Welcome to this week’s collection of interesting finds. A roundup of interesting stuff I found this week while digging through and exploring the tubes of the internets…
My friend Drew McLellan has an interesting project going on over at his place. With “Help me give college grads a fighting chance,” Drew’s asking folks to contribute advice for new college grads:
I remember how scary it was. 20+ years later, I shake my head at the mistakes the grads make while trying to vie for my attention. So I decided we (yes WE) could give them a gift that will put that digital camera to shame. We can help them get that job.
There’s already some great advice in the comments. Be sure to check it out and maybe offer your own.
Via Marketing Pilgrim, I found the The OneBoxer blog:
After using Froogle and then Google Base to build over $1M in business annually for an online retailer of power tools, I was convinced by some in the industry to share the knowledge I’ve acquired through trial and error. My goal is to provide a valuable resource for those struggling with achieving success through Google’s OneBox so their profits and business both grow exponentially.
Some really good info for Google Onebox optimization, including videos on what it is and how it works.
Mike Gunderloy over at Web Worker Daily writes on “Refactoring Your Career:”
Like it or not, we need to keep working even while we change the work that we’re doing. Enter the software development practice of refactoring: making small changes to a program that already works to evolve it towards a more functional version without breaking the parts that are finished.
Mike lists “a catalog of career refactorings,” and many of them will help those looking to make the leap into entrepreneurship prepare.
Tamar Weinberg from 10e20 has a nice article on free and cheap website statistics tools – “Analytics on the Cheap: Six Free Stats Packages for the Startup or Small-Business Owner:”
Key marketing and business decisions can be founded on website statistics analysis. Once your website is up and you’re looking for traffic, all users should consider a statistics package.
Fortunately, in this day and age, you can find just about everything for a relatively cheap price or even free.
I’ve tried so many, and ditched a bunch of them over the years, both free and paid versions. I’m using some of the ones Tamar covers here, and have found StatCounter and Google Analytics to be perfect for most of my needs.
Tony,
Thanks for the plug. I am hoping we (all of us together) can generate about 100 comments — that would make a sweet guide for the grads.
No reason not to be helpful, eh? I sure wish someone would have told me a thing or two! 🙂
Drew
Drew – No problem. It’s is a great idea and agree it will be an awesome guide.
The analytics link is one that’s tops for me (though Marketing Pilgrim is one I’ll check next).
I’ve been sweeping Web statistics under the rug, not knowing what to do with them, but after attending an analytics program this week and posting information about it on my blog, I’m ready to move forward and treat these stats like the ally they are.
Thanks for bringing these posts to light.