There's A Story Behind Those Numbers!

Statistics are an interesting thing.

I was looking at my blogger.com statistics page just now, and spefically at the "Audience" tab, which breaks down page views by country. Naturally, the vast majority of my as yet limited audience resides in the U.S., with 191 page views originating here. But guess which country came in a distant second place?

Poland, with 15 page views.

Well, I was just tickled pink to learn that I had an international audience. So tickled, in fact, that I decided to use Google Translate to compose the following targeted message to my readers in Poland:

Witam wszystkich naszych czytelników w Polska! Dziękuję za przeczytanie bloga i zachęcamy, aby dodać komentarz, powiedz nam, jak nam idzie. I daj nam znać, jak wygląda życie w tych dniach Polska! Życzymy samych sukcesów i dobrego zdrowia.Nawiasem mówiąc, moja żona jest pochodzenia polskiego.

Easy Money: Writing 140 character Ad Copy For SponsoredTweets As If I've Had Three Martinis, But I'm Actually Sober...

I was over on copyblogger.com reading “Five Ways To Write Magnificent Copy” and found this hilariously accurate tip:

“Write Drunk, Edit Sober”.

Of course the author, D Bnonn Tennant, wasn’t suggesting that the ability to write engaging prose requires a .08% BAC. Rather, that we as blogging authors need to write with a little less inhibition. We need to put a bit of personality, a dollop of passion, a smidge of silliness, a little…flavor, if you will, into our writing.

As the author put it, “Don’t self-consciously write. Just tell.” And I agree.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in the habit of running out for a six-pack before I sit down to write the blog. Although, I will say that I enjoy the occasional Dos Equis, vodka martini or a nice glass of sweet, fruity gewurztraminer.

But I certainly don’t need to drink to loosen up before I write. I’ve learned to automatically go to my Silly Place when I write, especially when I blog, so my creativity is not dependent on alcoholic attitude adjustment.


140 Character Ad Man
This same principle of “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” can also be applied to writing ad copy.
Case in point: I’m registered with SponsoredTweets, and the other day I received an opportunity to be paid for writing a 140 character ad for the makers of a line of worsted-wool apparel, located in Maine.

“Worsted wool garments are warm and cool equally--wearable nearly year-round,” the instructions read. Certainly a benefit to potential buyers, but I didn’t immediately see any compelling call-to-action in between the lines there. So, I flipped the Silly Switch to on and decided to go looking for the humorous angle.

I hopped over to the client’s website, where I was presented with a landing page displaying the client’s logo, some text, and a widget with rotating photographs. One of the photographs caught my eye: an idyllic, pastoral setting with a flock of sheep. One woolly fellow in the middle of the photo was looking directly at the camera as if to say, “Hey, buddy…I know the deal. I wear wool all year long.”




What did that sheep know that I didn’t?

And then it hit me: my 140 character inspiration. I switched back to my tab with Sponsored Tweets, and fingers flying over the keyboard, wrote my ad.



Now, end-to-end, from the time I first looked at the opportunity to the time time I clicked the “Submit” button, couldn’t have been more than five minutes. I only charge 99 cents per tweet, but translated to an average hourly wage, that’s $12.00 per hour. All from the comfort of my home.

Easy Money.

Badges? BADGES?! My Blog Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges!

If you’ve got a blogger.com-hosted blog as I do, and you’d like a snazzy Yahoo! Pipes-fed badge displaying the lastest Social Media web headlines from a mashup of Bing, Google, and Yahoo! searches (like my “Social Media Buzz” badge at the top of the right column!), copy the script below, add an HTML widget to your blog, and paste the script into the window.

<script src="http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/pps/listbadge_1.4.js">
 {"pipe_id":"bb2581df2ac6d68257e1a7866874de2f","_btype":"list","hideHeader":true}
</script>

Brought to you by the good folks here at The Digital Stylus Blog!

Need a badge for another blog host? Leave a comment and we'll do our best to work with you!

How To Create a Yahoo! Pipe Google Search To Power Your Twitter Stream (Not So Easy Version)

I REALLY like Yahoo! Pipes.

Last week, I did a little poking around on the Yahoo! Pipes site on a recommendation from Dino Dogan. Being a programmer by trade, I’m a daily keyboard jockey since I’m typing lines of code for living.

But, I also have a background in sequential illustration (comic books to you) and graphics/DTP, so the visual aspect of the programming method employed by Pipes has a real appeal for me. To my mind, this is how programming should be: connecting little visual building blocks of functionality rather than QWERTY tippy-tapping.

