Popularity: 14% [?]

… you know that thing we do - write a post everyday for the month of November. Ahhhh… I’m not sure what kind of quality posts I’m going to be able to come up with EVERYDAY for this month, but I think it’s not a totally bad thing either. LOL… we’ll see!

Anyhoo, I’ve been pretty busy putting together some sites - the first I’m using the YouTube/Ebay/Amazon mashup script that Mark over at 45n5 came up with. After some wrangling with the site - and realizing that I needed PHP5 to run the script… and then realizing that I had to make the site PHP5 compatible - that took much longer than 10 minutes… more like 2 days. But now that I have all the little kinks straightened out. Any other sites I decide to use the script on will be done in the 10 minutes as Mark said on his site. Thanks Mark for the cool script - which is ever so handy for us non techie types

I think a big motivator to let me know that the script does work and people do buy from it was that Mark had a $99 dollar affiliate sale. Awesome! So if you’ve not heard of the script - check it out. I’m going to see how it does on a couple of my older sites that are just sitting around. It’s been mentioned that using a script like this rather than lets say SEDO and the other domain parking sites, might not be such a bad idea either - since I’ve not had too much luck with that sort of thing, this is another option.

On another site I’m trying out Gary’s 5Starred script to give a nice looking Top 100 sites list. This site I’ve been humming and hawwing over for a while and for now I think it would be fun to have the Top 100 list going.

Since I’m not too super technical, I’ve had a few glitches with this - it’s not the script but me So I’ve managed to work most of that out and now have the site up and running. I’m adding sites to the list and we’ll see how that goes. Later on down the road I’m hoping to get a blog on there and a bit more content, but I really like what Gary’s done with the script and if you’re interested in getting something like this off the ground yourself - give the script a try. Gary’s really awesome about getting back to you with any feedback as well.

Both scripts - I’ve had problems with. Both Gary and Mark have been great at providing me with the feedback to get things rolling and sorted out. So if you’re a bit nervous about all the techie stuff - they’ve been pretty darn good to me and others who’ve written into them on the comments.

Give em a whirl - and what did you think of the programs?

Popularity: 10% [?]

A while back I tried to sell off the domain name.  No one took the bite and so I still had the domain name.  Initially I had purchased the domain name to showcase beautiful blog layouts.  There are a lot out there - and it would give me an opportunity to check out some awesome designs.  Get inspired… blah, blah, blah.

Well, I’ve changed that idea… a little.  Rather than just showcasing blog designs.  I’ve decided to go the route of showcasing WordPress themes, wp-plugins, and widgets that make life easier, more entertaining for those of us who have blogs running on WordPress.

I’m always on the lookout for these sort of things - and I enjoy the search - so I’ve decided to make something of it.  Make it a repository of excellent themes, plugins and widgets - an all in one.  Ultimately makes it easier for me to keep track of those WordPress things.

Still super early days - but it’s a start.   My new site BeautifulBlogging.com 

Popularity: 4% [?]

I was reading Matt Cutts’ latest article and something struck me as so very true, and I didn’t even realize it until he stated:

… Be sure to study your niche. I just spent 10-15 minutes to tackle the “default printer in Linux/Firefox/Mozilla” space. Is that niche worth writing an article about? Well, it was for me, because I was looking for this information myself. In general, any time you look for an answer or some information and can’t find it, that should strike you as an opportunity.

I think we’ve all “been there, done that” when it comes to finding niches to exploit - where do we find them? sometimes our brain doesn’t have a million ideas rolling around in it… not even one… and you’re looking for something to do, but don’t know where to start. A great idea that Matt brings up is that in our searches on the ‘Net we’re looking for some information, and often we can’t find it. Would this information work as a niche? Could we write a few articles on the topic we’re searching for (after we’ve found the info) and then set it up nicely a la SEO and some good website action?

I think we could.

I think it’s an overlooked opportunity.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I suppose this is a review of sorts to the software called RSS MINI. This download offers a quick way to build websites in PHP faster than you can say… Wazzzup. Here’s what they say:

RSSMini File is another script with which you can make a full website of your choice! You can add any pages! Well… Adding Pages… That Seems Boring… Not with RSSMini File! Adding new pages was never been easier before! All you got a do is duplicate a file and rename! RSSMini File displays content based on the file name! All you need to do is rename it! Simple! You can add unlimited pages!

It seems pretty simple doesn’t it? So of course I took a peek at their demo and then downloaded the script. So tonight (or sometime hopefully this weekend) I’ll be able to put it on a site and see how “easy” it is to make a site.

If it saves time, is worthwhile… why not right? Has anyone else given this program a try?

… more of an update later!

Popularity: 6% [?]