I’ve never made a post like this before in my entire life. I am not even sure I should be making a post like this since I have never been a very religious man. Don’t get me wrong, I pray (when I remember to), I believe. I’ve just never been one to talk about two things…Politics and Religion. Not that I can’t, I just don’t want to…those two subjects never end in a peaceful manner…meaning someone always gets hurt or something.

I’ll just get right to the reasoning of this post. The other day I was sifting through some links I had in my Bookmarks. Places that I like to check out from time to time. Most of these are Technical in some way, (x)html, css, php, javascript, design, code, etc. I clicked on Joshua Blankenship, a site that I haven’t been to in a while…but have always liked his design and development work. I read up on what’s going on with him and his work and noticed that he had changed jobs…now working for NewSpring. I had never heard of this church…hence my comment above that I have never been a very religious man.

Let me change direction for a second. I do go to church when I can. I encourage my family to go to church when ever possible. I wished my wife and I could get to the church more often than we do! I just keep finding it harder and harder to manage my time for it. Work from 8/9am-6pm Monday thru Friday. Three kids to take care of once we get off work…homework, drill team, chores, friends, etc. Then by the time we get everything done, kids fed, cleaned up and tucked into bed, house picked up…it’s 10pm. Saturday rolls around and the process starts over…feed everyone, get Marla off to work, play with the kids, feed them lunch, play some more (or take them to some function that’s going on), take naps if tired, etc. Sunday is much the same except I have the pleasure to do all these wonderful things with my Wife at my side. The point of this paragraph is TIME.

In today’s Information Age…you can find anything you want on the Internet. What does this have to do with this post? Since I find it hard to find the time to do much outside of what it takes to take care of my family (mentioned above)…I can now find the church through podcasts and video…when I can find the time…on my time.

My boss invited our family to Life Church, a very nice and interactive church that has brought their technology up to date and broadcast all over the US via satellite campuses. They’ve modernized the way they conduct service. They’ve brought excitement and emotion into it. They’ve brought music and movement. I can watch a service over the internet from the comfort of my own home…or from any place I am at with an internet connection. They’ve made it fun and easy to be a Christian.

So back to the main reason for this post. Through Joshua’s website I found the link to his new job…NewSpring. I was curious. I went to the link. I looked around the site. I even downloaded some of their podcasts…

I was moved. I wanted to listen to more…so I went looking for every available podcast they had…set up iTunes to automatically download when they were available. I spent three days listening. When I ran out of stuff to listen to I went looking for more…something to read. I then found the main pastor of NewSpring website: Perry Noble. I read his blog, went back as far as two months worth of posts.

I know this post is all over the place…and very random. I know I probably shouldn’t make this post because it may not make sense to many people. But it makes sense to me. This is my way of telling all of you that I think I have begun to follow that path…

I guess they are having issues with some of their maps and flash banners…so Here’s a nice looking static banner. Remember! It’s this Saturday!

This is one thing I have been struggling with for several years. Do I spice up my personal blog and use it as my freelance site as well? Or leave it just like it is and have random posts that have nothing to really do with what I do on the side. I’ve tried more than a thousand times to come up with a great ‘name’ or identity for a site that can showcase a portfolio, tell others what I do, and bring in customers that way…but they all sit there wasting away and never come to fruition.

So, my point in this post, is that after the long struggle, and after reading a very insightful post from Jonathon Snook: Maintaining your Personal Brand Online, I have come to the decision that I will keep this site as is, but add all those other elements that I need to create work.

In the coming months I am going to redesign this site so look out if you run into broken links or missing images. The blog will still be here, just will not be the main focus of the main home page. I’ll try to post as I go, so that all of you can follow the progress!

Thanks Snook! for the inspiration to actually do something with my life site!

I’ve been ‘testing’ website stats software, sites, js, etc for a while now. They all show about the same thing. Although I would love to support such a wonderful app like Mint (not the Money Management site), I just can’t bring myself to pay for it and I’ll tell you why here shortly.

First and foremost is . It’s one of the first and best free site tracking apps out there…but it’s just not for me at this stage. It’s more geared towards large scale, corporate websites. Not my personal blog. I will always keep an account and I might even keep the tracking code on my site just so I can peep on over at the reports they provide. But this is not my favorite any longer. Good, but too much for my needs.

Slimstat: This at one time was a favorite of mine, but hasn’t been updated or touched in a long while by the creator. I’ve also moved away from these types of analytics tools because I’d much rather not have to install, manage, and look for updated versions. I like the idea of just installing a few simple lines of code (JavaScript) and letting them worry about updates, maintenance, etc. Same goes with the above mentioned .

Counterize or Counterize II: this is a WONDERFUL Wordpress Plugin. If you want something simple, installable, and pretty much just turnkey (plugin activation), then this is what you want for Wordpress. It’s easy to install, activate, and read straight from your Wordpress Dashboard. But, as I have said before, I do not want something that needs to be installed. Good, easy, but just not what I am looking for.

: This one quickly became one of my favorites when it first came out…with a Web 2.0 look and feel about it…and also became one of my least favorites just as fast. I don’t know what it is, but something about the site/Dashboard just isn’t doing it for me in the ‘Show me my stats in a cool way’. Good, but not good enough.

Not much to talk about this one. Tried it because a friend said they liked it. It’s bland, not fun to look at, and just flat out isn’t good to me. Sorry, but try again.

mapsurface was once a real cool widget that popped up on top of your site. It was heading in the right direction, but then sold out to some other company. I haven’t seen any new enhancements or updates in a few years. I am removing this from my site now…with a sad face because I had high hopes for this nifty little gadget. ByeBye mapsurface!!

: this was very cool when it first came out…but it’s not doing things for me that I can’t get some place else…Google or one of the two following I am about to talk about.

Well, hmmm…feedburner is trying to be a do it all service. I am still watching over their stats/analytics portion and I will report on this one at a later time. But so far so good!

By far my most favorite of all listed above. The delivery is great, the site is great, the content is great, just about everything is great. I know what I am looking at, and looking for, and it’s easy to find. They even have a real cool Windows/Mac app that streams real time responses to you when someone hits your site…called Snoop! I can go on and on, but I won’t. Just go check this out. I am more than positive this will also be one of your top two analytic tools. (Side Note, for me of course, and for what I need. Google is just too bloated, Reinvigorate gives me just what I need).

I know there are several more, but I have not tried them. I do not intend to try then any time soon either, but here is a list of some others that I have heard good things about:

• StatCounter
• ShinyStat
• AWStats
• Piwik

Yes, this was a very informal sort of a review. I guess my main point was to make a list to start with, and then to justify to myself (if to nobody else) which one or maybe two that I should keep. I hope you find this list a little bit useful. If you know of others, please let me know in the comments. I am always up to trying new ones.

Now, off to write about my methods to monetize my site…and what I have tried and what I think I am going to go with.

Here’s my next ‘Inspiration’ post…Denver Seminary. This site is classy. That’s really all I have to say. I’ve seen several sites that are similar in their classy look…but for some reason this one is my favorite so far. The colors, the layout, everything. They even left the design layout in 1024×768 optimized. That’s cool.

Denver Seminary