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Twitter: A Desktop Client Goes A Long Way

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I keep noticing people questioning the usefulness of Twitter while using the service. The catch is that each of these people are—usually—using the website to “tweet” throughout the day. What fun is that? After all, if you were going to utilize a web browser, Jaiku would be the better option. The reason Twitter has become so popular is because of the third-party applications that have been developed for it, and if you’re not using, at the very least, a desktop client, you are missing a significant portion of the Twitter experience.

The desktop client gives you an almost instantaneous connection with your friends. In some sense, Twitter can act as a a huge resource for live news. People that provide links to great content on the web are worth following, and I am sure that, with time, Twitter will have tools developed for it to manage and save the information. Previously, I wrote about how useful Twitter can be to the dedicated blogger, and a desktop client is the way to maximize the usefulness.

Hopefully those of you that are still on the edge of your seat about Twitter will take my advice here and check out a desktop client. It will enhance the usefulness and fun with Twitter. I don’t think Twitter is worth much at all without these various applications, and it is no wonder why so many people that are new to Twitter think it is pointless; I did as well when I first started using it. So, I have decided to compile a simple listing of the various clients you can try. My favorite is Twhirl, but there are many great alternatives as well.

Desktop Clients

Twitter Clients for Windows:

Twitter Clients for Mac:

Twitter Clients for Linux:

Multi-platform Twitter Clients:

Let me know what you think of Twitter after using one of these clients. It might possibly change your mind about Twitter’s usefulness if you are not a fan.

Even When You Are Gone, You Can Still Be There

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Many professional bloggers have a broad schedule that they attempt to maintain. It creates interest within your readership, and it also gives your readers a great idea of when to expect new content. This also increases your chances of generating subscribers to your content. However, there are just those times when things do not work out as planned—it is times like those when preparation really can pay off. The ability to post content at a future point in time without having to do it yourself is a great way to ensure you are prepared, but you also need to have content readily available when you might not have it otherwise.

All bloggers should take the time to create a few extra posts that are not focused on news, but are more focused on opinions or similar to that. Depending on your niche and blogging style, this might be difficult, but once you have taken the time to use these posts when you really have to, you’ll realize that the extra effort is worth it. For Performancing, I already have had three articles prepared incase I ended up needing to use them. Coincidently, I am going to be using them this week. (If you were following me on Twitter, you would know why.)

A few other reasons for creating backup content:

  • Taking that wonderful vacation
  • Just needing a break from blogging
  • Feeling under the weather
  • The words just won’t add up (writer’s block)
  • Allowing extra effort for more complex articles

The primary reason for doing something like this is to maintain your consistency. Again, readers appreciate consistency, and we all have had our moments where we have slacked off in the past, but there are other times when serious problems can arise, and this is why you need to be prepared. So, are you prepared?

11,072 Unread Items In My Feed Reader.

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That’s right—I have 11,072 unread items on my feed reader. All of it pretty much equates to me being way behind on my subscriptions. I am either subscribed to too many feeds, engaged in too many other things to bother, uninterested in the feeds which I am subscribed to, or a combination of all three. It would appear that it is time to fix this problem right now.

Obviously, I am subscribed to way too many feeds, but I have to be keep on top of things. How can we solve this problem? First, I could use a feed filtering service like AideRSS, illumio, or FilterMyRSS. Next, I could use the abilities within many feed reading applications to discover content that has only the content I want within the feed (alternatively, I could exclude this content as well)—NetNewsWire and FeedDemon offers functionality like this. Finally, I use services like TechMeMe, Reddit, and Digg to get only the best news out there.

Another issue that I have is the time that is required to read so many stories in a single day. Even if I was only subscribed to 50 feeds, and those sites posted an average of three items per day, if it took around around 20 seconds to evaluate the content of each story, it would require at least 45 minutes to read those feeds. Assuming you actually had a few stories that you wanted to read, now you should see how it all adds up to a very time consuming process. The only way I can rectify this problem is to reduce the feeds and set up a tight schedule. It is not easy.

Finally, there are just too many feeds that have either not produced valuable content or are not of use to me anymore. This is probably the leading issue that prevents me from being able to read all my feeds. I could simply segregate them in their own portions of my feed reader so that I can easily skip them if need be, but I could also simply remove them. Perhaps it would be an even better idea to setup an account on Pageflakes or Netvibes—set it as my homepage to get news to me fast that might not be as work related, and then I can dedicate time to get fully fed from my feed reader.

It really is information overload to the max. I have some work to do to get on top of this issue, but I am open to any suggestions. How do you keep on top of things without being overloaded with information? If someone can solve that question, create an application that can handle it, and, finally, monetize it, that person has it made!


[Video Source: Chris Pirillo]

Would You Pay A Subscription Fee For Ad-Free Content On Blogs?

