One of the goals I have for my blog is to be visited by someone from each of the 50 United States. Tracking this data has been easy with Google Analytics. My blog has been consistently visited by people from 45 states.
Archive for October, 2009
Google Analytics and Internet Demographics
October 19th, 2009Referrals and Reputations
October 15th, 2009Have you ever wondered why some people are hesitant to refer their family, friends or even colleagues to perform work for someone else? What does it take to get a job referral or letter of recommendation? The key to getting a referral is not just having a history with someone, but having a history of success with this person.
How to get referrals: » Read more: Referrals and Reputations
16 essential life skills students should know before leaving high school
October 14th, 2009Here is my list of things that every able bodied student should know before leaving high school. Some of these are obvious and many of these life skills are being taught one way or another in most schools today. However, I occasionally hear or see examples of people who have slipped through the cracks and haven’t learned these essential life skills. These are the life skills in my opinion that every student should know before leaving high school. » Read more: 16 essential life skills students should know before leaving high school
An elevator speech for my blog
October 13th, 2009The first exercise in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is to write an elevator speech for my blog. This has been a little challenging for me because I never though of trying to describe my blog to someone in an elevator speech before. But this is a great exercise to try and put in words what this blog is about.
The short elevator speech:
Wes’ Words of Wisdom teaches through sharing life lessons learned.
» Read more: An elevator speech for my blog
Expanding my horizons with 31DBBB
October 12th, 2009Familiarity breeds contempt – an idiom that basically says, the better you know something, the less you respect it. A simple example is like when you first learn that knives are sharp, you’re very careful not to cut yourself. After using them for many years, you sometimes get careless and misuse or abuse them. The end result is you might cut yourself. I have a few scars that show when I didn’t respect knives like I should.
» Read more: Expanding my horizons with 31DBBB
No more PUI (Posting Under the Influence)
October 10th, 2009Yesterday I thought I had written a great post about where I was going with my WordPress powered blog. In my minds eye I knew exactly what I was saying. I thought I had written a complete post. The problem was that I was Posting while Under the Influence. It wasn’t under the influence of alcohol. It was something totally unexpected. First, I was sleep deprived; I spent most of the early morning with my Venture Crew at Moffett Field. We went to watch the LCROSS mission completion. Second, I had taken some Night-Time Cold medicine. The combination of these two factors impaired my judgment. As you can probably guess, the Post had some issues.
PUI (Posting Under the Influence) Issues:
- Incomplete thoughts – some sentences were only half a thought, when I read them, I couldn’t figure out why they were there in the first place.
- Incomplete permalink – the permalink was gibberish
This morning, I went back and edited the post I had originally done. I couldn’t just leave it half way done. That would be embarrassing.
In order to avoid this kind of mistake in the future, I am implementing MrWes’ Blog Post Guidelines / Checklist.
MrWes’ Blog Post Guidelines / Checklist:
- NO PUI- No Posting Under the Influence
- Don’t hastily post – it is better to not post at all than to release an incomplete post
- Save your Draft Post – you’re getting ready to take a break
- Log out of WordPress – you’re going to take a break
- Take a break – Give yourself some time clear your head. You don’t know if what you just wrote is clear or not
- Review & edit your Draft Post – You should have a fresh perspective on what you were writing about
- Check your spelling & grammar – those words underscored in red might be misspelled
- Check your permalink – it might not reflect the title like you thought it did
- Check your Tags & Categories – your post focus might have changed since your last edit
- Check your SEO details – your SEO details might have changed since your last edit
- Take a break – If you’ve made any changes, you need to give some more time between your last edit and your final post
- Proof-read - Have someone else read your work before you finally post.
- Final Post – Once you’re sure you’ve given some time between your last edit and reviewing your work, then Post it.
Following these guidelines should help avoid most blog post mistakes in the future.
Did I follow my own advice? Yes, I edited it about 4 times today. It definitely looks better than it did this morning when I was typing it in.
