Sebbie on the Webbie

As bloggers, we’re constantly being told that we should be keeping a keen eye on our Google Page rank as well as Alexa ranking. While it is very fulfilling to see your site ranks go up, there’s more to the story than that. As you know, both of these ranks compare your site to Every Single Website On The Web. It is hard to even comprehend how many websites that is. Even if you knew the exact number of different websites on the planet, it would still be hard to understand. It’s like knowing that Australia is a bloody big country, but you don’t really get HOW BIG until you fly over it and realise that just because you just passed Darwin doesn’t mean you’ll be home in Hobart any time soon.

It would be a lot better if there was a way to compare your site’s popularity In Your Niche, but there isn’t, at the moment anyway. That is to say that your site’s influence where it counts has little to do with your page ranks. I must give my husband’s blog as an example. He writes a blog for people who use exergaming in professional health and fitness purposes. Professional exergamers, that is. (I bet you didn’t even know there were such thing as a professional exergamer!) His blog, Exergaming Australia has a modest page rank of 2 (oh, he’s gone up!) and his Alexa ranking is around 4,600,000. Not too impressive if you just look at the numbers. However, everyone who is anyone in the field of exergaming knows who he is and what he does and his influence in the field is world wide and instant. When you google “exergaming” his blog comes up as the second result, right after Wikipedia and Nintendo Wii doesn’t even make the first page! This is because his niche is so small, that even though EVERYONE of any importance knows him, the vast majority of the web is quite unaware of what a brilliant blog he runs.

On the other hand, I run a Barbie community site, as you know, with a page rank of 4 and Alexa ranking of about 476,000, which is pretty impressive for any site, BUT, I make no money (or very little) and the English speaking world is pretty much unaware that my site exists. Put “Barbie” on Google and you won’t see my site anywhere near the top of the results, I quit searching after page 6. And that is because there are a gazillion Barbie sites out there, collectors, articles written about the doll and so forth and so forth, and not even refining the search to “Barbie community” help me much. Yes, I am bad at SEO, but my husband there is even worse.

I checked a few Barbie-sites that I know of and who are very well known amongst collectors, to see how they rank. I kicked their butt so bad, I couldn’t find an unofficial Barbie-site (non-Mattel) that would have had better rankings than I have, not even my biggest direct competitor. How much good does the rankings do for me? Not much, other than I get to pat myself in the back for beating the other sites in the numbers game, but that’s it.

So what to do? Make sure you introduce yourself to all the right people and get the word out. Do the best you can do to produce high quality content and people who do find your site may spread the word where it counts. Focusing on your page ranks is not going to bring your fame and fortune they are there just to report to you how much you’ve improved, not where you should be.

Does that make sense to you?

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If you are running an active community online, you might have considered writing a regular newsletter, then debunked the idea thinking “Everyone is here already, what possible reason would I have for a newsletter?” Check out your statistics. How many of your members have logged in since they first found your site? Quite a chunk, I would imagine. Life happens, sites are found and sites are forgotten. A newsletter is a great way to remind your non-readers that you and your community exist.

I started writing a newsletter for my community site theBdoll.com at the beginning this year. First I thought I would just write a normal email and be done with it, but a silly thing happened – I run a bilingual site, so I would need to write in two languages and the other would have to scroll down to read the email in their language. That is when I decided to make two pdf’s, one in each language. And while I was doing the pdf, I thought why not put a couple more pages into it, and ended up writing a full blown e-newsletter, as in a little magazine. My members LOVED IT. They went absolutely ballistic over it, and I was blown away by the reactions. I got email from people who hadn’t visited the site for a while saying what a great idea that was and a lot of people raised their hands saying they’d like to help me with the newsletter in the future.

The whole project has brought the community closer together and as close knit as we were, the newsletter has made us even closer – I feel.

In each of the issues I introduce two of my members. Hopefully that will make all of us look more approachable as well as interesting to the non-returners – there is a lot of different types to go around, and I’m sure eventually everyone will find someone they’ll relate to and feel safe with if they’re more quiet type. In addition to that, the newsletter, or ezine rather, contains news, the latest hot stuff and a humorous gossip column of or members dolls – we’re Barbie collectors.

