Time is worth more than money

If you are a blogger, have you ever used a free theme and ended up spending more time trying to get it working than if you had hired a designer to make a theme for you? Did you ever use a free application over a paid one and find out later on it was missing an important feature you need? How about using a free service then find out later they sold your information and you are getting spammed?

Those are just a few examples demonstrating how a free product can cost more money and time in the long run. Unfortunately, it is hard to put a price on time. If you are an owner of a company and you have to fix something that could have been avoided, that is an inefficient use of your time. On the personal side, if you have to figure out, for example, how to export your data because you picked a free service that does not really suit your needs, what did you sacrifice time wise to have to deal with an avoidable mess?

In business time is very valuable. Every project that drags on is taken valuable time in aiding the company in making an optimal profit. Designers or programmers often say it is hard to determine how long it takes to develop something. I found good programmers and designers are able to do this accurately. Actually, they are able to get done prior to the time they set so they can be working on the next project. Those that miss the mark cause the company to delay their plans. Often, they will offer a partial or whole refund depending on the length of the delay.

But the refund never includes the time lost waiting on them to screw up.

Let’s think about this a minute. Have you ever noticed someone you hired to do something posting on social sites, posting pictures of themselves out and about, yet explain to you the excuses as to why they were unable to make their deadline? That is an example of bad time management. Especially if they are self-employed, there is no valid excuse for them missing the deadline. I agree people should have free time but not at the expense of others. That is bad business.

Don’t spend more than necessary

All free things aren’t bad, but one should take an objective look at all the options and make the best choice. For example, I am using WordPress to publish my articles. WordPress is free. ExpressionEngine is coming out with a new version today. ExpressionEngine is not free. I will be looking at the new offering to see whether it will suit my needs. Correction, there are many features I like (for example easy forum integration and minute control over member features). However, they have almost no developer community so picking up a nice inexpensive ExpressionEngine theme is not going to work like it does for WordPress. Porting a WordPress theme over is not the easiest thing to do either (for me it would be time consuming). As much as I might be interested in using ExpressionEngine, I might not because the curve to use it is too high. I will have to make a decision on which one is the best choice when ExpressionEngine reveals their new offerings.

If one can’t afford the best choice, that’s a problem. By picking the next choice in line it will inevitably bring up problems later. Not being able to afford the best choice in a business situation is a sign not to proceed until you can.

Stop being cheap

Price is always a factor in decision making but is not necessarily the most important component in the decision making process. All factors need to be considered: quality, how long it takes to receive the product or service, the long term viability, all costs associate with it (including the hidden ones), etc. As an example, for me to switch to ExpressionEngine I would have to consider the cost of purchasing it, the cost of having a design done and setting things up. Does it have all the features I want? Can my data be imported properly?

And most important, the time it will take to accomplish all of that.

Written by: Tyme White | Follow Tyme on Twitter | Be Friends on Facebook

Then came Twitter and the 140 character limit. The clean URLs were much too long. A flurry of short URL services popped up. I never liked them and contacted Twitter about them auto-converting URLs when I was within my 140 character restriction. I never received a response but read in multiple places Twitter converts URLs if they are over 30 characters long.

I started thinking about the history of new things online. A bunch of them pop up, a bunch of them hail. Most of them do. What happens to my links when these services go out of business? They die. I rarely link to my own articles but others do and their link would die. I didn’t like that.

I’m using WordPress and I decided to create my own short URLs. Why not take control of the situation and make it so people don’t have to shorten my URLs? I’m blessed to have a pretty short domain and I can get my URLs under 30 characters. There was just one factor stopping me…I became used to my links being made from the title. Then I thought about how often I actually used a URL on my site (or anyone else’s for that matter) to find an article. Almost never, it is very rare. I search instead. Isn’t that what most people do?

