In anticipation for a new Wordpress design I’m looking for, I decided it would be in this blogs best interest to be upgraded. I was previously running Wordpress 2.3.1 (I think) on here, but just completely an upgrade to 2.5.1. It’s been months since I’ve done a Wordpress Upgrade. I really shouldn’t put these things off, with all those security fixes and all. But o-well, it’s done now.

Now I have about 6 other Wordpress blogs I need to upgrade. Only a handful of my sites are running 2.5.1. Upgrading was surprisingly easy. I made backups of all my files and database just in case. Then I just uploaded the new files and went to the wp-upgrade.php file. It took about 3 minutes. My current theme still works and I’ve had no problems with the plugins.

This time I’m not promoting a new website that I’ve made, but one that my wife started. My wife is into arts & crafts and scrapbooking and was looking for something to do over the summer (she doesn’t work over the summer because she’s a teacher). So I suggested starting a crafting website. So I’d like to introduce to you Spare Ribbon - Crafts, Scrapbooking, and Project Ideas.

My wife has absolutely zero web development skills, so I thought the best way to get her started would be on a Wordpress Blog. It’s about as easy to use as Microsoft Word. She picked the domain and style of the website (we had to tweak to wordpress theme some to get all the colors she wanted) and then I uploaded and configured everything. My wife is writing all the content and taking all the pictures, I am just here to facilitate things until she can get a handle of Wordpress. I’ll also be working on the SEO and link building process for this website.

I’ve always read that crafting and scrapbooking keywords are high paying, so this will be an interesting test to see if we can make any money off this project. She already emailed the website to like 50 of her friends and family. Women are way more viral then men. I would never email any of my friends when I make a new website… but women are all about sharing and spreading the word. There are already 3 craft ideas posted on the website, and Katie is anxious to post many more.

i’ll definitely keep everyone posted on the progress of this site.

I manage about seven or eight sites that run on Wordpress. These sites (much like this blog) rely on a constant flow of new posts or else traffic and rankings will suffer. The sites aren’t large enough to where I need to post daily, but I definitely try to get 3 posts a week on each site.

When juggling a full-time job with managing websites, allowable time can be very critical. I’ll be lucky to squeeze in an hour or two a day to work on my websites, so every minute must be spent wisely. It is impossible for me to write a blog posts on all 7-8 of these sites on the same day. I just don’t have the time for it. So what I’m left to do is stagger the posts on different days.

I’ll write posts for 3-4 of the sites on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and then write the other 3-4 on Tuesday/Thursday. The following week I will alternate the sites so after a two week span each site should have five posts. Of course things don’t always go as planned, but I try to stick with this method. Otherwise I’ll be bogged down with too much work and no time to do it in.

Staggering your workload can also help keep you sane. You won’t get bored as quickly by having to spend every day working on the same project. Alternate days and the work you do. If you run a blog that requires daily postings, then try writing two posts every other day and just timestamping them to go live on the days in between. This way you aren’t physically writing for the site daily.

So I’m looking for a new Wordpress Theme. If you have any suggestions please leave a comment with a link to the theme you like.

I think I’ve had this one for like 8 months or more. I’m getting tired of it and it’s just not working out for me. I want new colors and a better layout. And because this blog brings in very minimal revenue, I’m definitely looking for a free one! Or if any of you out there are badass wordpress designers and want from free publicity, I’ll gladly take a free custom blog design in exchange for a post review, text links and ad banner space. Let me know!

With this new theme, I’m hoping to dive back into posting. My posts have been somewhat lacking lately. I want to go back to my roots and build up on what made this blog popular in the first place.

Yesterday I started implementing “Tell A Friend” scripts on some of my websites. My goal is to add this script to all my sites. You can see which one I’m using by clicking the link above.  If you’d like to see an example of this script in work, visit Tebow Zone and click the “Tell A Friend” link at the top of the right sidebar.

What this script does is pop open a small window that lets your site’s visitors quickly and easily send an email to their friends recommending the web site. There is no need for the visitors to open their email. It’s all done in the script. Currently there are slots for up to 3 email addresses, but with some hacking you could probably add more. There is even a place for the visitor’s to add their own comments. You can try it out on yourself on the Tebow site and see what the email looks like.

We all know word of mouth marketing is some of the best marketing you can hope for. First of all it’s free, and second.. it’s highly targeted. I have already seen several uniques come in from yahoo/hotmail accounts to my websites because of the “tell a friend” script.

Not only does it provide you with new visitors, but it also enhances the user’s experience. People like sharing cool things, and this script gives them a very fast and easy way to do it.