Thor's Archive
When Schrock Innovations is setting up a blog for one of our clients, they almost always ask how often should they post on their blog?
When I was in high school I once asked my journalism advisor how long my story had to be. He answered, "as long as a piece of string." The answer is similar in blogging. While 24 posts in 24 hours may be a bit extreme, you definitely want to post at least once a day.
People who take the time to check your blog for content updates will appreciate fresh, new content. If every time they return to your blog there is the same tired old content there they might just stop checking in.
Keep in mind that you do not necessarily have to be physically at your computer to post new content. Almost all content management systems have a scheduled posting option that allows you to write a post now and have it automatically released at a predetermined time. As much as I would like you to believe that I am slaving away pressing a button every hour like John Locke in LOST, it would be a lie. This is the power of the scheduled post!
When readers post a comment to your blog it is like they have dropped a gold nugget in your lap, and you should treat it as such! A reader's comment means that someone came to your blog, read your post, and was then moved to comment. That means you did your job perfectly!
So what do you do next? Some people believe that the blogger should not enter into discussions with commentators because you already said your piece in the post. I disagree entirely! This would be the same as you striking up a conversation with someone who then asks you a follow up question. Would you walk away or answer the question? Answer it!
I always answer readers questions whenever I see them. They took the time and effort to ask, which probably means they will take the time and effort to come back looking for the answer later on. In fact, they may just read something else while they are there!
The second most frequent question is what should you do if a commentator leaves a negative post on your blog - remove it or respond to it. Truthfully, I have done both. I have had people make hurtful or undermining comments on my blog in the past, and I deleted them primarily because they were not intended to create discussion - they were intended to hurt someone.
On the other hand, a reader posted negative comments anonymously on my blog a month ago that had nothing to do with the original topic of the post. I chose to let his comments stand because the commentator had genuine questions about what I had said and written in the past.
While these comments were intended to be hurtful at their core, it illustrated to my other readers that I have a tolerance for people who disagree with me. In fact, many of my regular readers rallied in my defense, making it unnecessary for me to defend myself at all. That single post was the most commented ever on my blog, and my blog stats doubled that day as readers notified their friends that I was getting "dissed" on my own blog. In a way, this one person who dislike me so actually did me a service by adding content to my blog!
Next Tip - Keep Your Content Fresh
With your blog set up and ready for visitors, it is time to begin creating content that will attract readers and keep them coming back for more. Keeping your target audience in mind, begin brainstorming post topics that would be of interest to your readers.
If you get stumped on ideas, check out websites like digg.com to see if there is anything there that gets your creative juices flowing. Watch the local news or read a newspaper - these are all great sources of inspiration.
A word of caution, however... If you decide to re-report a story that you read somewhere else first, be absolutely certain to give credit to the source where you found the information and provide a link. This will save your reputation if the story turns out to be false, and will also help you build your credibility among your fellow bloggers.
After your brainstorming session is complete, chances are that your list will have many interdependent posts. For example, if you are blogging about computer maintenance, chances are you will be referencing terms like defragment and scan disk. It is a good idea to post about terms like these first to lay the ground work for future posts. Then as you mention these terms in the future, you can link them back to the posts so your new readers can stay on top of what you are saying.
While re-reposting information you found elsewhere is perfectly valid, it will not get you to the top of your game. To gain a reputation as a cutting edge blogger, you must dig deep when you spell a good story and try to be the first to report it.
For example, my blog was ranked 1,700,000th on the Internet until I found an overseas pill-pusher posting pages on the NOAA.gov website and broke the story to the blogosphere. Overnight ZDnet picked up the story and my blog rocketed to the top 800,000 in a mere 12 hours. While these opportunities are rare, you must be ready to seize them when they present themselves to gain credibility.
Previously, you should have selected a target audience for you blog. Hopefully you selected this audience because you had a unique insight or knowledge that would be interesting to people in your niche. Use that knowledge to create NEW content - even if it is spurred on by a story you read elsewhere.
Plugins are small pieces of code that once installed in your CMS will change the way it works slightly. There are literally thousands of plugins available at no cost online that can modify your blog to do amazing things. In this post, I will cover the top 5 that I feel any beginning blog needs to install to ensure quick readership growth.
Spam Control
No one likes to visit a forum or blog that is polluted with tons of garbage comments that do nothing but promote the interests of the commentator. If you do not set up controls to stem the tide of spam on your blog, readers could get the impression that you don’t really pay to much attention to what your readers have to say.
