Hey, how’ya doin’? You’re looking good! I’m looking the same? Well maybe…
Over a year ago I set out to discover the people in Salem who were being (passively) ignored by the local media — people with followers, but who hadn’t yet registered on the local or regional radar.
This search culminated in a story I called “Salem’s Top Tweeps.” The grand poohbah of them all was Rob McGuire: web guru, search engine optimization, and all-around guy-in-the-know, who had 25,000 Twitter followers.
The thing about the Top Tweeps is that they were people making things happen, whose conversations on Twitter were — and still are — worth listening to.
Salem’s a small place, and I’ve gotten to know some of said Tweeps, including Rob, who has shown up at both of my free blogging classes at Clockworks Cafe and who has recently taken on a project that is near and dear to my heart: this blog.
The challenge? To find a way for me to take ads, though this is a WordPress blog, and WordPress greatly limits the capabilities of advertising.
For shame!
Say it ain’t so!
Oh no she Did-nn’ttt!
Hey, mama needs a new pair a shoes. And some fancy pants diapers in the next size up. And since I’ve been doing my freelance writing projects at home during the baby’s naps, and any blogging I do cuts into my “work” time, I need some major help in supporting the work behind this blog.
So yes, Rob has made it possible for me to take ads. But that’s only the beginning!
He slices! He dices! Look here for an explanation of why all of this is worth it in the end…
Rob McGuire has turned my blog into, as he says, “Greased Lightening.”
“Your blog is really damn snappy right now,” Rob told me this morning.
So here’s what he did, practically overnight, in tech parlance. You might not be able to see any changes immediately to the content, but you don’t see with your eyes, you perceive with your mind (everything’s faster!).
- Minimized, compressed and cached the code
- Moved my site over to my own server
- Made everything as small as possible to speed up load time for you FOR YOU!
- Optimized images and other content for the web
- Messed with the HT access files (yeah, I don’t know either…)
This is all part of a new package of services Rob is going to start offering his clients, who are mostly local and national business and people like me, who want to take their blogging to the next level.
Thank you, Rob.
If you’re ready to level up, I highly recommend him.
And thank you, dear reader, for indulging me in this chance to give a shout-out to a deserving friend.
