Advice
Open Source and Selecting a CMS
Web publishing is an interesting business. The content itself is one thing, but the software you use to publish is another thing altogether. At the basic level, you have those who are still using HTML editors and FTP to publish pages to their site. All I can say is “Ouch!”. I pity you. Then, there are those who wisened up and decided to use a content management system.
Now, there are a LOT of content management systems out there. If you look at the PHP directory over at Hotscripts, you will see that “Content Management” is the most popular category of the bunch. Meaning, of all the various types of software listed on Hotscripts, there are more different CMSs there than any other kind of software. In a word, damn. Now imagine trying to “shop” for a CMS for your site. There are just SO many choices there, it can be mind-numbing. Understood. Now, imagine yourself already using a CMS that hardly anyone understands or knows the internals of. Now, you’re stuck.
Change of Heart
I am a big fan of open source software, and this coming from the guy who programmed Miraserver (which is not open source at this time). I like Miraserver. I programmed it specifically to suit my own needs, then expanded it so as to broaden it to meet the needs of others. But, as much as I liked Miraserver, I was running up against the same problem one can run into with any commercial CMS – the need for specialized programming. And by “specialized”, I mean programming done by people who intimately know the product. Here I am, the programmer of my own CMS, yet due to various things, I barely have the time to expand the system.
In the meantime, I am using Wordpress to power this blog and am growing quite fond of it’s powerful simplicity. Wordpress is an awesome publishing platform. And better yet, it is open source. It has a worldwide community of users who DO know how the thing is programmed and can hack it up six ways to Sunday. It also has a plug-in system that allows you to expand almost anything without hacking the base code. There are thousands of pre-existing plug-ins for the Wordpress platform.
There are other choices for those who don’t want to use Wordpress. There is Joomla and Drupal, both very popular and powerful open source CMSes. Both of these are more traditional CMS platforms, not blogging platforms which is what Wordpress is traditionally thought of.
Open Source Versus Commercial
There are pros and cons to both. But, let’s look at it from the perspective of open source:
Pros:
- Free
- Often a large community of existing users
- Large community means help and hacks
Cons
- All source code (good and bad) is public
- Nobody to hold responsible if something doesn’t work
- Usually no real tech support (other than the community itself)
I have to recommend using open source to power your website, though. It was a major deciding factor in me deciding to switch my largest site over to Wordpress. I think it puts PCMech on a more stable foundation.
So, what do you think? Do you prefer open source of commercial CMS? And, if open source, is there another reason other than the price tag?
Should We Honor the Sabbath?
I got an interesting email message this morning from a reader of WebbyOnline. His name is Carl and he says:
Just a quick thought – the Sabbath – a day of rest – is the most important thing that we can do for ourselves. Don’t neglect it and be true to it. You should take a day – weekly – where you have NOTHING to do with work – I know, it may seem like fantasy for an entrepreneur but it is the best thing that you can do for your business to keep you fresh.
Very interesting point. The Sabbath has slightly different meanings depending on the religion. In this country, it is typically thought to be on Sunday and is a day where we don’t work and we worship. Unfortunately, though, the Sabbath is generally considered to be something that only the really religious practice. But, why is that?
Many typically religious traditions come from real common sense. After all, religion is meant to better people’s lives. The whole idea of kosher food, for example, really bears out to the fact that it is simply healthier and cleaner. Pork is not considered kosher, however it is also true that pork happens to be one of the more contaminated meats you can eat. Same for fish. Kosher rules say that fish is only kosher when it has scales and fins. Seafood without scales tends to have higher levels of mercury, which is poisonous. So, while many religious tenants have been altered over the years, there is a lot of good common sense to be had there. And I think the same goes for the Sabbath.
Take a Day Off
As an entreprenuer, I work alot. And that’s an understatement. But, sometimes I just need a break. Sometimes I burn out to the point where I just don’t want to sit in my office anymore. When that happens, I typically will get all pressing matters done and then quit early and go goof off somehow. Regardless of the intensity of the work schedule, though, the idea of honoring the Sabbath is a good idea. We all need a day off, and as Carl says, it really is a GOOD thing for your business and it will keep you fresh.