No one likes to talk to themselves, so you defiantly want to show your readers that you are listening and paying attention to what they have to say. However in reality, it is nearly impossible for the lone blogger to manually police the thousands of posts you will accumulate on your blog over time.
The plugin you choose will depend greatly on your selection of a CMS. I use WordPress, and by default it comes with the Akismet plugin. You need to get a free WordPress API key and activate the plugin for use, but after that it is fire and forget without an annoying captchka (that also prohibits the visually impaired from commenting on your blog).
Pinging
With a normal website, content that is created can sit on the web for days or even weeks before it is crawled and indexed by a search engine. Because blogs deal with breaking news and fluid situations at times, most major search engines and blog rating websites allow bloggers to send a “ping” to the search engine when new content is added to the blog. That way, it can be immediately indexed for those searching for information.
Most major blogging packages already have an integrated pinging system that notifies all of the big search engines (like Google) and blog ranking services (like Technorati) when something new is posted on your blog. However, if you selected a smaller CMS like Nucleus, you will have to manually locate and install a plugin to make these automated notifications for you.
Subscribe to Comments
This plugin allows your commentators to be informed when someone else responds to a comment they placed on one of your posts. You can choose to have commentators subscribed to comment responses by default, or make them check a box to subscribe (opt out versus opt in).
The Do Follow Plugin
This is a little controversial in the blogosphere, but I have found that this plugin increased the number of valid comments from readers on my blog. By default in most CMS platforms commentators are allowed to provide a link back to their website when they post a comment. The website links are appended to include the rel=”external nofollow” command that tells search engines not to count these links toward the target website’s rankings.
The original intent of this command was to prevent comment spam by making the links generated worthless to non-human eyes. Because they would not count toward a site’s search engine ranking, no one would have a reason to comment spam.
Since then however, anti-spam technology has progressed to the point that links in comments could be allowed, while still controlling spam. The Do Follow plugin allows these links to be counted, and consequently bloggers wishing to promote their own sites will take the time to comment on yours because you are giving them some “link juice.”
This can be a great way to stir up some conversation on your blog, especially when the subscribe to comments plugin is used as well.
Google Sitemaps
This plugin is absolutely essential. It automatically generates a Google compliant XML sitemap of your blog in both standard and compressed formats. When Google finds this sitemap, it can index your entire blog much more quickly than it would if it had to crawl through each page individually looking for unique content.
With this plugin installed your blog’s quality content will find its way into Google’s search engine faster, which means you could be ranked higher for particular search words (at least until all of the other bloggers catch up).
Next Tip - Populating Your Blog With Quality Content.
The single greatest thing you can do is to keep your target audience in mind as you create content for your blog. When you write, use words and language that match up with the words and language your target audience uses. When citing examples or linking to other websites, select examples and sites that your target audience will also enjoy. While a smooth interface is nice, content is what keeps readers coming back.
Next, select a font that you believe will look appropriate to your audience. If your target demographic is a bit older, you might want to choose larger font sizes and easily readable fonts. If your target audience is more artistic that the average reader, choose nice cursive fonts or stylized colors to better capture their interest.
The last element you should work with is the graphical interface. This is the trickiest thing to get right and it might take months of small modifications and tweaks to get it just right. There are a couple basic things you should address in the beginning with great care and avoid changing at nearly all costs.
Your Avatar. An Avatar is a small, square graphic that will eventually become synonymous with your name and your blog. My avatar is a chromed letter T in a white background. As I surf the blogosphere and comment on blogs here and there, my T is left behind almost like a signature to tell people I was there. Just as a company uses a logo to create brand identity for their products, your avatar will create brand recognition for what your blog stands for.
Your Header. The top portion of most blogs consists of a header. The header is a piece of text or a graphic that lets the reader know they are in the right place. Your header can be as simple as a title and a tagline (the WordPress default) or as complex as a completely redesigned image. If possible, attempt to include your avatar in some way in your header. The header will be repeated on every page throughout your blog, so you definitely want this to look good and speak to your target audience.
Now that you have the look and feel of your blog encapsulated, it is time to look into adding some plugins to your CMS. Plugins are small bits of code that will modify the way your blog works in various ways. Plugins are great because you do not have to know anything about coding to install one and achieve a dramatic customization effect on your blog.
Next Tip - The 5 Plugins You MUST Have For your Blog!
When you need to blow your nose do you ask for a Kleenex or a tissue? How about when you were little and you skinned your knee? Did you ask for a Band Aid or a bandage? Both Kleenex and Band Aid are trademarked brand names that were branded to their products so well, that they eventually became synonymous with the product itself. Anyone need me to Xerox that for you?
