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Time for a break from IT

By Bryan - Posted on 12 August 2006

I am going to spend this next week away from the computer. Between my "day job", this site, and working on some sites for others...I have been looking at the computer screen way too much. Meanwhile, the wife and kid have been looking at the back of my head for too long. It is time to enjoy the backyard and play some ball with the "boy".

I also think I'm going to also take a break from the online ads on the far right right side of the pages you view. With Drupal, all I need to do is toggle off the blocks that contain the advertisement and then "save blocks". It's as simple as 1, 2, 3. Someone will have to tell me if they like the layout better without the ads or if it really doesn't matter. What's your perception when you see a reasonable amount of advertisements at a site compared to a site with no ads?

I do have some ideas in my head that I've been wanting to put down in writing. After a week from my technology hiatus I may consider the following topics to write about:

  • Does your choice of CMS impact how far up you rank with the various search engines? It sure does and I've seen dramatic differences between my Drupal, SMF, and Wordpress sites. Some of the search engines appear to be looking at more than just content and links.
  • IT Stacks. Believe it or not, PHP can run better on Windows than it does on Linux.
  • Some of my newbie experiences with osCommerce.
So now it's time to turn this computer off and rest my weary eyes. To everyone...have a good week!

 


Comments

#1 ads

greggles's picture
Submitted by greggles (not verified) on August 15, 2006 - 9:43am.
I've had good success with A/B testing of advertising and found that placing a small link unit on top/under my posts gets 1) better CTR/eCPM and 2)is less intrusive. The studies aren't over, but soon I hope to drop some of the unnecessary ad blocks from my sites with the goal of greater readability and increased earnings.

#2 Greg, feel free to provide a

Bryan's picture
Submitted by Bryan on August 23, 2006 - 12:52am.

Greg, feel free to provide a link to any post for such a study you put on your sites. I'm sure others would be interested in your observations.

 

#3 Any motivation to keep

randomdrupaler's picture
Submitted by randomdrupaler (not verified) on August 27, 2006 - 4:27am.
Any motivation to keep updating a good site like this is warranted in my opinion. Plus, your ads are nothing like what most surfers are used to seeing. No pop-unders, etc. Wandered in here through drupal and really like how you made channel_nine easy on the eyes with more or less uniform font sizes. Best wishes and keep up the good work

#4 Nice compliments

Bryan's picture
Submitted by Bryan on August 27, 2006 - 8:35pm.

Thank you for the nice compliments. I still have a few things I want to do with this site to make it "just right" for everyone that visits.  My motivation is there, however time is not always on my side.

I'm also glad to see someone likes the improvements I did with the Channel Nine theme. I did most of the theme editing using Firefox on Windows XP. Ironically, I think the theme looks better when viewed with IE6 or Firefox on Linux (FC 5).

By the way, I don't mind anyone pulling the CSS from the site and using it for their own site along side Drupal's Channel Nine theme.


Bryan's picture

About this CMS Enthusiast

Bryan Ruby is the owner and editor for CMS Report. He founded CMSReport.com in 2006 on the belief that information technologists, website owners, and web developers desired visiting sites where they could learn about content management systems without the sales pitch.

Outside of his late night blogging hours, he is the Information Technology Officer for a field office in the federal government. Away from the computer he enjoys his family, bicycling, camping, and the outdoors.