Home » Archives for March 2008
Synchronize Outlook Email, Calendar, Contacts With Gmail
MailShadowG is an application that will allow you to sync Outlook with Gmail. MailShadowG is a product of Cemaphore Systems, a California based company, promising to eliminate the exchange server related costs and sync web based email products like Gmail with Outlook.
MailshadowG released today as a beta service for companies. The best part of the service as it claims, syncing email, calendars, and contacts between outlook and gmail. The syncing is done two way, from outlook to gmail and gmail to outlook.
With MailShadowG, you can synchronize Microsoft Outlook with a trusted Internet email provider like Google, by mapping the repository that exists in Exchange (for email, calendaring and contacts) to these backend systems.
By using a Google as your data repository, you can eliminate the need for expensive infrastructure, hardware, & co-location facilities.
What’s more, MailShadowG can enable any external email service providers to act as a Microsoft Exchange server. No other solution on the market can effectively connect a backend email service provider directly to the enterprise and maintain a bi-directional synchronization of your email, contacts and calendars.
Zemanta: Content Suggestion Engine for Blogging
Zementa is a content suggestion engine for bloggers launched yesterday. It suggets relevant links, pictures, related content while you are writing a post.
Zementa launched in Alpha currently supports, Wordpress, Blogger and Typepad platforms. You can install the Firefox Add-on to see how it works. Once installed it will show a small icon in the URL bar, when it finds the supported platform the icon turns bright. If you use wordpress you will see a new tab beside your write panel, when you start writing your post it will find relevant links, photos and articles. You can add the content you are interested in your posts.
Zementa looks at your content and refresh recommendations for every 300 characters you write. Currently it works best with English language blogs only, but it may work with other languages if it finds some buzzwords.
Zementa gets related articles from pre-indexed data 300 top media sources and its own user blogs. The images are suggested from Wikimedia commons, Flickr, Shutterstock anf Fotolia. They will include only content that is free to use or is licensed under creative commons, so that you won’t get sued for using copyrighted material.
In the near future they may also add a feature to link to your own content, that would be awesome.
WebChutney and Their Viral Marketing
Well these guys are onto WEB2.0 for sure and here is some more stuff on Webchutney's viral marketing for Airtel and its on youtube. Most Interestingly it has got more than 13000 views now they are certainly making themselves visible on the net
Read more…
Mobile activity by country
Mobile activity by country US EU FR DE IT ES UK
Watched video 4.2% 5.1% 5.0% 2.5% 6.0% 7.7% 5.1%
Listened to music 5.7% 15.8% 12.9% 15.0% 13.3% 20.0% 18.9%
Accessed news/info 12.6% 9.1% 9.2% 5.2% 7.6% 7.5% 15.5%
via browser
Received SMS ads 20.6% 53.3% 64.8% 34.3% 59.4% 72.4% 42.2%
Played downloaded game 9.1% 8.7% 4.0% 7.6% 8.7% 13.0% 11.0%
Accessed downloaded 4.2% 2.6% 1.3% 2.2% 4.0% 2.5% 3.3%
application
Sent/received photos or videos 20.5% 27.5% 24.3% 21.7% 31.3% 31.7% 29.7%
Purchased ringtones 9.7% 4.3% 4.3% 4.2% 4.6% 4.6% 3.7%
Used email 11.6% 8.3% 6.7% 6.9% 10.2% 9.0% 9.1%
Accessed social networking 3.6% 2.2% 1.7% 1.4% 1.9% 2.4% 3.6%
sites
Wall 2.0: Should some things be left offline?
The scrapbooking/archiving site Footnote.com and the National Archives have joined forces to put together an online, interactive version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, widely known simply as the Wall, AP says.
Every name etched onto the real-world wall is viewable online and linked to the veteran’s service record. Online visitors can add photos and describe their memories of the servicemen and women who died in the war.
Cool and all, but is it really a good thing? It’s the experience of being in the stillness of so many people confronted with the scale and blackness of the Wall, the very physicality of the thing, that makes it such a meaningful experience.
“The memorial is a historical document that obviously is very emotional,” Footnote.com Chief Executive Russ Wilding says. “We want the site to help people come together to remember the veterans who were lost.”
Sure, it’s an adjunct, not a replacement for actually going to the Wall. But I wonder if having the simulacrum, even knowing it’s not intended as any kind of replacement, somehow detracts from the power. Aren’t the names now just so much more data on the Web? Isn’t the Wall itself just one more cool website?
Source
Every name etched onto the real-world wall is viewable online and linked to the veteran’s service record. Online visitors can add photos and describe their memories of the servicemen and women who died in the war.
Cool and all, but is it really a good thing? It’s the experience of being in the stillness of so many people confronted with the scale and blackness of the Wall, the very physicality of the thing, that makes it such a meaningful experience.
“The memorial is a historical document that obviously is very emotional,” Footnote.com Chief Executive Russ Wilding says. “We want the site to help people come together to remember the veterans who were lost.”
Sure, it’s an adjunct, not a replacement for actually going to the Wall. But I wonder if having the simulacrum, even knowing it’s not intended as any kind of replacement, somehow detracts from the power. Aren’t the names now just so much more data on the Web? Isn’t the Wall itself just one more cool website?
Source
India to remain fastest growing IT services market in Asia Pacific
The IT services market in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) is poised to reach $55.9 billion by 2011, representing a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 per cent, with India as the fastest-growing IT services market in the region and China representing the largest regional opportunity.
According to Springboard Research, the IT services market in Asia Pacific, which stood at $37.5 billion in 2007 is slated to touch $55.9 billion in 2011.
Fastest growing
The report said that the Indian IT services market, with a CAGR of 18.6 per cent, would remain the fastest growing in the region, although as a region Greater China would offer the largest market opportunity in dollar terms at the end of the forecast period.
Ranking countries and individual IT services markets on the basis of growth opportunities, the report said that the top 10 countries in the region were China, India, Australia, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the rest of ASEAN, Singapore, and the Philippines.
“For India and China, local capabilities, offerings and presence are just the start of a list of essential requirements for success.
On the other hand, existing relationships, marquee clients and strong partnerships can provide capabilities for expansion in markets such as Hong Kong and New Zealand with relatively limited opportunities,” Mr Phil Hassey, Vice President - Services Research at Springboard Research, said.
While the Asia Pacific IT services market was arguably the global leader in terms of growth, supplemented with a mix of mature and emerging markets, the markets of interest were beyond the top four (China, India, Australia and Korea), and included emerging ones such as Indonesia and Vietnam, it said.
According to the report, application hosting — with a CAGR of 19.5 per cent between 2007 and 2011— would register the fastest growth during the forecast period, although enterprise application integration at $7.8 billion would continue to be the largest component of the market by 2011.
Enterprise outsourcing
While Enterprise IT outsourcing is the largest market in 2007, the reluctance of Chinese firms to use the Enterprise IT outsourcing model would reduce its relative size and weighting in the market by 2011.
The report predicts that challenges in accessing and retaining IT skills would accelerate the shift to external services providers, as enterprises will struggle to retain in-house key individuals and skill-sets.
More importantly, China would not challenge India as the home of offshore service delivery especially for English language requirements, as skill levels, quality and governance, are more suited to India being a hub of global delivery.
According to Springboard Research, the IT services market in Asia Pacific, which stood at $37.5 billion in 2007 is slated to touch $55.9 billion in 2011.
Fastest growing
The report said that the Indian IT services market, with a CAGR of 18.6 per cent, would remain the fastest growing in the region, although as a region Greater China would offer the largest market opportunity in dollar terms at the end of the forecast period.
Ranking countries and individual IT services markets on the basis of growth opportunities, the report said that the top 10 countries in the region were China, India, Australia, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the rest of ASEAN, Singapore, and the Philippines.
“For India and China, local capabilities, offerings and presence are just the start of a list of essential requirements for success.
On the other hand, existing relationships, marquee clients and strong partnerships can provide capabilities for expansion in markets such as Hong Kong and New Zealand with relatively limited opportunities,” Mr Phil Hassey, Vice President - Services Research at Springboard Research, said.
While the Asia Pacific IT services market was arguably the global leader in terms of growth, supplemented with a mix of mature and emerging markets, the markets of interest were beyond the top four (China, India, Australia and Korea), and included emerging ones such as Indonesia and Vietnam, it said.
According to the report, application hosting — with a CAGR of 19.5 per cent between 2007 and 2011— would register the fastest growth during the forecast period, although enterprise application integration at $7.8 billion would continue to be the largest component of the market by 2011.
Enterprise outsourcing
While Enterprise IT outsourcing is the largest market in 2007, the reluctance of Chinese firms to use the Enterprise IT outsourcing model would reduce its relative size and weighting in the market by 2011.
The report predicts that challenges in accessing and retaining IT skills would accelerate the shift to external services providers, as enterprises will struggle to retain in-house key individuals and skill-sets.
More importantly, China would not challenge India as the home of offshore service delivery especially for English language requirements, as skill levels, quality and governance, are more suited to India being a hub of global delivery.
Hyundai Motor signs bus contract in India
South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor said Monday it signed a five-year agreement to enter India’s rapidly-growing luxury bus market.
The deal was signed with auto parts maker Caparo India, part of the London-based Caparo Group. Hyundai Motor will provide parts and production technology for the Aero buses, while Caparo India will build a 1,500 units-a-year factory in Chennai, the Korean firm said in a statement.
The plant will begin production in early 2009, it said, adding the complete-knock-down (CKD) deal would help Hyundai cement its leading position in India.
