Last week and this week has been rough. My Windows PC got a major trojan/virus, which I haven’t had in years. It was stupidity induced trying to help out a family member, but that’s how it goes. I’ve been needing a format for years though and when antivirus and spyware tools couldn’t identify or clean the infection it was time to format. I also happen to have just bought a Macbook Pro, which I love. So it’s time to ask:

What do you use for web development on your Mac and/or PC?

On my PC, I use Photoshop, FileZilla and Putty. I usually use UltraEdit and Homesite, but the versions I had were from a previous job (I bought the pc when I left) so now I have to re-buy them myself. I’m 99% sure I’m going to buy UltraEdit for the search and replace alone. It’s fairly cheap and has a ton of great features. Homesite is a little pricey, but I haven’t found anything that feels as good. I’m toying with Alleycode, which is free. If I have to pay for it I’m going to buy Homesite. But if you guys have a great tool that’s free, I’d love to hear about it.

On my Mac I’m using Transmit, Coda, Terminal and Textmate. I’m not as proficient with the Mac a I am with the PC yet so I’m not sure I could just abandon the PC all together, but it’s very tempting at this point. The Macbook Pro is about as solid as you could hope for. You can pry it from my cold dead hands!

So, what are you using? I’d love to try out some new stuff. I have 30 day bets for Homesite and UltraEdit so I have some time before I have to buy. I’d rather spend money on advertising or PPC rather than buying more software.

There seems to be a Google PageRank update happening. A friend noticed yesterday or the day before that a clients domain had regained it’s PR rank after the last hit everyone took for either buying or selling text links. I didn’t see the change until today and I’m still seeing some movement on some domains so I don’t think it’s fully over. I have seen some of my sites moving up and some moving down. Luckily, I don’t care about PR, but some people do. All I care about is being listed in the search engines so I want to do everything I can to stay within the guidelines. As long as I can do that and continue to build my traffic through natural means and/or PPC advertising, I’ll be a happy camper.

Anyone else notice anything major during this update?

I noticed a link coming into my site from Problogger from a guest post I did over there when Darren was away. Typos aside, I still think it’s a pretty decent article on productivity and how I do things. Other than working from home now, my daily routine is very much like it was then. Let me quote myself, which may be a first?

There a couple of points I want to make before I get into how I do things. So many people complain about not having time to do stuff, or that their kids get in the way or that they are just too tired when they get home etc. The fact is, if you want to do more, or not even do more, but do something other than your’re doing (maybe your’re spending all your time watching kids, or working in the garden, whatever) then you need figure out what your priority is. You can tell me all day long that you want to be a writer, blogger or web developer and do more, like I do, but if you don’t make it a priority then you’ll never do any of it. If you really want to do it, then do it. It’s that simple. Don’t tell me about why you can’t do it. There are days when it’s hard for me. Don’t lecture me that it’s because I don’t have kids, Aeryn and I decided not to have kids. Don’t tell me you have other things to do. I do too. I just decide what’s most important to me. Watching TV, reading a book, going out to eat, laundry and the million other daily chores, or is my priority writing, blogging and working on my web sites? Sometimes I have just as much trouble getting to what I love to do because of life just as much as the next person. But at the end of the day, I want to be a writer. I want to blog. I want to build up my websites. So, before you decide that you need to get something done, you need to decide what that really is. That will make the rest of the decisions easy.

Head over and ready my Productivity Tips. I think I’ll have to brush up that article, fix the typos and repost with some of the cool tricks I’ve added to my day.

My friend, MissZoot, whom you may know from her free blog templates and whom I worked with at 451 Press is now doing the full time blogger / freelancer thing. I’d first like to welcome her to this totally new kind of freedom and stress! Though the freedom is well worth the stress. MissZoot’s a local so it’s always fun to know other people who you can meet up with and share ideas on what’s working and what isn’t.

I also wanted to link to her latest projects to help spread the word. The first one is Pregnant And Unemployed. I’ll quote here as she explains what it’s about:

I mean, if you were a blogger (of four years) and you found yourself suddenly unemployed and pregnant, what would you do? Well…launch another blog of course. It’s not going to be as personal as this one is. It is going to be more about products/recipes/lessons - but I would love it if you could come by and help me with some of the issues I’m already having as a Work From Home Mom. I’m hoping to get some good submissions and get some advertising for that site and maybe help make enough money to make ends meet for the next 8-9 months.

The other project is something I know a bit more about, TV. And like her, I’m very upset that The 4400 has been canceled! The nerve. Anyway, make sure to check out TV Bloggin.

I love MissZoot’s writing style and humor and I hope she succeeds at this thing we call “working from home”. Check out her sites, subscribe to the feeds and spread the love!

Looks like I’ll be going to SXSW 2008 again this year. It’ll be my second time. Right now I’m just waiting on my email confirmation and then I’ll book my flight tomorrow. This year should be even better because I’m staying right across from the convention center. No more cabs and shuttles! I still remember the area pretty well and I know what to expect from the event. If anyone else is going to be there and wants to meet up, drop me an email (chrispian[at]gmail.com).

I may try to do some event blogging while I’m there, but mostly I’m looking forward to learning from all the talented folks who’ll be there and meeting new people!

