Monetizing Your Blogger Feeds With Pheedo

Pheedo is a feed advertising platform that gives you a way to monetize your site feeds through advertising. Pheedo is a great option for blogs like mine that do not have the large number of feed subscribers that are required to participate in other projects such as Adsense for feeds, Feedburner, or if you are using Blogger, which not all feed advertising platforms are compatible with (ex Feedvertising through Text-Link-Ads requires Wordpress.) There isn't much information on adding Pheedo to Blogger, but it is a very simple process I will share with you.

To get started you will need to setup an account with Pheedo, which I found to be as painless as possible, since they did not require much information.

You will need to choose a configuration for your feed, and if you are using blogger the easy choice will be the Green zone, which allows you to place the code feed item footer the Blogger settings.

Once you have entered all of your information, such as what type of advertising you would like to display, you will be able to copy your Pheedo code from Feed & Zones settings section. Just place this code in the settings -> feed items -> feed item footer section.


Be sure if you did not provide your address in the initial setup to go back and enter the address you would like your check to be sent to in your account details. You are now ready to start monetizing your site feeds through Blogger.

New favorite sports writer

Sometimes on my way home from work I tune into the local sports radio station, typically only if my iPod batteries are dead. On the Jim Rome show Friday was one of the best interviews I have heard in a long time, and all I have to say about it is that Jason Whitlock is the freaking man.

How have I been missing this guy before, because after searching on him there was an interview with him on MSNBC about the old Don Imus radio deal and it was a breath of fresh air. How he calls out Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson is just awesome.

So if you are looking for a good sports columnist be sure to check him out, because he is completely different from everyone else out there in a great way.

Cisco to blame for Duke network problems

Cisco has come out stating that the problem at Duke was not caused by the iPhone. The problem was initialy blamed on iPhones flooding the network with arp requests, but as in typical Duke fashion it appears the blame was laid to early on the iPhone.

You never really know how these things go though, because it could have been one person stating they thought the iPhone was the cause. This same problem could have occurred with any other big corporation after a new product release, and I blame the media and the blogosphere. So much positive information had been out about the iPhone everyone was looking for negative publicity, because it would make for a great story.

This just goes to show that before you point your finger at someone in the spotlight, verify your facts first.

Google Putting Their Money Where Their Mouth Is

In cased you have missed it I will start from June the 20th when Google posted this blog entry starting they had sent the FCC a letter requesting they implement open standards with the 700mhz band that will soon be up for auction.

Well today Google has put their money where their mouth is, and stated they will put up an initial bid of $4.6 billion dollars for the FCC to inherit these open standards. They have set the bid at $4.6 billion dollars, because this is the reserve price the FCC has set on the auction. This will give the FCC no reason to not inherit these standards, because now they can rest assured the spectrum will be sold even with the open standards. Google is also not stupid, because they know they will be outbid on the auction, or getting the spectrum for the reserve price would be a steal and open them to many possibilities as a wireless provider.

So now we have to sit and wait for the FCC to respond to Google's latest offer.

Tracking Fake Steve Jobs

With all the talk lately about who is the real FSJ I thought it would be nice to chime in with a tip on a way to possibly track him down. FSJ is running Google Adsense on his blog, and if you look at his source code you can get his Adsense id "1267366316800778".

It is possible that he is using the same Adsense account on another site, so one great way to track FSJ would be to look at personal blogs running Adsense and match up the Google ad client id. So if you think you have an idea who FSJ is just check out the Adsense ad, because this is one thing he might have overlooked.

So instead of searching for Bourne, go out and search for FSJ.

Firefox 2.0.0.5 Released

Firefox has released version 2.0.0.5 so be sure upgrade, because there are 8 security fixes in this release 3 of which have been deemed as critical. Check Secunia for more information on the security fixes.

Hiding Windows Components from Users

I’m going to start posting a Windows or Mac OS X tip at least once a week, maybe even more. The tip for today will allow you to hide components from users, and keep them from re-installing apps such as games. There are multiple ways to do this, but this one works pretty well as most users do not even know this file exists. You will need administrator or power use

First you will need to navigate to the directory C:\windows\inf and look for the file sysoc.inf.

(if you can not see the C:\windows\inf directory, from explorer go to tools then folder options and make sure the circle to show hidden files and folders is selected)

Once you find the sysoc.inf file just double click on the file to open it. You will find quite a few lines of text, and for this example we are only going to pay attention to the games (you can use this to hide other options in Windows components such as IIS, MSN Explorer, MSN Messenger, etc...) Look for the line that starts with “Games” it should read something like

Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7

Make the changes below that are in red to this line.

Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,hide,7

This will hide games from the windows component area, and the user will not be able to reinstall the games unless they have administrator privileges and know where the file is. This can also be accomplished through the group policy editor, but we will save that for a later post.

5 Things Blogger Need (Or Needs to Improve On)

This is list contains 5 items I feel would make Blogger a better experience for all of its users.

