Category: Web

Lots of Chatter About the Kindle Lately

Amazon Kindle 2 Have you noticed? There’s been a lot of chatter about the Amazon Kindle (AMZN) on Techmeme lately. I love seeing buzz like this.

It’s not just early adopters and technologists enthusing about the Kindle either. Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement has also spurred demand.

Some of the more notable articles:

Analyst: Apple turns its back on e-book market
A Gartner analyst sees Amazon’s new Kindle e-book app on Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone as evidence of Apple’s lack of interest in the e-book market. Steve Jobs apparently doesn’t think people read anymore. I strongly disagree with that; reading habits have evolved perhaps, but not gone away.
Kindle is not the best iPhone e-reader
Two other e-book reader iPhone apps are compared against the Kindle app, eReader and Stanza, as well as individual e-books sold as stand-alone apps. I don’t see this as hurtful criticism against the Kindle app, as much as it is validation of e-book demand by iPhone users.
Salacious content driving the adoption of ebooks?
Of the top e-book genres being sold, all are tagged “erotica” or “dark fantasy,” apparently because these readers are embarrassed to purchase such books and their flamboyant covers. Sex sells, right?
Atiz turns books digital without help from Google
Los Angeles-based Atiz is a new company that scans and creates digital copies of books (basically, e-books), similar to Google Books and Project Gutenberg. More ways to digitize books means more content for the Kindle.
How Amazon’s Kindle brought technology to book
Just as iPhone’s software, UI, and iTunes integration made the iPhone a success, the Kindle’s software, UI, and Kindle Store integration will make the Kindle a success. I totally agree; the Kindle itself isn’t enough, it has to be the complete packaged solution.

WebMocha.com Launched!

WebMocha We’ve launched! Our website, at least. We’ve been in operation since July 2008. It’s been one of those cases where we’ve been so busy we haven’t had time for our website until now.

What we do

WebMocha is a California-based web development and technology services company that builds optimized, high-performance, enterprise-level web applications.

We are a team of web development professionals with years of experience from large and small companies such as Yahoo! (YHOO), eBay (EBAY), Scient, Ernst & Young, Simply Hired, Food Network (SNI), HGTV (SNI), and CBS (CBS). This experience has taught us how to develop for massive audiences on a painfully large variety of web browsers and mobile microbrowsers. It wasn’t easy, but we loved doing it. And that’s how we can help you.

We offer development services in XHTML/HTML, CSS, JavaScript/AJAX, SEO, LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), Ruby on Rails, Flash, Flex, ActionScript, XSLT/XML, WML/WAP, Objective-C & iPhone application development, and Java & Android application development.

Okay, enough of the pitch. Now for the nitty gritty.

How we funded it

Along with fellow ex-Yahoos George Diaz and Barney Mok (both of whom are incredibly talented), we started this company with only a few hundred bucks to incorporate it. We funded the design, logo, and other supporting materials as we made more money. Bootstrapping at its best!

How we came up with the name

One of the questions most friends ask first is: “Where did you come up with the name?” We tossed around countless names before choosing WebMocha, from Web 2.0 sounding names to made-up words to names with missing vowels. Barney and I were chilling in Satura Cakes in Palo Alto, CA, when “WebMocha” struck me. I was looking around the store and pre-pending “Web” to everything. Then I saw a mocha cake of some sort. I happen to love mochas (white chocolate mochas, to be exact), we all work late hours & drink lots of coffee, and we’re all about the web. It was perfect. Thus, our name was born.

Why we started a service company

Another question some friends ask is: “Why a service company?” Shoot, why not? Service companies have their pros and cons. One of the major cons is the work involved. Providing a service – and providing it with excellence – can require a lot of time. Especially for fledgling service companies. The major pro is the money made. Profits can generally be made immediately. That’s why we chose a service business model first. In this economy, profits rule.

That’s not to say we aren’t thinking about making products later, however. Let me just say it’s nice to make an actual income and build enough capital to self-fund product development projects. Wink wink.

How we are doing

Another question I often get: “How are you guys doing?” To be honest, pretty darn good, despite the tough economic times. In fact, we’re hiring! All of our clients so far have come to us from word-of-mouth. Our developers come from Yahoo!, Google, eBay, and personal referrals. Not all of them are local; they’re all over the country. And that’s the beauty of our model. We find the clients. We find the developers, wherever they are. Then we match our clients with some of the best, most talented developers around the world. Everybody wins!

