Read the title again. When it comes to your tools, mainly your computer and your Internet connection, you do not want to be that. Spend the incremental amount of money up front so that you have the fastest computer and Internet connection you can without breaking the bank. In general, you should not be faster than your computer or have to wait too long for it to perform tasks.
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Popularity: 55% [?]
The Geeks will officially re-release Bargains for Geeks on Cinco de Mayo!
When Bargains for Geeks was first released a couple years ago we counted on outsourced people to cover the deals for us. Quickly people dropped off and quickly this became expensive for us so this time around we’ve automated the process of aggregating bargains, deals and coupons from various sites. We simply over-engineered the first attempt for this site and while it made money, the site really took up our time from working other ventures. In addition to automating the process of gathering data for the site, we’ve also created a documented process to create the site so we can quickly reproduce as needed (and not just for bargain or deal type sites).
Popularity: 61% [?]
Microsoft decided to walk away from talks with Yahoo! apparently due to excessive demands. Microsoft will not pursue a hostile takeover either due to Yahoo! threats of sabotage by outsourcing ads to Google! Yahoo! will never see a bid as much as $33 again so the losers are the shareholders.
Google wins.
Read on to see the open letter Stevie B. sent Mr. Yang:
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Popularity: 69% [?]
Over the several years my padna and I have worked several projects for Felthos Foundry while maintaining our current sites and infrastructure at the same time. Our biggest complaint that we felt kept holding us back from releasing different sites, products and services was time.
We both have “burn rates” in our personal lives with mortgages or rent, utilities, car payments not to mention the women in our lives so we have been working Felthos Foundry as a second job. Over the past year we have been working between 40-50 hours for the man while struggling to keep our dreams alive. In addition to the 40-50 hours of work each week I also deal with 8-10 hours of commute time and another 35-40 hours of “Bri” time (my little girl) as well as the incidentals including cleaning, doing bills (or taxes), wife time and, oh yeah… sleeping! Basically what this boiled down for my padna and I is that we have around 16 hours per week to work on our ideas. This 16 hours is further reduced by the requirements of maintenance of our various sites in our network. If both of us have roughly 3 hours a weekday to spend on our company, we estimated that we both worked maintenance issues which include blogging, upgrading infrastructure, small items on our to do master list for 2 hours leaving only 1 hour per night for project work.
So, we have been spending our left-over one hour a day working projects which will increase revenue. To make matters worse, this is usually the last hour of our day. Brilliant! We trust the last hour we can barely keep our eyes open to forging our future.
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Popularity: 65% [?]
Ah, it’s about time that Alexa upgraded the methodology they use to calculate their website rankings. Folks in the business of website promotion in any shape or form know about Alexa and use it as one of many metrics to determine at least if they’re on the right upward track. But they’ve also known for a long time that Alexa’s methodology is flawed, mainly due to the fact that they’ve relied on their toolbar installed in user browsers to collect data.
This has not stopped such folks like ourselves from checking our Alexa rankings constantly. There is an almost drug-like addiction to constantly knowing pieces of info like Alexa rankings, # of pageviews, income earned via Google ads and/or affiliate clickthroughs. But whether or not that’s a good idea is the topic for another article!
Meantime, Alexa hasn’t admitted that they were flawed in any way, but the bottom line is that you can look forward to results that will be closer to the real truth.
via Techcrunch.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Recently while upgrading the backend software for more than a dozen sites we run, I encountered different settings on each and every site. This had/has two impacts on me. First, I had to modify the script I had written to automate the upgrade process for each individual site which changed a thirty minute task into more than five hours. Secondly, for saving time on future upgrades I need to go back and modify the sites using a standard my partner and I have come up with. I will probably “waste” another five hours or so bringing all the sites up into our standard configuration
This is only one example that shows the need for planning - the necessary evil. Upgrading while we had no standards in our sites and standardizing the sites has a ten hour impact on our company. Depending on what you value your time as, ten hours can be expensive for your company.
Here is my quick list of tips for planning:
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Popularity: 77% [?]
In the past year I’ve expanded our “Gizmos for” brand by launching Gizmos for Babies and Gizmos for Kids. By May 1st we will officially launch Gizmos for Cooks. Lining up editors and writers for the sites and technically setting up the sites is really quite easy and does not take up too much time, but creating the theme or the layout of the site is a different story. Sure I can make a theme that works but without the eye of a designer I can churn out a theme that could instantly turn away readers.
I decided to take the design and creation of themes for these sites as an exercise in outsourcing.
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Popularity: 86% [?]
A simple concept, but such an important one. As we’ve learned the hard way, particularly if you’re starting out your online business as a side gig, focusing on 1 product or service is a critical factor in your success.
Try not to get carried away with trying to implement all of your ideas at once. Pick the best one and focus on it for at least 3 to 6 months if not longer. If you’re doing this on the side, it will take at least that long for it to pick up steam and for you to wrap your mind around what you’re doing.
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Popularity: 91% [?]
Yet another reason to start your own business, so you never have to hear, or for heaven’s sake say, “it is what it is” ever again. This phrase is the war cry for those that only strive for mediocrity and makes me cringe every time I hear it.
Click the image for a jump to Dilbert’s Official Site.
Popularity: 97% [?]
The topic of taking the plunge and leaving corporate life has been discussed heavily lately by several friends and of course my padna kjh in his article on when to take the plunge so I decided to put together a couple thoughts on the subject myself…. please feel free to comment with your take on the subject as well.
The first thing you need to ask yourself is, are you meant to be a corporate worker or are you meant to create something and go it alone? There is no shame in being a corporate worker. Working for someone else can help provide a good life and provide stability with benefits.
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Popularity: 96% [?]
