Newsbytes: Blog Announcement, WordPress Problems, Money Manager Ex, and Goog Stock Price
January 22, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Comments Off
Well, this Tuesday’s newbytes brings updates on the latest ongoings on InvestorBlogger dot com.
But first some recent stories that you may have missed:
- Panasonic, Prada and Perspectives: Change isn’t that hard, is it?
- E-commerce: Why are some sites so unfriendly to customers?
- Carnival of Making Real Money 9th Edition - January 20th, 2008
- Is Alexa a REALRANK? Well, it tracks traffic but…
- What should you do when you strike it rich? - 7 ways to benefit from windfalls, bonuses, and other ‘found’ money!
New Blog or Two: MakingREALMoneyBlog is the new home for the Carnival of Making Real Money. It will be hosted on a Wordpress install with all the usual plugins, that I like to use: BlogRoll Page, All-in-One SEO Pack, Feed Footer, XML Sitemaps, Lighter Admin Drop Menus, obsocialbookmarker, PXS Mailform, SRG Archives, Spam Karma II, and Related Posts. Plus one or two others that I haven’t activated yet. But…
BUGGY WordPress: … some new installs of WordPress are BU G G Y… Yep, the visual editor bar refuses to show up at all on some of my newer sites… Here’s a glimpse, I’m still trying to find out what is causing the problem, but it wasted a lot of time last night, so I’ll be using the code version for most posting until I can find the cause. I will also use BlogDesk.
Where did the WordPress Icons go…? It seems nobody knows. There are as many reasons and solutions as there are angels on the head of a pin. I can’t figure out what’s wrong at all. So I moved the whole domain from the original user to another that was okay, and hosted a WordPress Blog without these problems. And voila! It worked… so here goes… Problem finally solved. Now I’ve just got to move ALL those plugins. The technical explanation is: I think the original ‘user’ was jinxed somehow: I had problems setting up WordPress, with faulty permissions, etc.. so I’m just glad that it works now. 
Money Manager Ex: Here’s an interesting and open-source alternative to MS Money or Quicken: it’s called Money Manager Ex.
It seems to offer a lot of flexibility, features and charts. It may not be the level of MS Money, but then I never cared for that, it should allow users to begin or learn how to use a Money Managing Program. I have installed it on my PC at home, and I’m wondering about whether it can be used for a USB Key as well. Anything to make my life a little easier!
Clearing out Google: I’ve now removed the nice little screenshow from Picasa from the blog. It was quite an attractive element and added some visual punch, but I moved all the pictures to Flickr as part of my campaign against Google. I’m about to add a Flickr plugin soon, once I find one. Any suggestions?
Out of the nine original Google services I identified as using, I have already dropped three from InvestorBlogger: Picasa, Reader (except for the marketing of this blog!), and Adsense. I’m working on YouTube as a User, and still have to download seven of my nine movies. I definitely prefer to host the movies on my own websites, esp. as YouTube is a PR hole, it sucks links and users and never returns them.
Adsense: is it becoming Add-non-Sense
And last but not least, John Chow writes in his recent post about Google’s raft of changes to its Adsense program:
My gut feeling tells me that Google revenues are down and that they’re doing everything possible to post a good quarterly report, even if that means taking it from the affiliates who help them build their business.
This could be true for a number of reasons: the screws are much tighter on revenue and payouts to affiliates; Google is a PUBLIC company now and needs to march to Wall Street’s beat; the US economy is entering a Recession for many reasons (Oil, housing, inflation, interest rates, jobs, …); AND Google has been trampling on the very webmasters that made it is what it is today.
GOOG: Going down - Can you spell F A S T?
In the last six months, they have lost a ton of goodwill among webmasters for Adsense, PR, affiliates, etc., not to mention publishers, newspapers, mobile phone providers, writers, advertisers… I wouldn’t be buying Google stock at these prices. The stock is due for a huge fall even though it is down more than 20% from its highs just a few months ago. Hope you dumped your stock in the run up in early November.
Guest Bloggers? Interested? SIGN UP!
I’ve decided to open this blog to guest posting… so if you’d like to post something, drop by, register and write away. I can’t promise I’ll publish it, but if it’s a good fit, I will!
And last, apologies for not posting yesterday afternoon as usual, but I was exhausted in the evening… 
Going to War Against Google’s Hubris: Three Actions You Can Take Today!
January 7, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Read these 3 comments
The backlash against Google’s Tyranny is growing, and even after two months, there is still a lot of anger and frustration at Google’s actions over “no_follow” and the recent downgrades of blogs. In fact, the recent actions, actions that Google has taken against many websites for problems that are more to do with their own inabilities as a Search Engine to manage their results, have led many bloggers to see Google’s oft quoted mantra “Do No Evil” in a whole new light.
