Yellow Dog Ventures

WordPress blogs have continued to be my focus.

I have a number of niche blogs that I use to display eBay auctions and I have been updating these. I really, really like how they’re turning out. I guess you could say I’m synthesizing much of the information I have collected over the past months about optimizing WordPress.

These are some really fun plugins that I’ve started using on my blogs:

Adman - allows you to automatically input some text or code at the beginning, middle, or end of all your posts. I’m using it to insert an optin form at the end of each post.

Counterize - basically counts visitors and hits on your blog and give all sort of other tracking information. There’s a quick snapshot of recent and current day activity on the dash board. It’s much easier than running to Google Analytics to get an idea of where your traffic is at.

Excerpt Editor - automates the process of dividing all posts on the front page into excerpts without messing with the code in the templates.

Tomorrow is the day that the new eBay affiliate program is unveiled. For those who haven’t heard, eBay is creating their own affiliate program and will no longer be associated with Commission Junction. It really doesn’t make any difference to me either way. What does make a difference is that I’ve been sort of on hold for a couple weeks waiting for the transition to happen. I didn’t want to create a whole bunch more links that I would have to go in and update. I’ll need to get very busy updating links and then putting finishing touches on the sites.

And this blog got another facelift. The Cleaker theme just didn’t do it for me. I really, really like this one. Very clean looking. I have lots of plans for this blog. Maybe it will be next in line for some serious renovation.

That’s it for now. Thanks for visiting.

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I wrote the following lines a few days ago, and just before I published them, when I went to my GoTryThis dashboard to look up a link, it was very obvious the program was not functioning.

“Accomplished a bunch of odds and ends today. Feels like a whirlwind but feels good.

For the past 18 months I have been using GoTryThis on a server that has not been very reliable. This morning it was down for another 7 hours. That means none of my affiliate links work either. Not cool.

I decided to move the GoTryThis script and database to a different server - Hostgator - which has always been extremely reliable. I have a video that covers how to replicate a database, that I picked up from a member of Earn 1KaDay. Turned out to be a piece of cake, although cpanel is a bit different than the platform shown in the video. I was able to figure it out just fine. So now my GoTryThis database and script is on Hostgator and I expect will up almost all of the time.”

Well, either I didn’t figure it out just fine, or something else went screwy, but all I could get were error messages. Dang! Nothing I tried to fix it worked. Even redirecting the nameservers back to the original server led nowhere. (That one I can’t figure out, unless it was triggered by GTT thinking I was trying to install it on two servers at once and so it shut down. Can’t do this with the whitehat version.)

I’ve messed up the GTT database before, and so at least for now I’m giving up on that program. That’s why I have moved to a new link cloaking and tracking program — Cloak and Tracker — by Jay Jennings. I’ll write a full review on it soon, but I did find it easy to set up with good documentation, including videos and a pdf. So far I like how it works. It appears to have all the features of GTT whitehat and more, and the data is stored on my harddrive, not a MySQL database.

So, I guess that qualifies as another techno-snag. I think this one will lead to good results, though.

Thanks for visiting and have a good one!

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Well, I committed to a “One Page A Day” challenge for the month of February, organized by Eric Giguere of AdSense fame. I have subscribed to his blog and read it regularly. Good stuff.

Back to the challenge. The only rule is to publish 1 page of content online per day. I haven’t gotten off to a very good start, but I will finish strong. I’d like to rebuild some momentum with this blog and this should help.

I rejoined the 3WayLinks.net program. My focus continues to be on building links and links and links, and that is one way. In the process I am revamping websites and adding lots of content. I’ve sort of synthesized a new method for keyword research that gives me an idea of which keywords can actually rank and which have little chance. I love having a clear step by step method that I can follow. I can’t emphasize that enough. I am certainly not feeling as fuzzy about all this marketing stuff as I was many months ago — I’ve learned a ton! — but sometimes, it’s wonderful just to be really clear about what steps to take.

