Disqus - Latest Comments for Chris Cree

Re: Exclusive: Google Blog Search Extended Results | Supplemental Results

Chris Cree — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:38:57 -0000

Hey Andy, the link to your initial Google Blog Search patent analysis post takes me to a "Nothing Found" page.

The thing that struck me from Alister's post was the reminder that Google is looking through their customer's emails and chats. Big Brother seems to be getting closer and closer the more technology we use.

I'll leave the SEO analysis to you guys who are passionate about it. Thanks for boiling this one down for the rest of us, though.

Re: Exclusive: Google Blog Search Extended Results | Supplemental Results

Chris Cree — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:38:57 -0000

Re: Exclusive: Google Blog Search Extended Results | Supplemental Results

Chris Cree — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:31:32 -0000

No worries on the link.

I'm one of the guys who is running the Top Commentors plugin. You were kind enough to warn me of the SEO down side.

For me the plugin is more about reader recognition and community building and I've been willing to take the SEO hit. Perhaps it is because I still don't understand that end of it yet.

Took me a while to find Rob Watts' hacked version of Top Commentors (the link is deep in the comments). Do you consider that a good solution to that issue?

If so I'll switch it over the weekend.

Re: Exclusive: Google Blog Search Extended Results | Supplemental Results

Chris Cree — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:31:32 -0000

Re: Exclusive: Google Blog Search Extended Results | Supplemental Results

Chris Cree — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:45:16 -0000

Thanks, Andy (and Rob). I may go ahead and install the current version and check back later for an improved version.

Re: Exclusive: Google Blog Search Extended Results | Supplemental Results

Chris Cree — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:45:16 -0000

Thanks, Andy (and Rob). I may go ahead and install the current version and check back later for an improved version.

Re: Green Pixel Dust Has A Negative

Chris Cree — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:41:25 -0000

Dropped from a PR5 to a PR4 this last go 'round, which makes more sense to me compared to other sites around (much as it hurts to admit it.)

Funny that comment spam volume dropped within a day or so. Guess there is a little silver lining to loosing a little favor with the Google gods.

Re: Green Pixel Dust Has A Negative

Chris Cree — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:41:25 -0000

Re: Guru Internet Marketing Mentorship Programs Abusing Dofollow Blogs

Chris Cree — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:59:46 -0000

Andy I'm glad you posted about this. Looking through my recent comments I see several different people have all done this at my place pointing to a German marketing site. Not being a German speaker I didn't catch what they were doing.

They just earned banishment to Spamilvania.

Re: Guru Internet Marketing Mentorship Programs Abusing Dofollow Blogs

Chris Cree — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:59:46 -0000

Re: Battlestar Galactica: Yep, Season 4 Is The Last

Chris Cree — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 07:18:56 -0000

The worst thing they could do is try to keep the series going after they find Earth. I remember it got completely stupid when they did that on the first series.

Re: Write A Love Letter Like A Soldier

Chris Cree — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:37:39 -0000

I think as a culture we've fallen a long way in our ability to communicate with the written word in the last 150 years. We could all stand to read more of that kind of eloquence. Thanks for sharing it.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Chris Cree — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:31:33 -0000

TR makes me tired just reading about him. Regan was cracking jokes after being shot. But give a 90 minute speech? With no PA system??! Dang!

That last quote is one of my all time favorites. Truly inspiring.

Re: Bringing Back the Hat

Chris Cree — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 08:37:46 -0000

Here in the South guys still wear hats a lot (go to a NASCAR race and see for yourself). But like you said it is mostly the boring ball cap.

Me, I mostly wear a hat in the morning just to cover up my bed head until I get into the shower to knock it down into submission.

For me there's a bit of a vanity angle in not wearing a hat. Sunlight is the only think keeping any blond in my hair. It's darkening up as I get older. Wearing a hat would only speed up the process.

Re: The Mechanics of the Man Hug

Chris Cree — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:10:01 -0000

Not being much of a hugger myself I prefer the "side hug". It's more of a half-hug kind of thing than a full on squeeze.

Re: “Finding Yourself” Is a Crock

Chris Cree — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:51:26 -0000

I think part of the challenge is that we live in a culture that says we should look inward to find out who we really are. Unfortunately we are really defined by how we interact with our world. It's more external than our culture wants to believe.

When we focus inwardly to the exclusion of our external relationships we become selfish and narcissistic. As a result we weaken our relationships and cause harm to others, even if it's just through neglect.

