kwood07's blog

We are not the first, nor will we be the last to write about this topic. Yet, no matter how basic this information may seem for the initiated, it is still new for more than three quarters of the people out there, especially individuals looking to start their own business and small business owners trying to figure out how to get online effectively.

This article is intended for those that are still figuring out how to get started with an online business, and if it is even the right choice for them. We have other articles about running an online business for those that have already made the choice and are now looking for detailed insights.

Why Online Business Works

Two of the biggest benefits of using the internet to do business are that it can reach a much wider geographic audience than a brick and mortar store, and there is in-depth and timely feedback on every decision that is implemented. Neither of these two factors guarantees success, but they open up new opportunities that wouldn’t exist offline.

Getting started with an online business is appealing to most people for two reasons; it can be managed at any time from almost anywhere and it can achieve success without the need for a lot of capital.

While these facts are true about running an online business, there is a mistaken assumption by some – propagated by many get rich quick schemers – that owning an online business is an easy path to riches without any hard work.

This is just a quick review of the new ChunkIt! product from TigerLogic, with a couple tips included. I'm positive that there are many more uses that will be figured out in the next couple weeks.

5 cool ways to use ChunkIt by TigerLogic:

1. Use the term chunkit. The web is a dynamically created space, but with a term as new as this, search engines aren’t quite sure what to make of it. In the first 20 results from Google, TigerLogic’s homepage shows up, and so does this blog, and the Techcrunch blog, but otherwise the majority of the first 30 sites aren’t really about the new ChunkIt! product. Helpful to see these irrelevant chunks before wasting time at chunkit.com or chunkit.net.

2. Type “Larry Ellison compensation” into the ChunkIt! box and then click the Chunk Google (or other search engine) button. I wasn’t aware that he made that much and to find out I never had to go to any of the actual websites that were returned in the search results. Fast and informative. I wonder what Bill Gates makes?

3. Type “Earth Day Events” into the ChunkIt! box to see what you can find near you. Or check out the Green Apple Festival events listed at our parter site.

TigerLogic announced today that it is releasing a new Internet browser-based application called ChunkIt! that enhances the search experience of any popular search engine or webpage.

They are calling ChunkIt! a personal search engine (PSE), with the ability to rapidly search through thousands of search results so users can quickly determine where to find the exact chunk of information that they are looking for, in its original context.

The browser-based application works with popular search services, such as Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft Live Search, AOL and Ask to increase user productivity by extracting and displaying "chunks" of information alongside the search engine results to see beyond the simple search results.

The "chunks" are delivered in a dual panel page that display the chosen search engine results on the left and the ChunkIt! results of the key search words or phrase highlighted in the right panel. By clicking on the ChunkIt! icon next to each result, users are quickly taken directly to the highlighted chunk of information on the referenced Web page, thus eliminating the need to have multiple tabs or window open for one search.

Learn more about TigerLogic and ChunkIt! at http://www.tigerlogic.com/ChunkIt

My wife and I have been using a digital camera for the past few years and so I had forgotten the tediousness of searching through an old box of photos to find the one I needed. Last night, however, I had to find one of the old gems from my past (pre 1998). I'd include it here but, of course, it isn't digital.

It's a scary process to look through all the stages of life that can be shoved inside a box. Some pictures were amazing, but some were downright inappropriate for my sensitive workadaddy eyes.

So what do I do with all these forgotten snapshots. I want to, at least, convert the best of them into digital media, but making the effort seems beyond me. As always, I want easy answers that don't cost me anything. I'll look into it and see what I can suggest for anyone else who might be facing the same challenge.

It has been a few months since this blog has been updated. So, where are we now? The short answer is that we have a good draft of our latest website up and functioning. National Outdoors is a site we have developed that is focused on Outdoors Recreation Gear, Outdoor Equipment Reviews, Outdoor Pursuits, and Outdoor Destinations. The site also has a National Outdoor Recreation Directory that we are integrating for the first time into one of our projects. The end result is that we are excited about the potential for the new site and looking forward to seeing what our visitors think about it.

One realization that occurred to us while we were coming up with new ideas for websites was that the big video sites aren't always the easiest to navigate. In particular if a visitor is trying to find a video for a useful purpose not just entertainment. Our attempt at Useful Video Clips was to create a site that presented only useful videos for the visitor, similarly at How to Clips and eTour Clips we wanted to provide how to and travel videos in a easy way for users to find what they were looking for. Of course, these aren't unique ideas and we haven't developed much traction, but still the idea remains worthwhile even if our sites haven't taken off.

View Corey Kirkwood's profile

I wrote a post a few months ago about our experience dropshipping www.digitalmediastream.net/disallusioned-dropshipper. We did have moderate success with it and have since moved on. But this evening I came across an article http://www.income.com/blog/2007/07/17/what-the-heck-do-i-sell/ that is promoting the same "dropshipping is the answer" mentality that I find irritating.

We found that we had to put in much more time to make the business run smoothly than we anticipated and sold the business on to someone who hired a whole staff to make his portfolio of dropship sites run well.

Yes, dropshipping does work. Yes, it is easy to set up and get running. But, it is not entirely hands off. If you want to provide even mediocre customer service, then you will have to be available during business hours to answer peoples questions, track down orders, and coordinate returns. This is all manageable, but it isn't really the part time gig that most people are looking for. Just my ongoing opinion

I was using the Google webmaster tools when I decided to look at the their blog. I soon came to discover that posting on a Google blog requires that one sign up for a blogger account or establish a new blog associated with an already existing Google account. So I did and quickly proceeded to add a post to see how it would look and more importantly how it might work for cross linking. Nothing special, but here it is: http://vonkirk.blogspot.com/2007/11/it-never-ends.html

My true interest is in discovering how Google will treat links from within its own network. No doubt I am late to this party and many web promoters have already figured out the best approach, but it never hurts to try.

In August, Von Kirk Enterprises successfully sold All Digital Frames , the niche e-commerce website for which this site served as a blog. As a result, the focus of Digital Media Stream will be transitioning away from its original sole focus on digital picture frames to a broader focus on trends in digital media.

I learned about SEO about 18 months ago as we started to develop a couple niche e-commerce sites for drop shipping. We had moderate success promoting our sites, but I have come to realize that the world wide web is a medium in which only an SEO practitioner can succeed. The concern I have is that I’m not very good at it, especially the off-page link building that is so important. I’ve read a lot about it and understand the concepts of how I should be promoting my sites, but the truth is that there are a lot of other web developers out there that do it better than me and I’m not entirely willing to pay for the SEO I need. I would be willing to pay a small sum, but the problem is that I have found no solution that everyone can agree is worth it.

I can get better at SEO, but the real problem I see is that a small cross section of successful web promoters are out there setting the bar higher and higher. When I do searches now I have a very skeptical reaction to the top ten results from Google, thinking “I wonder what they did to get there.” I know I have to keep playing this game in the SEO dominated world of the web, but it does seem that the search engine results that we all crave are starting to mean less when you consider how an insignificant site can rise to the top with excellent SEO help while an incredibly relevant site could be missed entirely, not because of content but because of a lack of artificially inflated inbound links. It is an SEO world, but is that truly better or what is really needed.