Disqus - Latest Comments for Greg Balanko-Dickson

Re: Want to see something really innovative?

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:20:03 -0000

Hi Dennis: Thanks for the invite!

Re: Want to see something really innovative?

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 02:27:26 -0000

Hey Dennis: I would love an invitation to try it out on my blog.

Re: Journalism or not?

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:31:03 -0000

Gary makes a good point, people do drift about. I have also noticed that people are attracted by and comment on specific topics that fit into their specific interests.

Re: Tax season in the US – podcasters needed

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 01:01:34 -0000

Try Ask Tax Mama Podcast I bet she will be doing something.

Re: The Mac move

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 02:20:38 -0000

Hi Dennis:

Congratulations on the move to Apple hardware and software. I have been using Apple hardware since 1995 and have never regretted it.

I used to use the same theme you are using for my blog but keeping it XHTML and CSS compliant was a challenge. One error and the page would not render properly in IE on Windows systems.

One of the great challenges using Wordpress is keeping the site compliant and unfortunately many of the shared themes are not compliant.

The first thing I check when looking at a theme is whether it runs error free using XHTML 1.0 Transitional - if not I abandon it.

The Kubrick theme that comes as the Wordpress default is compliant and the theme I now use is also compliant.

The problem with themes not meeting the XHTML 1.0 Transitional standard comes from the way people hack CSS and paragraph and list classes to accomplish the layout they want.

When I checked your site at the Validator at W3C (http://validator.w3.org/) your site came up with 54 errors. from my past experience that number or errors would bork IE and your users could have a challenge seeing the right sidebar.

I do not know how many visitors visiting your site are Windows and IE users but on my site it is still over 80%. Using Firefox 1.5.0.1 on my iMac your site looks fine.

I just wanted to share my experiences with Wordpress and welcome you to the Mac community. If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.

Keep up the great work on your blog.

Re: IMPORTANT – Ignore goowy

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 12:16:38 -0000

I too got one of those invitations and investigated and decided not to get involved. I was surprised to get an email from Dennis. Part of the problem is Google. I am glad that I stopped using gmail address book as I now access it via a pop3 account Would make for an interesting complaint to Google about the Gmail exploit. Dennis, was this part of their TOS or did they exploit your address book some other way? A little more info would be appreciated.

Re: The day my bacon was saved

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 10:02:12 -0000

That is exactly the type of service I have been looking for, I for one would appreciate an invitation. BTW: what plugin are you using for the WYSIWYG commenting?

Re: Set Your Post-Thanksgiving Goals Now

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:05:14 -0000

What an excellent concept Ben. I will participate on my blogs. I am gonna be busy!

P.S. can I borrow your graphic for my posts?

Re: Prizes Won For The Group Writing Project - What I Learned in 2006

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 00:47:59 -0000

Ben you are indeed an instigator.

Way to go, 70 posts adding to the conversation. Woo Hoo!

Re: Say No To Snap Preview Anywhere

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 18:30:25 -0000

Thank goodness someone else is talking about this totally cool buy useless plugin/add on. I first ran across this at Duct Tape Marketing and commented then that "I don't get it." If it adds friction to the user experience it has to go.

Re: Say No To Snap Preview Anywhere

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 11:45:51 -0000

Hi Lorelle: that is a great point and a great use of this plug in.

Re: You Can Reclaim Your Attention Right Now

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 12:43:00 -0000

Thanks, Ben, I am trying those out on my blog, thansk for the heads up.

Re: 10 Things You Must Do When Changing WordPress Themes

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:10:13 -0000

Thanks Ben, I too did not announce my design change. Great tips.

Re: Publish Articles Online to Generate Buzz and Traffic

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 02:17:25 -0000

OK Ben, you asked...

Absolutely, Yes, Google penalizes duplicate content.

Let me share a personal story. In 2005, I switched from a custom built CMS to Wordpress. I spent a lot of time moving content over by hand. Unknown to me, I had left a path open for Google to still get my content via the old CMS.

I dropped totally out of the search engines. I was getting 700-800 visits per day, traffic plumeted to under 100. After 4 years in the top 5 results in Google for my site I was nowhere to be found.

At that time I was running Google Adwords on my site and I went from paying my mortgage, taxes, and groceries with my Google check to $50.

I was shell shocked. Spent hours, days, and weeks getting to the bottom of it. IN the end I discovered two issues.

First, after auditing my old CMS and pages I discovered an open path that Google was spidering and much of this was content I had moved to my new wordpress blog.

Second, at the time Google had left open a back door for hackers to exploit the 302 Error that Google uses to spoof Google into thinking that the scraper site was my site and that the content on my site (which was the originator and owner) was the offending site in Googles eyes plus the offending site got my Google PR.

The rub was the offending URL was also using Google Adwords.

I consulted many SEO experts, forums, and blogs trying to get to the bottom of the 302 Error problem no one could really give me a real answer and their solution was always the same. Eliminate all duplicate content find the scraper URL in your server logs and report them to Google and wait.

So watched my server logs like a hawk, closed my unintentional open path to the old CMS and then I reported everything I discovered to Google.

I also tracked down the Hosting Co. of the offending URL and claimed DMCA Safe Harbor provisions (copyright violations) and requested that the offending URL's services be suspended.