1. Bloggers comment system needs some serious work. One thing that frustrates me the most is that when you leave a comment you are required to do so from your Blogger profile or anonymously.

2. The ability to upload a robots.txt file, or have some type of site mapping system would be great. Google should really want to add this as it would help people take Blogger more seriously by giving Blogger users the ability to optimize for search engines.
   

3. More default templates would attract new users, and at least add some 3 columns default templates. Blogger could also encourage more users to create free templates with some form of notoriety
   

4. Live stats that allow you to view where visitors are coming from, and allow you to view page views, new visitors, and length of visit.
   

5. More options that allow you to remove the dashbar, or an easier way to change the favicon. Personally I do not mind putting up some link that says powered by blogger, but the dashbar is just annoying as is the favicon. Giving your users the ability to personalize their pages more encourages participation.
   

In all the free version of Blogger is not all that bad, but these are 5 things that could help improve the user experience on the free blogging platform. Blogger’s free version is much better to me than Wordpress free blog system, due to the fact you are able to add more scripts plus put ads up. If the free version of Wordpress allowed more scripts, and ads it would be a much better free blogging system.

Adsense using Site Authenication

For a long time the Adsense crawler has had problems reaching sites that are password protected, but not anymore. Google is offering site authentication through Adsense that allows you to enter your authentication information into Adsense, and this will allow the Adsense spiders to crawl freely through your password protected site.

This is great for those private forums that require you to provide authentication before viewing, and will allow Adsense to provide relevant ads based on the data on the pages.

Forget Vista SP1 where is XP SP3?

It bothers me that Microsoft will be offering the first service pack for Vista before a third service pack for XP. Windows XP service pack 2 has been out since August 25, 2004, and there has been no rush on a service pack with the estimated date of arrival being in the latter half of 2007. This angers me for 2 reasons:


1. The only reason Microsoft is pushing for the release of Vista is due to lackluster sales of the operating system. Microsoft has to know that many people are waiting on the first service pack to be released before upgrading to Vista. This means that customers using XP are no longer priority and are being pushed to the side to grow profits, and with the kind of mentality no wonder they are starting to lose many of their customers to OS X and linux.

2. If you are running a clean install of Windows XP with service pack 2 it takes much longer to wait on all the updates to install, as to the alternative of having a service pack slipstreamed. Windows XP post service pack 2 updates keep coming, and service pack 3 is still a long ways out.

So as you can see Microsoft is putting profits before customer satisfaction. Here is a tip for Microsoft, if you keep your older customers happy they are more likely to upgrade.

New Dell Commercial

In case you haven't noticed Dell is going through some changes, and now they are going for a more hip look. The new Dell commercial that is part of the Yours Is Here campaign, and it features the new Inspiron 1420 that is offered in multiple colors. This commercial is different from the old Dell commercials we are used to that just showed black and gray screen and the product. All eight Inspirons are shown in different uses with the color symbolizing each user, in one scene the black Inspiron is being used by what appears to be a bad cowboy.

It has been fun watching the new Dell, and many of the changes seem to be for the better. Dell is listening to their customers now, and making the changes that their customers want. It has yet to be seen if these changes have helped improve Dell's sales, but will be interesting to see this go over time.

Gleamd Invites

I have 5 invites for Gleamd if anyone wants one just send me an email or leave a comment with your e-mail address. If you missed it, and don't know what Gleamd is their is a small writeup here on how Gleamd will make you famous.

Want Pownce?

Do you want Pownce, but don't want to give out your email address to some stranger? Well here you go these are 8 invites that you just click on the link for, and put in your information only to give to the guys at Pownce.

Pownce Invite One (Update: Invite1 has been taken)
Pownce Invite Two
Pownce Invite Three
Pownce Invite Four
Pownce Invite Five (Update: Invite5 has been taken)
Pownce Invite Six
Pownce Invite Seven
Pownce Invite Eight

Spread the love after you get an account, and if you want just send out invites to a bogus email address such as "lkjlkajsdfllkjsdf@yahoo.com" (that is probably actually someones email address) send an invite to it increment the end (lkjlkajsdfllkjsdf) by 1 for each invite just to get another address, and then just go append the invite code like this http://pownce.com/signup/invitecodehere/ and post it in the comments to keep the invite love going.

If you want them to have the correct email address on file remember to change it in your settings once you have your account setup.

Why Digg will be sold soon

I have been saying that Digg will be sold for quite some time now, and there seems to be more and more proof that this will happen. Digg takes far too much time for Kevin and Jay to run damage control on, and with other projects going on it doesn't seem logical for them to hold onto the social bookmarking community.

Jay is working hard on Revision 3 with all the new VC money, and the same thing goes for Kevin with Pownce. Digg users have loud voices, and this requires Kevin and Jay to almost always be in damage control mode to satisfy their fickle user base. It would be a good thing for the community for a larger company to buy out Digg, because this would allow a dedicated group to specifically focus on the the community and add the features the community has been calling for.

