I added a slot in the community color add link program for a Mobi URL. A mobi site is version of a web page optimized for mobile phones. Mobile phones have really small screens ... usually about 300 pixels in width.
Mobi sites tend to show summarized information from the main site. Each community directory has a Mobi version with the subdomain m.. For example the Mobi version of ProvoUtah.US is m.ProvoUtah.US.
Anyway, after you define the primary URL for your site, you can add a Mobi URL. The field for the Mobi URL is the second to last line on the form. You have to be logged in to add a link.
NOTE: If your site is already listed in the web directory, just add the link to your mobi site as if it was the primary URL.
PS: I appreciate the few people who pay the listing fee as it is costly to maintain a directory. If you paid the listing fee for your primary site, just add the link and ignore the plea for payment on the last page.
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Mobile Blog
Blogger just added a mobile view for blogs. As I've been promoting the development of mobile sites, I am happy to see this feature and turn it on.In the community color program, I am actually making a separate directory for Mobi sites. If there is both a regular and mobi version of a site, I will link to both versions.
You can access the mobi version of this blog with the URL communitycolor.blogspot.com/?m=1.
NOTE: I am also turning the feature on for my other blogs: Utah Gold and y-intercept blog
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Master Index
I made a Master Index for the community color site.
I made this page primarily for my own use. As noted earlier, I changed the directory structure from using category numbers to using keywords. The Grand Junction Accounting page used to be gjct.com/dir.html?category_id=755. It is now gjct.com/dir/accounting.
The master index shows me all of the page names. Clicking on the page names shows the community sites with a page by a given name.
The only interesting part of the page is the summary. It currently reads: "There are 1944 pages in the this directory structure with 537 distinct names with a total of 8,850,656 page views."
My little directory tree has almost 2000 pages and is approaching 9 million hits.
I made this page primarily for my own use. As noted earlier, I changed the directory structure from using category numbers to using keywords. The Grand Junction Accounting page used to be gjct.com/dir.html?category_id=755. It is now gjct.com/dir/accounting.
The master index shows me all of the page names. Clicking on the page names shows the community sites with a page by a given name.
The only interesting part of the page is the summary. It currently reads: "There are 1944 pages in the this directory structure with 537 distinct names with a total of 8,850,656 page views."
My little directory tree has almost 2000 pages and is approaching 9 million hits.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Utah Color
I added a new directory called Utah Color. This new directory will list state wide resources for Utah. The calendar items in this directory will appear in all of the local directories.
Local web development is still the primary focus of the Community Color project. The state wide directories makes it easier to list important sites like state wide political campaigns and state health resources.
My primary concern is the local directories. If you add a link to Utah Color, I will check your address and add it in the relevant local directory.
If someone pays the listing fee, I will list the site in both the state wide and local directory.
Local web development is still the primary focus of the Community Color project. The state wide directories makes it easier to list important sites like state wide political campaigns and state health resources.
My primary concern is the local directories. If you add a link to Utah Color, I will check your address and add it in the relevant local directory.
If someone pays the listing fee, I will list the site in both the state wide and local directory.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Link Friendly Directory
Opening the Arizona sites is taking longer than I anticipated.
A primary reason for moving my web sites last month is that the new service will allow me greater freedom with subdomains and mod_rewrites. Using mod-rewrites allows me to create a link friendly directory structure.
In the original design, the link to the Salt Lake Art category had a category_id in it. AKA slsites.com/dir.html?category_id=233.
The new structure uses a mod rewrite. The shopping directory on Arizona Color will have the URL: arizonacolor.us/dir/shopping.
For the Phoenix directory, I am using both both a subdomain and mod rewrite. The link for shopping in Phoenix is phoenix.arizonacolor.us/dir/shopping. Search engines prefer strings to numbers. So, although the URL is super long, it re-inforces the key words "Phoenix", "Arizona" and "shopping."
Changing the link structure should make the directory more valuable to people who list in the directory.
The problem is that I don't want to change the existing directories to the new structure until it has proved through; So, I have to go about the conversion to the new structure in a systematic fashion.
A primary reason for moving my web sites last month is that the new service will allow me greater freedom with subdomains and mod_rewrites. Using mod-rewrites allows me to create a link friendly directory structure.
In the original design, the link to the Salt Lake Art category had a category_id in it. AKA slsites.com/dir.html?category_id=233.
The new structure uses a mod rewrite. The shopping directory on Arizona Color will have the URL: arizonacolor.us/dir/shopping.
For the Phoenix directory, I am using both both a subdomain and mod rewrite. The link for shopping in Phoenix is phoenix.arizonacolor.us/dir/shopping. Search engines prefer strings to numbers. So, although the URL is super long, it re-inforces the key words "Phoenix", "Arizona" and "shopping."