The moral of the story is that by properly branding your blog you can make it easy for your readers to find, reference, and talk about. The easier your readers can consume and discuss your blog, the more likely it is that they, their friends, and their online acquaintances will take a moment to visit your blog, and maybe even bookmark your feed if you are lucky!
There are some important rules to remember when it comes to branding your blog. Branding is more than the color scheme you select, the things you blog about, the words you use in your writings, and the bloggers you list in your blog roll. All of these things need to be carefully thought out so your blog reaches the target audience you want to reach. No blog targets everyone, so first you need to decide who your target audience is.
If you are going to blog about how to make money online, your audience is most likely extremely web-savvy, familiar with industry jargon, and not too offended by refenernces that would make the Greatest Generation blush.
On the other hand, if your target audience is people who need help dealing with a spyware or malware infection, they are probably less comfortable with complex jargon and are more interested in clear, easy to follow steps that lead to a concrete solution.
No matter what you decide to blog about, the first thing you need to do is ask a series of questions to determine who your target audience is.
- Will your blog primarily target male or female readers, or both?
- Will your blog slant to or away from any particular ethnicity (for example, a blog about African American hairstyles will probably not reach too many Asian readers)?
- How old do you think your target reader will be? (Don’t let your own age bias you on this one. Many bloggers think that since their topic is interesting to them, it will also be interesting to others in their age group. This is NOT ALWAYS TRUE.)
- What kind of language is your audience comfortable with? Should you use proper English, or mix in some slang? Do you follow the FCC’s public airwave guidelines, or should your language push the boundaries a bit. For many of your readers what you say will be as important as how you say it.
You could continue asking questions like these all day, so sit down and make your own list of tendencies and statistics that are important for your intended audience. For example, a blog about building new homes would probably be targeted to people with an annual income of $60,000 or more. Don’t forget to think about family structures (marital status, kids, etc..) and geographic location if these things are important to reaching your target audience.
After you have done an analysis of who you will be targeting your blog toward, the next step is to design the look, content, and feel of your blog around the demographic you are targeting.
Next Tip - Creating a Look, A Feel, and All Important Content.
Once you have selected a platform that seems to be right for your blog, you will need to decide how you are going to host it.
There are two different ways to get your blog on the Internet. Some of the major blogging platforms offer you’re a free hosting option to get your blog online. These free accounts are somewhat limited in the amount of traffic they can handle before you are pressured to purchase one of their paid hosting accounts. If you use a free blogging platform your URL would look something like http://thorschrock.wordpress.com.
The second option is to sign on with a hosting company (like Schrock Innovations) and pay a monthly fee to host your blog from the beginning. This is a more expensive way to start your blog, but will save you from a search engine suicide later on if you attempt to move your established blog from a free hosting service to a paid one. For example, if you try to move an established blog from a WordPress subdomain (http://thorschrock.wordpress.com) to a regular hosted URL (http://thorschrock.com) all of the URLs to your posts in search engines like Google will become broken and will take a while to get sorted out.
When you are deciding which hosting option is right for you, keep your eventual goal in mind. If you are interested in eventually monetizing your blog (making money from it) you will want to make a decision for the long term. It is important that your URL does not change in order to maximize your visibility in search engines.
On the other hand, if your goal is to grow a daily readership and continually provide great content for them on a daily basis, chances are your readers will follow you to a new URL when the time comes to leave the free hosting services.
Once you have selected which CMS you are going to use for your blog, the next step in the process is to brand your blog. Branding your blog involves deciding what the primary focus of your blog will be, what color schemes it will use, and if you are going to implement any custom logos or graphics to help readers identify you and your blog as you travel the blogosphere. Come back tomorrow morning to learn some must-do blog branding tips.
Next Tip - Identifying Your Target Reader
Before you begin about anything else, you need to determine what content management system (CMS) you are going to use for your blog.
In the interests of full disclosure, I will openly admit that I am partial to the WordPress platform, and would recommend it both for new bloggers as well as veterans. WordPress is free, versatile, and has a great integrated SPAM control that does not require one of those annoying captchas.
However, the package you select for your blog should be chosen to meet your individual requirements. emoms.com has an awesome chart that shows all of the different major blogging platforms, their features, and options.
The primary reason I chose WordPress was because it was very easy to set up and deploy, it offers a greater degree of customization than many other CMS platforms, and there are TONS of great plug-ins available that allow you to modify the way the blog functions without slaving away over a ton of code.