Hyundai said India's luxury commercial vehicle market is expected to grow fast thanks to rapid economic development and rising demand for such transportation.
The company now has commercial vehicle CKD plants in China, Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Iran.
Separately, Hyundai said it would sell a revamped version of its Elantra compact car in China under a Chinese-language brand name from next month.
The new name combines two characters that produce the sound "weidong," which means enjoyment and dynamism in driving.
Hyundai officials said the revamped Elantra, which is available with either a 1.6-litre or a 1.8-litre engine, will target young urban customers.
Hyundai with its affiliate Kia Motors comprises the world’s sixth largest auto group and controls more than 70% of the domestic auto market.
The deal was signed with auto parts maker Caparo India, part of the London-based Caparo Group. Hyundai Motor will provide parts and production technology for the Aero buses, while Caparo India will build a 1,500 units-a-year factory in Chennai, the Korean firm said in a statement.
The plant will begin production in early 2009, it said, adding the complete-knock-down (CKD) deal would help Hyundai cement its leading position in India.
Hyundai said India's luxury commercial vehicle market is expected to grow fast thanks to rapid economic development and rising demand for such transportation.
The company now has commercial vehicle CKD plants in China, Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Iran.
Separately, Hyundai said it would sell a revamped version of its Elantra compact car in China under a Chinese-language brand name from next month.
The new name combines two characters that produce the sound "weidong," which means enjoyment and dynamism in driving.
Hyundai officials said the revamped Elantra, which is available with either a 1.6-litre or a 1.8-litre engine, will target young urban customers.
Hyundai with its affiliate Kia Motors comprises the world’s sixth largest auto group and controls more than 70% of the domestic auto market.
India to become second largest wireless network in world
Continuing its growth momentum, the country is set to surpass US to become the second largest wireless network in the world with a subscriber base of over 300 million by April, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said on Monday.
“During the first half of April 2008, India’s wireless subscriber base that currently stands at 250.93 million will surpass that of the US to become the second wireless network in the world,” Trai said in a statement, adding that the country’s monthly wireless subscriber addition is highest in the world in the range of 8-9 million a month.
Currently, China is the world’s largest wireless network, adding around 6-7 million subscribers every month. This is far more than US, that has the current subscriber base of 256 million, which is adding about 2-3 million subscribers in a month, according to a US-based wireless operators association CTIA.
According to the figures released by Trai, with around 8.49 million telephone connections added in February as compared to 8.74 million in January, the country’s total number of telephone connections has now reached 290.11 million, as compared to 281.62 million in January. This has resulted in an overall tele-density of 25.31% at the end of February as against 24.63% in January. Moreover, the total subscriber base, including wireless and wire-line would also cross 300 million mark in April, it added.
In the wireless segment, 8.53 million subscribers have been added in the month of February as against 8.77 million subscribers added in January 2008, resulting in a total wireless subscriber (GSM, CDMA & WLL(F)) base of 250.93 million at the end of last month.
However, in the wire-line segment, the subscriber base has slightly decreased to 39.18 million in February as compared to 39.22 million in January. Total broadband subscribers base has reached 3.47 million by the end of February 2008 as compared to 3.24 million by the end of January 2008
“During the first half of April 2008, India’s wireless subscriber base that currently stands at 250.93 million will surpass that of the US to become the second wireless network in the world,” Trai said in a statement, adding that the country’s monthly wireless subscriber addition is highest in the world in the range of 8-9 million a month.
Currently, China is the world’s largest wireless network, adding around 6-7 million subscribers every month. This is far more than US, that has the current subscriber base of 256 million, which is adding about 2-3 million subscribers in a month, according to a US-based wireless operators association CTIA.
According to the figures released by Trai, with around 8.49 million telephone connections added in February as compared to 8.74 million in January, the country’s total number of telephone connections has now reached 290.11 million, as compared to 281.62 million in January. This has resulted in an overall tele-density of 25.31% at the end of February as against 24.63% in January. Moreover, the total subscriber base, including wireless and wire-line would also cross 300 million mark in April, it added.
In the wireless segment, 8.53 million subscribers have been added in the month of February as against 8.77 million subscribers added in January 2008, resulting in a total wireless subscriber (GSM, CDMA & WLL(F)) base of 250.93 million at the end of last month.
However, in the wire-line segment, the subscriber base has slightly decreased to 39.18 million in February as compared to 39.22 million in January. Total broadband subscribers base has reached 3.47 million by the end of February 2008 as compared to 3.24 million by the end of January 2008
Internet Marketing List: 59 Things You Should Be Doing But Probably Aren't
Internet marketing is about lots of little things, not one big one. This list is half-list, half-procedure. If you go down these items in order it might give you a decent internet marketing plan for the next few months. If you have others, post ’em as comments:
- If you have a Flash introduction on your web site, delete it. If you don’t agree, try this: Shove your head into a bucket of water. Stay in there, not breathing, for 10 seconds longer than is comfortable. That’s what you’re doing to your customers. Delete it, please.
- Check the load speed of every page on your site. If any load in more than 10 seconds, fix it (2-6 seconds is far better). If your developer says they can’t, and it’s not your own network causing the problem, fire them. Here’s a good page load tester.
- Check your site for broken links. You can use a tool like Xenu. Fix those links. Do not pass this step until you’re done. If it takes your developer more than a week to do this step, again with the firing thing.
- Make sure you have a user-friendly 404 error page, not the generically nasty PAGE NOT FOUND message.
- Make sure you have a user-friendly 500 error page, too. A 500 error happens when some bit of database code you wrote late at night decides it’s had enough with this world, and takes your web site with it. That usually leads to something terribly informative like “500 Error Connection Timed Out”. Maybe you can do something better?
- Remove all inline javascript to a separate .js include file. That will speed up page load times and may help you with search rankings, too. Plus it appeals to code geeks like me, and we’re all that matter, right?
- Set up Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer and Live.com Webmaster Tools. You’ll see your site from the search engine’s viewpoint, what folks use to find you, and whether there are any problems that might be hurting you in the search engines.
- Set up an XML sitemap, too. Check out Sitemaps.org for an overview.
- If you’re running an e-commerce site, hire a really good writer to rewrite all your product descriptions. Those descriptions matter more than you think.
- Get analytics set up on your site. You can’t do internet marketing without it. Actually, you can, but you’ll suck at it. I recommend Google Analytics. If your developer says they can’t install anything, well, you know...
- In that analytics tool, make sure you can consistently track conversions: Sales, or leads, or whatever else you want folks to do when they see your site.
- Get a HackerSafe or ScanAlert logo on your site. While I question their value, the search engines don’t. Nor do customers. That sticker can get you more search engine ‘trustrank’ and improve conversion rates.
- Put your full address and phone number on each page of your site, for the same reasons.
- Use Wordtracker, Trellian Keyword Discovery or something similar to find the top keywords that folks use to find your products or services.
- Now find the top ranking sites for those phrases.
- Who links to them? Do a “link:” search on Google, or use linkdiagnosis.com or Yahoo! Site Explorer to build a list. Now go out and get those links!
- If two years ago some SEO hack advised you to put 100 links at the bottom of your home page, delete them. They’re not helping you, and they may be hurting you.
- If two years ago that same SEO hack advised you to write title tags that read like this - “Wedding stuff and wedding things and weddings stuffs and weddings things with more wedding items and this is your place for weddings” - delete those too and write something that doesn’t sound like Elmer Fudd suffering a mental breakdown.
- If you have the same keywords in your keywords tag on every page of your site, search your feelings... Do you really think the search engines are that stupid? Change ’em, or delete the tag altogether. The tag doesn't really help, and duplicating keywords across all pages can flag you as an SEO spammer.
- Write a high-quality meta description tag for each page of your site. That may not affect ranking but it’ll get more folks to click on your search listing.
- Make sure your site uses correct semantic markup. Your developer had better understand what that means. Don’t make me come over there...
- Get your site totally standards compliant according to the W3C code validator.
- At the same time, make sure your site isn’t hideously ugly.
- With those two items handled, you can now go to all the major XHTML and CSS site directories out there, which list lots of standards-compliant sites, and submit your own web site. If you get in, you get great links from great sites. Do not submit your site to any CSS or XHTML directories until you see a happy green report on the W3C validator. Doing so wastes your time, and the directory owners’. They’re liable to digitally tar and feather you.
- Comment on other folks’ blogs. That gets you attention from those bloggers. They may come look at your site, or just drop you a line, or they may do nothing for a while. But you’re building relationships you can use later.
- Do a press release a month. Chances are something cool happened. Did you hire someone new? Create a new product? Complete a new project? Win a prize? Brag!
- Get someone who can write to create that press release. Bragging doesn’t help if you sound like an idiot.
- Learn to use Google Reader. Subscribe to the top internet marketing blogs. Read them a lot. For a hint you can look at the AdAge 150 list.
- Go to Google blog search. Search for your own brand name. Then subscribe to that search result in Google Reader (you’ll find a little RSS link on the search results page). That gives you a quick look at what folks are saying about your company.
- Do the same thing for your own name.
- Then subscribe to who’s linking to you on Technorati, for the same reason.
- Go to local directories like Yelp! and make sure you’re listed. Hey, it’s a link, right? Plus it’ll give you one more place to manage your reputation.
- Be sure your company information is up to date in Google, Yahoo! and Live’s local search tools.
- If you’re a local business, ask your customers to review you on one of the local sites: Either on the search engines or on the other sites. This will boost your ranking in local search results. Beg, plead, bribe. It does require work on their part. And don’t worry if you get a few negative reviews, either.
