René O'Deay gBlog

"Want us to sell your books? Then you'd better let us print them, says Amazon. And oh, by the way, this is not an ultimatum."

Amazon pulls a Microsoft | Computerworld Blogs: "According to a Wall Street Journal story today, Amazon is demanding that any publisher that uses on-demand printing in publishing its books use Amazon's BookSurge print-on-demand services if they want their books sold on the top-ranked book e-tailer's Web site."

Some POD publishers have already had their "Buy Button" pulled on Amazon.

Authors and small press publishers are in shock. A veritable firestorm is brewing on the web as threats of boycotting Amazon spring up on blogs and websites of publishers and authors. Some of the sites blogging or posting about this include several Yahoo groups: SelfPublishing, Pod publishers, with a response from Amazon's CEO , on WritersWeekly , which has a growing list of other online posts, such as "Amazon Deletes Competition", "Use BookSurge or Die!"

PublishAmerica is first to feel the shock as many of their "Buy Buttons" have been replaced by "See All Buying Options" button.

Check results on Amazon by publisher, author or book title at Aaron Shepherd's amazing tool: SalesRankExpress.

What is dismaying is how poor BookSurge and CreateSpace sales rankings are on Amazon. Researching a POD or small-press publisher, use the SalesRankExpress tool for fast results.

What is amazing is some of the authors who do show up now using BookSurge or CreateSpace. Mostly for their Long tails/backlists.

All this clarifies what POD publisher to use for my first books. CreateSpace has little or no novels on their list yet. Maybe I'll be the trailbreaker.

René O'Deay

UPDATE: Warning! If you go the PhotoshopExpress site, it will tell you you need FLashPlayer 9. Don't download it from Photoshop Express! All your flashplayers will disappear. You will not be able to view any flash on websites, etc.
And to top that off, the Adobe site where you get the downloads/upgrades, won't let you get the earlier versions!
You can successfully get the new flashplayer by following instructions for uninstall and install from the Adobe site, remeber to run Repair Permissions between each operation.

By AMANDA FEHD, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 27, 9:45 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop on Thursday launched a basic version available for free online.
San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems Inc. says it hopes to boost its name recognition among a new generation of consumers who edit, store and share photos online.
While Photoshop is designed for trained professionals, Adobe says Photoshop Express, which it launched in a "beta" test version, is easier to learn. User comments will be taken into account for future upgrades.

Source: news.yahoo.com via René

Tags: beta | San Francisco | San Jose | Adobe | easier | express | LAUNCHES | online | photoshop | professionals | Tech & Biz | Technology | thursday | user | version | Web

New Orleans Time-Picayune at NOLA.com is the top online news site:

A national organization called the Media Audit has just ranked The News’ two Web sites (buffalo. com and buffalonews.com) fourth in the nation among newspaper Web sites, based on the percentage of adults who have visited in the past 30 days. The top sites are those of the New Orleans Times Picayune, the Washington Post and the San Antonio Express News.

Source: buffalonews.com

See the Media Audit Nov. 2007 newsletter about it.

Tags: New Orleans | San Antonio | Washington | achieving | days | Hours | minutes | news | Site | Technology | Web

Pitt Unveils New Project in Interview

To get in on the Pink Action with Brad and Angelina check out the Make It Right website.

I'd call this an interesting campaign with an innovative interactive use of the internet to get the public involved in this project.

I also have a lot of respect for Brad and Angelina finding such incredible beneficial uses for the celebrity status they possess.

I like the Concordia and the GRAFT(shown) designs the best of the 13 architects' visions shown on Make it Right.


Which one do you like?

Be sure and let us all know in a comment.

René O'Deay

So far, the best new widget was the Blidget. You can see it on MySpace site. See the link in sidebar.
Blidget site

NeoWorx NeoCounter, NeoEarth and NeoFlags are really cool looking. BUT will mess up your sites, with long-loading codes, and other vulnerabilities.

As you can see, my Tales of Tut Blog is BACK ONLINE!

Removed most of that code, except in one post. Which I cannot delete yet.

So I do Not recommend using NeoWorx scripts as pretty as they are.

And it is possible that those scripts messed up this blogger install also, since links disappear in my Safari browser.

Well, just an update for my visitors and fans, and a warning.
Even social bookmarking, networking can expose you to dangers, especially if you're on a pc, use Windows and/or use IExplorer browsers.

So, test your site when you add a widget or script. If it acts funny at all: Take it off right away.

And, meanwhile back at the ranch, I have to go try to fix up the damage done, instead of doing the fun part: creating new articles to post.

