What is RSS (Really sImple Syndication) and why do I care?

by Mary-Frances Main

According to Wikipedia:

RSS is is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works-such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video-in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

As one of our clients put it, "you lost me at 'web feed formats' can you start over?".
If you have a blog, this is all fairly important and if you use our services here at Widget, you'll end up calling us to ask "where is my RSS feed" at some point, so pay attention!

Think newspapers. Syndication is quite simply broadcasting (an article or cartoon) for publication in many magazines or newspapers at the same time. Ironically, now this term is more often used regarding the content of websites than it is for newspapers.

Really simple syndication comes set up and ready to go on most blogs. On Blogger, for instance if you type in http://blogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml the "feed" will usually automatically come up. That is, if you haven't changed settings, but we're assuming here you're a beginner and you don't go regularly mucking around in your publishing settings in the back end.

So, why is this important? Because this is how most of the web world "views" your feed. It puts your blog in a standardized format so about any service can read it and post it wherever they want.

Most social networking profiles (like Facebook, LinkedIn and Hootsuite) allow you to put your "feed" up on a page or in a profile area. So, then your friends and/or clients on that network can read your blog - right there and constantly get updated posts.
More importantly you, as a writer, don't have to republish your information over and over in different places.

This feed is also monitored by services like Google Reader or Bloglines. In these programs, you can plug in your favorite RSS feeds and they will let you know when something new comes up on these blogs. Embarrassingly, I monitor 329 blogs - but only roughly a third of them have new posts daily. Thus, the service saves me a lot of time going to a blog only to find there's nothing new there.

This is also how Yahoo and Google put "top headlines" on their pages - they crawl through RSS feeds and find the most popular of the newsfeeds to give you constantly updated "popular" stories. This is also why sometimes it's about a top actor in the movie Avatar even though we all feel Haiti deserves more popular attention.

The site - feedburner.com - is a great one because now that Google has bought it, it interacts with Google Analytics and Google AdWords to help you maximize your blog performance, but maybe that's a subject for another article?

So, hopefully you're not overwhelmed, but feel free to email me any questions and I'll try to clarify any of these points!

How sad for you

So I took my car over to my mechanic the other day and I said to him, "My car's broken. Fix it." And then I left. Imagine my frustration when I went back two hours later and found that he hadn't done anything - my car was the only one in the garage and the mechanic hadn't done so much as pick up a screwdriver. I found him in the office, on the phone to a friend organizing a fishing trip.

What lousy service!

Okay, this didn't really happen. I completely made it up to highlight a point. I wouldn't be able to leave the mechanic without a barrage of questions - simply saying "it's broken" wouldn't give him any direction - he just wouldn't know where to start looking. What's broken? The brakes? The transmission? The engine? The automatic windows? That little thingy on the dashboard that tells you how much gas you've got? And for the mechanic to try to diagnose a problem not knowing where to begin would require checking everything, resulting in much wasted time (and expense).

But we're about computers and websites, not cars, so it's different, right? Nope, it's exactly the same. And, with the advent of email, it's entirely possible for someone to come out of the woodwork, dump an "it's broken" message on the doorstep and then disappear, only to be disgruntled later when they find that the problem has not been resolved.

I've done technical support and it is, at times, crucial to hold the person's hand and walk them step by step through the program to try to resolve the issue. In fact, it's a necessary part of the whole support process. I've never come across the "too stupid to own a computer" scenario (http://www.snopes.com/humor/business/wordperfect.asp - for a little light humor at a pervasive tech support myth) but I have received my fair share of customers complaining "it's broken" and then promptly leaving the shop.

My first response to an "it's broken" message (apart from a cynical "how sad for you" muttering under my breath) is "what's broken?" Remember that many of our clients have come to us with pre-existing sites and I don't know the ins and outs of these sites like I do with the ones that I've developed (and even then it may have been months or even years since I looked at that particular part of the site - do you remember what you had for lunch on the 21st of May, 2002?). Sometimes the site has a third party component (like an Ecommerce add-in, for example) that I don't know back to front, either. So sometimes I need a little hand holding. Here are a couple of tips for reporting problems to help us to help you (after all, that's what we're about: we make time for small business).

Tip #1 - As they said in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," DON'T PANIC! This sounds obvious - panic is usually counterproductive - but there are other reasons. Firstly, no matter what the problem with your site, it can (and will) be fixed. Secondly, if you panic then, like dogs sensing fear, we pick up on it and we panic. And if we panic we make mistakes (as much as we deal with machines we're only human). If we make mistakes then we might be able to fix your problem, but we could introduce new ones and on goes the cycle.

Tip #2 - What changed? I've had people report problems saying something to the effect of "it was working just fine yesterday and now [you guessed it!] it's broken." People behave this way - one day they'll act one way and the next day, for no reason, they'll act entirely counter to their previous behaviour - and for no reason at all. Computers don't. If it works one day and doesn't the next then something changed. Try to note down everything that could possibly have been different. In entering data into a form it could be something as innocuous as using a different keystroke - anyone who knows anything about the C family of programming languages will tell you that the command "getthing" is not the same as "getThing" (the C family is case-sensitive).

Just to drive home this point, let me tell you a story that comes down through the generations. My father was also a computer programmer (one of the first in Australia) who used to work for that now-defunct behemoth of a computer company called Univac. He told me a story where he and his collegues, on completing a major project, were presenting their findings to their superiors, the customers, some government officials, top Pentagon brass and the President of the Unietd States. They all shuffled their way into the conference room, took their seats - my father proudly fired up the machines and ... nothing!

The audience was asked to talk amongst themselves while they tried, in a panic (and, of course, I've already mentioned where panic gets you) to troubleshoot and finally they had to apologise, promise they'd fix it and the audience left with mutterings of firings and public executions. So they began to troubleshoot again and everything magically started working again. Back came the superiors, customers etc. and they tried for take 2. And, again, everything went dead. Again everyone left to get their Sears catalogs with a mind to purchasing high-powered firearms (remembering that catalogs were the Ecommerce of the day).

