Since the inception of Firefox, it has been (more or less) the defacto standard browser for a wide array of corporations, groups and people. It quickly rose to be the dominant browser due to it’s open source nature, it’s speed and it’s ability to properly display a web page. There are plenty of other reasons (like it is/was much more secure than IE6 … no clue how it stacks up to IE8 though), but one of the most important reasons was it’s add-ons/extensions.

With extensions anyone could go in and create an extension for Firefox which augmented some functionality, added something new, removed something they didn’t like and completely redesigned the interface. Heck, now-a-days Firefox is still THE browser to use when creating webpages simply because of it’s power extensions  such as: SEO-Firefox, FireBug and YSlow just to name a few.

Users finally had a (really) great free alternative to all other browsers. Opera and Netscape really didn’t compare back then, though I here the latest Opera is rather nice. But the battle raged on mostly between Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It is a real David vs Goliath battle here folks. Though there was a new comer to this ancient struggle.

The ever benevolent (as benevolent as any rich and powerful US corporation could be … which isn’t much) Google announced, a while back, it’s plans to create a browser. Rumor upon rumor spread and eventually it was actually released. And it did surprisingly well.

As of this writing Google Chrome is up to version 5.0.375.99 in the Beta (or so). It’s based off of the Chromium project which is open source, while Google Chrome isn’t technically 100% open source. Either way, it’s a extremely fast and powerful browser which makes headway each and every month.

Why the switch:

I love Firefox and have been using it for a long long time. If anyone asks which browser I recommend they use I say Firefox. BUT, I myself have switched over to Google Chrome (in Linux) for several reasons (in no particular order)

1) Google chrome is simply much prettier. They eliminated the usual window borders from the Xorg display, which is nice. Of course, if you prefer your Metacity or KDE borders, you can enable all that jazz too. But I really prefer it without. It gives my browser more space to actually display a site!

My website is blue, and Chrome is by default blue. Works for me. Plus, it was the first browser (which was popular) to include styles/themes/whatever you wanna call it that can change the look of the browser by default. Which is cool. I don’t use it (yet), but it’s nice to have albiet useless except for putting my companies own logo in it.

2) Google Chrome starts up significantly faster. I have found that on a cold startup (meaning after a reboot or a normal boot up in the morning) Chrome will open almost instantly, but firefox will take up to 10 seconds to load! Yikes! That ‘could’ be because of all the extensions I installed, but either way it’s slow (to start).

3) Easier bookmark manager. Before I comment on this, I gotta say this: I really dislike both bookmark managers because they all suck and are boring. Firefox has it right, I think, with the tags and all but it was kinda cumbersome. They all need some automated way for this. Anyway … Chrome bookmark manager is easier to deal with and less bitchy than Firefox’s, except that if you close it and open it again all the bookmark folders are open. Which is annoying. Overall, still much easier to organize bookmarks in Chrome IMO.

4) MUCH better and faster extension/plugin handling/managing than Firefox. In Chrome, if I install an extension I do not have to restart the whole bloody browser each time. In firefox, you do … it’s annoying as hell especially since on average I have at least 20 tabs open.

4.1) Chrome installs extensions/plugins lighting fast. Firefox installs extensions rather slow.

5) Chrome actually displays websites correctly on a widescreen display in Linux unlike Firefox. This has been a real troublesome thing for me in Firefox. On my widescreen laptop, no matter what distribution of Linux I used Firefox would always display the wrong font sizes. Usually too large. And using the browser ability to shrink fonts didn’t fix any styling or display issues. It really sucked.

6) It ‘seems’ to navigate websites a bit faster. This one is completely unscientific, but it just seems like a faster browser overall. Just my 2 cents.

7) Takes up less screen space. Related to #1.

Chrome opens new tabs/pages from within other programs MUCH faster. If I click a link in my e-mail, it opens up within a second or so in Chrome, there is a small delay before Chrome catches the link and then starts opening it. Browsers have that. But with Firefox this delay was just so unbelievably slow. this is also the main reason I tried switching in the first place.

But it’s not all peaches and creame!

