August 1st marks one of the more important dates in my life. After 11+ years of working for corporate America I am proud to announce that the next corporation I am working for is my own Serna Media Inc.

It’s an amazing rush and at the same time a bit sad as the last 18 months working for Greg Boser, Barbara Boser and Dax Herrera at WebGuerrilla has been nothing short of amazing. I am definitely proud of my accomplishments as an official WebGuerrilla team member. Greg and I will continue to work together on several development projects as he has agreed to become the first official Serna Media Inc. client.

I really want to thank all of the people who have been so supportive and welcoming over the last 18 months as I made my rounds at conferences. I really do feel that I have an extended family and I hope to continue to see you all at conferences.

I am looking forward now to a much more open schedule to take on work from all the creative people I have met at conferences, professionals that I know personally and visitors to this site. I am also very excited about launching several projects that I have been putting off due to lack of time.

Now its time to get to work! If I can be of service to you or someone you know feel free to:

• Forward my contact information.
• Hire Me!
• Or email me so we can set up a call and talk about your referrals or projects.

Below are a few of the more popular requests that I get for development:

• Wordpress Plugin Development
• PHP Development
• Windows .Net (C#) Development
• Windows Desktop Application Development
• Data Aggregation (i.e. Multi-threaded scraping)
• Browser Automation (i.e. Bots, Clickers)

This is an exciting time for me and I happy to finally say that I will be working for my own corporation as a freelance developer and internet consultant! The official coroporate site will be launching soon meanwhile if you have any questions you can find my contact info on my Contact Me page.

Twitter Compare is meant to be an easy tool to use for people who have multiple Twitter accounts. What it will do is show you the similarities and differences between two accounts for “Following” and “Followers”.

NOTE:

• Comparing Following only requires the twitter usernames.
• Comparing Followers requires that you know the email and password of the accounts you wish to compare. This is a requirement of the Twitter API.

Download: Twitter Compare version 1.0

SMX West is only a couple of weeks away which means sessions and pulling all nighters attending special events, dinners and after parties is on the horizon. Yep there is a lot more to this gig than just writing code but im not complaining. I think conferences are exactly the type of events that help keep me on track, focused and aware of new ideas or trends.

More importantly the side of me that is driven to succeed gets to hang out with people who are similar in that respect. For example it is not rare for a day/night during a conference to last 20+ hours. Despite the long hours there I still get up at 6am and get ready for a full day of sessions starting early in the morning. Now if it were not for certain group of people that are usually there every morning along with me maybe it wouldn’t be as easy as it is. This group consists of Tamar Weinberg, Rebecca Kelley and several others who I know where out just as late as me and yet there they are, laptops open and blogging away. They don’t forget why they are at the conference and you shouldn’t either.

Stay focused and stay on task, make sure that you are completing your goals that you should of set for yourself before attending any conference. Don’t make the mistake on skipping out on sessions and staying out all night thinking you can get into private parties in order to talk to certain people. Sometimes the best time to catch the VIP speakers is in the mornings as most of them are not morning people anyway.

Several great moments were experienced, ideas born and questions asked at sessions that I would not have been a part of had I decided to just sleep in. So although the parties, dinners and special events are a blast don’t be so quick to overlook the hidden gems pulled away from attending sessions and more importantly building friendships that can continue beyond the scope of a conference.

So have you heard the old saying “Give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life”? As I get closer to my first year here at Webguerrilla/3 Dog Media I realize how untrue this statement is in this industry.

A while ago I read on Shoemoney.com where Andy Beal posted a comment saying “You (referring to Shoemoney) once said that ‘if you teach a man to fish, he’ll steal all your fish’”. And at that point that statement put into words what I had been experiencing while rolling with Greg and Dax. Writing tons of code and criss crossing America attending conferences has given me a unique perspective on the ins and outs of this industry.

Now before you start thinking that this is a negative post it is actually a post about how I have learned more this last year from Greg, Dax, Shoemoney, Brent, Neil and many others about getting my own fish than I have working for corporate America most of my professional life.

If we take the analogy of that old saying, picture two people on a frozen lake. One has a pole with a hole in the ground and a pile of fish sitting next to him along with a nice little fire with a big fish roasting for all to see. The other is hungry, has no pole and has to make a decision.

Does he:

a) Ask the man for a fish since he has so much even though he already knows that nobody gives up any fish?

b) Realize that he is only going to get hungrier and his best bet is to observe, learn and replicate?

c) Give up, go home, convince himself there are no more fish in the lake and eat saltine crackers.

