...DUN DUN DUN....Too much schoolwork and not alot of time to blog

Hey guys. As you probably notice I did not blog today. Well school is ending and I got alot of exams coming up. So for about the next 3 weeks the posts may be less but as soon as summer starts I plan to have a lot of posts, daily updates on my own project and answers to your questions. I will have a post up tomorrow concerning coding or hiring a coder through Elance. Hopefully school will go well and I can really get this blog going.

Also you can still send me questions and I'll be sure to answer them as soon as possible. So good luck to you guys in your endeavors and until I can post on a more regular basis expect a post maybe every two days. Later Internets!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!!

Alright. Its Sunday and well everyone needs a day off. So today I'm just going to take it easy and actually study for an upcoming test in social sciences.

In any case I've decided that I will use Sunday to discuss topics that you guys want me to talk about. I'll discuss anything from programming, my opinion on some web 2.0 project, or w/e. Just send it my way and starting next week I'll start talking about topics that you want to hear about. If people have questions I'll answer those too on Sunday.

So everyone go back to sleep or just sit in the warm sun. Have a good day and just rest. Later Internets

Read! - Part 2 of Web 2.0 Idea Implementation

Hey Internets

THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Its the weekend and many of you are probably going to sleep in late and/or coach potato it all weekend. For the person that's trying to get their web 2.0 startup going then your probably reading. Yes reading, learning, applying and hopefully enjoying yourself.

Many of you may have certifications or in the least general knowledge of programming languages. As a programmer or just a person with an idea it is very important that you read. You have to learn and understand different coding languages. It doesn't matter whether your going to code the project yourself or hire a programmer through Elance. No good architect has designed a building without first understanding construction.

Now its not a good idea to just learn one programming language. Its important that you do your research and learn about any and all programming language that may be relevant to your project. Only when you have read and understand the many programming languages out there can you move forward to the following question.

Will you use html? xml? javascript? php?

This is another brain storming period where you must think of what language your application or service will be created in. All programming languages have different limitations, requirements and learning curves. You should try to match your project's needs to a specific language or combination of. Using the proper programming language will immensely aid you in creating your project. To make the best decision you must of course read and if you truly desire to make your idea a reality this will be no problem.

I for one am lucky to have resources at work and enough money to buy books. But even if you have no money you can still read about many programming languages on the Internet. Become a sponge and really soak yourself in the knowledge offered by the Internet. Researching will not only enable you but will excite you as you get one step close to make your idea a reality. I leave you with some resources on the web and if you get really into it, some book recommendations on my amazon widget to the right.

Resources On The Web

Google
- Did I really just list Google, the search engine, as a source? Well yes. Look up all the different programming languages that exist out there. Scour the internet for information and just read

Google Code University
- This is more specific then just searching on Google. Its full of content to teach you about different programming languages. May be hard to navigate at first but they have material from many Universities around the US

W3Schools
- A great place to start and study many different programming languages. They do full tutorials and would be a good reference in the future

As always you can e-mail me and I will definitely try to answer all my e-mails. You can also leave comments on the blog posts. Nothing is more important then helping people or hearing what people think of my blog. Thank you very much for reading and I'll try to post in the least one new topic everyday

Next Time:
The future posts in this series will have two parts because people choose different methods of implementing their web 2.0 idea. Some will code it themselves and some will hire a coder. So the next blog post in this series will have two paths. Coding the idea yourself and/or Hiring a coder on Elance.

Monetizing Social Networks

Hey Internets

Well I stumbled onto a pretty good article about the monetizing of social networks. Its a really good article showing how companies, like Google, are having issues in making money through social networks.

In my opinion I have always thought that monetizing social networks would be hard. You have to consider the fact that the majority of people ignore ads on any website. Currently I find that the only social networks that may be making money are places like Digg. They have a tech savvy social network of diggers that love having the newest gadgets. Digg's ads consist of tech stuff which many in their social network actually have interest in. Even I admit to being drawn in by flash animations of big screen flat panels.

