Gears Slowed Down My WordPress

I’m using WordPress 2.6 to power this blog, as well as several other blogs I run. Being the techie that I am, when WP 2.6 was released, I had to try out all the cool new features. That included the new Turbo feature utilizing Google Gears. Yay… new stuff to play with… and severely slow down my blog’s admin interface.

The Turbo feature uses Google Gears to download many backend parts of the WordPress administrative interface to your local computer. That way when you want to do something… say publish a new post… WordPress doesn’t have to download files from your web site. They’re all sitting nice and neat on your hard drive for quick and easy access.

Or that’s how it’s suposed to work.

In my case, when I would do something new like click to write a new post, or click the “Save” button, my browser would grind to a halt for upwards of 30 seconds. This happened for me on two different computers (my new laptop and my older workstation) under both FireFox 3 and Internet Explorer 7.

Since I’m no idiot, after 3 weeks I finally decided it was time to disable the “Turbo” feature so my administrative interface would be fast again.

Except for one problem… I can’t read. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to disable the “Turbo” feature, even though when you click on the “Turbo” link in the Dashboard, it tells you what to do. I even spent time searching Google for instructions on how to disable the darn thing, but was coming up empty. Of course I was! The instructions are right in the WP Dashboard! I was just in too much of a hurry to actually read them.

So just in case you can’t read either, and found this blog post by searching the web trying to figure it out too, I’ll let you in on the secret. In FireFox, you click on the Tools menu and choose “Google Gears Settings.” Then simply click the remove link next to your blog in the list. Pretty simple really.

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How to Think Like a Marketer…

Here’s a post I wrote in the Wealthy Affiliate forums. I thought it would be helpful to my blog readers…

How to Think Like a Marketer:

Here’s the key in my opinion…

Stop trying to find a niche or a product to promote. Instead go find a problem. Seriously, just think about a problem people have in life. It could be a very generalized problem most everyone has at some point (e.g. not enough money, trying to find a boyfriend/girlfriend, etc) or a specific problem affecting only a certain amount of people (e.g. owing the IRS back taxes, adults with ADHD, etc).

Whatever, just find a problem.

Then go research your problem. Pretend that you suffer from the problem, and that you desperately want to find a solution to it. You want a way out. You want to find relief from the pain and burden this problem is placing on you.

So you go out and start doing Google searches. Not keyword research! Just pretend you’re a real person with a real problem, and start finding a solution like a normal person would through normal search engine searches (very few people have problems and seek solutions from the Google Keyword Tool ).

Start taking notes about what you find. What are the main web sites that deal with the problem? Are there support groups? Are there forums? If yes, join the forums and start reading and eventually asking questions.

Also through this searching you will naturally discover if there are products being promoted to resolve the problem. What are those products? Do they have affiliate programs? How good are the sites doing in offering the products as viable solutions to the problem?

Only after you have picked a problem and done this type of research will you begin to know if it’s something that you’re interested in pursuing, and if it will be viable. You’ll also pick up on how hungry people who really suffer from the problem are for a solution (i.e. do they just like to whine or are they really seeking a solution). Finally since you didn’t start with keyword research, your notes should contain many different areas of the problem, questions people are asking, tips and suggestions people offer, etc. You take that list and do your keyword research based on it (not the other way around).

So to recap, you don’t find a product to sell, or even a niche itself. You find the problem first. And you don’t have to think like a marketer. Instead you think like you’re a person with the problem, and you go out and find a solution to it. Then you can sound authentic when you finally begin writing articles and putting up a blog or a web site, or starting a mailing list, or whatever. Maybe you don’t have the problem yourself, but you’ve immersed yourself in it long enough to truly feel for the people that do, and you’ll have an attitude of helping them find a solution so they can get out from the pain and burden. When you truly can relate to and understand the mindset of the people who have the problem, and actually care about them and want them to find relief, you won’t have to sell anything. You’ll come across as authentic by default and they’ll be much more likely to trust anything you recommend.

My 2 cents…

PS. If you can’t find a quality product that solves the problem, then maybe YOU can create one!

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Prevent Indexing When Building a New Site

Whenever you’re building a new site, you always run the risk of having Google (or other search engines) indexing your site before it’s completed. While it’s not a death sentence for your site if this happens, things go so much smoother if you can prevent indexing until your site is ready.

So how do you prevent Google and the other search engines from indexing your site until you’re ready?

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Bad Advice is Bad Advice

If you’re into affiliate or internet marketing, you know there’s a ton of bloggers out there ready to give you advice, and a lot of it is good… but a lot of it is crap. What’s the worst piece of advice I read everywhere?

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How to Find a Niche

Travis Sago (http://www.bummarketingmethod.com/) wrote an excellent how-to guide for finding a profitable niche. You can view the PDF here: Bum Marketing Mindset.

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Content vs. No Content

Today I got into a debate on the BANS forum regarding the best strategy for deploying BANS sites. Basically, the debate centered around two schools of thought:

1. Build as many BANS sites as possible, as quickly as possible. Don’t worry about content or quality. The more the better.
2. Build each BANS site with a focus on quality. Add unique content. Ensure your site adds value to the visitors.

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Copywriter Secret Trick

CopyBlogger recently published “How to Be a Copywriting Genius“. If you write content for your web site, this is a must read.

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More ideas for Inbound Links

I previously talked about how to get inbound links to your site. Here are some additional ideas for getting inbound links to your site:

• Yahoo Answers
  Create a Yahoo Answers account and answer questions relating to your site’s niche. Try to answer around 5 questions every day with

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