There are a lot of people out there who are sending our e-mail after e-mail and offending everyone on their way, completely oblivious to what they are doing. We all experience them regularly. these are the people who WRITE IN ALL CAPS, > > > > > forward e-mails that have been forwarded several times previously, use REPLY ALL to respond to distribution lists, and attach 50 MB files that clock up our Internet connections.

Here is a great cheat sheet that you can print out and leave on their desk to that they can get the e-mail act together.

Update:  I originally had the pdf embedded in the post but too many people were having problems with it (see comments below).  It is now just a simple link.  That will teach me to try and get fancy.  Sorry about the trouble.  -Tim

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If you have a blog or website, chances are you have heard of Digg and StumbleUpon. And, if you are one of the many people to have a post or web page featured on one or both of these sight, you know that they can do to and for your website.

But, which one does the most for your site? Should you concentrate your efforts on promoting your website on one of these sites more than the other? I decided to do some research and it was very interesting to see the results.

Digg Spikes, StumbleUpon Boosts

One of the very first things I noticed when I started to go through the data was that each site produces very different traffic patters as can be seen by the two graphs below.

The first graph represents all of the traffic that has come to Daily Cup of Tech between September 1, 2006 and July 31, 2007 from StumbleUpon.

As you can see, there are occasional spikes in traffic as high as 2687. In contrast, the second graph represents the same data for the same time period but for referrals from Digg.

There appear to be far fewer spikes in traffic but the spikes that do come are significant with one reaching 16386 referrals (more than 6x that of StumbleUpon).

When we analyze the average number of referrals per day, it immediately looks like Digg gives use the best average daily referral rates (161.45 vs 137.53). But, if we were to remove the spikes over 1100 daily referrals (which removes seven data points from each set of information), we suddenly see that StumbleUpon provides us with a far more consistent amount of referrals (45.03 vs 104.58).

Both are Addictive

If you have spent any time over at Digg or StumbleUpon, you will find that both services are highly addictive. You just want to know what is new on each of the sites. In fact, I have heard avid users of both services mention that when they are not on the respective websites, they often find themselves wondering, “What am I missing on Digg/StumbleUpon?”

One of the advantages in the addictive category that StumbleUpon has over Digg is the fact that there is an extra thrill when you click the StumbleUpon button that Digg does not provide. It’s almost like the feeling you get when you are watching the drawing for the multi-million dollar draw that you just bought a ticket for. You don’t know what is going to happen in the next few seconds but there is a chance that it could be something big!

This feeling is very addictive and I have spend many an hour saying to myself, “Just one more Stumble!”

StumbleUpon Gives A Website More of a Chance

The one down side of Digg that I have discovered is that you are limited to the description given by the Digger and the commenters. Many of these description actually turn me off the website but I always wonder whether or not I am missing something really good or interesting.

On the StumbleUpon website, you will find a very similar interaction with the user but with one big difference…the Stumble! button.

I have to admit, as a blogger and website owner, I love the Stumble! button. Instead of someone relying on the likes and opinions of others, they are simply presented with the actual website! Then, they can decide for themselves!

Digg Users are Generally More Negative than StubleUpon Users

This just may be me, but I get the general impression that Digg users are a lot more negative that StumbleUpon users. This might just be because of a lot of nasty things that were said by people who commented on the DCoT Helps Find Lost Child post and also on the Digg page which, at the time of this posting, had 1164 diggs. I’ve never seen this from StumbleUpon readers.

Digg Users Stay Longer, StumbleUpon Users Look More

When I look at the traffic that comes from each of these services, Digg users will stay on the website longer that StumbleUpon users. The average Digger will stay on the site for just over seven minutes (7:08) which is nearly 2.6 times as long as Stumblers (2:45). The website average is 7:15.

But, Stumblers tend to look around a bit when they are are the site. The average Stumbler will look at 2.29 pages per visit while Diggers check out 1.66 pages. (Website average: 2.13.) Also, Diggers have a bounce (when a reader only reads one page and then leaves) rate of 77.21% while Stumblers have a bounce rate of only 29.67%! The website’s bounce rate is 65.35%.

Both Services Bring in New Users

Both Digg and StumbleUpon are really good at bringing in users who are new to the website. Digg - 85.79%, StumbleUpon - 89.30%, Site Average - 68.69%.

Conclusions and Summary

So, which is better, Digg or StumbleUpon? To be completely honest, I welcome any traffic, regardless of its source. But, I have to admit that I think the traffic that comes from StumbleUpon appears to be of better quality and has a tendency to sustain itself over time.

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In my article A More Secure Home WiFi Design, I mentioned that one of the things that you should do to help make your home WiFi configuration more secure was to not broadcast the SSID (or ESSID) for your wireless network. This is a relatively simple thing to do and most modern wireless systems allow you to do this.

