Feedburner.com shuts down

I logged into my feedburner.com account and was welcomed with a message that I had to move my feeds from feedburner.com to feedburner.google.com. It listed all of my blogs and a link to move them. It gives the opportunity to create a google account if you don't already have one. I was already signed and that's where I wanted them so I hit the button.

All of my feeds are now hosted in the google data center. I guess I should feel safer. ;-)

If you haven't logged into your feedburner account in a while, you probably should: More details on moving to a Google account

On February 28th, if you have not moved your feeds to a Google Account, the traffic to your feeds will not be cut off or terminated, but you will not be able to view or manage your feeds until you have moved to a Google Account, unless you use MyBrand. Technically, this means that all traffic will now be served out of our Google data centers, and there will still be a way to move your account that will be in place indefinitely.

You will not be able to log back into your feedburner account once you move your feeds. Then again, you won't need to. I've read some people complain about the move but I have been satisfied with the various services I've used from google so I don't mind it. My biggest hope is that the intermittent interruptions will be fixed now that feedburner has really been moved to a google data center.

LewisC

Technorati : feedburner, rss, subscription

Use Blogger or Install a Blog on Your Own Site?

I was recently asked this question:

Do you find that its beneficial to start a blog on the blogger platform versus installing it on your own site?

My opinion on this has changed in the last few months. I used to think that blogger or wordpress.com were "good enough". I now think you should host your own blog on your own domain. My only reason for this is the amount of control you have by doing so.

I have started several new blogs (on tech topics) on my own domains. I chose wordpress a my blog software. The number of plug ins that help me format and control my blogs is amazing. I don't want to spend a lot of time tweaking and with these plug ins, it's mostly install and move on.

NOTE: Don't confuse wordpress with wordpress.com. Wordpress is a blogging package (that you can get from wordpress.org). Wordpress.com is a hosting service that uses wordpress as it's blogging software. You can use wordpress the software on your own domain and if you chose wordpress.com as your blogging provider, you will be using wordpress the software (and can ONLY use wordpress the software).

From talking to family, friends, peers and co-workers, I don't think most people care about the domain being a custom domain or the blogspot domain. I have read some bloggers who feel that a custom domain gives you a certain amount of legitimacy that a blogspot or wordpress domain wouldn't. I don't agree.

So, the short answer is that if you want a very quick start up with no muss and no fuss, blogger (or one of the other hosted domains) is a perfectly fine choice. If however, you are like me and want the additional control, you should buy a domain and install your own blogging software. All of the major blogging packages are incredibly simple to install and most web hosters offer additional assistance in the option of cPanel and SimpleScripts.

LewisC

Technorati : blogger, blogspot, domain, hosting, wordpress

Change in Posting Schedule

Well, I guess it's time to hang it up (not totally). While I enjoy writing topics for this blog, it looks like I will have to put it on the back burner. I've changed jobs and am spending an extra 2 - 2.5 hours per day in traffic; that's better than 10 hours per week. If I had access to mass transportation, those would be some very productive hours. Unfortunately, that's not the case and I need to concentrate on my tech blogs (and I've shut down a few of those also).

I will continue to post here when I have something interesting to say but I won't be able to post regularly.

If anyone would like to post a guest entry, send me an email with the entry topic. It will be good for a link to your site and let people see what kind of content you write.

LewisC

Technorati : job, posting

Participate in a blogging Survey

Hi All,

I got an email from Technorati this evening. The subject is:

Technorati's 2008 State of the Blogosphere Survey

I am a survey taker (I just can't resist). It's not exactly a short survey. I guess it took about 15 minutes to finish. They say they will release the results on Technorati in late September.

Here's the message:

Bloggers,

Technorati has been tracking the Blogosphere for the past several years through our State of the Blogosphere study. This year we have decided to expand our study beyond the sheer size and characteristics of the blogosphere in order to hear more from you, the bloggers. How, when and why are you blogging? Is this a side business, full time job or something you do for fun? Our goal is to analyze the growth of the field as well as understand the people who make the space tick. Help us and join the study of the ongoing global conversation!

Click here to take the survey! http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/mmc/mmc08001

We hope you will find this survey enjoyable. It should take just 15-20 minutes of your time, and your responses are entirely confidential. Be sure to check back on Technorati in late September for a summary of the results.

Thank you,

The Technorati Team

http://technorati.com/

I hope you'll choose to participate. In an survey like this, the more respondents, the better.

LewisC

Technorati : blogging, survey, tecnorati

Who or What is your blog for?

So, have you decided why you want a blog? Do you want to share information? Make money? Have a place where distant relatives can keep track of you? Post funny jokes and links?

Before you start blogging, you should decide why you're blogging. That will help you decide where to blog (which type of host) and how to name your blog. An example is Wordpress.com; no advertising so no money. Also, if you're blogging for relatives, the name doesn't matter but if you plan to monetize, you need a name the is related to your blog topic.

