I am updating several of my blogs

August 18, 2010 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Blogging

Well, since it looks like this cancer isn’t going to kill me this year, and, in fact, we’ve turned the tide and are now winning the war with it, I decided that I may do a little blogging now and then.

I’m still not going to get back into blogging like I did the last few years, but certainly more than I did during the last year.

To that end, I’ve been looking for cleaner themes and I’ve found a couple I like.

On my Random Neurons Firing blog (hosted on WordPress.com), I chose their new Coraline theme. Even though their introduction of it did not go nearly as smoothly for some of their clients as they would have liked, it’s working well for me.

So, I changed it a couple of days ago and I think you’ll agree that it looks different (assuming you’ve actually seen the older version).

I was going to use the Coraline theme for this blog, but it hasn’t been released to WordPress.org yet, and I’m really not sure if it will be. If they do release it for use on self-hosted WordPress blogs, I’m going to use it for this one.

In the meantime, I’ve found one that is similar and offers most of the features I want: Revolution Code Blue theme by Brian Gardner.

As long as I was tweaking things, I upgraded this blog to the lastest version of WordPress and everything, luckily, went very smoothly. There were a couple of minor glitches, but they were easily fixed — even in my current, fog-enshrouded, addle-brained condition.

So, I’m happy with it, and I like it better with all the content in a big left column and other ancillary stuff in the two right columns.

What do you think? You know you want to tell me how great (or terrible) the changes are!

If you’re encountering any problems with this new theme, please let me know.

Act on your dream!

Tags: blog, blogging, themes, wordpress

Another reason for simple two-column websites

July 20, 2010 by JD · 1 Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Internet Marketing, Musings, Site Build It

I spent the night in the hospital following a procedure that is helping me kick this cancer’s butt and did not bring my MacBook Pro with me. I’ve been on Facebook and browsing the web using Safari on my iPod Touch.

I’m able to view most sites (except those that rely on Flash) on my iPod, and I assume that they are viewable on other mobile devices, too.

One thing I really noticed was that sites with three or more columns are significantly harder to read on my iPod than simpler two-column sites.

Most of my sites have been simple two-column sites with the navigation in the left column (and maybe some money-making links) and the main content in the wider right column.

Most of my income is generated by in-context text links in the content column.

A lot of people think those sites are old-fashioned and, as one critic said, “so 20th century.”

It’s true that sites like MurphyGold.com and AYearFromNow.com are plain and look like they are wasting real estate on large monitors. I have been encouraged, repeatedly, to make them wider and add another column.

I don’t intend to do either.

Why?

It’s true that I prefer three columns for my blogs, but that isn’t for your benefit, dear reader. It’s for the search engines and me. By visiting one of my blogs, I can scan the various RSS feeds in the left and right columns and see if I need to visit another site and do something there.

There is some evidence in my site stats that those links bring in more readers through the search engines.

However, my three column sites are not moneymakers. It doesn’t work for me, even though others have reported good results.

When I have tested moving Google Adsense ads from the content column into a third column on the right, income has always dropped dramatically. The same is true for both text- and graphic-links. Both perform better in the content column in a two-column format.

I don’t know if that’s because most people ignore the right-most column or if they have more ad blindness in a column that normally contains mostly ads.

My best sites for generating income have always been rather plain sites that are easy to navigate and have few, if any, distractions. They don’t have the eye candy that lots of people like, but those aren’t the people who click my links and help me pay the bills.

(Thank you to those of you who do!)

For many sites, perhaps the bells and whistles, multiple images and photos, and a plethora of ads do generate more income for them. I assume that some of them have tested the results they get from the changes they make.

For me and the products I recommend, simpler is demonstrably better. I have proof based on research into visitor numbers, bounce rates, conversion rates, and income to back this up.

So, returning to my initial idea, I think the simple sites will do better for me for people who visit my sites using cellphones and other mobile devices, and will continue to perform well for people browsing on their larger computers. I’ll be tracking this as well as I can in the next few months.

Anecdotally, I know that there are sites to which I won’t return when I’m using my iPod, because they are simply too hard to navigate.

Perhaps some of those sites have mobile feeds, but, unless they make it immediately obvious early in their navigation menu, I won’t go digging for it. I’ll just go to a different site that presents comparable information in a way I want to see it.

