Prudent Musings » Blogging

New Blog

Richard Smolenski — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:14:09 +0000

Although I will still post here occasionally, you will find most of my latest posts at my new blog at ricsmo.com. Related posts:Increase Traffic to your Christian Blog: Part 5 Increase Traffic to your Christian Blog: Part 4 Increase Traffic to your Christian Blog: Part 1 Related posts:

Comments Change

Richard Smolenski — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:34:03 +0000

Due to all of the spammy comments, links in comments are again marked “nofollow.” Related posts:Won’t Sell Out (much) Website Updated 33 of the Best Wordpress Plugins Related posts:

New Blog Software?

Richard Smolenski — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:35:38 +0000

Wordpress is neat, but it feels a bit bloated and since I’m learning Rails, it makes sense to move to a blog engine built on that.

What do you think? Should I keep Wordpress, or move to Mephisto or Typo?

Also, is it just me or is this blog loaded with too many ads? I really had not been visiting much until recently and my first reaction was, “What was I thinking?”

I’m Flattered

Richard Smolenski — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:06:25 +0000

…that so many spam bots are interested in linking to this site.

Read my recent post here and look at the pingback from “The best blog about Endodontists” near the bottom of the comments. The interesting thing about that site is that they added content to the excerpt of my post. So, if you happened to be looking for “endodontist” blogs, and need a “Student Credit Card,” head on over!

Site Down

Richard Smolenski — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:53:12 +0000

I apologize for the site being down for a bit. I was in the process of changing hosts and, in my backup, did not realize that this site was using a database from another domain name. Therefore, I didn’t back up this database and accidentally deleted it!

Luckily, though, my former Web host was able to restore it from a backup. I really like my former Web host and have always had great support like this. Why did I change hosts, then?

First, the former host, United Hosting has servers in the UK, which always felt a bit slow. Second, I started my account with them so long ago that I’m really overpaying now. I could have switched to a newer plan, but: Third, I have been getting into Ruby on Rails development and the new host supports Rails development. Expect this blog to be converted to Rails as soon as I learn enough to be able to do it!

So, who is this new host? It’s Site5.

No related posts.

Won’t Sell Out (much)

Richard Smolenski — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 08:05:14 +0000

Although I tend to like monetizing blog content, as you can see by the Google links below. I received an offer for about $200 to place keyword-spammy links at the bottom of my top four or so posts. Since the links have nothing to do with my content and are obviously an attempt by an unrelated site to benefit by my PageRank, I have declined (I semi-trust Google to provide at least semi-related links, although I disagree with the content of some of them). Have any other Christian bloggers received requests like this?

Where Am I?

Richard Smolenski — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:56:30 +0000

I’d like to thank all of my faithful readers. I’ve looked at my statistics and seen that many of you still visit even though I have not posted in a couple of months. I apologize for vanishing for a bit, but I’m coming back and will have a bit more explanation later. In summary, this is what has occurred in the last few months:

Still working on my M.Div.
Learning Ruby On Rails for a new blog and a new project that I think you’ll all like (and I’m sorry for not keeping up with the Bumpzee group. Casey, if you’re still reading, would you like it?).
We had a baby in December. That makes two children each with a December birthday.
Expect more soon, but I’d like your feedback: what is is that you, as Christian bloggers, are missing? What will help you to get your message out?

Also, since I’ve been away, I’ve noticed a lot more blog spam. Is this because this blog became not active, or is it a trend across all blogs lately?

No related posts.

Web Screenshot Tools

Richard Smolenski — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 01:18:24 +0000

Today I had the need for a tool that took image screenshots of Web sites.

Luckily, Stan Schroeder already did all of the research here.

No related posts.

Podcast: Please Convince Me

Richard Smolenski — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:30:02 +0000

Jim Wallace, who has appeared on the Stand to Reason radio show, has an excellent apologetics podcast, including great information regarding Mormonism. You can subscribe to the RSS feed or download individual episodes here: Please Convince Me Podcast.

One note: There are some “mobile podcasts” where Jim recorded the episode while driving. Although a great use of his time, the background noise can be a bit distracting

There is also a blog here.

33 of the Best Wordpress Plugins

Richard Smolenski — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:44:49 +0000

I have benefited from numerous lists of WordPress plugins. Now it’s time for me to give back to the blogging community by posting my favorite plugins.

AdMan: Places ads in the middle of posts. You can probably see an example on this page.
AdSense Deluxe: Allows you to have more customization over where you want your AdSense ads displayed. If you are not a member of AdSense, you can
Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter: Automatically adds a copyright message to the bottom of your posts in your RSS feed.
AutoMeta: Automatic Meta and Technorati tags.
Blog Copyright: Displays a copyright message at the bottom of your blog.
Brian’s Latest Comments: Displays the latest comments to your blog on the sidebar (or anywhere).
Bumpzee: Displays the Bumpzee widget that you see in the sidebar.
Buy Me a Beer: Displays the “Buy Me Coffee” PayPal donation link at the bottom of each post (this has not been that effective). Do you think this is Internet panhandling, or an alternative to subscription content?
DoFollow: Removes the “nofollow” attribute from links in your comments, allowing people who make comments on your blog more links to their Web sites in the eyes of search engines.
Dunstan’s Time Since: Displays the time since you posted the current post (example above).
ESV: Allows quick insertion of Bible verses into your posts. Example: [esvbible reference=”John 3:16” header=”on” format=”block”]John 3:16[/esvbible]
Extended Live Archives: Better archives for your blog.
Feedburner Feedsmith: Converts all you RSS links to your Feedburner account.
Google Sitemaps Generator: Generates an XML file to help Google index your site.
Gravatar: Display pictures of people who comment on your blog, provided they have registered at Gravatar.
Gregarious: Excellent social bookmarking plugin.
In Series: Create links to posts within a series. Example here.
Noteworthy: Allows you to mark your posts as “Noteworthy.”
Optimal Title: Optimizes the title of your blog pages for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Polite-ifier: This removes bad language from your blog comments. I realized the need for this when I began allowing Spam Karma (below) to automatically approve non-spam post comments.
Post Teaser: Customizable short previews of your posts on your main page. Example here.
Quoter: Allows blog users to easily quote in their comments.
Random Posts: Displays a list of random posts.
Related Posts: Displays posts related to the current one.
SH-Autolink: Automatically places links on specific words in your posts or comments.
Spam Karma 2: Automatically approve blog comments, spam-free! Encourages real-time discussions.
Ultimate Category Cloud: Displays a cloud of your blog categories. Example at right.
Ultimate Tag Warrior: Allows you to add Technorati tags to your posts easily.
WP-Cache: Creates a cache of your WordPress pages to not overload your Web server when you suddenly reach thousands of unique visitors in a day. How can this happen to you? See my series on increasing blog traffic.
WP-Contactform: Adds a spam-free contact me form to your blog.
WP-Footnotes: add footnotes to your blog. Example here.
WP-Postratings: Allows users to rate your posts. To try it out, why don’t you rate this one?
WP-Postviews: Displays how many times a post has been viewed.

So that’s my list. I use most of these, plus some more. Is your favorite plugin on this list? If so, please comment below. Did I miss anything? If so, please leave a comment!