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JerseySmarts.com

JerseySmarts.com Now Has an Official Facebook “Like” Button

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Welcome to JerseySmarts.com, where we’ve finally entered the year 2010 by placing an official Facebook “Like” button on each of our entries. Granted, you won’t be able to see this button on the main page of the blog itself, but since 80% of our traffic comes from people searching for specific items, the Like button will be seen by more people than actually see the front page anyway.

I played around with the button last night (which, if you are on the front page, you can see by clicking on the title of title of this entry – it shows up right underneath the title) and tested it out to see how it works. I’m not really sure of the dynamics of the button, but I think when you hit click on it there is an update to your Facebook wall saying that you liked that entry on the blog with a link to the entry for your Facebook friends to see.

Oh, and I tried the Like button in Internet Explorer and it didn’t work. I don’t know why, but the majority of this site’s traffic comes from Firefox or non-Internet Explorer browsers so I’m not overly concerned. Plus, Internet Explorer has been bulky and clunky for the last few years anyway. If you’re not using Google’s Chrome or Mozilla’s Firefox (or even Apple’s Safari), then you’re missing out on a much better internet experience.

But back to the point of this entry – we now have a Like button so if you see something that you like (and you’re not using Internet Explorer), then feel free to hit the button so your friends on Facebook can see what JerseySmarts.com has to offer, too!

Scanning Through Search Engine Results… Weird…

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One of the great things about running a website (or, in this case, a blog) is seeing how your readers get to your site in the first place. I know that I have a lot of family and friends that read my blog (thanks guys!), but the majority of my hits come from search engines (thanks Google, Yahoo!, and the rest!). As a webmaster, I am sometimes baffled by the search terms and phrases that bring my readers to me. In fact, I thought I’d look at the last five search phrases that brought some of you to this website.

Please note that I’m not looking at the top five most popular search terms – that would be a different entry altogether. I’m looking at the last five search phrases that landed someone on JerseySmarts.com. It should also be noted that the last five search phrases brought readers here from a Google search engine.

Searched Phrase: terry weldon new jersey 2009
Ah. Nice one. For those of you that don’t know, Terry Weldon is the former (scumbag) Mayor of Ocean Township in Monmouth County. He was also a public employee of the City of Asbury Park. This man is as corrupt as the day is long. The JerseySmarts.com page that this searcher landed on talked about how Terry Weldon was the epitome of a scumbag.

Searched Phrase: comcast customer care number
Over the summer I had some issues with Comcast’s customer care. Something wasn’t quite right when I was looking for FOX News HD on my cable box. You can read what this particular searcher found on JerseySmarts.com by clicking here.

Searched Phrase: diet books for men
It was only a few days ago that I posted my review of The Eat-Clean Diet for Men. In case you missed it (or in case you can’t scroll down the screen here…), feel free to head on over via this link. I’m probably the happiest about this particular search phrase because it shows that the content that is placed on JerseySmarts.com quickly rises up the ranks in the search engine world. You listening to that, advertisers?

Searched Phrase: guys trip to nashville
Every once in a while one of my entries has something to do with an event that someone else is planning. Clearly, this searcher was looking for ideas for a trip to Nashville for he and his buddies. Well, when he Google’d this phrase he landed on JerseySmarts.com and an entry that I uploaded over the summer reviewing my most recent trip to Nashville.

Searched Phrase: roxbury high school football
Go Gaels! A few days ago I made it very clear that, as a member of the 1998 State Championship football team from Roxbury High School, I am completely behind the current team as they prepare to play against East Orange Campus High School this weekend at Giants Stadium. I know that I speak for the entire 1998 team when I say good luck! Many of the guys will be in the stands and we want to see that state title come back home. The guys on the current team have made all of Roxbury Township proud with their excellent performance this season. We’re all pulling for them to win the big one this weekend and they can definitely do it!

Whoever searched for that term found my congratulatory post to the current team (as well as some pictures of me from when we won the state championship 11 years ago) when they landed on the page linked here.

And there you have it – the last five searched phrases that brought some of YOU to JerseySmarts.com. If you happen to be someone who landed on this page thanks to Google or another search engine, please feel free to leave a comment telling us what you were looking for and if the search engine that you used gave you the right answers.

No Longer Using LinkShare for Online Advertisements

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Like I’ve been writing about lately, I’ve been deleting software programs and removing online services that are, essentially, unnecessary to me at this point. I’ve removed my MySpace account, Yahoo! Messenger, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, Microsoft Money Plus, Quicken, a bunch of games that I installed a few years ago but don’t use any more, TaxCut 2006 and 2007, Google Chrome, Norton 360, (by the way, removing this particular piece of software generated the greatest increase in speed and performance for my system) and some other programs. It’s all about simplification, really. Just like the rest of you, my life is too busy to have any mental space to process random programs, pieces of software, or really old online profiles that almost no one looks at these days. You get the picture.

As a part of this simplification process, I’ve also begun reviewing the advertising programs that I use on my suite of websites (this one included). The truth is that the only advertising program that I currently use that has ever generated sustained income over a number of years is Google Adsense. However, like any good webmaster I’ve tried to increase earnings by utilizing other program such as Amazon.com Associates, LinkShare, and Text-Link-Ads. Which brings me to this entry on the blog…

I’ve decided to cancel my LinkShare account. The truth is that this program doesn’t really generate any income for those websites that aren’t bringing in a massive amount of hits. I don’t want to talk inside baseball, but if JerseySmarts.com brings in 250 – 500 hits, then that’s a good day. LinkShare really isn’t made for a website like this one. Heck, even combining a bunch of different websites into my account didn’t help. My suite of websites brings in a few thousand hits per day – tens of thousands of hits per month – and the program still didn’t generate a dime.