As I was writing the post, I knew that someone was going to point out to me that this is not an effective security practice and I was not disappointed, as Adam pointed out in his comment on the post:

Turning off ESSID broadcasting is not, I repeat not a security measure. It is broadcast when the WAP puts out a beacon, so all you have to do is wait and you’ll have any ESSID you want.

Adam also went on to point out how some of my other suggestions provided very weak security:

The same can be said for MAC filtering, small DHCP pool, and different subnets. Without encryption these are pretty much worthless. MAC filtering, without encryption, is easily circumvented. All I have to do is fire up Wireshark, and put my card in monitor mode. The first packet I pick up will have source and destination MACs. Compare them to the MAC (BSSID) of the router, and I know which is the client machine. Spoofing that MAC is trivial. A small DHCP pool is fine, if it’s always full. As long as there’s a vacant address, it can be used. The same goes with a highly subnetted network. Unless every IP is taken, there’s always one available.

It is at this point that I would like to whole heartedly agree with Adam! These are all very weak measures of security and provide very little to keep your network safe.

I still highly recommend them.

Here’s why. Read the rest of the story…

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With the onset of frustrations with overseas tech-support in favor of saving a buck or two, the topic of customer service has been shoved into the limelight like an kid with his fly open and a “kick me” sign on his forehead at the 6th grade talent show.

The issue of overseas support for me, has been twofold:

• The support from our friends from across the world has been less than stellar.
• The outsourcing of jobs overseas is leading to a dependence on foreign nations, undercutting our own workforce which contributes to America’s job rate decline.

While I would agree that I have had some bad experiences with overseas support from “Nick”, I also have had very good experiences, so my opinion is somewhat positive overall (but then again, I’m usually talking to the 2nd or 3rd level support folks) with the quality of overseas support.

Honestly, these are probably the same results as what you would get if you got support from the “real” Nick located in Austin, TX.

And so, I submit to you, ‘Exhibit A’:

I recently helped out a friend from work who had a 1 1/2 year-old eMachine which was having a lot of spyware and virus issues. Best Buy quoted him $299.00(!) to clean up the problems - at that point, you can just buy a new computer…

The beginning chapter of our little tech support nightmare was that the PC wouldn’t boot after it was sent to the Geek Squad (but I’ll file this under coincidence) for analysis.

Apparently, various eMachine desktops experience an issue where the power-supply overloads and shorts the motherboard. Knowing that eMachine is notorious for not providing support if you have a 3rd party replacement part (and also, the eMachine rebuild disc will not work if it is a 3rd party motherboard), I decided to purchase a factory-direct replacement for the board at a not-too-bad $89 from an online vendor, and use a 400-watt power supply I had on hand at home.

Upon arrival and subsequent installation, I was elated that the PC booted without issue.

Windows XP determined that there was a significant enough change in the computer hardware (this was expected) after the new mobo was installed, and prompted me to activate Windows once again. I could not activate Windows via the Internet (I would later discover there was malware preventing Internet access…yikes!)…so I had to call Microsoft to manually activate.

Or so I thought.

When I contacted Microsoft initially, the friendly Microsoft tech (who sounded like he was about 10,000 miles away from me) told me that this was a special eMachine code (denoted by a truncated number at the tail end of the activation key), and I would need to call the eMachine support number.

I dialed eMachines number, and got a technician on the line.

Call Center or Root Canal…, which would you prefer?

Me: “I need to activate Windows, and when I try to call Microsoft to perform the manual activation, they told me to contact you.

Tech: (We’ll call him ‘Doug’) After giving him the serial number of the PC…“This computer has never been registered with eMachine. Can you give me the owner information?”

Me: “Sure.” (I give him the name, phone number, and address of my friend who owns the machine)

After a few minutes of typing…

Doug: “This computer is out of warranty. You will need to pay us $39 for an out-of-warranty service call.”

Me: “But all I want to do is activate Windows (not mentioning the fact that their inferior hardware and awful QA is the reason that we are at this point in the first place). This is just a quick 5-minute thing. Can you help me with that?”

Doug puts me on hold for a few minutes.

Doug: “We cannot help you with that since Microsoft has all the possible numbers to do that.”

Me: “Uh- wait a minute…What? You should have some sort of program there that will allow you to take my activation code and it will convert it so I can activate the software manually. Its just an algorithm, not a static code.”

Doug basically doesn’t understand how this works, so we go back and forth for a few minutes, telling me that I need to call Microsoft back, etc. - and finally I ask if I can speak with someone else, anyone, a supervisor maybe?

I get put on hold. For 30 excruciating minutes.

Finally, “Mindy” comes on the line (this was the name she used, I’ll never forget it).

Mindy: “Hello Randy?” (the name of the person that I was helping, and now the registered owner of the PC - remember earlier when I gave them this information?)

