My New Method Of Automated Journaling
June 11, 2007
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I’ve been hacking this auto-journal script for a while and I’ve recently settled on using a local install of WordPress combined with AppleScript and Quicksilver. It’s really pretty easy.
Follow MacZealots’ tutorial on Installing WordPress on Tiger. If you have any trouble along the way, you might need to check out Mac OS X Server 10.4.4: Improvements to Apache/PHP/MySQL interaction. Now you’ve got a local install of WordPress that you can dress up.
Now you’ll want to save this applescript as a ‘Stay Open’ application and set your options. If you want Growl support to work, you’ll either need to save it with the name “WordPress Journal” or modify the Growl tell in the script. I have it set to ask me what I’m doing every 15 minutes during regular work hours and every 30 minutes thereafter.
There may be times when you don’t want to use the automatic functions but you would still like to send something to your journal. For this, I’ve also created a Quicksilver action. Save this applescript in your Quicksilver actions folder. Again, if you want Growl support, save it with the name “WordPress Blog” or modify the Growl tell in the script. Now all you do is call Quicksilver, enter text mode and type your journal entry, tab over and type as much of “WordPress Blog” as you need, and hit Return.
Of course, you could use a remote version of WordPress if you don’t like the idea of installing it locally. But for privacy, it’s probably best to keep it on your own machine.
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
– Charlie McCarthy
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Loading ...SEO Automation: How To Track Multiple Search Engine Keyword Rankings Instantly
June 4, 2007
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With a little help from Dave Taylor, author of a number of cool tech books, including the book that inspired this time-saving tip, Wicked Cool Shell Scripts, I was able to save myself a tremendous amount of time and energy. Time that I used to spend doing mind-numbing repetitive data entry can now be used to build my business. Here’s how you can your time back…
Let’s say that you are optimizing ten different web pages to be found on Google, Yahoo, and MSN and you’re optimizing each page for 3 different keyword phrases. Obviously, you’ll want to keep track of each of those keyword searches to see who’s making a run for the top and for when your page finally makes page one. That’s 90 different search engine results you have to follow.
What does the average marketer do? They type or copy and paste each keyword from a master keyword list into as many search engines as they are tracking and enter the results into a simple spreadsheet or database. If they are thorough, they will compare that data with the last time they did the search to see what’s changed.
That’s a lot of work and takes a lot of time. And most internet marketers are tracking a lot more than 10 different web pages. I’ve managed to narrow this tedious task down to a simple 11 character command.
Using Lynx, a powerful text-only web-browsing tool in Unix, I can track the changes on any website and have the results sent to my email. All it takes is a data file filled with URLs. What’s really slick, is this script only emails me when changes have been made to the page. Then, it’s simply a matter of sorting my email by subject and date to scan changes over a long period of time. No more Excel sucking the sexy out of my day.
There’s more than one use for this script. You can also use it to spy on your competition. Every time they make a change to their site, you’ll know and you can see exactly what they’re doing. If they’re doing any split testing, it won’t be long before you know which test won.
The workflow is simple. Type changetrack into Terminal. The results are waiting for you next time you check your email. In Mail, create a smart mailbox that sorts your results. If you use MailTags, you can create a to do in iCal if you need to take any kind of action. I’ve got some more automation tips on the Changetrack wiki page.
It might take you 30 minutes to get the script up and running. But over the course of a single month, it could save you hours. Not only will you save time and energy, but you will have very little resistance to tracking your search engine results — A time sucking task that most SEOs would rather not have to do. Plus, you could potentially increase your income by tracking the conversion secrets of your competitors.
You’ll find complete instructions on my Changetrack wiki page. If you have comments or come up with some other slick workflows, please share them below.
The one sure way to make a lazy man look respectable is to put a fishing rod in his hand.
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May 14, 2007
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For some people, Quicksilver doesn’t work as advertised. For example, I can’t get the ‘append to…’ action to work as a trigger. And since there’s one file that I’m continually appending, I wanted to customize my workflow. That’s why I created my own Quicksilver append action.
