Makovision

Is Y! Messenger becoming as obnoxious as Real Player?

One of the things that really ticked me off in the late 90's and early 2000 was the way Real Media used to infect every aspect of my PC when I tried to view a Real Media video. This was during the time Microsoft was making a aggressive all-out assault on Real Media.

The last few times I have upgraded my Yahoo IM client I have had the same problems. Today when I upgraded it not only put a Yahoo Toolbar on my Firefox browser, it also put Yahoo! in the menu bar.

Yahoo! must have anticipated this would seriously piss people off, because they put the uninstall very prominently on the Menubar item. I was quickly able to uninstall this. The toolbar was not as simple as simply unchecking VIEW TOOLBAR ITEMS in the VIEW menu. I had to go into the toolbar settings to do an uninstall.

I know there will be a time in the future that Google will be just as evil - despite their "Don't be evil" mantra. But for now I am almost inclined to completely do away with Y! Messenger entirely.

Firefox 2.0 Officially Released, and will monitor your plugins for 2.0 updates

I just upgraded to the new Firefox 2.0 browser and so far I like what I see.

Some of my plug ins did not work. For instance, my Yahoo Photo Upload extension as well as a couple others. But those will be fixed promptly I am sure. The Firefox install wizard asks on load if you would like Firefox to keep track of when the outdated plug ins are updated. Very cool!

Download Firefox 2.0 Web Browser.

Why MySpace is Better Than a Regular Band Website

Web developers need to really think about how they can simplify the time to launch websites, and how to offer simple tools for an artist to communicate with fans and dispense information in a timely and efficient manner. Several bands I follow now have a simple splash page which says "Coming Soon - Meanwhile check our MySpace account for updated tour information and news via our blog."

The problem? They have had a "Coming Soon" page for almost a year! The reason is simple. Why duplicate what they already have at MySpace?

]]> Continue Reading "Why MySpace is Better Than a Regular Band Website" at Blogging Muses

Getting Started with Ajax

The start of 2005 saw the rise of a relatively new technology, dubbed “Ajax” by Jesse James Garrett of Adaptive Path. Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. In a nutshell, it is the use of the nonstandard XMLHttpRequest() object to communicate with server-side scripts. It can send as well as receive information in a variety of formats, including XML, HTML, and even text files. Ajax’s most appealing characteristic, however, is its “asynchronous” nature, which means it can do all of this without having to refresh the page. This allows you to update portions of a page based upon user events and provides one of the cornerstones of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) referred to in discussions of "Web 2.0."

]]> You may be wondering, why do both examples do the exact same thing? It shows how you can work with two completely different backend systems and still get the results you want. In Ajax, as in many things, flexibility is important to get the job done.

Continue Reading "Getting Started with Ajax" at A List Apart.

Sitemeter Web Stats Adds Outgoing Clicks to it's Free Web Stats Package

According to today's entry on Sitemeter's blog, outgoing clicks tracking has been added to the free package. I feel this has personally been a long time due, since people like MyBlogLog and others have been tracking outgoing clicks for quite awhile.

The new reporting feature looks good too. I would like to see more outgoing links tracked, but it looks like the feature is going to be refined continually over the next few weeks.

Screenshots of the new reporting features after the jump.

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As you can see in the screen shot above, it follows the same familiar format as all the other stats features in Sitemeter.

The red arrow points to it's location in the left-hand navigation bar.

I actually didn't notice the link had been there all morning until Sitemeter's blog entry came through my RSS Reader. It would be nice if they put a little NEW! next to additions like this in the future.

There are some caveats (according to Sitemeter's site):

"The out click can occur any time during the visit and is not necessarily a click on the exit page of the visit."

"Only the last out click of a visit is displayed even if the visitor clicks on several links during their visit."

"The out click tracking isn’t working for some browsers like Safari. I will establish a list of those browsers at a later date."

All in all it is working remarkably well. I'm having a blast this afternoon tracking my outgoing links. I have a paid subscription to MyBlogLog too, but I'm still up in the air about which I prefer.

There are some things I would like to see added. I hope to see rankings of the top outgoing clicks. Even if this is a paid item like in MyBlogLog, that's cool. But just give us that stat, please?

As with the other forms of reporting on the site, you can drill down to more specific information, like IP Address, location, etc, by clicking the numbered link next to each outgoing click.

Good job Sitemeter.

Technorati Tags: blogging,blog,sitemeter,mybloglog,statistics,stats,weblogs,webstats,blogstats,feedburner,bloglines.

Showcase extension for Firefox - my new favorite add-on

I love the new extension for Firefox - and thanks to Lifehacker for pointing it out.

Basically, showcase provides a way to see thumbnails of all your Firefox browser windows. But they aren't just static thumbnails. If you have blogs rebuilding and web pages loading, a simple pres sof the F12 key allows you to see thumbnail views of all pages and what the page is actually doing in realtime.

