I am starting the long, slow process of converting all of the Community Color sites to HTML 5.
It appears that HTML 5 is cleaner and more user friendly than HTML 4 and XHTML. Perhaps I will become enthusiastic about HTML programming again.
I started with Mobile Sites.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Anyone Up for a Game?
Do you like being active?
Do you like social networking?
Do you like the free market?
Would you like to make money playing games on the weekend? (or on the weekdays).
Do you like coaching or want to be a coach? (a life coach)?
Are you in the following states or planning a vacation to the following states this summer: Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, SoCal or Nevada?
To recap, if you would like to participate in a social networking sport and will be within a few hundred miles of Salt Lake this summer; please contact me, and I will get you set up. The game is pro-free market.
MODEL ONE: If you are planning a trip to Moab or Park City, and would like to play a fun game for a few hours, then go home owning a sports franchise that has unlimited potential, then you would be a great candidate.
MODEL TWO: If you own a business and would like to add a side product with unlimited potential. The product would give you a lot of free advertising and would draw people to your business at neglible cost ... and you happen to be planning a visit to Grand Junction, then contact me.
MODEL THREE: A person would like to make money at an activity booth at a Farmers' Market, Fair or community festival.
MODEL FOUR: A college student who would like to make some money playing games on the weekend, during Spring Break or during the summer.
The opportunity involves social networking and recreation (a physical outdoor activity with other people). Running is a physical activity with little interaction. This is a physical activity with substantial interaction.
Do you like social networking?
Do you like the free market?
Would you like to make money playing games on the weekend? (or on the weekdays).
Do you like coaching or want to be a coach? (a life coach)?
Are you in the following states or planning a vacation to the following states this summer: Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, SoCal or Nevada?
To recap, if you would like to participate in a social networking sport and will be within a few hundred miles of Salt Lake this summer; please contact me, and I will get you set up. The game is pro-free market.
MODEL ONE: If you are planning a trip to Moab or Park City, and would like to play a fun game for a few hours, then go home owning a sports franchise that has unlimited potential, then you would be a great candidate.
MODEL TWO: If you own a business and would like to add a side product with unlimited potential. The product would give you a lot of free advertising and would draw people to your business at neglible cost ... and you happen to be planning a visit to Grand Junction, then contact me.
MODEL THREE: A person would like to make money at an activity booth at a Farmers' Market, Fair or community festival.
MODEL FOUR: A college student who would like to make some money playing games on the weekend, during Spring Break or during the summer.
The opportunity involves social networking and recreation (a physical outdoor activity with other people). Running is a physical activity with little interaction. This is a physical activity with substantial interaction.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Miche Shells
I am tired of the world where I buy cheap stuff that I will either toss out or hoard. So, I am interested in finding things that have resell value. So, I spend time trolling eBay to see what people actually are buying.
Interestingly, I discovered that there is a robust after market for Miche Shells. Miche Bag of Salt Lake makes hand bags with interchangeable shells. This way you can match your shell to your wardrobe.
As people's wardrobes change, they will want to change shells, making for an interesting little after market. The online price for the shells seem to run from $25 to $50. Used shells seem to be going for $12 to $25 on ebay. Hmm, I would have done better investing in Miche Bag Shells than in the stock market.
It will be interesting to see if Miche creates a sustainable market, or if they oversaturate the market. Anyway, I will be keeping an eye out for used shells when I visit garage sales this summer.
Interestingly, I discovered that there is a robust after market for Miche Shells. Miche Bag of Salt Lake makes hand bags with interchangeable shells. This way you can match your shell to your wardrobe.
As people's wardrobes change, they will want to change shells, making for an interesting little after market. The online price for the shells seem to run from $25 to $50. Used shells seem to be going for $12 to $25 on ebay. Hmm, I would have done better investing in Miche Bag Shells than in the stock market.
It will be interesting to see if Miche creates a sustainable market, or if they oversaturate the market. Anyway, I will be keeping an eye out for used shells when I visit garage sales this summer.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Anyone Up for a Game?
