Imagine you are a software developer, a writer, or an artist. You have something to sell. You walk into a boardroom, a party, or a social gathering where people are interested in what you’ve got to say about your product. Chit-chat is encouraged, people are making small talk. You talk about yourself and talk up your product a bit. You want these people to take an interest in you and your product.

You wouldn’t, if you have any sense at all, start mouthing off about the scumbag Democrats who are forcing their socialist agendas on “us” hard-working Americans. You wouldn’t go on about how Obama is stealing our money, is going to throw people in jail for not buying government health care, and wants to control every aspect of our lives. You wouldn’t go on about how the only people exercising a government health care option would be lazy freeloaders, just like those on welfare and imply that we should be burning flags as a form of protest. You wouldn’t, if you had a brain in your head, jeopardize the success of your product and your business over your inability to keep your mouth shut about politics in a room full of people who are not there to discuss politics.

So why the hell would you do it on Twitter?

I followed someone, until this morning, because I wanted to hear about his software development. I liked reading what he wrote about his life and times. What I don’t like reading is hatred and venom (and it was pure hatred, thick and rich) directed toward people like me, people who believe that while government may not be perfect, helping those less fortunate is a virtue. Say what you like about health care reform, but there is a time and a place for everything, and while you may think that everyone who follows you wants to hear your rants, you’re wrong.

Look, believe whatever you want. Say whatever you want. I’m not suggesting that people should censor themselves if they want to use Twitter as a soapbox. Just make sure you understand the consequences. You’ll lose followers, and maybe because I’m not getting updates about your software anymore I’ll end up using a competitor’s product. When the vast majority of your followers are only doing so because of the software you’ve written, understand that when you piss them off, they’re going to leave.

Worse than that though? I’m an affiliate for this particular product. Piss me off, and maybe I’ll start promoting your competitors (and there are a lot to choose from). You still want to bitch about health care on Twitter? Even if it costs you sales? Are you sure mixing business and personal is the best route to take?

This post is being written on my iPhone using the WordPress iPhone app – which I would link to if it weren’t such a hassle.

That is my major gripe about the app, and it’s one that can’t be stressed enough: writing HTML on the iPhone (on any phone, I imagine) is an exercise in frustration. I suppose if you are just dashing out a three-line post and have no need to link to any address you haven’t memorized, this might be okay. For those of us that write more than a paragraph per post, this is slow, clunky, and annoying.

When I write in web-based WordPress, I have in-theme previews available to me. The app says it “can’t retreive [my] theme” to show a proper preview. Web-based, I have multiple browser tabs in which to look up links, and all the power that being a Thesis user brings. I have none of that in ths app. Was I expecting any of that? Of course not. There is only so much you can squeeze into a smartphone screen and Automattic can only account for WordPress funtionality, not that of third-parties.

Image support? Not so much – only whatever is in your camera roll. Plugin support? Not at all. This app is basically good for a few things: writing short posts, managing comments, and making quick & small adjustments to existing posts and pages.

I think that it’s a good start, and useful in a pinch, but I don’t see this app getting a lot of use in it’s current form.

I was struck by something that I read on Twitter a few minutes ago, and quickly realized that any reply I wanted to make would take more than 140 characters. What I read was “I want Google to make their GPS app an Android exclusive, stick it to Apple for GVMobile. iPhone users can spend $200 for TomTom app/cradle.”

Longer than 140: My first thought was that you’ve got to be pretty self-absorbed to wish ill on millions of iPhone users just because you’re unhappy about the Google Voice/Apple situation. You can live without Google Voice on your iPhone while a deal gets worked out. Then I thought that maybe that’s a little unfair… I know I’ve had similar feelings about companies and didn’t consider the existing user base. Plus, I’m not in the best mood this morning, so maybe I’m being a little uncharitable. So, I’ll leave it at this: in twenty years, when Google is the only thing left standing in the internet and telecommunications fields, we’ll look back and realize that maybe Apple standing up to Google wasn’t such a bad idea after all. We’ll say to each other, “remember when Google was a search engine and they didn’t control every aspect of our digital lives?”

I know it’s fashionable to bash Apple this year, but it’s starting to get old.

With both legitimate marketers and spammers setting their sights on Twitter, it is only a matter of time before spam becomes a major problem.

Anyone at all can send you an “at” message, and unfollowing someone is a very final solution. What if you like 90% of what someone tweets but they throw in a few ads or sponsored tweets every now and then? Do you throw out the baby with the bath water?

