During the Christmas holidays my Good ‘ole buddy “Dell Dimension 8200” desktop died. It had a good life, since I’ve purchased it back in 2002 when it was a super computer .. but, now it’s time to move on. I have been using my spare computer … a Compaq Presario SR1750NX (similar to the stock photo on the left here) .. as my personal backup machine.

I can’t stress the importance of making recent backups – at least, I say that all the time to my clients! But, for myself all I was diligent in was maintaining backups of my client data. This was always easy to do, because I have one folder called c:\DATA and everything I need to keep is stored under this one folder! The problem with doing this at times, is that this folder gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I have several memory sticks (lots of 500MB ones, one 1GB, one 2GB, one 16GB) and since I’ve purchased the 16GB one I’ve pretty much felt safe with my client data.

I also have a portable Toshiba 40GB pocket external hard drive, but it’s an iffy backup when I used it on my Dell Desktop, because it had some restrictions on some of the filename lengths and extensions backing up from the USB1.0 port. What I used to do (way back in the golden years of 2009 and such) was attach it to the USB2.0 port of the Compaq computer and backup periodically the files to the external hard drive. This backup would consist of my data files, music files, etc.

On my old Dell computer, if I needed space or did not want to keep a program on my hard drive (for a simple reason that sometimes I needed at least 15% free space to do a good defrag) I would copy the program over to the Compaq. This would not be an install, just a straight copy. I would delete it from my Dell, not uninstall it, and thus when I would need it I would just copy it back over my internal network.

I honestly believe that when you install programs, the software looks for files you already have in use for other programs, and sets your registry to use these files instead. Where as when you uninstall the software, it pulls all the files – even used by other files – if it’s on the install list – and thus your other programs will crash!

call HART crazy .. but that’s what I believe to be true (whether it is or not). Thus, I rarely uninstall programs.

Anyway … comes Christmas 2009 and my Dell crashes beyond recovery, I moved completely to the Compaq as my new MAIN desktop computer. It took about 4-5 days to recover data that wasn’t currently backed up that I was working on .. well, maybe 1 day work and 3-4 days to get motivated during the Xmas holidays :D.

Then – it hit me … Where’s my Thumbnail program? Where’s my Adobe program? Where’s my Musicmatch program? Where’s all my tax programs? For some reason … I have only been archiving programs on this computer when I was about to delete it from my old computer. The programs that I NEVER DELETED … well, was not backed up. Sure .. I had most of the installed zip files and disks lying around, but GEEEEEESH this was annoying to replicate everything I needed.

Although – Musicmatch is now Yahoo since August 2007 … everything is pretty much recovered and installed now.

ENTER MY NEW BACKUP SYSTEM

GREETINGS HART’s EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!

This is called an HP SimpleSave Desktop External Drive .. and holds 1TB of data .. (that’s 1,000 GB’s) .. I purchased it at Best Buy last week for $139.99 CDN .. My Compaq (for some reason) has two USB1.0 ports on the back of the machine and three USB2.0 ports on the face of the machine, so I also opted to purchase a 2-port USB2.0 card for $20.99 CDN .. total, with PST and GST taxes was $181.90 CDN. Quite reasonable expense if you ask me.

HOW THE HB SIMPLESAVE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WORKS

It truly is “Hands-Free” as the box suggests. Once you plug it in, and the HP Launcher begins, it scans your computer and automatically backs up all your files into groups .. like images, documents, media files, and other popular file types, and if you want – you can also add additional filename extensions to include. There is no software to install or run – it just starts to backup your computer. The first time I did this, it took about 3 hours to analyze and backup about 86GB of data. The theory with this product being “Hands-Free” is that, if your computer is idle for at least 5-minutes, it will search for new and/or changed files and add it to the backup! I’ve since allowed it to test that theory, and changed images, new mp3 files and invoice.doc’s that I have created since that first backup … was automatically backed up!

SOUNDS WONDERFUL ……

BUT …. (there’s always a “but”)

When I looked at the backup, it didn’t have half of my data files in its backup. Sure, it’s nice to finally backup all my mp3 files and images that are probably duplicated a gazillion times around my computer in various folders … but the most basic issue of backing up my client’s acccounting data files – was not covered.