I’m going to try using short URLs. The beautiful thing about WordPress is that it has an automatic redirecting solution in it. My URLs usually are like this:

http://tymesaid.com/2009/title

I condensed it to this:

http://tymesaid.com/2009/a28n

But if I type this in the browser it redirects automatically:

http://tymesaid.com/a28n

I strongly suggest if you have the ability to make your own short URLs, to do so. Take control of the situation and have people come straight to your site – instead of using a third party.

What Goes Up Must Come Down

The following video is of a boy who decided to do a bike stunt on a set of stairs. You can see in the video how he gauges the distance of the drop and comes to the conclusion that he has the skills to be able to make the jump. And he did make the jump, but he made one crucial mistake in his calculations. Him being able to make the jump and his bike being able to withstand that jump are two different things, which he found out when he ate the pavement. If you are squeamish do not watch this video.

He cleared the jump without a problem but he took in zero consideration regarding his bike being unable to make the jump.

• No helmet.
• No protective clothing.
• No consideration on using a different bike to make the jump.

Without a contingency plan, his face ate the pavement and his bike was destroyed. But hey, he made the jump, right?

Let’s Look at Another Example…

I often wrote about my problems picking a content management system. Finally, after using ExpressionEngine for a while, I settled on WordPress because WordPress has the tools I need built-in or are easily accessible. For example, at the time, to use tags I had to purchase an addon for ExpressionEngine when it was easy to add as an addon to WordPress and was eventually built into the core of WordPress. WordPress has automatic updates for the software and plugins, making it much easier to keep my site secure. I liked the way WordPress was finally evolving so I took the jump and I’m happy.

However, if the time comes when I become unhappy with WordPress I do have a contingency plan. First, I would try Movable Type because it accepts the WXR file from WordPress’ export without me having to mess with it. It would be a good time for me to revisit the content management system I started out on.

If Movable Type doesn’t work for me, then I would move back to ExpressionEngine. I bet you’re wondering why take the detour to Movable Type in the first place, right? Because ExpressionEngine, at this time, does not have an easy way to move straight from WordPress to ExpressionEngine. Unlike Movable Type they do not accept the WXR file and I would be shocked if they ever did because smooth touches like that has never been their thing (I can go on and on about how difficult it is to import/export data – it’s why I left in the first place). Let me be clear, the people at ExpressionEngine were helpful as I struggled to get my data working properly but I also lost entries and thousands of comments trying to use their product. ExpressionEngine is feature rich and a good product but not as flexible as I needed at the time.

Unlike the boy who wanted to do the jump without the proper equipment and gear, I have a plan that I hopefully won’t have to use.

Plans are a Good Thing but Don’t Over Do It

Using the example above, I have a two layer plan in the event I need to change content management systems. If I have to think of more parachutes to resolve a problem I haven’t properly accessed the situation. Patching problems usually leads to more problems. Resolve them once and for all.

One of the biggest slip ups in business or blogging is not considering the outside factors that may impact what you are attempting to accomplish. If your hosting company began to have too much down time have you picked other alternatives? If your database becomes corrupt do you have a viable backup of the database to use (ie: not a backup of the corrupt database)? If your competition is excelling at a stronger pace than you are, do you have a plan to combat that? These are all crucial elements to sustain. Without a good backup your site is toast. Without good hosting your traffic will decrease. If you can’t keep up with the competition, you’ve failed. Without the proper bike and equipment you’ll have an unnecessary accident when trying to do difficult jumps.

Most times, success is directly dependent on how well the plan is to get there.

Let’s Look at an Example Then Apply it to Writing…

Death Knights are a new class in World of Warcraft. As you can see from this thread on the World of Warcraft forums, they aren’t liked very much. I play a Death Knight and I love it but I couldn’t help but laugh reading the comments in that thread. There is a fatal flaw with the argument “Why I hate Death Knights”.

A Death Knight is a character that doesn’t do anything until a person plays it. Just like a gun doesn’t do anything until someone shoots it. Or a blog/site will become outdated until the owner updates it. All of these “things” require human interaction.

