Posted by Phil on June 18, 2008 – 5:13 am
Realizing I probably had too many categories for my posts, well over a hundred, I decided it was time to trim the number down a bit. But what would be the criteria? Certainly dropping-off the single post references made sense. How does one then quantify what constitutes enough for a category? I’ve landed on the number three.
Categories or tags are connect-the-dot labels that group content from multiple posts together. It stands to reason that if there are three or more related posts, a category could tie them together.
As I stripped away useless categories, I discovered redundant/like categories that I combined. There was also a couple categories such as "writing" for which I knew I had many posts but only one was tagged.
As I move forward with posts, I will for the most part categorize retrospectively after I have three or more like posts. It’s really a simple idea but one that helps solidify the concept in my mind.
Posted by Phil on October 23, 2007 – 6:17 am
RSS feeds provide a means to extract topical information from a website. Often there are subtopics within a site that hold particular value or interest to me that I want to track. Instead of subscribing to the site as a whole, I often add select feeds to my reader. This can be extremely useful in research of any kind.
A good number of sites make the topical feeds option very obvious. Sites such as:
- Craigslist.org. I like to keep an eye on the Austin real estate market. I added the feed – http://austin.craigslist.org/rfs/index.rss to my reader.
- FastCompany.com. Rather than combing through all of the articles, I subscribed to the FC Experts feed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/fastcompany/experts.
Other sites are not as obvious in however in providing topical feeds, but can be utilized nonetheless. Sites such as:
- YouTube.com. Perhaps you want to collect media along by a certain search string. I thought it interesting to monitor what was published for CSS and HTML. I added the feed – http://youtube.com/rss/tag/css+html.rss to my reader. The search "css+html" is the query string that returns those videos. You can add your own string of words. For instance you could put "jimmy+buffett" to track one of my favorite musicians.
- Flickr.com. For online publication it is helpful to keep an eye on photos along certain topics. Living in Austin, I’m curious what photos are being taken from my hometown. I added the feed – http://flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?
q=austin+texas&format=rss_200 to my reader. Again, you can replace the string "austin+texas" with your query string of choice.
- Blog topics. Lastly, if you want to follow a specific topic for a WordPress blog such as the ever useful productivity tips on thoughtsparks.net, you can subscribe to http://www.thoughtsparks.net/category/productivity/feed in your feed reader. That way if you would like to by-pass my meandering thoughts on other topics, you’ll get just the meat you are wanting to extract.
As you begin to explore other sites and blog platforms you’ll discover similar hacks for getting the select information in your grid of interest.
Do you user other RSS hacks that are useful?
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Posted by Phil on September 17, 2007 – 10:55 am
With a few tweaks in WordPress you can unlock the constraints of the categories and extend them in virtually any direction you want to go. Additionally you can structure your site to have short user-friendly URLs.
- Create category based sections. By editing the tabs in your main navigation you can create tabs that index specific categories of your site. This is the method used on thoughtsparks.net for the tabs at the top of the page. The links are wrapped within list-item tags <li></li>. The list-items are placed after the home link and before the page links code.
- Syndicate category based feeds. The category for tutorials would have the feed address: http://www.thoughtsparks.net/category/tutorials/feed. Potentially this enables one to reuse any group of content. This feed then could be syndicated through a service like Feedburner. This feed now can be picked-up as http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThoughtSparksTutorials.
- Make very short user-friendly URLs. In the very beginning configuration of a WordPress install is the time to decide on the best URL permalink method for your site. Rather than a URL structure that is http://www.domainname.com/?p=123/, your domain references can be http://www.domainname.com/the-name-of-the-post/.
To setup a short URL structure:
- Go to Options Tab in the WordPress Admin interface
- Click on Permalinks
- Select Custom, specify below radio button
- Where it says Custom structure: input /%postname%/
- Click Update Permalink Structure
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Posted by Phil on September 10, 2007 – 7:10 am
Becoming a better writer is possible for everyone, no matter your educational level or experience. Whether writing an email, a blog post, comments on another blog, or a report at work this skill can be strengthened through some simple steps.
Apply these ideas and I promise you will improve your writing or your money back. 