The problem with social networks is that the people aren't cohesive in wanting some kind of product or service. Social networks like Facebook and Myspace have very diverse crowds that all want different things. Although Google has already made an algorithm to match an individuals interest to ads, they still aren't making ground. People aren't on social networks to buy anything. They are just there to have fun and make connections. So in companies like Facebook, ads are not money makers because they don't attract the audience well enough. I really wonder if the investment of companies such as banks to put advertisements on the news feed of Facebook have really drawn in customers or have even given a return on their investment.

Looking at my Facebook now the only ad I see is a job offering for junior college students for $8 an hour. I know I'm a broke college student but $8 doesn't sound like much to me. Another time I was on Facebook it had ads about offering dating services to me. Well I have a girlfriend and I don't think that would sit well with her.

In any case the problem with social networks right now is how to monetize them. Currently there are only 3 ways of monetizing anything on the internet.

-Advertising
-Membership Fees
-Donations

So the race is on. Facebook, Myspace and individuals alike are now racing to be the first to truly monetize the social network phenomenon.

Whats your opinion? How would you monetize social networks? Will social networks work or will this internet phenomenon meet its demise?

As always you can e-mail me and I will definitely try to answer all my e-mails. You can also leave comments on the blog posts. Nothing is more important then helping people or hearing what people think of my blog. Thank you very much for reading and I'll try to post in the least one new topic everyday

Keep It Simple Sally - Part 1 of Web 2.0 Idea Implementation

Usually known as KISS (I don't think anyone is stupid) this little acronym is little thought of by many people. Not to offend anyone I'll just call this point "KIS".

So got a new web 2.0 idea? It'll cure cancer? It will help thousands? It will make millions? It cooks your breakfast? Well then how are you going to do it?

This is about the point where many people stop in their tracks. They've thought of a great new web 2.0 idea and just don't know how to implement it. Some of these people don't even know any programming languages or much about the internet. Fret not. There are thousands of people that have been in the same predicament. What you need to do is just KIS - Keep It Simple. We'll talk about the coding part in a later blog post.

Now that you've got your idea what exactly is it? Sit down and unleash your idea on paper. Try to keep it tidy but if inspiration hits and you go Picasso on it thats ok too. Now look at your idea and really try to simplify it. Often times you may just have a mishmash of ideas that has a central theme. Take that theme and make it your main idea. Now that you have a main idea see if your other ideas can work with it. Think of your idea in this way.

Disclaimer: There are many ways to think about your web 2.0 idea. I'm not saying mine is the best, This is just the way I think of it. Definitely do some research and see what works for you.

Your idea should be like a well oiled machine. A simplified machine works well and faces little complications. Now I know that all the cogs I put in the picture are of different sizes but here is the thing. You can look at this diagram in many different ways. The features could be driving both the main idea and addons or the main idea is driving the features and then add-ons. At any rate the point is that by organizing your web idea into a machine you can really look at how it will come together. Simplifying it visually like this is just a tool.

As an example I will use the very popular Digg. Now Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, had one main idea. Kevin looked at Slashdot and thought to himself that it was unfair that people who submitted stories to Slashdot were often denied publication on the site by its moderators. He thought to himself "I can do this better". He wanted to create a news aggregator that was not only user submitted but, also user moderated. Unlike Slashdot he thought that the front page should be decided by the users that "dugg" the submissions. See here the feature of the site drove the main idea of user submitted news and moderation. Later on social networking become an addon to the moderation of the front page. Now users of similar interests can digg stories they liked as a group to the front page of digg. Now here is a simplified break down of Digg.com

Main Idea: User Submitted News Site
Feature: Moderation of the Front Page by Users
Add-ons: Social Networking Between People of Similar Interests

Now I know this look at Digg is really oversimplified but the point is this. When your idea is simple there will be less issues to face in the future. When your idea is too big and ambitious you'll end up working too hard to satisfy all aspects of it. In the end your web app or service will end up so bloated that its usability and function is poor. When you focus on one main idea and a small amount of features, your app or service will have greater usability which will drive users to it. Nobody likes stumbling onto a new web app or service and then realizing it sucks. So keep it simple and surely you'll succeed.

As always you can e-mail me and I will definitely try to answer all my e-mails. Nothing is more important then helping people or hearing what people think of my blog. Thank you very much for reading and I'll try to post a new topic everyday