where technology is simplified
Archive for March, 2008
Macy’s Flower Show
Mar 31st
The past week was Macy’s Flower Show. Here is a quick photo of the event on the widow covers of the 34th street Macys store.
WordPress 2.5 – Know Before Upgrading
Mar 31st
WordPress has released a major upgrade to the 2.x lineup. WordPress 2.5 has several new features and a completely redesigned administrator area. But before you upgrade to the latest and greatest you should know a few things. Only after testing on a demo blog you should make the switch to your primary website. I rushed to upgrade to WP 2.5 and paid with a broken install and half working plugins.
How To Upgrade
WordPress has their official upgrade procedure on hot to go about upgrading your installed files and MySql database. But there is a much easier way. Techie-Buzz has a WordPress Automatiic Upgrade plugin which makes upgrading a breeze. This has saved me countless minutes on all previous WP upgrades. The plugin automates the whole process – deactivates active plugins, downloads the latest release, upgrades the files and directories and even upgrades the MySql database. On all WordPress upgrades (including to current version) this plugin has worked like a charm.
WordPress 2.5 Upgrade Woes
The sorrow starts when re-activating the plugins after the upgrade completes. Many of the plugins are generating fatal errors when trying to activate. Most of the popular posts plugins are following this trend. I am currently trying to circumvent the errors by using Mint Popular Posts plugin which uses its own Mint database for generating a list of most read posts. A sample screenshot is provided below.
Another gripe with WordPress 2.5 is the lack of functionality of the hyped one-click plugin upgrade feature. This is one of the most important reasons why I moved to the new WP release so quick. But I have failed to see this feature become successful for many of the plugins I tried to upgrade. In my experience Akismet and Clean Archives plugins one-click upgrade has failed but Commentluv, All in One SEO and Automatic Upgrade plugins have worked.
Overall the upgrade experience has been bearable and has not crashed my website. Yet! I will have to keep an eye on the install over the next couple of days and test different plugins with caution. I would advise you to test plugins first and upgrade second.
SEO Deception
Mar 30th
SEO or Search Engine Optimization consists of a few simple steps that any new webmaster can follow. Then how did it become a million dollar industry? Simple. Marketing. By pouring thousands of dollars into a non/semi-existent industry the SEO firms managed to carve out a market for themselves. Does this mean SEO does not exist? Of course SEO exists. But it comprises of following a few best-practices to help search engines crawl your website easily.
Why you should not pay SEO firms?
Understanding how search engines operate is the first step. A few terms such as title tags, meta tags, various types of headers, do-follow vs. no-follow, page linking, keyword stuffing and website hierarchy are very important to this discussion. These are the essential bits of information that search bots use to index and rank your website. Once you decipher how search engines ‘crawl’ your site you can make sure your website or blog is optimized for any search engine.
SEO can be a challenging topic for new webmasters. Lack of knowledge and false claims by SEO agencies to push you to the top of search rankings force newbie webmasters to pay for optimizing blogs and sites. But with a little understanding and technical know-how you can SEO-Proof your website. In the next few posts I will discuss the best SEO practices and teach you how to soar through search rankings. For now check out my previous post on how to outrank Google’s own website.
Peeping Under Google Privacy
Mar 28th
Users privacy is one of the most controversial topics for Google. In fact it is a tough question to answer for any web-service. When it comes to Google, unfortunately, most users remain unaware of the amount of personal information they are giving away when they use any Google service. Fortunately Google has always maintained an open stance on privacy. If at any point a user decides to learn about the privacy policies of any Google product they can head over to Google Privacy Center. In the past the privacy section used to be a big bulleted list of ”what Google privacy is about, what user data is collected by Google and how that data is used.” Needless to say most of the users never got past the first page and much of the text was only in “lawyer-speak”.
Today Google has launched a redesigned face of the privacy section. In order to better communicate their “user data sharing and use” Google is utilizing any method they can. The privacy center is user friendly and has quick links to detailed policies for each Google product. But the big G has saved the best for last. Google has included YouTube videos from their Privacy Channel which explains the process in easy to understand terms. I have seen very few companies publicizing their privacy policies. Good job Google.
Build A Niche Store Review
Mar 27th
Affiliate Marketing is the holy grail of making money online. Build A Niche Store or BANS, for short, aims to make you a super affiliate marketer of eBay products. eBay is an amazing money making machine on its own. BANS wants to bring the power of eBay to the average internet marketer. The variety of products and the high conversion rates are enough to make everyone pay close attention to the high payout as an eBay affiliate. Now BANS makes it easy to effortlessly create eBay affiliate sites and make some money.
What Is BANS?
In essence, BANS is a website creating script which also serves as basic content management software. The simple user interface will enable anyone to create great looking websites. But the power of BANS hides in auto-generating beautiful sites wrapped around eBay auctions. But BANS is not the average single page landing pages (aka squeeze pages) that are crowding the internet. BANS delivers quality information by creating content pages alongside eBay affiliate auctions. This combo is creating search engine friendly websites which bring value to the visitor and allows the webmaster to make money with the ebay affiliate program.
Creating A BANS Site
Creating a BANS site is straightforward. Use a FTP tool to upload the content to your webhost. Then point your browser to the web address. After that follow on-screen prompt to click and create your BANS website. The BANS software script allows you to easily change colors and customize graphics. This will help your ebay affiliate site to distinguish itself from the rest. After that comes the easy part – drive traffic and let ebay do the heavy lifting. Using BANS money making becomes easy. With an average of 30 unique visitors a day expect to make about a hundred dollars within the first month. After that it will only get better. The included screenshot is of an actual website created in about 15 minutes with BANS.
The user manual is very detailed and thorough. Every step of the upload and install process is described in detail. Screenshots and step by step instructions are simple enough that your grandma can follow. Helpful support from members-only forum is an excellent source of information. Apart from customization questions you can find best practices and tips to get the most out of BANS. Most importantly the community around BANS will help you get the value out of your investment.
Benefits
The benefit of BANS are quite obvious – it helps you make money. The other not-so-obvious benefits are:
- BANS is very easy to use. Documentation is excellent and forum is an excellent source for support information and community help, tips and best practices.
- Potential to make lots of money with unlimited BANS websites. Since the license allows you to create unlimited sites there are no restrictions to the number of sites you can create. This multiplies your opportunity to make money.
- BANS websites does not cause problems with Google or other search engines. This is because the eBay auction pages are generally accompanied by content pages or sections related to the products.
- BANS promises FREE upgrade to all future software releases. How much more can you possibly want.
Cons
There are a few shortcomings of the BANS product that customers should be aware of.
- Only works with eBay product auctions. There are a few ‘hacks’ to make it work with the Amazon Affiliate program. But they are not recommended and are not supported.
- BANS costs $97. This amount can be earned back within a week with a few properly created BANS sites. If you are a complete newbie then it might take you up to a month to earn back the cost of the product.
Why you should use BANS
I will be the first to admit that affiliate marketing is not my forte. But using BANS has been the best decision I made since the launch of this website. I have been using BANS on 2 websites that I recently set up for 3 weeks now. For traffic I am using Yahoo Search Marketing. As of earlier today I have recovered my complete investment in BANS. This also includes the cost of 2 domains and campaign costs on Yahoo Search Marketing. For hosting I have used my current Hostmonsteraccount which gives me unlimited domains. I will go into the setup and implementation process in another post. But I wanted to show you how easy it is to make money with BANS.
