The problem isn't with the technology (newsletters vs. blogs) but with the way the technology's being used. Newsletter creators learned long ago that it made much more sense to send out tightly-focused newsletters, something that many bloggers have yet to learn. Those bloggers cast too wide a net and turn off some of their readers.
One way to just get the things that interest you from a less-focused blog is to use category feeds if the blogging software supports it. This relies, of course, on the blogger properly and consistently categorizing his or her posts, but it can definitely narrow things down.
I would've liked to see some commentary in the article about the gaming markets in Europe and Asia, which are much more developed. These things always lag behind in North America, and the article was very US-centric in that regards. Culturally, it may well be that mobile games will never be as big in NA as they are in Europe and Asia.
What I want is to be able to buy a game like Curious George for my daughter and have it work on my existing 3-year-old PC even after upgrading the video driver and installing DirectX 9. If somebody would come up with virtualization software to run newish games on older PCs they'd make a mint...
Yeah, but this is the way to really get kids interested in science. Sell some slime-propulsed bacteria with a copy of Science Made Stupid and Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink' and pack them into the classrooms.
Don't know what should accompany Culture Made Stupid, though... The Revenge of the Baby-Sat?
I think they're really trying to free up more vertical space for search results. Why? Because the search results have been getting crowded out by other things at the top (not just sponsored links, but links to local searches, maps, etc.) and bottom of the screen. Moving the categories to the side, making the Google logo smaller (it's now 135 by 50 instead of 150 by 55) and reducing the amount of whitespace at the margins all let them squeeze more into the vertical space.
They may also be able to play with showing ads in the left column, which is an ad hotspot, though I don't know if they'll go that far.
One of the things that he stressed is that there is no money in writing books - you do it essentially for the love, and if you make a couple extra dollars, that's a bonus.
Absolutely. It's a lot of work for essentially nothing more than whatever advance you can negotiate from the publisher. Typical advances for a computer trade book (non-textbook) are in the $8K-$10K range. That is often the only money the author ever sees. Why? Consider the economics. The normal royalty rate is 10% of the net (wholesale) price of the book. Say the book retails for $50 and the bookseller pays 60% of that to the publisher, i.e. $30. So the author gets $3 for each copy sold. But they won't see any money from the publisher until the advance is earned out, which means the publisher has to sell 3334 copies before the author sees another dime. (This is assuming all sales are in the US, since foreign sales usually have a lower royalty rate.)
Now you may be thinking that 3334 copies is not a big deal to do, but it actually is for many tech topics, especially for books tied to specific versions of software or so on.
Plus there are other oddities in publishing that conspire to make the author less money, such as the fact that bookstores can return unsold books back to the publisher for full credit, which means the publisher always keeps some of the money it's earmarked to pay the author "in reserve" in order to account for any returned copies. And the fact that publishers have long accounting cycles, which means it's not unusual to receive payment 6 months to 1 year after a quarter for the books sold in that quarter (assuming you've earned out your advance).
Please don't be fooled into thinking that authors are raking in the big bucks on these books. Yes, obviously some authors do make a lot of money, but they're the exception. Writing books can be fun, but you don't do it to get rich.
I would wager that, upon the initial deal, a lot of authors agree to anything. One of these conditions might be that the before hand assumption is that the tech book will not sell well. And therefore, they charge a lot to make up for possible losses. If the book sells well, then why lower the price? Just keep it high and rake in the profits while the author gets what his contract says.
Authors don't set book prices, publishers do. I have no control over the pricing of the books I've published so far. The only way to get control is to publish them yourself, which is a different kettle of fish entirely.
MySQL as it now stands is probably the simplest real RDBMS for the casual shopper.
Actually, easy installation and great out-of-the-box performance has always been a hallmark of SQL Anywhere. Feel free to download the free developer edition yourself and see. (Yes, there are Linux and Unix versions available, not just Windows.)
No, that's wrong. You're probably confusing the fact that the BES used to ship with MSDE, the free/lite version of SQL Server. MSDE as a product has been replaced with SQL Server 2005 Express.
Another great resource to consider is Aaron Wall's SEO Book. Aaron is one of the most respected names in the business. Aaron also runs ThreadWatch.org, a community website about Internet marketing that would appeal to many/. readers.