Extreme self-centeredness (aka selfishness) is something we expect of children. It is unbecoming for adults and downright unmanly. Too bad that selfishness so often gets confused with self-awareness.

The author correctly points out that one good way we can figure out who we are is to take a look around our lives and see what commitments we have that are others focused. He then offers up some examples, not as a formula, but rather to help drive his point home.

Of course it flies in the face of the conventional wisdom in our culture today so it's no wonder some protest how they are doing just fine with their seeming selfish inward focus.

Kinda reinforces the point of the original post though, doesn't it?

Re: How To Survive and Thrive In a Street Fight in 8 Simple Steps

Chris Cree — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:01:52 -0000

In my school days my fight checklist went something like this.

1. Try to talk my way out of it. - Self depreciating humor worked most times.
2. Run - Under the philosophy that "he who runs away lives to run away another day."
3. Get beat up - Obviously the least desirable outcome.

I didn't learn to successfully defend myself until I got older, and really tired of that third step.

Re: Shine Your Shoes Like A Soldier

Chris Cree — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:39:11 -0000

I had a Marine Corps room mate in flight school (I was Navy) who claimed that melting the polish with his lighter made for a better shine. I just figured his shine was better than mine because he worked so much harder at it.

Me, I was content with good enough.

Re: How to Have a Civil Political Debate | The Art of Manliness

Chris Cree — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:38:13 -0000

I get along much better with folks of diverging opinions after a friend of mine told me one day, "Chris, you've got to decide: do you want to be right, or do you want to have friends?"

It never occurred to me that those mostly are mutually exclusive goals.

So now, instead of working to "prove" to others that I am "right" I simply share my view and allow them to think that I'm "wrong."

Sure I still have as much conviction of my own beliefs. But once I let go of my need to be seen as right I quickly found myself getting along a whole lot better with other folks.

Re: Dressing for Life’s Big Events: How a Man Should Dress for Weddings, First Dates, Religious Ceremonies and More

Chris Cree — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:25:40 -0000

For the last 20 years I've lived in Jacksonville, Charleston and now in Savannah. And in the coastal Southeast US "business casual" usually means a polo shirt and khaki pants. We see about as many people wearing shorts with their polo shirts as we do sports jackets. They're definitely more casual down here than where I grew up in the Northeast.

Re: Bloglines vs. Google Reader: A Usability Evaluation

Chris Cree — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:07:27 -0000

Great comparison, Whitney.

I'd switched to GR from Bloglines before the Beta version came out. I thought about changing back until GR finally added a search function. (Never could understand how Google could have a product with no search.) Google Reader is a great product for my needs.

I'll be pointing clients to your post here when they ask for a feed reader recommendation.

Re: How To Find Sponsorships For Your Blog

Chris Cree — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:54:03 -0000

Ben, this makes a lot of sense. The thing about niching is that it may feel wrong to narrow our focus because we seem to be passing by other opportunities for quick appeal to a large group of potential readers. But by tightening our focus we actually are building the potential for higher revenue streams in the long run. Good stuff.

Re: Are You Overwhelmed With Everything You Need to Track?

Chris Cree — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 07:54:13 -0000

Ben, I'm with you. I'm getting to the point where I have a ridiculous number of passwords to keep track of. That one alone would be a big help for me.

But getting everything else under one roof would be great. I hope someone out there will share a great application.

Re: Rolling Along With Lessons Learned From Great Bloggers

Chris Cree — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 07:44:37 -0000

Hey Ben, This is a great writing project. I'm enjoying gleaning from all the lessons folks have learned this year. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Re: How Do You Measure Success?

Chris Cree — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 07:44:28 -0000

Ben, I've always been fascinated with influence and felt that was a very good metric of personal success. I like the way you have shifted focus on that. The beauty of your approach is that the more people you create opportunities for, the more influence you will end up having anyway. I suspect it will be a very big byproduct of all you do.

Merry Christmas!

Re: When Should You Outsource To Help Your Business?

Chris Cree — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 17:02:55 -0000

Many small business people seem to struggle with the intangibles vs tangibles. The ROI of outsourcing can be difficult to quantify. But the money it takes to outsource is very easy to see.

The challenge becomes weighing a difficult to see benefit against an easy to see cost. I think that's what stops most folks from outsourcing.

It's short sighted, sure. But it's what they can see.