Back to troubleshooting they went, but this time they looked for the most minute, mundane details. And, of course, they found it. What changed? The audience. That was the wildcard that these techno-savvy geeks (yeah, my dad's a geek) hadn't counted on. More specifically, one particular audience member and, more specifically still, the weight of this one particular individual. Yes, weight - how heavy he was, as he sat on his chair which happened to be located close enough to a cable so that when this person sat down it provided just enough force to drive a carpet tack into the cable, shorting out the system.

This story (and I'm sure that dad will object to the liberal embellishments that I've provided) also is a good example to highlight the next point ...

Tip #3 - Details matter! It seemed like a minor detail that someone sitting down would affect a computer system, but it was enough to provide the answer to the problem. There is no such thing as too much information when it comes to the computer industry - every minor and mundane detail could be relevant.

Tip #4 - Can you reproduce the problem? There are such things as the so-named "intermittent bug" but I've found that a bug is a bug is a bug and is always reproducable in some way, shape or form. That's why I always ask someone to take me by the hand and walk though what they did step by step, right down to "I got up and got a cup of coffee." Maybe it was the time that the computer was idle that caused the problem. This certainly could be the case where communications are concerned. If you can reproduce the problem then tell us step-by-step, how to do it. If you can't tell us step-by-step what you did.

Tip #5 - Tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, not you, personally (although we do love to be social with our clients), but your computer. I built a site for a client a couple of years ago and she kept complaining that a particular form wasn't showing up. Naturally I went though all of the processes, got a feel for how many times she went for coffee, checked the floor for carpet tacks and so forth, but I still couldn't work out why this was happening.

Now, knowing a bit about how computers and the Internet work, I was savvy enough to ask her what type of browser she was using - Internet Explorer, ok, uh huh (in case you didn't know IE and Firefox have little idiosyncracies that can sometimes cause problems, particularly when dealing with client-side, interactive stuff). Then it hit me - what kind of a computer are you using? What operating system? We'll admit it, we deal pretty much exclusively with Windows PCs around here although we do have a Macintosh for testing. But guess what? The client was using a Mac. On further investigation it was discovered that IE, despite being version 6 on both ours and the client's computers is not created equal. For what I was doing (having a form "appear" after a particular event) required an older syntax in the programming to be compatible with the Mac version.

Tip #6 - Assume we're idiots. 98% of bugs reveal themselves after an update and while we can (and do) try to test extensively, there's a mentality issue here - we're far too close to the program from a technical aspect to see it fully from a user perspective (some programmers will tell you that they always know how their users use their programs, be it a web application or otherwise, but they're liars). So you, the end user, need to test it as well.

One of my former employers once said something that I hold with me at all times: most programmers test to prove that the program works whereas they should test to prove that the program doesn't work. There's an issue of pride here and programmers can be myopic to very real problems. It also happens that a fix in one part of the program can break something in another part of the program.

That's where we rely on you, the user, to go through it and prove to us that we screwed up. You won't be insulting us (depending, of course, on your tone). In fact, quite the contrary, you'll be helping us. This, incidentally, is another reason why sometimes errors only seem to show up after months for no apparent reason - perhaps we did a fix or enhancement to part of the site that affected another part and that other part simply hasn't been used for a while (I do know that some of the applications I've built have features that only get used once in a few millenia).


So there it is - six simple, little steps to help us to help you. Let's recap:

• Don't Panic - We never get tired of saying it: Relax, we take care of small (all our) business



• What changed?



• Details matter - we want it all. Leave "just the facts, Ma'am" to Joe Friday



• Can you reproduce the problem?



• Tell us a little bit about yourself - Tell us about your computer.



• Assume we're stupid - prove that we screwed up.

If you follow these six small steps then we all take one big step towards a trouble-free computer environment which is the best for your business, our relationship and the overall harmony and good kharma of the Universe.

5 Insider Secrets For Writing With Confidence by Ali Hale

Found at pickthebrain.com some fabulous pointers for anyone who wants to blog (I especially enjoyed "The first draft of anything is crap." - read through the jump!

I’m a professional writer. I work for blogs and the occasional magazine, and in the past I’ve written for clients who wanted website copy. My fiction has also been published, including a couple of competition prizes. Small successes, perhaps; but even these wouldn’t have happened without a strong level of writing confidence.

Since I write for a number of blogs, I often get questions from would-be writers. Something which crops up frequently is a lack of confidence. Many (surprisingly good) writers never send pieces to an editor, or agonise over every post they write on their own blog.

It doesn’t need to be that way. Good writing isn’t the preserve of a few lucky individuals – after all, none of us were born able to write! And, in the 21st century, many stifling grammatical “rules” no longer apply. You’re free to write in your own voice and your own style … and you can enjoy it. Here’s how:

Treat Writing As a Skill
Now, I’ll admit that some people do seem to be natural-born writers, just as others have an innate talent for music or art. Writing is a skill, however – one that can be learnt. This could include

The technicalities of writing (like where to put a comma and how to ensure subject-verb agreement). If your grasp of grammar is shaky, there are lots of books that can help.
Writing style and fluidity. An evening class or a correspondence course, where you get feedback from a tutor, can help you to develop stylistically.

Voice and purpose. One of the most important things to learn in writing is how to tailor a piece to an audience. This means learning how to write in different tones, from chatty to professional to motivational.

Good writers spend time learning and honing their craft, which gives them true confidence – because they know their skills are up to scratch.

Practice Regularly
If you’ve ever learnt to play an instrument, or studied a foreign language, you’ll know how important it is to practice. Even if your first attempts are faltering, you quickly get better. It’s just the same with writing: the more you write, the better you’ll become.

Read the rest of the article....

The Numbers Just Don't Add Up

Here's a fabulous article on web statistic numbers! I have just begun realizing this myself - with 5 different analytics programs, I often get 5 completely different numbers!

