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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The following is a guest post about something that I think will be on everyone’s mind as we begin a new year: saving money.  Trisha Wagner has outlined some very direct and easy-to-follow tips for making the most out of your budget in 2010.  Now if only I can get her to author a post on saving time so that I can blog more often…that’s next on my list.

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How you manage your personal finances plays a crucial role in your short and long term financial security.  Every person is different and faces unique challenges based on their own financial situation.  There are however three problematic areas that many people agree can lead to financial disaster.  They include; having too much debt, too little savings and not enough money (income) to remedy either situation.  For people struggling with limited resources, eliminating debt and building savings can add a lot of stress to an already difficult situation.  Fortunately saving money does not have to be a stressful endeavor.  Here are a few tips that can take the stress out of saving money.

• Make it automatic-  It is a proven fact that when people have to physically manage their cash, there is a tendency to spend money on unnecessary purchases.  If you have trouble getting your money into your savings account eliminate the temptation of spending that money elsewhere by having it automatically deposited into your savings account.  Determine how much money you can comfortably afford to deposit each pay and have that amount transferred from your paycheck to your savings each pay period.  Most people are surprised how easy it is to forget about that money when they don’t “see” it each pay.
• Saving to save-  Many people claim they simply do not have enough money to sacrifice even a small portion to savings.  In most cases there are areas in your life where you spend money unconsciously.  Track your spending for a minimum of one week, preferably one month to see where you are losing money on unnecessary purchases.  Consider services, memberships and subscriptions that you currently have to determine if that money could be put to better use elsewhere.  Unless you are facing a true financial hardship you can likely come up with a decent amount of cash to contribute to your savings by simply not wasting it in other areas of your life.
• Budget savings-  The benefits of having a budget have been well documented yet many consumers still do not have a household budget in place.  Every dollar should have a job and it is your responsibility to assign where your money will be spent.  By including your savings in your budget you automatically know where that money is going and will be less likely to find other uses for that cash.
• Have realistic goals-  Due to the recession individuals may find themselves having trouble balancing all of their financial obligations.  If it is unrealistic for you to contribute the recommended 10% of your earnings to savings then find a number that works for your situation.  The key is realizing that every little bit adds up and even small contributions made on a regular basis will help build savings that can be used in an emergency or toward other financial goals.

Saving money in the current economic climate may be a difficult task for individuals facing tough times, however it is necessary to ensure financial security.  By building a cushion of “extra” money you actually reduce the stress of living paycheck to paycheck.  In addition to having back up money for emergencies you also put yourself in a position to invest future savings for long term growth.  Use these tips to take the stress out of saving money and save yourself the real stress of living without savings.

Trisha Wagner is a freelance writer for DepositAccounts.com, where you can compare rates of checking accounts from dozens of banks in one place. Trisha writes regularly on the topics of personal finance and savings accounts.

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photo credit: voobie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinish/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Cigar maven Peter Modeste and his wife Pamela..

Hello again faithful readers.  I’ve been a bit sparse in posting lately, as I’ve been traveling quite a bit for my day job.  The upshot is that I’ve been been on numerous flights where I’ve actually gotten to meet some interesting people.  It seems like most of the time that I fly that most people just want to keep to themselves and not be bothered to have a conversation (if there are any of you in my readership, could you please explain this to me in the comments?).

On one of my recent flights, I had the privilege of being entertained by the wit and wisdom of Peter Modeste, founder and cigar-smoker in chief for the recent startup Don Pedro Cigars.  In addition to our plane conversation, the Don was willing to answer some questions for the blog.

A former innovator and business success in the bio-tech industry, Don Pedro is one smart and savvy guy.  As you might gather from his responses, he’s incredibly passionate about what he does, which is the hallmark of any successful entrepreneur.  Like my earlier interview with Patrick Smith, I’ve asked Peter about the role of interactive and social technologies in his new business, and I think you’ll find his responses both insightful and entertaining.  And if you’re anything like me, there’s something fascinating about the “finer” things in life, and the connoisseurs of said things, as it seems that the more your know about what you’re experiencing, the better the experience.  So enjoy.

[Full disclosure: I do smoke the occasional cigar, but know little about how to truly enjoy it.  This page on Don Pedro's website really helped me out, and I look forward to feeling a little more like James Bond at the next Bachelor party I attend.  Also, I don't receive any kickbacks from these small businesses - I do this because I'm interested in what makes them tick and I love to provide some exposure to other industries that the readers may know little about.]

