Free Open Source alternatives to PAYING THE MAN

Image from Flickr


Just literally stumbled this site and it's full to capicity with great tools that i know you'll all love.

Hope they come in handy:

http://downloadpedia.org/Open_Source_Alternative_to_Commercial_Software

Why arent webmasters more like guppies

I've been working on social media and link building for a few years now, its an arduous task at times and can be a thankless one. I always get really new world order over it, punching the air and singing "What the web..needs now, link love..link Love. But it usually falls on deaf ears, like I'm trying to sell ice to an Eskimo (whom i am assuming 'wrongly perhaps' has some).

I mean the links I'm offering are to relevant sites for their customers. I'm not that dumpy angry looking east end woman standing up on a high stool behind a market stall saying "You want relevance love, come on.. 2 for a paaand". No... I'm offering quality, helping them give their users a better service, improving the relevancy with keyword rich text in the anchors.

How do i know this? because i optimised the clients site in the first place and i know their business in side and out. My main concerns are for the user, the client and the webmaster, that means new content, ease of use and increased ROI.

But anyway, back to the Guppies. My guppies breed, they breed like its the last day on earth. Why? because they see another Guppy, they swim around it a bit, pop behind the plastic acropolis (tacky perhaps) and "watch it vicar" - a new life is created.

Now if my male Guppies were like webmasters and my female guppies were like links, the story would be very different. You'd have little link condoms all over, they'd be arguments over whether the male like blue tails or red tails, they'd want the females to bring them tiny gifts in return, and this would be hell on their fins. The result would be in many cases - No bambino el fino, or a very long gestation period of up to 12 months.

Ok, so my tank at the moment looks like I've been royally spammed, but - it would be nice, if webmasters would "give a little" rather than "take a lot and consider GOOD sites that help the traffic flow in the right direction instead of just how much money they can get from BAD SITES that send their users to the nearest "smiley friggin central".

OK, rant over.. i'm off to feed the fish

Self promotion in social media is unethical?

Whilst reading my one of my favorite blogs: www.copyblogger.com, i stumbled across a fantastic post entitled 'The Jim Morrison guide to strategic content promotion', now i wouldn't even try to paraphrase a genius like Brian Clark, but i do wish to embellish upon the point he made.Brain asked the question "are you OK with spending the time to create truly exceptional content while simply hoping that everyone “organically” discovers it?"

This is a very good point, i mean not everyone who has something vital and inspiration to say on the passionate subject of their choice will get those words read. I for one, would rather read this persons views than not, and if that means that a few of their friends spin, stumble or digg their post, then i think that's OK. I know that withing the social media area and the many networks, this kind of shameless self promotion would be frowned upon for not relying on its own merit. But i think it is safe to say that some people who are already well networked and do not have to work as hard as others to make their mark.

I'm sure that lots of people disagree with this, but i have poised my finger over the stumble or Sphinn button of one of my posts that i feel delivers an interesting opinion of a current issue or news item.

Online marketing banter did a fantastic post about "Is it a sin to Sphinn yourself", James was very brave in this post, pointing out the fact that although he is a regular Sphinn user and in his own words has been 'a pretty solid contributor'. But he admitted that he doesn't submit alot of articles and the those he does, tend to be his own. The reason being as a young blogger with a virtually virginal blog - if he didn't Sphinn his posts, who would?.

I'm almost done, but before i go, another post that caught my eye was the interestingly named 'The paradox of self-promotion with socail media'. Here it states "The Paradox of Self-Promotion with Social Media:

Social media generally frowns on self-promotion, in many cases admonishing outright those who practice it. But with the sheer numbers of new videos, posts, sites, pictures, and stories appearing each and every day, self-promotion is a necessity for anyone starting out and hoping to gain any sort of foothold."

It also gives some good Do's and Don'ts

I think this about round up the frustration felt - and it made me giggle:

I blog.

I blog about things that I dig.

So why wouldn't I Digg what I blog?

The way I see it, Digg is a way to show the world what you dig on the Internet.

If what you dig is something that you did, is it wrong to Digg it?


In the meantime, i think i'll balance up my sphinning of others with a few of my own of course.

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