EPA/ACP conference in Indianapolis

I haven't posted much lately. Early last week I was busy preparing to attend the joint convention for the Evangelical Press Association (EPA) and the Associated Church Press (ACP) in Indianapolis, May 6-8. During the event I was too busy to post what I was learning.

Wow! What a great convention!

This year the EPA teamed up with ACP in a combined conference for the first time since 1988.

I went to learn. I wanted to find out more about the periodicals and people associated with the EPA and ACP. I did.

I also wanted to collect and study sample periodicals. Now that I have them, I need to get down to work.

When I process a bit more from my notes, studies and impressions, I'll post more details.

How to Update Your Facebook Status with Twitter

Neat trick. Why enter a status or comment in two applications when you can do it in one?

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, wrote clear instructions on how to keep Facebook friends up to date while you're twittering. Handy tips.

That eBook Thing Will Never Catch On

As communicators in an increasingly electronic world, eBooks and Websites have a few things in common. If I can embrace one, why not the other?

I've been reluctant to even consider buying a Kindle. After all, as a book seller on Amazon, I didn't like the competition that electronic books have made to my sales over recent years. It is becoming harder and harder to compete by selling print media. Free shipping, immediate delivery time? Can't beat them.

As a writer, I'm intrigued by electronic forms of communication. I've embraced Web pages years ago and enjoy communicating through Websites, emails, and blogs. As a matter of fact, I do a lot of reading and writing electronically.

Yet, my mind was closed to the Kindle. Until recently.

Several of Michael Hyatt's blog posts on eBooks are challenging me to reconsider my initial repugnance to the Kindle. In a recent post,"That eBook Thing Will Never Catch On," Michael Hyatt contended that during other times of social change there were people who resisted the inevitable. They seem foolish from our vantage point now. How might our attitudes appear to future generations?

From a reader's perspective, a light repository of hundred's of books has its merits. From a communicator's perspective, there may be ways for more authors to distribute messages. There may be potential here worth exploring.

Do you use Kindle or technology like it? Do you think eBooks will become as interactive as Websites?

Do you track Web page visitors?

Do you know how many people visit your Web page? It doesn't take a programmer to set up a way to capture traffic statistics for your website or blog.

I use StatCounter. It's free. There are others that are also free.

After you set up an account, there are only a few simple steps to tracking Web page visitors.

If you can copy and paste text, you can configure your website or blog. StatCounter creates a small snippet of HTML/JavaScript that you can paste into your website's layout. Then, you're good to go.

It is easy. A sample of what it takes appears below. er. My example is for Blogger. You can select other directions.

Why not give it a try?

#####################################################

Blogger - StatCounter Code Installation Instructions


* Copy the StatCounter code (highlight + ctrl c)
* Log into your blogspot blog.
* Go to the layout area.
* Click the link for "add a gadget"
* Choose the "HTML/JavaScript" option.
* Paste the StatCounter code into the content section of the gadget. (ctrl
v)
* Click "Save".

How about you? Do you track Web page visitors? What service do you use? Why?

PayPal Button Code

4. Pay by check or use PayPal
	Family with one registered child. Family with 2 registered children. Family with 3 or more registered children.

Why have 3 PayPal buttons on a Web page when you can have 1? This is a trick question. The answer is when three work better than one.

PayPal Buttons seemed easy to create for Web pages. I created several for our church's Website. Some worked, others didn't.

Although directions for creating PayPal Buttons are easy to follow on the PayPal Website, the code may not work on your Web page as you expect. At least that is the problem I ran into.

I created a PayPal button with a drop-down payment options for our church's VBS program. Since we have three different payment options for families who register one, two or more children, I thought it would be cool to have a PayPal button with these drop-down options. But it didn't work consistently.

I puzzled over this longer than I want to admit.

I ended up contacting our software company to find out if it was a problem with WebMedley, our Website software. That was it. Mystery solved.

A representative from our software provider recommended using PayPal's email code instead of the Webpage code when creating a button. The email code option is not available when you create multiple payment options for a PayPal button. That's why we have three PayPal buttons, each with a different price, on our VBS Webpage now.

It's not an elegant solution, but it works!

Have you had problems with PayPal buttons on your Web page? What did you do?

Playing hide-and-seek with email spiders

Some Web spiders are good to have around; others aren't. The good ones bring traffic to our websites; the bad ones harvest emails and clutter inboxes with spam.

If you want to avoid attracting email spider activity on your website, you may want to read a post on NetMechanic that details several ways to disguise an email address so that it isn't easily harvested.

Sequoia Thoughts: Facebook restores terms of service during review

Sequoia Thoughts: Facebook restores terms of service during review