- Start working on Yahoo! Answers. This is an opportunity to make yourself an expert, and get some links at the same time. Spend no more than an hour a week. Read Matt McGee’s excellent article on the subject to learn more.
- Invite people to subscribe to your house e-mail list. If you don’t have one, start one. This continues to be one of the most neglected facets of internet marketing.
- Make sure there’s an easy way for folks to sign up for that list.
- Remove any extra fields from your subscription form. All you need is their e-mail address.
- If you require registration during checkout, get rid of it.
- If you’re automatically opting folks in to your e-mail list, stop.
- When you receive customer requests via e-mail, answer them. Fast.
- Remember that house e-mail list I got you to start building? Starting sending out a quality offer to that list, once a month. See how it works. Keep testing different types of subject lines, creative, offers and such. Always strive to beat your last best performance.
- Now you’re ready for some real online marketing (yes, all this was a warm up). Create a landing page for the best offer you’ve got. Follow best practices. Read Marketing Sherpa’s Landing Page Handbook for the best information you’ll find.
- Create 2-3 headlines for that page.
- Write a few different versions of body text for the landing page.
- And finally use a couple of different images.
- Then use a multivariate testing tool like Google Website Optimizer (if the budget’s tight) or Widemile (if you want the best possible result) to test all those headlines, copy versions and images and find the best ‘recipe’.
- Create 2-3 pay-per-click ads on Google Adwords and/or Yahoo!. Point those ads at the landing page. Be sure to use whatever tagging mechanism your analytics software requires, so you’ll know which ad generates which clicks.
- Now start that test!
- Pick the 3 things you learned from that test, and apply them to the rest of your site. Did one call to action work best? Create a button to put everywhere on the site. One type of photography? Use that, too. You get the idea.
- Did conversion rates go up? Cool! Now make sure you’re earning a good return on those PPC ads. Increase your spend and broaden your campaign, always watching out for ROI.
- Now you can create landing pages for all those house e-mails you’re sending out. Since you already know which subjects work best, and which kinds of offers, you can start with a good foundation and find the best possible landing page.
- Borrow your neighbor’s DVCam. Put it on a tripod. Film yourself talking about one of your products, or explaining how to use one of them. Post it on YouTube and then embed it on your site. No, you’re not Scorcese. But it’s more exposure for you, in another venue.
- Are you still using Yahoo! Answers? I hope so. Don’t make me come over there AGAIN.
- Create a MySpace page for fans/hobbyists/enthusiasts/students of your product or service. Don’t brand the page that heavily. Focus on the type of product or service. Attract folks who want to know more. Then wow ‘em with your knowledge, and build a circle of friends. Now you can announce offers and such to them, too.
- Do the same thing on Facebook.
- Find any industry-specific social networks that are relevant to you. It’s easy: Go to Google and search for “&Lsquo;your product’ social network”. Bet you find some. If you do, join up.
- Take all the cool stuff you’ve learned by testing offers, and newsletters, and keywords, and ads, and landing pages, and revamp your site. Then announce your new, improved site to all your customers, and subscribers, and MySpace friends, etc..
- Whew! You’re done. Congrats! Now, go back to step 1, and repeat the process. Because you’re never ‘done’.
10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid
These days, we tend to communicate via the keyboard as much as we do verbally. Often, we're in a hurry, quickly dashing off e-mails with typos, grammatical shortcuts (I'm being kind here), and that breezy, e.e. cummings, no-caps look. It's expected. It's no big deal. But other times, we try to invest a little care, avoiding mistakes so that there's no confusion about what we're saying and so that we look professional and reasonably bright.
In general, we can slip up in a verbal conversation and get away with it. A colleague may be thinking, Did she just say "irregardless"?, but the words flow on, and our worst transgressions are carried away and with luck, forgotten.
That's not the case with written communications. When we commit a grammatical crime in e-mails, discussion posts, reports, memos, and other professional documents, there's no going back. We've just officially gone on record as being careless or clueless. And here's the worst thing. It's not necessary to be an editor or a language whiz or a spelling bee triathlete to spot such mistakes. They have a way of doing a little wiggle dance on the screen and then reaching out to grab the reader by the throat.
So here we are in the era of Word's red-underline "wrong spelling, dumb ass" feature and Outlook's Always Check Spelling Before Sending option, and still the mistakes proliferate. Catching typos is easy (although not everyone does it). It's the other stuff -- correctly spelled but incorrectly wielded -- that sneaks through and makes us look stupid. Here's a quick review of some of the big ones.
#1: Loose for lose
No: I always loose the product key.
Yes: I always lose the product key.
#2: It's for its (or god forbid, its')
No: Download the HTA, along with it's readme file.
Yes: Download the HTA, along with its readme file.
No: The laptop is overheating and its making that funny noise again.
Yes: The laptop is overheating and it's making that funny noise again.
#3: They're for their for there
No: The managers are in they're weekly planning meeting.
Yes: The managers are in their weekly planning meeting.
No: The techs have to check there cell phones at the door, and their not happy about it.
Yes: The techs have to check their cell phones at the door, and they're not happy about it.
#4: i.e. for e.g.
No: Use an anti-spyware program (i.e., Ad-Aware).
Yes: Use an anti-spyware program (e.g., Ad-Aware).
Note: The term i.e. means "that is"; e.g. means "for example." And a comma follows both of them.
#5: Effect for affect
No: The outage shouldn't effect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't affect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't have any effect on users.
Yes: We will effect several changes during the downtime.
Note: Impact is not a verb. Purists, at least, beg you to use affect instead:
No: The outage shouldn't impact any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't affect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage should have no impact on users during work hours.
#6: You're for your
No: Remember to defrag you're machine on a regular basis.
Yes: Remember to defrag your machine on a regular basis.
No: Your right about the changes.
Yes: You're right about the changes.
#7: Different than for different from
No: This setup is different than the one at the main office.
Yes: This setup is different from the one at the main office.
Yes: This setup is better than the one at the main office.
#8 Lay for lie
No: I got dizzy and had to lay down.
Yes: I got dizzy and had to lie down.
Yes: Just lay those books over there.
#9: Then for than
No: The accounting department had more problems then we did.
Yes: The accounting department had more problems than we did.
Note: Here's a sub-peeve. When a sentence construction begins with If, you don't need a then. Then is implicit, so it's superfluous and wordy:
No: If you can't get Windows to boot, then you'll need to call Ted.
Yes: If you can't get Windows to boot, you'll need to call Ted.
#10: Could of, would of for could have, would have
No: I could of installed that app by mistake.
Yes: I could have installed that app by mistake.
No: I would of sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town.
Yes: I would have sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town.
In general, we can slip up in a verbal conversation and get away with it. A colleague may be thinking, Did she just say "irregardless"?, but the words flow on, and our worst transgressions are carried away and with luck, forgotten.
That's not the case with written communications. When we commit a grammatical crime in e-mails, discussion posts, reports, memos, and other professional documents, there's no going back. We've just officially gone on record as being careless or clueless. And here's the worst thing. It's not necessary to be an editor or a language whiz or a spelling bee triathlete to spot such mistakes. They have a way of doing a little wiggle dance on the screen and then reaching out to grab the reader by the throat.
So here we are in the era of Word's red-underline "wrong spelling, dumb ass" feature and Outlook's Always Check Spelling Before Sending option, and still the mistakes proliferate. Catching typos is easy (although not everyone does it). It's the other stuff -- correctly spelled but incorrectly wielded -- that sneaks through and makes us look stupid. Here's a quick review of some of the big ones.
#1: Loose for lose
No: I always loose the product key.
Yes: I always lose the product key.
#2: It's for its (or god forbid, its')
No: Download the HTA, along with it's readme file.
Yes: Download the HTA, along with its readme file.
No: The laptop is overheating and its making that funny noise again.
Yes: The laptop is overheating and it's making that funny noise again.
#3: They're for their for there
No: The managers are in they're weekly planning meeting.
Yes: The managers are in their weekly planning meeting.
No: The techs have to check there cell phones at the door, and their not happy about it.
Yes: The techs have to check their cell phones at the door, and they're not happy about it.
#4: i.e. for e.g.
No: Use an anti-spyware program (i.e., Ad-Aware).
Yes: Use an anti-spyware program (e.g., Ad-Aware).
Note: The term i.e. means "that is"; e.g. means "for example." And a comma follows both of them.
#5: Effect for affect
No: The outage shouldn't effect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't affect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't have any effect on users.
Yes: We will effect several changes during the downtime.
Note: Impact is not a verb. Purists, at least, beg you to use affect instead:
No: The outage shouldn't impact any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't affect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage should have no impact on users during work hours.
#6: You're for your
No: Remember to defrag you're machine on a regular basis.
Yes: Remember to defrag your machine on a regular basis.
No: Your right about the changes.
Yes: You're right about the changes.
#7: Different than for different from
No: This setup is different than the one at the main office.
Yes: This setup is different from the one at the main office.
Yes: This setup is better than the one at the main office.
#8 Lay for lie
No: I got dizzy and had to lay down.
Yes: I got dizzy and had to lie down.
Yes: Just lay those books over there.
#9: Then for than
No: The accounting department had more problems then we did.
Yes: The accounting department had more problems than we did.
Note: Here's a sub-peeve. When a sentence construction begins with If, you don't need a then. Then is implicit, so it's superfluous and wordy:
No: If you can't get Windows to boot, then you'll need to call Ted.
