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Posts Tagged ‘Blog’
Friday, February 26th, 2010
About two or three months ago I reviewed my network links on JerseySmarts.com. For those of you who might be wondering, a network link is a link or button that I place on this blog to show that we are listed in a certain network. For example, look at the bottom of the right sidebar and you’ll see TopBlogArea, Blogged, Blog Catalog, etc. Those are links to the different networks where I’ve listed JerseySmarts.com. And even though it looks like there are a good number of links and buttons over there right now, believe it or not – there used to be a lot more.
I took my blog off of a bunch of the networks for a bunch of reasons and I happened to keep a log of those reasons for those of you who are involved with blogs or who might have similar decisions to make.
BlogExplosion – Gone. The interface was not user friendly and I couldn’t figure out what benefit I was getting for being listed.
TopBlogArea – Updated the code. Since I updated the code, however, I rarely get ranked in the Top 100 sites in my category. I think they moved my site to somewhere new in their system. If I can’t fix this, I’ll probably just get rid of this link, too.
BlogCatalog – Updated the code.
BlogTopSites – Updated the code.
BlogHub – Gone. The user interface for this site was too simple and didn’t provide enough information about how I could integrate my blog with their services.
SpamPoison – Updated the code. I love this little button because it takes the spam bots and hurls them into a cycle where they, essentially, spam themselves. Serves them right!
Blogged – Updated the code. By far the best user interface, but extremely slow. These guys are linked up with Facebook, so that’s a benefit, too.
LoadedWeb – Updated the code. This is the easiest network to join and manage. I recommend it.
Truth Laid Bear – Gone. The user interface is excruciatingly slow. I initially updated the code, but ultimately removed it because of the slowness of the site.
BlogAnnounce – Gone. They wanted to try to get payments from the blog publishers or something like that…ha! Yeah right.
Anyway, I hope that some of the webmasters that float by JerseySmarts.com find this information useful.
Posted in Computers, Internet, & Technology | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
You may have noticed that the blog hasn’t had a frequent, daily update for some time. Instead, I’ve been updating every other day and sometimes a few days in a row (like the last few days). As you’ll recall from an entry I uploaded in November, for the first year of Joe’s Journal and JerseySmarts.com being combined I was keeping to a one-post-each-day format to prove to myself that I can handle the increased pressure of having a single blog that continues to increase in popularity. I think I’ve accomplished that objective! Besides, I’m finding that as I put more time in some of these entries, they are garnering better search engine rankings and thus the website is getting more hits – which is always nice.
Some of you might be interested to know that I’ve been working on a lot of the behind the scenes elements of this website since our one year anniversary of merging back in November. Most of the stuff that I’ve been doing is boring, but some of it might be interesting to at least a few of my readers. So here is a short list of what I’ve been up to lately.
- Random HTML Updates: As always, I am obsessive about the cleanliness of the code that is used to create JerseySmarts.com. The WordPress people are great at releasing frequent updates to the blog’s core structure, but I make a great deal of changes and modifications to that structure that I am always going back to tinker with and clean up. I told you this was boring, right?
- Automatic “Strong” Links: This one is really a personal preference, but I like to have the ability to control the appearance of the links in my entries. WordPress is very flexible when it comes to this, but sometimes it is not very clear on how you manipulate the code for these options on the back end. I’ve had some success with a quick, easy workaround on some of the other WordPress-based websites that I own so I decided to institute them here and it has been working very well. Which brings me to the next point…
- Amending Older Posts & Comments: When I merged both sites last year, I brought everything from both sites over to the new system. As those of you who work with me on websites know, I’m a stickler for maintaining content – I hate deleting ANYTHING from a website! However, I do understand the need for content to be correct. To this end, I spent some time the other day amending all of my old comments on this blog to reflect the new URL of JerseySmarts.com instead of the old URL for Joe’s Journal which was based off of the now defunct thebalrogslair.com website. That took some time… And while I was at it, I also amended my buddy Eddie’s comments to reflect his new blog URL as well as my other friend Martin’s comments to reflect his new blog URL. Having the proper URL out there is cyberspace is important to generating hits and interest in your website – you can’t let that stuff fall by the wayside.
