Tools I Use

Some of this web stuff gets confusing sometimes. When people ask me what tools I use to do one thing or another with my websites or social media, I am always happy to help. But on the tools that I "set and forget", I am often living proof of why that phrase exists.

This post is about those tools so that the next time someone asks, I can refer to or share this link...

For this and many of my other blogs, I usually use Blogger, which is free and is owned by Google. In fact, many of the tools I use to run my business are both free and owned by Google.  These include my ad-serving software, analytics tools, email and calendar. While I am comfortable and happy with Blogger, I am also testing out WordPress for a new site that is launching soon, and so far it is great... WP is also free, but not currently owned by Google.

For some of the trickier stuff that I sometimes forget about (when they are working smoothly)...

When I write a blog post on the Daily Boater, it instantly shows up (title, link and summary) on the Daily Boater Facebook page. This happens thanks to a free app called  networkedblogs. (You can get it by viewing one of these posts on Facebook and clicking on the networkedblogs link below the post: http://www.facebook.com/DailyBoater/posts/308912592489987).

The 2nd thing that happens automatically.  That same blog post I mentioned above is also sent to Daily Boater Twitter followers as soon as I post it on my blog. I don't have to log into Twitter as frequently as I used to. This is thanks to TwitterFeed.com. Free. Non-Google. I haven't looked into it, but this tool could probably replace what I use networkedblogs for, as it looks like it allows me to post to both Twitter and Facebook. I only use it for twitter. On the other hand, Facebook pages have a setting that now makes this service obsolete (on my FirstBoat Facebook page, every post I write directly on Facebook from that page gets automatically tweeted  from @FirstBoat / to do this, go to your Facebook business page, edit your page, and click on resources.)

This one is big...
The 3rd automatic thing that happens when I write a blog post on the Daily Boater is it gets sent out via RSS. When initially setting this up, I found RSS, which I believe stands for Real Simple Syndication, not so simple. However, with yet another free tool from Google called Feedburner, my blog posts on Daily Boater are automatically syndicated. This allows the blog post to:

1. show up on the home page of FirstBoat.com
2. Get delivered to my RSS subscribers' emails
3. Show up in peoples RSS readers or iGoogle or myYahoo home pages if they "subscribe" to my feed.
4. a bunch of other stuff that I can't think of right now. Which brings me back to my original point in this blog post. I have relied on a lot of great automation tools as I ramp up this growing network of web properties, and when they work well, you don't have to even remember what they all are!

Okay, now it's back to work using these and other tools... contact me if you have any questions implementing these things or about other solutions I use to run my business.

Captain's Quarterly...

Has this turned into a quarterly post? I've got to get here more often!

It's been busy, but I had to tell you about some numbers. They look good on all fronts, but there is one shining star that I want to highlight.

The Daily Boater.

Yes, traffic was up in 2011 over 2010 - I've been writing more, adding more guest bloggers, and getting the word out to more readers. But what really caught my attention is the growth the site has experienced, especially this month.

January 2012 traffic is up on the Daily Boater by 134% over January of 2011, and unique visitors have increased for the same period by a whopping 167%. 

Admittedly, the gross traffic numbers are not huge, but they have been increasing each year since I started the Daily Boater with my first post on the 4th of July, 2006. In fact, 2011 as a whole saw a 119% increase in unique visitors over 2010, and unique visitors increased by 140% for the year. 2010 numbers were higher than 2009, and so on.

Keep in mind that these numbers do not include the thousands of people that read Daily Boater articles in newsletters that come to their email, or on FaceBook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.  Or the people that read the Daily Boater articles that are syndicated on FirstBoat.com, TakeMeFishing.org or so many other sites that grab our RSS feed and republish with (and sometimes without) our permission.

Bottom line, if you have products or services to promote to the boating community, you need to be advertising on the Daily Boater. Contact me if you want to get involved.

Holiday Gift Guide 2011

It's that time of year again!

As the publisher of a network of boating sites, I feel it is my duty to suggest a list of gift ideas for boaters. Of course, it is also a chance to highlight products and services from some of the many contributors and partners I work with throughout the year (MegaYacht News, SkipperTips, Victoria Allman, etc.). And, in the interest of total transparency, it's an opportunity to promote some of the products I sell on my own sites, especially BoatNameGear.com.

You may think that the 2nd year of doing something is a little too soon to be calling that thing an "annual", but I am confident the Daily Boater Holiday Gift Guide will be an ongoing tradition. Stay tuned!

So, without any further b.s., here is the announcement about the SECOND ANNUAL Daily Boater Holiday Gift Guide hosted on Pitch Engine (Pitch Engine is a great service for hosting and sharing professional-looking press releases, BTW); and here is the link to the actual Gift Guide itself on DailyBoater.com: dailyboater.com/2011/11/holiday-gift-guide-for-boaters.html 

If you don't hear from me here again before Christmas, I hope you enjoy the holidays!

AJC