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Moving To The Midwest

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on May 3, 2007
in Random
. 3 Comments

After being in Southern California for almost nine years, it’s time to move back home. My family and I will be moving to Wisconsin in less than a month. With our second daughter now a month old, California is just not meeting our needs.

Due to the current housing market in our area, we’re unable to sell our condo. We’re looking to rent out our 864 sq. ft. condo for around $1300. $1300 is also the amount of our monthly mortgage. Hopefully we’ll be able to sell it after a couple years.

The picture above is the place that we rented. We get the whole lower flat as well as the basement and a 2 car garage. It sits about a mile away from my new job and is has a small yard. I’d say it’s close to 1200 sq. ft. The basement isn’t much, but it’s the same size as the house and has a washer, dryer, and sink. We will be renting this place for $850, that should give me enough room to buy a new grill and some beer.

It also has a seperate room that we can set up our ecommerce business in. I’m told we can write off part of the rent then. If anyone knows anything about writing off business expenses, let me know. It’s a subject that I’m really going to have to start researching.

Later,

JBSlife

Google PageRank Increase

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on May 3, 2007
in Random
. 3 Comments

Google seems to like me right now, most of my sites went up in PageRank. Here is a list of what happened with my sites.

This seems like a great increase to me. If anyone knows anything about the most recent Google dance, I’d love to hear about it. I am starting to link all of my sites together to create a more cohesive portfolio. Beyond that, I didn’t really do anything to that I thought would bring such a broad PR increase accross my sites. Let me know what you think about this.

Later,

JBSlife

Simple Marinade for Your Steaks

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on April 27, 2007
in BBQ & Beer
. 0 Comments

I’m really a creature of habit. Once I find something I like, I stick with it. That’s why I’m having such a hard time with my “Beer & BBQ” section of this blog. I basically drink one beer and grill my meat with the same marinade every time. I haven’t told you about the marinade, so here we do.

  1. Get good steaks, an onion, a lemon, soy sauce, and gallon zip lock bags (not the cheap ones).
  2. Put the meat in the bag.
  3. Chop up some onion and throw it in the bag.
  4. Squeeze a half (or whole) lemon into the bag.
  5. Dump a whole bunch of soy sauce in the bag.
  6. Squeeze the air out of the bag, close it, and throw it in the fridge for a few hours.

That’s it, grill your steaks while enjoying beer. Be sure to cook the steaks ASAP (As Slow As Possible), this gives you plenty of time out of the house (away from the wife) to drink beer. Enjoy!

Later,

JBSlife

Killer eCommerce Day!

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on April 25, 2007
in eCommerce
. 4 Comments

$513.88, that’s our gross sales for today. Like I said…killer day! We’ve been averaging $200 per day so far this year, which is not bad. However, $500 is a whole new world.

Are we going to be able to keep this up?

Of course not, at least not right now. This does show that it is possible. We have had larger days, over $1000. Those days were all produced by one big order. The $513.88 was produced by 8 or 9 normal orders. Order volume is going up. That’s a great sign, you can never count on that huge order coming in when you need it. Even if it does come in, it might not be in stock.

Just thought this was a great thing to post about…kind of a milestone.

Until next time,

JBSlife

AOL Slang Destroys A Forum

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on April 24, 2007
in Forums
. 0 Comments

Let’s face it, everybody hates AOL talk (ie. u r the 1 4 me cuz i luv u). There’s nothing worse than logging on to your forum and noticing a rash of garbage posts by some kid that thinks this talk is cool. While it may be fine for instant messaging, it’s not for a forum. Let’s find out why.

Not Everyone Understands It

There is a learning curve to AOL talk. How many people really know what “bff” means the first time they see it. For all I know they could be talking about their “boyfriends fish” or a “big fat fart”. People don’t have the time to learn this crap. Even if they did, who cares?

Forums Are Permanent Content

I want my forum threads to grow into a great knowledge base for my niche. When people search for answers to questions, I want my forum threads to come up in the results. What I’m trying to say is, “Nobody searches in AOL slang.” For a thread to come up in a search engine, it must be written in a real language (english for me).

Try Translating AOL Talk

Many international guests use forums. Proper english can be translated quite well by services such as Babel Fish. Try translating some AOL slang and see what you come up with. I tried, I came up with a whole new language that nobody could understand. If you don’t want to lose your international clients, don’t speak AOL.

I Have Enough Money to Afford a Full Keyboard & I Can Type

This one takes no explaination. I don’t type on my cell phone, I hardly even use it. I don’t need to take any shortcuts, I’d rather just type what I mean.

Silly Rabbit…AOL Slang is for KIDS!

Kids might rule in todays world of iPods and cell phones, but remember, kids are only kids for a short time. If you want to attract a long lasting crowd, go for adults. Besides, adults are the ones with the money.

My Advice

My advice, set strict rules on your forum about AOL slang (and l33t speak). Make sure you have a team of moderators to enforce the rules. After all, if you can speak AOL, you can speak english.

Where To Add Content?

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on April 22, 2007
in Random
. 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. That is, where should I start adding my gymnastics content (articles and such). I have a few different options and I’m really not sure which one to choose.

  1. Add the content to my gymnastics forum
    • This was my orignal plan and I think it is still my strongest option. My forum has an article section that I could add to very easily. It would draw people into my forum and foster new signups. My members could read, rate, and comment on the articles.
  2. Start a blog as part of the same site
    • I am really getting into the whole concept of blogging. Adding a blog to the site would not be very hard, but my site is a forum. Forums are open discussion areas, blogs are mainly one sided. I’m not sure if combining the two would be a good idea.
  3. Starting a new website…a blog
    • I would really love to do it this way, with a WordPress blog. In starting a new site I could create backlinks by linking the two sites together. The only problem is the extra work. Two websites is twice as much work. Also, my forum would just be a forum

On second thought, maybe I could do both 1 and 3. I can talk about gymnastics all day long…I’m a coach. I would love to hear from some of you out there in cyberland. What do you think?

Later,

JBSlife

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