Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

During this time, we have competed in a total of four debate events:

• one “workshop” (January)
• two “round robins” (February and March)
• one “tournament” (April)

Summary of the Debate Season

During the workshop, we tested our cases and practiced our debate skills, but no awards were given or announced.

The round robin competition in February included four rounds and, for the first time, awards were given.  To our amazement, Maddie and I actually won the first place team award; Maddie won the seventh (I think) speaker award, and I won the third place speaker award.

In the March round robin, we did not win any team award, but we did still get speaker awards.

In the final tournament, we were the top team going into the out rounds, but we lost during the quarter finals.  When the results came in, we won fifth place team award; Maddie won third place speaker award, and I won first place speaker award.

What I Learned

During this debate season, I learned how to…

• communicate my ideas clearly to my audience.
• recognize logical fallacies.
• evaluate the “expertise” of experts.
• ask the right questions to find flaws in arguments.

A Big Thank You To…

My learning and success in debate is due to the influence and gracious time investments of my debate teacher (Mrs. Arp), my parents, my debate partner and sister (Maddie Desmond), the CCNW director (Mr. Engel), and the encouragement and help of my fellow debaters.

Most of all, I owe my success to the blessing of Jesus Christ.  May all the glory go to God!

I have been planning and preparing for this launch for nearly five months, so I am very excited to finally have the site launched.

To celebrate the launch, I have…

• published 13 posts.
• run a giveaway of a Leatherman wave.
• started a Facebook page.
• built my Twitter profile.

Launching this site has been a new learning experience for me.  On my past blogs, I have simply started posting, and the following and traffic have slowly built.  This time, however, I used a splash page to build a subscriber base of more than 100 people… before launch day.

What I Learned…

• Splash pages are a big help.
• Proofreading is essential (If I don’t fix my own mistakes, my readers will).
• Expectations are rarely met (My traffic was good, but not nearly what I expected).

In the future, I have more exciting plans for my website… starting with a manifesto release next month.

I made this campaign with the goal of helping to stop the current health care “reform” bill that is winding its way through Congress.  After I heard yesterday that the bill had passed the House (by five votes), I have been mulling over a number of different ways to oppose this bill.

This morning, I set to work building this campaign.

Americans Against Socialist Health Care (HR 3200)

I started with a central “hub” – a Facebook group.

After quickly assessing the differences between “pages” and “groups”, I decided that a “group” would better fit the needs of a cause whereas a “page” would work better for a business or website.

Speedily designing the group, I…

• Added a Profile Image – a picture of the Statue of Liberty
• Started Two “Discussions” – one on action steps and one on the dangers
• Posted One Video – by Daniel Hannan
• Posted Four Links – more to be added periodically

Health Care Reform Poll

After finishing the Facebook group, I built a related poll.

The poll simply asks whether people support the health care “reform” bill, and gives the options:

• No – I want my freedom!
• Undecided – I need to do more research.
• Yes – I want the government to control my health!

So far, this poll has received only four votes, but that should grow in time.

Traffic Building

After finishing the group and poll, I began building traffic using the following methods:

• Natural Facebook – First, I promoted the group to my personal network by inviting them to join.
• Natural StumbleUpon – Second, I “stumbled” both the group and the page to build natural SU traffic.
• Paid Facebook – I setup a short two-day Facebook advertising campaign to help promote the group.

Currently, after only three hours, the Facebook group already has two fans (three including me).  I am looking forward to watching it progress!

Why Free?

I am able to offer this as a free service because the hosting companies pay me $65 – $100 for each person who purchases their hosting through me.  In effect, I am making more than $65 for each install!

Because this enables me to provide the installation service free to my users, I am able to sell it more easily.  No one has to pay anything extra to use my service.

What I Provide

When someone does sign up for my service I will:

• Install WordPress
• Install 40+ Themes
• Install 30+ Plugins
• Setup an Email Address (something@theirdomain.com)
• Provide Spam Protection
• Improve SEO (fix the permalink structure)

So far, I have spent about 17 hours designing the site and writing the content.  Now, I just need to setup one more affiliate account, and I will be ready to start!

What I Accomplished

• Updated the WordPress version from 2.3 to 2.8.
• Customized the Atahualpa Theme to match Mrs. Moll’s main website, TheUrbanHomemaker.com.
• Setup a Feedburner RSS and email feed to boost reader retention.
• Optimized the permalinks for search engines.
• Added social bookmarking buttons at the bottom of each post to aid in site promotion.

What I Learned

• I now understand how to use the Plesk platform better.
• I learned how to use desktop-side ftp clients whereas before I had only used server-side ftp programs.
• I gained experience in CSS because I used it to modify the Atahualpa Theme.
• I practiced using HTML by creating the subscription widget.

This was a great learning experience, and I am grateful for the opportunity to hone my web design skills.  Because I enjoyed this project so much, I hope to do more similar projects soon.

Original Idea

When I first came up with the idea for an ebook, I planned to publish a giant ebook filled with 20 to 30 interviews with different college experts.  I planned to cover topics ranging from college planning to scholarships to writing.

Getting Interviews

Starting out, I contacted a number of college experts that I have met in the past, and asked them if they would be interested in participating.  Out of the five people that I contacted, all expressed interest, but two dropped out later.  The three original interviewees were Andrew Pudewa (Director of Excellence In Writing), Julie Walker (Marketing Director of Excellence In Writing), and Cathy Gullo (Owner of Scholarship Consultant Services).

