Blog News Watch

I have a confession to make.

I’m writing this to you from a QWERTY keyboard.

No, I haven’t given up on the Dvorak layout since I started three days ago; in fact, at only day 3, I’m loving it. But I have kept one computer on QWERTY while I learn due to the sheer amount of writing I have to do in a day—not to mention that once I switched my other keyboard, I had to take up a mammoth task that requires a lot of typing and has to be done within the next couple of months.

That said, I’ve spent most of my time on the Dvorak keyboard. I elected to modify my iBook’s keys first, and I switched them around in a matter of minutes.

On my Mac mini, though, I’m using a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic, and with some keys quite a different size to the others, due to the unusual shape, it requires labels and can’t be switched around.

I’ll switch it, once I’ve ordered the labels and I’m fully competent on Dvorak.

But as I said, I’m on Dvorak most of the time anyway. This keyboard’s a backup. I spend a lot of time coordinating with colleagues around the world and use my iBook for things like that—Skype, for instance—pretty much exclusively.

Today I spent over an hour coaching a new editor at the Free Articulator. That’s a lot more intensive on the typist than writing blog posts, as it’s real time instant messaging. I did pretty well keeping up with him, though at times it was frustrating.

And that, I believe, is why I’m getting used to it so quickly. People say that it’s near impossible to learn Dvorak while you’re still using QWERTY. I know it’s only day 3, but my experience is suggesting the opposite —maybe those people need to try using heavy instant messaging while they learn

It just challenges and demands more from you, and even though you’ll want to scream at something because your friend is pumping out messages at a ration of ten to your one, it means you improve. Way faster.

I’m faster than most say they are by day 3, and I’m still capable of touch-typing on QWERTY (takes a minute to readjust though). I have found at least one other report of being fully capable to learn and continue using both simultaneously.

My wrist pain is pretty much gone, so long as I keep away from this keyboard as often as I can.

By day three, things are looking great, looking like you can actually keep up two layouts at once, and Dvorak just feels faster and more comfortable (and the spider-stretching sensation when you go back to QWERTY that some people have reported is true).

In short? It’s still looking like the best way to blog if you want to produce heaps of content, much more quickly, with much less pain.

Note: at the time of publication the fantastic site linked to through the picture is down - it exceeded its bandwidth after it got Boing Boinged, but I’ve linked here anyway because once it’s back up it’s a GREAT resource.

I’ve had Flock on my computer several times. I’ve configured it, used it for half an hour and then fallen back on the sheer habit of using Firefox. It’s a web browser, after all, and kickin’ a browser habit is particularly hard. It was Flock 0.7 (Cardinal) that I had on my computers, sitting there untouched. Now 0.9 is out and I’ve barely left the program since I downloaded and installed it two days ago. In fact, I’m writing to you from Flock right now.

Flock is billed as the social web browser and I think it delivers in a big way. It may not integrate with any of your social networks yet, but it does allow you to post blog entries from the browser as you surf, to add favorites to del.icio.us and other social bookmarking services with the click of a button built-in to the toolbar; even the “Mail this to a friend” feature common on many websites is actually a feature of the browser itself.

Your Flickr, Photobucket and YouTube accounts can also be accessed through Flock and the Media Bar allows you to easily drag photos and videos from your accounts straight into your blog posts. It’s nothing short of amazing.

Flock can also serve as an RSS feed reader, but I found that it wasn’t the best I’d ever used; it’s a bit basic and web-based for my liking. I like to read feeds pretty much the way I read email and NetNewsWire allows me to do that.

Perhaps my favorite feature of Flock is its most simple; the Web Clipboard. The Web Clipboard allows you to drag images and text from the web to a drawer that will hold them until you use them later. So simple, yet so useful.

There are two overarching categories of blog activity; writing and promotion. Flock will help you write more, which is the first step to having something to promote.

If you’re a blogger, Flock will dramatically increase your productivity. If you want to get your posts-per-day rate up, download it immediately; you’ll be posting incessantly as you surf! In a sentence: I don’t know how I lived without it!

Tags: flock, flock review

My name is Joel Falconer, and I’ve never posted a word here. Not one article, not even a comment. I’ve been a part of 451 Press for a while, though - I’m a musician, and I talk to other musicians at Musician’s Notebook.

But that’s enough about me, and more about the blog news! The last post from this blog’s previous writer was on the BlogRush system, which was brand-spankin’ new at the time. Since phase two was just rolled out, I think that’s a great place to pick up.

