Archive for February, 2009
Challenges Every Blogger Must Overcome
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings on February 27, 2009
This is my first response to the Skribit tool that I added to my website about 2 weeks ago. The suggestion was made by Chris Lentz, or ATLChris, who asked, “What challenges do you face as an up and coming blogger?” So ATLChris, and the 2 others who voted for this topic, here’s my attempt at a response:
Successful blogging is definitely hard work. Creating durability over time is only one challenge that bloggers face. Here are a few more as well as some strategies for overcoming them:
Boredom
I’ll admit it, I check my Google Analytics pretty much daily. Every time I see a spike in my traffic, I get excited. I love nothing more than checking the map overlay to see where my visitors are coming from. But even though I am starting to index in search engines, have myself a steady stream of RSS subscribers and some okay traffic- now what? Boredom and complacency can settle in very quickly and you ask yourself why you’re blogging in the first place. Tim Sanders of SandersSays has written a great article about blogging passion, he writes that your choice of posting can mean the difference between feeling charged up or blogged out. For me, I blog to share my thoughts and ideas, and I strive to ignite meaningful conversation through my posts. I blog with the goal in mind of connecting with an audience. And, I blog because I like a good challenge. How about you? What do you blog for? If you don’t blog, why don’t you?
Stat obsession
As I stated earlier, I check my Google Analytics pretty much daily. I’ve found that if you’re not careful, you can become overwhelmed with your statistics instead of focusing on the quality of content you produce. On the other hand, if you don’t watch stats, you might be missing out on some key connecting points with your audience. I would recommend checking your statistics regularly but not to the point where you are skipping meals or losing sleep. You get the picture. Need help determing what your metrics really mean? Get in touch with me and I can help you out.
Lack of creativity
This is a particularly significant challenge that all bloggers are going to experience at one time or another, and I have already experienced multiple times. What do you do when you’ve run out of things to say? Push through and realize that it’s part of the process. Keeping lists handy with new ideas and writing “drafts” of your seminal concepts is a good way to keep the ideas flowing as it provides a place to go back to when you’re low on inspiration. Or use a tool like Skribit and let your readers help with this process.
Envy
Seldom talked about, but nonetheless very real is the jealousy that up and coming bloggers can find themselves feeling towards the big guys. It can be frustrating watching larger blogs seemingly attract success with their every move while a smaller blog struggles, especially when some of these guys like ProBlogger are making enough money from their blog to live full-time off of. Rather than making the mistake of trying to copy everything that they do, learn from their success but follow your own path. Every blog needs its own niche, own voice and own style, but having said that it’s also important to learn the lessons that the bigger blogs have to offer – about how to format content, how to tailor it, how to leverage a subscriber base, how to innovate and so on.
A good strategy to help you in this regard is to find a blog network – even if its not a formal one, and start chatting with bloggers at the same level of where you are now. You’ll not only find bloggers your own size are more amenable to helping each other, but you also have a chance to grow together, share new ideas and leverage each other’s strengths and audiences. Or, find blogs similar to yours that discuss similar topics and get in touch with the blogger. I can guarantee you that they will want to share their stories and insights with you, as well as give some tricks of the trade.
Lack of personal routine
The challenge of personal routine – or its lack thereof, generally shows up within the first month of blogging. Without the discipline of blogging each day or even several times per week, a blog can lose steam and demoralize the author. The best bloggers post often and provide good content that’s creative and fresh. My ideal goal is to try to blog each day, but not it’s becoming more like 2 or 3 posts per work. The only thing to keep in mind is don’t post a post for the sake of posting a post; rather make sure it is quality content. One bad post can really hurt the credibility and interest one might give to your blog. Leave your readers with a confidence that the message is still important and alive.
These are just a few of the first thoughts that come to mind when I think of the challenges I have faced already as an up and coming blogger. Whatever the challenges that you face, be yourself and be honest about why you’re spending the time to blog. If it’s energizing and fun, you’re probably in the right place.
New Job
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings on February 26, 2009
So I got a new job today, which is exciting. I’m going to be working for the Atlantic Coast Conference at their offices in Greensboro, NC. It’s only about a 2-3 month stint as I’m replacing someone who had a 1-year stint who left early to take another job.