- Read literature a trifle more challenging. Two of my favorite books to read are the King James Bible and Shakespeare. No kidding. Both books will change your life. OK, call me weird, but every once in a while I get in a quirky mood and read through "Much Ado About Nothing" when I’m in a romantic mood or "Hamlet" when I’m in a more somber mood. Great stuff.
- Read well-written blogs, magazines, side-walk graffiti. I read many blogs and revisit few. Even some of the more popular rags don’t hold my attention. When you find a blog that is well-written, read every word written by the author and learn from their style. One of my favorite magazines is Fast Company which by the way, has an excellent website as well.
- Proof it like you were in geometry class. No matter what you are writing, take the time to check your work. Editing your work is essential to becoming a better writer. Print it out, preview before posting, review after posting, correct spelling and grammatical errors.
- Don’t be redundant, saying the same thing over and over and over again. As much as possible, steer clear of using the same verbiage in a given post.
- Become a foxy speller. Firefox has a built-in nifty spell checker that underlines questionable words in form fields.
Use the tools Luke. Constantly hit dictionary.com and thesaurus.com to look-up words. I use it for posts, comments and anything else I’m writing. Add the dictionary.com button to your browser for quick reference, as pictured to the right.- Ask your significant other or brother or mother to read your work. My dear wife periodically will review a post or other key writing projects when I get stumped on some phrase. It’s a huge help.
- Set small, tangible goals for yourself. If spelling is your greatest struggle, try for 30 days to proof and look-up every questionable word.
- Outline it, then write it. Sometimes when writing, it helps to get the main points on paper and then go back and write out the more eloquent prose.
- Write to a person not a post. Think of a specific reader and write as if they were the sole audience for the post. This can be an amazing visual tool.
- Look-up words you don’t know. When you are in a conversation or reading, find out what a word means. Do this at least once a day and you’ll quickly strengthen your vocabulary.
- Mimic other writers. As you discover writing that you enjoy, implement some of their style and way of phrasing information. Just like children imitate their parents, we can learn from those we read.
- Find your voice. Listen for your unique way of communicating information and cultivate that style.
- Exercise your writing muscle. The more you write, the better communicator you will become. Writing is as much a marathon as it is an artistic work of art. In fact, probably more so.
- Write fewer posts. If you find yourself to be a prolific writer but producing a great amount of errors, slow-down, check your spelling, sentence and paragraph structure. Raise the bar and you’re readership will grow, I promise.
- Say more with less. If you can convey the same information with less words, do it. Your writing will pack a greater punch.
What other tips, tools or methods do you use to improve your writing?
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Posted by Phil on September 4, 2007 – 6:16 am
Debate over ethics in the corridors of human history has covered every topic from the value of human life to the means of doing business. By its very nature, ethical statements can be both corporate and individual expressions. In order to encourage ethical practice, discussion and expression for bloggers, I have posted the "My Blog Code of Ethics" badge for open distribution in the blogosphere.
The code of ethics may vary from one blog to another. The purpose of this badge, rather than an agreed-upon set of ethics, is to promote open disclosure and statement of the ethics of your respective blog, thus the title "My Blog Code of Ethics".
Use of this badge in your sidebar should link to a post on your site with an explanation of your stated code of ethics. Your ethical statements may be reflective of those below or adapted to more closely meet the set standards for your blog. In accordance with the Creative Commons licensing, please link back to this site. This will also give the reader a morecomplete explanation of the "My Blog Code of Ethics" and provide optional color choices for folks to use on their blogs.
Ethical statements should be clear and consistent with your publishing practices. Generally, they are broad statements that encompass major guidelines. Most importantly, they should be statements that you, the author, fully intend to follow.
My Blog Code of Ethics
- Any content not originated by the publisher of this blog will be properly referenced and follow appropriate fair use licensing.
- Information referenced from other sources online will be linked.
- Any advertising on this site will be clearly marked as such.
- Unless explicitly stated, no posts are written for financial compensation from the product or site being reviewed.
- All information published on this site is believed to be true and accurate to the best of the authors knowledge.
- The content on this site, will not use foul language, display offensive images, or promote content that is commonly considered demeaning or highly offensive to people related to sex, violence or drugs.
The statements above are the stated code of ethics for this blog. You may use these ethics verbatim or alter them according to your blogs publishing practices.
If you prefer a different color for your blog contact me as I will most likely create a new color and post back to this blog for open usage.
