I am a big fan of all these gorgeous AJAX solutions so always when I find another cool gadget prepared for blogs, swiftly I add it to all of my sites. For example, there was a problem with chicklets - huge list of most popular rss readers was too long, and too glitzy to hover somewhere on my sidebar. I made my mind to solve that problem, one month went by, and all of a sudden I found a post about Feedbuddy on Jon Lee’s blog. Brood of chicklets was replaced with a “very clean and space saving” icon of Feedbuddy (a little bit wider than standard orange RSS icon). If reader clicks on it, there appears a nice looking AJAX pop-up with all popular chicklet. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
But a few days ago I’ve noticed that all of my blogs don’t have a sidebar. Why? Just because that damn Feedbuddy server has been down. When there is a JavaScript code that uses data from external server, content that is put after that damned code won’t be loaded till one sucky script finish its job. Naturally I’ve got a great Feedbuddy replacement, and now I’m gonna share it with you.
- Firstly, go and get your own code from this great killer AJAX chicklet chooser pop-up code generator.
- Step two, add rel=”nofollow” attribute to all of chicklet links on it, in order to save value of outgoing links on your site.
- Step three, cut a piece of css code from that scirpt, and paste it to stylsheet of your template. There is no reason to leave it against XHTML validation.
- Step four, replace code of ugly text link with pretty rss icon, exemplary from Feedburner
- Step five, add code of your brand new cool AJAX Chicklet Chooser somewhere in your template.
- Step six, there is a lack of other steps. But there is a tip: Do not EVER use external widgets provided by services you cannot trust, especially in the middle of your layout.
When I started to blog, there was a trend to use funny AddThis buttons. Patently I’ve installed them on all of my sites, but there was a time to think about doing something better with this ugly batch of social networking links, especially when they work on external server of AddThis service. Fromthe first I replaced crappy AddThis buttons with common list of “submit to your favorite social network” text links below my posts. Yeah, my readers were able to add social link straight from my sites, but let’s say it - huge list of social networks added below every your entry still looks like a crap. Then Share-This Wordpress plugin appeared, and problem went away - ugly list was replaced with a smart Share-This link that creates an relevant AJAX pop-up.
June 11th, 2007 #
Nice solution! I noticed FeedBuddy was down a few weeks ago so I just replaced it with a regular RSS icon figuring nobody would miss it to much. I’m going to put the sexy dropdown back in, thanks for the info!
June 13th, 2007 #
Good article Ill have to have a look at that.. when I get time…
Nice to see our posting again, thought you had got bored!!
June 13th, 2007 #
Oh no, I don’t know how to be “bored” my friend.
Lack of new posts is related only to two poor facts - still I don’t have damn laptop, and HELL - I am TIED UP.
Surely this “challenging” situation will change in a period of time, I dunno how long it will take. I only can say - I am workin’ on it. ]:->
June 13th, 2007 #
Laptops are pretty cheap now, though being in the UK the currency is stronger the “real cost” to an individual will be less than in Poland….
Then again, the problem with the UK is that being paid in $$$ for advertising is not good
Does Poland plan to join the Euro??
June 14th, 2007 #
I know, Jez. But you have to remember companies in this sick country pay for work 4-5 times less than in the UK, that’s why my natives are migrating to the United Kingdom - they can get triple earnings just for washing-up. It’s strange, Polish prices are similar to yours. Now If I tell you that Polish web companies usually don’t know how the SEO goes, you will understand my little problem. I am young, I don’t have references, I am a freelancer, and when I’m asking “why don’t you SEO?” I usually hear “What are you talking about? Why do you think we are in need of it?”. I am sick, it makes me feel like a damned telemarketer. Be sure that soon I will write a post about my perspective. This is my personal blog, at last
Yeah, they plan to join Euro. But I think we are still not ready to do it. Our government has more important things to do. Haven’t you heard about Teletubbies?
June 15th, 2007 #
The fact that they do not understand SEO is an opportunity for you… are these sites written in Polish? If so then there will be less competition… sites written in English have a lot more competition…. either way they will learn in time….
As for wages, it is the exchange rate that makes the difference. People in the UK would find it hard to live on the money earned by the Polish… but the Polish accept poorer housing, they share rooms etc… they do not buy houses.
In the UK $1 will buy you a snickers chocolate bar so making money from Adsense is a hard way to earn a living….
For some time I did not understand how the Polish and other immigrants from new EU countries could survive on the wages they were paid… but I found out that it was by sharing rooms… even beds… if one person works nights and the other days then they share. I don’t think its easy for immigrants in the UK “washing up”.
I have met a few engineers who are better paid, for them life is better.
I also know someone who flew a network engineer over from Poland, paid for his hotel etc. and it was still cheaper than paying for a UK network engineer (Cisco certified). All this is very bad news for people in the UK….
There is no way I could earn a living freelancing (which I would like to do) as I could not afford to compete with prices charged in the new EU states / India etc….
June 15th, 2007 #
Naturally you’re right when you write that SEO is not “obvious thing” for Polish market and there is an opportunity. But you miss the fact thanks to that Polish companies fall behind. Their business model tells them “we must spend 50% of our monthly revenue on advertising, or we will fail”. And when a “smart guy” like me shows them the modern, better, noninvasive way of “doing their business”, especially when he has no “standard references” like 5 years of work experience with mental midgets from some Polish Web Company, or IT diploma from university. They think they meet a scam, or some damned telemarketer, when I show my offers.. Are you interested in finding out what my natives do learn in university? Then I’m gonna tell you - math, physics, a little bit of C++, a little bit of PHP and a little bit of databases. There’s still a lack of XML, CSS, Python, Pearl, Java and Ruby, I guess. Despite of that poor facts, there’s a batch of Polish that success in world competitions like Google Code Jam, for e.g., but it is related only to the fact that they have a REAL passion, nothin’ about the university. Anyway, there was a time when I decided - I’m not going to waste 5 years on university. And I guess that’s why I don’t have damn laptop right now, I invest all of my money in order to make my living online.
Also, I can say thanks to Google’s works on geolocalization I don’t think that SEO practice is much easier than German, French, Italian, or British. Have you known any places to read about Russian market? I will be interested. At the moment I know only one thing - this is Sparta, Google has something about 10% of Russian market share.
Fortunately for you it looks like that DAMN SICK situation is going to change and shape up. One of our common European problems will go away, just because Polish companies has started to feel a lack of workers, so Polish “usual earnings” grow, especially in IT business… I’m freelancer, too, I get similar prices to ones in the UK, and believe me - when I see these all “cheap-super-buy-buy-buy-it-now” offers on pages of Polish clone of eBay, I’m totally pissed off. That’s why I say it’s “our European common” problem, my British friend.
I dunno what stewards of Western World gonna do with problems from Asia, but be sure soon they will be forced to do something if they want to save current order of world. I’m not going to start hosting company in China, dude…
I’m gonna email you, when I finish current project. I’m interested in sharing my SEO experiences and discuss about the whole issue, especially with friends. In fact - only with my friends, I guess I’m not forced to describe you why.