Jimmy Wales Makes Creepy Video
Not only that, but he made it to beg for money to fund his inherently flawed Wikipedia Project. Check it out.
The Sum Of All Human Knowledge
It’s a catchy slogan, but it’s about as true as "Don’t Be Evil" is over at Google. In other words, it’s a load of bull. If they were being honest the slogan would be something like "The Sum Of All Human Knowledge That The Wikipedia Editors Don’t Object To And That Has Already Appeared In Numerous Real Information Sources". That’s kind of a mouthful though, and it doesn’t have the ring of idealistic nobility.
Yeah, I’m not a Wiki-fan. It combines online reference sources with communism. Much like communism in real life, it doesn’t work on Wikipedia either. I would never use Wikipedia if I needed information that was important. You just can’t trust it.
If I wouldn’t use it, why would I give them money?
Technorati Tags: Ramblings, Wikipedia, Video, Jimmy Wales, Creepy, Begging, Money
Blogging is a Pyramid Scheme
Blogosphere is a weird word no matter how you slice it. I thought I’d take a look at a few ways it could be interpreted. I’d also like to talk about how those interpretations apply to bloggers. I’ll be doing this by looking at the different uses of the word "sphere".
Geometric Blogging
Ah, Geometry. Definable, practical and predictable. Well, except for Pi but he’s a troublemaker. Geometry and blogging come together quite often. In themes and layouts. In charts and graphs. Even in posting schedules. After all the Earth is round, and that gives us our rotation of night and day. Geometry even gives us a way to think of the blogoshpere Take a look.
The core of the blogosphere would be the A-List. The blogs from which everything radiates. They can post 5 sentences and get tons of links. Linking to those 5 sentences provides posts for other bloggers which get linked to, providing posts for more bloggers. If Problogger Darren Rowse goes on vacation or John Chow drops some form of advertising, then the ripples will spread across the Internet.
That blogosphere might make sense, if you’re a fan of the geometric blogging theory. Personally I think the geometry of blogging looks more like this.
A handful of A-list blogs at the top and almost everyone else trying to climb up.
Celestial Blogging
Atmosphere, Ionosphere and Blogosphere? If you look at it, it’s not a bad comparison. Much like the different layers surrounding a planet, the blogosphere can be harmed by pollution. Mostly the pollution comes in the form of MFAs, splogs and scrapers. The pollution in the blogosphere also has it’s own form of acid rain, spam. For those of us on the outer edges of the blogosphere it’s cold, dark and lonely.
How To Win Readers And Influence Bloggers.
Spheres of influence is probably the most accurate breakdown of the word blogosphere. Readers and influence go hand in hand. After all, the A-list influence other bloggers more than the rest of us. That’s what makes them A-list bloggers. They’ll get more links to their posts, even the normal everyday posts. Watch out if one of these heavy hitters releases some linkbait, because it’s going to be huge. All those links will bring them more readers and increase their influence.
For the A-List blogging is an upward spiral not a sphere.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Ramblings, Blogosphere, A-List, Geometric Blogging, Celestial Blogging, Blogging Pyramid, Blogomid
Google Rank Rage
Apparently I’m not as unaffected by Google’s insanity as I thought. Have I changed my mind? No, not really. I still think Google is given far more importance than it really has. What is really getting to me are the reasons I believe to be behind Google’s actions.
Choose Your Comments Wisely
How I found out that Google was getting under my skin is pretty embarrassing. I was reading a post on Courtney Tuttle’s blog and decided to comment. It was only after I commented and Court replied that I realized that I wasn’t responding to Court’s post, RealRank™ Doesn’t Solve Anything For Bloggers. I was responding to Google. I’m sorry about that. Court has a great blog, and this post was no exception.
I Never Thought It Would Happen To Me
I never thought I’d leave an angry off topic comment like that. I did though. One minute I was commenting on RealRank™ and the next I was typing out a diatribe on the Evil Empire. Court’s reply was like cold water. Seriously, I got chills. I looked at the comment I left. It was not the reply I intended to write.
Learn from my screw up. If you leave a comment on a post about Google, or anything else that sets you off, re-read the post after writing your comment. Ask yourself a couple of questions before you click that submit button.
- Does this comment fit this post?
- Am I responding to this post or something else?
- Am I upset?
- Do I want to embarrass myself?
If you’re at all unsure, leave the page and take some time to cool off. I wish I had.
If you read this Court, I apologize.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Ramblings, Comments, Google, Google Rank Rage
JasonWigley.com Reviewed
JasonWigley.com was recently reviewed by Computer Chit Chat.
I have to say, it’s a pretty darn encouraging review. She thinks I have style and humor. I like her, she’s a good judge of character. 
Terms of Engagement
It seems my writing is ok, but I need to engage all of you a bit more. Good advice. I’ll try to do that more often. I’m kinda stumped on how to go about that. Does that mean I should be more open to comments? I love comments. Can’t get enough of ‘em. (No really, I don’t have enough. Please leave a comment!) Should I ask more questions? How would you do it? (Ha! It’s working already. 
)
About Time
I don’t have enough content on my about page either. I’m not really sure what to put on my about page. I have trouble with that. I’m just not sure how to describe myself. It’s not like I have a list of accomplishments to add to the page, I’m no Internet Entrepreneur. I’m just some guy writing a blog. Anyone got some advice for me on that?
Oh, and if you want to write up a review yourself, feel free. I could use some good blogging advice.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Reviews, JasonWigley.com, Computer Chit Chat, ComputerChitChat.com
Google Gone Ga Ga
Google has been making people crazy. I’m no John Chow, but I refuse to let it get to me. I’ll tell you why. I don’t care what Google does. Read this, and maybe you’ll start to see things my way.
