TimeforBlogging | Explorations from a Web Entrepreneur

Have You Tried mod_pagespeed to Speed Up Your Website?

November 17, 2010 Website Tools

Since reading about its introductionfrom Google on November 3, I’ve been asking people about mod_pagespeed, a module for the Apache HTTP Server. According to Google, it: perform(s) many speed optimizations automatically. We’re starting with more than 15 on-the-fly optimizations that address various aspects of web performance, including optimizing caching, minimizing client-server round trips and minimizing [...]

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Yahoo Clues is Born: Does Anyone Care?

November 16, 2010 Yahoo

Apparently, after years of simply giving up anything having to do with search to Google, Yahoo has decided to get into the game. Today they announced the birth of Yahoo Clues, a tool that looks to be an alternative to Google Trends. Clues provides a great amount of data on search results, including: search volume [...]

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My Reconsideration Request: A Prayer To the Google Gods

November 15, 2010 Google

Over the years since I launched this site, there have been periods of highs (when I was highly motivated) and lows (when I was just too busy), but overall, I’ve been committed to sharing my thoughts, insight, ideas, and some tips with all of you. I never paid too much attention to the traffic or [...]

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Skype 5.0 Beta Review: Video Conference Calls are Sexy but App is Buggy

November 14, 2010 Technology

I’ll admit it . . . I’m seriously addicted to Skype. Not only is it a childhood dream come true (video calls are AWESOME!), but it has become an incredible tool for connecting with business and personal connections. Before getting on a Skype conference call yesterday, a friend suggested we try out the new Skype [...]

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How to Find a Good Rails Developer

November 12, 2010 Web Applications

Before I get into the details of finding your next rails developer, I thought a bit of background would be worth sharing. One of the earliest tactical mistakes I made as I developed my web platform at BiggerPockets was to convert the application from PHP to Ruby on Rails. I was fairly skilled in PHP, [...]

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Using Convertible Notes for Financing a Startup

March 17, 2010 Startup Funding

I’ve been doing some research on the use of convertible notes for the purposing of financing our startup, BiggerPockets.com. If you’re also doing research on this financing option, I hope you find the info helpful — if you’ve got some great articles that you want to share, please do in the comments below. Without further [...]

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Stop Making Commitments When You Can’t Live Up to Them!

March 12, 2010 Entrepreneurship

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. On almost a daily basis, I run into a situation where someone made a commitment to me, and didn’t live up to it. It is tiresome, annoying, and flat out rude. I don’t pretend to be perfect, and I’m sure I’ve made my share of commitments that [...]

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Planning for the Unexpected and Startup Team Building

March 9, 2010 Entrepreneurship

Today was supposed to be a new beginning, but sometimes we have to deal with headaches from our past, and that appeared to be the case this morning, as I learned of a security hole that was causing bots to be able to spam parts of our site. The hole has since been closed, but [...]

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Catharsis

March 8, 2010 Entrepreneurship

According to Wikipedia, catharsis means a “cleansing”, “purging”, or “clarification.” I hope that today’s catharsis marks a new beginning for myself and my company, BiggerPockets. With that in mind, I hope to share the journey moving forward with the rest of you. I’ve ignored this blog for a long time, and I’ve really come to [...]

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The 5 Best Webmaster Forums for Discussing Websites, SEO, Online Business

September 27, 2009 Websites

Here is a list of the 5 best webmaster forums that I continue to refer to when seeking information about websites, SEO, marketing, etc.; all of these forums are great communities! Be sure to bookmark them if you’re not doing so already! The Top Webmaster Forums: DigitalPoint Forums SitePoint Forums V7 Network Webmaster Forums Webmaster-Talk [...]

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Keyword Meta Tags Are NOT Used By Google – Matt Cutts

September 23, 2009 Google

I just learned about a new video from Matt Cutts, thanks to Darren Monroe, that confirms once and for all that Google is NOT using the META KEYWORDS tag in their main search results. Check it out and keep it in mind as you move forward with your website development and SEO efforts.

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Balsamiq Mockups: Great Tool for Website Development

September 1, 2009 Website Tools

I just wanted to share a great tool that I recently found, called Balsamiq, used for creating software mockups. This is great for developers, designers, or web-entrepreneurs like myself. Check out the demo to get a quick walk through.

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