REPORT: Technical Blogging an Overview

Technical Blogging, Turn Your Expertise into a Remarkable Online Presence
Author: Antonio Cangiano
Publisher: The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Copyright © 2012 The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC.

A Blog is a communications medium that combines the internet and writing or web and log. Technical blogging is writing non-fiction concentrating on a particular expertise, take your expertise to the masses and promote your business or your technical skills to the world. Whether you prefer a niche or a broader theme there are four steps to a successful blog are planning, promotion, building the blog and making money.

During the planning phase, the first decision you should make is the blog software and hosting options. Here we will discuss two popular options Blogger and Wordpress in summary form (use the links at the end of this document for setup instructions). Most blogging software packages work in in a similar manner, however, Blogger is a free and straightforward no frills choice.

With Blogger's control panel known as Dashboard you can customize the features you like or search the internet and paste custom widgets (snippets of source code). There are many templates to choose from but you cannot create your own or format your blog to match your existing website, this is where Wordpress come into play.

Wordpress comes in two forms wordpress.org and wordpress.com. Wordpress.org is the organization that developed Wordpress. The software is open-source and very customizable; however, you will need to maintain software yourself and you will need your own-hosted domain. This inconvenience is worthwhile, as your blog can be seamlessly integrated into your existing website with CSS (cascading style sheets). CSS gives your website a uniformed look and feel from page to page and your blog will look any other page on your website. Now that you have the "look and feel" that you desired you have to promote the blog.

"Build it and they will not come." The truth of the matter is promotion is your grandest task. Do not self-sabotage by adhering to anti-marketing stance. Millions of blogs are created every year and most will be abandoned for lack of interest and poor maintenance.

• Create plenty of well-written and well-researched content.
• Create keywords rich content.
• Use informative and catchy headlines.
• Use links to source material whenever possible.

Generate interest in your blog by link building. Google uses "backlinks" for page rankings so use well-known sources and link back to them. That being said a link to the CNN, The New Times or BBC is for more valuable than a link to a small town newspaper. Share links to your blog on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, again those catchy titles will create a click through to bolstering your site ranking.

Build a community around your blog. Engage, entertain, educate and interact with your readers. The more your readers interact with your blog the more successful your endeavor will become. Create an environment that induces your participates to engage in the conversations and share to Facebook and Twitter.

• Write great content.
• Ask for comments.
• Reply to questions.
• Provide updates and corrections.
• Credit participates when responding.
• Praise insightful comments.
• Ask questions in your post.
• Allow readers to answer some questions.
• Keep in mind that you are building a community.

How do I make money from my blog? That is the question first there are ads, second are sponsors and third using affiliates. Google AdSense is the most commonly used ad network and you can sign up for free. Once you have enrolled you, embed some JavaScript source code on your page. Ads that are relevant to your blog topic will appear in strategic locations in headers, footers, boxes or sidebars (you decide). You begin earning the CPC (cost per click) income when readers click the ads from your site. The income from ads can be minuscule to very lucrative based on volume and traffic.

Obtaining sponsors is another or additional option. To get sponsors is a marketing task, whereby, you create an artificial need for your product (blog). Good graphic design coupled with key information about your blog (site usage statistics, geographic information, relevant keywords) is marketed to potential sponsors.

Affiliates links offer have tracking ids embedded in them to identify your blog. Visitors click the advertisement and a browser cookie is created associating your site and the visitor. When a customer buys a product from a vendor affiliated with the link from site a commission is generated for you.

Blogging can be create name recognition, excitement, share information, create a community and generate an income. Experiment, enjoy and explore the links below.


Useful Links
Amazon Affilate Program
Blogger
Click Bank
Flickr
Google Affiliate Network
Google Blog Search
ProBlogger
WordPress Web Hosting
WordPress.com
WordPress.org
WordPress Community

Software Development Screencast

I am presenting the non-technical parts of software design.  I am demonstrating how to research a project for feasibility, legal ramifications, marketing and website hosting.

Track Every Dollar Website

Photoshop Skills

Here is a Flickr Slideshow of some of my Photoshop projects. I challenged myself to create a logo for my new project TED (Track Every Dollar); to turn a regular photo of my niece Acrissa and my nephew Elbert into a sketch; Susan B. Anthony coin with my nephew Mehki on the face and finally to take my nephew Calvin’s photo and wrap it around an energy drink can.