Sure, I could have added a file extension to the list and have them included but, that seemed like too much work. So, this is what I have decided to do about it:

1) IT’S A BACKUP DRIVE … I just went to the windows explorer and file copied my entire c:\ drive manually (D’oh!) to this external backup drive. It took about 7.6 hours to do that .. with all the data files that I have – but, I have verified its backup and they are all there. At the time, all “My Documents” and related folders and desktop didn’t copy too good, so I just moved them into a folder under the C: drive instead of just “My Computer”.

2) I set-up a Toodledo.com reminder notice for me to backup my c:\data drive 3 times a week (for now) and when I receive an email, I just multitask and do it .. takes about 15 seconds.

3) I Keep letting the Automatic Backup do its thing on the other stuff anyway.

There are larger external hard drives out there or ones with more options or features or backup software included .. but they are also pricey too. Although, depending on your needs .. if you ask yourself if $299.99 external backup drive is worth saving your important data is worth it (IT IS) … then ask yourself if having an external backup drive that only costs $139.99 is worth it!

However, if you click the top graphic .. Amazon is currently selling them for about $109.00 USD .. and, I might earn a measly 4% commission on your purchase as an affiliate link. Although, you don’t have to if you want … here’s the non-affiliate link if you prefer. I’m just happy and COMFORTABLE now that I not only have a safe backup of EVERYTHING on my computer now … but, a system in place to keep and maintain current backups in case of the inevitable – again.

You probably already heard that Google started their own URL Shortening Service but, the Google URL Shortener is currently available for Google products only and not for broader consumer use.

I didn’t really get that last part, highlighted above, and didn’t really care. You see, I have my own URL shortening Service, have accounts created and obtaining API for extended statistics at both Bit.ly and cli.gs sites, have preview feature set-up for any tinyURL.com, and my existing sites already have a wide variety of URL shortening services available from plugins activated such as Digg Digg and the like.

HAVE YOU BEEN TO YOUR FEEDBURNER RECENTLY?

I remember setting up a bunch of new blogs back in early October 2009 and noticed that there is no more “PING” series of sites … because the “Pingshot” service just notifies all interested services when my feed changes. Before, I had to select a standard set, plus 5 additional ones and who the heck know which ones were better or not better. Honestly .. I’d rather not know! 😀

* BUT – WHAT IS THIS NEW TAB? “SOCIALIZE” ?

There’s a new tab called “Socialize” that lets you publish to your twitter account – directly from your Feedburner account. You have to first give google authorization (OAuth”) to your twitter account and if you are familiar with twitterfeed.com .. the options are pretty similar. Please see the image below and, of course, check out your own Feedburner account!

By the way .. I use the Feedburner Feedsmith plugin Feedburner Feedsmith Plugin on all my blogs and although I’m not really sure if I need it or not have been using the Full Text Feed plugin that prevents WordPress 2.1+ from adding a “more” link to my website’s feed. So far it ‘ain’t broke my wordpress upgrades to newer versions, so I haven’t stopped using both together.

I AM GIVING THIS A TRYOUT

Currently, I have 93 feeds with my Twitterfeed account .. but, on my new SportsHEN blog (Which will be a front for my five new Olympic Winter Sports Blogs 2010) I have set my feedburner to be submitting my published posts to my newly created twitter.com/SportsHEN account.

This should be interesting to see how this works!

Click on the image to see a bigger screen image view)



View at EasyCaptures.com

Have you tried the Google URL Shortener with your Feedburner account yet?

In December 2009, browsing the Problogger.Community (to which I am a member) forums, I saw Simon Rogers – The Teenage Blogger, requested if anybody “got spare ad space“. At that time, I was debating whether I should convert this blog to Thesis template, or do something a little different with this blog. I mean, I like this template!

So what I thought I would do … is replace my header image that I used to have ….

