The most annoying part about using tracking codes, however, is creating the URL. You need to append at least two (and up to five) query strings to your URL to use this function in Analytics and making this happen while tracking what codes you’re actually using is frustrating enough to make you rethink this whole thing in the first place. Google provides a cute little tool to help you but it’s still a pain in the ass.

Google Docs to the rescue! Using similar code as my simple Google Docs CMS, I created a script that parses a spreadsheet full of tracking codes and turn them into usable URLs that you can then copy and paste. It makes it easy to keep track of the campaigns you have while quickly creating error-free URLs. See the Google Docs UTM appender in action.

Download the UTM URL builder
What you’ll need:

1. The file from the big, green link above
2. A Google Docs account (it’s free, you can sign up here)
3. Access to a web server or a local host that can run a PHP program
4. A site using Google Analytics

Step 1 – Create a new Google Docs Spreadsheet

Easy enough… go to docs.google.com and log in. Click the Create New button on the top left and select “Spreadsheet.”

1. When the spreadsheet loads, look for a Share button on the top right. If it prompts you to save the document, type in a nice descriptive name, click OK, and click Share again.
2. In the menu that appears, select “Publish as a web page.”

3. Select “Sheet1″ from the top drop-down, then click Start Publishing.
4. Under “Get a link to the published data,” select “RSS” from the first drop down then click the Cells radio button.
5. In the text box at the bottom, you should have a URL like “http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/cells/tFjKofPSUgX5PSPJhEuH7Dw/od6/public/basic?alt=rss.” Highlight the whole thing and copy it, then click Close on the window.

Step 2 – Add your Google Doc link to the script and upload

Now, we need to open the PHP file and give it the link to your Google Doc. Open the index.php file as plain text using Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Apple). When you open the file, you should be able to read the code clearly (even if you can’t quite understand it). You should see “$feedName=” right near the top of the document. Paste the link you copied in the step before in between the tick marks after the equals sign. When you’re finished, you should have some like this:

$feedName = ‘http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/cells/tjMfK6oILkthGlM9Vo_8ACQ/od6/public/basic?alt=rss’

If the link is correct, the script should be ready to display the Google Doc. Unless you have a server instance installed locally, you’ll need to upload this script to a public web server. If you have your own website, just upload this file to any public folder. If you’re confused, email your IT department or your tech-savvy niece.

Once the file is uploaded, you’ll want to test it out to make sure everything is working. Go to the file you uploaded (http://[your domain]/[the path to the folder you used]/link-append-util.php) and you should see “UTM coded URLs” at the top. If you see “Invalid feed!” then the link to the Google Doc was not made. Make sure the URL is correct and in between the tick marks after $feedName=.

Step 3 – Update your spreadsheet with the tracking codes

Once the script is functioning, you’re ready to input your URLs and tracking codes.

The spreadsheet needs to by laid out properly to make sure that the script can read and display the information in the right order. Here are the rules and you can see a sample of a functioning Google Doc here (it’s the one I use to create the example here).

• Cells A1, B1, C1, D1, and E1 will not be read by the script.
• Cells F1, G1, H1, and I1 determine the name of 4 additional custom references that can be added.
• Column A after row 1 is the name of the link. This can be anything.
• Column B needs to be a valid URL without pre-existing query strings (meaning that there can’t already be a “?” in it)
• Column C is your utm_source code
• Column D is your utm_medium code
• Column E is your utm_campaign code
• Columns F through I can be any other reference code you’d like. Again, the name will be taken from the column header. Leave these blank if you don’t want to use them

A few things to keep in mind:

• The source, medium, and campaign codes are required meaning that they are always pulled. If you leave one blank, it messes up the rest so make sure you always have a value in there. If enough people want to eliminate this requirement, I’m happy to offer an alternative, just comment below.
• If you’re not using the custom reference codes, you can leave them blank. If you are using them and each URL will have one, then you’re good to go. But if some URLs need one, others need another, make sure to put an “x” where you don’t need one. For example, if the first URL is using reference2 but not reference1 and the second URL is using reference1 but not reference2, make sure there is an “x” under reference1 for the first URL and under reference2 for the second. Hopefully that makes sense. Again, comment if you’re confused!

Step 4 – Reload the script and fire away

Once your codes are loaded, refresh the script and you’ll see them listed nicely in a row. In order for each one:

1. The first thing listed is the name from column A for that link.
2. Next you see “Paste into form field or if in doubt.” This is the not-validated version of the URL . This should work everywhere and is the safest choice. If you’re not sure what the hell I’m talking about, use this one. There is a “test it” link that tries it out.
3. Next is a field with the URL. Just click once to highlight, copy it, and paste it where you need it.
4. After that you’ll see “Paste into code.” Use this for HTML and PHP that is not validated (i.e. within an application file or static page).
5. The validated version of the URL appears in the text field. Click to highlight, etc.

Step 5 – Comment, Share, or Tweet if you like it!

That’s all I ask!

Please leave comments, questions, and suggestions below. I hope this saves you as much time as it save me!

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This is a LAME way to do this, for the record.

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The Drudge-Style Site Template

This one-page template has the following features:

• Managed with a Google Docs spreadsheet. No HTML knowledge required!
• Include-able files to easily add banner ad, scripts, meta tags, and more.
• A section at the top set aside for a banner image and a story of the day with image
• Three fluid (that means it shrinks with the size of the screen that is viewing it) columns that contain lists of links
• The ability to add headings in the columns to separate sections
• The ability to add paragraphs below the links to give a bit of description, if necessary
• A footer with a line of links that can be added for, say, an email address of another page
• Works in all browsers (including IE6)
• Baked-in SEO!

Read more, buy, and download the Dynamic Drudge Report Website Template

Also available is a free template…

The Free Drudge Report Website template

In addition to the dynamic template above, I also have an HTML version available for free. This template was the basis for the one above and is easy to work with, providing you understand basic HTML.

As a side-note, the HTML on Drudge report is very poor. It was a table-style layout for no discernible reason, there were capitalized tags and attributes throughout, and it looked like it may have been avoiding CSS altogether. It’s really none of my business how other people put their sites together but it was clear I wouldn’t be drawing any inspiration from the technical construction. So I started from scratch and made this very simple, lightweight, one-file, one-page site template that mimics the layout of Drudge report with a few extra features. See the template now.

Download the free Drudge-Style Template

How to Use The Free Template

In typical Josh Can Help style, let’s walk through how to get this little guy to do what you want.

I use [[double square brackets]] around the text that needs to be changed in the file so it’s easy to find all the meta (unseen on the page) information. To add new links and change the information, you’ll want to have a bit of experience with HTML but, at the risk of a flood of new web developers taking all my clients, I’ll let you in on a little secret: HTML isn’t that hard. Here’s a real quick way to get familiar.

