Jack's Blog

HubPages, early days, goes into closed beta

2006-08-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

HubPages sent me an invitation to participate in their closed beta
testing. The site is only open to members as they get some user testing
done and build a platform of hubs before opening the portals to the
public. I joined and built a couple of HubPages. I can't offer a link
to my HubPages, as they are not public yet. The site offers a "get on
the list" message and form at their temporary home page.

Email me for an invite to the beta so you can see some hubs and/or
create your own.

It's inevitable for me to compare HubPages with Squidoo since I've
played with Squidoo for a while and have some experience. In simple
terms they are both sites that allow members to build single pages
about a topic. The goal is to create good pages, develop traffic and
credibility and eventually be an acknowledged reference source on the
web, leading to ad revenues and more traffic. They feature different
looks for their pages. Maybe because I'm used to it, but Squidoo' s
pages seem a little more reader friendly, however HubPages uses its
screen real estate a little better. The major draw for a page developer
at HubPages is that there seems to be a better revenue opportunity.
It's clear that Squidoo' s model is too parsimonious and involves
too much work to maintain even a small revenue chance. HubPages makes
it easy to feature affiliate links.

PC Recommendations, a new Squidoo lens

2006-07-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Heath and others at Squidoo are often exhorting lensmasters to make specific recommendations to make the lens more useful and effective. I’ve been attempting to do that and decided to go the whole way and make some lenses that are just about recommendations.

My first is at www.Squidoo.com/pcrecommendations/

Since I’m a computer consultant it’s natural that I have good experiences (as well as bad) and some favorite products and services. In the PC Recommendations lens, I’ve started with PC memory and some end user utilities like spam control. I’ve described my experience and/or impression of the product and provided a link. Some are affiliate links, so I’m especially hopeful for them. Interesting that one of my recommendations is for Crucial Technologies, a major memory chip company with a huge on-line presence. They seem to show up on the lens as an advertiser all the time, so they are getting lots of value from my lens!

Will WordPress do it for me?

2006-05-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

I've been using blogger (blogspot) for a few blogs. Pros (free, adsence, can do template customization) Cons (They have no categories?!)

WordPress has categories, so I'm trying out the free version . Pros(free, categories, ?) Cons (no customization, ?)

Probably will want to move to the hosted version. Pros (customization, controls, ad revenue possibilites)

I'll try to blend all my blogging and interests such as: IT, software, security, books, OTR, HOA, Arizona, Hiking, ? Let the test begin!
Mr Mystery » Blog Archive » Will WordPress do it for me?

2006-05-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

Saw a reference to reddit on the Squidoo forum. Seems to be a commentary site. Listed Quirky Detective and a number of squidoo lenses: retire in Arizona, Texas hold'em, I love a mystery, ee Hibbard, otr.

www.reddit.com

Registered for Furl, now I have to figure out why?

2006-05-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

A fellow Squidoo lensmaster told me of the networking connections she is making. One was FURL. So I just registered. Looks like it's a bookmarking tool/site. They collect the URLs that people FURL. And you can search. I'm guesssing the value is to see if you are being looked at by FURL users? Of course, maybe FURL is a good book marking tool also?

LookSmart's Furl - Your Personal Web File at www.furl.net

Do you squidoo?

2006-04-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted here in a long while! Haven't been bloggin much either. I'm back at it, prompted by Squidoo. Essentially a lens is a single page reference sheet on a topic. Created a few lenses. One is I Love A Mystery This prompted me to create a related blog called The Quirky Detective.

Created a couple of other lenses just to see where they would lead me.

Retire in Arizona

Texas Hold'em

Opening blog links in a new window

2005-07-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

One of the annoying aspects of adding a link to your blog is that when the link is clicked, the new page opens up in the current window, replacing your blog. Hard enough to get a visitor, you don't want to loose them if they click one of the links you provide!

Judy helped me figure it out. You need to be able to get at the html code for your template, or message post where the link is placed. Near the beginning of the link code you will find "...a href...".

Insert the following between a and href:

target="_blank"

The beginning of the code will now look like this:

a target="_blank" href...

Let me know if this works for you?

Copyright

2005-06-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

Saw the copyright symbol somewhere, so that became the next challenge. Add the following line at an appropriate place in your template, or a settings place that allows HTML code:

This character &
followed by copy with no space produces ©, as in © 2005 Jack Stankevicz, all rights reserved. (You can use your name if your prefer).

Got it the old fashioned way, searching in Help. Here's the link to this and more suggestions:

Blogger Help : How do I post a book?: "©"

Yahoo 360

2005-06-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

Yahoo's blog offering is Yahoo 360 which is in Beta test, invitation only. So I asked to be on the list, and three days later got the invite. This seems more like a portal page/scrap book with a blog attached. Not sure what to make of it yet.

