It began with good intentions.  An application to finish that was six months overdue and the core of my start-up.  By years end I’d made less progress than in the last six months of 2008.  Go figure that, I can’t…

It began with the bush-fires, a month of interruption in itself.  The first anniversary of those fires is this Sunday 7th.  You’d not believe me if I stated the state government here had done virtually nothing at all to address the core reasons for those fires and that they’ve proven, yet again, that preferences from other parties and latte environmentalists in the inner city are a greater concern to them.

Without dragging out the interruptions in too much detail a damaged shoulder followed, then a hand in plaster after an operation, frequent interruptions in respect of my involvement in politics  it would be fair to say I lost at least four solid months, punctuated by two month intervals of getting anything done at all.

So yeah. Glad to see the back of 2009.  We did incorporate, that was a positive, and two applications were released that I mentioned here at the time.

2010 did start a bit rocky when I managed to give myself second degree burns on my left hand, three weeks later still bandaged. < Note to self.  Lawn Mowers get hot after use, they bite when lifted by carburettor. >

Then the development machine monitor died. Exactly one month to the day out of warranty.  Repair price?  Twice retail price paid.  I now buy wholesale so for $20 more than the price of a 22″ I bought a 24″.  No room on desk now for two monitor setup I was planning.  New desk first. 

So am getting prepped now to get serious again.

Across on his blog, Steph has some really positive things to say about 2009 and his business.  So if I’ve managed to depress you get on over to Follow Steph and a dose of good news.

Updating CMS

As you probably guess this blog runs on WordPress.  In fact so do most of my product sites.  My first “roll your sleeves up, mate” exercise this year has been to begin moving the whole lot from WordPress to WordPress MU – the multi-site edition.  This is actually pretty cool.  One installation of the software on an account on the server delivering multiple websites.  There are a few tricks to pull this off and in the next few days I’m going to document them in an article here should others decide in the future to do the same.

It’s not hard, rather it just needs to be done in the right order and tracking down the doc’s to do it can be tedious.  It might save somebody some time, beyond just being interesting in general.

Progress So Far

To date this blog – www.davidscottkane.com , which you’re reading now, www.mixactionmultimedia.com.au the company site (needing lots of data added to it, not written that yet), www.MixingPress.com – our audio related “magazine” style site and www.kliknmix.com one of our product sites have all been transferred to the WordPress MU installation and are settling in.  The rest will follow.

Note – there is no limit in WordPress MU as to how many sites you run off a single install – but your physical hosting account may well set some limits.  I’ll also include some info on basic requirements and some info on how I structure the server.

The benefit of doing this is multi-fold.

• First one install of the software means lower use of server resources.  CMS software is hungry and does use more resources than a basic HTML site of similar traffic levels.
• Secondly when an upgrade or security fix comes through for WordPress MU, or a plug-in, all sites get the update because they all use the instance of the software.
• Finally – WordPress.com runs thousands of sites off single instances of WordPress MU so it’s been pretty thoroughly road tested.

Next post I’ll document the process.

Scott Kane

==========================================================

An Australian ventriloquist visiting New Zealand walks into a
small town and sees a local sitting on his porch patting his
dog. He figures he’ll have a little fun.
Ventriloquist: Hey, good looking dog, mate. Mind if I speak to
him?
New Zealander: The dog doesn’t talk, you stupid Aussie.
Ventriloquist: Hey dog, how’s it going old mate?
Dog: Doin’ alright.
The New Zealander is shocked!
Ventriloquist: Is this Kiwi your owner? (Pointing at the New
Zealander?
Dog: Yep.
Ventriloquist: How does he treat you?
Dog: Real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food,
and takes me to the lake once a week to play.
The New Zealander can’t believe his ears!
Ventriloquist: Mind if I talk to your horse?
New Zealander: Horse doesn’t talk either.
Ventriloquist: Hey horse, how’s it going?
Horse: No worries.
The New Zealander’s mouth is agape.
Ventriloquist: Is this your owner? (Pointing at the New
Zealander?)
Horse: Yep.
Ventriloquist: How’s he treat you?
Horse: Pretty good, thanks for asking. He rides me regularly,
brushes me down often, and keeps me in the barn to
protect me from the elements.
The New Zealander is TOTALLY amazed!
Ventriloquist: Mind if I talk to your sheep?
New Zealander: The sheep’s a liar.