How we differ from offshore developers

A common follow-up concern to this is: “How can you different than offshore developers then?” Our core model is similar to an offshore firm in that you work with a project & account manager like me, who coordinates with a team of developers to get the work done. We differ in that we’re in the same time zone and speak the same language. Also, we’ll think critically about the work & your goals, we’ll ask insightful questions & challenge you, we’ll communicate & over-communicate, we’ll apply our proven technical experience to build you a high-quality system, we’ll go that extra mile, and most importantly, we’ll help you to do the right thing for your business & customers.

Let us know what we can do for you!

Get Your Name Before Somebody Else Does

This Way to Monnette If you don’t get your name now, someone else might get it later. Username, I mean. And on a social media site like Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, Flickr (which uses Yahoo!’s (YHOO) ID system), or YouTube (which can use Google’s (GOOG) ID system).

A friend recommended this to me a few months ago. (Thanks Eric!)

In other words, if you can come up with a fairly catchy and unique username, you could make it your consistent identity on every social media site that you use – or may use in the future.

For example, say you like the username MrMediaMuppet. You already have MrMediaMuppet@gmail.com and www.MrMediaMuppet.com. You also use this username on YouTube too, giving you youtube.com/user/MrMediaMuppet as your profile URL. What you should do next – especially if you are a social media marketer – is to reserve this name on other social media sites as well. This means getting twitter.com/MrMediaMuppet, friendfeed.com/MrMediaMuppet, and flickr.com/photos/MrMediaMuppet too, even if you don’t regularly use these services yet.

(BTW, MrMediaMuppet is an available username, if you want it!)

Dave Evans, a social media consultant, recommends this not only to individual users, but to corporate marketers as well. For instance, say you’re a marketer for Apple’s (AAPL) new product, the iCar. You decide that iCar and AppleiCar will be your social media usernames. The next thing you should do is reserve these names on various social media sites before someone else does. Hopefully soon thereafter, you’ll be able to use them actively; after all, that’s why you’re reserving them, right?

Not only will you be able to lock in a social media marketing venue, but you may prevent an unscrupulous detractor from potentially damaging your brand image. For any professional internet marketer, this should be a must.

UPDATE 2/12/2009 noon: Eric just pointed me to this cool service – UserNameCheck.com. Nice!

UPDATE 6/11/2009: Another cool service – namechk.

Dynamic URLs vs Static URLs for SEO

Google Has this ever happened to you? Someone looks you in the eye. Takes a deep breath. Then tells you how dynamic URLs are bad for SEO on Google (GOOG).

That’s happened to me a few times. Sometimes without the deep breath and a little less drama, but the message has been the same. So I just wanted to offer some clarification, straight from Google’s Webmaster Central Blog (emphasis theirs):

Myth: “Dynamic URLs cannot be crawled.”
Fact: We can crawl dynamic URLs and interpret the different parameters. We might have problems crawling and ranking your dynamic URLs if you try to make your urls look static and in the process hide parameters which offer the Googlebot valuable information. One recommendation is to avoid reformatting a dynamic URL to make it look static. It’s always advisable to use static content with static URLs as much as possible, but in cases where you decide to use dynamic content, you should give us the possibility to analyze your URL structure and not remove information by hiding parameters and making them look static.

Myth: “Dynamic URLs are okay if you use fewer than three parameters.”
Fact: There is no limit on the number of parameters, but a good rule of thumb would be to keep your URLs short (this applies to all URLs, whether static or dynamic). You may be able to remove some parameters which aren’t essential for Googlebot and offer your users a nice looking dynamic URL. If you are not able to figure out which parameters to remove, we’d advise you to serve us all the parameters in your dynamic URL and our system will figure out which ones do not matter. Hiding your parameters keeps us from analyzing your URLs properly and we won’t be able to recognize the parameters as such, which could cause a loss of valuable information.

John Mueller, a Googler, added this bit in the comments:

In general, we would prefer to see a “messy” dynamic URL instead of an incompletely or incorrectly implemented static-looking URL scheme.

Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land’s News Editor, added this to the discussion:

You shouldn’t start changing what works for you now. Just because Google says things are fine when using dynamic URLs, it may not be fine in your case. When I told two of my developers about this Google post, they asked me what they should do. I said, keep developing using rewrites on pages you want Google think are static. If you want Google to know that certain pages are dynamic, like filtering products based on colors or size, then maybe in those cases I would leave the dynamic URLs. Again, it really depends on your situation and the site at hand.

So there you have it:

  • If you’ve already rewritten your URLs, keep them as is.
  • If you haven’t yet, dynamic URLs are fine.
  • Static URLs can sometimes have a slightly higher CTR.
  • If you don’t know how to rewrite your dynamic URLs into static ones, don’t, because a poorly rewritten static URL is worse than a dynamic URL.
  • If you can remove some of the unnecessary parameters from your URL, then do so; if not, don’t worry about it.
  • If you are using WordPress, their custom permalinks feature generally rewrites URLs just fine.
  • No direct guidance has been given about other CMS systems, but I would assume that the more popular ones are fine.