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Tell the readers a bit about your business. What do you sell?  How are you selling it? (please insert shameless plug here.)
We started Don Pedro Cigars as a way to perpetuate the lifestyle and heritage of fine cigar enjoyment. Our brand, a selection of hand-rolled cigars from Puerto Rico, is quite simply, among the best premium cigars available in the market today. The mixture of the famed filler tobaccos from Puerto Rico, which is grown at higher altitudes in rich soil that is devoid of chlorine (giving the tobacco an aromatic and free-burning quality), are custom blended with selected Cuban-seed tobaccos grown in other countries to produce a unique and exotic cigar with a perfect balance of flavor, subtle complexities, and richness.

Since we launched website in June of 2008, we have penetrated the market and establish our cigars as an exotic alternative to mainstream brands, and have grown to be the Internet’s #1 source for hand-made cigars from Puerto Rico. The geographic range of our customer base now spans from coast to coast in the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, and the US Virgin Islands.

Currently our cigars are sold exclusively through our e-commerce website at www.donpedrocigars.com, and plans are underway to launch a very upscale “Brick and Mortar” social lounge facility in 2010.

What impact has the recent Big Tobacco legislation, lawsuits, etc., had on the cigar business?  What makes cigars different?
That’s a great question and a comprehensive answer might be a bit lengthy, but if you indulge me I’ll do my best to be brief. We recently discussed this topic in the last issue of our quarterly newsletter called “The Cigar Buzz”. Basically the new [from Andy:this link is to a PDF] Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed into law on Monday June 22, 2009 by President Barack Obama, gives the Food and Drug Administration oversight over tobacco products. So for enthusiasts and business owners alike, the potential impact is of great concern throughout the country.

Well, there appears to be some relief in the law for cigar smokers, since cigars appear not to have been included under the legislation’s umbrella. As such, preliminary indications from industry experts suggest they do not expect the law to have a direct impact on the cigar industry; at least not in the near-term.

Many people incorrectly try to group all tobacco products in the same category, which on its face is clearly absurd. The differences between cigars and cigarettes are as plain as night and day. They are manufactured, processed, and consumed differently. One is an addiction, the other is a hobby. Have you ever know anyone that needed to use a patch to quit smoking cigars? Treating cigars the same as other tobacco products simply because they are both made of tobacco makes about as much sense as treating a car and an airplane the same because they both have wheels and carry passengers.  Fortunately, our lawmakers had the intelligence and presence of mind to understand the distinctions, and as a result cigarettes are the focal point of the new legislation.

However, even though the focus is not cigars, the language and regulatory authority that it grants the FDA is somewhat ambiguous in places, which to me is a bit disconcerting. For example, SEC. 901. FDA AUTHORITY OVER TOBACCO PRODUCTS, states that it applies to “all cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco and to any other tobacco products…” It is the use of the phrases like “any other tobacco product” that I find most troublesome. Understand however, I’m not suggesting the legislation is disingenuous or unscrupulous with regard to its true intent, only that the vague terminology leaves room for the FDA to broaden its scope in the future, which could eventually impact cigars.

Forgive me for this, but when I think of cigars, I typically think of two things: old men playing cards and young men at bachelor parties.  And yet I hear that the number of women cigar smokers and up-and-coming socialites is on the rise.  Have you seen this trend?  Why?
Actually yes, I have seen this trend. You know what; there was a time when the old conservative gentleman was indeed the perception of cigars smokers, but really all that has changed now. When the “Cigar Boom” (the period from late 1992 to 1998, when cigar demand was much, much greater than cigar supply) swept the nation, it ushered in new generation of smokers. Today, the general feeling is that cigars have recaptured its traditional symbol of success, celebration, achievement and good fortune, they are appealing to a much more diverse and group – among this group are young professional adults and women.

There are various explanations for the market expansion of premium cigars, which undoubtedly include among other things, product placement in movies, of highly visible women smoking cigars, that fact that more women feel empowered and view cigars as a very public statement that they want to freely enjoy one of life’s great pleasures.

How important are social media channels to your developing business vs. more traditional marketing?  Why?
I think many businesses are beginning to understand that in today’s fast moving marketplace it is essential to integrate social media into their marketing plan and branding strategy. For Don Pedro Cigars, we plan to utilize technology better than any of our competitors, and social media is definitely vital component of our broader strategy.  The thing that we are currently working on is figuring out the best way to leverage the reach and power of social media channels while achieving balance with our traditional efforts.

Social media marketing has a lot of very attractive feature for a business owner. For instance, its relatively lower costs, its interactivity, and the ability of a well-executed campaign to reach and influence a very targeted audience are just a few. But since we view almost every strategic decision as problem solving and risk mitigation opportunity, we have taken a cautious, systematic, and methodical approach in assessing how we incorporate this important tool. Information, whether true or false, accurate or misleading, positive or negative, can propagate throughout the social web like a runaway train, and if negative it can be very harmful to our brand and counterproductive to our goals.