There have been a few other things that I’ve done in the last few weeks that really begin to dig into the minutiae of operating a website so I won’t bore you with them. Just know that on those days when there is not a new entry for you to read, chances are I am working on something else behind the scenes that is, in the long run, just as important as new content!
Posted in Computers, Internet, & Technology | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Can you believe it was one year ago today that the merger was complete? Pretty amazing, huh? I mean, just to think that there used to be such duplication seems absolutely mind-boggling! Oh wait – you’re not sure what I’m talking about? Let me refresh your memory…
 Joe's Journal - As it used to exist If you read that link, you now know that I merged my old blog – Joe’s Journal – with the one that you’re reading – JerseySmarts.com. One year ago today, that merger was complete. I think the results have been great, but you could probably be the judge of that better than I can…
One of my favorite parts of the old Joe’s Journal was that crazy header that I put together by blending all of the different things that crossed my mind at the moment. You might be able to tell from that screenshot, but there are a whole bunch of different things on there including the Monmouth University hawk, Stewie from an early episode of Family Guy, the Arrested Development television show’s logo, a Cross, the American flag, my fraternity’s flag, a Lord of the Rings logo, a Smallville logo, a silhouette of New Jersey, a Rutgers University logo, and a bunch of other stuff. Plus, the main color of the site was yellow.
In general, I never hate on any of my old sites and Joe’s Journal is no different. I really enjoyed that blog since it was my personal blog where I let off steam and commented on a variety of issues (the entries have all been merged into this site, so go back a few years and look at some of the older posts – lots of bitching in there!). However, as I began to enterprise my web design skills and I began creating newer websites with stronger capabilities and better marketing opportunities, I realized that I had to begin eliminating duplication in those areas of my life where it was unsustainable and, really, unnecessary.
On that point, a few years ago I opened up JerseySmarts.com as a place where I could capture some of the writing skills of my friends from college and other people that I’ve met along the way. It never really panned out the way I wanted it to, but that’s okay. Since JerseySmarts.com became a viable source of revenue, I wound up keeping the domain and just uploading my Joe’s Journal entries onto both blogs. It was easy, but pretty laborious in the grand scheme of things. I never wanted to engage in larger marketing campaigns or new ways to present content because I didn’t want to have to duplicate everything. Plus, I felt like the impact of my entries was being thinned since they were available in two locations.
The logical answer was to merge the two blogs and condense my efforts to create a single website with greater impact. I think that I’ve been pretty successful in that effort considering that JerseySmarts.com is both profitable and has a wide readership. Since the merger, I’ve admittedly held back on publicizing the blog to the extent that I originally intended and part of that was because I wanted to ensure that I had the commitment to keep the thing updated. With that, I’m glad to announce that today marks one full year of this blog being updated every single day. In 365 days JerseySmarts.com has had more than 365 entries. I think that’s a pretty significant accomplishment for a one-man show. One of the ways that I accomplished this was taking advantage of the ability to “schedule” a post in WordPress. For example, I wrote all of the entries for November 1st through November 16th (that’s today) on Halloween. Hey, I had the free time while sitting around waiting for trick or treaters, so I wanted to use it productively! I can’t guarantee that I’ll be updating the blog on a daily basis for the coming year, so I might miss a day here and a day there, but I made it work in the last year so I might be able to keep the momentum going in the coming year!
If I had my way, I’d get more people to sign-up for the monthly newsletter in the next year and I’d utilize that newsletter for more than just a recap of previous entries. I think that goal is attainable, but not when the newsletter stands at 26 subscribers. Last month I started a new Google Group which replaced the old newsletter system that I’ve been using for the last year. Let’s hope that it has some staying power, huh?
Anyway, we’re one year into this merger and I think it’s going great. Let me know what you think!