Personally, I don’t always make Sunday that day. But, most weekends, I typically make one day or the other a total day off. This last Saturday, I spent some time with my wife before lunch and actually SLEPT for two hours in the middle of the day. The idea of taking a nap is so foreign to me usually, but that’s what I did. And you know, Sunday I was just itching at the bit to get some work done in the office. And I was actually pretty productive for a Sunday.
So, Carl’s advice rings true for me. And for that I thought I’d pass it on. Regardless of your religion, honoring the Sabbath has its roots in plain common sense. And those of us, especially, who work online really need a whole day per week where we literally FORGET about the computer, the internet and our precious email. Screw it all. We do all this so that we can have a life and enjoy ourselves. If you don’t take the time to do that, why are you working so hard?
Stop Drinking from the Outlook Food Bowl
With the recent popularity of the book 4 Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferris, there has been some talk about various entreprenuers re-thinking the way they structure their business lives. One of the overriding points of the book is outsourcing and the power of hiring virtual assistants. But, another point of the book was cutting down on information overload.
So many of us in this business suffer from information overload. We have emails coming in constantly. We subscribe to a bunch of RSS feeds. We have people calling us and/or sending us instant messages. If you follow the news, then you got even more crap on top of all of that. That’s an awful lot of input and it can divide your attention in a big way. I have several email accounts all coming into Outlook and, until recently, I had it set such that it would download new messages automatically every 5 minutes. Not only that, it would play an audible sound whenever I got messages. So, while I’m working on something, I hear these sounds from my computer. I know its an email, and more often than not, my curiosity gets the best of me and I interrupt myself to scan over Outlook to see if anything interesting came in.
Information overload!
So, one of the first things I have done is turned OFF the automatic downloads of emails. By doing that ONE simple action, I now concentrate all my time on actual work. Then, a few times per day, I will go download all my email and deal with all of it right there, at one sitting. Then, move on – not to check the email again for some time. Tim Ferris says to check email twice per day to start, one at 12pm and once at 4pm. The exact times you choose are up to you, however the philosophy behind it is solid. Stop letting your email interrupt you from real production. Trust me, people can wait.
Same with phone calls. I think my next step is to turn OFF my ringer and have everybody just leave voice mails. Then, I will return all important calls at one sitting. I want to be easily contacted, but I also want to maintain control over my own communication lines. I get people calling me for various reasons and if I just stop and deal with them as they come in, my entire work flow is interrupted. No good.
Using Camtasia to Quit My Job
Camtasia is a very popular video screen recording program created by TechSmith. Its probably the best screen recording application for Windows – at least that I know of. We here at PC Media make routine use of it for our video tutorials. The simplicity of it is that you start up the recorder, start recording, do your thing on screen, and stop recording. Now, we do some after-recording editing to make our videos have the style that they do. However, you don’t have to do much editing (if any at all) to make your videos useful. Now, tutorials are perhaps the most thought-of genre of video that one would do with Camtasia. However, have you thought about using it for your business?
Here’s the thing. And any person who works full time in this business will probably agree with me. This gig has a tendency to eat up all your time. I have worked hard and have created a business which has a fairly nice footprint online and I make my coin off of it. Enough to make a pretty good living. But, I’ve created this business, this thing, this SLAVE DRIVER! In other words, since I created it, I run everything and it ends up being the equivalent of the most demanding boss anybody could have. But, as Tim Ferris talks about in his book 4 Hour Work Week, what’s the point of creating a successful business on your own if you don’t have any time to enjoy it? I mean, I love the game as much as anybody, but if I’m the only guy keeping it going, then I’m stuck with it and I become the bottleneck. You see what I mean?