Re: Give Out Some Link Love and Remove NoFollow

Chris Cree — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:49:57 -0000

Heya Ben! I'm with you on the DoFollow thing. I made the switch a couple weeks back and added the Show Top Commentors Plugin at the same time to further reward meaningful comments from folks.

I've seen a significant increase in conversation since then. Good stuff all the way around.

Re: Give Out Some Link Love and Remove NoFollow

Chris Cree — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:33:14 -0000

I appreciate that Andy. Went and read the article too. Don't know enough about how Google works to follow your milk bottle analogy for internal links.

I'm perfectly willing to admit that the up tick in comments may be purely psychological because folks like recognition.

Of course there is the off chance that my writing is improving too. ;)

Re: Is Home Depot Scamming People With Fake Comments?

Chris Cree — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:32:14 -0000

I keep hearing about how unreliable the internet is and how suspect blogging in general is as though scams and cons are something brand new and only came on the scene in the digital age.

Truth has a way of being found out. And here in the digital age the scammers inevitably leave a trail of ones and zeros around the globe. We've got a whole planet full of folks willing to dig deep enough and invest the time it takes to flush out these frauds.

Good on ya Ben for pointing out some Home Depot weirdness.

But could rest of us get off the "It's the wild west out there" theme and stop pretending that people have suddenly gotten more sneaky and deceptive than they were before this technology was available to us?

Re: Is Home Depot Scamming People With Fake Comments?

Chris Cree — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:59:57 -0000

Scott, just roll it inside my gate for me, if you will. I'll take a look at it later. :roll:

Re: Is Home Depot Scamming People With Fake Comments?

Chris Cree — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:42:10 -0000

Mat, I'm curious how you propose to solve the problem you see with the 'Net. From what you said I get the feeling that you believe there should be much more government interference regulation with the internet.

Personally I'm of the opinion that any government involvement would be far less effective and far more costly than the millions of Ben's out there keeping their eyes on everything and shouting out whenever they see something fishy.

Neither freedom, nor an absence of laws equates to lawlessness as you implied. It can lead to it, but I don't see the web as the anarchistic frontier where the few powerful "gunslingers" are praying on the poor helpless masses.

The very freedom you seem to fear, and the unprecedented access to information we have right now, is exactly what allows folks like Ben to do what they do so well, call out the fishiness they see.

Re: Do Bloggers Always Follow Their Own Advice?

Chris Cree — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:03:58 -0000

I suspect that when we blog from our passion it feels less like a obligation, "blogging for the sake of blogging." I find the posts I'm most passionate about are the easiest ones for me to remember too.

Re: Write Blog Posts Not Articles

Chris Cree — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:51:04 -0000

I guess I'd rather adjust my own terminology if it helps my message get through to non-bloggers than continue to beat them over the head and try to get them to change to accommodate me.

Generally I find it easier to change myself than to get the rest of the world to conform to me.

Do I like it? No. I'm fond of the word blog. But I'm getting tired of trying to move the same baggage that comes with the word. Over and over again.

Re: Publish At Your Own Risk: a Secular Master’s Advice

Chris Cree — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:06:53 -0000

Mark, I think blogs can be used to sell most anything if the sales process could benefit from

- educating potential customers about the product
- relational selling
- multiple product exposures over time
- a more search engine friendly web site
- building customer trust
- a raised awareness of other products in the same nice
- the ability of dialog to reduce prospect's fear of making an uniformed buying decision

Properly executed blogs can help with all of these and more. They typically aren't the end all, beat all replacement for traditional marketing. But they can be a powerful marketing add-on to turbo charge a marketing program.

Are there risks? Sure.

Publishing at the speed of blog means minimal editing. Some percentage of typos will get through, which might be embarrassing for some writers, especially if they are highly successful already.

If you blog and someone disagrees with your book, they may very well tell folks about that right on your blog.

Then there is the whole control issue. Companies by nature fear the perception that they might be loosing control of something.

Really the issues are very much the same for Publishing as they are for most any other business.

I think there is a higher level resistance to blogging from segments of the publishing industry for the same reason there is resistance to business blogging from the web developer community. And that is because blogging is encroaching on turf that they've traditionally had exclusive rights to.

But you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. Blogging is here. Folks will either adapt and adopt or get left behind.

Sorry for the over long comment, Mark. Sometimes I get a little too passionate about this one.

Re: Publish At Your Own Risk: a Secular Master’s Advice

Chris Cree — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:28:50 -0000

Speaking of typos at the speed of blog...

a raised awareness of other products in the same nice

should be in the same niche.

