I suspect that when Google came up with Google Alerts they knew they had a cool tool that people could use to keep track of subjects they were following and wanted the latest news on those subjects coming to them in their email inbox.

People have used Google Alerts for following things like Nascar, the musician Pink, Soccer, their favorite WWE wrestler, you name it.

But, many people have found other clever uses for it as well, as it is a very powerful tool whe it comes to staying on top of who is saying what about whom and where it was said.

Recently, one of my members shared they way they use Google Alerts with me for this very purpose, and I found it worked so well that I would now like to pass it on to you.

Google Alerts searches the Google archives for any given search term, and if it finds it, sends an email to you with the link to where it found the search term, and a summary of the text where it was found. This is very handy for someone that is either particularly vain, or someone that has a vested interest in what is said about them, or even about their product.

Doing this kind of search manually would be agonizing, as you would always get the same results, and they would not be based on the most current occurences of your keywords.

So, if you go to Google Alerts and

1. type your name  or your product name or even your Twitter username (which looks like @rondavies);
2. for “Type” select “Comprehensive”;
3. for “How Often” select “once a day”; and
4. enter your email address where asked.

You will receive any new occurences of that search term (your full name or product name) as they come into the Google archive system.

This means that if someone says something nice about you on blog XYZ.com, (or heaven forbid, not so nice), and Google spiders thier normal update for that blog and finds your name, you will be notified by email within the day.

Then you can either thank them, or spank them I suppose, depending on the nature of the comment or post where your name or product name were found #;>)

Another very cool, very easy to use tool from my little toolbox.

Have a great day!

If you’re one of the WordPress users that has upgraded to WP 2.7, or one of those smart people that have installed the “Wassup” plugin for WordPress, you may be wondering what the “wp-cron.php” file is about that keeps popping up in your stats. Don’t worry, it’s nothing nasty, just the WordPress blog engine executing a few commands and updates based on date and time.

Below is a link to download the WordPress Cron Demo plugin. It demonstrates how the WordPress Cron feature can be used to accomplish a number of things.

Taking control of your WP Cron processes (Cron just means “chronoligical” or “time-based”) can help free up resources in your WP install and your web server.

Installation & use:

1. Download Cron Demo v1.0 and extract to a local folder.
2. Upload extracted contents to wp-content/plugins folder and activate from plugins tab in WordPress admin panel.
3. Go to the “Options� administration menu

Plugins Page

[tag]Cron Demo, Plugin, WordPress Plugin, Cron, WordPress Cron[/tag]

This article explains how to get your twitter great score and how to put the twitter great score badge on your website.

Go to http://twitter.grader.com or use the link shown.  Once there you’ll see a page that looks like the picture here:

Next, type your Twitter username in the box beside the word great. Click on the grade button, and your twitter grade score and appears to the right.

You can read on the site how your score is determined.  Your score will change with those you choose to follow, and those that follow you, as well as a function of your twitters.

If you have a blog, you can even put a score badge right on your website.  Just click on the Badge tab, and you will arrive at a page that looks like this picture:

 To get the code for your badge, just type your username and the space provided.  The code to use on your site will appear in the box below.  Now, just copy and paste the code into the HTML on your website where you want to attach to appear.

Ron Davies

“Here is an easy way to find out when someone is discussing your tweets on their blog.”