Pluck’s Dead - I Need Help With Finding A New RSS Feed Aggregator !
I came home last night to find out that Pluck, my FORMER RSS feed aggregator has been down for two days.
They are not responding to pleas for help on their forum.
I called their office and got no answer.
They don’t respond to support requests.
Look like another dot-bomb. Sadly. Unfortunately.
I’m not in the frame of mind needed to do a lot of thinking, so could you tell me which service or software product you use and why I should use it ?
I had over 100 feeds that I watched, so without the ability to export them, it looks like I’ll be starting from scratch. Again.
Thanks for your help.
Edit - My server logs indicate that 78 visitors, so far this month, use Bloglines and only 13 use NewsGator. Means nothing specific to me, just facts.
I’ve tried twice to setup a free account at Bloglines and their email will not come thru to me.
THAT does mean something to me, like use something else knucklehead !
EDIT x 2 - 8:31 am Monday, AUG 21 - Oh great … now Pluck has come back to life and I’ll have to choose whether to complete the overhaul or give ‘em another chance.
Internet Laws Getting Easier To Enforce
Here’s a link to a post on seomoz.org that offers some proof that we all need to be more aware of what’s going on within the legal issues of this thing we call the ‘net.
More and more, every day, this things getting stickier and uglier. If you prepare now, with the proper documents, you won’t suffer later.
How To Increase Sales By Giving Something Away
A man who was very good at what he did - selling - once told me that the best way to get was to give. His favorite thing to give away was an idea.
I’ve made it a life study to find out that he was right. The one sure way increase you sales per call ratio : Give away an idea to every client you visit.
I don’t go into a sales call without being stocked up with an idea for my client to think about.
It might be about how they can make more money, it might save them on expenses, it might lower their cholesterol. But I never make a visit without one to give away.
I keep a notebook with me during my windshield time every day and am always ready to write down an idea, with a reference to which client to spring it on.
Some ideas are general enough to keep in reserve for leverage for just the right time with a client that needs something extra to sway him my way.
Watch for the sales people who treat you this way and then notice the predators out there. The difference is like daylight and dark.
I have a quote on the back of my current notebook that say’s :
” Do you process people, or do you serve them ? “
Legal Issues You Cannot Afford To Ignore
It’s almost time for us to shut down this campaign, tally up the questions and figure out the best way to make the info available.
Before I present all the questions to Bob, I’d like to give you one more snippet of info and one last chance to Ask Bob Silber.
1) Did you know that there are four simple things your blog/website must have right now, otherwise you’re asking for trouble ?
2) Did you know Mrs. Fields Cookies was fined $100,000 and Hershey’s Chocolate was fined $80,000 for having improper Privacy Statements ?
3) Did you know the marketing strategy you’re using right now is probably illegal ?
4) Did you know most peoples conceptions about intellectual property is completely wrong ?
5) Do you know what the real uses of Trademarks and Copyrights actaully are ? Probably not, because almost every blog/website we check is catastrophically wrong.
I just noticed a great stance taken on parts of these issues over at The Blog Herald. Matt has taken a stance that I seem to agree completely with, which is unusual for me, since I’m not easily swayed.
Take 5 minutes and Ask.A.Question.
Take 5 minutes to help ensure your freedom in the future.
Don’t let this get so bad that the government comes in and whacks this whole thing like only they can fudge it up.
Resistance Training For Salespeople
We’ve all heard about resistance training with regard to exercise, have we not ?
You know, ” No Pain, No Gain. “
Do you use this method for training yourself in the sales arena ?
I do. Monthly.
Once a month I pull out a list of all the people in our industry that don’t EVER buy from us. EVER.
I take that one day as a form of resistance training.
All of those people will resist :
1) My even finding them
2) Getting past the gatekeeper if I do find them
3) My finding their cellphone numbers
4) My finding their jobsites where my competition has product in use
5) Every technique I employ to breakdown their resistance
6) Every story I tell
7) My offer of buying their lunch, dinner or a round of golf
My special OTO’s ( One Time Offers )
9) My offer to set an appointment for another visit
10) Everything but my wampum - scratch pads, pens, hats, shirts,etc
The reasoning behind this is that I believe that it keeps me sharp. Without resisitance, muscles don’t grow. Worse yet, they atrophy.
Keep your selling muscles in shape by calling on people that you know won’t buy from you. Don’t make a habit of doing it too often, but about once per month seems to work for me.
Continually calling on friendly clents will dull your edge. You need a good reaming every now and then to strengthen your resolve.
Also, keep a ledger of those calls.
1) What you offered
2) What stories you told
3) Where you were at
4) What the competition had in use
5) Any trigger phrases you used
Because you never know when you might get a callback and need to reference the conversation.
