Download FeedBurner FeedSmith 301 Redux

Hope you enjoy!

Here’s what the bill proposes in short:

• No new taxes.
• Applied only to taxes already imposed by the states that are not being collected.
• Provide states with the clear authority to require retailers to collect sales taxes already owed.*
• Treat all retailers equally regarding sales tax collection.
• Release consumers, currently expected to calculate and send in the taxes themselves.
• Exemption for small online retailers.

We need to look past the rhetoric in the dialog and focus on the bigger picture. For example framing this issue as leveling the playing field for offline retailers is ridiculous. Shipping and handling cost often times outweigh sales tax. So to assume that retailers are choosing e-commerce to avoid a sales tax is not grounded. Consumers are using e-commerce more and more for many different reasons. Some are shopping more online because the internet has mastered the “long tail” approach. Some are shopping online because online retailers can offer a completely customized shopping experience. Many are shopping online because they are just lazy.

But like I said we need to look past the rhetoric and move past this issue so that more business owners have the opportunity to succeed online. The only way we are going to do that is a federal solution that lays a ground work for how online retailers collect taxes across the country.

I also think that this legislation will put to rest the debate in the affiliate marketing space. With this type of legislation we wouldn’t see Amazon or other large affiliate programs pulling out of states to avoid sales tax.

Ebay is coming out against this bill citing that it would harm small online retailers. I am concerned with that as well. I would be interested in an amendment that take’s the concerns of small business into account.

*I am not a big fan of this provision. I mean that could be like a decade of taxes for some companies. I am willing to bet it was thrown in to appease a state supporter, but Durbin is willing to use it as a bargaining chip if he needs to.

Luckly I have discovered a cool way to integrate your blog and many popular social networks into Google+ very easily. The trick is to use the under appreciated, “post by email” feature found in many social services. Basically the way this works is a social network assigns you an unique email address. Every time you send an email to that address it is automatically posted to your network. This feature is commonly used to integrate mobile devices that can only send text messages. But we are going to use it to tie in Google+.

Post To WordPress From Google+

1. To start off you are going to want to go to Gmail or any free email provider and get an email address. Make sure you make it something that no one would ever guess. Something like 32v4n8o8h@gmail.com. Also while you are there find out the POP3 address of the provider.
2. Next login to your WP dashboard and go to Settings > Writing.
3. Scroll down til you see a Post to Email section that looks like this:
4. 
5. Fill this form out completely including the POP3 address where it says “Mail Server”.
6. Next go to Users > Add New and add a new user with the email that you just created. Make sure that the name and email are the email address and give the user ‘admin’ rights.
7. Because WordPress doesn’t want blogs constantly bombarding mail servers, they require that you load a script to prompt email/post retrieval. You can do this by either having a cron job ping example.com/wp-mail.php or you can include this simple HTML in your theme’s footer.
8. Finally go to Google+ and create a new Circle. You can call it blog, WordPress, or whatever you want. Go to add the email address that you just created and tied to your blog, to the new circle.
9. Now when ever you want to share a Google+ post on your blog as well, just add your “blog” circle to the list of users you are sharing with. Make sure that “Also email 1 person not yet using Google+” is checked, and hit Share.

You can use this technique to tie in more than one blog, you just have to tie in that same email address to all the blogs.

Post To Twitter From Google+

Because Twitter doesn’t provide a post by email feature by default we are going to need the help of Posterous.com.

1. Create an account at Posterous.
2. Under the Auto Post section make sure to tie in your Twitter account.
3. Grab the email address that looks something like yourname@posterous.com
4. Head over to Google+ and create a new circle.
5. Add the email address that you just got from posterous, to the new circle.
6. When ever you want to share a Google+ post on Twitter as well, just add your “Twitter” circle to the list of users you are sharing with. Make sure that “Also email 1 person not yet using Google+” is checked, and hit Share.