That's what I get for commenting during my lunch break. We just roll with it. :cool:

And I'm very interested to hear your views on how paid content can expect to compete favorably with free content. (I think it probably can too. I just haven't thought it though.)

Many people still prefer to hold paper in their hand when they are reading. I did an informal poll of the office here and everyone present today said that, given a choice, they prefer to read from a piece of dead tree than from a screen.

Re: Why Writers Must Dream (But Also Herd Cats)

Chris Cree — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:36:11 -0000

Mark, Thanks for putting these lists together to point out that we really need both sides of the coin. I think that principle applies to most endeavors.

The proper balance can be hard to find.

And I like the idea of an electronic cattle prod. There was a time when I was compulsively punctual (the military frowns on tardiness). But since moving to the Deep South I find myself getting later and later. It is a trend I don't like. Maybe a gadget would be just the thing to help!

Re: Be the First to Preview an All New TheHighCalling.org

Chris Cree — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 22:45:56 -0000

Congrats on the roll-out, Mark! I know you've been working hard on this. Can't wait to see how it develops for ya!

Re: Writing about Faith, Aliens, and Winnie the Pooh

Chris Cree — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:13:53 -0000

Did you say chocolate? Mmmm... ;)

Re: The Secret to a Better Attitude

Chris Cree — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:30:03 -0000

This post is timely for me. Having left my old career recently to pursue something I love, I've been slowly transforming that something into "work" instead of that fun thing that I love doing.

After all we don't get paid unless "work" gets done, and certainly not for having fun. Right?

What was I thinking?! Better get my own attitude in check.

I'll take the fun and the money, please! :)

Chris Cree's last blog post..Organize Your Internet with SecondBrain

Re: My Blog Was Lost But Now It’s Found!

Chris Cree — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:58:42 -0000

One good thing about that particular hack is that your blog still looked normal to your readers. But not being able to log into your blog's dashboard is, um, inconvenient. Stupid hackers!

Re: 21 per cent of atheists believe in God

Chris Cree — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:07:17 -0000

Would you believe I tried to get Gorgeous to go see it on Saturday AND on Sunday to no avail. You'd think it would be the kind of movie she'd be trying to drag me to go see, not the other way around.

Ah, well.

You had me laughing as I was reading about the Marcus Scale of movie quality. I keep telling Gorgeous that from a guy's perspective pretty much anything that goes whoosh or boom is good stuff.

Re: 21 per cent of atheists believe in God

Chris Cree — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:25:57 -0000

Oh, and $6 million + is HUGE numbers for this movie. To make 1360% of your production budget back on opening weekend is phenomenal.

To put it in perspective if the biggest opening weekend ever, The Dark Knight (the latest Batman flick) would have made $2.5 Billion opening weekend instead of it's record $158 million.

Re: Best Car Interview Ever…Tweet & Greet!

Chris Cree — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:02:17 -0000

* What was your first car? I learned to drive in a pale yellow â€˜79 Subaru 4WD wagon. No A/C, 4 speed stick, pure plastic interior, and it could go most anywhere.
* Any significant memories w/that car? That Subaru only got stuck twice the entire time we owned it. The first time Mom drove 30 miles home from work during a freak April snow storm over unplowed roads. Picked up 3 stranded coworkers in a 4x4 truck that had gotten stuck along the way. A half mile from our house she found the first plowed road - the dirt road our house was on! She got the car hung up on the drift the plow had piled up. The second time was when I was doing a 3 point turn on a narrow dirt road. I drove part way up on an embankment on one side of the road then managed to back the rear wheels off the road on the other side right where a culvert went under the road. Car stopped on its frame with the rear wheels hanging in the air. My buddy & I picked up the rear corners while his girlfriend drove it out. No worries.
* Whatâ€™s parked in your driveway now? Right now Iâ€™m driving a 1998 Fort Taurus. I had to turn in my company car when I left my job to start my own business at the first of the year so I found a good deal on an inexpensive, low mileage car and paid cash for it. Since my commute is literally 50 feet across my house right now I donâ€™t put all that many miles on it.
* Does your car reflect your personality? Only in so far as it reflects my determination to make wise financial decisions to see my business grow successfully.
* Favorite vehicle(s)? A Mercedes E350 or SLK 350
* Favorite vehicleâ€¦if money were no object? Oh, it would have to be the Mercedes SLR. Definitely.
* Vanity Plates? Not in years. When I was young & dumb I had plates that said â€œAMOKâ€. Of course I was mostly driving Mustang GTâ€™s & Corvettes or motorcycles back then.
* Must have car gadget? Some way to connect the iPod with the stereo. Tuneage is a requirement on the highway.
* Favorite driving tunes? 80â€™s Rock, especially early U2.
* Favorite Hollywood movie car? Though itâ€™s not a car I always thought the Harley Fatboy in Terminator 2 was totally cool. I kind of like Michael Westonâ€™s old Dodge Charger in Burn Notice now that itâ€™s been fixed up, â€˜course thatâ€™s a TV car. If it had to be a movie car, the Ferrari 550 Maranello that Nicolas Cage drove in Family Man was off the charts.