How can that happen? Well, if you think about it, statistic programs are counted on to weed out spiders and crawlers (which are "finding" your site electronically - but are not real visitors) and they are trying to get rid of repeat visitors. So, the statistics can vary - a lot.

So, why are they still helpful. Look to them for trends - not the actual stats. I do tend to rely more on my web hosts actual "numbers" for visitors than I do Google analytics (mostly because the former is higher) but Google analytics makes it easier to look at and track trends.

I know it's frustrating, but the Internet is NOT a perfect place.

Venting about Web Design companies who rip people off

I started this company as a work at home Mom - as a sideline. It's definately NOT a sideline anymore (yay) with my husband by my side and two new part time employees but I haven't changed my rates much in 9 years. Why? Because it's enough!! What I make and what I charge for what I do covers my time and my expertise.

Why am I venting?

Because yesterday I had one of those professional experiences that really pisses me off. I went into a neighborhood store (who's name shall be preserved to protect the innocent) and they said "I'm sorry we close in 5 minutes".

I commented that their website said they were open an hour later and they said "oh, it costs $300 to update our website so that's wrong and we close earlier". WHAT?????

Their website is html - boring, easy - as easy as me typing a sentence right now - we charge $15 for small updates (our quarter hour minimum). Whatever justification their web company has for doing what they're doing, it is a COMPLETE RIP OFF! Now, maybe that company doesn't want to do updates so they charge crazy rates to discourage having anyone go back to them.

However, what really annoys me about this is that we're doing the business owner a disservice. Why encourage people to put up a website they can never update? It's ridiculous!

I also visited an old friend's website yesterday and it was created by a company that charges $500 for a 4 page website (we charge $60 per page) and after digging a bit more around his website - guess what? He uses templates!! He buys a template for $25 - dumps this clients info into it and charges them $500. This is not only unfair, but I think misrepresentation - I highly doubt he tells them it's a template and if he does, $500 is a crazy price for filling out a template. Trust me, just go buy the $25 template and do it yourself.

When did having a company and being an entrepreneur become more about us making money than customer service for the clients we serve?

I happen to find websites invaluable. Not just because I'm a geek, but because I use them all the time. So, why should small companies be unable to update them or get help?

What's crazy about this story is that almost all of our clients have had these experiences in one way or another. Small companies most likely are not run by someone who's a tech expert and so they must look to web companies to help them. The problem is there is no standardization for what's "right" in the industry.

So, how do you NOT get ripped off? Shop around. Ask questions. Please, don't resort to having your nephew do the site (we have ugly stories to tell about that too) - but honestly there are reputable web companies out there.

Check this out if you don't want to sound "outdated"

From:
12 Words You Can Never Say in the Office by Carolyn Duffy MarsanTuesday, August 25, 2009

We've put together a list of outdated tech terms, phrases that you shouldn't be using at work anymore because they will make you seem old. This is especially true if you're looking for a new job. For example, on an interview, you should be talking about "cloud computing," not "ASPs" even though they are basically the same thing.
This list is useful for 20-somethings, too. Now when the senior person in the office uses one of these terms, you'll know what he's talking about.
1. Intranet
Popular in the mid-90s, the term "intranet" referred to a private network running the Internet Protocol and other Internet standards such as the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It was also used to describe an internal Web site that was hosted behind a firewall and was accessible only to employees. Today, every private network runs IP. So you can just use the term virtual private network or VPN to describe a private IP-based network.
2. Extranet Read the rest of the article...

Why flash looks great, but should be used with care (or not at all)

I just ran across this article "Don't Use Flash this way, or how to ruin your site with flash". Not only do I agree with all of her points, but I'll caution in a few other areas too.

If you design your site in Flash, you're forever at the mercy of the designer. You MUST have the source file to ever make edits and that will need to be done by someone who knows Flash, owns the version it was created in, etc. I currently have this nightmare with a client and I'm really hoping they don't have to completely rebuild their site.

Search engines can't find you - unless the person who designs it really knows what they're doing. However, in my experience, most Flash designers are artists and not web people or they wouldn't do an entire site in Flash anyway.

Also, the use of Flash usually doubles the cost of your site - it looks good, but does it look THAT good?

FREE listing on Google Maps - why wouldn't you do it?

I was in a seminar recently and I mentioned that you could have a free listing on google with a map to your location. Everyone was dying to know how! It's really simple, just follow these steps and, best of all, it's free!

First, you own your listing, they're just waiting for you to update it. So, go to the Google Local Business Center and register your business. Verification is required. Use the telephone verification method, if it is available. (Google will show you a PIN on the PC, then they'll call your number, and you enter the PIN. Takes 20 seconds). This is by far the easiest method. It's free, and you do not have to buy Google Ads. AND it will overwrite whatever Google Maps is currently showing. If it's a new business, you'll see the changes right away. If you're making changes they just ask you to verify again

On the "more info" page, at the bottom is a link that says "Business Owners: Add/Edit Your Business" and a link to the LBC above. Most people don't know this link is here, probably because it is often below the fold on the page. Google really should make this link more prominent.

They have recently added statistics so you can see how many people click on your information as well as coupons! I think this is a great option - you can put a coupon on your map listing for free! What a great idea if you have any sort of retail establishment (imagine a pizza coupon!).

-From our June Newsletter - be sure to sign up if you want this emailed to you!

Extreme Encouragement - all you need to be successful

I'm a big fan of Christine Kane (singer, songwriter and coach) and I thought this article was particularly great when so many people are either out looking for work or starting a new business - why not take this opportunity to pursue a dream!

How to Be an Extreme Encourager
by Christine Kane

Many years ago, when I first shared my dream of being a songwriter with one of my best friends, she knitted her brows and said, "Huh?"

I can't say I was deflated by all of the warnings that followed. After all, I had always been surrounded by this kind of "practical thinking." In fact, I probably shared my dream with her just so she'd talk me out of it.

