Darren's Blog

Wow, A Long Time With No Posting

2009-02-25T16:42:00.000-08:00

Well I guess I kind of forgot about this blog. Anyways, I got a job as a production developer with a media firm so I have been very busy along with college. I switched my program to Software Development so I am focusing on that. I also have switched most of my programming to Ruby on Rails (for Web Apps). Life has been busy, hopefully I will post here more.

Tyler Cruz's Affiliate Marketing Challenge

2008-07-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well I entered Tyler Cruz's affiliate marketing challenge and I got 8th place so I am pretty happy about that. You can check it out here. I earned around $160. Although affiliate marketing is fascinating at times I personally don't think its stable enough to earn a stable income.

Update

2008-07-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted here in a while because simply I have been busy. I sold Free Guestbooks to a competitor because I needed to get a new laptop. My new laptop has these specs:

2GHZ Duo Core
4GB RAM
128MB NVIDIA Graphics Card
120GB Hard-Drive
Ubuntu Linux

I got Linux because I am learning networking in school and think it will benefit me. Also because after I learned Vista used 1GB RAM I was a little in decline in choosing that. In other news I am almost complete with a very large website so hopefully I can post it here soon.

I've Been Busy

2008-06-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

The reason I haven't posted much on here is because I am been busy. Over the past 6 months I have been coding up a storm on a new web applications site. I won't reveal the site yet but I can say it has a really good domain name and I am pretty sure its going to be successful. It took 5 months to code the beckend and then 1 to get the kinks out. Now that I am working on the front end I am so happy. Aside from that I got my Zend PHP certification book and am studying to take the exam.

Prototype & AJAX

2008-05-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Well last night I had to create an application for a client and I learned about Prototype... it's a framework for AJAX. Its really cool and useful because it eliminates 99% of the redundant code you have to use for AJAX. If you ever have time check it out here. Its really a nice tool when dealing with AJAX.

Zend PHP Certification

2008-05-31T00:52:00.000-07:00

Well I just got my paycheck from Google and so I decided to buy Zend's guide on becoming certified. Hopefully it will help me get more high paying PHP jobs and maybe get me a position with a cool web start up company if they know I have a Zend Certification. I guess it teaches about their framework and different methods while using PHP. So it should be a good book. All in all it will benefit me, by getting it I would move from an intermediate PHP programmer to an expert programmer.

Other than that I have been learning AJAX tonight and the Prototype.js framework is really cool. It basically gets rid of having to deal with all the AJAX mandatory stuff and allows you to code what you really need to.

Also if you ever go to John Chows blog at http://www.johnchow.com it provides a lot of information on making money online and now John is showing that the Chinese aren't really any different than us in there daily lives by recording parts of his trip while he is there. Its a really good and interesting blog.

Getting Certified

2008-05-09T22:56:00.001-07:00

Well today I went to Borders (bookstore) and I got an A+ certification quiz guide book. Why do I want to get A+ certified? Simple; so I can have more on my resume and so I can aim towards getting Network+ certified. Once I finish my degree in Network Engineering I will eliminate any other possible candidates from getting the job position I want if I have these 2 certifications under my belt and maybe some others. So if there is someone who walks into the same job interview I am in and tries to be egotistical, we'll see who gets the job if I have the certifications and he/she doesn't. Having more than the minimum requirement is always a good thing. Always teach yourself more than you need to know because in the end it can be used like a sword.

Teach Yourself

2008-05-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

A lot of people think in order to learn you have to be taught by someone else. That simply isn't the truth. If you have ever been to high school or college I am sure you can relate that it's the people that want to learn that actually do learn. It's the self motivation they have that allows them to learn so much. Have you ever wanted to learn a new programming language or a graphics program? If you have the best way is to buy a book on the subject and read a chapter per night until the book is done, then take the book and go to your computer and try some of the examples and you should have the basic understanding of the language or program. Online tutorials are also a good source however they can cause errors because they may not be formatted well or the information that the person is trying to convey is wrong or outdated. Books also provide a good structure in learning a new programming language so the code is organized well. Just remember it is not impossible to learn a new trait or skill, it is just how motivated you are to learn it.

Take Advantage of GUI

2008-05-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

If you are a programmer you know adding simple HTML controls and PHP controls or whatever-language-you-use controls are a pain and time consuming. About 2 months ago after I started using a GUI for college for developing Visual Basic .Net computer programs I found that it was a lot easier to just keep dragging the controls in instead of coding them. This saved me so much time that I decided to switch to a GUI for when I develop HTML templates for web pages. I do want one for PHP (Zend Studio) but right now its a little bit out-of-range for my budget (as a software developer I do not pirate because I know how it feels). GUI are like frameworks, they take common tasks and make them a lot more simple than they need be. So one of these days when you are programming or creating an HTML template for your site try a GUI.

Prevent Website Disasters

2008-04-28T21:34:00.001-07:00

Well tonight I made decision to convert one of my applications from using sessions to cookies. Reason being is when there will be thousands of users using this application I don't want my server to crash. Thankfully with CakePHP it was very easy to change. Sessions take up a lot of resources while a cookie is on the users computer. A cookie can be just as secure as a session if you encrypt it right. I am so happy I switched now so I won't have to deal with headaches later.

Adobe Flex

2008-04-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

Well one of the newer technologies for developing sites on the internet is Adobe Flex. I have been reading articles about the software on Sitepoint and I have to say I am quite impressed with it. Instead of having to use Adobe Flash and create design elements that are used quite frequently one could use Adobe Flex and have it pre-designed every time. Adobe Flex is a rival to AJAX because it inherits dynamic page changes but through flash. If you have time be sure to search for some articles about Adobe Flex because I have a hunch this will be the new thing in createing rich internet applications. It even has its own language for creating in.

