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Archives for May 2008

Desktop Blog Editing Software Roundup—Which Tool is Right for the Job?

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Blogging

Even with the development of web-based editors, there is just some things about them that do not match up to the quality of an offline editing equivalent. One day, in the future, we will find the perfect solution for a web based editor, but for now, if you are looking for speed and efficiency, you might very well use one of the applications mentioned in this roundup.

The requirements for consideration were as follows:

  1. The editor must interact with major blogging services (WordPress, Movable Type, Drupal, etc.)
  2. The editor must allow HTML editing capabilities
  3. The editor must allow the insertion of media such as images and videos.

Each application will be judged on two specific criteria—interface and features. I will then post my final thoughts in the “overall” section of each application.

So, let’s jump right into the reviews.

Mac

Ecto (ecto)

Ecto is by far my favorite tool that I have found so far on the Mac operating system. Considering that there are only two well known competitors on the Mac OS that I have heard of, the other being MarsEdit, ecto makes things interesting by providing a better set of features than their competition. This review is of the latest beta release (ecto 3.0b44) as it has performed well in a production environment—mine anyways.

Interface

The interface design is pretty good, and although there are some improvements I would like to see implemented, I am satisfied with what it offers. Contrary to MarsEdit, ecto provides more features with a nice rich text interface. I also enjoy how you can access most features with one click, as I hate having to access drop-down menus. I do wish that the tags and categories section was a little less glitchy, and I also wished that removing special formatting was easy, but fortunately, these are some things that can be addressed with a simple patch.

Features

Ecto has an impressive set of features, but I am most impressed with how little work I have had to do to setup everything. I installed the application, added my blog, and started writing. Importing media is also no big deal, and it all works very nicely. I did not notice a way to place media that already exists on the internet (like an image on Wikipedia) without having to go into the code view, and that is definitely a problem that needs to be looked at, but if you know basic HTML, this is only a minor setback. There is absolutely no reason why ecto can’t be an amazing addition to your blogging workflow.

Overall

If you are using a Mac operating system, ecto is my recommendation. This is based off the fact that I want an editor that will allow me to jump right in and be creative, not have to deal with editing markup and other things. Thankfully, ecto makes this easy by giving us a lot of control. I also really like the HTML that ecto generates. The ecto blog editor for Mac OS X is available for $17.95 at the time of this writing, and it is certainly worth every penny.

MarsEdit

MarsEdit—the more expensive option—offers a more simplistic experience, and still accomplishes what it was created to do. With MarsEdit, you are essentially given a notepad equivalent with the ability to add markup to your posts. It will appeal to those that like to interact with code, but for others, it will not be the best option.

Interface

MarsEdit features a similar interface to ecto, but there is less emphasis on the rich editing environment—fortunately, this means less clutter. Truth be told, if you enjoy manipulating HTML and having absolute control over your content, MarsEdit should be great for your needs; however, if you are looking for an experience where you don’t need to edit HTML to complete a post, then it all can end up being a deterrent.

Features

As far as features are concerned, MarsEdit does not have some key features that I would have liked to see when compared to other blog editors. There are some innovations I do like though—the ability to use AppleScript to increase the functionality of the editor is key (e.g. the ability to perform a Google search on your post) and the text (e.g. add paragraph tags automatically). Still, it could be better.

Overall

In the end, MarsEdit would be a worthwhile purchase to those that like to tinker with HTML code. MarsEdit can be purchased for $29.95, and while it is slightly more expensive than ecto, it does have better backing. I just think there is room for improvement, and ecto has the features to get the work done faster.

WriteRoom

Check out my thoughts of WriteRoom (and its Windows equivalent) here. It doesn’t meet the requirements for this roundup, but it is still a worthy editor.

Windows

Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Writer is one of the first free products from Microsoft that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Trust me when I say that I have been extremely disappointed with Microsoft products in the past; however, Windows Live Writer makes me feel like there is still hope for Microsoft to release quality software. It is a great editor, and it is free.

Interface

The interface of Windows Live Writer ties in with the rest of the Windows Live products released by Microsoft. The interface is one of the most complex of all the products reviewed. The bread and butter of the application is the “web layout” view—I absolutely love it! I think it should be standard on all new blog editors created in the future. A true WYSIWYG environment.