… and replace it with seven 125×125 banner ads! (see above top below navigation)

Well .. I offered two spots as prizes … for 3 months .. and the winners were announced December 18, 2009 and their banners now appear in my header for 90 days. I am also offering them a permanent link here by this congratulatory post!

Congratulations Teenius Contest Winners

– SHIRLEY’S ZONE – Shirley is a 17 year old blogger, internet entrepreneur and student from Ghana and lives in the second capitol town of Ghana, Kumasi. Shirley is passionate about helping people improve their lives and helping them live a happy life through motivation, inspiration, teaching them about blogging, entrepreneurship, money, and life as a whole.

INNOVATE YOURSELF – Where all the cool stuff happens … Deepika is interested in blogging and very eager in learning new things and sharing information. If you are a blogger without a blog and wish to guest post internet, or recent technologies .. please consider getting in touch with Deepika.

TEENIUS – Make Money With A Teenager – Simon Rogers is a teenager from the UK, just getting ready to start college to study Law, Business, Computing and one other subject. It was Simon’s idea for this contest of giving away $800 worth of free advertising – supplied by bloggers like myself and other great sites – and this is just one of the many simple blogging tips and tricks you will find over at Teenius to help bring awareness and traffic to your site!

So check out all of these sites and Congrats again to the winners!

I am trying something new this month …

I have just purchased the Genesis Rocket system (formerly TwitterRocket) to help me increase my twitter followers.

Imagine Twitter as a massive pool containing millions of people, all connected together either directly or indirectly, some talking, some listening, all communicating. Your influence on Twitter, and therefore the power that you wield, is determined by many things, including the number of people that follow you, the quality of the people that follow you, and the quality of the people that follow the people that follow you. More than that, your influence is determined by how you act, what you say, and what you do on Twitter. To make Twitter work for you it is important to have a growing number of high quality followers and to do certain things that influence your followers, and their followers, making them do exactly what you want them to do. When Twitter works for you your followers, and their followers, will want to do exactly what you want them to do. Twitter, because of it’s viral social structure, makes it easy for anyone to build influence. Once you have influence you can do anything.

And Genesis Rocket shows you exactly how to achieve the level of influence that you need to succeed, 1 step at a time, in 5 easy to follow 30 minute steps.

I have been using twitter since beginning of January 2008 and have various twitter accounts created for separate purposes and slowing trying to increase my followers. Except for @HARTmarket twitter account, all my blogs are using twitterfeed to shoot out messages to my main twitter account – @PetLvr. This is the twitter account I do all of my chatting and tweeting. I know there is automated stuff, but I believe the information that is covered, is a smaller percentage of the manual and personal tweeting that I do, that it is overlooked and admired by my followers! (/ego off)

However, I know with my @HARTmarket I don’t chat much and am currently about 95% automated tweeting (via twitterfeed) new daily posts coming from the Shops @ HART Market store. My followers are growing, but the followers are not as .. “loyal?” .. “dedicated?” … well, not as impressive as my PetLvr followers. About 1/3 of these followers are just like me – people trying to push their affiliate products or some other hidden agenda in the hopes of trying to sell something. I mean, all these followers and their tweets (just like mine) are good – but, only for those specifically looking for these type of information and links!

My PetLvr crowd is different though. Some are specifically looking for information (pet related information) but that’s not all people could be looking for. I have never automated any script to obtain followers on this “clean” twitter account and believe people follow @PetLvr because of the content I present, and because of my own social nature and status in my social communities that I participate. In this case – (sorry) – I do wish that people trust me enough with my posts that they are actually reading my stuff …. and, if I recommend a product, review or even a movie to see there maybe some people that just might say .. hey! If @PetLvr likes it .. maybe I will too! 😀

Enter the GENESIS ROCKET Experiment

I have mentioned that I have purchased the Genesis Rocket System and have been linking to my affiliate link – meaning, if you decide to purchase this as well I will earn a commission. But, this is an interesting concept. You can automate ways to increase your followings, and I will be doing this as an experiment.

