hummingcrow: one squall voice » blogging http://hummingcrow.com cheryl colan's mixed media podcast - vlogging and sharing audio for fun and non-profit. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:36:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 2006-2009 cheryl.colan@gmail.com (hummingcrow: one squall voice) cheryl.colan@gmail.com (hummingcrow: one squall voice) 1440 http://www.hummingcrow.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/hummingcrow_img-sm.jpg hummingcrow: one squall voice http://hummingcrow.com 144 144 cheryl colan's mixed media podcast - vlogging and sharing audio for fun and non-profit. hummingcrow: one squall voice hummingcrow: one squall voice cheryl.colan@gmail.com no no Why I Don’t Like Disqus http://hummingcrow.com/2010/09/26/why-i-dont-like-disqus/ http://hummingcrow.com/2010/09/26/why-i-dont-like-disqus/#comments Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:09:18 +0000 cherylcolan http://www.hummingcrow.com/?p=589 Continue reading →]]> I was chatting on twitter with Jeremy Vaught today, talking about Disqus. I’m interested in understanding why Jeremy likes it, and he’s interested in understanding why I don’t. So this post is mainly to get my whole Disqus malaise off my chest and share my perspective with Jeremy, who is way more of a social media guru than I ever want to be. Consider this the perspective of the average, somewhat clueless person.

My first experience with Disqus was at Brent Spore’s iBoughtAMac.com. When I went to make a comment there, this dialog popped up for Disqus. I didn’t know what it was but it was clear if I wanted to leave a comment, I had to go through this thing. Since I didn’t have time to look into it right then, I just didn’t leave my comment. This happened several times.

Finally, I wanted to leave a comment enough that I clicked on the Disqus logo, where I read that it was a tool for web publishers to use for managing comments. I noticed you could create a profile, and that somehow would help an individual manage or track their own comments across different sites. At the time, I didn’t feel a need for help with this. I still don’t. I pretty much know where I comment and what communities I belong to. I didn’t look much further into it. But I understood “this thing adds value for the site owner, but not for me.”

One problem I have with the Disqus dialog is that, even though it allows you to comment as a guest (instead of connecting to Twitter, Facebook or OpenID) by entering your email address and name, just like a WordPress installation that doesn’t use Disqus, it interrupts my thought process. A pop-up opens with these options, and I have to think about it and make a choice before I can leave my comment. Since I don’t encounter Disqus every day I have to remember what it is, or look it up, decide whether I have an account, remember how I answer the dialog, and if I don’t remember right away, suddenly I’m wondering why this thing is in my way, and what implications the posting choice I make will have for my privacy, online identity, etc. I just want to leave a comment, yo.

When I do comment through Disqus, I use the Guest option. But it recognizes my email and pulls up a profile picture. I don’t know where that comes from. I think it’s getting it from Gravatar, or maybe at some point I created a Disqus profile, but I’m not sure, and the Disqus dialog doesn’t explain. So if I want the answer to that question I’m going to have to go dig it up from the Disqus site. I don’t really want to spend my time trying to figure this out, so I don’t. But every time I comment through Disqus and it recognizes me, I’m left with a vague creepy feeling that becomes part of my commenting experience, and thus part of the feeling I have about sites that use Disqus. I always have in mind that if I’m using a service I don’t pay for, I’m not the customer. I’m the product. I just want to leave a comment, not wonder who’s tracking me and how they use information about me.

Also, say I don’t know a person well, but find my self at their blog. Maybe they motivate me to engage. From my point of view, I’m there and commenting because I want to enter a relationship. I feel like we have something to say to each other. When I go to leave a comment, and that Disqus box pops up, I feel like the underlying message to me is “Hi. I don’t trust that you’re not a spammer. So if you want to start a relationship with me, I’m going to require you to be involved with this 3rd party, too.” But, but… I just want to leave a comment. I don’t use Disqus on my site, and other plugins take care of spam just fine, and it’s hard for me to see the need for this.

And so I guess my dislike of Disqus comes from never having realized a benefit from it myself, but knowing it’s keeping track every time I comment through it. If someone showed me a reason to love it, maybe I’d change my mind. But for now it’s come to leave a negative aftertaste. I view it as a comment deterrent. If you see a Disqus-powered comment from me anywhere, it means at least at that time, the relationship I wanted to create with the site owner was more powerful to me than the vague “ick” I feel when I see a Disqus dialog.

]]> http://hummingcrow.com/2010/09/26/why-i-dont-like-disqus/feed/ 7 Search Engine Optimization Tips from BlogHer07 http://hummingcrow.com/2007/09/05/search-engine-optimization-tips-from-blogher07/ http://hummingcrow.com/2007/09/05/search-engine-optimization-tips-from-blogher07/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:05:50 +0000 cherylcolan http://www.hummingcrow.com/2007/09/05/search-engine-optimization-tips-from-blogher07/ Continue reading →]]> On July 29 I attended an hour-long UnConference session on Search Engine Optimization at BlogHer07. Unfortunately I walked into the session a wee bit after it started and I did not hear the presenter introduce herself, nor was I able to get her business card, so I can’t give a proper attribution. If anyone who reads this can, please do so in the comments and I will update this post. I did hear that she gleaned these tips over time by trial and error, and they’re what she could truly say had worked well for her in increasing her site traffic and search engine placement.

Please note! This site is not a great example. I don’t do all the things on this list. I do set these many of these items up for clients, but my personal site is in major need of an overhaul.

On with the SEO Tips:

mantra: Get links to your site from wherever you can!