So, let’s customize this page:

• Unzip the package somewhere on your desktop and open the “index.html” file with a plain text editor. If you’re in Windows, you’ll need to right-click the file and pick Notepad.
• Start scanning for double brackets and fill in the information as needed. Make sure the <title> text has words that tell search engines what you’ve got going on the page. Fill out those meta tags too, just because.
• Unless you’re familiar with CSS, just leave everything between the <style> and </style> tags alone. If you are familiar with CSS, go crazy!
• The <h1> tag, by default, is invisible but still fill it out with a short (few words) description of the page. This combined with the <title> tag helps search engines figure out the main purpose of your page. If you aren’t going to use a banner image, then delete id=”page-name” and your header is now big, bold text.
• Now, your header image. This image is centered on the page and can be any size you want. Just put the filename of the image you’re going to use after src=” and make sure the image is placed in the same directory on your host as this file. Type in a description of the image as well while you’re at it.
• For the story of the day, do the same thing with the image and add your text where indicated in the template. The image will resize to 200 pixels wide automatically. FYI on the image, just delete the whole img tag if you don’t want to use one. You can also change “Story of the day” to something else and use that space for something different.
• Now, you’re ready to plug in your links. Each link is in its own <li> tag to keep them on their own line and to give a little space in between. Just replace the text after href=” with the direct URL (including http://) and replace the next set of brackets with the text you want to appear on the page. You’ll notice that the first link in the left column has a paragraph right after it but before the closing tag. Make sure to follow this syntax to keep the spacing kosher.
• Want to add another link? Just copy and paste one of those <li>…</li> rows wherever you want it to be. Deleting a link is the opposite.
• Add a new separating header with <h3>...</h3> tags wherever you’d like (but, of course, within one of the columns).
• Want to add a separator line? Figure out where it should go and stick an <hr> right there.
• img tags can also be used in columns, just make sure they are in between the <li> and </li> tags. Style wise, it’s probably better to put img tags in between the <li> and the <a> tags.
• Scroll down to the bottom for the footer links. Don’t want any? Just delete them all except mine :).

And that’s it! To make it live, just copy index.html to a public folder on your web host and check it out. If you already have a website going, be careful where you put this so you don’t overwrite the main site file.

Have fun! I’m happy to answer questions in the comments below.

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Yahoo Pipes being blocked from accessing Craiglist feeds

After thinking for a minute, I realized I wasn’t getting my daily emails either. A quick search confirmed what I thought originally: Pipes is being blocked from accessing RSS feeds from Craiglist. Strangely, though, the info I found was 6+ months old. I’m not sure why this would have been working for me for many months and now just tank.

I used to feed job information from San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle into a Yahoo Pipe sort that discarded all the ads that didn’t fit what I do. I understand about 10% of what Pipes is capable but this 10% worked very well for me. Every morning, I had a list of available web development gigs in the nearby area that I could apply to. Not that anyone gets much of a response from Craiglist but, still, it was good to be getting myself out there. This little hiccup is not the end of the world but I’m confused. Why would Craigslist make it so much less convenient to use them? Why lose the community goodwill? It’s doubful that many people were using the Pipes/RSS combination so why not just let us do it?

I’m assuming that they’re trying to reduce data scraping (where sites/robots/people mine data on one site and use it as their own)  but why is the RSS option still there?

Update 2/16/2009: The block might be temporary… who’s ruining it for the rest of us??

Update 2/16/2009: emailed Craig, as directed, received a response:

craig@craigslist.org to me

asking tech team now regarding problem, thanks!

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Anyways, writing my notes for this presentation got me thinking about my past as a student and how far I’ve come as a person. I wanted to share a bit about what I’ve learned as the oldest dude in my graduating class (except that other guy).

On being an undergraduate (at 29)

Sticking on the course that I chose for myself almost 7 years ago and staying motivated to complete it has been on of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. It’s also been one of the best experiences I could ever hope for and one that’s absolutely altered everything about me and how I live.

One of the biggest things I’ve dealt with is the feeling of being “behind” in life. I’m one of the oldest undergraduates in my program (by about ~3-4 years) and, as such, I am constantly reminded that, in May, in terms of education, I’ll be 7 years behind most of the people I’m taking classes with. Just typing that knots my stomach up a bit. Having had the ability to choose my path at 17 when I graduated, I could be, best case scenario, 3 years post-PhD in whatever discipline I chose. I could celebrate my 30th as Dr. Cunningham making 6 figures and on the path to greatness (well, maybe). Instead, I’m going to celebrate my 30th completely exhausted with a BS in hand and, hopefully, an open spot waiting for me in a Master’s program for Computer Science (or Computational Science). Depressing when you put it like that, no?

Other considerations

Of course, this kind of comparison would be unfair. At 17, my direction in life was absolutely nil. In fact, I tried community college for one quarter, hated every second of it, and quickly decided to enter the workforce as a barista. This led to a severe (and still present) caffeine addiction combined with a solid pessimism directed towards the human race. There’s really nothing worse than being an already depressed teenager dealing with crowds of people deperate for their drug of choice. I still have bad dreams about that job. The point I’m trying to make is that I, at that point in life, was not only incapable of choosing a path for myself, I did not have the tools necessary to apply myself towards anything. I was listless and lazy and proud of it.

Additionally, I don’t know that I would have ever chosen chemistry as a discipline. I may have gone into computer science directly or biology or medicine (I did want to be a doctor but only for the parking space). I know now that I should be in chemistry, that this industry and I get along well, and that I understand it easily. Choosing the path for the rest of my life was a much easier task at 22 than it would have been at 17.

The most important thing, however, was what the 5 year delay in going to school taught me indirectly. I worked for a wireless company for almost 3 years before I decided to start taking classes again. In that 3 years I reached about 270 lbs, was completely inactive, smoked over a pack a day, was at a high point of anger and depression, and hated almost every second of my life. Looking back, I am very grateful for being able to experience what it is like to work for a good company with good pay and good benefits doing something a compuer program could do for 40 hours a week. I felt like a nothing and a nobody for 8 hours a day for several years and it taught me that I would enver again accept that kind of position in life.

Without this working period, I would never have met the important people that I did, learned incredibly important life lessons, and built the confidence and ability that I have today. I would have entered with world with a PhD, some incredible experiences, but, quite possibly, very little respect for what else is out there.

There is no “behind”

The idea that someone can be behind in life is something that I’ve wanted to come completely to terms with but have a long way to go. I’m able to dismiss it slightly by realizing that this is primarily an American construct. Thinking that there is a goal to life or being worried about what you’ve accumulated or how much education you have or how far along you are (or are not) with your mortgage is something that we’re indirectly trained to believe in this country. People make job decisions based solely on how much they’re making with no consideration to what they are doing or who they might be harming… but I digress.