If you ever do break down their disbelief, you’ll want to know what technique, trigger phrase or offer was likely the one that worked.
PS - for more info on resistance training, check out the Speedster
Here Comes Da Judge !
Via The Blog Herald, I see another instance of a judge who has his eye on the blogosphere. It will only get worse and we’ll only have more trouble if we don’t address it now.
Go now and Ask.A.Question and get an answer before you get a Cease & Desist.
One More Reason To Ask The Question
Did any of you notice the “discussion” going on over at Chartreuse’s blog.
First we have a “discussion” over the improper use of photos and then we have a side “discussion” over copyright and Creative Commons.
Second we have Char giving us his version ( completely wrong I might add ) of his interpretation of the law.
You might like to click thru and read the “discussion“, including all the comments and then come back here and go to the Ask Bob Silber page and ask for an interpretation of the applicable laws from someone who actually knows them, rather than someone who wants to change them to suit his style of blogging.
Once again, The Simple One ( that would be me ) is ahead of the curve. I had seen some of this coming, which is why I started this campaign.
Beware - Side Rant Ahead : Long ago, I tried to tell you guys to blog for corporations/businesses and not for contextual ad dollars. Now the contextual ad business is slowly changing towards not being as lucrative as some would lead you to believe.
Seen any Fed Ex photos of large AdSense checks lately ? Me neither.
But the weekly checks I get from the corporations I blog for keep on coming. And the contracts are for a long time.
I have more businesses and corporations wanting me to build and be the voice of their blog than I can possibly do.
Back to our main issue :
This issue, copyright and content usage is not going away. Take the time now to make sure you’re on the right side of the law.
Despite the protestations of a few who don’t like, or like to adhere to, the law, they ain’t changing ‘em anytime soon.
Note to all : This ain’t just about this one “discussion”. This is a common issue among bloggers everywhere.
Go.Ask.The.Questions. - and we’ll all be better off as we further cement the laws and their interpretations.
Welcome To Simplenomics
A special hello to those of you who arrived here via our Press Release, a link or Trackback due to our Ask Bob Silber campaign.
For more info on what we’re doing to try and help bloggers avoid costly legal blunders, we suggest you visit these links :
Thanks for stopping by, please participate by asking a question and, if you can help spread the word about this campaign, please do.
Bloggers Can Make Costly Legal Blunders
Here’s a copy of a PRWeb.com Press Release that will be live on Tuesday, August 8th, 2006.
Owensboro, KY (PRWEB) August 8, 2006 - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal government’s chief consumer watchdog agency, regulates the commercial side of the Internet, levying fines on rule violators. What many people don’t realize is that those regulations include corporate and business blogs.
One blogger, Mike Sigers of Simplenomics.com, recognizing that blogs can fall under the same FTC rules as commercial Web sites, is posting legal questions, from bloggers, on his blog at http://simplenomics.com/got-a-legal-question-about-blogging/. Bloggers can post a variety of legal questions for Bob Silber, an internationally known expert on Internet law.
” Many bloggers are not aware of the potential legal problems, and that can be costly, ” Sigers said.
A blog that promotes a business or service, in any manner, can be considered a commercial or business Web site. For example, linking to another business site or collecting information, such as visitor e-mail addresses, can put a Webmaster in the commercial Web site category and trigger FTC rules and regulations. If there is any question on whether a particular blog falls within the business category, it would be prudent to seek the advice of an attorney familiar with that area of law.
The Internet is global and legal mistakes can be, too. In an Associated Press article, Wired.Com reported that a blogger in Italy last month was fined $16,900 by the Italian government for his blog comments.
The number of Internet Web logs, or “blogs” as the sites are called, continues to grow. There are 63 million blogs that have been created on the eight major blog hosting sites, according to BlogHerald.com. Technorati.com is currently tracking more than 50.5 million blogs.
To say the blogging universe is diverse may be an understatement. Today, all types of blogs exist - from soldiers in Iraq providing an unvarnished look at the war, to politicians, to cat lovers, to the corporate business world.
Business owners and commercial bloggers can visit the FTC Web site and review the various rules and regulations that all business Web sites, including blogs, must adhere to.
I See Dead Blogs
Is there anything we might be able to do to convince all those would-be bloggers who wrote 4 or 5 posts and then gave up to crash their dead blogs ?
I hate following an organic search result, only to find a blog that has a grand total of 5 posts, the last of which was 7 months ago.
There are 2 gazillion blogs created every day, all but 3 of which are destined to go the way of the platypus and the loon.
How about a feature in Blogger and Word Press, where most of these are created, that detonates the blog and all archives after 60 days of inactivity.
Anybody else have the misfortune to see dead blogs ?
Got any ideas ?
