06 May2010
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Social Media, Tech Tips
First, let me describe my background in regards to web design so you know where I’m coming from.
I built my first web page in the year 2000 using Yahoo Geocities’ WYSIWYG site builder. It was simple. I just typed out some text and dragged it where I wanted it, and put pictures where I wanted them on the page. It was fun and sparked an interest to learn more about web design.
Shortly after that, I took a web page design class in college. The course almost entirely focused on html code. I enjoyed the course and felt proud to finally be a sophisticated “hard coder” creating web pages with Notepad. I created several websites by just writing html code and CSS, including the website for my company, a Las Vegas CPA Firm.
However, I soon discovered that creating a website this way has its problems. For example, changing a navigation bar for all pages in the website required me to cut and paste new code to all of the twenty-or-so html documents that comprised each page of the website.
My eyes were opened to a better way of managing a website at the AICPA Technology Conference in June 2009. One of the speakers demonstrated how he used a content management system (CMS) to pull content from other sources on the Internet and automatically create html code. Another session of the conference was entirely about “blogging, podcasting, and social networking” which covered how a blog can benefit a professional. I left the conference with the resolve that I wanted to learn to use a CMS and become a blogger!
It was a long journey from June to November 2009, when I posted my first article on my blog. Why did it take so long? Consider that I did all of the following:
- I carefully observed several other CPA bloggers and picked out things I liked and didn’t like from their blogs.
- I researched several CMSs and blogging platforms, including Joomla, Drupal, Blogger, and WordPress. I finally settled on using self-hosted WordPress so I could have total control over my blog and customize it as much as I like.
- I purchased my domain and web hosting after a few hours of researching several web hosting services.
- I installed WordPress on my web server.
- Among more than one thousand themes (or general designs) on the wordpress.org website, I had to choose my favorite. I then had to further customize my design so my blog wouldn’t look exactly like other blogs using the same theme.
- I installed several plugins and widgets (programs for backup, security, and sections of my blog, such as the Twitter and Google Reader feeds on the right sidebar).
- I started an account with Feedburner to create an RSS feed.
- I opened an account with Google Analytics and configured it to work with my blog, which I have discovered to be a great resource to see statistics of the traffic to my site.
- I also opened an account with Google Webmaster Tools to observe how Google indexes my blog.
- I created an “about me” page and a disclaimer (every blog should have one!)
- At this point, I started writing blog posts. Every blog post has to catch the reader’s attention, be informative, and be entertaining. I wouldn’t write anything I wouldn’t want to read myself! It’s not easy.
This might all sound overwhelming to someone who has never created a website. If you’re in this category, I have some good news. It doesn’t have to take months to start blogging. In fact, I created a simple blog using Blogger and finished it in about an hour. This blog (dustinwheelercpa.com) took me so long because I created it the hard way, and I’ve learned a lot in the process.
04 May2010
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Social Media
I previously wrote a blog post about how I have been using RSS feeds to stay current on the news. The majority of the feeds that I subscribe to are news and blogs, but there are a few that don’t fall under either of these categories that I have found to be useful.
- Tweets of a few individuals. I follow about 200 people on Twitter and I can’t log in to Twitter enough times to keep up with every single tweet of the people I follow every day. However, there are those among the Twitter users I follow who share great information and I don’t want to miss any of their tweets. It’s easy to add a Twitter timeline to Google Reader (which I use to read RSS feeds). Copy the Twitter user’s URL (for example, http://twitter.com/whe97007), click on the “add a subscription” button and paste the URL in the box that appears.
- Twitter searches for certain words and hashtags. Using Twitter Advanced Search, I created RSS feeds for tweets from Las Vegas, Nevada, that include the words CPA, accountant, tax, or QuickBooks. I have found a few interesting people to follow and some potential business opportunities. For example, a tweet saying “next year I think I’ll have to invest in a good tax accountant” caught my attention and I contacted that Twitter user. The only drawback to subscribing to these feeds is that I have to sift through a lot of unimportant tweets like “I just got my tax refund so now I can buy that HDTV!”
- LinkedIn Network Updates. LinkedIn is a great site for professional networking, but I don’t visit it daily. I use RSS as a more efficient way to see what my connections are up to. Occasionally, I notice that one of my connections connects to someone I know, who I then connect to as well. You can get RSS feeds within the LinkedIn account settings.
- Notifications for new downloads. For example, I subscribe to the RSS feed of the CPA Technology Advisor to know when a new podcast is available for download.
- YouTube channels. In particular, I enjoy the YouTube channel for K2 Enterprises, which provides technology tips for CPAs. Thanks to RSS, I am alerted when a new video is available to view.
If you have any ideas for using RSS feeds, please share them by leaving a comment in the box below.
02 Nov2009
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Social Media, Tech Tips
Over the past few months, I’ve been much more efficient in reading news, blogs, and other websites that interest me. I now read twice the content in half the time! In this blog post, I’m going to give my secret away.
You might have noticed a little orange button on some websites like the one on the right. I had seen them for a long time, and always wondered what they were. It is a logo for RSS (“Really Simple Syndication”) which is a web feed format used by many websites that publish updated content (most commonly for news and blogs).
Unless you’re already familiar with RSS, that last sentence probably didn’t make any sense. Keep reading. It will. I didn’t really understand it until someone showed me how a “feed reader” works. That’s where I’ll go next, but first, a little background:
Before I figured out how RSS works, I used to go to each of my favorite websites periodically to see what’s new. This process consumed a lot of time. First, I had to find the website in my favorites list in my web browser (and if I didn’t save it as a favorite, I had to do try to remember the web address or search for it in Google). Then, I had to look for the most recent content, read the title (and maybe the first few sentences of the article) and test my memory to see if I had read it before. This might not sound like too much work, but when you do this with ten to twenty websites, the time really adds up.
Some websites offer e-mail updates for new content. This became annoying as I started getting my e-mail on my phone. I got tired of being interrupted by the new e-mail notification sound only to find out that the e-mail was reminding me to read a new article at some website.
A feed reader (also referred to as a feed aggregator) brings all of the new content from these websites into one place, like your own personal newspaper. It also lets you know which articles you have or haven’t read. It frees up your e-mail as strictly a device for communication. Another benefit of using a feed reader is that you won’t see nearly as many advertisements, if any, compared to visiting each individual website.
There are many feed readers out there, and most of them are free services. My feed reader of choice happens to be Google Reader. If you’re still a little confused about how feed readers work, watch this video about Google Reader in plain English.
With the help of Google Reader, I’m able to keep up with important publications in the profession such as the Journal of Accountancy, read the local newspapers, and enjoy posts from other blogging accountants. I can also “share” items that I like and want other people to read. On the right sidebar of my blog, you’ll see a list of items that I have shared from Google Reader.
One last thing … and it might be self-promotional, but I wanted to point it out in case you missed it. On the top right corner of my page, you’ll see a little orange button and the words, “Subscribe to my Blog.”