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	<title>Phelan Riessen</title>
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	<link>http://phelanriessen.com</link>
	<description>From the mind of Phelan Riessen</description>
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		<title>Online Marketing &amp; More</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2011/07/17/online-marketing-and-more/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2011/07/17/online-marketing-and-more/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:36:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[how to]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=587</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I had the privilege to speak for some wonderful servicemen and servicewomen at the Fleet and Family Support Center on the Coronado Naval Base. Here is the SlideShare from my  presentation &#8220;Online Marketing &#38; More&#8221; with notes listed below. Presentation Online Marketing &#38; More Overview View more presentations from Phelan Riessen Contents from the slide: [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I had the privilege to speak for some wonderful servicemen and servicewomen at the Fleet and Family Support Center on the Coronado Naval Base. Here is the SlideShare from my  presentation &#8220;Online Marketing &amp; More&#8221; with notes listed below.</p>
<div id="__ss_8599219" style="width: 595px;"><strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0pt 4px;"><a title="Presentation Internet Marketing Overview" href="http://www.slideshare.net/phelanriessen/presentation-internet-marketing-overview" target="_blank">Presentation Online Marketing &amp; More Overview</a></strong> <iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/8599219" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="595" height="497"></iframe></p>
<div style="padding: 5px 0pt 12px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/" target="_blank">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/phelanriessen" target="_blank">Phelan Riessen</a></div>
</div>
<h3><strong>Contents from the slide:</strong></h3>
<ol>
<li><strong>Online Marketing &amp; More</strong><br />
Ways to make money from the internet<br />
Where to register and host<br />
Content Management Systems (CMS)<br />
Blogging Will Get You More Traffic<br />
Leverage Technology and Time<br />
Niche Markets<br />
Marketing Funnels<br />
Marketing Avenues<br />
Keyword Volume<br />
Landing Pages<br />
Conversions<br />
Synopsis<br />
Q and A</li>
<li><strong>Introduction</strong><br />
Phelan Riessen &#8211; Digithrive<br />
Previous business &#8211; Planet Apparel for 17 years<br />
Greek Fonts &amp; Drop Shipping sites, Startups<br />
On the web since ’97, Prodigy ’91, BB’s before<br />
Twitter: @<a href="http://twitter.com/imagium">imagium</a></li>
<li><strong>Who&#8217;s selling what?</strong>
<ul>
<li>Who already has a business?</li>
<li>Who has a website for it?</li>
<li>Are you getting the results you want?</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Ways to Make Money Online</strong>
<ul>
<li>MLM&#8217;s</li>
<li>Drop ship</li>
<li>Products and services</li>
<li>Affiliate marketing</li>
<li>Digital downloads</li>
<li>E-commerce</li>
<li>Membership sites</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Places to Register and Host</strong>
<ul>
<li><a title="DreamHost" href="http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?346205">DreamHost</a></li>
<li><a title="Godaddy" href="http://www.kqzyfj.com/ln79lnwtnvADHJFBHCACBEJHKBH">Godaddy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.hostmonster.com/track/digithrive">HostGator</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-3110595-10421839">HostMonster</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.bluehost.com/track/dthosting">BlueHost</a></li>
<li>Good Practices</li>
</ul>
<p>Email VS Gmail/Yahoo/AOL etc.<br />
Register one place<br />
Host another</li>
<li><strong>Content Management Systems</strong><br />
Make use of technology and automation<br />
<a href="http://wordpress.org">WordPress</a><br />
<a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a><br />
<a href="http://joomla.org">Joomla</a><br />
Uses a Framework<br />
Low cost, open source<br />
Plugins, Extensions<br />
Customizable<br />
Minimal use of HTML code<br />
Plenty of developers</li>
<li><strong>Blogging Gets Higher Traffic</strong><br />
Optimize Your Automation with WordPress<br />
- Fresh Content</li>
<li><strong>Leverage Yourself</strong><br />
E-lance, The 4-Hour Workweek and other ways to leverage time<br />
oDesk.com<br />
Elance.com<br />
Guru.com<br />
ScriptLance.com<br />
Freelancer.com<br />
GetACoder.com<br />
VirtualEmployee.com<br />
Affordable Programmers.com<br />
PeoplePerHour.com<br />
AmazonTurk.com<br />
Fiverr.com<br />
7Richer.com<br />
TenBux.com<br />
Gigbucks.com<br />
FiftyTown.com<br />
UpHype.com<br />
Zeerk.com</li>
<li><strong>Find a Niche Market</strong><br />
Find a pain in the market and fix it<br />
Become the Authority<br />
Customers come to you<br />
Opportunities for articles – inbound links<br />
Able to attack and resolve their pains<br />
How to implement:<br />
Multiple websites<br />
Landing pages<br />
Check it over with your existing clients<br />
Test<br />
Utilize both Online and Offline advertising<br />
Strategies<br />
Speaking their language<br />
Benefits over features<br />