There you go Eric!

Enjoy!

Re: Tool Time Friday | Is MyBlogLog Changed Since Yahoo! Tookover?

Chris Cree — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:15:37 -0000

Morgan,

I've been a MyBlogLog fan since long before the Yahoo! buyout. I had big problems logging into my account after they "merged" the MBL accounts with our existing Yahoo! accounts. Fortunately Robyn Tippins was able to connect me with the right tech guy to help out and got my account issues straightened out right away.

On the bummer side Robyn has left her position as Community Manager for MBL and is doing something else with Yahoo these days. (Good for her. Not so much for MBL.)

I'm seeing BlogCatalog more and more. A quick comparison of Alexa reach shows MBL use seems to be declining, especially over the last 3-6 mos. At the same time BlogCatalog's use has been growing at a steady clip for the last year.

With all the distractions Yahoo has right now and their near total neglect of MBL I expect BlogCatalog will continue to take market share for the foreseeable future.

Re: Social Networking

Chris Cree — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:19:58 -0000

Heya Shane! I followed you on Twitter. I'm not real active on the other two or I'd add you there too.

Re: Jowki Is Now DoFollow – Come On Commentors

Chris Cree — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:29:21 -0000

Get ready for an increase in spam once word gets out. You've got a PR 3 site here, which is pretty good! If you end up on some DoFollow lists & you will get more comments. Unfortunately spammers may single your site out too. :(

<abbr>Chris Cree’s last blog post... 8 Commenting Mistakes that Make You Look Like a Spammer</abbr>

Re: WordPress Small Business Blog Theme

Chris Cree — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:06:15 -0000

John, I'm sure you will be very pleased with the versatility of WordPress. From a small business perspective WP is getting to the point where it can even replace a traditional web site all together.

I'm even starting to see some prominent A-list bloggers who've long been on other platforms switching to WordPress.

Great looking theme, too. I'll be sure to take it for a spin.

Re: The 7 Stages of a Referral Generation

Chris Cree — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:20:53 -0000

I was at a workshop this morning where the topic was marketing and the speaker emphasized one of the points you made, John. Everything your business does that comes in contact with your potential client is part of your marketing effort.

I need to work on improving some of those in my business!

Re: Should Your Small Business Use Community Tools

Chris Cree — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:53:09 -0000

I'd add a caveat to Whitney's comment: if your product/business is not particularly good or customer friendly, and you don't want to fix it, then this may be a risky strategy. In that case your business has bigger problems that online social networking can't fix.

The reality is people are probably already talking about your business whether you are participating in the conversation or not. (And if they aren't saying anything that might even be worse than them saying bad stuff!)

I still say the benefits for a business that wants to improve and grow of participating actively in the conversation far outweigh the potential pitfalls.

Re: Declaring Your Indepdendence

Chris Cree — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:05:01 -0000

Great post, Chris! So many today are waiting for "someone to do something" never realizing they are that someone. Action is required. Without work there is no miracle.

Thanks for the holiday inspiration.

Re: Declaring Your Indepdendence

Chris Cree — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 11:10:36 -0000

Cameron, you are sorely mistaken. Reading through the accounts of the Declaration signers for example, many of whom were quite wealthy to be sure, reveals how truly committed these men were when they pledged to each other their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor.

Many had their fortunes completely destroyed by the British in reprisal for their willful rebellion. Richard Stockton is just one example.

The wealthiest folks had the most to loose by the instability of revolution. Yet they went ahead anyway. And it cost many of them a great deal.

No, I don't history supports your position, one uncertain flag anecdote notwithstanding.

Re: Declaring Your Indepdendence

Chris Cree — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:09:14 -0000

Jon & Cameron, that was exactly the point I was trying to make with my "uncertain flag anecdote" comment. Had I said "speculative flag anecdote" perhaps I would have been more clear.

