I received an email yesterday that turned into a bit of a back and forth debate. It wasn’t a heated debate, mind you, just a friendly discussion about my decision to turn off the comments on this blog.

Apparently, although this blogging peer has never chosen to comment here they took offense to the the fact that as of last week they were no longer allowed. Proving that absence does make the heart grow founder, I suppose.

Anyway, because I have frequently used the words, “social media” and “interactive marketing” with clients, I was called on the carpet for having negated even the chance of my blog being either by shutting off comments. I have to admit, I agree. I was wrong and I will correct my error by changing this blog back to comment-abled status as of this post.

I have been quite busy lately and I suppose my reasoning – that I didn’t want to the neglect commenters here – really wasn’t completely logical. First, it obviously hasn’t been a problem yet. Secondly, well does there even have to be a second reason. I mean, duh. I didn’t need to solve a problem that I didn’t even have.

The thing about blogs that are an appendage of a business blog is that each us is an expert in our own little way. We have knowledge to offer that we may not even realize is valuable to others. I’ve always told clients that they need to make themselves as accessible as possible though, yet I wasn’t following my own advice. I had turned this blog into a monalogue rather than a discussion. I apologize.

See I can admit when I’m wrong. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

WordPress has released their WordPress 2.3 Beta 1 and they’re looking for knowledgable brave helpful souls to test it out.

The past 3 months we’ve been working feverishly on the next version of WordPress, 2.3. Today we’re releasing the first beta of 2.3 and we’re hoping the more adventurous and savvy among you will help us test it.

Some of the features of 2.3 include plugin and core update notification, built-in tags support, faster javascript, and SEO-friendly URL redirection.

If you’re interested, go here to read more.

Often when I have an extra 30 minutes or so to catch up on my blog reading, I’ll sit down at that computer and open my feedreader. I’ve recently cut my feeds down to a very reasonable amount, so 30 minutes should allow me enough time to read through most feeds and even comment on one or two that may have really interested me.

Every single one of the blogs in my feedreader is one I enjoy reading. This should be obvious otherwise I wouldn’t have subscribed to them, right? Yet, there is something that bothers me about a few. As enjoyable or informational as these blogs may be two or three of them only allow a summary of their post rather than the full text.

Now here’s my confession, many times I only read the few sentences and decide not to click over to their blog for the rest of the post. If those first few words don’t completely suck me in, I’m gone. To click the READ MORE link just seems like too much trouble. I am so partial to full text posts in feedreaders that I rarely continue to stay subscribed to a blog without them. I always wondered if others felt the same. Was I alone in my true disdain for summaries or did others feel the same?

I think I got my answer the other day when I read Darren’s post at Problogger, “The Secret to Increasing Your Traffic Overnight – Hint, it has Something to do with Going on Holidays.”

It’s a good read, as are many other posts you’ll read there. If you’re interested in growing your blog traffic, I suggest three things you simply must do: first subscribe to his blog, then don’t miss his excellent series called, 31 Days to Building a Better Blog.

The third? Seriously do you have to ask? Change your posts to full text, of course.

Do you have problems with your feed? In a feedreader does it sometimes say something similar to, “This feed has invalid XML.” Or maybe you’ll see a small graphic once in a while by yours or someone else feed in bloglines, fizzle or another feedreader notifying you of a problem.

This used to happen to me and I never knew why. If I continued to post it would eventually fix itself. At least that’s what I thought, in all reality it was the fact the I continued to post that fixed it. And here’s why.

Most likely you used Word to write your post and then copy and pasted it into your blogging software. I used to do this occasionally, one of the reasons was my love of spell check. This was before Firefox added spell check. By using Word, I would unknowingly be copy and pasting the erroneous characters that Word places into each post. That was what was ruining my feed.

I didn’t always use Word though and as I continued to post I would eventually knock the corrupted post off my list of latest posts. In wordpress I usually choose to list the last ten posts. Once the corrupted post was knocked off the list all was well with my feed. And right about that time I’d probably decide to use Word again.

I’ve learned my lesson. And maybe you just did too.

I’ve been blogging for two years – you might not know that when first visiting this blog – I have visited quite a few blogs in my day. In fact, by running a blogroll I have become acquainted with more blogs than I can possibly read on a daily, weekly, even monthly basis.

