One Man's Blog » Wordpress

Chad Vader Hits on Cali Lewis in the Blog World Commercial

John P. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:29:58 +0000

This is the greatest commercial that anyone has ever done for an event that I’ve seen. You’ve got Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogen, and Cali Lewis… oh, and Chad Vader. :-)

Incidentally, I’ll be attending Blog World in Las Vegas as well, and I’ll be lecturing at the WordCamp Las Vegas event that will be happening right smack dab in the middle of Blog World! Yee Haw! It should be a blast.

I’ll be teaching you everything you ever needed to know to grow rich, powerful and sexy from your blog! Well, either that or I’ll give you some WordPress tips and tricks, as well as an overview of how to use your stats to improve the online experience.

Pretty Link Pro Will Change the World (Wide Web)!

John P. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:47:53 +0000

I’m pretty sure this is the first time that I’ve ever come out and advocated any sort of add-on, theme or plugin for WordPress that actually costs money. But get ready folks because here comes a game changer!

I heard about a WordPress plugin called Pretty Link Pro from Mitch over at Planet5D (the awesome Canon 5D camera site) and was intrigued enough to check it out. The plugin promised to do a few things that I could hardly believe:

Create YOUR OWN Short Links from Long URLs
Measure the effectiveness of Pay-Per-Click campaigns
Track social media campaigns

After reading through the user manual, and also seeing that Blair Williams (the plugin author) offered a 30 day money back guarantee, I decided I had absolutely nothing to lose and paid for the plugin on the spot. I’ve just spent the last 12 hours installing, tweaking, testing and using the plugin and I am absolutely in love. I 100% recommend that every WordPress user get this plugin now! And I’ll tell you why…

It Will Change Your Life

Damn. That is a bold statement. But it doesn’t make it any less true. Let me tell you a few ways I’ve already thought about this thing changing my world:

First of all, I won’t be using Bit.ly any more! When you use a URL shortener to redirect users to your blog post you are creating links to THEIR domain, not your own! This is BAD! Google gives you higher PageRank and sends you more traffic based on inbound links to your site, so having any other domain sitting in the middle merely siphons off some of your Google Juice. It also genericizes your brand.
It’s not just my own articles that I’ll shorten now. Whatever I link to on Twitter or Facebook is going to have one of my own Pretty Links in it. That is going to allow me to actually count how many people are following my links! This is fantastic for getting feedback and improving since I currently have no idea if the things I’m sharing are interesting, suck, or whatever. Also there is a great little Bookmarklet that automates this now!
Any time I want to put a banner ad or some sort of promotion on my site I’ll be using a custom Pretty Link. Although I can also track the outbound links on my blog with Woopra, it will be interesting to see the reports in my WordPress control panel. I can’t wait to see how these two go together (Woopra + PrettyLinks). So far in testing the links appear 100% normal in Woopra. Can’t even tell there was a Pretty Link in between.
I’m going to let WordPress + PLP start Tweeting my blog posts rather than doing it manually. I’ve tried some other plugins in the past for this, but didn’t like them. Plus, they didn’t post my own personal short URL! :-)
I’ll use my own short URLs for things in the offline world as well. For example if I give a lecture and need to hand out a URL, I’ll give them a PrettyLink. I mean, why not? Then I can see how many people acted on the information.
Over on our WealthNation.FM podcast site where we have episodes, we’ll create PrettyLinks with the episode number in them for quick reference like: WealthNation.FM/8 to correspond to episode 8.

How to Use It

Installation is simple. It’s a plugin like any other for WordPress. But rather than trying to tell you how to do it, Blair has created a great little video to show you how to do it.

If that’s not enough detail, he’s got three more videos covering all of the options here.

Current Drawbacks

Even though I’m in love with this plugin, it does currently have some shortcomings. Absolutely none of them are bad enough to prevent you from getting the plugin right now. But they are all things that make me look forward to future releases of the plugin that Blair is working on right now.

And by the way, Blair and I have been communicating about these issues and others. He is very responsive which makes me feel good about recommending this plugin as well.