BUT – it is NOT what you think – that I will turn the key “on” and suddenly get 1000’s of new followers without any work. There is work and there are good tips in the 46 page .pdf Ebook that I haven’t even thought of before! Automation would include stuff like using your twitterfeed account to help promote your twitter account. In reality, I think if I were to try to describe it any better, you are really trying to get targeted twitter followers and providing information to these twitter followers to make them want to follow you, and find more twitter followers! For more information than that, I suggest you at least read the sales pitch on the following link:

In reality, what sets those who succeed on Twitter apart from those who fail, can be documented, broken up into 5 simple steps, and turned into a bullet proof plan that will teach you to create multiple pockets of passive income over and over again.

Genesis Rocket is that plan. A plan that will show you, step by step, how to build, maintain, promote, develop and profit from your Twitter account.

The Experiment – The Pet Care Shop @ HART Market

I have created a new twitter account for this experiment …. twitter.com/PetcareShop … and it will be this twitter account that I will be testing the tips and techniques used in the Genesis Rocket system to try to increase targeted followers and hopefully, increase affiliate commissions on my Pet Care Shop @ HART Market sales!

Now, I know that because of this is a twitter account for a “store” .. I don’t expect to obtain growth as much as the 1,000/week. But, I will be happy if by March 1st I can reach over 2,500 followers (about 300/week) and this will be my goal. If successful, I probably won’t be USING this system 100% on my other twitter accounts, but you can probably bet that I will implement some of the techniques and tips that will have worked for me.

Do you remember all those spammy links to ‘guaranteed’ ways to increase your twitter followers by 16,000 in a week or whenever? I probably looked at all these systems and couldn’t believe there are a lot of suckers out there (although, a few geniuses selling those ebooks). I recalled looking at Twitter Rocket just about the time it changed its name to Genesis Rocket and thought if I would ever try a system, this one would be that system. The others are just a time bomb waiting for their accounts to be disabled, in my opinion. I had a little extra money in my own paypal account and decided to give it a try. Also, as an affiliate – you do make 50% earnings so, if two of my readers also try this system with me – my money is paid! And, you can do the same.

My experiment will begin January 5th, 2010 (after my wife goes back to work from the Christmas Break :D)

Did you want to try the experiment with me? Maybe we can look back December 31, 2010 and see how successful we were with this!

I have just activated the Backtype Connect wordpress plugin on this blog. What I find interesting, is that I have been using this on my PetLvr blog for about two weeks now, and it really does find other social media comments about the blog post! This includes people tweeting your posts, mentions on friendfeed, comments on digg and reddit – etc – and then it integrates them with your regular comments!

People seem to read more, or want to comment more – when they see other people commenting already.

With twitter, I am using SocialOomph.com (formerly known as TweetLater.com) to email 100% mentions of my @PetLvr and other twitter names .. but, sometimes there are kind tweeples out there that RETWEET my content, but don’t have space or time to include the @PetLvr in their tweet – just the shortened URL. Backtype Connect finds these social comments and adds them to my blog and helps me recognize WHO my tweeting friends so I can praise them and add them to my “Super Tweeters” list (and #fridayfollows etc)

Just go to your plugins in your dashboard, ‘Add New’ and search for “Backtype Connect” and install.

And, speaking of which .. if you are unfamiliar with how Backtype Connect works .. go check it out and input your blog URL or one of your posts that you know has been RT’ed.

Backtype Connect Features

* Display comments from other blogs, Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, Reddit, and more
* You can configure exactly what sources you want to display related conversations from
* Summarize, display comments inline, or append them to the end of your comments section
* Your readers can even respond to the comments BackType Connect displays

Currently, we support conversations from:

* Twitter – tweets that link your posts
* FriendFeed – on the entries for your posts
* Digg – on the submissions for your posts
* Reddit – on the submissions for your posts
* Hacker News – on the submissions for your posts
* Other blogs – whenever someone links one of your posts

Installation

Note: It is recommended that you backup your database before installing

Go ahead and RETWEET this post from the TweetMeme button at the top right of this post and then come back, hit refresh and see your comment RT show up!

I must have received a gabillion comments in moderation from this IP address by now … IP: 89.28.114.111 … and every comment in moderation has some reference or spelling similar to Viagra .. I thought I would post some of these comments in here for a laugh!