SEO opportunities</li>
<li><strong>Marketing Funnel</strong><br />
X Visitors = X interests = X requests = X conversions</li>
<li><strong>Marketing Avenues</strong><br />
Social media and networks &#8211; Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Twitter, Stumble Upon<br />
PPC &#8211; sponsored ads<br />
Building traffic &#8211; SEO, link building</li>
<li><strong>Finding Keywords</strong>
<p>https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal</li>
<li><strong>Landing Pages</strong><br />
Social media and networks &#8211; Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Twitter, Stumble Upon<br />
PPC &#8211; sponsored ads<br />
Building traffic &#8211; SEO, link building</li>
<li><strong>Leverage Social Networks</strong><br />
Fish where the fish are feeding<br />
Be the authority</li>
<li><strong>Website Conversions</strong><br />
Pay Per Click Sponsored Ads<br />
Lead Captures or Give-a-way<br />
Conversions<br />
Do’s and Don’ts</li>
<li><strong>Start to Finish</strong><br />
Find a Niche<br />
Build a Website<br />
Create a Campaign<br />
Conversion<br />
Test and Refine<br />
Rinse and Repeat</li>
<li><strong>Q &amp; A</strong></li>
</ol>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Clean Air Fail</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2011/04/04/clean-air-fail/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2011/04/04/clean-air-fail/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:30:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[commentary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=533</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Clean-air-fail-759x1024.jpg" rel="lightbox[533]"><img class="alignright size-large wp-image-534" title="Clean Air Fail" src="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Clean-air-fail-759x1024.jpg" alt="" width="634" height="854" /></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Customizing WordPress Themes</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2011/03/28/customizing-wordpress-themes/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2011/03/28/customizing-wordpress-themes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:30:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[how to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[san diego]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=510</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently presented &#8220;Customizing WordPress Themes&#8221; at the local San Diego Word Press user group run by Glenn Bradley. The talk was on how to include jQuery into your own WordPress themes. The slideshare presentation probably makes great reference notes for those in attendance but not so much for those who are viewing it as [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I recently presented &#8220;Customizing WordPress Themes&#8221; at the local <a href="http://www.meetup.com/San-Diego-WordPress/events/16926151/">San Diego Word Press</a> user group run by Glenn Bradley.</p>
<p>The talk was on how to include jQuery into your own WordPress themes. The <a title="Customzing WordPress" href="http://www.slideshare.net/phelanriessen/customizing-word-press-themes-for-san-diego-wordpress-user-group">slideshare</a> presentation probably makes great reference notes for those in attendance but not so much for those who are viewing it as a standalone document.</p>
<p><strong>Here are my notes to go along with the slides&#8230;</strong></p>
<div id="__ss_7382229" style="width: 600px;">
<p><strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a title="Customizing word press themes for san diego wordpress user group" href="http://www.slideshare.net/phelanriessen/customizing-word-press-themes-for-san-diego-wordpress-user-group">Customizing word press themes for San Diego WordPress user group</a></strong> <object id="__sse7382229" width="610" height="515"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=customizingwordpressthemesforsandiegowordpress-110325011711-phpapp01&amp;stripped_title=customizing-word-press-themes-for-san-diego-wordpress-user-group&amp;userName=phelanriessen" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="610" height="515" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=customizingwordpressthemesforsandiegowordpress-110325011711-phpapp01&amp;stripped_title=customizing-word-press-themes-for-san-diego-wordpress-user-group&amp;userName=phelanriessen" name="__sse7382229" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
</div>
<p><strong>Slide 1:</strong> Really simple, <a href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> is awesome for blogs, basic sites, and brochure type sites. They are able to be themed and implemented relatively quickly. I like them much more than static HTML sites. No more wondering which version of content is the latest.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 2:</strong> We&#8217;ve all spent way too much time looking through <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/">free themes on WordPress</a>. There never exactly what you need or they cost too much. <a href="http://store.templatemonster.com/?aff=imagium">Template Monster</a> is nice but frankly, when I&#8217;m working on my own theme I don&#8217;t want to spend a dime so I just wrangles WP&#8217;s <a href="http://2010dev.wordpress.com/">twenty ten theme</a> into my own custom themes as needed.