During this fumbling stumbling time in my life, I met a man who became an unlikely best friend and mentor. He was a brilliant jazz musician, and he could do pretty much anything on the computer.

One night, after he performed at a local jazz club, we were walking towards my car. I told him my dream of being a songwriter. Without even blinking, he said, "Honey (he always called me Honey), you'd be a fabulous songwriter. That's perfect!" And he meant it.

At that moment, I felt like I was falling into a soft clean bed. I had never experienced such direct and truthful encouragement without a single "practical" warning attached to it. This friend set me free by offering one simple thing:

Encouragement.

Fast forward many years and successes and failures later. I'm surrounded by encouragers. I'm sure there are doubters around. But they don't register anymore.

Also, I have become an extreme encourager myself.

I've observed extreme encouragers. I've also recognized some traits that they all have in common. Here they are:

· An extreme encourager lives by example

The best encouragers are the ones who live it. Whether they're just getting started, or they're veteran risk-taking creativity-living wild-women - the encouragers are the ones who want a bigger life for themselves and are willing to "go there." This is why my jazz musician friend could simply offer encouragement when my other friend could not.

· An extreme encourager actively listens

Encouragers know that encouragement doesn't mean you just tell people to "buck up" or "get over it." They know how to listen. This means looking at the speaker, listening to her, setting agendas and judgments aside, and honoring the speaker as a wise soul.

· An extreme encourager avoids clichés

Avoiding clichés is actually a result of actively listening to someone. Being an extreme encourager doesn't mean that you blindly tell people "You can do it!" or "Let go of fear!" It's deeper than that. It's seeing the truth of the other person, especially when they cannot.

· An extreme encourager acknowledges the hooglie-booglies, but doesn't focus on them

We all have the hooglie-booglies. These are the voices that tell us we can't, or we shouldn't, or we'll fail, or we'll look stupid. An encourager doesn't focus on those voices because she knows they they're trying to hook her. An encourager simply acknowledges that the voices are there and that you can't make them go away by arguing with them. An encourager knows that those voices aren't the truth. They only SEEM like the truth.

· An extreme encourager remembers that no one knows what's best for anyone else

An encourager knows that we are all wise and that sometimes we make choices that might not seem so wise. An extreme encourager calls out our deepest desires and then helps us see the thoughts and fears that hold us back.

· An extreme encourager accepts miracles, grace and mystery as the deeper truth.

Extreme encouragers are often mystics of sorts. They know that the so-called "woo-woo" stuff is more real than the so-called "logical" stuff. They celebrate the divine as a simple fact of everyday existence and don't get caught up in the "prove it" mindset.

· An extreme encourager knows that you can develop the needed character traits as you go

In other words, she knows you're ready now, even if you're not perfect yet! I shudder when I read advice that discourages people from trying something because of character traits "required" in advance. "You shouldn't blog if you're not disciplined." "If you don't have focus, you can't be a writer." Most of the successful people I know developed these traits as they went. I certainly did. Encouragers understand the huge potential for growth in each human, especially when someone begins to follow her heart.

---------------

I'm grateful to the encouragers! And I'm grateful to be able to pass it on to others - either my friends, or to women in my retreats or my coaching clients!

Who has given you the encouragement you needed in your life? And do you pass it on now?

Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her 'LiveCreative' weekly ezine with more than 4,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

Time to hire help?

I had a client suggest that maybe it was time I hired someone this week (we're just a little behind folks, I promise we'll catch up!). But I had to laugh when this article appeared in my inbox. I think it probably rings true to a bunch of us!

7 Signs It's Time to Hire Someone by Christine Kane

I remember the first time I hired someone to mow my lawn for the summer. I was a tried-and-true D.I.Y. gal. I prided myself on it.

The only problem was that I freakin' couldn't stand mowing the lawn. I'd dread it all week. And even though I was happy once it was done, I started dreading it again the very next day!

At that time, I was studying several financial and business books. I began seeing my songs as my assets. I realized that the simple act of writing a song like "No Such Thing as Girls Like That" could pay me - in the long run - WAY more than the money I saved by mowing my lawn.

In other words, I learned how to value my work in the world. I learned how to act on that value. It was scary for sure. (The voices in my head shrieked at me to just bite the bullet and do my own lawn!) But that one act taught me so much about success and the value of my time.

These days I've taken it to a much bigger level, and I have a small team working for me.

Now that I'm coaching people, I gently teach them these new ways of valuing their time as they expand into more success in their own lives.

Here are 7 signs that it might be time for you to hire some help...

1. You don't have enough time to do the thing you're best at. What are you good at? What do you want to be good at? How much time do you actually spend doing that thing? If you're running around getting menial tasks done - and you have no time to pursue your passion, or engage in your high-pay-off, high-delight activities, then ask yourself why. Even if you let go of one item (like shoveling the snow) you're telling the Universe the value of your time. (And you know what? The Universe always says Yes.)
2. You resent people who don't struggle. This is a big one. If you hold resentment for people who live life with joy and ease, this could be telling you that you are waiting for rescue. That just leads to more struggle. Only YOU are in charge of whether or not you struggle. Rescue yourself and learn what true empowerment feels like.
3. You're worried about the economy Waiting for the economy to get better before you'll hire someone? Why not become a part of the solution and use your money to improve the economy? While everyone else is pulling back and firing people - you can experience what it's like to be the change you wish to see in the world!
4. You think that no one can do it as good as you. If you just shouted "Amen Sister!" - then please step away from your computer. Go to the bathroom mirror. Look into that mirror and say the following aloud: "I have a bit of a control issue."
   The belief that no one can do it better than you serves only to keep you in the role of the Martyr. Unless you are, say, a brain surgeon, then there are many people who can (and will) do it as good as you.
5. You're not playing to win. You're playing not to lose. Ask any coach or athlete about this.
   When you play to not lose, all you're doing is surviving, relying on yourself and hoping no one notices you. When you play to win - you take risks, you keep your mental attitude strong, you rely on the team, you look for the goal. Decide that you want to play to win.
6. You've used this phrase at least once in the past week: "By the time I show someone how to do it, I could just do it myself." This is a classic phrase of someone who refuses to succeed. It's the mantra of the struggle-addict. Learning how to delegate is empowering. Not just for you, but for others as well. Besides, when you show them how to do it once, they can keep on doing it so you don't have to! 7 - You dread certain things so much that they don't get done.It's okay to not enjoy aspects of your work or your life. (Most musicians don't like doing their own newsletter, for instance.) This is the exact thing you can hire someone to do.

