Archive for March, 2009:

How Not to Use Twitter

I have to say, I’m not a Twitter expert or fanatic or anyone who can’t wait to get home to check my TweetDeck, but I do keep up on those I’m following and enjoy posting updates. As of today, I’m following 54 people and have 47 followers. Considering the percentages, I’m just another middle-class Twitter user. Most of those I keep up  on are in the athletic world — runners, swimmers and triathletes. And then of course I have my non-athlete friends.

Every now and then I’ll get a notification that someone new is following me. I find it exciting. Who’s this new person?  What is it about me they find interesting? Usually it’s an athlete who’s into similar stuff as me. But sometimes it’s someone from a business. I’m not sure what business, so I’ll check the link in their bio. Usually within a few seconds I’ll know if we have something in common. If we do, I follow them. If not, I don’t.

A couple days ago I got a notification from a Twitter user (or company, rather) who was now following me. I checked them out and found their updates and interests… well, interesting, and something I could definitely find of value. However, over the course of a few days, as I clicked on their Tiny URLs and Sniprs and whatnot, I noticed that all their links went to pages on their site populated with nothing more than Google ads. Their titles were great too!  Seriously, they must have had tons of people going to their site based on their titles. And no doubt they’d come into a pretty clever way to drive traffic to their ads: Write an amazing title, link it to a landing page on their site with plenty of Google ads somewhat related to the topic, and pray for the golden Click-Thru. If they had a slightly different approach — say, if they’d written even just a paragraph on their site rather than just put ads up, I may have kept following. But there was nothing. And who knows? Maybe some of those ads led to valuable things. But I didn’t care to take the time. Personally, I find Google ads to be distracting and cheap when I come across them — no matter how winning the site.

So, my friends, the lesson in all this is a lesson you already know: don’t take the lazy way to quick profits. It’ll only lead down the road of No Longer Being Followed.

The Best (Free) Time Tracking Software

For the last few years I’ve used a software program called TraxTime to track my working hours (as well as non-billable hours). I got the trial version and it had everything I needed so I never upgraded to a full-service account. If you’re on Windows, this is your ticket. Not sure if they still have the free trial available but it is worth every cent of the $39 it’s currently going for.

Unfortunately, TraxTime is not available for Mac, so I’ve been desperate for another good punch-clock widget since I’ve switched platforms. Today I found a few programs and tried them out, and the best one by far was Paymo. Why is it the best? Because its free version offers more features than the other ones I tried. You probably get the idea now that I like free things. On the other hand, if it’s free and I like it, I will tell all my friends about it. I’m sure there’s a return in there somewhere.

Top 100 Skills for Today’s Environment

Elance.com has a new article on the top 100 skills for today’s economic environment. If you’re a graphic designer — great! — you’re on top. If you’re a computer programmer and know a few languages, you’re pretty set too.

Unbelievably, and thankfully, certain forms of writing are very much in demand. I think this is a result of online marketing requirements and the need for new and fresh content to be constantly generated by blogs and Web sites. That isn’t the case for other types of writing though.

Here’s a look at the top 10:

And here’s a look at my areas of interest and/or expertise:

Editing and ghostwriting are down quite a bit from last month, as is technical writing.  Blogs and freelance marketing are up quite a bit.

For the rest of the list, look at Elance’s February hiring trends.