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 3:</strong> Most people using WordPress should know, changing the theme within WordPress admin is under Appearance &gt; Themes section. In hosting the WordPress theme is under domain.com/wp-content/themes/name of them folder. Simply upload the theme into the directory and choose it within the admin themes section.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 4:</strong> One really cool thing about WordPress themes is you can create multiple page templates and select which theme you want to use within your WordPress page.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 5: </strong>A few examples of WordPress themes using jQuery image sliders were used in this presentation. Three of the four sites are live at the time of this blog post. <a href="http://prorestaurantdesign.com/">Pro Restaurant Design</a> is a recent site I launched targeting owners of restaurants. This WordPress theme is uses the <a href="http://css-tricks.com/examples/AnythingSlider/">Anything Slider</a>. <a title="Linda Vista Chiropractor" href="http://www.sdsportandspine.com/">San Diego Sport and Spine</a> uses <a href="http://www.alohatechsupport.net/examples/image-rotator/image-rotator.html">Auto Image Rotator</a> and <a title="Commercial Interior Design" href="http://mindfuldesignconsulting.com/">Mindful Design</a> uses <a href="http://aviathemes.com/aviaslider/">Avia Slider</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 6: </strong>There are a ton of sliders out there, including WordPress plugins using <a href="http://jquery.com/">jQuery</a>, <a href="http://mootools.net/">MooTools</a>, and <a href="http://script.aculo.us/">Script.aculo.us</a>. Finding one that fits you or your client&#8217;s needs isn&#8217;t easy as it seems. Searching for terms like <a href="http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&amp;num=10&amp;hl=en&amp;safe=off&amp;site=&amp;source=hp&amp;q=jQuery+image+slider&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=g5&amp;aql=&amp;oq=&amp;pbx=1&amp;bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&amp;fp=9f3e09544325f7e6">jQuery Image Slider</a> usually yields decent results.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 7: </strong>If you&#8217;re not sure on <a href="http://www.p51labs.com/lightwindow/">how to implement JavaScript</a> on a site, Kevin Miller put together a great how to example on his new site P51 Labs. Make sure the scripts you&#8217;re trying to implement work on static HTML sites before adding them to the WP themes. This will help alleviate you the pain whether it works at all or in the WordPress theme itself.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 8:</strong> When customizing your own theme, start from the basics. Make sure you know where your blocks of content go before you start CSS&#8217;ing and DIV&#8217;ing them out. <a href="http://www.wirify.com/">Wireframe</a> your site layout first.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 9:</strong> As you fill in details, keep in mind where your JavaScript files are going to reside. Typically within the header.php file but not always.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 10:</strong> There are several files you need to consider when themeing <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Templates">WordPress templates</a>. They are index.php, page.php, and single.php are the main ones, then archive, search etc. are also needed to be themed. Get your main pages in order first then you can update the others later.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 11: </strong>The standard index.php file from the Twenty Ten theme uses the get_header () ;  call.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 12: </strong>Change get_header () ; to get_header (home) ; and it will call the header-home.php file instead. In this file (header-home.php) you can modify the contents within the &lt;head&gt; area and add your specific .js files accordingly.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 13: </strong>On any other page templates, all you&#8217;ll need to do is grab the dynamic content and wrap the CSS around it.</p>
<p>S<strong>lide 14: </strong>Customizing Widgets is easy. Just add this first set of code wherever you want the widget to show up on your site. Open up the functions.php file. Copy and paste the existing widget code, rename every instance of primary-widget-area and respective text to something you&#8217;ll recognize later and you should have a function custom named widget in your admin &gt; appearance &gt; widgets section as well as you page template.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 15:</strong> Going back to the header file(s), simply add the code from your jQuery script. Best way is to grab it from the demo, strip out all unnecessary code and make sure it works on a static file, then migrate it over to your WordPress theme. Makes sure to comment code out everything as best as possible.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 16: </strong>Using one of the <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/hifi/">HiFi</a>, <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pagely-multiedit/">Page.ly Multi-edit</a>, or <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/more-fields/">More Fields</a> plugins are a great way to get content on a page. Specifically HiFi will allow for scripts, CSS and other code to be injected into the header or footer files. Multi-edit and More Fields almost act like widgets. You can add content through the page admin area. You&#8217;ll have to find the correct snippet of code into the template though otherwise they won&#8217;t work at all. <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/head-cleaner/">HeadCleaner</a> helps clean up some of the code in case something breaks. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 17: </strong>Use <a href="http://getfirebug.com/">Firebug</a>! What else can I say. Learn it, use it, love it.</p>