I went over yesterday and had my interview. Their offices are sweet:
The ACC Headquarters in Greensboro
I’ll be responsible for updating the ACC’s website, TheACC.com, along with the website coordinator. I also think I’m going to working on analyzing the metrics from the website, and making recommendations to include various actions on the website, as well as to add a Social Media presence for The ACC. So I’m pretty pumped because I’ll get to travel to the Championships, and work along with my sister, who also works for The ACC/Raycom Sports. The only thing that’s wierd is that she’ll be my boss….Oh well, as I told her the other day, this will be the last time I’m working for her as she’ll probably be working for me later on in life if all pans out correctly!
I’ll definitely include some pictures/videos from some of the upcoming tournaments that I’m at.
That brings me to wonder, What is your dream job?
Apple Store “Geniuses” not so Genius
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings, Technology, themattbrown.com on February 23, 2009
So I was in the new Apple Store at Friendly Center today getting my Macbook Pro looked at since it went crazy on Friday and won’t boot up due to kernel panics. After sitting down at the Genius Bar, they took it to be looked at and tested “in the back”, I browsed the store.
So I spent about 10 minutes looking at the new Apple 24″ Cinema Display. Even though the screen is super glossy, I’ve wanted one since they first came out. The only problem is, that would require me upgrading to the new Unibody Macbook Pro because the Cinema Display is only compliant with MiniDisplay ports, which are only available on the new lineup of Macbooks. Apple doesn’t offer and most likely won’t offer adapters in the near future. And I can’t quite force myself to muster up close to $500 or so after selling my current MBP + the $799 for the new Apple Cinema Display (after the $100 education discount wahoo!!!).
The Kernel Error that displays every time I try and start up my Macbook Pro.
Anyways, while I was looking at the Cinema Display, an Apple “Genius” guy came over, and I just wanted to clarify and make sure that no new adapters had come out for the new Cinema Display. I asked him if I could connect my MBP to it, and he said “Sure. Our adapters are right over here.” He tried to convince me that the Mini-DV is the same as Mini-Displayport. When I challenged him, he asked an associate, who didn’t know. Basically, we went through 7 other Apple “Geniuses” before finally talking to the Manager who answered my question right away.
24" Apple Cinema Display with Macbook Pro
Note to self and Lesson of the day: next time you walk into an Apple Store and have a question, just ask the manager directly.
Now, maybe I should apply to the Apple Store for a summer job? Sweet discounts, awesome t-shirts, and I would get to sell Mac’s all day. What do you all think?
On that note, what is your ideal summer job?
(Please note, I am still currently looking for a summer internship in Interactive Strategy/Marketing, so if you know of anything, please let me know. My Resume is here.
Microsoft My Phone Beta
Posted by Matt Brown in Reviews, Technology on February 21, 2009
So I received my authorization email to sign up for the Microsoft My Phone Beta about an hour ago. I just downloaded it, and it is currently syncing with my phone as I write this. Here are my initial thoughts and experiences using My Phone on my HTC Touch Diamond with Windows Mobile 6.1:
When I 1st ran the program, it warned me to disable activesync or terminate the calendar, contacts, and task relationships with my exchange server. (Note: Make sure you have an unlimited data plan before using My Phone or will phone bill will be ridiculous.) I did that, no problem. Then it had me log in for the 1st time. Over an EDGE connection, syncing 750 text messages, about 200 contacts, tons of calendar entries, 25 photos and all the rest took a nice chunk of time initially.
After you get the phone set up (5-10 minutes), then you head to MyPhone.Microsoft.com and have at it. Log in and manage, view,download, etc.
The web based control center is pretty simple, yet effective. The home screen shows a lot of info at a quick glance. 200mb is going to fill up fast with photos and music if you sync that stuff though. The contact section allows you to search, view, edit, delete and all sorts of other things to your contacts and the changes will sync to your phone or phones. ( I took the below screenshot before it synced my calendar!)
Had I synced all my photos from my phone, this would be a nice backup to have. I currently use Shozu to upload my photos to Flickr, but MyPhone is much easier since it is automatic. So I might have to rethink my processs.
You can also upload your music or videos. Be careful though because you only have 200 MB of storage space, and that will fill up quickly if you sync videos, photos and music. The nice thing is that you can sync multiple Windows Mobile devices with your account. So if you are cool and sport multiple phones, you don’t have to have separate accounts. Not sure if you get 200 MB per phone of storage space or not; my assumption is no.
Overall, I think this is quite a valuable service. I don’t expect to use it to it’s full extent myself since I already have an MobileMe account, but for others, this is a wonderful free alternative. I will use it for a few days to see how it pans out though. It syncs fast and the web based control panel is pretty quick too. I think this is very similar to DashWire, which I also used earlier when it was in Beta. It will be interesting to see how long Dashwire stays around before getting swooped up or run out of business by the boys at MSFT. I’m sure Dashwire isn’t very happy…
Anyhow. That’s it. Fast and Simple. For more info about the service, head to MyPhone.Microsoft.com.
