jeffro2pt0

Last Update For WPTavern On Jeffro2pt0

Hell again, it’s me! Just wanted to publish one last update on this blog regarding WPTavern as after this week, I should be in a position to start utilizing the WPTavern website to publish content.

All of last week was generally spent on the forum. I went through a wacky series of events to get where I am today with regards to the forum. To read these events in detail to see what I’ve learned thus far, I’ve shared my experiences in a blog post on Performancing. For those not in the loop, I ended up choosing to purchase a $180.00 owned license of VBulletin. I’ve been wanting one of these for a long time but don’t get me wrong. I did try some open source alternatives. It’s just that in the end, VBulletin came out the winner.

So during these past seven days, I’ve worked my tail off styling the forum to match the main website, set the forum up (which was a boring, but required process), created a series of guidelines for new users as well as staff members, tinkered with usergroups and permissions, fixed styling issues, fixed weird anomalies, had a ton of help from community members such as Itsananderson and much more.

I must admit, I am shocked to see the forum doing so well so early. I honestly did not think the forum would take off the way it has until about 3 months into the new project. After I opened up registration, I sent the word out on Twitter and guess what? About 26-40 people visited the forum and those who have been following the news at least through Twitter ended up registering their accounts. Thanks to a couple retweets, even more people registered. So far, we’re at 34 Threads, 287 Posts, 37 Members, 37 Active Members. The forum is rocking and it has been a blast to interact with you guys and gals on a one-to-one level. You people make this fun and this is exactly one of the things I was hoping to achieve with the forum. Just wait until I actually launch this sucker to the public!

Speaking of the forum, all of the Moderator positions have been filled. They are in no particular order by real name: Larry Monte, Ryan Hellyer, JD Hartley, and Kit (as in Kit the person, not the computer in KnightRider). I personally extend a huge thank you to these individuals for volunteering their time to helping make the WPTavern forum community a success and to also make sure everything is in line. We really don’t want to throw people out of the Tavern through the double doors but if it’s called for, we’ll do it.

So what’s next? This week, I’ll be spending my time and energy on the actual WPTavern website. I admit though, after seeing the forum take off the way it has, I’ve since questioned whether I should actually have a blog/website for WPTavern. I want to be everywhere on the site contributing where I can but I feel that if I have to spend all of my time cranking out content for the website, I won’t have time to be active in the forum. However, I’ve decided that it would be best to do so as a means of keeping everyone updated on the community as whole, plus I have a thing or two to say about things going on within the world of WordPress as a whole. I originally wanted WPTavern to be the TechCrunch of WordPress information but if I really wanted to do that, I would have to sit in front of my PC night and day publishing articles on WordPress. There are plenty of things going on but not THAT many. Plus, I want to participate and interact with those who choose to spend time in the WPTavern community.

I plan on producing screencasts, written content, audio content, contributing in the forum and so much more. There is only so much Jeffro to go around! I have to be careful though with how I do things. Despite WordPress and the surrounding community being part of my passion, I don’t want to burn myself out.

Only a few people have asked, what will happen to the Jeffro2pt0 domain? My plan is to turn it into my personal blog. Cut back on the WordPress coverage and the various other things I used to write about and takes things to a more personal level. Sharing news articles that peak my interest or have an impact on me, sharing thoughts and perhaps even using that damn Flickr Pro account I always end up buying but never using to its fullest potential.

That should sum things up and bring everyone up to date with regards to the WPTavern project. I’m still on track to do a public beta launch on February first. Again, I extend a huge thanks to everyone who has signed up to the forum already, contacted me through email or other means to offer your help, and for your support and backing on this project. Not to get mushy but seriously, what the community has done thus far has resonated with me. Warm, fuzzy, feeling!

All Ready For The New Year

Just wanted to take a moment to update everyone regarding some changes I’ve made to the site. For starters, I’m almost finished with managing my sidebars. I’ve been assigning widgets to specific areas of the site where I think it makes sense to display them. Speaking of sidebars and widgets, you should be able to see the Jeffro2pt0 poll back on the front page. I’ve also added my link blog which is nothing more than a list of shared items from my feed reader. Last but not least, I’ve added a text widget on the about page which allows me to cut the length of the page in half.

As for the About Jeffro2pt0 and WordPress Weekly pages, I have gone through and updated them with relevant information. For the WordPress Weekly page, I have included special notes regarding where to find show notes for episodes 1-22 and 23-current. This was mentioned by Andrew Rickmann and so I’ve included directions on how to obtain those show notes. As for the About Page, I’ve revamped it keeping most of the history in tact while adding personal information to the sidebar. At the bottom of the about page, I’ve included a list of sites and podcasts for which I am working with or for. I’ll be updating the page as necessary to keep everyone up to date.

Last but not least, I’ve fixed the styling issues for the Page-Navi plugin. When you update Lester’s Page-Navi plugin, the CSS files are overwritten and thus, I lost my changes. Thank goodness for backups. I’ve also changed the header from my favorite forest look to a Winter look as we are now officially in the Winter season.