Visual and easy, yet powerful. I can just FEEL both hemispheres of my brain tingling in excitement.

Enough With The Creepy Sensory References, Show Us How To Make a Pipe!
Alright, alright.

In a previous blog post, I wrote a tutorial on how to create a simple Yahoo Search and turn it into an RSS feed for your Twitter stream, using Yahoo! Pipes.

So much for an introduction. Let’s look at something a little fancier: a YQL (Yahoo Query Language) pipe.

Schlep on over to http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/, and click the “Create a Pipe” button. (This is assuming, of course, that you’ve already registered a Yahoo! ID as outlined in my previous tutoria!)


You remember this screen, yes? The library to the left, the debugger at the bottom, and canvas in the middle. In the library, click and drag on the data source named “YQL”, placing it on the canvas.


YQL is modeled after SQL or Structured Query Language, which is the language used to move information in and out of relational databases. With YQL, the internet becomes your database (or more specifically, data that’s offered via web services). That’s right: the Whole Great Big Enchilada. Suh-WHEEEEET.

I think I’ll call it the interwebase.

GASP! WHEEZE! CHOKE!
So I hear a couple of you starting to hyperventilate. Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you do any programming…I’m going to do it for you!

Copy the following text.
select * from rss where url="http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=0&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=social+media+marketing&output=rss"

Now, before you start to feel your brain go all numb and your eyes start to cross looking at this code, let me break it down and translate for you. Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on ya.

select * from
This is called a “select” statement. Essentially, we’re saying “Give me all the columns from “ some datasource, usually a database table when using SQL. In this case, we’re using “rss” which represents an RSS feed.

where url=
This is called the “where” clause. We’re saying, “But don’t just give me ALL of the  possible results, I want only certain ones, and this is what I want you to look for”. It’s how we get specific. In this case we want results where the URL equals a certain value.

You’ll notice that buried in the query string is “social+media+marketing”. Those are our search keywords; we’re looking for Google News search results for the keyword combination of “social”, “media”, and “marketing”.

Now, paste the code into the “Enter Your Query” text box in your YQL module.


If you’re feeling extra geeky and want to play around with the YQL query, click “Try in the console”. You’ll be presented with the YQL console below:


The top text box allows you to edit the query and test different values in the search; simply substitute different search keywords, separated by a plus (+) sign, for “social+media+marketing”. Click the “Test” button and view the results in the “Formatted” window. When you get tired of playing around with YQL, return to your Pipes canvas and our original YQL module.

Of course, our YQL module isn’t any use all by himself; he needs to buddy up with the ‘ol output module. You remember how to connect ‘em, right?


After saving and naming your brand-spanking new pipe, click “Back to My Pipes” to navigate to your pipe list. Your newest pipe displays at the top of the list. Click on the pipe’s name to bring up the pipe description.


And again, if you’ve been reading our previous blog posts on Yahoo! Pipes (and shame on you if you haven’t!), this page will look familiar, including the sample search results.


What you do with your YQL feed is up to you, but if you want to setup Twitterfeed to update your Twitter account with this boatload of links, click the “Get as RSS” button.


Copy that URI in the address field, and bop on over to Twitterfeed to configure your new RSS feed. Need help? Just see this previous blog post!

In Your Face, Gregor Mendel!

Editor Dad’s Note: I’ve asked my eldest daughter to write a guest blog post.

I come from a family defined by two things. One, their intelligence and two, their creativity. My father is a computer programmer as well as a talented artist. My mother, sharp as a tack, has a voice like an angel. Also, she cooks like nobody’s business. And if anybody dares to think cooking cannot fit under the definition of art, they’re an idiot. To eat a delicious meal is to experience a three dimensional masterpiece of the senses.

But I digress.

Lastly, there is my younger sister, who magically happened to develop a hand for drawing as well as a voice for singing  AND an evil genius sort of mind.

I, however, did not. Way to let me down genetics.

I spent most of my life trying to come to terms with the fact that I was just the smart one. Creativity had escaped my genetic makeup. All hope was lost.

That is until a few weeks ago…

Two of my co-workers, who are each planning separate weddings, were discussing their progress at work.

“Hey, I found a photographer!” exclaimed Bride Number One in excitement. “For four hundred dollars!”

“”Four hundred??” I ask incredulously. “Are you kidding me?”

