Personal

Just couldn't get much done today. Wasn't very focused, lots of distractions. Holiday season is starting to kick in as the family returns home.

I fixed some bugs with Buzz Scanner. The basic problem is Google Charts only allows a maximum URL length, so you cannot pass infinite amounts of data in to graph.

The solution: a method to add all adjacent units of data together:
3,6,3,8,9,6,3,4,5,0,6 becomes 9,11,15,7,5,6 (if it's odd, just leaves last one)

It expects data already in the URL format for Google Charts API in the chd field.

Sample expected input:
t:0|18,10,15,7|0|14,13,14,14
Sample expected output:
t:0|28,22|0|27,28

The PHP code:

function mergeData($dataString){
    $chdTempArray = explode("|",$dataString);
    for($c=0;$c<count($chdTempArray);$c++){

Video Game Music is done. The only part missing was a header.

I used a contest on DigitalPoint to get it done for $20.

The winner was Zealot Designs with this logo:

Not bad for $20 and got to look at a lot of potential options and choose the one I liked most.

Tip: you can view any image on your live site using Firebug and inspect the image you want to change and edit the URL to any other image.

Bookmarking Options

The site is complete.

Data was collected about the providers I saw most mentioned across social media platforms. Important features were categorized and researched.

Instructions on how to backup/save bookmarks.

Buzz Scanner

What does Buzz Scanner do?

Buzz Scaner monitors 20 of the biggest brands (10 Tech, 10 Automotive) on Twitter and tracks their sentiment over time. 1 Hour and 24 Hour time frames are available.

It is a personally satisfying proof of concept that I wanted to build. I've played with the idea of Brand Monitoring for over a year and finally wanted to just build something in the space. A first step.

There is no monetization right now. But there are a few options if I decided to take it further in the future like creating a SaaS platform like all the rest. I think there is some consumer potential as well if you are monitoring content. Finding the *right* information is so valuable.

Honestly, I am not quite sure what this will turn into. I've seen hundreds of buzz monitoring tools, I've written some stuff in the past to do data mining of this type of information.

I am thinking why not build something with a front end as well?

What I am planning:

1. Pull data from Twitter about pre-defined keywords (Brands)
2. Run Sentiment Analysis
3. Graph over time
.
.
.
#. Maybe put mashup other data (stock price)

How this makes money? Probably doesn't right away. Licensing the code, building something more complex/target a niche for a later version. Use it to build credibility to sell other services.

Video Game Music is basically done.

The only thing missing is a header image to replace those silly looking coins.

Drupal Amazon Store module was a lot more painful than I expected. I had to:

• hack around the default sorting
• edit a lot of CSS to make it align properly (#edit-submit {margin-top:20px;} in amazon_store.css if anyone is having trouble)
• hack the item processing because the thumbnails linked to the bigger picture for some reason instead of the item (amazon_store_search_results.tpl.php on line 54 change the print value to url("amazon_store/item/{$result->ASIN}"); instead of $result->LargeImage->URL;)
• finally changing titles on pages from Amazon Store and Amazon Cart to something else in amazon_store.module (its in function amazon_store_menu()).
  

Ad Proof - Ad Blocking Software and Reviews

It's live.

What's done:

• Setup - Drupal 6 and CCK+Views worked like a charm
• Content - there are 10 pieces of software listed to help you block ads and keep better privacy.
• PPC Ads (Google AdSense)
• Google Analytics

What's left:

• Affiliate Programs - still signing up for/getting approved with various companies
• Design - theme is installed, I modified header image, need a logo
• Marketing - I realize I didn't include this in my last post, it needs some links and *real* content

What Didn't Work:

• Reddit and Quora both failed me. I got one response on each saying AdBlockPlus. My personal opinion is it's a pretty damn good tool, but I thought there would be more options/responses. Maybe it was when I asked it or how I phrased/tagged. May try again later.

Video Game Music used to be a developed site using the Amazon API. I was using a script called Associate-o-Matic. It wasn't open source (encoded) and wasn't particularly friendly on the backend. My license ran out and Amazon changed the way their API works.

Long story short, the site has been broken for a while.

I want to get it functional again on something open source that I have a lot more control over.

Plan

• Technical:

Drupal 6 with Amazon+Amazon Store

I may use CCK and Views again, not sure. I will probably use a youtube module of some sort. Need to see how well the Amazon store works and what sort of content I can include around it.

Standard other modules will probably be used again like Token, Pathauto, etc.

• Monetization:

I want to start with something simple to warm up. This fits within my comfort level quite well because I have built many comparison sites before, for example:

• Host Charts - Web Hosting Information
• Proxy Host - Proxy Hosting Inforation

Plan

• Technical:

Drupal 6 with CCK+Views

This gives me the flexibility to create my own content types like 'Ad Blocker' which could consist of: Title, Description, Link, Operating System, Browser, Price, License, etc (That's my list of fields so far, but CCK allows me to change any time).

Views should let me display/sort the data any way I want.

I feel like I need to challenge myself. Since I moved last month, I have been doing a lot of little things here and there (see: consulting, freelancing). My own projects have stagnated and I haven't been nearly as productive as I would like.

I have a lot of ideas for different websites I own but have had a very hard time committing to one. I enjoy projects, building a first implementation and testing a concept.

In an effort to try and get creative and find a project or two to really work on, I decided why not build a lot of websites/projects and see what happens?

Seven Sites in Seven Days Challenge:
1. I will try and build 7 websites in 7 days.
2. There is no limitation/minimum requirement on what each will be.
3. Some will probably suck (likely most/all of them).
4. I may get help from freelancers (paid).
5. I may use existing resources - old code, domains, servers, etc.