To use the badge on your blog:
- Right-click on the badge and choose "Save Image As" to your desktop
- Upload to your browser
- Insert in your blog post
- Post a version to your sidebar or footer that links to your blog post
The "My Blog Code of Ethics" is released under the Creative Commons License:
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Posted by Phil on August 20, 2007 – 9:50 pm
Have too much traffic to your site? Want to shew-off a good portion of potential readers? Well, it’s actually quite easy. Just follow these tips and you will alienate many people from frequenting your site, myself included. Here we go, just do the following:
- Include pop-up windows. Even one will do the trick. Have it activate on page load. Most users will have it blocked, but either way, you’ll send them running.
- Make sure your page loads slowly. Load-up with unoptimized images, include 25 or 30 widgets and set the blog to load 40 or 50 posts.
- Feature 10 or 15 YouTube videos. Don’t actually add much content to the posts. This will tip off the reader to head to YouTube if they are really interested in videos, or for readers in a controlled environment at work, they won’t see the content anyway.
- Publish poorly written posts. Since you haven’t spent much time and care in writing your posts, folks won’t spend time reading it. I guess that’s a pretty fair exchange.
- Leave mountains of spelling and grammatical errors. Don’t think of running a spell checker.
- Post lots of grotesque imagery. Feature intense, gnarly imagery and you’ll attract a portion of readers. But the rest of us will head-off to other blogs and oh by-the-way do just about anything to avoid your site.
- Write with endless vulgarity. Publish posts with a stream of blanky blank verbage which shows your disregard for the sensibilities of the reader and lack of creative expression. You will have effectively convinced the reader that their time is spent better elsewhere.
- Plagerize, barrow and steal. Just barrow content from other sites. The originators won’t mind right?
- Post lots of tasteless degrading nudity. Those photos are just the ticket to send folks running, especially when they are reading at work.
- Feature dancing baloney. That’s my bosses term for pointless animation and stupid features. Post animated graphics that the user can’t shut-off, send them into a seizure and generally irritate them. Add some good annoying music to it and you are set.
There you have it. If you try really hard you too get rid of all of those pesky readers. I’m sure you can be creative and think of some other ways, but there’s a few to get you going.
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Posted by Phil on August 16, 2007 – 11:58 pm
Load time for a blog is a really big deal. How well you economize your page will in part determine the amount of traffic to your site. Even though many users are on broadband, there is still a good percent of traffic coming from slow connections due to existing dial-up, wireless and international traffic.
There are simple steps to take that will have immediate affect on load time.
- Clear the cache on your browser and reload the page. If you notice significant lag in the time it takes your page to load, other users are surely experiencing the same wait or longer. Ask others to provide feedback on their experience.
- Use a blog layout that loads the content on the left and the sidebar on the right or in the footer. Web pages load from left to right and top to bottom. Even if it takes a while for the sidebar to load, your users can glean the latest information without having to wait for the widgets. This is my single biggest complaint/frustration with sites. You don’t have to be a professional web designer to publish a relatively quick loading page. If you wish to have, in the words of Scott at MyThermos.com, a lot of "blog bling", then load it second after the main content.
- Constantly evaluate the benefit of sidebar features. Don’t be afraid to drop widgets or plug-ins to economize. A Minimalist perspective will serve you well.
- Keep dynamic content from other sites to a minimum. Remember, the user will not only experience lag from your site, but lag from the other server as well.
Most blogs are by their very nature personal and the bells and whistles are part of that expression. Some authors seem to depend on those features to spice-up their site and draw traffic. If you author a blog, be passionate, relentless in pursuit of your story, your purpose and don’t let the load time inhibit users from appreciating your hard work.
You will notice I’ve recently added listening capability to my blog with Odiogo. This feature does affect load time. I’m committed to making my site as reachable across as many languages and user accessibility as possible. This is a deliberate decision knowing full-well that it can have a negative impact on traffic levels. I hope some of you find it useful and that the content is worth the slightly slower load time. Let me know if it proves valuable to you. With this feature in mind I need to trade-off on other aspects of the site to not overload the page with "blog bling". I’m giving myself a shorter leash.
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Posted by Phil on July 2, 2007 – 7:25 am
MyBlogLog is one of the best social media concepts for bloggers. It has many solid features and will likely only get better as it matures. There are a couple of pitfalls however, that it needs to avoid, if it’s going to have lasting value for it’s members.
