Blog Entries - January 2008 http://promote-my-site.com Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:33:21 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/132-How-to-Install-iMacro.html iMacro is an amazing piece of technology and it can help you automate any of your web browser-centric tasks. They have some great examples, a good documentation wiki, and an active support/user community.<p>Big Savings in Time and Money</p><p>We have been big users of this technology for over a year now and have found that it can pay for itself more quickly than an other product we&#39;ve used. In one recent project we replaced three months of work by 14 people in a data entry center in In [...] admin Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 SEO tool iMacro automation architecture http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/129-Tag-and-Ping-Automation-Software-Not-Reccomended.html <p>To be honest, when I started reviewing Semi-Automated Social Networking Automation Software, I expected to find more software like Tag To Rank . Software with an ill defined purpose, with a confusing website full of grammatical errors, and with a distinctly dodgy smell about it.</p><p>In general, I didn&#39;t find that at all - some fairly fantastic claims and some pretty hard sells, but I&#39;ve seen worse from Microsoft and Oracle. </p><p>Overview</p> <p>Priced at $297, this software, well [...] admin Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 social network social bookmark SEO tool automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/126-Architecting-SEO-Tools-For-Success.html <p>I&#39;d like to get a bit geeky on everyone - not the chicken biting geeky, but the other kind - and talk about architecting SEO tools for successful deployment. I&#39;m going to skip by discussions of PC/Mac UI, Ajax/Ruby, vi/EMACS, etc, etc. I want to talk about basic system architecture.</p><p>Service with a Smile</p><p>The most commonly deployed form of system architecture for SEO tools is server-centric.</p><p><img src="images/server%20based%20seo.jpg" alt="Server based SEO" width="335 [...] admin Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 software SEO tool capability architecture http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/131-1-Very-Evil-Things-That-Could-Happen-When-You-Use-a-Free-Theme-in-your-CMS.html <p>Have you ever installed a theme or a component without reading and thoroughly understanding the source code of what you&#39;ve just installed?</p><p>SEOmoz had a great article on Choosing the Right CMS Platform for Your Website and Dawud Miracle ran The Ultimate Resource For Free WordPress Themes . Both are great articles worth reading.</p><p>Everybody Loves Free Themes </p><p>What do these two seemingly unrelated articles have in common? They both implicitly guide readers towards using sys [...] Don Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 software open source capability architecture http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/130-Tag-and-Ping-The-Rolls-Royce-of-Semi-Automated-Social-Networking.html <p>The guys at Novsoft have a supercar price on their Tag Automater - it&#39;s $297 and $67/month for maintenance. Wow. Actually, no, I mean it: wow. I believe this is the most expensive tool I&#39;ve found in the SEO world. </p>Overview<br /> <p>Tag Automater claims to support just 10 sites , which makes the price and the promise of &quot;an Avalanche of Traffic&quot; pretty dubious.</p> <p>However, the software does support some handy functions:</p> Automated user/password crea [...] admin Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 social network social bookmark SEO tool automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/128-Server-Side-Social-Bookmark-Automation-RSS-Bookmarker.html <p>Running in the middle of the price pack, at $297, RSS Bookmarker has several distinguishing features:</p>Clear and present Privacy Policy and TOSClear return policy (30 Day MBG)Promise of lifetime support Reporting<p>Site Support<br /></p><p>RSS Bookmarker claims to support 34 sites, which is near the bottom range compared to the direct-post URL products reviewed earlier. I should note that the video example shows only 5 sites in the dropdown.</p><p>All sites supported are bookmarking sites [...] admin Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 social bookmark SEO tool automation architecture http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/127-Semi-Automated-Social-Networking-Tools-Reviewed.html <p>If you are willing to spend up to several hundred dollars you can (theoretically) get a fully featured product to help you take your content and place it on a number of social networking and bookmarking sites.</p><p>The tools that are under discussion are:</p>Mass Automateion RSS Bookmarker Tag Automator Web2Submitter Tag to Rank<p>Invisible Men</p><p>Before I start discussing the functionality I should note that I sent several emails to each site&#39;s contact information asking some spec [...] admin Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 social network social bookmark SEO tool automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/125-SEO-Tool-Capability-Grid.html <p>I have looked at more than 50 SEO tools in the last two days, trying to get my arms around the capability cloud that is available. And I have been deadly confused.</p><p>Not because I&#39;m stupid (my children aren&#39;t teenagers, yet, so I am still smart at home) but because this stuff is all over the place and I can&#39;t place stuff in some simple categories. </p><p>Sophistication Requirement </p><p>No, really, it ranges from stuff you can understand in 30 seconds (ex: SEOmeter) to thing [...] admin Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 SEO tool capability http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/124-1-Reasons-Writing-Wikipedia-Articles-is-Too-Hard.html <p>I spent part of this morning writing a wikipedia article and it was way way too hard. Really it was: </p><p>1. Another Markup Language.</p><p>Yeah, baby, I want to learn something that combines the worst obscurity of Tex, HTML, and C++. Yah know, Jimbo , you could spend less time on the &quot;I am important&quot; circuit and get someone to write you a WYSWIG editor. </p><p>Oh, the irony of a nofollow link to you AND the fact that you have a reference to an editor you can&#39;t implement.</ [...] admin Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 wikipedia social network social bookmark mistakes automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/123-Bugzilla-to-Rule-Them-All.html <p>We practically run our company on bugzilla , and not because we are drowning in bugs, but because we misue it the same way so many people over extend Excel. We&#39;d probably feel less sheepish if it was named &quot;Listzilla&quot; or something.