5 spiffy Mac tools

As I mentioned recently, I purchased a Mac last month. Mainly I’ll be using the Mac for content creation, but, that doesn’t mean I can’t use it for a portable development system as well. Last night I invited Todd over for dinner and in exchange I had him help me set up Apache, MySQL & PHP. As luck would have it,he had done some homework ahead of time and had found the first spiffy tool, MAMP. MAMP is a “One-Click-solution for setting up your personal webserver”. The description did not disappoint. After a quick download and install, we were up and running in a matter of minutes.

We spent some time reconfiguring Apache to allow for hosting several sites inside the htdocs directory that, after a quick entry in the HOSTS file, can be accessed by simply typing: http://[dir-name]/ - This is the same basic setup I had on my previous development solution so the transition to the new system will be quite easy.

Tool #2 is for working with graphics and is called Pixelmator. I’ve usually stuck to the Adobe line of products. Since my needs are pretty basic (resize, crop and some mild design), I’ve always used Adobe Photoshop Elements on the PC, but when shown the Pixelmator site, it seems that I’m going to have more than I need when it comes to features. With a $59 price tag, I don’t think I can go wrong here.

The third cool tool I was introduced to is called Adium. This is an instant messenger program that handles ICQ, YIM, AIM, MSN and a host of other messenger programs all in one. I’ve got contacts across all of these platforms and it’s no fun having to run 4 apps just to be able to chat with them all.

On the Windows side I’ve used Trillian for years as my multi-platform messenger program, and until quite recently there hasn’t even been a hint of a Mac version. This has recently changed and they are taking signups for Alpha testers for the new version. I’ve signed up and am hoping to become a tester soon.

Cool tool #4 is Quicksilver. This one is way cool. At first glance it’s a simple launch pad for programs, directories and files. Hit a hotkey combination on your keyboard, type the first couple letters of the program/directory/file name and get a list of everything found that matches. Click the desired listing and it opens up. However, once you dig a little deeper you’ll find that it’s also a control base for setting up hotkeys for other programs as well. For example, I was able to set up hotkeys for itunes. With the click of a couple keys I can raise/lower the volume, pause/play a song, or, bring up a search window to find an album, artist or song. These hotkeys work no matter which program you are currently using.

The 5th tool is Textmate. After about 3 minutes on the Mac I realized it’s lack of any sort of decent text editor. On the Windows side I’ve been using UltraEdit since version 1.0 and am quite spoiled. So finding a product to stand up to it didn’t seem like an easy task. While I haven’t used it long enough to say it’s handled everything UltraEdit handles, I can tell you that it cover all of what I considered to be the basic requirements: Search/Replace in files, customizable syntax highlighting, auto-indent, automatic bracket matching & column selection.

If this list isn’t enough, Carl was kind enough to pass on this list of “super OS X menubar items“. There are several on this list that I plan on trying out in the very near future.

If there are other Mac tools that you think a noob Mac user (that’s me) can use for web development or content creation, drop me a comment. I’d be happy to check them out.

Hosting: shared or dedicated server

I’ve been hosting sites for myself or for clients for over a decade. During that time I have gone through my fair share of hosting services. Some good, some bad and some others just flat out horrible. About 2 years ago I developed a site that ended up hitting pretty big and was pulling in a huge amount of traffic. The site was very database intensive and caused me to piss off a couple different hosting companies who didn’t like having my site on their shared boxes. So off I went and ordered up a dedicated server.

Fast forward a couple years and I’ve since sold off the site and the hosting for that site is no longer my concern. Even thought I host about a dozen sites on the dedicated box, my traffic levels aren’t nearly what they were back when I was desperate for the dedicated solution and yet I’m still paying the higher monthly cost for my own server.

After some talk with a few guys I know who host sites in various locations, I settled on BlueHost.com. They have a decent package that lets you have unlimited domains for a set monthly fee. They offer cpanel, which was too expensive to install on my dedicated server, Fantastico, and several other niceties that don’t come with having your own server.

After the mammoth task of moving a dozen or so sites, databases and various config files that will need updating, I’ll be saving about $500/year on hosting. I’m looking forward to that!

So what do you other bloggers do for hosting? Do you have your own server? Do you host on a shared package? Do you host on a server sitting on your kitchen table?

What constitutes a paid link?

There seems to be a lot of talk lately about Google penalizing sites for paid text links. One of the higher profile cases is a site called The Stanford Daily who’s page rank dropped from a 9 to a 7 over a short amount of time. On a scale of 1-10, dropping 20% would be bad at any point, but I think we’ll all agree that Google’s page rank system has an increasingly difficult slope to climb when you are talking about reaching the 7, 8, 9 and 10 ranks. Losing 2 spots at that point is a HUGE blow.

Last month we found out that Google slapped a bunch of paid link directories causing them to lose their high ranking in the search results. Following up this month, Google is punishing sites for buying links. This sparked a conversation at my office which lead to the question, what constitutes a paid link?

There were a bunch of scenarios tossed around in our discussion. Some of them where no-brainers, but there is a lot of middle ground here. In those instances, is it up to Google to be judge and jury on what is or isn’t a paid link? Of course it is.

So here’s some instances that got thrown around. The question for each is, who should be getting penalized?

Paid Posts
With sites like ReviewMe.com and PayPerPost.com offering bloggers cash for writing an article about a product or site, both of which require full disclosure for the fact that they are paid reviews, it doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult to find and penalize these posts.