The initial license language you are asked to agree to is very scary. It talks about how the service could be discontinued without notice and all sorts of other stuff I would normally never agree to. But the “service” really only refers to updates. So, No matter what happens, once you’ve got the code installed you should be ok.
When PLP adds a Twitter Badge to your post, it is counting only the links using your new PrettyLink (your own short URL). So, if there are any old links out there from Bit.ly or other places, those numbers aren’t currently reflected in the count. Blair is going to look into somehow grabbing that count and adding it. This issue is only cosmetic, and I’d remind everyone that it’s far more valuable to have incoming links to your own domain than to see a large number of counts to some other domain!
Automatic Tweeting of your blog posts does not yet allow you to format the actual Tweet. He’s working on that too, but for now you could let it do it’s own thing, or just don’t use this feature until the customization rolls out in a future release.
Although the automation does currently create new links for all new blog posts, it’s not working for me on my 1,500+ old posts. I might be forced to manually update them, though I think there is going to be a workaround for this. It’s not by any means a deal killer, but the difference between automating the old posts and not is substantial in terms of manpower.
There are currently a few little issues with auto link generation and management of an extensive list of links that need to be improved. But again, not currently a deal killer, and he’s working on it.

So, when I evaluate the drawbacks of using the plugin as compared to the drawbacks of being forced to use someone else’s link shortening service, there is absolutely no question that I’d rather have this product installed and functioning TODAY… like this minute… than go another moment of giving away my valuable links.

What’s It Cost?

I’ll tell you. Hold on to your seat. It’s going to run you $97! Oh, and that is only until September 1, when the price increases by $50 to $147. So you need to seriously go and get it NOW!

But let me share a couple of things that you get for your money:

You can use it on all your WordPress blogs. Yep. You pay once, but defray the cost over all of your blogs. Now, that doesn’t mean that if you are a developer you can use it on CLIENT blogs. You need to get them to buy their own license.
Updates for life. Blair is offering the plugin right now with a perpetual upgrade license essentially. Who knows if he’s going to do this forever. I wouldn’t. But that is just another reason to get it NOW!

And if that’s not enough for one of the most unique site enhancements that I’ve ever seen… read on.

The Affiliate Program!

The interesting thing is that this plugin is great on it’s own, meaning that I would have shared this information for free and without any sort of remuneration. But Blair has also set up an affiliate program for all Pro subscribers and if you refer anyone he’s going to give you a kickback on the back side. Which I think is fantastic!

Developers! You getting this? You refer your clients to use the plugin, everyone wins.

So keep in mind that whatever you pay for this plugin, it’ll cost you even less if you refer a few folks. You might even make a little coin off of doing so. And when you can do that while helping to change the world, well that is just bonus! Oh, and if you go in and manually edit the “pretty-bar.php” file you can change the Powered by PrettyLink to be your own affiliate link. Have fun with that!

WordCamp Dallas 2009: Dave Curlee – How To Add Video To Your WordPress Site

John P. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:16:45 +0000

Oh good lord. You guys are in for a treat that I will never live down. You get to see me in my full on Pimp outfit from the brief appearance at WordCamp Dallas 2009. I can’t believe that Dave left that in the video. Oh, who am I kidding. I can believe he left it in there! Anyway, here is Dave Curlee lecturing on How To Add Video To Your WordPress Site.

Of course, all of these WordCamp videos were produced and edited by Dave Curlee. So, when it comes to this video he had to give the lecture, oversee himself being filmed, and edit and post it. Whew! That’s a lot of work!

How Disabled People Use the Internet – Refreshable Braille, Screen Readers and Wheelchairs

John P. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:15:16 +0000

Thank to Glenda Watson Hyatt (@GlendaWH on Twitter) for sharing a fascinating article by Roger Hudson called Refreshable Braille.

This article has a great deal of significance to me because I’ve been preaching Web Accessibility since the inception of the Internet, having even served on the W3C’s original Web Accessibility Initiative, and having built HTMLHelp.com around educating people about standards compliant Web development.

