Now that the new year is here, it’s time to step things up here on Freelancedom. To that end, I’ve been researching forum software, social bookmarking plugins, and advertising programs.
Learn more, after the jump:
Last week, I mentioned an interest in creating forums here at Freelancedom. I’ve been doing a bit of research, learning about outside software such as SMF and Vanilla, and WordPress forum plugins such as bbPress.
I actually attempted to upload bbPress to my system, but keep receiving error messages. This newest version is only a couple days old, so I’m waiting to see if the bugs will be fixed sometime this century. So that’s on hold. But, in the meantime, I’d be interested in hearing about the forum software you know about or have used.
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I’ve also started drawing up categories for the eventual forums: cover letters, portfolios, finances (taxes, budgets, rates), job leads, shameless self-promotion, productivity tips, coffee break, marketing tactics, book reviews, and other resources. Is there anything I’m missing?
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One plugin I was able to upload successfully was Sociable, which automatically adds links to your favorite social bookmarking sites at the bottoms of your posts.
There are 99 different social bookmarking sites to choose from! At the moment, I’ve just included e-mail, StumbleUpon, TwitThis, and Digg, but I’d be interested in learning more about the social bookmarking sites you’re using.
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For some time now, I’ve been incredibly passive, as far as advertising goes. I’ve considered seeking out advertisers directly, but am unsure site traffic os high enough yet. So for the moment, GoogleAdsense has been hiding in the margins.
I’m looking at some other advertising services, such as Performancing and OpenX. Anyone care to share the advertising programs they’re use on their own sites, and why they love or loathe them?
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Finally, some of you may have noticed an error in the comments section of posts.
The links left by commenters in the name/url fields have been broken. It turns out that this is a problem inherent in WordPress’s latest version. My husband — whom I must acknowledge is awesome — fixed this coding for me, and links are once again working!
Carry on!
Happy New Year!
Re: social bookmarking – I’ve used http://delicious.com/ in the past and liked adding links through it.
Re: revenue – My hubby has an Amazon widget for the CDs he recommends on his site(www.bewaretheleopard.com) and gets a cut if people order what he recommends by clicking through the widget. Seeing as you review a fair number of books, that might be something to consider.
Re: me – In case you haven’t noticed, I’m blogging again! And this time, I’m hoping it’ll stick. I also wanted to let you know that I’ve learned a lot from you about running a fun, but effective blog, both through your tips and by your example. So – thanks! 🙂
Ooh! I’ve added your (second) craft blog to my Google Reader. It’s good to see you blogging again.
I totally forgot about the Amazon associates program. I actually do use it (for both Freelancedom and Modern Materialist), but I’ve barely made any money off of it. I’m still waiting!