Mamas On The Web

Something is technically wrong with Twitter

I just tried to log in to Twitter and I saw this.

“Thanks for noticing”?

I couldn’t help NOT noticing! But thanks for making me smile.

And yes, I know that most of you have seen this page a million times (due to Twitter’s infamous reputation of being down all the time) but as you may well know, I’m extremely behind the times.

I wonder if Twitter’s demise is imminent.

2 comments May 30th, 2008

Are you using Google Calendar yet?

Are you using Google Calendar yet? (It’s free by the way.)

I tried it a year ago and quickly switched back to using my trusty paper organizer and post-it notes.

Then I read a post over at WAHM 2.0 by Kelly McCausey and figured I would give it another try since she was liking it so much.

I’m not sure how much Google Calendar has changed in the past year, but I’m sure loving it now!

I’m saving trees since I cut down my paper use by at least 75%. I’m also saving time because I’m not searching all over the place for things I’ve written down and then forgotten about. My kids aren’t ruining my lists and notes with their own crayon and marker masterpieces. And best of all, my crap is all in one place!

I’ve been trying for months to get more organized with my work, on my computer and my desk and I can honestly say that Google Calendar is the perfect solution. It’s really handy for those of us who work online because you can set a reminder to pop up each time an event is about to happen.

Here are some things I really love about it:

• Instead of bookmarking links to check out later, I copy and paste it into my calendar.
• You can create an “event” and choose how often you’d like it repeated. Once a day, once a week, etc.
• You can have multiple calendars and view them all at once or chose which ones you don’t want to see - all within one window. Super cool.
• You can share your calendars with others. Works great for projects you’re working on with a partner or Virtual Assistant.
• You can easily drag an event to a different time or day, or edit the settings of that event with one click.
• You can chose to view your calendar by day, week, month, next 4 days, or agenda view - or you can print the whole thing.

If you’re in need of a better way to organize yourself, Google Calendar could be a great option for you - especially if you’re a list-making freak like me.

2 comments May 22nd, 2008

Image upload http error in Wordpress - Fixed

Since I upgraded my Wordpress blogs to version 2.5 I’ve been having problems uploading images. I’d select the file to upload but when it went through the “crunching” process it would give me an HTTP error. Frustrating as hell!

I did a search on the Wordpress forum and on Google and came up with no solutions that worked for me until I found a post that mentioned the “Flexible-upload” plugin.

I’m super lazy when it comes to blogging (as you can probably tell if you’ve been a regular reader) so I haven’t done much with using plugins or additional features, but I’m kicking myself for not using this one earlier. Not only does it fix the http error for me, but you can add multiple images which is extremely handy if you use images a lot in your posts.

I know a lot of other people are having image uploading issues - even with version 2.5.1 - but hopefully this plugin will fix it for them as well.

2 comments May 6th, 2008

Optimizing your site for more traffic and better rankings

Today I’ve been spending a lot of time optimizing one of my websites. I’ve made my pages smaller so they load quicker and made some keyword changes and ad tweaks.

I don’t do this too often (I’m a naughty webmaster) but every time I do I always notice positive changes in rankings, traffic, opt-in subscribers and income. Not bad for spending a couple hours on a few changes.

I use SiteReportCard a lot when I do this. It checks for any broken links, how fast your site loads, link popularity, rankings for keywords, etc. It’s free and super easy. Just plug in the URL of the page you’re checking and voila. Pretty simple but it can sure make a big difference.

Checking stats like how fast your site loads is very important. Many website owners don’t realize that their pages are loading too slow for people to stay on their site. Optimizing images and getting rid of unnecessary code can really speed up your loading times and help you keep more of that hard earned traffic.

I also like to check my keywords and their density. You can even compare them to other competing pages. This can not only help you optimize your content better for search engines, but also gives you ideas for even more keywords. I’ve written whole articles and added new pages after discovering keywords and phrases I hadn’t already thought of myself.

If you’re not already using a similar tool to check statistics like these, bookmark this page and visit it regularly.

2 comments May 5th, 2008