So I know it’s been forever since I posted here, so I thought that I’d offer an update of whats going on in my life.  I really haven’t had much time to post here over the last few months because I’ve been extremely busy with other projects and many other things.

The most important thing that I’ve been involved with though is the birth of my daughter Ellery.  She was born on Feb 1st on Super Bowl Sunday and it was probably one of the most rewarding moments of my life up to this point. I’ve got to admit that I was very nervous about being a dad before she was born, but today I can honestly say that my life is 1000% better now that she has come into it.  I was always told that having a child is life altering event and I can definitely see that now as my perspectives on a lot of things have changed since she was born.  So right now life is good and I only see it getting better as Amber and I get to watch Ellery grow up and celebrate every part of her life. Now as I consider everything that’s going on in the world today; it becomes apparent to me just how lucky that I’m to have an amazing wife and beautiful daughter who both mean more to me than anything else in this world.

I don’t know how much I’ll be on here to write in the future, but I definitely will every now and again.

I just got notification yesterday that I was selected as one of the 7 finalists for the PepperJam Storebuilder Contest and I’m really excited about this.  I entered the contest about a month ago with a site that I built off the Thesis Theme utilizing the Pepperjam Storebuilder application.

Now I need your help so please head over to their site and cast your vote for my site. 

Click Here to Go & Cast Your Vote for Buy Bulova Watches Online

Thanks so much for your support!

As you know I bought the Thesis theme back in late August and so far I’ve rolled it out on about 8 different sites.  I’ve had a ton of success using Thesis and PhpBay and all of my sites are continuing to do extremely well.  Thesis is so easy to develop with that I’ve pretty much got a system down that allows me to roll out new custom sites using Thesis very quickly. In fact I just entered the PepperJam Storebuilder contest with a quick site that I built using Thesis and the Pepperjam Storebuilder.  Each update of Thesis continues to get better and better and as I’ve said it’s definitely the best money that I’ve spent in long time.

Get the Thesis Theme for 20% Off Until Friday 11/28/2008 at 11:59PM EST
Use Coupon Code – 20D03977D0 or Click Here for Direct Link

Initially this was only going to be available for 150 copies but those sold out so quickly they decided to lift the cap and extend the sale through Friday night.  This is a great opportunity to get an outstanding theme at a great price and with the 20% off and here is what the pricing will be.

Personal Edition - $69.60 (regularly $87)

Thesis Developer – $131.20 (regularly $164)

Developer Upgrade – $61.60 (regularly $77)

In order to get this discount be sure to use Coupon Code – 20D03977D0 at the time of checkout to activate this discount and remember you have to purchase the theme by 11/28/2008 at 11:59PM EST.

Get Thesis Here and Use Coupon Code – 20D03977D0 for the 20% Off Discount

This is probably one of the funniest videos that I’ve seen in a long time.  It’s the closing rap from the end of Sarah Palin’s appearance on Saturday Night Live last week.  I’ve probably watched this video 50 times since then, so I thought that I’d share it with you.

I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

If you’ve ever read any of my posts here then you’ll know that I’m a big fan of all the wordpress themes that Chris Pearson has put out.  Well recently he released a paid theme called Thesis that has some outstanding features.  Last month after reading a great review from Sugarrae on Thesis I decided to buy the developers license.  The developer option was a $164 but to me that was a bargain considering I could use it on unlimited sites and I’d get free theme updates forever.

Let me first start out by saying that the Thesis theme is everything that I thought it would be and more.  Currently I’ve got my first site up and I was able to launch that with about only 5 hours of work and it looks great.  If you’ve got some CSS knowledge then the sky is the limit when is comes to customizing Thesis.  However if your not that strong with customizing CSS then don’t worry, because you can still build a great looking site.

One of the things that really impressed me with this theme was the options pane that comes built in with Thesis allowing you to really do some nice customizations with little or no effort at all.  Chris really put some nice effort into making this extremely easy for everyone to use and I can’t wait to see some of the future enhancements that he’ll be coming out with.  The second feature of this theme that really impresses me is the overall support.  The thesis site has some great tutorials available and the community forum is amazing.  It’s such an active forum that there is a great chance you’ll be able to find the answer that you’re looking for and everyone there is very responsive and you’ll get some great feedback.

How am I Using the Thesis Theme for WordPress?

I’ve got a few sites that utilize the PhpBay Pro wordpress plugin for the Ebay affiliate program.  I’ve gone through countless free WordPress themes on these sites but I never really got the performance that I knew that I could achieve with some of the niches that I was targeting.  Honestly I think that not many people would consider using Thesis for an Ebay affiliate site, but I thought there could be some potential there so I decided to give it a shot.

Website Bounce Rate Decreased by 38% with Thesis

Well so far I’ve configured one of my PhpBay Pro sites around the Thesis theme and the results have been absolutely fantastic.  I’ve been running it for a few weeks now and my overall website bounce rate has decreased by 38% since I took the Thesis theme live.  My site as also seen some huge increases in revenue since I launched with Thesis, currently my Ebay revenue is up almost 363% from where it was before Thesis.  I’m getting ready to roll out some more sites with Thesis so I’ll be interested to see if this trend continues, but I’m confident that they will.   I think the bottom line is that you can do so much to customize Thesis that I can make these sites look much more attractive and engaging.