When someone requests that they be added to the blogroll, my first step is always to visit the blog and make sure that the content truly is family-friendly. Now that the rules are the blogroll should be displayed in the sidebar prior to contacting me, I also look to make sure that it is.

In that first visit I usually make a quick assessment as to the viability of the blog. I don’t do it on purpose, I can’t help it. I look at the blog and imediately know whether it will become popular. The content is obviously important but it’s not the only thing that is critical to popularity. There will always be a segment of the population in the blogging world that will read you no matter from what perspective you write.

What’s even more important than content is your design. If people don’t like your look they usually won’t stick around to find out what you have to say. You need to pick a design and colors that are pleasing to the eye. At least to the eye of the type of people to whom you write. If you’re Goth, by all means choose black and red as your color scheme. But a white background and dark type proves to be, in most polls, the preferred choice of readers. Use this information, it will help gain readership.

Another problem I see is the use of free blogging sites that fill the top of your page with their own advertisements. It’s annoying for a reader, especially if it makes navigation confusing. If you must use a free service choose wisely. And make sure the free service allows comments without registering for an account. Also try to use a service that allows javascript so that you can join blogrolls and promote your blog.

One more thing about the free blogging services, no one who is promoting a business or attempting to start a business should use these free services. From a customer stand point – and I’ve heard this said more than once – it’s tacky. If you don’t believe in your business enough to invest $9.00 a month to run your own blog/website no one else will either. At the very, very least, you must begin with purchasing your own domain name. Many have found that after spending hours upon countless hours building recognition and links that they have to start over when they finally decide to purchase their own name.

We like to think that in life, looks don’t matter. The thing is that they do and people make a snap judgement based on looks even more so in Bloggityville. So take a look around your blog today and see if a little sprucing up might be in order.

Like my kids always say, “You’re cleaning? Who’s coming over?”

Because in bloggityville, company is always stopping by.

I’ve made the decision not to allow comments on the posts here at WebExDesign.com/Blog. This does not mean that I don’t want to talk to anyone though, really it doesn’t.

Feel free to “talk” to me through the contact form or you can email me by clicking on the email address in the sidebar. If you have a blogging question… I’m here for you. If you have a design, shopping cart, email list, blogroll, doamin name, database, or cpanel question just ask.

The reason for this decision was mainly that this blog is more for informational purposes than anything else. I don’t want to make anyone feel they need to comment on posts that mean nothing to them. I will be posting on some of the websites we’re currently working on and maybe mentioning updates and changes to various software programs. I will also talk about WordPress, my beloved and preferred choice of all blogging platforms.

While I hope that the posts are interesting to some, I am not living in such a state of denial that I believe this blog will rank among the top blogs in any category. See I am not completely crazy after all!

On September 8th, 2006, Sergeant First-class Merideth Howard died when a car bomber slammed into a Humvee carrying 15 people. Howard, 52, died that Friday while on patrol in Kabul. She is the oldest female soldier killed in action since fighting started in Afghanistan in 2001.

Family and friends of this Waukesha soldier had this to say about Sgt. 1st Class Merideth Howard’s dedication.

Howard’s husband, Hugh Hvolboll, said he and his wife enjoyed traveling the world together to places such as Mexico, Spain and Hawaii. He says she joined the Army Reserves in 1988 and went to Afghanistan in April. She was a member of the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade in support of the Tenth Mountain Division.

Her cousin, Susan Utley, says Howard didn’t expect her unit to be called up. According to the cousin, Howard thought it was a bad idea for her unit to go and she turned out to be right.

Howard worked as a firefighter before she began a career as a fire-safety consultant out of their Waukesha home.

Her husband remembers that she had gorgeous blue eyes. He says meeting her was like meeting his soul mate, and that it felt like they’d known each other forever.

Merideth Howard, as an American citizen I am sincerely and forever grateful for your courage and your sacrifice. I want to thank your family for all they have given for the cause of freedom. I will remember you, and I will teach my children to remember you. We are forever in your debt.

Information Sources:
The Milwaukee Channel
Channel NBC 15

Some Gave All is a tribute blog with the important goal of honoring every fallen soldier since the inception of the war in 2001, by name. If you have a blog of your own, your participation in this project would be greatly appreciated. Please get involved today, we need your help.