What are They?

SOPA stands for “Stop Online Piracy Act” and is a bill being sent through the House of Representatives to prevent the theft of intellectual property/content on the internet.

PIPA is the “Protect IP Act” which is the Senate’s equivalent of SOPA.

The intent of these two bills is to, basically, stop online piracy and protect the groundwork of the “internet economy”. Sounds pretty noble, I know. Unfortunately, what it sounds like it does and what it actually does are not the same. Not even close, in this case.

What Do They Do?

The basis of these bills is to empower content owners to be able to shut down a site that is compromising (i.e. stealing) its content. The face of these bills is to enable movie/music/publishing studios to shut down torrent sites like The Pirate Bay and others of its ilk when they illegally distribute copyrighted content. Sounds pretty good, right? We don’t like Somali Pirates, why should we like internet pirates? Unfortunately, millions of people illegally download content every day (shame on you!), and that costs a lot of profit world wide. Profit is income and income is more jobs, more taxes, more consumption, etc, etc.

Unfortunately, neither bill is really empowered to actually achieve this objective. Saying you want to shut down foreign hosted torrent sites is a far cry from actually being able to do it. After all, there are dozens of laws that already provide for the protection of copyrighted material. It’s not like you need another law to say that stealing is wrong — it’s wrong.

What this law actually does is provide legal support for the indiscriminate shutting down of websites by powerful ISP holders and content owners on the grounds of copyright. Without any legal sanction whatsoever.

What Exactly Does That Mean?

OK, here’s where things can get into the weeds, so I’m going to tread gently to keep this at the big picture level.

SOPA and PIPA allow, basically, for the disassembly of the internet. Yeah, that’s a big claim, I know. It does this by a few key provisions, mainly: 1) The main provision, protection from copyright infringement, 2) The “Vigilante Clause” and 3) the “Anti-Circumvention” policy.

Here they are one at a time:

Copyright Infringement Protection. The selling point for this was to prevent online piracy, as I said. Primarily movies, music, and eBooks, but it opens the door to a lot more. And that’s where the problem really hits. What are the limits to “copyright infringement”? It’s easy when you say you want to prevent illegal downloads of “Ghost Protocol”. It’s hard when you get into ideas, quotes, and pictures. How weird can this get? Well, currently DC Comics is suing a slew of fans and tattoo shops for tattoos of their licensed characters. I have a Green Lantern t-Shirt and was wearing it when my children were born. There are pictures of me holding my children in that t-shirt online. The sites that hold those pictures can be shut down under the provisions of SOPA and PIPA. And, if they can shut down guy wearing a Green Lantern shirt, they can shut down a site with pics of a Nike shirt or shoes. Are you a running blogger? Did you include a picture when you wrote a negative review of some Nike shoes? Guess what? They can SHUT YOU DOWN under SOPA/PIPA. It’s not just about stealing music — there is no defined limit to intellectual property in SOPA/PIPA so everything is free game.

The Vigilante Clause. The internet is a big place, so the government is relying on the content providers to let them know when their copyright is being infringed upon. Let that sink in for a minute. Now, imagine how that can be used to destroy competition? Crush start ups? Prevent legal Freeware? How does that hit home? Imagine, if you will, this scenario: LibreOffice is a powerful, free office suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office. It is a potent competitor to MS Office. But, how is it compatible with MS Word, for example? Why, to even know what MS Word formatting is, the makers of LibreOffice had to have accessed some type of propriety MS intellectual property somehow, right? “Of course they did”, MS says. “They’re stealing our intellectual property and giving away our product! We charge $349.99 for MS Office! Off with their ISP!” And, just like that, LibreOffice is gone. No need for proof, just suspicion. Vigilante justice has come to quell the unrest of the Wild Wild Web. Does that make you feel safer?

The Anti-Circumvention Act. Ever had a problem with your tech related to DRM? You know, how to get your iTunes songs onto your Android phone or rip the DVD you bought so you can watch it on your iPhone in the gym? Guess what? Under SOPA/PIPA if you make a post (or even link to on Facebook or Twitter!) about how to overcome that little problem, you’re gonna get shut down. Maybe even face actual criminal charges. No shit. And, remember, this isn’t the government doing the shutting — it’s the content providers and ISP holders. In the world of super-corporations, that is a really wide range of stuff. How many companies does GE own? How about COMCAST? Or FOX? Disney? And, while that’s sinking in, what do you think the level of abuse is going to be?

Just as an aside, you know the valiant efforts of hackers world wide that have been helping nations under tyranny have access to a free internet by providing patches to circumvent debilitating firewalls and tracking programs? Well, under the anti-circumvention provision, they would all be declared criminals and subject to deletion from the web. The websites and chat rooms they use as well. Hard to imagine, those groups actively practicing and protecting freedom and democracy will be judged enemies of the state under SOPA/PIPA. Is that really the path we want to choose?

How Bad Can It Get?

Not to be overly alarmist, but this can get crazy bad.

The potential for abuse is extraordinarily huge. And, with that, the risk for creating an internet venture — even a simple website — is staggeringly huge. Imagine what Facebook will have to do to patrol it’s millions of users to make sure no one posted any infringing pictures or cited a risky link? And lets not even bring up YouTube! How many Batman, Lego, Star Wars, and super hero parodies are there on the largest video sharing site in the world? How many videos about product reviews? How many bootlegged concert recordings? Do you have a picture or video on your site with a television in the background? What about birthday party pictures with licensed characters as decorations?

With that much legal liability hanging out there, developers and angel investors will be extremely hesitant to fund any future ventures. Know what that means? Only those in power (i.e. content and ISP holders) will be developing web applications from now on. The start up culture will be over.

The Bottom Line

SOPA and PIPA are terrible, evil bills that leave the door wide open for the destruction of free speech, capitalism, and the concept of freedom in the digital age. These are very, very bad pieces of legislation and need to be defeated. Do your part and please contact your representatives about these bills.

You can get a good computer for under $500!

For all of those looking to buy a laptop on the cheap, here’s what you should be looking for:

Computer Criteria

1. Windows 7. Look, I hate to break it to you, but you will never get an Apple laptop for $500. They just don’t walk that way. You’re looking squarely at a Windows 7 PC. Don’t worry, though, Windows 7 is a fine OS — it really is — and will run every program you will ever need.

