Stats Gone Wild

Some days I wish I was paying for an upgraded stat log with StatCounter… clearly someone got a hold of my business workhorse site URL (http://www.jessepetersen.com)and spread it around on September 23rd. 296 visitors and only 7 returning visitors viewed over 400 pages. A good day “at the office” and I didn’t even know it.

The last 30 daysSince not working for "The Man"

The 7 Gmail Labs Apps I Use

I’ve been using several Labs apps for quite a while, but there are some more additions that are worth noting, so I decided to do a run-down of the ones I use. There are quite a few more out there that I don’t use that are particularly handy to people, depending on the content of the mail you receive, but just not for me.

  1. Signature tweaks by Keith C and Dave C
    Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the “–” line that appears before signatures.
  2. Right-side chat by Emily C
    Move the chat box to the right side of the inbox.
  3. Right-side labels by Emily C
    Move the labels box to the right side of the inbox.
  4. Forgotten Attachment Detector by Jonathan K
    Prevents you from accidentally sending messages without the relevant attachments. Prompts you if you mention attaching a file, but forgot to do so.
  5. Mark as Read Button by Mark K
    Tired of spending all that effort to click on the more actions menu every time you want to mark messages as read without reading them? Now just enable this lab and that is just a button click away!
  6. Title Tweaks by Fedor K
    Changes order of elements in the browser title bar from “Gmail – Inbox (20) – YourEmail@gmail.com” to “Inbox (20) – YourEmail@gmail.com – Gmail”. This way you are able (most of the time) to see if a new mail has arrived even if Gmail window is minimized.
  7. Inserting images by Kent T
    Allows you to insert images into a message body. You can upload and insert image files in your computer, or insert images by URLs.

Migrate Your Feedburner Accounts NOW!

Your feeds will no longer work if you don’t migrate your feeds. The deadline for the old Feedburner addresses expired yesterday.

If you are still able to access your Feedburner login, follow these steps:

  1. Log into your account at http://www.feedburner.com
  2. Click the link at the top to migrate your account to Google.
  3. It then confirms if you are already signed in as a Google account-holder (I was logged into my e-mail, so I was) and asks if you’d like to use that account, another account, or create a new Google account to manage your feeds.
  4. After that step, it confirms which feeds will be transferred, and continue from there.

Hurry up.

Then you need to edit any links in any of your widgets or theme settings that say “feeds2.feedburner.com” or “feedburner.com” to say “feedburner.google.com” for things to continue to work.

Help Your Site Out – First Step: Hosting

Whether you are starting out to create a new site or you have a site and are miserable with its performance, you really need to consider the hosting plan your site is/will be utilizing. In the world of customer support, the host is the factor in a vast number of issues experienced by users and the software running on the sites.

If you want to cut to the chase and see a list of terrific hosts, visit http://www.easywordpresshosting.com and browse the ratings and click through to see what the current offers are. Some of the plans are better than others on the same host, so once you choose a host, choose the plan carefully according to what I say below, so stick around a bit longer.

Easy WordPress HostingHere are the essentials for an excellent host experience. If you don’t know what some of this means, it’s okay… look for it anyway.

  • MUST be on a Linux server to ensure a good experience
  • Unlimited storage space
  • Unlimited bandwidth (transfer data)
  • Unlimited domains
  • Several, if not unlimited, SQL databases
  • cPanel is a must-have feature
  • Fantastico (or SimpleScripts)
  • 24/7 customer support (live chat or phone # preferred)

If you make sure you have hosting that meets these requirements, then you are probably just fine in that respect and you can wait for my next tip this week: WordPress Security.