I get the feeling that people are hungry for something new.
They want something that is active, that isn't mean.
This morning, I discovered a whole slew of web sites about a sport called Pickleball. Pickleball is a cross between badminton and tennis. The game uses paddles and slow balls; so the game is not as fast as tennis, but involves more strategy.
Because the game values strategy over speed, people of all ages can play the game. In the videos I viewed, people appeared to be having fun.
Because more people can play, pickleball can become part of a more dynamic community than football, basketball or other traditional team sports.
This sport was created in the 1960s. I remember coming across it a long time ago. Wouldn't it be fun to be part of the group that created a new sport?
Way back in the 1980s, I invented a game called juggleball. Juggleball turns the entire concept of a team sport on its head. Most team sports are about vanquishing the opposition team.
The most interesting part of juggling is learning how to toss balls with others. In a toss, both people have a ball and toss it in the air at the same time. Hopefully, the other person will catch it.
You don't have to know how to juggle to play juggleball, you just have to be able to coordinate a toss with another person.
Basically, the sport involves juggle relays. In the sport, you would run with a ball to a base. Coordinate a toss then run to another base. Whoever is best at coordinating tosses with others wins.
In juggleball, people compete to see who is best at cooperating.
I live in a place where people are notoriously close-minded (Utah). In the thirty years since I came up with the idea, I've never been able to find anyone interested in actually living life.
I hope to hit the road this summer. If anyone is interested in taking a leading role in inventing a new social networking sport ... they can contact me.
They want something that is active, that isn't mean.
This morning, I discovered a whole slew of web sites about a sport called Pickleball. Pickleball is a cross between badminton and tennis. The game uses paddles and slow balls; so the game is not as fast as tennis, but involves more strategy.
Because the game values strategy over speed, people of all ages can play the game. In the videos I viewed, people appeared to be having fun.
Because more people can play, pickleball can become part of a more dynamic community than football, basketball or other traditional team sports.
This sport was created in the 1960s. I remember coming across it a long time ago. Wouldn't it be fun to be part of the group that created a new sport?
Way back in the 1980s, I invented a game called juggleball. Juggleball turns the entire concept of a team sport on its head. Most team sports are about vanquishing the opposition team.
The most interesting part of juggling is learning how to toss balls with others. In a toss, both people have a ball and toss it in the air at the same time. Hopefully, the other person will catch it.
You don't have to know how to juggle to play juggleball, you just have to be able to coordinate a toss with another person.
Basically, the sport involves juggle relays. In the sport, you would run with a ball to a base. Coordinate a toss then run to another base. Whoever is best at coordinating tosses with others wins.
In juggleball, people compete to see who is best at cooperating.
I live in a place where people are notoriously close-minded (Utah). In the thirty years since I came up with the idea, I've never been able to find anyone interested in actually living life.
I hope to hit the road this summer. If anyone is interested in taking a leading role in inventing a new social networking sport ... they can contact me.
Monday, April 02, 2012
Income Dropped Again
I tally up the income for the Community Color sites on the first day of the quarter. It appears to have dropped again.
My revenue report shows I have 658 active advertisers, but made only $569.21. The directories cost about $200 a month or $600 to host; The sites are now officially operating in the red.
Due to hardware errors at my web host, I suffered a solid three weeks of down time in September and lost pretty much all of the inbound links to the sites.
On the plus side, the traffic is finally starting to recover ... however, I fear advertising rates for the site has dropped to the point that the marketing plan is no longer feasible for the site.
The sites started with several interactive features. I've systematically turned off all interactive features because the inevitably became full of spam and ugly-speak. I might take a stab at new features ... but realize that my time is better spent on other projects.
My revenue report shows I have 658 active advertisers, but made only $569.21. The directories cost about $200 a month or $600 to host; The sites are now officially operating in the red.
Due to hardware errors at my web host, I suffered a solid three weeks of down time in September and lost pretty much all of the inbound links to the sites.
On the plus side, the traffic is finally starting to recover ... however, I fear advertising rates for the site has dropped to the point that the marketing plan is no longer feasible for the site.
