Thanks to Google Webmaster Tools, I can find out what other CPA and tax bloggers link to me in their blogrolls. Below is part of a screenshot showing the blogs with the most links to my site.
If you are interested in tax or accounting, these blogs are worth following.
Roth & Company, PC Tax Update Blog by Joe Kristan in Des Moines, Iowa. As you can tell by the number of links, this guy is a blogging machine. My only complaint is that he blogs so much I can’t keep up with every post. Joe explains tax law in a way that is easy for everyone to understand. He doesn’t use big words or refer to obscure sections of the Internal Revenue Code. He also has the uncanny ability to find humor in every tax court case he blogs about.
Beancounter Ramblings by Chad and Donna Bordeaux in Charlotte, North Carolina. Chad and Donna effectively market their firm with their website and blog. They blog not only about Federal tax issues, but also state and local tax news. Like Joe, they have a good sense of humor and are fun to follow on Twitter.
CPA Technology Blog by Brian Tankersley. Brian is the technical editor of the CPA Practice Advisor and teaches educational courses for K2 Enterprises and Becker CPA Review. Brian blogs about technology topics that impact the accounting profession. Brian’s blog, in part, inspired me to create mine.
There are a countless number of blogs on blogspot. Google Webmaster Tools doesn’t identify which one links to me. I think that most, if not all of these links come from PRI Tax and Bookkeeping Services, which I became aware of thanks to a few kind comments on my blog with links to their site. This tax and bookkeeping firm is located in Elgin, Illinois, and on their blog, I am listed as one of only two “favorite blogs.” What an honor!
I appreciate being listed in these blogs’ sidebars. They provide me with quality inbound links that contribute to my PageRank in Google. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that after Roth & Company added a link to my blog, there was a dramatic increase in traffic from Google searches.
Check out the bottom of my right sidebar for more link love.
It’s frequently asked questions time on Diving into the Details! With this one, we’re not diving too deep.
Having your picture (a.k.a. avatar) appear in my blog comments takes only a couple of minutes. Go ahead, time yourself and let me know if I’m wrong.
Gravatar associates your picture with your e-mail address whenever you leave a comment on a WordPress blog (and a few other blog platforms). If you have multiple e-mail addresses like I do, you’ll either want to confirm multiple e-mail accounts with Gravatar or make sure you are consistenly using the same e-mail address when you comment on blogs.
Ready to show off your avatar? Leave a comment below!
Over the past few weeks, I have spent countless hours programming (and testing and reprogramming and testing and reprogramming, etc.) a Twitter app I created in Visual Basic. It was the most fun project I could think of for a Visual Basic class I’m taking at UNLV. In the end, the programming wasn’t so difficult. It just took me a long time to find something that worked. After many Google searches, I couldn’t find a straight-forward walkthrough, so hopefully this blog post will be helpful to some lost soul out there (maybe for another school project). Below is a screen shot of my app.
The only action my form does with Twitter is post an update when the “to Twitter” checkbox is checked. The other buttons read, write, edit and delete tweets in a Microsoft Access database.
First, I created the form above, including the labels, text boxes, and buttons. I won’t go into the code behind each one of them, but the code for the label with the number of characters remaining was particularly fun to write. I made its actions similar to what is on Twitter’s webpage. When the number of characters in the status text box (rtbStatus) goes over 140, the text turns red and the “tweet” button is disabled. The code is:
Private Sub rtbStatus_TextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles rtbStatus.TextChanged
lblTweetLength.Text = 140 – rtbStatus.TextLength
If lblTweetLength.Text < 0 Then
lblTweetLength.ForeColor = Color.Red
End If
If rtbStatus.TextLength = 0 Or rtbStatus.TextLength > 140 Then
btnTweetToDatabase.Enabled = False
Else
btnTweetToDatabase.Enabled = True
End If
End Sub
Next, I went to the Twitter Developers webpage and registered my application (funny, I never thought I’d be a Twitter developer). After filling out a form describing my app, I received a consumer key, consumer secret, access token, and access token secret. These are needed to authorize your application to access your Twitter account.
