All posts in Site News

You may have noticed a string of Google ads at the top of the page. After much deliberation, and research, I’ve decided to go ahead and include some ads here to help cover the cost of running this site. I will do my best to keep the ads unobtrusive and not annoying. I plan on placing the ads in two places: at the top of the front page and, in longer articles, within the content (tastefully).

Like this one:

Google ads are contextual Pay Per Click ads. This simply means that Google displays ads based on the content of the page and keeps track of how many times one of the ads gets clicked. I get paid according to that count. In other words, the user doesn’t have to actually purchase anything, or even browse the website at the other end. Just click.

Adding ads to a blog can be controversial. Some people are turned off by it. Others look at it as a way to “thank” the blog owner for their time (you can imagine which outlook I prefer…). I’m not married to the idea of keeping ads here, so I would LOVE for you to give me some feedback on what you think of the changes. Let me know in the comments…

[tags]Google, Adsense, monetizing, blog, advertizing, blogging[/tags]

You recently asked for an easy way to get to the series of posts I did on my experiences working at a glue factory in Sanford, NC. I’ve added a category called “Glue Factory Series” which will take you to all of those articles. You’ll find a list of categories in the sidebar.

If you’re looking for more, you can also browse the Archives (select a month in the sidebar) or visit the “Articles” page for a collection of some of the more popular posts. Thanks for the feedback.

Enjoy!

I use WordPress to manage my blog. It’s what I use to mange everything about this site including writing articles. They just released an upgrade that is making my life a lot easier. It should also make things a little faster for you since the code has been cleaned up significantly (100′s of bugs were fixed).

I also took this oportunity to simplify the design of the site.

1. The theme switcher has been removed (a cool feature, but it’s like maintaining 3 sites instead if one – who has that kinda time?).
2. A lot of clutter has been removed from the sidebar
3. Calendar has been added to provide another way to find articles
4. Archives are now accessed by a drop down menu instead of a list, takes less space
5. Subscription area in the sidebar has been simplified
6. Navigation tabs have been added to the top of the header
7. larger font and more contrast for better readability
8. Commenting no longer requires registration… just write your comment and submit.

Let me know if you have trouble. There are still a few layout issues with the photo gallery which will be cleared up soon.

Enjoy!

[tags]Wordpress 2.1, blog, tools, upgrade, wordpress, themes, web design[/tags]

I’ve added a “Feed of the Week” page.  Each week will feature a different RSS feed.  These are feeds that I subscribe to and read regularly.

Don’t know what an RSS feed is?  Learn about it here.

Enjoy!

I’ve added a theme change option on the left sidebar. You can choose between two themes for the site: Sunrise (the default) or Dark Cash. Just select the one you want to see and that’s it. Unless you have cookies disabled in your browser, it will remember what theme you chose when you return. Both themes have very different moods.

I did not create either theme, but rather customized existing ones to fit my needs. To learn more about the authors of these fantastic themes look in the footer. There are links there to the author’s websites.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think and which you like best!

Enjoy!

This is the inaugural post for The Soapbox.

For those of you who care about such things…

I’m using WordPress for the managment software with the “sunrise” theme pretty much as-is. There is a link in the footer to get more info on the theme author. When I get time (yeah, right) I’ll be creating my own theme, but until then this is doing nicely.

Gallery2 is powering the photo gallery using the WordPress Embedded Gallery theme to make the integration into WordPress a breeze. Go check it out!

UPDATE: I’ve since changed the name, added my wife as an author and changed to a theme by WP Designer.

Enjoy!