The truth: these people dislike a particular type of play style or personality type the player has and those styles would manifest no matter what type of character the player was playing. Let’s be real here. A Death Knight can Death Grip. A Warlock can keep me feared and drain my life away. A Mage can sheep me. A Rogue can keep me stunned. All the characters have traits that are annoying at times, especially if they are “abused”. Now let’s apply this type of illogical ranting to blogging.

Passion Doesn’t Mean Emotional

I have a rule to not publish something when I am upset or emotional. I might type it out when I’m emotional but I will not publish it until I can be objective about what I wrote. Sometimes the rant will be published a couple of hours later, perhaps the next day or perhaps never. Sometimes once I get my “rant” out in WordPress and read it, I’m done. I don’t care if anyone reads it. Sometimes I look back at it and think the rants have too many weak points and never publish it.

Remember, everything you do has a consequence. Online the irrational rant can leave the reader to think, “Wow, you’re an idiot” and never come back. Or a worse scenario, the reader thinks you are so much of an idiot that he/she tells others what an idiot you are. I know, one theory is any “press” is good press even when it is negative press. I don’t agree. A negative word-of-mouth opinion can be the kiss of death on converting that person from someone that thinks you are an idiot to someone that respects you.

Don’t Forget about the Back Channel…

Going through sites I notice a lot of rants or arguments that simply make no sense. The article was obviously written while the writer was emotional. There were either no comments on the article or the comments pointed out the flaws in the argument/rant. At this point I look to see if this is a one-time thing or a pattern. Usually it is a pattern. It usually only takes a few seconds to find the next emotional rant that makes no sense.

The internet is a great tool to accomplish goals but never forget one important trend online. Most people with negative thoughts don’t express them to you but are happily telling their friends, family, etc. Just because you can’t find a negative article about you doesn’t mean that people aren’t talking about you negatively.

Don’t set yourself up for an unnecessary fall. Look at your content objectively before publishing it.

There is a blog called Big Bear Butt that has the reputation of being a Druid blog. The about page says:

BigBearButt offers his cranky opinions of a long time World of Warcraft casual feral druid about druid life, the WoW world, and everything.

Reading that, I would think he writes about Druid issues and the game world. Especially since his blog is called Big Bear Butt (if you play a Druid in bear form you get the reference). The author also plays a Hunter (nothing wrong with that) and started writing about Hunter experiences. The other day he wrote about a Hunter bug on his “Druid” blog. A well-known Hunter blogger, in fun, wrote a post about Druids talking about Hunter issues on their Druid blogs. The Druid blogger, seeing the entry, wrote a response causing the Hunter blogger to write an apology. This is all fine and dandy but the root of the problem (the REAL problem) was: The Druid blogger doesn’t like being told what he can/cannot write about on his blog. A Druid is not the only character he plays and he doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed into only writing about Druids. I understand that completely. As a blogger I’ve gone through the exact same issue (How many domains have I had? Yeah, we won’t talk about that…).

He should have thought about that when the site was first started though.

The Druid blogger also writes at WoW Insider and has a Druid column. As he stated in his article he thought perhaps the WoW Insider gig helped define him as a Druid blogger. Perhaps it did but didn’t his Druid blog help get him the WoW Insider gig in the first place? Something had to define him as an “authority” on Druids. His Druid-focused blog probably did that.

So what do you do if you start writing one topic and you want to expand your focus? Give your readers options. You cannot forget that your readers subscribed to you for a reason. Maybe it was because they considered you an “authority” on the topic. Maybe over time the reader started to like “you” and doesn’t care what you write about (optimal solution but not the norm). People subscribe for different reasons but the main reason is because they enjoy/learn from the content being published at the time he/she subscribed. Adding other topics will be considered off-topic to them.

Which is exactly how I feel about Big Bear Butt’s content. I subscribed for his Druid and game world perspectives. I have less than zero interest in his Hunter escapades. I have Hunter blogs I subscribe to for that – and there are tons of them out there.