As I’ve mentioned before, other backlink building efforts are focused on article marketing and social marketing sites. I have a blue print from one of the members of the Earn1KaDay forum to follow for the social marketing. Dennis Becker (creater of 1KaD) is doing a tutorial now on using a wiki to get some good ranking on Google and I’m incorporating that too.

There are so many really really fun resources. I am having a very good time with my marketing efforts these days, moving a mile a minute, and getting a lot accomplished.

Another new resource is an online site that uses your images and creates some really professional looking videos in a flash. It’s great! I’m in the process of figuring out a process to add an automatic redirect when the video ends, and I’ll write more about it when I get some good results. I’m pretty sure I have all the tools and now just need to figure out some transitions — if that makes any sense.

That’s enough for now. I have to save something for tomorrow! Thanks for visiting.

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I read Jonathan Leger’s latest research report last night — “Search Engine Myths Exposed“. It’s well written, very compelling and makes sense. It’s free, so you might want to check it out.

The part I found most interesting was his explanation about duplicate content and whether or not you can be indexed and ranked if you include it on your site. The key is to get links and links and more links. I know this and have known it for a long time. Why don’t I do a better job of getting links to my sites? (Don’t answer that!)

Another interesting piece is Jonathan’s contention that links do not need to be from similarly themed sites. He give a lot of proof for all he says. I’m sure there are other ways to interpret his interpretations, but he is compelling. I appreciate the report.

Then, I came upon this today. Another freebie if you do just a little work:

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

That’s all for now. Have a good one!

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Does anyone else feel like the days just flow together? Weeks seem to fly by in what feels like minutes.

What accomplishments can I report? Much of my time recently has gone into site building. I guess that is good, since I enjoy it. (Interesting that my html editor here will not let me use an apostrophe. Hmm… I guess it is time to upgrade to a newer version of WordPress.)

I was working on my project of transitioning the Niches-in-a-Box websites to new templates and was making very good progress. Then something prompted me to double checked how the sites were loading in Internet Explorer, since I use Firefox. They looked awful! The alignment was all off and I have no clue how to fix it. (If anyone can shed any light on this I would love it!)

So, I moved to XSitePro with a little trepidation. I am now in the process of rebuilding the sites with XSitePro, and it is working beautifully. That really is a good program and I know I have barely touched its power. But I am pleased. I can clone the silos, change some keywords and be ready to go.

I have hit a snag with an ebook download and have not been able to get the images to show up on a thank you page. Seems to be an issue with where I have them located on the server. I admit I have backed off for a few days and need to get back to it. Sometimes I just want everything to go smoothly but I know I learn a ton more when it does not. (Funny writing all of this unable to use contractions!)

So, checking to make sure all of my other sites were loading properly in Internet Explorer, I realized that my eBay plugin, BayRSS, was not working correctly when using certain templates. Actually, the images from the eBay RSS feed were not showing up.

Now all of those blogs have new templates and that has been a blast. Especially creating headers with images from the stock photo sites. Very fun — first finding the images and then making them work. I am using a combination of Paint, SnagIt, and Photoshop Elements to create the headers to fit within the Cutline theme for WordPress. Very fun and gratifying and they look great!

By the way, speaking of XSitePro — version 2 is due out before the end of the year. I expect great enhancements. Anyone who buys now gets a free upgrade to the new version. That is a good deal. Anyone who purchased before this has to pay for the upgrade, which makes it an even better deal. The learning curve to create a decent site with XSitePro is a little steeper than many marketers would have you believe, but after using it just a short time, I became quite comfortable with it. This latest project has challenged me to learn to use XSitePro in ways I have not done before, and it is coming through with flying colors.

Lots is happening with the program I joined awhile back with the purpose of creating an Internet consulting business. LOTS is happening. I will fill you in very soon.

That is it for now. Thanks for being here and have a good one!

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