As many of you know, the crew at Google felt it appropriate to snip away at InvestorBlogger’s PR rank until it went from 4 to 0, all the while ignoring blatant violations of the same TOS by well-known websites who were quietly called by Google and advised of the situation. Such hubris is evidenced by Google’s eagerness to snatch vast tracts of the world of media from Internet, Video, Books, Radio, Newspapers and much much more.
There is an increasing backlash among bloggers regarding Google’s behavior towards webmasters , as it is no longer telling bloggers how to blog, but also what to blog…
With Google’s increasing ownership and development of new websites (Gmail, Google Docs, Picasa, etc.), it is getting more and more difficult to extricate yourself from their grasp. But I’m here to tell you: it can be done. And it’s not that difficult.
Step One: Take Stock of the Services You Use.
Find out what services you readily and regularly use. For this, you may need to observe and record a daily log of what you regularly use. Or you can find out which Google sites are saved in your favorites. Once I took stock of my usage, I was surprised at the number, range, and depth of the services I use:
- Gmail - I use this on a daily basis and have several different accounts with them. Fortunately, mail can easily be accessed and downloaded via POP mail or via IMAP. With large amounts of data, though, you may need to use an account with a larger mailbox than many services have.
- Google News - Again this is something that I use often, and along with Google Image Search and Google Search, I find that I use these almost several times a day. There are alternatives to each of the services.
- Google Docs - This nascent service is gradually gaining in complexity and at this time there are few equivalent offerings available. So simply cut the usage as much as you can, so you are not particularly dependent on the service.
- Picasa and the web albums - Picasa, like most of the products in Google Docs, is the result of an acquisition by Google. The software is generally quite easy to use, well-integrated with their Web Albums, but can be used independently.
- Reader - for RSS feeds, this service offers you the ability to log and subscribe to feeds for blogs, and other websites with RSS feeds. It is generally quite powerful, but it is far from unique.
- YouTube - recently took the crown from Google Video as their primary video offering. There are a number of issues that using YouTube has that I’ve found make it difficult to use YouTube for hosting my own video: lack of control for placement of videos on other websites (you can block websites, but you can’t choose); uploading issues that frequently happen; and video unavailability (perhaps due to apparent TOS problems) in which videos are removed without notice.
For those of you who seek to create websites and blogs and monetize, the trio of sites including Adsense, Analytics and Webmaster Tools are websites that you may choose to eliminate.
- Adsense: I’ve already blogged quite a lot about the problems of Adsense (including dropping clickthrus, click fraud, banned accounts, etc.), but the biggest issue seem to center on the primary issues: to get revenue from visitors, they have to CLICK AWAY from your site; Adsense Ads generally are really ugly; you’re displaying ads for websites for FREE if users don’t click; and, worst of all, the amount of clicks that get discounted for a variety of reasons is turning into an avalaunche (I can’t tell you how many it is because I’m still using Adsense, but it’s far more than you’d think).
- Analytics: I have enjoyed Analytics for a couple of years, because of the depth of information that is available, and the conservative nature of the counting system that is used. I tend to favor using a conservative method consistently so that I can measure ‘real’ growth, rather than some of the less accurate metrics available using Alexa, SiteStats, etc.
- Webmaster Tools: I’m still puzzling exactly what this set of tools is for, as it seems a way for Google to make their Search Engine at least appear transparent. Unfortunately, the stats and tools are quite limited. About the only thing I valued it for was the sitemap function. Other than that, I just don’t get it. It returns a lot of false positives, incorrect links, and other problems that are non-existent.
Step Two: Prioritize the Services You Need/Dump Those You Don’t.
Once you have compiled your list, you’ll be able to see what you can do by prioritizing what services you can leave immediately, what you can slowly wind down, and what services you are still relying on. Separating the services into these three categories is a good way to triage your use of Google.
For example, I found out that YouTube videos for my business can be just as effectively hosted on my own website as on YouTube. I don’t particularly want tons of people to see these videos as they were intended for a very targeted audience only. Hence, I’m now downloading the videos, saving them, converting them to FLVs and then replacing them in my website. Since I only have a dozen or so, this task can be accomplished quickly.
Other services like Google News can be replaced immediately without any problem for me. But some services will just have to wait, while I figure out how to extricate myself from dependence on them. Gmail is a good example of that. While I don’t particularly like the new versions of Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail, and the spam filters on my own websites email system aren’t particularly good, it looks like Gmail is here to stay for a while!
So this list of resources resulted in my own decisions
- Immediately: Google News, Search and Image Search; Webmaster Tools;
- Gradually: Adsense; Analytics; Picasa and WebAlbums, YouTube; and
- With Difficulty: Gmail and Docs.