One drawback to Digg being bought out by a larger is that the company will do what is in the best interest of that company, and situations such as the HD-DVD key would completely be ignored. Companies have to do what is in their best interest, and it seems many of the Digg faithful do not see it this way. This could also be a good thing, because it seems many of the Digg riots have been brought on by only a small percentage of users that crave the attention they receive from the riots, and by ignoring this type of activity or just banning users will cause them to leave.

So as you can see there are pros and cons to a Digg buyout, but as of right now I believe it would be in the best interest of the community. What are your thoughts?

Why Facebook isn't the leader of the free world

Remember in the 2004 elections when we saw P-Diddy rolling with John Kerry? Well in the same way that campaign didn't work, Facebook hasn't killed Myspace yet. Most of the people who are writing about Facebook being the Myspace killer we have been waiting for are from a technology or journalist type background, and this would put them at the target age group for Facebook. Myspace users tend to be a younger more time on their hands type of group, and for that reason they spend hours upon hours on the site at a time. Younger Myspace users also tend to follow their friends in large packs with the belief they have to send a comment to each friend every 5 minutes, unlike the Facebook users who are typically in college or alumni who use it just to keep in touch with old friends.

Personally I prefer Facebook to Myspace, but once again you are looking at a technology oriented person that doesn't represent the majority of society. People that I have talked to that prefer Myspace to Facebook enjoy the features of what I like to call "crapifying" their profiles, and what I mean by this is all the horrible looking templates that Myspace users have. Crapifying profiles is what keeps me off Myspace, and on Facebook, but for the majority of society they apparently prefer crap.

Major League Baseball Stadiums on Google Maps

Listed below are links to all of the current Major League Baseball fields in Google maps satellite view.

Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field

Atlanta Braves Turner Field

Baltimore Orioles Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Boston Red Sox Fenway Park

Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field

Chicago White Sox U.S. Cellular Field

Cincinnati Reds Great American Ball Park

Cleveland Indians Jacobs Field

Colorado Rockies Coors Field

Detroit Tigers Comerica Park

Florida Marlins Dolphin Stadium

Houston Astros Minute Maid Park

Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Angel Stadium of Anaheim

Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium

Milwaukee Brewers Miller Park

Minnesota Twins Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome

New York Mets Shea Stadium

New York Yankees Yankee Stadium

Oakland Athletics McAfee Coliseum

Philadelphia Phillies Citizens Bank Park

Pittsburgh Pirates PNC Park

St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium

San Diego Padres PETCO Park

San Francisco Giants AT&T Park

Seattle Mariners Safeco Field

Tampa Bay Devil Rays Tropicana Field

Texas Rangers Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

Toronto Blue Jays Rogers Centre

Washington Nationals Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium

Gleamd Will Make You Famous

In a new society where posting summarized articles to a news aggregation sites can make you famous, it comes as no surprise to see a site that allows us to vote on the web popularity of others. Gleamd is described as a social bookmarking site by Mashable, but it seems more like a social popularity contest to me.


The site is in private beta at the moment so everything I know about the site comes from an article up at Mashable . In a prom king and queen fashion, the site allows you to write mini biographies about anyone, and submit them for voting. In the image of the site on Mashable you can see a recently popular list that features famous bloggers such as Robert Scobble or other well known tv personalities such as Leo Laporte, and what internet popularity contest list wouldn’t be complete without Kevin Rose. Hopefully the popular list will show some lesser known people, because just showing the already famous will bring nothing new to the table.

This is a very interesting concept, and would give the potential for readers to find upcoming popular bloggers or other internet start ups. Hopefully this one will not just be another failed web 2.0 venture.

Pownce Invites

I have 5 Pownce invites, and will give them out to the first 5 people to comment that want one. Everyone I have talked to about the site hasn't given it a great review, but if you want to try it out for yourself just let me know.

Gmail Tip

Have you ever wanted to find out who was giving out your email address? Well if you use Gmail there is a great way to find out who is giving your email address out. This works great to find out where spam is coming from, once you have filled out info on a contact page. When filling out info with your Gmail address just put + after the user name, and then whatever text you want. In the image below you can see in the to field how it appears once you have received an email that was sent to you with +text at the end of it.


This works great if you have multiple places where you list your address, and want to know where the person sending you an email came from. For example if your have your contact info listed on multiple social networking sites you can append +domain_name to find out how people are finding you.

Google Acquires GrandCentral Communications

Google has acquired communications company GrandCenral, and this could be an amazing service in due time. Right now they are in the process of moving everything over to the Google's network, but I see some amazing possibilities integrating this into other Google services. One possibility I'm thinking of is the ability to search your voice mail using Google search.

They are already using voice recognition with products such as Goog-411, so utilizing this same technology within your voice mail shouldn't be that far out. Privacy groups will probably be speaking out about this soon, and you can't help but wonder if they will feed ads based on your voice mail in the same way the serve ads in Gmail.