Functionality

It would also be a fitting end to say that Windows Live Writer has some of the most impressive features of all the reviewed blog editors—this is exactly the case. From the ability to enhance the application with plugins, to the impressive web layout view of your content, Windows Live Writer really does excel. It really ties in well with the Windows operating system, and I also enjoyed the fact you could easily add existing content from the web.

Overall

Amazingly, I believe that Windows Live Writer is one of the best products offered in this lineup—that is, if you are on a Windows-based machine. I actually believe it is quite unfortunate that Windows Live Writer is not available for other operating systems. As weird as it would be to see Windows Live Writer running natively on a Mac or Linux operating system, it is such a great application that should be available to everyone. Let’s hope that Microsoft continues support for WLW.

BlogDesk

BlogDesk might have a following, but the author of the application really needs to keep up with current standards if this application is to survive. BlogDesk might be perfectly fine for a few of you, but for most—especially when compared to the other applications in this roundup—it just will not be sufficient.

Interface

The interface of BlogDesk certainly will not win over anyone that is looking for a pretty experience. It is just a bare-bones blogging client. Unfortunately, I could not recommend this application to anyone if the interface design was of importance to the user. There just isn’t enough here to impress anyone, but I believe if the author spent some time to catch up to the competition, it could become bearable.

Functionality

In the functionality department, BlogDesk falls short when compared to the competition as well. The lack of built-in tagging is a huge disappointment [Update: BlogDesk does support tagging with its latest version], and it almost led me to not include it in this review—I decided to do so anyways. I also was disappointed with the fact that the previewing options for the final output are relatively non-existent when compared to the competition. I also could not recommend BlogDesk for its lack of features.

Overall

BlogDesk suffers from not being updated to support the latest and greatest features. Primarily, this would be the tagging feature from WordPress. There are solutions, like adding a plugin to a WordPress installation, but if you are using a service like WordPress.com, it will be impossible to insert tags without having to re-edit the post after publishing. [Update: BlogDesk does support tagging with its latest release]

Personally, I think this would be a prime candidate for being released as open source software. Linux—as you will soon read about—is lacking in quality blog editing software.

At the time of this writing, I was not using the latest version of BlogDesk. There is a new version, BlogDesk 2.8, which addresses a serious issue I had with the application. Please check it out.

Linux

When I got the initial idea for this article, I was confident that all three major operating systems would have great blog editing tools available, and while I knew Linux would not have an ecto or Windows Live Writer, I was sure someone would have created something near either of those. Unfortunately, this was not the case at all. This is especially concerning considering how popular blogging has become.

A Few Words To Open-Source Software Developers

There is a huge opportunity for someone to create an amazing blog editor for the Linux operating system. Believe me—it is a way to generate a name for yourself. As Linux slowly becomes a serious contender in the desktop market, people are looking for applications like this, and the first person to really make something extraordinary will be on the receiving end of some great publicity.

Things that are desired in the first great blog editor for Linux:

  • Complete modular design
  • A true WYSIWYG view similar to the web layout view in Windows Live Writer
  • Ability to have full control over the CSS for this web layout view.
  • Ability to extend the application with plugins
  • Ability to create custom tags and markup for easy insertion within posts (like ecto)
  • Easy editing of the location, size, style, and link of media (e.g. pictures and videos)
  • Connectivity with most major and popular blogging services and ability to connect with any service support XML-RPC
  • On-the-fly spell checking
  • Ability to specify upload locations for images and media via FTP, SFTP, and other commonly used file transfer technologies.
  • Support for categories and tags
  • Support for excerpts

I would love to have an experience similar to Windows Live Writer available on the Linux operating system. Any software developer or development group that would like to begin working on a project like that, I would be happy to assist with the testing and promotion of this application to help the open source community. I am still disappointed that I didn’t find anything that lived up to my expectations.

Multi-Platform

Scribefire

ScribeFire

Scribefire, a Performancing product, is the only product that was not designed for an operating system in this roundup. Ironically enough, it is also the only editor that is compatible with all operating systems! Granted, Scribefire is designed for use within the Firefox web browser.