That elicited chuckles of pity. Apparently, my naiveté had struck again. Oh how little I knew of the world for she proceeded to inform me, “Yah, that’s pretty cheap. I had another guy wanting to charge me $2,000.”

I could not contain my disbelief again and blurted out…

“Oh my gosh, are you kidding? I could take your pictures for you!” 

Let me explain. Through the years I’ve actually attempted to break the chains that DNA held me with by dabbling in several artistic outlets. Guitar, piano, mime. Photography was the only one that held potential. I had taken pictures here and there. Pictures over which I could feel some actual pride. Yet, it fell to the wayside as life found a way to crowd itself in. And my ADD like "blurtation” was a joke. Which was apparently lost on my co worker as she pressed the matter, intrigued.

The next thing I know I’m staying up until One in the morning editing pictures to add to my portfolio. (Giggling at the fact that I got to use the word, portfolio. It’s so, dare I say it… artsy!) With the help of Walgreens.com I put together a 20 page, hard cover book, chalk full of MY own photographic work. It was beautiful.

I nervously wrung my hands as my co-workers leafed through the book a few days later. And to my surprise, they liked it! Not only did they like it, they raved about it. Showered me with compliments. It was a foreign experience to me, being praised for my artistic talent. Strange, but wonderful.

Now, contracts to photograph both of their weddings are in the works. Not bad for “just” a smart girl. In your face, Gregor Mendel.

…Cuz, you know, he’s the father of genetics. And I was talking about genetics earlier, and being limited by my own building blocks… Never mind.

So Where’s Your Post on DIY configuration of Twitterfeed with my URI from Yahoo Pipes? Hmmm?

Okay, okay…I’ve procrastinated long enough.

So, in my last installment I stepped through the process of creating a very simple Yahoo! Pipe to search using the keyword “bullying”. We now have an RSS feed that returns the results of that keyword search, but how do we pump that RSS feed over to say, our Twitter account?

Your perseverance is about to be rewarded, O Patient One.

The next step in our process is to scurry on over to Twitterfeed: http://twitterfeed.com/


If you don’t have an account yet, the registration process is a cinch: enter an email address and password (confirming the password) and click the “Create Account” button to create your new Twitterfeed account.


You’ll next be presented with a screen to define your first Twitterfeed. Hopefully, you’ve still got the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) that you copied from Yahoo Pipes in your clipboard; you’ll need to enter a name for your new feed and paste the URI in the “RSS Feed URL” field.


To test and ensure that the connection between Yahoo Pipes and Twitterfeed is working, click the “test rss feed” button. You should get a screen similar to the one below:


Click on the “Advanced Settings” link and we’ll do a little more configuration: select a value for Update Frequency and number of posts. If you received the message “Feed parsed OK, but due to missing pubDates make sure you select ‘Post new items baed on GUID’ in Advanced Settings below” in the previous screen, select “GUID” in Post Sorting. Finish by clicking on “Continue to Step 2”.


The next screen lets you select a feed publishing destination. Since we’re pushing the results of the Yahoo Search to Twitter, let’s select Twitter. We’re going to connect this Twitterfeed to our Twitter account, but we’ll need to give Twitterfeed permission to post updates to our account. Click on the “Twitter” link.


The screen updates to allow you to select a Twitter account. Of course, since Twitter’s switched over to oAuth (Open Authentication) security, we’ll need to take a little side trip to authenticate. Click the “Authenticate Twitter Using oAuth” button.

You’ll be asked to allow a third-party application, in this case Twitterfeed, to have access to your Twitter account. Since there’s nothing nefarious involved here, let’s go ahead and click the “Allow” button.


You’ll be returned to the Twitterfeed page, secure in the knowledge that Twitterfeed and Twitter are now the best of friends! In fact, Twitterfeed likes your Twitter account so much that it now displays the name of your account as the “Authenticated Twitter Account”, as seen below. Click on the “Create Service” button.


Click on the “All Done!” button.

Happy, happy, joy joy! You’ve created your feed!

How to use Yahoo! Pipes and twitterfeeds to Automatically Power Your Twitter Content Stream (The Easy Version)

I figured that when I followed someone like @AskAaronLee, a guy that has over 148,000 followers, I’d probably glean some useful tidbits of Twitter wisdom.

Oh, and then some.

