OK. All of the comments I got back were very positive about getting more geeky on this site and posting more of the technical information I would like to post. So, I’m going to start putting together some technical posts and hopefully videos I can start posting on this blog. I will also need to make some changes to this blog such as adding categories and deciding if I need to change the design around to better accommodate videos and so forth.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and if you have any suggestions on geeky material to post, post a comment.

- Hill

OK. I’ve really been itching to add more blog posting about a lot of things I like. A lot of them are not so much business related as much as they are technical. Since they are more technical, I have been a bit hesitant to post them on this blog and possibly alienate some of my visitors. However, I am an absolute geek and LOVE talking about technical things. The technical things are what eventually made me successful since they are my passion and all of my businesses spawned from my technical knowledge.

So, here’s what I am thinking….. I am thinking about adding some more categories (and possibly sub-categories) that are more specific such as “Linux”, “Mac OS”, “Web Design”, “Video Production”, etc. With them being different categories, I could set up subscriptions/RSS feeds specific to each category so visitors could subscribe to just the info they want. They could still subscribe to the main list and get all categories if they so desire.

What are your thoughts? Please leave me some comments on this post. I will keep your posts private unless you specifically say I can make them public.  Let me know what you think…..

- Hill

Well, it’s been a long while since I posted to this blog.  That’s one of the nice things about having your own blog is that you are in total control of when you want to post an entry.

It has been very interesting watching the traffic and other activity to this blog without any updates.  I have been updating posts to some of my other blogs and doing many updates to a lot of my other sites.

Happy Blogging……

- Hill Robertson

So I spent about 30 minutes the other day writing a new blog entry. I did all of the normal things I do for each. I quickly wrote it without losing my train of thought just to get the content down before I forgot it. Then, I previewed it by clicking on the preview link (in another tab of my Firefox browser). I saw a few spelling errors and a couple of things I wanted to explain a little better so I clicked on the edit button to go back to the Wordpress administration area of my blog and made the changes. After checking a few more things and updating the entry to my liking, I posted the blog article. Everything looked good on the blog and I was ready to move on. I started browsing around other sites and doing my normal routine. Then, I came back to my blog and found my new blog entry was GONE! What in the world happened? I knew I had posted it. Where did it go? Did I accidentally delete it? Did I save it instead of publishing it? What went wrong?

I went back to my blog admin area and found the article still there but in a “saved” state and not published. Was I going crazy? I knew I had published it. Well, it was pretty late at night (actually early in the morning) so I guess I could have made a mistake. So, I published it again and everything looked fine. Until…… A few minutes later, my post vanished again. Now I’m getting really confused. I went back to the admin area and the same thing had happened. So, I went to my saved entries and then republished it once again. Then, I realized what was happening…..

It turned out that I had one of my browser tabs still opened on my Wordpress blog in the admin area (for writing) on the new blog entry. One of the features of Wordpress is an autosave feature that automatically saves your blog entry at regular intervals as you are writing it so if something happens while you are writing your entry, you will not lose all of your work. This is what was causing the problem. Even though I published my article (in another browser tab), when the refresh cycle came around in the other tab, it would “autosave” the article back to a saved state instead of a published state. Also, if I had made any edits to the article in another tab, the could have gotten lost when this browser tab autosaved.

So, be sure you do not do the same thing with your blog. It can really be mind boggling and frustrating when it happens if you don’t realize what is going on when your blog entries mysteriously start vanishing. Do all of your work in one browser and with just one tab without opening other ones. Or, if you like using multiple browser windows and tabs, be sure to keep track of them and don’t fall into the same trap.

- Hill Robertson

I live in Central Florida and we had the massive power outage all over the central and southern part of the state. The outage made national news. About 8 power plants were down for a few hours. One of the biggest issues with the power outage was the loss of power to many traffic lights. There were many accidents due to the powerless traffic lights. There was also a lot of traffic congestion causing many commute delays.

One thing I realized even more in this situation was how people feel about their passion or their J.O.B. Without fail, everyone that I talked to about the power outages with a JOB was either glad the power was out at their job so they didn’t have to work any more the rest of the day. Or, if the power was on where they worked, they wished it would go out for them so they didn’t have to work.

On the other hand, everyone that I talked to about the power outages that ran their own business and had a passion for what they do were glad they didn’t lose power so their work was not interrupted and they could continue to improve their business. Or, if their power was out, they couldn’t wait for it to come back on so they could get back to running their business that they loved. In fact, many of them that lost power were still working their business in ways that they didn’t need power.

You can really see the difference between those with JOB mentality and those with a freedom mentality. You can also see how people’s passions drive them to have a better business in times like this. It is really fascinating to see what really comes out of people when faced with challenges.

What do you do when the power goes out? Do you use it as an excuse to be lazy or do you look for ways to make the most of the time and still get things done?

- Hill Robertson

Submitting your blog to blog carnivals is one of the best ways to get quality targeted traffic to your blog. I am launching a new type of blog carnival submission service. It is a “pay per post” type of service. It is not a subscription service. This allows you to pick and choose the blog posts that you want to submit to the carnivals and when you want to submit them.

