Nails Blog V2.0 » blogging

5 Minutes With WordPress 3.3

cldnails — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:32:15 +0000

Waking up to a new roll out of WordPress, version 3.3 is now available for automatic update from the WordPress dashboard. Now, I actually hate going through and updating websites, inevitably something breaks, with a theme, plugin, or something. However, this morning I decided to jump in head first and see exactly how much another WP update can rock my world, at least after 5 mins of playing.

Fly Out Notifications

Ok, flyout notifications on new features is pretty damn cool. Any questions I might have had about the new layout were answered as soon as the update was complete. The notifications are clean, can be turned off or x'd out, not too obtrusive. I'm actually looking forward to see how future theme makers can utilize this same feature for self customization, instead of bloated control panels.

Fly Out Tabs

Finally, I don't have to go through and drop down the tabs on the side of the menu, I never understood how this was a smart update. Thankfully, now you can simply hover over a menu item and the sub-menu will fly out for easy selection.

WordPress 3.3 and Elegant Themes

As of right now, nothing seems broken in my theme. It always gives me little butterflies when I can upgrade to the latest version of WordPress and not completely wreck the theme I'm using. This theme was created by Elegant Themes and although they update their themes on a regular basis, it's always nerve wracking going through the process of checking all the links and various widget placements.

So, there you have it, my 5 Minute of WordPress 3.3. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

Celebrating 2 Years of NailsBlog.com

cldnails — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:42:39 +0000

Just happened to be going through some old posts and low and behold June was the 2 year anniversary of Nailsblog.com! Can't say it's really been a fun ride, actually barely tolerable, but I have learned a lot. The most important thing that I've learned is that the majority of guru's don't know the difference between there ass and a hole in the ground. Generally speaking they are applying some half-ass butterfly marketing concept they read on the net from another empty headed douche bag.

Something else that I've learned, when dealing with people online looking to earn a buck, is that being nice does NOT pay off. In the real world it does, but when helping people online it's generally better just to spit in their face and walk away. If they don't know how to use a search engine to at least get a dirt floor grasp of a concept, then they aren't worth the greasy stuff at the top of my butt crack.

To be honest, this blog was originally started to help support P2P, torrents, and other piracy deeds. In my previous life I was involved heavily in some places that were shut down...in a not nice way. Since the start of the blog the following things have changed my ways and outlook on life in general:

I got married.
I had a daughter.
I bought a house.
I bought a dog.
I learned that life meant nothing before #1 and #2 happened.
I learned that friendships online are just as important as real life friendships.

Thanks for everyone that has been with me so far and I look forward to at LEAST another 2 years of prosperous endeavor seeking blog crap. I leave you with what my daughter thought of her very first sparkler on her very first fourth of July.

Top 5 FeedBurner Feeds

cldnails — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:21:08 +0000

I know there is nothing hardcore statistically correct about my method for finding the top 5 FeedBurner feeds, but I found the information interesting nevertheless. To be honest I'm not sure if the list contains the most subscribers, highest page rank, or search volume, but Google seems to think these are the top 5 feeds worth subscribing to.

Adventure Sports - No subscriber feed listing number of feedburner subscribers but he does have a FeedBurner email signup, RSS Icon, Google Reader, and Bloglines subscription chiclet.
My Way The Entrepreneur Network - Again, no listing of how many RSS subscribers, but the site does offer Kindle, FeedBurner, and FeedBlitz RSS subscription Icons.
Rede WebTuga - Site is down, notice of the future home of Rede WebTuga Feedburner Network.
BizJournals - They offer two locations where a user can subscribe to their feed, simple text, and then bright orange RSS button and box above the content.
The Conservative Blog Network - Network of various blogs, usually displaying simple RSS buttons and an email signup.

Unfortunately I don't feel like I really learned anything from the list above, other than the power of having an email signup to subscriptions. Obviously this will offer 2 benefits, one you get more subscribers and a way to get your updates directly to their inbox, where they are more likely to check everyday...unlike some Readers that are used rarely. Second, you are starting to build a list of emails that can be accessed via FeedBurner and used for other marketing purposes.