</p><p>Here&#39;s what we use it for:</p>Bugs (natch)Feature requestsSystem error reportingEditorial calendar development<br />Collecting and grouping ideas for future products/projectsWorkflow task collectionCustomer Management<br /><p>And probably a [...] admin Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 software open source automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/121-Posting-Automation-with-Post-Toaster.html <p>Post Toaster is the &quot;site count leader&quot; over Ekstreme Socializer (28) , OnlyWire (22), SocialPoster (61) and SocialMarker (28). However, as an automation tool it suffers from the same ills and an unusual UI choice actually drops it back in the pack.</p><p>First, let&#39;s see what Santa left in our stocking:</p>Good UICategorization of postable sitesClear monetizationAbility to shuffle post characteristics<p>&nbsp;But there is a lot of coal to be found: </p>Inappropriate site [...] admin Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 software social network social bookmark automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/120-Automating-Social-Network-Posting-with-SocialPoster.html <p>A newly buffed up SocialPoster, with more features, more sites, and a tuned up user interface is still lacking in critical features as a social network posting automation tool. </p><p>In the &quot;nice&quot; column we have </p>Second largest group supported - 61 working sitesCategorizing the type of site supportedClean and clear design<p>Unfortunately the regular &quot;naughties&quot; are present</p>No TOS or Privacy PolicyNo workflow or historyFragile direct-URL posting methodNo monetization [...] admin Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 software social network social bookmark automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/118-Using-Social-Systems-with-socialmarker.html <p>I was delighted with the fresh and slick look of SocialMarker, but as an industrial strength social network and bookmarking automation tool it is just as weak as its competitors.</p><p>First, let&#39;s look at what they get right:</p>DocumentationGood midrange site support - 28 working sitesNice web design <p>And, unfortunately, the bad stuff:</p>No TOS or Privacy PolicySpooky monetization schemeNo workflow<p>Documentation</p><p>I don&#39;t know why more people don&#39;t do this: documentatio [...] admin Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 software social network social bookmark automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/117-OnlyWire-As-Social-Networking-Automation.html <p>Onlywire is distinguished from its competition in Social Networking Automation in several fundamental ways, none of which are, in my opinion, good.</p><p>First the uncontroversial basics:</p>They DO have a TOS, which is easily readableThey DO have a Privacy Policy, ditto on readableThey support 22 sites, all of which are liveThey are free, with no monetizationThey have no workflowThey have no activity tracking<p>And the &quot;heartless&quot; analyst also says:</p>The TOS contains a time bo [...] admin Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 software social network social bookmark automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/115-Social-Networking-Automation-Review-Ekstreme-Socializer.html <p>Like many of its bretheren, the Socializer relys on finding a direct post URL to the 50 or so sites that it supports.</p><p>For example, to submit to Stumble you click a button which calls the following code:</p><p>http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://ekstreme.com</p><p>&amp;taggers&amp;title=Socializer+-+free+automatic+social+bookmark+</p><p>submission</p><p>Eeek.</p><p>Don&#39;t panic, the money quote is: &quot;http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=&quot; and everything else is ju [...] admin Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 social network social bookmark mistakes automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/116-Is-Your-Business-Model-Built-on-Venture-Capital.html <p>Today&#39;s 400 point drop in the DJIA in the first three minutes of trading may be a temporary bump or a glimpse of things to come. So far it has recovered most of the loss, but if we&#39;re headed into a bear market we could be seeing the end of the Web 2.0 venture capital driven bubble.</p><p>Most Venture Capital funded companies think of themselves as cool, new startups that aren&#39;t affected by the goings on of Wall Street and huge companies. They live in their own world. How coul [...] Don Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 venture capital startup advertising http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/114-Minor.html <p> In a previous article on Social Networkng Tools I talked about what I called &quot;very minor productivity enhancers&quot; such as Socializer, Post Toaster, etc. That may have been a bit unfair.</p><p>Why unfair?</p>They are better than doing nothing or only posting on one siteThey point towards the correct use of social networking sitesThey may provide little return but require little investmentOk, fine, a bit unfair, but not too much.<br /><p> Better Than Doing Nothing </p><p>If having a [...] admin Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 social network social bookmark automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/112-Social-Networking-Automation-Tool-An-Overview.html <p>My goal when doing any task is to figure out a way to automate it as much as possible while still getting the maximum possible benefit. So I love tools, even when there is a quality tradeoff. I can sweep my kitchen a lot better than my roomba, but it does an adequate job and saves me an hour a week (minimum) - I will take that tradeoff in a hurry.</p><p>When we started looking at social bookmarking and social networking sites for another project, one of the things that really struck me was ho [...] admin Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 social network social bookmark automation http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/111-Drive-Thru-Social-Networking.html <p>If believe that you shouldn&#39;t post your own material, then you won&#39;t care about this article. If you spend a week hand-crafting Apple Fanboy-licious posts for the front page of Digg, then move right along, because I got nothing here that will help you.</p> <p>Let&#39;s talk about Drive Thru Social Networking for a minute.</p> <p>Ok, you&#39;re hungry, so you have a few options:</p> <p align="center">Eating</p> <p align="center">Social Networking</p><p align= [...] admin Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 social network social bookmark Promote My Site http://promote-my-site.com/index.php/110-I-Killed-SEOmoz.html <p>Not really, but I am famous among my friends for being able to control the stock market by selling (it goes up) or buying (it goes down). So today I signed up for a month of premium content from SEOMoz and....</p><p> <img src="http://lh3.google.com/OliverTaco/R5OaaNsTRLI/AAAAAAAAADU/gA0OrrOaxFs/s400/SEO%20Moz%20Down.jpg" alt="" /></p><p>Clearly I need to use this newfound power to take Matt&#39;s blog down.... </p><p>All kidding aside, this was a good reminder for me to double-check our host [...] admin Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100 SEOMoz mistakes