So while we consider social media channels to be a necessity, we also believe in pursuing a prudent, well-balanced marketing approach.

I know your expertise is in business, and not necessarily social media trends, but how do you see the social media market developing over the next few years, and how do you plan to engage it?
First, let me thank you for acknowledging that I am no “Rocket Scientist“ when it comes to my level of competency in the social media arena.  Having said that, I think that for anyone with a pulse, even a slight one, the rapid spread of the use of social media is no secret, and it is showing no signs of slowing down.

One key aspect of social media that I believe will be improving over the next few years is that we will see improvement toward more innovative measurement techniques. The old management adage that “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” is as relevant among social media channels as it has always been among traditional marketing. So I think that in the years to come we will see more accountability (i.e., calculating ROI) in marketing through social media.

If this develops as I expect, then it would allow us to make great strides in reducing the inherent risk in our overall marketing strategy. The improved measurements will guide our decisions by letting us know if a particular initiative is working or not, or if things are getting better or worse.

What are the things that social channels can’t help a small business with?
Really there is no substitute for quality products and outstanding service. And although a comprehensive marketing strategy is essential for a small business to survive, the core product/service offering, which is typically developed internally, is the foundation for building a successful organization.

Who should quit their day job and start their own business?
Ha ha! Let’s put it this way, running a business is not for the faint of heart. But seriously, not everyone is cut out to be a business owner. Notice that I said “business owner” and not “self employment”. There is a distinction between someone merely creating a job for themselves and someone building an organization that is organic and will grow with or without their daily presence.

With that said, I’ll leave out all of the obvious and perhaps generic stuff like finding something you enjoy, and having a plan, etc., and I’ll mention what I think are some of the more general things that is important for success. Anyone planning to enter into the world of entrepreneurship should do several things: 1) understand their personality and their appetite for risk, 2) be truthful with themselves about their level of business skill and acuity and know have a plan to fill any gaps, 3) evaluate their financial resources, 4) maintain a courageous problem-solving mind set, and 4) have patience.

Have you ever thought about lighting up a $50 bill instead of an expensive cigar?  Just kidding (sort of).  How do you see your business fairing in the Great Recession?
No I haven’t, but I doubt the experience of smoking cash would be as pleasurable as relaxing with one of our fine cigars your favorite beverage. As for the “Great Recession” the global economic downturn affected just about everyone. However in spite of the recession, Don Pedro Cigars has seen moderate growth. I guess in times like these, when people are measuring their success by who lost the least, any growth is a good thing. We are just grateful that our customers have responded so well to our exotic brand of cigars and are returning for more.

What is the best cigar smoking experience you’ve ever had?
I guess you saved the most difficult question for last, huh? Like most enthusiasts, I have many special cigar “moments”, and they are all special for a wide variety of reasons. At times it’s the camaraderie, at time it’s the quiet solitude or a host of other reasons. Anyway one special experience occurred about fifteen years ago. It was my first cigar smoking experience, but it left such an indelible impression in my mind, that I knew then and there I would never deprive myself the pleasure of partaking this affordable luxury.

I was going through the most difficult period in my life. I was distraught, overwhelmed, and my life was in shambles. That was when, as we walked through the streets of New York City, a lifelong friend and confidant suggested that we pick up some cigars at a local shop that hand-rolled their cigars right there on the spot. Going through the ritual of cutting and lighting the cigar seemed to take forever (there was no need to rush) and I instantly began to feel a soothing relaxation throughout my body and soul. Between the wonderfully fragrant aroma, the rich taste, and the utter euphoria, my mind became clear, more focused, and I was a peace. That single magical moment is special to me because it literally changed my life.

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I love the recurring theme of these interviews: there are no substitutes for product quality, passion, and excellent service.  I think as long as those principles remain the heart and soul of a business, rather than a brand’s identity being eroded by the need to answer to Wall Street, a true brand will always survive.

Toys ‘R Us: from kids’ playground to kids’ prison with a single promotion.

Saddening.  Sickening.  Soul-swallowing.

Three phrases that describe the end of summer, and the most dreaded of all phrases in a young person’s life: back to school.

This is a truth universal, as sure to come as the changing of the seasons.  It’s been embedded in our nation’s ethos since the industrial revolution and ensuing urbanization led to the closure of the one-room schoolhouses and the end to (most) home schooling.  And now, in a desperate play to gain market share in a weak economy, the place where kids “don’t want to grow up” suddenly transformed into another Target wanna-be (and not in a good way).  What’s next?  Despite it’s optimistically named signage, Toys ‘R Us’ “Back 2 Cool” program makes a paltry swipe at the lucrative back-to-school market and ultimately weakens the Toys ‘R Us brand.