Ebook Idea Changes

Before I interviewed anyone else, I “happened” (by the providence of God) to talk about my ebook plans with Nick Hampshire, a friend of mine who has experience publishing ebooks.  During our conversation, he explained to me that most people are not interested in ebooks with 20 to 30 interviews, but that 1 or 2 interviews would make an excellent ebook. Based on that information, I decided to turn each of the three interviews into individual ebooks that I would publish over the period of a few months.

Design Improves

Also working with Nick Hampshire, I learned how to design my ebooks to make them easily read and asthetically pleasing.  I used Microsoft Word to design the ebook, which I then converted to PDF format.  Without the help of Nick, my ebooks would not be nearly as well designed.  I am very grateful to Nick and those like him who are willing to give their time to help others.

Plans For The Future

I titled the first ebook (the one published today), “Tips On Paying For College”.  It contains my interview with Cathy Gullo which focused on scholarships and loans.  Next month, I plan to publish my interview with Andrew Pudewa which is titled “Tips On Writing In College”.  Then, in September, I plan to publish “Tips On Preparing For College” which would be my interview with Julie Walker.

After that, I plan to find other experts who I can interview.  I hope to publish one interview ebook each month until I have at least 10 – 15 ebooks.

You can view a preview of my first ebook here, or you can get the entire ebook here.

Now, when someone searches for “Nate Desmond” the top result is my online resume!  Gaining this position was pretty simple because “Nate Desmond” is not a very common name and there are fewer than 511,000 results competing for this term.

Main Reasons

1. This website is located at NateDesmond.com.  The URL of a website plays a major role in SEO.
2. The website’s name is also “Nate Desmond” with the subtitle “Online Portfolio & Resume”.  Once more, the title is a major help in SEO.
3. Finally, the WordPress theme I chose is highly SEO optimized.   The entire WordPress platform, in fact, is built to make Google happy.

Obviously, those are only a few of the reasons.  Other inportant points, such a backlinks, did play a part also.

Next… “Nathanael Desmond”

Now that I have ranked well for “Nate Desmond”, it is time to start working on “Nathanael Desmond” – my full name.  This one will be slightly harder because it is not mentioned in the URL or site title, but I think it will be possible.  Currently, my Twitter account is listed on the first page (result #6), but my resume is not even listed yet.

Time to get back to work…

Recently, however, a series of events have revived my interest in the art of letter writing.  First, I received a letter from a friend in Southern Oregon.  Reading his kind letter, I realized what an encouragement letters can be.  Then, before I had actually gotten down to the business of writing, I read an article on the Art of Manliness which explained a few of the different types of stationary.  On of these, the correspondence card, particularly grabbed my attention; it was short and looked like a good way to start writing again.

I decided to design my own, personal correspondence card.

Planning

First, I looked at some example cards.  Recognizing my favorite parts on each of those cards, I decided to include three parts in my card:

• My Initials – The article I read said using your initials instead of your full name is the more formal way.
• Lighthouse Picture – I have enjoyed lighthouses for as long as I can remember.
• Bible Verse – I want to be an encouragement in the Lord to my friends.

Designing

Step 1: Draw The Lighthouse

Using colored pencils, I drew a picture of a lighthouse and scanned it onto the computer.

Step 2: Add Opacity

Using Paint.net, I added a layer of opacity to the picture and moved it to the lower left-hand corner of the 4×6 card.

Step 3: Add Words

Adding another layer, I inserted the Bible verse and initials.

Completed!

With the card design completed, I printed it out and started writing!  My goal is to write at least three cards a week.

Attempted Automatic Upgrade

First, after getting the information for her admin panel, server, and FTP, I backed up all her posts and other settings – just in case something went wrong with the upgrade. Next, I attempted to upgrade from the admin panel of her blog.  On newer versions of WordPress, an automatic upgrade option is available under Tools -> Upgrade.  Unfortunately, however, that option was not available in version 2.3.

Attempted To Upload Via Plesk

Once I realized that was not an option, I located instructions for manual upgrading, and I began looking for the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) options.  All my experience until now has been with cPanel, but her blog’s server used Plesk.  On cPanel the FTP section is located server-side with a handy button to open it.  Looking through her Plesk panel, I attempted to find the FTP button, but it was not there.

Uploaded Using File-Zilla

After a little searching, I decided Plesk did not have it, so I started trying to figure out how to use the FTP URL.  I visited the site, entered my credentials, and saw a list of the files currently on the site… but no option to upload.  Puzzled, I sent an email to the webmaster, Chris Tingom, explaining that I was used to cPanel’s easy FTP client, and asked him for any tips.

He replied quickly with a link to File-Zilla and a few other desktop-based FTP applications that I could use.  Downloading File-Zilla, I quickly upgraded my client’s site, completely replacing the wp-admin and the wp-includes directories, but leaving the wp-content directory intact.

Upgrade Complete!

After a few problems with the wp-config.php file, I completed the upgrade.  Thankfully, no content was damaged, so I did not have to use the backup.

With this experience behind me, I now feel much more comfortable upgrading WordPress manually and working with FTP.