There is a better way, at least for some desktop client users: filtering. With filters, you can block words or phrases; for example, a popular hashtag is #ad. Users should be commended for using that hashtag because it makes it easier for us to filter out their ads! I’ll show you how filtering works on two desktop Twitter clients. Unfortunately, this is not an option for the Twitter website or for tools like Power Twitter. I was very surprised, in researching for this article, to find that most clients don’t support filtering yet. Tweetdeck has supported it for so long that I foolishly assumed that other clients had followed suit by now. If you don’t use a client that supports filtering, you’re out of luck. Why not consider one of these tools?

If you’re aware of a Twitter desktop client that supports filtering, I’d love to hear about it! Filtering is presently the only option we have for effectively fighting spam on Twitter. I hope I’ll be able to update this article in a few months with a slew of clients that support it!

It was one year ago that I launched what was to be my greatest online achievement: Earn a Million a Day. I remember that day well…

The setting was the annual ShareASale Think Tank event. I was there, as I am now, and I was thinking about how I could share my vast, vast knowledge with the world. I was thinking about the millions of dollars I earn every day and how I could show the no-talent, unskilled, idiot masses how to do the same. I wanted to “give back” to the community. That’s how generous I am.

I decided to offer up my vast, vast knowledge to the world for the low price of… well, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Head over to Earn a Million a Day and learn how you too can be wealthy beyond your wildest imagination. Srsly. A million. Every day. Go. I can’t be held responsible if you don’t take it upon yourself to be awesome.

Sometimes being a Dad ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Fun & games? Not so much this week. There’s no need to go into detail, but let’s just say the past week hasn’t been great. As much as I’d like to post an awesome article about my Drobo system and family pictures, it’s getting put off for a few more days. In the meantime, here’s a few links to a few things that I’ve done recently, in addition to a nice redesign I did for the Geek Dads @ Home site.

• Geek Dads @ Home #32: Wave Over Here
• Not Completely Unnecessary Baby Products
• More Not Completely Unnecessary Baby Products
• Geek Dads @ Home #33: There’s an App for That

According to a few sources (here, here and here), the previously discussed $11,000 fine for not disclosing relationships with companies that bloggers review or link to isn’t quite real. Good to know – let’s hope that it stays that way. This bears watching, though. If you’re in the affiliate marketing space, keep an eye on these developments and prepare yourself – and start disclosing!

It’s official: the government is in the business of fining bloggers who don’t play by their poorly defined rules of disclosure.

Back in June I wrote an article describing how the United States government was gearing up to go after bloggers that don’t disclose income or freebies from companies that they write product or service reviews about. In a nutshell, if I were to write a post extolling the virtues of Walkers Shortbread Cookies, I could be fined $11,000 for not telling my readers that the link I provided is an affiliate link and that I could earn a commission if a reader bought some cookies through that link.

I provide a disclaimer and disclosure statement on a page called Linking Practices. On that page I describe what being an affiliate marketer means and that many of the links on this site are affiliate links. That should be enough to clear me with the Federal Trade Commission, right?

Who knows??

According to a story at Mashable.com, the FTC created rules (they call them guidelines) that are so vague they’d be laughable if the fine wasn’t so extraordinarily high.

It’s eleven grand per post

This site (in its current form) is just over two years old and has 107 published posts. The vast majority don’t have any affiliate links at all, but let’s say, for the sake of the discussion, that they did. The new FTC rules say that they could fine me $11,000 per post, for a grand total of $1,177,000. That’s right, over a million dollars. I have other sites that earn more than this one. This site isn’t a moneymaker for me, it’s something that I enjoy doing and occasionally throw some affiliate links into – I haven’t earned more than a few hundred bucks on it in two years. $11,000 per post? Really?

This begs the question: are past posts subject to these rules? There are blogs with hundreds – thousands – more posts than I have. Do those blog owners need to go back and edit each post to add a disclosure? Are site-wide disclosures, like the one I use on this site, good enough?

Apparently, the FTC isn’t telling.

Fortunately – or unfortunately, as time will tell – this isn’t over. The new rules go into effect December 1st. We’ll see how it shakes out, but I have a feeling the FTC is overstepping itself this time.

It’s been a while since I wrote about the goofy messages found in fortune cookies I’ve opened, but I’m back with one that I got just last night.

All thing has a cause. Look into your pass for answer

Not exactly award-winning prose, eh?

For those that get more than just a holiday card from our family, the odds that you’ll be getting something from Walkers this year is extremely high. Just thought you’d like to know. Best. Cookies. EVER.

Seriously, these things are addictive. Half my body weight can probably be attributed to these cookies, which might not be the best selling point (sorry, Walkers), but they are just too damn good.