I can just imagine the nightmarish scenario for thousands of kids across the country, their eyes sparkling with promise and wonder as they roll up into the Toys ‘R Us parking lot, anticipating the delights within.  When suddenly, the bottom of their world drops out and they realize what their Mommy or Daddy really brought them in for: pencil boxes, washable markers, and #2 pencils.

Toys ‘R Us selling school supplies is as ridiculous to me as the Mercedes-Benz minivan [full disclosure: I own a Honda Odyssey].  The best thing a brand can do is to become more narrow instead of broad (unless you happen to be a Wal-Mart), to further define a portfolio of products and services by who the company really is.  One thing about a company that has an imbalance favoring growth is that the brand gets ignored and trampled as top management seeks to drive up stock prices and profits.  Doing so for Toys ‘R Us means clearing out a huge area of floor space and adding school supplies to try to capture a few more dollars, instead of offering a consistently fun and unique shopping experience.  A place where kids “don’t want to grow up” should be filled with fun and toys that they simply can’t get anywhere else.   Calling a jumble of cardboard bins filled with cheap imported school supplies doesn’t exactly seem to fit the bill.  “Back 2 Cool” it most certainly is not.

I’m a bit late in posting this, but as many people know, July 16 is the 40th anniversary of the incredible Apollo 11 mission.  America is still the only country on earth to have put a man on the moon, and even 40 years later this is an incredible achievement of engineering and the human spirit.

As a commemoration of the event, the JFK Library commissioned wechoosethemoon.org, an incredibly rich online experience in which a user can follow multiple aspects of the historic mission in real-time as they occurred 40 years ago.  With links for social media sites, non-linear navigation, and so many different ways to experience the event (photos, video, audio recordings, etc.), I think this site is a fitting tribute to the brave men and women of the Apollo programs.

I also believe this site represents the current pinnacle of what an online experience can be – totally connected in every sense of the word.  So enjoy this site from a historical standpoint or from a modern technology standpoint, but be sure to check it out because it’s pretty amazing.

UTOPIAN Coffee Co. founders Patrick Smith (left) and Brendon Maxwell.

I’ve been writing a lot about social media lately, and I decided to have some Q&A time with a good friend that is actually using it to help power his business.  Patrick Smith is the co-founder of UTOPIAN Coffee Co., and an overall great guy.  He and business partner Brendon Maxwell (insert obligatory cheap coffee aside here) employ no full-time social media guru or consultant, and are bootstrapping most aspects of their business.  Social media presents a key marketing opportunity, and like most small business owners, it’s an avenue that they must navigate on their own.

As the coffee expert so astutely articulates, the very basics of product marketing (start with a genuinely good product) and relationships (be nice to people and they will be nice in return) are the foundations that are propelling UTOPIAN Coffee Co. forward. That and lots of caffeine.

The following is our exchange about social channels, the coffee business, and the ethics of underage coffee consumption.

Tell the readers a bit about your business.  What do you sell?  How are you selling it?
UTOPIAN Coffee Co. is a web-based quality-oriented specialty coffee micro-roaster.  That’s the official answer.  What does that mean to the average Joe/Jane?  We are uber-picky about the green/raw coffees we buy, meticulous in roasting, and we bag and ship straight out of the roaster.  This way the coffee arrives on your doorstep (anywhere in the contiguous 48) within 4 days of roasting.  Crazy fresh.

At a time when McDonald’s is undercutting more expensive coffee brands such as Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, etc., with the McCaffe versions, why do you believe your more upscale, niche product will be successful?
Great question, Andy.  I’ll answer anecdotally then more substantively.

When I was in college, I drank lots of coffee.  Knowing this, a buddy of mine bought me a freshly-roasted pound of Sumatra as a gift.  I noticed immediately that this was far superior to anything I’d ever had.  The curse came when poor, tuition-drained Patrick tried to revert to Chock-Full-o-Nuts.  NO WAY.  I literally skipped meals to ensure that from that point forward I would have good coffee around.

Driving through a coffee shop (or McDonald’s) on your way to work will cost you $2 to $5 each day five days a week.  That’s a monthly habit of $40 – $100 for 20 cups of coffee.  If you were on a myUTOPIA membership receiving 2 pounds a month you would save between $7 – $67, and it would yield 80 cups of coffee!  You’d have more money, more time, better coffee, less stress, heck I bet you’d even live longer!

On the objective end, Google Analytics allows us to simply track the sources of our traffic.  Additionally, any coupon codes we generate are always specific to the outlet through which they are disseminated.  This allows us to carefully track the effectiveness of any such campaign.