Before you decide which CMS system is right for you, spend some time looking into the different platforms and reading what others have to say about them.
Next tip - Where to Host Your New Blog
On Tuesday I will be speaking at the Nebraska Chapter of the People Making Money Online meetup in Omaha, NE about how to promote and monetize your blog. (At this moment there are seven seats left if you would like to attend)
While my seminar will be focused on promoting and monetizing a blog, there are a lot of things that go into creating a successful blog in the first place. To promote my seminar, as well as fill in the blanks for those who may not yet have a blog, I will be releasing 24 posts in 24 hours on how to create, design, target, populate, and monetize a blog.
While there is no precise formula for success in blogging, the steps outlined in these 24 posts will greatly increase the probability of success for your blog.
The first post will be available at midnight tonight, and a new post will follow every hour, on the hour until Midnight Tuesday. Questions are welcome and will be answered promptly!
This is a 13-post series of all of the 'Get a Mac' commercials that have been released by Apple. Two new commercials will be posted each day at 12 noon.
Sales Pitch
In this commercial, PC gives a sales pitch to encourage viewers to buy him instead of Mac.
Restarting
In this commercial, PC continually locks up and needs to be restarted while Mac goes to get the IT department to help.
Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the commercials Networking' and 'Meant for Work'.
Schrock Innovations has a new Compute This show posted on the company website's radio page this afternoon.
This is the last of the pre-recorded shows - I promise! This Saturday my wife and I had a party to celebrate the finalization of our son's adoption, so I could not be there on Saturday afternoon live. Finalization is the last step in the adoption process. After your adopted child has lived with you for 6 months, a judge meets with you, addresses any concerns, and then makes the adoption irrevocable if he believes it is in the best interests of the child. We are happy to announce that Jacob Kent Schrock is now our son forever, and we could not be any more proud!
On this week's program we talked about the sexy new Ms. Dewey Microsoft Search novelty that is good for a giggle, but not very useful for finding information on the Internet.
We also talked about the unique way Schrock Innovations designs and builds websites for its customers. With Schrock, you know exactly what your website will look like before it is created. No more expensive redesigns!
Next week we will be taking your calls live again, so be sure you have your questions ready! You can hear the show live on the Schrock website, or you cal listn in Lincoln, NE and surrounding communities on KFOR 1240 AM Saturday from 10-11 AM. Call in locally at 489-1240, or nation-wide at 1-800-talk-UNL.
This is a 13-post series of all of the 'Get a Mac' commercials that have been released by Apple. Two new commercials will be posted each day at 12 noon.
Touche
In this commercial, Mac tells PC that he can run Windows too. PC isn't sure what to say, and Mac gives him a grammar lesson on his response.
Self Pity
In this commercial, PC is dismayed that Mac can be used in the business world.
Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the commercials 'Sales Pitch' and 'Restarting'.
Microsoft is advancing a whole new search interface with the release of their sexy Ms. Dewey system, featuring B-rate film actress, Janina Gavankar.
This new search concept is an interactive approach to search. When you type in a search query the search results are preempted with a bit of interactive video where Ms. Dewey comments on the merit of your search.
While the interactive component (which could use some work on its transitions) is interesting, the search results (pulled from Microsoft's Live Search engine) that are displayed are so far off the relevancy wagon that they are pretty much useless.
For example, if you do a search for the term rap in Ms. Dewey, there is a 1 in 3 chance that she will unleash a *beep* filled tirade that is somewhat comical, but if you were really there to see the search results, you would be disappointed with what Live Search found after the fun is over.
This is another component in the growing trend to sex-up search engines and online advertising. Even Google, who avoids anything pornographic in their AdSense and AdWords programs like the plague, is now accepting and displaying more "revealing" advertisements than ever before.
I don't really see this search model going anywhere in its current form. But with some additional work on the interactivity, better search results, and a more user-friendly search interface, it could have possibilities down the line.
If you are talented with HTML and CSS, you could have a position with Nebraska's top voted independent computer repair company, Schrock Innovations. If you do not live in Nebraska, you could become a contractor for Schrock and help us handle our work overflow in peak demand times like NOW!
We have an immediate opening for a HTML/CSS developer to work with our talented development team. Knowledge of PHP and MySQL is helpful, but not required. We would prefer an individual who can physically work in our Omaha, NE Service Center, however our immediate need to hire has opened this position up to applicants willing to telecommute, and at times commute, as well.