I don’t have a mortgage, I don’t have a degree (yet), I don’t have a family of my own, I don’t have a wife, I don’t have any of that. As such, at 29, I am, in an American scale, behind… quite behind, actually.

I also don’t have a divorce, I don’t have a degree I’m not using, I don’t have credit card debt, I didn’t lose a lot of money when the economy crashed, I’m not drowning in student loans, I’m not upside-down on a car.

What do I have now? I have an amazing woman in my life (that, ironically, I met when I went to community college. Had I accepted my position to the UW when it was granted, we might have actually had a class together but never met when we did), I have close, close friends in several different states, I have a network of professors I can contact and learn from, I have a great GPA, I have 2 jobs, both of which are fairly stable, I am humble and respectful and can appreciate anyone’s lot in life, and I’m grateful for all of that.

Am I behind? Yup. Am I ahead? Yup. Is anyone keeping score? Only me if I decide to.

Thinking about going back to school in your 20s? 30s? 40s?

The easy answer would be “yes, do it! Do it for you and me and them! Go back! Always” but I’m not going to say that because I’ve also learned that college just isn’t for anyone. Here’s what I think:

• If you go back, do it for something that excites you. I would have never stuck with this degree if I didn’t like the subject. As you get older, your time, especailly your time off, becomes increasingly valuable. If you’re going to classes that aren’t interesting, skipping time with your family and friends to study, and generally “losing life” (that’s what it feels like sometimes) to your degree, the least you can do is study something that you find interesting.
• Don’t go back without calculating the opportunity cost along with the actual cost. Here’s how…
  • Calculate the amount that the schooling will actually cost (tuition, books, supplies).
  • Calculate how much you’ll be making while in school (if anything) and multiply it by the time you’ll be in school (so if you can make $15,000/year in a part-time job and the school takes, say, 4 years, you’ll make $60,000 total during that time).
  • Now calculate how much you would be making if you WEREN’T in school (if you could make $40,000 per year average for those 4 years then you’re at $160,000 for four years).
  • Take what you will make during that time away from what you would make and add that to the actual cost to get your absolute cost ($160,000 – $60,000 + $20,000 = $120,000)
  • Now figure out how much you’re gaining after you get the degree (it’s been found that college graduates make about $20K more per year than those without… so it will take you 6 years to make that $120K back).
• Nothing can make you feel older than hanging out with people 10 years younger than you are. Still, you have the advantage. You want this degree ten times more than most of the people around you. You’re also more likely to get more sleep, take better care of yourself, try harder, and do better. Attend a few study groups, gab about teenage drama, tell them about your wife or kids or mortgage… get in there and get the experience. I’ve learned a lot about myself through the young’uns I go to class with.

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So, now he’s got this blog… how does he build this blog up. The actual question:

ok so my blog is hooked up how do i send it and link it to other peoples sites… get it out there?

This is a key question, especially for someone who wants to use the internet to gani a bit of exposure. His current web presence is very static and not easy to manuever at all. The blog was my idea and, by the time I had explained it to him, he loved it.

So, here’s what I told him, appended after the fact with a bit more information.

Spread the word, my friend.

First things first, send an email to every email address you’ve got. Tell them about it, what it’s there for, and they they should expect to see. Even better, announce your intentions ON the blog itself as well.

Activate that friend and family network, that is step one. The people close to you and your existing fans want to hear more than anyone else how and what you are doing. The great part about running a blog that is tied into your personal life is that the news of your life can be slightly re-purposed and presented publicly. I like to use this site as somewhere I can announce what I’ve got going on and really analyze them completely. For me, writing about something either gels it in my head or it removes it completely. Sometimes I’ve got too much to say about something and can’t stop typing – these topics are ones I explore further and continually write about. Then, sometimes I think I’ve got something to say and I can’t write anything – these topics are ones I can forget about.

I’m digressing a bit (surprise, surprise) but the first thing to do is to send an email to every email address you have in your mail programs (that you can match up with a name). Here are a few resources to export your contacts:

• Export contacts from GMail
• Export contacts from Hotmail
• Export contacts from Yahoo

When you write, make sure to use the words you expect people to use when they search for what you do. Think of what words people might be using to find people who do what you do, feel me? For example, you teach graffiti techniques so think of the phrases people might be using to find that (“graffiti class” “graffiti classes San Diego” “can control” “how to write graffiti”). Be descriptive in your title and in heading text. Let me know if I lost you on that.

This is speaking to keyword research. I’m planning a few articles on how I do keyword research in the near future so I’m not going to go into depth but the KEY is this: you want to use words that people will use to search for what you have. This is confusing at first but pay attention and you’ll get it.

You probably use a specific set of words to describe what you do for people (in terms of your product, your service, your art, your instruction, etc). You use words that make sense to you and that paint an accurate picture of what you do. Now, imagine someone with whom you had coffee and to whom you explained your whole shebang needed to explain your shebang to someone else. Now, what if that next person needed to do the same. If you got two or three (maybe even the first one too) away from the original conversation, the words being used to describe what you do are not the words that YOU used originally. This is the first step towards understanding how to pick keywords.

So, for example, I might describe myself as a technology generalist, a tamer of technology, or a tech strategist, there are very few (read: no) people searching for this on the internet (yet). For my keywords, I need to pick things that people will search for to find me. These might be “build a web presence” or “design a personal web page” or “company email marketing.” I need to find words that people use to find the services that I’m offering.

Next, you’re going to want to try and find people who are doing similar or related things on the web and participate in what they’ve got going on. Go here http://blogsearch.google.com and start plugging in words that pertain to what you do. Do the same in regular Google. Start commenting on blogs, posting in forums, and connecting online. Also, sign up for Facebook if you haven’t already.

I’m talking about blatant and targeted self-promotion. Ready to virtually network?

I’ll say this: there are a million ways to go about this but, from personal experience, there is nothing more boring, unsatisfying, and time-wasting then spending several hours a day promoting yourself to people you don’t know. It’s boring because it’s repetitive, it’s unsatisfying because there’s a million other schmucks doing the same thing, and it’s time-wasting because it takes your attention away from the important things in life: relationship and creation.

I use Twitter (now) because I find a lot of great links, get some helpful information, and really enjoy the format and portability (I can add widgets to several other websites). I use Facebook because I have a lot of friends on there, it keeps me in touch with school people, and it makes me feel closer to home. I use LinkedIn because I see a lot of potential and meet some interesting people on there. I also use these tools to gently promote what I’m doing but that’s NOT the major reason I’m on any of those sites.