Getting Traffic from BlogRush

Every time I see something written about BlogRush, I notice the question is:

“How much traffic is this thing going to get me?”

That’s a perfectly valid question, too, seeing as the purpose of this widget is to drive traffic. In fact, if you haven’t asked that question to yourself at least once, please proceed to slap yourself over the head and then ask. If you’re not asking those kind of questions and just signing up for every new service that comes out for bloggers, you lacking clear focus and direction in your plan for promoting and marketing your blog.

I checked my stats on Musician’s Notebook. BlogRush brought in 52 hits there throughout October, which is the same amount as Google Reader. It’s not a massive amount by any stretch, but if it’s bringing just as many people to my site as those who’ve subscribed and read it in the most popular RSS reader on Earth, I won’t complain. At those traffic levels, it’s worth keeping around while that blog finds its audience.

I checked the stats here, too. October yielded nothing, but since the previous writer left near the end of September, I checked that month’s stats too. Nothing. There were more referrals from sites with wonderful permalinks such as “free-pantie-hose-movie” - and that certainly didn’t seem like something that’d fit under the Computers & Internet category at BlogRush. Since the traffic at Blog News Watch is three times that of Musician’s Notebook, I’m going to assume it was never installed.

The only other blog I have with BlogRush on it is Alfadir’s Piercing, my band’s blog. It has had one referral from the service.

Obviously there are differences in results between blogs, and many factors that affect click-through. Crafting great headlines is just absolutely vital to having any success on BlogRush. If this blog were on BlogRush I’m also sure that there’d be very few referrals coming through, seeing as this kind of site would be the most common type of site in their database.

Bottom Line: the BlogRush service might help you, if you are just starting out and building an audience. If you do decide to use it, hone up on headline writing skills. Otherwise, it’s just slowing down your visitor’s loading times.

Basic Functions That Never Made It Into 1.0

There was one feature that was absolutely necessary in BlogRush 1.0. There was no way to delete any of your own blogs from the database. I didn’t want to delete my blogs because I was unhappy, but because there was an error in the system when I signed up. The Musician’s Notebook sign up page didn’t work properly and constantly refreshed, thereby sending the wrong information repeatedly to the service.

When I logged in to BlogRush for the first time, there was one listing for Alfadir’s Piercing and way too many for Musician’s Notebook. I randomly chose one and used it.

My list was disgustingly ugly with clones that should never have existed, but I had no way to get rid of them. Now, in 2.0, I do. Thank grok.

New Features - Shiny, like the blinding light that occurs when a blogger finally washes the dishes.

Everyone always starts with the new features because they aren’t as boring as everything else. It’s like journalism school in universities… “If it bleeds, it leads!” In this case, only if it bleeds on the edge of new technology.

It was about time.

BlogRush finally got better statistics reporting. Better yet, it also received a cool little at-a-glance feature that lets you find out quickly which of your posts are going well and which are being ignored by the masses.

Well, I always feel ignored. I have abandonment issues, from the time when I was two and my sister threw my teddy bear out the car window at 110km/h on the highway.

BlogRush 2.0’s fancy stats system allows me to recoup some small amount of self-esteem after that shattering event, by seeing how many people will click on a headline I write.

It also seems to depend what you’re writing about: my music blog gets very little BlogRush traffic, yet Musician’s Notebook gets a fair bit. It may be that the structure of titles on the other blog is very different.

But still, stats! Beautiful, beautiful stats. I’ve always been a stats whore. Better still are the custom reports with user-defined date ranges.

Fair’s fair; helping the poor is better than helping the rich

Those of you considering giving up your BlogRush widget may do well to give it a bit more time. Low traffic members are now getting most of the bonus traffic BlogRush awards, and the radio airplay that comes with it. If you want to use BlogRush to promote your small and unloved blog, you’ve got the right strategy.

OVERALL: I say bloggers who are starting out should keep the widget on for a few weeks or months until they start finding their own audience. Once that happens, BlogRush’s benefits will be negligible and you can save the space and processor energy for other things.

Enjoy BlogRush 2.0!

