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Wordpress is my CMS and blog platform of choice.  I have tried a lot of different programs in the past, Geeklog, Drupal, Joomala, and even PHP-Nuke.  However the power and simplicity of Wordpress has made it the one for me.

Here is a list of the plugins that I install on EVERY site that I start either for myself or for a friend.

1. Add-Sig – This addon is great for adding a signature to every post.  I put in my twitter link, a reminder to add my feed at the bottom of every post.  Remember to keep it short though, you don’t want your signature to over-whelm your visitors.
2. All in One SEO Pack – If you are going to do nothing else for SEO, install this plugin and use it.  This plugin allows you to give every post its own title and meta information.
3. Google Analytics for Wordpress – This is the easiest way to add your site to Google Analytics without having to modify your theme.  This plugin also gives you the ability to NOT track the information of the admin which will give you a better idea of the traffic on your site when you are starting out.
4. Google Sitemap Generator – Google loves its sitemaps.  I know I said above that if you did nothing else for SEO you should use the All in One SEO Pack, well you should install this too.  With this you just have it install it, and every time you make a post it will add it to a XML sitemap that Google will use to hopefully index your site.
5. Contact Form – One of the things that Wordpress doesn’t have built in is a good contact form.  This plugin will allow you to add a contact form and allow your readers to get in contact with you, without you having to worry about making email public….if you’re worried about that sort of thing.
6. Twitter Widget – You’re on Twitter….right?  Well if you are and you have a Wordpress blog you know that the widgets that they have suck.  This plugin gives you a widget that will match your theme and allow your readers to see what you have been talking about on Twitter.
7. What would Seth Godin Do? – Seth Godin once said in his blog that you should use cookies to ensure that visitors to your site get a unique experience.  This plugin allows you to give first-time visitors to your site a special message.  With this message you can welcome them, point them to other great posts, and tell them where to go next.
8. Wordpress Super Cache – So you just started a blog and you are wondering why you need a caching system.  Well be positive, your blog will be popular enough and if you get a huge traffic spike you want to be sure that your site can handle it.  So install it, test it, and be ready for everything.
9. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin  – This plugin puts a list of past posts that you have made with the same tags as the one that your visitor is reading.  This gives the blog more stickiness so that your visitor has somewhere else to go when they finish reading the post that got them there.

These are my must have plugins for every wordpress installation.  What are some plugins that you would recommend for all wordpress users, or how about alternatives to the ones that I have listed here.

There has been a lot of talk lately about how this current downturn that the worldwide economy is in is not going to be going anywhere in the near term.  The Western big business philosophy is to recoil and wait for people to start buying again.  The Eastern and entrepreneur philosophy is that this is the time to buy good business cheap and manoeuvre yourself into an incredibly profitable position.

Online Meeting Software

One of the methods that I have been using lately to limit my travel both for personal work and with my day-job is running online meetings using Go-To-Meeting.  I chose Go-To-Meeting by default since it was the program that the company that I work for was using.  I got to play with the software before getting it myself to use for my own meetings, it isn’t that my side projects are to the point that I do a lot of travel meetings, none actually, but it did add a very advanced communications channel.

I don’t just use the software because it is what I started with, but don’t take my word for it there is a decent go-to-meeting review here. One of the tools that I have used a lot when working with designers is the ability to take over the others mouse and keyboard to better explain what I am looking for.  This is almost impossible to do over the phone, and it is very slow when you try it by email.  Using a messenger service is faster, but it is still much slower than using GoToMeeting.

Try out GoToMeeting for 30 days free and if you click here you will also get $10 off when you order. 

You have to CLICK HERE, to be sure that you don’t miss out.

We are getting ready to go on vacation again.  We are going to the magnificent San Francisco.  I say again but it really has been a long time since I got out of town for fun.

I was supposed to give everyone an update regarding my foray into the Ebay Affiliate Network, unfortunately I was extremely busy with other commitments and was not able to actively pursue it.  However on the advice of a friend, I was told not to stop the adwords campaigns that I was using to drive traffic, but to limit them to something like a dollar.

SIDETHOUGHT

When you go to change the budget on your adwords campaign, don’t do it when you are in a rush and when you do take the time to do it check it twice before and after hitting submit.

When I went to change everything to $1, I accidently changed it to $100 daily, luckily I checked it the next day and only screwed myself one day. 

/SIDETHOUGHT

Even with that blunder however I should end the month by breaking even over the start of the year.  I am starting to convert the traffic that I am receiving which really looks nice on the graph.

Next Step

When I get back from my extended time offline I have a few things in mind that I want to pursue.  One is to expand my network of ebay affiliate sites.  I have a few horizontal niches that I want to test out.

I am also playing with ideas surrounding my profession and have started developing training programs.  With these I hope to have a product that I can actively sell while enhancing my professional brand.  This is something that I will take my time developing as it is more important at this stage to maintain the brand that I have developed than to tarnish it.

When the Time Comes

But really that all is going to have to wait till my rest is over.  I only have one more week before I am back at the grind.  Today we go to Alcatraz and see if we could have figured out a way to escape.

I am not sure why I’m not doing it, but I am sure that I should be.  Then a buddy pointed me towards this older post, Do it Fucking Now from SEOBlackHat and was thinking.  I really should be doing  a lot more than I am, but I feel like I am spinning my wheels.  I have made very little progress in the month of January, and I am not exactly sure where I should be moving on from there.

So now what am I going to do?

Well I am just going to do IT!!   What am I going to do?  Well that is a question that I can’t really answer that, but I am going to do SOMETHING every day.  No matter what it is, I am going to do something that will bring me a step closer to my $5000 / month before tax profit.  It may be just researching a niche, getting some ideas on content, sites, maintenance, etc. 

The point is to do something.

If you are spinning your wheels, then try changing gears.  Every little step makes a difference.

So what is it, that you are going to be doing to reach your goals no matter what it is.  Let me know in the comments.

 

 

 

I have some goals for 2009 that I am going to reach.

500 Posts

The first one is to achieve 500 posts on this blog.  Bluenoser.net has been online for years, but I have only around 300 posts and some of those are useless ones that I put up at the beginning just to have content.

MORE PROFIT

In 2009 I have a goal to quadruple my online profits.  This is not an overly ambitious goal, and I think that by the end of January I will be making it a TEN fold increase.  Tim of 4HWW and some of has followers have said that making high goals actually increases your likely hood for success.

More Time

I am in 2009 going to increase my productivity to the point that I can spend more time doing what I want to be doing.  That includes travelling and reading.  This is the first year that I have read less than 10 GOOD books in a year.  I miss reading and increasing my knowledge.

Professional Equity

Along with my various online endeavours I am going to start working on building “professional equity”.  I am not sure if this term has been coined before, if not here is my definition.  Anything that increases your worth to your profession and company which in turn increases the demand in your services.  I have started doing this by achieving my LEED AP designation, and in the first of the year I will be gaining my P.Eng (once I finish my diaries).  There are two more on my list one is to get my FE in April and follow with my PE in Maryland, or another state in the US.

The other BIG thing is staying tight to my chest, but hear is a hint,  it is going to be a teaching program for a tight niche in my industry that I have expertise in, and believe that there is a lack of information available to fellow engineers and industry in general.  I hope for this to be my muse(read 4HWW if you don’t know what this is)