The 80 20 rule and your blog

2010 February 17
tags:
by Aaron

lever

The 80 20 rule states that 80% of results come from only 20% of work or effort. This rule has been observed by many researchers in various situations. Here are some examples to illustrate this rule:

  • 80 percent of revenue of a company is made by only 20 percent of workers
  • 80 percent of software bugs come from only 20 percent of the code
  • only 20 percent of the population in a country enjoys 80 percent of its wealth

While not everyone would agree on the percentages, the important thing to learn from this rule is that most things in life are not distributed evenly. That is to say, the ratio is never 1 to 1. For 1 unit of input you will not get 1 unit of output.

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8 Things YOU may not know about Google!

2010 February 14
tags:
by Aaron

google_logo_van_gogh

1. One Million

This is the number of job applications that Google receives each year! This is a staggering number considering that Google currently employs only 20,000!

2. Whiteboards

At Google offices whiteboards can be found at many places. The whiteboards are there for Googlers to share their ideas and to visualize concepts.

3. Paperless

Google employees use their laptops to take notes during meetings. By taking notes directly on the computer it is easy to share it with others.

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10 Types of blogs that you should STOP reading now!

2010 February 8
tags:
by Aaron

1. Blogs that disguise affiliate products as posts all the time.

2. Blogs that always talk about what to do, but provide very little information on how to do it.

3. Blogs that churn out very basic content again and again.

4. Blogs that talk all sorts of topics without any focus.

5. Blogs where the blogger does not engage with you in discussion.

6. Blogs that primarily publishes guest posts.

7. Blogs that attack other bloggers, just to gain attention.

8. Blogs where the blogger pretends to be the “expert” on the field.

9. Blogs that just rehash what others say without giving a unique perspective.

10. Blogs that are not updated consistently.

Who will win the mobile war?

2010 February 6

smart_phones

The delivery of rich content on mobile devices is arguably the next big thing in the evolution of the Internet. 10 years ago many would have dismissed the idea of accessing the web using their cell phones. But today more and more people are accessing the web using mobile devices. The battle for the mobile platform market has already started.

Today, there are 6 prominent mobile platforms in the industry, each fiercely competing with each other.

1. Symbian

Symbian is the platform promoted by Nokia. Recently the Symbian Foundation, along with a new version of the software, made the platform fully open and free. Currently, Symbian has the largest share in the market. But in recent years Symbian has been gradually losing this share. Symbian’s future is less promising because the Symbian OS has aged and doesn’t provide a rich UI (User Interface) experience compared with other platforms such as iPhone and Android. Since Symbian has a large market share (around 40%) it will continue to be a dominant player for few years, until competition eats its share eventually.

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How to maximize your life

2010 February 6
by Aaron

This week I came across a blog called LifeBeat. It is a personal development blog with lots of valuable content. As an entrepreneur I do a fair bit of reading on the topic of personal development as it helps me to keep myself motivated. LifeBeat is written by, writer and musician, Oleg Mokhov.

Oleg has written a wonderful ebook called Life Maximization Guide. In this guide Oleg teaches you how to maximize your potential by doing more of what you like and by eliminating things that aren’t necessary in your life. Most of the information in this ebook is commonsense! But, it is worth a read because it reminds us of the importance of keeping our life simple to realize it’s full potential.

Passion vs. Enjoyment

2010 February 4
by Aaron

passion

In order to create a successful blog you should blog on a topic that your are passionate about. This is the most common advice that many of us learned when we started blogging. But, the people who give this advice often fail to define what passion really means.

If you thought that passion is the same as what you enjoy doing then you are sure to fail with your blog. Passion is more than what you enjoy doing. Let’s take an example to illustrate this point. Let’s assume that you have a great love for travel and you like to go often on vacations. Does this mean that you are passionate about travelling? Not always! If you enjoy travelling, you will go on a vacation, have a great time and come back home. Your enjoyment and excitement stops once you are back home. This means you are not really passionate about travelling but rather enjoy travelling.

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Look outside your niche and become a superhero!

2010 January 31
tags:
by Aaron

superhero

Forging relationships with bloggers and Internet Marketers outside your niche is valuable. Let me take an example to illustrate this point. Let’s assume that you have a blog providing WordPress tricks and tips. You recently developed a WordPress theme and actively promoting it in your niche. Since you have been blogging about WordPress you have a good reader base to sell your product.

But, one issue that you might face is the fact that your readers are already well informed about WordPress. They know about all the other cool themes that exist in the market. This means you have to provide lot of reasoning on why people should buy your theme over others. Since you are in a competitive niche selling becomes more challenging.