Changing the link structure should make the directory more valuable to people who list in the directory.
The problem is that I don't want to change the existing directories to the new structure until it has proved through; So, I have to go about the conversion to the new structure in a systematic fashion.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Arizona Directories
I am expanding the Community Color family of directories to Arizona. Arizona has only 15 counties. So, I decided to break the directories out by county. I was organining the Utah and Colorado directories by city name. Colorado has 64 counties and Utah 29.
Since Phoenix is the capital of Arizona, I called the directory Phoenix Color. The other directories are by county name.
I like the county structure as it allows me to include all links from the state.
In this project, I am using long names for the directories. For example, the directory for Apache County is apache.arizonacolor.us. This should maximize the SEO benefits of the project.
If you are from Arizona, please feel free to add links. I ask for profit efforts with a marketing budget to pay a $10 listing fee. You can register using the secure form on irivers.com. You can also the secure login form to login into any of the directories.
Since Phoenix is the capital of Arizona, I called the directory Phoenix Color. The other directories are by county name.
I like the county structure as it allows me to include all links from the state.
In this project, I am using long names for the directories. For example, the directory for Apache County is apache.arizonacolor.us. This should maximize the SEO benefits of the project.
If you are from Arizona, please feel free to add links. I ask for profit efforts with a marketing budget to pay a $10 listing fee. You can register using the secure form on irivers.com. You can also the secure login form to login into any of the directories.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Secure Login Page
I get a free Authenticated SSL certificate with my fancy new WestHost Cloud Server.
I only get to use the account on one domain. After a great deal of thinking, I used the certificate for the empty domain iRivers.com.
The two pieces of information I want to keep secure are email addresses and passwords.
So, I created a registration form.
I am now working on a secure Login Form. The secure login form.
The secure login is interesting. First, the page checks to see that the user accessed it through a secure port. The user then selects a destination web site and enters their user name and password. If the user name and password match the account on the server the system will create a secure single use token.
The login program redirects the user to the destination site with the token. The destination site queries iRivers.com with the token. If the token is valid, the destination site responds back with a packet containing user and session information.
This design allows me to use the same user base for any web site I create in the future.
The next step is to integrate this design with Oauth and Open ID ... but I will leave those challenges for another day.
I only get to use the account on one domain. After a great deal of thinking, I used the certificate for the empty domain iRivers.com.
The two pieces of information I want to keep secure are email addresses and passwords.
So, I created a registration form.
I am now working on a secure Login Form. The secure login form.
The secure login is interesting. First, the page checks to see that the user accessed it through a secure port. The user then selects a destination web site and enters their user name and password. If the user name and password match the account on the server the system will create a secure single use token.
The login program redirects the user to the destination site with the token. The destination site queries iRivers.com with the token. If the token is valid, the destination site responds back with a packet containing user and session information.
This design allows me to use the same user base for any web site I create in the future.
The next step is to integrate this design with Oauth and Open ID ... but I will leave those challenges for another day.
Monday, February 07, 2011
Framing Mobile Sites
While waiting for the DNS to propagate on the Community Color Sites, I decided to write a fun page calling for web masters to unite and create mobile versions of their web sites.
A big advantage of mobile sites is that people can display them in small windows on their desk top, or even embed them in iframes, as I do below.
Using a simple iFrame set at a size of a mobile phone screen, I can test too see what it looks like. This page is set at 320px. Because I want the pages to stay in the frame, I avoid using the target tag.
A big advantage of mobile sites is that people can display them in small windows on their desk top, or even embed them in iframes, as I do below.
Using a simple iFrame set at a size of a mobile phone screen, I can test too see what it looks like. This page is set at 320px. Because I want the pages to stay in the frame, I avoid using the target tag.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Moving Community Color
I am moving the Community Color sites to a Westhost Cloud Server. Being on a cloud server means that I will have resources to add new funcationality (and I do have functionality planned.
To avoid the possibility of lost data, I turned the registration and add event programs off. They will be back on when the domains point to the new server.
To avoid the possibility of lost data, I turned the registration and add event programs off. They will be back on when the domains point to the new server.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
YouTube Index
I am only getting scraps of time to work on the Community Color sites.
My new Android Phone will play videos directly. The URL for my test video showing the start of the Salt Lake Marathon is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehU1rfv9Ssw.
When I click the URL in a regular browser, the browser displays a web page with the video. When I click it on my phone, the phone starts playing the video. Google is magic!