Aaron has a guest blog by Dino Dogan on how to use Twitterfeed to create automated Twitter content from RSS feeds of your own blog or your favorite content providers. Dino’s post even includes some great screen shots showing how to configure Twitterfeed.

And Now…The Requisite and Not Quite So Camouflaged Shameless Self-Promotion
Dino’s guest post got me to thinking: last year when I created my custom application "TweetieBot" to automate my Twitter updates, I decided to leverage Cloud resources by using Google Alerts for content. I configured about 30 different alerts with keywords such as “parenting tips”, and “child safety” that I would have emailed to me on an “as-it-happens” basis.

I then wrote a VBA script to parse the Google Alert emails in OutLook and then save them in a SQL Server database. TweetieBot would then select a URL at random and automatically update my “twittifamily” Twitter account every five minutes.

(Then, there was the oAuth meltdown…part of the reason I left Twitter for a year. Don’t get me started on THAT subject.)

So that was my plan for World Domination and creating an automated stream of content for my Twitter account.

Now TweetieBot worked great for me, but it’s not a solution that can be duplicated for other folks. But, after reading Dino’s article, it occurred to me: Google categorizes its news by topic and publishes via RSS. What if I syndicated an RSS stream from Google to Twitter? After an abortive attempt using Google search, Dino suggested that I use Yahoo Pipes instead.

Eh?

Like Ben Kingsley said: “It’s all about the data…”
Wikipedia’s entry says that Yahoo Pipes is “a web application that lets you create data mashups that aggregate web feeds, web pages, and other services, creating Web-based apps from various sources, and publishing those apps.”

I think of Yahoo Pipes as a simple and elegant way for you to move data around from one part of the web to another.

You’ll find Yahoo Pipes at http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/. If you don’t have a Yahoo ID, you’ll need to register for one before proceeding.

Once you’re registered with Yahoo, click the “Create a pipe” button.

You’ll be presented with the Pipes Editor below, a clever little beastie that allows you to visually design a “pipe” through which content will be “pumped” from a source, modified according to any rules you wish to define, and then pushed or published out to a destination somewhere else. (Like your Twitter account, natch. How’s it get there? Stay tuned, True Believer.)

You’ll see the three sections of the editor: library to the left, debugger at the bottom and the canvas in the middle.

The Library is a collection of “modules” or tools that we’ll use to perform work. The “sources” section of the Library contains modules that represent sources of data on the web.

In the Library, click and drag on the the source named “Yahoo! Search”. Or, you can click on the plus sign (+) in the “Yahoo! Search” button.

This places a Yahoo! Search module on the the canvas, as well as a pipes output module. More on that little guy later.

The next step is to define a Yahoo Search using keywords, much like you would do if you were on the Yahoo! Home Page. This assumes that you have something that you’re looking for in the first place.

Keywords, Or My Yahoo! Search For Meaning
One of the folks I’ve met on Twitter is a courageous young lady named Catherine Grant (@CatiGrant), a victim of bullying in junior high and high school. She’s taken that experience and transformed it into positive activism by promoting an anti-bullying campaign on http://www.stompoutbullying.org/blog/?p=95.

She also recently appeared on the Dr. Phil Show in an episode focusing on bullying.

So, with our hats off to Cati, let’s define a Yahoo Search for the keyword “bullying”. We’ll simply type the word “bullying” in the “Search for” text field. You may, of course, use whatever keywords your little heart desires.

With the Yahoo Search module selected (you can tell because the module’s title bar is orange), you’ll notice that an interesting thing happens: search results will appear in the debugger along the bottom of the screen. Our search ran successfully!

But to complete our pipe, we need to connect our Yahoo Search module to the pipe output module: click on the connector on the bottom of the Yahoo! Search module, and drag it to the connector on the top of the pipe output module.

Click the “Save” button in the top right portion of the toolbar, give a name to your pipe and click “Save”. Then click on the “Back To My Pipes” link to navigate to a list of your pipes.

Our latest creation, “YP_bullying” appears at the top of the list. We’ve created the pipe, now we need to let consumers in the Cloud know about it.

Click on the name of your new pipe; this will bring up the pipe’s description page, complete with sample content. Click on the “Get as RSS” button.

Now, you’ll get a face full of RSS feed, but what we’re really after is the URI. Copy that baby out of the address bar.

Next Installment: Wherein I Show You What To Do With The URI. Because it’s late and I’m tired of making screen dumps.

Unless you can’t wait and you want to take go over to Aaron Lee’s blog and check out his instructions.