Make The Job Occupiable
So, what’s the answer? The answer is to make myself portable, to make myself dispensible. I want to make PC Media a self-running entity which can operate whether I am sitting at my desk or not. I’m a long way from this as of now, I must say. However, I am working toward it. I just hired a virtual assistant and am in the process of slowly but surely letting go of some things. But, how do I make it so that others can do the job I do and do it pretty much the same way?
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Terrorism – How Internet Businesses Should Plan
When I’m working, I like to listen to podcasts and talk radio. Well, talk radio has a lot of current events being discussed, and one of the most current events today is the war on terror. Now this subject very easily gets into the realm of politics, which I have no interest in discussing on this website. However, the fact is that the threat of terrorism is real today and it can affect those of us who make our livings online. I do think some people get way too involved in this stuff and try to scare people with it, however the fact remains that it is a real threat. The thing to do is not to worry about it, but be prepared.
You might ask: What does this have to do with internet business? Well, I see two ways. One is cyberterrorism. While often over-blown, it is something that should be taken into account in your own internet business. The other would be more extreme forms of terrorism including bombings or EMP. Traditional bombings would tend to be more localized and thus the main concern is where your data is located. EMP, or electromagnetic pulse, is something that would take out most forms of electronics. EMP, executed properly, could wipe out vast portions of the electrical grid. Our businesses, as webmasters, are heavily dependent on the infrastructure. We make routine use of the internet. The internet is composed of various networks and, essentially, wires which can break for various reasons. Our web servers are powered by electricity and are subject to the principles of electronics. In short, all of us who make our livings online could easily see everything come to a grinding halt if the infrastructure we depend on, namely the electrical grid and the internet, were disrupted.
OK, I am certainly not one to have any interest in scaring anybody. And, quite frankly, I really hope that’s not the case. However, I try to be a realist. While we are busy bettering our lives and those around us as much as possible, the fact remains that there are those few whack-jobs who desire to do this stuff. A few simple thoughts into safeguarding your data could make the difference to your business if, God forbid, one of these scenarios every played out. So, some advice:
- Back up your server data in two or more geographical locations. If something happens in the city where your web server is located, your data is safeguarded.
- Back up your data onto media that are not dependent on electricity or plugged into the wall. ie tape drives, DVDs, etc.
This comes down to basic data backup rules, but with the added twist of paying attention to geographic location. Redundancy is important. Most good web hosts do back up their servers, but often those backups are all in the same building. We really all should be backing up our servers ourselves routinely instead of depending on our web hosts to do it for us. You can set up some CRON scripts to archive your website automatically on a schedule or perform database backups. If you have some infrastructure to allow automatic remote backup, then that can work for you. Or you could go as simple as setting up some automatic scripts to use your FTP program to download your server backups overnight. But, keep in mind that most CRON scripts to execute a backup are simply going to put the archives on the same network somewhere. So, in many cases, you need to copy those backups to another geographical location.
In our businesses, our data is our gold. You may not have thought about it, but those of us who make our living online are basically making our money off of computer files. Files sitting on a server’s hard drive. And for most of us, the web server we use is not in our direct control. I have never laid eyes on my web server, yet I have made my living based on what I do with that server for the last several years. My server is located up in Pittsburgh. I know Pair Networks has systems in place for backup and to power their data centers in the event of loss of power. But, again, it all makes some assumptions that something catastrophic has not happened to the entire city of Pittsburg.
So, back up your data on your web server and try to make it geographically redundant. The internet is far too large and expansive to be able to be taken out, so don’t worry about that. But, on a smaller geographical basis, there are things that could happen to your particular server. If your data has been secured, you can get things set up on another server in another location and be up and running. If you didn’t secure your data ahead of time, you just lost your whole business.
Well, that’s my cheery post for today. I promise you, most of my posts are not like this one. 
But, hey, all of this stuff we do – the internet – is all sitting on pieces of equipment in the real world. Sometimes you have to think about this stuff.