2. Netbook or Laptop? You can pick up a quality netbook for $300 or less. It will most likely have a 10″ screen, no DVD drive, and low end specs. Is that bad? No, not necessarily. A netbook will handle all of your school and work based tasks with ease. It will do image editing fairly well, but video editing might be a struggle. As for entertainment, video games will be limited, but streaming audio/video will not be an issue. Intel is even coming out with faster chips aimed squarely at netbooks, so performance is improving all of the time. Generally, a netbook has fantastic battery life. It is very, very easy to transport and travel with, and the small size means you could even use it to keep notes in class. Go to a local Best Buy and check one out, just to see how you like typing on the keyboard as it is a bit smaller than a full size laptop. It will be a bit cramped at first, but unless you have crazy big hands, once you get used to it you’ll find you can type fairly well.

2. Intel i3 CPU. A budget laptop is budget because of it’s guts. Screen and hard drive are pretty much standard across the board. True, you might come across something really, really cheap that has inferior base components, but you’d have to look. That leaves the CPU. The budget laptops of today are generally packing either an AMD C-60, and AMD E-350, or an Intel i3 chip. I would go with the Intel i3 on this one. At the higher end, I don’t see that much difference between an AMD or an Intel chip for most applications (some programs are finicky, but those are pretty exotic), but on the low end the Intel i3 is the more reliable chip. Don’t believe me? Check out the Bench Scores (the metric for overall chip performance) for yourself HERE. The Intel i3 ranks at 407 (or less, for some setups), AMD C-60 at 951, and AMD E-350 at 859 (lower scores are better). If you’re sharp (and quick!) you might even be able to snatch up an Intel i5 based laptop — that’s a good bargain for under $500!

3. Drive Size and Speed. Shoot for a minimum hard drive of 250GB at 5400rpm and RAM of 4GB. You’re unlikely to see much more RAM than that (you might find one with 6GB on sale somewhere), but you can always add your own later if that’s a problem (it’s not hard). 250GB is pretty low end for a hard drive, though. You’re more likely to find something in the 320GB range, though still at 5400rpm instead of the quicker 7200rpm. As for solid state drives, that’s way out of this price range.

4. Graphics and Audio. A 15.6″ screen is certainly possible, as are several 14″ options. Normally, I’d advise the larger screen, but that will lessen battery life and take up more desktop space. If you’re a heavy traveler/frequent flier, consider a 14″. If not, go for 15.6″. You can still get some dedicated graphics cards in this price range, they just won’t be high end nVidia or anything. Like I said, you won’t be playing graphics heavy games with a budget laptop. A webcam is pretty much standard these days, even for low end machines, so it’ll be Skype ready. Speakers will be a bit tinny and undersized, but that’s no big deal. External speakers and/or headphones are cheap in comparison and will sound much better than even BEATS qualified laptops will.

5. What about Tablets? While there are a couple of cheap Android tablets out there, I don’t recommend them for school work. The only one that gets that recommendation is the Asus Transformer Prime and its outside the $500 price range. An iPad is not for full time use, and, besides, it’s outside the range as well.

Where to Find?

The usual suspects, but I recommend Amazon, HHGregg (if one in your area) and Best Buy. Bust Buy is surprisingly good for this type of laptop and will even have exclusive deals from manufacturers that you won’t find anywhere else.

My Recommendations

Here are several laptops computers under $500 with decent specs:

Acer Laptop PC with i3-370M chip: $449 HHGregg
Acer Laptop PC with i3 2310M chip: $449 HHGregg
Asus k53E PC with i5 chip: $479 Best Buy
Dell Insprion with i3 chip: $449 Best Buy
Gateway Laptop PC with i5 chip: $429 Best Buy
Toshiba Satellite with i3 chip: $449 Best Buy
ASUS A53E-XA2 with i5 chip: $499 ($150 off!) Amazon
HP G6-1c79nr with i3 chip: $489 ($70 off!) Amazon

Recap

When shopping for a bargain laptop, look for minimum specs of Intel i3, 250GB Hard Drive, and 4GB RAM. If you find more, jump on it and Netbooks are OK unless you really need a DVD drive (or have big hands!), and tablets are a no-go.

Good luck and Happy Hunting!

Publish Digitally in 2012!

This week’s post that has me ticked off? This one about resolving to publishing a book in 2012.

Before I get too deep into it, Kim’s right in one (and ONLY one) respect, and that’s there really is no better time to publish a book than 2012, except, perhaps, 2011. Unfortunately, Kim’s advice on how to publish a book in the modern age is pretty poor. Looking to write a book and get it out there? Here’s what you need to do:

1. Write your book. You need to actually write the book. There are a lot of programs out there to write your book, and you can even stubby pencil it, if you like, but since this is a tech article I’ll go over the two options I prefer. I like both LibreOffice (a free office suite that’s exceptionally capable) and Scrivener. Scrivener is exceptional for long works and I use it myself. It has a lot of features that take a bit of learning to really get the ost out of, but it’s worth it. Want a second opinion? Michael Sullivan, best selling author, tells of his conversion from plain Word to Scrivener HERE. Also, Scrivener has another big bennie I’ll discuss a little farther down.

2. Edit your book. Writing isn’t as easy as many people think. Thousands of ebooks are being loaded up onto Kindle and Nook every day, a majority of them are self-publishing first time authors. And most of them really stink. If you want to actually sell some copies of your book, bring in a professional editor, or, failing that, go through at least a dozen test readers. The market is competitive, and the quality level is rising. Don’t know any editors? Head over to the Kindle Boards Cafe, a list of author service providers are right there waiting for you. Want a personal recommendation? Benb Gallaher is my editor, and he can be reached HERE.

3. While you are writing/editing your book, start building your audience with social media. Twitter and Facebook are free services and they are exceptional tools for gathering an audience and promoting your book. Kindle best selling author Michael Hicks wrote a short series of articles on how he built up his Twitter following that’s worth reading. GoodReads is a social network specifically for readers and writers, and is also a great resource for book promotion, not to mention getting beta readers and reviewers. Robin Sullivan, the head of Ridan Publishing, wrote a terrific series of articles on how to effectively use Goodreads. Also, get a website and start blogging. Not Blogger or some other free web platform service. Get an actual website — when you start directing your readers to purchase your book, you’ll see why.

4. Forget Create Space, Blurb, Lulu, Kazam or any other “Vanity Press” type of arrangement. Print is no longer cost effective. With Amazon selling 1 million Kindle’s a week and B&N not far behind, the age of print is quickly ending. Not only is it expensive, it’s rapidly becoming a format only collectors are interested in. The only time I would recommend using one of these services is if you are putting together a coffee-table style photo book for a small audience. And, even then, with color eReaders and Tablet apps out there I still think digital is a far superior target audience.

5. Format your book for Digital. You used to have to pay about $100-$150 bucks to get your book formatted, but nowadays you can just use a standard program to do it. The writing program Scrivener will automatically format your book, and the program costs $40. You can get it here, if you’re not already using it. And here’s a detailed, step-by-step video on how to use it to format your book. You can also try free programs like Calibre and, provided you have a WordPress website, Anthologize.