Then, I went to the TwitterVB webpage, which is an open source project with a .NET library that allows desktop and web applications to communicate with Twitter. I downloaded the TwitterVB zip file. The zip file contains many different files, but the only one I used was TwitterVB.dll. In Visual Basic, I added the dll file as a reference.
I included the namespace in my code file with the following:
Imports TwitterVB2
I then added the following code that I found from the TwitterVB webpage to the code that executes when the “tweet” button is clicked and the “to Twitter” checkbox is checked. I replaced the consumer key, consumer secret, access token, and access token secret in the code with what I had received from the Twitter Developers webpage when I registered my application.
Dim TextToTweet As String
TextToTweet=rtbStatus.Text
Dim tw As New TwitterVB2.TwitterAPI
tw.AuthenticateWith(“consumerkey”,“consumersecret”,“oauthtoken”,“tokensecret”)
tw.Update(TextToTweet)
Then, I tested my app.
After I clicked the “tweet” button, I opened my Twitter timeline in my web browser and saw that my tweet successfully posted to Twitter! It even shows that it posted via DustinVB, which is what I named my app when I registered it with Twitter.
After I turn this project in to be graded, it will collect dust in my virtual bookshelf. I don’t plan to use it again. There are so many good Twitter programs out there that can do so much more than mine can.
Still, I feel happy that I figured it out and can now call myself a Twitter developer (even though I’m a novice, at best).
A few months ago in a blog post, I tried to answer the question, “why would a CPA want to use Twitter?”
After attending Accounting Today’s Growth & Profitability Summit, I have another reason for a CPA to use Twitter. Twitter is awesome at conferences!
By adding the hashtag #GroPro (short for Growth & Profitability) to my tweets, I shared useful quotes with others at the conference. I also added a column to my Tweetdeck Droid app using a search for #GroPro and was able to follow what other people were tweeting at the conference.
In a conference setting, Twitter provides opportunities to share useful information and connect with others. I was able to meet several people (in person) that I had followed on Twitter during the conference. Twitter just breaks the ice. I wasn’t disappointed – all of the people I met were just as cool as their tweets!
Tweets with the hashtag #GroPro were displayed on a big TV screen in the hall just outside of the conference rooms. I took a short video of it that you can see below. It even includes one of my tweets (I’m blushing)! You can recreate the tweets and visual effects on your computer by going to http://visibletweets.com/.
Last Saturday, I attended WordCamp Las Vegas. WordCamp is a conference that focuses on the popular blogging platform WordPress, which I used to create this blog. Most of those who attended were full-time web designers and programmers. I was probably most likely definitely the only accountant there.
I admit that some of the material presented in the conference was a little over my head, especially when they got into PHP code. My PHP coding skills are a level or two above copy and paste.
John Lynn speaking at WordCamp.
Still, I thoroughly enjoyed WordCamp and learned tons of new things (well, ten things at least).
Passion and motivation are the keys to blogging, according to my friend and client John Lynn. If anyone has that passion and motivation, it’s him, having written about 6,000 blog posts in the past 5 years. This year, John quit his full-time job and earns enough advertising revenue from his blogs to support his family. John’s most recent entrepreneurial project is a website to help raise money for sports teams and non-profit organizations. You can see John’s PowerPoint presentation on his website to learn about how he became a full-time blogger. Check out the plug he gave me on slide 8 (thanks, John).
WordCamp brings in a tech-savvy crowd. It seemed like everyone had a laptop, iPad and iPhone. It was a good thing I bought a Droid X last month because it helped me to blend in a little bit.
Creating a good podcast is a lot more difficult than having a microphone and recording an MP3 file. Scott Whitney from Podworx gave an entertaining and enlightening presentation showing how they incorporate music and eliminate the uh’s and um’s when recording podcasts.