Google has done some amazing things. The most amazing thing they’ve accomplished is to convince so many people that they’re indispensable. You can succeed without Google. You don’t need them, they need you.
What about traffic?
Google may be the biggest search engine, but they’re only one traffic source. If your site is good enough and you get it in front of the right people, Google could collapse tomorrow and you wouldn’t even notice the drop in your numbers.
There are three levels of traffic. It all depends where your visitors come from.
- Level 1 Direct Traffic
Direct traffic is the best. That means the visitor came directly to your site. No search, no link clicking and Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200. There are a couple of different reasons your visitor came directly to you, and all of ‘em are good. This kind of traffic means you’ve done your job.
- They’re a regular visitor.
- They know what they’re looking for, and you have it.
- They heard about you and typed in your URL. (That’s brand recognition taking root.)
- Level 2 Search Engine and Directory Traffic
Search engines and directories are just below direct traffic. This means that your visitor is looking for something and the search results make them think you have it. You might, you might not. That’s a crap shoot. This is where S.E.O. comes into play. The higher you can get in the search engines, the better.
- Level 3 Referral Traffic
This is everything else. Web sites, ads and e-mail. Anything on the web that links to your site. The more links the better. The best way to get those links is by building something that people want to link to.
If that’s true, then why does 50% of my traffic come from Google?
Because Google has you convinced that you need them. Google’s "Webmaster Guidelines" is the best piece of misdirection they have. That’s because it’s intricate and contradictory. There are people making a living off of trying to figure it out. That’s what S.E.O. is now. Search Engine Optimization has become Google Optimization. People are so busy trying to rank well in Google that the thought never occurs to them that they don’t need to.
I’m not saying you should skip S.E.O., not by a long shot. I’m saying that you need to optimize for search engines, plural. Never focus on one search engine alone, not even Google.
You can be successful without Google. They just don’t want you to know that.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Ramblings, Google, Page Rank, Google Page Rank, PR, PR Update, Google PR, PR 0, Googlesmacked, Googleslapped, Google Smack, Google Slap, SEO, S.E.O., Search Engine Optimization
Windows Live Writer
I’m not completely sure I’ll enjoy working with Live Writer. It seems to almost be a WYSIWYG editor for blog posts. I don’t even use the rich text editor in WordPress, I use the code editor. I’m giving it a chance though. If it’ll work half as well as I’ve heard then it’s worth a shot. Who knows, I might be able to post more often if it makes it that easy. So far it has been very easy.
This is a Test
I’m using this post as a test. I’m trying out several different things. I’m adding pictures and links of course. I’m also misspelling words to check the spellcheck functions built into Live Writer. So far the only word that spellcheck has missed is spellcheck. 
I’ll consider using it if…
- It’s easy to use.
- It doesn’t mess up the code.
- It’s easy to use.
- It doesn’t turn out to be buggy.
- It’s easy to use.
- The posts look the same on my blog.
- It’s easy to use.
Did I mention that it had to be easy to use? Good. Like a lot of bloggers I’ve found a nice groove when I’m posting. I have everything set the way I want. If something is going to make me change it’s gonna have to be special. So far everything looks pretty good. Now I just need to publish it and see how well that goes.
Wish me luck.
Update:
I left out the links. Not by mistake, but because I wanted to check the editing of a published post. So I had to publish with something missing. This update was also added with Live Writer. Looks like it does a pretty good job.
My only problem with Live Writer is how the posts look in the WordPress code editor. There are no line breaks or spacing at all. All spacing is done with HTML, so the posts look compressed. Shouldn’t be too bad for short posts, but it could be a nightmare if you need to edit a long post using WordPress.
The Verdict
It’s easy to use. As long as you don’t need to use the WordPress code editor there shouldn’t be any problems. I’d recommend it for people with little or no experience with HTML or those just starting to blog.
- Ease of use:………………………………………9
- Post Results (reading):…………………………9
- Post Results (WP Editor):………………………4
- Final Score:……………………………………….7.3 out of 10
Hack and Splash
OMG JohnCow Wuz H4×0rd!!! That’s one reaction to the Milk Man’s most recent stunt. Another common one is JohnCow SUCKS. But that’s a response he gets to most of his articles. I can’t figure why those people keep reading if they hate his stuff so much. Here’s one specific response “John Cow - Sleeziest Marketing Method to Earn more.“. It comes from the folks over at BlueVerse SEO.
I was writing a comment on that post and thought “dang, I should just put this on my blog”. So here are my thoughts on the joke.
I thought it was funny. Yeah, it was obviously not really hacked. He had just done a post about a site that was hacked. Just reminding people that blogs need to be backed up too. The next day this was up. I took one look and laughed. That’s why I like his blog, he has a sense of humor and isn’t afraid to use it.
If anyone did that as a way to make money, they would be very disappointed. They wouldn’t make anything. If they were threatening not to blog anymore as well, then they’d be gone and we’d be better off without ‘em.
C’mon, $100 in 24 hours? I bet he makes more than that already. He’s got lots of traffic, regular readers, everybody links to him and he was able to quit his job because of his blog. Yeah, I’m thinking that money isn’t the reason.
Remember when he was being “sued” for copyright infringement? It’s the same kind of joke. If people are getting pissy about this then it’s probably been too long since he’s done this kind of thing.
Technorati Tags: Ramblings, Blogging, Opinion, John Cow, Milk Man, Prank, Joke, Stunt, Link Bait
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