Google's Global Fastest Rising Searches, 2011
It’s always interesting to me to see what the world has searched for over the past year. Google has done a great job in the past years of showing that information through their Zeitgeist, and this year is no different. From the fastest rising searches to the fastest falling, it’s interesting to see what people wanted to know about the most and what they stopped caring about this past year. Continue Reading…
Eventually there is an idea to stick with. (Creativity by Mark van Laere via Flickr)
Have you ever worked on a project over a long period of time? You tweak things here and there over the course of days, and those days turn into months and years. When you think you finally have it the way you want it, you realize that something you did messed up some other part. By the time you fix that, you want to take the whole project in a different direction.
That is how things have been on this blog. I started as “just another wordpress blog” and designed and redesigned my way to tlamarca.com 3.0. With so many little tweaks that I’ve made to Standard Theme to make it look the way I want it to, I can’t remember where they all are. This poses a problem when it comes time to make upgrades to the site and theme. Continue Reading…
Goose eggs are no fun for bloggers. (via flickr)
No blogger likes to see a zero day in his/her analytic graphs. The most effective way to avoid those zero days is to post something every day. Even if you only have a few regular readers, posting every day increases traffic to your blog.
But what if you’re like me and you have a job that does not involve your blog? Maybe you would rather do ten thousand other things before writing a blog post. Sometimes you can go weeks at a time without a single word written. Continue Reading…
I came across this intriguing video while surfing through Vimeo last night. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
I know a lot of satisfied customers who have bought WordPress themes from 8-bit. I’m one of those satisfied customers. Just this week, 8-bit released a theme designed with the professional photographer in mind. If you are a professional photographer and are looking to update your site, or you’re a budding amateur looking to make a place for yourself on the web, then you’ve got to check this out.
This is AWESOME.
Not only is the Pro Photo Theme based on the same standards as Standard Theme (used here and on many other sites across the web), but it comes with some awesome options for photographers built-in, making it easy for anyone to jump right in without having to decipher all kinds of code to get it to look the way you want. Continue Reading…
I like to work on video projects. Every once in a while I have some down time, so I’ve started creating motion loops for our worship services at North Way. Now that I have four done, I thought I’d share them here.
I'm still wrapping my head around this number!
I’ve been blogging somewhat regularly for over two years now and I’ve seen some growth in my followers, but it’s been slow going. Sure there have been spikes in pageviews when I’ve written on something controversial, but I haven’t seen a lot of people stick around beyond those posts. I’ve tried to practice good SEO and I’ve consistently plugged my blog on Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon, but even with the shout outs from other people on those social media outlets, I haven’t seen a lot of return visits. Maybe it’s because I am not focused enough. I write on just about anything because that’s who I am. If that’s why my readership looks like a roller coaster, that’s fine with me. I know that everyone has certain topics they are interested in and others that they couldn’t care less about.
What got me on this topic today is the recent spike I had in readers. On May 12, my post on leadership traits brought in 20% of my visits from the past year and 30% of my visits since the beginning of 2011 (stats via Google analytics).
Continue Reading…
Social GPS FTW!
I’m reviewing another free app for #TechTuesday this week, and it’s not just for iPhones. Social networking has become a big part of the lives of seemingly everyone. Everyone and their mothers are on Facebook and Twitter continues to grow everyday. Well, the friendly people at Waze Inc. have taken social networking a step further with their free social traffic and navigation app. I’ve been testing this app out on my iPhone for a few weeks now and I love it. It will definitely make our trip to Texas this summer easier.
One of the cool things about it on the iPhone is that you can listen to the music you have on your iPhone or streaming radio like iHeartRadio. When you’re coming up to a turn, Waze turns the music down to announce the turn, then turns the music back up. If you pair that with a car adapter that includes bluetooth, you’ve got everything you need for a long road trip (short of snacks and movies for the kids).
They call it “Real-time maps and traffic information based on the wisdom of the crowd.”
Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road.
100% powered by users, the more you drive, the better it gets. Join the community of drivers in your area today!
You can download the app for iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, or Windows Mobile.
Emoji by iToyToy.com (it's free!)
#TechTuesday is here and I thought I’d share the newest app to my iPhone (BTW – It’s FREE!). SMS (text) messages used to be so boring, but with Emoji ♨★♡♫ by iToyToy your SMS messages can have flair. With the Emoji language, you can send SMS messages with colorful emoticons. These emoticons can seen on any Android device that has the Emoji language installed, or any iPhone regardless of having the language installed. Once it’s installed, it’s as simple as adding an international keyboard in your general settings on the iPhone. Continue Reading…
It's as easy as 1..2..3..
This week’s installment of #TechTuesday is about your online presence. Everyone and their moms seem to be on Facebook. I’d say the majority of people understand how to create a profile picture for themselves. What surprises me is the number of people I see commenting on blogs that do not have a picture setup to appear next to their comments. I know that they sometimes want to be anonymous, but I think it’s more that people don’t know how easy it is to set up a picture for this application. If you don’t want your face attached to ever comment you’ve made on every blog, you can use some other picture. A graphic or photo is an easy way to add some personality to your comments. Continue Reading…