Read and comment on blogs because you like what someone had to say or this is a person you’d like to meet locally. I tried the “blatant self-promotion” half-heartedly for a month and found myself feeling like a blithering douche. This is why I don’t do “networking events” or anything like that. I like to talk to people that I respect, are interested in, or just like for no good reason. It’s very difficult for me (thought possible) to socialize with people simply to build the number of connections I have. I know this might be a great way to make sales or climb the ladder but it’s not interesting.

To be seen and heard online, you don’t need to trick people, you need to offer information and content that is unique, interesting, and useful. If you feel like it, just start writing about art, making art, what the experience means to you, what you learned the other day. You don’t need to write a diary but put words down that you would be likely to say to aspiring artists. Your blog will start doing its job if you’re making it important to you and start thinking “hmmm, that should go on my blog.” What starts out as somewhat of a chore eventually becomes an important piece of your day-to-day.

This is the kind of self-promotion that I do.

I’m not looking to trick someone into clicking on a link and reading my blog just so my Google stats look better. I’m also not interested in writing for a bigger audience about shit I don’t care about. I didn’t feel exactly like this a year ago but it’s what I’ve settled into. I’ll play the SEO game a bit, I’ll optimise my blog as much as possible, and I’ll spend time picking out keywords but, in terms of actual content, I’m going to write what I want to write… it’s the only way it gets done.

I used to write a blog about sustainable transportation. I followed the news religiously, went to events, and revelled in my own green lifestyle. It was fun, I got a few clicks, and made a few e-friends. But, after some time, it wasn’t much fun for me to stay on top of things. I enjoyed reading about it more than I did writing about it. Also, there were other much bigger, much more powerful blogs doing what I did only better. I became a aggregator for some of their content with a bit of commentary on top.

Now, I write about my career, what I’m learning, what I’m doing, and how this can help other people. I’m building this up slowly and still struggling to find my voice. However, like when I started the other blog, the words are just pouring out of me. I don’t have to sit in front of a monitor and STRUGGLE to find the words to say. I write about the web and science and tech and what I’m doing and it just feels natural.

Blogging, now, is a release for me rather than a chore. This is the only way to keep a blog going. It might even be a good thing not to monitor your audience (if you’re not interested in making money from advertisements). It’s like dieting without a scale: the depression of not losing weight can easily outweigh (har har) the elation of losing a couple pounds.

So, that’s my honest take on starting a blog from scratch. Do it because you like it and don’t assume you don’t like it because you have no idea what you’re doing. Really put yourself into it, find your voice, and screw what others are doing. Then, make sure the most amount of people know about what you’re doing in ways that are sustainable for your life.

Good luck! Come find me on Facebook or Twitter if you want to chat some more

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I just wanted to say thank you to everyone stopping by for all your great support and kind words about the email and this site. As you grow up and gain a bit of distance with your friends (geographical and/or emotional) you start to get that “would anyone come to my funeral” feeling. Everyone has their own lives, some have kids, others have spouses, some are just caught up in the day-to-day, trying to get ahead. I definitely get lost in the thick of things and fall out of contact with people that are important to me. Not for too long but long enough.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m glad I spent many hours coming up with something to send to the people that are important to me. I wanted to share a few pictures, offer my assistance, and maybe touch base with a few of the people who drifted a bit further away than others. Getting all the replies back was a great feeling and really helped me through a killer week.

So, thank you for taking the time to visit my site. I hope it’s useful to you now and in the future!

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Personally, I find this generalist position to be a bit uncomfortable. I can learn anything but I’m a master of nothing. Once I pick something up and it’s clear to me that I could learn it to much greater extent, the skill becomes logged and I feel the urge to move onto something else. I don’t abandon the things I learn, rather I build libraries of resources, try to stay remotely informed on the topic, and exercise what I know when I can.

I see this behavior over and over and over and it’s becoming clear to me that I belong on the edges, not in the middle. I work much better straddling two (or ten) different disciplines and skill sets than I do dedicating myself to one in particular. I’m beginning to understand this more as an advantage I have then a disadvantage. The reason I’m having a problem figuring this out is because…

There are JOBS out there

Jobs are titles, hence the term “job title.” Jobs have descriptions and requirements and recommendations and qualifications. Jobs are neatly listed on sites like Jobing and Hotjobs, and, to a lesser extent, Craigslist and Elance. You are qualified or not qualified for a job. Your resume has or does not have what a hiring manager wants. You meet or do not meet the requirements of a position.

I built a pipe the other day (it sorts information from a number of different sources and filters out what you don’t want to see… incredible online application) to find work in my area (just quick, one-off temporary gigs). This process required me to, by way of blocking and allowing certain pieces of information, craft a series of information filters that ended up in a stream of information from 8 different sources coming from 3 different sites. This Pipes application looks at the information that is being fed to it, sees all the different fields (like the title of the ad, the description, the posting date, etc), and decides what to do with it based on what I told it to do.

I found it very difficult to use the fields I was given and the descriptions being provided to create a stream of information that matched want I wanted to see. Don’t want .NET jobs, no engineering positions, yes for HTML but no for Flash, yes for teaching but not for certificates, no for photography but I can take pictures so maybe yes. I find it easy to describe to people what I do (I help small businesses and individuals get the most out of the technology they’re using and find other cheap, simple tools to help them move their ideas forward) but I can’t seem to tell a computer how to find clients for me.

It’s not ALL bad… in fact it’s not bad at all

I learned two important things from the pipe exercise yesterday:

1. I don’t WANT to fit some job descriptions. There are things that I like to do (writing, HTML/CSS, design, chemistry, teaching, talking to people, helping people, messing around with gadgets, learning things) and there are things that I don’t like to do (spamming, busy work, lying, wasting time under false pretenses, talking to people who don’t listen, data entry). On top of that, there are specific things that I want to learn (PHP, Javascript, general computer science, design standards, art) and there are specific things I don’t really want to learn (this list is actually pretty short but includes C#, thermodynamics, electrical engineering, anything more about calculus than I already know). Combine these two things together and you have a good idea of the type of jobs that I don’t want to take. It’s ok to not be qualified for something and expect to never be qualified for it. This goes for everything from programming to auto repair to internal medicine. Not everyone can do everything but some of us can and, frankly, choose not to!
2. There is enough work to go around. There is also enough work to be picky (see above). Between the 8 sources I looked at, there was enough work for a team of people. I see this list and the whole thing looks like lost opportunity. Instead, I should be seeing job security. I don’t do everything at the company I’m contracted with and I’m not expected to. Same goes with this list of gigs: I’m not qualified for many of them but, for the ones that I am, I should not be expected to answer everything. Maybe if I was unemployed and not in school I could justify applying for everything but, right now, that’s not the case.

