In celebration o’ International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I be havin’ decided t’ format this edition o’ In Th’ Sphere wi’ an extra healthy dose o’ Pirate Speak. Do ye understand th’ language o’ th’ seas or does th’ spirit o’ th’ landlubber run through yer veins?

Chris Bibey be already a successful freelance writer an’ he already offers a special course that teaches ye how t’ best run yer freelance business, but he`s nay goin’ t’ stop thar. Mr. Bibey has now produced a great e-book be callin’ The Full-Time Freelance Writer Report, providin’ all sorts o’ useful information on how t’ make a full-time income from freelancin’. Th’ best part be that this report be 100% free.

ThinkBlog may nay be much o’ a fan o’ Windows Vista an’ ye may nay be a fan o’ ‘t either. Dasn’t ye worry about ‘t tho, on accoun’ o’ ’tis still possible t’ get yer hands on Windows XP. ‘t may nay be th’ most convenient thin’ t’ do, but if ye be havin’ an x’tra powerful aversion o’ Microsoft`s newest operatin’ system, ‘t may be worth yer while t’ hunt down a proper copy o’ Windows XP instead.
Buzz Bishop may nay exactly be a high-end wine connoisseur, but he recognizes a bad wine when he tastes one. An’ he be notin’ holdin’ th’ Yellowtail line o’ wines from Australia in high accord. He says that ’tis too simple, too sweet, an’ overly exploitive. He`s nay alone in this either, on accoun’ o’ Gary Vaynerchuk fully agrees.

Enkay Blog has become a somewhat popular destination on th’ Internet, but very wee swabbies know th’ story behind th’ blog. Well, Enkay tells us his tale an’ how Enkay Blog came t’ be. ‘t all started in May 2007, but ’tis really amazin’ what this blogger has managed t’ accomplish in jus’ o’er one year.

Ms. Danielle finds herself in th’ city o’ sin, which ye may know better as Las Vegas. She`s thar fer Blog World Expo an’ she`s goin’ t’ be joined by a virtual “who`s who” o’ th’ blogosphere, includin’ such swashbucklers as John Chow, Nate Whitehill, Derek Semmler, Wendy Piersall, an’ Zac Johnson. Danielle hopes t’ be seein’ ye thar!

As I start to get things ready for the launch of XmasRadio just 9 weeks from now I did a bit of testing to see if I could listen to streaming shoutcast on my iPhone. It turns out it is possible…

1. Download the Tuner application on your iPhone.
2. Open the Tuner application.
3. Click on Search and then Open.
4. Enter the Name - Shoutcast Radio Name 
5. Enter the URL – http://209.172.55.149:8585
6. Click on Done.

I also did a quick search to see if you can listen to shoutcast on your Blackberry. It appears you can do that using RadioBee.

While some people may consider them to be little more than useless junk mail, the weekly flyers can serve as a great source of joy for the bargain hunters in the audience. If you’re technologically inclined, you may turn to the flyers from your local gadget store to not only see what’s new in the world of tech, but also whether you can score a deal on a hot new phone, television, or gaming console. The foodies may enjoy the flyers for grocery stores and the fashionistas may be drawn to flyers from their favorite clothing stores.

A common issue that I see with a lot of these weekly flyers, however, is that the advertisers are working too hard to show too much information at once. The human mind can only absorb so much information at a time and if your flyer is overly cluttered with far too many products, it can be difficult for the consumer to sift out the deals of particular interest. It’s important to have a few key products that take up the majority of the real estate, drawing attention of potential buyers. These should be highlighted and they should be your most attractive sales.

One store in my area is XS Cargo, a shop that specializes in overstock, refurbished, and other inexpensive products. The store is nowhere close to being fancy, but they can oftentimes offer some terrific deals. The trouble with the XS Cargo flyer is that it is one big grid, absolutely overwhelming anyone who cares to browse through it. As a result, the accompanying images are too small and I just get frustrated trying to look through it all. There’s just too much.

Keep it simple and keep it focused. If you send out weekly flyers, highlight a few select deals and allow these to be the main point of interest. This will be more effective than trying to divide a reader’s attention between 40 different deals at the same time.

Last week we asked what software would you upgrade and 79% said PHP 6 and MySQL 6. This weeks question is…

Typically, whenever another blog links to one of your posts, you will receive something that is called a pingback or a trackback. In effect, this is meant to inform you of the incoming link and it is usually displayed in a similar manner as a comment on your blog post. The trouble with this system is that WordPress is designed to not differentiate between the source of the incoming link, so when you deeplink into one of your own blog posts, you oftentimes send a pingback to yourself.

Some bloggers like this feature, because it can introduce readers so some of your other content, but other bloggers prefer to have a cleaner appearance and a “self ping” can be seen as somewhat egocentric. To address this problem of cluttered comments, a simple plug-in has been developed that effectively disables self pinging. Appropriately enough, it’s called No Self Pings.

Installation is a piece of cake. All you have to do is download the plugin, upload it to your plugins directory, and activate it in the WordPress admin panel. There is no other configuration necessary. You can download No Self Pings at Blogwaffe.com

Avast, me hearties!

This years Talk Like a Pirate Day be fastly approaching. Are ye ready?

To be prepared this year thar be a wee fun things ye can do. I found a great Pirate Speak Generator which be hours o’ fun. You can convert a wee lines o’ text or an entire page. Also fer them those social networks like Twitter ye be havin’ t’ be havin’ an Avatar Generator. What would any good swashbuckler be without a Pirate Name?

So don’t be a scurvy dog this year and miss ou’ on all th’ fun.

When be th’ event happenin’?
Friday, September 19, 2008 

Where be ‘t happening?
All around the globe.