So, for the mobile version of CommunityColor, I realized I could just grab the video URLs that I've embedded in the main site and quickly create a fun little index of community videos.
To see project: Go to m.CommunityColor.com/yt.php?btn=sum. This page shows a summary of videos by town. Click a town name and see locally produced videos on YouTube.
NOTE: I had a number of campaign videos. I decided not to include them because the election is over ... however, I will add future campaign videos to this list.
My new Android Phone will play videos directly. The URL for my test video showing the start of the Salt Lake Marathon is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehU1rfv9Ssw.
When I click the URL in a regular browser, the browser displays a web page with the video. When I click it on my phone, the phone starts playing the video. Google is magic!
So, for the mobile version of CommunityColor, I realized I could just grab the video URLs that I've embedded in the main site and quickly create a fun little index of community videos.
To see project: Go to m.CommunityColor.com/yt.php?btn=sum. This page shows a summary of videos by town. Click a town name and see locally produced videos on YouTube.
NOTE: I had a number of campaign videos. I decided not to include them because the election is over ... however, I will add future campaign videos to this list.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Mobile Pages
Wow, it takes a lot of work to make little pages.
I am busily working away on the mobile version of Community Color.
I decided I needed to add some "content pages" to feed the web bots from the search engines. My idea of content super simply pages that introduced the community.
Here is a sample page for Colorado National Monument ... which will celebrate its centennial this year.
To help the search engines find the mobi sites, I am daisy chaining the content site.
I wrote a half dozen content pages and decided to tweet about them using the mlnk.us URL shortener ... and realized I made a grave mistake.
My new URL shortener has slots for the HTML and MOBI version of a page ... but I had one HTML page and six MOBI pages I wanted to tweet about.
I could have made a short URL for each of the new sites. I would then issue six tweets for each of the pages.
I decides that was too spammy. So, I redesigned MLNK.us to allow for up to 100 URLS.
This short URL for this project is mlnk.us/pages. The short URL has links back to this blog post and the seven about pages I created.
I am busily working away on the mobile version of Community Color.
I decided I needed to add some "content pages" to feed the web bots from the search engines. My idea of content super simply pages that introduced the community.
Here is a sample page for Colorado National Monument ... which will celebrate its centennial this year.
To help the search engines find the mobi sites, I am daisy chaining the content site.
I wrote a half dozen content pages and decided to tweet about them using the mlnk.us URL shortener ... and realized I made a grave mistake.
My new URL shortener has slots for the HTML and MOBI version of a page ... but I had one HTML page and six MOBI pages I wanted to tweet about.
I could have made a short URL for each of the new sites. I would then issue six tweets for each of the pages.
I decides that was too spammy. So, I redesigned MLNK.us to allow for up to 100 URLS.
This short URL for this project is mlnk.us/pages. The short URL has links back to this blog post and the seven about pages I created.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Tweet Your Link
While on the topic of mobile phones ....
I find filling out forms on my phone too tedious.
Scatching my head, I wanted to find a way for smartphone users to give me the link to their web site. To make the process easy, a "Tweet me your link" page to the Community Color mobile directories.
Here is the Grand Junction Tweet Your Link Page.
The page has the link:
Hey @CommunityColor You should add the site _____ to http://gjct.com
The link produces a tweet with my twitter account and a link to my site. It is so fiendish!
If peoplefell for this gimmick used this process, then I would learn about their site and maybe get some inbound links.
I find filling out forms on my phone too tedious.
Scatching my head, I wanted to find a way for smartphone users to give me the link to their web site. To make the process easy, a "Tweet me your link" page to the Community Color mobile directories.
Here is the Grand Junction Tweet Your Link Page.
The page has the link:
Hey @CommunityColor You should add the site _____ to http://gjct.com
The link produces a tweet with my twitter account and a link to my site. It is so fiendish!
If people
SEO & MOBI
A MOBI page is a page optimized for mobile phones. Since the pages will be displayed on tiny screens, the pages need to present tightly summarized information and they need to emphasize the navigational elements of the page.
It is wise to have links back to the main HTML site just in case a person with a real web browser stumbles onto a mobi page and wants to access the web optimized page.
This combination of summarized content and robust linking structure means that MOBI development offers a great opportunity for Search Engine Optimization.
From the SEO perspective, a mobile page is a small page filled with keywords and links back to the main site. It's a cheap way of building inbound links.
Best of all, building a mobile site is white hat seo marketing. The mobi developer isn't just creating pages for keywords. The mobi developer is creating pages to fit the unique needs of the smart phone market.
I started this MOBI project after using mobile.twitter.com on a smartphone. I found jumping from twitter to my blog was a bad user experience.