I use Chrome more or less exclusively now, but I wish it have some things that Firefox had. For one:

• Bookmark tags.
• More marketing/programming extensions (like FireBug … even though I think there is a FireBug like extensions for Chrome now).
• More stability, it seems to also be a bit more unstable than Firefox. Kinda odd, can’t describe it really. Though it crashes for some reasons, but very rarely. Firefox practically never crashed though. Then again … I am using Chrome Beta on Linux.
• The bookmark bar was somehow changed. It sucks, this option really blows in Chrome. I use my main bookmark bar a lot, in Firefox is was actually decently pretty and what-not. But in Chrome it sticks out like a sore thumb. Bleh … Maybe I need a new chrome style?

Have you had any browser changing experiences? How about your thoughts on Chrome? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to know what browsers ya’ll are using these days!

The CSPI is good at some things. Being rational and logical isn’t one of them. On a post at Fat Head, the author makes some hilarious points about CSPI’s current issues with the famous golden arches (McDonalds).

From the article:

How does “bombarding” my kids with advertising make my job as a parent impossible? Sure, advertising has made my kids aware of Happy Meals toys. That’s why we sometimes have conversations like this:

“Daddy, can we go to McDonald’s?”
“No.”
“Puh-leeeeeeeease!”
“No.”

Or, if we’re at McDonald’s …

“Can we get the Happy Meal?”
“No. Mom said to get six McDoubles to go, and that’s what we’re getting.”
“But I want that toy!”
“No. It’s not worth the extra money.”
“But I really, really, really want that toy!”
“No.”

Trust me, it’s not that hard to say no. I do it all the time. If there are parents in the world who are powerless to say no when their kids whine, those kids are going to have far worse problems in life than bad eating habits.

It certainly is a rather hilarious, and informative post.

The main points which the CSPI guy brings up against McD’s is that it markets directly to children (partially true) and that parents are powerless to stop their kids…. HUH?!

Since when can a parent not control their little young kid from getting a Happy Meal? As the author wonderfully said in the quote above: Just say no!

Though, I do remember briefly watching a commercial for a Jerry Springer episode (or was it Opera?) where the mother didn’t know how to say no or couldn’t say no and now there are problems. <sigh>

The author also brings up a few counter arguments and brings forth many contradictions in the actions and statements of the CSPI. Don’t you just love how consistent our government is?

Read the article (linked above) and let me know in the comments what you think!

When I have headphones on, they are one for a reason: not paying attention to you. For some reason people, especially here in Poland, do not seem to understand this simple facet of life.

Many times when I’m on the train someone starts talking to me, for whatever reason, and keep on talking even though I am blatantly giving them this blank stare like a deer in the headlights AND I have my headphones in my ears. I love music and it sure as heck helps pass the time on those horrid trains on a almost 5 hour ride from Wroclaw to Krakow.

I have come up with several scientific theories that postulate as to why people seem to keep on talking even though I have headphones on:

• They do not understand the technology.
• Ear phones (these are the ones that go into your ear) are not a technology they have ever seen so they think you are a cyborg and thus can hear everything.
• American (fast) food as infected their brains and therefore they aren’t capable of processing information.
• They care less about you than you care about them and therefore they will speak as if they can always be heard.
• The world is ending in two seconds and therefore their message must be heard NOW!
• They are aliens from another planet who do not understand modern technology.

What I love the most about these situations is that the people always, ALWAYS get angry when I take out the earphones and ask them to repeat (because obviously I couldn’t hear a word they were saying). Ah, the joys people bring to me life.

Let me be clear here, I’m not ignoring you on purpose. Well actually, ok. I lied. Yes I am ignoring you because I don’t know you and my music is the only thing keeping me sane on the long train rides. But the point is:

Is it so hard to tap me on the shoulder/poke me with a sharp pointy stick/wave your hand in front of my face/toss a paper ball at me to get my attention first before speaking to me? <sigh>

I believe that to be common sense and courteous. Maybe I’m over critical and have been analyzing human behavior too much … dunno.

So if you ever are stuck on a long trip with me and I’m listening to music with my headphones on, it’s best to get my attention first before chit-chatting with me.