There is also a My Phone blog, a Twitter account (which has given away multiple Promo codes), and a User Forum. A quick read through the forum entries shows that people are already asking about Windows Live integration for things like Calendar, etc. The official answer seems to be “not at this time”, but a lot could happen between now, Wave 4 of Windows Live, and the second half of the year when Windows Mobile 6.5 sees the light of day. (updated, oops forgot the links)
So you are interested but not yet quite sure if MyPhone is for you, take a moment and check out this video demo.
When Stuff Gets Stolen, Just Tweet It….
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings on February 20, 2009
Lance Armstrong has over 140,000 people watching his back–on Twitter, that is. The seven-time Tour de France winner’s one-of-a-kind bike was stolen a few days ago, and Armstrong went to his Twitter followers for help.
Armstrong is a frequent Twitter updater, and on February 15, he wrote: “Whoa!! They just came to my room and said our truck was broken into and someone stole my time trial bike! Wtf?!? APB out to the twitterati”
The bike was stolen along with three others from an Astana team truck in Sacramento, CA, where Armstrong was currently racing. He then posted a photo of the stolen bike, saying “There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered.”
Whoever stole the bike obviously wasn’t very bright. That bike is hard to mistake for anyone else’s. According to the Associated Press, the The Trek Livestrong 1274 cost an estimated $10,000.
Then, on February 18, Armstrong tweeted: “Still lots of ?’s from twitterati about the stolen TT bike. It’s still missing. The police recovered Jani’s bike but my bike is still MIA.”
Later that day, he updated his Twitter feed with some good news: “Oh!! And they recovered the bike! Don’t have details yet but it’s apparently on its way here. Thanks to the Sacramento P D for the help!”
Whether Twitter played a role in the retrieval of the bike still remains to be seen, but the Internet hype certainly could have made the thief nervous. The photo of the stolen bike was spread everywhere, making it very difficult for the thief to be seen with, or sell the bike. A Facebook group called “1 Million Citizens Looking for Lance Armstrong’s Stolen Bike” had grown to 1,282 members by the time Armstrong informed the Internet world of his found-bike.
The bike was delivered, and the man who returned it is not considered a theft suspect. No arrests had been made as of late Wednesday. Two of the other bicycles stolen from Armstrong’s team are still missing.
Oh, and by the way, he’s not a bad follow. (@lancearmstrong)
6 Phases of Website Design
Posted by Matt Brown in Freelancing, Insights, Web Design on February 18, 2009
There are numerous steps in the web site design and development process. From gathering initial information, to the creation of your web site, and finally to maintenance to keep your web site up to date and current.
Phase One: Information Gathering
The first step in designing a successful web site is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when designing the look and feel of your site, so first, a lot of questions need to be asked to help understand your business and your needs in a web site. Certain things to consider are:
Purpose
What is the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service, sell a product… ?
Goals
What do you hope to accomplish by building this web site? Two of the more common goals are either to make money or share information.
Target Audience
Is there a specific group of people that will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to picture the “ideal” person you want to visit your web site. Consider their age, sex or interests – this will later help us determine the best design style for your site.
Content
What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your site? Are they looking for specific information, a particular product or service, online ordering…?
Phase Two: Planning
Using the information gathered from phase one, the next step is to put together a plan for your web site. This is where a site map needs to be developed – a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics (if applicable). This serves as a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. This is also the point where the decisions about what technologies should be implemented – interactive forms, eCommerce, flash, etc.
Phase Three: Design
Drawing from the information gathered up to this point, the next step is to determine the look and feel of the site. Target audience is one of the key factors taken into consideration here. A site aimed at teenagers, for example, will look much different than one meant for a financial institution. Existing elements such as the company logo or colors need to also be incorporated to help strengthen the identity of your company on the web site. In this phase, communication is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. Work together with your designer in this way, exchanging ideas, until arriving at the final design for the site. Then development can begin…
Phase Four: Development
This is where the web site itself is created. All of the individual graphic elements from the prototype are taken and used to create the actual, functional site. Your content is also taken and distributed throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.Elements such as javascript rollovers, interactive forms, or ecommerce are implemented and made functional during this phase, as well. This entire time, you will continue to be able to view your site as it is being developed, and suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.