RSS makes it very easy to have both worlds – especially if you are using WordPress. Offer your reader multiple feeds so they can opt-out or opt-in on the information they want. Thank goodness Big Bear Butt is using WordPress so I changed the feed I have for him (which contains everything to):

http://thebigbearbutt.com/category/druiding/feed

http://thebigbearbutt.com/category/patch-news/feed

Redefining the feeds reduced my information overload ratio for his site by 100% because the majority of stuff coming from his blog wasn’t anything I was interested in. Yes I increased the number of feeds but I reduced the amount of content coming to me.

Consider offering multiple feeds for your readers if you decide you want to expand. WordPress is great in that it grows with you and makes doing this as easy as adding /feed to the end of a category or tag URL. More important, when starting a blog take some time to think about what you “really” want to write about and potentially avoid this issue in the first place.

Everyone who thinks it’s so funny to say “BUY A MAC!” when I ask for PC advice, my faves are a tribute to you! http://twitter.com/jsmooth995/favorites

If you go to his Twitter favorites it is about people complaining about their Macs. o_O As a PC owner it gets old seeing Mac people look down on PC users. People should pick a computer based on their needs, not as a status symbol. I personally use a PC because:

• I like to build computers, tweak it etc.

• I have many more options for software (since I beta test a lot of software) for the PC vs. Mac.

For example, I might dabble and play War Hammer to test out their PvP and they don’t make it for Macs. Have I thought about purchasing a Mac since I will be video editing? Yes. Do I also realize that would be an expensive investment to use for one thing? Yes. Am I satisfied with how Apple handles security issues (not that I am with Microsoft but at least they do on a scheduled regular basis provide updates)? No. Microsoft has their security issues but so does Apple. A 12 year old found a security issue in iPhone:

This was in iPhone version 2.1 (5F136), the currently shipping version. Since I have no access to beta of non-released firmwares I can’t test to see if it has been fixed since then. For those who care, this is bug 6267416. I don’t have much hope for it being fixed soon, because my security bug 5368148 from July of 2007 is still marked as open, and still unfixed in 10.5.5.

Anything that circumvents security access is a security flaw. I’m sure there is a logical explanation for why there is a security issue (or any issue) open since July 2007. I’d love to know how many bugs/security issues there are and how long they’ve been open.

This behavior doesn’t only happen with Apple products. I see weekly someone dissing another person for not using WordPress. Someone asks a legitimate question about Text Pattern and the response: use WordPress. Someone mentions they are having issues with MovableType but would like to do X and the response: use WordPress.

I think people should think about answering the damn question. How is it helpful, if someone is looking for help or advice, to recommend they abandon what they like and use something else…without answering the question? How would you like it if you took your car in to get a diagnostic and the mechanic said, “Buy a Honda” instead of helping you with your specific problem? Or you go to the doctor and instead of examining all your options he suggests removing the body organ? You bring someone of a different race to meet your parents. Their response: You should have brought an X girl/boy.

Yeah.it.is.just.as.messed.up.telling.a.PC.user.to.buy.a.Mac.

Competition is good and it’s wonderful that as consumer we have a choice to use a PC, a Mac or use both. Linux, et al offer more options. It’s good that people are using different products. Variety is good.

And if you give a recommendation, please answer their question. They’ll appreciate it.

On 9rules Notes there is a note asking What do you want to achieve with your blog in 2008? I really didn’t have an answer until today and it ties in with getting things done, doing unpleasant things, etc.

I receive requests often and yesterday I received one that is very challenging: To find a podcast where I talked about blog income.

I can’t find it and I should be able to.

I went through the podcasts on NTG, 9rules, Ping Six, Blog Your Way, BlogTyme, etc. Not there. The only place left: ScrivsTyme – and that’s when my head hit the desk. Scrivs and I were notoriously bad with show notes (Scrivs was 1000x better than I was). Hundreds of hours of audio…that’s a needle in a haystack. It is just a symptom to a bigger problem…one happening on this blog. I can’t find things because URLs are broken, content w/comments are in one CMS, just content is in another…and I just noticed the archives don’t work. I need to fix this once and for all and my goal is to have to done so I don’t start 2008 with this shit.