Have you ever had an experience like that? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear your stories!

[image: this is from a shirt on Zazzle (none affiliate link) to the shirt: http://www.zazzle.com/of_course_im_ignoring_you_tshirt-235000294231817695]

Have you ever commented on a blog, clicked submit and then … nothing. The blog reloaded to the exact same page yet there is no text, no nothing, telling you if your comment went through? Don’t you just hate that?

Well that’s what today’s article is about. A huge pet peeve of mine and smack anyone upside their head who has a blog like that. This goes back to my user interface designing days.

The idea is simple: “Always let the user know what’s doing on.” We, the users, are not you the programmer/designers/guru. We generally do not have the knowledge to understand everything therefore most of the time we would like to know what’s what.

If we comment on a blog post/article we sure as heck would like to know if our comment was accepted and heard.

Now I don’t mean accepted by the moderator, I mean accepted by the system.

We need feedback to let us know if it worked. If not, we might just end up double posting. Or worst of all, never come back again or never comment again … which is what I do.

So I beg of you Mr/Ms/Mrs Blog owner, please please give use user interface feedback and let us know if our comment was submitted.

Think of it this way, you go to the post office or the mail box and drop off your letters. But you won’t know if the mail was accepted and sent until you get a reply back from who-ever your sending it too. How unnerving that is in this day in age.

Why anyone would want to annoy their readers like this, I dunno.

But if you have a blog like this, here are some ways you can make sure a “thank for your commenting” message will be shown:

• Ask your favourite programmer/web-master/16-year-old to add it
• Install the Disqus Comment System onto your blog and it’ll take care of everything for you
• Add the message yourself into the blog program code. If you use WordPress you can just use the programming hooks.

If you don’t want to go changing things around like that, you could always:

• Add a nice little message above the comment area that says something along the lines of “Please take note that the system does not tell you if your comment was accepted or not. Don’t worry if you do not see a thank-you message”. Or something like that.

But whatever the case may be, I beg of thee PLEASE give us users a sense of peace when commenting and let us know that our voices are heard.

Have you ever read Fahrenheit 451? Modern society is almost identical. Obviously there are differences, but the core ideas that are inherent throughout the book are apparent in today’s sociality as a cat in a room full of dogs.

I say do not let those who have all the power control you and your will. They will use tactics far more evil than Hitler and the Crusades ever employed. And I do not just mean the physical violence.

What I want you to … no, need you to is think for yourself and not be subject to the mass brain washing which the higher powers (by higher powers I mean the people/organizations in control. I do not mean God here) use to control society.

I want you to stop learning everything from the television screen, the internet and the mass circulated publications. I want you to get angry at their attempts to placate and control you.

You need to get angry. Angry at those who will take away your civil liberties away just to further their own agenda.

If you think that any government is ‘good’ and helpful, well it might be. But for the most part it’s here to control you. So please, don’t let them. Stop for what’s is right and what you believe in. Stand for the truth.

If you have some time, sit down, get watch this and get angry. Because it will open your mind to the truths in this world.

Zeitgeist isn’t only a movie, it’s an eye opener. Go to their website to download and watch it, completely free without any strings attached.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Don’t let Fahrenheit 451 become a reality.

You can also search on youtube for various versions and parts of the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=zeitgeist&aq=0

If you watched the movie or a clip of it, let me know in the comments what you think. Heck, let the world know your anger. Show them all that you cannot be controlled nor placated by half-truths and lies!

… “A man with three butts”.

Well, no not really. But I’ve been thinking lately about my websites goal, aim and purpose. I’ve decided to change things up, and I’m confident it’s all for the better.

The problem is a problem of where I want this site to go. To tell you the truth I don’t know. But I do know I want it to reflect who I am and what I believe in (and love).

My latest posts were all about SEO, business, writing … I tried to have fun with those. But there is only so much I, as a new person in this crazy internet world, can do without growing more as a person and as a business.

Therefore, I believe this website as it is has to come to an end. I’m going to shut down my website and revamp it in a new style and image that will reflect me and who I am.