Heck, I even built the theme for OneMansBlog.com from scratch to try and insure accessibility among other things… But can you believe that in the last decade, I’ve never actually seen real users navigating the Web like this? Wow. It is refreshing to see that people can do it after fighting so hard for so long to build accessible standards.

I believe every person should watch these videos, whether you are a designer or not, to understand the challenges that some visitors face when they come to your Web site. So please take 5 minutes out of your day and give this article a little attention. Thanks!

Roger said:

In April, I was preparing material for a workshop about complying with version 2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and thought it would be useful to include a video of someone using a refreshable Braille device. I contacted Bruce Maguire as I know this is his preferred way of accessing the web and asked if I could video him using his device. Bruce, whose contribution to improving the accessibility of the web extends well beyond his famous complaint against the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, willingly agreed to help.

I hoped the refreshable Braille video would provide viewers without any experience of the technology, with both a basic understanding of how the device is operated and a feeling for what it might be like to access the web without relying on the senses of sight and hearing.
…
After we had completed the basic filming, Bruce and I talked about shooting a short segment with the audio turned off. Without any more planning than that, Bruce turned off the audio, I turned on the camera and Bruce announced he would show us how he goes about buying a book from Amazon.

In addition to this video of a blind user navigating the Web, Roger also shared a video of a woman who is wheelchair bound which shows what it’s like when you can’t access a keyboard or mouse.

I feel there is value in giving people involved in developing websites a greater understanding of how the web is accessed by users of different assistive technologies. During the last two weeks, I have shown both the refreshable Braille video and another video, “Wheeling in Second Life”, which features a woman with Cerebral Palsy to over 100 people at workshops.

If you’ve got other videos or stories about Web Accessibility issues, please do share in the comments! I’d love to hear them!

I’m Lecturing Friday 8/28/2009: The Social Web Made Simple

John P. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:04:38 +0000

Folks, this Friday August 28th from 8:30-11:30, along with Mitch Savage from Nomee, I’ll be speaking for the Frisco Chamber of Commerce members about “improving customer connections to benefit the bottom line”. I hope you will all come out and join us! And by all, I mean only a few of you because seating is limited and you definitely won’t all fit. :-) In fact, the event is almost full, so if you would like to come please hurry up and register!

This is a three hour session in which we will cover the business benefits of the social web and show you step-by-step how to get started. By the end of this easy to understand workshop you’ll be ready to put the social web to work for your business. So, bring yourself, and bring your boss if you have been looking for the opportunity to convince them that you should be doing something with social media. This is one of the few times this year that I’ll be taking time out to do this sort of thing…

The cost to attend is $25 for Frisco Chamber members or $30 for non-members. You can register online and here is a PDF version of the flyer for the event.

We’re having this event at the Collin College PRC Event Center at 9700 Wade Blvd. in Frisco, TX. It’s right off of Preston Road just north of Lebanon. The Event Center is kind of at the back of the campus as you can see in this map. It’s up at the top and labeled “Event Center”. Surprise!

Here’s the Google Map to get to the campus:

View Larger Map

The Frisco Chamber of Commerce is now on Facebook and also Twitter, so friend me and join in the fun.

WordCamp San Francisco 2009: Matt Cutts’ Lecture – Straight From Google, What You Need To Know

John P. — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:00:52 +0000

Matt Cutt’s previous lecture on whitehat SEO techniques for bloggers has been very popular since I posted it, so now I’m happy to present an updated video from WordCamp San Fran in which Matt brings us “Straight From Google, What You Need To Know”.

In this lecture Matt addresses questions about Google PageRank, backlinks, SEO, keywords, niches, URL structures, Titles, post frequency, and Katamari philosophy (you’re going to have to watch it to see what that means).

Once again, the WordCamp San Francisco 2009 videos were filmed and edited by myself and Dave Curlee.

Changes to OneMansBlog – FEEDBACK NEEDED!

John P. — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:21:27 +0000

Howdy folks. I’ve made two fairly significant changes to the old blog here today, and I’m hoping to get a little feedback from you regulars as to how these are turning out.