People are using social media for everything….obtaining news updates, getting shopping leads, and let’s not leave out socializing.  It leads to a smaller world, but also a smaller attention span.  In order to successfully utilize these channels, we need to remain specific, concise, and relevant.

Any plans to enter the brick and mortar retail market?
Not if I can help it!  The hours are rough, overhead is higher, & managing hourly employees is difficult.

What are the things that social channels can’t help a small business with?
Product quality.  It is one of the pillars of our business.  Social media can help with marketing, and if you’re really clever distribution, but never product quality.

Who should quit their day job and start their own business?
Anyone with a good, somehow original idea, the expertise to make it a reality, a high stress threshold, low sleep requirement, good marriage (or none at all), strong work ethic, optimistic outlook, and billionaire parents.

What advice do you have for closet tea drinkers like myself?
Switch to coffee.  It doesn’t stain your teeth as badly and is more readily accessible stateside.  No, honestly, I don’t know a load about tea.  Give some serious thought to the science of extraction when you’re tooling around with tea. You might have some fun results.  Play with variables like water purity (RO or tap), water temp, contact time, and agitation.

I know you have small children.  How early do you plan on letting them have their first cup of Utopian Coffee?
Been there. Done that. Calvin is almost a year.  He’s not super keen on coffee.

Hudson is 2 and a half.  He loves coffee.  If you ask him his favorite kind, he responds “mytopian.”  He apparently thinks that the first syllable of the word “UTOPIAN” is the pronoun “you” and than “-topian” is a separate word.  Naturally since he is referring to himself and not to you, he calls it “mytopian coffee.”  I have a photo somewhere with Hudson at 2 years old with a crema mustache from having a sip of my espresso.

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Thanks Patrick, and if you ever get a hold of some high quality imported teas, I’ll be first in line.

You can follow UTOPIAN Coffee Co. on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/UTOPIANcoffee

Photo Credit: Johnathan Beard

Disturbing, but not at all surprising.  That’s what I think of the story featured on the Associated Press titled, “Do “I’m on vacation” posts pose security concerns?“.  In it, the author describes an Arizona couple who own two home-based businesses.  As part of their promotional efforts, both individuals Twitter regularly, up to and including their detailed vacation plans where they would be out of town for an extended trip.  The couple Twittered when they left, where they stopped, and most conveniently for the felons who burglarized their Arizona home, how long they would be gone.

It was, as far as I know, a pretty isolated incident.  But I’m not sure why.  How do celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Twitter’s #1 user with over 2 million followers, feel safe with that many people being able to know so much about their whereabouts?  Last month, Kutcher, Oprah, and several others’ Twitter accounts were hacked precisely because they were high profile users with massive followings.

Even in the tamer blogosphere , where authors generally consider their posts more carefully than a 140 character Twitter post, there was the high profile stalking of Kathy Sierra in 2007.   The author of the popular (top 50) marketing blog Creating Passionate Users felt compelled to leave the blogosphere and lecture circuit after some bad people posted her name, home address, disturbing images of her, and death threats online.

Maybe it’s just simple math.  Most people are good, but a certain percentage will always be bad.  And in America, it is generally accepted that the price of fame is a lack of personal privacy.  The more followers you have, or visitors to your blog, or Facebook friends, the more likely it is that someone you don’t know so well (or at all) could be using your full disclosure to their advantage.  And if you don’t believe me that there is full disclosure going on in social media, check out some high school kid’s myspace page.  Any of them.  You’ll see what I mean.

The last thing I want to do is to throw a wet blanket on the social media movement.  After all, I blog (putting my name as the URL!), Facebook, etc., and see the tools as very powerful to me personally and professionally.  Some of our clients are experimenting quite successfully in social media, and I think the best is yet to come.  But I also keep my family blog, with pictures of my kids and the details of our comings and goings, private and only open to people who have registered on the site.

What do you think?  I’m really curious here.  Does increased visibility always mean increased risk?  Should I unplug my computer from the wall at night just to be safe (I know someone who actually does this)?  Should I stop worrying so much and make all of my profiles totally open and broadcast my every move?  Let me know in the comments.

Thanks Meeker for the tip.

[EDIT] – I just found out that Kathy Sierra is on Twitter.  Interesting.

A few days ago, I outlined some of the horrors of my painful switch from using Blogger to using Wordpress.  Now that the anguish is beginning to fade, I thought I’d distill the steps I took (and failures I had) into a step by step guide that I wish I would have had at my disposal.  This process is definitely the easiest and safest way to transfer your Blogger blog to a Wordpress site that I know of.