Don’t worry folks, this post isn’t just a rant about me. I have some good insights which I believe a lot of you can benefit from. So read on to hear the age old wisdom of a young 25 year old man who’s just learning his place in the world. Learn from my mistake so you can avoid them.

When I started my website a several years ago, I made it as a tribute to myself and my soul. It was about me, fun things in my life and to help me connect with my friends. Kind of like a personal Facebook site.

It eventually evolved into what it is today. A hodge-podge of internet marketing, business, some real estate, geek things and just about anything. It didn’t have any definite purpose.

I was wondering why on earth no one signed up for my newsletter, no one commented nor why no one clicked on anything. I was very lost and confused, just like my site.

So I sought the help of some professionals on the internet and I asked them the simple question: What am I doing wrong on my website?

And do you know what they said? They answered with a questions of their own: “What is the purpose of your websites? Who is your target audience?”

That got me thinking a little bit, so I thought. Ok, I’ll make it all about internet marketing! So I changed the name to “Internet Marketing with Piotr Krzyzek.”

And amazing things happened! People where coming to my site. Reading my posts …

And yet nothing changed at all except my logo.

No extra conversions, no better readership. Bleh. I wasn’t happy. I re-organized to be more internet marketing oriented. I was making internet marketing related posts …. And nothing. so I said screw it.

That is where I went wrong.

After the Fab50 call with Connie Green, I began thinking that there might really be something wrong with me site. And it wasn’t just the design nor the article titles. The problem was the Aim. What do I want my website to be?! Connie said I should change the name to something more memorable like Krazy Pete and focus my site.

And you know what? She was right!

Not only do I have a image problem, but a conflict of interests. Yes, plural.Too many ideas and everything that I try to cram into my little site which is branded under my name.

This isn’t PiotrKrzyzekInternetMarketing.com nor IMwithKRazyPete.com … nope. This is a me site! It took a conversation with Jeanne Kolenda for me to really realize this.

I tweeted that I was slightly out of content, and she said: “Why don’t you write some posts taken from your thesis? Everything doesn’t have to be about making money or marketing.”

And she’s right. My site is “MY” site. I’ve written about so many topics here I might as well have called my site PKpedia.com and made it another Wikipedia site!

So, in the future. After I revamp and reload, there will be a brand new me. Brand new website. All about … everything that’s fun and interesting. There will be still a lot to learn, but there will be whole new directions of learning! ……. if that made any sense

To all you #blog30′ers … I wouldn’t have been able to grow without you! Thank you so much for helping me become the man I should be and my site that it should be! Thank you all so much!

My last tip to you all before I shut this site down: Make sure your current site (or any new site) has laser focus aim! If it doesn’t, you’ll end up in the gutter and never know why!

I’ll be back with this site soon!

Let me and everyone else know in this awesome-tastic world what has changed your life around! What changes have you made that made the grass greener on YOUR side for once!

Simply said it’s a question of how you market. Do you really think people are idiots? No, they are not. There is the odd exception here and there, but in general people are rather smart. People also don’t like being sold on things, though they can be. But being sold on something doesn’t mean they are an idiot.

I bring this up because of a recent label I read on a package of meat wrap (translated from Polish): “Warning, do not place plastic on grill.”

Well, gee goly! I almost did, good thing I read that! ………

I hate HATE HATE stupid marketing labels like that. The title image (link to the original authors post of the image at the bottom of the post) of this post goes to illustrate my point: “Contains peanuts. May also contain nuts.” May? It either contains nuts or not! I admit, this is more of a rant than a informative post, but it does have a point.

Several days ago I received a forwarded e-mail from my mother about a internet marketing product she wanted me to check into.

note: fair warning, this is a long article. It’s also partially a rant on bad marketing I see. Actually, mostly a rant on bad marketing

The title was actually rather interesting (I added it to my list of great e-mail headlines):

“FW: [PRO].[my mothers name was here] , The Pros Don’t Share This…”

So far so good, but that’s as far as the ‘good’ lasted. It was down hill from there. I’m not going to post the whole e-mail, and obviously it’s a affiliate/sales e-mail but that’s not my complaint. I can understand poor English in some cases, but … if you are claiming to be a ‘pro’ and a top level English internet marketer and you come to me with sentences like this:

“Have you ever wondered why the top M L M or Network Marketing Leaders “always” seem to be acquiring new customers”

and

“This is an incredible FR EE resource for you and was created” …

quick note: I added the … outside of the parenthesis to differentiate my own ‘…’ with when the e-mail author used them.