So if you haven’t picked up Thesis or Phpbay Pro then you might want to give them a try together.  You might not have the same results that I did initially, but with the power of Thesis you’ll be able to use it in a variety of ways for all of your sites making it worth your while.   I know that I’m looking forward to launching quite a few more sites based off Thesis and its continued future updates as well.

It’s that time again that we get to exercise our constitutional right to vote in the presidential election this November.  If you’re of age then you need to exercise your right and get out and vote this November.  So if you’re not registered then go do it now, seriously it doesn’t take that long – Rock the Vote.

Now that you’ve gone out and registered the next question is who are you actually going to vote for?   I know who I’m voting for and I’ve got my own reasons for that decision.   One of the problems that I see today in politics is the fact that people don’t really examine all of the issues where candidates stand before they go vote.  I can’t tell you how many people I know that vote a certain way just because the candidate is either a Republican or a Democrat or they vote a certain way just because their parents do.  Do youself a favor if you already haven’t, go to each candidates website and see where they stand on the issues and make the decision based on how they align with your personal beliefs. Don’t make a decision on who you’re voting for before you see where they stand.

As a courtesy to you I’ve provided links below to each candiates site and where they stand on the issues.

Jon McCain – On the Issues

Barack Obama – On the Issues

The most important thing that I’ve got to stress here is that if your of age then there really is no reason that you shouldn’t be out voting this November.   So there maybe I’ve motivated someone to examine all of the issues and to go out and vote for the candidate that they truly believe in.

As an added bonus I’ve posted a funny video below from Chris Rock about politics that I enjoy, so I hope that you do to.  (Note – Video Contains Strong Language & May Not Be Suitable for Everyone)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ok, so I’ve never been a really big Beatles fan, even though my Mom wouldn’t appreciate me saying that.  Even though I’m not really a big fan, I do absolutely love the song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.  Now with that being said I came across a video of this song with with Eric Clapton on lead vocals.  I love Eric Clapton so I was super excited about this and in my mind he is one of the top guitar players in the world.  Seriously just watch him play in this video and you tell me who is better.

Check out the video and hopefully you’ll enjoy just as much as I do.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well I’ll be the first to say that I’ve definitely lost some of my focus on this blog this year.  I’m not sure when I’ll get back to some consistent posts on topics related to the web and much more, but I hope to be back posting regularly by the end of summer or early fall.

I’m currently spending most of my time researching various different internet marketing, seo, ppc, and email marketing techniques that I’m currently implementing on some of my own sites and pretty much all of the sites that I work with at my day job.  It’s a constant learning process as things are always changing but I honestly love doing it and learning all that I can.  In addition I’ve also been spending some type cranking out some Ebay affiliate sites with PHPBay an Ebay auction plugin for WordPress that allows you to build your own niche Ebay Store with wordpress and the Ebay Affiliate program.  It’s an awesome plugin that I highly recommend considering that it’s only $49.95 for unlimited sites and it doesn’t take long to recoup that investment.  More information the phpBay pro wordpress plugin for Ebay.

Life Changing Events

Ok so here is the big news that I’m overly excited about.  I actually found out about 3 weeks ago that I’m going to be a father for the first time in my life!  My wife Amber and I are expecting to have our first child in early February.  It’s definitely going to be a huge addition in our lives, but we’re both so happy right now and the next 7 months should definitely be an exciting journey.  I’m already getting the question on if I’d rather have a boy or a girl and honestly it doesn’t matter to me because the only thing that I care about is that we have a healthy baby.  I’ll be blessed and honored to have a baby boy or a girl!

Expect more updates on this exciting time in my life over the next few months and be on the lookout for some quality posts on a variety of different topics as well.

Ever since I was a kid Ken Griffey Jr. has been my all time favorite baseball player.  He has always been absolutely amazing to watch play the game.  Today he hit his 600th home run and I’m really happy because it couldn’t of happened to a more deserving guy.  Throughout his entire career he has been the complete package offensively and defensively and best of all he just had a hell of a lot of fun playing the game of baseball.

Had he not had so many injuries over the last few years, he was projected to hit over 800 home runs and I’m pretty confident that it would’ve happened.  In my opinion he’s got one of the greatest swings in the history of baseball and is arguably one of the greatest players to ever play the game.  He’s still got a good amount of time play and I look forward to him reaching more historic milestones before retirement.

If you missed it, here is some video of his 600th home run against the Florida, Marlins.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well it’s that time of the year again and I’m off to vacation with my wife Amber in the morning. Last year we went out to Los Angeles but this year we decided to switch it up and head to Florida. We’re actually going to Marco Island, Florida and we’ll be staying at the Hilton Marcos Island Beach Resort.

I’m really just excited to relax and hang out on the beach in some warm weather and enjoy some quality time with my wife. The last month for me has been a very long one as I’ve experienced some changes in my life that I wasn’t really expecting so I’m definitely looking forward to this time away on vacation.

I’ll be back in a week and I’ll definitely add a follow up post with some photos of the area down there. I’d better get to bed though as I’ve got to get up for a 6AM flight in a few hours.

On a side note I signed up with CX Digital this week and I’m very impressed with their affiliate network.  They’ve got an awesome interface and I’m really excited to work with them more once I get back from vacation.  So if your looking for another quality network, then I’d recommend them from my experience thus far and reviews from several others as well.

Have a good week because I know I am while I’m enjoying myself in Florida!