The Mobile Link allows me to put a mobile optimized page between twitter and my content. Using mlnk.us as the URL shortener will give smartphone users a chance to go to the mobi optimized page or to the full blown version.
There is one big hassle involved in this project. Because I now need to create two pages for each content page, I am forced to do a little dance where I jump between screens creating content on two web sites.
Here's the Mobi summary of this page. When that is done, I need to create the mlnk.us page. This is a difficult dance as I do not know the URLs until after I save the pages.
It is wise to have links back to the main HTML site just in case a person with a real web browser stumbles onto a mobi page and wants to access the web optimized page.
This combination of summarized content and robust linking structure means that MOBI development offers a great opportunity for Search Engine Optimization.
From the SEO perspective, a mobile page is a small page filled with keywords and links back to the main site. It's a cheap way of building inbound links.
Best of all, building a mobile site is white hat seo marketing. The mobi developer isn't just creating pages for keywords. The mobi developer is creating pages to fit the unique needs of the smart phone market.
I started this MOBI project after using mobile.twitter.com on a smartphone. I found jumping from twitter to my blog was a bad user experience.
The Mobile Link allows me to put a mobile optimized page between twitter and my content. Using mlnk.us as the URL shortener will give smartphone users a chance to go to the mobi optimized page or to the full blown version.
There is one big hassle involved in this project. Because I now need to create two pages for each content page, I am forced to do a little dance where I jump between screens creating content on two web sites.
Here's the Mobi summary of this page. When that is done, I need to create the mlnk.us page. This is a difficult dance as I do not know the URLs until after I save the pages.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
mlnk program
I am happy to announce a new domain in the Community Color family. I bought the domain mlnk.us for use as a URL shortener.
I intend to create a URL shortener with a twist.
As mentioned in previous posts, I bought a smartphone and started working on a mobile version of Community Color. I intend to create mobile versions of other sites.
The mobile versions will mirror the full HTML versions of the sites.
When I add content to a site, it will show up on both an HTML page and a mobile page!
The typical URL shortener redirects a user to a destination web page. The mlnk.us URL shortener will present a MOBI optimized page with links to both the HTML and Mobile page.
This design will make web browsing more pleasant for people twittering away their day on a smartphone (or people twittering in a small window).
Step one was to buy the domain. Step two is to design the site. Speaking of design, I decided to give my mobile pages a different background.
PS, I wrote this post before writing the program, so that I will have something to link to.
I intend to create a URL shortener with a twist.
As mentioned in previous posts, I bought a smartphone and started working on a mobile version of Community Color. I intend to create mobile versions of other sites.
The mobile versions will mirror the full HTML versions of the sites.
When I add content to a site, it will show up on both an HTML page and a mobile page!
The typical URL shortener redirects a user to a destination web page. The mlnk.us URL shortener will present a MOBI optimized page with links to both the HTML and Mobile page.
This design will make web browsing more pleasant for people twittering away their day on a smartphone (or people twittering in a small window).
Step one was to buy the domain. Step two is to design the site. Speaking of design, I decided to give my mobile pages a different background.
PS, I wrote this post before writing the program, so that I will have something to link to.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Moving the Mobile Sites
I am working on creating a mobile version of the community color web sites.
Ideally, the mobile version of a site should be in a different subdomain. My original contract with my webhost did not allow sufficient subdomains; so, I was developing the mobi in the same domain as the rest of the site.
I checked my site. It now is allowing more subdomains; So, I am moving the mobile sites. Google put its mobile version on a site with the URL m.google.com.
A single M to denote mobile is good enough for me; so, I created an m version of each of the sites, eg m.ProvoUtah.US.
Ideally, the mobile version of a site should be in a different subdomain. My original contract with my webhost did not allow sufficient subdomains; so, I was developing the mobi in the same domain as the rest of the site.
I checked my site. It now is allowing more subdomains; So, I am moving the mobile sites. Google put its mobile version on a site with the URL m.google.com.
A single M to denote mobile is good enough for me; so, I created an m version of each of the sites, eg m.ProvoUtah.US.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Mobile Directories
I'll be hitting the road soon; So, I bought a mobile phone with Internet access.
My plan was to use the phone to help me develop a mobi optimized version version of the Community Color directories.
I started this project using an online mobi simulator. The simulator restricted me to only a few page views and did not show errors. So the program did not work.
The Mobi versions of the sites are accessed with the mobi.php. For example, the Denver mobi page is: DenverColor.com/mobi.php. NOTE, the very first link on the HTML version of the site goes to the mobi optimized page.
Now, that I have a phone, I can add other Mobi optimized features.