First off, this guide is for people who have their own domain and webspace, and who simply use Blogger to publish their blog via FTP to their own webspace.  I found several guides for people who have their blogs hosted with Blogger (e.g., yourblogname.blogspot.com), but scarce resources for those who host their own site. This guide assumes that you have complete FTP access to your webspace (and that you know what that means).  I am not a technologist, and couldn’t write a line of code to save my life, so hopefully these instructions are easy to follow.

I moved to Wordpress because of the increased control I could get over my blog look and feel, and the ease of use of adding plugins to customize how my blog behaves.  There are some other great articles on the advantages of Wordpress if you Google “Wordpress vs Blogger”.

So here’s what you do.

Step 1: Back up everything.

One of the nice things about Blogger is that is publishes everything to HTML files and neatly-labeled folders.  It’s a weakness in some ways compared the the way that Wordpress uses a database to store most of your content, but it sure makes backing the files up easier because they are all in one place.  The best way to back up your Blogger site is to grab all of the content in your root directory (all HTML files and folders), and make a copy of it to your local computer.  I would suggest going one step further and backing it up on a CD or DVD, just in case.  You can never underestimate the power of your own ability to screw something up (especially if you’re me).

I use Filezilla as my FTP client.  It’s free, stable, easy to use and brought to you by the same open source community that produces Firefox.

Step 2: Change your Blogger hosting settings.

In your Blogger Dashboard under your blog name, click on Settings=>Publishing.  It should say at the top of the page, “You’re publishing via FTP”.  Click on the very first option below that statement, “Switch to: Blogspot.com (Blogger’s free hosting service)”.  On the following screen, give your new URL a name (it doesn’t really matter what, since this will be temporary), type in the Spam verification and click “Save Settings.”

This critical step makes sure that your Blogger blog is in a format that is easy for Wordpress to import, so don’t skip it.   If you have a high volume of traffic and don’t want to change the settings on your live site, then duplicate the blog first, and change the settings on the cloned blog rather than your original.

Step 3: Install Wordpress.

After switching hosting providers to Bluehost.com, this was a really easy process because Bluehost has a one-click install of the latest version of Wordpress. If your web host doesn’t support that, it’s still fairly easy and Wordpress will tell you how here.

You can install Wordpress in the same directory as your Blogger blog, if you’d like.

Step 4: Install the “must have” plugins and your theme.

You can always add plugins whenever you’d like, but I’ve found that installing them right off the bat is the best approach.    That way I’m not distracted with the look and feel of the site until after I’ve done all of the nuts and bolts type things that should be taken care of first.   I’m going to recommend my favorites:

1.  Askimet.  It’s so good at catching spam that it comes bundled with your Wordpress installation.  To set it up, you just need to register a Wordpress username.  The plugin will walk you through everything you need to do.

2.  All-in-One SEO Pack.  There are other SEO plugins out there, but I really like this one.  It’s updated frequently, and it helps me remember to enter all the content in where I should whenever I make a blog post.  If you don’t care about people being able to find specific posts on your site via Google or other search engines, you can skip this one.

3.  Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam.  This plugin adds a captcha to every post and lets you choose what words are displayed, which is pretty neat.  It also features audio pronunciation for the visually imparied.

4.  Google XML Sitemaps.  The easiest way to incorporate a search engine friendly sitemap into your site.  Once you set it, and tell Google Webmaster Tools where it is, you can forget it’s there. It updates automatically every time you make a change to the site and notifies Google of the change.  Simple and easy.  Again, if you don’t care about Search Engine Optimization, forget this one.

5.  Ultimate Google Analytics.  This easily implements the Google tracking code into your blog so that you don’t have to do it manually.  Google Analytics is free, and pretty comprehensive, so it’s a great tool for bloggers who want to monitor their traffic, etc.  If you don’t have a GA account, all you need is a Gmail address and you can set one up here.

6.  TinyMCE Advanced.  Last but certainly not least.  This one is of extreme importance to Blogger users because of a key difference between Blogger and Wordpress.  In Blogger, if you want to add more line breaks, carriage returns, or whatever you call them, to a post, you simply hit “enter” over and over again until you have things positioned where you want them to be.  Wordpress, in its infinite wisdom, doesn’t have that ability out of the gate, so it needs this plugin.

If you don’t install this, and try hitting the “enter” key multiple times to add line breaks to your post, Wordpress will automatically delete them.  Once you have this installed and activiated, go to Settings=>Tiny MCE Advanced in your Wordpress dashboard and click the checkbox, “Stop removing the <p> and <br> tags when saving and show them in the HTML editor”, then save your settings.  Trust me, you’ll thank me for saving you hours of frustration on this one.

Of course there are many, many more plugins available, but these 6 will give you good security, search engine visibility, and useability.  And tranquility.