6. Load your book up onto Kindle and Nook. The act of self publishing is now as simple as a few mouse clicks. Once you have a formatted manuscript, head over to Kindle and Nook and upload your book. You can find detailed instructions on how to load your book into Kindle’s storefront HERE and how to do the same for Nook HERE. Between these two venues, you’ve got almost 90% of the digital book market covered. Also, with these services, you don’t have to have an ISBN, saving you about $150 bucks.

7. Continue to Promote your book! With thousands of self-publishing authors out there, it takes a lot more than simply uploading your book to be a successful author. Go back to step 3 above and do it in overdrive. Try and be a guest blogger on other author’s websites, participate in online forums for your genre, and become a prolific tweeter. Marketing your book is at least as hard as writing it, so get cracking.

One more thing: If you need a little help staying motivated, try a writing challenge to keep you on point. NaNoWriMo now has multiple events per year, and SoCNoC takes place every Summer. You’ll be impressed with how those two programs will keep you going.

And there you go — real, practical advice on how to self publish in 2012. Was that so hard, Kim?

But, every once in a while, I’ll dedicate a post to document an extraordinary, over the top, absolutely delectable indulgence so profound I have to spread out my guilty pleasure across the blogoshpere. This is one of those times.

Costco Twist Cup, slightly eaten...

Well, she did great — maybe the best she’s ever done in a store — and, true to my word, we headed over to get some ice cream.

Luckily, there was almost no line and plenty of seats available. A very nice, and highly energetic, Asian lady took our order and we waited off to the side while it was prepared. My daughter asked for a swirled frozen yogurt in a cup and I got a hand dipped ice cream bar (with almonds!). A very busy man behind the counter speedily filled an absolutely GIGANTIC cup with soft serve frozen yogurt and brought it over to, my daughter’s eyes now wide with gleeful anticipation. The man then grabbed a plain vanilla block of ice cream on a stick, dipped it in a vat of chocolate, and dredged it, dripping with gooey goodness, into a pan of crushed almonds. Then, he placed it on a piece of time foil and threw another handful of almonds on top to ensure complete coverage. As he brought it over, I must admit, my eyes got a little watery with this vision of gastronomic greatness…

We sat down at a little picnic bench and tucked in, she with petite spoonfuls, me with huge, honking bites.

Well, the frozen yogurt was a bit of a disappointment. Sorry, but, as huge and beautiful as it was, the taste left a lot to be desired in my opinion. A clear case of quality over quantity.

The hand dipped ice cream bar, on the other hand, was absolutely incredible! It is, in fact, the entire reason I am writing this post. My taste buds are so overwhelmed and my brain still reeling with pangs of ice cream craving that I had to write this post in the hopes of some relief. That ice cream bar may have been the finest example of pure icy creamy goodness that I have ever encountered! Ever!

To put this in perspective, I’ve had a lot of ice cream bars in my life. As a kid, I grew up with Good Humor’s, as an adult I moved on to Haagen Daas bars and, a few years ago in Vegas, I even asked the chef at the Four Seasons to create the perfect ice cream bar for my wife and I (that creation was my gold standard for ice cream bars, until now, by the way). But this cheap little $1.50 ice cream bar from the Costco Cafe puts all of those previous iterations to shame. I was blown away.

First, the thing is huge, so bring your appetite. I couldn’t finish it. Second, it is coated in chocolate. And I mean COATED! That stuff is laid on thick — almost a quarter inch in some areas! — and has the lusciousness previously found only with Godiva. I don’t know if it is pure chocolate or just some variation of “chocolaty coating” (quite frankly, this is a fact I felt better off now knowing, so as to not spoil the overall effect), but it is freaking GOOD. Add to that the solid chunky, some skin still on the pieces, crushed almonds and it was a magnificent icy experience. And, for you ice cream purists, the vanilla bar was creamy, rich, and flavorful without being overwhelming. It was a shining example of ice cream bar base — sturdy, dependable, and complimentary.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

Look at all those NUTS!

Almost a Full Inch Thick!

Tell ‘em the Underwater Samurai sent you.

Arthur Christmas, courtesy of Sony Pictures

As I’m watching this scene, I’m looking over at my children and asking myself: “How can I introduce them to the wonders I’ve seen?” And, following that, “How do I show them how truly powerful they really are?”

In both the service and my personal life, I’ve been an adventurer. The things I’ve seen and done — hell, sometimes I don’t even believe them! But now I’m getting to the point in life where I want to be passing that along to the next generation. To inspire them somehow to live a bold life, not a plain life. To show them that there is so much more out there then even their wildest dreams, an entire universe waiting to be experienced and explored.

As they get older, I’ll be taking them out more and more. A nudge off the trail into the woods, out into the ocean, down towards the deep end of the pool. We’ll hike longer trails and climb bigger rocks. But, I wonder, is there a huge “aha” moment? Some right of passage that really solidifies how life can be lead, like Arthur experiences in his movie?

As I search back into my childhood for such a moment, I don’t think I see one. There were many small things — archery lessons with my Dad, skiing for the first time, the alpine slide, a river rafting trip, many weekends camping. These events, and dozens of others, prepared me for the life I eventually lead. But there was no singular event, no grand welcome into a larger world.

Here’s my question out to the larger internet: Anyone have a grand adventure with their father that opened their eyes to a larger world? Or maybe it wasn’t an adventure, maybe it was a retreat of some kind that opened your eyes to the bold new world that was waiting? What impact, if any, did that have on you? What do you plan to do for your own children?

Please, share your experiences in the comments and pass this along. Let’s see what we can do to spread the spirit of adventure.

The New Facebook Timeline Page

Unfortunately, in its default settings it’s the most unsafe thing I’ve ever seen on the internet to date. An unprecedented amount of your personal life is displayed in perfectly accessible, easily understood, graphical format. Many of us have hundreds of friends on Facebook, some are family, some close friends, some acquaintances, some are just in our profession that we wanted to keep in touch with. There are a wide variety of people in our lives and on our Facebook pages. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want every single one of these people to see the entirety of my life, including all of my comings and goings.

The new Facebook doesn’t contain any more information than the previous version of Facebook, it’s the increased organization and graphical presentation that make it dangerous. Before, if someone geotagged you in some photos, or you checked yourself into your favorite places, that information was lost in the continuous stream of information that flows along your wall. Now, that same information is pulled out and organized across a map, time stamped and with accompanying photo. It is, literally, a stalker’s dream.

