Blog Intro

[badrescher]

First, Matt, nicely done on the blog improvements! You've busy! It
looks awesome!

Yes, the Ferris's are in IL and that seems to be where they do most of
their "visits". Dave is too big to fly in the cabin and they won't put
him in cargo, so they drive everywhere. It'd be great if you could
follow up, but so far I don't think Mr. Ferris is open to it.

I've written this up as my first blog entry. Kylie, I stole a few of
your words. I didn't think you'd mind since you've already had your
way with them ; P (oh, yeah, and you suggested them...).

I'm still not thrilled with the look of the site, I have pages to add,
and it's missing some functionality (like I can't get the Nun Bun to
stick!), but I'm new to WordPress and I don't have a lot of time to
devote to learning the CSS code or how to access all of the "guts".
Yahoo! (my host) uses a "combo" interface that is pretty good, but
could be better.

Nevertheless, I'm up, I've posted something, and I'm ready to spread
the word and take on some comments!

Don't laugh at the stupid domain name. It's hard to come up with a
creative, descriptive, and UNUSED name!

http://www.icbseverywhere.com

Thanks, Peeps!

-Barb

[kil...@gmail.com]

Aboslutely yours to use - glad to be of help! Love the name too, it's
very cute! :)

Zip entries like that into the Skeptic's Circle blog carnival too,
Matt and Barb?
Will help get traffic for blogs:
http://www.thoughtcounts.net/2009/01/skeptics-circle-104/

[badrescher]

I hope it's just a US vs. Aussie thing, but I don't understand what
you mean by this!

I couldn't find anything on the linked page to explain it, either.

I am feeling a little stupid now...

BTW, thanks for my first comment!

-Barb

[kil...@gmail.com]

No no, my fault for not being clearer! :)

Skeptic's Circle is a popular blog carnival - here's a summary of blog carnivals: http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2008/07/blog_carnivals_what_is_in_it_f.php

Oh, I should have sent the first page of the Skeptic's Circle carnival - that's here: http://skepticscircle.blogspot.com/2005/10/skeptics-circle-archive-and-schedule.html

Entries get profiled every fortnight at a scheduled blog and it helps with networking, getting blogs known, prompting comments and discussion. There's lots of other sorts - my blog at podblack has some other great ones in the sidebar that you can check out.

[badrescher]

Excellent, excellent advice, K!

I'd never heard of a blog carnival! The summary in your first link is
PERFECT. I'll be promoting today!

Barb

On Feb 4, 2:51 am, "kil...@gmail.com" <kil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> No no, my fault for not being clearer! :)
>
> Skeptic's Circle is a popular blog carnival - here's a summary of blog
> carnivals:http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2008/07/blog_carnivals_what_is_in_it_f.php
>
> Oh, I should have sent the first page of the Skeptic's Circle carnival -

> that's here:http://skepticscircle.blogspot.com/2005/10/skeptics-circle-archive-an...

[Matt Lowry]

Kylie, that info about a blog carnival is just awesome - many thanks!
I'm currently averaging about 40-60 hits per day, but I'd love to have
more traffic. I will look into participating in the next Skeptic's
Circle carnival!

Barb, your site looks good. I'll link to it this evening. Also, if
you do get some news from the Ferris's that looks as if they might be
willing to have "Dave" tested seriously, then I might be able to help
out. Keep me posted.

Okay, I'm back to blogging - last night I meant to do a "twofer" on
Ben Stein and the Vatican, but the one on Stein was just too long. So
tonight it's all about the Vatican & Holocaust denial.

Cheers - Matt

[badrescher]

Matt -

40-60 hits/day? Didn't you JUST start it? What's your secret? Or am I
just terribly impatient?

You totally scooped me on Stein! I read it this morning. Kudos to UV!
What a vile little man.

Kylie -

I submitted "Clever Dave" to Skeptics' Circle. I haven't seen any
other carnivals that quite fit me though. What a cool idea the
carnival is! I am a little surprised I'd never heard of it. I am also
a bit amazed at how far the technology has come. I designed, built, &
promoted websites in a past career and did everything at the code
level. The whole game has changed in the past decade. The video
embedding alone is just amazingly simple these days!

- Barb

[Matt Lowry]

Kylie,

On Feb 4, 9:04 pm, badrescher <badresc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 40-60 hits/day? Didn't you JUST start it? What's your secret? Or am I
> just terribly impatient?

Yup. I figured out a few good ways to direct traffic to the blog...

1. After you make a new entry, post it to Digg.com
2. If you visit and comment at other blogs about similar topics,
provide a link to your blog in the comment you leave (if it's
relevant).
3. Post your blog entries on your Facebook account.
4. If you post regularly at message boards, put a link to your blog in
your signature.

Also, make sure you're smart about using tags and titling your blog.
By being good at this I've got the top spot on Google if you search
"skeptic teacher". The way I figured this out was that *before* I
made the blog I searched for those terms, and I found that there
wasn't anything specific to them beyond random stuff. So I just
filled in the hole :)

If anyone else has tips on getting more blog traffic, please share.

> You totally scooped me on Stein! I read it this morning. Kudos to UV!
> What a vile little man.

Yup, he is an interesting character. Speaking of vile creationist
nonsense, check out the latest...

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/02/texas_creationists_sink_to_a_n.php

Cheers - Matt

[Matt Lowry]

Oops!

On Feb 5, 11:44 am, Matt Lowry <lowryc...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Kylie,

I meant Barb - sorry.

Cheers - Matt

[badrescher]

On Feb 5, 9:44 am, Matt Lowry <lowryc...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> 1. After you make a new entry, post it to Digg.com

Isn't Digg like Facebook, Twitter, & MySpace? I'll have to check it
out. I refuse to join the others. Don't ask me why.

> 2. If you visit and comment at other blogs about similar topics,
> provide a link to your blog in the comment you leave (if it's
> relevant).

I have started doing that, but I resist posting. I have a habit of
responding with my opinion to EVERYTHING (I do that here, don't I?)
and I have to temper it. I've got to find a balance & maybe this
experience with help me with that!

> 3. Post your blog entries on your Facebook account.

See #1

> 4. If you post regularly at message boards, put a link to your blog in
> your signature.

Forums & me are a bad mix. They are addictive and I end up spinning my
wheels, arguing with boneheads who can't form a rational thought.
That's why I started a blog!

> Also, make sure you're smart about using tags and titling your blog.
> By being good at this I've got the top spot on Google if you search
> "skeptic teacher".  The way I figured this out was that *before* I
> made the blog I searched for those terms, and I found that there
> wasn't anything specific to them beyond random stuff.  So I just
> filled in the hole :)

Yeah, in my day (10 years ago is ancient in tech years) this was the
most important thing. Now there's so much competition that you have to
make it on the scene before the tags & title matter. I've been adding
the highest quality links - mostly because those the the sites that I
visit, like, and find relevant - so, I hope that will move me up on
the search engines. We'll see...


> http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/02/texas_creationists_sink_to...

Ugh. Double Ugh. Oh, yeah, and Argh....

-Barb