There are a myriad of themes available here to change the look and feel of your site as well.  Install one that you like before you import your Blogger blog.  The reason for this is that you will likely have to make some manual formatting changes to it because it won’t import completely perfectly, and you don’t want to make formatting changes to fit the Wordpress default theme, and then fall in love with a new theme a couple of weeks later and have to duplicate your efforts.  You can start your search here, and get help installing themes here.

Step 5: Export your Blogger blog.

Now, you can try to go directly into your Wordpress dashboard and import your Blogger Blog under Tools=>Import=>Blogger.  But my experience was that this simply didn’t work for the hundreds of posts that I had.  This is really easy.  In your Blogger Dashboard, click on Settings=>Basic=>Export Blog.  Then click on “Download Blog”.  It may take a few minutes to download to your hard drive.

Please note that the file that is exported does not contain your images.  The images are only referenced as links, so unless you are a code wizard (which I am not), you’ll need to leave your old images folder from Blogger on your webspace until the end of time.

Step 6: Convert your export file to a Wordpress format.

This step is skipped by many, but man, I couldn’t make anything work without doing it.  There is a free web-application aptly named “Blogger2Wordpress” that will make the necessary changes to your export file so that it is Wordpress friendly.   Click on the link in the last sentence to go to the application.  Then, upload your Blogger export file, click “convert”, and save the result to your hard drive.

Step 7: Import your blog.

Now that you’ve converted your blog to a Wordpress format, the rest is just details.  In your Wordpress dashboard, browse to Tools=>Import=>Wordpress and upload the file you downloaded in Step 6.  Follow any additional on screen instructions that Wordpress gives you.

Step 8: Fix stuff.

Although the TinyMCE Advanced plugin allows you to use multiple line breaks to format your posts, it won’t fix the posts that you’ve just imported.  You may find other discrepancies too, such as Wordpress not picking up all of your Blogger tags, authors, etc..  Additionally, if you uploaded any videos through blogger (not just linked to them via Youtube, etc., but actually uploaded them), you will probably need to re-upload the videos through Wordpress.   That wasn’t a deal breaker for me, since I only had about 6 videos that were easy to re-upload.

Go through all of your old posts and fix them until you’re happy.  This can be a long, manual process or a quick and easy one, just depending on the content and format of your previous blog.   Test everything you can think of so that your readers don’t email you with technical issues.

Step 9: Delete or move your Blogger HTML pages.

Finally, use your FTP client to browse to your site directory and move or delete your old Blogger HTML pages.  I chose to move them into an “old_html” folder, but if you’ve backed them up you may delete them if you like.  Make sure you leave the images folder untouched.  Again, you never moved your images, just the references to the images, so leave the folder where it is.  From now on, you can choose to have Wordpress upload images into that same folder, or into a new one.  It’s up to you.

Step 10:  Get your party on.

You’ve done it!  You moved your blog and are now nestled snugly in the arms of a great open-source community.

I know a lot of other people have moved from Blogger to Wordpress and may have other tricks and tips to share.  Please let me know in the comments, and good luck!

A few days ago, I added Google Adsense advertisting to what I hope is an unobtrusive are inoffensive area of my site.  I was curious – could I make any real money by blogging?  Would the ads be relevant to my readers?  Would anyone care?

These questions put me face-to-face with the ethical dilemma I’ve been having as of late: is it unethical to block ads?

Like over 47% of the online community (as of April 2009), I use Firefox as my default web browser.   And like over 50 million other people, I use Adblock Plus and a set of filters to block out 99% of the advertisements on sites I visit.

It started out innocently enough: many years ago, I was surfing the web on a 56K modem and the ads were simply eating up too much bandwidth (especially on sites like weather.com and cnn.com, where the ads are numerous and the actual content is slim), so I installed AdBlock with Firefox, and POOF all the ads were history.

Fast forward to 2009, where broadband penetration is north of 25% for the US, and I suspect that number to be tripled or higher for content creators.  So bandwith isn’t a big deal.  True, the ads are mostly annoyances, but the ad revenue is at least theoretically what compensates the producers of content and frees those people from having to hold down another job just to put good stuff online.

So here’s the moral contract I’ve made with myself.  For blogs, news sites, Hulu, and other services that I use regularly and derive value from, I will selectively disable Adblock Plus for the entire site.  It’s the way capitalism and American consumerism works at its best – voting with our (or really the advertiser’s) money as to what content is valuable and useful to the individual.  This costs me nothing, but I believe that it will make me a better citizen of the internet.

Conversely, I will selectively block individual ads that I find to be offensive, overly obtrusive, or stupid.  Yes, that’s highly subjective, but so am I when I’m choosing what to read or consume.