The sites started with several interactive features. I've systematically turned off all interactive features because the inevitably became full of spam and ugly-speak. I might take a stab at new features ... but realize that my time is better spent on other projects.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Ten Million Hits
Every counter gets big with time. Today's big news is that the hit counter on the Community Directories is likely to cross the ten million page view mark some time today. (NOTE, I've lost some of the hit counter data through the years).
Revenuewise, to provide a single minimum wage job, the directory would need about ten million hits per year, not per decade.
To celebrate 10,000,000 page views, I decided to take a peek at the data the site collected: The Link Report says the directory has 23,328 active links, I've deleted 8,866 links. Ten million divided by (23,328+8866) is 310.6 page views per link.
In the first quarter of 2012, I've added 1042 links and deleted 512 dead links. My guess is there's another thousand broken links in the directory.
I track hits on a small subset of the links. The average for the link hit counters is 93.4. The hits per link is, of course, a matter of time. Those added in 2002 average 700 hits. Those added in 2011 have had only a dozen or so hits.
The most important visitor to my site is the Googlebot and other webcrawlers.
There are other pages on the site. The Site of the Day reviews have received several million page views. The calendars and mobile versions of the site have received a steady stream of hits.
So, while few people visit the site, the program does a public good having the googlebot index local community oriented sites. It would be nice if people linked to their community directory. The directories give exposure to small local businesses and organizations that tend to be overshadowed in our world of big business and big government.
Revenuewise, to provide a single minimum wage job, the directory would need about ten million hits per year, not per decade.
To celebrate 10,000,000 page views, I decided to take a peek at the data the site collected: The Link Report says the directory has 23,328 active links, I've deleted 8,866 links. Ten million divided by (23,328+8866) is 310.6 page views per link.
In the first quarter of 2012, I've added 1042 links and deleted 512 dead links. My guess is there's another thousand broken links in the directory.
I track hits on a small subset of the links. The average for the link hit counters is 93.4. The hits per link is, of course, a matter of time. Those added in 2002 average 700 hits. Those added in 2011 have had only a dozen or so hits.
The most important visitor to my site is the Googlebot and other webcrawlers.
There are other pages on the site. The Site of the Day reviews have received several million page views. The calendars and mobile versions of the site have received a steady stream of hits.
So, while few people visit the site, the program does a public good having the googlebot index local community oriented sites. It would be nice if people linked to their community directory. The directories give exposure to small local businesses and organizations that tend to be overshadowed in our world of big business and big government.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
A Tale of Two Crowds
I added new photos. On Friday, I went to the sparsely attended Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally at the Courthouse, then to a massive crowd at the new City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake.
First the pictures of the rally: The first picture shows the crowd which is about three people deep. My guess is that 150 to maybe 200 people were at the rally. This is maybe half the size of Salt Lake's Occupy Rally.
First the pictures of the rally: The first picture shows the crowd which is about three people deep. My guess is that 150 to maybe 200 people were at the rally. This is maybe half the size of Salt Lake's Occupy Rally.
There was a huge crowd for the second day of the new City Creek Center. The new center has two decks running for two city blocks with both floors and shops filled with spectators.
I admit. I've been feeling sad. I used to work for a state owned insurance group. I quit because I realized that group funded health care (both socialism and private insurance) dramatically under serve the people. For the last three years I've been trying to get people to talk about alternatives funding mechanisms for health care. For some odd reason, people are unwilling to talk about the definitive issue of or day. It's maddening.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Domain Speculation
I've been really sad of late about the large number of small businesses web sites which have failed in the last few years.
Small business is about building equity. I had assumed that businesses will building equity in their web site. But, since I had contempt for the domain speculation process, I never investigated to see if this concept was true.
Anyway, I've been exploring the concept of buying and selling domains.
Last week, I successfully sold the domain PriceHelper.com through the Bido.com auction service. I moved the contents of the domain to the subdomain carbon.UtahColor.com.
Being a silly person, I decided to buy a domain. This way I would experience both sides of the auction process.