The M&M peanut butter brownies at the Palace Station buffet were pretty tasty!
I didn’t take any notes on paper. I used Twitter to jot down great quotes and to have a record of stuff I want to look into later. On top of that, I shared those tweets using the hashtag #wclv with the rest of the attendees, and one of them expressed her appreciation for it!
Twitter provided me with opportunities to meet people in person that I had read tweets from during the conference (i.e. “hey, you’re @techguy”)! Did I mention I need to change my cryptic Twitter name? Nobody came to me and said, “hey @whe97007!”
For security reasons, don’t use the default username “admin” to log into your WordPress admin page. FYI hackers, my new username is “Dustin.”
I need to try out WordPress’ photo editor instead of using Photoshop every time to touch up photos. It can do more than I previously thought.
WordPress is a very powerful blogging platform and the possibilities of what you can do with it are almost endless. A couple of the conference sessions were mind-boggling.
Suppose you spend an hour commuting every day over 250 working days in a year. If all you listen to in the car is music, what do you have to show for it after the year is over?
One of my friends asked me that question many years ago when I was considering taking a job that would require a daily commute that was longer than I was used to. I had always thought that a long commute was a bad thing because it wastes a lot of time and money spent on gas. My friend had a different perspective. He told me that he enjoyed every minute of his long commute because he listened to books on tape, mostly on self-improvement and religious topics.
To make a long story short, I decided not to take that job but his advice had been firmly ingrained in my mind. I began filling my MP3 player with whatever free podcasts I could find on the Internet and listened to them in the car.
I regularly listen to the podcasts in the list below for the latest information relevant to my profession:
Stratford University Tech Talk Radio. I discovered this in a Google search a couple of years ago and have been listening ever since for technology news and computer care tips.
Feed the Pig Podcasts. In these podcasts, frequently asked questions about personal finance are answered by CPAs.
Tax Policy Podcast by the Tax Foundation. This podcast series discusses all types of taxes (including income, sales and property taxes) at the federal, state and local levels.
Twitter follower Chris Farmand suggested that I try out Google Listen, an Android app for streaming podcasts. I installed it and found very few podcasts when I searched for CPA, accounting, QuickBooks and tax. There may be opportunities for CPAs who are interested in becoming podcasters.
Just to change things up once in a while, I also listen to podcasts about other topics such as health, history, politics and science. I try to avoid the burnout of information overload, so I don’t always listen to podcasts. Sometimes, after long days at work, music helps me wind down more than anything else.
Listening to more podcasts and less music in my commute has been beneficial for me, so I highly recommend it (unless that podcast about Code Section 199 makes you a drowsy driver).
I’m always looking for new podcasts, so if you have any to share with me, please leave a comment.
I have a little debate going on in my head about who should be included in my LinkedIn network.
LinkedIn seems to suggest that connections should represent a “real-world” network and be limited to trusted friends and colleagues. I have discovered, though, that some people are looking to connect to everybody. Some even go so far as to have LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) or “I accept all invites” in their headlines.
I have received several invitations to connect from people I don’t know with the standard message ,”I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” I haven’t accepted them. Are these people really interested in connecting with me? If they are, why don’t they call me to introduce themselves, invite me out to lunch, or at least send me a personalized message?
I think that most LIONs are just seeking as many connections as possible without the intent of getting to know them. What is their motivation? I can think of a few advantages of being an open networker:
On the surface, they appear to be really popular – most have 500+ connections.
Their news feed (status updates, blog posts, etc.) is broadcast to a large number of people.
They are more likely to rank higher in search results as a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level connection.
Those advantages may sound great, but are they really beneficial? I doubt it. Their LinkedIn networks are made up of a bunch of useless connections.
I am not an open networker on LinkedIn, but I am open to networking and meeting new people. I just don’t think that extending an invitation to connect on LinkedIn should be the first step in the process.