You can get it here:

http://hillrobertson.com/BlogCarnivalSubmissionService

All you have to do is purchase a submission and submit your blog post info in a simple form. Then, just wait for your information to be submitted to various blog carnivals that are related to the topic of your post. You will start to see your links posted to carnivals as they are issued. The links will start trickling in. The more submissions you make, the more links you get.

My service also allows you to stand out by giving you the option to add your own remarks about the blog post. This can be a summary or some sort of “teaser” to get readers to click on your link. This can be a very big advantage over the other blogs posted to the carnivals because most other blog links will just have the minimum information required.

Start sending quality traffic to your blog with my blog carnival submission service by clicking on the following link:

http://hillrobertson.com/BlogCarnivalSubmissionService

Submit your blog posts now.

- Hill Robertson

Did you miss the password for the last post? Sorry…..

The passwords for private (protected) posts are sent to my subscribers that are subscribed via email (not external RSS readers). They get sent out prior to the private posts.

If you want the password for future private postings, please subscribe at the top right of this page so you will get future notifications. If you do, you will also get other benefits such as early product launches and/or discounts as well as extra little tid bits here and there.

All you need to do is enter your first name and your primary email address. I will NEVER sell or give your information to anyone. I hate spam myself with a passion since I host websites and have web/email servers all over the country and I know what a pain it is dealing with it. You’ll want to use your primary email address to hopefully avoid spam filters that drop so much of the valid mail these days (especially to free email accounts).

You can always cancel your subscription at any time if you want to quit getting emails.

Go ahead and sign up if you haven’t already……….. Do it now.

- Hill Robertson

Do you have business systems in place that do work for you whether you do anything or not? A business system in place that gives you the freedom to focus on other areas of your business or take care of other matters is one of the key ingredients to a successful business.

Today was a great example of how one of my business systems kept my internet business rolling along while I was unable to. You see, today, I had an appointment with my eye doctor. I was planning on a normal checkup with no interruption to my regular business and family activities. However, it turned out that I needed to have my eyes dilated for some of the tests. Getting your eyes dilated in not fun at all. It disrupts a lot of your routine.

After the procedure, I had to wear 2 pairs of sunglasses (at the same time) to keep the light low enough to not be painful to my eyes. They said my eyes would not be “normal” for at least 3 or 4 hours. As soon as I got home, I got in bed and covered my head so there was no light getting to my eyes so I could have some relief until my pupils returned to normal. I had to wait a few more hours before they felt normal again. In fact, I kept the sunglasses on for the first few hours on my computer (and we’re talking at night) just to stay comfortable.

Anyway, thanks to my business systems in place, I didn’t have to worry about many of my normal functions (such as blog carnival submissions). If I had to submit them myself, my eyes could not have handled it and I probably would be in too much pain to write this blog posting.

So, set up as many business systems as you can to reduce the work you have to do yourself. This will free up your time to focus on other areas of your business (or let you go to the eye doctor and have your eyes dilated).

- Hill Robertson

One of the most important pieces of a successful business of any kind is having a list of “customers”. My email subscription list is basically my list of customers. It doesn’t mean that any of them buy anything. But they do have an interest in the information I post on this blog. In a way it is similar to someone visiting a store and browsing the merchandise. Let’s look at an example…..

If I like model trains, I may visit a particular model train store every now and then to see what new trains are in stock. I probably won’t buy anything the first few times I visit the store but I will probably have a good time since I like model trains. While I visit the store, I may talk with the owner on occasion and build some sort of relationship with the owner. It still doesn’t mean I will buy anything. However, if someone else I know mentions something about model trains, there is a good chance I will mention the store that I like to visit. This is word of mouth advertising and can be very powerful for any business.

I would probably visit the train store many more times since I enjoy it and may learn something new about model trains that I didn’t know before. I will also probably meet some other people in the store that have something in common with me - model trains. This is even more reinforcement for me to return to the store another time.

Then, one day when I finally decide to buy a model train, I know exactly where to go. There is really not much “selling” or “pitching” the owner would have to do since I already have a relationship with the owner and have a sense of trust with him or her. I would probably even pay a little bit more to the store than I would to someone else that I do not know.

Blogs are really not much different. They are your “store” if you will. It is a place where your “customers” return on a regular basis and build a relationship with you and build a trust with you. They will keep coming back to see what is new with you and to hopefully learn a little bit more about what they enjoy.

This is one of the reasons it is so important to build a subscriber list. It allows you to let your subscribers (customers) know when you have updated your “inventory” or have some more words of wisdom to share with them. If you sell something through your blog, your frequent visitors will many times be the first to purchase your products since they already know you and trust you.

So, be sure to have an opt-in form so your visitors can subscribe to your blog and you can keep them informed and continue to build a relationship that will last a very long time.

One of the reasons I have started implementing the private posts is to encourage frequent visitors to sign up for my blog notification subscription so they can be added to my customer list. Subscribers benefit too with valuable information posts that I don’t publish to everyone and also with special product discounts or early releases.

Do you have a list for your business? You should. If not, get started right now….

- Hill Robertson