Suffice it to say, it cost me cold hard cash, days of wasted time, and woke me up to the realities of the Internet.

I never got anything but an automated reply from Google but reading between the lines and speaking with much more experienced White Hat and Black Hat SEO's they all felt I got Google's attention. Now I just had to sit an wait.

It took about 7-8 months for traffic to return to previous levels but after 3-4 months I noticed my server logs were not showing the offending URL as a referrer and my traffic started to grow slowly, ever so slowly.

I made a business decision at that time to never rely on business income from advertising online because of all the variables and the impact of my own innocent mistake and a scraper theif.

So, I removed all advertising from my site, rebuilt it with a new design and focus, I have never looked back.

For me, not watching and tweaking site design and layout based on what was happening to my click through ratios was a relief. I also felt more congruent and I was free to focus on serving my readers with quality content, not tweaking for clicks.

All I can say is be careful. These gray and black hat techniques all work, for awhile.

As a business professional I have learned the hard way not take the easy and fast route to riches - any so called success is temporary and fleeting.

This is just my real life experience story and I am sticking to it...

Re: When Should You Outsource To Help Your Business?

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:11:03 -0000

Always a challenge to figure out the best timing. But it is especially important when you are starting to build some momentum, then as Ben says, you either outsource or you lose momentum or wear yourself out.

Re: Enthusiastic Geniuses and Irrepressible Entrepreneurs

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:10:10 -0000

Thanks for the help Ben, I am working on another project with a couple of entrepreneurs spread around the world on another book on Talent Development & Business Succession planning. In my business collaboration is not a trend it is quickly becoming the best way to do business.

It is also a form of outsourcing.

Re: The Essense of Being an Irrepressible Entrepreneur

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:45:20 -0000

Hey Ben, Jorge: sorry to be so late responding, I am in the midst of moving servers etc. and time just seemed to vanish.

Maintaining momentum and building a sustained business takes years of effort. Along the way it is a journey in learning.

Simply put, the faster you learn the faster you can implement what you have learned and modify your approach. It is this process of trial, error, and try again that takes time.

We become impatient when things are not moving quick enough because we expected it to be easier, faster, or better in some way.

The reality is that the 'assumptions' we make about ourselves, customers, marketing, and finances all contribute to our results.

Think about this...

“We do what we are. We are what we think. What we think is determined by what we learn. What we learn is determined by what we experience and what we experience is determined by what we expose ourselves to and what we do with that experience.” - Mike Vance, founder and dean of Walt Disney University

We need to be willing to try new things. Observe and adjust. Rinse and repeat.

Just remember that Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a sustainable business. Put the power of time to work for you, keep pressing ahead.

Ben: I will respond to your answers on my blog once my DNS and hosting move is complete. I appreciate your input.

I do have one question, "What was it that got in the way of you making the decision to let people go?"

Re: The Essense of Being an Irrepressible Entrepreneur

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:40:13 -0000

Hi Ben, thanks for responding. It never is pleasant expereince letting people go.

You mention that "I coped by working to separate my feelings of disappointment and frustration and my personal emotions from the business."

I would like to better understand how you kept your "personal emotions from your feelings of disappointment and frustration" - how did you actualy accomplish that?

Was it mental toughness?

Did you simply ignore your feelings?

Did you 'cope' in the way you 'talked' yourself through it?

Did you confide in others?

Did you ever think that had you acted sooner things might have been different?

I hoping to understand the inner game...

Re: The Essense of Being an Irrepressible Entrepreneur

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:38:06 -0000

Jorge: As long as you are pointed in the right direction and are moving forward, even if you fall, at least you are pointed in the right direction. Keep it up and let me know how I can help.

Re: The Essense of Being an Irrepressible Entrepreneur

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 23:20:51 -0000

Ben, sorry if they are touch questions and anytime you would prefer to discuss privately, that option is always open.

As a business coach, asking the tough questions is a big part of what I do because it pushes us to dig and cannot hide from ourselves. Self-deception is a most dangerous drug.

Disappointing family, friends, and employees when a business fails is very hard.

You faced even more tough questions when you were in the midst of it.

Would it be fair to say that your greatest learning from that situation was the need to be decisive and act quickly? Would that be accurate?

BTW, thanks for being transparent and open, that is one of the qualities I will be talking about in the role of Advocate in the book.

Re: Blog Posts Should Be About One Thing

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 14:01:28 -0000

You make an interesting point and BOTDA mentioning FOCUS is the one thing that will bring clarity to your writing.

One of the popular tactics I see on some blogs are link lists - which I choose to ignore - because they typically have no focus. Usually, they cover multiple topics or simply reflect what the blogger read that day. Who cares what you are reading? What I care about is 'what you think about what you are reading.

Blog posts should be about one thing?

If people wrote focused sentences about just one thing – that alone would make their blog more readable and cogent.

Re: Visual Previews of Links in Your Blog

Greg Balanko-Dickson — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 17:59:04 -0000

Nice tip, but how many javascript additions can a page take? In the last two years seems everyone is building javascript plugins, addons, and enhancements.

Personally, I try to stay away from as many of those types of blogging tools as possible. Plus I question the real value of such a tool? You are the marketing guy, does it increase click-through?

I can see how it could help if you had a page with a large graphic or message that encouraged them to click through.