You can zoom in and out on each thumbnail, and even close thumbnails individually right from the thumbnail browser.

Of course, you need to get
first. Then go grab the extension.

Do you have your hired bloggers sign contracts?

I have a niche blogging network I have started and would like to hire some bloggers to add content and personality to the network. I have some "writer" contracts, but none with anything specific to blogging.

Do you know of any blogger contracts out there in the public domain with specifics for the blogging industry? What specifics would you suggest for a good blog writer contract?

If anyone has some examples they would like to share (heck I'll even pay for it) I would love to take a look. Email me directly at "don aatt makovision dott comm".

Steve Pavlina on 'How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog)'

Steve started his site one year ago. He had zero visitors. This month he is projecting he will have over 700,000 site visitors. How did he do it? This article tells how.

Interestingly, Steve's perspective goes against the grain of many of today's blog models. He is against disposable content (i.e. Engadget, Gizmodo). He says, "Virtually everything on this site is my own original content. I rarely post blog entries that merely link to what others are writing. It takes more effort to produce original content, but it’s my preferred long-term strategy. I have no interest in creating a personal development portal to other sites. I want this site to be a final destination, not a middleman."

IMO he is right. When "The Great Blog Shakeout" (every industry goes through a consolidation phase) occurs in a few years, you will see the ones with the 'real' content remain. (Article)

Blog growing pains: Newspaper shuts down blog.

What do you do when a corporate media blog turns into little more than a character-bashing forum? You shut it down. At least that is what the Washington Post did yesterday according to this article over at CNET.

I'd love to hear how the Business Blog Consulting people would handle this. What would you do if your corporate blog ran into this type of problem?

Full article.

Technorati

I thought I already claimed my blog with Technorati. I guess I haven't. Well ... here goes. Technorati Profile

11 Techniques to Increase Page Views on Your Blog

Of course more page views may or may not be what you want from your blog. At least one commenter on the previous post noted that they are happy with a low page view count because it could mean people are leaving their blog by clicking on an advertisement and thereby earning them money. While there could be some truth in this observation and I’m not adverse to this happening on my blogs - I’m also interested in building blogs that people find interesting and useful and one of the many measures of this can be page views. Of course to get back to the money thing again - those of you running impression based ads will be interested in increased page views also.

]]> There are no doubt other techniques for increasing page views. I’ve heard bloggers who swear by writing loads of posts per day to encourage readers to come back numerous times per day as one such technique - but I’d love to hear your experiences ...

Continue Reading "11 Techniques to Increase Page Views on Your Blog "

Download Firefox With Google Toolbar

Did you get a new computer over the holiday season? If so, don't forget to get the latest version of the Firefox Browser. At only 4.7MB (Windows), Firefox doesn't take too long to download - even over a slow connection and seconds over a fast connection. The installer gets you set up quickly, and the new Easy Transition system imports all of your settings - Favorites, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer and other browsers - so you can start surfing right away.

Free download:

]]> Security is one of the greatest features. Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls. A wide array of privacy tools keep your online activity your business.

Free download:

Let Your Objective Guide You…

Recently I was talking with a very bright traditional marketer on the value of integrating Internet marketing into a website's marketing mix. Personally, I have witnessed significant website sales or lead increases when traditional marketing strategies like direct mail, radio, television or publicity are performed in conjunction with proven internet marketing strategies.

]]> Business owners and marketers have a tendency to think in broad terms about their marketing objective by focusing on ones such as “generating traffic” or “designing a website.” Instead, the effectiveness of their internet marketing strategies should be driven by specific marketing objectives established from the end result required of the business to be economically sustainable.

Continue Reading "Let Your Objective Guide You…"

Raising the perceived value of your website

Strange as it might seem, I have rarely seen content management being accepted as a management discipline. Most people who 'manage' websites have little authority. They are, in reality, website administrators. They put stuff up. Content that is administered rarely delivers value.

]]> Value is at the core of the content management challenge. Low-quality content destroys value, and there is a lot of low-quality content out there. How do you measure value? Task completion. How many of your readers completed a task as a result of your content?

Continue Reading "Raising the perceived value of your website"

An Outsider's Perspective on Your Web Site

Additional landing pages add additional complexity. I'm trying to help the business find as many stumbling blocks within their conversion process as possible - the whole process is actually about finding faults, which might be tough to hear. People want to hear they've done a great job. But I wouldn't be doing an assessment if things were going well. What I'm really after up front is all the low-hanging fruit a business can fix quickly to generate much-needed ROI - and these are fixes that will continue to pay dividends over and over.

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An excellent example of navigation chock full of trigger words is Kinetic Fountains - it's a small site selling various types of water fountains. This site's navigation provides many different visitor types the ability to browse in their own terms. Businesses should make sure the site provides different navigation paths based on every different way a person may decide to shop or move forward

Continue Reading "An Outsider's Perspective on Your Web Site"