The default settings, in my opinion, are not safe. If you have children, this puts them at risk. If you are a single woman living alone, it puts you at risk. This single function, Map, is exceedingly dangerous on its own. Combined with the enhanced data logging of Timeline, and it is a dark time waiting to happen.

“But I don’t use geotagging!” you say. I know, neither do I. However, others do, and they have tagged me and my family. Guess what? Their posts are now on my map. Guess what, again? If you don’t adjust your privacy settings, people YOU DON”T KNOW can tag you and track you ON THEIR OWN MAPS. Yes, that’s right. Facebook, to the unaware, has become the greatest stalking tool in the history of crime.

Facebook’s privacy controls are difficult to navigate, and they offer nowhere near the precision that Google+ offers. So, for those who were previously not that security conscious but now want to be, I’ve put together a step by step guide on how to secure your Facebook page.

FIRST, Get Off The Map

Like I said, the Map is just plain dangerous. The first, and most important, thing you should do is get off that map and protect yourself from unwanted tagging. Here’s how you do that:

1. In your Facebook Drop Down (top right corner, by your name) Select “Privacy Settings”

2. Select “Edit Settings” next to “How Tags Work”

3. Make the following adjustments:

a. “Timeline Review” – switch to ON

b. “Tag Review” – switch to ON

c. “Maximum Timeline Visibility” – switch to CUSTOM, then select “Only Me” at the follow on drop down menu.

d. “Tag Suggestions” – switch to OFF

e. “Friends Can Check You In To Places” – switch to OFF

Now that you’ve done this, I’ll tell you what each one means.

Timeline Review: You get to review and approve any post that you’ve been tagged in before it gets posted on your Timeline. The Timeline is YOUR personal history, don’t allow any unauthorized editors!

Tag Review: You get to review and approve any posts that others have tagged you in before it goes public on your Wall. Don’t want that embarrassing party picture to go live? Here’s where you stop that.

Maximum Timeline Visibility: Your life is your life, you don’t need to share it with anyone else. There is still a lot of “benign” information that you can’t hide (Likes, added friends, etc), but the important stuff – thigns actually about your real life – you can keep private. I think “Only Me” is a great place to start until you can create more Lists that narrow down the audience (more on that in a sec).

Tag Suggestions: Facebook has an automatic face recognition system, so when you want to tag pictures, if gives you a helping hand. Best to turn that off. You know who your friends are, and they know who you are. The only people who need facial recognition help are people who don’t know you – and they shouldn’t be tagging your pics.

Friends Can Check You In To Places: This means people can check you in to geographic locations – however, you might not actually be there. In addition, that’s exactly how stalkers can track you – by geotagging. If you’re happy to be at Panera, go ahead and check yourself in. In addition, if you’ve never been to Cokie’s Crack House, you don’t need anyone saying you were.

Why is all of this important? Simple: you can’t edit someone else’s posts once they’re live. You will have to ask them to remove you – that’s not a place to be, in my opinion. Your history, your life, and your comings and going are YOURS. Don’t let anyone else write your story for you.

It should be noted, that you CAN NOT eliminate the Map. But, you can make it so only you (or a tailored list of friends/family) can see your own comings and goings. The default setting is to make Maps visible to everyone. This is, as I said, exceedingly dangerous an a lot of levels. Don’t put yoruself or your family at risk! If you do anything on the new Facebook, make sure you CHANGE THESE SETTINGS!

NEXT, Fine Tune Your Protection

The next step is to fine tune who sees what and how. Again, this wasn’t a big deal under the previous Facebook set up, but with this new layout it’s really very important. The amount of information is just stunning, and you need to protect this. This is not a joke or an exaggeration. You need to do this.

Step One: Managing Interactions

This section of your Privacy governs how you interact with your friends, including who can search for you, who can send you messages, who can post on your Timeline, and who can see the entirety of your timeline.

1. Go back to Privacy Settings and select “How You Connect”

2. Review each item and select what you feel comfortable with. I highly recommend “Friends” for pretty much everything, with the exception of “Who Can Post on Your Timeline” which I recommend “Only You” (back to the “you write your own story” idea).

3. When you’re done, hit “Done”

Why this is important: These settings control much of the Timeline and Wall information about you visible to the outside world. You want your friends to see it, but I’m pretty sure you don’t want to make it fully public, nor do you want “Friends of Friends” which would make you visible to many people you don’t know.

Step Two: Apps and Websites

This section governs how third party websites and applications get your data. There is a lot from Facebook about how many “lies and misconceptions” about this service are out there trying to turn you away from it. Well, I’m not lying and I’m not ill informed. I deal with security for a living. You should be very careful about these settings. If left at their defaults, you will be handing over an awful lot of information to people you don’t know.

Facebook does not want you to change these settings, because this is how they make a lot of their money – selling your information. This information is NOT anonymous, it is referenced directly to your name. When you give this information away, you are handing large chunks of your life to corporations. I’m not alone in thinking this is a bad idea.

Here’s how you can protect yourself:

1. Go to “Privacy Settings” and select “Apps, Games, Websites.”

2. Select “Edit Settings” for “Apps You Use”

3. Review the list of Apps. These are the apps that have access to your account. Some you use to login to different services or websites, some are games, etc, etc. If you see anything you don’t recognize or no longer use, delete it (each deletion will take several clicks). If you see something you don’t think should have access to your info, delete it. There is not moderation of information – they either have access or they don’t – so be decisive.

4. Go back to the “Apps, Games, Websites” menu and select “Edit Settings” for “How People Bring Your Info Into the Apps They Use”

5. Review this information. If there is anything on that list you don’t want flying around on someone’s mobile phone, uncheck it.

6. Return to the “Apps, Games, Websites” menu and select “Edit Settings” for “Instant Personalization”

7. Turn this OFF! As soon as you uncheck this, a warning will pop up from Facebook, trying to convince you not to do this. DO IT ANYWAY. Internet security experts across the planet have filed grievances against this feature for very good reason. It has been formally protested by the US Senate, for good reason. “Instant Personalization” is a license for Facebook to sell everything scrap of info on your profile to any, or all, of their third party partners. TURN IT OFF.

8. Return to the “Apps, Games, Websites” menu and select “Edit Settings” for “Public Search”.

9. Make sure this is UNCHECKED. When enabled, this allows public access to your Timeline during internet searches. That’s just completely unnecessary.

Yeah, Still Not Done

Now, we’ve blocked a lot of external people from accessing your information, but now we have to go back and review what you’re giving away. That’s right, Facebook is kind of a double indemnity in reverse – you have to protect yourself against outsiders, but you also have to prevent yourself from giving it away.

To do that, go back to your Profile Page and select “About Me” to go to your personal info page.