I decided not to review Scribefire as there is, obviously, a conflict of interest, but I will instead point you to two reviews by others, and you can make the call for yourself:

  • Dan Harrelson
  • Soft Inquiry

The Rest

There were a few blog editors that did not make it into this roundup which might also be worthy of a try:

The Finish

The writer in you now has the opportunity to go out and download some of these impressive applications to create your content. I am a big fan of desktop editors, and I think they provide a much better workflow than web-based editing environments (e.g. the built-in WordPress editor). You should also check out ScribeFire if you would like to do your editing within Firefox—it is a Performancing product.

Do you use any of these products? Do you use something else for creating and/or editing your blog posts? Let everyone know in the comments section, and if it looks good enough, I might just review it in the future.

A Quick Look at Google Charts

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Need chart graphics for your website? Google released their Charts web API not too long ago, making reasonably nice charts available to anyone with an Internet connection and web browser. No expensive diagramming software nor Excel spreadsheets are necessary. Using Google Charts really is as easy as pie (charts).

Types of Charts

Currently, there are nine chart types, with some newly released, giving you a wide range of chart types to work with.

  1. Line charts.
  2. Sparklines.
  3. Bar charts.
  4. Pie charts.
  5. Venn diagrams.
  6. Scatter plots.
  7. Radar charts.
  8. Maps. Oddly, of the seven regions you can select, there’s no North America, only “usa”. (I guess Canada doesn’t matter after all?)
  9. Google-o-meter.

Google Charts Format

To use Google Charts, all you have to do is supply a series of key/value parameter pairs with a specific API URL. From the docs:

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?<parameter 1>&parameter 2>…&<parameter n>

If you are using a chart label with special characters in it, they’ll be auto-replaced with a code of the format “%nn”. For example, a space is replaced with %20.

Cautions

  1. Pie charts will be clipped if the image size is too small. There is a limit to the overall size of any chart. You’ll know because you’ll get a “400 Bad Request” error, but to avoid it, keep the square area under 300,000 pixels. The max in any dimension is 1,000 pixels.
  2. Map size is an exception. They cannot be more than 440×220, according to the docs. So it’s likely your map chart will be clipped.
  3. They don’t use Google Maps, just plain border maps.
  4. The Google Charts docs says that there’s no limit on usage, but if your API calls will exceed 250,000 calls/day, email them an estimate.

Embedding Google Charts in Your Web Pages
Because the Charts interface produces content of type “image”, you can embed the results in your web page using an HTML “img” tag. The image format is PNG.

Creating Chart Animations With Google Charts

One area in which Google Charts beats charting in spreadsheets (e.g., Excel, OpenOffice) is enabling chart animations. Google Charts doesn’t have animations, but you can generate a sequence of images by changing parameters, then drop them all into a suitable application such as Moviemaker (Windows) or iMovie (Mac). Any “stop motion” software will do the trick as well.

Just be sure to name your saved image files with a keyphrase and a number. For example, image-001, image-002, etc. The only reason for this is that most software will order media files dropped into the panel in canonical order. That makes it easier to grab a bunch and drop them all into the video timeline en masse instead of one at a time. Here’s a basic algorithm:

Manual:

  1. Decide on chart type.
  2. Use Firefox browser and install any screen grab extension/ plugin.
  3. Get your dataset ready.
  4. For each each “tuple” of data (pair, triple, quadruple), which represents the parameter values for one chart:
    1. Render the chart by typing in the appropriate URL.
    2. Save the image by right-clicking on the image.
    3. Use a “numbered” file name. (Don’t lose track of the order.)
  5. Open your video application.
  6. Drop all the images into your workspace.
  7. Change your options to specify how long each snapshot should show for (I use 0.5 seconds below), and the transition time between snaps (I use 0.25 sec). The short the times, of course the faster the animation.
  8. Grab the images either en masse or individually (if necessary) and drop them into the video timeline area of your workspace. See video below.

Automated:
To automate the process, write a bit of code to generate and save the images, appropriately named. Then use your video app to finish up.

The video below first shows step #7 above, then a fragment of a chart animation I created for an article at FreelanceSwitch (not published yet). Note: the SplashCast player will pause momentarily between video segments.

Add perf google charts -2008/5/22 to your page

Performancing Stream of Consciousness – Page Rank and File

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If you own websites/ blogs and plan to maybe sell them someday, here’s something sobering. Google keeps flexing it’s muscle, and engineer Matt Cutts (the closest thing to a Google PR person and public “voice”) is saying that if you sell your site, there’s a consequence to the buyer: Google will cut the ranking down to zero.