Now, what value does being on the list above have to the site owners...probably none considering any searches will result in actual blog pages being found. However, it's still neat to see what's most popular out there in the eyes of Google.

phpBay Review

cldnails — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:45:05 +0000

Let me start by giving a brief over view of the WordPress plugin phpBay. It's a tool used to help integrate you're eBay affiliate marketing with any WordPress powered blog. By entering a few variables and filters you can easily add a list of eBay items into your post with each link automatically containing your referral link. It's not a free plugin and requires a one time fee for unlimited domains for $39.

Who could benefit from such a plugin?

Almost any blog could benefit from this plugin. Chances are even personal blogs go into details about certain products from time to time and this is just another tool in your shed of marketing. However, just because you could benefit from the plugin doesn't mean it's for everyone. eBay affiliate commissions can be minimal and require substantial traffic to convert to anything worth getting a check for.

Can it be used with other advertising programs?

Typically when people ask this they mean, 'Can I use phpbay with Adsense and not get banned?' Yes, you can use this side by side with Google Adsense, because it is not a form of contextual advertising.

List me the Pros of phpBay.

plain and simple installation, exactly like every other WP plugin.
decent selection of options to make sure you display the right eBay items.
fairly inexpensive for what you get.
good customer support.
does not require a mysql database, therefore ideal for light weight hosting.

List me the Cons.

only one instance of phpBay ads can be displayed at one time, therefore you must place phpBay ads after the
not enough options. Although decent I'd like to see the ability to integrate it into sidebars, not just in posts and better category selections.
costs money. Yes I did list that as a Pro, but as many free WP plugins that are available, this should be one too.

Summary

It was a decent purchase and defintely not a waste of money like so many other programs and scripts available out there. I would consider this plugin juvenile in it's existence and would hope for some more development in the very near future. The inability to display more than one instance of itself on a page is very frustrating and should at least be remedied with a short cut fix.

Adsense Deluxe is a perfect example of a plugin that was designed to work with no more than X instances of itself on a page. This should be easily integrated into phpBay so that if it detects more than one instance of itself on a page it doesn't load the others. As it stands now, it will screw up your RSS feed without placing the code after the

Currently there is nothing else really to compare it to in the marketplace of WordPress plugins. However, when compared to other eBay affiliate tools like BuildANicheStore, it has a long way to go. Check back soon for my review on BANs.

A la carte example:

Affiliate Promo Page Generator Script On CD
	$5.95 End Date: Thursday Feb-9-2012 12:42:47 PST Buy It Now for only: $5.95 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

CB Emails - Get HUGE ClickBank Affiliate Commissions
	$7.95 End Date: Thursday Feb-9-2012 13:02:05 PST Buy It Now for only: $7.95 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

Easy Affiliate Link Cloaker Software On CD
	$7.95 End Date: Thursday Feb-9-2012 13:18:34 PST Buy It Now for only: $7.95 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

Niche Affiliate RSS Feed Generator
	$9.97 End Date: Sunday Feb-12-2012 22:32:11 PST Buy It Now for only: $9.97 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

WordPress Plugin Can Increase CTR & Skyrocket Your Affiliate Commissions
	$2.99 End Date: Thursday Feb-16-2012 19:37:32 PST Buy It Now for only: $2.99 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

Clickbank Affiliate Research Software Tool
	$6.95 End Date: Saturday Feb-18-2012 3:13:53 PST Buy It Now for only: $6.95 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

Be A Super Affiliate - Secrets Uncovered. PLR Audios
	$5.95 End Date: Saturday Feb-18-2012 9:14:46 PST Buy It Now for only: $5.95 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

Dreamweaver CS5 & Affiliate Training 25 hrs 3 DVDs
	$45.50 End Date: Saturday Feb-18-2012 22:53:37 PST Buy It Now for only: $45.50 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

Modern Tech Icons Clip Art CD - Web Affiliate Marketing
	$19.99 End Date: Sunday Feb-19-2012 22:27:19 PST Buy It Now for only: $19.99 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list

Turbo Affiliate Link Generator Software
	$7.00 End Date: Monday Feb-20-2012 23:17:57 PST Buy It Now for only: $7.00 Buy It Now \| Add to watch list