The whole e-mail is about 6 paragraphs. Each paragraph is at most 1 or two sentences long. Grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes and riddled with capitalization mistakes.

I know I don’t know 90% of internet marketing stuff out there, nor am I a good writer, but common people. If you claim to be in the top 1% of the industry

“As a top 1% earner in this industry for quite some time now, I work with
entrepreneurs all over the world” …

You had better at least know how to proof read an important sales e-mail. I wanted to smack this marketer upside the head. I have met several of the top (well, maybe not the top but all made over 30+ million a year and several over 100mil and one over one billion) people in both the real estate and the internet marketing industries, so let me tell you Mr. Wanna-be marketer: all those top, the “top 1%” do NOT use aweber click tracking links (no offense to aweber, love em and all), they make 100% sure to spell everything correctly and they sure as heck write much better copy.

Can I write better copy myself? Maybe, but probably not. I’m not in the top 1%, probably near the bottom % actually , but I can sure as heck spot crappy sales letters which are complete B.S.

Just like “warning, peanuts may contain nuts” this stuff really annoys me. So to all you marketers out there: please write good sales copy (or get it out sourced), or at least run your letter through MS Word’s Spelling And Grammar check.

That’s just my mantra. If you want something good: Do something well first! One short life example: I wanted to do a bit of business with one of the richest native Balinese business owners. He owns most of the best clubs in southern Bali and a plethora of misc. stores, shops, boats, hotels. Suffice it to say I’m a small fry and he’s a big fish.

Guess how long I spent writing, re-writing and proofing my letter to him? 1 hour? 2? Nope … it took me 3 days working about 2-4 hours each day on it. Oh yeah, but I wrote one pretty damn good letter … or so I thought. I didn’t get any business and it was a total flop (note even a call back), BUT I made sure this was a perfectly written letter.

No matter if I’m writing to the richest man in a tropical island or to possible client, my e-mails, letters and work are pristine.

Just so you all know, I don’t really check my blog posts for 100% perfect grammar and spelling . I’m not selling anything here. This is my learning platform and my way of keeping myself sane. So please pardon my poor spelling on these posts! Danke shin!

Back to the bad e-mail story: I did end up deleting that e-mail. I don’t care what the product was even if it cured cancer. Just low quality annoyed me to the point of tossing it out the window.

Just my 2 cents on marketing. </end rant>

Photo link: http://www.jog-blog.co.uk/2008/11/19/no-added-brain-cells/

Why blog hasn’t been doing too well lately. Why? Because I switched business models. I’m not a hotshot internet marketing ‘guru’ who gets 1,000,000 page views a day. I’m happy when I get more than the previous day. Well, as you can see from the picture above that isn’t always the case AND lately it’s been going down.

Why has is been doing down? Because I left it completely alone for over a month. I’m a struggling Master’s Degree student, my master’s is due soon and I need money to pay the rent (and buy food). In that time, my website got a few extra backlinks from several forums (made by people who found some computer answers) including the nice high PR Nvidia forum (woot!) … hence the spike on the left side.

But here was my problem: I gave away everything for free and that’s what users expected. I don’t exactly care to do that anymore, well not completely. Read on for why!

The idea is simple: I need money. Rather desperately. I had all these people coming to my site never ever commenting, not even to say thanks and not even converting into my ‘site news and updates’ newsletter. Sure I want to be nice, help and be usefull n’ all …. but there is a limit. I need to make a living too. My life is not out there for everyone to leech off of.

So around the 12th I added some ads on my site. Particularly, onto the highest performing computer related posts. These were full screen CPA ads. All someone had to do was complete a survey and that would be it. As you can see that didn’t go over too well. As you can see on the 13th and 14th my daily hits began to really drop off and continue to drop off.

