Obviously, this online resume is only useful if people find it, so I have been working on optimizing this site for search engines. 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...

About a year ago, I used to send lots of card and letters to friends and relatives.  However, after a while, I started running out of time, and, without really realizing it, I finally stopped all together. 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. ...

A few days ago, I updated the WordPress version for MarilynMoll.com.  I am in the process of redesigning her blog to match her main site, TheUrbanHomemaker.com.  As a part of that process, I updated her verison of WordPress from 2.3 to 2.8.1. Attempted Automatic Upgrade First, after getting the information for her admin panel, server, and FTP, I backed up all her...

Over the last couple of months, I have done a lot of SEO work on Debt-free Scholar.  Slowly but surely, that work is finally starting to pay off.  Between May and June, the number of monthly search engine visits more than tripled from about 500 in many to more than 1600 in June. Yesterday, a new level was reached.  For the first time ever in the history of DFS,...

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been busy writing as many posts as possible for Debt-free Scholar.  My goal is to have over 100 posts completed by the time school starts. I am writing all these posts now and scheduling them using the WordPress schedule feature and Google Calendar so that, once school starts, I will not have to write posts as much.  During the...

On the right side of this website, I have a little section that says “References”.  Every time a page loads a reference is randomly chosen and displayed, along with a link to that quote on my References page. WordPress Problems When I first thought of putting rotating quotes there, I planned to use a WordPress plugin.  However, because WordPress just...

Today I designed a logo for one of my blogs, Debt-free Scholar.  I am in the process of designing an eBook, and I wanted to include my logo on the front cover.  Therefore, I decided it was a good time to make a logo for Debt-free Scholar. Step 1: Planning Before I started designing my logo, I came up with two criteria for it.  First, I wanted it to convey the...