Internet Marketing Toronto - Ignite!

Delicious + RSS + Feed Wordpress + WordPress = Cool Group Bookmarking Solution!

A recent client had us come up with a really simple way of allowing a group of people to bookmark content and share it through a corporate blog. So I thought about all my experience with RSS and WordPress and came up with an elegant and simple solution.

Step 1

1. Create a Delicious bookmarking account
2. Define your tags and make sure everyone knows what they are
3. Filter on the tag and record the RSS feed for step 2

Step 2

1. Install the Feed Wordpress plugin
2. Configure it by subscribing to the RSS feed from the delicious bookmark service
3. Assign the subscription to a category on your blog and set all other desired preferences

Step 3

1. Start bookmarking but remember to use the appropriate tag in delicious
2. Confirm bookmarks are being published on the blog

Advanced Variations

You can make this a little more advanced in the following ways:

• Define multiple Delicious accounts and run each feed separately through Feed WordPress and assign them to each user account on the WordPress blog
• Define multiple tags and run each one through Feed WordPress to corresponding categories
• Use Yahoo Pipes to consolidate multiple feeds into one single Feed and run that through Feed WordPress. A perfect example of this is multiple delicious feeds as well as multiple Google Reader Shared Items Feeds!

By combining all of these tools together you end up with a very simple solution with very few steps for bookmarking content and sharing it through to your blog readers! If you want a little more help with setting up this solution ask your questions here and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Some Of My Favorite WordPress Themes

Here are some of my favorite Word Press themes - some free some not!

In doing some research for a client I put together this list of my favorite Word Press themes. Perhaps we’ll keep this updated going forward with other staff picks! Have one to recommend? Add it to the comments and we’ll have a see.

1. Revolution Chrome
2. Revolution Streamline
3. Gotham News
4. Carrington Theme
5. Whitespace
6. Silhouette
7. Rihana
8. San Francisco Tango
9. Agent Theme
10. Fresh News

1000 Links In A Spam Comment

Wow, that’s bold. 1000 links in a spam comment today.

In my daily review of our blogs Akismet spam folder I noticed one interesting comment. It had 1000 links in it. Clearly a bot left that one. but I am amazed that this approach would even be used. Even if we did not have a spam catcher running we’d eventually notice a post that was roughly 200 screens long and eliminated that comment.

If you’re going to spam a blog (including this one) take care to try and do it well so I don’t even notice!

My Favourite Google Analytics Plug-ins, Hacks, Tips & Tricks

I have been getting very heavily into Google Analytics. It is really amazing what this simple, free program can do for you business. It does, as we all know, have its limitations and things that make you want to scream “GOOGLE… Why couldn’t you just add this (insert function here) into this dang system!” Anyway… I got a little side tracked there :)

There are plenty of great plug-ins and “hacks” that are available from some very smart, wicked cool people. I present, for your review gentle reader, my list of great plug-ins, hacks, tips & tricks.

1. Notes for Google Analytics:
Notes for Google Analytics

This one is gold! It allows you to write notes on a GA profile of events or things that you deem important. For example, you may have changed a goal slightly - you can note this for future reference. Each user who views the GA account (AND HAS THIS INSTALLED) can view, edit and add notes. Notes can also be exported to excel.

2. Multiple Profile Viewer:
Multiple Profile Viewer for Google Analytics

This will allow you to switch between profiles from the same section of GA. For example, if you are looking at Goals in the root client profile and want to see how it compares to a different profile with different filters - you can switch using this and not have to start at the dashboard and navigate your way to the goals. The date range will also remain the same.

3. Unusual Trends (VERY COOL)
Unusual Keyword & Referring Traffic Trends

This tool will help you to see some unusual keyword trends in GA. After you install it, open GA, navigate to keywords and look for the button called “who sent me unusual traffic” - click it. You should now see a couple of new graphs which show keywords with a 20% increase in traffic and a 20% decrease in traffic. It is a good way to see progress for SEO keywords you are working on. By the way… if you haven’t subscribed to Joost’s blog - you really should. This guy really knows his stuff and posts some excellent Wordpress stuff.

4. Goal Copy Extension
Goal Copying Extension for Google Analytics

I met John (the author of this plug in) in New York at a session on advanced Google Analytics implementation. Great guy, really knows his stuff and was innovative to create this great plug in that allows you to copy a set of goals from one profile and past them into another. No more typing everything twice! Thanks John.

I have more… but I will have to separate this post… but I have work to do.

Will Carol Bartz Recommend Selling Yahoo! Search To Microsoft?

Carol Bartz is now running Yahoo! What will she recommend Yahoo! does with their search business?

The recent appointment of Carol Bartz as the new Yahoo! CEO has created quite the stir recently. While most are wondering if she can resurrect the company and correct the downward spiral, we’re wondering about the search business.

In a recent address to the troops she posed the question “Why would you sell?” Now everyone is wondering what she has in mind!

Another recent trip by Steve Ballmer to meet with Roy Bostock has added fuel to the speculation on what may happen with the Yahoo! search business.

Now that there is some strong leadership at the helm of Yahoo! we may just yet see a good acquisition deal come from Microsoft for all of Yahoo! or at least the search business.

Spotting In House Innovators & Helping Them Flourish

From the Smart Economy blog comes this great little story about spotting in house innovators and how to help them flourish!

What does it take to encourage an innovation environment, and find and retain innovative employees? This story draws on a recent tour of Four Season Hotels in Toronto to come up with a few golden nuggets including hiring for attitude and training for skills. Encouraging dialog amongst staff and rotating staff across locations, creating an environment where anyone can provide ideas to the team without the fear of being shot down or chastised.

If you’re looking to improve the innovation rate within your company I encourage you to give this short story a read. Even if you pull out one item and implement it you’ll have improved your company just a little bit more!

Get Out Of Your Ivory Tower

{{chris}} Get Out Of Your Ivory Tower is my advice today!

If you’re manager or leader in your company one of the most effective things you can do is get out of your office and meet with the people you manage. Why? You need to show them that you personally care about what there doing. Why visit them, why not have them come to you? It’s a simple gesture that says you care enough to come and see them. That what they are doing is important and that there time is valuable. It’s a very subtle but extremely effective sign of respect!

By getting out and working with your teams you’ll develop a strong line of communication with them. You’ll know how they are doing and what’s going one without having to wait for them to give you a formal report. In short you’ll be doing your job better and the organization as a whole will do better.

Don’t delay, if you’ve been hold up in your office get out and meet the staff. It’s never too late to start!