What Does Conversion Rate Really Measure?

Customers tell you something each time they take an action on your Web site. If you don't develop expectations of what actions visitors should take, you can't optimize your site properly. Develop persuasion scenarios that allow you to pinpoint and optimize based on your assumptions. If visitors aren't doing what you thought they would, find out why. Analyze where the pitfalls are, then develop new scenarios. [ClickZ]

 

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Keywords Revisited, Part 2: Free Research Tools

Last week I covered how to tap your log file as a source for valuable keyword data while using that data for campaign tuning. But log files only show how searchers found your site.

You need third-party keyword research tools and resources to build and expand keyword lists for search engine marketing (SEM). Each popular external keyword research tool has a place in keyword expansion. If you're not thinking about expanding your keyword list, consider...
[ClickZ]

 

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Cruise Ship Clears 177-foot Bridge By 6 Feet

Today's St. Augustine Record contained two awe-inspiring photos of a new Carnival Cruise Ship, the Miracle, sailing under Jacksonville's Dames Point bridge. The ship cleared the 177-foot tall bridge by six feet. More photos of the event can be seen on the Florida Times-Union. [Workbench]

 

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Six Steps To Better Interviews and Simplified Task Analysis

Indi Young discusses how to conduct effective interviews, as part of a needs analysis process. Her five suggestions: Focus on Deeper Goals Slow Down Ask Why Forget the Clock Dig for Details Scrap the Questionnaire [Thanks to elearningpost.]... [Column Two]

 

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New Topic Map Tools

Peter Van Dijck has pointed out a few new topic map tools and approaches: tinyTIM: a very small easy to use (50kb jarsize) in memory Topic Map engine. It implements the TMAPI interfaces, so one can work with TopicMaps via... [Column Two]

 

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Apple RSS Feeds

Apple has put up a web page of all the RSS feeds it offers. [FS Consulting Inc's Weblog]

 

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Scoble's Vision of Blogging's Future

Dave Winer is asking for visions of what the future of Weblogging tools and services might look like.

I've already seen the future. How can I say that? Because it's already here. The problem is that no one tool has wrapped up what's cool. Let's look:

First, TypePad has the business model down. And they have great looking templates that are standards-based (many comply with XHTML spec and validator and use CSS to separate design from content). $4.95 a month for basic and $14.95 a month for pro.

Second, Radio UserLand is cool cause it is a SmartClient. What do I mean by that? Well, if my wireless went down right now I'd still be able to work with all my weblog data. Radio is a locally-run app. No server really needed until you want to post your data to the public Internet. This means I can weblog in an airplane. And, all my data is backed up. If UserLand's servers were hit by terrorists, for instance, I would be able to get all my data back up and running within hours on a different server. I bet your weblog tool can't do that.

My coworker Jeff has been playing with Das Blog. It has the most useful referer information I've ever seen in a weblog tool. His weblog even emails him everytime I point to his weblog and send him a new referer. I wish my tool had a referer log like Das Blog has.

Another person I know, Lauri Evans, has started an interesting conservative site (yeah, I don't agree with their point of view most of the time either) but she's really done something interesting. She has mixed the weblog format with a forum/web board format. Here, visit one of her posts and scroll down to "Discuss it here with us..." Click on that and instead of getting flat weblog-style comments you're thrown into a nice web-based forum. I really wish I had that too.

Scott Watermasyk's ".TEXT" tool is the best way to create group weblogs. MSDN used his technology, for instance, to create http://blogs.msdn.com which is where most of the Microsoft employees hang out. I want to create group blogs for other things and his system really is the best.

Some other things I want, but haven't found?

1) An Outlook plugin. I read 1296 feeds. When I find something cool I want to drag it to a folder and have it AUTOMAGICALLY put it up on a weblog. I don't even want to click post. So, I want to have a "really public folder." Greg, is this something you can do?

2) I want an XHTML WYSIWYG editor that writes nice and consistent code. You might not know this, but I hand code all the HTML on my blog (I'm typing into the HTML editor in Radio UserLand). Why do I do that? Because it's the only way that I can ensure that my page complies with the validator and gives consistent HTML markup so that my CSS style sheets (ugly as they are) can work properly.

3) Add in some service integration. Technorati and Feedster are two that I'd love to see integrated in some way into my tools/services.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for a blogging tool that wraps it all up.

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

 

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10.3: Create bootable ISO Image CDs using Disk Utility

This is simple - but I haven't seen it described quite this way before. I made a couple of coasters before trying this particular approach. Now that Disk Copy is merged into Disk Utility, this seems to work reliably if you ... [macosxhints] [dws.]