Anyway, I decided that I would buy a domain. I searched through several hundred domain names that were on sale and bought the domain BaitShop.US.
I chose this domain because I have affiliate relations with some wonderful small angling web sites. So, I put up a one page affiliate web site. I plan on waiting a year, then putting the auction up for sale again.
Anyway, I am finding this game of buying a web site with the purpose of reselling it at a later date to be quite informative. There is a very interesting rhythm to the auction and domain transfer process.
Although I have no intention of going into domaining as a profession, I think it valuable for people interested in web development to engage in the process simply to investigate if the concept of building equity in a web site holds true.
Small business is about building equity. I had assumed that businesses will building equity in their web site. But, since I had contempt for the domain speculation process, I never investigated to see if this concept was true.
Anyway, I've been exploring the concept of buying and selling domains.
Last week, I successfully sold the domain PriceHelper.com through the Bido.com auction service. I moved the contents of the domain to the subdomain carbon.UtahColor.com.
Being a silly person, I decided to buy a domain. This way I would experience both sides of the auction process.
Anyway, I decided that I would buy a domain. I searched through several hundred domain names that were on sale and bought the domain BaitShop.US.
I chose this domain because I have affiliate relations with some wonderful small angling web sites. So, I put up a one page affiliate web site. I plan on waiting a year, then putting the auction up for sale again.
Anyway, I am finding this game of buying a web site with the purpose of reselling it at a later date to be quite informative. There is a very interesting rhythm to the auction and domain transfer process.
Although I have no intention of going into domaining as a profession, I think it valuable for people interested in web development to engage in the process simply to investigate if the concept of building equity in a web site holds true.
Monday, February 06, 2012
Political Links
The goal of Community Color is to promote local web development. The political sector is currently the most robust area of development. I am concentrating on developing directories for Utah, Colorado and Arizona.
The problem is that the campaign cycle is so short that I often miss important political campaign web sites.
This might include the most important web site or all. Your Web Site! or your favorite candidate's web site.
This is not because I dislike you or your candidate. It is because I don't know the name of their site.
If you know of a web site for a political campaign in Utah, Colorado or Arizona, please use the contact form to tell me about the campaign. You can also tell me about campaign web site in a response to this message.
I will list any local campaign site I find free of charge, provided the site is about a campaign in a community served (Arizona, Colorado, Utah)
Feel free to tell me about your blog as well. The best way to add a blog is to register and use the addLink program. I am happy to list content sites such as blogs free of charge.
Thanks,
The management
The problem is that the campaign cycle is so short that I often miss important political campaign web sites.
This might include the most important web site or all. Your Web Site! or your favorite candidate's web site.
This is not because I dislike you or your candidate. It is because I don't know the name of their site.
If you know of a web site for a political campaign in Utah, Colorado or Arizona, please use the contact form to tell me about the campaign. You can also tell me about campaign web site in a response to this message.
I will list any local campaign site I find free of charge, provided the site is about a campaign in a community served (Arizona, Colorado, Utah)
Feel free to tell me about your blog as well. The best way to add a blog is to register and use the addLink program. I am happy to list content sites such as blogs free of charge.
Thanks,
The management
Friday, January 13, 2012
Wasatch Color
I am transitioning some of the rural Community Color sites from a town focus to a county focus. I moved PriceHelper.com to carbon.UtahColor.com.
I decided to do the same with HeberCity.biz. I moved the contents of HeberCity.biz to wasatch.UtahColor.com.
This means I have a second domain to sell (HeberCity.biz) which I just listed on eBay.
I decided to do the same with HeberCity.biz. I moved the contents of HeberCity.biz to wasatch.UtahColor.com.
This means I have a second domain to sell (HeberCity.biz) which I just listed on eBay.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Giving Sites a Boost - Video
A company from American Fork called Boostability opened up an affiliate program on Share-A-Sale. I was one of the first to join the program, and their manager called me up and asked my opinion on ways to improve their affiliate program.
People reading this blog know that I am always quick to give opinions.
