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JerseySmarts.com

Joe’s Journal & JerseySmarts.com: Merge?

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Hey everyone. Just looking for some advice with this post. Most of you know that I own JerseySmarts.com in addition to a number of other websites. The original purpose of purchasing JerseySmarts.com was to eventually make THAT site my main blog and have this URL simply forward to the new domain name. As we can plainly see, that has not happened.

In order to streamline my daily website updates and create (hopefully) a higher visibility site, I’ve been thinking about finally making this merge. Both sites get about the same amount of hits (given the story, time of posting, relevance of my meanderings, etc), though Joe’s Journal currently sits at 1,106 posts while JerseySmarts.com sits at 368 posts. Joe’s Journal also has some 1,011 comments while JerseySmarts.com has 111. None of this information would be lost during the merger and it is likely that both designs would be thrown away for a new, more up-to-date design.

Thoughts?

Slightly Augmented Design for Joe’s Journal

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By now I’m sure that you’ve all noticed the slightly augmented design for Joe’s Journal. The header is a little bit bigger (and my mug is a bit bigger in the picture above). I have a few more pictures that I want to wedge into the graphic above, but what you see is pretty much what it’s going to look like in the end.

I also darkened the background of the site because I didn’t really care for the bright off-white color any more. It’s boring, you know?

Plus, you’ll notice the stagnant “JerseySmarts.com” 468×80 banner has been moved from right above the first blog entry to the bottom of the main page. That site (which is essentially this blog in a different format) is ranked higher than this blog by some rankings! What total BS! I think that Joe’s Journal is hurt by not having a specific “.com” name, but since joesjournal.com appears to be owned by a marketing company, I think purchasing that domain is out of the question. Anyway, the Google ad above is an adequate replacement and what’s better – it pays!

For those of you who are tech-heads out there, Joe’s Journal is still operated on the WordPress 2.3.3 database system. JerseySmarts.com is operating on the new 2.5.1 system and the internal Control Panel is a complete disaster. The engineers at WordPress ruined the posting page so that you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find certain options. Garbage. I have no intention of changing the Joe’s Journal internal structure until WordPress fixes the debacle that is 2.5.1.

The only other change that I made was to make one of the stock text advertisements at the very bottom of this page a little bit smaller. Truthfully, it looks better with smaller text. I might set it off in it’s own box, too.

I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Make Money From Your Hobbies

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You may have noticed a new site or two on the “Check Out These Sites” listing on the sidebar. One of them is GetRichSlowly.org – a great blog site about attacking debt and learning to build wealth in small steps. The gist of the blog is that you can’t really get rich quick in an overnight scheme, even though the late night infomercials are packed with such ideas. The main writer on this blog, J.D. Roth, explains a variety of ways that you can begin to look at money in a different way. One post I found spoke about making money from your hobbies.

I thought that this post would be most beneficial to share with everyone as this is essentially what I’ve done with Usable Web Solutions, LLC. I created Usable Web Solutions, LLC for a bunch of reasons – one of which was to generate some extra income. Now, with the company at about two and a half years old, I have an additional yet modest stream of income coming my way each quarter. Is it enough for me to break out of the rat race? Not a chance. Is it enough to provide me with some comfort in a bad economy and with a variety of worst case scenarios possible at any time? Yes.

In any event, I just thought that you all would like to read about what other people have done to transform their hobbies into profitable businesses. After reading Roth’s post I thought up an idea for a new company…one that focuses on writing! I might put that one on the sidelines, though, as I’ve been thinking more and more about writing a book lately. So, we’ll see what happens!

Trying to Get Back to Normal

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I’ve spent the better part of this week trying to get back to “normal,” whatever that means. I went back to work on Monday morning and though I believe I’ve been mostly unproductive, my co-workers and colleagues seem to be glad to have me back. You know that it’s always tough to have someone out of the office – everyone else has to pick up their slack and in my business, it means that they have to try to understand what I was doing with my specific loan portfolio. Not an easy task, but one that my colleagues were more than successful with in my absence.

Condolences continue to come in and I’m very thankful for them. I am extremely grateful that I have such caring friends. It’s very comforting to know that for both me and my family.

So what is “getting back to normal” besides getting back into the office? Well, I watched a few of the latest summer movie releases – which will all be reviewed in due time on this blog and JerseySmarts.com. I also got back to looking for a new place to live since I’ll be moving out of my apartment at the end of August. There’s a slow, aggravating process for you…

I have not had the opportunity to get back into the gym yet, though I am really looking forward to that day. The reason I haven’t been able to get back in yet relates to my sleeping patterns – they’ve been terrible for the last 2 weeks (as you could imagine). I actually got to work an hour late today because I chose to sleep in a little bit; if I had another day in the office today like I did yesterday, it would just be a waste of time.

My Usable Web Solutions, LLC company is on hold for at least another week or so. I’m just not ready for the high level of analytical and logical thinking that it takes to design websites. Soon, but not right yet. That was also applied towards my contributions to my two wrestling sites, TBLWrestling.com and XHeadlines.com. Thankfully, both sites are webmastered by competent individuals who are more than capable of handling them in my absence. There’s still a lot of work to do with XHeadlines.com yet, though…

I’ve got a bunch of blog entries prepared in “draft” format that I have to revise before posting so be on the lookout for that. Many of you know that I spend a good deal of my free time working as a volunteer for Sigma Pi Fraternity. I have not had the opportunity to get back into the advising mindset for the Fraternity yet, but I plan to do so after I attend Sigma Pi University next week in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee. I have 2 presentations that I am scheduled to deliver while in Nashville which I think I will be up to doing. One of them is completely put together and the other is in its final stages. Wish me luck!

I’ll be headed back home one day this weekend to spend time with my Mother and brothers. Before I left at the end of last week, my younger brother and I did a lot of cleaning and purging with my Mom. Nothing major – just a lot of the junk that was laying around our backyard and some of the stacks of magazines in our living room. My Mom has a new vacuum up there and it works wonders on her living room floor so we wound up rearranging the living room after moving all of the pieces so she could vacuum.

Anyway, be on the lookout for more “stuff” in the coming days.

New Friends for Usable Web Solutions, LLC

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Over the course of the last month, I’m pleased to announce that Usable Web Solutions, LLC has been fortunate enough to work with some great new clients to create websites for their organizations. In addition, we completed a project for one of our existing clients that relied on third-party group to get their act together before we could complete our design.

Please feel free to check out our friends and their website at GreaterEmanuelTemple.org. We also had the opportunity to redesign and upgrade the Jersey Shore Alumni Club of Sigma Pi Fraternity’s website.

There is already a new batch of clients waiting for redesigns, new designs, and hosting packages from Usable Web Solutions, LLC. These sites include NeptuneMAP.org, BAMillwork.com, AdministrativeSolutionsLLC.net, and ZuricaLaw.com.

Oh, and if you get a chance, be sure to check out the newly redesigned UsableWebSolutions.com! And remember, if you need a usable website for your business needs, contact Usable Web Solutions, LLC first!