I’m perfectly willing for people who don’t like my old-fashioned, two-column, plain sites to do the same. Thanks for dropping in. Not for you? Okay, see ya.

I might change my mind if more eye candy ever starts generating more income. (Yes, I’ll probably test it again one of these days.)

For now, however, simpler performs better for me.

I run a business. Performance doesn’t mean more visitors, more comments, or longer conversations. It means more money in my bank account.

I greatly enjoy the social interactions on my blogs, online communities, and Facebook. Making money on those sites is not their primary purpose, but they have to at least break even and pay their own costs, excluding Facebook, which is free.

You may have different purposes, definitions, and priorities for your sites.

Act on your dream!

Tags: ad blindness, adsense, blogs, SBI, simple, Site Build It, websites, wordpress

I hate it when I lose a domain I want to keep!

July 16, 2010 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Blogging, Internet

Back when I was so sick, earlier this year, I neglected to renew my MurphyNCCoupons.com domain and now someone has grabbed it, left much of my original, copyrighted content on it, and has linked to something I would never do.

Of course, the new owner’s identity is hidden in the registration. I’ve written the contact who is listed to demand that my copyrighted material be removed, but have gotten no response. When I feel stronger, I’m going to take additional actions against them.

I really wanted that domain and hate that I lost it. If you have multiple domains, be sure to watch your registrations and renew them in plenty of time so you don’t go through this.

I’ve been letting quite a few domains expire intentionally, because the original ideas I had for them proved not to be worth the effort. I’m narrowing my focus and have dropped to two dozen or so domains. Even with so few, I don’t have the energy and concentration to work on them now, but I’m hoping to be able to resume working on them in the future.

So, if you see a link on MurphyNCCoupons.com, don’t click it. It is NOT a recommendation from me.

Act on your dream!

Tags: domain registration, domains

Posting from my iPod Touch

May 16, 2010 by JD · 2 Comments
Filed under: Blogging

I will be spending some time in more than one hospital in the near future, probably, so I’ve downloaded the WordPress app on my iPod and upgraded this blog to the latest version.

This is a test post to see (1) if I can post to my blog from my iPod, and (2) learn what limitations and workarounds will be required.

Upgrading to the latest version was a snap, and it’s looking like this app will be easy to use, too.

I can’t do all the things I can do from a browser, but it looks like I can do all the tasks necessary to manage posts, pages, and comments.

All in all, this looks like it’s going to be handy.

All the best,

Tags: ipod

Mitch Mitchell is asking good questions on his blog

July 30, 2009 by JD · 1 Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Internet Marketing

My friend, Mitch Mitchell, has been posting some excellent questions on his I’m Just Sharing blog over the last couple of days.

Now, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t regularly write good posts, it just indicates that I’ve been thinking a lot about the questions he’s been asking recently, and still haven’t come up with complete answers for some deceptively deep questions.

It started with his Truth In Marketing? post.

He followed that up with Who Is Your Blog For? and Who Are The Affiliate Programs On Your Blog For?

I commend him for addressing these issues and asking these questions.

Do you have anything to add to the discussions on his blog?

Act on your dream!

Tags: Mitch Mitchell

Regained access to my Feedburner feeds

April 22, 2009 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Blogging, RSS Feeds

About two months ago, I was wondering about the following question:

Is Aweber or Feedburner better for syndicating blog posts via email?

I still don’t have a definitive answer to that question, so I may just offer both methods, as well as the obvious RSS feed for anyone who wants to subscribe via a feed reader.

It was on March 1st that I discovered that Google had transitioned all the feeds from Feedburner.com to feedburner.google.com. I learned this by discovering that I had no access to any of my Feedburner feeds or the associated features.

After corresponding several times over the last seven weeks with several support reps, I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I checked in at feedburner.google.com to see if anything had changed.

Instead of the annoying message that I had no feeds, I found a link to login at my old account. When I followed that link, I was able to click another link to migrate my feeds to the new system.

Basically, it turned out that I had one or more feeds with URLs that conflicted and therefore they didn’t transfer any of my feeds.

Last week, I told one of the support reps to go ahead and delete the feeds that conflicted, and that must have been the key to solving the puzzle.

I’m happy to have access to these feeds, once again, and I’ve already deleted three that are no longer in use. In the next day or so, I’ll be looking at all the others and deleting all that are no longer relevant to what I’m doing.