Me: “Actually, my name is Rob.”

Mindy: “Who are you?”

Me: “I’m the tech-guy helping out Randy with his PC.”

Mindy: “We cannot help you because you are not the registered owner of the PC.”

Me: “I just gave you that information a few minutes ag- Look, Randy is not really able to talk to you since I have his PC at home and I am working on it for him. Nevertheless, this is just a simple Windows activation issue. Can you help me with this?”

I am told again that I will not be helped since I am not the owner.

Me: Exasperation now taking over “You don’t even know that I am not the owner…!”

Mindy: “You just gave us that information, sir, and you said your name was Rob.”

You can see how this is a little frustrating. I really should have recorded this call.

At this point, I am more than just a little agitated, and we go back and forth, with me telling “Mindy from eMachine” (yes, this is how I referred to her on the phone after awhile) that I am a network administrator, and many people come to me asking me to refer them to a good computer to buy, and not only this, but I contribute to various blogs with a decent readership, and she wouldn’t want this customer service experience to affect their bottom line, would they?

Deaf ears.

After a bit more yelling on my part (and she tried to talk over me, quite unsuccessfully, too), I told her that I am just trying to be a nice guy helping out my friend, and why do we need to make this more frustrating that it has to be…she interrupts me with this little gem:”Sir, I am flagging the computer serial number, denying support for anyone who calls in on it, unless they can provide (i.e. fax) information showing they are the registered owner.”

I ask her for her representative number, so I could call in and complain directly to eMachine customer support, to which she replied by hanging up.

Summary

So, what has happened to customer support? It used to be that the company cared about customer opinion, and held them in the highest regard. How do you make money without customers? It seems that I have had more and more experiences like this lately…it wasn’t like this in the 90’s, I’m sure of it.

I spent nearly an hour of my life yelling at the indifference that was so clearly present on the other end of the phone, only to be hung up on, and there was no effort on the part of the technician or manager to reduce my frustration or handle me in an appropriate way.

In retrospect, I’m sure these were not eMachine employees (probably outsourced to a US call center), but herein lies the problem: If you don’t work for the company directly, you will less likely have any loyalty to that company…there’s always more contracts coming in, right? What is the likelihood that the Call Center will lose their eMachine contract because of this bumbled support call? I mean really, what’s one disgruntled customer?

Maybe it should be asked from a different angle: Why should a computer manufacturer spend good money on a US Call Center for sub-par support, when they can get that overseas, right? On paper, the companies you are contracting under most likely have a similar opinion of you which you have of the people that call in for support (and hang up on).

I beg of you, managers of Call Centers, send your representatives to customer service class. If you don’t, you are just as guilty of contributing to overseas outsourcing as the major companies who have gone that route already.

Bad customer service is like a pyramid scheme. It only takes one really bad experience for one person to trickle down to their friends (potential customers) and they will tell their friends (potential customers), etc.

You should always, always, always take care of your customer.

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I have been receiving some comments lately from people who are opposed to me wanting to make money from Daily Cup of Tech. It seems that there is an unwritten rule on the Internet that states:

“Thou shall not benefit from thine hard work when it is related to the Internet!”

Rather than addressing these comments individually, I thought it would be best to respond to each of these issues in one post so that I can clearly lay out where I stand on.

Advertising on DCoT

This is often the first complain that I will hear when it comes to making money with DCoT. People simply do not want to see advertisements. Period. It doesn’t matter if they are one the front page, in a post, in a comment, or in the RSS feed.

I’ve taken a look at a lot of blogs and the vast majority of them have advertising on them. If you go to the top five blogs according to Technorati (Endgadget, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, Techcrunch, and The Huffington Post), each and every one of them have advertising on them. Why should DCoT be any different? I try to limit my advertising and make it relevant so that if there is a product that is being shown to the reader, it is at least something that the reader would find useful.

DCoT has far fewer and less intrusive advertising than many other sites. I refuse to put pop-ups, pop-unders, and interstitial advertisement on Daily Cup of Tech. I also refuse to put on ads that attempt to install components on the reader’s computer.

I also occasionally write a paid or sponsored post about a specific product or service. I always start and finish these posts with a disclaimer that this is a paid post so that there is no confusion that I have received some compensation for writing this post and that it is an advertisement.

Readers need to realize that DCoT is a form of media and that advertising is a part of the media. You see this in magazines, television, radio, etc. Why do people expect the Internet and, more specifically, blogs to be any different?

Asking for Donations

I guess in many ways, this is almost like advertising for myself, but I have received some complaints about writing posts asking for donations to the tip jar or to release the source code. They do not like that I ask for donations on a regular basis and they are annoyed by the posts.

First of all, yes, I do ask for donations. I feel that the time and effort that I put into DCoT is worth some support and recognition. I have expenses to keep the website up. My time is valuable. People do not hesitate to ask me for help with their tech issues. (Granted, I did ask for people to submit their questions to me but they were asking long before I officially offered to answer.) Why should I hesitate to ask for a donation to support the blog?

Second, I do ask on a regular basis. The old adage, “Out of site, out of mind” holds very true on the Internet. There is good reason why you see “Gratuity not included in price” on your restaurant bill and Karma cups at Starbucks. Had I not regularly pointed out that people could help release source code to the Internet or just donate to help keep DCoT running, I would never receive any donations and DCoT would eventually die.

The one things that people don’t mention when they express their opinions about my donation requests is the fact that I also use that opportunity to recognize all of the people who have donated to DCoT in the past week and give them the recognition that they deserve. I think it is very important to shine the spotlight on these people because they understand what I am trying to do here.

What many people don’t seem to realize is that the donations that I receive are a real encouragement to me. There have been at least three or four times that I almost shut down DCoT and then someone would make a donation, even a couple of dollars, and it would change my mind. Not because I’m in it for the money but because I am encouraged by the fact that people feel that my hard work is worth giving up a small portion of the money they have earned from their hard work.

Paying for Source Code

This is an issue that started when I announced my Release the Code concept. In a nut shell, I promised to publish the source code on DCoT for my freeware applications when a certain amount had been donated toward the project. Some people thought that I should not be charging for the source code or that I was charging too much.

First, I am not charging anyone anything for the source code. When people voluntarily donate money to a project, they are doing it out of their own free will. I do not force anyone to pay me anything.

In fact, the vast majority of people who get access to the source code do not pay a single cent for it. For example, as of the writing of this post, over 2,000 people have accessed the recently released source code for DCoT Menu. There were five people who donated to the release of this source code which translates into fewer than 0.25% of the people who got the code paying anything for it. I really do not see how this is unfair to the readers of DCoT.

The other issue that comes up sometimes is that I am charging too much for the source code. In general, I ask US$100 for the source code for my projects. I have never worked or been paid as a coder but I have been a paid consultant in the past. My hourly rate back then varied between US$80 and US$145. Now, the absolute least amount of time that I have spent on one of my projects is seven hours. Based on my lowest consulting rate, my effort was worth at least US$560. All I am asking is US$100.

Also, when you hire a developer to write code for you, they are working for you to generate your product. And you need to pay to get the code. Unless you are one of the people who actually donated toward the release of the code, you haven’t paid a single penny and you have complete access to the source code to do with it whatever you want. I don’t know how much a programmer would to create an application and provide you with the source code but I’m sure it is more than free.

People have also argued that US$100 may be a small amount for someone in North America to pay but what about some people who make significantly less or are from a third world country? I have to admit that the world is not fair but, as I have stated earlier, these people do not have to pay for the code if they do not want it. All they have to do is wait and be patient. I do not know of anyone who is so poor that they cannot afford to be patient.

Readers must also be aware that I have to survive in the market that I live. I can’t convince someone at the grocery store to give me food because I gave away my source code. This is not how the world works and it is naive to believe that it does.

Still Don’t Like These Things?

I understand that there are going to be some people out there who are going to get up in arms about this and I may even lose some readers. So be it. This is how DCoT is being run and I do not apologize for it.

But, if you are truly serious about getting rid of the advertising and the donation requests and you would like all of my applications to be open source and free as soon as I release them, then it is up to you to be my boss. In fact, I am willing to quit my jobs and work on Daily Cup of Tech full time!

The only way that I would be willing to do any of this would be if I had a guaranteed monthly support base that would allow me to replace these other sources of income. With these in place I am willing to drop each of my other income sources one at a time until, eventually, I would be working full time for you, the DCoT readers.

Please do not take this offer lightly as I take this very seriously. I would be willing to put my finances in the hands of you, the readers, if you are willing to support this venture. This is how it would work:

I would accept subscriptions via PayPal (or any other legitimate form of payment) for Daily Cup of Tech. A subscription differs from a donation in that a donation is a one time contribution while a subscription is a monthly contribution. As the subscription number increases, I will start to make changes to Daily Cup of Tech and my life.

These are the changes that I would be willing to make in order as subscriptions increase:

1. Removing DCoT Discounts
2. Removing Text Link Ads
3. Removing ads in RSS feed
4. Stop writing posts for advertising
5. Release all source code and future source code as open source immediately
6. Stop asking for donations
7. Remove ads from Feedburner
8. Remove ads from AdSense
9. Quit my one day a week job and work on DCoT on that day exclusively
10. Quit my four day a week job and work on DCoT exclusively full time

So, is anyone willing to take me up on my proposition? I am willing to commit to this. How about you? If so, I will formally set up the program. I eagerly await your comments.

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