Like Newt Gingrich, my goal in life is to never leave a thought unspoken.
Rarely have I been asked for opinions.
Anyway, the site had several YouTube videos. So I suggested that they upload their videos to the Share-A-Sale video sharing utility. I love YouTube; but I also enjoy seeing other firms taking a stab at video streaming. Since the affiliate industry has a built in revenue stream, I think they are a key candidate for advancing streaming technology.
Other affiliate networks offer video streaming. Oddly, few merchants are taking advantage of the service. I would give the same advice to all merchants engaged in affiliate marketing. USE THE VIDEO UPLOAD SERVICE. The more companies engaged in video streaming, the better.
The market tends to improve with competition. For example, there are many companies offering SEO services. The fierce competition in the industry forces each company to improve its offerings.
The video below is from the Share-A-Sale system. It's not as slick as Youtube ... yet. I tried the Boostability free trial and it does what the video says.
People reading this blog know that I am always quick to give opinions.
Like Newt Gingrich, my goal in life is to never leave a thought unspoken.
Rarely have I been asked for opinions.
Anyway, the site had several YouTube videos. So I suggested that they upload their videos to the Share-A-Sale video sharing utility. I love YouTube; but I also enjoy seeing other firms taking a stab at video streaming. Since the affiliate industry has a built in revenue stream, I think they are a key candidate for advancing streaming technology.
Other affiliate networks offer video streaming. Oddly, few merchants are taking advantage of the service. I would give the same advice to all merchants engaged in affiliate marketing. USE THE VIDEO UPLOAD SERVICE. The more companies engaged in video streaming, the better.
The market tends to improve with competition. For example, there are many companies offering SEO services. The fierce competition in the industry forces each company to improve its offerings.
The video below is from the Share-A-Sale system. It's not as slick as Youtube ... yet. I tried the Boostability free trial and it does what the video says.
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Q4 Was a Bust
The work I did didn't pay off.
Q3 was a bust. I thought I could turn things around by cleaning up the directory listings. During the quarter, I checked about 10,000 links. I pulled 1000 broken links and added 2000 new links (link report).
That was not sufficient. Income for the quarter actually dropped from $632 in Q3 to $614 in Q4. My expenses are $600 a quarter. (income report)
With income dropping below cost, I need to find a way to cut costs.
The big problem, of course, is not the site. There just isn't any interest in local web development. The majority of small independently owned web sites of five years ago failed due to lack of interest.
The success of Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook shows that people want to network. The independently owned web sites are all failing because people simply will not link to small sites.
My twitter account just passed 10.000 followers. I have at top six or seven links to my web sites.
Q3 was a bust. I thought I could turn things around by cleaning up the directory listings. During the quarter, I checked about 10,000 links. I pulled 1000 broken links and added 2000 new links (link report).
That was not sufficient. Income for the quarter actually dropped from $632 in Q3 to $614 in Q4. My expenses are $600 a quarter. (income report)
With income dropping below cost, I need to find a way to cut costs.
The big problem, of course, is not the site. There just isn't any interest in local web development. The majority of small independently owned web sites of five years ago failed due to lack of interest.
The success of Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook shows that people want to network. The independently owned web sites are all failing because people simply will not link to small sites.
My twitter account just passed 10.000 followers. I have at top six or seven links to my web sites.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Twitter 10K
My yintercept account on twitter is just 99 followers shy of the elusive 10K barrier.
When I started twitter, social media afficiandos called those with 10K plus followers a "whale."
Twitter Counter says my site ranks #39,413. That number is low because they don't update every account every day. My guess is that there's 50,000 or more twitter users who've broken 10K.
My guess is that 100K is the new whale and I am years away from that.
BTW: I probably would have a higher count, but I am a free market radical and have a tendency to say things that are politically incorrect things ... like freedom is a good thing. Insurance is a bad thing.
Anyway, I think it would be fun to break the 10K barrier on New Years Day. Hopefully 2012 will be the year that America wakes up and restores the freedom that our nation's founder fought to establish.