Then again, sometimes I wonder if I am missing out on potential business opportunities by not connecting to everyone on LinkedIn. The little devil on my left shoulder makes a tempting argument, but I’m siding with the little angel on my right shoulder.
Many villains in TV shows and movies have evil plans to take over the world. I have a much more attainable goal: take over the first page of Google when my name is searched for! *insert maniacal laughter here*
I thought it would be a good idea to “take over” Google when I read this blog post in the Harvard Business Review: Forget the business card – just Google me. I love the business card in that blog post (which just shows a Google search box with the person’s name).
A side benefit of this blog – although I didn’t create it solely for this purpose – is people being able to find me through my blog when searching for me on the Internet. I recently Googled my name and found my blog in the first position among the search results (see below). I used a few simple search engine optomization strategies to accomplish this. My domain name includes my first and last name, my name is in the title tag of the blog, and the “about me” page is written in third person (even though it would have been more natural to write it in first person).
Another strategy I recently began to implement is commenting on other people’s blogs. The main reason why I comment on blogs is to add value to them, but search engine optimization is a side benefit. The Google indexing robot finds my name and a link to my blog in each comment.
Now that I have a presence for my name in Google searches, I can finally think about getting one of those fancy Google business cards … and ponder another devious plan.
Have you ever read a good article on the Internet, but when you wanted to go back and read it a few days or months later, you weren’t able to find it?
It used to happen to me quite often, but it has become less of a problem since I began using Google Reader to read RSS feeds.
When I like an article I’ve read in Google Reader, I either “share it” or “star it.” I typically share an item that I think others would be interested in. My shared items show up on the left sidebar of my blog, and they also show up in the reading list for those who follow me on Google Reader. Usually, I star an item to which I might need to refer again later but others may not find interesting. Unlike my shared items, my starred items are not publicly visible.
The search function in Google Reader is very helpful. Recently, someone asked me about the differences between the accounting programs QuickBooks and Peachtree. I remembered reading a great blog post comparing them a few months ago that I shared in Google Reader, so I searched my shared items for QuickBooks and Peachtree. The article I was searching for appeared in less than a second, which was a lot faster than things I might have done in the past, such as look through my web browsing history or do a search in Google for terms I may have remembered from the article.
Do you have any other ideas to share about managing the content you read to make it easy to find later? Please share a comment in the box below.
I know several people that make fun of Twitter much like they make fun of a teenager that ends up in the news for sending thousands of text messages per month racking up a huge phone bill. They certainly can make a good argument. A recent study concluded that more than 40 percent of tweets are “pointless babble.” If you look at the public timeline or trending topics on the Twitter webpage, you’ll see spam, self-promotion, and mundane tweets like “I’m having a ham sandwich for lunch.”
I agree that Twitter has its problems, but I believe that it does have a business application as a powerful educational and collaborative tool. As with any technology, any benefit you derive from Twitter depends on your use of it.
If you’re looking for meaningful information on Twitter, you have to follow the right people. If you’re a CPA or work in accounting, you could start with the Journal of Accountancy, the AICPA, and your state CPA society. You can find most accounting software vendors on Twitter sharing good information. There are hundreds of other CPAs and CPA firms that offer insight in the latest news, and many of them are among the brightest in the profession (I won’t list names here, but they’re not hard to find). Hey, even the IRS is on Twitter.
I’ve learned that there are many benefits to Twitter besides using it as a news feed. I have asked questions on Twitter and received helpful responses, sometimes within a few minutes. I’ve been able to get in contact with many of the leaders in the accounting profession who I wouldn’t have been able to meet otherwise. By joining the conversation, a handful of people have been able to get to know me (sort of – well, at least they know that I’m a tech-savvy accountant that shares good information, and that’s a good start).
About a year ago, when I began using Twitter, I asked myself, “why would a CPA want to use Twitter?” The answer, at least for the first few weeks, was unclear while I tried to figure the whole Twitter thing out, but now I understand why.
