Archive for May, 2008
How Will You Spend Your Tax Rebate?
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re eligible for a tax rebate this year, how will you spend it?
Are you just starting out in business? Do you have an existing business? I suggest taking the money and buying something that that will increase your productivity:
- Printer
- Computer
- Software
- Training
You get the idea.
By the way, if you haven’t received your rebate yet, you can check the status here.
Measuring the “Right” Metrics
Posted by: | CommentsHere is a very helpful article on the issue of metrics:
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-content/are-your-website-metrics-reliable-002627.php
The author claims that not only are most web publishers measuring the wrong metrics, the data they do measure is usually inaccurate.
To the tune of 75%.
Bottom line: figure out what you’re supposed to be measuring (for a sales site, it’s conversion) and measure that.
How many visitors opt in?
How many viewers buy?
What is their average purchase amount and purchase frequency?
Don’t get hung up on the number of page views, except that if you’re getting a bunch of folks clicking away immediately, you know you have a problem. 
My Project Management Saga
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s the latest word on my project management quest…
I decided that Google Sites didn’t quite do it for me. Maybe the app is just not mature enough yet.
I had been looking for something like Activecollab, which was supposed to be open source forever, but which had morphed into a paid model sometime last fall. There was a link on the site to the last free version, and for some reason that link never worked for me.
Well, in my research I stumbled upon this site:
This outfit will host Activecollab (open source version) for you for $5/month. However, they also give you the last open source version (o.7.1) if you have the means and inclination to install and use it on your own server.
I gleefully downloaded and installed it. It was a fairly straightforward process, but something went wrong and it didn’t come up for me.
Shoot.
I kept looking and found Project Pier: http://www.projectpier.org. What these guys are doing is actively developing activeCollab 0.7.1. Free, open source. I downloaded and installed it and it worked without a hitch. So, looks like I’ll be putting Project Pier through it’s paces.
The Jing-YouTube Quandry
Posted by: | CommentsWhy, oh why, can I not shoot a Jing video and upload it to YouTube?
Jing is so darn easy to use, and it’s the first tool I grab when I want to make a “down and dirty” video of less than five minutes.
But apparently, since the output is an SWF file, YouTube won’t take it.
I don’t want to pay for a converter, and thus far have not found a freeware replacement or workaround.
Recommendations?
I’ll pay if I have to…
Using Camtasia will avoid these problems, but sometimes I just don’t have the time required to walk through all the steps needed to use it.