When I started twitter, social media afficiandos called those with 10K plus followers a "whale."
Twitter Counter says my site ranks #39,413. That number is low because they don't update every account every day. My guess is that there's 50,000 or more twitter users who've broken 10K.
My guess is that 100K is the new whale and I am years away from that.
BTW: I probably would have a higher count, but I am a free market radical and have a tendency to say things that are politically incorrect things ... like freedom is a good thing. Insurance is a bad thing.
Anyway, I think it would be fun to break the 10K barrier on New Years Day. Hopefully 2012 will be the year that America wakes up and restores the freedom that our nation's founder fought to establish.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
A Thousand New Links
Arizona Color just passed its first milestone ... a thousand links. My goal is to get that number up to 5000 by the Centennial.
Speaking of the Centennial, I have a business opportunity for a person or group who is interested in living an active lifestyle in Arizona. Here is my contact form.
Speaking of the Centennial, I have a business opportunity for a person or group who is interested in living an active lifestyle in Arizona. Here is my contact form.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
A Thousand Failed Dreams
Maintaining a links page is a pain ... which is why most links lists have so many broken links.
My goal was to check each link every other year. I hope this will keep the broken links below 5%.
To do this, I placed a "check date" and have a report that lists sites by check date. If the site is still there when I check it, I bump the date. The hard part is that I have to check an eighth of the sites each quarter.
The Link Report shows how many links I add and delete each quarter. I fell a bit behind. To catch up, I checked some four thousand links this month and deleted 1000 of them. I fixed a few hundred others.
The grand total says I've deleted 8,326 links. There are 22,625 links in the directory with a grand total of 30,951. So, about 27% of the links I've added to the directory have gone dark through the years. 37% of the links added before 2007 have gone blank.
I've noticed that when I go to web sites, I usually find that from 20 to 40 percent of their links have gone bad.
In the Community Color project, i am linking to web sites for towns in the Mountain West. In my link deleting fury I discovered that government owned web sites rarely go blank. There have been a few that moved to a different URL. Big brand names and big corporations rarely go blank.
Almost all of the attrition was small businesses, family owned stores, family farms, artists, bands, nature photographers and privately owned creative efforts.
All of the little small mom-and-pop web sites that I was rooting for are failing.
The web is all about linking. If no-one links to small mom-and-pop web sites, then they will go away. The reason I built community color was of a hope that I could encourage people to link their sites together so more small web businesses could succeed.
Pulling 1000 web sites from the directory means that 1000 dreams failed and it is sad.
My goal was to check each link every other year. I hope this will keep the broken links below 5%.
To do this, I placed a "check date" and have a report that lists sites by check date. If the site is still there when I check it, I bump the date. The hard part is that I have to check an eighth of the sites each quarter.
The Link Report shows how many links I add and delete each quarter. I fell a bit behind. To catch up, I checked some four thousand links this month and deleted 1000 of them. I fixed a few hundred others.
The grand total says I've deleted 8,326 links. There are 22,625 links in the directory with a grand total of 30,951. So, about 27% of the links I've added to the directory have gone dark through the years. 37% of the links added before 2007 have gone blank.
I've noticed that when I go to web sites, I usually find that from 20 to 40 percent of their links have gone bad.
In the Community Color project, i am linking to web sites for towns in the Mountain West. In my link deleting fury I discovered that government owned web sites rarely go blank. There have been a few that moved to a different URL. Big brand names and big corporations rarely go blank.
Almost all of the attrition was small businesses, family owned stores, family farms, artists, bands, nature photographers and privately owned creative efforts.
All of the little small mom-and-pop web sites that I was rooting for are failing.
The web is all about linking. If no-one links to small mom-and-pop web sites, then they will go away. The reason I built community color was of a hope that I could encourage people to link their sites together so more small web businesses could succeed.
Pulling 1000 web sites from the directory means that 1000 dreams failed and it is sad.
Arizona Centennial
Arizona will celebrate it's centennial on February 14, 2012.