Of course, not all sites have topics that allow quite that elaborate ezines, and on the other hand, your topic might be even more open to ideas, I know that each issue I’ve made has brought in another idea. Have a look at our newsletter to get ideas for yours! http://www.thebdoll.com

When we’re reliant on open source scripts, we often find ourselves in a situation, that nothing that exists out there quite fits to what we need. The more specialised your needs are, the more certain it is that there’s no such thing developed for that exact use. Take my case for example. I wanted to create an identification database for Barbie-dolls, so that the users could use drop down menu’s to select the dolls eye colour hair colour and body parts used to find the doll they are looking for. (Makes sense to a collector, trust me.) You can bet that there was nothing like that available. I tried finding general collectors items databases, without luck. Then I looked into catalogues that were supposed to be perfect for collectors… At least if you collect DVD:s or books. I tested out a few shopping catalogues hoping to find a solution, but found that they weren’t really suitable for the job, even if some managed to do what I wanted, using them would be way too complicated as I wanted a database users could add to (as there are thousands of different kind of Barbie dolls out there!)

I found my solution with a Joomla! component called Sobi 2. It is a directory component, generally used as a business directory or a real estate database or a classifieds add system. It had all the features I needed, even though I had to change some words in the language files and disable some features that didn’t fit my needs and that sort. Even though it still doesn’t work quite like one would hope if it was a custom made site, it’s good enough given the fact I paid nothing for it.

To figure out if there is a solution for you, start by listing the features you need from your site, what are a MUST HAVE, what are the ones that would be really good and what you can live without if push comes to shove. Then start thinking what “normal” scripts do the same thing – ignore words and terms, they can (most often) be changed. If your idea is a complex one, I would start looking into Joomla sites and it’s extensions, which more often than not, provide a solution. For more simpler things, think of blog tools or photo galleries, maybe even a discussion forum system?

Another tip: Be patient, and remember, that even if you can’t find anything like what you’re thinking right now, in a couple of more months there might be something available. Also, don’t waste your time on scripts that don’t work the way they are, because there’s a very small chance that they’ll work for a use they’re not intended for.

This website is like gold to open source -users. You can test out different scripts without worrying about messing them up, as the installations are returned back to the default settings every two hours. Try out the scripts at Open Source CMS.

Good luck!

If you are a parent, you might be interested to know, if you don’t already, that there are web browsers specially made for kids. (Web browser is the thing you watch web pages with, like Internet Explorer.) There are several, and as a childless by choice person I haven’t tried them, but you should! These browsers are designed to filter out inappropriate content to make the web a safer environment for your kid.

From a content producers point of view, I find it sometimes tiring having to watch my words so that kids won’t get bad influences. It’s good to know, that these products exist, and that it’s really up to the parent to utilise them and not just complain about the smut around the web. (I do enjoy my smut as in content not suitable for kids, so I like to have that option open. I also sometimes send out inappropriate content, like swearing, and whilst it might not be a lady like thing to do, I still consider it my right – and your right is to filter it out if you like.)

In addition to web browsers, there are filters that can filter the content on normal browsers. However, if I was a parent, I would get the browser, as many are brightly coloured fun looking things, that will probably be the preferred option for a kid if he or she has one available, so even if you forgot to turn your filter on after a long night at the computer… The kid would still choose to go with his own special browser.

So there’s the tip, see what’s available.

As for you who are producing adult content on your websites, have a look at this website, which will help you to self label your site to be suitable for adult audience only. Amongst other things, the filters and kids browsers look for these tags, and having one on your site will make their task easier.

Don't let the evil crim use your innocent face as his cover

Most of us have  a Facebook account, and the more popular Facebook gets, the more attractive it is for hackers, who want to use your squeaky clean profile as their cover when doing something you would never do. Hacking these days is not too difficult. I’ve tried it once, (with a test account) and without any experience got through CAPTCHA image verification using nothing but an automated program, which some people still think is impossible for a computer to do. It’s not – it will take a computer more time and more attempts than it does for a human, but it can do it through it on trial and error basis. Back to Facebook then.

Picking a strong password

Facebook hacking is done simply by finding out someone’s login (your email) and then testing out a series of letter combinations, actual words  to start with, then continuing randomly, until the correct one is found. If your password is a clear English word, it’ll be amongst the first ones to be cracked. What you want to do is pick a word you can remember, then add some numbers (in the middle) and capitalisations to it. Something like “R4nD0M612″. Pick numbers that are special to you, but not special enough for anyone to pick, such as (not) your birth date so you can remember it, then type it up a few times so you will remember it with your fingers as well, so you won’t have to keep copying because you can’t remember it.

Hide your email address like it was your passport

For sites that are very popular, and the most likely to get hacked, such as Facebook, use a separate email address that you will not be using for any other purpose than this. If you are a domain owner, this should be an easy task for you as you can just add an email address that will forward stuff to your real account if needed, but if not, try something like http://sneakemail.com/to create an additional email addresses for this use. This way it will be harder for a hacker to find out your email address you used to sign up, and makes it that much harder for him to get to your profile – and with so many easier options out there will probably leave your account alone – unless he takes it as a challenge, which I doubt, with so many more tempting targets out there…

When you change an email address to your profile, remember to remove the email address you previously had in use, as all emails stored with your account can be  used as logins. Facebook will nag to you about adding an additional email, so do the same with another email – have two complete oddity emails (such as 82ldh03@yourdomain.com.) Also, then remember to hide it from others, including your friends, because you don’t want to get email to that account anyway. You might be tempted to add another “spam account” type of email to show to your friends, but don’t, since this will function as a login to your account and you don’t want a spam-account as your login email if you want to keep your profile safe.

Then you simply have to remember which email you used to sign up and log in. You can make your computer to remember your login information, unless you use a public computer, in which case you definitely should not.

Why would anyone want to hack my Facebook account?

In addition to identity theft, which might actually be in the minority of reasons to hack someone’s account, there are other reasons for it, for example an annoyed or jealous ex… If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a couple of crazy ones in your past. School bullies use this sort of tactic a lot, and if you’re a parent, I wouldn’t rule out possible bullies using your account to torture your kid. (Imagine the horrible things they could make you say to your kid if they could use your account!) Some people enjoy simply creating a mayhem amongst people so having the login information of someone… ANYONE with a bunch of friends, could be a fantastic source of entertainment – at your expense.

Applications

Applications on Facebook are a security risk, as every time you add one, you grant an access to all your data. What is worse, a lot of the applications can access your data if your FRIEND has added an application and you haven’t told Facebook not to allow access to third party applications. I learned this the hard way: Someone of my friends added themselves to a mailing list of some product specials, and apparently gave access to my information as well. Now I get spammed continuously about products I don’t want in a country I don’t live in. (Hiding your email will also hide it from applications.)

To make sure you’re allowing your friends to give out as little information as possible, go to this address to tweak your third party application privacy settings on Facebook.

Last of all, keep the number of installed applications as low as possible, using only those that are of absolute importance to you, or applications you trust. Use applications from well known developers, and avoid things like gift apps and personality tests and all those dodgy things. While most of these are harmless, it only takes that one…

I hope you will find some peace of mind knowing you’ve done your best to close the doors on your Facebook account.

If you know some more good tips about keeping your account safe, please add into the comments!

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As a collector, I of course follow the keyword “Barbie” on Twitter. The last few weeks it’s been all about the freshly released Computer Engineer Barbie. Naturally, as the web is full of geeks, they are impressed by the new release, but at the same time hesitant to believe it would have any significant impact on children’s minds. Their concern makes me smile.

A friend of mine had the Astronault Barbie of 1985. We thought she was the most beautiful Barbie ever made, but I don’t think she ever got to the space. My fashion model Barbie, officially named Magic Moves Barbie from the same year did one session of modelling straight out of the box in Christmas ‘85, but that was the last of it. After that, she did a lot more camping than modelling. I loved that doll, but not for what was written on her box.

I think, in that regard, the Computer Engineer Barbie has a lot more chances to actually get to practise her occupation than many of her earlier name sakes did. I doubt it very much that the Presidential Candidate Barbie was campaigning much in kids plays, or that Becky the Para Olympian Barbie stayed in her wheelchair for much longer than five minutes at a time. Computer Engineering doesn’t have to take away from the play, it can actually add to it. Even though the focus of the play might be dating and doing exciting stuff, I can easily see the Computer Engineer actually popping in for some work while she’s busy with the other parts of her life. The reason being, that a lot of kids have computer engineer -parents, so they know what the heck it is about!

I don’t know about you, but I love this doll, and I’m so getting one as soon as I can get my hands on one. Even though I am 33 now, and have been obsessed with Barbie my whole life, this one is the closest to being my kind of a girl – right out of the box.

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