Unlike other Internet development companies, work is never in short supply at Schrock Innovations. We always have a steady stream of paying customers for our development services from across the United States.
In addition, you would have the opportunity to work on cutting edge "home run" projects. We are currently developing an RSS Feed ranking system that could do a better job of ranking blogs than Technorati as well as an open and accountable traffic monitoring system that could replace Alexa as a standard for collecting accurate website traffic statistics on participating websites.
Other internal projects include desktop alert software, the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition, and a cutting-edge lesson development tool for a non-profit educational organization.
Some examples of our most recent HTML work include the John Spatz for Lincoln City Council website and the Lincoln Independent Business Association website.
You can apply for this position on the Schrock Innovations Employment Page.
This is a 13-post series of all of the 'Get a Mac' commercials that have been released by Apple. Two new commercials will be posted each day at 12 noon.
Viruses
In this commercial, PC catches the latest virus and eventually crashes as Mac looks on and tends after his sick friend.
Trust Mac
In this commercial, PC wears a disguise to protect himself from spyware and viruses. Ever so generous, PC offers his backup disguise to Mac, who refuses it because he doesn't need it.
Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the commercials 'Touche' and 'Self Pity'.
This month marks the one year anniversary of the launch of the Thor Schrock Technology Blog. In the past 12 months we have progressed from a few page views each day to more than 1000 unique daily readers (now if I could just get them all to install the Alexa Toolbar).
I work hard to bring a wide variety of content to my readers every day. This takes a lot of effort, but is totally worth it when my readers comment on the posts that I write.
To thank all of you for a great year of growth I have decided to loosen the reigns a bit by installing the dofollow and top commentators plugins. This means that when you comment on an item and include a URL with your name, that URL will now be counted by Google as a backlink.
In addition, I am including a SITE WIDE top commentators box in my sidebar that will reward my site's top 10 commentators by giving them a free backlink as well.
Obviously, this can be an invitation for spammers, so I have also installed some counter measures to prevent the most egregious spammers. If I think you are comment stuffing, I will pull your comments, so please respect the opportunity and play by the rules.
I appreciate all of your comments (yes, even you 'Listener') and I am looking forward to another year of great progress to come.
I am not exactly certain why, but this year-old spyware infection seems to be resurfacing lately. More than 10,000 unique visitors have hit our remove BraveSentry tutorial on the Schrock website this month alone.
This infection is a member of the SmitFraud family. There are a number of other infections bearing wonderful names like SpySheriff, SpyTrooper, AlfaCleaner, SpyFalcon, TrustCleaner, SpyHeal, VirusBurst, SpywareQuake, SpywareStrike, and countless other variants.
If you get a message on your PC from software that you did not install telling you that you need to pay money to remove an infection from your computer, you are probably infected with one of the SmitFraud variants.
Whatever you do, do not pay them any money. Instead use the free removal tutorials listed above, or seek the assistance of a Computer Repair Center.
Last week a commentator asked if I could post all of the "Get a Mac" ads on my blog at one time. After looking into it, I found that Apple has released 26 of these commercials. I was also surprised to find that I had not seen some of them on any of my local television of cable channels. While it could have been a coincidence, it is also possible that certain commercials only rand in particular markets.
Posting all 26 videos at once would make for one massive post, so instead I will be posting them two at a time every day at 12:00 for 13 days. This way you can watch them over your lunch hour at work and not get into any trouble at my expense :-)
Without further ado, here are the first two commercials in no particular order.
Wall Street Journal
In this commercial, PC takes Mac's Wall Street Journal and reads a glowing independent review of mac by a technology expert. Embarrassed, PC makes up a fake review and says that makes them even.
Work
In this commercial, Mac tells PC that he is better at fun things than PC is. PC disagrees and attepts to explain the family vacation using a pie chart.
Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the commercials 'Viruses' and 'Trust Mac'.
Garry Conn reported on his blog this morning that domain cybersquatters are reserving the names of the people killed in the Virginia Tech shooting incident, as well as the names of their family members. The squatters then plaster ads all over the pages and offer to sell them back to the family members at exhorbanent prices.
According to Conn, Joseph Parker of Christiansburg, Virginia reserved the name of the Virginia Tech gunman, Cho Seung-Hui. Upon further investigation it appears that the domain names of many of the victims have also been reserved. The owner(s) of those pages are attempting to make money with advertisements on the sites. In addition they are attempting to sell some of the sites to anyone who is interested.
