For the past month or so I have been using a desktop client for Google Reader called, Google’s ReadAir to efficiently read all my RSS feeds.

It’s still in the development stage but thus far I’ve had no problems with it whatsoever.

For those of you who read a lot of RSS feeds at once, this is a great option that can reduce the amount of time skimming through your feeds and clicking on headlines that catch your eye. It’s as easy as reading your emails.

Google Reader and ReadAir Are In Sync

One nice feature about Google ReadAir is that it’s connected to your Google Reader.

So if you still like using your Google Reader and add or delete a subscription here or there, that’s fine, ReadAir and Reader stay in sync (in reality they are the same account).

Installation

To install, you first have to download and install Adobe Air. Once that’s installed, you can download and install ReadAir.

Image by Swansea Photographer

Just a quick note for those of you who own websites that may collect personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

If your website is directed at and collects information from children under 13, you must comply with Federal Trade Commission and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

It basically says that you need to get guardian consent before collecting information (name, address, phone, etc.) and give some options.

From their website -

The Rule requires operators (website owners) to:

• Post a privacy policy on the homepage of the Web site and link to the privacy policy on every page where personal information is collected.
• Provide notice about the site’s information collection practices to parents and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children.
• Give parents a choice as to whether their child’s personal information will be disclosed to third parties.

Image by carf

Photos on your website are a great way to convey a message or tell an instant story to your website’s visitor.

These photos are part of your sales tools.

Of course if you have products you’re selling, you should include pictures. But I’m talking about pictures that tell a story to your visitor. The ones that spark emotional responses.

Be sure, however, the picture will convey the response you want your visitor to have. A poorly lit, slightly out of focus, or too busy photo may give your visitor a confused feeling. I have a saying which if you follow my blog and forum posts, you’ll probably see quite often: a confused mind always says no.

Pictures Of Faces

One of the most powerful photographs you can use to tell a story are pictures of faces. Perhaps it’s because we can relate to people and can read their expression and reminisce about times we’ve had that face.

Found a great website for hacking up your WordPress blog.

I found it by doing a search on how to separate my trackbacks from user comments in my comment section.

Nothing sucks more than trying to read what other users have to say in comment sections (especially on popular articles) and I have to skip through all the trackbacks. It really interrupts the conversation - but, we still all love those incoming links.

Unfortunately, there are no plugins yet that do this automatically for you, or at least none that I have seen. You will actually have to get into your blog’s php code and add a few lines. It’s super easy. Just follow the step-by-step instructions shown on the site.

My suggestion is to make sure you back up your comments.php file by copying and pasting the original code into a text file. Then if you do something wrong, simply paste that old code back into the file.

1. To optimize Wordpress for SEO, one thing you should do is make sure your “Categories” and other sidebar headers are not contained inside the header tags as it tells Googlebot the word “Categories” is an important term on your website.
2. In my opinion, it’s better to write the content on your website for humans and not Googlebot (i.e. search engines).
3. Don’t have a flash intro as your website’s landing page.

Questions? Post’em in the comment section.

Like the Confucius way of learning? Subscribe to my blog.

Hello blog readers and thank you for your subscription. As a thank you for either subscribing to or reading my blog, I’d like to extend an offer only to you.

Until May 15th those who visit my blog and would like to get themselves online, I’m offering
you a discount on our web hosting services and for no fee, I will personally install a WordPress blog on your account for you.

Here’s a snapshot of our Web Development page that shows our normal cost of 1 year web hosting and blog installation with setup:

It costs more than that to fill my car up with gas.

The offer above includes 1 year web hosting using our Business Plan which normally runs $83.40/year (monthly broken down to $6.95/month). That equals about a 45% discount for hosting alone.

The Business Plan comes with such features as:

• Free Online Website Builder
• Free Included Scripts to create forums, shopping carts, image galleries and more

Image by oberazzi (Tim O’Brien)

A quick note to thank everyone for giving Lindsey and me a week’s break from blog posts for the birth of our son, Ethan. He was born on 4/8/08 and yes, we no longer sleep!

Is a question just a question or is there a deeper meaning behind it?

When someone asks me a question, I try to look beyond the surface of what they are asking and try to find out what they truly are meaning. I find many times people don’t know how to ask for what they really want.

As an entrepreneur, it’s your job to solve problems. When people ask meaningless questions, you need to figure out what it is they truly want and then fulfill those needs for them. That’s how you win.

Let’s look at an example.