I never suspected that it would take as long as it has to stop using old blogs and to clean up after myself from all the experiments I’ve been doing with blogging and various ways of building websites.

Now, all I have to do is try to remember what I was going to do on March 1st.

I wonder if there will be additional problems because of the migration.

If you subscribe to any of my blogs’ or other sites’ RSS feeds via Feedburner and you encounter any problems, I hope you’ll be kind enough to comment on this post and let me know.

Act on your dream!

Tags: feedburner, RSS

Is Aweber or Feedburner better for syndicating blog posts via email?

February 15, 2009 by JD · 15 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, Web Services

I don’t know about you, but most of the people who subscribe to my blog posts prefer to subscribe via email rather than using an RSS feedreader.

I used to use a feedreader, but I’m finding that I like subscribing to email feeds better, now.

There are at least a couple of ways to do this. You can use Aweber or Feedburner. I’m sure there are other ways to do it, but those are the two that I’ve used and like.

Feedburner is a free service that is owned by Google, so there isn’t much danger of it going away anytime soon.

Aweber is a company that specializes in email marketing and autoresponder services. I use them for several email marketing series, distributing newsletters, and broadcasting messages to subscribers now and then.

Both companies provide reliable service.

When you subscribe to someone else’s blog via email, which do you like best?

When you offer your readers the option to subscribe to your blog via email, which do you prefer?

As long as you have an Aweber account, I guess you could use both, but for some reason I can’t define right now, I don’t think that’s a good idea.

So, which do you prefer, or do you have another option you like better?

Act on your dream!

Tags: aweber, email, feedburner, subscribe, syndication

Get a Free Marketing Site at Squidoo

June 26, 2007 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Marketing, RSS Feeds, Squidoo

The more I participate at Squidoo.com by building lenses and adding those lenses to groups, the more I see pages on Squidoo referenced in my traffic stats on various sites I have.

What?

I mean that Squidoo is sending an ever-increasing stream of traffic to my sites, blogs, and forums.

Thinking about that, I took a little time this morning to create a new Get A Free Marketing Site lens on Squidoo.

Then, I found several related groups and submitted my new lens to them.

This morning, my lens is ranked at over 180,000. I’m guessing it will jump to about 30,000 or less in the next 24 hours. Then, who knows where it will end up.

To make it a bit more interesting, I added a Plexo module where you can vote for your favorite marketing book on the lens, and I added an RSS feed for marketing articles from 21st Century Articles, my article directory specializing in business, communications, technology, and self-improvement articles.

If you don’t see your favorite marketing book on the list, please feel free to add it.

I have been getting tens of thousands of page views to my Get A Free Marketing Site suite of marketing tools at LinkScout, and I know it has been worth the time and effort – and money – I’ve invested in it.

Therefore, I feel confident in recommending it to you, too.

Act on your dream!

PS. I also recommend that you start building as many Squidoo lenses as you need to promote your business, talk about your hobby, or write about anything in which you are interested. It’s free, and you may well get paid by Squidoo. I earn a small check from them every month, and that’s a lot better than buying advertising, in my opinion.

If you have a blog on just about any topic, you should create a related lens at Squidoo, and don’t forget to use the RSS module to syndicate your blog feed.

It brings me more visitors, and I’m sure it will work for you, too.

Tags:

More reasons I use Macintosh computers

June 4, 2007 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Blogging, Macintosh Computers

On Memorial Day, the monitor on my faithful Macintosh 8500 died.

I’ve been using that computer and monitor for about 14 years and even after all that time, I was surprised when the monitor went from a full screen to a thin horizontal line and then turned itself off.

I’ve been thinking for some time that it’s about time to get a new – or newer – Mac. After all, the 8500 is a dinosaur in terms of computers, and sometimes I’m surprised that I can still use it for real work.

On the other hand, I have many thousands of dollars worth of software that will not run on the newest Macs and I don’t plan to upgrade all of that perfectly usable software unless I absolutely have to.

So, I went rumaging through my old computer parts and found an old multisync VGA monitor that I used on the last PC I owned – or ever plan to own. When I turned it on, it looked like it would work, so I turned my attention to finding a VGA adapter so I could use it with my Mac.

But, I couldn’t search online with a headless computer.

So, since I’ve been working 7 days a week for months, I decided to take a few days off and consider the best path for moving from my ancient computer to a much faster system running the latest version of OS X.

