yahoo | Croncast - From Cool to Cul De Sac

Resale Queen Podcast Episode 3

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 09:42:21 -0600

Resale Queen - 2008-02-02.mp3
Show: #003
Length: 23:17
Size: 16.0mb
Format: mp3

This Week's Show: Dumpster Diving Checklilst.

Suburban dumpster diving
Location, location, location
Know the front end - don't want any surprises
Get to know routine
Scout for employees/cops/palette pickers
Leave a car running and ready with door open
Get your stuff and go
Get greedy get hurt
Picking from neighborhoods
Never look the home owner in the eye
How does it change for urban and rural environments?
You have to knock on the dumspter first to get out racoons and feral cats

Next week: Next week we talk eBay Feedback and Fees.

Links: Dawn Shumate sent these great dumpster diving resources. Thanks Dawn!!

http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Hobbies___Crafts/Hobbies/Dumpster_Diving
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Hobbies___Crafts/Hobbies/Secondhand_Shopping

There is a specific dumpster diving group whose goal is to make a map of dumpsters in the Chicago area called garbage liberation.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/garbageliberation/

Most of you will know us from our podcast Croncast (every M-W-F)

Tags: astronaut reslae queen eBay dumpster diving bubble wrap

What good are 3 hits from Google search results?

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:56:11 -0600

I can tell you. It all depends on what people are searching for.

Painfully obvious, right?

Well, not so much when someone searches at Google for intitle:"chocolate" ext:rss. The odds are astronomically high that even chocolate experts weren't even returned as results. See for yourself.

So what does this mean? It means that someone searched Google for a RSS feed (ext:rss) with the word chocolate in the title (intitle:"chocolate").

Yes, the search is more advanced than a keyword or phrase based search but that isn't my full point. The reason that it matters is that not only did this individual search for chocolate but also culture and abba. Not quite sure what it says about the person searching for those topics . . .

So for me, these three hits matter. They are three more than I would have normally received for those topics and a chance for me to get them to possibly subscribe to those feeds, subscribe to my podcast, click an ad (yes, I like money) or get my brand in front of them.

I am able to do this with keyword feeds that I create dynamically from posts that get the same SEO treatment that a normal webpage would get.

The other plus for this type of search is the fact that they return so few results and Croncast happens to be ranked #1 for most of them including searches like, say . . . "CNN" or "Micorsoft" or "iTunes".

I've had conversations with a friend, Rick Klau, about RSS feeds being indexed in Google search results. Most of those discussions focused on my saying that feeds should show up in search results and Rick saying that they shouldn't.

My stance is that some people, like myself, benefit from these results the same way that we benefit from a normal click through to our sites. I am able to do this by checking where the individual who clicked through is coming from and displaying a web page instead of the RSS with the exact same data that was in the feed.

But I don't stop there. I also make sure to let the user know how they got to the page and that they can now subscribe to that feed. It's a soft landing for what traditionally has been a hard look at XML or ugly feed displays in browsers. Which is where you will end up with 99.9 out of 100 feeds if you click through them when returned in a search.

What is Rick's position? If 99.9 are bad then they should be removed. For the time being I will agree that he is right. But that doesn't mean that this is the way it always has to be.

A couple of things could change this:

1) The uptake of RSS since IE7 and and FireFox now display their own XSLT to prettify the XML. Sort of like FeedBurner does.
2) Publishers add their own XSLT for their feeds
3) Publishers using blogs, most of which are dynamically generated, are written with code that can check for referers like Goolge, Live and Yahoo and redirect the user to a page that has the same content as the feed
4) My favorite. Google could create their own XSLT document that loads the feed into it.

Maybe that was more than a couple but I believe there are a lot of ways to welcome feeds into indexed search results beyond having to type in a search like intitle:"Google" ext:rss.

By the way, I'm not number one on this one Google is with it's YouTube property.

Next up, how to create RSS feeds with keywords in the title, how to get the .rss extension added to your feeds and landing pages for feeds.

