This is my first post in a long time, as you can tell. One of the reasons I'm writing an entry is due to what's been going on in the WordPress world. In case you've been living under a rock, there is currently a big public battle going on between Matt Mullenweg, the company he runs, 'Automattic', and a rival called WP Engine. I can only speculate as to the real reasons for this public spat. On its surface, one side claims it's about a trademark dispute. But based on the actions of that same side, it seems to be some poorly thought out plan to exert more control over the community, and to attempt ...

One of the first things I did when I committed myself to travelling around the world was to set up a blog. Indeed, I recently just assisted two other people in getting theirs up, one for a trip around the world, and one for a yearly RV trip down to Arizona. This post will give you easy instructions for how to set up a blog using WordPress. Part of the motivation I find with most people is the desire to share some of their experiences, both positive and negative, with others. Since so much of travel research is done these days via the Internet, the desire for most people to contribute to that wealth ...

I've been traveling around the world for almost three years now. Without a doubt, nothing is more frustrating than trying to access Google, say in Argentina for example, and being presented with a Spanish website. I don't have exact numbers, but I'd say 80% of companies use some form of GeoIP (geo-location using the IP address as a means to determine where you are) to decide which language to serve you. The problem of course is that even though I am currently in Portugal, I don't speak Portuguese! So using GeoIP to determine where someone lives is fine, but it should never be used as a method ...

Yesterday I was casually flipping around some apps on my iPhone and opened up my Adsense application which shows me how much I've made from Google Adsense each day. I noticed almost immediately that there was an anomaly - for the current day I had served almost 4,000 ad impressions, when normally it would have been more like 200 around that time of day. I then followed up by logging into Google Analytics to see if I had been mentioned somewhere, and sure enough I noticed that my number one referrer was Reddit.com at the time. Reddit gets around one billion page views a month I believe, so any ...

Last month I blogged the first part in my ongoing series in how to make money from a travel blog. You can read How to Make Money from a Travel Blog: Part One here. Basically my goal has been to find a way to make a modest amount of money from my website so that I can offset some of the rather large expenses I incur while travelling around the world. While I've become quite adept at finding good deals, airfare and hotels are still expensive. So I set out with a rather modest goal of trying to make an extra $500 per month from this website. This Month's Results In the month of September I made ...

Piggy Bank, Photo From 401kCalculator.org While I've tried off and on to make a little money from my website over the years, it's never been something that was really important to me, primarily because I have another full time job that makes me more than enough money. Another reason is that I personally am not a huge fan of most advertising, as I find a lot of it to be intrusive. That said, travelling around the world and writing about it isn't cheap. I likely spend anywhere from $6,000 a year or so on plane tickets, and lots of other money on tourist attractions, subway tickets, bus rides, and ...

It's true, I'm a nail biter. I have been for as long as I can remember. I blame it on my mom, she was a nail biter too! The thing is, I've been biting them so long that for the most part I don't even know I'm doing it. That's what makes it a hard habit to stop. It's not like smoking where you have to go find the pack, pull out a lighter, and then light up. I'll literally be on the couch and realize my hand is in my mouth and I'm biting. I've actually never been successful quitting, but I'd really like to stop. I've tried all those fancy polishes that are supposed to help you stop, but I eat those ...

Turns out I haven't written anything in almost two weeks now. Truthfully, I almost completely forgot about my blog, partially a consequence of not having anything to write about, and partially due to all the things I have going on lately. I've actually quite enjoyed taking a break, and don't really think you'll see much in the way of content over the next few months, other than a post here and there when I'm bored or have something on my mind. If you want, follow my Twitter stream for some random amusement. I spent the last weekend pretty close to home. My friend Jeff had a birthday party for ...

Tracy tagged me in a blog post, so I thought I'd better step up and deliver. So without further ado, here are six things you probably don't know about me (and most likely, didn't want to know about me). 1) I have a queen sized bed, but only own one pillow. It makes sleeping strange. 2) I drink way too much diet pepsi, and usually have an empty bottle somewhere in every room 3) I typically buy the same thing whenever I'm at the store. That explains why I have four jars of salsa in my fridge, three tubs of vitamin E cream in my bathroom, and a freezer full of ground beef. 4) I type over 100 WPM ...

I found this article on Twitter which is by an author who basically thinks the era of blogging is at an end. What do you think? HT, Kris. ...

I met with Rebecca and John tonight and we started finalizing the plans for WordCamp Whistler. We're hoping to nail down a venue in the next week or so, at which time we'll open up official registration. Given that we want to make the event as awesome and as interesting as possible, we're going to be charging a small admission for the event. In addition, we'll also be accepting sponsorship from a few organizations, which will hopefully cover the costs of the venue, and the social. Stay tuned in the next week or so for some official announcements. As of now, the date is still set for January 24th, ...