Since Google has been registered as a domain registrar for a while now, they have access to your domain’s whois records. So they know when a domain changes hands. Even if you use “privacy” on whois records, they can track you through use of Google Adsense, (Google) Feedburner, Google Analytics, and who knows what else. Unless your sites are Google-free.

Is It a Big Deal?

Now keep in mind that this is apparently only being done if a domain changes hands AND changes topics. Whether they should be doing this or not is a moot question. They can and are. However, there are ways around this, something Gabriel Goldenberg at SEO ROI discusses.

However, as many top bloggers will tell you, good content is really what you want to focus on, not page rank. Even if you buy up a site, don’t worry about the Google’s declaration. Focus on the content. Supplement your text with images, diagrams, podcasts, video. Divide up your longer articles with h2, h3, h4 headings, and bold/strong your keywords. All of these help contribute to your content being deemed “of quality”. Your readers are ultimately going to decide whether or not that’s true. So the actual content has to be of value to someone, but not necessarily everyone. (Tangent: a bit of advice from Cynthia Morris at Copyblogger for finishing work.)

Building Your Site’s Profile

On the promoting side of things, check out the great audio interview that VKI Studios did with Todd Malicoat, aka Stuntdubl. It’s about 45 minutes but it’s worth listening to Todd’s expert linkbuilding and baiting advice.

Top blogger Guy Kawasaki briefly echoes the “good content” angle in a print interview at TopRank. (He also talks briefly, in response to a question, about he’d run Twitter if he owned it.)

Finally, if you’re using social media, take in Elizabeth Able’s guest advice at SEO Scoop, about building a social media profile. Her V.A.S.T. (Visible, Available, Social, Trustworthy) advice is aimed at Stumbleupon users, but is valid for other social sites. In fact, just the section headings alone lit a bulb over my head, making me realize how incorrectly I’ve been using social media. If the latter isn’t working for you, maybe the article will shed some light for you.

Just Remember, It Could Always Be Worse!

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While Twitter is feeling a little under the weather, Performancing services and products are still working hard for you!

I would now like to take this time to remind all of you to check out Performancing Metrics for keeping in control of your site’s statistics, Performancing Hive for networking with the pro’s, Performancing Services for that professional touch of SEO goodness, and Blogger Jobs for filling up that gas tank. They are all technically solid!

What Makes You Unique to the Blogosphere?

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Unique

You will not get popular by being just another somebody in the blogosphere. Everyone should know that by now. But, unfortunately, some of us don’t even know if we have a quality that makes us unique to the world of blogging. However, we all have ways of being unique in the blogosphere, and it can come by simply illuminating your own self into an article.

Unique Bloggers

Being Superlative—Darren Rowse of ProBlogger

Being Interactive—Jeff Chandler of Jeffro2pt0

Being Intensive—Andrew G.R of Jack of All Blogs

Being Educative—Steve Spalding of How to Split an Atom

Being Extensive—Tina Su of Think Simple Now

Being Assertive—John C. Dvorak of Dvorak Uncensored

Finding Your Inner Uniqueness

With time, you will notice characteristics from your writings that will represent how you are in life. It is almost amazing how well I can visualize a person just by reading the content they publish. You are not just reading words. You are reading about the life of an author. This is why I find the blogosphere so exciting—each and every person has a unique voice and attitude. It is part of the reason why I enjoy getting to know authors of the content I read.

If you can’t discover what makes you unique to the blogosphere, you might consider asking some of your more devout readers what they think of you. Your peers will able to help you to identify yourself as a blogger and person. While many of you are fine with not knowing these things about yourself, personally, I find it extremely reassuring. It is almost like a confidence boost for me to know what I represent in myself and my writings.

About Me

Now, I figure that someone will get on my case if I don’t answer my own question, so for those of you that wonder what I think about myself, here you are:

I offer all readers my unbound truth and shrewdness with all of my published content. I also take pride with ensuring that my content meets the standards of those that invest the time to read it—after all, why should you have to read a low quality article? I will express myself without holding back, and will work to fix something that is wrong. Finally, I would never remain at a job that would place limitations on what I could write about.