Posted in Computers, Internet, & Technology | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
There are a lot of reasons why I choose to write this blog. I write it to keep people in my life updated on what I’m thinking and what’s going on in my life, I write it to express an opinion, I write it to spread that information which I feel is relevant to the interests of my readers, etc. However, one of my main motivations for writing this blog is to help counter what I believe is a severe lack of true journalistic reporting that independently verifies its sources and removes slanted opinions from the final product.
In no way do I suggest that JerseySmarts.com is engaging in such reporting. In fact, I would agree that I provide my personal point of view in all, if not most, of the entries on this blog. In providing that point of view, though, I do try to counter any biases that I find in the topic, should such a counter be relevant.
Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to announce a Citizen Journalism Conference at Monmouth University one week from today, November 18, 2009. Complete details are below.
CITIZEN JOURNALISM – COUNTERING THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Citizens’ Campaign and Monmouth University are co-hosting a conference on November 18 to discuss the current state of local reporting in our new media environment, including how hyperlocal websites provide a means for stepped up local coverage and opportunities for citizen journalists to report from the frontlines.
The “Citizen Journalism: Countering the Culture of Corruption” morning panel will discuss the cuts in local news room staff and its impact on the quality of local government coverage, and how new online tools make it possible for journalists and citizen activists to report what is happening in city hall and throughout the community.
Speaking on the first panel will be Michael Delli Carpini, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania; Richard Benfield, former editorial writer of the Bergen Record and New York Times; Ted Mann, Founder of InJersey.com and Digital Development Director for Gannett New Jersey; and Michael Shapiro, CEO and Editor of www.TheAlternativePress.com.
The day will also feature a “Citizen Journalism” certification course for beginning bloggers & citizen activists who want to submit their own local news stories to online publications; and an afternoon “Meet & Greet” panel for journalism students and activists to talk and network with online news site editors.
The Conference will be held at Wilson Hall at Monmouth University from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, so please reserve your seat today by emailing heather@jointhecampaign.com.
The Citizens’ Campaign is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to promoting and encouraging civic engagement. To learn more about the Citizens’ Campaign, log onto www.JoinTheCampaign.com.
November 18, 2009
11 am – 2pm
Monmouth University
Wilson Hall 400 Cedar Ave.
West Long Branch, NJ
11 am – 11:30: Registration & Refreshments
11:30 am: Opening Remarks by Harry Pozycki & Round Table Discussion:
The New Media Climate: How the internet is transforming modern day journalism and its impact on local government & politics
12:30 pm: Becoming a Citizen Journalist
1:00 – 2:00 pm: Meet the New Media Innovators.
Registration
This event is free and open to the public. To register, email Heather@JoinTheCampaign.com
This should be a great event and I hope that my fellow bloggers in the New Jersey area will plan to attend the conference. I’m hoping to get over there myself, schedule permitting. If you DO attend the conference, please consider sending a report on what was talked about and some of your thoughts.
Posted in Computers, Internet, & Technology, Local People & Politics | 2 Comments »
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Sorry, folks. I was too busy to put an update on the blog today. Between a packed post-vacation schedule at the office and a plethora of website requests building up for my website company, I’ve been running around like a crazy person lately. Since I’m working from my home office tomorrow, I’m going to try to be as productive as possible. I’ll be doing work for my day job until 2pm (which is the end of the work week during the summer at my office) and then it’s straight into creating websites for my clients.
Should be a busy day followed by a busy night. I am, however, looking forward to a relaxing weekend – I need to rest a bit!
Posted in Random Entries | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
One of the best parts of my job is that I can choose to opt out of my daily commute and work from home on occasion. As it stands, I get one day a week where I work from home (usually Fridays) and once every 6 to 8 weeks I take an additional day one week. It’s a sweet deal.
I opted to work from home today so I could work on a major project that my company is participating in. It’s a huge, multi-million dollar deal that kept my brain to the grindstone for most of the day. I tell you this because I have nothing interesting to put up on the blog today and the reason why is because I’m exhausted from working from home.
Hmmm… A little bit of irony there, right? The fact that I’m exhausted from working, but working from the comfort of my home office? Weird.
More fun and games tomorrow – see you then!
Posted in Random Entries | No Comments »
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