I hope this helps!

How to Find Writing Jobs

Tokyo Shopping This is the last post in a series on How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger:

  1. How to Write for the Web and Search Engines
  2. How to Market Yourself
  3. How to Find Writing Jobs

Finally, you will need to find a way to make money as a freelance blogger. No duh. This is going to require a decision:

  • Do you want to make money from your own blog?
  • Or do you want to make money writing for other blogs?
  • Or both?

Making Money From Your Own Blog

Now that you’ve set up your own blog and have been blogging for some time, how do you monetize it? Is it even possible? Yes, it is, but it is extremely difficult to make a living off your blog alone. You’ll have to do a lot more than one blog – perhaps have several.

But never say never, right? Here are some ways to at least pay half of your rent per month. (This list expands on what I’ve written about monetizing blogs before.)

  • Advertising
  • Sponsorships
  • Affiliate programs
  • Digital products
  • Merchandising
  • Donations

Blog Advertising

You have many advertising options for your blog. There’s a whole art & science to optimizing ad payouts, but basically the more in-your-face and relevant the ads, the more likely they will be clicked. As a blogger, you are paid each time a user clicks on an ad. But don’t click on them yourself, or else you will be committing click-fraud and will be banned from that ad network.

Blog Sponsorships

This is only possible with a fairly popular blog and a loyal following. Once you reach that level, you may be able to find advertisers interested in sponsoring some of your content for a set period of time. All you’ll need to do is provide proof of your traffic levels and audience demographics.

Affiliate Programs

Using an affiliate program is sort of like earning a commission each time you sell another company’s products. For instance, you could join Amazon.com’s affiliate program and link to various books (which I do fairly frequently). Every time a customer clicks on a link and purchases a book, you will earn a commission.

Digital Products

You could write a useful how-to guide in the form of a PDF ebook and sell that. Or record a song in the form of an MP3 and sell that. Or create an instructional video in the form of a streaming video and sell that. These are all examples of digital products. You don’t need a fancy shopping cart system to sell them either. There are a few ecommerce engines that will handle that for you, though they require some technical knowledge to set up.

Blog Merchandising

If you’ve branded yourself well, or have fictional characters that may look good on a t-shirt or coffee mug, consider merchandising. Blogs with cult followings tend to do well with branded products. And if you have a web comic, even better.

Blog Donations

If you can manage to get a cult following, not only could you consider merchandising, but donations as well. Some talented starving artists can get by on donations alone, though it is extremely difficult. I’ve gotten a coffee or three myself, but that’s about it.

Must-Read Articles

Here are some must-read articles and resources on making money from your blog:

ShoeMoney

ShoeMoney is a well-known professional blogger and internet marketer whose blog occasionally contains tips on internet marketing and profitability.

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com is another well-known professional blogger and internet marketer with tips on internet entrepreneurship.

ProBlogger

Making Money From Writing for Other Blogs

Some freelance bloggers could probably make more money writing for other blogs than trying to monetize their own blog, mostly because they don’t have the skills, experience, or desire to put a lot of effort into monetization techniques. They would rather be writing. If that’s the case with you, then it’s time to hunt for some blogging gigs using these methods:

  • Word of Mouth
  • Blogging Job Boards

Word of Mouth

This is where your brand, reputation, networking abilities, and social media marketing efforts can pay off. Having a strong network can generate significant returns. If you’re not as comfortable doing the shmoozing thing at parties, do the shmoozing thing on social media sites. But in either case, make sure you always carry business cards – you never know when you’ll run into someone who’s interested in your services.

Blogging Job Boards

There are a ton of sources of freelance writer and blogging jobs out there. If you have your blog and writing samples prepared, start going through these sites. You’ll find that writing gigs can vary from writing blog entries to copywriting to email newsletters to ebooks to standard articles.

Now for a list of must-read articles and resources:

I hope this series has been helpful to you. Yea, I know it’s a ton of stuff to read. Just imagine how many worthless articles I had to read to distill these lists. Whew.

If I’ve missed any important articles, please let me know. I’m sure there’s more great stuff out there.

And finally, good luck with your new career as a freelance blogger! Let me know how it goes!

The How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger series:

  1. How to Write for the Web and Search Engines
  2. How to Market Yourself
  3. How to Find Writing Jobs

How to Market Yourself

Tokyo Shopping This is the second post in a series on How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger:

  1. How to Write for the Web and Search Engines
  2. How to Market Yourself
  3. How to Find Writing Jobs

Next, you will need to market yourself and promote your services. This will require a portfolio of published writing samples. To be taken seriously as a professional freelance blogger, you will definitely need a well-marketed blog – which can provide as a source of fresh writing samples too.