I updated my “Related Posts” plugin to use Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Though it was a more complex install than the old one, it does two things that I like better. First, it seems to be a little more accurate. Second, it shows a short preview of the related post by the link. I think this makes it easier to determine if that related post is actually interesting or not to the reader.
I installed a new caching / content distribution system from Steady Offload. This is NOT a free service, so if I want to keep it here I’ll have to pay for it. But the purpose is to make all of the images and pages in general load quicker on the blog. Personally, the site seems faster to me. But I’m waiting to hear from you guys. Do things seem faster? You should especially notice on posts with lots of images.

So, please let me know if things have improved for you, are the same, or worse. Cheers!

Giovanni Gallucci on Extreme Social Media Hacks

John P. — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:00:05 +0000

This lecture was recorded at the Dallas WordPress User Group meet-up on Saturday, July 25, 2009. Social Media Expert Giovanni Gallucci gives a stirring lecture on ways to make the most of online promotion using Social Media as a backbone.

This lecture is an hour and a half long, so go get your popcorn and a drink because you’re not going to want to miss a minute of it. I’d say that Gio packed about 100 tips on Social Media into this presentation, so I don’t care who you are – there is plenty of stuff to try out once you’re finished here.

WordCamp Dallas 2009: Giovanni Gallucci – Top 10 Extreme Social Media Hacks

John P. — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:05:56 +0000

Giovanni Gallucci gave a fantastic lecture at WordCamp Dallas 2009 on the Top 10 Extreme Social Media Hacks. It was an action packed 45 minutes with more suggestions coming at the attendees than most could take notes for.

Luckily we’ve got the whole thing captured on video, so we can catch up on everything missed. Oh, and if you didn’t get the chance to see this live, well you’re in for a real treat! Here are the slides in case you need them separately.

BTW, this video was shot, edited and produced by Dave Curlee.

WordCamp Dallas 2009: Cali Lewis – Building A Vibrant Community

John P. — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:17:35 +0000

The second of our WordCamp Dallas videos to be released features Cali Lewis discussing her “Seven Rules For Building a Vibrant Community”. And if there is anyone who knows how to do that, its her!

With millions of downloads each month, GeekBrief.TV has become one of the most trusted brands in tech news, both online and off. And Cali’s incredible and passionate community of viewers have made her one of the most followed people on Twitter and supported her run for Australia’s Best Job in the World.

This video was filmed and edited by Dave Curlee

WordCamp San Francisco 2009: John Lilly – Lessons From Mozilla

John P. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:00:18 +0000

Another of the videos from WordCamp San Francisco 2009, this is John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, presenting on Open Source, lessons learned from Mozilla, and the role of community. Especially useful are his 7 insights, 2 problems and some thoughts for 2009.

Is anyone starting to catch a theme here yet? Social Media… community… The world is fundamentally changing and if you want to be part of it you’re going to have to learn how to build and embrace communities.

The video work was done by Dave Curlee and myself, with post-production by Michael Pick

WordCamp San Francisco 2009: Chris Pirillo – Community WebVisions

John P. — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:00:41 +0000

Dave Curley, Michael Pick and I recorded and edited the videos from WordCamp San Francisco 2009, and here’s the lecture that Chris Pirillo gave on building and maintaining Web Communities.

By the way, everyone be sure to contact Chris and tell him to use Woopra! We had a nice long discussion about it, but he doesn’t see the benefit of “real time” Web Analytics. So, someone other than me is going to have to explain to him how it makes a difference in your life!

WordCamp Dallas 2009: The WordCamp Panel Discussion

John P. — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:32:29 +0000

Many thanks to Dave Curlee for recording and editing all of the upcoming WordCamp Dallas videos. Seriously folks, please show him some love for the hundred or so hours he has spent recording, editing and posting these for us.

This is the first of the videos filmed at WordCamp Dallas 2009 a few weeks ago and it’s a panel discussion consisting of: Cali Lewis, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins, Dave Moyer, Matt Mullenweg, Andy Skelton, Liz Strauss, Giovanni Gallucci and moderated by myself.