* I can not solve. Wanna good joke? What do you get when you have a cow and a duck? Milk and quackers.

* I apologise, but, in my opinion, you are not right. I am assured. Write to me in PM. I have a nice fresh joke for you people) What time is it when the clock strikes 13? Time to get the clock fixed.

* I have read a good joke in internet 😉 What is Beethoven doing in his coffin right now? Decomposing.

* I have a fresh joke for you) How do you keep a bagel from getting away? Put lox on it!

* Nice joke! What do you get when you cross a pit bull with a collie? A dog that runs for help, after he bites your leg off.

* I have a good fresh joke for you! Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide.

* A JOKE! ) What do you get if you cross a giant and a vampire? A BIG pain in the neck!

* A joke for you! Did you hear about the pregnant bedbug? She had her baby in the spring.

* Wanna very nice joke?)) Why can’t a woman ask her brother for help? Because he can’t be a brother and assist her too.

* Nice joke! How many computer programmers does it take to change a light bulb? Are you kidding? That’s a hardware problem!

* Fresh joke! Why does Santa have 3 gardens? So he can ho-ho-ho.

* I have a fresh joke for you) What do snowmen eat for breakfast? Snowflakes.

* I have a nice joke. What did one ocean say to the other ocean? Nothing, they just waved.

* Oh, good joke) Why did the bunnies go on strike? They wanted a raise in celery.

* I have a good fresh joke for you! What do you call an artificial stone? A shamrock.

* Wanna good joke? Why does a turtle live in a shell? Because it can’t afford an apartment.

* Wanna very nice joke?)) Where did the vegetables go to get drunk? The Salad Bar.

* Oh, good joke) What happens to illegally parked frogs? They get toad away.

* I have a nice joke for you) What kind of coffee was served on the Titanic? Sanka.

* I have a good fresh joke for you! Why is a bell obedient? It rings only when it is TOLLED!

* I have a fresh joke for you) A neutron goes into a barber shop and asks the barber, “How much for a haircut?” The barber replies, “For you, no charge.”

* Do you want a joke? 🙂 Did you hear about the new restaurant that opened in India? It’s a New Delhicatessen.

* Wanna very nice joke?)) What did the Scotsman do when he couldn’t find a pair of pants? He kilt himself.

* I have a good fresh joke for you! Did you hear about the bandit that held up a Chinese restaurant? Half an hour later he was broke.

* Do you want a joke? 🙂 What do you call a frightened scuba diver? Chicken of the sea.

* Sorry, for off top, i wanna tell one joke) What does a dog get when it finishes obedience school? A pet degree.

* I have a nice joke for you) What did the Scotsman do when he couldn’t find a pair of pants? He kilt himself.

* I have a joke for you =) What geometric figure represents a lost parrot? A polygon.

* A JOKE! ) What did one ocean say to the other ocean? Nothing, they just waved.

* Sorry, for off top, i wanna tell one joke) What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t work? A stick.

* I have a nice joke for you) What do you get when you drop boiling water down a rabbit hole? Hot cross bunnies.

* I have a joke for you =) What farm animal is a cannibal? A Cow, it eats it’s fodder!

* I have a nice joke for you) What did the elephant say to the naked man? How can you breathe through that?

* I have a good fresh joke for you! Which side of a dog has the most hair? The outside.

* A joke for you peoples! What is the difference between a fisherman and a lazy schoolboy? One baits his hook, while the other hates his book.

* A joke for you peoples! What did one cloned sheep say to the other? I am ewe.

* When you order frogs legs at a restaurant what do they do with the rest of the frog ? – Well surely they just throw the rest of the frog away and take it to the tip.

* Nice joke! Why did the dinosaur cross the road? Because there were no chickens in those times.

* A joke for you! What day does a fish hate? Fry day.

* I have a nice joke for you people! 🙂 How can you tell if a planet is married? It has a ring around it.

* A JOKE! ) What’s the difference between an oral thermometer and a rectal thermometer? The taste.