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8 Important features missing in Apple’s iPad

2010 January 30
tags: ,
by Aaron

ipad

Apple’s launch of the iPad tablet did not impress many of those who have been eagerly waiting for this device. This device, now dubbed the “Giant iPhone” did not bring the same level of excitement that iPhone brought when it was launched a couple of years ago. The iPad lacks a number of features making the device look very ordinary. Apple had an opportunity make this device extraordinary, but they missed that chance.

Here are the 8 most important features missing in the iPad:

  1. No SD Card Reader!
  2. No USB Slot!
  3. No Multitasking – iPad does not allow multiple apps to be executed at the same time (a $250 net book computer can multitask with ease).
  4. No HDMI Port – You cannot directly connect the iPad to your big screen TV to watch movies.
  5. The iPad does not support true HD. The aspect ratio of the display is 4:3 instead of the newer 16:9 ratio.
  6. No GPS – The iPad does not have a stand alone GPS system. It only has 3G assisted GPS.
  7. No Built In Camera – A video camera would have made the iPad an ideal device for video chats.
  8. No Cellular Voice – The top-end iPad with built-in 3G will only support data, there is no support for cellular voice.

I am not suggesting that that Apple should have incorporated all of the above features. But, adding a few of them could have definitely made the iPad more attractive and exciting.

Have you found the following?

2010 January 29
by Aaron

Roots is a popular Canadian clothing company. Recently,I bought a sweater for my daughter at Roots. The sweater was packed inside a custom made roots bag that had the following text printed on its cover. I enjoyed reading it and I would like to share it with you.

  • Find Love
  • Find Happiness
  • Find A Career
  • Find Knowledge
  • Find Balance
  • Find Your Fears
  • Find Change
  • Find Peace
  • Find Time
  • Find Respect
  • Find Honour
  • Find Growth
  • Find Life
  • Find Leadership
  • Find Your Heart
  • Find Energy
  • Find Choice
  • Find Self Confidence
  • Find You
  • Find A Vision
  • Find Creativity
  • Find Achievement
  • Find Mindfulness
  • Find History
  • Find Freedom
  • Find Strength
  • Find Action
  • Find Willpower
  • Find Today
  • Find Someone
  • Find Your Inner Voice
  • Find Power
  • Find Moments
  • Find Opportunity
  • Find Hope
  • Find Kindness
  • Find Nature
  • Find Health
  • Find Roots!

How to hide affiliate links

2010 January 28

In the previous post we looked at the problems caused by exposing affiliate links. In this post I give you 4 methods to hide your long and often complex affiliate link with a short link.

1. URL shortening service

A URL shorting service takes in a long URL and gives you a short URL. bit.ly and tinyurl are examples of URL shortening services. Using a URL shortening service is quick and easy. URL shortening is ideal to share affiliate links on social networking sites such as Twitter and FaceBook.

2. Use 301 redirect in .htaccess file

301 redirect provides a way to specify that URL A has been permanently redirected to URL B. In our case URL A is the short user friendly URL and URL B is the long affiliate link. To create a 301 redirect edit the .htaccess file (which can be found in the root directory of your website) and add the following line of code.

redirect 301 ebook http://VeryLongAndComplexAffilateURL.com

Assuming your domain name is techthinker.com, the above redirect will allow you to access the affiliate URL using the short URL http://techthinker.com/ebook

3. Using a php jump script

Add the following code into a file called products.php and save the file in your website’s root directory

<?php
if ($item==”ebook1”) {$link=”http://VeryLongAndComplexAffilateURL.com/ebook1.pdf”;}

if ($item==”ebook2”) {$link=”http://VeryLongAndComplexAffilateURL.com/ebook2.pdf”;}

header (“Location: $link”);
exit();

?>

Assuming your domain name is techthinker.com,

http://techthinker.com/products.php?item=ebook1 is used to access affiliate link for ebook1 and

http://techthinker.com/products.php?item=ebook2 is used to access affiliate link for ebook2

 

4. Using a WordPress plug-in

If you are a non technical personal and would like to hide your affiliate links in your WordPress blog then you should consider installing a plug-in to redirect your short URL to the long affiliate URL.

GoCodes is one such plug-in that allows you to easily specify source and target links using a user friendly web interface. GoCodes allows you to track the number of times the affiliate link has been accessed. This plug-in also allows you to specify the nofollow attribute for your link redirection.

 

Do you know any other ways to hide an affiliate link? Please share them in this page.