So, instead of clogging up my websites with advertisements that don’t really generate any income for me, I’ve decided to cancel my LinkShare account and do some de-cluttering for your viewing pleasure! Actually, the LinkShare advertisements came off of this particular account about a month ago; they came off of my other websites a few weeks ago.

The next on my list to take a look at is this Amazon.com Associates program. Yes, I’ve had some people purchase items by using the Amazon.com Associates links that I embed in my entries and that I advertise around these and my other sites. However, I still haven’t seen a check from this program so I’m not sure if I want to continue using it. Anyway, I’d say that Amazon.com Associates has at least another 6 to 12 months for me to make any decision.

In the mean time, check out New Jersey Carpet Cleaning for the best carpet cleaning in the Garden State!

The Merger – One Year Later

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Can you believe it was one year ago today that the merger was complete? Pretty amazing, huh? I mean, just to think that there used to be such duplication seems absolutely mind-boggling! Oh wait – you’re not sure what I’m talking about? Let me refresh your memory…

Joe's Journal - As it used to exist

Joe's Journal - As it used to exist

If you read that link, you now know that I merged my old blog – Joe’s Journal – with the one that you’re reading – JerseySmarts.com. One year ago today, that merger was complete. I think the results have been great, but you could probably be the judge of that better than I can…

One of my favorite parts of the old Joe’s Journal was that crazy header that I put together by blending all of the different things that crossed my mind at the moment. You might be able to tell from that screenshot, but there are a whole bunch of different things on there including the Monmouth University hawk, Stewie from an early episode of Family Guy, the Arrested Development television show’s logo, a Cross, the American flag, my fraternity’s flag, a Lord of the Rings logo, a Smallville logo, a silhouette of New Jersey, a Rutgers University logo, and a bunch of other stuff. Plus, the main color of the site was yellow.

In general, I never hate on any of my old sites and Joe’s Journal is no different. I really enjoyed that blog since it was my personal blog where I let off steam and commented on a variety of issues (the entries have all been merged into this site, so go back a few years and look at some of the older posts – lots of bitching in there!). However, as I began to enterprise my web design skills and I began creating newer websites with stronger capabilities and better marketing opportunities, I realized that I had to begin eliminating duplication in those areas of my life where it was unsustainable and, really, unnecessary.

On that point, a few years ago I opened up JerseySmarts.com as a place where I could capture some of the writing skills of my friends from college and other people that I’ve met along the way. It never really panned out the way I wanted it to, but that’s okay. Since JerseySmarts.com became a viable source of revenue, I wound up keeping the domain and just uploading my Joe’s Journal entries onto both blogs. It was easy, but pretty laborious in the grand scheme of things. I never wanted to engage in larger marketing campaigns or new ways to present content because I didn’t want to have to duplicate everything. Plus, I felt like the impact of my entries was being thinned since they were available in two locations.

The logical answer was to merge the two blogs and condense my efforts to create a single website with greater impact. I think that I’ve been pretty successful in that effort considering that JerseySmarts.com is both profitable and has a wide readership. Since the merger, I’ve admittedly held back on publicizing the blog to the extent that I originally intended and part of that was because I wanted to ensure that I had the commitment to keep the thing updated. With that, I’m glad to announce that today marks one full year of this blog being updated every single day. In 365 days JerseySmarts.com has had more than 365 entries. I think that’s a pretty significant accomplishment for a one-man show. One of the ways that I accomplished this was taking advantage of the ability to “schedule” a post in WordPress. For example, I wrote all of the entries for November 1st through November 16th (that’s today) on Halloween. Hey, I had the free time while sitting around waiting for trick or treaters, so I wanted to use it productively! I can’t guarantee that I’ll be updating the blog on a daily basis for the coming year, so I might miss a day here and a day there, but I made it work in the last year so I might be able to keep the momentum going in the coming year!

If I had my way, I’d get more people to sign-up for the monthly newsletter in the next year and I’d utilize that newsletter for more than just a recap of previous entries. I think that goal is attainable, but not when the newsletter stands at 26 subscribers. Last month I started a new Google Group which replaced the old newsletter system that I’ve been using for the last year. Let’s hope that it has some staying power, huh?

Anyway, we’re one year into this merger and I think it’s going great. Let me know what you think!

More Information on the Revisions Made to JerseySmarts.com

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As some of you may have continued to notice, there are more changes here at JerseySmarts.com. First, the header is now changed to a three part design with the site’s button-style logo on the far left, a set picture of the steps leading up the path at my Mom’s house in the middle as well as a graphical representation of the site’s name, and an advertisement in the far right. You’ll notice the “Joe’s Journal at JerseySmarts.com” name has been shortened to just “JerseySmarts.com.” Hey, that’s the name of the site – no reason to beat around the bush, right?

I’ve also darkened the background on which you are reading right now. For those of you that liked the brighter white background, I’m sorry – it just hurt my eyes too much so I had to change it. Chances are I spend a lot more time on this website that most of the readers so I have to be sure that simply looking at the website doesn’t bother me!

I’m always looking for new ideas, so let me know if you have any thoughts. Right now I think the site is somewhat boring in its approach, but that’s because I’m not currently integrating pictures and other multimedia into the various entries. That should be changing soon. Also, I have some graphics that I’ll be adding to the sidebar sooner or later (for example, the link to my Facebook pictures). I’m debating whether or not to even keep the Google image gallery, so I can’t guarantee that the Google images link will reappear.

Frankly, I wanted to do these revisions to JerseySmarts.com in November, right around the one year anniversary of merging JerseySmarts.com and Joe’s Journal. However, sometimes you just have to act on the momentum in your head and make the changes while you’re motivated!

Again, I’m always open to your thoughts and ideas, so please feel free to send them over.