Time to Light the Fire Under my Ass
Well, I am back in the States now, fresh off the honeymoon. Italy was fantastic, but as with any longer trip, I’m always ready to get back to work when its over. With the wedding and honeymoon, I haven’t really had uninterrupted worktime for a few weeks now and there is so much to do. I returned to several thousand emails in my inbox, unfulfilled orders, etc etc. So, there is always that obligatory “putting out fires” mode when I get back from vacation. More importantly, though, I feel this is a good time for me to take a bit of pause, reorganize some things, then really move forward full blast with my projects.
The web is moving all the time. I have been working online since before the bubble burst of the late 90’s. I survived the burst (almost by the hair of my chin) and came out the other end still with a profitable business. Since then, we’ve seen many new companies come into the picture and the rise of Web 2.0. I’ve seen a lot of start-ups come up from the mud to turn into huge web empires. I’ve witnessed the rise of blogging, web video and social networking. Things are changing and they are changing quickly. I was a late adopter into the world of blogging and I hope not to get lost in the mix here. I have also gotten into web video. So, strategically, I think I’m making some good moves. But, its time to stick this boat into hyperdrive, man. Even though, compared to the mix of people who try to make a business online, I am probably above average (I actually eek out a good living doing this), I still feel I am not accomplishing enough.
You ever have that feeling? As hard as I work, sometimes I get the feeling I’m doing a lot of wheel spinning and not making enough forward progress with my business. Its a bit of a professional rut, really. And I’m not the kind of guy who can sit here, doing well, and just be content with it. I can do better.
So, I am going to use the event of getting married as a little bit of a life divider. Its time to regroup, to set some targets, and work aggressively to get there. And, more importantly, its time to change the operating basis.
I hope you will follow WebbyOnline (this site) as I will, of course, be posting here along the way. This site is dedicated to those trying to make a successful business on the internet. I hope my views on this subject will be welcome.
7 Actions for Success
I recently found an article in Entreprenuer magazine entitled 7 Secrets to Success. The article talks about the seven C’s, however it has a 7-point small action plan that I like even better and thought I would pass along to you. For each, I am going to include my own comments on it, because I think this is important for anybody looking to succeed and being their own boss.
- Decide on exactly what you want in your life and write it down. Make your goals specific and, for each, define a measurable statistic. The statistic is important. One key reason people fail at their goals is because they do not track their progress and/or the goal is too vague. It is important that the goal be stated in such a way that it is clear when it has been accomplished. “Increase revenue by 10%” is much more measurable than something like “Make my website better”.
- Specify the most important skill you could develop to move you into the top 10% of people in your field, then figure out your first steps to gain that skill.
- Identify the major constraint or limiting factor inside yourself or in your world that is setting the speed at which you achieve your goals. Then, work on removing or handling that limitation. For many people who want to do this, they are their own worse enemy. There are barriers, either inside or outside, that one can blame for why they are not succeeding, but the truth is that the right mentality that it takes to succeed would also involve actively removing those barriers.
- Determine your single biggest barrier in your business or personal life and work our solutions to make it go away. Again, a successful entreprenuer doesn’t mold to the world or accept barriers. Instead, he or she molds the world to him and actively makes things go right. The supreme test of anybody’s true ability is whether or not that person can make things go right.
- Create a list of what you want to be, do and have. Create this list based on everything being ideal. Start with the HAVE, then see what you will have to DO to have those things, then you will see what you need to BE to get there.
- Accept complete responsibility for your life. This is SO important. The biggest difference I see between an entreprenuer and a normal blue-collar worker is that the blue-collar worker will have a laundry list at all times of reasons why they are where they are. It could be their significant other, their boss, high taxes, whatever. They are all excuses why they haven’t gotten to where they wanted to be. An entreprenuer, on the other hand, will not AGREE with those barriers and will, instead, find ways out out-smarting them. So, taking responsibilty for your own life instead of acting like others have responsibility for your life is VERY important. You will not get anywhere by waiting for others or the government to prop you up.
- Reaffirm and visualize your goals as reality. In other words, operate as if those things that you want are either there now or that there is absolutely no doubt that you will get them. If you operate this way, you will be suprised just how well things will go for you.