I don't suppose there is any active "free marketeer" in the state who wants to do something fun for the event?
I said "free marketeer" because the activity is designed to discuss the difference between a free society and socialized one. The event costs very little and has the potential to make some money.
If there is such a person or group, they could contact me. I have a fun, fair-style activity that I've been wanting to try out ... but it takes more than one person to pull of.
If you contact me, please tell me your location in Arizona and the type of recreation activities that you like. For example, you might say: "I am from Tombstone. I like slingin' guns, rustlin' up cattle, mountain bikin', photography, etc."
I don't suppose there is any active "free marketeer" in the state who wants to do something fun for the event?
I said "free marketeer" because the activity is designed to discuss the difference between a free society and socialized one. The event costs very little and has the potential to make some money.
If there is such a person or group, they could contact me. I have a fun, fair-style activity that I've been wanting to try out ... but it takes more than one person to pull of.
If you contact me, please tell me your location in Arizona and the type of recreation activities that you like. For example, you might say: "I am from Tombstone. I like slingin' guns, rustlin' up cattle, mountain bikin', photography, etc."
Monday, December 12, 2011
Link Clean Up
The link clean up project is moving along slowly. The Community Color Link Report says that I've added 1381 links this quarter and deleted 766. On Dec 2, I was at 1200 additions and 600 deletions. So, I've added 181 links and deleted 166 in the last 9 days.
The process takes a long time. After finding a broken link, I check the whois info then do a google search to see if they moved to a different domain. I've fixed about 30 such domains.
While deleting links, I also add new links and events.
I was hoping that this clean up effort might help revive my affiliate income for the holiday season.
Sadly, I was wrong. Commission Junction says I only made $6.00 on 534 hits this month. Last month I made $7.08 on 1,542 hits. I was counting on making $200 or more in this period.
In my other accounts, someone purchased a sample of EvoraPlus. EvoraPlus makes a probiotic tooth care product that replaces the bacteria that eat enamel with teeth friendly bacteria. In contrast most tooth care products try to kill everything in one's mouth, but fail because bacteria grows quickly, eating the enamel as it grows.
My other big sale came from Vann's in Missoula.
Anyway, the online shopping season is wrapping up this week. It looks like I am on track to making $800 for the quarter. Because of the web site crash, I made only $600 in Q3. I was counting on $1000.
For a community site to work, I need to have interactive features. But, I can't think of any that wouldn't be full of spam and require constant monitoring for hate speech.
The process takes a long time. After finding a broken link, I check the whois info then do a google search to see if they moved to a different domain. I've fixed about 30 such domains.
While deleting links, I also add new links and events.
I was hoping that this clean up effort might help revive my affiliate income for the holiday season.
Sadly, I was wrong. Commission Junction says I only made $6.00 on 534 hits this month. Last month I made $7.08 on 1,542 hits. I was counting on making $200 or more in this period.
In my other accounts, someone purchased a sample of EvoraPlus. EvoraPlus makes a probiotic tooth care product that replaces the bacteria that eat enamel with teeth friendly bacteria. In contrast most tooth care products try to kill everything in one's mouth, but fail because bacteria grows quickly, eating the enamel as it grows.
My other big sale came from Vann's in Missoula.
Anyway, the online shopping season is wrapping up this week. It looks like I am on track to making $800 for the quarter. Because of the web site crash, I made only $600 in Q3. I was counting on $1000.
For a community site to work, I need to have interactive features. But, I can't think of any that wouldn't be full of spam and require constant monitoring for hate speech.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Removed Last Interactive Feature
The Community Color sites used to have several interactive features such as a forum interactive maps, ratings buttons, etc.
Every interactive feature became a target of spammers or by really nasty people who swore a lot and said terrible things about others.
So, I systematically turned off each interactive feature of the sites.
I had left the rating button on the site to test different ways of filtering out the spam. In truth, I really didn't want to have a 100% capitulation to spammers.
Keeping the rate button also reminded me that it is impossible to have an interative feature on a site without getting overloaded by disinformation and spam.