The trouble is, some of my software will only work in Mac OS 9, so I need to be sure to buy a computer that will dual boot into OS 9 or OS X. Even classic mode in OS X won’t be sufficient for some of my software – including some I developed for myself. One of the reasons I haven’t wanted to move from that computer to a new one is because I’ve spent over a decade customizing and programming that system to work exactly how I want. If I started over with a new computer, I’d lose lots of functionality and I’d have to either recreate what I’ve been using or do things totally differently.

So, taking time off and musing about it seemed like a good idea.

I caught up on my sleep and watched about a dozen episodes of Stargate Atlantis from Netflix.

Yesterday, I decided I would go to the library the next day (today) and do some searching for companies that sell refurbished Macs so I could order a custom system with exactly what I want.

I was talking to Mom and noticed her even-more-ancient Mac LC 580 system sitting in the corner. She had used that computer for years for genealogy research and email and it hadn’t been turned on in months. She hasn’t been able to use it for several years and the last time it was turned on was so I could play Tetris on it – a game I won’t put on my working system if I want to get any real work done.

I fired it up, dialed into the Internet, and started the Netscape version 4 browser.

I was totally surprised that not only could I search on Google and find several refurbished Mac dealers, but I could even look through their websites. It was slow, yes, but it worked. I don’t even know how old that computer is, but it worked!

So, I browsed MacOfAllTrades.com in Tampa, Florida and found some interesting systems and software for sale.

Later, I went to PreOwnedMac.com (resale.headgap.com) in Memphis, Tennessee and looked at what they had to offer. This was the company I was looking for. They build custom systems using old Macs and new optical and hard drives. I can configure just what I want and purchase from them and maybe not lose all the functionality I have with my current Mac 8500. Plus, the newer system would be much faster and have much more storage.

So, I spent much of the day looking over what they offer and comparing it to brand-new systems.

I still haven’t made up my mind about what I want to do; I make these decisions slowly and deliberately because I intend to use any system I buy for years.

I found a universal Mac to VGA adapter that I’ll be ordering in a few minutes and that will solve my immediate problem. It feels strange not to check my email or work on any of my blogs or websites for a whole week, but it has been a restful week and I look forward to getting back to work.

This morning, just to see if it would work, I went to JohnDilbeckAndFriends.com on Mom’s old LC 580. I could read the blog, but could not log in and post any updates.

Then, I tried some of my WordPress blogs at JohnDilbeck.com/musings/ , blog.cherokeecountync.com , and MurphyNC28906.com .

I was completely surprised to find that I could post new items to all of those blogs.

I couldn’t see the blogs with the theme I expected, but I could read all the entries and click all the links.

So, I spent a few hours this morning posting some updates.

I tried logging in to Localendar.com , but that didn’t work, so I’ll have to wait to update my calendar there.

The point I guess I’m trying to make is that these Macintosh systems from back in the 20th century are still useful and can do real work in the early 21st century. Yes, they are slow, have outdated browsers, not enough memory, and don’t support current software and hardware, but they still work for much of what I want.

I move forward slowly and no longer adopt anything on the bleeding edge of technology or even the leading edge of technology. I did way to much of that over the 30 years I worked as a computer consultant. Now, I want a system that works – all the time. I don’t want to constantly update the software or the hardware. I still use software that I bought or developed over 15 years ago and it works just fine.

Yes, it’s about time to move to OS X and I may even buy some new software one of these days, and then again, maybe I won’t.

Time will tell.

Think different(ly).

Act on your dream!

Tags:

New lenses and groups at Squidoo

September 29, 2006 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Blogging, Groups, Musings, Squidoo

Over the last few days, there have been some big changes at Squidoo.com with the release of the new groups feature.

Now, your Squidoo lens is not a stand-alone page. You can join appropriate groups for cross promotion of similarly-themed lenses.

Don’t find a group you like? Start one of your own. Help all the members of your group find more readers and more success with Squidoo.

New Squidoo lenses

I just created a new Success With Blogging lens and I invite your feedback for resources that can be added to that lens.

New Squidoo groups

I have several lenses, websites, and forums related to North Carolina, so I created a new North Carolina Group and I invite you to add your lenses to this group as long as they relate primarily to a place, event, person, organization, or business that is in North Carolina.

Tags: