Working at Home on the Internet

Coffee: The First Test

COFFEE…

Ok, the First Day of K’s Work at Home Business has arrived and so has the First Test.

The Coffee Pot is in the Kitchen. Small wonder you say, yours is, your neighbor’s is and that’s where your parents always kept theirs. As a matter of fact, yours is probably near the sink, just like mine.

Well, so is the small protable sink that K. uses to wash hair. It has to be near a water source and needs a place to drain the dirty water.

I know some of her customers and have no problem saying Hi and getting some coffee. I will even offer some to them if they want. I really don’t have a problem meeting the customers I have not met before. But, when a woman is getting her hair washed, she may feel a little uncomfortable with a man barging in to get a cup. Not to mention that the way to the Pot is effectively blocked.

It’s not that I didn’t know that I have to have my coffee while working. I know where the Coffee Pot is. I did think of it, but didn’t do anything about it. I thought since I know most of the customers, I would just say excuse me and go about my business. I know better now.

The Solution…

This afternoon when we are both done working, we are going shopping. We are going to buy one of those keep hot, pump a cup things you see at the convience stores or in gas stations. That way, if I want Coffee, I just pump it myself. I won’t have to bother K. or her customers.

Part of the Working Together (Separately) series

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September 27th, 2006 at 12:59pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, General, Work at Home | 2 reader remarks | Print This Post

My Crazy “Cracked” Egg Review

 

I usually like to try new things on the Blog to improve the navigation and usefulness of the blog.  Today I read on two different blogs about this new tracking system Crazy Egg. (notice there is no link yet)

On Ben Yoskovitz’s new site Instigator Blog, he has good things to say about it.

Over at Smiley Cat, Christian Watson speaks of the usefulness in his review.

I trust both of these guys, so I thought I would try it out.  It’s supposed to track actual clicks on the page so you can see where people are going (or not going) on your site.  Sounds good, huh?

It Might Be, but when I signed up to get it, I just keep getting errors. “Looks like an egg got cracked...” with sound effects that could be from a Game Show when a contestant falls off the stage.

Signing up was easy enough, just use your E-mail address and create a password.  Ok, done step one.

Create a Test Page… Uh, oh here comes that sound again telling me I cracked an egg.  So, I go back to the Dashboard and try again to create a page.  Same sound, but NOW I have two Test Pages that are exactly the same!?!  I can’t delete one, it won’t let me.  The option is there, but now I’m on the Game Show again.

Ignore the error and click to get the Code I need to put in the Template.  Install said Code in said Template.

Ok, I’m getting “some” stats, clicks and visits on the second test page. (still have the sound effects on the first)

Now, I go into the View Results, Overlay comes up just fine.  It even shows the link where the click occured.  Next step was to check the List, that shows some results.

Fine, next comes the most useful stat, the Heat Map, it’s supposed to show where people click even if it’s not a link.  Something like a pic you have or something else where you might want to put a link.  BUT, I’m on the Game Show again.

I really have no idea what the problem is.  I followed instructions, I put the code where it’s supposed to go.  I am Not Stupid, and this ain’t my first dance.  They seem to be having some problems on their end.

I will continue to play with this to see if they fix whatever the problem is, but right now, I don’t really think it is as useful as others have found it to be.  Maybe, if it starts working it may be a good thing, I’ll withhold judgement for a little while yet.

 

Update: Please read My New Review of Crazy Egg after resolving some important issues.

September 26th, 2006 at 01:41pm | Posted by Joe | Reviews, Stastics | 20 reader remarks | Print This Post

The Opposite of Writers Block

 

Here is a good one for you to contemplate.

What would you consider the opposite of writers block?

For me it seems to be having so many ideas for different post topics that I can’t decide which one should be written for today’s post.  I went through my normal routine of perusing other Blogs, going over RSS feeds, looking over some Forums and they all were pretty much about standard everyday topics.  No real new things, so I had no idea what to write about.

There are some things happening around here with K’s move into the work at home world, but nothing worth a whole post in the series.  Mostly it’s just about the house being in disarray and moving things around. 

Then I started looking at my own blog and noticed some things that have been happening. Most of them are very good things.  Some are not, but all are noteworthy.

 

The Good Things…

~~ Page views have increased.  Of course, that can be expected when involved with one of Darren’s writing projects.  But, the last couple of times it was all one-off type visits.  Really high numbers for one day, then nothing.  This time the numbers have stayed pretty high for a few days.  They have decreased a little at a time, not all at once.

~~ Increase in Subscribers.  Normally, I may get a few new subscribers during a project and one or two may stick.  This time I had a lot more people subscribe and have more now than ever before.  I hope you all like it here and stick around.

~~ Comments have Increased.  There were some really good comments this time around (not that others weren’t good).  People actually had conversations revolving around various posts, not just the entry to the project and they were quite helpful to all involved.

 

The Not So Good Things…

~~ Technorati has lost links once again.  I do try to make come contact with anyone who links to me.  I feel it’s the least I could do.  But, yesterday T-Rati showed I had 45 links and when I went in today to touch base with the new blogs, there were only 40 links.  Where did they go?

~~ Some of the trackbacks were just for people who apparently cut and pasted Darren’s list.  Now to me THAT’s Link-baiting.  I don’t go out of my way to thank them for the link, it’s not like they even read my post.

 

I have written posts about some of them in the past, and may do follow up posts in the future.  I think they are all worth talking about in some way.

 

Related Posts:

6 Ways to Improve Navigation and Increase PageViews

My Technorati Problems

Working Together (Separately) [series]

September 25th, 2006 at 03:05pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Community, Linking, Stastics | 2 reader remarks | Print This Post