Tags: blogrush, blogrush phase two, john reese

No, that’s not what this Time article says outright - it’s my take on the feelings of some of the users interviewed. Still, it’s a conclusion that might be more supportable than not. Consider:

• Power users like Lockergnome’s Chris Pirillo gave up and “upgraded” (his word) back to XP.
• The lawyer’s ubiquitous officemate, the Fujitsu ScanSnap, won’t work with Vista. Back in the immediate pre-launch days, several of my colleagues called Fujitsu to get the skinny - we were told the company had “no plans” to make its products compatible with Vista. (And say what you will about Vista and Micro$oft - and I’ll be right there with you - but Fujitsu bears not a small amount of my ill will for this move, too. Not making a very popular hardware piece compatible with what’s destined to be one of the major OSs? Not acceptable.)
• Don’t even get me started on the upgrade nonsense.

So, I’m left with just one question: why didn’t I switch to Mac sooner? Seriously - what a joyous computing experience I’ve had with this machine! One pleasure after another. Problems - to be sure there have been some - were so easily fixed, and the whole “gestalt” (love that word) is just heads and shoulders towering above any Microsoft machine I’ve ever owned (and there’ve been plenty of those, too).

If you’re a serious blogger, or want to be, I can only encourage you to give the Mac serious consideration. You’ll find a machine that will suit your needs, I guarantee you, and when you do, you’ll not be sorry you did. As for that old “they cost too much” thing, I submit to you that after you upgrade your computer to be up to Vista standards, then replace your Fujitsu ScanSnap with a new model that works with Vista, and then do the same for your printer, maybe you reconsider that assumption. Initial cost is just one portion of the “cost of ownership” formula, and when you get right down to it, I think the two cost just about the same, once you take into account the fact that Macs come with all that stuff that’s “extra” on many Windows machines.

Macs are particularly great for bloggers for many reasons, i think. They make podcasting and vlogging easy; the software that’s available for Mac is highly conducive to creative endeavors; and they’re just more reliable and stable, in my experience.

I’m not about to go all “fangirl/Macs RULE!” on you. But I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t point out that Macs go with serious pro blogging like PB & J. Or Vista and frustration.

Technorati Tags: windows vs mac

Update: According to MSNBC.com, there’s a relatively easy way around the 2-year contract requirement - have really bad credit.Half a million people can’t be wrong! But there were also quite a few unhappy people this past weekend, with several buyers experiencing activation delays.

But the consensus among reviewers seems pretty clear - iPhone? iLove.

What do you think? Is the iPhone the second coming of cell phones? Or is it just another over-hyped and under-performing entry in a crowded market?

Check out this article by Lesa Snider King for iStockPhoto (”I Resolve To Be More Resolute: Understanding Resolution”). While obviously geared to the broader group of people who buy iStockPhoto credits and download their images, it’ll help you clear up any lingering misperceptions you have over DPI, PPI, and file size.

And if you don’t use images in your blogging - why not think about it? Yes, it adds a slight cost to your cost of producing a blog post (and if you’re like me, that cost is measured strictly in terms of lost TV watching time and coffee drunk) but if you’re slightly more business like about it, think about the ROI (that’s “return on investment” for you creative types who are allergic to biz-lingo) of adding some sharp, relevant images to your blog posts. It creates visual appeal and stimulates your readers’ brains and unless you’re Paris Hilton, this is a good thing.

image resolution, blogging, technical tips, images in blogs

We are living in the age where there is almost everything got beta, micro, 2.0 etc. in the butt or on the face. Well thanks to Bill gates “think week”, we might as well see micro payment processing in near future. Paypal considered as the first ever successful online payment system, soon after that so many popped up, even Google has it’s own version of paypal killer. But only handful of them really stand out against Paypal as a payment method or payment processor.

But guess what Microsoft’s mastermind Bill Gates announced at World Economic Forum,in DAVOS Switzerland that Microsoft Corp. is developing on an online payment system that will be cheaper than credit card transactions, making it possible for companies to charge small fees for Web-based content and services they now offer for free. This killer plan to enter the online payments business evolved during bill gates so called “think week,” a twice-yearly ritual where he usually isolates himself in a backwoods cabin to study new ideas. My oh my a week long thoughts to screw up eBay’s multi-billion dollar business!