Jack's Space at MSN Spaces

2005-06-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me (the old fashioned way, by fax) a WSJ article about blogging. The author had done some simple tests and reviewed the blogging process as offered by Google, MSN and Yahoo. Hmmm, so I zipped over to MSN and set up a blog of my own to see what it was like.

Jack's Space

First take is that MSN is pretty neat for the average user - easy to setup, easy to add links and stuff, easy to add photos. Blogger is simple to start but not for the faint hearted if you want to fiddle with the template. That however is an attraction since you can get at the HTML in blogger, but apparently not in MSN.

Next I guess I'll have to do Yahoo. So, I've Google Bloggered me a business (sort of) blog. I've MSN Spaced me a hobby (sort of) blog. What will I do on Yahoo? If anybody ever reads one of these by accident, they may get caught up like Charlie on the MTA in the Kingston Trio song:

" ...Well, did he ever return? No, he never returned and his fate is still unknown. (What a pity! Poor ole Charlie. Shame and scandal. He may ride forever. Just like Paul Revere.)
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston. He's the man who never returned..."

Wonder if there is a Blog Management system for idiots like me who create too many of them . . .

Yahoo has found me, Google hasn't

2005-06-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

Received my first hit from a search in Yahoo. Somebody looking for ways to handle large Email file attachments, searched in Yahoo and checked out one of my blogs (Software I Like). The first hit is pretty exciting. Google hasn't spidered my blogs yet, and I don't know why? Oh well, that's why I'm doing this - to learn about blogs and the blogging process.

No reader comments yet, but at least I have the satisfaction of having been read by one stranger looking for information.

Added "Who Links To Me"

2005-06-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

Added it just to this Blog until I figure out if it has value on the others. Of course, there are no links to this blog!

I'm trying to avoid making to many changes/experiments with the focus blogs, since if it's useful I'll want to add to all three (+) and that's a lot of work. I'll use this blog as the scratch pad, and hope I don't screw it up too badly. Many of these blog tools/add-ons require code to be entered into the template. Since I'm just feeling my way there, it's easy to mess things up!

Who Links To Me - for the ultimate narcissist in you

Added Blogmap

2005-06-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

Look for the map at the right. Seems to connect me with other bloggers in my area that also have Blogmap. Am now checking my neighbors out . . .

feedmap .net (BETA) : Where Blogs Meet Maps

Blog search engines

2005-06-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

Found this site offering a list of blog search engines, so I'll try getting listed and see if that generates traffic.

Ari Paparo Dot Com: Big List of Blog Search Engines

Did a couple, but it takes time, and I'm not sure of the effectiveness, or effect. E.g. I had to link to Blogarama to get listed. Will take this one at a time!

Added my blogs to (I'll update this list if/as I try more engines):
2RSS(Security, HOA, Software) (Don't understand RSS yet?!) 6/9/05
Blogarama (Security) 6/9/05
Blogwaise (HOA, Security, S/W I Like) 6/10/05

Learning and adjusting

2005-06-06T06:23:00.000-07:00

Since this is new to me, there's lots to learn! Tweaked a number of settings, added email notification, etc. Made some template adjustments to add cross links to each of my pages. Template adjustments are tedious, since if i get an idea, I have to copy code to each template. Makes you wish for a personal global template that you could apply to your pages.

Also added the StatCounter counter to each of my pages. Now if I ever get traffic, I can analyze it.

Added three new blog pages

2005-06-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I've created three new blog pages - one on software I like, and one on Spyware, and one for Homeowner's Associations. The first two allow us to demonstrate some expertise, and the third is a vertical market for us. We also have a great deal of experience with Law firms, I'll probably do one for legal. Since the idea is to regularly add to these, I'd better not let the list get toooo big!

The theory is that if I create fresh (and hopefully useful) copy on a regular basis this will help to market my business. As I understand it, the search engine spiders crawl through these blogs and index material if the blogs are active. By having my business referenced, and linked, I may improve traffic to the web site. People searching on topics I write about may have a chance to find me. Who knows?

Can Blogging bring me new business?

2005-06-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

I've read enough articles about blogging, and the use of the blog to market business services that I'm giving it a try. My business is management consulting, with a specialization in Information Technology. As a management consultant, I've had all kinds of assignments so it's hard to narrow the focus. My strengths as trouble shooter and problem solver probably are the most valuable.

My business, SAI Consulting, focuses on the implementation and support of information technology for the smaller organizations. In effect, we act as their IT Manager, and as their IT Department. Our web site is at http://www.saiaz.net/. We have contented clients from New York City to Phoenix (where I live and play).

Throughout my professional life, new opportunities have generally come from referrals. Of course I've used various promotion techniques, but the new clients and projects have mostly come from word-of-mouth. So I'm beginning this grand experiment to teach myself blogging (consultants have to learn somewhere!), try a little Internet promotion, and see what happens.

Any comments, ideas or suggestions would be welcome, and happily reciprocated if possible. jes