I was in a hurry to get to a 4th of July party. :)

Besides which, even if it is true, it is hardly proof that the East India Company was driving the bus of the revolution. They were chaotic times. With no official flag existing people wanted to show their defiance by flying something, anything, other than the Union Jack.

Being a land of merchants and traders perhaps someone had a BEIC flag (which apparently wasn't allowed to be flown outside the Indian Ocean) handy and hoisted it to thumb their noses at the British in Boston.

Because the article Carmeron pointed to is speculative itself there is no way of knowing for sure.

Re: Happy Birthday Jon Swanson

Chris Cree — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:06:59 -0000

I imagine Jon's getting swamped with friend requests from the various services this morning. What a cool birthday present!

Happy Birthday Jon!

Re: The New Gig

Chris Cree — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:27:56 -0000

Congrats Chris!

Gotta love it when you write out the job description for what you want to do and then you find a place to do it. Sounds like you'll get to do some fun and exciting stuff.

Re: Google Launches Social Network

Chris Cree — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 09:15:58 -0000

I saw that I had a couple friends that could see my shared items last night but I didn't think it through.

This has powerful implications for me as a guy teaching my clients how to use blogs and feeds effectively. Given the choice of course I'll recommend they use a reader that lets me share valuable posts & feeds with my clients.

Hard to recommend Bloglines when I can have this additional interaction with my clients.

Smart move on Google's part. Right up there with adding search to GR. (I'm still shaking my head at how long it took them to do that.)

Re: Google Launches Social Network

Chris Cree — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:42:16 -0000

Rick, I'm not following your meaning. Are you saying that the option for social interaction is a bad feature on a feed reader?

Re: The Power of Links

Chris Cree — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:16:47 -0000

NoFollow is a classic case of punishing the innocent to try to stop the guilty. Google originally suggested its use to combat spam.

Three years later it should be obvious that the nofollow anti-spam initiative has failed miserably. Just look at the Akismet figures with 90+% of the comments coming through as spam today.

Spam is still on the rise in spite of nofollow. There has got to be another way to deal with the problem, preferably one that actually deters spam instead of just filtering it or "nullifying" the link juice for it.

Re: Shuffling Ads Around

Chris Cree — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:47:14 -0000

Chris, the trends in advertising seem to be strengthening the argument for Seth Godin's Idea Virus more and more as technology keeps making it easier for consumers to bypass ads, even in conventional media. Heck it's to the point now with TIVO, for example, that I get frustrated watching something live & being unable to scan through the commercials.

Re: Where I Learn Even More

Chris Cree — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:50:47 -0000

Chris, that video clip is great. Had to explain to Gorgeous why I was laughing. Since she's never seen the original "Coffee is for closers" scene it took a bit of explaining. :)

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Chris Cree — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:32:14 -0000

I've long been a fan of StumbleUpon. I hear what Brian Clark says above about it oftentimes being "low quality" content.

The thing is that SU is interest driven, unlike other sites which just look at general popularity. By filling out your own profile accurately (and, um, honestly) and connecting with other folks with similar interests you join a pool of like minded people.

I've found that a wide variety of niche sites can attract quality traffic via SU by simply staying true to their network's interest. Tagging accurately & adding a review of the stumbled site really go a long way towards filtering out the junk traffic.

Re: Shut Up- You're Helping the Customer!

Chris Cree — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:32:51 -0000

I think Bob should polish up his resume. His days at this company are numbered.

If he does nothing he'll likely end up getting fired or frustrated and quit. And having changed jobs a number of times myself I've seen that it is much easier to get a job when you have a job.

Besides Bob should look for a company that is more inline with his passion and beliefs. He'll be happier there and more productive. Everyone wins if he moves on.

Re: Facebook kicks political blogger off

Chris Cree — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:53:57 -0000

There's a difference between using a pseudonym as a consistent persona on the web and simply creating a bogus account on a site. Pseudonyms have a long and rich history. Disallowing them doesn't seem very smart.

Re: Does Apple Really Want the Crazed Few Defending its Reputation?

Chris Cree — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:47:05 -0000

Andy, Perhaps the slipping customer service rating is a result of more mainstream folks making the switch to Mac's. I bought my first Mac this summer after decades with Windows machines.

I imagine I'd score a bit lower on user experience than a long time Mac user would simply because I see so much that's different and have many deeply ingrained habits that have to be unlearned. It's all the little stuff, like hitting the CMD+Right Arrow key to get to the end of a line instead of the "end" button, that adds a touch of frustration to the transition.