What I did in the last week (including today)…

1. Learned Yahoo Pipes
2. Wrote two solid blogs posts
3. Started learning Microsoft’s Expression Blend
4. Had a fantastic conversation about the philosophy of application planning
5. Started planning an application
6. Started building a new website
7. Took a test about op amps, RC circuits, voltammetry, and coulometry
8. Studied many hours for the test above
9. Learned about path selections in Photoshop
10. Finished designing a print ad in Illustrator
11. Designed a print ad for something totally different in Photoshop
12. Uploaded all my current passwords to Keepass, a password database
13. Wrote a Craigslist ad for someone; referred someone who got hired for it
14. Created 7 different spreadsheets in Excel with complicated equations
15. Build a media PC virtually
16. Found out about connecting a computer to a TV; avoided buying a whole new computer with one cord
17. Figured out DVD ripping and burning with an easy application
18. Possibly wooed a client away from another webmaster
19. Learned out CSS sprites and how to use them
20. Put together an HTML email for conference marketing
21. Learned about molecular symmetry and how to find it

“Ok you’re busy… and?” That’s not the point. There’s no real thread running through that list of things (besides needing a computer for most of it). There are several different goals involved there, many different skill sets, and quite a few different careers. I’m not an expert in anything up there but I did it all proficiently and enjoyed a good portion of it.

Bridging gaps, connecting ideas, breaking molds

getting back to the idea of jobs… the “great job” we all hope for, in mind mind, comes from one particular skill that you’ve honed for years, possibly mastered in a way, and hope to expand from. This “great job” comes from a PhD in chemistry, 8 years of experience in a lab, 4 or 5 different published papers in your field, a pile of recommendation letters, a good connection with someone, and some good old positive energy. A “great job” comes from 10 years of screwing around with a computer and painting in your teens, another ten years of a boring job while doing digital art during every spare minute, a line of T-shirts, a string of album covers, an innate talent for colors and layout, an abilty to stare at a monitor for 12 hours in a row, the “knack,” and a fortunate meeting with the owner of a creative firm.

What I’m saying is that I don’t have 15 years of doing anything but working in many different industries, fields, jobs, skill sets, and locations. Even now, I work with scientists, artists, programmers, trainers, and executives and live with someone in the Health industry. My mind and my hands cover a lot of ground and it’s my ability to talk to each one, to understand what they’re saying without knowing what they know, that makes those edges just a little bit closer.

I understand why people call code poetry. I understand why pharmaceutical companies are seen as immoral but why they are not innately that way. I’ve seen chemistry look like painting, I’ve seen marketing reflect pure creativity, and I’ve seen business be as passionate as anything I’ve experienced. I know why finance is like Tetris, I understand why someone would become a professional auto mechanic, and it makes sense to me why a person would leave their “great job” for something scary and amazing.

I’m a generalist, I love it all and I like loving it. I want to know about what you do and why you do it. I want to know where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. I want to know what drives you, what makes your heart jump into your throat, what pushes you to complete exhaustion. And when I know about it, I want to show you what’s out there to make it easier, better, faster. I want to help you do what you love and make money doing it. I fit in everywhere, I can talk to anyone, and, if it’ll help someone around me, I’ll learn how to do it.

Josh Can Help

Wow, what a time for Brother Ali’s song, forest Whitaker, to come on:

My wardrobe is jeans and faded shirts
A mixture of what I like, and what I wear to work
I’m not mean and got a neck full of razor bumps
I’m not the classic profile of what the ladies want
You might think I’m depressed as can be
But when I look in the mirror I see sexy ass me
And if that’s somethin that you cant respect then that’s peace
My life’s better without you actually
To everyone out there, who’s a little different
I say damn a magazine, these are gods fingerprints
You can call me ugly but cant take nothing from me
I am what I am doctor you ain’t gotta love me

Update: Just read this on GapingVoid.com… wow, nail on the head stuff:

I seem to have inherited the crofting mentality. I DON’T like waking up in the morning and doing the same thing every day. I LIKE having all these different balls in the air- cartooning, painting, consulting, writing, marketing, blogging etc. Sure, part of me would like nothing better than just “retiring to the desert and making paintings”, but another part of me likes all the running around in different directions. And all this running around DOES get tiring, I can tell you that. Sometimes I LOVE the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed. Other times I utterly despise it.

Thanks again, Hugh, for putting what I’m thinking into words.

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Feeling perpetually impatient and involuntarily rushed, we are crushed by
the idea of an impending end to the time given to us to finish our lifetime
goals. Minute by minute we are tempted to scrutinize our productivity and
achievement, comparing our own progress to those around us who seem
infallible. In this fog of analysis and discontent we lose sight of a very
important event: our daily rebirth. Each day that we are granted is a chance
to escape the condemnation of comparison and start anew on our way to who we
know we can be. Every morning, light or dark we start a new path, mark a new
beginning, become a new, different, wiser person subject only to our own
judgment, compared only to who we were the day before. It is the concept of
this vivification that is so important for us to understand in order to
continue on the path of success that lay before everyone.

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Please let me know what you think!

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If anyone has any ideas, please email me at josh (at) joshcanhelp.com

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I digress…

I also need a business card and have not been giving this important piece of a business that relies on word-of-mouth enough attention. I was pondering new designs when I came across an artist who does letterpress artwork. I posted his work on a forum I frequent and got offered an excellent deal on letter pressed business cards. I immediately went to work on the design and came up with this:

I was digging it but the printer said that each extra color was an extra plate and would cost more. The printing was already more than I wanted to spend so I went with all-black:

I was really enjoying the design and loved the “old design for new techology” meme. I liked it so much, I posted it on the forum where I met the printer. It didn’t meet with quite the same approval as it had in my brain. Here’s what was said (verbatim):

My eyes are drawn all over the card and can’t find any focus. The font/italics aren’t very good and seem amateurish.

I like the card, but it makes you look like a lion tamer or animal trainer not a tech guy. Maybe have him using the chair and a whip on a PC? That is if you are going to stick with the original idea… And the accents that are on the corners, I would change it to one continuous border, have it just on the top and bottom make it look a little busy.

it’s just hard on the eyes. One more thing… you do look like a lion tamer. My suggestion is to go with the motion of the wheel and not try to reinvent it.

As for the 1920′s circus theme.. It can be done, however I think you missed the mark. To me, frilly script fonts, and borders don’t say “circus” to me. I’m also not making the connection between circus and technology. I’ll also add that your message “Josh Can Help” also does not fit with a circus style theme.

Ouch! I was convinced that no-one really understood where I was coming from with the design but I knew that these people had piles more experience than I do and there was very little that they were liking about it.

I was taking it personally and that is the worst way to try and learn anything. So I read and re-read everything and came up with a few more toned-down versions. For the record, I still like the first one the best.