My plan was to use the phone to help me develop a mobi optimized version version of the Community Color directories.
I started this project using an online mobi simulator. The simulator restricted me to only a few page views and did not show errors. So the program did not work.
The Mobi versions of the sites are accessed with the mobi.php. For example, the Denver mobi page is: DenverColor.com/mobi.php. NOTE, the very first link on the HTML version of the site goes to the mobi optimized page.
Now, that I have a phone, I can add other Mobi optimized features.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Store of the Day Index
I created an index to the store of the day program. I created the Store of the Day as an effort to fund open community calendars (eg, Salt Lake or Denver Color).
Rather than putting a ton of ads on the calendar, I can have automatic links to the Store of the Day. A store of the day feature also lets me have an active rss feed for the directory.
This system does not give me enough money to hire a minimum wage clerk to maintain a calendar, but it pays for hosting. Lets see, there's currently 469 stores in the Store of the Day rotation. The system shows 324,567 page views on this feature since 2004.
At current ad rates, one is lucky to make a dollar per thousand page views. Since these are ultra targetted ads, I am probably making $5 per thousand page views.
An extra index for the feed might increase the traffic.
Sadly, this is the closest I've come to creating a working profit center for a web site.
Rather than putting a ton of ads on the calendar, I can have automatic links to the Store of the Day. A store of the day feature also lets me have an active rss feed for the directory.
This system does not give me enough money to hire a minimum wage clerk to maintain a calendar, but it pays for hosting. Lets see, there's currently 469 stores in the Store of the Day rotation. The system shows 324,567 page views on this feature since 2004.
At current ad rates, one is lucky to make a dollar per thousand page views. Since these are ultra targetted ads, I am probably making $5 per thousand page views.
An extra index for the feed might increase the traffic.
Sadly, this is the closest I've come to creating a working profit center for a web site.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Crocs with No Socks
Trying to reduce my carbon footprint, I've taken to wearing Crocs with no socks.
The nice thing about Crocs shoes is that they are waterproof and washable. I wash my Crocs in the garden with a hose.
This saves the wear and tear and socks and reduces the number of washing loads by a tiny fraction.
The down side to washing Crocs in the native plant garden is that the Pussytoes now have a wicked case of athletes' foot.
Crocs are made in Boulder. The only real complaint with Crocs is that they don't have wide shoes, so I bought a size too large.
Crocs currently has a stackable coupon: Take 10% off at Crocs.com with code CROSLITE10 now thru end of day Wednesday and nonstackable: Take 20% off at Crocs.com with code SUMMERLUV20 now thru end of day Wednesday.
This saves the wear and tear and socks and reduces the number of washing loads by a tiny fraction.
The down side to washing Crocs in the native plant garden is that the Pussytoes now have a wicked case of athletes' foot.
Crocs are made in Boulder. The only real complaint with Crocs is that they don't have wide shoes, so I bought a size too large.
Crocs currently has a stackable coupon: Take 10% off at Crocs.com with code CROSLITE10 now thru end of day Wednesday and nonstackable: Take 20% off at Crocs.com with code SUMMERLUV20 now thru end of day Wednesday.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Twitter Users
NOTE to Twitter users: If you would like a link in the Community Color directories, but don't want the hassle of joining the site, simply follow either of the accounts CommunityColor or yintercept. If there is a relevant website in your profile, I will follow it.
As for the accounts: CommunityColor has updates to the CommunityColor program. yintercept is filled with philosophical musings and Libertarian style rants about national and international politics.
I am only interested in listing local sites:
The goal of Community Color directories is to help promote local web development. These directories are interested in sites from the Mountain West (Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Missoula, Mt)
When a person joins me, I look at their location. If they are from one of the communities served, I then add the link in their profile. I also add links from any of the sites recent posts ... if they are of interest to the community.
Note: I also follow my Twitter DMs. So you can DM me a link. If it is related to the communities served, I will list the site.
If you want a link in the directory, but don't want the hassles of joining the site, just follow me ... yintercept.
As for the accounts: CommunityColor has updates to the CommunityColor program. yintercept is filled with philosophical musings and Libertarian style rants about national and international politics.
I am only interested in listing local sites:
The goal of Community Color directories is to help promote local web development. These directories are interested in sites from the Mountain West (Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Missoula, Mt)
When a person joins me, I look at their location. If they are from one of the communities served, I then add the link in their profile. I also add links from any of the sites recent posts ... if they are of interest to the community.
Note: I also follow my Twitter DMs. So you can DM me a link. If it is related to the communities served, I will list the site.
If you want a link in the directory, but don't want the hassles of joining the site, just follow me ... yintercept.
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