Topics covered during the discussion included blogging tips, advertising, mistakes and lessons learned, blogging equipment, themes, plugins and much more. I can’t believe how lucky we were to have all of these experts assembled in one place to take questions from the group.

Part 1

Part 2

By the way, now that you watched them, how cool is it that we have the sign language overlaid in the corner? Awesome.

If you’d like to embed the videos in your blog, just click on the little icon in the bottom right corner that looks like a sideways “V” and you can grab the code. We’re also working on some other uploads that would allow for a single video and even higher quality, so when we get them up we’ll let you know as well.

Tutorial: What To Do When WordPress Auto-Update Fails

John P. — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:39:45 +0000

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve experienced many instances where the Auto-update feature in WordPress fails to update either a plugin or WordPress itself.

The solution to this problem is remarkably simple, and hopefully will be fixed soon by the WP core developers in an upcoming release. The problem seems to be caused by a messy previous upgrade in which files are left in a temporary “upgrade” directory with the wp-content directory.

In order to solve the problem, you simply need to delete the “upgrade” directory in it’s entirety and then try the upgrade again. I’ve yet to find an instance on several blogs across multiple machines where this didn’t solve the problem.

An Open-Source Look at the Cost of WordCamp Dallas

John P. — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:05:10 +0000

I’ve had many people asking about what it takes to actually put together WordCamp Dallas, and there have been a lot of questions specifically involving the costs associated with the event.

I’ve been hesitant to share all the details up to this point for a variety of reasons including:

Confidentiality for our event sponsors.
No desire for second-guessing from the bleachers. (aka – I could have done it cheaper!)
Privacy for myself since it involved cost I picked up.

However, I’ve decided that in the interests of the community I will share as many details as possible so that others who are looking to put on an event of this kind will understand what it’s going to take before they attempt to do it. The last thing we need are surprises, especially where money is involved.

Keep in mind that the costs outlined here were to cover around 350 attendees, plus live streaming of the event to a few hundred more around the world. Also know that WordCamp Dallas 2008 had a similar outcome, but at around 65% of the values here.

Significant costs:

Food: $8,750 – Lunches, morning coffee & muffins, and afternoon snacks.
T-shirts: $3,500 – Two sided, two color shirts, plus filled requests for sizes to 5XL.
ASL Interpreters: $1,600 – To provide sign language for the deaf.
Venue Costs: $1,500 (est.) – Misc. costs associated with the venue.
Welcome party: $1,200 – Friday night bowling party for about 90 attendees.
Speaker’s Dinner: $1,000 – Saturday night dinner, as a thank you to our speakers.
Speaker Travel: $900 – To cover speaker expenses only where necessary.
Name badges, etc: $500 – Badges, signs and supplies.
EventBrite / PayPal: $500 – Fees for processing transactions.
Power cables, etc.: $350 – Venue specific needs.
Other: $1,000 – Miscellaneous stuff that adds up quick.

Total: $20,800

Income:

Ticket Sales: $8,970
Sponsors: $6,600 ($2,000 received so far)

Total: $15,570 ($10,970)

So, as you can see, there is about a $5,000 shortfall from the event, plus another $5,000 that needs to make it’s way through from the sponsor’s Accounts Payable departments. This can be handled a few ways:

Plan the event much farther in advance and give sponsors a hard deadline for payment.
Be willing to float the deficit until sponsors come through with payments (what I opted for).
Charge more. A ticket price of $50 would ensure that the event was closer to break-even.

The point of the math here is that an event of this magnitude needs a benefactor. There must either be a company or an individual behind it for decision making purposes, financial responsibility, and accountability. Attendees, sponsors and venue personnel must have trust in the entity standing behind it.

Alternatives

Meet-Ups!

It doesn’t require a huge weekend long venue to get people together for a common interest. MeetUp.com will allow you to organize small groups of people and you could have Meet-ups at a home, restaurant, park, or some other reasonable venue.

There is no need to feed people, or by T-shirts, and indeed you can avoid the majority of the costs from this event. Assuming you can get enough folks together you should be able to attract a few speakers who are willing to come share their experience.