Those who succeed in this busines do so primarily because of their mindset. Sure, there’s a little bit of luck involved, no doubt. But, mindset is everything. Decision is everything. If you don’t really make the DECISION to succeed, then nothing else will really line up for you.
Instant Messaging…The Way To Go
I found a post over at LifeHacker about a new study. The study, done by Computer Standards and Interfaces, says that instant messaging is more efficient that email when it comes to non-face-to-face meetings. According to the study, “It seems that teams that collaborate using a instant messaging software like MSN messenger or GoogleTalk generate more ideas than those who reply on email instead.”
My first reaction was “duh”. Instant messaging is obviously faster because it is real-time, and being that it is real-time, people can feed off of each other. Plus, most IM services allow conference chats where several people can join into a private chatroom. Lifehacker, though, goes into the fact that face-to-face meetings are probably the best. I beg to differ. Here’s why…
In my experience, face-to-face meetings are highly inefficient. Unless a high level of discipline is put over the meeting, they often end up being a BSing session. BS sessions can be valuable, but they are often much less efficient than if the participants were working alone. In my experience, then, face-to-face meetings are a last resort. IM is a good way to have back-and-forth conversations while still being able to get something done. Plus, you have a log of the conversation (in most IM programs, anyway).
You gotta love it when people fund studies of the obvious.
Don’t Fail (Again) At Your New Years Resolutions
Well, its time to say goodbye to 2006 and howdy to 2007. This is that time of year when many people like to create a list of New Years resolutions – things to accomplish in the coming year. Many people are totally apathetic about it and don’t even create resolutions anymore. This is because they don’t know how to actually steer their actions to accomplish their goal, so instead are used to failing. People used to failing get apathetic and decide there is no point in creating goals anymore.
To those of you who hear about New Years resolutions and laugh because you see it as a futile attempt, let me speak to you for a bit here. New Years may be simply another year, a year older and a few more wrinkles. You’re not likely to feel any different the morning of January 1st then you do December 31st (leaving out those with a hangover, of course). Yes, it is an arbitrary day on the calendar. But, then again, everything that happens in life starts with a decision. If you don’t make the decision, nothing is going to happen. That much I can guarantee you. The New Year gives you a benchmark by which you can gauge your activity for the prior year and decide where you’re going in the next.
Why would you want to do that? Well, have you ever gone snorkeling? Many of our readers have, I’m sure. When you are snorkeling, your head is in the water and you are looking down at the bottom. As you are looking, you just kick along. If you don’t, every once in awhile, take your head above the water and get a look around, you might just run into something, somebody else, or get run over by a boat! You have no idea where you’re going unless you take a second to look. And most of the time you can’t judge direction very well by just looking down at the bottom. Click Here To Continue Reading »
Will Politics Affect our 2007 Business Plans?
It is that time of year again. Time to end one year and move onto the next. I always spend some time each year reviewing what I accomplished in the year and set plans for the next. On that note, I will likely share a few thoughts in that regard here on Buzzscreen in the next few days.
My question this time around is: When we set our entrepreneur plans for 2007, do we need to take political happenings into account? I work online exclusively, so in my case I need to pay attention to how politics could affect the internet. And as a web entrepreneur, much of my income comes from advertising and e-commerce – both of which can be dependent on people’s residual income. When looking at the scene this year, there are a few things happening which could affect the economy. The biggest issue is the war on terror and the instability in the Middle East. That area is a powder keg and the current president of Iran is a nutcase who seems intent on creating nuclear weapons so as to blackmail the United States and wipe out Israel. The war in Iraq is a mess and nobody really knows what we’re going to be doing there. I don’t intend to debate the merits of any of this, but the issue at hand is how this could effect our businesses and the web. Simply put, a full-out war in the Middle East and/or a terrorist attack in the United States could wreak havoc on our economy. Additionally, depending on the severity and location of a terrorist attack, such an event could take out chunks of the internet backbone, affecting the speed of the net. Click Here To Continue Reading »
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