- Spam. Message spam is on the rise. The new feature where you can spam your whole community with one submission is likely to reduce community membership. "Come visit my blog" messages without any warranted information is unwanted traffic. The "Message Members" function would be better served to post announcements to the community page and solicit comments back.
- Feed issues. I’ve noticed that my feed is not being updated in MyBlogLog. Other communities like BlogCatalog and applications Google Reader are not having the same issue with the same feed source. Feeds for blogs are an essential element. MyBlogLog needs to do some quality control to make sure that the basic features are rock solid.
If MyBlogLog were to focus on the pull aspect of blogging, giving users the option to view and subscribe to information, they will do well. If it becomes an expedited avenue for spam, for excessive messages to it’s members, another superior product will emerge and they will lose significant market share.
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Posted by Phil on June 28, 2007 – 6:54 am
I’ve been in web development, design and publishing since the mid 1990’s. I think I’ve seen just about every optimization trick in the book. There are many nuances to search engine optimization but if you follow some overarching guidelines, I promise you will grow healthy exposure to your site.
This past month I’ve seen thoughtsparks.net traffic increase by 22% from the previous month. I’ve also turned-up number one on Google in search phrases like "nine random facts" out of 1,130,000. Professionally, it is not uncommon for many of my key search phrases to turn-up number one as well. It’s no big secret, just do the right thing. It turns out that Google and other search engines look for sites with integrity and reward them for it.
First, let’s look at the do’s. If you follow these guidelines, the don’ts will be irrelevant.
SEO Do’s
- Do write original content. Search engines are like people, they are searching for relevant information on a topic. If you create useful, interesting and informative content, people will pick-up on it and therefore search engines will too.
- Do develop each page as if it were the home page. The idea of a "front-page" is very much an old way of thinking about web publishing. If every post or page published is crafted to speak as a standalone page, then search engines will recognize it.
- Do employ User-friendly URL’s. One of the best features in WordPress is the user-friendly URL page name convention that can be set. I recommend changing from the Page ID immediately on install.
- Do use relevant keywords that relate to your topic. The URL, the title, alt tags, meta tags and content should reference keywords that you would want to return a result in Google.
- Do use alt tags for your images. Remember that folks will not only find your site via text search but image search as well. Alt tags and image names give more information for Google to use for search indexing.
- Do validate your HTML. Yes this affects search optimization. A well-formed page affects how search engines crawl the site.
- Do employ a translator on your site. I am amazed at the amount of international traffic I get to my blog. A full 40% of my blog traffic is from outside the United States.
- Do test your site in alternate browsers. I still forget to do this sometimes, but if funky display of the site in a standard browser will significantly reduce traffic and affect your ranking.
- Do keep and analyze web stats. If you study your site traffic, you will begin to understand how folks are finding you in search engines.
- Do show patience, page ranking takes time. It can take months for a site to gain prominence. One metric for ranking is the age of a URL. The longer you are around the more credible you are to search engines.
- Do employ legitimate Web 2.0 processes. Blog comments, online communities, microblogging on Twitter and Jaiku, professional listings on LinkedIn, ranking sites like Tecnorati are all legitimate tools to improve your ranking.
- Do build meaningful relationships, online and off. Page ranking is the result in part of people choosing to link to your content.
Now let’s look at the don’ts.
SEO Don’ts
- Don’t take short-cuts. This is the over-arching rule. You will only hurt your efforts in the end.
- Don’t pay someone to list your site. If you want to throw your money away, give it to me! I’ll find a use for it. You don’t need to employ someone else to do what you can do yourself. In many cases they have little positive affect. In fact you may find yourself worse-off than before.
- Don’t do stupid page tricks. If your site sniffs of dumb tricks like multiple redirects, hidden keywords and other bogus gimmick’s you may find yourself banned from Google’s results which would definitely be counter productive.
- Don’t participate in online link gimmick’s. Reciprocal links have much less value than one-way links. Google recognizes meaningful links in context and will weight those much higher.
- Don’t spam people. Leave meaningful comments on peoples blogs and online profiles like MyBlogLog. Too often I see comments like "hey, check out my site" or some derivative on multiple peoples profiles in MyBlogLog. This leaves a negative taste in people’s mouth and is a major turn-off.
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