Update: Looks like everything is all set! Woot!

As I’ve been doing my research to get down and dirty with affiliate marketing I’ve been hitting the usual places:

• A Best Web
• Affiliate Programs
• Aff Earners
• Earners Forum
• Webmaster World
• Digital Point Forums
• Sitepoint Forums

I also read a few affiliate blogs, like Shawn Collins. Aside from some good and some not-so good ebooks, does anyone have any recommended reading on affiliate marketing. I think I know enough about the process to get crackin but I’d still love to keep researching and learning. So if you’ve got a great spot for affiliates, drop me a link.

It’s really a shame that Jeremy Palmer is no longer selling High Performance Affiliate Marketing, because I would become an affiliate in a heart beat. A client loaned me a copy of his ebook to review for a project and I just recently finished reading the while thing. I’m a skeptic when it comes to ebooks trying to sell the idea of making money. Most of them are big circle jerks that sell the idea of selling ebooks or some other round robin logic loop that will burn your brain cells instead of teach you a single thing. Well, they will teach you to be weary of ebooks, God knows I am.

High Performance Affiliate Marketing may be the first ebook I’ve read that I actually felt like I learned something from. It’s not high level, it’s not rocket science, but it is full of solid advice and useful information. The section on setting up a PPC campaign would have been worth the price alone. While you won’t learn any secret forumla for affiliate success, you will gain a good understanding of how things work.

One of my favorite things about the book was how honest and upfront Jeremy was. He flat out tells you that this isn’t a short cut to riches, just like anything that’s worth doing, it takes hard work. But, if you stick with it and make it work, then you’ll end up doing less work than you would if you had a regular job.

When and If Jeremy start selling the book again, you can be sure I’ll be signing up as an affiliate. If you can get a copy from somewhere, do it. It’s worth it.

It’s officially 2008 here, so Happy New Year everyone! I’m glad 2007 is over and I’m looking forward to 2008. Hopefully that will involve meeting more of you in person, meeting more people, having fun and making money doing it!

Cheers!

The last month or so I’ve been working on getting my own projects back on track. After working for other people so long, most of them had withered on the vine. As I go through and clean them up and get them ready for re-launch I’m also thinking about the future. New projects, how to make money, how to save money and make this whole thing work. One of the most simple tricks to making money is by saving it. Spend less than you make. I do that now, but not as well as I could. So as 2007 winds down I’m looking at what I can do in 2008 to not only make money, but save money!

1. I’ll be chopping bills left and right. Anything that I don’t use or need is history, starting with Cable and Phone services. Cable will be cut back just Shotime and HBO and otherwise, basic digital cable package + internet. With the phones, I’ll probably cancel my Vonage account, just don’t use it enough and I’ll be cutting extra features that aren’t used on my cell package as well (4th line, etc.)

2. Paying off Credit Cards. I’ve been working on this for a while. I don’t have a ton of credit card debt, but I’ve been using them to build up my credit rating for a rainy day. Paying these off quickly will save on interest and lower my monthly payments.

3. Refinancing my house and possibly my car. When I bought the house I had to pay insurance and other stuff through an escrow account. It’s been a year and I’m now eligible for a lower rate and won’t have to pay the extra dough each month. I may refinance enough to fix up a few things that desperately need it, but I’ll still end up paying about $400 - $500 a month LESS than I am now. If that still isn’t as low as I want it, I’ll consider selling it and getting a smaller place. I’m going to do whatever it takes to work less for clients and more on my own projects. It’s now or never. If I have enough money left over, I’ll probably put a couple thousand down on my car and refinance to lower that bill by a 100 or so bucks a month too.

4. “Cleaning House” - Getting rid of things that take up space and use up electricity. I’ve already started with my office and once I’m done, I’ll move on to the next room. Part of the plan is just to reduce the clutter in my life. Things that distract me, and waste space and energy. Some of them I can sell and use the money for better things, like paying off bills or buying things we actually need.

The goal is simple: Save as much money as possible. Right now I support more people than I should and I spend more than I should. That ends now. I’ve spent a large part of my adult life helping everyone around me and while I won’t stop being helpful, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before, put myself first. There are things I want and things I want to do and it’s time that I make them happen. If things go as planned then I’ll be in a better position to help people anyway, which is part of my plans. I just need a couple of years or so to get my sites and ideas in place and then I’ll have more time and money with which to help people. So, 2008, look sharp buddy. I’m on my way.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten to attach a file that I was sending someone via email. In fact, the one of the worst times it ever happened is when I was applying for my first job as a web developer! I still ended up getting the job, thankfully. I covered pretty good “Oh, that’s odd. Let me try again, let me know if you don’t get it this time.” We’ve all done it.

But here’s a little mind hack to help you never forget to attach a file. It’s simple, really, but it works pretty well. Attach the file first! Before you do anything else, before you type who it’s to, the subject or the message, go ahead and attach that file. Once you get to typing your bound to get off on a tangent and forget what your doing. You’ll write that you’ve attached the file and then get to writing your message only to hit send and forget! Attach those files first and you’ll never forget to attach them. Try it, it works!