What items do you dread? No matter what they are, when you get them off your plate, you'll experience more energy just knowing they're getting done - and you don't have to worry about them anymore!

Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her 'LiveCreative' weekly ezine with more than 4,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

Powerpoint Presentations - the pitfalls!

I had to laugh at this article. It makes some really wonderful points and I remember back when powerpoint came out, how many people just went crazy with the "bells and whistles". So, pop over to read "The 5 Cardinal Rules of a Terrific Powerpoint Presentation".

An excerpt (that was particularly funny):

A good friend of mine did his college presentation from typed notes, never once looking up while reading the entire speech. Talk about boring. It’s a common practice to see PowerPoint presentations load with text and bullet points prompting the presenter to read.

By the way, we do Powerpoint presentations for your organization, so if you're still stumped...let us know!

Spam, Lovely Spam

What is "spam?"

Spam (n): 1 - A lunchmeat product created by Hormel that made it's debut around World War II.
2 - Unsolicited email or posting advertising a product or a service.
Spam (v): To send unsolicited email or to post an unsolicited advertisement of a product or service.

The most common question: "how do I get rid of spam?"

First of all, I'm not going to bore you with the history of Spam - for that go to http://www.spam.com/ (which, from a personal point of view, is not boring at all but outrageously hysterical - take note of those cheesy flash dudes - that's a riot, but then again, that's my sense of humour). Nor am I going to explain the origin of the term, with regards to that unwanted email. Why? Because nobody seems to actually know. Theories abound on the Internet, but the actual reason for its usage is contentious.

The most popular argument is that it doesn't come from the Hormel product but from the famous sketch by the Monty Python's Flying Circus television show's classic "spam" sketch. For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past forty years, it goes like this:

A couple (the man played by Eric Idle and the woman played by a cross-dressing Grahame Chapman) go into a restaurant. The waitress, played by another cross dressing Python (Terry Jones, in this case) tells them that they can order:
"...egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam...or Lobster Thermidor au Crevettes with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam."

Meanwhile, a troupe of Vikings (or is that a "mob" of Vikings) in the background, start singing the praises of spam. And it goes a little something like this:
"Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spaaam, lovely spam"

Troupe? Mob? Well, they're definitely Vikings at any rate. They're dressed like Vikings and later the waitress shouts out "Shut up! [they shut up] Bloody Vikings!" I think that's a hint.

So what does this have to do with the Internet? Well, I'm glad you asked (even though you didn't - I did). As you all know (unless you've been living in a cave for the last fifteen or so years) the term "spam" is a colloquialism used to describe those useless bits of junk mail that you get in your emailinbox. It can also refer to unsolicited advertising posts on blogs (although that's a later contrivance) and generally anything unwanted and repetitive.

Almost everyone agrees that the term originated from the Monty Python sketch, rather than the actual lunchmeat product, but the experts disagree on why this is the chosen term for our Internet woes. Some argue that the term "spam" was picked to describe the fact that the spam that you get in your email box is repetitive like those "bloody Vikings" singing about spam. Others say it's because it's relentless like ... well ... those bloody Vikings singing about spam. Yet another argument says that it's because you can't get what you want, like the poor old woman (played by Grahame Chapman) who doesn't like spam and when she asks for "egg, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam" gets a disgusted "Urgghh!" from the waitress and another chorus of "spam, spam, spam" from those "bloody Vikings." Clearly, it's a mixture of all three which is probably why the term "spam" is so adept at describing that delicious spiced lunchmeat you find so often in your inbox.

So, how to get rid of it. It's quite simple, really. Take your computer, unplug all of the cables, put it in a cardboard box and put it out in the alleyway for the garbage collectors. There you go. Easy enough. It sounds like I'm being frivolous, but that really is the simple truth. Or just unplug your computer from the Internet (if you have a wireless connection, turn off the wireless card - contact your computer provider for further instructions).

Seriously, people. It can't be done. The answer really is that simple. Asking "how can I use my computer on the Internet without getting spam" is like asking "how can I drive down the freeway without seeing a billboard?" Same answer: "don't drive down the freeway." Spam is, after all, simply another form of advertising. The question you should be asking is: why am I getting spam?

Now there you can do something. But don't be fooled - you can't ever totally irradicate your spam intake. If you're already getting spam then it's pretty much too late. You can sign up to "be removed from the mailing list" but this is a double-edged sword. While certain reputable spam sources will remove your email address from their lists (and, technically, many of these sources probably couldn't be referred to as "spam" as, somewhere along the line you probably forgot to uncheck the checkbox that says "I agree to receive mailings from [blah blah blah]" - you know, the one in tiny grey letters at the bottom of that mail order site you went to five years ago - and, therefore, isn't "unsolicited") for some of the less reputable ones (read as: 98% of the Internet spam community) the "remove me" procedure is actually there to confirm that this is a legitimate email address to market to.

My philosophy on this, however, is go ahead and do that - click the "remove me" button. But if they then ask for which email address to remove, run. Let's face it, if they don't know which email address then chances are you're pumping their list - it's the same deal as sending the mailing costs to that Nigerian representative who's trying to smuggle funds. But then again, on the other hand, what do you have to lose? You're already on their list and it costs nothing for them to churn more junk mail out to you - even if they think it's a dead address, it costs them nothing (sorry, a nanosecond of processing time) so they'll keep sending it out. If you choose the "opt-out" option at best you will, in fact, be removed from the list. At worst, same as before (spam spam spam spam).