I’ve recently started using TextMate’s GTDAlt bundle for a number of reasons. While I’ve loved using Kinkless, I spend more time in TextMate. Using GTDAlt gives me the opportunity to really master this app. And GTDAlt imports Kinkless files so there’s no downtime. Plus, I’ve never really liked how I had to have OmniOutliner open to send things to my inbox. So while I patiently wait to give OmniFocus a try, I’m going to spend some time romancing TextMate.
This simple AppleScript takes the text I type and appends it to my GTD inbox. It also gives me a Growl notification when my inbox is appended. To use, you only need to change the path to the text file of your choice.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
– J.S. Bach
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I’ve been AppleScripting my @blogging context workflow. At first, I created a simple script that launches TextMate, NetNewsWire, and Safari along with some URLs to help me get started. It basically launches my workspace for my @blogging context. But I wanted something a little more flexible that would accept some initial user input.
Now what I do is invoke Quicksilver, enter text mode and type my blog title, tab over to the action pane, type “Tex..” (for TextMate), and execute. TextMate creates a new file with the blog HTML template in my ‘Writing’ directory on my desktop and it automatically fills the blog header with the Title and the Excerpt tags. To make full use of the Excerpt tag, you’ll need to hack your blog xmlrpc.php and TextMate blogging bundle. Buy me a cup of coffee and I might teach you how. If you prefer to use Markdown, all you have to do is change the extension in the script from “.blog.html” to “.blog.markdown”.
Here’s the Quicksilver TextMate action script: Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
Here’s my entire @blogging context script: Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
Here’s my bare bones @blogging context for when I don’t know what to write yet. Save this script as an application and put it in your Applications folder, on your dock, or anywhere that Quicksilver can get to it: Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
Update: After a night of dreaming AppleScript, I came up with the be all and end all of my @blogging context. Like my full @blogging context script above, this script creates a blog post in TextMate and opens a couple of apps and a few URLs but with one major difference. Now you can type a pipe “|” after your blog title in Quicksilver and add keywords. These keywords will query Google and Technorati automatically. In Quicksilver, the text you would type would look something like this, “This Is My Post Title|intitle:keyword1 keyword2 -keyword3″. As you can see, you can add modifiers and keywords are space separated. And you don’t have to type the pipe or keywords. You’ll get an action similar to my previous @blogging context script.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
Time is nature’s way of making sure that everything doesn’t happen at once.
Space is nature’s way of making sure that everything doesn’t happen to you.
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As bloggers, we tend to do the same repetitive tasks over and over again. We open the same URLs. We launch the same apps. We ftp, we search Technorati, we comment, we do this day in and day out. The 80/20 rule would tell us that creating content in the form of blog posts, podcasts, and comments provides 80% of the value to our lives while pressing buttons, opening URLs, and dealing with blog spam provides 20% of the value to our lives. Using tools like AppleScript, I’ve been able to raise the value of my time by automating low-value activities which gives me more time and creative space to create high-value content.
Consider this. Let’s say you have more than one blog that you have to moderate comment spam. If you use Akismet, it could take you two minutes a day to open your blog URLs, click Comments, click Akismet Spam, and hit Delete. But if you go directly to the Akismet URL and hit Delete, it could take you only 5 seconds per blog. If you have 5 blogs at 5 seconds of work a piece, then you’ve saved yourself around 80% of your time. That adds up to a huge chunk of time at the end of a year. If you blog 5 days a week, or 260 days a year, then the time saved adds up to around 390 minutes, or 6.5 hours! What if you can find 6 more tasks like this one, and I bet you can. You’ll have saved an entire 40 hour work week!
Well I’m going to do my best to give you a week’s vacation by sharing my top 5 AppleScript productivity hacks for WordPress bloggers and podcasters.
