For future reference:
Questions to consider before you delve into the details
"What does our organization create that helps solve searchers' questions or problems? " http://t.co/tPTJq5Z6FB
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) February 4, 2015
Category: General
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Moz on overall SEO strategy
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Herbie
At the dentist on Friday:
A Herbert Grönemeyer song played on the radio and my dentist started whistling along while I was on the dentist’s chair.
Too funny.
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WordPress alternatives
I briefly started talking about WordPress alternative with @persillie the other evening.
Downsides of WordPress:
- It’s slow
- It’s not easy enough to use for non-techies
- Adding a shop could be a lot easier
She mentioned Squarespace:
I like the user interaction of #squarespace – but you need to be a US, Canadian, Irish or british resident to use the shop.
— persillie (@persillie) December 15, 2014
I found two articles with further ideas to explore:
5 Modern WordPress Alternatives to Keep an Eye On
Goodbye WordPress: 2014 Will Be the Year of the Flat-File CMS
Statamic, Craft, Ghost, Kirby, Perch, Jekyll
I looked at Jekyll very briefly some months ago. But I didn’t dig in enough. It’s for techies. I don’t think it will solve the user interaction issues that non-techies have.
BTW, way back in 2009 somebody used WordPress to generate flat files.
I’m looking at HTML5 templates. I played around with some of the designs at HTML5UP last year. I found this site, based on the HTML5 Boilerplate, yesterday.
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Michiru
The outline of Michiru mountain in Blantyre.
The Wikipedia page for Michiru mountain needs some more info.
What is the altitude in meters? 1470m? -
Winter cycling
Apparently 80% of all Copenhageners cycle in winter. There’s a Tumblr site called Viking Biking which shows photos of people cycling in snow.
No snow in Basel. I don’t cycle in icy road conditions. But apart from that, I also cycle in winter.
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Best snapshot of 2014?
It’s December 2014 and I’m still taking snapshots.
Last year I selected 1 photo for each month. I will try the same for 2014. Here we go.
January 2014
February 2014
March 2014
April 2014
May 2014
June 2014
July 2014
August 2014
September 2014
October 2014
November 2014
December 2014
Most productive month was November with over 200 uploads. Least productive was June 2014.
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Autumn storm
The first autumn storm has made it to Basel. Strong wind. Cold air. Rain.
A great opportunity to post old Flickr photos related to autumn.
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On creating networking opportunities
Here’s a useful link if you’re a shy introvert.
Click-bait heading. With a heading like that, it’s bound to get some clicks.
I’ve tried some of the tips mentioned in the article. Sometimes they’ve backfired. Especially, if the other person is shy, or answers all of your conversation openers with a monosyllable.
Related links:
Personal Branding for Introverts
Learnings:
My networking abilities depend on the format of the event. Some events are more difficult and closed. If you’re planning an event, think about how to encourage networking and interaction.
Creating and hosting my own event or speaking at an event has been a good way to network for me. When you’re the organizer, the host or the speaker, the networking part is different. People come up to you with questions, or you specifically need to follow up with them. Speaking in public about topics that I am passionate about has helped me a lot.
Listening carefully is important. You can do more research and then follow up at a later stage.
Doing something together, e.g. going on a photo-walk, or building a website, or going jogging together is an easier way to get to know someone. I have a common social object to talk about which makes interaction a lot easier. And in the meantime, I can discover if there’s more common ground.
Be yourself. Don’t worry if you fail at networking today. Learn from mistakes. Don’t give up. There will be better events ahead.
Maybe one solution is to avoid the term networking. I like this answer on Quora:
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About myths and legends
For future reference
Recommended reading – The Myth of Google’s 200 Ranking Factors.
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A quote to keep
This is how much time you have to get your message across:
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10 years WordPress
On 6 September 2004, I posted my very first entry on this site.
Many thanks to my 5 regular readers for being so faithful. You rock!