The correct answer in my opinion is (b), but I will write about that in a bit. Lets now explore why (a) and (c) are going to lead down a path with no results.

If the hungry man chose to go down path (a) the man with plenty of fish would likely not give up much if any. In fact the man with fish worked long hours to perfect his skills in order to be able to catch as many fish as he could with as little effort possible. Plus even though it may be in his nature to help others the man with fish knows that if he gives to this hungry man many more will come to ask for free fish and soon all his fish will be gone.

If the hungry man chose to go down path (c) he would have to give up his dream of eating a good meal day after day and most importantly convince himself that there is no better life available for him other than the one he has set before him. The man with tons of fish to him is lucky like people who win the lottery. He fails to see the opportunity to observe and learn. He believes nobody wants to help him and has fallen defeated destined to eat saltine crackers all his life.

Now lets say that the hungry man has gone down path (b). The hungry man quickly sees the obvious (Hole In The Ground + Fishing Pole = Fish). Oh but if things were only that easy right? The hungry man introduces himself and mentions that he too will be fishing at which point the man with fish introduces himself and wishes the other luck realizing that it was only a matter of time before people would try to fish. After this the hungry man promptly finds himself a good stick for a pole at no cost and starts to dig a hole. Although it is hard work to create a hole in the ice it is somehow gratifying and again cost nothing more than his time and energy.

After some time he has caught no fish and getting frustrated he remembers to observe. At this point the hungry man realizes another missing element to his approach. He sees the man with fish put bait on his line before placing the hook in the water. “Does baiting really work?” the hungry man asks himself and gives it a try. Soon he has his first fish and proudly holds it up for all to see. After some time he learns much more than he could have imagined from the man with fish from observing his methods and quirks for fishing. And after a while the hungry man earns respect from the man with fish and eventually starts exchanging ideas from time to time about how to more efficiently capture fish.

And everyone lived happily ever after. The End.

So the moral of this story is ‘just start fishing’. Like Neil Patel’s earlier post about Walking or Running I believe that if you start fishing sooner rather than later you will find yourself surrounded by others doing the same and be in the best position to exchange ideas and learn as much as possible through close observation.

Personally I have learned that nobody was given anything in this industry. Unlike corporate America MBA’s and PhD’s don’t really amount to much and give you no extra advantage over anyone else. At least everyone that I have met has created there own pile of fish. Lastly there are so many opportunities available to me and everyone else. The difference is now I can see them.

Neil Patel recently wrote asking “Do you need to walk before you run?” in reference to starting a company or pursuing an idea. In short my opinion is RUN RUN RUN and when you are tired RUN some more!

Everyone has ideas but what distinguishes you from the rest is putting action behind the thought. Seriously how many times have you sat down and watched a tv ad for a product so simple that maybe even you yourself had thought about making and is now getting sold by the hundreds if not thousands on TV within minutes along with a set of steak knifes for three easy payments of $19.99?

Or I am sure you have seen adsense checks floating around in the hundred thousand range. And guess what? that is just the tip of the iceberg. While most people sat around and said “That is not real… Its just an isolated case…” I have personally met people who have done it and continue to make more.

In my opinion if an idea comes about ACT ON IT! Start where you stand. Put action behind the idea and make it happen, make it a reality. And if its a flop, learn from it as that knowledge will most cetainly come into use sooner than later.

RUN RUN RUN! Thats what I think. And soon you will meet people who are running just as fast as you. And the crazy part is the people who you thought where running where really just walking.

So you spend a ton of money on PPC ads right? Get the keyword information you need to stay informed and help keep your PPC ads and sites optimized.

So what does the PPC Keyword Decoder do?

• Single encoded keyword lookup
• Parses Apache access logs and provides encoded keyword lookup inside an easy to read datagrid
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Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows XP
• .Net 2.0 Framework (Free Download)

[ Download Link Removed Temporarily ]

Unwrapping Visual Studio 2008 has been exciting as I have been looking forward to several new features and development environment updates. One of the great new features I hope to put into immediate use is the UI Automation now available in the .Net 3.0 framework.

So what is UI Automation?

Here is Microsoft’s description:

“Microsoft UI Automation is the new accessibility framework for Microsoft Windows, available on all operating systems that support Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

UI Automation provides programmatic access to most user interface (UI) elements on the desktop, enabling assistive technology products such as screen readers to provide information about the UI to end users and to manipulate the UI by means other than standard input. UI Automation also allows automated test scripts to interact with the UI.”

