Facebook recently launched a new service called Beacon which tracks, via participating partners, the purchases of it’s members. The partnership seems to be monetized by the posting of recent purchases to “friends” mini-feeds further driving traffic to affiliates. I don’t think very many people want what they are buying being the business of anyone, let alone being broadcast to all their friends without their permissions. Aside from the obvious problems, like spoiling a Christmas surprise present or a more intimate product purchase, this is just plain wrong. They launched the service quietly and made it OPT OUT, meaning you are part of it unless you tell them you don’t want to be. Opt out just isn’t how things are done anymore. We live in a double OPT IN world. You have to ask me if it’s okay and then confirm that I’m the one that said okay.

But this isn’t my only concern with Facebook and them keeping my data “private”. I recently did a Facebook application for a client and during the process I realized that I had access to just about everything in a users profile that visited the application. Most of it’s just fluff data, nothing personal like credit card info, social security number, email address, etc. But my real name is in there and, if I choose to, my political, religious and other affiliations. Someone could use that to target me in a number of ways that I’m not comfortable with. I haven’t seen an option to hide my data from 3rd part applications. I signed up to use Facebook and granted them and my friends access to this data. The odd thing here is that Facebook used to be a completely closed system and now the door has swung way back in the other direction and in my opinion, is playing it loose with their members privacy. I’m not easily spooked by privacy concerns but fir the first time since I’ve been online (1994!) I’m actually considering closing my account with a company due to how lose it is with my personal data.

Facebook could easily fix this by making Beacon opt in and making data captured by 3rd party developers optional in my profile as well. A simple check box for both would be both easy and make me feel pretty safe. I’m not sure I’d trust it to actually work at this point. I guess with rumors that the creator of Facebook stole the code from friends at college make this seem even more shady. Hopefully they’ll be able to solve all these concerns and make everyone happy. I know they need to make money but that’s never an excuse to violate your members privacy. Not ever.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Privacy

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I started working full time on computers back in 1994. That means I’ve been sitting for like 12 years straight and as a result put on some extra weight. A few years ago I started on the job of getting back in to shape and either hit the treadmill or bike 6-7 days a week and eating right. It works too, I lost 40 pounds so far and have another 25-30 to go before I’m happy and healthy. But I don’t think that’s enough. I’ve been reading up being healthy more and more and many articles are suggesting a link between sitting for long periods and disease. Working out daily isn’t enough to combat the effects of being an office potato.

One of the trends I’m seeing is sit / stand desks. Man I love that idea. At one of my old jobs I was a PC tech and we had work benches that were perfect for sanding up and working. We had taller chairs, more like stools with backs, that you could use to lean on or even sti for a bit if you liked but mostly we stood. Standing just seems more alive, more alert. So I’m looking into getting a new desk in a few months that’s got a motorized sit / stand setup. Ikea used to have a model that ran about $500 bucks but they no longer carry it. The cheapest ones I can find these days are around $1200-$2000 bucks. While that’s a big chunk of change it’s a small price to pay to be healthier. The advantage of the sit / stand desk means I can sit when I need to. Sometimes it’s just better to sit and we all need a break.

Technorati Tags: Ergonomics, Sit / Stand Desk, Office Health

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I love productivity. So much so that I’ll work hours at improving my productivity and never get a lick of work done! I’m sure I’m not the only one either. So in taking steps towards getting more done each day and constantly moving towards my goals here are some changes I’ve made in my life to help me get more out of the day.

• Deleted all games off my computer. While I don’t play games much I do like to jump in now and then and blow off some steam. I’m done with that for now. Time is money.
• Limit IM/Chat. Again, I’m not big on the chat. It’s great for making connections and friends so I hop on now and then to stay “visible”, but I don’t linger.
• Email is my bitch, not the other way around. I check my emails at regular times during the day and don’t let it distract me from getting my work done.
• The phone is from the devil. I know a lot of people think the phone is the best way to get things done and sometimes that’s true. But largely phone calls are counter productive. Verbal communication is open to interpration, memory and just generally easy to get wires crossed. Email is much better and creates a trail of what’s been said and decided. It also allows both parties to fire off a batch of emails and then get back to work instead of spending who knows how long trying to hash something out on the phone.
• Limiting time on time wasting web sites. It’s easy to get lost in Facebook or Twitter or any number of social / media sharing sites. I check most of these only once or twice a week and just do Twitter a few times a day. Social networking is a big part of getting your name out there so it has to be part of your process but don’t let it get in the way of getting things done.
• No more TV unless I’m on the Treadmill. Killing two birds with one stone I save myself several hours per week! The only shows I watch off the Treadmill is Heroes and Dexter because I have friends & family come over for those.
• I love forums. They are one of the best places to meet people, network and learn valuable information. But they can also be a time sink if you don’t manage them properly. Like email and chat schedule times to do your forum rounds.

That’s just some quick things I’ve done to take back my day. I’ve always been pretty good about most of those things but now that I’m trying to do even more it’s time to kick it up a notch. I find working on projects is as fun, if not more, than most of the things that distract me anyway. Granted, I deliberately take breaks for short bursts of time to avoid burn out. You’ve got to. I just go off and read or just leave the house for a bit, nice dinner with Aeryn or anything that give my mind a break.

Anyone got any other good tips for getting more done? I’m sure I’ve left off several.

Technorati Tags: Productivity, Getting Things Done

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The hardest part of diving back into my own projects is where to start and where to go next. With only so many hours in the date how do I decide what I should be working on. I want to do things that’ll bring me closer to my goals but also be a lot of fun. I don’t want to create a ton of sites that never get updated. I want to work on a small group of projects and make them great.

I do want to try my hand at some affiliate sites. While any site can sell a product, I’m talking about building a site around a product. I know people out there doing it but most people don’t post examples. If you’ve every done any amount of research into affiliate marketing you’ll no doubt end up at Clickbank. I know a lot of people swear by it but if I see one more “make money at insert keyword here” ebook I may be sick. The worst part about affiliate marketing is all the people trying to fleece new people by selling affiliate marketing itself! If you can sell them, more power to you. I’ll tell you what you need to know about affiliate marking right now. Find a great product that people want and sell it. It’s not magical, it’s not mystical and it’s not hard. The hard part is the same thing that’s hard about any site - getting visitors to it and getting them to take the desired action. I’m not sure I’ve found the right product to start my first real affiliate site, but I accidentally sold a big screen TV through amazon for a $49 commission and so LCD/HDTV’s are sounding pretty good! I know it’s way to late to think about affiliate marketing for this holiday season, but I’m already thinking about next year.

Aside from affiliate marketing, I’ve got ideas for sites like TV Forums and a re-launch of Readers Unbound. Both would be forum/community driven sites and RU would eventually have some cool features like your own book collections, reviews, etc. When deciding what to do I have to ask myself: “Is what I’m doing adding moving me towards my goal?” The answer is often no. I love doing cool little projects, helping just about anyone who asks and doing any number of things that don’t really move me towards my goal. While some of these ideas could help in some ways (link strategy, raising my visibility, etc.) the bottom line is building traffic and monetizing that traffic. So, with that in mind it’s time to decide what project is next up on my list. I’m leaning towards two product/deal type sites. One for gadgets, tech etc. and the other for women which my wife Aeryn would be writing. There is a ton of potential even if these markets are competitive. I just want to see if they work at all and learn from them and apply the concept to tighter, less saturated niches.

Within the next week or two I should be ready to launch one or both of these and I’ll make sure to point them out. During the downtime today I need to go through Azoogle and check out some of their offers. I’ve been seeing really good stuff from them.

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