Do I care? A little bit yeah, but not enough change my mind. I didn’t make much money from it either. A total of $2.44 from CPA ads. But that’s better than nothing. And to me that justifies throwing away the bottom feeders and leechers. My time, ideas and help are worth something.

My point in all this: QUALITY traffic & visitors vs QUANITY traffic & leechers. I want the former, not the latter.

Think of it this way, what would you rather have?

• 100,000 daily hits and 10 converts?
• 1,000 daily hits and 100 converts?

The latter of course! Quality always beats quantity. Blogging and internet marketing is a business. Not a charity.

My traffic is down, but my conversions are up. I’m happy. Just my 2 cents. </end rant>

Site note: this theory/idea also applies to your personal life and lots of other things. What things do you waste a lot of time on with little results? Whatever it is, stop it! Outsource it, change it or get rid of it. Be as productive as you can.

Woohoo! As promised Jeffery sent a signed 1st edition of his latest book “How To Be A Fierce Competitor” to me! I haven’t had the time yet to sit down with and read it, though I will soon. Before I go into what this book has, after ONLY a quick breeze through it, here’s all the fun mail I got today! It’s good looking, it’s hard cover and it’s signed. I like it.

It came in a nice Fedex express package, and wrapped in another extra bubble package for super duper protection! Woot! Never seen a book so fresh and clean! Almost scary. Inside was the signed book and his business card! WOOT! It’s fun building up my “million dollar rolodex“. I’m not going to show a picture of his biz card, sorry guys. But I can tell ya it is a simple clean design … and the logo is pretty damn cool and witty! hm, maybe I should post a pic of the logo….

Anywho, as mentioned in my tweet the book looks very good. The cover is all pure white with a strong red color and simple design logos. I took three photos for you all to see. One is of the cover (the title pic), the book without the paper cover and the inside signed

Oh yeah, be sure to check out the book from amazon. It’s a bit cheaper to buy it there

So take a look, but please bare in mind that the pics were taken on my iphone with only room lighting. So lighting and coloring suck on the images. Looks much better in real life:

There are also several things I want to show you from the inside of the book. Though I will wait to show you the goodies till when I read and review the book. Now, a few things about the book which I can say so far:

• It follows a similar format as the previous book I reviewed.
• People are saying very good things about it so far
• Jeff is a really cool guy, also he has a very professional looking signature (unlike mine).
• 154 pages of stories and information
• 60 chapters, chapter 60 is a review chapter

I’ll be reading it over the next few days, so I’ll give you all a review of it then. Has anyone read it yet? How is it?

Many people ponder this question and go unanswered: Should I use my private Facebook profile for online business? In this quick post I aim to demystify plenty myths about profiles, privacy and the difference between public and private ‘things’.

There are many stories of people applying for jobs only to get rejected because of things on their Facebook/MySpace/whatever profile. We as internet marketers aren’t trying to get jobs, but the point is very clear. Your private life should stay private, thus if you are trying to market yourself you better make sure you lock your private life down.

One great way is to have two Facebook profiles. One for your private life and the other for your public/business life.

If you go with the two account strategy you’ll be pretty safe with your private information. All while having a great SEO’ed, professional looking public profile. “But what about my name” you ask, “won’t people find me by my name?”. Yes, yes they will. In-order to hide you private online life you shouldn’t use your full name. For example, if your name was John Smith you could have the private profile under the name: John S. And your public profile John Smith with a lot of marketing attached.

You then should set your private profile to the tightest privacy setting you can. With the marketing profile, set it open so that many people can find you.

If you don’t do something like that you can end up with a problem like myself. My currentl FB profile is a mixed marketing and private life profile. My pages and groups are about marketing, and the main profile is for my own private things. Though I don’t really like it that way. Sure, the pages and groups are separate from the profile, but it still mixes business and pleasure and leaves way too much out in the open (especially with the new horrid facebook lack-of-privacy rules).

Well, that’s just my thought. If you have any other suggestions for facebook private vs business profiles let me know in the comments. I’m interested to know what you think.