Within the <head> tag of your home page

  • Your <title> should be descriptive and contain words indicating what your site is about. It’s used on every search engine, so use words you would expect people to type in as search terms.
  • Use <meta> tags for description and keywords. Examples:

    <meta name="description" content="Travelogue. hummingcrow.net presents Dreaming Down Under: A mother/daughter exploration of indigenous culture in Australia and New Zealand." />

    <meta name="keywords" content="travelogue, culture, exchange, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Aboriginies, Maori, indigenous, travel, photos, digital, storytelling, mother, daughter, journey, dream" />

Your Permalinks should match your post titles

  • Good example: http://www.hummingcrow.com/search-engine-optimization-tips-blogher07
  • Bad example: http://www.hummingcrow.com/?p=126

Submit your site to free search engines and directories

  • Do not pay anyone to submit it for you. You know your own content best and will do the best job.
  • Search “free directory submission” and start adding.
  • With Yahoo!, you have to drill down into a category that fits your content and “suggest site” to submit.
  • Use StumbleUpon. Submit your: site, posts and categories.

Look at what search terms lead visitors to your site

You’re being shown that there is a demand for that information. If appropriate, play it up. Write about it even more. If you haven’t already written about it, consider it!

“Get links from everywhere” includes yourself

Create internal links to your older posts whenever appropriate. (Attention videobloggers using WordPress: the VideoPress Related Videos plugin will help you do this with style!) When creating internal links, consider tweaking older entries to make them better. You want them to be representative of great site content. Keep it natural though. You don’t want to suddenly change the character of your site.

Customize your archive templates

Instead of just having them say “archive of [some category],” make sure they explain what your site is about. Also, make sure they offer information about how to get around your site. Consider adding a “Recent Posts” plugin to lead people to newer pages. Make sure there are links back to your home page, search, and featured items.

Use “Content Discovery” or “Social Media Ranking” sites

Handle images properly

  • Because they show up in searches, too, make image file names short but descriptive: “cookies.jpg,” not “picture.jpg” or “food.jpg.”
  • Do not put content-related text in an image, particularly your site’s header image. If you do, make sure the information is duplicated in your HTML. Search engines cannot read text when it’s part of the image.

Build strategic relationships with other bloggers

  • Pick two or three blogs you really like and comment regularly, providing insightful contributions. (Don’t write “me too” or “first!”)
  • After you’ve built some rapport, you can email them about a really good post you’ve written that you think they’ll like.
  • Keep this type of correspondence genuine and it will encourage others to link to you. Done in a solicitous or demanding manner, it will be a disaster.

Use Categories and Tags

Not all blogging platforms have both Categories and Tags, but use both if you can. Categories should be broad; tags should be specific. Example: Category = Birds, Tags = Burrowing Owl, Sonoran Desert. Tag names should not duplicate category names to avoid confusing users. Display your broad Categories in your sidebar to help users navigate by topic.

WordPress hint: Many WordPress sites employ the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin to make the most of categories and tags. You can use it, too. But you should know that WordPress 2.3, slated to be released later this month, includes a significant restructuring of the way categories and tags work, incorporating a lot of the UTW features. If you’ve waited this long to focus on tagging, my advice is to wait a little longer and upgrade your WordPress installation to 2.3 once it’s available and the bugs are squashed.

Try Themed Features

If you write about one topic repeatedly, or produce a series, consider featuring all of the themed posts on a static page so there will be permanent access to all the related pieces.

Avoid Duplicate Content

There are people out there who will grab your RSS feed and republish all your content on another site, surrounded by ads. This creates duplicate content, and it really hurts your search engine ranking. Google encourages you to report these content hijackers to AdSense Abuse (if they are using AdSense). You can also check whether they are violating their Internet Service Provider’s Terms of Use and report them if they are. And remember, you hold the copyright to your content. Another blogger at the session said she had very good results sending DMCA Take-Down notices to ISPs whenever she encountered a copyright violation.

Summary

SEO is not a one-time, set it up and forget it thing. You need to live it and breathe it every day.

]]> http://hummingcrow.com/2007/09/05/search-engine-optimization-tips-from-blogher07/feed/ 1 Fixed http://hummingcrow.com/2007/06/19/fixed/ http://hummingcrow.com/2007/06/19/fixed/#comments Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:18:22 +0000 cherylcolan http://www.hummingcrow.com/2007/06/19/fixed/ Continue reading →]]> So, during Pixelodeon, I intended to movlog here, but instead I had to set up Cherylodeon, because Blip.tv couldn’t auto-post to my WordPress blog. Last night some old dog wrote about having the same problem with Flickr. So I started thinking maybe something was wrong with my xmlrpc.php file permissions. I tried all the solutions I found at the WordPress support site to no avail, and realized a lot of people have been having the same problem with posting to their WordPress sites from just about any application imaginable, including Ecto and del.icio.us.

For documentation’s sake so I can find all this if I need it again, here’s what fixed it. I found XMLRPC Error with WordPress (SOLUTION) in the Dreamhost support forum. The post said to add this code block to your xmlrpc.php file:

if (phpversion()=="5.2.2") $GLOBALS['HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA'] =
file_get_contents("php://input");

I had already tried adding this, but to no avail. With or without it, my installation of WordPress was not taking posts from Flickr or Blip.tv. But the poster went on to add that the beginning of his xmlrpc.php file looked like this:

<?php

define ('XMLRPC_REQUEST', TRUE);

// Some browser-embedded clients send cookies. We don't want them.
$_COOKIE = array();

if (phpversion()=="5.2.2") $GLOBALS['HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA'] =
file_get_contents("php://input");

That’s when I realized that my own xmlrpc.php file did not have the

define ('XMLRPC_REQUEST', TRUE);

line. That was the key to the kingdom. Posting from Flickr and Blip.tv is working again for this bird. Hooray!

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