BarCamp Style

You can also always go the BarCamp route. If you’ve got a group of folks who can go with the flow, and you can forgo most of the niceties such as WiFi and power for everyone, professional A/V recording, tables and chairs for meals, etc. then you can put together an event at any old place that offers to accomodate you, and invite sponsors to contribute whatever it takes to handle the event without any money changing hands.

People have events like this quite often, but keep in mind that someone still has to take responsibility. So if you are going to organize the event you will be on the hook from a liability standpoint. I highly recommend an Umbrella policy from your insurance provider.

Other Costs and Notes

This year we didn’t have to do it, but last year we had to provide event insurance to cover the city for providing the venue. Event insurance for around 200 people ran about $500-600 as I recall. Be prepared to provide this for just about anywhere you go if you are planning on an organized event. For an example, see the Sacramento State University’s requirements.

Often times, certain venues will require that you use their catering service. This can really increase the cost of an event, so double check to make sure you want to go that route.

Finally, you are going to need a LOT of volunteers. You will need people to do all sorts of labor, otherwise you are going to have to pay out the nose for it. These things include:

Creating / printing / assembling nametags and signage.
T-shirt / poster / banner designs and creation.
Organizing pre or post event parties
Registration duties
Q&A (running mics) and Time keeping for speakers
Event setup and teardown
Staffing a Genius Bar (to answer WordPress questions for free)
Videography / Photography
Webmaster duties and inbound question handling
Registration management and accounting

That’s just the top 10. You may come up with more.

The End

So, this post is not meant to scare anyone from taking on the challenge of organizing a WordCamp, but rather to serve as a sort of blueprint from with to start the planning. You can scale the various elements up or down as needed depending on the size, budget and type of people who will be attending.

As always, I’m happy to answer questions, or if you need someone to give a lecture and my schedule permits I’m always up for a good WordPress party. Cheers!

Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word: WordCamp San Francisco 2009

John P. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:14:12 +0000

For those of you who didn’t see them I’m going to begin posting the WordCamp San Francisco 2009 videos here on the blog. I went to WordCamp again this year to film the speakers and as usual a great time was had by all.

This first video is Matt Mullenweg’s traditional State of the Word presentation in which he covered all the latest official updates regarding WordPress including a little history, the current status, and even future plans. It’s a “do not miss” video for anyone using WordPress.

This video was filmed by Dave Curlee and myself, and the genius editing was done by Michael Pick.

The Inspiring Story of Victoria Bell – the WordCamp Dallas MacBook Winner!

John P. — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:05:58 +0000

(Photo courtesy of Zig Baird)

Folks, I wanted to share this story with you all because it’s just so awesome. The following story comes from Victoria Bell, who was the lucky winner of the MacBook Pro at WordCamp Dallas.

I usually try to maintain an ‘attitude of gratitude’. Not claiming to be wildly successful at all times, but the key word is ‘try’. (Sorry, Yoda – - it appears in my vernacular more often than you would approve of.) Having journeyed through the land of unemployment and self-employment for the last ten months, some days, being thankful requires conscious effort. Today, there is no try. ‘Thank you, Lord!’ is the headline banner scrolling across my forehead right now.

I had no expectations as I entered WordCamp 2009. I was given a name badge, a T-shirt and a raffle ticket. Two weeks prior, an Aromatherapy Meetup event led to a discussion about technical writing. (Go, networking!) “You should go to WordCamp”, the woman who organized the meeting told me. I gave her my card. The next morning, my inbox contained an email from her with all of the pertinent information. Even though I didn’t fully comprehend (from the presentation titles) what exactly a WordCamp was, in a purely visceral moment, I registered for the almost-free-for-you-today price of $30.00.

A year-long desire to start a blog was tempered by a couple of practicalities: I don’t know diddly about publishing online and what would I write about that anyone would want to read, anyway? Maybe this would kick my tail into high gear. Perhaps I would meet fellow writers and expand my network.

