Liquified the layout

October 22, 2007 | 4 Responses

I got tired of the new background image really fast so I went back to good ol’ solid navy blue. I also decided to change the layout from ‘fixed’ to liquid’.

I made a really quick job of it. I only edited a few CSS selectors to percentages instead of pixels. I hope I didn’t overlook anything when I made the switch. Let me know if anything looks really screwy.

P.S. I hope you like the new graphic at the top for the MyBlogLog contest. I had meant to redo it as another free MyBlogLog badge but I forgot to save the PSD. Oopsy.

October is my other favorite month

October 1, 2007 | 4 Responses

Halloween, Canadian Thanksgiving, A very special anniversary (to me), these are a few of the things that make October fun and special for me. But what about you? You need to be excited for something. And I can’t have a birthday every month.

Some things to look for in October:

• More posts! - September took a bit of a breather in the posting department, but this month I’m going all out.
• Guest postings! - I have one or two lined up, want in? It aint that hard. Contact me.
• Theme Upgrading! - I’m working on the comments board as we speak but you wont see it ’till I’m done.
• Our first real contest - Featuring a prize with real cash value. Join my community if you want in!
• PressRiot.Ca first issue released? - We are getting dangerously close to the beta release of Canada’s arts & culture review.

So there you have it. My list of promises that October will be much better than September. Also, you may have noticed that I took down the Website Magazine ad. Well… I still haven’t received my complimentary issue, So I figured I wasn’t going to knowingly lie to my readers. I checked the stats before removing it and nobody else subscribed. Lucky for all of you.

In its’ place you will now see a TLA advert. This is because today I randomly received a Paypal check for 4 dollars and can’t find one text link ad on this site… Weird eh? Anyhow it made me remember I had a TLA account and I decided that would be a decent ad to put up.

Remember how I said more posts? Well heres a start.

Whats in store for September

September 4, 2007 | 0 Responses

Its going to be a long month. I have some headlines mapped out for the days to come, but I can’t promise there wont be any lulls in posting. On the 23rd of this month I will be 23. That doesn’t really mean anything but its’ still in some way significant to me. I like when numbers match up like that. Like when I notice a clock says 11:11 or 12:34. Its neat for no reason.

You are entering a construction zone

Hard hats not required….
I’m working on the backend of the blog a lot lately, testing out plugins, setting them up to fit nicely. There may be some weirdness or inconsistencies with some of the features this month, but its’ all going to work out before we see October. Currently tweaking and working with Top Comments board and MyBlogLog avatars. After these are ironed out, I will move on to the overhaul of the response board and single post templates that I promised in August.

This month includes more ways for you to get free link love

Comments have already started to increase on day 3 of the top commentators install. The beauty it is that even if you don’t have enough comments to your name to knock the overall top bloggers on the list, you can still get your name and link on the list for each individual post.

I will also be running a special all month for the Needless Productions MyBlogLog community. Every five new members will be featured in a special post just for joining up. A little link love is always good for the Technorati rank and it never hurt your Google PageRank either. So get in on the community spirit here at Needless and join our group.

ALSO:

Watch for my next post, which will tell you how to get multiple DMOZ links. Its’ completely legit. Subscribe to my feed to be notified instantly when it is published.

Widgets, Advertising and direction update.

September 2, 2007 | 5 Responses

Sorry no MyBlogLog widgets here for now.

For the sake of this current design, I will not be including the MyBlogLog recent readers widget. It isn’t that I don’t appreciate my friends from that community, If fact, I have been making a point of going and checking out the blogs/profiles of everyone in my community lately and also trying my best to leave a comment or two; the issue is more with the widget code itself. It really lags the load time on a blog.

Fact is, most widgets, unless they come as a Wordpress plug-in (sometimes even then), slow your site down. The more remotely hosted widgets you have, the more sites your visitor has to connect to before they can finish loading the page.

Until I either get a new design or MyBlogLog gets a cleaner widget, I will be out of that loop. But that doesn’t stop me from handing out love to my community. The newest members are…

Gadgetastic

Florida weather info lady

GorillaSushi

TheHotIron

IndieMusicLounge

Thanks to all of you for joining the Needless Productions group. Sorry about the lack of a recent readers box. I’m trying to keep my layout junk to a minimum.

Speaking of junk.. how ’bout those ads?

As you will notice I have opted to include ads on my blog. I tried to keep it minimal in choosing only ads for products or services I think my readers will benefit from.

The first ad is ultimately selling ME. I’m a beneficial product or service. I write fair and objective reviews through sponsored posts. I am very careful to be fair and accurate in my findings. It is best to request a neutral review. However, if I truly believe something is good, I am capable of producing a positively toned review.

The second ad ties in with the first one. This ad is for PayPerPost. Its a good way for bloggers to make money. I use it to pay for hosting. Some people have alleged making a perfectly decent living off of being a PPP blogger. It is viable for advertisers because of the high volume of relevant links (with content) it generates. It is lucrative for bloggers who are serious enough to maintain a strong and constistent blog. The higher your blog ranks, the more you can get paid for your posts. There is no cost to start up, but your blog must meet certain standards before you qualify.

The third ad is a product that was passed along to me by my hosting company (that I love so much its’ sick). Website Magazine is a webmaster magazine available free online, so all their content is there for you. They also have a print version that you can subscribe to for free and receive the magazine at your door at no cost. Currently, the print version is only available in Canada and the United States. Other countries keep your fingers crossed and check out the online version in the meantime.

So that is the story behind my ads, behind the lack of MyBlogLog presence on this site and behind why I feel like getting up to take a walk after hours of steady typing.

In other news: I’ve added a top commentators board to the sidebar of this site. You will notice that at the time of this publishing my Uncle, and own flesh and blood is currently at the second last spot on the list with David Hopkins sitting in first and Darren trailing him in second place. Knock these players off their rockers and take the title for yourself. All you have to do is respond somewhere for a free link.

And on that note… View My Reader Community / Join My Reader Community

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