To sum it up—I am deeply passionate (almost completely obsessed) about the truth, and that is a significant portion of my life.

But What About You?

I want to know what makes you unique. What makes you so compelling to have your content read by thousands or even millions of people? If you know these things, tell us about yourself in the comments section. Maybe others will find their way to getting to know the great blogger and person within you.

[Image Credit: Unique Group—Thiru Murugan | CC]

Free Story Theme For WordPress

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Most of the time (when I’m not busy becoming a father, like in April) Performancing is committed to bringing you a free new WordPress theme each month.

This month’s theme is called The Story Theme. It’s a 3 column design where the content is situated to the far left, followed by two contrasting sidebars.

I’m especially fond of the look of the left-margin on this theme. It’s a nice touch that I’ve not seen in a theme before, but which adds a lot of class.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

You can preview the theme here.
You can download the Story Theme here.

Successful Blogging, Promoting WordPress – Performancing Stream of Consciousness

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Chris Garrett is running a global blogger survey, and if you participate, you’re eligible to win one of 10 copies of the ProBlogger Book that he co-wrote with Darren Rowse of Problogger.

Darren wrote an inspiring article, 12 Traits of Successful Bloggers. It’s inspiring, at least to me, because I think I have many of the traits (either at present, or have had in the past and thus can recover). The short list:

  1. Creative and playful.
  2. Innovative.
  3. Connectors.
  4. Community Enablers.
  5. Information Mavens.
  6. Communicators.
  7. Interest.
  8. Entrepreneurs.
  9. Originality.
  10. Perserverance.
  11. Focus.
  12. Curiousity.

Now to work on my weak areas, the biggest of which is “Focus” What about you? Which traits do you have? Which do you think is the most important? (I vote for “Perserverance”, because if that’s all you have right now, it’ll carry you through while you build the other traits.)

Every successful blog is built on a capable platform. My favorite is WordPress, and even though I don’t like the latest version, 2.5x, because Custom Fields (an advanced feature) do not work properly anymore, I still evangelize about WP at every opportunity. If you like WordPress as much as I do, you can contribute directly or indirectly to its continued existence. For ideas how, read Jeff Chandler’s 24 Ways to Contribute to WordPress [via Xfep] – strangely unnumbered. Many of these ways are non-coding efforts. If you do decide on #20, Create a WordPress Centric Podcast, check out past Perf articles on podcasting/ vodcasting:

  1. Can a Podcast Help Your Blog Succeed.
  2. 9 Podcasting Tips.
  3. A Beginner’s Podcasting Guide.
  4. How to Podcast Using SplashCast or YouTube.

If anyone wants to work on a long-term weekly podcast/ screencast about WordPress for Performancing with me, drop a comment here or PM me. I don’t want to compete with what’s already out there, merely supplement it. My preference is to do a screencast that gives all kinds of tips about WP – including advanced features – shows new themes or plugins, and gives general news.

Even if you just co-produce with me (planning, scripting, editing, feedback) and don’t want to/ can’t screencast, I’m game. You’ll get credit and a link to your blog from here, in each edition. My preference would be for someone who is willing to occasionally co-host in audio, via Skype – but it’s not a necessity. I’m opening two spots for partnering. (This is a non-paying opportunity that could lead to future opportunities and would build your profile.)

If you are going to do voice work, record a snippet of you talking about WordPress and post it somewhere so that I can listen to it. (Read article #4 above.) Accents are fine, but your voice must be clear and understandable.

Oh by the way, you do not have to be a WordPress guru. In all honesty, I’m open to anyone that can help me come up with ideas about what to cover in each episode, and sometimes a non-guru is better for that.

User Rank Plugin for WordPress from Performancing Plugins

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Have you ever wanted to rank the users of your blog based on comments and/or post contributions?

Creating a leader board for the users of your blog can provide incentive to contribute more often, and can also be used to offer performance based prizes.

Performancing is pleased to release UserRank as a free WordPress plugin that assigns scores to your WordPress blog users and outputs the user rankings with a simple function. Whether you are creating a personal journal or a corporate blog, the UserRank plugin will help you build an engaged community and ensure that the most valuable contributors are retained and rewarded.

The plugin was originally designed for a cash-reward contest that Glamorati will be having in the near future.

Click here for more information, and to download the plugin.