Lately, I’ve noticed that there are actually far fewer experts out there than we are led to believe.

There are numerous blogs, websites, and people who hold themselves out as experts on WordPress, or SEO gurus, or professional online designers, and so on. However, a collection of recent updates to the core platforms that these experts give advice about has exposed an unpleasant truth. Most of those SEO experts, WordPress gurus, and online traffic masters out there are really nothing more than parrots rewriting what they have read elsewhere.

Google MayDay Update Exposes Fakes

Google updated it search ranking algorithm recently, much to the dismay of several SEO experts and legions of qualified SEO consultants. It seems that Google’s rankings had been lacking in the area of search known as long-tail keywords.

The definition of long-tail keywords is keywords that are searched for less frequently than typical short-tail or main keywords, but that still provide a lot of traffic to websites savvy enough to use them. For example, something like best Denver hotels, might be a short-tail keyword (or key phrase), while something like nice denver motel or best downtown denver luxury hotels would be a long-tail keyword. The idea is that if you can optimize a webpage to target the long-tail keyword, there will be much less competition, and therefore ranking highly for that phrase will be easier. Doing this just once is not very profitable, however, dedicated website publishers can earn lots of money by creating and optimizing numerous webpages or websites for multiple long-tail keywords.

To take the example further, the owner of a Denver hotels website might create an SEO optimized page for numerous long-tail phrases like, best family friendly denver hotels, or best denver hotels downtown with mountain views, or even best value hotels for business travelers in denver, and so on. Because, each individual page is optimized around that long-tail key-phrase, they can all rank high in Google search results for their own searches. Meanwhile, a website for a major chain of hotels, like Hilton or Marriott, might not rank well for any of those specific searches because they have neither the time nor inclination to try and rank for every search phrase someone might use to find a hotel in Denver.

Instead, these websites rely upon the carefully crafted public image Google has created whereby the best content always rises to the top of search rankings. Before Google updated its searches with the so-called May Day update, this was largely untrue. The only way a webpage would rank highly for a long-tail keyword search was if no one else had actually targeted it yet.

Unofficial Google spokesman Matt Cutts emphasized that the MayDay update to Google searches was targeted primarily at these long-tail searches and the websites that profit from undeserved high rankings in search results by focusing big SEO efforts on underused key phrases.

There has been much speculation about what exactly was changed by Google. What is interesting is where this speculation is coming from. Legitimate Google watchers have been postulating theories and ideas since day one. Furthermore, they are reporting what they hear from other webmasters, Google insiders, and official Google announcements and forum postings. Meanwhile, the fake Google experts have gone quiet about the whole matter, resorting to rewriting about the same old things that they have written about in the past, and waiting for someone else to discover what is going on and what to do about it so that they can finally find out themselves. Of course, then, they’ll be pontificating as though they have worked it all out themselves as soon as they have read enough material from others to use as a crutch springboard.

WordPress 3.0 Reveals Experts Are Not

A similar update to the WordPress blogging platform has left numerous WordPress websites stalled out writing and rewriting about the same eight or ten new features updated in WordPress 3.0 and explained completely on wordpress.org. What is missing is all of that advice about the intricacies of WordPress 3.0. Of course, it should take a little bit of time. WordPress is big and advanced, so digging through everything new in WordPress 3 takes a while, but there are insights along the way.

Most telling is the dearth of WordPress 3.0 themes. Most pre-WordPress 3 themes have been updated, and their creators are quick to point out that their premium WordPress themes are fully compatible with WordPress 3.0. Unfortunately, compatible, and designed for WordPress 3.0 are two very different things.

We’ll keep an eye out for good new WordPress 3.0 themes which should be arriving from the top WordPress developers shortly. In the meantime, if you are a professional writer, you can read the continuing series about the best WordPress themes for writers and the upcoming reviews of writer WordPress themes.

As a professional freelance writer, I end up using wireless hotspots to work from coffee shops. While, I use a secured network whenever possible, many WiFi hotspots do not have any security enabled because it makes them easier to use. Although it seems like no one would bother, the reality is that wireless access points are easily compromised – even those that do have some form of WEP or WPA security enabled on the wireless access point. Using websites that have secure SSL connections can help keep usernames and passwords secure.

Unfortunately, that does nothing to secure all of those applications on laptops that log-in automatically by remembering usernames and passwords. It is also all too common to be in the middle of something, get in the flow, and end up entering a username and password before even thinking about whether or not there was a HTTPS in the URL.