 

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Websidestory unveils HitBox 10

Websidestory ramped up the feature set of its HitBox Web analytics tools and unveiled this week the latest version as HBX, HitBox Version 10. HBX will replace both HitBox Enterprise and HitBox Commerce services. [InfoWorld: Top News]

 

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Elmore Leonard's 10 rules for writing

Elmore Leonard's ten rule for writers. Brilliant.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he's writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character's head, and the reader either knows what the guy's thinking or doesn't care. I'll bet you don't skip dialogue.

(this is my third link from Teresa Nielsen Hayden in one day, which has to be some kind of record) Link (via Making Light) [Boing Boing Blog]

 

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IMN Launches RSS Tracking Service

ClickZ reports: “Email firm IMN claimed dibs on being the first company to launch a syndication tracking service for publishers employing the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) standard. RSSAds made similar claims two weeks ago, although its application hasn’t yet launched.” [ Via MarketingWonk ]
By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s RSS Resource]

 

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YAAAB: Yet Another Article About Blogging

ZDNet: What's up with blogging, and why should you care?
[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

 

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Coremetrics, WebSideStory Debut New Offerings

Coremetrics, WebSideStory Debut New Offerings [ClickZ]

 

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And More Comics

Comic blog includes feeds for Adam@Home, B.C., Big.Nate, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Doonesbury, Drabble, For Better or For Worse, Foxtrot, Garfield, Get Fuzzy, Nancy, Peanuts, and PvOnline.By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s RSS Resource]

 

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How Big Companies are Testing RSS Feeds to Circumvent Email

From MarketingSherpa.com: “Getting the wrinkles ironed out of your email program? Figured out a CAN-SPAM compliance program? Don’t rest on your laurels. You might be facing a defection of customers who want to bypass email for a spam—free format called RSS. RSS — shorthand for either Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication — isn’t new. Technogeeks have been using it to keep up with each other’s Blogs and other Web publishing efforts for years. MarketingSherpa estimates perhaps a quarter of a million users around the world have downloaded the reader software they need to get headlines and news via RSS feeds.”By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s RSS Resource]

 

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BitTorrent FAQ and Guide

Been hearing about BitTorrent, but don’t know what the deal is? The FAQ should clear things up for you. By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s Technology News]

 

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Top 5 Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2003

"America’s growing fear of litigation...". Top 5 Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2003

A critical part of the role of judges is deciding who can sue for what, but these days anyone can sue for just about anything.

[via Overlawyered < The Legal Reader] [jenett.radio]

 

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75 Top Security Tools

What kind of stuff do I read in my feeds? Well, I see there's a list of the 75 top security tools. Now, why do I link to those here? So that when I need them, I'll be able to find them in Google.

Thanks to Alex Moskalyuk's feed for bringing that one to me.

[The Scobleizer -- Celebrating the Geek lifestyle]

 

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New Book - How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther

How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther is a thorough presentation of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther for beginners and intermediate users.

In this hands-on guide, How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther, Kirk McElhearn shows his readers how to get the most out of OS X Panther. Features such as Exposé, iChat AV, .Mac, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD are explained and illustrated in detail. The book provides easy methods for networking and customizing the Mac and important details about computer security, such as encryption solutions. [MacMegasite] [dws.]

 

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Importing Remote RSS Files

“In this article, get an example of making a request for a remote RSS file, and then importing each individual item into a database. Running a directory like WWWCoder.com requires a way of making things manageable for one person. With RSS you can really make life simple by accepting the RSS feeds and creating an import routine for your database table that stores sites. In this article we will provide some examples of obtaining RSS files and then importing the information into a database.”By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s RSS Resource]

 

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Fun rubegoldberg Flash toy

Jed sez, "Cute Flash toy in which you try to determine the order in which to drag various items into the middle. Each time you drag an item, the items you've already placed change ("level up") and interact with each other. The goal is to drag all the items in the right sequence to advance them all to their maximum levels. (The maximum score is 20,000.) There are quite a few possible sequences that do this, as well as some sequences that don't reach the maximum but do produce fun effects." Link (Thanks, Jed!) [Boing Boing Blog]

 

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SmartManila Beta Available

SocialDynamX is ready to share our next product with Manila and Radio users.  Code named "SmartManila", this beta1 application allows multiple Manila and Radio sites to be managed within a single interface.  Once setup, you can quickly switch between different services and not lose any data retrieved or the connection established to communicate with each unique server.

We need to hear from real Manila users and let you tell us what we need to do to make this tool better for your needs. Here is the ZIP file. Download it, unzip it and run SmartManila.exe.