The really cool thing about using posterous like this, is that you can incorporate many different networks along with Twitter.

Post To Facebook From Google+

1. Login to Facebook.
2. Go to facebook.com/mobile/
3. Towards the bottom of the screen you will see a section called “Upload via Email”.
4. Copy the email listed is that section. It should look like something@m.facebook.com
5. Head over to Google+ and create a new circle.
6. Add the email address that you just got from Facebook, to the new circle.
7. When ever you want to share a Google+ post on Facebook as well, just add your “Facebook” circle to the list of users you are sharing with. Make sure that “Also email 1 person not yet using Google+” is checked, and hit Share.

If you don’t want to setup a new circle for each network, you can setup one and call it something like, “outside network” or “everyone else”. Anyways, good luck!

Oh and it looks like CK Chung comes to the rescue!

I have noticed a recent trend with in the SEO community to push Google to take action in several areas that I believe have an adverse effect on SEO. In many cases I see very well respected SEOs pushing Google to in effect make their jobs (and everyone else’s) harder. Here are two examples:

Exact Match Domains So you are upset that some domain that has exact match, ranks higher than you. I get that. What I don’t get is pushing Google to do something about it. Buying exact match domains has to be one of the best ways to aggressively take over a niche. But guess what? If you keep complaining about it, they will do something about it! So shut up already and buy your own!

Content Farms This one completely boggles my mind. Content farms exist because they are highly lucrative. I know that you are tired of seeing them out rank you at every turn. But how about instead of complaining publicly about it, you build your own! I am not saying that you need to spam the results with low quality content. But you can learn a lot about content development, content monetization, and syndication by mimicking content farms. And the greatest thing is that they are cheap to get started, and maintain. Google will even help you monetize them!

There are a whole host of other things SEOs complain publicly about that I wish they would just shut up about. I understand the desire to hold Google to a higher standard, and make sure they deliver on what they promise. But why do that at the expense of making your job/income harder to achieve?? Just shut up already!

As you can see from the screen shot, Ask.com is buying ad space for the term “equal housing logo requirements”. When I saw this I thought, I wonder if Ask is getting into the real estate design business. But, I was curious, so I clicked the ad and found that it points to an Ask.com SERP.

Sure, I have seen ads in Google to other search engines, but never to another SERP. Google has always had a long standing policy about including other SERP’s in their organic listings, even if Ask.com has found a way around that as well. So is this something new? Or is Ask.com’s dieing effort to stay relevant?

The amazing Tony Adam sent me an invite to the private beta of NameSake.com last night, and I will admit, I was planning on being disappointed. Maybe it was my recent troubles with Quora that made me skeptical, but for some reason I wasn’t expecting much.

Boy was I wrong.

NameSake.com is a beautifully crafted social networking site that from the beginning has a warm almost cozy like community going on. Shortly after I got my account active, founder and product development lead, Brian Norgard, welcomed me to the community and even gave me some personalized tips on how to better communicate with other users. Instantly I met other users and engaged them in almost real time conversation.

The UI is probably one of the best aspects of this network, its clean and free of obstacles. As a result it creates a space that is both easy to use and a pleasure to engage in. In an industry that is hell bent on widgets, pokes, and other obnoxious features, NameSake.com is free of all that and strives to create a stress free space to engage, and for that I love it.

However, I do see one tiny problem with the service. I don’t have a reason to use it. Don’t get me wrong, I can see why many folks would use this everyday. But, for me I don’t see getting the same value from it that I do Twitter. And because I am becoming insanely more busy, its highly unlikely I am going to be able to appropriate more time away from things that provide real value.

My three wishes for NameSake.com:

• A sizable amount of my clients start using it, so I can find value in using it too.
• Other social media power houses take a page from NameSake.com’s play book and start building interfaces that are a joy to use.
• All the good Karma that folks like Brian Norgard is spreading, pays off in the end.

When NameSake.com finally launches to the public, be sure to join and connect with me!