Text-Link-Ads
This is another great service that links up bloggers with advertisers. With a dead-simple Word Press plugin available to bloggers, it’s easier than ever to earn some cash from your inventory (i.e. blog posts). Advertisers can search for sites offering topics of their choosing, then pick a word or phrase from a post on your site and pay to have it link directly to their site.

Powered By / Sponsored by links
With the staggering number of sites using WordPress to power their blog, there are thousands of designers cranking out new themes that are made available free of charge. When you download and install the theme they usually request that you leave the crediting link in the footer. Could this not be construed as a paid link? They provided their service in exchange for the link to their site. You’ll find an increasing number of these credits link to both the designer and a sponsor. Search the forums at digitalpoint.com to find dozens of offers for sponsored link spots.

Pay Per Click Ads
I’m not talking about Adsense here. I’m thinking more about programs like Revenue Pilot. Sites that let you do more creative things with their ads than just plopping a rectangle in the middle of a post or sidebar. Sure, the links to not point directly to the buyer’s site, but could an argument be made for penalizing the site who’s monetizing some space by having a collection of links he’ll be paid for each time they get clicked?

Affiliate Network Ads
Again, in most cases, these aren’t linking directly to the advertiser’s site, but the blogger has an incentive for keeping the link on his site. Sites like cj.com offer a bounty to their publishers on behalf of their advertisers for all traffic that perform a certain action on the advertiser’s site. This has to be considered a paid link then, right?

The way I see it, given recent events, if you are getting any sort of benefit from a link, direct or implied, then it has to be considered a paid link and everybody in a 10 mile radius is likely to be penalized.

Leave a comment and let me know who you think is being penalized or should be being penalized for their actions in the scenarios above.

[Dear you fine folks over at Google. I am not receiving any benefit from the outbound links in this post. Cheers, geeeek]

How to profit buying Pay-Per-Click advertising

About 6 months ago I decided I wanted to run an ad on Google Adsense promoting an offer I thought had serious potential. I had no idea what I was doing. I rushed over to Google Adwords and signed up for an account. I created a campaign, added in a couple hundred key words, wrote my ad and sat back waiting for the money to roll in. After a week went by and I had spent a couple hundred dollars on traffic and had made only 1 sale, I had to stop the campaign. I was losing 90 dollars per hundred spent. What was I doing wrong? As it turns out, just about everything.

In order to profit using pay-per-click, it’s important to do your homework first. Here are some steps you can take BEFORE you pay for your first click.

Step 1, research the product

Step 2, Find out how the offer converts

Step 3, See how many ad views you can expect

Step 4, figure out where your ads are likely to display

Once you have the above information, you can now do some simple math to decide if this is a product you are willing to advertise.
A = Cost Per Click
B = # of clicks to make a sale
C = Affiliate Payout
D = Cost Per Lead

A * B = D
C - D = Your profit

When first starting out, I suggest you error on the cautious side when it comes to figuring out how many clicks it will take to make a sale.

Now that you’ve done your homework, it’s time to put it in to action. If you haven’t done so already, Sign up for a Google Adsense account.

When creating your campaigns, there are several factors to keep in mind. Here’s a list:

Some additional tips to keep in mind:

You may notice that all my information relates to how to run PPC ads on Google, but not on Yahoo or MSN. Since Google supplies it’s search results to many other online search sites, by advertising in Google, you are also advertising across many other networks. When you are just starting out I suggest you stick to Google. If, over time you have come up with a successful ad campaign that has had time to age gracefully, you may want to consider creating the same ad in the Yahoo or MSN networks. This is an if, and only an if, you are already seeing a steady profit from the same ad over an extended amount of time.

Best of luck to you.

The Blog for a year competition

Through a contact on Facebook,I was introduced to a site with an interesting idea. The site is called Blog for a Year. The idea is that they will pay somebody $80,000 to allow them to quit their job (not required) and work on their blog for an entire year.

Just exactly how are they going to do that, you might ask… I know, because that’s what I asked. First, you need some bloggers. The bloggers get nominated (I don’t think there is any rule against nominating yourself). Then, they go and tell all their friends, family, co-workers and anybody who will listen to go to the site and vote for them (up to once per day). At the same time, the site is taking donations. As soon as the donation pool reaches $160,000 the blogger with the most votes is offered the job.

Collecting $160,000 to pay out $80,000??? may be your next question (yes, it was also mine). The about page says that the extra money goes to pay for hosting, taxes, legal fees, etc, etc. Any money left over will go towards future competitions. OK, fair enough. I can live with that. But, what if you never reach the $160,000 mark? They have that angle covered as well. If the donation fund doesn’t reach it’s goal, on January 1st, 2008 they will offer the top vote getter half the amount of the donation fund. With 3 months to go, I’d say they have their work cut out for them. The donation fund is currently sitting at $1,958.

If you are thinking about winning the competition, unless you have a relentless and large fan base that will vote for you on a daily basis, or unless you have the be-all-end-all of hard luck stories, I’d say you probably don’t have much of a chance.

I like the concept, though I don’t expect they are going to get anywhere near their goal of 160K unless they find some corporate advertisers to foot the bill. If I were running the site I would throw affiliate links to the bigger online shopping stores (amazon, ebay, etc…) and then suggest to the bloggers to request that their voters also use those links when planning to shop online. Heck, with nearly 200 bloggers already signed up, they could cast a fairly sizable net for online shoppers.