Patience and Website Success

2008-04-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

In the past I have sold my websites early on because I was a money hungry high school teen who needed cash. Now a days I am letting my sites sit and making what I can off them so I can get more in the long run. Websites are like real estate, the longer you let them sit the more value they obtain. Over the years I have found out the key to success is patience. Patience is an important virtue non-the-less and takes time to acquire. Hopefully my new concept of being 'patient' will pay off and I can earn a stable income from my online businesses. My goal is to make a network of sites that I can continue to accumulate a cash flow from.

From Stat Counter to Google Analytics

2008-04-25T18:21:00.000-07:00

Today I switched from Stat Counter to Google Analytics because although it takes 24 hours for data to accumulate, Google's service really offered more. I paid for more log space on Stat Counter but I was afraid it wasn't tracking all my stats because when I was at my college library, Stat Counter was blocked by the college firewall. Well upon switching I also learned that Google Analytics tracks Adwords conversions as well and I can set goals that I want achieve in terms of converting clicks. This is great and I hope switching to Analytics is the best decision.

CakePHP 1.2 and It's Flaws

2008-04-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

In case you don't know what CakePHP is, I will put it to you in simple terms. It is a PHP framework. It allows you to create PHP powered websites without having the hassle of continuously having to write small HTML controls or other small aspects that you would use constantly throughout your application. One site that I have been developing in CakePHP has me a little more skeptical about the framework. Although I am an avid user of the framework, ever since I switched to the new 1.2 build things have been a little more hectic. Not only because I have to learn new aspects of the framework but get around customization issues with the new version. The 1.1 series allowed a lot more in terms of customization in my opinion because it didn't automatically build advanced tags around the controls it produces. I am still going to use CakePHP but lets just say I am going to explore other frameworks such as the Zen framework.

PPC Conversion Test

2008-04-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

During my marketing of Free Guestbooks through Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing, I did a test at which one would have better conversions. I spent $100 on each service and the results were sad because Yahoo Search Marketing is supposedly the 2nd best competitor to Google Adwords. Keep in mind these campaigns are highly optimized and I was using each service's conversion tracking code. Out of $100 with Google Adwords I got about 10-15 conversions per day with $10 being spent a day and with Yahoo Search Marketing I got around 3-5 conversions per day with the same budget. The CPC bid was around the same for both as well as the ad position. It just goes to show how much Google dominates the ad market and how their traffic is of higher quality than any other competition. I didn't use Microsoft's new Ad Center because after numerous phone calls to their support service and waiting my ad was not displaying and it was not inappropriate in any way or form. I may just start using Google Adwords as my sole PPC advertising program from now on.

Yahoo and Their Future

2008-04-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of Yahoo and have been for about 3 years now. Why am I a big fan? Simply because they know how to create great websites that offer a lot of content to the user and unlike a lot of online networks, they don't do a sloppy job. Google is great when it comes to web development don't get me wrong but their speciality is web applications and not web content. Yahoo knows how to harness the power of web content and they know how to monetize it. Over the past couple of months a lot of people have been wondering when and if Yahoo will sell to Microsoft. Honestly, I think Yahoo will wait it out because after all they have been around since basically the start of user-viewed internet. Last week there was some great news that Yahoo's profits rose 3x their amount from last year. Some say it won't be enough to sustain the company from the powerful Microsoft but I do. I think Yahoo will ride it out and hopefully they do so Yahoo can keep creatin' those great looking websites.

Monetizing Adsense

2008-04-23T14:15:00.001-07:00

So I run Google Adsense on my Free Guestbooks website and I was just using the regular templates that Google provides. Well it turns out I wasn't making much money and visitors (even though the ad is positioned in a good spot) seemed to ignore the advertisement. I brainstormed through some ideas and I came up with one that now gets me 2x the amount of clicks that I used to get. Google Adsense has a great feature that allows a certain ad to use multiple color palettes. So I came up with 7 new ones that make the visitors notice the ads in an unobtrusive way. I have listed the colors below, enjoy.

Sunshine - Border: #FFCC66; Title: #FFFF66; Background: #E1771E; Text: #FFFFFF; URL: #FFFFFF;
Freaky Green - Border: #2D8930; Title: #CAF99B; Background: 38B63C; Text: #000000; URL: #000000;
Pinky - Border: #CC0000; Title: #000000; Background: #E895CC; Text: #000000; URL: #000000;
Lucky (Dog's Name) - Border: #000000; Title: #333333; Background: #FFFFFF; Text: #7F7F7F; URL: #000000;
Murple - Border: #61613B; Title: #E895CC; Background: #800080; Text: #FFFFFF; URL: #FFFFFF;
Candy Cane - Border: #CC0000; Title: #FFBBE8; Background: #940F04; Text: #FFFFFF; URL: #FFFFFF;
Bluey (Favorite) - Border: #0066CC; Title: #C3D9FF; Background: #3D81EE; Text: #FFFFFF; URL: #FFFFFF;

I Finally Did It

2008-04-23T13:37:00.001-07:00

Well everyone I finally got myself a blog. Usually I am too busy working on projects all the time to post let alone write a blog! I guess I will be sharing random thoughts in this blog on subject such as web development, networking, business concepts and more. One day I hope I have the time where I can focus solely on my blog as my main line of work and my web development as a maintenance job!