I posted an article about QR Codes a few months ago. QR Codes are two-dimensional barcodes that can contain a great deal of information in a relatively small area. They are heavily used in Japan, and are slowly starting to gain traction in other parts of the world. One of the best uses of QR codes in my mind involves the inclusion of QR code hyperlinks in printed media. That way a user could be reading a poster or a paper version of an article and still be able to navigate hyperlinks using their phone. Typically this is accomplished using a QR code reader on a cellular phone, which causes the ...

Over a few beers a few weeks ago at the AdHack launch party, Jay Grandin and I started talking about Twitter and thought it would be pretty cool to have some place to showcase all the best tweets from the web. We did a quick domain name check and realized that TweetDuJour.com was available. Since I had my iPhone with me, I quickly purchased it. After work tonight I decided to finally whip something together really quick for it. We created a user on Twitter called TDJ (Tweet Du Jour) and tied its @replies into the TweetDuJour website. We're hoping people who encounter cool Tweet's during the day ...

I recently had the priviledge of attending WordCamp San Francisco, a conference dedicated to WordPress enthusiasts in the Bay Area. It was a great time, and I met a lot of great people. Next month, Rebecca Bollwitt and I are organizing the WordCamp Vancouver event to coincide with BarCamp on Sept 27th. For those of you who are unfamiliar with BarCamp, it's a day long conference where the participants, first thing in the morning, decide the format and the topics for the rest of the day. Everyone who attends has the potential to be a speaker, and it's a lot of fun. This year, the event is over ...

Well, the event is all over now, and I officially have a small hangover to remember it by. I met a lot of really great people last night at the social, and it was a ton of fun. I have yet to meet a blogger I didn't like, and last night was no exception. Everyone was friendly, and a pleasure to hang out and drink beer with. The social event was at Pete's Tavern, which is conveniently located directly across from the baseball stadium. The bar was completely open as were the pool tables upstairs, so there was lots to do. I tried my best to walk around and meet as many people as I could, but I'm sure ...

I've been lying in bed for about 20 minutes now, trying to slow my brain down enough so that I can finally catch up on sleep. Unfortunately, my mind has been racing ever since blogathon, and it's been rather difficult to shut it off. While in bed tonight, I started thinking about the day I had today, the people I spent it with, and the events of this past weekend. Like a hiker nearing the end of a long trek, I forced myself to stop and survey the trail from which I've come; the moments of exhaustion, the long rainy nights, the hills and the valleys, and the painful blisters that may never fully ...

Well, I imagine by now many of the early morning shift people are in full swing. It seems like so long ago I wrote my first entry, and here I am at number 28. It sure is getting difficult finding content on short notice, but I'm managing to stay ahead of the curve somehow. My Blogathon Setup Rebecca did a quick tally on her blog, and I think between all the participants we are up to around $500 so far. That number doesn't include people who have gone directly to their charity's website and donated directly, so ultimately the number will be a bit higher. In terms of people on this blog, we've ...

I read this interesting article today that basically said that most people in the United States were only 11 days away from financial ruin. That is, if they were to lose their jobs tomorrow, they only have enough money to last for about 11 days: More than a third of adults could survive financially for only 11 days if they were to lose their job or be too ill to work, according to a survey. The finding gives a worrying insight into the lives of millions who are living on a financial tightrope. Researchers looked at how much people spend every month and how much they have in savings. It found ...

San Francisco is without a doubt one of my favourite cities in the world. It's situated right on the Pacific Ocean, nestled snugly between Marin Country and Oakland. While Napa Valley is usually extremely hot, San Francisco boasts a fairly moderate climate, with sunshine occurring on most days of the year. In August, there's going to be a WordCamp session down in San Francisco. Given that I'm a huge WordPress advocate, and that I love the Bay Area, I registered today and made the quick, impromptu decision to attend. Flights out of Vancouver are around $400, but are only around $250 return out ...

Thanks to everyone who has pledged so far. I'm currently up to $140, which will ultimately go to the Union Gospel Mission. I'd like to hit at least $1000, so if you want to sponsor, please head on over and contribute. I'll keep everyone updated during the event. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for my blogathon posts. Tonight at 10pm I start blogathon, a 24 hour blogging marathon that will hopefully bring some exposure to the charity of my choice, the United Gospel Mission. The Union Gospel Mission is a charity in Vancouver that helps people in need: Union Gospel Mission has been providing ...