The only reasonable solution is to setup an encrypted connection that captures all incoming and outgoing network traffic from the laptop so that there can be no mistakes or slips in security. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of options available in this arena. This is especially true for WiFi hotspot security protection that can be setup on the fly without pre-configuring a server somewhere to be waiting for your call.

Hotspot Shield by Anchor Free offers a free VPN connection that provides the fully encrypted security solution needed to safely use WiFi hotspots. However, it is “ad supported” which means that not only will part of your precious laptop screen real estate be eaten up by ads, thereby making your viewable monitor area even smaller, but it also means that your connection ends up being slower because those advertisements are given first priority by the VPN application.

WiFi Guardian Wireless HotSpot Security

I was excited to find WiFi Guardian, a free wireless hotspot VPN encryption program that connects to its own third-party servers to provide network security. Like HotSpot Shield, WiFi Guardian provides complete network interception making by web surfing and email secure as well as closing off the ability to hack in via installed software programs that automatically update.

The best part is that WiFi Guardian comes with a free 3-day trial. After three days, you have to pay $49.95 per year, but even a one-day free trial is good enough to secure your laptop for an impromptu coffee shop office setup. Most other VPN software comes with a specific data limit trial instead. That means that you have to make sure your computer isn’t doing anything behind the scenes that could be eating up your free trial period like downloading CD covers or synchronizing your bookmarks or files.

There is one bizarre thing that concerns me. The VPN application requires you to register a username and password to create an account. No problem there. However, the password field can only contain letters, no numbers or symbols.

What kind of security is that?

The most basic of all security is using strong passwords. Anyone setting up special software for security purposes would already be very familiar with using strong passwords. It begs the question about how seriously the WiFi Guardian developers take security when they not only allow, but require users to setup weak passwords on their accounts.

Needless to say, I will be uninstalling the software after my free trial period is up.

Has anyone else used WiFi Guardian? What have your experiences been like? Would you trust a security company that uses weak passwords?

Leave your answers in the comments, or shoot me an email.

Ok, the title is overstated, but I’m tired of writing boring titles to get better search results.

Today, I have questions rattling around in my brain, some of which are more important than others, some of which could change the way do things or handle my workflow, and some of which are nothing more than minor concerns that an inquiring mind wants to know about.

1. Is it really worthwhile / doable / smart to use WordPress to manage a normal "static" website?  The truth is that static websites generally aren’t really all that static, but they do have a more set structure, unlike a blog. Often, the changes and tweaks made to a page are relatively minor and it seems like overkill to fire up Dreamweaver CS4 just to add a link to a freelance writing samples page, for example.  On the other hand, I get more flexibility and understand more of what is going on from a non-WordPress angle. (My HTML / XHTML / CSS is stronger than my PHP / mySQL.)
2. Why can’t I find a non-complicated way to make lists on a website with explanation text?  Take the list you are looking at. Ideally, there would be a number followed by the question.  Then, underneath that there would be this explanatory text instead of having to rely on the bold to separate the question from the text.  I know it can be done, but it’s just so much effort to click all the buttons to make it happen or keep all of the <ol> <ul> <li> code straight.
3. Is Technorati (or any others) really that important? Unfortunately, the worlds of web design, search engines, SEO, and social networking are all dominated by techie types.  That means that when it comes to things like Technorati, Digg, Twitter, or whatever, the volume tends to be disproportionately loud.  Is getting indexed, listed, or whatever on these sites worth the time and effort?  Or, more specifically…
4. Is It Better To Add Technorati Specific Tags to Posts, or Will WordPress’ Ping Take Care of It?  Considering that I have no real interest in trying to force my way to the top of Technorati or any other site by any means other than writing good stuff, do I get any benefit from taking the extra time to "tag" my posts with Technorati tags? 
5. Do All Those Incoming Yahoo Glue Links Count for Anything?  My incoming links for some of my sites are filled with links that come from Yahoo Glue.  Do I get anything out of those? 
6. What If Google Knows What It Is Doing? Pretty much all SEO techniques both on-page SEO tactics, and off-site SEO linking, assume that Google needs a lot of help getting its index and search rankings results right. In other words, that Google isn’t a very good search engine.  That doesn’t seem right does it?  I mean, it’s the #1 Search Engine in the world for a reason.  Microsoft has tried 3 times to create something that even comes close and couldn’t.  Does it really make sense then that Google’s search results are so delicate that they can be heavily influenced by something as simple as changing a few HTML tags?
7. If Google Knows What It Is Doing, Then Why Do So Many Search Results Suck? As a corollary to the above, why are some search results so terrible?  Is it that Google’s famed reliance on incoming links, or links pointing to a webpage or website, makes it too vulnerable to being conned into ranking lesser sites above better ones?  This seems especially true when it comes to authoritative websites.  Consider this search for california school rankings

