08.13.06
Posted in Articles, Tales, Opinion at 12:10 pm by Dave Franzwa
It looks like I’m jumping into the tangled web of real content vs. search engine optimized copy.
I didn’t get involved in writing on the net to strike up a relationship with robots.
They’re dull-witted, have no manners, and could care less whether you or I have feelings.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t care much about playing games in which the rules constantly change. Wayyy too much for this wrinkled, old gray-matter to remember.
Even if I could remember, I was raised to believe that changing the rules mid-game is cheating, and I can’t say that I care much for cheaters either.
(By the way, watch who you choose as your banker in Monopoly;-)
With the ability of the major search engines, like Google, to change their search criteria and algorithms at the drop of a hat, that’s exactly the type of game I won’t play.
There are some folks out there that create software in an attempt to stay ahead of the search engines, or at least keep up with them, and that’s just fine, if that’s what they want to do.
Some of that content creation software is pretty cool, I’ll have to admit, but I’ll be darned if I’m going to dot my “t’s” and cross my “i’s” for the sake of a robot. Besides, Mom always said if I crossed my eyes, they might stick that way;-)
You see, a robot wouldn’t have caught, nor appreciated that little bit of fun with words, but humans would. (Most humans anyway.)
And that’s the point. If I can’t periodically entertain my readers, then there’s no sense in my doing this.
Fortunately, there are still readers who enjoy a sense of humor, and they are who I intend to keep writing for.
The internet was created for sharing information; that much goes without saying, but if the Borgs out there can’t even catch a little joke, then what other information are they judging as good when it is in fact, erroneous?
In Orson Wells’ classic “The War of The Worlds,” it was a common cold that brought on the downfall of an alien invasion.
Maybe it will be the simple joke that will be the ace up our sleeves in this war against robots that seek to sterilize all content of any trace of personality.
For all of you writing feverishly to please the labotomous Borgs of the worldwide web, continue to feed your masters if you like. I for one, will continue to relate to people who can choose to laugh at my jokes and forgive my mistakes, because it’s still not what you know (robots), it’s who you know (humans) that really counts in life.
Joke around a little. Be yourself. Poke fun at a robot occasionally; they won’t get it anyway, and I can prove it.
When you’re not sure whether you’re dealing with a robot or a human, simply say “knock, knock.”
If they don’t answer with the customary “who’s there” response, you know you’re dealing with a full-fledged, humorless, created-in-the-matrix robot.
If they do respond accordingly, you’ve got a live human on the other end, and they’re a lot easier to please.
But you’d better have a good punch line ready.
I have another one for you that the robots won’t get:
May the farce be with you.
Dave
Word-Wrangler-Press
(You’re welcome to use or distribute this article any way you choose, as long as you leave the above link intact. One of the few rules I use;^)
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08.09.06
Posted in Home, Tales at 10:55 pm by Dave Franzwa
Our close calls are there for a reason.
I was working on a little blog strategy yesterday. I was planning to bounce some information back and forth between this blog and my Blogger account, Work at Home Supertips for a bit of a traffic boost.
I had a few article summaries written to place in Blogger with links to Word Wrangler Press (WWP), and had copied a couple of those links from WWP for use at around 9:00 pm (Pacific).
About midnight, I was ready to perform the deed when I double-checked one of those links.
The check came back with a MySQL error in the database storing WWP.
I checked a couple other tools that I use that also use MySQL and discovered errors in each of them, so I shot over to my backend to check it out.
I clicked on MySQL Databases and found all of my databases missing in action.
Psffttt! Gone!!!
I must be getting better at this patience thing. Of course I have had some 50 odd years to practice it (some odder than others;), but this is how I know this was a test of patience.
I wasn’t immediately seized with that old feeling of fear that starts out as a knot in my stomach, and works its way out until everything, especially my mind, is knotted up as well.
This little test of patience was reminder for me that a good backup plan is crucial in the grand scheme of things.