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I was quite surprised when I visited Daily Kos, a very popular political blog, and I was prompted with a message that, essentially, stated I was being less than polite for using AdBlock Plus to avoid advertising. I was then informed that I could remove the message that was annoying the hell out of me for a simple subscription fee. The cost was $4 per month, $40 per year, or $100 per unlimited subscription. The interesting thing is the fact that this blog asks for $15,000 per week for a single advertising spot—amazing.

The question of ethics by people using software like AdBlock Plus to avoid advertising comes into play, but I also believe that annoying the readership with messages that tell them they are wrong is not the way to go about doing it. I feel that this is potentially a serious threat to those people who enjoy reading blogs. The authors will still make money, but the readers are the ones that will be robbed in the end.

The Price

The price is the first major concern. Is a subscription really worth the price of advertisement-free content? Some people might be inclined to pay for quality content, but when I look at the amount of content that is available on the blogosphere, it almost feels like I would be paying for something I could have for free elsewhere. I do understand the concept of supporting a blogger you really like, but is it worth creating a divide between the readership—those that pay and those that do not. I do not even want to picture what might happen when my top 10 favorite blogs want to charge $4 a month for subscriptions—over $400 a year just to read a few blogs? Are you kidding me?

The Ethics

There is also the question of blogging ethics. Blogging is a medium to share thoughts and ideas. Why would the blogosphere decide to start charging users for content that, in my opinion, should be open and free for all to enjoy. For example, if I wanted to share with you an article within the Wall Street Journal online, I can’t do that because the site requires a subscription, and that should be disappointing to all of you. However, I might be a little bit biased as I am a fond believer that an open internet is better for everyone.

The Blogosphere

Also, we must consider the overall impacts on the blogosphere if subscriptions to content become popular. Pretty soon, some bloggers are going to decide to go to a model where you can only read the content if you have an account at a site with the appropriate status. It also means that many blogs will require you to hold separate accounts (until a service is developed to manage subscriptions to blog content—this might be a big market in the future), and that can be a pain for everyone. It would just be too demanding and confusing.

The Future

The future leaves much to be desired with blogs that are considering a subscription-based model. I hope that people will recognize the implications that a trend like this can have on blogosphere as a whole. I would never ask anyone to boycott a website that does this, but I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing that happen—immediately.

The Feedback

In the end, I do not believe that a subscription-based model is the correct way to go about monetizing blogs, but if people desire the content enough, they will pay the price. This is what capitalism is all about; the people decide the worth of content. But I am never afraid to openly state how stupid consumers can be at times, and this is a case where I must put my foot down. Why would any of you want to be a part of this trend?

I would really appreciate the feedback of the Performancing community. If you have anything to say about this situation, please leave a comment below. What price would you be willing to pay? How would it impact you if your favorite blogs decided to start charging monthly fees? Am I an idiot for thinking so negatively about this subject? Let us know!

Text, Only Text, and Nothing But The Text—WriteRoom, Dark Room, and DarkCopy

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WriteRoom

I have been playing around with two products, WriteRoom and Dark Room, which allow users the ability to edit text in a completely isolated environment. Essentially, these editors give users the ability to focus on the text, and only the text. For the professional blogger/writer, one of these text editors might become invaluable to your writing process.

Some of you will find either of these applications to be worthy as your new primary text editor, but the rest of you will think they are far to primitive, but if you are the former, like one of my followers on Twitter, you will absolutely love the concept of being able to write without distraction.

Another user on Twitter messaged me stating that text editing tools were the last things that distracted him while writing. I find that the text editor I utilize happens to have a dramatic impact on how productive I am when writing. For example, I have a difficult time using web-based text editors (like the built-in WordPress editor), but I absolutely enjoy using an application like Windows Live Writer and ecto to write my articles.

These applications will probably generate no interest for quite a few of you, but I have already decided to incorporate WriteRoom into my workflow. It is a throwback that I absolutely love, and I am usually the one that loves the fancy interfaces.

WriteRoom

WriteRoom is the first product that was created (as Dark Room is simply a clone of WriteRoom). Built for the Mac operating system (now supporting OS X 10.4 or later), WriteRoom was designed to eliminate the common distractions that are apparent with most text editing environments today. The application eliminates formatting, graphs, spacing, pictures, and more by focusing on only the most important aspect of a writing—the words.

A few features highlighted from the WriteRoom website:

  • Full-screen editing Get free from your computer and its distractions. WriteRoom’s full-screen mode hides it all away leaving just you and your text behind.
  • Document based auto-save Your documents are stored in standard text file formats and autosaved in the background to help protect your work in case the power goes out.
  • Distraction free features The menu bar, scroll bar, and word count appear when you move your mouse to the edge of the screen.
  • ‘Retro’-fit your cursor Prefer block cursors to bars? Hate blinking cursors? WriteRoom has every combination you’d want.
  • Standalone or Edit-In Use WriteRoom on its own for all your text editing needs, or let WriteRoom be your ticket to full-screen editing for text in any compatible program.

WriteRoom is not without a price—$25 might be out of bounds for some, but I would urge everyone with a recent Mac based computer to at least give WriteRoom a try. There is a free 30 day trial, and that should be plenty of time to try the application out. However, the price is warranted because WriteRoom is continually upgraded—unfortunately, its Windows counterpart, Dark Room, does not receive the same benefit.