Big thank you to the WordPress community and Automattic for keeping WordPress.org open source and free. More than ever we need independent and free web publishing software.
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Guide to setting up Twitter cards
Buffer published this article on setting up Twitter cards.
I started experimenting with Twitter cards a couple of weeks ago.
Via Leumund, I learnt that you can use Twitter cards for lead generation.
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Some HTML5 fun
Mixing one of my Freiburg photos with some HTML and CSS:
http://chiperoni.ch/aerial/index.html
Looks best on a 13″ or smaller. On larger screens, the photo doesn’t fill the whole space.
The original is here:
http://html5up.net/aerial -
Lost
I got very lost in the Küttigen-Rombach-Aarau area yesterday. Google Maps sent me to the wrong place. I missed the event.
It was raining. I gave up. And walked back to Aarau.
I found a nice place to recover called Tuchlaube.
Next time I’ll try Gossip:
On my way back to the station I found a nice book store to browse thru.
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Jog log: Sunset
Today I went for a nice 5 km in the sunset.
Not sure if I’m ready for a 10 km race by end of the month. I’ll decide this week.
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I really like this idea bit.ly/1xJf431
Just saw this entry via this tweet:
A Book of Tweets By People Claiming They’re Working on Their Novels
Maybe one day I will publish my Twitter poetry collection on dead wood.
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#POSSE: A clickable demo of my simple #indieweb blog
Here’s a simple example how you can publish your content on your own site and syndicate elsewhere (POSSE):
- I posted a boring flower snapshot into my self-hosted WordPress (WP) blog.
- WP posted the entry to Twitter using WP plugins Hum and Publicize
- One of my Twitter followers replied to my tweet.
- Using Webmention, the tweet showed up in my WP comment moderation loop.
- After I approved it, the tweet shows up as a comment in the corresponding WP entry.
As you can see, there are some formatting issues with the emoticons and the image link isn’t displaying correctly.
And to begin with I had some other WP plugins interfering with the Webmention plugin and no idea why it wasn’t working.
An umbrella of petals http://t.co/n8uru2KPqJ
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) July 28, 2014
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How I used to listen to music
Nostalgic moment for the 90s: Jimmy Cliff playing on the radio… reminded me of the time in my life when I used to borrow music CDs from the local library during my student years. It gave me access to the entire album, not just the hit singles. And it didn’t drain a student’s budget.
And I was able to explore lots of different kinds of music.
Before that, in Malawi, my main source of music was MBC radio, some international radio stations such as Deutsche Welle and the BBC, and school friends.
My mom will tell you that she doesn’t listen to music. But I have fond memories of MBC radio playing at full blast.
I’ve changed in my music listening habits. We all have. Now we’re all over Youtube and Spotify and iTunes and Soundcloud. Despite all the cool music gadgets that I own, I’m not buying, compiling or storing my favourite music. My main music gadget is my MacBook. And I’ve forgotten what listening to an album is like.
I still listen to a lot of radio music. Especially on the weekends.
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Jog log on a Thursday evening
I went for a short 30 minute run. Happy I made it out of the door. Looking forward to the weekend and more running.
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Jog log
I went for a 40 minute run today. Only the first 5 minutes were dry. Then it started raining. Towards the end of my run, the rain became quite intense. Even my trusted rain gear was soaked through.
It was the third time I got soaked today. I guess the rainy season is back.
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A valid question?
A tweet to keep. I stumbled across this C.S. Lewis quote:
“Notice how we are perpetually surprised at time… In heavens name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal.”
— C. S. Lewis (@CSLewisDaily) July 6, 2014
A valid question to consider.
Sun’s shining. A beautiful day lies ahead. Will try to enjoy the moment today.
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Marketing buzzword – 2014 edition
The term “Growth hacking” has officially reached Germanic shores.
The German magazine t3n.de published this post on how to become a growth hacker (it’s in German).
Cool marketing folks already have an account at http://growthhackers.com/ or follow the Twitter stream.