Yes: If you can't get Windows to boot, you'll need to call Ted.
#10: Could of, would of for could have, would have
No: I could of installed that app by mistake.
Yes: I could have installed that app by mistake.
No: I would of sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town.
Yes: I would have sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town.
Top 20 websites in January 2008
Rank Website Market Share
1. www.google.com 5.37%
2. mail.yahoo.com 4.91%
3. www.myspace.com 4.49%
4. www.yahoo.com 3.86%
5. mail.live.com 2.29%
6. www.ebay.com 1.91%
7. search.yahoo.com 1.68%
8. www.msn.com 1.33%
9. www.facebook.com 0.93%
10. www.youtube.com 0.73%
11. images.google.com 0.52%
12. www.gmail.com 0.5%
13. search.msn.com 0.49%
14. www.wikipedia.org 0.47%
15. my.yahoo.com 0.4%
16. mail.aol.com 0.37%
17. www.ebaymotors.com 0.35%
18. www.pogo.com 0.35%
19. address.yahoo.com 0.34%
20. www.amazon.com 0.34%
Source: Hitwise
NetJets eyes India, names partner
With a fleet size of 750 aircraft worldwide, at least 3,90,000 annual flights across 170 countries, and a 20-year history, the US pioneer in fractional aircraft ownership, NetJets has its eyes set on the Indian market.
NetJets announced Ashish Chordia, CEO of Shreyans (luxury distribution company), as a strategic partner for India. It is likely to announce its first Indian customer shortly.
The Indian strategic partner will help NetJets build a sales relationship with high networth Indians and corporates.
“We have a base of at least 5000 high networth individuals on our radar and they are all our potential customers. We will also be looking at big corporates to push sales in India,” said Chordia.
NetJets, a unit of billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, is planning expansion in India after foraying into the middle-east market and establishing itself in Europe with 140-owned aircrafts. But its attempt to penetrate the China general aviation market failed recently.
“India is a new frontier for us. We are currently exploring the right ways to enter the market. There has been a 400 percent increase in the number of NetJets business flights to and from India in the last four years We are open to all opportunities we can find here. We have long-term plans and we have financial strength,” said John A.
Colucci, Executive Vice President, NetJets, US. As a business practice, NetJets invests a lot of money in the infrastructure of the country it is present in. The company will offer services to destinations in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
Though it has light cabin aircraft like Cessna and mid-sized jets like Gulfstream 4200 in its fleet, it is the large cabin aircraft like the Gulfstream and Boeing business jets that will be used for long-haul India flights by the company.
Fractional ownership as a concept is at a nascent stage in India and there are only a few players like Manav Singh (Club One Air) and the recently announced joint venture between Singapore start-up company BJets and Tatas. NetJets is an established player and has advantage on its side.
“We can offer fractional ownership of an aircraft even for 25 hours because we have the largest fleet size of private jets in the world and we can thus talk about economy of scales,” said Robert Dranitzke, Director, Marketing Communications, NetJets, Europe.
The company will bring the same offers in fractional ownership into India as it has done in Europe, US and Middle East: Fractional ownership price pro-rated from the market price for an entire aircraft, and then have a guaranteed access between 50-400 hours annually depending on the size of the aircraft and the essential fees to be paid. For an Indian, for 25 hours, it will roughly work out to be a crore a year.
Enjoy Xbox 360 Live
Xbox 360 now gives its fans the opportunity to communicate with each other live using the extra feature Xbox live. Become an Xbox live Member! In the Xbox 360 package is included that Xbox live members have the ability to chat with each other via the Xbox 360 headset. You can discuss any topics with your friends and family, using Xbox. Whether you are planning a game strategy with your team, or just chatting with a friend of yours, Xbox lets you chat for free. You can interact also with thousands of other Xbox players. All Xbox live members are included in the chat list. You can shop in Xbox LiveMarketplace. You can download additional game contents. You can watch preview videos. And many more!
If you decide to become one of us, Xbox live gives you the opportunity to choose what kind of membership you like to get.
1) Xbox Live silver is available to anyone with an Xbox 360 or Xbox 360 Core system console. You also need your hard drive or memory unit, and a broadband connection to become part of it all. Messages and downloads are only two extra features provided by Xbox live silver.
2) Another possible membership is Xbox Live gold, which gives you the chance to play multiplayer games online. It costs the same as your original Xbox live subscription.
Apart from the incredible Xbox live features mentioned above, Xbox 360 uses a new system for saving games and can give you player information unlike any other console before.
With Xbox 360 you can create a unique profile of every gamer, both of guests or family. You can create the display of the console in the colours you have chosen. Each player can have a different name and specific genre characteristics, also different dashboard theme and customized settings. You can also store your Xbox live account information and know all the features of a particular player you selected.
The other great thing about Xbox live , is memory. Game saves, although separate from profiles, have some things in common. After you create your specific profile, Xbox 360 saves all the games you have played and also the game levels you reached. When you sign into your personal account, you may re-play the level and improve your scores. Everything is in store for you, and no information is ever lost. The hard Drive, or memory Unit, has a great space potential.
As you may have already noticed, Xbox 360 is the miracle of all games. It offers great gaming experience. By becoming a member to Xbox live, you have the unique opportunity to share your experience with other gamers, and to get to know theirs. through sharing information, you will improve your gaming experience and acquire the full potential of Xbox 360 sooner.
CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 & Search Engines
As the web moves into its second generation, sites are making more use of CSS, AJAX and other advanced and interactive design techniques. But how are the largely Web 1.0 search engines reacting to these, from an SEO perspective. This session explores issues and solutions.
Moderator:• Jon Myers, Head of Search, MediaVestSpeakers:• Jonathan Ashton, VP of SEO & Web Analytics, Agency.com• Ben D'Angelo, Software Engineer, Google• Chris Humber, Director of SEO, 360i
Jonathan Ashton
I would like to talk about the issues of standards in web development, and ultimately presenting the right experience to all web users.
You guys remember when Flash came and brought the whole idea of life into the static environments of the web. Ren and Stimpy was one of the first automated cartoons built in Flash. When Flash emerged, it was something that gave us an added layer to bill our clients extra for! But today, we have so many amazing tools that now our clients are paying us for our ability to measure proper use of these elements.
Usability standards for optimizing in web 2.0:
AOL still has 9 million + users on dial up! You have to realize that if you are going to be a good internet citizen, you cannot leave these people behind! Now, 35% of people use Firefox to explore the web without JavaScript! If your intention is to reach every human, you will also reach every search engine bot!
If a person who is blind visits a web page, they can’t tell a picture of a horse unless it has an alt tag. So by taking yourself out of the perspective of someone who is marketing, and into the shoes of someone trying to create a good community, you will benefit.
I have met SEO’s who have not taken time to read the Google guidelines and recommendations. If you are spending any time messing with your site on trying to get more traffic, please take the time to read this stuff! Google is showing you as much of their hand as they are willing to show!
Google tells you that certain technologies are not crawlable! It also suggests you download an old school browser and look at your site in it! We need to help our clients achieve that level of interactivity.
What does index actually mean? Just because it’s indexable does not mean it’s going to win for anything meaningful. I know search engines are focusing on more content in these dynamic environments, but indexability does not mean winability! So leave semantics behind. You need the layer underneath for the non-Flash enabled user, or spider.
Information architecture is core to usability. It is also required for a usable site. Optimizers should get involved early and often. If the content needs to be indexed, don’t hide it. As optimizers we need to bring this level of rationality to the IA process.
Is dynamic content really required? Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it a valid reason to do it. If there is a valid reason, go for it. But if you can accomplish everything without using the newest technology, then great, don’t use it.
So what’s the A in Ajax? It stands for asynchronous! It may look cool but it’s ultimately a challenge to index.
Validate your HTML and CSS. Careful development means good optimization, a browser is designed to interpret what it sees and is forgiving of mistakes, but what a search engine sees is a much more literal engagement.
So, how do you finish first? Develop for the highest common denominator and the lowest. Make sure your tools are still 2.0 plus, in a 1.0 environment.
Ben D’Angelo
A lot of content is already easily accessed by search engines. Blogs, wikis etc. use HTML markup. It becomes more challenging introducing other ways of interaction. The 2 main technologies I will talk about are Ajax and Flash.
What is 2.0 about? It’s about richer and more complex systems relating to the management and interdependence of content, presentation and navigation.
Ajax maybe content and navigation. Flash – all 3 of these are tightly coupled.
Most people have Flash enabled. Why should I worry about the tiny of fraction of those who don’t have Flash enabled? You can say a similar argument about images back in the day! Of course now we know, images are great but at the same time, have alt texts, etc it’s much more accessible. So it’s similar argument to Flash.
When you think about accessibility for all users, it will become much more available for search engines. If it’s viewable for the blind reader, great. Some tech savvy people have plug-ins to disable Flash. Cell phones and low-bandwidth devices also don’t support Flash and is a market you likely want to target. Bookmarking is something you might not think about, but it’s important. It’s good for your site to attract links but can they link to your site if you have Flash – can I link to this cool game I played if the entire site is in Ajax? If a user can bookmark it, it will be accessible to search engines.
A simple thing – make static links and they will automatically be recognizable by search engines.
CSS – it allows you to isolate the content from the presentation. You can try turning off CSS to see if your site still looks reasonable. Avoid abusing techniques like hiding text in CSS.
Start with traditional HTML, add a little embellishments like rich media elements. You Tube is a good example.
