Author: Hilary Baumann

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Social Networking – mini blogs and blog replacements

I had a somewhat random thought the other day … facebook, Google+ and twitter in a sense are partially replacing blogs and RSS feeds. Not entirely but to a degree.

People using rss feed readers for blogs hit a peak or market saturation because using one is a choice and it’s a bit tedious because it IS highly configurable. And because it’s one more thing to keep up with as posts sit out there as unread until you read them or tell the rss reader to “mark all as read.” And without an RSS reader like Google Reader, people tend to be able to consume fewer blogs by visiting site by site.

Facebook / G+ / twitter allow everyone and every business in a sense have a mini blog for events and products and announcements. And because the display is realtime, people tend to read only what is right in front of them and current instead of trying to play catchup to things that are older

No, I’m not saying RSS is dead. That’s far from the truth. It’s just that there are a wide variety of opportunities out there from both a publishing and consumption standpoint.

Also note that influencers still utilize feed readers. I still use Google Reader. There’s no way I could consume as much info as I do without a feed reader.

Related articles:

 

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Requesting that a small business or entity not spam your facebook wall

There are times when you know something is just flat out spam. There are others where you might want to give someone the heads up that what they are doing is spammy before taking that extra step and reporting them.

Letting them know can be a somewhat difficult task to do in a kind way so I’ve written up a reference to use in these cases.

“I just wanted to give you the friendly heads up that posting your <insert business / band / organization etc> events weekly directly on the <name of page> page/wall is not good facebook etiquette.

It’s one thing to <insert acceptable use example> but it’s another thing when it looks like you’re posting <repeatedly / all of your events / whatever they have been doing that’s spammy>.

It’s a fine line to walk. And I do understand that at times, facebook’s interface does in fact make it fairly confusing.”

It could use a better close, but that’s what I sent. I may come back to this and add a better close … or if you have a recommendation please feel free to add it in the comments below!

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What should I do with an older enewsletter list?

Situation: You have a list of subscribers from an older e-newsletter system. One that did not remove email addresses after numerous bounces. Too many bounces can trigger enewsletter software such as MailChimp or iContact or Constant Contact or Aweber into thinking you are a spammer. But these same bounces in small quantities do NOT typically trigger ISPs to consider you a spammer. If people mark your message as spam that’s a different story but they should not be doing this if they know they subscribed anyway.
STEPS TO RECONFIRM YOUR SUBSCRIBERS:
  1. In short, you will need to send an email out from your email account asking people to reconfirm their subscription. This is using Outlook, Mac Mail or whatever you usually use to check and send emails with.
  2. Use the most current list from the old e-newsletter system.
  3. I would recommend doing this in small batches (20-40 recipients at a time) from the old email list. You will send to the entire list of email addresses whether you know if they are good or bad.
  4. Be sure to put the email addresses in the BCC field so that you’re not advertising people’s email addresses to one another.
Your email can say something along the lines of:
We’re doing some electronic housekeeping at <CHANGE OUT FOR COMPANY NAME> and need to ask all of our subscribers to confirm / reconfirm their subscription to our newsletter by filling in the form at the following link: <INSERT LINK TO YOUR SUBSCRIBE PAGE>
This is a longer explaination of what you should do and why: http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/reconfirm-your-list
I have confirmed that this process is required for not only MailChimp but other e-newsletter systems as well. iContact, Constant Contact, or Aweber to name a few.

Yes, this may be time consuming and yes, you may lose some subscribers but this would be better than risking getting banned entirely so you can send no e-newsletters to anyone.

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PHP Copyright Date – auto updating

&copy; <?php echo  (date('Y') == 2007) ? '2007' : '2007-' . date('Y'); ?>

Replace all “2007” years in the above code with the beginning copyright year and the rest will be updated to the current year.

Looks like:
© 2007-2012

And if your initial copyright year is the current year it will simply look like the following until the next year:
© 2012

Insert your name or company name after that and voila – a copyright date for the bottom of your site that you don’t have to go in and update each year.

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Website backup instructions

These instructions are for a full backup of database driven websites and those who have cpanel access to their sites.

If you are one of my clients on my server, I will complete this for you before a major site redesign and other relavant increments.

If you have a wordpress website, I typically will have a plugin installed that also emails me a backup of the database at regular intervals (typically weekly.)

Backup instructions:

1) cpanel backup: in cpanel > under “files” > select “Backup”> Download or Generate a Full Website Backup > and choose your backup location. Home directory is typical. You can then have it email you when it has completed that backup.If you chose “home directory” you will then log in using your choice of ftp program and download the file that typically includes the date and ends in “.tar.gz”

My overly paranoid self does not trust the cpanel backups alone however as I have seen it leave out data. I’m not sure if the person’s server was misconfigured of a snafu but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Which leads me to backup recommendation #2.


2) ftp & phpmyadmin export:

Files:

 

    1. log in to your site via ftp (filezilla, cyberduck, transmit … etc) > and navigate to the files or directory that you want to back up and simply download those to your computer to a location that makes sense for you.
    2. make sure you have the htaccess files if there are any. These are often invisible and you will either need to change your ftp programs settings in order to see these or type in .htaccess in the search to download them. There may be more than one. Typically there may be one outside of a wordpress or drupal or joomla folder as well as one just inside the first level of those folders.If you are on a mac, once you download htaccess files they will again be an invisible file – in order to see them on a mac you will either need to make changes to your computer or download the “Hidden Files” dashboard widget.
      http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/developer/hiddenfiles.html

Database:

    1. Log in to your site’s cpanel > navigate to “Databases” > select “phpMyAdmin”
    2. From the navigation on the left side of the screen select your database (most people will have only one but if you have more than one, make sure what you’re backing up is the one your site uses … or back them all up by repeating the next steps for each database.) Once you’ve clicked on your database name you’ll have new information in the left menu. Typically the first item will be “access” or “wp-commentmeta.”
    3. From the menu bar across the top, click “export.”
    4. Typically the default settings are what you want: Export Method = quick and Format = SQL (even though this is a mysql database, you will be choosing sql.)  Click “Go” and your file will be downloaded to your browser’s default download location. The file extension name will be: .sql
      If you have another database to back up, select it from the dropdown on the left and repeat the last two steps.
    5. When done, close the phpMyAdmin tab/window and log out of cpanel.
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Ebb & Flow

Know when your WORK cycles are
AND know when your REST cycles are.
You can’t just keep going full tilt all the time.

A great podcast on this topic (about 9 minutes) right click to save or use the player below:
DB 186 _ The Big Mo – Otherwise Known As Momentum

 

 

Tools to help you find your when you are most productive, even your flow:
(some of these are affiliate links just because they were available)

      • Subscribe to the Daily Boost Podcast:
        http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-boost-daily-motivation/id207251905
      • Rescuetime: Rescuetime tracks your computer activity and helps you figure out how you spend your time on the computer, how productive you are and even figure out your most productive times of day or week. There is a free plan so go ahead and click the link and check it out. https://www.rescuetime.com/rp/fascinationdesign
      • StayFocusd Chrome Extension limits the amount of time that you can spend on time-wasting websites. RescueTime also offers something similar as part of their paid features. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji

And remember:
Nothing is something
and sometimes you just need to be still.

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Specialty Printing Techniques booklet

pet the yeti !! flocking is such a fun technique

Quick video I did of some of the specialty printing techniques booklet: 

Embedly Powered

via YouTube

 

8 minute video, lots of neat printing examples. Some are kinda interactive like the one the still above. 🙂 You’ll have to watch to see what I mean.

Also if you go to youtube for the video, I have a link for the related webinar.