I just hate doing it. Let me explain why. I was using ExpressionEngine and I loved it, but I had a database issue. I couldn’t import my database when I changed servers. Coming from MovableType I figured I’d do a plain text export/import. I was shocked to find out I couldn’t export the entries to a plain text format. When I inquired about it, I was giving the “you think we are going to make it easy for you to leave?” response and it pissed me off so bad I switched to WordPress. I can’t remember being “that” mad with a company. My trust was 100% gone. Fast forward a couple of years later ExpressionEngine has developed into the platform I am very interested in, one I’ve been waiting patiently for. The majority of my content is in an ExpressionEngine database (although it’s messed up) and most importantly I know ExpressionEngine is the platform that will eventually make it easier for me to accomplish my goals.

The thought of fiddling with entries, dealing with redirects, and heaven help me dealing with a design exhausts my brain. I’m admitting this: I have used the “ExpressionEngine pissed me off” excuse to delay getting it done. However, these are all things I don’t like doing yet I want to get them done before 2008 because I can’t really move forward with the blog until they are done. How are they going to get done?

This is when I pull out the mack-daddy of incentives – rewards. I know my personality – when there is something I detest I have to give myself a boost. I think everyone is like this with “something”. Keep in mind this is a personal site at the moment so I’m having fun with my reward system. I could see myself doing something like this:

Goal: Get all entries in ExpressionEngine.
Reward: Don’t touch it again until I am two levels higher in World of Warcraft (current rate of leveling one or two days, three max).

Goal: Find dead links and fix the internal ones. Make private the posts that are obsolete.
Reward: Dance it up at the club.

Goal: Fix the redirects (this is a huge task because I changed content management systems).
Reward: Celebration topped with hours and hours of mind-blowing sex.

The key is the rewards, it has to be something you really want otherwise the goal won’t be completed. In honesty, I always want mind-blowing sex (who doesn’t?) but on that occasion I’d do something special so it’s not like all the other times I have mind-blowing sex. If I dance it up at a club perhaps it will be a club I always wanted to go to but never have. See the difference?

Ironically at the same time, Volkher was considering moving away from Expression Engine to WordPress and enjoys WordPress because the CMS has what he needs:

The reason is the simplest of all: WordPress meets my abilities better than anything I’ve seen before whereas Expression Engine seems to offer a lot more in the functionality department, which is also complete overkill for the sites I have put together so far.

I have to agree with his statement, ExpressionEngine is overkill for the average blogger although I think the core version (free) would probably make many people happy. WordPress can do many of the same things with plugins, meaning WordPress is more lean but is expandable, suiting Volkher perfectly. I’m the opposite, I want the features built in because I’m tired of being dependent on plugins. The template system for ExpressionEngine is easier to me (I ported over my WordPress theme) but to Volkher WordPress has a simpler template system.

That’s the beauty of having options and that’s why it is important to pick the right CMS for you. The ironic thing, I would have never left ExpressionEngine if I was able to get my data out properly. This weekend that was finally fixed. Having that fixed, it was a different ball game. I’m surrounded by WordPress users with 9rules and WordPress works for them…that’s great. For what I want to do, ExpressionEngine works for me.

And this is why developers need to get over the fear that giving users the ability to get their data out will result in an automatic loss of users. A solid product will retain their users regardless of how many features the competition has. In my case, being happy caused one who left to come back.

Lots of talk about blog networks. I have a pet peeve. Figured I might as well discuss it. First, what is a blog network? In my opinion, the network has to have ownership or some sort of control of the blogs. Not necessarily 100% control but some controlling interest. Of course a blog has to satisfy the accepted definition of a blog. In my opinion, a blog has comments, a web site doesn’t. Boing Boing and Scripting News are not blogs, they are web sites using modern technology and initiate a conversation. Blogs take it a step further by initiating and having the ability to continue to the conversation. There has to be a difference between a blog and a web site using modern technologies, right? For the record, I don’t view a “network” based on subdomains as a network. It’s a site/blog using more sophisticated navigation.