<p><strong>Slide 18:</strong> As a digital content provider, I frown when my content gets plagiarized or stolen so I don&#8217;t like using this code. However when a client really really needs something to be cleaned up, CSS display none can work wonders: footerdiv {display:none;}</p>
<p><strong>Slide 19: </strong> Conclusion&#8230;know CSS otherwise custom themeing won&#8217;t be fun. Test all pages like the search page, archives page and 404 pages and make sure to <a href="http://browsershots.org/">cross browser check</a> your CSS including making sure you&#8217;re <a href="http://validator.w3.org/">w3 compliant</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>EventBrite / Google Maps fail</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2011/02/07/eventbrite-google-maps-fail/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2011/02/07/eventbrite-google-maps-fail/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Feb 2011 01:35:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eventbrite]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google maps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[maps]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=506</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s the little fails in life that amuse me.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/eventbrite-google-maps-fail.jpg" rel="lightbox[506]"><a href="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/eventbrite-google-maps-fail.jpg" rel="lightbox[506]"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-507" title="EventBrite / Google maps Fail" src="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/eventbrite-google-maps-fail.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="350" /></a></a>It&#8217;s the little fails in life that amuse me.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>How to stop AT&amp;T from sending mailers and advertisements</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/12/15/how-to-stop-att-advertising-letters/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/12/15/how-to-stop-att-advertising-letters/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[how to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[random]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[at-t]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=490</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[AT&#38;T has been sending me relentless amounts of AT&#38;T U-verse letters in the mail without any opt-out addresses to respond to. After a quick search on the Interwebs, I found this post on how to opt out of AT&#38;T&#8217;s mailers. Although the post had some great information I still don&#8217;t think it should be this [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-491" title="Stop AT-T Advertising Letters" src="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/stop-at-t-letters.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="826" />AT&amp;T has been sending me relentless amounts of AT&amp;T U-verse letters in the mail without any opt-out addresses to respond to. After a quick search on the Interwebs, I found this post on how to <a href="http://www.greenecoservices.com/att-kills-trees-with-stupid-junk-mail/">opt out of AT&amp;T&#8217;s mailers</a>.</p>
<p>Although the post had some great information I still don&#8217;t think it should be this hard to opt-out.</p>
<p>Please comment below if you know a better way to opt out. In the meantime here&#8217;s a few different methods from their <a href="http://www.greenecoservices.com/att-kills-trees-with-stupid-junk-mail/">post </a>if you are a <strong>current AT&amp;T customer</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Contact Information to address concerns- clicked on contact us- NO  PHONE NUMBER. -but buried in text is a list of phone numbers -<a title="ATT-Junk-Mail " href="http://www.att.com/" target="_blank">Contact</a></li>
<li>Email-Please e-mail us at  <a href="mailto:privacypolicy@att.com">privacypolicy@ATT.com</a> or  write to AT&amp;T Privacy Policy Manager, 208 South Akard, 27th Floor,  Room 2750.04, Dallas, TX 75202 to address any concerns you may have  about our privacy practices and policies.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>If you are a not a AT&amp;T customer:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a rel="nofollow" href="https://attdns.acxiom.com/">https://attdns.acxiom.com/</a><br />
AT&amp;T Opt Out Request<br />
5565 Glen Ridge Connector<br />
Suite 1230C<br />
Atlanta, GA 30342-4756</li>
</ul>