Phase Five: Testing and Delivery
At this point, the final details are attended to and the testing of your web site happens. The testing of things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that the site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions. Once your final approval is received, it is time to deliver the site. This marks the official launch of your site, as it is now viewable to the public.
Phase Six: Maintenance
The development of your web site is not necessarily over, though. One way to bring repeat visitors to your site is to offer new content or products on a regular basis.
The blog is now Skribit enabled!
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings, Insights, Technology on February 16, 2009
I promise I’m not going to mention my first post with this new custom theme in every post, but I’d like to explain some of the new features I’ve added to the site in the hopes that it will make it a better, more visited site. In my earlier post, I discussed how I designed this theme with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) playing a big part in the coding portion of it. What I didn’t mention is that I designed the site to be completely optimized for communication and connection with the content as well as one another. I want people commenting and posting links to my articles. I think that I have a lot of valid information to share, and hope that soon people will start finding it and sharing it with others.
One of the tools that i have added to the site in the right sidebar is an application called Skribit. You may have or may not have noticed it. See over there –> where is says “Suggestions?” If you click the suggestions box, a window pops up with a form in it. This form allows you to submit a suggestion for a topic that you would like to see me blog about.
Skribit was co-founded Paul Stamatiou. Paul is a self described Tech Maven who recently graduated from Georgia Tech. He runs Skribit full-time out of his apartment. I have been following his blog for abut 2 or 3 months now, and enjoy every moment of it. It was only natural for me to sign up and try his service, Skribit. If you haven’t checked out his blog yet, I’d definitely suggest reading it. Plenty of good inspiration and great posts over there.
I hope to use Skribit as a way to communicate with my readers directly about the topics I write about. I plan on writing posts on all types of topics, ranging from Economics to Web Design Best Practices. With Skribit now all of my readers will be able to suggest topics for me to write about. Stats about individual posts on my site are great, but I still think that using a method of user suggestion will allow me to write content that more people want to read. I will also place topic suggestions of my own on Skribit and put more focus on topics that are voted on the most. With that said I am going to continue focusing on writing more great tutorials and resource lists.
Design Secrets for Optimal SEO
Posted by Matt Brown in Insights, Web Design on February 15, 2009
So in my earlier post, and inaugural post on this theme, I discussed how I designed this theme with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) playing a big part in the coding portion of it. Well I thought I would share some of my SEO secrets and tricks of the trade with you all in the hopes that it helps you out. As I’m sure you’re well aware, Search Engine Optimization is the driving force behind and a vital component of any website. In this post, I want to share with you the 10 steps I take and rules I stand by in designing web pages for SEO.
Rule One: Keywords Keywords Keywords
Pick very targeted and effective keywords that describe your website and business/service efficiently. Use them, and words that are related often, but only when it is natural to do so. Don’t force keywords into situations for the sake of placing them, because 9 times out of 10, it will appear like you did so intentionally. Repeating keywords uselessly is not good. Instead, uses them in your sentences, headers and links.
Rule Two: Content is King
You may have heard this a million times, but I can’t stress it enough: users don’t search the web for neat website designs; they search for content. If your site doesn’t have the content people want, no one will look at your site, and your rankings won’t improve.
Rule Three: Organized and Clean Code is Searchable Code
Remember all of those times growing up when your mom yelled at you for not cleaning up for yourself? Well, in this instance, she was right. If you have trouble coding cleanly and efficiently, build your sites instead in a text editor (such as Textmate), forcing yourself to write clean, readable code. The code that you write should follow the conceptual structure of the page – Navigation, then the H1 tag, then the Paragraph, etc. Use descriptive tags when possible: <ul> for lists, <p> for paragraphs, <h> tags for headers and <strong> for Bold text. Don’t overuse the <div> tag because eventually you will confuse yourself. But don’t panic; your site can still can artsy and cool as that’s what CSS is for.
Rule Four: Home is Where the Heart Is
Your home page is the key to your site being found by search engines. It needs to summarize the entire site, provide a clear and compelling reason for a user to look at the other pages in the site. However, do to the overwhelming growth of blogs and specialty websites, more and more users that are coming to your website are entering through pages other than your homepage. Make sure these pages carry navigational and content structures consistent with your homepage.
Rule Five: Links Are Really Important
Search Engines really like links on your site. In fact, they pay a ton of attention to the links and the quality of these links. They also look at the words used in the links. Try to stay away from the link text saying “click here” or “see more…” as your link. Instead, describe where the link will take the user. An example for a link to this blog post could be “learn how to develop your site to be optimized in search engines.”