Review this information! Specifically, look at your Contact Information (who can see your phone number, for example). To change who see’s what, click the little Edit symbol. From the page that pops up, you can lock down each individual item of information as you see fit. Personally, I keep most of that info at the “Family” level, which is a specific List I created. Don’t have any Lists set up? Then read on!

Dividing Lines

OK, now we get to the unpleasant part of Facebook. Chances are, you have a vast majority of your friends as “Friends”. Well, in Facebook terms “Friends” is really, really broad. You’ll probably want to break that down into smaller chunks, like “Close Friends” and “Family” and “Runner Friends” and stuff like that. The only way to do that is through Lists.

To set up a List, click on the HOME button at the top right of your Facebook page. Over to the left side, you’ll see “Lists”. Move your cursor over the word “Lists” and you’ll see the word “More” materialize just to the right of it. Click on “More” and another page will pop up that has all of your current Lists listed. Above that list is a button that says “+ Create List”. Click that button and make a new List of your choice.

You can add people to a List through the List menu or by clicking on their individual pages and changing their drop down from “Friend” to whatever List you want. This may take some time for many people – I know I have several hundred friends on Facebook. But, now you have to do that. Sorry.

Setting Post Defaults

Here is the last thing you need to do – I know, it’s been quite a list! – and you’ll be good to go. That is to set your Posting defaults.

Go to your Facebook page and click on the box to update your Status. See how, when it opens up, there are some symbols along the bottom? These are what you need to adjust.

These are the codes that govern how your information is seen and cataloged. The big concerns here are the Location (are you geotagged?) and who can see it. I recommend you not allow any geotagging – just erase any location (if you see one). That sets the default post to no location. Next, over by the actual “Post” button, there will be a view setting. I recommend limiting it to “Friends”, but you can set it how you wish. Just know, how you set it is who can see it.

You can change this any time for any post, just be mindful that it is there. Have something you want to keep more private than your larger “Friends” pool? Change the setting for that post. Get it?

Wrapping Up

OK, you are now fully aware of Facebook’s privacy plan and settings. You are now as safe as I can make you. Have fun, connect with your friends, and, most of all, STAY SAFE.

e-Reader, mini-tablet or tablet -- which is right for you?

When I get these messages, I immediately wonder why people aren’t just doing a Google search to find which they like. Having recently done one to see what all of the confusion is about, I quickly picked up on why my message count is rising – it’s getting way too technical out there! And, for those who aren’t techies, the usual suspects are becoming more and more about spec comparison and less and less about why any given person would want any given device.

Therefore, this blog post will have a lot less “what” and a lot more “why”.

An e-Reader, a Mini Tablet , and a full tablet are not the same things. Nor are they scaled down versions of each other. They are specific devices that match specific needs and lifestyles. It’s important to know what each device is for before you buy, else you will most likely be very dissatisfied with your purchase. So, having said that, let’s get down to it!

Ground Rules and Assumptions

Before we go any further, let’s talk about what you’ve already got. Do you have a Nook or Kindle e-Reader? Do you have an iPhone or Android phone? Do you have a Mac or PC at home? Incredibly enough, given the amount of proprietary software out there on the devices we already have, your prior purchases will greatly affect your future ones. If you have a Kindle, and have bought a lot of books on it, it’s probably not worth your effort to get a Nook Tablet – the books won’t transfer. Likewise, if you’re invested in Mac/iPhone, it will be a lot of effort to switch to Android – especially if you have a bunch of family members with Mac devices. Take a good look at your current electronic status, and keep it in mind when looking at new products. For example, if you’re a heavy FaceTime user because your whole family is using it, don’t even bother with an Android device.

In addition, give some thought to what you want your new device to do for you. If you just want to stop cluttering your house with more paper, look at an e-Reader. If you’re looking to absorb media (internet, music, magazines, comic books, movies and books), but aren’t looking for a substitute for your laptop, give a lot of weight to a mini-tablet like the Nook Tablet or the Kindle Fire, not to mention the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Visio Tablet or even the Playbook. If you want a lightweight do “everything” device that takes the place of your laptop in 90% of circumstances, a full tablet such as the iPad or the Asus Transformer is what you’re looking for.

OK, with the “past purchase” lenses in your “this is what I want” goggles, let’s take a look at what’s out there:

e-Readers

The Nook Simple Touch by Barnes & Noble

These devices are ideal for people who read a lot of traditional books – not children’s books, comic books, newspapers or magazines. Books. While you can buy children’s books, comic books, newspapers and magazines through digital storefronts to download onto an e-Reader, you will not enjoy the experience. When you think about e-Readers, think BOOKS. It is a single purpose device.

There are a number of great e-Reading devices out there, including the Kobo Reader, the Sony Reader, The Ilium, and a few others. However, the reality is, there are only two readers worth considering: The Nook and the Kindle.

I’ve seen and used both, and I can tell you that on specs and device user interface alone, the Nook Simple Touch Reader is the superior device. It is exceptional, light, responsive, and has a beautiful reading surface. The Kindle is an extremely close second, also providing a magnificent reading experience and, in my opinion, a slightly simpler search and order system (though we’re really splitting hairs here). The Nook only comes in one make and model, the Kindle has several varieties at different price points.

The Kindle Touch 3G by Amazon

In addition, if you have very limited access to wi-fi (which some, like my mother, do), you want to think a lot about 3G capability. For many, this is not an issue. But again, for some (super-frequent travelers, people in isolated areas, etc) the need for 3G is more important. What does 3G let you do? 3G is the wireless network our phones work on and it allows data to be transmitted without access to broadband. It’s not super fast, but for small files like eBooks, it’s more than sufficient. The only eReader with 3G capability is the Kindle Touch 3G. It is more expensive, but not that much more. And remember, eBooks come through the internet only, there are no physical disks or drives that have them. Without access to broadband, you can’t download a book. If you don’t have broadband and want an e-Reader, the only one that is worth your while is the Kindle Touch 3G. Unlike your cell phone, though, there is no recurring bill for 3G data services for a Kindle 3G, Amazon absorbs that cost. Once you buy it, you have 3G for life.

Mini Tablets

The Nook Color Tablet, available at B&N for $250

The two big Mini-Tablets making the rounds right now are the Kindle Fire and the Nook Color Tablet. Again, like the e-Readers, these devices are very comparable. They are also very, very good at what they do, which is provide a convenient way to view/absorb electronic media.

What do I mean by electronic media? Books, Movies, Music, Photos, Childrens Books, magazines, comic books, newspapers, apps, documents, email and the Internet.