Dark Room

Dark Room, as mentioned before, is simply a clone of WriteRoom for the Windows platform. It is very similar in functionality, and it delivers as promised. As a matter of fact, there is almost little point in having a section for Dark Room, but there are some critical differences outside of the application itself that I must point out.

Dark Room is free, but that is also as a result of there not being as many upgrades or support. Also, and unfortunately, there is no support for Vista (yet), and this might be a turn off if you happen to use Dark Room and wish to switch to Vista in the future. Perhaps everyone should e-mail the author and ask for an upgrade. Regardless, if you are on a Windows XP machine, I think you should give it a shot—after all, it is free!

Recap

Virginia Huffernan of The New York Times put it better than I ever could have:

But if, when it comes right down to it, full screen is your holy grail, and the ultimate antidote to the bric-a-brac of Word, then you must enter the WriteRoom, the ultimate spartan writing utopia. Where Scrivener calls itself a “writer’s shed,” which suggests implements like duct tape and hoes, WriteRoom pitches itself as the way to “distraction-free writing” for “people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world.” With WriteRoom, you don’t compose on anything so confining as paper or its facsimile. Instead, you rocket out into the unknown, into profound solitude, and every word of yours becomes the kind of outer-space skywriting that opens “Star Wars.” What I mean is this: Black screen. Green letters. Or another color combination of your discerning choice. But nothing else.

*Emphasis added in bold type.

Oh, and did I mention that there is actually a free web-based clone of WriteRoom as well? Try DarkCopy (select full screen mode) if you want to try it out without downloading anything. I actually wrote part of this post on DarkCopy, and I really enjoy it, but you would really want to download WriteRoom or Dark Room if you wanted to work in a production environment.

Does the minimalistic full-screen view make you happy or afraid? Do you think that we have become too focused on fancy markup and formatting, that the words themselves are sometimes an after-thought?

Give WriteRoom, Dark Room, and/or DarkCopy a try and let me know what you think. It is a twist on text editing for sure, but I have already begun to believe that my productivity has improved by simply becoming less distracted.

[Image Credit: WriteRoom Main Screen—HogBaySoftware]

The Writing Process: Creating An Outline

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Outlining an article is one of the most productive things you can do to improve your workflow while blogging. Creating the outline for this article required only about two minutes to complete, and it will have saved me at least 15 minutes worth of editing time in the end on a typical article like this.

Ironically enough, it was only yesterday when I tried to write a short article without creating my usual outline. I spent around 30 minutes trying to reorder the content correctly as I didn’t want to start over. In the process, I nearly decided to scratch the whole article, but I have heavily revised it since then and will post it soon. This is why it is important to create an outline for all your articles.

My Outline Process

I have never before attempted to define my outlining process for writing, but I will do so as I best can right now. I have broken it down into four steps, and it is fairly simple—nothing too mind blowing here. Still, some people fail to do anything like this, and it is a shame that the short time planning out an article is skipped, but then more time is required to get the finished product.

Steps To Creating An Outline:

1. Come Up With An Idea

The first part in the creation of an outline is to have a solid theme/topic to work with. You must have something to blog about in order to continue the writing process, but some people start writing without having an overall idea as to what they will end up with. I would not suggest starting an article without at least having a basic idea of what you will end up with, but to each his/her own.

2. List Your Ideas

The next order of business would be to, essentially, create a list of each heading for your content. I sometimes like to create a list of the first sentence of each paragraph (which is the next step), but I mostly create a heading for each paragraph of content (as seen above). This method is simple, and it requires little time to place down multiple ideas.

3. Introductory Sentences

After I am done with creating my basic outline which consists of a header for each paragraph, I will then fill in the introductory sentence to the paragraph. This sentence should be the idea which the paragraph discusses; therefore, it should be easy to analyze the flow of your article if you take the time to do this step. Also, it should decrease the amount of time you take to actually write the rest of your article as you don’t have to interrupt yourself to think about what your going to write as often.

4. Check For Theme, Clarity, and Flow

After all the introductory sentences are filled in, I then give them a detailed read to imagine the content that will be written for those paragraphs to make sure the flow of the article is correct. As I have written before in previous articles for Performancing, the time taken right now to plan out your article will save you a lot of time later fixing mistakes.

It Just Works

These methods are simple ways to organize your ideas and maximize productivity. I have repeatedly stressed the importance of planning out your articles, and even if it is a 300 – 500 word article, it still warrants some planning. This was just some insight as to how I plan out all of my articles. It works for 500 word articles like this one, but I also have used it for 3,000 word articles that I have written in the past and right now.

Hopefully you have found a way to improve your workflow. Planning out your content is the best way to reduce the amount of editing you will have to do later on.

If you have a unique way to plan out your articles, please let everyone know in the comments section. I am open to learning new ways to decrease the time I spend writing.