Sorry to my regular readers for this post it’s just something that I need to say. Last night I was going through my list of blogs I check out on a daily basis and I wanted to check out what one of my friends has been up to. Since he isn’t in my blog bookmarks I normally don’t check his site that often. Going to his site (which I’m not going to give him the pleasure of a link) the first post I see is one making fun of me because something I submitted did not make it to the front page of Digg. Looking down the page I see another post (screenshot) where he talks about how many ads are on ThinkComputers and how he does not visit the site because of this, and even goes further talking about how people who sustain themselves via the internet should brush up on their business skills. Now usually I would let something like this go, but this really got under my skin because this person has no clue what it is like to run a business.
A little background on Zach…he grew up in a privileged environment living in a very nice house and being given pretty much anything he wanted. After high school his parents of course paid for him to go to college and after that they even bought him a brand new car. Since we all know how hard it is to get a job with a college degree his parents hired him at their company and just so things were not hard on him they bought him his own condo.
First off yes ThinkComputers is ad-supported, but what site do you go to that isn’t? Internet advertising is a big business and people make a ton of money off of it. If you look at any of the reviews on the site it follows the typical hardware review site layout, info about the product, ad for where you can buy the product, and a large rectangle ad in the article itself. All of the other ads on the page are not in the article at all. I can name a ton of sites that have the same type of layout. If the ads were so bad on the site I don’t think that the 4-5k unique visitors the site gets a day would stay around. Even if Zach thinks there are too many ads on ThinkComputers that is not what really made me mad.
Zach goes on in his post to say, “If you are sustaining yourself via your blog, I highly suggest that you brush up on your business skills, go back to school and get a job because the bubble is going to burst on professional blogging.” Ok Zach tell that to someone like John Chow who made over $29,000 in February from just blogging. Brush up on business skills? Some people are lucky to be making $29,000 a year let alone in one month. There are a lot of examples of bloggers making more than a living from their blogs, but I don’t need to go into that here. Get a job Zach? Who wants a job where you have to work for someone else, have crappy hours, and not do what you like to do? I like making my own hours and being my own boss, not to mention my job is awesome.
Finally ThinkComputers is my business and I am proud of it. I’m sorry Zach that you do not know what it’s like to have to pay rent, pay back school loans, and have a car payment. At a young age my dad taught me that things are not given to you, you work for them (I’ve had a job since I was 13). He also taught me to appreciate the things that I have. I feel good knowing that where I am in life is because I worked hard at it, not because someone gave it to me.
I think Zach’s biggest problem is that he does not understand the internet business. This happens with a lot of people who do not work in this business. Many people do not like bloggers and people who work on the internet because they think we are lazy, when in actuality we probably work harder then they do. Sorry to disappoint you Zach, but ThinkComputers is a real job and for many people blogging is a real job, don’t try to tell people how to run their business or their lives when you have no clue what you are talking about.
I’ve always liked larger screens, I mean I work on my computer 6-8 hours a day so the more screen real estate I have the easier it is to get work done. Back when everyone had 17-inch CRT monitors I decided to go out and get a nice big Dell 20.1-inch widescreen LCD. Back then everyone looked at me like I was crazy, but now look the standard seems to be a 19-inch or 20-inch LCD.
I’ve always said that having more space makes you more productive, but now someone has proved it.
Working late? Blame your computer screen. A new study finds that bigger monitors make people more productive.
Researchers at the University of Utah tested how quickly people performed tasks like editing a document and copying numbers between spreadsheets while using different computer configurations: one with an 18-inch monitor, one with a 24-inch monitor and with two 20-inch monitors. Their finding: People using the 24-inch screen completed the tasks 52% faster than people who used the 18-inch monitor; people who used the two 20-inch monitors were 44% faster than those with the 18-inch ones. There is an upper limit, however: Productivity dropped off again when people used a 26-inch screen. (The order of the tasks and the order of computer configurations were assigned randomly.)
The study concluded that someone using a larger monitor could save 2.5 hours a day. But James Anderson, the professor in charge of the study, tells the Business Technology Blog to take that result with a grain of salt: It assumes that someone will work non-stop for eight hours, which no one will, and that the tasks they perform will all benefit from a larger screen, which isn’t always the case. But things like moving data between files are ideally suited to bigger or multiple screens. Anderson, who uses a computer with two 20-inch screens and one 24-inch one, recommends that businesses take the time to match employees with the proper size screen based on job requirements.
Story from The Wall Street Journal
Right now I am using a Soyo 24-inch LCD (I finally let the Dell 20.1-inch go) and I have a smaller 20-inch screen that I use for instant messaging, twitter, pownce, and IRC. So I have all of my work on 1 screen and the 2nd screen is used for chatting etc. I really think that having a larger screen does make you more productive, which in turn makes you more money.