#1. Open URLs
This is a very simple script. It opens directly to the Akismet page of all your blogs. Any time you can batch your tasks and reduce the steps, you should. It’s this kind of simple workflow hacking that can turn into lots of extra hours.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
Spam comments and trackbacks will skew data for plugins like Popularity Contest. Run an AppleScript that will reset the counts automatically.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
The main point is to notice your path as you click around websites. If you notice a path you take regularly, see if you can get there directly. If so, AppleScript it and batch it with similar online tasks.
#2. Workspace Launcher: Launch Apps and URLs
Sure, Quicksilver makes launching apps a breeze. So why not save this script as an application so Quicksilver can launch your feed reader, blog editor, and browser all at once. Plus, you can toss in some URLs for linking, blog commenting, or writing inspiration.
This script opens NetNewsWire, TextMate, Safari, and opens Google and Technorati along with a couple prepared searches to get you started. It also does some slick GUI scripting to create a new TextMate HTML blog post.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
This AppleScript is for podcasting. It opens GarageBand, Audio Hijack Pro, Transmit, and Safari. It also opens Google news and Technorati WTF in case you need something to talk about. If you’ve got GarageBand set as Audio Hijack Pro’s audio source, you can add music, stingers, and all kinds of effects on the fly as you record.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
These scripts deal with work contexts. Define the purpose of your work and create special context workflows, e.g. @blogging, @podcasting, @surfing, @marketing, etc. This will focus your energy and streamline your time at the computer.
#3. Automatic WordPress Database Backup
If you use cpanel web hosting, it’s a breeze to download your WordPress MySQL backups using AppleScript. Login to your cpanel, go to Backups, and copy the URL to your MySQL database. If necessary, repeat for your other blogs. Just like the earlier Safari ‘open location’ AppleScripts, paste the URLs into the script.
Here’s the best part. If you save this script as an application, you can set it as an iCal alarm so it automatically runs at a specific time. In iCal, create a new event and name it. In the Alarm section of the Info pane, choose “Open file” and select the AppleScript application. Adjust the schedule using the lower pop-up menu. If you want iCal to trigger the script regularly, choose an interval from the “repeat” pop-up menu. Automatic backups!
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
#4. Post to WordPress with Quicksilver
Not every blog post you will write needs all the bells and whistles of an app like TextMate or ecto. Whenever you feel like doing some quick-fire blogging, call up Quicksilver, type your post title and content separated by a colon, tab to the Action pane and type “QuickPress” (or as much of it as you need), and Execute. You might be able to blog faster, but I doubt it.
Did I mention this AppleScript has Growl support? That’s right. Growl notifies you of a successful post by returning the post ID number. Pretty sweet.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
#5. Automated Podcasting
This final AppleScript is my favorite. Podcasting can be time consuming. You have to record and convert your audio, tag it, upload it, and write and publish your blog post. If you’re not already AppleScripting your ftp, then that step alone can take 5 or 6 steps. But this script makes it downright simple to record, upload, and publish your podcasts.
Rather than tell you all about it, I’ll show you how you can create a frictionless podcasting environment.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
More Tips
You’ll want to save these scripts somewhere useful. Probably the best place is in your script library (/Library/Scripts/). If you open AppleScript Utility, you can check ‘Show Script Menu in menu bar’ and ‘Show Library scripts’ so that you are only a mouse-click away from saving time.
Many of these scripts, as I mentioned earlier, can be saved as applications. Like other apps, you can launch these scripts with Quicksilver. That puts them even closer to your fingertips. Or you can put them in your applications menu or on your dock for easy clicking.
A huge part of the GTD (Getting Things Done) mindset is setting up your system so you don’t have to think about it. That includes automating reminders so you’re not responsible for reminding yourself. Using iCal to schedule repetitive tasks frees up your mental energy for more important things. If you’re not afraid to get under the hood of your Mac, you can set up cron to run the script at specific times.
I hope you get a sense of the power you have and recognize the time you can save by using AppleScript to automate your most tedious tasks. You might want to check out my LifeHacks: Automation series for more tips and tricks. And about that week’s vacation I just gave you, where are we going?
Download all Top 5 AppleScript Productivity Hacks for WordPress Bloggers and Podcasters
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