Not worse. Or better. Just different.

Re: Win Copies of Jon Wuebben’s Book “Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web”

Chris Cree — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:33:09 -0000

Re: Comment #4 - Andy, I for one am glad you're not basing this on merit. It means I might actually have a chance!

Chris Cree's last blog post..Learn What Really Stresses You Out

Re: AT&T: A Perfect Sale followed by a Disastrous Delivery

Chris Cree — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:38:29 -0000

Oh Man! Any normal business would pull out all the stops to unscrew a service failure of this magnitude.

Trouble with <strike>many</strike> most very big companies like AT&T is that they figure it isn't worth their while to accommodate anything that doesn't precisely fit their cookie-cutter procedures. Have a situation that falls outside their expected norm and you're hosed.

I guess they figure they're big enough that your business doesn't matter to them. I feel bad for the lone tech they sent to your place. I'm betting they didn't tell him he'd be working late on the Friday before a holiday weekend.

Re: Protecting Your Online Persona

Chris Cree — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:48:24 -0000

We run a big risk of getting into trouble when we even start thinking in terms of "personas" either on or off line. The implication is that we aren't being ourselves and are intentionally hiding something or pretending to be something we aren't.

That kind of thinking can become dangerous because people have a tendency to discount consequences when they think they are anonymous.

Doug I also think you were a touch wide of the mark in one of your statements above. Add one word and I'm with you.

The last thing you want is to leave a trail, personal or business, that can [negatively] impact how your company or a prospect will perceive you.

I certainly hope that prospects will be positively impacted by my online trail. It's part of who I am and the value I bring to table.

And always I assume that Mom & a future employer will both be looking at whatever I put online. That helps me have self control and leave of the especially stupid stuff.

Re: Protecting Your Online Persona

Chris Cree — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:25:31 -0000

I'm with you there, Doug. I sing along to the radio with the windows rolled up!

It's one thing for the person sitting at the stop light next to me to think I might be a little silly bellowing away. But it's quite another thing to prove that I am by rolling down the windows!

Re: Why Blogs Perform Well in Search Engines

Chris Cree — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:18:25 -0000

Truth is I don't know who recorded the track I'm using for the theme song. I have a friend who is in radio and I asked her to send me a podcast safe track with some jazzy saxophone. I'll ask her if there is any artist info on the track. But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. :)

Re: The Persuasive Power of FREE, a Netflix example

Chris Cree — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:07:59 -0000

Michael,

I don't like when the "free" word is tossed about but in order to get whatever they say is "free" you have to purchase something else. In those cases the item offered isn't free - it's complimentary.

Free to me means I can walk in, grab the item and walk out without other strings attached. Right? Or am I just a little off my nut on that one?

Re: Writing White Papers Becomes Bestseller

Chris Cree — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 10:35:23 -0000

Congratulations Michael! That is a wonderful achievement.

Re: Remembering 9/11 2001 - Where Were You?

Chris Cree — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:05:56 -0000

Dianna, I appreciate how weird the absence of planes in the air was in the days immediately after 9/11. I am a former Naval Flight Officer and I have always been fascinated with planes. I am constantly looking up at planes in the sky.

That September we were living near Jacksonville, FL and several airways routes passed overhead. It was creepy for me to look in the sky and not see any contrails. I didn't realize until then how fully crisscrossed our sky normally was.

Re: Top 10 Writers Blogs 2006/2007 - Those in the Running

Chris Cree — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:16:01 -0000

Mike I know Liz Strauss has lots of friends, but I'm still casting my vote for Successful-Blog!

Oh, and I must be tired. I had trouble with the arithmetic in the captcha. Sheesh!

Re: Held Hostage By a Customer Service Rep, My Worst Experience

Chris Cree — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 18:57:04 -0000

Mike, If this had happened to me I would have had to edit my original draft heavily before I posted it! :)

Things like this make me wonder if single sourcing my web hosting is a good idea...

Re: Two Blogs, One “New” Blogger, All Great Stuff

Chris Cree — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:50:32 -0000

think Savannah suburb

Jay, I'm dying! Not sure Savannah's big enough to have a suburb. And Richmond Hill... Great town, up and coming for sure. But suburb? :)

You're spot on about April, though. She's top notch and truly gets blogging. I suspect she'll be a superstar before too long.