==========================================================

<With apologies to any Kiwi readers!    >

Last year, around December, Steph published his first paperback book called “Blog Blazers”.  He was kind enough to send me a review copy at that time, which I’ve been reading.  Normally I go through a book in a few days, like most developers seem to do.  However this time it’s been different.  I’ve been slack mostly because I’ve been flat out with learning .Net after switching from 13 years with Delphi, building three websites of my own, maintaining this blog and working up another site for an Australian political party. Not forgetting family and coding three software projects – and losing nearly all of February and part of March due to the impact of bushfires, a shoulder wound and, well, you get the picture!

OK.  I thought it best to establish the above first off the bat – that I did receive the book as a review copy.  Only fair I point that out, the links here like all the links on this blog however are not loaded with any affiliate mumbo jumbo so if you click them you can rest assured that if you purchase something I’m not making a cent if that makes you feel better. 

Basically Blog Blazers is a series of insightful and a frequently illuminating glimpses into the minds, practices and methods of some of the Internets savviest bloggers.  I gained quite a bit from the book for myself, in some cases affirmation of some of the things I do and as always a few things I’m not so sure of, with a plethora of things I’m now trying out. 

Some bloggers in there truly are exemplar in terms of how to go about blogging.  In fact the chapters for each interview are literally the who’s who of the blog world in many respects, in itself a major achievement for Steph.

It’s an easy read and it paces well.  I enjoy reading books where I feel I’m part of the conversation while learning new things.  Steph captured this beautifully.  The questions are specific enough to illicit the relevant answers while retaining enough scope to pull in some extra juicy bits.

If you’ve never done an interview you might not appreciate how difficult that is to achieve.  So I was impressed with this.

Rather than go step by step through each chapter or review the details of the book in depth, as there really are some great reviews already written both on the Blog Blazers website and on Amazon (search for it there it’s available), I’m going to offer a slightly different take. It’s this. 

Blogging may not be for you as a Micro ISV, which most folks who read this blog are.  While I think you’re making a mistake not having a blog – and missing out on a lot of fun and satisfaction, not to mention free search engine traffic  I can understand many of the reasons that some Micro ISV’s are uncomfortable with having one.  Understand mind, but I can not condone. 

Having said that.

I’m a huge proponent of content based websites for driving search engine traffic.  I’ve blogged about it here time and time again.  Frankly if you’re not serving content, articles, from your site you really aren’t serious about doing business.  I mean that.

A brochure and nothing but the brochure style website of so many Micro ISV’s is like having a billboard on the road to nowhere.

This is not 1995.  The Internet is now full of people – read your customers –who are decidedly non tech savvy folks that don’t know an NNTP based Usenet group from NCC-1701. 

In other words unless you create it, maintain it and publish it yourself you’re business might as well be made of electricity, as it’s a virtual blackout from an SEO perspective!

Don’t hand me that forlorn excuse of “I can’t write” either.  It doesn’t cut the mustard unless you’re illiterate which is highly unlikely as you’re reading this blog and developing software.  If you know your market then you have something to say that people (potential customers) want to hear.  If you don’t know your market then I suggest gently that you’re in the wrong game.

This is the thrust of why, I believe, as a Micro ISV, you need to read this book.  Here it from the horses mouth as it were.  The folks in this book know their onions, they consistently achieve results and the psychology used by them for their blog is no different than the psychology you need – must – apply to generating content for your site.  I’d go further in fact and say: Whether you have a blog or not.

It’s an easy read, it really is, providing your local area doesn’t get hit by 47 degrees Centigrade heat-waves and 5,000 sq kilometre fire-storms you’ll finish it in a few days.

You’ll come to understand why content truly is king, in case you’re one of those mISV’s who’s still resisting this reality,  and some of the ways you can carve out a piece of that kingdom for your own Micro, or not so Micro, ISV.

Then again – you could not read the book and keep wondering lamely or posting ineffectually on forums asking why you’re business never seems to grow.

Your choice.  Hint – I’m not recommending the last course of action above.  Buy the book already!

http://www.blogblazers.com/

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:
Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow. – Jeff Valdez