From an Ajax perspective: URL parameters vs. fragments. Googlebot can ignore fragments in a URL. If you want to use some Ajax, use together with HTML.
Flash – Google does try to read some of it in URLs but not all, so use regular HTML for primary content and navigation and then compliment it with Flash elements.
A little more advanced technique – SIFR – takes content in HTML elements and will replace t with a little Flash – primary use is for different fonts. If a user does have things installed and enabled they will see it, if not, they will see regular HTML.
Useful links: Google webmaster central blog, webmaster help center, webmaster discussion group.
Chris Humber
Flash is a restrictive technology. Why, because the content is invisible to the spider and spiders can’t navigate it. I personally am waiting for the day where I can see a great article when Google can incorporate Flash! Unfortunately, the engines operate in a 1.0 space.
TheBar.com – great website where the bartender will respond to your questions. They have a great margarita recipe. This site is built entirely in Flash. This is great info that would be extremely useful in the search engines, unfortunately when you search for a margarita recipe, it cannot be found. The user perspective gets a rich interface, but the spiders get nothing.
Some best practices to incorporate if you must use Flash:
Adobe Search Engine SDK – extracts texts and links from a SWF file. It’s a direct sort of output of a Flash file, never use alone, can’t be indexed.
SWF address is a code library that allows you to create URLS in a Flash environment.
An SWF object is a great way to embed Flash into your HTML code, it’s compatible. Plenty of sites use it. Allows for content integration. A DIV layer allows you to provide static text in a Flash environment.
You have to privde the navigation if you use a SWF address or SWF object. The spiders need enough navigation to find the content. Also think about inbound linking. Otherwise you wont rank very well.
sIFR – short text vlocks, page editors, carousels – ensures content is accessible. Uses combo if CSS, java, Flash. ABC News uses it for their website. Very useful if you have a dynamic lead on the website.
If you apply the above best practices, you should see an improvement in search visibility and increase traffic via natural search in a Flash-based environment.
Is Web 2.0 Funding Over? Or Just Moving?
There's been a story today that virtually every blog has been tiptoeing around but not addressing, except for Drama 2.0, but we know how much he likes to rub our noses in any possible popping of the bubble. The story, as Reuters tells it, is that venture capital into Web 2.0 start-ups is slowing down.
In the Dow Jones VentureSource report cited, they point out that VC for Web 2.0 companies only grew by 25% in 2007, from 143 to 178 deals, when it had doubled in each of the previous four years. Add this to the current economic situation involving the subprime mortgage market, auction-rate securities, and, well, the U.S. dollar acting like a meteor lately, and people just may start running for their towels.*
I'm generally a pessimist, but I really don't think that the reality is as stark as it seems. Numbers are only as good as how you look at them, and if you even break down the difference between 2006 and 2007, using the stats they cite, there would be 71 more deals in 2006 than in 2005, compared to 35 more deals in 2007 than in 2006. The number doesn't look quite as drastic then, does it? Going back one more year, there would have been what? 35 more deals in 2005 than in 2004? Where is the bad news here? Even if the line flattens, that means that it's still going at the same pace, which is hardly a portent of doom.
What's more interesting is where venture capital is going. While the mantra repeated is that Silicon Valley is still THE place for start-ups. Look deeper into the report as John Cook did and you'll notice something interesting. Facebook's $300 million accounted for 22% of the Valley's Web 2.0 investment dollars. Take Zuckerberg and crew out of the equation, and you'll find that both the amount of money as well as the number of deals in the Bay area dropped in 2007.
So where is the VC on the upswing? Well, the Pacific Northwest, for one. Deals there doubled (to 13) and investment dollars quadrupled. Among the top deals last year, Zillow, Jive, and MyStrands are all in the land of Amazon. Four others listed in the top deals are in Massachusetts, and two are in Colorado. Web 2.0 isn't over, but maybe it's getting a larger and more stable base by spreading out into a wider area with more variety.
source
22 Ways to Frustrate Your Site Visitors
Damian Conway is known as the “Mad Scientist of Perl” and he was my favorite speaker at Webstock 2008. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and until recently was an honorary Associate Professor with the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Monash University Australia.
A popular speaker and trainer, he is a former columnist for The Perl Journal and author of two books about Perl. He also runs an international IT training company which provides programmer training throughout Europe, North America, and Australasia.
Damian kicked off his presentation by revealing that his wife is responsible for him being at Webstock. A few months ago, she was trying to buy a DVD on the Internet and was yelling expletives. He went to help her and after several minutes of frustration he finally gave up. Her response was “Are they deliberately trying to make it impossible for non-geeks?” His reply was “Yes”. Damian’s impression is that mankind has evolved into two distinct species - typical web users / typical web designers.
Damian then showed the Irony Ahead symbol for the Americans in the audience. The sad truth, he says, is that the web designers are losing the battle to the masses. There are now normal humans who can almost use web sites on a daily basis! His sacred promise is to protect your web sites from infiltration by the terrible general public.
In reverse order, here are Damien’s top 22 web design ideas to fend off the non-geeks and prevent Web 2.0 from taking hold:
22) Use Zen: Confuse them with anime and odd artistic blobs that are a complete mystery. Is it a web site? Is it art? Is it impossible to enter?
21) Use yellow or black and yellow: This signals danger as in wasps and Star Trek uniforms.
20) Use xenophobia: Try geo-location as an instrument of torture. Show only products not available in their country or illegal in their country e.g. “show me products I can’t buy with a credit card issued in my country”.
19) Get a site that requires the “www” to work: This is known as a canonical URL to us normal people. Make the www necessary and confuse the heck out of them when they type in the domain name without the w’s and get shown an error page.
18) Use variable navigational layout (VNL): Use the previous and next links as people hate them. Let’s replicate it for the entire web!
17) Throw usability out the window: Navigability is the pre-requisite for usability. So let’s create navigation buttons that don’t go anywhere. The non-geeks will be occupied for at least half an hour. Use Javascript to turn the navigation into confusing shadowy arrows. Javascript your scrollbars so they don’t look anything like regular browser scrollbars. Use back buttons that embed links that take you up a level rather than actually taking you back. Your visitors will get lost in the hierarchy. Inconsistency is important.
16) Terrorize them with typography: Most non-geeks don’t care about typography. They don’t even have a favorite typeface! If they do, it’s comic sans. Or Impact! All they care about is whether they can read it. Therefore, typography DOES matter. Go with something unreadable! Go with Abduction 2 font or something just as annoying. Fonts are not toys people, fonts are weapons!
15) Make shipping a last minute surprise: Shipping is a powerful tool to dissuade purchasers. It delays their instant gratification. Don’t let them calculate the shipping cost in the cart otherwise they can go and comparison check on other sites. Instead, use the W3-recommended 34 step method and make all these fields compulsory:
product selection
shopping cart
checkout
purchaser address
phone number
fax number
email address
social security number
payment method
billing address
shipping address
shipping method
shipping costs
income bracket
referral source
etc.
With any luck, they’ll abandon the cart in total frustration.
14) Make them register and login before they purchase: They’ll be naturally terrified and run off. Even better, make them register before they can even view the web site!
13) Reduce the quality of site search results: How can you minimize the quality? Don’t provide site search facilities at all! Or make the options highly improbable. Don’t let them search for the product. Make them search by date of manufacture, or the name of the manufacturer. Or, make them search for the type of person that they are. Or what type of person YOU think they are. Pure genius.
12) Add pages ad infinitum: Don’t return more than 10 results for a search at one time, even if you have to list 250 pages of search results. God put the fold there for a reason. If you don’t follow this rule, it can result in scrolling! Protect the kids from scrolling!
13) Delay their gratification or their dis-gratification: Show items that aren’t in stock, services you used to provide, options that won’t work for them. Only tell them a product is not available AFTER they click through to the shopping cart total. This builds up a sense of hope so you can dash it immediately.
14) Don’t allow them to sort search results: This non-sortability of results preserves the natural social order. Sort things in random order. For example, don’t let them sort by product type, or price. Provide an alphabetical sorting option only. Or sort according to the web designer’s favorite items.
9) Use background music and lots of it: It’s a sure way to irritate your users. Your music choice probably sucks if you choose it carefully enough. Don’t provide a stop button. Make it restart again on every new page. They’ll soon leave.
8) The little things count: Like tiny little font. It’s the most effective deterrent for anyone over the age of 20. Damian finds size 4 or 3 point is pretty good. Government and news sites use it all the time to great effect. Some browsers have the ability to change text size. Thankfully, most web users Damian surveyed didn’t know this until it was pointed out to them. But it’s ok! Because 2 weeks later, they’d forgotten again. Tiny text is the web designer’s ally.
7) Use Cute Kitten Aversion Therapy: There are some web sites that you don’t want your kids to see, Damian says. One of these is the W3 HTML Validator. AAARGGGGHH! It means that solutions for non-valid HTML code could be discovered by anyone and you don’t want that. So spread the message, every time you validate, someone kills a kitten!
6) Use J-version therapy: The non-geeks have a strong aversion to the letter J and things like Jscript, Javascript etc. These J languages create fear in the non-geek. Online security companies have scared them into avoiding sites with Javascript or other items starting with J because hackers use them to distribute viruses. If you’re lucky, they’re so convinced by these fears that they’ve turned off Javascript in their browsers. This means that if your site uses Javascript menus, they can’t be navigated! Brilliant.
5) You can never use too many images: Encode your important data and text in an image so it can’t be cut and pasted and make the images huge and dark so that they can’t be printed out. Or they can be printed but they use up masses amounts of printer toner. It’s a great way to scare off even the most persistent of non-geeks.
