Archive for June, 2005
· June 23, 2005 at 12:13 pm · Odds & Ends
Well it is pretty much here, Gnomedex 5.0 and I wish I could have made it. Unfortunately though, I am stuck here at the Web Hosting Show studios aka my desk aka the place where I spend eighty percent of my day. Looks like things will be bigger and better than ever though this year. Don’t belive me? Just check out some of the history of the event:
Gnomedex was born in 2001, carefully crafted by the hands of Lori Lockwood and Jake Ludington. It was supposed to take place on September 14th & 15th, 2001 in Des Moines, Iowa. These were ill-fated days, as nobody could have predicted the catastrophic event that would befall us mere days before. Still, in the eleventh hour, our coordinators were able to reschedule the proceedings a month later - and it was a complete success. The original plans changed a bit, but 350 tech enthusiasts had a great time. Speakers included Steve Gibson, Robert Scoble, and David Lawrence.
The second year was definitely a lot more relaxed; a true culture started to form around it. Even Worldcom gave us a thumbs up. Wi-Fi flew through the air, but not with the greatest of ease. Even so, tech enthusiasts had a great time. Speakers included Leo Laporte, Evan Williams, Pud Kaplan, Beth Goza, and Doc Searls.
Just wish I had the time to send an 8 x 10 glossy photo of myself for Chris Pirillo to put on a stick and carry around with him. Hell, I’d be happy with being it being tapped onto a mop in the corner really. Hope everybody has fun this year! I’ll be listening to all that I can from the outside world till then.
· June 22, 2005 at 12:13 pm · Odds & Ends
Everybody should know by now about me writing Lockergnome’s Guide to Web Hosting. It might have not been the blockbuster of the year, but I think it has done very well for two facts.
1. As far as writing goes I am still a pretty small potato, at least outside of the Web hosting world.
2. Trying to tell somebody they need to buy something, when you could probably find it somewhere else by somebody else for free is hard.
Not all is lost though. It seems like here lately, more and more, I’ve been getting that itch. You know the kind. The kind that just won’t go away. The kind that sits on your back and thumbs you in the back of the head. I’m getting the itch to write another e-book. What should it cover though? Go ahead and pick a title, who knows… you might be right?
Lockergnome’s Guide to Web Hosting 2: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
System Administrators Go Wild!
The Good, the Bad and the Web Hosters
Got anymore fun titles to suggest?
· June 21, 2005 at 4:38 pm · Odds & Ends
I am sick and tired of seeing a new list of the “A-List Bloggers” every time I get Online. It seems like everybody and their grandmother has done this to death now. The question I have is, who really cares? Some might say the people on the list care, but they are the same folks that get the highlight each and every time it is turned on. If somebody has already made a list of the “most read” folks out there, why not do something different? Because that is hard work. Instead we see Web site after Web site re-branding the whole “blogebrity” idea and it just makes me even more angry.
Why? Some might say, “Well Mitch, you are a bitter little man, aren’t you?”.
No I am not. I could care less what list I make it onto or don’t make it onto. The fact of the matter is I would just like to see something different come out there. Why not highlight the newest blogs? The blogs with the funniest content? The blogs that make you think? Why? That would be actual work there. You’d have to get a person or a team of people going through and reading blog after blog. Why not try to highlight who might be the “Next big thing?”. Why? That would be too hard. Instead lets just give the same old pat on the back to the same old folks over and over again.
I have nothing against these so-called “trendsetters“. I’ll even admit to having a few in my RSS reader. Folks like Eric Rice and Chris Pirillo are entertaining, informative and fun.
You can only milk that cow so long before it runs dry. How many more lists can we go through before people want to be entertained by something new? different? Exciting? Outside of the box?
Here is my list of blogs that will probably never make it onto a “high class” list but are damn worthy of being mentioned. Maybe this list will inspire a few folks to think outside the box for a change instead of falling into the same old patterns over and over again.
Matt Hartley’s Ctrl-Alt-Del
Swisher’s Untitled Blog Project
Brandon Watts
The Host Blog
Mitchelaneous
Now how hard was that? Know somebody else that isn’t getting the “blogging respect” that they deserve? Let me know!
· June 21, 2005 at 3:19 pm · Odds & Ends
If you want to talk to me about something I know, then talk to me about article writing. I’ve been in the “business” I guess you could say for well over a year now. Since my last Web hosting position didn’t pan out the way I wanted it to, I turned to the written word to earn an honest living. Writing articles for a living though, isn’t that easy. Sometimes you just can not find the topics you want to write about. Some days you just wake up and have no idea what kind of content you want to create.
Nobody can disagree that content creation is an important part of developing a successful Web site.