WordPress in my future
October 10th, 2009During my first 100 posts, I have been getting used to the routine of blogging. I have been mainly focused on the content and not worrying about the presentation. I have been kind of taken for granted the software called WordPress. WordPress provides a consistent and feature rich user experience for bloggers and blog readers.
I just finished reading a book titled ”WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson.” The first half of this book was mostly a review for me. It covered many things I had discovered the hard way. It was good to read another point of view on WordPress. It reinforced what I had already learned, plus I picked up some new tidbits along the journey. The second half of WordPress for Dummies covers all the stuff under the hood; the details of WordPress themes and Plug-ins and how to customize the user experience. This was the main reason I bought the book and wasn’t disappointed. I have already learned many new things I plan to utilize in the future.
One of my goals for the next 100 is to focus on the user experience.
With my website I plan to:
- Learn how WordPress themes work
- Learn how WordPress Plug-ins work
- Customize a WordPress them with my own style and photos
- Develop a WordPress plug-in or two that has a great feature everybody wants and needs
Your Web Presence – Is it unique or generic?
October 8th, 2009A big part of Personal Marketing is promotion.
As you may have read in “Personal Marketing (Promotion)” I suggest that part of promoting yourself involves posting to a blog or participation in forums and commenting on blogs. As you start participating in discussions on the web you will start to get noticed.
How are you noticed?
- Your Avatar will be displayed
- Your words will be read
Avatar: a graphical image that represents a person, as on the Internet.
“avatar.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 08 Oct. 2009.
<Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/avatar>.
Is your Avatar a big sideways “G”? That’s an indicator that you haven’t setup an Avatar yet. So you are associating your name and comment with a Generic Brand. If you don’t want that to happen, then you might want to read on.
How do I setup an Avatar, so I won’t appear as a big “G’ or a Generic brand Avatar?
You need a Globally Recognized Avatar. There is a service called Gravatar.com, see the video that follows to see more details about what a Gravatar is.
To setup a Gravatar is a very simple process:
- Read “Resizing your image for social network profile” before you setup your Gravatar. You need the right scale image to make your Gravatar look good.
- Make sure you have an image ready that’s Gravatar sized.
- Visit Gravatar.com
- Click the Get a Gravatar Today button or visit Gravatar signup page.
- Enter your email address you want associated with your Avatar
- Click Sign up button
- Expect a confirmation email, check your junk email folder if you don’t receive a confirmation email.
- Confirm your email
- Login
- upload your Avatar
- Logout
- Verify your Gravatar is working, by posting a comment on this post.
Note: You might have to flush your browser cache in order to see your Gravatar show up.
Gravatar Overview Video
Store layout and traffic patterns affect sales
October 6th, 2009Some of you might be saying, well of course Store layout and traffic patterns affect sales. I usually think of store layout in terms of placing items where you want your customer to be. But, I never really thought about how a store layout can affect foot traffic until, I saw it with my own eyes. Of course this was a simulation in a Facebook application called Café World.
Café World allows you to layout your own Café. You place the stove where the cook prepares the food, where the serving tables are and where the customers eat. If you have a good layout, the cook is efficient, the waiters & waitresses can clean and serve efficiently and customers will get seated and served in a timely fashion. If your customers are happy, then they tell other customers about it and more customers come. If the customer walks in, but doesn’t see anywhere to sit, they grow impatient and leave unhappy. If the customer walks in and sits down but isn’t served within a reasonable time, they walk out unhappy.
It’s interesting to note that changing the placement of a door, table, chair or even a serving table can dramatically change traffic patterns either for good or bad.
Another interesting thing, is a layout that works for light traffic doesn’t always work well when it gets really busy. Customers have to wait longer and grow more impatient.
I’m sure the larger restaurants, grocery and department stores do traffic flow studies, but I wonder if they do foot traffic simulations like this to see how traffic changes when fixture placement changes.