So what does this mean in plain english?

This means you can now write a .Net application that can automate and manipulate both managed(.Net) and unmanaged(C++) existing applications you own and use.

Why is this such great news?

Well if you have developed a .Net application or have had one developed for you, this means that you can now do a few more things with that old app:

• QA: The obvious is test several scenarios upfront in order to catch, report and debug faster.
• Flexibility: Instead of having to shell out cash to have your application re-programmed to allow automation you can now have it automated externally and generate reports, notifications, etc…
• Creativity: Daisy chain a set of applications to fire in sequence instead of re-creating a monster new application.

The big test that I would like to run is the automation of several non .Net applications that I use frequently and see what happens.

If you are interested you can download the express edition of Visual Studio 2008 and find examples of the UI Automation code at MSDN.

Readyhosting a few years back used to be a great hosting company. I loved there $99 hosting deal with unlimited bandwidth. At the time I had several clients on there system and I told friends of mine to use them as well. At some point I think the owners sold out and instead of the quick phone support I became acustomed to I now had to wait for someone half way around the world to pick up the phone. No more first name basis, how’s business, etc…

So anyway to get to the point of this post. Here is a recent email exchange with there new tech support:

Sent:

Hello,

Regards,
Cesar Serna

Response:

Hello Cesar,

Sincerely,
*** ***
Customer Support

Seems simple enough right? At this point I start thinking “Hey maybe I was to quick to judge… Maybe I was wrong about them after all…” WRONG!

Sent:

Hello ***,

Thank you for your help.
Cesar Serna

And here is the reply I get:

Hello Cesar,

Sincerely,
*** ***
Customer Support

Now unless there is some new way of installing SSL certs that I am not aware of using JPG’s this has to go down as one of the strangest replies I have recieved. Seriously a JPG? WOW… Wait a second… The SSL cert you sent seems to be encrypted it says… Really WOW what a concept…

This is just one more to add on to a long list over the years… I have simply lost all faith in this company… It used to be so great… I really dont know what to say to this… Time to pull the plug?

*** UPDATE ***
So I did some surfing and I guess I am not the only one receiving bad service from ReadyHosting:

Anyone else experience bad ReadyHosting support or service?

Matt, founder of WordPress wrote a quick post about how Telligents upcoming .Net blog platform Graffiti dissed WordPress by saying:

“WordPress is known for having an install that takes 5 minutes or less. Graffiti’s install takes less than 2 minutes. Why? We don’t expect you to setup or configure a database.“

Sorry Matt but Graffitti CMS does install faster than WordPress! Just over 1 minute for me! No DB configs or users to setup all you need is FTP. Diss or no Diss Graffiti CMS even though in Beta has all the right stuff to be a WordPress contender and keep MS people from jumping over to the PHP side. No need to start converting just yet but I will be keeping on eye on Graffiti.

Graffiti supports Themes and Plugins just like WordPress and most important of all it looks like they got permalinks working on IIS without having to have a .aspx extension on every page FINALLY!

Here is a quick tour of some of the backend starting with the dashboard which kind of has a close resemblance to the sneak peak of the WordPress 2.4 Dashboard. It does have some cool Flash stats giving a nice visual to your post and site activity.

Writing a post is similar except you get two tabs with extra features for your post instead of the right sub nav tools.

Settings tab with tag support and more…

Options tab for writing was cool as it provided a spot to write your own Meta Descriptions and Keywords.

So here is quick note for the developers over at Graffiti CMS. Give the option to disable the Javascript prompts when leaving the writing section to another section. DONT PROMPT ME EVERY TIME! Here is a shot of the annoying prompt you get instead of an auto-save or anything else for that matter.

Themes are supported along with an editor.

The Theme Editor comes with a cool custom CSS that will allow you to overide the existing theme CSS without hacking up the original.

Drag and Drop Widgets and Header Navigation is built in. Here is a couple of screen shots of the Widget screen and other Site Options.

Overall for it being a Beta version I thought it was pretty solid. WordPress killer? Probably not but it has the potential of being a great .Net counterpart.

Unlike Matt’s claim that it costs $199 Graffiti CMS is available for FREE. Anyone else download and try this yet?

Time to start writing some sample Plugins for this!

Originally posted over on Greg Boser’s blog (someone’s got some time on there hands…) the video below sums up this years amazing SEO experience for me. I want to wish everyone the very best of holidays and an even better New Year!