What do I mean by view/absorb? Exactly what you think I mean: you can see, but not (really) touch. These tablets, while technically powerful, do not have a very usable interface for editing. For example, you can read a Word Document, but writing or editing one is very cumbersome. Like I said above, a mini-tablet is not something you want to use as a laptop substitute, it’s just not made for that.

So, what is is made for? Movies! Surfing the Web! Reading books in the dark! Animated childrens books! Comic Books! Magazines! Streaming Netflix! Playing Angry Birds (or any of a thousand other games).

If you are a frequent traveler, and you travel with a laptop but you want easy, convenient access to books, movies, games, web, etc – think a lot about a mini-Tablet. If you find you want access to the web around the house, but a smart phone screen is to small for you and carrying your laptop around is a pain, think min-tablet. If you read a lot of magazines or comic books (print media that is more pictures than text), and want to stop cluttering your house, think min-tablet.

Now, which one do you choose? Again, given the specs and usage tests, I would go with the Nook Color Tablet. It is a magnificent piece of hardware, and Barnes & Noble has put a lot of work and thought into it. It is a very, very solid device that is made to deliver electronic media. Hardware wise, it has the same specs at the Apple iPad 2 (no kidding, it really does!), equating to a fast, smooth, effortless user experience. It will stream Netflix and Hulu, has thousands of games and apps, and their digital magazines are a lot better than Kindle’s right now. They did a great job and it has my highest recommendation. It even has a microphone that lets you record your voice in time with a book, a huge plus for those who want to be able to read to their children when they’re not there. There is one detraction about the Nook, though, that they haven’t fixed from the earlier Nook Color – their media gallery is a mess. It groups movies and pictures together in one big Gallery (no subfolders), so you just get an endless scrolling screen of thumbnails – some are pictures, some are movies. I really hate that. True, not a lot of people are side-loading movies into these devices, but I do and that is a detractor for me.

The Kindle Fire, available at Amazon for $199.

And, on a privacy front, the Kindle Fire uses a propriety web browser called SILK that does not work like other browsers you are used to. The front end interface is like what you’d expect, but the data is not rendered on the device, instead it is routed to Amazon’s servers and then routed to your device. This is done to reduce the computing load on the device, making up for the lack of RAM (half of what the Nook has). The reason this is a privacy issue, in my mind and the mind of many other technical persons, is that your web usage is now routed through someone who is not you. That means that every web page you look at, everything you buy through the internet (when using that device), and every form you fill out is routed through another server. This is unprecedented, and is the only device to do this. I feel this is a violation of my privacy, but I am old fashioned. In the world of Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc, perhaps it’s even being a bit paranoid. But, more and more digital privacy issues are coming to the fore these days and a lot of people don’t like what they’re seeing and hearing. I wouldn’t buy the Kindle Fire for this reason alone, but, again, I am old fashioned.

As always, between Nook and Kindle, you should consider the devices you already own. Books bought on one will not work on the other. It’s kind of like the Mafia, it all stays in the family. Items bought through Amazon Kindle will work on any Kindle device or app, likewise for Nook. If you own a Kindle and do not want to lose access to those books when you switch to a min-tablet, your only option is a Kindle Fire, and the same goes with Nook. This is the crux of DRM (Digital Rights Management) – those files will not work on devices by another manufacturer.

Tablets

The iPad, the magical device that started all of this tech madness!

Tablets are cool. They are. Steve Jobs wasn’t kidding when he described the first iPad as a “magical device.” There is an app for everything, and I consider tablets the top of the hand-held technology heap. They handle all digital media, web browsing, document editing, game playing, and pretty much everything else you can think of. There are apps that cover every aspect of our personal and professional lives, from household chores to professional sound mixing to CAT scan interpretation. They are exceedingly powerful, and exceedingly awesome.

But, aside from being cool, they are not necessarily for everyone.

Tablet buyers come in three flavors: those keeping up with the Joneses, those who want a super-ultra light laptop, and people with a distinct professional need. Which of these you are is up to you. But, keep in mind, if all you want is a more hand-held way to access the internet and electronic media, save yourself a few hundred bucks and get a Fire or Nook Tablet. If you really need to edit, not just read, stuff then maybe a tablet is more your style.

Back to iPad vs. Android. Before you immediately jump on the iPad bandwagon, think about how you use your current computer – specifically, how you use your computer’s file structure.

“What?” you ask, stunned. “All this awesome technology and you ask me about files?” Yes, I said file structure. Because that is the primary difference between Android and iOS. Android has a file structure almost exactly like your actual computer and iOS has no file structure whatsoever. Chances are, you won’t even think about this until you try to put an attachment on an email. You can’t do that on an iPad, it doesn’t work that way. If you want to send a picture to someone through email, you need to go to the Photo app, select the picture, and send it directly from the app. When using an Android tablet, as you’re writing your email you’ll just click “attach” and look up the item, exactly like you do on your computer.

Why is this a big deal? Because it outlines the real different between the two operating systems: an iPad is nothing like a computer and an Android tablet is exactly like a computer. In other words, to fully use your iPad, you need to learn an entirely new way to use a computer. To fully utilize an Android system, it’s “business as usual”.

Never mind the number of apps – that’s a BS statistic. Imagine if I said “China is better than America, because it has more people.” Ridiculous! Each device has hundreds of thousands of apps available – but you’re only going to use about 50. Don’t worry about app count – each device has all of the major things you will ever use or need. They key difference between the two is not apps – it’s whether you want to re-learn how to use a computer or not.

Here is a prime example: I bought an iPad for my wife to replace her failing laptop. I figured this was a no brainer – a majority of her computer usage is web, facebook, reading, and email. It seemed ideal – light, portable, powerful. And, you know, she gave it a go. She really did. But, I ultimately ended up buying her another laptop a few months later. Why? Because she couldn’t use the iPad to do what she wanted, the main issue being email attachments.

See, she gets a lot of email for the kids about school, and those emails require filling out documents and returning them. She couldn’t do it. The process was too alien. She got tired of asking me to help her do something that used to be routine. She became frustrated, and that frustration grew to lack of use. It did not work like her computer, and that was a deal breaker.

Everyone knows the iPad, and I’m not going to get into it from a technology aspect. It’s everywhere. It’s wonderful. It’s fun. It’s got a lot of great apps. It’s fully integrated into the Mac universe. If you have an iPhone, think iPad. If you have a Mac, think iPad. If you want a seemless, smooth, fully curated tablet experience, think iPad. But remember – the iPad is in no way like a computer. To be productive (email, word editing, blogging, etc), you will need to learn an entirely new way to use a computer. For some this is worth it, for others it’s not.

Android tablets

The Asus Transformer Prime with Keyboard Dock -- my Top recommended Android Tablet.