The Great Spirit revealed this to me gently (for which I’m grateful), through an uncanny set of circumstances.
As soon as I was done checking those links out, I had planned on performing a full backup of my site. (No. Really. I was planning to!)
It had been way too long since the last one though, and I believe that this “glitch” was allowed to happen for one purpose, that being to underscore in my mind the importance of backing up all critical aspects of my site, including databases.
Since I was planning on it anyway, it had a secondary affect of encouraging me for being on the right track.
I really believe that close calls are there for a reason.
I was fortunate this time. My host was simply doing some regular maintenance and the SQL server was temporarily off-line.
It could have been a lot worse, catastrophic in fact, but I’m sure that my patience and failure to jump to any conclusions based on fear are what saved the day in this close call.
My dad always used to say, “Dave.” (He called me Dave.) “Learn from my mistakes and you won’t have to make as many of your own.”
I seem to have done that more in the 5 years he’s been gone, than I ever did while he was here.
Now it’s your turn to learn from my mistakes, even though I technically didn’t make one, unless you consider not backing up a sin of omission;-)
Don’t wait for close calls to give you a reason to do the things you know that you need to.
That goes for your business and your personal life.
Love people, embrace life, and though you can’t always back up some of the things that life dishes out, you can and should back up your data.
Dave
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08.08.06
Posted in Articles, Tools at 1:10 am by Dave Franzwa
A lot of work goes into getting your online career off to a good start.
Once you’re bitten by the internet bug, it starts a Domino Effect that begins with you looking into the generalities of how to get started.
That leads to more specific questions you have on a variety of subjects:
Hosting, auto-responders, scripts, product creation, etc…
You may have looked into the net as a viable option to supplement your Christmas or birthday funds, or possibly as a method to add to your bottom line for your retirement nest egg.
Either way, you’ve probably found that the Domino Effect escalates into a full-blown avalanche of information that you’re supposed to make heads and tails of.
And that’s just for starters.
As a writer, my primary desire is to communicate with you the idea that you have your own talents and gifts, often hidden, that once found and unlocked can allow you to reach for your own brass ring, whether offline or on this merry-go-net.
Finding that talent isn’t always as straight-forward as it could be. The very best thing that you can do for yourself is to grab yourself by the scruff of your mind and focus on what your talents are.
As I said before, your talents can seem hidden. They may come so naturally to you that you might not even realize they are talents.
If that’s your case, sit down with someone your trust to give honest feedback to you, about you. They will likely have insights about you that you’re too close to and don’t see.
Once you’ve gotten a better picture of your talent (or talents) firmly planted in your mind, brainstorm ways you can use that talent(s) to help others that don’t happen to have it/them.
When I sat myself down for that little chat, I came to a tough decision.
I love to write to and for people, but there are so many out there, and only so many hours in a day, that I simply don’t have the time.
As much as I don’t care for “canned” presentations, I found myself in the situation where if I was going to do what I was passionate about (writing), then I had to automate some parts of my business so that the automatic part was generating income which in turn freed me up to write for you.
It took me longer than it should have to realize that (he said a little embarrassed), but one thing is a certainty, no matter how many hours you apply each day to learning this business, you can’t learn it all.
No one can.
So no matter where you start, affiliate programs, Adsense, Adwords, your own product, whatever, pick something small, study it, implement it, get it earning for you, and then duplicate it.
The duplication process is essentially the same as outsourcing. Once you’ve gotten your system earning for you, use some of the proceeds to implement other methods of outsourcing.
It could be hiring someone to take over your webmaster duties, or a ghostwriter to handle copy for you.
No matter what it is, your primary goal should be to clear up as much time for that CEO inside of you to do what she’s good at, not just what she has to do.
For an example of what I mean by a duplicatable process, a really good one, already packaged up and ready to go awaits you at:
Affiliate Cash Secrets
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