* I have a joke for you =) How do you get a frog off the back window of your car? Use the rear defrogger.

* Oh, good joke) Why is a turkey more evil than a chicken? Because a turkey is always a gobblin (a goblin)

* I have a joke for you =) How can you make a slow horse fast? Stop feeding him!!

* I have a fresh joke for you) What has four legs, is big, green, furry, and if it fell out of a tree would kill you? A pool table.

* Wanna joke?) Why did the garbage look sad? Because it was down in the dumps.

* Nice joke! What do you call a day that follows two days of rain? Monday.

* I have read a good joke in internet 😉 What do ghouls wear on their feet in the rain?!? GHOULOSHES!!!

* Nice joke! What has more lives than a cat? A frog. It croaks every night.

* A joke for you peoples! What do you call a nun who walks in her sleep? A roaming Catholic.

* I have a joke for you =) What do sea monsters eat for lunch? Fish and ships.

* A joke for you peoples! What’s happening when you hear “woof…splat…meow…splat?” It’s raining cats and dogs.

* A joke for you peoples! What city has the largest rodent population? Hamsterdam.

* Do you want a joke? 🙂 What is the most popular wine at Christmas? “Can’t we open the presents yet?”

* I have a nice joke. Samantha: Doctor, my son thinks that he is a TV channel changer. What are the odds that you can save him? Doctor: Remote!!

* Wanna joke?) What did one rabbit say to the other rabbit? Nothing. Rabbits can’t talk.

* I have a good fresh joke for you! What type of fish play poker? Card sharks.

* I have a nice joke for you people! 🙂 What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches? A nervous wreck.

* I have a nice fresh joke for you people) Why is an evil witch like a candle? They are both WICKED

* Wanna joke?) What do you get when you drop boiling water down a rabbit hole? Hot cross bunnies.

* I have a nice joke for you) Why do elephants trumpet? They don’t know how to play the violin.

* I have a nice joke for you people! 🙂 Why does Santa Claus go down the chimney on Christmas Eve?Because it SOOTS him!

* I have a good fresh joke for you! Who is Dracula’s favorite person on the baseball team? The BAT boy!

* Do you want a joke? 🙂 What did the sailor say when he saw a boat loaded with ewes? Sheep ahoy!

* How much money would an average college philosopher make?

* Do you want a joke? 🙂 Why did Willie Nelson get hit by a car? He was playing on the road again.

* Fresh joke! Why do carpenters believe that there is no such thing as stone? Because they never SAW it!!

* Good joke 🙂 Did you hear about the butcher who accidentally backed into the meat grinder? He got a little behind in his work.

* A JOKE! ) What do you get when you play a country music song backward? You get your wife back, you get your job back, you stop drinking …

* I have a good fresh joke for you! What kind of music do ghosts listen to? Sheet music.

* A joke for you peoples! The dreaded Amish flu: First you get a little hoarse. Then you get a little buggy.

* I have a nice joke for you) What do you call Santa’s helpers? Subordinate Clauses.

* I have a good fresh joke for you! Where does satisfaction come from? A satisfactory.

* I have read a good joke in internet 😉 Why did the man put wheels on his rocking chair? He wanted to rock and roll.

* Good joke 🙂 What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don’t know and I don’t care.

* I have a joke for you =) What is the difference between a photocopier and the whooping cough? One makes facsimiles and the other makes sick families.

* I have a nice joke for you) What insect does well in school? A spelling bee.

* I have a nice fresh joke for you people) Where does the Lone Ranger take his garbage? Ta da dump, ta da dump, ta da dump Dump DUMP!!!

* Fresh joke! Why is a bell obedient? It rings only when it is TOLLED!

* Do you want a joke? 🙂 How do crazy people go through the forest? They take the psycho path.

I have been switching most of my blogs away from the YARP or WordPress Related Plugins or other related posts/pages plugins that are available to WordPress users .. and using the LinkWithin Widget. I figured that since in the past 3 days I have recommended this widget about 5 times .. I would document it here in the HART-Empire blog.

