BP #27 – Further Blog Improvements

///Further Blog Improvements///

Since my last report-back, I’ve been working hard to implement some further blog improvements. Everybody seemed to identify the same problem: slow loading times and connection errors. Besides your comments, I also got emails from concerned readers on some of the occasions that my blog went down completely. The situation was extremely frustrating. The errors and slow speed were caused by my inexpensive previous host. Since site loading was clearly the #1 performance issue for readers, I made fixing it my top priority. I underwent the arduous but entirely worthwhile process of switching to HostGator. My new service provider is a bit more expensive but the improvement has been massive (at least for me).

I got some other great tips on improving this blog’s performance that I’ve yet to implement. This isn’t because I don’t value your feedback. I just haven’t had the time. Plus, now that I’ve cut the average load time by over 80%, I don’t feel so bad about leaving some ‘optimization’ issues on the back-burner. Please share any suggestions you may have in a comment or email; they are greatly appreciated.

I did a couple things on my own ‘wish list’. I finally implemented a custom menu bar that features drop-downs (it would have been easy, but when I switched to a custom bar I lost my lovely search box). I yet again got step-by-step instructions for fixing this issue from the great guys at rtCamp (makers of my theme, rtPanel). I’m also in the process of adding a privacy policy.

As for efforts to build the blog’s readership:

• I wrote a guest post for one of Canada’s most popular personal finance blogs, Boomer and Echo, that was run last Friday.
• I’m sure you’ve noticed but I don’t recall talking about it in my other ‘blog improvement’ articles: Adina J is officially a weekly contributor. It’s a huge win to be able to consistently share her awesome writing and I hope it helps her gain readers as she explores freelancing.
• This week we had the first of two great guest articles from Glenn Cooke on permanent life insurance. He’s also prepared another post that explains a different insurance-related issue.

Thanks for reading and I promise TF will continue to improve in the future.

///The Movie Project///

I finally got a bit more free time this week. Confession: I used my free time to play Team Fortress 2. It’s a free game if anybody wants to join me. I’ve spent about ten hours playing as a medic, five hours as an engineer, and five hours as a sniper. My records are 18 kills (without dying) as an engineer and five headshots (again without dying) as a sniper. The medic obviously doesn’t kill a lot of people. This BP section is officially misleading because we haven’t actually watched any “classic” movies in like two months.

///Catherine a.k.a. Holly-ster Co.///

“I hate you guys right now.”

Mmm this dress is tasty!

“I’m revving my invisible motorcycle.”

///Mentions///

• Sir BCM didn’t seem to think one of my articles was personal finance related. I think that repairing your wood furniture is extremely frugal and therefore money-related. In fact, I doth protest because I think it’s a perfect example of classical personal finance — the careful optimization of lifestyle choices to support personal finances (rather than merely the other way around).
• Kris from Balancing Money and Life enjoyed Kathy’s guest post on Expired Makeup (and how to reduce your makeup waste).
• Nelson from FU mentioned my guest post at Boomer and Echo. He makes a Joe Schmo joke. Come on, my last name is Wood. There are way better jokes.

///Amendments and Addenda///

///Tweet(s) of the Week///

The Mason–Dixon Line is gone, replaced by the Chick–fil–A Line.

— TimelessFinance (@TimelessFinance) August 2, 2012

///Keyword Fun///

Money-Smart Keyword Award goes to:

can i use [Moore's] perfect fit certificate on sale items[?]

I did.

Generally-Smart Keyword Award goes to:

punish criminals not gun owners

True that.

Money-Stupid Keyword Award (x3) goes to:

how much do i need to be making to buy a $600000 condo in toronto

Do you listen to yourself?

if you put 300 into a tfsa with a interest rate of 2.00 how much is your return?

2%, duh, lol.

gold in 50% of my portfolio

TimelessFinance rage quits.

lol wut? Keyword Award goes to:

do it yourself sons of anarchy exist

For real, guys. I don’t make these up.

Notably missing keyword to SEO-optimize this post by increasing the keyword density

blog improvement

///YouTube///

I wonder how this weirdo would feel about the next video:

///Links///

1. An interesting Moneyville article discusses a heretical thought crime: the possibility of deflation. The author fails (miserably) to recognize that deflation can be a good thing. It’s just the healthy, normalizing flip side of our economy’s steroidal inflation. And boy, have we been ‘roid-raging lately. Look at housing prices. I’ve been calling it for years now: government intervention (including foreign government inflationary policy — that pushed up commodity prices and therefore our petro-economy) created price inflation while real GDP fell. It’s a depression masked by stagflation. Everybody, including the official GDP statistics (a.k.a. damned lies), disagree with me. Whatever. I’m right.

2. BCM was a childhood pyro. I’m trying to think of what to say about this brief post other than that it’s awesome.

3. S&P downgraded its outlook on the credit ratings of several Canadian banks, but not the actual credit ratings themselves. S&P was asleep at the wheel during the US financial crisis. They were blind to extreme housing overvaluation, the dangers of credit swaps, the weakness of financial institutions, and a bunch of other important factors that they’re paid to be aware of. Apparently S&P doesn’t have the guts to actually point out that Canadian banks could face solvency problems (having extended so much consumer credit that a lot of Canadians might have their own solvency issues when the bubble pops). But they also want a media release they can point to later and say, “Told you so.” Frankly, S&P could replace all of its overpaid analysts with Garth Turner although I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t accept the job offer.

///lol-worthy///

(The Olympics Edition)