Download it here: SmartManilaBeta1

and please provide feedback at our SmartManila Beta Test Site.

[Blogging Alone]

 

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FCC Chairman's astounding statement of Internet Rights

FCC Chairman Michael Powell recently gave a talk called "The Digital Broadband Migration: Toward a Regulatory Regime for the Internet Age" at the University of Colorado School of Law. Powell sets out some "Internet Freedoms" that he believes Americans are entitled to: these are astonishingly radical ideas to hear coming out of the mouth of the Chairman of the FCC.

1. Freedom to Access Content. First, consumers should have access to their choice of legal content.
2. Freedom to Use Applications. Second, consumers should be able to run applications of their choice.
3. Freedom to Attach Personal Devices. Third, consumers should be permitted to attach any devices they choose to the connection in their homes.
4. Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information. Fourth, consumers should receive meaningful information regarding their service plans.

100K PDF Link (Thanks, Alex!) [Boing Boing Blog]

 

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Download: Wireless Watch Home v2.0

DOWNLOAD: Wireless Watch Home v2.0.

• 5M
• Win9x/2K/XP
• Shareware
• Screenshot

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=160

{Security} Wireless Watch Home is an intrusion detection application designed to monitor your home wireless network for intruders. Wireless Watch constantly runs in the background and notifies you any time a new and/or unauthorized device has joined your wireless network. The detection of an intruder prompts Wireless Watch to notify you via icon and pop-up window. [Major Geeks]

[Lockergnome Windows Fanatics]

 

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WARE: Expression Engine

I've seen the future and the future is full of expressions. Expression Engine, that is. Still confused? Well not for long. How many of you have a blog? How many of you have a Content Management System? How many of you have been looking for blog software and a CMS package? I've seen the future and the future is Expression Engine.

Released currently as a public beta (1.0b), Expression Engine is a killer app that is sure to change the face of blogging software to come. For those of you who remember my pMachine review awhile back you'll be familiar with the company. Expression Engine is pMachine on steroids. Expression Engine is modular, it's OOP, user friendly, easy to modify, and it's almost 100% plug-ins. What does that mean, almost 100% plug-ins? It means the system was designed from the ground up to be expanded upon, to have things plugged in and unplugged. For you developers, this means an awesome API that is sure to make problem solving a simple task.

I installed Expression Engine, also lovingly referred to as EE, or E squared, or the big double E, in 15 seconds (not including upload times, which will vary). It comes with 12 templates to choose from - or ignore them and create you own. Believe me, in 15 seconds I was running around with a blog that will put most to shame with features and expandability. What features, you ask ?

• Data Modeling
• Speed via page or paragraph caching
• 160 bit SHA1 password encryption
• Double opt-in mailing lists
• Google-friendly URLs
• Multiple categories for postings
• Member groups and associated privileges
• Workflow - Yes, Timmy, you can have the post as first draft, or pending, or in revision
• Image resizing and thumbnailing from your blog entries
• Stat tracking - logged-in members, guests, anonymous, and more
• XHTML compliant Control panel - it is fast. Really fast.

Trust me, if you are serious about your blog or about the CMS on your site, you owe it to yourself to check this product out. I could fill up pages upon pages of how customizable EE is. Imagine each and every user in your system having a different control panel with different privileges, views, powers, and more. You can't fathom the extensibility of EE and I can't wait to dive into it and push it to the edge - if the edge can ever be found!

Stop thinking! Go grab it now and you'll wonder how you ever survived with those other "content tools." It's time to stop having a weblog and move up to an Expression Engine, where your true thoughts are delivered the way you intended them to be. [Eric]

[Lockergnome Web Developers]

 

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It was an RSS Demo

InternetWeek: All about RSS at Demo.

A more in-depth report on the weblogger panel is in the new Red Herring blog kept by Mitch Ratcliffe where I told the audience how RSS lets me keep in touch with what 1300 people are saying on blogs. Mitch was showing off his new Canon Rebel Digital SLR. He said the picture of me was cut out of a small part of an overall picture he took of the panel.

[The Scobleizer -- Celebrating the Geek lifestyle]

 

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Keyword Research Revisited, Part 1: Log Files

The core of every search engine marketing (SEM) campaign is the keyword list. It's the foundation of a paid search campaign and the key to organic (unpaid) search engine optimization (SEO). Having an ever-growing, ever-adapting keyword list and using keyword data to tune a campaign are critically important. That's why keyword and keyword phrase research and enhancement are worth revisiting as the SEM landscape evolves. [ClickZ]

 

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Search Engine Watch 2003 Award Winners, Part 2

Best Meta Search Engine
Best News Search Engine
Best Image Search Engine
[ClickZ]

 

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Screen Pool

Here: Play with some balls.