This is really easy to use. Go to the LinkWithinsite, setup your domain, download the plugin, upload the plugin and activate it. That’s it!

You will see it at the bottom of each post now .. I have set it to show up 4 random pictorial thumbnails and related posts on this template.

According to LinkWithin’s FAQ Page, related stories are chosen based on several factors, including title, tags, and content. If you have a lot of content, it may appear that the posts are not that related, but I have noticed on PetLvr blog that as time progress, the related posts in the archived posts are becoming more related to the post each and every day. Quite frankly, I probably couldn’t care less if it was just a random post so people can just surf my archives after reading the content actually ;D but related posts are nice when people come via the search engines and are trying to actually find information, rather than just come to surf the site.

Also, (speaking of my PetLvr site), I occasionally check out my archived posts and if I see a related LinkWithin suggestion without an image (because there is no image on the original post to create a thumbnail) then I will edit it and add something using my Insights plugin!

From: LinkWithin.com Pages ….

Show Related Stories Under Each Post!

LinkWithin is a blog widget that appears under each post, linking to related stories from your blog archive. Don’t Let Your Past Stories Go to Waste!

We retrieve and index all stories from your blog archive, not just recent stories, making them accessible to new or casual readers of your blog who would not otherwise encounter them. Increase Pageviews, Keep Readers Engaged

The widget links to stories that are relevant and interesting to readers of a particular post, keeping them engaged with your blog, and increasing your traffic.
Elegant, Unobtrusive Design

Our widget is minimally styled and blends in with your site design. Free and Easy to Install

The widget is free and ad-free. It takes a minute to get the widget up and running on your blog, no signup required!

FYI .. you don’t have to be married to it – Although I have been switching my related post plugins to the LinkWithin widget on my other blogs, I decided to leave BOTH the LinkWithin widget active along with the WordPress Related Post plugin to see if there are any issues having more than one related type of plugin activated at the same time!

Check it out! What do you think?

The father of an 11-year child on Facebook has given me some concern to rethink my “Facebook” activity. The father is a “Friend” in real life and his children is on facebook and they also “Friend”‘ed me.

In conversation with the father yesterday, he mentioned that the child was concerned because he didn’t want to hurt my feelings .. apparently I am spamming him! He is just getting started on Facebook, and although he might have over 100 friends himself .. I’m his only friend that posts more than once a day.

Actually – I just looked – over one 24 hour period – I have published 23 posts on Facebook! I think looking backwards and forward, the posts in any given day could amount between 20-35 extra posts, depending on how much extra time I have to write and create new content and promote them!

As you can see there are a lot of posts! Of the 23 posts .. 8 of them are manually posted by me either on Facebook, or via Twitter which is posted automatically to twitter. The rest are automated posts to my twitter account either directly from my blogs and their feeds, and/or manually posted from my SU.PR account which, posts to Facebook and Twitter separately, so when the twitter post goes through – it posts twice to Facebook! (There were 2 instances of this above).

I’m guessing that probably NONE of them really were really interesting to my Friend’s 11-year old child and while we are friends and able to keep in touch in Facebook, I don’t expect him to be a reader of my blogs et al.

My plan is to get my content out there .. to market my stuff, market myself, and find new traffic. But, I already know that I am on the cutting edge with my blogs. I monetize them to the max. I try to promote the posts to the max. I have a popup trying to obtain newsletter subscribers to the max. I post all of my posts directly to twitter to the max. I’m a “Maxxie” type of guy!! (my Papillon dog is named Maxxie! :D)

Well .. good news – I don’t have my @HARTmarket twitter account posting here to Facebook. If I did .. it would post another 60-70 more posts a day!!

About Facebook Fan Pages

I’ve been on Facebook for a while, and have a slew of friends without even using Facebook (or, was that a gaggle of friends? a flock of friends?) Anyway, When I finally decided that I really wanted FAN Pages and set up 5 fan pages for each section of my network of blog sites … I really did not know what to do with my “Personal Account” to which the fan pages are attached to! At first, I had all these NEW friend requests, and ignored them hoping to only get fans. But, I wanted to follow people back, and they do not all have Fan pages themselves! If I were to follow interesting people on Facebook, then I would have to add them as a friend to do that. The next thing you know, I just started accepting all friend requests and even sought out friends myself!