In Closing:

It’s these types of changes that if left undone for a period of time, end up amounting to a ton of grunt work. It’s usually the easiest, simplest things which are left undone. At any rate, I should be all set to start off the new year fresh on this blog. I have no idea what will happen but I do know that I plan on continuing this journey I’m on. I’ve made some incredible pit stops along the way to what I hope will be a successful career in podcasting/writing. I’ve still got plenty to learn and much to improve upon but that will come in due time. One things for sure, I know that there is a core group of people out there that really support my work and what I do. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support (even though I’m trying to right now) but it means a lot to me.

With that said, I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday! P.S., I’m 25 years of age now, woot!

WordPress 2.7 Is Cause For A Reformat

This is just a heads up that when WordPress 2.7 is released, I will be reformatting my WordPress installation to get rid of the fluff that may be stored in the database and start off from scratch. I’ll once again audit my use of plugins and only install the ones that I think are necessary. Also, if you haven’t noticed already, I’ve changed the design of the blog a little bit because for starters, adding one more step to the post publishing process in the form of filling out custom fields is a drag. Secondly, I think the reformat as well as the simplified theme will finally help this site load quickly than it has before. Not sure what is causing the slow page loads but I am determined to figure it out.

I’ll also be modifying the theme to take advantage of threaded/paginated comments. I’m pretty stoked about 2.7 as I think many WordPress users out their will be blown away by it.

Categories Deleted – Content Moved Around

In my effort to re work this site from the ground up, I have moved all of the content that was within the Jokes and Personal categories to my personal blog, Jeffc.Me/blog. I have also gone through all of my content categories and have rearranged them, consolidated them and then deleted the ones which had 0 posts. This will help me regain focus instead of having a thousand different categories with less than 10 posts each.

I’m not sure how many links I have broken due to these moves so if you come across one, please let me know. I am now ready to begin working on the redesign of this site that I hope I’ll be able to publish before the end of this week.

DivitoDesign Interviews Me

DivitoDesign.com Logo

Stefan Vervoort was kind enough to make me feel special by conducting an interview with me. The interview discusses my job at Performancing.com, managing time while blogging, Jeffro2pt0.com, jeffc.me, my goals with each site I am operating and more. I may have gone overboard with the time management question but I’ve been waiting for an excuse to tell someone what it’s like in my shoes for a day. I seriously need to find a way to manage my time better.

Please check out the interview and then come back here so we can talk about it. Thanks again Stefan for the interview opportunity.

Jeffc.me Don't Wear It Out

This Thing Costs $20.00!

This Thing Costs $20.00!

I just finished the checkout process at GoDaddy.com for my newest domain name, Jeffc.me. The plan is to turn jeffc.me into a personal portal or a site which aggregates everything I do online. Jeffc.me will also host my personal blog so that I no longer will have to post that type of information on the Jeffro2pt0.com domain.

This will open the door for me to clean out the content found within Jeffro2pt0.com and refocus the site. During this domains first year of existence, when I wrote about Web 2.0 startups, did those in-depth reviews while also posting news about icon packs and news in general, it allowed for comments, a nice set of backlinks and most of all, conversation. I’d like to take this opportunity to turn Jeffro2pt0.com around and give it some focus.

As for myself, I’d love to write about things dealing with the Internet, WordPress, Blogging, Tech, Web 2.0 and news worthy items. But, what is it that you would like to see me write more about?

For those of you that have stuck around since this blog launched, you’ll know first hand that I was a posting machine. Whether someone covered a particular news item or not, you would find it here. I also provided in-depth reviews that the big sites were too busy to create and those received a lot of attention as well. Last but not least, WordPress stuff along with news of Icon Packs were also big hits. Would you like to see this blog go back to the way it was? Or do you have something else in mind?

I love community which is why I am going to either redesign this site or rearrange things to bring back that community atmosphere. Also, since the personal blog will be taken off of the Jeffro2pt0.com domain, this will give me a chance to play around with advertising as a means of monetization on the site. Many people have told me to place an area on my sidebar for 125X125 images and up until this point, I have refused to do so. Well, the time has come for me to take things up a notch and thus, I’ll be experimenting in the coming months with various advertising methods. Rest assured though that I will never stain my credibility nor will I ever do something unmoral. I truly believe in transparency and so thats what I plan on doing.

Jeffc.me Don’t Wear It Out

This Thing Costs $20.00!

This Thing Costs $20.00!

I just finished the checkout process at GoDaddy.com for my newest domain name, Jeffc.me. The plan is to turn jeffc.me into a personal portal or a site which aggregates everything I do online. Jeffc.me will also host my personal blog so that I no longer will have to post that type of information on the Jeffro2pt0.com domain.

This will open the door for me to clean out the content found within Jeffro2pt0.com and refocus the site. During this domains first year of existence, when I wrote about Web 2.0 startups, did those in-depth reviews while also posting news about icon packs and news in general, it allowed for comments, a nice set of backlinks and most of all, conversation. I’d like to take this opportunity to turn Jeffro2pt0.com around and give it some focus.