Now here's a handy trick that I thought of a couple of years ago that reduced my spam intake to zero, but it took time, patience and a particular vindictiveness. Look at their email and follow the links and find a fax number. Most marketing emails will have this or a way to get this - pretend to be an interested customer and they'll send it to you - after all, the spammers are trying to sell you something so they must provide a way for you to contact them. Then get yourself a fax program (it may cost a few cents for the phone call) and make up a full page fax that says "remove me from your emailing list." Provide your name and email address (after all, you do want the "credit" for doing this). But put the text in tiny print - only just readable and make the page a reverse copy: white text on a black background. Send it to them a few times for each time they spam you. After you've chewed up a profitable amount of their toner and fax paper you'll find that they'll drop you from their list like a hot potato (I went from an average 100 pieces of spam a day to zero within a week - but then again, I was out of work and had plenty of time on my hands).

But this probably doesn't work much anymore as many faxes are received electronically. So you have to resort to the next trick - one I call "spamming the spammers." Again, it might cost you, but then again what do you really want to do? Stop being spammed, right? Similar to the fax trick, find a return email address (or even that fax number might work). Then compose an email and force the maximum amount of characters into it - the complete works of William Shakespeare should do the trick - and set up an automated process that sends it continuously so that it clogs their email system and prevents legitimate orders. You may have to set up a few email addresses to send from but Yahoo and Hotmail provide them for free, so you can use theirs - you're not really trying to receive mail from these addresses, are you? Of course you want them to know why you're doing this to them. Make sure that you put in your message that you want to be removed from their list. Probably three times - at the very beginning, at the very end, and during the gravedigger scene from Hamlet "Alas, poor Yorik, I knew him please take me off your email list, Horatio." Make the subject line "I want to buy your [product/service]" so that it won't be spam filtered by them.

Speaking of which, spam filters are a terrific idea if you don't want to receive legitimate email. The problem with a spam filter is that it matches keywords or doesn't allow anything to pass except from authorized email addresses. But we're trying to run a business and some of these emails may come from very good potential new customers with unknown email addresses that may have some of these verboten keywords in their subject lines - those offensive words like "buy" and "sell" often get axed by the draconian electronic doorkeeper. That's lost business and lost business is bad business. Or it may be from an old, long lost friend who likes making jokes about viagra (don't laugh - I've actually had this happen - an email banned by a spam filter from a known friend who used the word "viagra" in his subject line).

The best advice I can give anyone about avoiding spam is "don't get on their lists in the first place." Only provide your email address to trusted sources. If you're not sure if a source is trusted then try this (if you have the time, patience and inclination) after giving your email address to an unknown source (like a storefront site) don't give it away for a while. If spam suddenly shows up, then you know who the culprit was. If you really have a vendetta against spam then try this trick (credit goes to my old boss) - create an email address with a misspelling in your name - and give this to one site only. When a bunch of spam (or is that a "mob" of spam? I've never been good with collective nouns) starts filling up that inbox then you know that this isn't a trusted site and that they've been selling their mailing lists. Then go ahead and find yourself a good lawyer (I mean, a "rockin'" lawyer because I doubt you'd have much of a case, but then again, I'm not a legal expert).

It's also a good idea to avoid putting an email link on your website. While the "Can-Spam" act prohibits web spiders from harvesting email addresses from websites, remember that the Internet is a world-wide community, and not everyone is bound to US law. So put your email address on your website in a graphic in a really wonky, stylistic font - readable by humans but not by automated machines (as seen on sites that require you to type in the virtually unreadable text before they allow you to sign up - the so-called "captcha").

On the side of being safe beware of the classic trick of the scammers. In my opinion this isn't spam but a manifestation of another ilk of internet debauchery that I have affectionately dubbed as "scumware." The ever famous Nigerian representative is one example of this - we all know not to do business with Nigerians giving away money (or anyone giving away money, for that matter - if it sounds too good to be true it probably is). But there's often the urgent email saying your bank account is about to be frozen. Before doing anything on any legitimate looking email check it's voracity! It sounds obvious, but recently I had a very good friend unleash a particularly harmful virus on his company's computer system because he didn't take a moment to check the legitimacy of an email.

When doubtful emails come in asking you to follow a link, put your mouse cursor over the link that they provide but DON'T CLICK ON IT! Just cursor over it and read the email address in the status bar of your browser (that's the little bar at the bottom of your browser that shows details of the link - if it's not enabled on your browser, ENABLE IT). If it's not the same base address (that is, http://www.yourbank.com/, or similar) to your bank then it's fraud. Delete immediately.

That's the first step. You can filter 90% of fraudulent emails that way. And, at the same time, you can deduce that you're smarter than the person who sent it because, through some javascript frippery, it's possible to change what that says (conceivably to a legitimate email address). If you're not totally freaked out by the email (and I would be: always go with the thought that banks never send emails with a "convenient link") then simply call your bank.
AND WHEN IT DOUBT - THROW IT OUT! If it's legitimate then they'll find another way to contact you if it really is that important.

Take this advice to heart, people. If you ignore the email and it is from your bank then you have a good argument that they deserved to be ignored because the email wasn't from a legitimate source. I won't guarantee it (because I don't guarantee anything) but if you have enough time to send white-on-black faxes to spammers then you have enough time to call your bank and ask them if http://x23.x45.x67.x89/ (or whatever number the address is) is their actual IP address. All named internet addresses, like http://www.widgetinc.com/, are converted to numeric equivalents, called IP, or "Internet Protocol" addresses - it's sort of like the Internet post/zip code. I'm sure your bank will be more than happy to tell you it's scumware spam and to dump the sucker. MAKE THE CALL! At worst the clerk on the other end may hang up thinking "whoa, that person was an idiot" but you can hang up thinking "whoa, I'm smart for making that call." And you are and chances are that the clerk will think so, too (if not, then he's an idiot).
Also, get yourself a good virus scanner to protect yourself from other forms of scumware. AVG provides one for free with complete updates and offers further protection for a nominal fee (http://www.avg.com/ - go to their comments section and tell them that you were referred by widgetinc.com or the sky will fall and the oceans will boil and you'll face eternal damnation and/or a bad credit rating).