<p>Determined to be opt out, I emailed AT&amp;T at their privacy policy email asking them how would be the best way to remove an address from their ad campaign. Surprisingly, I received a quick response from them in about 25 minutes. Their email said:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Thank you for writing the AT&amp;T Privacy Policy Mailbox.  Please provide your wireless telephone number and mailing address and we will process your request.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">While  we will strive to honor your request, you may receive an occasional  mailing.  To the extent that you receive unwanted U.S. Mail from any  source, it is hoped you can make it available to a paper recycling program.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Sincerely,</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">AT&amp;T Privacy Policy Inbox Manager</p>
<p>I promptly replied back with the respective information and received another email the next day confirming the removal:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Thank you for providing the requested information.  Your request for Do-Not-Mail has been submitted for AT&amp;T.  Please allow up to 30 business days for the process to complete.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Sincerely,</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">AT&amp;T Privacy Policy Inbox Manager</p>
<p>Kudos to AT&amp;T for having a process to get names and addresses removed from their mail list, but seriously it shouldn&#8217;t be this difficult. In this day and age of automation this process should be much much easier.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Gawker hack and Hint.io?</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/12/13/gawker-hack-and-hint-io/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/12/13/gawker-hack-and-hint-io/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:19:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[random]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=473</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As most people already know, Gawker&#8217;s commenting accounts were compromised recently resulting in some Twitter accounts to be hacked with tweets to acai spam websites. Fun times for those that got hacked, the developers who get to work overtime fixing everything and everyone else that has to deal with changing their passwords and the rest [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="border:1px solid #000;width:650px; height:292px;padding:0px;margin:0px"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-479" title="hint-io" src="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/hint-io1.png" alt="" width="650" height="278" /></div>
<p>As most people already know, Gawker&#8217;s <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5712785/">commenting accounts were compromised</a> recently resulting in some Twitter accounts to be hacked with tweets to acai spam websites. Fun times for those that got hacked, the developers who get to work overtime fixing everything and everyone else that has to deal with changing their passwords and the rest of the hassle.</p>
<p>In addition to all this, I received an email from hint.io with a similar message. Not knowing if I even have a gawker account or for that matter now, a hint.io account I had to search for what the heck hint.io is too. Fortunately, Ruth Suehle did the legwork and <a href="http://opensource.com/life/10/12/what-hintio-and-why-are-they-emailing-you">posted her thoughts</a> on hint.io&#8217;s email blast.</p>
<p>Although hint.io&#8217;s email may be legit, it&#8217;s definitely not cool to be opportunistic in light of such events. Here&#8217;s two things I would have done differently:<br />
1) Don&#8217;t use tracking links in your email for this purpose. I can&#8217;t tell what the true link is and looks very spammy.<br />
2) Explain yourself better. We get enough phishers and spammers in addition to all the other emails we get everyday. You only compound the issue.</p>
<p>Hopefully they&#8217;ll get it right next time (by not emailing).</p>
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		<title>I Voted Therefore I Get To Bitch</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/11/02/i-voted-therefore-i-get-to-bitch/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/11/02/i-voted-therefore-i-get-to-bitch/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Nov 2010 05:41:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[commentary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[random]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rants]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=467</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And I don&#8217;t want to hear it anyway.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/i-voted-therefore-i-get-to-bitch-1000.jpg" rel="lightbox[467]"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-469" title="I voted therefore I get to bitch" src="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/i-voted-therefore-i-get-to-bitch-630.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="473" /></a></p>
<p>And I don&#8217;t want to hear it anyway.</p>
