So, you're wondering "How to add 300,000-plus products easily?" Wandering around the Virtuemart forum, considering which ecommerce option I ought to use for an upcoming ecommerce web development project, I search for threads that shed light upon the status and direction of the open source project while simultaneously searching for threads I can contribute my experience toward assisting some one else. I consider it the least I can do for a project that has made my clients millions through the years. And I enjoy helping. But when I saw the reference to easy mated with the task of populating a website with 300,000-plus products, there was something there worth investigating.

Vertical Scope, the Canadian-owned giant that touts a whopping 30 million unique monthly visitors amid its 300-plus web properties, according to its Google Analytics report March 2011, announced yesterday via Twitter that rumors of its acquisition of what is purportedly the largest off-road website upon the web, Pirate4X4.com, were in fact true, adding to its massive portfolio of automotive, powersports, power equipment, sports, action sports and technology websites.

Early in the year, Race-Dezert.com was approached for the purpose of initiating an advertising campaign. A fraction of the initiative was unconventional and something I had yet to see upon the web. I wanted to park a brand's Facebook and Twitter widget in the direct line of site and embed it above the fold of editorial and community-created forum content. The conventional banner ad was a no-brainer. But the direct engagement social widget advertising was a request that seemingly fell upon death ears.

Here's a brief snap shot of the news, reviews and analysis read throughout the week. Everything from business strategy, sponsorship, motorsports, television, advertising, marketing, retail, ecommerce and branding are referenced and well worth a look.

In the process of reconfiguring a computer for the purpose of producing a live streaming webcast, some of the actions I am taking include removing old redundantly archived files and unnecessary software, modifying the data structure logic for improved workflow and adding hardware that includes external hard drives as well as audio and video equipment. In the midst of this, I was reminded that my system of file backup has not been fully operational for several months, the key element of which is the cornerstone of the operation, Backblaze, which I allowed to expire when switching between multiple computers and transition between data backup methodologies. Nevertheless, my data backup and recovery methodology still requires maintenance and revision according to the evolution of team workflow and relations.

Just found this slick new Facebook app from the makers of Flip Video Cameras, which enables you to upgrade from the standard photo avatar to a video avatar for your Facebook profile.

As the day began at the crack of dawn, just prior to the sunburst emerging from behind the eastern horizon, I filtered through the various RSS feeds and and categorized favorites upon my top Firefox bookmarks. And what follows is a snapshot of what I read through, which includes blog posts that span the gamut of technology, marketing, advertising and retail ecommerce and mobile commerce. Amid the favorite items of interest is Facebook, specifically Facebook Places, as I am engaged in the launch of similar Facebook Check In marketing campaigns for two clients in the coming months.

In search of a buddy who has helped produce video for me in the past, I wandered onto a series of useful Adobe After Effects tutorials on Vimeo that I thought were worthy of note. If you're interested in post video production, specifically the task of editing using video effects, you may want to have a look at Aharon Rabinowitz's Vimeo channel, which is in support of All Bets Are Off Productions and Red Giant Software. Both the channel and website possess some valuable video editing tutorials. Check it out.

 

Perhaps a bit premature or perhaps not. One thing is for certain, I'm not the only one looking to get integrate the best blogging software into one of the greatest photo gallery scripts. That would be integrating Gallery3 into Wordpress via a simple Wordpress Plugin. As it stands, such a powerful combination of capabilities has yet to emerge, but there are several forums that have have emerged that may be worth watching.

It's great when the clock strikes 9 am, and you've already put in a several hours worth of work, allowing for more time to work or play throughout the rest of the day. In checking some quick web analytics (Google Analytics / Woopra / AWstats) on several websites that I am actively performing modifications upon, I was directed to Google Labs and its Browser Size graphical analytics report, which is a graphical visualization of browser window sizes of people who visit Google. Such information as this is critical in assessing website usability and web design effectiveness at conveying your brand's marketing message. As you can see by the visualization, you can see, that unless the average website visitor scrolls on many larger format websites, much of your page is useless. So, be sure to have the important elements of your web page, such as critical call to actions, within the window of opportunity.

It's been somewhere around two to three years since I've been struck with any form of malware on any of my computers. After just over a month on the road, I finally had an opportunity to hunker down behind the primary computer and get some operational responsibilities up to date and catch up on some of the work required to support the road trips. In the midst, I had three old friends call with similar requests. One was to get a fairly large skateboard website migrated over to Joomla. The other is a set of racer friends who is now charged with launching a startup from beneath the umbrella of a global manufacturing enterprise. The third was a friend who wants to get his ecommerce operation into high gear. It was the latter that led to virtually killing my computer.