This step is pretty involved, however. You will need a good domain name, a web host, some blogging software and some technical knowledge. If you don’t have any technical knowledge (or a technical friend who can help you), there are free blogging services you can use. Blogging services don’t require any technical know-how, but you won’t look as professional when using one.

Also, you will need a presence on social media sites to help extend your reach and brand. Having a presence can educate you about the social media world as well, where potential gigs could arise. Social media sites are sites like MySpace (NWSA), Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Digg, Newsvine, NowPublic, etc.

How to Set Up Your Blog

You have two choices here:

  1. Set up a blog with your own domain name
  2. Set up a blog on a blogging service

Set up a blog with your own domain name

  1. First, pick and register a domain name. A good domain name is:

    • Short
    • Memorable
    • Easy to say
    • Easy to type

    You can verify whether or not the domain name is available on a domain registrar. If it is available, you can register it through the registrars for a yearly fee.

    Since most of the good ones have already been taken, you can consider using a domain name suggestion service to help you along. Some allow you to register the domain name too.

  2. Second, sign up with a web host. A web host is where you’ll actually place your website’s blogging software. The two registrars above (Namecheap.com and Go Daddy) also provide web hosting.

    After you sign up with a web host, they will give you directions on how to associate your domain name with your new web host account. Contact their customer support if you need help doing this.

  3. Third, pick your blogging software. Fortunately, this is free.

    This is where you’ll need some technical knowledge. You will have to download the blogging software, then upload it to your web host and install it. After playing with some settings, you can choose a theme to make your blog look nicer.

Here are some must-read articles on setting up your own domain name, web host, and blogging software:

Set up a blog on a blogging service

This one is easier than setting up a blog with your own domain name. A blogging service will give you everything you need right away. The drawback is that your domain name will be a mix of yours and theres: e.g. yourblogsname.blogger.com. This doesn’t look as professional has yourblogname.com. But hey, it’s easy and it’s free.

Just sign up and you’re done!

How to Promote Your Blog

Now for a list of must-read articles and resources:

How to Use Social Media to Promote Yourself

And more must-read articles and resources:

Here is one last resource. It is a massive list of 40+ sites for writers. Truly massive list. If you think I’ve already given you too much to read, then you may not want to click on this link. But please do at some point. It also offers a great deal of useful information.

More tomorrow!

The How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger series:

  1. How to Write for the Web and Search Engines
  2. How to Market Yourself
  3. How to Find Writing Jobs

How to Write for the Web and Search Engines

Tokyo Shopping This is the first post in a series on How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger:

  1. How to Write for the Web and Search Engines
  2. How to Market Yourself
  3. How to Find Writing Jobs

First, you need to know how to write online. Since reading an article on a computer monitor is different than reading it on paper, online reading behaviors differ significantly.

Second, you need to know to optimize your articles for search engines. Also known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), this means getting your articles to show up high on a search engine’s results.

Now for a list of must-read articles and resources:

Alertbox

Alertbox is a bi-weekly column with a number of useful research reports on general web usability.

Copyblogger

Copyblogger is a popular blog with a lot of useful online copywriting tips aimed at marketers and copywriters.

ProBlogger

ProBlogger is a popular blog with useful writing tips aimed at professional bloggers who make a living writing blogs.

More tomorrow!

The How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger series:

  1. How to Write for the Web and Search Engines
  2. How to Market Yourself
  3. How to Find Writing Jobs

How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger

Tokyo Shopping So you want to be a freelance blogger?

It’s a bit like being a freelance writer, except your medium is the blog. That means a different style of writing, one that caters toward web audiences. It also means a different way of finding freelance gigs and marketing yourself.

There are many articles and web sites on being a freelance blogger or writer, too many to read. I went through hundreds of them and culled out all the must-read articles.

So I figured I’d offer a three-part series on how to be a freelance blogger, starting tomorrow. I’ll cover these topics:

  1. How to Write for the Web and Search Engines
  2. How to Market Yourself
  3. How to Find Writing Jobs

In case you’re curious – no, I have no plans on being a freelance blogger myself. I’ve thought about it though. Hence all the research I’ve done, which I’ll be sharing with you in this series.

Admittedly, I’ve dabbled in making money off my blogs. I’ve tried ads, Amazon links, donation links, and even Text Link Ads. Unfortunately, they don’t amount to a hill of beans. But this is my hill. And these are my beans. Erm, ahem.

Stay tuned!

The How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger series:

  1. How to Write for the Web and Search Engines
  2. How to Market Yourself
  3. How to Find Writing Jobs