Also, the more relevant the links are on a page, the more findable the page becomes by search engines. Don’t go overboard with links or link to anything irrelevant as that will negatively impact your rankings. If your page is focused on minimalist web design, a link to the Design MeltDown page on minimalism will boost your SEO; A link to a hilarious picture of a cat will not.
Rule Six: Title Tags Are Winners
Every page in your site should have a title on it with the site name, as well as a short description of the page. The title should be no more than 60 characters. Include a keyword in your title, because that the page title is what appears in search results, therefore it should give users a clear reason to click on it.
A trick to really boost your SEO is to include title attributes in your links that match the titles of the pages to which they are linking. This looks like <a title=”name of page” href=”link”>. It’s a small thing, but it will give you a significant SEO improvement.
Rule Seven: Alt Tags Really Do Matter
Every image on your site should have an alt tag, especially images that are relevant to the page. If your page is focused on CSS tricks, labelling a screenshot “example of rounded CSS corners” will improve your page’s findability. Labeling it “screenshot” or “image” will do the opposite.
Rule Eight: Ignore Most Meta Tags
A long time ago meta tags were the secret to SEO. Those days are gone. The only meta tag that really matters now is the description tag. Search engines may use it to provide the text under the link to your page in their results. Take this into account, and make sure it describes the page in a way that explains why a user searching for your content would want to look at your page.
Rule Nine: Give the Search Engines Some Directions
Nowadays, how often do you pass a car on the highway and see the passenger frantically reading a map that covers the entire windshield. Those days are gone. Now, everyone has a GPS. Same concept, new technology. Well the search engines still like the old-fashioned way; a site map. Moral of the story, make sure you have one. It is a simple XML file that holds the hand of the search engines and walks them through your website. Make one, and submit it to Google.
Rule Ten: In the End, Design for Humans
Even though we technically want our emphasis in designing a website to be so that it is optimized to its’ full capabilities, in the end we need to design for humans. Search engines are designed to find what humans want. That means the best way to make your site findable is to design it for humans. Your job as a designer is to solve a problem, not make art, prove a point, serve your ego or break a boundary. In this case, your problem is to provide your users with a site that is easy to use and full of what they’re looking for. If you can do that, the search engines will find you.
For further reading we recommend this SEO Guide for Designers.
Do you have any other tips for SEO Design? If so, we’d love to hear them from you. Drop a comment below.
My New Theme…..again
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings, themattbrown.com on February 15, 2009
So last week you probably saw my post my New Setup on my blog. It was a really cool JQuery inspired blog with lots of cool motion/action and little loading of new pages. Well, it turned out to be a whole lot more trouble because plugins were clashing due to the overloading amount of Javascript.
So today and yesterday I sought on a quest to totally redesign my theme from scratch. And this current theme is what I came up with! My first question is what do you think about it?!?!? please leave your comments below!
It’s a simple, neat and fresh looking theme, yet highly effective:
Basic features:
- Optimized for speed and loading time
- SEO optimal titles
- SEO optimal page layout and headings
- XHTML/CSS valid
- Customized 404 page
- 3 column theme
- Integrated Social bookmark buttons
- Integrated Multi Page widget
- Prints parent category in title
- Incoming Google image searches are expanded to site
- Adsense ready
My Take:
I am pretty happy with my work. I made a big emphasis on the SEO aspect of the site when designing it as I want to start getting some advertising revenue eventually on the site. Therefore, I made it Adsense ready. I also included a lot of social networking support .
The two level navigation is also a nice integration I think because it can save space and provide a way for the user to highlight the important categories of the blog. I’m pretty happy with the color scheme and the font types. The colors used have a cool and soothing effect to the eyes and the font types are easy to read. It’s also widget-ready, even though I hand-code instead of using widgets. The thing I love most about my theme is how fast it loads. The combination of a fast load as well as full SEO makes it pretty desireable. Hopefully my analytics and traffic in the next few weeks will reflect this.
Do you like this theme and would you be interested in purchasing to use on your blog? Why or why not?
My Newfound Obsession
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings, Technology on February 14, 2009
So I signed up for a Twitter account back in December, but really didn’t see the value or “cool factor” of it. Well in the past week, I have had quite the change of heart. I am addicted now!! So if you are on Twitter, add me @themattbrown. If you’re not on Twitter, you need to read this to see why:
10 Reasons You Should Be On Twitter
Oh and by the way they just raised $35 million in venture capital on Friday, so you know they’re legit.
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