Something Has To Be Done

In the next week or so, I am going to try figuring out a better way to not spam my Facebook readers, while still trying to get the word out – so to speak. I think I learned my lesson now. I have only been tying into the Facebook crowd since post-summer 2009 and have a lot to figure out. Questions that I am concerned with right now are:

1) Do I really need to replicate twitter updates over on facebook?
2) Do I really want to replicate twitter updates over on facebook?

Granted, I might have a lot more sites than the average person on Facebook, but how do other people manage their facebook profiles?

Feel free to offer me some sage advice, tips and suggestions! // Thanks… HART

I noticed this today, when I was checking out my whos amung us stats .. and thought I would find out by doing!

I have now added TYNT codes to my PetLvr and BattlingForHealth sites, and will probably add it to all my sites by the end of the day, because it’s quite easy to do this:

1) Enter Domain
2) Copy and paste the code just before the [/body] in the footer

Note! Don’t forget to activate the free PRO account, while it’s free to test it out!

What Is TYNT?

Insight into the “copy and paste” phenomenon.

Your content is likely copied far more than you realize.

Depending on the site, up to 6% of page loads results in a user copying content. While this may not sound like much, think of it this way: on a site that has 20 million page views per month, content is copied over one million times during any given month. That’s a lot. How do we know this? Tynt Insight is currently running on hundreds of thousands of web sites and monitors billions of page loads per month.

Since the average content copy is between 200 and 300 words, even a site with only 100,000 page views would have over 3 million words leave the site via copy each month (not to mention all the images!) That’s also a lot.
Why do people copy content?

Tynt Insight anonymously detects when content is copied from your site, and can help determine what they are doing with it. We find that most people copy content innocently because they are your fans. They copy content to either preserve it for themselves or to share it. Half of copied content is still shared by email because it is still the easiest and most familiar way to share content.

Memo – I copied and pasted the above paragraph from their website and when people do that .. it automatically adds the “read more” URL below this blockquote whenever anybody pastes what they just copied!

Read more: Tynt Insight » Why Tynt Insight? www1.tynt.com/why-tynt-insight#ixzz0X9pN5fhg

Don’t Take My Word For It – Watch The Video

I normally print my own business cards. The template is on MS Publisher and I print them on Avery Clean Edge glossy business cardthem on my G85 All-In-One printer, maybe 5 sheets at a time. I never really wanted to print more than a small handfull, because it seems like at least once every 6-8 months something happens .. a new toll-free fax number, I drop my cell phone and transfer my home number to my cell .. etc etc.

Here is my existing business card for HBS Management Consultants:

The last time I needed business cards desperately, I ran out of the clean edge stock, and just used the heavier stock paper that normally use for covers on financial statements … resulting in these yellow cards that I may (or may not have) cut quite unprofessionally with dull scissors or worse!

Buying My Business Cards Online

Last week I decided to try an online printing company … OverNightPrints.com .. and get a new business card without my phone number, and more for internet ventures than my offline ventures. It is a hi-glossy finish, double sided, and has my toll-free fax line, my email address, my site URL’s, my twitter address and my facebook address.

Date Ordered: October 29, 2009
Cost: $39.95 USD
Shipping: $18.77 USD (standard to Canada)
Total: $58.72 USD
Date Arrived: November 5, 2009
Additional Costs: $36.19 CDN (PST, GST and brokerage)

If I were to convert that to the going foreign exchange rate of 1.0705, these 500 business cards would probably ‘net me $99.05 CDN. or just under 20 cents CDN per single card. Is that a little high? Perhaps .. but it’s not like I’m dropping these on windshields or in mailboxes around the neighbourhood – I’m handing them out to people curious about my online business ventures and/or ask me for my email address. I think it’s a reasonable cost. I did not want to buy 50,000 business cards just to reduce the average unit cost, because I would never get rid of them.

Here is my new business card