I've been hunting around for a way to migrate from my old school Motorola Q9M that I initially purchased due to its integration with Qik and subsequent video streaming capability to Mogulus, which has since become Livestream. At the time, Qik was the only way by which you could stream video from mobile device to Mogulus. With some hacking, I was able to get the phone to work down south in Baja and streamed some audio and video from the Baja 1000 as well as a Baja 500 or two. But the phone is archaic, running on an outdated Windows Mobile operating system and proves this with extremely sluggish performance. Well, there was the Google Nexus that raised an eyebrow. Then there was the Verizon Droid. Both run on the Android operating system. Yet today, Sprint has just upped the anti and is going big with its Sprint HTC EVO 4G, as in four gangsters can beat up on your clan of three when it comes to the battle of big bandwidth.

I was a bit bewildered when I querried a tech-savvy buddy in between rounds of this weekend's Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC) about what he and the others in the room thought about Google TV. Each one had an iPhone or other Smart Phone. One even boasted an iPad that was being passed around in conjunction with the chip bowl. The latest scores of various games were streamed in live. Yet neither had heard of Google TV. But perhaps that's because they were more sports junkies and than tech junkies.

 

Trouble lurks during the length of every computer's operating life. And I've endured more than a few doomsday scenarios when it comes to computers. To thwart the throat-wrenching latch that a imperiled computer hard drive crash might have on my operation, I have used virtually every means of backup one can imagine. I've backed up to web server (still do), DVD backup, CD backup, floppy disk backup (oldschool), zip drive backup, cassette tape backup (ancient), thumb drive, removable drive and on it goes. Perhaps the greatest, though, is offsite backup, as it work regardless of what calamity goes down at the office. Furthermore, the new file sharing capabilities of these online backup services is incredible from a social media perspective as well as from a satellite working perspective for your business sub-contractors and work from home employees. Here's a quick list of some local onsite and offsite online backup options. Contribute to the list as you see fit.

Today I had little time to sift through the wealthy list of links, particularly since there are a few links, while upon public domains, included some collectively confidential subject matter. So, for what it's worth, here are some goods that included a web TV video platform as well as a product registration and upselling platform.

Last night I had an interesting conversation with a friend whom I had not previously spoken to regarding his career. He's got a day job since moving from the East Coast to Southern California and it has nothing to do with his background as an opera singer and web developer. As a vocalist, he's phenominolly gifted. As a website designer and developer, he's garnered some interesting experience.

I've been slammed with the demand for skills that span the gamut. I love it. Not so much on the web end or social media end, since that's unfortunately taken a back seat to developing media and marketing infrastructure but also extended into business strategy and implementing practices and associated business software applications.

Found this skateboarding video on Vimeo, which happens to be one of my favorite video hosting websites for its HD video file size capabilities. Vimeo's general reach isn't as great as YouTube. But its branding capabilities through its pro accounts is fashionable for marketers looking for a professional social video platform. This skateboarding video features a testicular torture test that takes place on the ski slopes. Skateboarders negotiate rail slides and grinds during during half time of a Canadian snowboard competition.

I absolutely love the topic of news and how it has evolved with the onslaught of social media and the web in general. Hacks have earned the accolade of online news sources. Seasoned news hounds from the stuffy print newspaper newsrooms have been scooped and charge around with chips on their shoulders. Print editors who have allowed stories to slip in favor of allowing someone to slide have been greeted with pink slips. And infotainment editors who charge their way into the Google News feed serve as little more than the day's muckrakers of sensational and sometimes fraudulent headlines who often perform as nothing more than human aggregators or regurgitators. Well, the first link of the lot is not necessarily focused upon the specific subject of muckrackers but is an interesting piece on user-led content and the terms breaking news. Also in the mix is audience targeting when crafting SEO content for your blog or other social media outlet. Conversion rates and followup are also covered. Get your business on.

Got links? Here are some good reads. Perhaps the best of the lot is the 10 free social media tools every public relations (PR) pro should master. And if you're a small businesses and looking for some insight on how to increase the eyeballs landing upon your good name when conducting local business searches, then there's a great link for optimizing your business listing. For those looking for domains for an existing business or a startup, there are five tips to get you started. Got content? There's an excellent strategy for those charged with developing a web content strategy. In my experience, especially for those working as contractors, you'll want to maintain an open stream of communication between client and client assets. Social media strategy, tactics and success is yet another link worthy of a read.