Microsoft’s move into Internet payments might not only kick paypal’s butt but as well as could threaten credit card companies’ online profits. Gates noted that traditional credit card fees would need to be undercut, and severely. See, the credit industry makes money not only off interest, but they also scoop up 2.75% + $0.35 in fees for most transactions (on average). As you can see, this makes charging for inexpensive items quite unattractive; a $0.25 charge would be instantly doubled on account of fees. For people who have fantasies of selling web content by the page, this is unworkable. That is seriously true, someone selling a content worth of $0.50 cost nearly $1.25 in traditional online payment processing, a very good point why a lot of smaller content seller won’t even dare to adopt online payment processing.

Well Microsoft says their Micropayment system will cut out those all additional fees. Means only buyer/charged will be charged a small fees, no additional 3rd party transaction/processing costs. Question is how Microsoft will pull this off? As the details are yet unknown. Microsoft got wide verity of things they can do with this payment processing, they already have MSN money, Microsoft Wallet, passport- So the possibility is nearly infinite. Well you may ask why even people will use that? think again! Microsoft can start with receiving payment for each of their software, OS only through their new payment system. Walla! nothing you can do about it. When Microsoft comes up with this kind of idea, it will be not a matter of choice anymore. And i have a sick feeling that, sooner or later it’s coming.

Source: CNN Money

Bill Gates, Microsoft, Micro-Payment System

I don’t even have to dare to say what Facebook is, as far as i know 80% social networker have Facebook account. Now popular Facebook got even more fancy and not to mention user friendly. In official blog of Facebook, they announced an array of mobile features today. As i recall some of them i have seen before, just were not officially announced (Maybe they were tracking bugs). So in that case you can’t actually call it launch of new feature, since the new item in that mobile section is the “My Mobile” pages.

But whether it’s a launch of new features of just adding some extra stuffs, now Facebook “My mobile” is a WAP site that squeezes all of Facebook’s features into the mobile screen, mobile uploads for photos and Facebook Notes, and a text messaging service that lets you interact with the site using various commands. Not bad at all, the whole thing has excellent usability and accessibility.

I don’t know how many of you guys heard of Terapad.com, but it has been there for quite some time (Actually since early last year-operational since September). Terapad is hosted blog platform/solution as well as a CMS. During launch period it used be paid solution for $8/month. But since January 2, 2007 they announced it to be free and added tones of features.

It’s true now days every week we see some CMS or blogging platform make debut, and they are almost the same. You pay and they take care of your blog design, installation and hosting. The limitation of this kind of solution is lack of customization, thus you can not expect it to be unique and not to mention in the long run they are too expensive. But this Terapad, which is now free have some serious unique features to offer you. First of all they offer you generous 2 GB of space and 10 GB of bandwith for free which is a serious deal in today’s market. Full featured WYSIWYG editing, CSS control, and layout control, which means you are in control of looks of your blog. One click integration of non blog features like -forum, static webpage, event calendar, image gallery, job board and as well as paypal enable e-commerce store, do i need to mention that those blend in within you blog design. Aside from that they also offer more than a dozen third party service(Fliker, Feedburner, Google Analytics etc.) integration in your blog, with just a click. As i mentioned it’s CMS too, means you can create traditional webpages too with easy to use editing tools. Not to mention centralize control panel for easy management.

Basically when you signup your blog/web created under Terapad sub-domain (xxxx.terapad.com), but from control panel you may change the location to any other domain or sub-domain you own. Terapad is free but ad-supported (one column), which can be removed by paying $5/month. In addition to removal of ads, they will also add another 10 GB of bandwith. Full review with short tour video will follow in bloggism.net as soon as i mange to get the video file uploaded.

I have seen a lot of free CMS and hosted blog solution, so far none offered so much customization control as well as features. So i guess they worth a try, since you got nothing to loose.

WordPress just announced important security update 2.0.6 for public release. This will be the latest release in WP stable 2.0 line. Every WP users are recommended to upgrade. Here’s what’s new in 2.0.6–

• The aforementioned security fixes.
• HTML quicktags now work in Safari browsers.
• Comments are filtered to prevent them from messing up your blog layout.
• Compatibility with PHP/FastCGI setups.

Mark Jaquith have already explained the changes in WP 2.0.6 as always. Apart from these security fixes, there are couple of wonderful goodies for developers in this latest release. A new anti-XSS function called attribute_escape(), and a new filter called “query” which allows you filter any SQL at runtime will certainly make the WP developers green.

In the same announcement Matt also indicated that, this will be probably the last release before WordPress 2.1 is out, that means WP 2.1 just entered beta stage.

Mark Jaquith, WordPress Security update, WP 2.0.6