But most of all, protect your blood pressure - learn to live with spam. If you're a small business then the time it takes to filter this garbage out is worth it when compared to the potential loss of business that comes from using hatchet technique spam filters. If you're a big business then you might consider actually hiring someone to filter spam. Hiring people is good for the kharma and good for the economy and human intuition beats electronic rationale every time.

Incidentally, I've heard that Hormel encourages the use of the term "spam, not only with regard to the Monty Python sketch but also in terms of unsolicited email. As they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity and, after all, who doesn't love spam, spam, spam, spam, spaaam, lovely spam?

The Truth about Mpiskotphobia*

"It haunts me. I can't sleep at night."

"Um hmm." The Doctor scrawled a note on his notepad making the sound of understanding to show that he was listening attentively. He was your classic stereotype of a psychologist - grey hair with a beard, in a highcut suit, speaking, when he spoke, in a German accent.

"I thought they were harmless but that was before I understood. And then I started reading things, terrible things. They're watching me. Waiting to strike."

"Um hmm."

"I can't use it anymore." said the Patient, who could have been anyone, indicating the laptop computer he brought with him. "They might spring into action at any time and I'll be ruined!"

The Doctor turns to the camera and speaks.
"My friend here is suffering from an acute case of mpiskotophobia. The fear of cookies."
He returns to addressing the patient.

"I think what you fear is not the cookie, but what it can do to you. What would you say if I told you that there is no reason for your fear?"

"But I read things. They talk about how those things can destroy my computer. How they track me, like spies, always watching. Waiting for the right moment to drain my account and broadcast my doings to the world."

"You have been misinformed my friend. Cookies cannot destroy your computer. They are not programs. They do not 'run.' They sit quietly on your machine causing no harm. They are not viruses." The Patient gave a gentle shudder. "And you are right to shudder. Viruses can harm your computer or steal information. They are programs that do run without your knowledge. But cookies are harmless." The Patient was showing skepticism with a rolling of the eyes.

"I see your skepticism. Let me prove it to you. Open your computer." The Patient looked at the thing with horror. "You must," The doctor continued. "It is the most important part of your therapy." The Patient gingerly nudged the thing open, much as a person with a stick might turn over a rock covering a spider's nest. "Now turn it on." The Patient did so, with a quick stabbing motion, as though in fear of electical shock. The computer whirred into action. "Now let me show you." Quickly, the doctor opened a Windows Explorer window and navigated to the following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\[the patient's login name]\cookies

"There's thousands of them! And the names, that's every website I've ever been to!" The Patient shrieked and began to hyperventilate.

"Not thousands. Only three hundred cookies can be stored a single user's system, according to the Netscape specification. And only twenty from any one domain. And they're not from every website. Only the ones that use cookies. Let's look inside one, shall we?" The doctor double-clicked a cookie file and it popped open in notepad (which it would do as cookies all use a .txt extension in Windows). Displayed on the notepad screen was, well, gibberish. "It looks scarey, but it isn't really. There are four parts to a cookie. They are:" And a scrolling screen dropped down behind the Doctor. It had four things listed:

The Data
The Domain
The Path
The Expiration Date

"Let us look at each of these parts in turn, shall we? First, the data. This is the information that the website is interested in. It is not your bank account number in Switzerland. It is not personal letters to your lover. In fact, it is only information that is known to the website when you visited it last time. This could be personal information if you filled it out in a form, but usually it is the pages you went to or your username and password."

"But why would they want to know that about me? Why are they after me?"

"They're not after you. They want your username and password so that you don't have to enter it next time you visit the site." The Doctor explained. "Instead of asking for that information they simply get it from your cookie. They might want to know which pages you visit so that they can have more information about what interests people - what pages they should improve and which ones people aren't going to so they can drive more traffic to them or get rid of them altogether.

"And if it's a store they might want to know what items you looked at last time so they can make recommendations of things that might interest you, this time.

"The second part of the cookie is the Domain. This is important because a domain can only read and write their own cookies. They can't read or write someone elses. So if you visit, for example (and I'm not accusing you, you must understand), hotblondes.com," The Patient blushed, "and then navigate to christianitytoday.com, christianitytoday can't read the hotblondes cookie and condemn you to hell. Your secret is safe."

"But," the Patient interjected, looking at the list of cookie files on the screen, "I've never been to doubleclick.com so why do I have a cookie from them? Surely another site must have put it there. And how do you know about hotblondes.com?"

"Er, um, well, anyway, no, another site did not put it there." said the Doctor. "That is what is called a 'tracking cookie.'" The term "tracking" conjured up images of shady characters in trenchcoats monitoring the Patient's every move.

"T-t-they're tracking me?"

"Yes, but it's nothing to be afraid of. And while you might think you've never been to this site, I'm afraid you have, without even knowing it. You've seen the ads on webpages, right?"

The Patient shrugged assent.

"Well, those ads don't come from the site. They come from an ad service. The website owners subscribe to an ad service which serves up the ads. And because the ads originate on the service's servers, they have the right to send a cookie along with the ad."

"Why would they want to do that?" The Patient asked, fear now starting to be scared off by curiosity.

"Because they want to know how best to target their ads. They know, for example, you went to websitex.com and were looking at, say, wrist watches. They know this because the page sent the request to the ad service. The next time you visit websitex they can know that you're in the market for a watch so they can show, as the next ad on that page websitey.com which sells watches.