This article (via the folks at DevShed.com) does a great job of explaining what to do if you find yourself between a creative rock and a hard place. If you are a writer or just looking for something to write, listen to what the wise Charles Essmeier has to say.
Some six weeks ago, I began writing and submitting articles to free content sites in order to promote the six commercial Websites I own.The results have been both swift and dramatic, and the number of links from external Websites to my own Websites has increased from nearly nothing to more than 10,000 in a little more than a month. These results have inspired me to write more articles, and as I own six different Websites, I have six different topics to choose from. Still, my ideas occasionally run dry and that certainly happens to others who write articles for their own Websites. Writing and submitting articles on a regular basis does a lot for promoting your Websites, but where can you find more ideas for articles when you run out?
I have several sources that work for me. I subscribe to several newspapers as well as several news magazines. Most of my Websites are devoted to “topical” subjects, so the sorts of things I write about tend to be in the news. Sometimes, when reading an article about one of my topics, I find some angle or aspect of the topic I hadn’t previously considered.
You can check out the rest of the article if you need some more help. Inspiration is a hard thing to find sometimes, but once you do find it is worth the wait. Nothing gets me more fired up than a really good idea. Guess that means I picked the right career choice this time around.
· June 20, 2005 at 5:10 pm · Odds & Ends
This is very interesting for folks who are looking for a separate company to do just their e-mail hosting. Webmail.us has added an RSS reader (link via the WHIR) to its platform. In my opinion, having a separate solution for your e-mail hosting seems a little far fetched, but with services like this added to the mix it could make it a little more desirable.
The RSS reader integrates with Web mail and can be accessed via any POP3 or IMAP-based desktop email client, such as Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird.
Webmail.us says the RSS reader caters to small business owners, allowing email administrators to regulate RSS feed subscriptions and pre-subscribe feeds for their users.
Unlike many RSS readers available for download, Webmail.us does not require any downloading or installation. Business users can now use Webmail.us’ email service as their preferred email client to manage content gathered from blogs, news and business-related sources.
Interesting enough, I also found that the folks over at Webmail.us have a blog up and running as well. Kudos to them for thinking outside the box in a hosting world that likes to stay as far into the box as they can get. They also have an RSS ready press room Web page as well where you can get all the latest and greatest information on the services they provide.
· June 20, 2005 at 1:27 pm · Odds & Ends
Here is only a sample of the wild and wacky Web hosting fun we had on this week’s edition of the Web Hosting Show. Everybody in the Web hosting industry from clients to Web hosts themselves need to get one thing through their heads. Put your lawyers and legal teams away when it comes to conflict. I received an E-mail a few days ago from a guy who listens to the Web Hosting Show. He told me about a horror story that he had with his current Web hosting company. These sorts of things happen every single day.
Remember when you were in grade school and you’d see the bigger kids picking on the smaller ones? Picture yourself on a school ground in any city across America. The insults would be flying, and then one side or the other would bring up the one thing you were not suppose to say. The one thing that little kids feared most.
“I’m going to go tell the teacher!”
At that moment, everybody on the school grounds would freeze. “Did he really say that?” some would mumble. “Wow, he means business,” others would say. Now lets go back to your modern day dispute between a Web hosting company and a Web hosting client. What is the phrase that you hear now that has the same effect as, “I’m going to go tell the teacher”?
“I’m going to go tell my lawyer!”
That is the part of the conversation where things get a little too heated and people start threatening legal action to the other one. As your Mother used to say, “I don’t care who started it!”. It can be started on either side. So what are the after effects? Usually both sides calm down, come to a common ground and go their separate ways. I have no scientific facts in front of me, but I am willing to bet that nine times out of ten nothing of legal terms happens. The moral of the story is, let us all try to settle or differences without bringing our legal counterparts into the discussion. It saves us all a big headache and will probably save you some respect with your peers inside or outside of the Web hosting world.
Now on the subject of Web hosting plans, let us just say that it is more than just a little confusing for the new guy on the street. When you go out and look at some of the plans a Web hosting company has to offer you are usually given the huge table of services in alignment with Web hosting plans, then a whole heck of a lot of little green dots or check marks.
The green marks usually represent the fact that you do or don’t get that option with your plan. Now most people look at this and say, “Wow, I’m sure getting a lot from my Web hosting company!” Truth be told, you should always compare Web hosting services between two or more companies before you let yourself get too impressed. A lot of what they want you to think is new, different or special services are just about standard with any Web hosting plan you buy these days. So don’t buy into the hype, by into the quality of the actual services at hand.
More fun than a bucket of chicken on the Forth of July, the Web Hosting Show is ready for download!
Download Episode 18 of the Web Hosting Show!
If you want to check out the show notes, get past interviews and shows we have done or just let me know what you think, you can do all of those things and more at the Web Hosting Show’s Web site.