Creating the images was quite easily done all the tools are included in Photoshop.  The hardest one was the coin because there are several steps.  I had to clear the center of the coin and then trim the photo to just the image.  I then stacked the photos on top of each other and used the multiply layer function (merge together but use only one layers color).  Enjoy!

The Strip Club Project (Part 3)

The project now has a name, “TED Track Every Dollar” and a logo (see below).  The name suggest exactly what the software does, it tracks entry fees, table dance fees, champagne room fees, drink purchases and house fees. 

The backend (database) is taking shape (see diagram below).  The tables below demonstrate the flexibility of  the application.  By having, an employee, location and employeelocation table the company can have employees working at multiple locations.  The product table holds products like drinks, food items and souvenir items.  The service table holds data relate entertainment related services.   

The Strip Club Project (Part 2)

While researching potential customer I discovered that there are 2,486 Gentlemen's Clubs in the United Sates. The top ten states (California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas) accounting for 54% or 1,362 clubs. Surprisingly, the state of Nevada did not make the top ten.

   
The object of the initial release of the programs is to obtain a small market share of 10 customers. Below the chart demonstrates the residual income from maintaining 10, 20 and 100 customers per year.  There is a maintenance fee of $100 for cloud storage, backup storage and reports generation.

 

The program has an estimated retail price of $2,500, will generate $25,000, $50,000 and $250,000 respectively in retail sales with same 10, 20 and 100 customers..

 

 

REFERENCE: https://www.tuscl.net/r.php?RID=7

The Strip Club Project (Part 1)

A friend of mines is a bouncer in a strip club and he was complaining about the software program he uses at work.  During the conversation I asked him the name of the program and researched it.  What found lead me on this journey, there was no true program someone pasted together an application from some WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) program.  The whole development time was maybe an hour and retailed for $5495.00.

There is a lot of tracking in this environment; performers basically pay everyone else’s salaries. The dancers pay a stage fee to enter the club or on their way out.  Dancers are compensated when customers buys them a drink (usually Coke, Sprite or tea at premium alcohol prices), perform on stage (tips), table, lap or VIP room dance (set rate).

What I am proposing is and application that logs employees in and out with biometric (fingerprint scanner), tracks all customer and entertainer interaction via cell phone app and produces IRS forms (i.e. 1099) and miscellaneous reports.

The business owner or manager can track activities within the club from their cell phone or computer from anywhere in the world. Backups are performed though cloud computing 12 times per hour. The bouncer, security or other club monitor can update the entertainers’ activities via cell phone application.

 

Competitors

http://www.reportware.com/PR_CabMgmt.htm

Google Reader keyboard shortcuts

Navigation j/k: next/previous item space: next item or page <Shift> + space: previous item or page n/p: item scan down/up (list only) <Shift> + n/p: next/previous subscription <Shift> + x: expand folder <Shift> + o: open subscription or folder	Application r: refresh f: toggle full screen mode u: hides/unhides the left hand side module 1: switch to expanded view 2: switch to list view /: move cursor to search box a: add a subscription =: increase magnification -: decrease magnification
Jumping g then h: go home g then a: go to all items g then s: go to starred items g then u: open subscription selector g then t: open tag selector g then <Shift> + t: go to trends page g then d: go to discovery page g then e: go to explore g then p: go to popular items	Acting on items s: star item t: tag item e: email item <Shift> + s: share item v: view original o/enter: expand/collapse item (list only) m: mark item as read/unread <Shift> + a: mark all as read <Shift> + t: open “send to” menu

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Fun Facts: So why do we "Surf the Internet?"

So why do we "Surf the Internet?"

In June1992, Jean Armour Polly a librarian and magazine author coined the phrase "Surfing the internet."  She was writing a paper about the internet and needed a tag line that would catch the readers eye.  She envisioned and avalanche or huge wave of information coming toward the user and the metaphor stuck.

The article was an immediate success soon thereafter many magazine and newspaper started using the phrase.  I would have giving the credit to Vinton Gray Cerf as he was the "father of the internet" and creator TCP/IP the technology that allows computers to communicate.