This is a developing story, so check back to Conn's website for breaking news on it. He is currently assembling a list of the victims names who have had their online identities stolen. It is sick and disgusting that someone would do this after a tragedy of this magnitude, and anyone who is caught doing it should be flamed all over the web for doing so.
I frequently get requests from bloggers to be added to my blog roll in the sidebar of this blog. Most are just out to benefit from my high (relatively) Technorati rating, while others are genuinely worthy of a link because of the awesome content and information they generate.
You might have noticed that I have added a new member to my blog roll, Garry Conn. Garry’s blog is a treasure trove of information for anyone who wants to find new and unique ways to promote their blog online, find new readers, and eventually make some money in the process.
One of the things I like most about Garry is that many of his posts show how everyday people can take everyday things and combine them together to form unique and interesting ideas. When it comes to making money online, so many people get caught up in reinventing the wheel that they lose sight of their readers – the real bread and butter of any blog.
In fact, you never know what you are going to find when you read his blog. He recently made a BOLD decision to replace the standard blog post interface with a tag cloud. For a blog with as much readership as his has, this is a huge risk. But Gary is known to shake things up from time to time.
For example, the header of his blog is an eclectic mix of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 components that would make anyone who is firmly rooted in either world shudder. But the mix suits Garry’s readers, and that is what matters to him. People can easily find content-rich information that suits their needs and answers questions that are simply not answered elsewhere.
Recently Garry tackled the many questions surrounding Alexa and how they rank web site traffic. He explained the Alexa system and pointed out the highlights (and lowlights) of what has become almost a standard way of ranking blogs on the Internet. He sure moved me to install the Alexa toolbar!
I find myself reading his blog daily because his mind works a lot like mine does. He is a creative marketer – which is the best kind in my opinion. Rather than looking at the tried and true established methods of promotion, Garry adds his own special twist to get even more bang for his online buck.
Perhaps best of all, is that Garry shares the wealth. He offers link exchanges, Technorati favorites exchanges, and reciprocal Alexa website reviews to anyone who is interested. For a beginning blogger, it is DEFINITELY in your best interests to look at the free promotion tools that Garry has to offer.
The next time you have a moment; check out Garry Conn’s blog. If you are anything like me, it will rapidly make its way to your morning reading list.
My Google Toolbar has become a much appreciated accessory in my browser window. In fact, I can't remember the last time I visited the Google website to conduct a search - I just run them through the toolbar.
But both my wife (3.8 GHz XP Home 1 GB RAM) and myself (1.6 GHz Dual Core, Vista Ultimate, 2 GB RAM, 512 ReadyBoost) have been noticing the toolbar has been really slow for the past couple days. We are both using the Internet Explorer version of the toolbar.
When I type a search into the toolbar and press enter, I have to wait up to 15 seconds for the search to execute. Sometimes I have to click 2 or three times on the "go" link to get a results page.
A new version of the toolbar was automatically downloaded to all users a few days ago, and I am suspicious there might be a glitch. Google suggests that the toolbar's PageRank feature might be the culprit, but I use that feature and do not want to disable it.
If you are having problems with the toolbar let me know so we can narrow the problem and post a response. If your toolbar seems slow too, please post your operating system and browser name (IE, FireFox, etc...)
I received word this afternoon that the location for the April 24th Meetup of the Nebraska People Making Money Online Group has been finalized. The meetup will be held in Omaha this month (Lincoln had it last month) at:
Turnpost Creative Group
17330 Wright Street Suite 200
Omaha, NE 68130
The meetup starts at 6:30, and a nice dinner (Lasagna, cheesebread, salad and brownies) will be served for $10.00. At the time of this post, there are still 10 spots left for people who wish to RSVP. For those who can't attend for some reason, I am exploring the possibility of taping the presentation and posting it on my blog after the event.
I will be speaking on creating, promoting and monetizing your blog. I will have some fresh research data to present that has not been published elsewhere, as well as some techniques I have perfected that will help you improve your Technorati ranking without getting banned.
If all of that is not enough to get you to RSVP, you should also know that I will be giving a free gift to everyone who attends that exceeds the $10 cost of the dinner. So what do you have to lose? If you are a blogger or a webmaster thinking of launching a blog and you want to learn how to get more readers and make more money, this is the place to be!
I came across a post today on Gary Conn's blog about a web page he designed to make some money on the Internet using Google's AdSense program. After reading the post, a not-so profound thought came to me that I figured would make a good blog post for wanna-be online .com moguls out there.
