Firefox Plugin For Converting HTML to RSS

I came across this great video the DapperFox Firefox addon to make an RSS feed from a site or sites that does not have a specific RSS feed. I am going to play this next week to return product specific listings from CraigsList site wide among a few other things I want to play with using it. Pretty good stuff right here, especially if you are aggregating some feeds in as content with an autoblog or the likes. Watch this and give it a try. I will have more after I play with it myself.

Google Link Shortener Now Live

The Google Link Shortener service is now live. I played with this in beta a bit, but it is now official that Google has opened it's own link shortener service. I have used bit.ly for some time and will be starting to use one on my own server as soon as a buddy wraps up it's development. You can bet Google really wants you to use theirs as they love the data coming in and out. The good thing about it would be you do not have to worry about the links going dead or 404. Or being redirected elsewhere for right now. The bad news is Google will have tons of free stats. it is what it is though and I thought I would alert everyone to this non earth shattering news. Link shorteners are here to stay for a while. i have some plans of my own I will be refining in the near future. I will pass it along when I work out the bugs and implement it wrong at first.

How Everyday Is Great For Me

A reader emailed asking a few questions over the last few days and in the final email noted that everyday seems great for me. She hit the nail right on the head. Does that mean that everyday goes off without a hitch? Does it mean I never run into errors or problems? Absolutely not. The longer you are in the business, you learn to expect the unexpected as it is what makes this business so dang enjoyable and makes no two days exactly alike. I am a list maker, learned that excellent trait early on and have talked about often. There are things on my list from two years ago I have not gotten to and there are things I do daily that are like clockwork, with posting on this blog along with others as being part of those things daily type task.

I assure you, I have dentist appointments, I get sick and get the unexpected errors. There are so many moving parts in this business and life in general you have to be flexible. As an example, the whole internet, cable and phone all went down this morning on me. Right in mid-stroke. Right in the beginnings of a day that started off super productive. Now I have emergency means setup and available to get on the internet if it had been urgent, but it really wasn't that urgent. Instead I used the down time to sift through 3 hard drives and organize, delete and do some well needed housekeeping on them. In fact, one of those drives has been on my list for two years. Guess what? I scratched it off the list today. The internet is now back up and it has indeed been another great and productive day for me. Same as every other day. Off I go to finish my daily task.

Google Updates SEO Starter Guide

The word is out that Google has updated their SEO Starter Guide and you can download the new 32 page PDF guide right here. The guide was originally released back in November of 2008 and was originally just 22 pages. The new guide has added content and features like a glossary of definitions and terms and more example images to illustrate the content in the guide. In addition they now give mobile device optimization techniques and easier understanding wording of the content so that it reads easier than the prior guide. The guide is also now available in over 40 languages. Make sure to refresh yourself and read through the new guide.

Interactive Photos With Phlook

I came across Phlook today which is a service that makes photos interactive and more engaging in the process. I have not tried it, but I have it on my list to get to by this weekend. First you take a photo and upload it to Phlook and then you get an embeddable piece of code which is then entered into your content or blog post and the photo shows up with several interactive options. Surfers will have the ability to leave a note on the photo, vote on the picture along with having zoom functions and the ability to email the photos. Of course this will not be a fit for ever site you build, but my wheels are already turning on how to best implement this. You can see a demo here.

Keywords To Websites Wordpress Gets Nice Update

Mark Wielgus, the developer of the KeywordsToWebsites Wordpress plugin, emailed an update that the plugin has been updated to version 1.7 and is available for download. The new update includes a new template (widgetized menu), cloaking images for ebay and amazon, linkshare module, and a Google news module. I have built three sites with this plugin and have done nothing more than that on two of them as I wanted to see how it worked right out of the box. Those 3 sites have totaled nearly $100.00 in their first 45 days. Not too shabby for just set and walk away. Imagine if you added some content and built a few solid backlinks. Wielgus looks committed to developing it a while too, so that is a plus. Check out his demo sites here as well.

Free Arras Magazine Wordpress Theme

I like to pass along good clean Wordpress themes I find and found one last night that happens to be a magazine type Wordpress theme as well. The name of the theme is Arras and this theme comes in brown, blue, green, red, orange, violet and legacy. It features top and main navigation with full menus support. Also it offers custom post types and taxonomies support which means multiple selection of categories. It has an improved thumbnail system and a few theme options you can customize. The thing I like about it is how clean and simple it is and it's ease of use. You may not need it now, but be sure to bookmark it and give it a try down the road.