These look cleaner and more toned down but, in my opinion, they were starting to lose character. I realized that the “look” I was going for was, more or less, only in my head.

Well, the wolves liked these much better…

If “Josh Can Help” is your company name, it should be the most important element on the card, and your tag line should be secondary. I’m still not feeling the overall style / idea, but I figured I’d point that out.

The simple ones are an improvement. I agree with the above poster, the company name should stand out the most. I’d also make the tamer bigger since there is so much room in the middle.

Try Vertical. Take the logo, or graphic, put in on top of the card with the ornate corners top and bottom. then imprint the rest below the graphic. seriously, try vertical. see how it looks.

Hmmmm…. then, a little more encouragement (the only reason I didn’t scrap this and start over):

I think that most people on this board don’t quite get letterpress printing… I personally like the approach you’re taking, talking high tech with low tech works for me…. and the lion tamer graphic works too. Letterpress with the right stock is a really nice tactile thing… and a classic serif font is a must for it. Sans serif with letterpress would be a waste of the extra money for print. You might as well print them thermographic instead if you go that way. The only change I would suggest is to have the graphic in the top half of the card and all the text below it. The script font was ok, but not great, given the context you’re aiming at for the design, you likely wouldn’t have seen a single word in-line in a script in a sentence, a true italic, yes, but not a script. Now if you were to take the card vertical and do one word per line stacked and larger with tighter leading, some caps as well, then it would work. I hope this helps.

With this new information, an idea to rotate it to vertical, and a few kind words, I came up with this:

I was REALLY liking this, much more than my original design, and it was very “letterpressy.” The forums went wild!

That one looks very good. I like the changed orientation and the subtle ornate borders. I would work on the font for Josh Can Help. Something a bit more exciting and antique.

my thoughts exactly. looking much better!

I was thinking about a different font as well and also wanted the text to be aligned on both sides (justified). It also needed to be in a vector format (Illustrator). I was scared to work in Illustrator (I’ve opened it five times since I bought it) but I found a few tutorials that helped and came up with the final version minus decorative elements:

The dimensions are a bit off and it’s not perfectly centered but the font, leading (space between lines), tracking (space between letters), and text are all finished.

What do you think?

Edit: final design getting printed:

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Our hero attempts to contact the colleague in question.

…time passes…

No response.

fin

No related posts.

These days, with ultra-compact digital cameras coming in around $200 and megapixel counts in the 7′s, 8′s, and 9′s, everyone is taking digital pictures and they’re all HUMONGOUS. Between on-line forums, emails from family members, and massive Powerpoint presentations, I’m drowning in over-sized photos and surrounded by people who, understandably, don’t want to waste their time resizing each and every picture they want to share. At some point, for some reason, these photos have to get smaller and, unfortunately, not everyone knows how to do that. And I’m Josh and I can help (at least the website says so) so I’m going to show you a free program that makes the whole resizing thing easier than you thought possible. If you’re using Photoshop and resizing each image, you’re wasting your time. And if you’re NOT resizing your pictures, you’re wasting everyone else’s.

Why should digital pictures be resized?

The problem with big pictures is their size. Har har har… no really, the size contributes two annoyances:

1. Big pictures are “physically” very large and can’t fit on the screen unless a particular program resizes them. The size can also stretch out web sites and make everything a complete mess
2. Big pictures are virtually large as well and, as such, are comprised of a lot of data. This can fill up email programs, slow down computers, and take forever to download.

With my Canon SD1000 (a small, great, inexpensive ultra-compact digi-cam) set to its highest resolution (meaning the size of the image), it’s taking pictures at 3072 x 2304 pixels. This is 7,077,888 pixels (or dots) of color that has to be stored and transferred. Unless you’re printing these photos on 8×10 paper, a picture of this size will do you no good. You’re also going to need several different emails if you want to send a whole group of them to someone, not to mention the hard drive space it takes to store them (on both machines).

Clearly, it has to be done but how to go about it?

How can digital pictures be resized?

In order to get your pictures in a more manageable size to use, share, and post online, you will need to reduce the amount of data that is contained in the picture file. This can be done by reducing the actual size of the photo while keeping the overall quality. This can be done with an image editing software like Photoshop but there’s no need to break out the big guns for such a minor task.

I just recently starting using the aptly-named software PIXresizer and I couldn’t be happier with how it works. I’ll walk you through some of the basic functions of this free software so you can pass them along to the technology-handicapped people in your life… or just send the link to a friend.

First, download it here (scroll down and look for the “DOWNLOAD [ 3.3 Mb .zip]” link). Open the .ZIP file and run the program Setup to install it on your machine. Make sure to add an icon to your desktop and run the program.

How do I use this PIXresizer program?

PIXresizer is very easy to use so I’ll keep these instructions nice and short. For those who are fluent in image language (sizes in pixels, images types, etc), this list of instructions will probably be useless to you. It’s very easy to poke around and figure out what to do. If you’re not so computer-savvy, I’ll show you how to get the most out of this great little freeware program.

This program runs in two modes: single picture and batch processing. We’ll take these one at a time…

Single photo resizing

When you first open the program, it will default to the “Work on one file” option. This is what you want to use when you just want to re-size one file (see, I told you this thing was easy). Step one is to pick a file to work on by clicking the Load Picture button.

As you might expect, this will open a file explorer window where you can pick the photo you want to alter. Conveniently enough, the window starts in your My Pictures folder. Choose an over-sized photo you want to change and click Open. Your photo will now be loaded in the little window on the right instead of that ridiculous image of the guy in the pink shirt taking your photo in front of the XP background (why).

Step 2 (marked as such in PIXresizer) is to choose a new size for your photo.

PIXresizer gives you a few quick options to make your life easier.

• 25% gets us to 648 x 486 pixels. This is not a “standard” size but it’s great for uploading to the web (Flickr, Facebook,etc). If you are sending over email, photos don’t need to be this small.
• If you’re sending over email, a perfect size is about 800 x 600 (the 33% option gets you close to this). Pictures of this size are not too big, easy to see on any monitor, and retain a good amount of the detail that was in the picture originally.
• If you want to just save some space on your computer and you’re not going to be printing these in a large format, you’re safe with storing them at around 1200×900. This size is small enough not to be unwieldy but still big enough to retain most of the detail of the original.
• The custom size can be used for any of the options I gave above or to make the photo a specific size (if requested by a person, program, or website).

To get an idea of what these sizes actually mean for you check out the examples below:

400 x 300

600 x 450

800 x 600

1200 x 900

Original size

This will give you a good idea of what it will look like on other screens. Keep in mind that some web browsers will resize your photo automatically. To see them in their native size, right-click on the displayed image and select either Save Image As… or Save Picture As… and pick a place on your computer. Now open the picture on your hard drive to get a better idea of what it will look like for others.