As with yesterday’s example, I shouldn’t expect something for nothing.  What do you think?

Let me start out by saying that I love being a “vendor” working for a “client” 99% of the time (a good vendor is usually called a “partner”).  If you are a good match for your client, you get to do great work, shake things up a bit, and everyone, vendor included, will see valuable returns on their investments.

But being on the agency side, you also get exposed to the occasional bad apple, the type that wants you to itemize every dollar spent on an inexpensive  project and then spend a half-day meeting nitpicking every detail to see if any individual item could be “done cheaper” (and yes, that was a very painful, personal experience).

Selling services is always a tough gig, because no matter what your industry you’re always selling ideas and time, rather than widgets.  At an interactive agency, the great ideas and time produce a deliverable, but if you are in the business of selling “websites” rather than creative, engaging experiences, your product is very easy to commoditize.

But I digress.  What I love about this video is that it pokes fun at what the bad (or let’s just say inexperienced?) client is prone to do – try to get something for nothing, or try to devalue the service after it’s rendered.  True negotiation, on the other hand, is an everyday part of doing business.

A colleague of mine forwarded a great article to me called “Beware the Social Media Charlatans” by Robert Strohmeyer at PC World.  In it, Strohmeyer cautions against spending resources on the burgeoning social media consultants popping up all over the country.  The problem, as he sees it:

Combine a rapidly growing trend of social media adoption with an economy that has forced hundreds of thousands of workers to reinvent themselves as entrepreneurs, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for consultant overload.  Since nobody seems to know what the hell’s going on with Twitter anyway, nearly anyone can pass themselves off as an expert on the subject. So suddenly all those poseurs who might otherwise have bilked the hapless with offers of life coaching services or Feng Shui consulting have jumped on the social networking bandwagon. You can hardly swing a stick on the sidewalk nowadays without smacking one of these guys in the head.

While I haven’t personally been in a position to hire a social media consultant, I am ocassionally annoyed by the risible amount of self-promotion through social media channels these folks seem to require to keep their businesses going.  And I’m sure that if my livlihood depended on teaching businesses how to Twitter, I’d be pretty miffed about Mr. Strohmeyer’s article.  But then again, the term “consultant” has always been a loaded one, and I’m sure that most consultants have already come to grips with that in their own businesses.

The truth is, even at our agency, which is filled with a lot of very smart and creative people, social media has yet to be proven the panacea and/or the gold mine that a lot of marketers want you to believe.  It’s an important component to consider for some businesses and certainly valuable for individuals who want to take control of what the Internet is saying about them, but the metrics just aren’t there to support some of the radical positions I’ve heard at conferences and in the blogosphere.

But here’s my favorite part of the article:

The truth is that there are almost no rules in social networking that don’t already apply in just about any other social environment. A great many smart people have already written worthy perspectives on how to be a good citizen on Facebook and Twitter, and I hardly need to reiterate here what amounts to general common sense. Just as in life, the only rule that really matters is the Golden Rule. All the rest is either derivative, or flat-out nonsense, and you really shouldn’t be paying big bucks for either. [emphasis mine]

This is true.  Think about it.  Let’s say you went to a party where 10% of the people you knew intimately, 20% were best friends, colleagues, etc., and the remaining 70% were acquaintances, important people from another time in your life that you didn’t keep up with that often, and some people that you admire from afar as potential business connections.  I’d say that probably approximates the Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn profiles of many.  During that party, which let’s just say lasts an entire day, you update everyone you can about the fact that you’re speaking at a conference.  That’s normal, and good, right?  But here’s the thing – you probably wouldn’t tell everyone things like, “I just woke up,” or, “THESE ARE MY FIVE FAVORITE THINGS”, or “according to a survey I took, I am most like the Sex in the City character Gandalf the Orange” multiple times.

And you certainly wouldn’t want one of the people at that party to be a smooth-talking salesman for a company who’s product you might use but you don’t care much about, like soap, or paper, or maybe even an interactive agency or social media consultant!  If they had something valuable to say that was directly beneficial to you or interesting, that’s one thing, but you’d never invite a broadcaster of unwanted content to your party, at least not on purpose.  Your time is limited, and you don’t appreciate it being wasted.

Facebook recently included a “Hide” feature for removing status updates from those people that you want to stay “friends” with but are sick of hearing from.  I don’t know about you, but I welcomed the opportunity to shut out some of the noise so that I could spend my time keeping up with people who were interested in having an actual conversation.

A social media strategy for a company, or for an individual, requires the thoughtful guidance of someone who is skilled at building relationships.  And I like Robert Strohmeyer’s advice – the first rule to think about is the Golden one.