I’ve been trying to think of reasons why I should finally switch from PC to a Mac, but I can only come up with one reason… $$$. That’s it, that’s the only think holding me back. I have too much invested in my PC’s and software, etc…

I’m tired of using PC’s, so I’m giving PC till the end of the year to convince me that I shouldn’t switch to a Macbook Pro. You can view the live countdown here at http://www.jimkukral.com/countdowntomac.html.

I started my computer life on Macs before the Internets doing graphic design, so I suppose it’s only appropriate that I make the switch back to them eventually. I only left because PC’s were easier to do “regular” business with. I think those days are long gone.

In fact, still have my Macintosh Powerbook 145 sitting on my shelf in my office collecting dust. It has a 40mb hard drive yo!

It’s Friday. I just have a couple of questions for you.

1. Is this good for the company?

2. Have you filled out your T.P.S Reports?

Have a good weekend.

Always lock up your domain names, even the ones you don’t think anyone would ever want. Case in point, I’ve been fatblogging since Jan 2004 at www.helpjimgetslim.com.

But I stopped going to the gym last year (or longer than that) for a bit, so I stopped fatblogging as well, and I accidentally let the domain expire in Jan 07. So I’ve been waiting to “grab it back” in 90 days. So yesterday I tried to get it back through Godaddy and it wouldn’t let me.

Now, today, I go to look at it and I see that it has been registered and has some cash parking landing page on it. WTF???

Why would anyone want this domain? Another Jim that wants to get slim? What are the odds?

I’ll keep you updated on my quest. But I want my domain back. I’m ready to go back to the gym.

This is a blast from the past, just found it in my hard drive while looking for a file. I did this presentation at the AffiliateForce cruise in 2003. Click on the “Jobs, Press, & Help” link to start the presentation, then navigate slides by using navigational tabs up top.

Give me credit, I even faked the Adsense ad. Hax0r! Click here to view it out of the iframe.

This was my first affiliate event, and I knew nobody (in person) really, all through online. Except the people at KowaBunga! and Shawn, Wayne sorta, a few others. Or wait, was the New York event after this or before this? I was at that.

Why post this? I think the information in the presentation is still valuable, plus, it’s fun to see my animated head spinning around.

Blogging, the experience of it, really comes down to two things. First, the experience of expressing yourself, then second, the pushing a publish button. That’s it. It’s really that simple.

So when Sam and Wayne start talking about blogging not working anymore, I keep thinking to myself that they’re right, and they’re wrong.

They’re right that most likely in the future more and more bloggers will move into the Twitter type “publishing”. However, they’re wrong when they say blogging isn’t going to work anymore, it will.

It’s simply going to transform into variants of new things.

In the end, blogging is not defined by Wordpress or Blogger.com software. It’s defined by that magic “publish” button.

So long as that button exists, blogging will live forever.

Unless of course Wayne has invented some type of “mind thought-to hard drive” methodology which does not require a publish button. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

I’m about 24-hours into my first experience into Twitter. Here are my first impressions.

1. I was expecting more noise. Frankly, the noise from my 15 or so friends I have now is way less than my normal day to day IM chatter. I was thinking it was going to be 4 times more noise, I got less. Misconception.

2. Twitter is like talking to yourself in a room and hoping everyone else is listening. It’s like you’re a ghost in someone else’s room listening to them talk to themselves. Does that make sense? It’s weird. I can’t explain it.

3. Twitteroo is responsible for crashing my PC laptop, (HARD, take battery out reboots), twice so far since installed. Grrr.

4. The IM client on Twitter isn’t working still. Sam says it’s supposed to be up this weekend. I want to try that, maybe that will improve my experience.

5. My first hours in Twitter were about as confusing as my first hours in Myspace. I suppose that’s a good thing?

Here’s a video of Sam and Macy explaining Twitter.

The Blog Herald wonders what makes you an expert at something?

I had to laugh hysterically (and groan) today when someone described a blogger as “world-reknown expert on WordPress”. The blogger had been blogging for 4 months. I know personally that they had no PHP, WordPress, or web design experience prior to beginning blogging. Now that they have the title “expert”, there is no telling who will believe that claim.

Here’s what I said in the comments.

Being an expert is all about value, it has NOTHING to do with how long you’ve been smart at something. You either can, or your can’t provide value that someone else doesn’t have the skills to do. If you can, you’re an expert.

The Internet is growing so fast, with so many new ideas and tools. Because of that, new experts are created every day.

Case in point, there are now Twitter experts. We simply cannot define expertise in terms of “how long you’ve been doing something” anymore. That’s an old way of thinking.

The rules have changed. Value is value.

The search engine marketing industry has a big problem. A BIG problem. And as far as I can tell, there are only a very few seo firms or seo “gurus” out there who address this problem, or who position themselves to fix this problem… correct me if I’m wrong.

So what’s the big problem Jim?

99% of SEO firms fail to help their customers solve the right problems.

Rather, they focus on selling their customers “more traffic”. This is the wrong way to approach selling search services, and I believe that search firms are losing millions of dollars in service fees because of it.

Look, if you’re a search guru, or seo firm, you need to stop talking about “the first page of Google”, and “higher rankings, and “getting more links”, and instead start talking about things like “increasing sales”, and “conversions”, and in general things that show a return on investment.

But you guys don’t do that, and I can’t figure out why not? It makes no sense to me. It’s almost is if you’re trying to make search so confusing so that your customer just throws up their hands, hands you a check and says “Ugh, I know I have to do it, and it’s so hard to do, I hope it works. Get me on Google.”

Do you understand your customers? Do you really? I don’t think you do.

Because in my experience as someone who’s been in the online industry for 10+ years, that is exactly what those customers are doing and thinking. Your customers hate you, and they love you. They hate you because they have to cough up a lot of money for you to do your “magic”, and they love you when you return “results”.

But those “results” are all wrong, and therin lies your failure to really do what your customer needed, which was to solve their problems.

No, SEO isn’t bullshit as Jason says, but you know what? SEO firms sell it like it is.

You guys have a better product than that. Start selling it in terms that your customers understand. Start solving your customers problems with search (no, getting on Google’s first page is not a problem to solve).

Quit being stupid.

Yesterday I created my first Twitter account after months of resistance. Please add me as your friend.

Why give in? Because too many smart people told me a I was a “dumbass” for not getting in on it.

So be smart, use Twitter. http://www.twitter.com/jimkukral

I’ve found that I use BUMPzee like a new type of feed reader. It’s great, I go over a couple of times a day and look through the “new” listings of blogs in the community, find what I like, read it, then bump it if I want, or dump it. Wash, rinse, repeat.

But the VERY best part of it is that if the blog owner is using the BZ widgets, I can see how many comments their blog entry has, which is great because then I can track conversations. Anyway, Scott, where’s my check? :)

Here’s some cool links I found today just browsing around.

Seth Godin says you should write an ebook.

Stumbleupon spy takes over Google

Will Google’s Pay-Per-Action Ease Click Fraud?

Can You Get Sued For Tracking Your Blog’s Uptime?

Amazon Associates launches contextual beta program