[The Doc Searls Weblog] 

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The New Grammar of Powerpoint

“The New Grammar of Powerpoint (PDF file) is a review of how and why good grammar helps PowerPoint communicate more effectively, and what new grammar rules are evolving in the bullet-point format.”

I give it an A.

By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s Technology News] 

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New User Guide For Radio UserLand
This is a great start. Hope it is followed by bug fixes and new features.

New Radio User Guide. You can now find a new organization for Radio UserLand documentation in the Radio UserLand User Guide. Scott Shuda announces the new Guide. [UserLand Product News]

 

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Radio UserLand Stats Script From Matt Mower
DIY blogging stats. In case any other Radio users would like to do what I've just done I've uploaded the script necessary. Import this into Radio and run it. It will create two files in your gems folder called posting-history.csv, and, summary-posting-history.csv, respectively. These can be imported into Excel, sorted and used however you fancy. [Curiouser and curiouser!] 

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Scott Shuda's RSS Intro
Scott Shuda, UserLand's new CFO provides an introduction to RSS. 

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Scott Shuda's Radio Guide to Using Pictures and Graphics
Scott Shuda, the new UserLand CFO, has contributed items recently to the Radio UserLand discussion forum. This article links to several methods for posting pictures and graphics in Radio. 

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Gnomedex 2004

I'm seriously considering a trip to Tahoe. Maria also wants to come. Don't think she realizes what a geekfest this will be. Not that there's anything wrong with that.   ;-)

Hope I won't be the only old fool in attendance. A few of the uber geeks in the field must have also reached their 5th decade. I hope. 

GNOMEREPORT: Westward, Tahoe!.

In 2001, we hosted the first Gnomedex in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2002, we hosted the second Gnomedex in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2003, we hosted the third Gnomedex in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2004, we're hosting the fourth annual Gnomdex in Lake Tahoe, California. And if that's too much change for you to handle, we're offering early bird registrations at last year's rate of $99 per pass. What's more, we're gonna be doing it at Harrah's Lake Tahoe with an OPEN BAR all weekend long. That's not a typo - that's a promise! Oh, and we're arranging for party buses to take you to and from the airport. If you've never been on one of those, you're in for quite a treat. We based this year's event on YOUR feedback and our experience with previous Gnomedexes. The speakers, sponsors, and spazzes haven't been nailed down yet - but we finally have a date for you to circle on your calendar. Details are sure to trickle in over the coming months, and you know that I won't shut up about it until it's over and done with (or we max out the hotel, whichever comes first). Just consider this a pre-announcement, as we don't even have the registration form ready to rock! Sorry, I could hardly contain myself. Can you believe we're doing a three-day long open bar for $99? Oh, and... talking about all sorts of cool technology stuff, too. *ahem* Can't forget about that part.

"September 30th through October 3rd" is when we request the presence of your body in Lake Tahoe. Why isn't it happening in Iowa again? Largely because most of Lockergnome's staff now resides on the West coast. That, and more tech companies are located in Los Angeles, San Diego, Silicon Valley, Portland, and Redmond. For those who live "in a galaxy far, far away," we're working with a major airline or two to line up ticket discounts (so don't reserve anything until we give you the signal). There's "enough" to do in Tahoe, but not so much that you'll be distracted from attending our gathering. You can bring the family along, but we'd encourage you to help the young'ns find other venues for entertainment. It's not like we're planning on pulling a "Janet Jackson" or anything, but we ARE saying that this is a conference for adults who don't mind geeking out with other adults. I guarantee that willing participants will: (a) have fun; (b) meet industry leaders; and (c) leave knowing far more than they did coming in. We were more than disappointed to discover that we only scored a 92.9 out of 100 last year. Sure, we blew away the competition, but some of you weren't there to share that victory with the rest of us. Would you rather live with regret or a weekend full of memories that'll last a lifetime? Gnomedex! You know you wanna do it.

Digitally yours,
Chris Pirillo

[Lockergnome Windows Fanatics]

 

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Search Engine Watch 2003 Award Winners, Part 1

ClickZ's sister site, Search Engine Watch, released its annual list of outstanding Web search services for 2003. Your favorites are among them, but there were also surprises and controversial predictions for the coming year.

Methodology
Outstanding Search Service
 [ClickZ]

 

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Marc Barrot's Radio Documentation
Marc Barrot, the activeRenderer King, contributes to the wealth of Radio UserLand documentation.