Google is trying to get this confusion under control with the release of its latest version of Android, 4.0 aka “Ice Cream Sandwich. This version is supposed to link the phone and the tablet OS’s together, much like iOS does for the iPhone, iTouch, and iPad.

All of this aside, you’re probably wondering which Android tablet is the best one to get. In my mind, the Asus Transformer Prime is, by far, the best Android tablet out there. The Acer A500 is good, so is the Toshiba. The rest… ehh, they’re OK, but I don’t think I would really recommend them.

What makes the Asus so great? Easy, the Keyboard Dock.

The Keyboard Dock turns your Asus Transformer tablet into a fully functional netbook with a touchscreen and a really long battery life (16+ hours!). Disconnect it, and it’s a tablet again. It is a road warrior’s dream. The Keyboard Dock has two USB ports, an SD card slot, and an extra battery. In addition, the actual tablet has a mini-SD card reader, an HDMI port, and front and rear facing cameras. Add in a productivity app like Quickoffice and you’re off to the races. I’ve been using mine for about 6 months now, and it is incredible. And the newest version, the Asus Transformer Prime, as a quad core CPU – that is HUGE! For non-techies, a quad core CPU is what the very high end laptops use, catapulting the Asus Transformer Prime out of the gadget realm and into “seriously real computer” land.

The Asus Transformer has the feel of a real computer when you’re using it that way, and, yet, one click of a button and it’s a tablet. When I’m on a place and want to do real work, I pull it out and type it away. Later, I disconnect the keyboard and use it as an e-reader/web portal/gaming platform. And with a 16 hour battery life, I’ve gone through an entire week long trip without having to charge it. Pretty amazing.

The Wrap Up

OK, this was a pretty lengthy blog post, and if you stuck through to the end, good on ya’! I hope it helped in your decision making process.

The key takeaway is that each of these classes of device have a unique usage. It’s important to connect what you want and how you work to the device. I know everyone has an iPad, but it might not be what YOU really want or need.

If you just want something convenient to check out all of this awesome digital media that’s available, consider a mini-tablet instead of a full tablet. If you’re looking to lighten your load and ditch the laptop for a while, check out a full tablet – but know yourself: are you the type who wants to relearn computing or do you want to just keep trucking?

And, above all with new devices, realize what “family” you’re already involved with and decide how much you effort you want to exert to make a change.

It's easy to self publish through Barnes & Noble's PubIt!

Just we showed with our How To: ePublish Through Kindle Direct article, the modern self-publishing portals are no more complicated than setting up a Gmail account. There are a couple of small tricks, but we’re going to walk through it all step by step right here and now. So, if you’ve got a book you’ve been working but, for some reason you haven’t pulled the trigger on it yet, I hope this article shows you how easy it is to get your work out into the market.

Now, how about we get started? First, you need to register for an account. Head over to The PubIt! Website and follow these directions:

1. Create an account.

a. Enter valid email address
b. First and last name
c. Provide a strong password
d. Pick a security question
e. Provide the answer to that security question.

2. Provide Contact Information

a. First & Last Name
b. Street Mailing Address
c. City, State, Zip Code, Country
d. Phone # and/or Fax#

3. Say if you want a publisher listed when you sell your books (you can make up your own) and a website for that publisher.

4. PubIt! will confirm the mailing address.

5. Agree to the Terms and Conditions (you must scroll down to make that option clickable).

6. Enter Your Bank Account Information (so they can send you your earnings).

a. Bank Name, Routing Number, Account Number
b. Name of the Account. Company name on the account (if applicable)

7. Enter your Tax Information.

a. Select type of taxpayer (Individual, Corporation or Other)
b. Tax ID, can be SSN or EIN (your SSN if you select Individual)
c. Tax Address (if different than mailing address, otherwise select “Use My Mailing Address”)

8. Enter your Credit Card Information

a. Billing Address
b. Card Type (Visa, MC, AMEX, Discover, Diners Club, JB)
c. Card Number Number, Card holder’s Name, and Expiration Date

9. Confirm the information you’ve just given.

10. Good to Go!

Now that you’re registered with the PubIt! Service, it’s time to load up a book! You will need:

- Your book (Preferably in ePub format but PubIt! also accepts .doc, .docx, rtf, html, and .txt formats)
- Your book cover in .jpg file format (sized between 750px and 2000px each side)
- Your book description and author bio (best to write these ahead of time, they’ll require a lot of thought).

Here are the steps to get your book into the B&N Digital Store:
To get started you need to get to the right page on PubIt!’s website. In your Dashboard (where you arrive as soon as you log in), click the “Add a Title” Box.

1. The Add Title Screen shows the six steps to digitally publish your book through PubIt!. The first step is to fill out the Product Listing information. Here’s what you need to do:

a. Enter your book’s Title
b. Enter your list price (how much you want people to pay to buy your book). Not sure how to price it? There’s a royalty calculator function right there.
c. Enter the Publication date (when you want your book to go on sale).
d. Enter the Publisher (default is what you filled in during step 3 above).
e. Enter the Contributors (that’s you as Author) and any others who you want to credit (up to 5).

2. Next, upload your eBook. Use the browse button to find your ebook file on your computer. When you’ve selected it, click “Upload & Preview”. Remember, make sure its the right type of file and that it’s pre-formatted to your satisfaction. While PubIt! has a formatting option, it, like Kindle’s, can be difficult. Best to have your book already formatted and ready to go.

Preview it in the Nook emulator to make sure it all transferred correctly and, when you’re satisfied, move to the next step.

3. Upload your cover image. Just like the last step, use the browse function to find the right file on your computer, then click “Upload”. PubIt! recommends your file be in JPG format, no larger than 2MB and between 750-2000 pixels per side.

4. Enter some basic Metadata by answering the following questions:

a. Do you have an eBook specific ISBN? (you don’t need one for Nook)
b. Is this Nook Book part of a series? (If stand alone, say no. If part of a series, even the first in a planned series, say yes.)
c. Is this Nook Book available in print?
d. Is this title Public Domain? This is asking if your book is no longer protected by copyright. Most likely the answer for any new book is “No” it is not in the Public Domain.
e. What Age Group is this Nook Book most suited for? There’s a drop down menu so you can pick the most appropriate.
f. What language is your Nook Book written in? There’s a drop down menu for you to pick your language.
g. Where do you have the rights to make your Nook Book available for marketing, distribution, and sale? If you hold the copyright, you hold worldwide rights, so go ahead and check that. If you don’t have complete control of the copyright (you negotiated with some other publisher for foreign distribution, for example), then you’re going to have to verify this with the other parties.
h. Do you want DRM encryption for your Nook Book? That’s up to you, many people discuss the pros and cons of each.