Given those presumptions, why isn’t cNet considered a blog network? Look at their offerings. News.com, GameSpot and ZDNet all have dated entries, allow comments and trackbacks, they have controlling interest in the blogs and they all have different domains. cNet offers a wide variety of content and from the outside seems to be successful. Actually it is a blend of controlling their own content and integrating outside content (I think this area could be improved) but in truth, it’s sort of a blend between “classic” blog network setup and the community type model. They integrated media within their network and that too seems to be successful. They have multiple ways to monetize their venture…always a smart move.

If I were going to start a blog network cNet would be my foundation and I would improve upon it. Tweak it to my own liking and subject matter, plan to grow into a cNet unless I hit the lottery of something because there is no way I could afford (at launch) to do what they are doing now. What I do not understand is why people do not consider some of cNet’s offerings worthy enough to be a blog network? cNet doesn’t come up in the conversation. Why?

I am not saying people should stop reading his blog.

I am not implying he is doing something sinister (just something I don’t agree with).

I am simply posing the question:

Those links you put in your entries chartreuse (Prince Campbell)…are you paid for them, or are you just expressing an opinion?

From the advertising page [link no longer active]:

product placement: I’ll mention your product by name in one post a day with a link. How and why I’ll mention it is up to me. I hope your product is good.

Then there are Projects. Big, cool, projects which make people go wow. I really get excited if you tell me something like “chartreuse, I need 20 of your readers to buy my service this week. How do we make that happen?” And we put together something wonderful which have my readers talking about you. And buying your service.

Now read one of his current entries :

If I was launching a product today, say shoes, I wouldn’t buy an ad anywhere.

I would set up a blog about my shoes (with comments allowed)….

But I wouldn’t buy one ad.

Now let’s look at what he did:

1. He started a blog with the lowest entry point. No domain name. No design (I see why). Little investment.
2. He started off talking about what was popular at the time – blog networks, Jan 15, 2006.
3. The blog networks he wrote about have business models, he doesn’t think are necessary.
4. He wouldn’t buy an ad but how many blogs depend on traditional advertising income to survive?
5. Less than three months later, he’s in the NYT.

And he didn’t buy one ad. Impressive don’t you think?

Better mention: I’m not upset.

I’m not going to lie, I was a bit surprised about the NYT article. Not because an unheard of blog with no real identity got a mention, but, well, let’s just say this isn’t the first time I heard of Prince on the internet.

Is Ryan Leslie’s video blog (which also seems to be new) really your favorite vid blog or did they pay you to write that (not implying they did – have no idea)? Should I check it out because it’s really good or because you’ll cash in on it? Should I really have to ask these questions or should you just be upfront and disclose the advertising when it takes place?

I don’t like ads in the content I’m reading. Place ads around it…I’m all for writers making money. The content I’m reading – gotta be ad-free. To me product placement is worse than Intellitext because it’s hidden. Accepting advertisements on a site, in any form, is a business relationship. Recommending or writing about a product/service without disclosing the business relationship behind it is shady to me. An example, me recommending 9rules without disclosing I’m the Community Director. Most people would feel that’s unethical, why would product placement be any different?

Product placement is done all the time. I think online product placement (links) is worse than on TV. If I see a Sprite can on TV or someone wearing an outfit, what are the odds I’m going to drop what I’m doing and buy it? There is no instant reward there. Links on the other hand is instant reward in regards to pushing the traffic from one place to another.

To quote Jason Calacanis:

You can never be too clear about drawing the line between advertising and editorial, and these latest examples prove that point. You can justify your behavior all you want, and you might even be right, but once you’re in the position of defending yourself you’ve already lost to a certain extent.

Back to my question (and I think it’s a valid one): how can a reader tell which links are ads and which ones aren’t?