The other size option that is given is labeled Maintain Aspect Ratio. Every image has a particular ratio – the length divided by the width (or vice versa). As you make images smaller or larger, you usually want to keep this ratio the same so the image does not distort. Unchecking this box will allow you to put in two separate measurements for length and width, allowing the image to skew.

Resized to 200 pixels while maintaining aspect ratio:

Resized to 200 x 150 pixels without maintaining aspect ratio:

Step 3 in this process has you choose a file type. If you’re not sure what to pick, either keep the default file format by selecting Same as original or choose JPEG (you can’t go wrong with JPEG for basic web and sharing uses).

The last option, Step 4, allows you to save the image as black & white (Output greyscale) and keep the EXIF data (additional non-visual data). These should be unchecked if you’re just resizing the picture.

Click the Save Picture button and you’re complete!

Multiple photo resizing

One of the best things about PIXresizer is its ability to resize several different photos at once. This mitigates the chore of sharing, uploading, and storing photos.

First, switch the view by clicking on the Work with multiple files tab at the top of the window.

This view has a few different options but only two that we’ll cover. The first, aptly named Step 1, deals with where the files are and where they are going.

The organization here is a bit confusing at first but after this brilliant explanation, it will be clear.

The top button, Source, asks what folder on your computer holds the batch of pictures you wish to resize. Checking the Subfolders box above tells PIXresizer to include all the folders that are located within the folder you choose.

Click the Source button and find the appropriate folder. If that folder has all the pictures you want to resize and there are other folders present within that folder, keep the Subfolder box unchecked. If, however, you are resizing a whole directory structure of pictures, check this box and let PIXresizer loose.

Now that you’ve told the program where to find the pictures, now you need to tell it where the new pictures should go. Click the Destination button and a window appears asking you where you would like to save the resized images. Pick a folder or click the New Folder button to, well, add a new folder.

If you are including subfolders from your source location and want to keep the same folders in the new location, click the Copy Directory Structure checkbox.
Now, pick the new size for all the pictures. Don’t worry about the checkboxes here; they’re not of too much use (in fact, I haven’t been able to figure out what their purpose is).

Simply adjust the slider to the size you want the largest dimension (so that portrait and landscape oriented photos adjust the same) from 96 pixels to 1200 pixels. The batch mode is not able to handle anything larger than 1200 pixels but, for most people, this is completely fine.

Lastly, choose the save pictures options (Enlarge if needed will enlarge any images in the directory structure that are smaller than your chosen size) and click Save Pictures.

That’s all you need to make your digital life (and those of others) just a little bit better! Please share this link with anyone you think could use it and, for those “net-challenged” folks, download the PDF, print it, and hand it to them.

Download this guide as a PDF

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I devoured blogs about search engine marketing/optimization (I barely knew how to code), Photoshop tutorials (I have access to a copy at school and even then I find it hard to do something as simple as crop an image), and design instructions. I poured over CSS galleries and design samples and coding forums. I signed up for hosting, bought a new computer, and set out to pursue this insistent, confusing, potentially disastrous dream of mine. It was my time, I would not be denied!

Very quickly, reality set in. I had quickly acquired a heavy pile of new books to certify myself in all things IT-related, another egotistical URL (joshcanhelp.com – heard of it?), and a sinking sensation that I might be going about this all the wrong way.

It took up until this morning to understand where I started to go wrong. Seth Godin describes it perfectly (the following is an excerpt):

Here’s an interesting dichotomy:

I published a book so I need you to read it
vs.
There’s something you need to read, so I wrote about it.

Or

I’m fifty and I just made an album because it was time for me to make one.
vs.
These songs won’t let go of me and I want to share them with you because they matter.

The first is me-centric and explains that we’re promoting something that got made because we need to sell it. What we do is make stuff and sell it, and what you do is buy it or watch it. “I needed to make something to sell, here’s the best I could do.”

The second is you-centric. It starts with the needs and desires of the consumer and ignores the committees, the compromises and the economic realities. It says, “I found something for you, here it is.”

I like you-centric, I talk about you-centric, I try to push for you-centric at work, I’m all about you-centric. I’m a consumer and I want things and entertainment and media that makes sense for me. I’m a producer and I want people to like what I do and let me work on their projects. I want companies to give a damn what I think and I want to be insanely useful to my friends, families, clients, and colleagues.

So the problem I’m seeing with my initial “business plan” (there are quotes because, for the time being, I do not have a business plan) is that I envisioned putting myself out there and the business coming to me because, well, I’m me. This is celebrity thinking, actor and model thinking, author, director, and musician thinking. I’m just entering the market with the ludicrous assumption that there are already people waiting outside my virtual door for the next insightful Josh blog or the next amazing Josh service or the next crazy Josh endeavor. Like a product devised in a boardroom and never once shown to consumers before rushing to market, I figured that the idea was sound simply because I had it.

Read my About Me page and this post and you’ll see that, through and through, my intentions have always been to be a resource before anything else and offer the kind of service and attention that is only possible by someone (like myself) who truly enjoys connecting with people, old and new. But the problem lies in the fact that I had no idea what the market was like out there and no clue what people needed.

Four customers deep and I’m already starting to get it:

• The blogs that I read, the designers that I follow, the tutorials that I read… none of these people are who I’m going to help. All things can always improve but these people do not need me.
• The coolest Flash gadget, the slickest widget on my blog, the best Twitter post will not get me closer to the people that are having trouble managing their technology. Referrals, USPS, and networking will.
• Unlike me, most people don’t really care what the code on their site looks like or how a wireless network works. Most people want to know how to use what they have and they want it to function properly ad infinitum
• Just because you’re a teacher, just because you know something, just because you have information to share does not mean there are always students waiting for you.
• Few people care about the design process, design elements, and the subtleties of good design. That’s why many people probably don’t immediately call a web designer an artist.

Thanks again, Seth.

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Here’s what I’m looking for:

• No huge up-front costs or minimum purchases
• Makes it easily available to on-line merchants like Amazon
• Is a true publication with an ISBN
• Is easy to set-up (though I’ll work with something that handles all of the above well)

The list of links at the bottom of this page (along with Google) helped me come up with a list of potentials. The first step I took to pare down the fairly daunting list was to cut out anything that cost more than $600 (even that was a bit high, to be honest). I’m a bootstrapper and so is my client for the time being. This particular book just needs to be out there and available.

After trimming a bit and searching, I narrowed it down to the following:

• Lulu
• Virtual Bookworm
• iUniverse
• Blurb

A couple of these – Lulu and Blurb – were on my radar but I had yet to do any in-depth research on them. iUniverse was a company I had heard about a while ago and wanted to see what they were all about. I had never heard of Virtual Bookworm before making this list but it was rated very highly by one particular site so I figured it would be worth my time to check it out.