The obvious authoritative source is the actual rankings published by California.  In fact, both of the sites that rank higher are nothing more than interfaces tacked onto the data provided by the third link.  A search for california school ratings produces a similar result except that the #4 result becomes the #2 result.

There are much worse examples, this is just the one I came up with off the top of my head for a quick blog post.  Fortunately, the other sites listed above the official one aren’t scam sites or obvious web spam.  They are both trying to milk free publicly available information to show advertising and get people to sign up (get email addresses) and perhaps even pay for "premium" information.

The fact that the official California API results ranks so high, however, is a testament to Question #3.  Look at the Academic Performance Index (API) page from the California Department of Education, and you will see a website that has no redeemable SEO qualities whatsoever – in the traditional sense, at least.  And, yet, there it is at #3.

Like most "official" websites, they have better things to do than keyword research, emailing other websites to beg for links, and so on.  On more competitive keywords, this is often much worse, with scam sites or obvious web spam ranking above the official resources. 

The worst examples are often those where the higher ranking sites offer biased or otherwise slanted information, while the official, unbiased, sites rank much lower.  This is because of a combination of using every SEO trick in the book, and then the fact that like minded supporters will link to the websites that promote their point of view, rather than the straight factual websites which might include information that they don’t like.

Search your favorite, financial, political, governmental, or judicial topic to find examples.

Back to Work

Ok, I’ve spent too much time writing this today already.  Off to make money freelance writing.  Don’t worry, I’ll be back later.

I’ve been tinkering around with various website designs for an upcoming project.  The idea was to take the best design elements of each website design that I like or that has top notch functionality and then combine them into a single great website design.  Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to design a one-size-fits-all website layout that is the perfect solution for every online purpose, even for sites that are all related or in the same category.

Obviously, websites with different purposes or audiences require different page designs, but I thought I could find an overall template for webpage designs that would be usable for multiple websites in the same category that performed the same function.  However, even similar websites can’t be shoehorned into a single design.

This morning I was doing what I always do for my morning break which is browsing through the handful of online deals websites that I like.  I know there are hundreds of other deals sites out there or coupon sites or sites with free shipping codes, but the four sites I scroll through every day have turned out to the best deal websites on the Internet for the types of things that I buy and shop for.

In no particular order, my favorite deals websites are:

• Woot
• Slickdeals
• Dealnews
• GottaDeal

All four sites are in the same category of online shopping or Internet-based shopping tips.  All four sites offer daily updates of the best deals they can offer.  But, each one has a completely different design and layout to serve its readers best.  The difference in designs and what that design offers, is very likely one of the main reasons I continue to use all four sites despite the fact that I just don’t buy stuff all that often.

Woot is the most well known.  They offer a single great deal each day.  If the deal happens to hit you with something you want or need, then you win.  If not, then you wait another day. Either way, the site displays a single product including its picture and a tongue-in-cheek review of the product that doesn’t generally contain any real facts until the end.  It is just accepted by users of the site that whatever the product and price is, that it is a good deal.  The site makes no mention of how good of a deal, nor whether it is a better or worse deal than might be sniffed out elsewhere.

SlickDeals.net offers many features to its users including forums where visitors can discuss potentially good deals, coupons, discount codes, and even the quality and specifications of the products in question.  However, the main landing page of SlickDeals is simply a list of text links.  Each product is listed along with its price.  No other information, pictures, or graphics are provided unless you click one of the links.  Only the best of the best make the SlickDeals front page, no matter how many or how few deals that means the site has on any particular day.  If only one item rises to the level demanded by the SlickDeals front page, then only one deal gets posted.  There is no filler.

DealNews and GottaDeal, by contrast, both have more extensive listings including a picture of the sale item as well as notes such as when, if ever, the item was offered for less and whether or not it takes a rebate or coupon to get the low discount price.

While both DealNews and GottaDeal look similar at a glance, a closer look reveals that DealNews groups their big deals by type with computers and computer related deals at the top and other deals at the bottom.  This layout promotes the ability to seek specific sale items. 