Tags: RSS search page rank Google search RSS XSLT FeedBurner

New Flickr Uploadr makes me want to upload

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:08:51 -0600

I caught this blog post this morning about the Flickr release of an updated version of their desktop uploader.

It is a much needed upgrade and . . . and . . . for those of you, like me, that use Flickr for backing up your photos will love that the new version doesn't force you to resize large images. Being able to archive my original images to Flickr just made the service even more useful.

It's available for Windows and Mac. However, at Flickr the links for the download are still pointing to the old version.

Get version 3.0 in the original post.

Thanks, DI and Yahoo!

Tags: Flickr Uploadr desktop upload Flickr uploader 3.0 archive flickr

Hella code day

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:59:08 -0500

I spent the bulk of my free time today knocking out code on the site.

Things were just clicking today for some reason and I couldn't let it go. I think it is easier than ever to get to all the content in the site.

Maybe it's the Grinderman?

comments RSS feed and respective page
cleaned up all feeds and urls to make them more human readable - for example www.croncast.com/all.rss instead of www.croncast.com/feedbuffet/all/feed.php
setting feeds that are indexed by search engines to redirect to the internal Croncast search page if they are clicked from google, yahoo, aol and others (this is a big deal since many of the people clicking these links have no clue what rss is especially porno seekers. example page 3 of these google results search for "spice channel" resullt 21 is a keyword feed . . . copy the url and add it to your reader and it works no problem, click it and it will take you to the same results as the feed but only at the website, nice)
added the unique feed to the internal search results for those who have been referred by a search engine
added the unique feed to the internal search results for regular users button looks like this - example Kris Smith
created new includes for blog, podcast, news and all content archives so they can plug and play on any page
re-ordered the navigation
created a two new archive pages - one for navigation of all content with pseudo categories and the other as a master archive of shows by month
edited internal search results page to recognize when referrer is a search engine to display a message that explains what Croncast
added another adwords box to the search results after item 7 in the returned results
tons of other mundane stuff for tracking keyword feeds and referrers

Up for tomorrow

new rss page
moderated media rss (mmrss) creation tool, for listeners (it's going to be sick)
new contact page
new "people say" section for listeners to leave reviews
new db table to hold mobile browsers to redirect for rss

Tags: croncast mmRSS rss archives keyword rss feed rss seo rss redirect

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 148

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 10:28:48 -0600

Croncast - 2005-11-25.mp3

Show: #190
Length: 28:13
Size: 19.4 mb
Format: mp3

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 148

Show Notes

Post Thanksgiving release
Again with the Kris doesn't get it
Having a vagina makes holidays completely different
Hiding in the basement
Kris is "delightful and charming", words from the lips of Betsy
Playing board games at holidays
Put some Play-Doh in the game
Who are these people, strangers . . . relatives
Kris is so much fun
A support system for Betsy at the holidays
We're going to see the Rockettes on tour
Middle class education on party hosting
Setting a table is not it Betsy's future
Mother is stressing out
It is time to learn
Parental modeling crammed into one meal
What side do the forks go on?
When it is important to you it will matter
Horrendous pain with no cartilage
Dementia and labor pain
Stop your baby from screaming
No "black friday" shopping at this house
Begging Betsy for money to buy her gifts
On top of the kitchen sink
The Oprah 200 calorie work out
We can't even stick to that
Tuning out or throwing up
When Oprah says something it makes perfect sense to Betsy
It is all estrogen related
Why don't we eat out of tinfoil
Not even the same category
I could never be in Betsy's category
Maggie dressing up
Betsy . . . iron?
Pretending not having to
The weight of Betsy's domestic plate
The DVD
Von Maur again
Rich people smell nice . . . like there house
The blessings of American Girl dolls
Betsy's good karma leads her to the sales
Betsy tips her hand and can't ask for a discount
Resale
Punk rock daughter hooks Betsy up with a doll that has a soul
Making dolls in your trailer and then a billionaire
Before doll making
Mommy says I spent $130 on that
Elliot is daddy through and through

More shameless promotion for "We're Coming Over."