Here’s what I found…

LuLu.com

I heard this name in conversation and decided to check out their site. I’m glad I did because this might just be the option that I’ll use.

Options include:

• Getting an ISBN
• On-line distribution
• On-line storefront
• On-demand (you can buy one or a million

It looks like they have what I need but there are more questions to be answered. Here is more information about what they offer and what you can expect (I found this be combing their FAQs):

• You are limited in the fonts that you can use in your book (unless you can embed them in Acrobat when you create a PDF)
• Lulu will add an ISBN barcode, content ID/URL (from the Lulu site), and a Lulu logo (which can be removed) to your back cover – very nice!
• You can choose a “published by you” option for $100 that lists you as the publisher, gives you an ISBN, distributes bibliographic information, retail price conversion, listing on a wholesale catalog (meaning that you can be distributed on Amazon, etc). Reading a little further into how you make money, “published by you” income is not considered a royalty so no taxes are withheld and it is not reported to the IRS (by Lulu).
• You can also choose a “published by Lulu” option for, again, $100. The difference is the publisher name for the book, ISBN ownership (they own it), and distribution (they feed their data to a “global marketplace,” whatever that means). If you choose the published by Lulu option, the money you make meets the definition of royalties and is subject to tax withholdings.
• They do offer to list ebooks (downloadable copies) and they won’t charge you anything besides their 25% commission.
• How you are paid is quite confusing. You can get it through Paypal (boo) or check and you receive your payment quarterly.
• They let you send thank-you notes to your buyers (aww).

I like Lulu… a lot. Before I make a choice, however, I want to check out a few others.

Virtual Bookworm

I found this site from one of the links below (Other Resources). Their website is not quite as polished as Lulu but that doesn’t make a damn bit of difference if they have the goods. Their basic package for a softcover book is $360 and includes the following:

• ISBN assignment(for the printed version)
• Copyright application kit
• Book page on our website
• Barcode
• 15 free internal graphics/images (must be submitted to specs)
• Data Backup
• Full Distribution
• Drop Shipment
• Book registration through Amazon.com, Books in Print, Borders
• 50% royalties of net receipts (Approximately 30-35% of cover price on books sold through us!)
• Quarterly Sales Report
• Author may purchase first order of his/her book for 50% off list price (subsequent orders 30% off list, but discount increases with larger orders)

What I like about this site is that they offer several additional options (for extra money, of course):

• $65 for an ebook package added to any book
• $100 to keep additional copies in their warehouse on-hand (to avoid delays)
• $80 to add a Library of Congress number to the book
• And much more!

I like all the extra options they offer but I’m confused as to why their service costs so much more than Lulu’s and their royalties are less (50% for Virtual Bookworm compared to 75% for Lulu). The only major difference I see is the addition of graphics, a data backup (you should be doing this yourself)… anything else?

More information from their knowledge base:

• They offer up to $100 back if your files are print-ready.
• According to them, they “use the two largest distributors in the world.”
• They seem honest and straightforward (judging by their knowledge base entries).

I like what I saw on their site and they’re been in the business since 2000 which is quite a while for a POD publisher. With the $100 rebate, their start-up cost is only $260 and I like the options that are available.

iUniverse

These guys have also been around for a while; in fact, this was the first name I’ve ever heard for self publishing. My mom was going to use this service for a genealogy book a little while back and liked what they had to offer at the time.

The first major difference between the other two is the price: $599 for the lowest package. This package includes (among other things):

• Custom cover design
• ISBN assignment
• Five free copies
• Volume discounts for author purchases
• eBook formatting (50% royalty) with DRM
• A marketing kit (with business cards, post cards, and other effluvia)
• Author support

After reading a bit on the site, it seems like iUniverse comes with enough extra stuff to warrant the $300 premium over Virtual Bookworm (though maybe not the $500 premium over Lulu). That is, until I read the page about royalties; “iUniverse pays its authors a royalty of 20 percent on print sales and 50 percent on electronic (eBook) sales.” Yikes, that’s the lowest of the bunch and will make a big difference regardless of how many books you sell.

The start-up price and the low royalties are enough to turn me off of them right away.

Blurb

This company offers a free software program to layout your book called BookSmart. I had a HECK of a time getting this thing downloaded and installed and, once I did, it was not immediately clear how to use it. Regardless, their website is great, their concept is simple, and their Flash page-flipping thingy is very slick.

The problem I have with this company is that it takes a while to actually figure out what’s going on with their service. This isn’t so much a publishing and distributing service as it is a way to make custom books. You design it, make it with their software, upload it to their server, buy at least one copy, and they display it on their site. They charge you a flat rate for printing (per book) and you keep everything on top of that. It’s all pretty straight-forward, ever if it isn’t really what I’m looking for right now.

A few neat features:

• They’ll dump your whole blog into a book! I’d love to do that with joshisjosh.com.
• Cookbooks
• Portfolios

I really like their service but they are a bit expensive. The lowest-cost option is a 20-40 page 7×7 inch square book for $12.95 (not including shipping).

…in summary…

I always find it exciting when barriers to entry come down. Getting picked up by a publishing company is difficult (statistically speaking) and no amount of perspiration will make the critical difference. If your book doesn’t fit with what they want, you don’t get to be published, end of story. That’s a scary challenge for potentially amazing authors who don’t already have a following or a previous publication.

I know my client can have great success writing for people and, at the end of the day, the publishing house that we pick is less important than the time we spend to make the book content engaging and useful. As long as the quality is there and the book is released to all the proper distribution channels then it has the chance to become successful. I believe very strongly in my client and I think he has what it takes to make an impact in his industry.

If you are out there struggling with publishers and agents and getting nowhere, consider a different route. If you truly believe in your own content and you think you have what it takes, it’s time to look at the different channels that the internet affords you. Cough up the $100 and get your book available, first and foremost. Start a blog and show people why you’re an expert. Get some free stuff out there – articles, features, etc – so people can taste what you have to offer. Make yourself as accessible and visible as possible, involve yourself socially in a community (internet, regionally, or locally), and get the conversation started.

In the end, I’m going to leave the decision up to my client. This is his first book and I want him to have some sort of control over the process. I’m definitely going to recommend Lulu and Virtual Bookworm because their price is right and I can’t see a reason to pay any more than what they ask.

Stay tuned for a review of the process when we get going!

Other Resources:

• A print-on-demand warning
• An Incomplete Guide to Print on Demand Publishers (this is a VERY comprehensive list)
• Another Incomplete Guide to POD Publishers (similar to the one above but different choices and less options)
• Update 3/2/2009: Great self-publishing post at Mashable.com

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