GottaDeal on the other hand lists their items chronologically as they appeared on the site.  The upside is that a regular user can stop looking once they encounter the deals they have already seen which can save time.  The downside is that if someone is looking for a deal on a hard drive, for example, they would have to scroll through the whole listing to ensure that they didn’t miss something.

In the in, four sites all offering very similar functionality are laid out and designed completely differently based upon their needs and the needs of their readers. I guess the best a professional writer and web designer can do is build a collection of tools for their design and development toolbox and then pull each individual piece out as it is needed.  It isn’t as sleek as a re-usable template, but if used properly can still save plenty of time and effort while still providing top quality websites.

Time to change the quest.  No longer do I seek the one great website design.  Now, I seek the great design elements and tools that build them.

Recently, I joined Facebook.  I’m obviously a late comer to that particular site, and frankly I really don’t care.  There was a time when I would have been very interested, but I wasn’t in college then and, at the time, Facebook required you to be a student to join.

Since then, the rules have been loosened, and I joined mostly to satisfy a particular client who, as far as I can tell, wanted to have a couple more people he knew out on Facebook.  At the end of the day, it is probably a good thing for both me and my various business ventures to have a presence on the social media scene like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, if for no other reason than to keep someone else from usurping my good name first.  There would be no benefit in doing so today, but who knows, I could be big.

Ironically, it has been worthless from a business standpoint, although I haven’t put any effort into it that way, but still very fun.

It turns out that many of my old high school friends are also on Facebook (many of them newcomers as well) and also many of my extended family members, including one who lives in Japan.  So, hanging out and getting updates from friends and family has been a welcome treat.

Social Spam

Like most new Facebookers, I started out taking tests and surveys that I found or were passed on to me.  I even sent flair to a cousin of mine.  Most recently I’ve started playing Mafia Wars after my sister’s wall said that she needed help robbing the police impound lot.

I’ve come to realize all of these things are nothing more that socially engineered chain-mail spam.  After taking a test to tell you which insect you are, the test will, oh so helpfully, pop up with a list of your friends that you should “invite” to take the test too.  So, you click some names and pass it on, and they pass it on, and…chain email masquerading as social networking.

Even worse, are the games, like Mafia Wars.  I joined my sister’s mafia, and she joined mine.  But, apparently that isn’t enough.  In order to do certain jobs or fight certain bad guys, I have to have more mafia members.  How do I get more mafia members, by sending “invites” to my friends.  In fact, the game helps me out by saying that to have a powerful mafia I should check my list of Facebook friends and send invites to some of them “every day”.  Whatever.

So, I am putting out a call to see if there is a resource to find good, spam free, Facebook games that I can play so that I don’t get interested in a game that cannot be won, or played well, until I harangue fifty of my friends into joining as well.  Otherwise, I’ll have to startup that website too, and I’m already starting to think that maybe I have too many.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on the “offers” that give you points inside the game.  How big of a loser do you have to be to go to some website and sign up for something in order to get 42 lucky charms or whatever.  Pu-lease.

*

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Just curious about some of the things out there regarding Google and SEO and so on.  Nothing big or heavy going on here, just some quick and easy tests that I can do in my incredibly small amout of free time.

03-23-09  8:11 PM MDT — Made a “welcome” post to a newly created Blogger blog called Investing Strategy 101

03-23-09 8:14 PM MDT — Made link to Investing Strategy 101 via the About page at ArcticLlama blog.

03-23-09 8:20 PM MDT — Made this link to Investing Strategy 101 here at Best Hubris

When does new blog appear in Google index?

I wanted to title this post something along the lines of “Things People Should Just Tell You But They Just Don’t”.  But, I don’t like that wording and can’t really come up with anything better, so we’ll stick with Things You Should Know for now.

Things You Should Know #1 Automatic Windows Updates

• In Windows, you can set you computer to automatically download updates from Microsoft.  This is a good idea.  You can also configure those downloads to happen, every day, every week, every month, whatever.  Nobody every really gives you any real guidance as to what that setting should be.  But, there is a single fact that makes the setting you should use obvious.
• Microsoft sends out its “non-emergency” patches (which is every single one except for maybe two or three times per year) on what has euphemistically become known as Patch Tuesday.
• So, it is just common sense to set your auto-update to run every Tuesday.  That way you get all the patches right away and you don’t waste time or bandwidth checking on all those other days and times when there is a 90+% chance that there won’t be an update.

