instill confidence in users that they would be in less danger of infringement.
Provide usage examples to follow. More than stating the guidelines, educating users with visual use examples will help them properly cite borrowed media.

Most users are eager to follow the law and respect creative works. If media sites raise the level of awareness; the creators of the works, those re-using the works and the photo sites all win in the end.

Andy Mckee Redefines the Guitar

Posted by Phil on September 21, 2007 – 8:46 pm

Filed under Just for Fun

As one who has played the guitar from a spry 16 year-old, I have a deep appreciation for very accomplished musicians. When I think of amazing guitarists, few come close to the young Andy Mckee. The closest match in my mind is the late Michael Hedges who died in a car accident in 1997. Andy’s command over the strings is masterful, his composition unique, his chord formations truly original. Enjoy this amazing talent.

How Secure is Your Domain Name?

Posted by Phil on September 21, 2007 – 5:53 am

Filed under Web and Tech Helps

A friend of mine called me yesterday to report that his domain was hijacked. He has one of those priceless domains with three letters. The schister got into his Yahoo store account, transferred it to GoDaddy and then put it up for sale. The domain was purchased, but fortunately before the transaction went through, a watch-dog caught wind of the deal and notified him. He in-turn notified the purchaser and now the domain is back in the hands of my friend.

Sound bizarre? Actually it’s unfortunately not as uncommon as one might think. Don’t take this too lightly. For some preventive steps, review the Circle ID article entitled, "Help! My Domain Name Has Been Hijacked!"

Speaking of security, when was the last time you changed your passwords?

New Face on ThoughtSparks

Posted by Phil on September 19, 2007 – 10:46 pm

Filed under Just for Fun, design

If you are a regular reader, you’ll notice much has changed here at ThoughtSparks.net. The most obvious and encompassing aspect is the new template. There are several reasons that led me to apply a new design.

I’m a perfectionist and just wasn’t happy with the last one.
The old design had too many plug-ins and was becoming unwieldy to customize.
The new design affords more space with an extra column.
With the launch of TechFires.com, I wanted a site that had some similar feel to it while still maintaining its own look and feel.
The logo works so much better against black.
What the heck, it’s just fun to change.
The top navigation was a bit cramped.
I wanted a slightly more minimalist, clean look.
It’s a cathartic experience to let go of an old design.
The new design just feels more professional.

I will undoubtedly execute further tweaks, but here she is for better or worse. So what do you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down?