Getting a good-looking date

The first thing I’m going to tell you in this Newsletter is why I always write the date, online, as above in the title: -

It’s all because of Americans. who make up around 1/4 to 1/3rd (0.25 to 0.34) of my readership. As you probably already know; Americans write the date differently compared to we Brits: Where an American would write the date above as

10.23.2009

Brits would write it as

23.10.2009

From the above it seems fairly obvious, provided that you are aware that they’re both the same day, that one is the date written by an American, and one is the date written by a Brit; particularly if you know that it’s the date related to an article published on 23rd October: There’s really no issue there; until it comes to a date like 08.09.2009, or 10.11.2010: One of those dates was written by an American, but which one?

- So rather than cause any confusion by writing the date as 08.09.2009; which to an American is 9th August, yet to a Brit is 8th September, I write it out so that it can be understood whichever way round you do it in your part of the world.

“Surely everybody knows what month it is!”  You retort.

Currently yes; but imagine you’re an American digging through archives, finding the post you’re looking for by date, loading it onto a USB stuck, driving to your next destination, and then finding that the post was written by a Brit and that you got the wrong post because you read the date in American format rather than British format.

Blog Contents Page

Next; I’ve automated the Blog Contents page: In doing so I’ve lost a number of the listings. Everything related to that is explained near the top of that page itself; but I’ll reproduce the important parts here also: -

“Previously I was hard-coding each post into the list manually. I actually devised a way of doing it fairly quickly and with little effort. – I just wasn’t happy with doing things that way though: It was something else that had to be done, costing more time, and I also didn’t always remember to do it after every post’s publication.

It is in the light of the above that I’ve configured an existing script to handle the matter of posting and updating this Blog Contents page. While the operation is almost perfect, the script is unable to handle [all the previously viewable entries in the list.] …I’ve just done the best I can for now.

…Approximately 7 months of posts are currently listed, in total. I’m seeking a solution that will allow me to list more posts: Please bear with me until that time.”

Changes to the Welcome Page

As you may have noticed, I’ve partially automated the Welcome Page by adding a display of a snippet of my latest post to the page, as well as adding a clickable listings link to any of the latest 20 posts. I’ve also amended and partially rewritten the “Objective of This Blog” text section, in addition to which I’ve made all fonts on the page Trebuchet MS, and all linked text is now standard-link-blue (0000FF hex value.).

Reduced input

As I stated in the last Public Newsletter, I might yet have to reign back on the frequency with which I post articles at some point. It’s not that I don’t like writing; it’s just that I don’t have a lot of time some days or weeks. If there’s no content added to this blog one day, don’t instantly assume that it’s died. – Anyway, I currently announce future content on the welcome Page, previous to publication, so I’ll announce any gaps too, or simply won’t announce when there’ll be no new material. – If it’s not announced then it won’t happen.

Yes I do hand-code that announcement; although if anybody knows of a plugin which will list articles scheduled for publication then I’d be most happy to know about it myself. – With WordPress there’s normally a plugin for it, whatever it is. – It’s just a matter of finding it.

I’m going to be producing a different type of content as well as free articles from this coming Monday onwards; that being paid-for premium content, which will be on sale in due course: Yes I’m beginning to step up a gear with monetising this blog. – Well something’s got to pay the rent.

As a result I’ll be unable to produce as many articles as I have recently been doing – I just don’t have an unlimited amount of time on my hands.

I can probably still produce a few per week for the forseeable future; but if you have something technical and factual that you’d like to post on this blog; be my guest, literally: Submit your prospective guest-posts in line with the contest Can Your Post Make it to The Number One Slot? You never know; you might win.

Are you lot all rolling in money?

If you’re not then I suggest that you enter my competition that I launched back in September: -

September 28, 2009 Can Your Post Make it to The Number One Slot?

- I’ve had 4 entries from 2 people so far: 2 were published and both made it into the kkomp Top 10, but sadly dropped out again without even making it to the No1 slot. Can you do better; or are you so stinking rich that you just turn your nose up at the cash prize? Just imagine if people like David Risley or John Chow entered the competition and your post beat theirs!

Speaking of John Chow, whilst on the subject of “rolling in money”: I thought I’d share this video he made with you. – You see blogging’s not actually as difficult as it may sound, and the common reason why people don’t blog is because they can’t be bothered. There is money to be made blogging; does that suddenly make it more appealing to you? John Chow is such a success story, and in this video he tells of why he blogs.

Not all blogs make money, however. Indeed some aren’t intended to make money; they’re just personal or hobby blogs. Others are intended to make money but don’t do so. – Unfortunately gone are the days when you could just start up a blog, throw up a load of banner advertising, and become rich overnight. These days a professional blog has to be run much more like any business would be run. I’ll be dealing further with this subject around the turn of the year, when I’ll be advertising and talking about David Risley’s Blog Masters Club when the doors open again. I’m currently on the course myself, and I can assure you that it’s well worth the cost, and some more. It’s not just a course that teaches you how to set up and run a blog like many of the others. On this course it’s assumed that you know the root basics, such as how to set up WordPress, etc. (If you don’t then there is a third-party instructional video available on the course’s site, and, if need be, David Risley himself will help you out too if you’re a paid-up member.) – More on that in due course. In the meantime, if you’d like more information on monetising your blog and making some money with it then click this link.

If you don’t currently blog but would be prepared to give it a go, then entering this competition by posting a guest-post could be the start of a new career moving in a new direction for you. – Whether or not you win the cash prize.

Membership Sites

If you’re not yet convinced about membership sites, despite my extra article with regard to the subject on Tuesday, then may I suggest that you click here and take a look at free video with regard to how Daniel Scocco built up his $10,000 membership site. – You could do just the same, or maybe better?

The Postings

So without further ado; let’s take a look at the posts since the last Public Newsletter: -