In addition to name, the reason you blog will also affect things like frequency and topic. Again, if this a personal blog, no big decisions need to be made. Same with a blog designed to just share information; call it whatever, and post whenever, you like.

If you want regular traffic though, you need to be on topic and at least somewhat consistent. I consider this blog a tips blog (as in sharing info, not holding out my hand. ;-) ), not a money blog. I try to be consistent for my regular readers but I don't beat myself up if I'm not. I stay pretty consistently on the topic of blogging and the name of the blog is pretty much dead on for the topic I've chosen.

If I wanted to make money, I think the topic is a decent one although the blogosphere is pretty crowded for a blogging blogs. I think the title of the blog is winner. I named it well. Blogger isn't a bad choice for hosts as it has integrated Adsense and I can put any other advertising or banners that I want to. I would need to do something about my frequency though, I think.

If you want to make money with blogging, you need to build a traffic stream and the stream has to be interested in your blog topic (which is why I don't understand why there are so many spam blogs). To build traffic you need to post daily (at least in the beginning) and you need a lot of content.

When people show up, you want them to stick around for a while. That means plenty of articles. The faster you generate that content (multiple posts per day), the faster you will build traffic.

Right now, the vast majority of the traffic to this blog is from Google. I'm ok with that. My goal is to provide what tips I can. If people are finding me via google, and getting some use out of this blog, then I am succeeding.

Why are you blogging? What do you look for in a blog like this?

LewisC

P.S. This entry ended up being one of those that started at one place and ended up in another.

Technorati : blogging, writing

MIT Courseware - Free Internet Communications

MIT has, for a few years now, opened its courses to the public. Colleges and university's world wide can either use the courseware as a template for their own, or just them as is. Individuals can use them for self training. I love self training. Especially when it's free. I'm cheap. ;-)

Anyway, you can check out the entire list of courses. I guarantee there are at least a few worthy blog entries in there. However, there is one course in particular that is relevant to bloggers. It's getting a little old now but is still worth looking at. The course is Communicating in Cyberspace. Cyberspace is just so yesterday. ;-)

In the related resources section, there is a list of Excellent Websites, Poorly Designed Websites and Useful Resources. There's even a list of useful books, some of which I own already.

This course has less in the way of presentation and lecture notes than many of the courses but it does give a good over in general. There are several writing courses available. I always like the history courses as that is a hobby of mine.

Enjoy,

LewisC

Technorati : college, courses, free, mit, university

Controversy and Lawsuits

A good way to drive traffic is to write controversial posts. I tend not to do that. No particular reason, it's just that the topics I write about generally aren't controversial.

One thing you have to be careful of is becoming identified as a link baiter. Some one who writes nothing but headlines to grab attention will eventually be identified as a link baiter. That can be good or bad I guess. If you are primarily in it for the money, you can wrack up some dollars that way. I'd prefer people to actually want to read my writing. Again, that's just me.

Another issue with controversy is the possibility of moving from attracting attention to attracting lawsuits. Libel is when you write something that is not true and is either embarrassing or damaging to that person. Even truth is not an out because if there is no newsworthy reason to say what you've said, you can still potentially lose a lawsuit.

Let me say right here, just in case it is not obvious, I'm not a lawyer. I just have read quite a bit about slander, libel and defamation.

Even if you win a lawsuit, it will still cost you time and money. So the point is to be careful.

A case in point, yesterday, I was doing a search and ran across a blog entry from a tech blogger. It's not a blog I have read before so I don't know any background on the people involved. The post is fairly long. If you read just the technical aspects, it makes a lot of sense and, IMHO, the author makes some very good points (again, I mean from a technical angle).

The post is 50% to 70% Of all Programmers are con-artists. If you are interested in programming, you can read it. It is interesting. Where it becomes pertinent to this discussion are some of the claims made:

Joanna, if you ever come across this post or someone else finds it for you, let it be known that I'm officially accusing you of being a charlatan.

And they artificially inflate your capabilities which is fraud, if you intent to use your new found prowess for financial gain.

People who have hired you in good faith, should be getting their money back (if they've paid you) for being so thoroughly cheated.

Joanna has her misinformation posted on Articlebase, EzineArticles, GoArticles, and the king of all shameless plugs, Promotion World.

There is actually more of that in the article. I think those are enough to get the point across.

Charlatan, fraud, cheated, misinformation. Actionable? As I said, I am not a lawyer, so I would be hesitant to publish something like that with first speaking with one. If the author can prove those things, and maybe the author can, it would probably be a pretty good defense. But is it worth going to court for?

I wouldn't call this link bait as it is not a (un)popular stand, for or against. I think the author feels very strongly what he wrote. I think if I wrote it, I would have kept the "debunking" but dropped the accusations.

What do you think?

Technorati : controversy, slander, traffic