4) Play hide and seek with your site visitors: They don’t like to wait, so make them. Information that is impossible to find is safe. Don’t use a sitemap and make sure there is no rational hierarchy to your site. Hide your most important data on a page that has no links pointing to it!
3) Use gray: It’s the new black and it goes so well with black or darker gray. When using gray, make it impossible to read. Use nano-text in gray or even gray text on white. The site visitors run away! Even better, use gray on darker gray - it’s the low contrast approach. This is even more effective for site visitors with a color impairment. If all else fails, use intestinal beige. It’s apparently the new gray.
2) Flash is very important in our defense against web-mortals: “Clocksucking Flash” they call it. Some non-geeks even have their Flash facilities turned off so make your site entirely in Flash. Once visitors arrive at your Flash page, they see - “loading 1%”. This is delayed gratification at it’s best! Also, don’t provide a “skip intro” button. Or if you do use it, make the link move away from the mouse. Over and over again. If the visitor persists, then make it disappear entirely. If the visitor without Flash is determined to view your Flash site, provide the “You Need Flash” link. Then make them download an enormous file that maxes out their bandwidth limits. Even better, use a Flash-based installer that requires them to have Flash installed first.
1) Combine all of the above for optimum effect: This is Damian’s number #1 best way to scare away non-geek visitors. His favorite example of this in action is the World Glaucoma Association. Scroll down and place your mouse over the eye for the full effect. [Editor note: My own personal favorite is Fred Frap and Friends where the pink text on the purple background asks you to click on the non-existent image to enter. Nice!]
But seriously folks, Damian says, the non-geek level is the SAME LEVEL as the MAJORITY OF YOUR WEB SITE USERS. Remember this. The typical experience for web-mortals is bad. He’s here to plead with us all to build software for how people really ARE. The non-geek users.
The Grandma Usability Metric
The single biggest mistake that web designers make is not doing accessibility testing on their grandparents. Your grandparents are the typical Internet users. Use the Grandma usability metric. It’s not about what your client wants. It’s about what your client’s customers want. It’s not about clever, it’s about comprehension. It’s not about style, it’s about usability. It’s not about searching. It’s about finding. It’s not about ambience it’s about the outcomes for people visiting your site.
Web 2.0 is Web 2.0verwhelming for most people. So make their experience measurably superior.
Tips for Part-Time Web Designers
Freelance web design can be an ideal part-time business. Starting on a part-time basis allows you to gain valuable experience and ease your way into full-time status rather than taking the plunge and the risk that comes along with it. During a stint as a part-timer you can learn volumes about what it takes to be a successful freelancer and you’ll probably find some things that you want to do more of and some things that you want to do less.
15 Tips for Part-Time Designers to Improve on the Experience:
Get Started
One thing you will notice that all successful freelance designers have in common is that they all got started at some point (pretty obvious, right?). There are a lot of skilled, would-be part-time freelancers that have contemplated getting their feet wet, but many of them have taken no action. If you fall into this population, take your first step towards success and just get started.
Set Up a Website and Preferably a Blog
Even part time designers really should have a website to display their portfolio to potential customers, increase their reach across the globe, and make it easy for people to contact them. In addition to hosting your samples of past work on the site, publishing a blog can help immensely. With a blog you can more effectively gain exposure and recognition and you should be able to draw more traffic to the site, which hopefully will result in more potential clients seeing your portfolio.
Set Up a Basic Accounting System
Even if you are just designing part-time you will need a sound method for keeping track of your income and expenses. There are a growing number of products that can help with this, including FreshBooks , or you can stick with basics like QuickBooks or Excel.
Look Into Tax Deductions
As a freelancer you’ll have the ability/opportunity to deduct your business expenses from your taxable income. Of course, the details will vary depending on what country you live in. Check with an accountant or tax professional to be sure that you are keeping proper records and not missing out on valuable deductions.
Treat it Like a Real Business
One of the temptations for part-time freelance designers is to view their work as a hobby rather than a business. If your goals involve making money and working your way towards a full-time income, you’ll need to view it as a legitimate business. Be sure to schedule certain times each week that you will dedicate towards your work, and try to keep it separate from your other daily activities.
Set Some Goals
As a part-timer, you will most likely face plenty of temptations and distractions that can easily keep you from being productive. You can drastically improve your chances of success by setting some goals. How many hours per week do you want to spend on this work? How much money do you hope to make? In order to keep yourself motivated, have a clear purpose in mind that is your reason for freelancing part-time. Are you trying to save for a dream vacation? Are you attempting to work your way into a full-time design career? We all have different reasons for doing what we do, just be sure that you clearly understand what is your driving force.
Establish a Long-Term Plan
Most likely you aren’t planning to freelance forever in addition to working another full-time job. If your ultimate goal is to test the waters and see if designing full-time is the right move for you, you should have some type of idea or plan for the transition from part-time to full-time. You don’t necessarily need to have this laid out right away, chances are you won’t have all of the answers for a while anyway. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll just wake up one day and realize that you have reached a level where you can comfortably move into full-time freelance work. How much income will you need to support yourself and your family? How much stability will you need in that income, or how much instability can you live with? How and when do you hope to make the transition?
Spend Time Networking
Your most productive time in terms of direct income is obviously the billable time that you are working for clients. While this will never lose its importance, allowing time for professional networking is also key. Getting to know others will often lead to new opportunities, plus it may help to make your work more effective. Spending time getting to know others may seem like a waste of time, but once you have made a few valuable connections you will see the need for networking. Fortunately, there are a number of resources to improve online networking. There are social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, and there are industry-specific resources like forums, niche social media sites for designers and community sites.
Be Open-Minded
When you are first getting started you will probably have some misconceptions about how you can effectively make money as a freelance designer, and you may experience some surprises along the way. Some opportunities may present themselves to make money, gain exposure, or get experience in ways that you had not considered or planned. Try to keep an open mind and evaluate these opportunities as you could find that there are better ways to earn income than you had initially expected.
Set Up a Designated Work Area
Those who work from home full-time understand the importance of having a comfortable and inviting home office. If you are hoping to be a productive part-time freelancer, you too will need to address the situation of where you will do your work. Set up a place that will be away from distractions and will allow for maximum concentration.
Be Realistic
You probably won’t be able to replace your full-time income by freelancing part-time in just a few months. One of the best things you should do is have realistic expectations. This doesn’t mean that you should have a negative outlook and not shoot for big success. It simply means that your long-term commitment will be more likely to stick if you have realistic expectations, which can help you from becoming disappointed when you find that freelancing can be a struggle.
Celebrate Minor Victories
Make sure you take time to enjoy you success along the way. One of the best ways to avoid discouragement and burnout is to simply appreciate the accomplishments that you make. Sometimes just taking the time to recognize the progress and feel good about your work can be enough.
15 Tips for Part-Time Designers to Improve on the Experience:
Get Started
One thing you will notice that all successful freelance designers have in common is that they all got started at some point (pretty obvious, right?). There are a lot of skilled, would-be part-time freelancers that have contemplated getting their feet wet, but many of them have taken no action. If you fall into this population, take your first step towards success and just get started.
Set Up a Website and Preferably a Blog
Even part time designers really should have a website to display their portfolio to potential customers, increase their reach across the globe, and make it easy for people to contact them. In addition to hosting your samples of past work on the site, publishing a blog can help immensely. With a blog you can more effectively gain exposure and recognition and you should be able to draw more traffic to the site, which hopefully will result in more potential clients seeing your portfolio.
Set Up a Basic Accounting System
Even if you are just designing part-time you will need a sound method for keeping track of your income and expenses. There are a growing number of products that can help with this, including FreshBooks , or you can stick with basics like QuickBooks or Excel.
Look Into Tax Deductions
As a freelancer you’ll have the ability/opportunity to deduct your business expenses from your taxable income. Of course, the details will vary depending on what country you live in. Check with an accountant or tax professional to be sure that you are keeping proper records and not missing out on valuable deductions.
Treat it Like a Real Business
One of the temptations for part-time freelance designers is to view their work as a hobby rather than a business. If your goals involve making money and working your way towards a full-time income, you’ll need to view it as a legitimate business. Be sure to schedule certain times each week that you will dedicate towards your work, and try to keep it separate from your other daily activities.
Set Some Goals
As a part-timer, you will most likely face plenty of temptations and distractions that can easily keep you from being productive. You can drastically improve your chances of success by setting some goals. How many hours per week do you want to spend on this work? How much money do you hope to make? In order to keep yourself motivated, have a clear purpose in mind that is your reason for freelancing part-time. Are you trying to save for a dream vacation? Are you attempting to work your way into a full-time design career? We all have different reasons for doing what we do, just be sure that you clearly understand what is your driving force.
Establish a Long-Term Plan
Most likely you aren’t planning to freelance forever in addition to working another full-time job. If your ultimate goal is to test the waters and see if designing full-time is the right move for you, you should have some type of idea or plan for the transition from part-time to full-time. You don’t necessarily need to have this laid out right away, chances are you won’t have all of the answers for a while anyway. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll just wake up one day and realize that you have reached a level where you can comfortably move into full-time freelance work. How much income will you need to support yourself and your family? How much stability will you need in that income, or how much instability can you live with? How and when do you hope to make the transition?
