Kin Lane's Personal Blog by Kin Lane

11:29 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Distributed Data and Syndication

I am building out a pretty complex system that really seems like a lot of overhead to get some pretty basic systems up.

It involves republishing small subsets of data to various data stores such as MySQL, Amazon S3, GData, or just XML.

Then I syndicate web services / feeds in RSS, XML, JSON to those little data stores.

I keep getting asked why don't you just allow one central data feed off main data store.

From
a security and load balancing standpoint the distributed piece just
makes sense. It allows me to publish on a schedule these small data
stores for each partner / client. I can give them access directly to
the raw data as well as the feed.

Also the feed and data can
scale and grow independently of the central data store. It really helps
me to scale data feeds and each partners needs.

Alright....just jotting down these thoughts in case I change them..

11:27 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

RSS Feeds for All Businesses

I know I've ranted about this before, but here we go again. It cannot
be said enough. EVERY business that has a web site and has information
on the Internet needs to provide RSS Feeds for that data.

I am
looking for product review web sites right now. Looking to harvest data
on different product areas and feed it back out to users. I am not
looking to harness the traffic, it will go to the source of the
reviews. I do this to get data and statistics and ultimately provide
value to end-users.

4 out of 5 sites I come across have reviews
but do not have an RSS Feed. I understand that some people are worried
about their proprietary data, well.....get over it. RSS will generate
new users and syndicate your content beyond your web site.

If you can't figure out how to have an RSS feed, go get a Wordpress blog and start using that!!

10:13 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Small Business Online Operations Plan

I have been working with my brother-in-law to really escalate the operations of his small business Thinwrench, which offers custom wrench and tool manufacturing. He has had the business since the 1990's and has had the site since I believe 2001.

The
site gets a fair amount of traffic and it generates a small trickle of
orders for him though out the year, but nothing really significant. It
is impressive though considering he does next to nothing to maintain or
evolve the site, it's content, and online presence.

So we are
always trying to get together and breathe some life into it. He is a
real smart guy who has almost zero time to put into his business
outside his day job. This is definitely a common problem for aspiring
entrepreneurs.

So I have launched a new BETA version of his small business web site using the same look, but hoping to give him a new set of content management (CMS) tools to assist him in making his site maintenance and syndication easier.

My goal with the new small business online operations plan is to give a simple framework to:

• Maintain his simple, easy to use small business web site.
• Plan and implement a traditional and online marketing campaign for his small business.
• Plan and implement a social media marketing campaign for his small business.

So I put together a basic outline that lays out the plan for:

• Writing
  home page, about us, and contact us content for use on his web site as
  well as throughout his online marketing and social media marketing
  efforts.
• Develop a list of initial products he will offer through his small business web site.
• Develop a list of initial services his business will offer through his small business web site.
• Establish a basic keyword marketing strategy to use as a framework when marketing his site and writing content.

Once his site is up with the new content we will start laying out:

• Marketing Plan Outline
• Online Marketing Plan Outline
• Social Media Marketing Plan Outline
• Advertising Plan Outline

We
will keep each plan and strategy simple and realistic and easy to
implement. My goal is for him to be successful and not get overwhelmed
with strategy and execution and never get anywhere.

He probably
has 4-8 hours a week maximum to spend on his web site maintenance,
content creation, marketing, advertising, and overall online presence.
That isn't much.

He has to execute in the 1st round so he has a
deep understanding of how the site maintenance, marketing, social media
marketing and advertising process works before he can delegate to
anyone else. This is critical as the owner of a small business.

So
keeping it simple and obtainable, and employing an agile process for
executing, evaluating and planning for changes every week is crucial.

I will keep posting on his progress, challenges and successes.

10:10 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Participate in Question and Answer Sites to Market Yourself

I go through spurts where I monitor and participate on Question and
Answer web sites. Usually I monitor Yahoo Answers & LinkedIn
Answers via RSS feeds.

I gather a lot of information and knowledge this way and keep organized using tags in Google Reader and Google Notebook.

I also participate and give my answer or feedback on questions from time to time.

I haven't been doing this for a couple months now, but I did actively participate for months at a time.

I recently got the following email off LinkedIn:

For
a while now, I've been digging around for answers to a question that no
one seems to be able to answer. Your name keeps coming up in my
searches. If you don't mind, I would like to tap your brain.

How would you project your monthly costs in terms of storage and bandwidth if you didn't know

how much traffic to expect on your startup photo/video sharing site?

This
is just one notable connection I've made via social networks, thought
it showed the value of a continued presence for your business on
Questions and Answer web sites.

10:05 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Google Adds Maps to Google Chart API

Google released a new update for the Google Chart API. It allows you to create maps with specific data areas based upon what you pass.

You can highlight states, countries and other elements and display summary or other data regarding those elements.

A nice feature added to the API. The have a lot of features hitting the pavement lately across their web applications / API.