5. Enter your Promotional and Informational Stuff. There’s a lot here, and all of it is very important. This information is what people will see when they look your book up in B&N’s Nook catalog.

a. Subject Categories. You can select a maximum of 5.
b. Keywords. You get a maximum of 100 characters, with keywords separated by commas.
c. Description. Talk about your book in 5000 characters!
d. Author Bio. Talk about yourself in 2500 characters!
e. Editorial Review. Already got a review of your book from someone who is not you? You’ve got 500 characters to put it here (5 review maximum).

This is truly where you sell your book. Give all of these elements a lot of thought. I’m not going to go over every strategy in detail, but if you’re looking for more on how to write these descriptions, I highly recommend reading Robin Sullivan’s articles on the topic: Picking the Right Categories, Book Titles, and Author Bios.

6. Put your book up for sale! Click “Save”, then check the box to confirm your information and click “Put On Sale”.

Congratulations! You are now a published author!

This recipe is delicious, The Primal Blueprint friendly, and The 4-Hour Body friendly (though, since it has apples, super strict 4HB’ers might want to omit those). Ready? Here it is:

You Will Need:

• Roasted Chicken (about 2 cups) — we used rotisserie chicken from the grocery store
• 1 Granny Smith apple, cubed
• 1/2 cup Mixed Nuts (we use Trader Joe’s low sodium mixed nuts, see pic)
• 1-2 Teaspoons of Walnut Oil (see pic)
• 2-3 tablespoons of Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar (pic below)
• Optional – 1/4 cup crumbled Blue Cheese (Feta cheese is OK, too)

Trader Joe's Mixed Nuts

Walnut Oil

Orange Muscat Vinegar

Recipe:

Mix it all together in a bowl big enough to hold it.

You can serve it fresh right after making, but I think it tastes better after it’s been chilling a while. Gives the flavors a chance to mature.

Bon Appetit!

UWS Recommends blogging with WordPress

One of those clients recently posted an article about how blogging (or the lack of) had impacted his sales. This spawned a discussion in the comments about topics for blogging, how often to blog, etc. I gave a response, but then thought perhaps I should address this issue a little more formally.

I’m not going to talk about how to write blog articles. There are tons of sites out there that do a much better job of that than I will. For those interested, I recommend Copyblogger and Grokdotcom for starters. What I want to talk about is why you should blog, what it does, and how it improves your sales.

You can blog for all kinds of reasons. Some do it for purely personal reasons with no intention of financial gain. Others do so specifically for financial gain, and the strategy behind that is what I’m going to talk about.

Why Blog

Blogging does a number of things. It brings in new leads, it builds a rapport with your target audience, and it provides a platform for your product. It’s usually comprised of mid-size to long articles between 500 and 1,000 words — but certainly not limited to that. Author John Scalzi is known for a lot of quick posts highlighting pics, quotes or external articles on his blog. It’s driven mostly by what kind of writer you are and what topic you’re writing about.

After an article is written and posted, a lot of things start happening. Search engine crawlers pick it up and analyze it. It goes out on RSS to your existing readers. If you have social networking share buttons (every blog should have these!), they get clicked on and your content starts to make it’s way across the social web. Through these methods, it percolates out through the web and beckons readers — new and old — to come and read it.

To read it, they come to your website. That’s what you want. On the web, the website is the key. Think of the website as your storefront and the bog article as the flyer/coupon that brought someone inside. Once they’re there, you want them to do something. Doesn’t matter if it’s to buy your book, sign up for your newsletter, or click on an affiliate link — you need them to do something. We call this a “call to action.”

How your website is designed will help you with your “action.” There are a number of design oriented topics that we can dive into here, but we’ll save that for another post. The key takeaway here is you need to get people to your website. That is your home turf. That is the purpose of your blog.

What Blogging Does

Blogs are superior to tweets and Facebook posts because they have more length and greater searchable content. When you post something through twitter, it’s fast — for many, it’s too fast. If you follow more than a dozen people, it’s easy to miss things on twitter — especially is some of those you follow are prolific tweeters. Same for Facebook — I doubt if I see a tenth of the posts on my Wall from the hundreds of people I’m friends with. But a blog is more static. I rarely miss a post from the sites that I follow.

The searchable part is the real key to understanding what blogging does for your business because that’s how you bring in new readers. Here’s a couple of examples:

One project I’m working on is a comic book focused on military fiction. As it’s graphical, it’s hard for search engines to grasp (not enough text to analyze). To make things easier on my readers, I put up a page outlining all of the military ranks of the four branches of service. That page of ranks is, by far, my most viewed page as far as new visits to the site are concerned. It quickly made the first page of Google search results and I get hundreds of hits a day from it. About 10% convert and read the rest of the site. That’s not too bad by most standards. Another huge draw for another site was a review I did for reading comics on the Nook Color — it was number one for “Comics on Nook Color” in Google and, again, got me hundreds of hits a day with about 10% converting.

Its the ability for search engines to allow new readers — readers who have never heard of you and may have never even been looking for you in the first place — to find you that demonstrates the purpose, and power, of blogging. Of course, once you’re found, the quality of your content and the layout of your site will dictate your conversion rate (aka how many sales you make). But the key is to get discovered, and in a world of billions of web pages, you need to use every trick you can to break out.

Improving Sales

Would you rather buy something from a stranger or from a friend?

Most people prefer to buy things from people they know and trust. In the wide web, how do you get to know someone? By reading what they write. What has a greater ability to convey a meaningful position: a 140 character tweet, a 50 word Facebook post, or a 1,000 word article?

I’m pretty sure you know the answer to that one.

In addition to bringing in new readers through search and sharing, blog articles convey a sense of the person writing them. Are you knowledgeable? Are you honest? Are you funny? Are you a good writer? Add in the ability to respond to commenters and your potential to create a rapport with your readers expands tremendously. Blogging allow you to intimately engage with your readers — and you’ll be surprised how far that goes in terms of sales.

The Wrap Up

So there you go — you use your blog to get people to your website so you can sell them stuff. You do that by writing solid articles about topics that interest you, ensuring those articles have good SEO (search engine optimization), and by encouraging and engaging commenters.

If you want to learn more about effective blogging, I honestly recommend the “Internet Marketing for Smart People” course from Copyblogger. It’s a 20 part free course that comes to you through email. It’s worth your time. I also recommend the Shoe Money Course, also free (it looks cheesy, but it’s actually pretty good for beginners). These are good resources. Some other resources that don’t require joining a newsletter is Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsh, and People Buy You by Jeb Blount.