Daniel Greene

Tag: WordPress

  • How I lost money trying to make money on this blog

    I tried to monetize this blog with ads, and it backfired. Here’s how.

    I used to earn about $100 a year in AdSense revenues on this blog when I self-hosted it. It took too many hours of my time to do manual updates, so I moved my blogs from WordPress.org to WordPress.com even though I knew I was giving up the right to have AdSense on my blog. Not having to bother with installations freed my time, and for months I was happy. Then I started getting more page views than ever on my blog posts–maybe because the ease-of-use allowed me to blog more–and I resented not making money. I was happy when WordPress announced WordAds, but I got tired of waiting for them to materialize. (more…)

  • WordPress or Blogger— or Both?

    I am thinking of blogging more on Blogger to integrate it with my Google account. I’ve been using Google+ since before it went public, and I like the integration of other Google services I use; one of those services is AdSense, and I recently learned that I could earn money for original content I post on Blogger. I can’t use AdSense on my hosted WordPress site, danielgreene.com, even though I create a lot of compelling content and get a good number of views there. I don’t pay WordPress not to place ads, so they are the only ones profiting from my content. Granted, WordPress is a wonderful free service, so I owe them something, but I still feel that I should benefit from my hard work.

    I would like to hear from other WordPress users who use Blogger as well, or have switched from WordPress to Blogger. What are the pros and cons of each platform? Do you have any suggestions on what I might do with this blog that might be different or similar to my other blog?

  • I love my new blog theme!



    I love my new blog theme!
    Originally uploaded by Daniel Greene

    I changed my WordPress blog, danielgreene.com, to the Mystique theme. I love it! It has this widget on the top with links to my RSS feed, Facebook Page, Twitter profile, Flickr photostream, and YouTube channel. It has a combo widget on the right that shows recent comments, top posts, archives, tag cloud, and category lists. And it uses a beautiful font that has true italics. I like!

  • The truth on interpreters for deaf at WordCamp Phoenix 2011

    I was “the interpreter” who offered to coordinate interpreters for WordCamp Phoenix 2011. I wish I could remain silent, but the blog post I’m responding to has been viewed almost 900 times already and has already been sanctioned by a famous deaf blogger who I believe would think otherwise if he read my side of the story. So, before anyone else is misled, allow me to set the record straight.

    I first spoke with Amanda, the conference organizer, on Thursday afternoon, January 14, and offered to interpret and coordinate. She told me the budget was $2,000 for a four–track conference which would need a maximum of eight interpreters. I figured I could get four professional interpreters to earn $50 an hour, get four students to volunteer their services pro bono, and that would still leave $400, half of which might go toward compensating me for coordinating services, and half of which might go toward gift cards for students.

    That same night, I found out that Amanda had un–registered a deaf registrant because she didn’t like her attitude. I advocated for the ousted registrant, emailing Amanda, “Deaf people routinely face discrimination and have to fight for their rights. In light of this, I find the registrant’s demands assertive rather than aggressive.” I even followed this up another day and asked Amanda if she would please consider reinstating her. Amanda was immovable.

    I should mention that the first deaf registrant had approached me around Thanksgiving about interpreting for WordCamp. I had said I would be interested and asked him to send me more information, but the holidays came and went before I saw an announcement from Amanda on the Arizona RID Yahoo Group. I knew how important it was for this deaf person to attend WordCamp, so I decided to provide for him even though I was not happy with Amanda’s handling of the other deaf registrant.

    By the end of the week, I had offers from two other professionals and at least four other students. At this point, all I needed was one more professional if (and that’s a big “if”) there were deaf attendees in all four tracks on Saturday. (more…)

  • Organizer’s attitude toward deaf, interpreters defeats her

    The blog post “How Trying to Provide Deaf Interpreters for a Camp Bit Me in the Ass” paints the conference organizer as the victim, but I’m afraid it was her attitude toward interpreters and the deaf that defeated her, and it is the interpreting profession and deaf consumers that stand to lose by her misrepresentation.

    I would hate for the takeaway message from any blog post to be, “Don’t provide interpreters to the deaf if you can possibly avoid it.”

    Edmund Berke once said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” Take a look at John Pozadzides’ 2009 blog post “An Open-Source Look at the Cost of WordCamp Dallas” and the comments that ensue when someone suggests “If you cut out the T-shirts and interpreters, you would break even.” You will learn a lot about complying with the ADA and providing accessibility to a public event.

    I hope these two bits of history will help people make future events better for all.

    Edited January 22, 2011 for clarity.