To set your automatic Windows update settings in Windows XP, go to Control Panel –> Security Center –> Automatic Updates.  Set it for Every Tuesday at 2:00 PM or something else in the afternoon.  You’ll never miss an important update and you won’t waste any time or bandwidth either.

One of the most difficult things in business, consulting, and analysis is the unforeseen flaw.  That tiny little gotcha that seems obvious in hindsight that just didn’t come up during months of preparation.

Sometimes, that flaw is the fault of the system.  Sometimes, that flaw is the fault of the people involved in the system.  And sometimes, that flaw is just the result of the way the world works and the quirky way people and things behave within it.

In the case of Microsoft’s SearchPerks gimmick, I’m inclined to thing that the first one is probably the case here, though the second and third have some involvement as well.

For those of you not familiar with Microsoft SearchPerks, it is a basic rewards system setup to convince computer users to install a Microsoft toolbar that records the searches you make both with Microsoft’s Live search engine, and other search engines as well.  (I haven’t looked into whether it also pays attention to what you do in other browsers, or only IE.)  For each search you perform at live.com, you get one point.  You can redeem the points in 2009 for prizes.

The flaw that I believe may be skewing all of that data that Microsoft is collecting is fluff searches.  That is, searches that are not real searches, or are deliberate softball searches so that the user’s counter increases without the pain of actually having to use an inferior search engine.

For example, this morning, I was reading an article about being a web developer which listed several tools for Firefox, and one for Microsoft IE that are particularly useful for web developers.  Being something of a web developer myself (though not as my main occupation) I was interested in the two I hadn’t tried yet.  One of those tools was the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar. 

Figuring that the IE Developer Toolbar was for IE, I switched from Firefox, which is my main web browser, and opened up IE.  My IE homepage is set to Live Search primarily to remind me to do live.com searches in order to boost my points. Having been so reminded, I typed “Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar” into the search filed and hit enter. 

The point?  I had already copied the full URL from my Firefox browser when the link I followed opened up the page.  So, I didn’t need that search.  Furthermore, that search is the exact wording of the toolbar in question because I already knew all about it.  In other words, whatever data Microsoft got off of that search was completely worthless.  This is often a problem with incentivized programs like this one.

What Microsoft really needed data from was the search I had done earlier in which I searched for “browser web developer tools” and restricted the results to the past 3 months.  Then, they would know both what I was actually looking for, and how well they did at fulfilling my request.  Alas, they will probably never know.

Sometimes as I go through my day, I stumble across things that seem so OBVIOUS to me that I have trouble understanding why it is even an issue.

Today’s version comes courtesy of every single email client I use, which includes most of the big names, and a couple of the small names.  Now, every one of these clients includes an option to not display the images in an email by default.  I applaud this and I think it is a great idea.  It save me tons of time and bandwidth to not open images in a message that it turns out I have not interest in, so mission accomplished.  Kudos to all developers on this score.

The giant whole in the system though is a way to have email from certain senders be opened with the images automatically downloading.  For example, I get email from Borders rewards which often includes a coupon that I might like to use, so I always end up clicking the Download Images button or link. 

That’s Not What an Address Book Is For

Now, I can add the automated please-dont-reply Borders email address to my address book in order to have the images open automatically, but that is about the dumbest thing I have ever heard.  I have hundreds of names in my address book already.  Yes, I can search it, but sometimes it seems faster to click the letter and then scroll.  If I start adding Borders and others, that address book size will just get bigger.

Let’s break this down.  The address book is for storing the contact information of people I might want to get in touch with.  In other words, for people I want to send email TO.  It is not the place to manage my whitelist for RECEIVING email!  Is it really that hard to add a “Always Open Images From This Sender” option?  How about a "Respected Sender” or “Trusted Sender” list with the ability to select varying degrees of trust: “Allow Images”, “Allow HTML” and so on.  Has no one else thought of this?  Is this a feature that everyone would love to have, but no developer knows people want it?

It bothers me enough, I’m seriously wondering if I should learn how to hack enough code to add it on my own to one of the emails that lets me do it.  After I have 27 bajillion downloads of my plugin, maybe they’ll add it as a standard feature.  Once one of them does it, the masses will clamor at the others until they add it, and then the problem will go away.