Anyway, I finally decided that it is not worth it, and am sad to announce that I turned off the last interactive feature on the sites.
Often I wish I could have a forum or an interactive feature. I can't think of any that would not automatically be abused.
Every interactive feature became a target of spammers or by really nasty people who swore a lot and said terrible things about others.
So, I systematically turned off each interactive feature of the sites.
I had left the rating button on the site to test different ways of filtering out the spam. In truth, I really didn't want to have a 100% capitulation to spammers.
Keeping the rate button also reminded me that it is impossible to have an interative feature on a site without getting overloaded by disinformation and spam.
Anyway, I finally decided that it is not worth it, and am sad to announce that I turned off the last interactive feature on the sites.
Often I wish I could have a forum or an interactive feature. I can't think of any that would not automatically be abused.
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Colorado Giving Day
Readers of my blog have probably figured out that I am not keen on big government, or big business. I prefer small limited government and small business where people matter to big biz.
Likewise, I am not all that keen on big religion that seeks power and prefer to small charity to big charity.
If you've been anywhere near a Colorado based web site or media, you know that today is Colorado Giving Day. This is a day when secular charities in Colorado aggressively market their products.
I've been going through givingfirst.org to make sure the charities are listed in the Colorado Color collection of web sites. GivingFirst does not make link harvesting easy. I have to go to the individual charity pages and click on the link.
What is really cool, is that they list the financials for the charities. The financials of these charities are better than most of the "for-profit" businesses I've worked for.
Most of the sites are excessively slick and slap the visitor silly with "Colorado Giving Day" ads.
It is frightening how aggressive charities are when it comes to begging for cash.
Any, half way through the link harvest, I am starting to have a severe allergic reaction to big charity.
I hate the name "giving first." The idea is that is that you should give to charity bedore you consider yourself or your family. If we had smaller business, smaller government and smaller charity, there would be less need in our society.
The fact that Giving First only lists secular charities also irks me. Secular charity is only a tiny segment of the giving community.
I like my Community Color directories. The goal of this project is to list the web sites from all segments of the society. It has the secular charities, churches, local blogs, merchants, affiliate sites. I think I am doing a better job showing the diversity of American communities.
Perhaps I am guilty of putting business first ... but, without businesses that actually produce for society, there wouldn't be any wealth in our society for secular charities to covet.
Likewise, I am not all that keen on big religion that seeks power and prefer to small charity to big charity.
If you've been anywhere near a Colorado based web site or media, you know that today is Colorado Giving Day. This is a day when secular charities in Colorado aggressively market their products.
I've been going through givingfirst.org to make sure the charities are listed in the Colorado Color collection of web sites. GivingFirst does not make link harvesting easy. I have to go to the individual charity pages and click on the link.
What is really cool, is that they list the financials for the charities. The financials of these charities are better than most of the "for-profit" businesses I've worked for.
Most of the sites are excessively slick and slap the visitor silly with "Colorado Giving Day" ads.
It is frightening how aggressive charities are when it comes to begging for cash.
Any, half way through the link harvest, I am starting to have a severe allergic reaction to big charity.
I hate the name "giving first." The idea is that is that you should give to charity bedore you consider yourself or your family. If we had smaller business, smaller government and smaller charity, there would be less need in our society.
The fact that Giving First only lists secular charities also irks me. Secular charity is only a tiny segment of the giving community.
I like my Community Color directories. The goal of this project is to list the web sites from all segments of the society. It has the secular charities, churches, local blogs, merchants, affiliate sites. I think I am doing a better job showing the diversity of American communities.
Perhaps I am guilty of putting business first ... but, without businesses that actually produce for society, there wouldn't be any wealth in our society for secular charities to covet.
Friday, December 02, 2011
Fixing Links Consumes Time
I spent the better part of the day manually fixing links. i just ran the link report. The link added went up 29 to 1200 and the link delete figure went up 62 to 500. The event count went up 30 links to 2214.
Even with a fast connection, fixing links is a long, dull activity.
Even with a fast connection, fixing links is a long, dull activity.
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