As for myself, I’d love to write about things dealing with the Internet, WordPress, Blogging, Tech, Web 2.0 and news worthy items. But, what is it that you would like to see me write more about?

For those of you that have stuck around since this blog launched, you’ll know first hand that I was a posting machine. Whether someone covered a particular news item or not, you would find it here. I also provided in-depth reviews that the big sites were too busy to create and those received a lot of attention as well. Last but not least, WordPress stuff along with news of Icon Packs were also big hits. Would you like to see this blog go back to the way it was? Or do you have something else in mind?

I love community which is why I am going to either redesign this site or rearrange things to bring back that community atmosphere. Also, since the personal blog will be taken off of the Jeffro2pt0.com domain, this will give me a chance to play around with advertising as a means of monetization on the site. Many people have told me to place an area on my sidebar for 125X125 images and up until this point, I have refused to do so. Well, the time has come for me to take things up a notch and thus, I’ll be experimenting in the coming months with various advertising methods. Rest assured though that I will never stain my credibility nor will I ever do something unmoral. I truly believe in transparency and so thats what I plan on doing.

I've Made The Move

Hello there. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Just wanted to pass a note along that yes, I am still alive and kicking. Working for Performancing has been an eye opening experience in more ways than one. Especially the business side of blogging. Working with the people involved with the site as well as participating in the community has shown a completely different side to blogging that I was once accustomed to when I blogged solely on Jeffro2pt0. Things such as monetization, social media marketing, and all that other jazz that goes along with it.

The great news is, a lot of the content I have published on Performancing.com has been submitted to StumbleUpon and other social media outlets without help from me. That has to be good for something, right?

I also wanted to say that I finally made the move. The move from being a full time employee at the grocery store to being part time (maximum of 32 hours per week). I have made the decision to try and improve my writing skills while also making headway with my job at Performancing. I enjoy blogging so much more than stocking shelves which is why I have made the move. Although I will lose my full time medical-dental benefits package, I feel like I am in a position to take a risk and see where this goes.

In the meantime, I am also trying to set my schedule up to give me more time to publish content on this blog. I miss the days of publishing 4-8 times a day and then coming home from work to see 5-10 comments. I’d like to get back in that groove and publish content that I want to write but just haven’t had the time or will power.

I was thinking the other day about how I discontinued the podcast at a bad time. WordPress 2.6 was released as was the theme repository shortly after the podcast died. This has got me stoked for Perfcast in September where David Peralty will most likely be my regular co-host which should be fun.

Other than that, I plan on cleaning this place up a bit, rearranging things and trying to get a posting schedule set for this blog. Now before I let you go, I’ve mentioned that I missed posting on the blog but what I am wondering is, do you miss me to?

I’ve Made The Move

Hello there. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Just wanted to pass a note along that yes, I am still alive and kicking. Working for Performancing has been an eye opening experience in more ways than one. Especially the business side of blogging. Working with the people involved with the site as well as participating in the community has shown a completely different side to blogging that I was once accustomed to when I blogged solely on Jeffro2pt0. Things such as monetization, social media marketing, and all that other jazz that goes along with it.

The great news is, a lot of the content I have published on Performancing.com has been submitted to StumbleUpon and other social media outlets without help from me. That has to be good for something, right?

I also wanted to say that I finally made the move. The move from being a full time employee at the grocery store to being part time (maximum of 32 hours per week). I have made the decision to try and improve my writing skills while also making headway with my job at Performancing. I enjoy blogging so much more than stocking shelves which is why I have made the move. Although I will lose my full time medical-dental benefits package, I feel like I am in a position to take a risk and see where this goes.

In the meantime, I am also trying to set my schedule up to give me more time to publish content on this blog. I miss the days of publishing 4-8 times a day and then coming home from work to see 5-10 comments. I’d like to get back in that groove and publish content that I want to write but just haven’t had the time or will power.

I was thinking the other day about how I discontinued the podcast at a bad time. WordPress 2.6 was released as was the theme repository shortly after the podcast died. This has got me stoked for Perfcast in September where David Peralty will most likely be my regular co-host which should be fun.

Other than that, I plan on cleaning this place up a bit, rearranging things and trying to get a posting schedule set for this blog. Now before I let you go, I’ve mentioned that I missed posting on the blog but what I am wondering is, do you miss me to?

Happy Birthday Jeffro2pt0.com

Thats right folks. Today is this blog’s birthday and what better way to celebrate than to look back on the past 365 days this blog has been online.

Jeffro2pt0.com Birthday

For those of you that are wondering, the first post published on this site occurred on June 4th, 2007 New Fan Of Tumblr. Since then, I have provided a number of reviews on different sites and services, offered tips on blogging, covered various news items and a whole lot more.

Instead of rehashing the story, if you would like to know how this blog came to be, please read my About page which goes into detail as to how this blog came about.

For those of you familiar with the story, let’s take a trip down memory lane together to review some of the highlights of this past year of blogging. Continue reading →