In the mean time, if you would like to beat me to it by adding it to your product, or writing the code for the add-on, I hereby grant you license to my idea in exchange for the price of letting me know about it so I can fix this nagging problem and go on about the already substantial task of managing all of my email and contacts.

I’ve often wondered about when and where all of the websites out there get their information.  I know that many bloggers talk about reading the news feeds and various other strategies that allow them to post quickly on relevant topics.  As a professional freelance writer and business consultant, I can pretty much pack every 10 minute block of my day with some activity that directly or indirectly makes me money or grows my business.  As such, I don’t find myself able to do the same kind of thing.  No matter, of course.  The world needs many types and flavors of information, and as it happens, those that I produce won’t be of the current events variety.

But, it was with some amusement that I read through my RSS feeds yesterday.  I hadn’t gotten to them in a while and they had built up to around 300 posts.  Now, some of you are scoffing because you get 300 posts an hour in your RSS feed, but as I mentioned above, I don’t keep that tight of pulse on the as it happens vein of the Internet.  So, I’m usually content to wander back by my favorite sources and read what is available when I drop by, even if it is a month old.  For some sites though, this proves to be inefficient, and for those sites I use RSS Feeds and the basic Google Newsreader.  In all, I subscribe to less than 20 feeds, some of which are not updated more than weekly, so generally, I can keep up.

Glary Utilities is Amazing, Revolutionary, Life Altering!

I generally just read my feeds from the Home section of Google Newsreader which means they appear in reverse chronological order (most recent first) with no consideration for which site they came from.  I like this because I’m looking for interesting content, not because I want to know what they are saying today over at Freelance Switch.  So, about the time I read my fourth or fifth post regarding Glary Utilities I started to wonder what was going on.

For those of you who do not know about Glary Utilities, let me say this, you should have it.  Glary Utilities is one of those software products that you try out because the fifty other similar products you have had on your computer system haven’t quite lived up to what you had hoped for when you installed them, so you are willing to try the other ones that sound good.  Glary Utilities is also one of those products that once you install it, you stop trying the other ones because the one you have does what you want. 

In this case, Glary Utilities is a set of system maintenance tools ranging from a disk cleaner (going further than deleting your recycle bin) to an uninstall manager (deleting everything, not just what the uninstall program was coded to get), a memory manger, and more.  The best part of Glary Utilities is its Registry Cleaner.  If your computer is sluggish or just seems to be doing random things all of the sudden, your first step should be to clean your registry.  There are a million products that do this, but there is one product that I trust enough to click Scan, and then click Repair without bothering to verify what it has come up with because it has never once let me down, and that product is Glary Utilities. 

Now, I’ve been using Glary Utilities since somewhere around mid-2007 and it has been around for a lot longer than that, so we aren’t talking about new and flashy.  So, it was odd to see this:

Now, I get that there is bound to be some overlap in the universe of the Internet and blogs, but these sites are not exactly the dark corners of the Internet known only to a precious few.  These are big sites that get read all over the place.  So it begs the question, Do these sites all get their raw news from the same location, and if so, should I be reading that instead?  Or, Do these sites crib off of each other a little bit, and if so, is there an originator site?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying anything here or accusing anyone of copying content, it just makes me wonder about the flow of information and where I, as a reader, fit in that flow.  Just for information sake, I did a quick search.  According to Google Blog Search, there were 458 blog postings with Glary Utilities between that post on 6-25-08 at Web Worker Daily to today (7-30-08).  I guess it was a good month for the guys at Glary.

By the way, if you are wondering, I checked and there is no news during that time, except a 7-18-08 update to version 2.6 which might explain the Lifehacker and MakeUseOf posts.

Good Information Websites

Incidentally, if you are wondering, these websites are some of the best places for information on the Internet in their respective topics.

WebWorkerDaily is a resource for, well… people who work using the web.  It’s great for freelancers and the work from home.

MakeUseOf is a resource for all the bagillions of services, utilities, and programs out there on the Internet.  When I need something, I always check their directory to get sort of a a top 5 or top 10 list of sites I want to check out.

Lifehacker is a resource for “doing stuff”   I will warn you that Lifehacker is a bit of an everything for everyone type place, so there will be a TON of stuff you don’t care about mixed in with the absolute gems that you do care about.  They also have a big fat crush on the whole Getting Things Done paradigm.  I recommend subscribing to their feed.  That way, you can read the headline and just hit NEXT if it doesn’t apply to you.  Then, click into the actual articles you want to read