People who want to make money online often look into complex schemes or modifications of popular ideas that are already making money online because it is difficult to create a million dollar baby from scratch. Sometimes a fresh look at an old idea or combining two current simple ideas in a way that no one has thought of is all that is needed to earn a modest online income.
Gary created a web page that took an existing flash version of the 1980's arcade hit Donkey Kong and combined it with an original picture of a Donkey Kong arcade machine. The result was a unique page that looked like you were playing the original arcade game, console and all, directly from your computer's screen. He monetized the page with Google AdSense and made a few bucks off the deal.
The point here is that if you have the creativity to see beyond the systems that are in place and their current applications, you can find a money-making niche online. You don't have to design the next eBay or found the next youTube (although if you are doing that, please cut me in).
I can honestly say that most of the money I make online is generated by taking established ideas and systems and applying them to my interests in a unique way. I am not a .com millionaire or anything, but I did manage to earn about the same income a college graduate would expect to earn in a year - all from online efforts.
I do have a couple large projects in the hopper, but they are not the juice that keeps me rolling day in and day out. Just like in baseball, you need a few base hits, maybe even a double here and there, to make a home run REALLY count. In fact, if you focus on the base hits and execute properly, you may never even need to have the home run.
Keep it simple when you are making money online, and you will find that suddenly you have the resources to do bigger things and do them right.
The latest Apple commercial depicting the "cool" apple guy and the nerdy PC guy makes fun of the crapware that comes preinstalled on most computers that you buy at the box stores.
Today's Compute This radio show has been posted on the Schrock Innovations Compute This page.
This week's show was filled with some great information, a cool sale and even some barbs shot out to "Listener" if you listen closely.
today we launched the first PC Maintenance Checkup sale of the year to the general public (thanks by the way to those of you who took advantage of our early bird offer). This week only you can get a PC Maintenance Checkup performed on your computer for only $9.99. You have to bring your computer into the shop to get the special, and note that this is the PC Maintenance Checkup service and not the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition.
We also talked about some Internet myths that have been recently busted like the 1954 Popular Mechanics "computer of 2004" photo. If you have any other computer myths that may have fooled you that ended up not being true, post them in the comments. Everyone loves to hear about these because we have all fallen for some of them!
Marc Orchant reported on his ZDNet blog this morning that Warner Crocker has dubbed a new computer term for all of the unwanted garbage software that comes preinstalled on a new big-box computer - crapware.
While there is a distinction between useful software that comes preinstalled on new PCs and all of the trials, games, and other third-tier software packages, I can testify form experience about the garbage that Hewlett Packard crams onto a new computer's hard drive.
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to buy a $1700 new laptop from HP for only $300. They REALLY wanted us to look at carrying their notebooks instead of Acer, so I suspect that was the root of the discount. Wither way, I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
When I received my new HP Laptop, I opened the carton, unpacked it, installed the battery, plugged it in and turned it on. I spent the next three hours removing more than 3 GB of silly games and trial software products that I would never use. Some of the programs uninsulated easily, and others offered more of a challenge. The time and effort required to remove this software - most of which nobody would every buy anyway - is what earned these products the title of crapware.
When Schrock Innovations sells a new Modular PC we also install some baseline software that we think our customers will find useful. We are always mindful of the fine line between useful software and crapware, so we only install needed software like:
- A trial of Norton Antivirus or Norton Internet Security
- A trial of the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition
- The latest version of Sun Micro-systems' Java
- All Windows Updates
- The Google Toolbar
- A trial of Nero Burning ROM
One of the nice things about having a computer built locally is that you as the customer control what gets installed on your PC. If you don't want something installed, we don't waste our time installing it - or your time when you would have to uninstall it.
Sometimes it is difficult to invite a stranger into your home to repair your computer. I often tell new Schrock Innovations on-site technicians to make certain they pay attention to their surroundings and try to make the home owner feel comfortable with their visit.
For example, if the home owner is not wearing shoes inside, take your shoes off at the door. If the door was locked when you arrived, lock it again when you come back in from a trip to the vehicle. But it appears that one Best Buy Geek Squad technician was paying more attention to his surroundings that he should have been.
A civil lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday against Best Buy alleging that while Geek Squad technician Hao Kuo Chi was repairing the family's computer, he secretly recorded the daughter of his female customer as she showered.
When Chi arrived around 10 AM, he asked to use the restroom and left his phone behind. While the technician was fixing the family's computer, his cell phone video camera was recording Sarah Vasquez disrobing and showering in her own bathroom.