However, people would rather buy books that they think will magically make their site better than actually bothering to write content.
That's because writing good content is hard and takes work, so of course people look for easy ways out. And it takes a long time to build up traffic based on good content alone. I do tell people in my book to take the long-term view by writing good content and not expecting riches overnight, but many people look for the quick fix.
Think back to when you were in high school and you had to write an essay or report. It wasn't easy, and it took time.
Then again, how many "how-to" books get written and read by people who never actually follow the advice, for whatever reason? Doesn't mean the advice is bad, just that the reader isn't motivated enough to put in the effort required.
Eric See your HTTP headers here
Actually, one valid SEO strategy is to specifically target misspellings. Not everyone using a search engine knows how to spell, and you can take advantage of that.
Re:The real 90s versus outdated 00s software
on
Java Is So 90s
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
What I don't get is why it's always characterized as "LAMP vs. Java". To be correct it should either be "Perl/PHP/Python vs. Java" or "LAMP vs. LAMJ", because many Java systems are already built around Linux, Apache and MySQL.
I know, it's incredible! Next, they'll be telling us that book publishers pay bookstores to prominently feature their books on "recommended" tables! Or that manufacturers pay grocery stores to display their wares at eye level! Shocking, I tell you, shocking!
Eric
(I wish my publisher would do that to my own book)
Slashdot Mirror
The problem isn't with the technology (newsletters vs. blogs) but with the way the technology's being used. Newsletter creators learned long ago that it made much more sense to send out tightly-focused newsletters, something that many bloggers have yet to learn. Those bloggers cast too wide a net and turn off some of their readers.
One way to just get the things that interest you from a less-focused blog is to use category feeds if the blogging software supports it. This relies, of course, on the blogger properly and consistently categorizing his or her posts, but it can definitely narrow things down.
EricVote for my blog on MarketingSherpa!
It makes sense when you consider the source of Slashdot's news:
http://news.google.com/news?q=google
Eric
Reality vs. Fantasy: a juxtaposition
I would've liked to see some commentary in the article about the gaming markets in Europe and Asia, which are much more developed. These things always lag behind in North America, and the article was very US-centric in that regards. Culturally, it may well be that mobile games will never be as big in NA as they are in Europe and Asia.
When they're done testing their new AdSense for WiFi program.
What I want is to be able to buy a game like Curious George for my daughter and have it work on my existing 3-year-old PC even after upgrading the video driver and installing DirectX 9. If somebody would come up with virtualization software to run newish games on older PCs they'd make a mint...
Funny, the RIM guys are debating this right now.
Ask Slashdot is a powerful resource to collect knowledge
That's funny, I thought it was a resource to collect questions!
Eric
Some appealing pictures to browse: Gross diseases
Yeah, but this is the way to really get kids interested in science. Sell some slime-propulsed bacteria with a copy of Science Made Stupid and Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink' and pack them into the classrooms.
Don't know what should accompany Culture Made Stupid, though... The Revenge of the Baby-Sat?
Eric
So which is it: no debt is good or debt is great?
On a related note, Google is allowing AdSense publishers to click ads since click fraud isn't such a big deal.
Eric
How to find the BlackBerry OS version
Maybe when it comes to electronics, yes, but I'm not sure about some of their delicacies...
Eric
AvantGo for RSS
I think they're really trying to free up more vertical space for search results. Why? Because the search results have been getting crowded out by other things at the top (not just sponsored links, but links to local searches, maps, etc.) and bottom of the screen. Moving the categories to the side, making the Google logo smaller (it's now 135 by 50 instead of 150 by 55) and reducing the amount of whitespace at the margins all let them squeeze more into the vertical space.
They may also be able to play with showing ads in the left column, which is an ad hotspot, though I don't know if they'll go that far.
EricContextual advertising blog
One of the things that he stressed is that there is no money in writing books - you do it essentially for the love, and if you make a couple extra dollars, that's a bonus.
Absolutely. It's a lot of work for essentially nothing more than whatever advance you can negotiate from the publisher. Typical advances for a computer trade book (non-textbook) are in the $8K-$10K range. That is often the only money the author ever sees. Why? Consider the economics. The normal royalty rate is 10% of the net (wholesale) price of the book. Say the book retails for $50 and the bookseller pays 60% of that to the publisher, i.e. $30. So the author gets $3 for each copy sold. But they won't see any money from the publisher until the advance is earned out, which means the publisher has to sell 3334 copies before the author sees another dime. (This is assuming all sales are in the US, since foreign sales usually have a lower royalty rate.)