One more update: Be wary of not Logging Off!
Every time you leave a site that you have logged onto, you carry that info with you to the next site you visit. According to web security warnings, LOG OFF. Preserve the privacy of your emails, and even passwords, and the security of your websites and blogs.

René

Cool observations from Croatia on probable success of new Ventures on the Web with Web 2 Tech.

Internet is going forward so fast it is extremely hard to catch up. Web 2.0 sites are growing around like mushrooms after the rain. Few years back there where just a few such sites but now there are so many of them that if I put every icon bellow this post, the footer will be half the page big. What is that telling us? Internet is growing, market is changing rapidly, and there are enthusiasts like Ricardo Galli who make such wonderful software for free for everyone to use. Entire new businesses can grow around such free software, great projects, marketing schemes. Now everyone with some guts can try to create Web 2.0 site and become the competition to the greatest in the business. And that is something I really love on the Internet.

Even those marketing gurus, how they like to call themselves, are pushed to their limits. Their ideas which lead them to the great income are becoming obsolete, so they write a book and sell it making more money in the process. At the same time they must find new ways to remain in their high chairs and new ways to make profit. After reading many of those “Earn with …” or “The best way to get money…” or something something books, I realized there are only few trick of the trade. It is quite simple really. So here is what I realized:

Heartening news for the new Marketers of the Internet.
See the rest of her article on:
Web2 Marketing News

Just found out I have made a huge mistake, a mistake that is costing me plenty.

So I need a good laugh.

Guy Kawasaki posted a story this week about a friend who just released a book called The Big Curmudgeon: 2,500 Outrageously Irreverent Quotations from World-Class Grumps and Cantankerous Commentators.

For those of you interested in getting Curmudgeon laughs now there's an online site with subscriptions available for a 'Daily Dose' you can post on your site and a newsletter providing you five new quotes daily, "Curmudgeon-Online".
Troll through the Library. Some of the quotes are quite funny. You're bound to find some that will make you laugh.
An example:
"In a few minutes a computer can make a mistake so great that it would have taken many men many months to equal it." unknown author.

And how about this one on Guy Kawasaki?


Be careful, if you click on the cartoon, it will take you to BLaugh, not Kawasaki.

Ever tried hiding your email addresses with codes or scripts.
Did it work? Not for me, until I figured out an 'evil trick' to play on the spammers and their harvesters.

Here's what I tried first:
One good script that doesn't quite work:
Hiding your email with javascript , by reconstructing the html code, as the coder said "adding this script to your page will not make a difference in whether your email is harvested", since they are now using your domain names to generate guesses on email boxes.

Heres one code from EmailObfuscator
yourname@yoursite.com
<---a href="mailto:yourname@yoursite.com">yourname@yoursite.com<---/a---)
I have tried this it doesn't stop the spam. In fact I got more.
So you try this one : insert an email link on your spelled out email address: moreinfo at yoursite dot com more info at yoursite dot com and Substitute your email and site info.
Then test it. Check all your boxes, show all headers in the email you get.

Wow! This technique just generated More emails and more addresses for your boxes! You can also try the same text without adding the email link. Add just the text into the address line on your email composer to test it yourself, and send. The harvesters just copy the text into their email and there it goes. Try it you'll see.

Try this trick on the Spammers and their harvesters:

This little trick has now slowed my spam down to a trickle, and to just about none on some of the boxes that collected a lot, hundreds, of spam.

<---a href="mailto:dot%20com"--->moreinfo at yourwebsite dot com<--/a-->
When you insert the email link, edit the link by removing your site name from the html code, just leave "dot com" in it. moreinfo at yourwebsite dot com

If users really want to email you, they will copy the text and edit it.
Too much work?
Too bad. They did not really want to contact you.
And since this spam epidemic has reached worldwide, reasonable users will understand.

Don't believe me yet?
Try out the links to encoders on this site and test them throughly before installing on your websites.
spam.abuse.net

Links:
Wikipedia
on Spam , definitions of Spam.

Sites with info on Spam:
Spam
Abuse net

This trick tip won't stop the Spam right away, but you should notice it slowing down.
Do let us know how it works for you.

In Search of Adam
Caroline has incredible journey to publication of her book "In Search of Adam".
She launched her website and a very personal blog in August, 2006, which got the attention of an editor of a new publisher, Fridays Project, from the UK not long after starting. Six Weeks?

And then! They offered her a contract! All this within a couple months!

Her book, In Search of Adam, is coming out in June 2007 in the U.K. Not only that but foreign rights are also being sold, just in: the newest, an Italian publisher: Newton Compton Editori, has bought the rights and will publish and translate in Italian.

Wow! What's her secret?

What did she use for keywords, site description, and how did she get readers/bloggers to comment?

Check out her site and her blog to follow her incredible success story: her blog