This is post 674 since I started blogging in July of 2005. For all of those 674 posts, I've depended on the WordPress platform to power JimRaffel.com. I've watched WordPress grow into the feature-rich, community-supported, open source solution it is today. As great as WordPress is, if you're goal is … [Read more...]
Your social media universe starts and ends with your blog
I spend a pretty fair amount of time in the social media universe. While I spend time talking with folks through digital mediums, I also spend time talking to people in the face-to-face realm. So what happens when your face-to-face time increases and, as a result, your access to the digital world is … [Read more...]
WordCamp Detroit Takeaways
I find it useful to turn notes from attending conferences into a blog post of takeaways. This is not meant to be a roundup of the entire two-day conference. It's just those things that caught my interest and that I plan to follow up on in the next week or so. I've tried to provide attribution where … [Read more...]
WordCamp Love
WordPress is more than a blogging platform. It's a worldwide community of folks brought together by a common love of the blogging/content management system that has changed the way about 15 percent of us build a presence on the internet. One of the ways the community comes together face-to-face is … [Read more...]
WordPress and MAMP
Following are the slides from my presentation last night at the Milwaukee WordPress Meetup. Without the context of my talk and the question and answer session that followed, they lack context but nonetheless here they are. The goal of the presentation is being able to do WordPress development on … [Read more...]
3 Favorite Blogging Tips and Tricks
If you are a one-person "blog as a business," then it's likely the writing part of the blog is the easy half of the equation for you. For many, the technical side of running a blog can be far more challenging. I've got a tech background and often find this to be the case. My three favorite blogging … [Read more...]
5 WordCamp Chicago Session Takeaways
I'm just back from two information packed days at WordCamp Chicago. After a conference, I try to find time to write down my takeaways. Generally my intention is to act upon the takeaways in a timely fashion. That does not always happen. So, writing this post serves two purposes for me: sharing the … [Read more...]
How do you incorporate Google Plus in your blogging strategy – Jim Says
I decided to jump in the Google Plus (G+) waters fairly early. Based upon Google's two recent failures in the social space, Buzz and Wave, this was a relatively risky use of my time to learn and grow with the service through its beta and limited invitation period. It's been a good decision as I … [Read more...]
How Premise by CopyBlogger helps build great landing pages
This is the first co-authored post by Jim Raffel and Shelby Sapusek. Together, we'll give you some insight on why we chose the WordPress plugin Premise (affiliate link)from Copyblogger to design the ColorMetrix User Group Meeting landing page, what we liked about it and some advice from our … [Read more...]
Small business resource that will save you time and money
A while back my Third Tribe Marketing friend Matt Mansfield interviewed me for his "The Elephant in the Could - How Safe is Your Data?" blog post. I enjoyed the "interview" because it turned into a conversation and Matt and I got a chance to know each other better. Matt is a man of integrity so it … [Read more...]