Now you may be thinking that 3334 copies is not a big deal to do, but it actually is for many tech topics, especially for books tied to specific versions of software or so on.
Plus there are other oddities in publishing that conspire to make the author less money, such as the fact that bookstores can return unsold books back to the publisher for full credit, which means the publisher always keeps some of the money it's earmarked to pay the author "in reserve" in order to account for any returned copies. And the fact that publishers have long accounting cycles, which means it's not unusual to receive payment 6 months to 1 year after a quarter for the books sold in that quarter (assuming you've earned out your advance).
Please don't be fooled into thinking that authors are raking in the big bucks on these books. Yes, obviously some authors do make a lot of money, but they're the exception. Writing books can be fun, but you don't do it to get rich.
EricMy own self-publishing experiement will be out soon
I would wager that, upon the initial deal, a lot of authors agree to anything. One of these conditions might be that the before hand assumption is that the tech book will not sell well. And therefore, they charge a lot to make up for possible losses. If the book sells well, then why lower the price? Just keep it high and rake in the profits while the author gets what his contract says.
Authors don't set book prices, publishers do. I have no control over the pricing of the books I've published so far. The only way to get control is to publish them yourself, which is a different kettle of fish entirely.
EricMy books
One must jump the shark to find the length of its tail.
Eric
My AdSense blog
Perhaps he heard it was a Linux-based phone and was worried when he couldn't find /dev/null.
Eric
View the XML for any Amazon product
MySQL as it now stands is probably the simplest real RDBMS for the casual shopper.
Actually, easy installation and great out-of-the-box performance has always been a hallmark of SQL Anywhere. Feel free to download the free developer edition yourself and see. (Yes, there are Linux and Unix versions available, not just Windows.)
EricRedscowl Bluesingsky
Yeah, it's kind of funny that they went with such an architecture to begin with, it's so un-Unix like.
Eric
Real-life applications for PageRank
Actually, RIM's main data center is already located in Waterloo, Ontario. RIM has already argued that US patent law didn't apply because of this, but that didn't get them anywhere with the judges.
Eric
Sign up for my free AdSense newsletter
No, that's wrong. You're probably confusing the fact that the BES used to ship with MSDE, the free/lite version of SQL Server. MSDE as a product has been replaced with SQL Server 2005 Express.
Eric
Some BlackBerry stuff (not much)
Another great resource to consider is Aaron Wall's SEO Book. Aaron is one of the most respected names in the business. Aaron also runs ThreadWatch.org, a community website about Internet marketing that would appeal to many /. readers.
Eric
William Shatner, nameless cereal box celebrity
However, people would rather buy books that they think will magically make their site better than actually bothering to write content.
That's because writing good content is hard and takes work, so of course people look for easy ways out. And it takes a long time to build up traffic based on good content alone. I do tell people in my book to take the long-term view by writing good content and not expecting riches overnight, but many people look for the quick fix.
Think back to when you were in high school and you had to write an essay or report. It wasn't easy, and it took time.
Then again, how many "how-to" books get written and read by people who never actually follow the advice, for whatever reason? Doesn't mean the advice is bad, just that the reader isn't motivated enough to put in the effort required.
Eric
See your HTTP headers here
2. Spell things correctly.
Actually, one valid SEO strategy is to specifically target misspellings. Not everyone using a search engine knows how to spell, and you can take advantage of that.
Eric
The Invisible Fence Guide
RSS is push? Maybe if you send it via email... Whoops, here comes another debate...
Eric
How to masquerade your browser
What I don't get is why it's always characterized as "LAMP vs. Java". To be correct it should either be "Perl/PHP/Python vs. Java" or "LAMP vs. LAMJ", because many Java systems are already built around Linux, Apache and MySQL.
Eric
Invisible Fence Guide
I know, it's incredible! Next, they'll be telling us that book publishers pay bookstores to prominently feature their books on "recommended" tables! Or that manufacturers pay grocery stores to display their wares at eye level! Shocking, I tell you, shocking!
Eric
(I wish my publisher would do that to my own book)