"If you think about it, this not only helps the ad service, by making it more likely that they will have successful advertising, but it also helps you because you might not like the watches at websitex.com but you might see the ad which shows exactly what you're looking for. That sort of personalized advertising can save you a lot of surfing time."

"I see. So they're not tracking my every movement on every page."

"Not at all. They can't see the cookies except the ones they've set. Now, let's move on to the path." Said the Doctor, tapping the chart where it said "The Path."

"This tells the website which part of the site the cookie pertains to. This can be any directory on the site. When set the cookie can be read from this directory or any lower directory. If set to the root directory the cookie is good for the entire site."

"And why is that good?"

"From a user's perspective it really doesn't matter. But for the website owner it is useful because it helps them divide up the cookie tasks to different part of the site. In the old days of the slow internet it also sped things up, slightly - every time you hit the page the cookies for that page are sent, so if you're hitting a page that the cookie is irrelevent to then there's no point in sending the cookie. It's just wasted bandwidth. But now that the internet is so much faster and cookies are so small, there's not really much difference."

"How small? That's another thing that worries me. Even though there can only be three hundred cookies, who's to say that they won't store entire encyclopedia on my computer and leave me no room!" The panic was coming back and the Patient began to sweat again.

"The Netscape specification says it, that's who."

"But I use Internet Explorer."

"It doesn't matter. The Netscape cookie specification was created by Netscape Corporation in 1996 and has since become the standard for cookies in all of the major browsers. And the Netscape cookie specification states that cookies can be no bigger than four kilobytes, or 4096 bytes. The most space cookies can take up on your computer is 1.2 megabytes. Considering that the average hard drive these days exceeds eighty gigabytes, this is almost no room at all.
"And if they get in your way, simply delete them. Go to the folder I showed you earlier, select the files and hit the 'delete' button. Off they go. And if you don't want them to come back then there are settings in your browser to block the cookies. But I don't know why you would want to. That would mean that sites you visit regularly would be asking for your login information everytime you go there, or would stop you from shopping at certain sites because many sites store your shopping cart in a cookie so that you can pick up where you left off if you go away and then come back.

"Or you could simply wait for the cookie to expire. The last part of the cookie is the Expiration Date. When a cookie is set so too is an expiration date and when that date is passed the cookie is automatically deleted. A cookie with no expiration date set is available only for the length of the current session."

"I see." said the Patient, now starting to look visibly relieved. But then something dawned on the Patient who became agitated, another streak of panic starting to develop. "But who is to stop someone from stealing my cookie information when it's being sent?"

"No one. Cookies can be intercepted just like any other data on the Internet. Cookie information is simply part of the header information on an HTML page. And you remember what I told you in our last session, though, don't you?" The Doctor asked. Like a parrot the Patient repeated the mantra that the Patient was told to repeat while surfing the 'net:

"If you don't trust the safety of the information you are sending then don't send it."

"That is true. Remember, a cookie only has whatever information you give it. Apart from your IP address, but that's common knowledge, anyway. Anyone can randomly attempt to hit IP addresses and that why..."

The Patient picked up the beat, "a secure firewall is a must."

"Exactly! Very good." The Doctor commended. "But there is one more thing about cookies that you should know. If any sensitive information is being sent then the cookie can be marked as 'secure' meaning that the data can only be transmitted on a secure connection, meaning..."

"The data is encrypted."

"Excellent!" The Doctor applauded. "So you see there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to cookies. Cookies are not the enemy. They are your friends and make your Internet life so much more rewarding. Unfortunately, however, now our time is up."

The Patient carefully closed the laptop and snuggled it lovingly under the Patient's arm. The Doctor shook the Patient's hand warmly and walked the Patient out of the office. The Doctor then turned to the camera and spoke.

"It is sad that I see so many cases like this of mpiskotophobia. It is by far the most irrational form of technophobia. But our friend here is finally starting to get the message...

"Are you?"

The Doctor then turned to his secretary. "Remember to send the bill," he said, mentioning the Patient's name, "And confirm another appointment for a week from today. I'm sure the Patient return with a severe debt anxiety."

*Editor's Note: There is no such actual term as "mpiskotophobia." I totally made it up. I searched and searched but could not find any legitimate term for "fear of cookies." A shame, really, because the fear of cookies is both irrational and pandemic. There should be a term for it so I created this one. It comes from the Greek "mpiskoto" (a phonetic spelling) meaning "cookie" and, of course, "phobia" which comes from the Greek suffix "phobe" meaning "One that fears or is averse to a specified thing." [dictionary.com]

Important tips for a successful website!

Something that I think all of my customers have in common is that they have been given bad advice about websites at one time or another, so I thought I’d use my newsletter to give out some advice that might (or might not) fit your business. Here are things I think are really important to successful websites:

• Keep your site fresh and keep it fashionable! Even a new picture on the front or a color change, helps to show people that you are keeping your site up to date.


• Make the site a marketing tool. Think about why you have a site. Is it actually generating anything for you or your customers?


• Set up an e-mail program. This is a fantastic and inexpensive way to keep connected to your customers.


• Create an online reward for prized customers. This doesn’t have to be huge. Just give them something for coming to you.


• Speed loading time. There’s nothing worse than having people give up on you because it takes your site forever to load. Not everyone has a “state of the art” computer. Keep that in mind.


• Align the site to the organization and make sure your site reflects your business and who you are.


• Add testimonials or success stories. I think this is key! People may not believe you’re the best, but if they hear other people say you are, they might take notice!


• Being cutting edge doesn’t always mean cutting edge technology. Cutting edge technology costs money. For the same money, you could do other more cost effective things to generate business like Google Ad Words or supplemental advertising. “Flashy” sites mean the owner spent a lot of money NOT that they necessarily are making a lot of money. If you need to promote that type of image then do it but sometimes simple is best!.

I always tell my customers to start small You can always add on and move to other platforms (for shopping carts) but to put a lot of money in up front just because you think you have to is bad advice and I refuse to give out any of that!