Spend Time Networking
Your most productive time in terms of direct income is obviously the billable time that you are working for clients. While this will never lose its importance, allowing time for professional networking is also key. Getting to know others will often lead to new opportunities, plus it may help to make your work more effective. Spending time getting to know others may seem like a waste of time, but once you have made a few valuable connections you will see the need for networking. Fortunately, there are a number of resources to improve online networking. There are social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, and there are industry-specific resources like forums, niche social media sites for designers and community sites.
Be Open-Minded
When you are first getting started you will probably have some misconceptions about how you can effectively make money as a freelance designer, and you may experience some surprises along the way. Some opportunities may present themselves to make money, gain exposure, or get experience in ways that you had not considered or planned. Try to keep an open mind and evaluate these opportunities as you could find that there are better ways to earn income than you had initially expected.
Set Up a Designated Work Area
Those who work from home full-time understand the importance of having a comfortable and inviting home office. If you are hoping to be a productive part-time freelancer, you too will need to address the situation of where you will do your work. Set up a place that will be away from distractions and will allow for maximum concentration.
Be Realistic
You probably won’t be able to replace your full-time income by freelancing part-time in just a few months. One of the best things you should do is have realistic expectations. This doesn’t mean that you should have a negative outlook and not shoot for big success. It simply means that your long-term commitment will be more likely to stick if you have realistic expectations, which can help you from becoming disappointed when you find that freelancing can be a struggle.
Celebrate Minor Victories
Make sure you take time to enjoy you success along the way. One of the best ways to avoid discouragement and burnout is to simply appreciate the accomplishments that you make. Sometimes just taking the time to recognize the progress and feel good about your work can be enough.
Be Flexible
As you gain more experience as a freelance designer you’ll probably find new and better ways of doing things. Additionally, your goals may even completely change. Be flexible enough with yourself that you allow for changes in the way you work and why you work. Ultimately, you’ll be more productive and more successful.
Look for Work That Offers More Than Just Pay
Some jobs will give you great exposure, experience, or maybe even networking opportunities. All of these things can benefit you in your future work. Look for jobs that will not only pay you, but also offer you a way to help make your freelance efforts more successful. Keep your eyes open for work that would help you to build a better portfolio or make you more attractive to potential clients.
Reinvest
As a part-timer it will probably be easier for you to reinvest some or all of your income back into your business. If you are able to live on your full-time income, do everything you can to invest your freelancing income in ways that will grow your business and help you to earn more in the long-run. Tom Ross has written an excellent article, 5 Reasons Why You Must Reinvest.
IT failures and social media
Shel Israel, co-author (with Robert Scoble) of the influential book on blogging, Naked Conversations, recently interviewed me regarding social media and IT failures. I used the interview to consolidate my views on several IT failure-related issues.Causes of IT failure
IT failures are generally caused by management errors in human, rather than technical systems. Poor judgment, dysfunctional organizational politics, and bad planning are far more likely to cause a major project failure than a database failure, for example. The high profile failures that hit the newspapers, or that I blog about, generally arise as the culmination of many bad decisions strung together over time.
Large software implementations typically involve three parties: the customer, the software vendor, and the consulting services supplier. Considering this complexity, and the sometimes-conflicting agendas that result, the high rate of IT project failures becomes less surprising.
Social media and IT failure
To the extent social media improves an organization’s communication and decision-making abilities, it will also improve project success rates. Social media is not a magic bullet, but represents an organization’s commitment to streamline communication, share knowledge, and work more effectively as a team. These are characteristics of both healthy organizations and successful IT projects.
Shelfware and social media
[M]erely making software available does not mean users will actually adopt it.
More significantly, an organization must define “rules of engagement” that encourage users to embed social media in their day-to-day work. From this perspective, planning the diffusion of social media through an organization is little different from planning a traditional enterprise software implementation. Without proper change management, training, documentation and so on, social media becomes yet another under-utilized tool sitting on a server. The annals of IT failures are filled with cases of software that was purchased, deployed, and never fully used. Social media is not immune.
Coordinated deployments of social media across a large enterprise look and behave like any other enterprise software implementation. In both cases, IT and the business are essential partners in making the deployment successful. As with IT failures in general, the success of social media deployments depend more on human, rather than technical, systems and planning.
Social media and centralized IT power
Social media puts power into the hands of individuals and that power ultimately comes at the expense of centralized IT departments.
Strategic business computing decisions, including social media issues, should reflect the involvement of three groups: end-users, business management, and technical management.
To the extent that social media programs are business-based, meaning their core function is providing non-technical benefits to users, then sponsorship should lie in the business domain. In this respect, social media is a business initiative like any other, and should be treated as such.
On the other hand, if IT tries to interfere with new methods of communication between enterprise groups, then it will be doomed to fail. There’s virtue in going with the flow, especially when the flow is inevitable. It should be a partner in helping the enterprise adopt improved tools and work processes. For IT to succeed, it must engage users in dialog and support their desire to improve communications and information sharing.
IT / Business alignment
It’s time for IT to leave the ivory tower and become part of the decision-making culture of the business. The entire notion of IT as being somehow separate, or having independent goals from, the non-technical parts of an enterprise is absolutely ridiculous.
I don’t want to paint this as being entirely the fault of IT – many senior business executives don’t fully understand how IT processes function, nor do they completely grasp the ramifications that technical decisions can have on non-technical business strategies.
Nautanki.tv is India's First Online TV Channel
Media Monkz Communications, a company setup by media and advertising professionals has launched Nautanki.tv - India's first online TV channel. Nautanki.tv uses webcasting technology to distribute a fixed daily schedule like any regular channel. Sumit Luthra, Media Monkz CEO says that by the end of March there would be 3 hours of original content produced / commissioned by Media Monkz on Nautanki.tv.
There are six sections on the channel inclusive of Soul Curry and Republic. Soul Curry features episodes in short format on Yoga, Tarot, Vaastu etc. Republic is a platform for regional and indie film makers to showcase their films. Vikram Prabhu the head of content says that there would be an on going film festival on Republic right through the year.
Nautanki.tv is currently self funded by its promoters and would have a commercial launch in the month of January 2007. In its beta phase the channel has attracted almost 500+ unique users per day and a per day view of 1000 plus episodes.
The interesting aspect about the timing of Nautanki.tv going live is the fact that Zapak.tv a Reliance (ADAG) venture has been announced. Reacting to the news Luthra commented that there is enough and more space for everyone on the net, Nautanki.tv's niche and original programs will ensure that it has its small but dedicated set of viewers.
The channel can be accessed at http://www.nautanki.tv
Read more…
There are six sections on the channel inclusive of Soul Curry and Republic. Soul Curry features episodes in short format on Yoga, Tarot, Vaastu etc. Republic is a platform for regional and indie film makers to showcase their films. Vikram Prabhu the head of content says that there would be an on going film festival on Republic right through the year.
Nautanki.tv is currently self funded by its promoters and would have a commercial launch in the month of January 2007. In its beta phase the channel has attracted almost 500+ unique users per day and a per day view of 1000 plus episodes.
The interesting aspect about the timing of Nautanki.tv going live is the fact that Zapak.tv a Reliance (ADAG) venture has been announced. Reacting to the news Luthra commented that there is enough and more space for everyone on the net, Nautanki.tv's niche and original programs will ensure that it has its small but dedicated set of viewers.
The channel can be accessed at http://www.nautanki.tv
First Venture Capital for Chapatiz.com
Chapatiz.com is a community website with a novel and unique chat application that has been endorsed by more than 770.000 French-speaking kids.
Created in 2005 by François Barbut, Stéphan Twarog and Arno Guensherian, Chapatiz has found a sweet spot between online games and communities: the product combines the best of these two worlds, to provide a rich multimedia experience to preteenagers.
The site is easily accessible, provides numerous forms of interaction and a real multimedia experience, delivers user-generated content and serves as a hub for social networking. The access to this virtual world is free and immediate - since it does not require any downloading.
Having contributed to acquire a capital of 350.000 euros, François Véron (founder of Newfund), Dusan Stojanovic (Business Angel), Jean Bégo (Business Angel) and several IT experts will be the new shareholders.
Strengthened by this new partnership, Chapatiz SA aims to assert itself as a French reference among its global competitors and other video game giants.
Created in 2005 by François Barbut, Stéphan Twarog and Arno Guensherian, Chapatiz has found a sweet spot between online games and communities: the product combines the best of these two worlds, to provide a rich multimedia experience to preteenagers.The site is easily accessible, provides numerous forms of interaction and a real multimedia experience, delivers user-generated content and serves as a hub for social networking. The access to this virtual world is free and immediate - since it does not require any downloading.
Having contributed to acquire a capital of 350.000 euros, François Véron (founder of Newfund), Dusan Stojanovic (Business Angel), Jean Bégo (Business Angel) and several IT experts will be the new shareholders.
Strengthened by this new partnership, Chapatiz SA aims to assert itself as a French reference among its global competitors and other video game giants.
What is a Font Flag? What is a Font Specimen Sheet?
Do you know what a font flag or font specimen sheet is? Here are the answers as well as an example made by myself for typography class at university.
What is a Font Flag?
A font flag is a poster – a visual ‘sell’ – presentation of the style, feel, mood and aesthetic sense of a particular font. It deals with the emotive, pictorial, poetic or pragmatic sense of the font. It may recall the sense of history, the classification group, notable or famous uses. It is about appeal – looking good.
What is a font specimen sheet?
A font specimen sheet is about measurement specifics, display of the font – all characters and expressions, at differing point sizes, paragraph setting, leaded or tracked. Upper Case and Lower Case, title box, formal identification of the font - its name, classification, designer/typographer, the foundry – and a demonstrated showing of ‘font family’ characteristics – weights/shade in print.
