Archive for April, 2007

Complete Web Marketing for $60

Sunday, April 15th, 2007

All businesses need a web site these days to be in business. It’s more important than a yellow pages ad. But it can be much more expensive and take much more knowledge to create than a yellow pages ad. When you’re struggling to get your business off the ground, how can you find the time and energy to put together a web site, too, especially if you’re not a computer person?

Seth Godin is one of my favorite business authors, and yesterday he wrote a simple recipe for small businesses needing to put together a web site. From the article:

The web has changed the game for a lot of organizations, but for the local business, it’s more of a threat and a quandary than an asset. My doctor went to a seminar yesterday ($100 ) where the ‘expert’ was busy selling her on buying a domain name, hiring a designer, using web development software, understanding site maps and navigation and keywords and metatags and servers…

He suggests making use of a few easy services that are free or very inexpensive to put together a site that tells your customer what they need to know about your business, and furthermore gets this content into places that Google loves to search. Read the full story at: Seth’s Blog: Memo to the very small.

When GPL software goes bad

Saturday, April 14th, 2007

Anyone still using SQL Ledger should be aware that new versions are no longer released under the GPL. When I wrote the book, and for several years afterward, SQL Ledger was the only game in town, and it’s been the only viable open source financial web application for quite some time. It’s been open source in name but never in spirit–the owner only helps people who have paid for the software, and discourages help from others that compete with his ~$300 manual. It’s quite the interesting drama.

Fortunately, last fall a group of developers forked the SQL Ledger codebase, starting LedgerSMB. LedgerSMB has the open source spirit of cooperation, open exchange of information, and a sense of excitement that’s been lacking in SQL Ledger. We’ve hopped on board LedgerSMB, and have switched our clients.

With the license change, we now see LedgerSMB as the only game in town–SQL Ledger just removed themselves from the competition. If you’re still using SQL Ledger, I encourage you to take a look at Ledger SMB. Read more about it here:
When GPL software goes bad | Realm of the Purple Dropbear.

Disclosure: We are contributing to LedgerSMB directly. We also paid for multiple years of SQL Ledger.

Truth in Numbers: the Wikipedia Story

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007

wikidocumentary.pngSeen on Rocketboom: There’s a new documentary film in production about Wikipedia. It’s a non-profit project, and they’re looking for donations. Looks like a great project, and we’re delighted to see the cover of our book in the trailer.