Hi there!

Are you actually nosey enough to really read this page?

Cool! Hey, I like you!

Here’s the deal. I have no idea what I’m doing! Ok, well, I sort of have an idea or two — or 76 thousand — but I’m trying to learn how to implement them. Or not. Sometimes it just sounds better in my head than in actual code.

So, this Colophon area of the blog, yeah, it’s where I stick my ideas as I’m working on stuff for the layout. Yes, colophon is a word. Look it up. Gruber has one and people think he’s cool. Are you sure you want to read this? It’s kind of boring. Okay. You’ve come this far.

If you see something you like or have a suggestion, would you leave a comment for me, please? I’d really love some feedback on this project. Thanks!

Handy-Dandy Links

http://momsgonegeek.net/biographies-template

This is a link for prospective partners of the show. It’s a page that looks just like the published Biographies page except this one is published with a password. The purpose of this page is to draft a bio of a person who contributes regularly to the show so we can give them credit & traffic towards their space on the web. I’d like to use this page to draft the information and have the person view it privately first in case they would like to make changes to their information. We will send the password to the person whose information has been requested for review and direct them to this link to give us feedback.

To Do List & Reminders:

Add Sidebar Widgets:

  • Blogroll Links
  • Facebook Page
  • Twitter
  • Networked Blogs
  • Donations
  • Advertising
  • Traffic: Feedjit
    (Note, experienced page-load strain 4/7/10 so I removed it to see if it would allow the blog to load quicker. It’s still loaded in the inactive widgets section.)
  • Must check page load times to make sure sidebar widgets are not causing long load times – twitter widgets have been problematic in the past

Correct and test RSS Feed! Need to get it directed to the proper Feedburner feed, not the one WordPress is pimping!

Comments - yes, we actually have received comments, but you wouldn’t know that because they don’t freaking show up since we’ve moved the blog. I prefer to use Disqus for commenting and the comments have been saved, sort of, I just need to figure out how to get them to look like they’ve been posted on the corresponding posts. I’d say it was no big deal, but people enjoy having their comments displayed.

Speaking of comments, I’ve actually left this page OPEN for comments just in case anyone wants to give us some feedback on the design and layout. I don’t really know what I’m doing here. I’m just making this stuff up, really!! Halp! kthanksbai

oh snap!!

(I learned that from Google Chrome and some fifth-graders a while back) I want to leave comments open on this page. The little checkmark thingamajig tells me I can, but it doesn’t seem to work. Hrmmmm.

Drop-down Menus - they look stupid right now, I know. I haven’t yet figured out how to tweak them. I think I know where, but thats some clicks away yet. I don’t like the “down arrow gif” thingee that came with this theme. I want something more “scroll-like-looking.” I found out where that gif graphic lives in the directory, but I haven’t found it in the code yet to replace it.

Did I mention lately how stupid this WYSIWYG editor is in WP? It’s not exactly WYSIWYG now is it?

Notes:

- Planning on removing Flash Audio Player code from all posts because they are flash-intensive and causing my browsers to crash with so many on one page each time.

- They are also causing feed validation problems. Feed validates, but there are many corrections highlighted in yellow.

- Going to investigate some plugins for podcasting like podPress.

- Would it be funny to add some kind of banner somewhere that says “This Blog is Flash-Free!” or maybe “This Blog is 90% Flash-Free” — because I’m not sure if some of the ads will require flash. I’m hoping we can come up with an HTML5 solution for this though. Right now it doesn’t look very promising. :(

Typography:

Working on learning how to implement CSS code to format text to look nicer. Right now my .CSS page is not the way I want it because I’m trying to learn about “em” heights and such. I’m slowly getting there. All this week I’ve been tinkering with the code and tweaking the layout. Learning lots of stuff!

WordPress Plugins:

• Advertising

  • Twitter – Tweets (test this against page-load errors)
  • podPress OR Podcasting Plugin by TSG OR something else? need slim player for our audio; something customizable and not heavy on flash so as not to affect page load times
  • RSS Feed – Feedburner
  • Font Burner
  • Typography (test for errors & deactivate if need-be)
  • @Anywhere looks like it might be something hot to add to the site, not yet sure how to implement it though
  • Brinkin Banner Exchange
  • IdealAds
  • PayPal Donations – need to set up MGG financials – Tax ID No., bank acct., etc.
  • Donate Everywhere (see above)
  • wp-Typography -might screw up post titles? beware!
  • WP Page Numbers
  • WP Social Blogroll – need to add links to friends’ sites
  • Recommended Reading: Google Reader Shared – need to create Google Reader & populate for MGG

RSS Feed – need to make sure this WP blog is directing to the proper Feedburner RSS Feed because that’s where are stats are connected from previous blog – both text blog and podcast from Libsyn

Financial:

  1. Register Tax ID
  2. Open Business Checking Account – PNC is free and can be done online
  3. Open a Paypal Account and link it to the business account
  4. Add a Donations Button to the Sidebar asking for contributions
  5. Set up advertising deals and have any payments processed to the business checking account

Advertising:

Need to check into Amazon affiliate promotions, Google Adsense, and some other services. Possibly Mevio deal. Need to get Tax ID first and then set up a business bank account. Check out Venmo for that maybe?

Audio Hosting:

Looking at possibly moving audio feeds from Libsyn to Mevio but scared of all that might break and losing stats. Kind of sucks paying a monthly fee for hosting when there is not much traffic. Have lost some money on this project due to it being on hold. Hoping to recoup some losses, someday.