New Radio Documentation Resource. Radio's documentation is plentyful, but scattered all over Userland's sites and the whole Web: it can be difficult for new users, even programmers, to locate the exact piece of information they are looking for.

Being bugged by activeRenderer users with Radio related questions, I've tried to add a small contribution: The updated Radio Userland Facts page describes all Radio features, includes a navigation directory through Userland's rich online documentation, and a Radio docs query widget.

I'll eventually update the documentation Directory with all suggested links. [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Scott Shuda Markets Radio UserLand
Scott Shuda, UserLand's new CFO, bolsters his marketing pitch with comments from the faithful. Though lacking some basic features (spell checker, post to the past, etc.) and suffering from stability issues (crashing on shutdown, etc.), I still use Radio. Although you wouldn't know it if from my posting hiatus, Radio (particularly the news aggregator and outliner) is a constant companion. Good software value for $40. 

Advantages of Radio's Desktop Website. UserLand Radio's desktop weblog approach clearly distinguishes it from today's other leading weblog applications. Because the Radio application and your weblog content reside on your own computer, Radio is in effect both an Internet client and a web server. This gives Radio users the following advantages:

Integrated News Aggregator: Radio UserLand is not only a powerful weblog editor but also includes an integrated news aggregator. Located just one click away from your desktop website (Screen shot.), Radio's news aggregator works automatically to read news feeds that you're subscribed to, whether 2 or more than 200, and posts the headlines to a single, easy to view page. (Screen shot.)

When you see an item in Radio's news aggregator that you want to amplify with your own comments, or pass on to others in your organization or interest group, all you need do is click on the "POST" button and that item is immediately copied to the editing box of your desktop website. You can edit the entry or provide your own comments and then, with one more click, publish the item and your comments to your own weblog.

It would be a major challenge for a hosted weblog company to provide this level of integrated functionality. Imagine the processing hardware necessary to maintain the ever changing subscription lists and news feeds for even 10,000 simultanious users! Then, there is the issue of constantly downloading all that dynamic content to users. Radio UserLand avoids these problems with a grid computing model by putting the power of personal web publishing on each user's desktop.

Security and Control over Weblog Content: Because your weblog content is stored in the Radio:root database on your own PC, each user is in control of his or her own weblog and content. When you make changes on your local copy of Radio, those changes are updated or "served" to the online website hosted by UserLand. The data resides in two places, but the individual user is in control - any changes you make to Radio on your PC will be followed on your online website. This gives users tremendous control over their personal website and advanced users are always inventing new formats and functionality for their Radio weblogs.

Because your Radio content exists in two places (on your PC and online), users can take precautions to protect their data. Steve Hooker, whose weblog can be found at http://www.cybersaps.org/, writes, "My pictures and blog items of my children are now in two places (six actually - the server's version, my local copy of Radio's version and within the folder from my digital camera; then, there's the two back up versions, one locally, one on the server; and, of course, I have two mirrored hard disks, and numerous off site CD back ups). Were I using a hosted solution, my pictures and blogged items would be in just one place far out of my control. I'd only have my digicam's directory and one instance of my items in a proprietary version on someone else's machine, with no portability, and my hard disk back up of those pictures, but no blogged items locally."

Portability: Steve Hooker writes, "If anything ever happens to Radio UserLand, or if I just I wanted to do it, I can create backups and export all my years of family blogging for storage and security. I want my kids to be able to see that content for the next 100 years. For this my blogged items must remain portable, accessible, malleable. Being locked in to a single weblog solution would be a bad thing."

Categories and Multiple Weblogs: Anyone wishing to blog about more than one area of interest will appreciate Radio's category feature. Every copy of Radio will support an unlimited number of categories and each categories is in essence, a seperate weblog with a different URL address and its own independent RSS feed. Some Radio users have used this feature to use one copy of Radio to create and maintain two or more completely seperate blogs at different domains (link).

Work Offline: Because the Radio application resides on your PC and not on a server accessable only through a live Internet connection, weblogging with Radio is possible anywhere you have access to your PC. Just open Radio, draft your posts and upstream the next time you are online. You can also read your new aggregator while offline. One neat trick is logging on in the morning, then disconnecting for the train ride into work. During the ride, you can read through your news feed, check posts made by other bloggers you read, then draft your own posts and update the public version of your weblog as soon as you log in at work.

Speed Advantages: With Radio running on your PC, changes to your posts or your site settings are almost immediate. Updates to the public version of your site may take a few moments, but your instructions have been recorded and won't be lost due to a bad Internet connection or problems with your host's servers. [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Free or Inexpensive Web Analytics

Re: hit counter. Try sitemeter or blogpatrol [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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