After finding a seat in the crowded, too-warm auditorium, realization dawned in a what-in-the-world-am I-doing-here? moment. Unfamiliar terms and acronyms were hurled at me full-throttle: ‘tag cloud’, ‘CMS’ and ‘irresistibly sticky’. Excuuuse me? Early on, I acknowledged the vast hole that was my website creation ignorance and decided to let each speaker’s words wash over me. Perhaps something would eventually make sense. “I really, really love my pen and paper”, I inwardly whined.

Presenter after presenter stepped onto the stage with the ruthless intent of reinforcing my aforementioned ‘lostness’. More than once, I vowed to leave ‘after the next one’, but these folks were not only passionate and knowledgeable about their topics, they seemed like such nice people. The kind of people you’d want to visit with afterward, even if you might not understand one flippin’ thing they said. Niceness is a universal language that erodes language barriers, even geek speak, and I was charmed.

The day ran long. I was worn out from sponging up all of that new information that I feared I might never use. I kept looking at my watch. Again, I told myself I’d leave after the next presentation. But that felt so rude.

The noisy room hushed when the event organizer announced it was time to raffle off a MacBook Pro, donated by TaylorMark, one of WordCamp’s sponsors and an ‘Apple-focused information technology professional services company’. A red ticket was pulled from the bowl, and each number was slowly teased off. Wait a minute! The first five numbers were matching those on my stub. I blinked. Wow. I actually had a chance! My adrenaline level pumped up a little. I once won a gift certificate to a spa. There was that one hundred dollars on a scratch-off that came in handy shortly after I was laid off. But a Mac? No way.

FIVE! That was the last number. I think. Then my name was called out. The rest is a blur.

My heart raced. My goose bumps had goose bumps. I was so flustered that I actually walked in front of the video cameras that were live-streaming the event – - not grasping my faux pas until later. Mark Taylor handed me the coveted white box. A round of applause erupted. I was grinning like a fool, and photos exist to prove it. Me? Who hadn’t touched a Mac in ten years? The one who didn’t know XAMPP from WAMP? I quite literally floated back to my seat, red-faced from embarrassment and excitement.

Earlier in the day, driving to WordCamp, I’d asked for a sign that I was fulfilling my purpose and to let me know when I was going astray. Lately, I’ve felt as though I’m swimming through mud to get back to the land of the employed. Am I moving in the right direction? Yada yada. As I turned out of the UTD parking lot, I glanced at the white box nestled into the passenger seat, (did I mention it was a MAC???) along with my new T-shirt. I was struck by the generosity behind the gift, as well as the thoughtfulness, openness and intelligence of the community I’d just been introduced to. The door to a new world was opening up for me.

“There’s yer sign”, I giddily marveled. There’s yer sign.

For the many people who have asked me why I spent my time organizing WordCamps, well it’s because of the stories like Victoria’s. If I can somehow contribute to assembling the conditions that help people change their lives in a positive way, then that’s all I’m looking to get out of it.

Congratulations Victoria. Carpe diem! And let us know when you have your blog online so we can all come visit…

WordCamp Dallas 2009 is Three Weeks Away! Spread the Word!

John P. — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:20:04 +0000

Wow, we’re only 3 weeks from WordCamp Dallas, and we’ve still got plenty of seats left, but I have a feeling they are going to go fast. So you seriously need to get registered before we fill up! What is WordCamp Dallas?

Well, it’s basically a “free” ($30 pays for the T-shirt and meals) blogging convention that is organized by users of the wildly popular WordPress blogging platform. And it’s a one and a half day weekend event that will teach you more about blogging than you will learn on your own in a year. I guarantee it.

Don’t believe me? Fine! Check out the roughly 75 WordCamp videos I’ve already filmed and posted for you guys and you’ll see what I mean! Of course, there is also my lecture from last year on 45 Ways to Power Up Your Blog, and here is the video.

Why would you want to start a blog of your own? Hmmm… well, to participate in a community of interest? To establish a reputation as an expert? To open doors for job opportunities? To earn money from your blogging efforts?

Heck, this blog generates $1,500-2,500 per month in ad revenue and I don’t even try (remember, I donate it to charity)!