I don’t go to the mall that often, only when I need to get some clothes or pickup a new video game or something like that. I have lived in the North Hills area all of my life so the mall that I would always go to is Ross Park Mall. I’ve seen it go through a lot of changes, but for as long as I can remember Sakkio Japan has been there. I think every other place in the food court has changed at least 1 time if not more. I had not been to Sakkio Japan in a long time so I decided to get it again for a quick lunch while I was at the mall.
When most people think of Japanese food at the mall they think pre-cooked food in bins that you pick from. Sakkio Japan is totally different from that, you pick what you want and they cook it right in front of you. Sakkio Japan does not have a lot on their menu. From what I remember they have teriyaki vegetables, teriyaki chicken, teriyaki beef, and I believe you can add shrimp to any one of those. I ordered the teriyaki beef and added shrimp. With any order you can choose regular rice or fried rice, I got the fried rice. The total for that with a drink was around $8.
Just like all of the other times I have eaten at Sakkio Japan the food was great and filling. No wonder the place has been there forever! This tells you something about any business if you do something good and the right way you will always have customers. Also it is not often that you are at a mall and can get food cooked right in front of you. There are many Sakkio Japan’s located in mall, stadiums, etc so if you see one check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
As I said when the CES Swag contest was over there would be another contest and here it is! I said I would be giving something away that is an accessory to something that most of you probably have, and I assume most of you have an iPod, new or old. I reviewed the iTrip Auto a while ago on ThinkComputers and they actually sent me 2, so why not give the extra one away! So this is not the used iTrip Auto (that is still in my car), this is a brand new, never opened one. The iTrip Auto is a small FM transmitter and charger designed for any iPod that has a dock connector, although it does not work with the iPhone. It retails for about $35 online.
Just like the CES Swag contest there are 2 ways to enter the contest. The easiest is by subscribing to my RSS feed via e-mail. You can do that at the bottom of this post or on the side of the page. The second way, which will actually give you 2 entries into the contest, is to blog about the contest linking back to the contest and having a link to BobBuskirk.com. Only blog posts that link to both the contest and BobBuskirk.com will be valid. Once you publish the post to your blog, post a comment or e-mail me to let me know it is online so I can add 2 entries for you. So in total you can have 3 entries into the contest.
The contest will run for 3 weeks and the winner will be randomly selected on Friday the 28th. The contest is only open to residents of the United States and Canada. If you have any questions please let me know.
How Contests Improve Readership
Contests are my way of giving something back to my readers. Sure I write some decent posts and some that are helpful to other people but that does not always keep people around. Contests are a great way to increase your readership and also give something back to the people that read your blog. Whether you do RSS, linkbacks, etc it always helps out your blog in one way or another. If you are stuck on RSS readers or the same amount of traffic try out a contest it will help!
Social Networks, some people hate them, some people love them, and some people just don’t care. I in fact I use a bunch of different social networks and I noted in a previous post. Now I do use these social networks for personal use (keeping up with friends, meeting new people, etc), but I also use them to promote my websites and other things. Even if you hate social networks you can use them to your advantage.
Groups
This is one of the easier ways to promote your business with social networks and almost all of them have groups. You can create a group (check out ThinkComputers FaceBook group) easily on any social network and that gives you another outlet to gain readers. On most group pages you are able to add links, pictures, etc. You are also able to send out a message to all the members of the group. So if you need to promote something it is that simple.
Bulletins
I know that Myspace has this feature, I am not sure what other social networks have it, but basically it is a message that is sent out to all of your friends. So if you have a lot of friends this can become very powerful. Ashley has around 60,000 friends on Myspace, that is something that she can really take to her advantage to promote her sites. People even have offered to pay her to send bulletins for them. You have to watch out with bulletins though, some people see them as spam.
Comments
A lot of people may not have thought of this but you can take comments to your advantage too, especially picture comments. One great way without people seeing it as spam is that make a graphic saying “Have a Great Weekend” with your website logo in it somewhere. Then post it as a comment linking back to your website. You can also make a graphic that links back to something that you are trying to promote.
Twitter, Pownce, etc
Many people do not consider these social networks, but they can be very powerful. I have both a Twitter and a Pownce account. If you do not know what these are they are a service that basically is an update service, you have to check them out to see what I mean. I use both services to promote ThinkComputers, this blog, and just let people know what I’m up to. People like Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble use these services to promote things that they are doing.
Digg, Del.icio.us, etc
If you don’t know these types of social networks can be VERY powerful. Just look at the difference in revenue when ThinkComputers got dugg. Anyone knows if you make it to the front page of Digg you will be sending a ton of traffic to your website, just make sure it does not crash and you have good ad placement so you can capitalize on all of the traffic.
As I always say any traffic is good and social networks are a great way to bring extra traffic to your website. Even if you hate them you should take advantage of what they can do for your business.
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