After exiting the shower, Vasquez noticed the blinking recording light on the phone. She enlisted the help of her tech-savvy little sister to remove the phone's memory chip and take it to the closest cellular phone store to see what was on it. Shocked and embarrassed, the girls called their mother who was still at the home with Chi, as he was finishing up his repairs.
At the conclusion of the repair, Chi went to the restroom to retrieve his phone and noticed the missing memory card. After he questioned the girls' mother about the missing card, he offered her a discount on her repair work if she would just give him the card back.
As Chi attempted to leave the home, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputies arrived and arrested him on the scene. He is charged with two counts of invasion of privacy and one count of child molestation. Best Buy learned of the incident from media reports and said they would cooperate fully with the investigation.
It is really too bad for Best Buy that they are going to get tarred and feathered because of one pervert. I can't even imagine the angst I would feel if I had hired this guy to come to my home for a computer repair the day before his arrest. While this behavior is probably not indicative of all or even some of Best Buy's technicians, Best Buy and the Geek Squad are going to take a public relations hit on this one.
I don't think this situation will slow the growth of the in-home computer repair business in the coming years, but it may cause some people to think twice about who they hire to work in their homes.
I personally interview every on-site technician that Schrock Innovations hires to do repair work in our customers' homes. If I don't feel that they are of sound moral character, I do not hire them. Granted, I could always judge a person wrong, but god willing, I won't hire a scumbag like this guy.
I received an email this morning from Symantec advising me that they are monitoring a rapidly growing Trojan virus threat on the Internet today. The Trojan.Peacomm virus has been featured on the Schrock Innovations Virus Alert Page for almost a month as a threat to be aware of. Learn how to protect yourself from this virus here.
It appears that starting yesterday there was a sudden and dramatic increase in the amount of spam email that was being sent to unsuspecting computer users. The emails have an attached .zip file that will clear through most email scanners because the .zip file itself is not a virus. However, once decompressed, the files within the .zip file contain the Peacomm virus.
If you receive an email - even from someone you trust - that contains a .zip file, think twice before opening it. Ask yourself if there is any reason this person would have sent me a compressed file out of the blue? If you do decide to open the .zip file, double check that your antivirus is up to date and working properly.
If you do not have antivirus, you can get six months of Norton Antivirus 2005 at no cost by installing the Google Pack. There is a button in the sidebar to the right that says "Get Essential Free Software with the Google Pack." Click the button and follow the directions to install the free software.
Note that the free Norton is only compatible with Windows XP and you must not have an expired copy of Norton on your computer already.
The blog of John Chow, a Technorati top 100 blogger mysteriously went offline yesterday. This is highly unusual for a man who makes his living by marketing on the Internet, and reportedly may be the result of an attack by the "Turkish Hacker" who defaced Shoemoney's blog a few months ago.
John Chow makes a name for himself by pushing the line between whitehat SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and blackhat SEO by finding ways to manipulate online systems to his financial advantage. He has at one time or another been banned by sites like Digg, Technorati (but was later reinstated) and others.
While his activities may skirt the boundaries of acceptability by some, the data he collects and distributes from his blog is an invaluable help to others who want to know how far they bend the rules before breaking them. So it would not be beyond the realm of possibility that Chow would take his own site down, blame it on the famous Turkish Hacker and then reap the whirlwind of backlinks from the blogosphere.
Time will tell whether he was actually attacked by a hacker, or if this is yet another Chow game of Internet chess.
From time to time I get an email or a comment on this blog asking to confirm if an Internet myth is true. In fact, a couple weeks ago I received a MySpace bulletin that said if you lock your keys in your car, and you have remote access that you can call your wife and have her hold her remote up to the phone and press the unlock button while you hold your phone up to the car.
Obviously that does not work, but it was plausible enough to get pushed around the Internet from inbox to inbox for years now.
There is another Internet myth that some of you may have heard of. reportedly there was a Popular Mechanics article in 1954 that portrayed what a home computer would look like in 2004. The picture, show below, was complete with a steering wheel, a black and white television, and a wall-full of bells and whistles.
This image has been floating around the Internet for years now, and it is actually a hoax. The image was originally taken from the Smithsonian Cold War Submarine Exhibit and was manipulated to add home computer elements. The altered image was obviously never published in Popular Mechanics.
If you have forwarded that image to someone and believed it was real, you have been taken by an Internet myth. This one is probably not explosive enough to make it onto the Myth Busters TV program, but some Photoshop guru somewhere has been chuckling for years over this little prank.