My take on making a font flag and specimen sheet
For typography class at University we could choose any typeface we wished and then we had to make up a font flag and a font specimen sheet, here is the result, as well as a title page.
I chose Bodoni because it is so unique and because I wanted the challenge of working in an Didone (Modern) font, something I have never done before.
I made the background in Photoshop from about 8 different layers, then merged them and imported into Illustrator. The rest was done in Illustrator. You may notice that the Fibonnaci Sequence or golden mean has been the inspiration for these designs.
The characteristics of a Didone (Modern) type face.
Thick vertical strokes.
Thin horizontal strokes.
Fine hairlines.
Straight serifs.
Extreme contrast between the thick and thin stokes.
Curved letters balanced and slightly compressed.
The angle of stress is vertical.
Prints best on a smooth matt finish, white paper with black ink.
A thing worth noting on most digital Bodini fonts is that they suffer from a particular kind of legibility degradation known as “dazzle” caused by the alternating thick and thin strokes, particularly from the thin strokes being very thin at small point sizes.
What is a Font Flag?
A font flag is a poster – a visual ‘sell’ – presentation of the style, feel, mood and aesthetic sense of a particular font. It deals with the emotive, pictorial, poetic or pragmatic sense of the font. It may recall the sense of history, the classification group, notable or famous uses. It is about appeal – looking good.
What is a font specimen sheet?
A font specimen sheet is about measurement specifics, display of the font – all characters and expressions, at differing point sizes, paragraph setting, leaded or tracked. Upper Case and Lower Case, title box, formal identification of the font - its name, classification, designer/typographer, the foundry – and a demonstrated showing of ‘font family’ characteristics – weights/shade in print.
My take on making a font flag and specimen sheet
For typography class at University we could choose any typeface we wished and then we had to make up a font flag and a font specimen sheet, here is the result, as well as a title page.
I chose Bodoni because it is so unique and because I wanted the challenge of working in an Didone (Modern) font, something I have never done before.
I made the background in Photoshop from about 8 different layers, then merged them and imported into Illustrator. The rest was done in Illustrator. You may notice that the Fibonnaci Sequence or golden mean has been the inspiration for these designs.
The characteristics of a Didone (Modern) type face.
Thick vertical strokes.
Thin horizontal strokes.
Fine hairlines.
Straight serifs.
Extreme contrast between the thick and thin stokes.
Curved letters balanced and slightly compressed.
The angle of stress is vertical.
Prints best on a smooth matt finish, white paper with black ink.
A thing worth noting on most digital Bodini fonts is that they suffer from a particular kind of legibility degradation known as “dazzle” caused by the alternating thick and thin strokes, particularly from the thin strokes being very thin at small point sizes.
Feedback / Suggestions / Constructive Criticism is appreciated. I would love to hear your feedback.
What is the best social media website? Digg, SU, Delicious, Reddit … or?
I am going to share some of my experiences with you on social media marketing to tell you what is the best social media website for your website and why.You may have noticed over the past 2 weeks that I have geared a couple of my posts a little more towards the social media.
First off, lets just name the main social media websites out there:
Digg
StumbleUpon
Del.icio.us
Other Niche Social Media Websites (ie. DesignFloat is a Digg like site for design) So what is the best social media website for your website and why? To determine the ‘best’ social media website for you it depends on what your after. The usual main reasons for targeting social media websites are for:
Traffic
Subscribers
Regular Readers
Links / Exposure
Money
I am going to look at these 5 reasons and will be doing so by comparing stats from Google Analytics and my own experiences. Check out the stats for the three pages mentioned above.
Digg
Traffic
As you can see, by getting onto Digg’s front page, it will literally bring thousands of visitors usually within a few hours, but how good is the traffic?The average Digg visitor only stayed on Just Creative Design for 1:12 and only 17% of 43, 000 stayed on my website to check out more of my articles. The real value of this traffic is usually not that great as the huge amount of traffic usually brings down most sites (JCD went down for about 1 hour when we were getting 2000 requests per second) however it does boost your Alexia rank, get exposure, and build links.43,654 Visitors is not something you can really get anywhere else apart from Digg so if it is visitors and traffic your after, go for Digg.
Subscribers
You would think after 43,000+ visitors to your site you would get at least some subscribers but after my experience only about 1% of all the visitors subscribed to JCD, 430 subscribers from 43,000? But I can’t be sure that they all came from Digg. About 100 had unsubscribed by the next day.
Regular Readers
This is something I have not been able to track, but usually if you want regular readers I would target smaller social media sites in your niche as they are more interested in what you have to write about. An example is DesignFloat, which is a Digg like site for designers.
Links / Exposure
This is something you can’t control but Digg sure does bring exposure to your blog, links were scarce but you do pop up on other social media sites such as popurls and jimmyr which also bring a good amount of traffic.
Money
Not worth having PPC (Pay Per Click) ads on your site with Digg, after 60000 page views, only 4 people had clicked on my Google Adsense ads. Digg users generally do not click on ads and they have ad blockers installed. If you have a CPM (Cost Per Mile Impressions) ad system installed this would be more beneficial. Affiliate marketing on Digg is a bit questionable, but generally not successful.
Other things worth mentioning:
Digg does bring a mad amount of comments both on your site and on the digg site, for example my recent article 30 Fonts that all designers must own brought over 350 comments to Digg and 50 here on Just Creative Design. Be aware that comments are not always nice but just ignore these!
StumbleUpon
Traffic
The traffic from SU is steady, and in general pretty good in turnover for regular readers. Although it does not bring in huge amounts of visitors all at once like Digg nor in as huge numbers. SU users stayed on Just Creative Design for longer in general and visited at least 2 pages before leaving. You will also notice that it had a very low bounce rate compared to other sites, with 58% of visitors staying on the site!SU users are generally more inclined to stay on your website plus the visitors are steady and usually new (94% new).
Subscribers
Also hard to track, but generally it has a bit better turnover of subscriber numbers after a good stumble post. I would say about 4% subscribe.
Regular Readers
A little better than Digg however not as good as targeting niche social media site as I said before.
Links / Exposure
Exposure is good, and usually you get links back to people that do posts on ‘the best of so and so’ or link love. If your post is getting stumbled it may be a good idea to submit the article to other niche social media sites.
Money
Usually SU users do not click on ads, so this is a bit tough, try using a CPM (Cost Per Mile) advertising solution, something I am going to try soon.
Del.icio.us
Traffic
Traffic usually comes in short bursts, however they are usually more interested in finding out who the author is and what the site is about and they also stay on the site for longer than Digg and Stumble Upon users. Not as many visitors as Digg or SU however a bit better quality traffic as they explore your site more.
Subscribers
Have not been able to track this for Del.icio.us users but if they are interested in your blogs topics and sees your site has value, I imagine a small percentage would subscribe.
Regular Readers
Also hard to track so can’t really comment on this one.
Links / Exposure
Your website is shared amongst all the other users in Del.icio.us which is always great, as you get more exposure and traffic as people bookmark you for future reference.
Money
More likely to click on ads however only a small percentage do so as you can imagine, a lot better than SU or Digg in this respect.
Other things worth mentioning
Generally if your post makes Digg and it is a resourceful post, your post will also make Del.icio.us and other social media sites.
Traffic
Not as many visitors as Digg, SU or Delicious but any traffic always helps! Generally they visit just the page that was posted, hardy ever look around your site, and hardly stay on your site at all. Not that valuable traffic, but traffic none the less.
Subscribers
Close to nil.
Regular Readers
Hardly any at all. They usually are interested in the one page that is being linked too.
Links / Exposure
Exposure is good as you will get nearly all new visitors to your blog, however they won’t stick around or write about your post.
Money
A CPM (impressions) ad system would work best here.
Niche Social Media Websites
When I say niche social media websites I mean ones that are targeting at your niche, for example DesignFloat is a digg like site for design related subjects only.
Traffic
Less traffic but a lot more valuable in turn of turnover. Visitors are very targeted so are more inclined to subscribe to your blog and explore your site. Design Float has been great for sending visitors my way and is also a sponsor for this site, but I do notice only about 40% of them are new visitors which means I do get a lot of returning visitors.
Subscribers
As touched on above, users from niche social media sites are more likely to subscribe as they are interested in what your blog is about and won’t want to miss out on what you have to say.
Regular Readers
The best out of any social media site as they are pretty much guaranteed to be interested in your blog.
Links / Exposure
The best also as you will get link backs from other blogs who write on the same topic as you.
Money
This depends on the type of advertising you have, if you have targeted ad words for instance then what you write about will reflect what ads are shown. This means if I wrote about design, design related ads are going to show up, and if people are coming from a niche social media site, they are more inclined to click on the ads as it will reflect their interests.As for affiliate ads, it depends on what your trying to sell. CPM would also work but I am in no way a monetizing expert, as I am not in this for the money.
Conclusion:
If you want lots of visitors and traffic, lots of comments, and thousands of visitors (and maybe your site brought down) and a big batch of subscribers go with Digg.
If you want good steady traffic go with Stumble Upon. You will also get a small number of subscribers and they will explore your site at least on average 2 pages.
If you want short bursts of traffics and a bit of site exploration and link ups go with Delicious.
Reddit users come and go, so this is pretty much only good for page view numbers.
Niche social sites are the best way to go if you’re after subscribers and targeted traffic.
What are your experiences with social media? What works best for you?