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		<title>Outlook Calendar Recurrence Problem</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/11/02/outlook-calendar-recurrence-problem/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/11/02/outlook-calendar-recurrence-problem/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:08:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[random]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=462</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Creating events in Outlook calendar works fine on my Dell laptop. Editing the event after posting it the first time creates a huge bug which I blamed MS Outlook for the last couple of years. Basically Outlook automatically posts the same event recurring every day for an infinite amount of time. THIS DROVE ME NUTS! [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Creating events in Outlook calendar works fine on my Dell laptop. Editing the event after posting it the first time creates a huge bug which I blamed MS Outlook for the last couple of years. Basically Outlook automatically posts the same event recurring every day for an infinite amount of time. THIS DROVE ME NUTS! But apparently not enough to simply Google it and find the solution. I finally found it and apparently it was Dell all along to blame. Grrrr&#8230;</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the <a title="Outlook Calendar Recurrence Problem" href="http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/29012486/automatic-recurrence-error.aspx">solution posted on Egghead Cafe</a>. If you own a Dell and have Outlook 2003, you probably have this problem. Simply uninstall &#8220;outlookaddinsetup&#8221; from your programs list and you&#8217;re good to go.  Special thanks to Google Suggest which provides key terms you may not ordinarily think of and Graeme who took the time and found a fix for Outlook&#8217;s recurrence problem.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-464" title="outlook-calendar-recurrence-problem" src="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/outlook-calendar-recurrence-problem.jpg" alt="" width="631" height="332" /></p>
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		<title>On Federal Regulation Of Bank Overdraft Fees</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/08/11/on-federal-regulation-of-bank-overdraft-fees/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/08/11/on-federal-regulation-of-bank-overdraft-fees/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:23:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[random]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=430</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Starting this summer (July 1st for new cards and August 15th for existing accounts) customers will have to opt-in to get overdraft protection on their account. My bank calls it Courtesy Approval Service. It looks to me banks are pushing hard to make sure everyone enjoys the convenience of Courtesy Approval.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Starting this summer (July 1st for new cards and August 15th for existing accounts) customers will have to opt-in to get overdraft protection on their account. My bank calls it Courtesy Approval Service.</p>
<p>It looks to me banks are pushing hard to make sure everyone enjoys the convenience of Courtesy Approval.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-431" title="Law on Bank Overdraft Fees &amp; The Courtesy Overdraft Protection" src="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Bank_Oversraft_Optin.jpg" alt="" width="631" height="432" /></p>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Another not so good user experience</title>
		<link>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/06/09/another-not-so-good-user-experience/</link>
		<comments>http://phelanriessen.com/2010/06/09/another-not-so-good-user-experience/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:43:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>phelan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phelanriessen.com/?p=402</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One doesn&#8217;t have to travel too far on the Internet to find all kinds of usability wonkiness. However large corporate sites should have enough resources to make the user experience a good one. Recently, I was researching for mobile affiliates and came across AT-T&#8217;s affiliate page so I promptly filled out the request form to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/att-affiliate-confirmation-page.jpg" rel="lightbox[402]"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-403" title="AT-T confirmation page for affiliate marketing" src="http://phelanriessen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/att-affiliate-confirmation-page-630.jpg" alt="" width="631" height="332" /></a>One doesn&#8217;t have to travel too far on the Internet to find all kinds of <a href="http://phelanriessen.com/2010/06/09/worst-confirmation-page-ever/">usability wonkiness</a>. However large corporate sites should have enough resources to make the user experience a good one. Recently, I was researching for mobile affiliates and came across <a href="http://www.att.com/gen/products-services?pid=17251">AT-T&#8217;s affiliate page</a> so I promptly filled out the request form to be an affiliate. What I got for the confirmation page was surprising or worse yet absolutely the most uneventful thank you page ever. The registration form sends a request but the confirmation page is its own page. The only way you can tell if it worked or not is when you refresh the page and it asks if you want to resend form data. Thanks AT-T for the uneventful affiliate confirmation request with nary a thank you page or even a friendly email confirmation. Don&#8217;t mind me as I spam your form until I get approved or get my IP address banned from your site. You should be able to do a little better than this.</p>
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