Now, we’ve got an all star line up of speakers – each of which has generously volunteered their time and energy to make this event what it is. You’ll hear from some online titans on topics that will be immediately actionable after the conference.

But more importantly, you’ll meet hundreds of fellow bloggers with whom you can swap tips and build relationships that will last for years. And you’ll have free and unfettered access to people who can, and will, help you with anything related to your blogging efforts.

We’re holding WordCamp Dallas at the University of Texas at Dallas campus (THANKS UTD!!!) on Saturday June 27 and continuing Sunday June 28. We’ll also be holding a welcome party on Friday evening starting around 7pm for those who want to get started with the socializing before hand. We’re still working out the details of that event, but put it on your calendars because you aren’t going to want to miss it!

Oh, and before I forget to mention it, we’ve got a TON of prizes that have been donated by sponsors that we’ll be giving away throughout the event! I’m not kidding. Like more than 50 different things up to, and including, Mac laptops and a Kindle 2 e-book thanks to our generous sponsors!

Also Lorelle and I will be approving anyone wanting access to Woopra all throughout the event instantly. So, if you’ve been waiting, come on down and get it immediately!

If you’re coming out, please drop me a comment below to let me know you’ll be there. Also, you can see the list of attendees on the WordCamp Dallas site, though we’re way behind and updating it in the next couple of days. There are currently about 125 attendees registered (we’re expecting at least double that), so get signed up quick so we can add your name and URL to the list for others to enjoy as well!

I Still HATE Spammers! DIE SPAMMERS DIE!!!

John P. — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:30:36 +0000

Dammit! Very few things actually infuriate me more than spammers. That is because Spammers are thieves! There is no difference between a spammer, and someone who would go around stealing pennies from everyone they can find. The logic is exactly the same too, “well, if I only steal from them a little, they won’t notice – but if I do it from a lot of people, I’ll get rich!”

I swear to God, I think the crime for spamming should be death by firing squad. And their entire families should be branded with a scarlet letter and humiliated. And their bodies should be burned until nothing remains but ash. Then, the ashes should be put in a plastic baggie which is also topped off with cow manure and a small chunk of lead. The bags should be loaded on a cargo ship crossing the ocean, and then dropped in when the boat is directly above the Mariana Trench.

Here, let me rank criminals for you:

Child Molesters
Rapists
Spammers
Murders
Politicians

I’ve been writing about Spam problems for years now:

Yet this blog alone continues to average around 600+ SPAMs per day. That’s right, we’re way over 300,000 spams caught just by Akismet alone. But I’ve got other mechanisms in place to prevent spam as well which easily trap half of it or more before Akismet ever sees it.

So, what is happening is, every time a Spammer or their robot stops by, they put load on my server – eating into the responsiveness that YOU my dear reader receive, and simultaneously, they cause me to have to keep upgrading my server to handle more and more load which wouldn’t be so necessary if they didn’t exist.

Think of Spammers like this… Lets say you were a farmer and you had a field of corn. Now imagine that someone driving down the road sees your crop and says, “Mmmm. That looks delicious! I think I’ll stop and take a few!” Then, imagine that 600 people per DAY all do the same thing! These thieves are eating you out of house and home and you have to plant more and more fields in order to produce the same exact output because of the dwindling efficiency!

So I just wonder why more people don’t see this as a problem and put an end to it. If you were that farmer, I guarantee that after a little while you’d be sitting out there with a shotgun waiting to shoot someone.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what brought all this up for me today, it’s just another spammer. Someone stopped by and left a string of junk comments on the blog, obviously only to get their URL listed on my top commenters list.

WordPress’ Newest Data Center

John P. — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:26:45 +0000

For those of you who don’t know Barry, he’s the mastermind behind the infrastructure that powers WordPress and all of their various services (Akismet, bbPress, Gravatar, etc.). He seriously knows a lot about hosting infrastructure, as he demonstrated when he gave this lecture about WordPress performance at WordCamp SanFrancisco 2007.

Anyway, this morning he posted a little article about the newest WordPress data center and included a video shot by Aaron Phillips. Watch really closely and you might catch a glimpse of my cameo…