Step Three: Finding Quality Equivalents to Google Services .
Once you have created your action list and prioritized what is needed or not, it’s time to get your hands dirty. But remember, like all drug addicts, you will need to withdraw slowly from your dependence on Google. Few of us could go cold Turkey. If you can, then you’re lucky.
Many of the services have exact or inexact equivalents that can suffice: Gmail can be replaced by Yahoo! Mail; Picasa by Flickr; Google Search by Ask.com or Yahoo! Search; Adsense by Yahoo! Publishers, or any of a variety of alternatives; YouTube by Revver or MySpace Video ; etc..
Once success story is that I’ve already switched away from Google Reader to BlogLines by exporting my OPML file in Reader, then reimporting the result to BlogLines. It worked quickly and effetively, though the different environment takes some getting used to. This for me was a timely switch because in fact there was an uproar about Google sharing your public or shared stories with others in Google Talk.
I’m already about to remove my videos, pictures, Adsense in the next few weeks or months. But it’s going to take time to extricate myself from the Google Web. I know I can do it. But in some places, I may just choose to find another way to get back at Google instead: I have installed an AdBlocker, and while I don’t particularly use it at the moment, I can see for those services where ads are shown (such as Gmail), I could happily turn it on, simply to deny Google the opportunity to make any money from me. After all, since they’ve taken hundreds of dollars out of my pocket and others like me, I can do the same thing, too.
Final Thoughts
At the moment, I can’t think of any other tools that I really use Google for. But since this is an exercise in freeing oneself slowly from Google’s grip, it’s wise to look through the list and find the services that you really need the least or that have strong equivalents.
It’s also wise to be more cautious in the future, lest by our collective actions we create another Frankenstein monster, cobbled together by the stitching of the web, and left to run amok until we collectively realize and treat the madness that allowed it to be created in the first place.
Do you know of any good equivalents to Google Services I have NOT mentioned so far? Please comment them. Let me know what you think about the situation!
Disclaimer: There are no links in this post to any Google Services. But this blog still utilizes several services, including Adsense, Webmaster Tools, Analytics… I’m working to get rid of them in stage 2.
How DID being dependent on GOOGLE change our blogging?
November 22, 2007 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Read this comment
So How DID being dependent on GOOGLE change our blogging?
I’ve been pondering this for a few days, and while many of us were reluctant to give into Google’s demands on ‘no_follow’, while they could wave the PR stick over our heads, we were all of us giving into their requirements in many ways. Once you think about it, it is quite shocking:
1. Getting rid of multiple links so we could get out of THEIR secondary catalogs,
2. Adsense problems, low click throughs, and Fraud,
3. the lack of an even hand,
4. everchanging PR rankings, algorhythms, what you can do and can’t do,
5. Sitemaps
6. Removing Duplicates (except Google’s search engine was too dumb to realize they weren’t duplicates)
7. … I can go on, if you want…
I’m sure I’ll be returning to this theme in a future posting, but you can think about it anyway! How has Google changed your attitude to blogging? Do you think it’s for the better or worse?
Adsense: How to cancel your account, and get your money back…
November 19, 2007 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Read this comment
Many bloggers are so disillusioned with the changes in PR ranking and the changes in Adsense. To recap briefly, Google has felled many kinds of blogs PR rankings and Adsense changes are meaning that (in the short term) income is likely to go down even further. Many bloggers are now planning a boycott of Google, including me.
The TOS of many agreements allow the agreements to be cancelled by both parties without cause (I presume that means you cancel without having to provide a reason). In other words, I believe you can write them, and cancel the agreement, remove the ads and receive all monies owed to you at the time provided that the amount is greater than $10. I’d be happy to be corrected if that were not the case. So, don’t just blow that amount and don’t let Google keep it… You really can ask Google to close your Adsense account and remit your earnings. It’s in their TOS. According to their TOS, they will send you the earnings.
Also, if you have written Google to cancel your contract, let me know the results. Were you successful or not? Share your experience.
I’d be in less of a hurry to throw in the towel with Google, though. My own plan is to keep Adsense until it gets to $100 (which wouldn’t have been that long without Google messing the formats!). So yes, I know, my Adsense is still there, but that’s not for much longer! …
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The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!
Get Started Blogging
Why not read this short series on blogging with Wordpress?
- Lesson 1: Get Started Blogging
- Lesson 2: Changing your theme!
- Lesson 3: setting up options (pt.1)
- Lesson 4: setting up options (pt.2)
- Lesson 5: setting up options (pt.3)
- Lesson 6: Writing That First Post
- Lesson 7: Editing That First Post
- Lesson 8: Managing Categories
- Lesson 9: Managing Comments
- Lesson 10: Managing Appearance