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Tags: betsy kris holidays croncast people

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 147

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:06:47 -0600

Croncast - 2005-11-18_2.mp3

Show: #189
Length: 38:05
Size: 26.8 mb
Format: mp3

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 147

Show Notes

Shameless promotion for "We're Coming Over."

Kris is back from San Francisco
Listen to the previous podcast to hear my morning in SF
Diced ham and eggs
It's 6 a.m. in the midwest 4 a.m. on the west coast
3 rings to answer, it takes a while to get two call girls into the bathroom
Cubicle to cubicle
Dinner at Aqua
Looked like the Disaronno commercial
Musical interlude for fixing Betsy's mic
So what was aqua like?
It was like Friday's?
The fast food of the sit down world
Itsy bitsy entrees
Fluke might not be the tasting food I have ever had
It was so good that I tucked my shirt
It was a business trip
No corporate heirarchy will take away Betsy's divaness
It is hard to sleep when spouse leaves town
Kris was at the Hilton and Betsy was at the cul de sac
Elliot gets Goodwill
The same fire burning inside that Betsy has
The bi-polar asian dude
What he wanted for Christmas
Creatures from the stuffed animal bin
That was your childhood, not his
You gotta watch the guy
You'd think he was Hertzakaveenan
Never show your interest in any item if you want it
Betsy's hesitation caused the loss
Kris, it is your fault but I forgive you
The receptionist thought I was hot
My co-workers were giving me a hard time about it
Yup, he thought I was hot
The suit, I looked so good that I looked gay
I was in San Francisco for 5 minutes and had a boyfriend
My hetero posse picked up on it, I didn't
Kris is completely socially retared
We were both our happy places
The once a week show deal has us all screwed up telling stories
The suit story, I will spare the show notes on this
Carson Pierre Scott - worst shopping
Over $50 I will never shop in their store again
So for $50 they will never get a penny of my business again
How much do you think a regular customer spends over their life-time in their stores?
"At Your Service" signage should be changed to "We Hate You. Give us your money!"
He's gonna get thrown out by security
So I bought my suit from Von Maur
My suit is currently owned by Bank of America I should have it paid off in a year
Kris sort of did
It wasn't a threat, it was a promise
Dreaming about the receptionist
Like it is 1974 and I'm a swinger
If a man named Paolo calls give him my cell
So Betsy is going back to Carson's, where's the love
Wholesale $.99 retail $299.99
Wal-Mart looks suspiciously like Goodwill except with multiples
6 pounds of Charmon and 25 push-ups
Rumor starts here:
To aleviate avian flu, cure it childrens Moltrin in high doses taken rectally.
Marshmallows are not the perfect food
We're Coming Over. - Get your's you selfish beast.

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Tags: betsy kris suit food looked

Croncast - Kris and the City of SF, CA

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:00:02 -0600

Croncast - 2005-11-18_1.mp3

Show: #188
Length: 18:46
Size: 12.8 mb
Format: mp3

Croncast - Kris and the City of SF, CA

Show Notes

Kris's breakfast and morning in San Francisco.

Show with Betsy this evening.

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 17:58:59 -0500

Croncast - 2005-10-12.mp3

Show: #175
Length: 32:15
Format: mp3
Bit rate: 64 kbs
Size: 14.7 mb

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 134

Show Notes

Give us a review at Yahoo!

These are pseudo show notes due the fact that I am typing this as the show uploads because I said I would have it up at 7 CST . . . sweet.

This is your Thursday morning quickie
The show is late
Do married people even remember a quickie
Add kids and that is answer
Ignore the man ans he runs away
There's a party for you at the front of the store
He programs your car and that one is an attorney
Early morning garage picking by Betsy
Garage sale gloves and special pens
Muffin's crazy polar fleece
Kris looking at graduate school
No chip about it anymore
Life stories
I married the wrong one
One year of podcasting in a month

Tags: croncast kris betsy garage married