Re: Two Blogs, One “New” Blogger, All Great Stuff

Chris Cree — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:55:08 -0000

Far be it from me to cast about disparagement on any rural city. Richmond Hill is a veritable metropolis compared to the tiny town I grew up in Upstate NY. :)

Re: URLs With or Without “WWW”: Which is Best?

Chris Cree — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:15:49 -0000

I totally agree that the www & non-www domains should both resolve into the same domain.
"
However I prefer the non-www version myself. Adding "www." to the domain name is unnecessarily redundant and just adds 4 more characters to URLs (which can get pretty stinking long some times all ready).

I still print my marketing collateral with my business blog listed as www. mycompanyname. com because it looks cleaner in print. But when people type that into their browsers it resolves to http:// mycompanyname. com and leaves off the excess characters for a cleaner, shorter URL.

Re: URLs With or Without “WWW”: Which is Best?

Chris Cree — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:50:10 -0000

I can see that, Bloke. They do look different without the www. I imagine having looked at URL's as long as you have they look downright strange.

Re: What is a Pro Blogger - Setting the Record Straight

Chris Cree — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:46:22 -0000

Bloke, Totally disagree with you on this point.

Seems like you cherry picked non-income related definitions of the word. A quick look at dictionary.com's listing for "professional" shows the first definition is

following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain

A professional is not simply an expert but one who is compensated for his expertise. Without that compensation a person is simply an expert hobbyist.

And that doesn't say anything negative about the hobbyist's knowledge. It could very well be more exhaustive than folks who are earning an income in the field.

I've leveraged my blog into a full time income. Yet you won't see any adds there. Instead I sell my know how as a social media consultant to businesses that need help effectively entering this new era of two-way marketing communication.

I was able to build a full time business in part from the wealth of knowledge I gained for free from many of those same bloggers you so consistently deride. Yet they still have been compensated handsomely from the ads they run on their blogs.

It's a system where everyone wins even though you don't like it.

Re: What is a Pro Blogger - Setting the Record Straight

Chris Cree — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:46:23 -0000

Oh, I understand your intent, Bloke, your protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.

You just subscribe to an amusingly purist definition of blogger which runs something along the lines of "one who posts without ever running ads."

By your standard Michael Jordan shouldn't be considered a professional basketball player because he used his popularity on the court to make millions selling Nike's. Nor should any NASCAR driver ever be considered a professional driver because they all have adds completely covering their cars & and even their driving jump suits.

Your standard simply doesn't make real world sense.

Pulling up the straw man of sploggers is just an attempt to muddy the waters here and not on point. I don't know anyone who defends that approach, least of all the very probloggers you so consistently deride.

I know because I follow those professional bloggers very closely. Of course they mostly publish full feeds, making it easy to keep up. And I don't even see those ads you find so offensive from my feed reader.

Then again I might keep up with you better if you'd publish full feeds yourself.

Just a thought.

Re: Stop, Don’t hit that Delete Spam Button

Chris Cree — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:32:54 -0000

I've never used anything but Askimet and have been quite happy with it. Of course I don't have to sort though 900 spam comments a day either!

I just go in and skim scroll through them a couple times a day before I hit delete. It has been well over a month since I got a false positive on either of my blogs.

Re: Apple’s iPhone to Arrive Early Next Year

Chris Cree — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:40:16 -0000

I don't think they'll have to worry too much about the phone eating into their Nano market. If they position it right then the other phone manufacturers should be worried about loosing market share!

Re: Get Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and Windows Vista Business for Free

Chris Cree — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:58:15 -0000

Hey Thalik, Thanks for pointing this out. I might just check out this promotion. If I do, I'll let you know.

Re: Get Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and Windows Vista Business for Free

Chris Cree — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:59:30 -0000

Thilak.... Sheesh! Sorry.

Re: Local TV Transforms – Towers and Transmitters Meet the Social Web

Chris Cree — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:39:32 -0000

Jim, It is amazing to me that the local TV stations aren't getting more on board with this yet. I pitched blogging to one of our locals here. The strongest supporters were the sales guys of all people. The execs couldn't get it.

From the media perspective it's all about eyeball attention and many of the open source social media apps that are available out there could greatly extend the local TV web sites and bring in more ad revenue.

Eventually they'll adapt.

Re: Finally – Meet-up and SOBCon08 Pics

Chris Cree — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:28:56 -0000

Heya Paul, Thanks for making the trek to Chicago to spend some time with us. (Oh, and sorry about that calling you Kevin thing on camera. Dang sleep deprivation!)