Wayne W Walls

 This is my 100th blog post on this blog! That feels like quite a milestone. I know that compared to most other websites, only 100 pages / posts isn't really that many, but when I think about how much time and effort went into creating 100 pieces of content, it does feel like an accomplishment. It took a while to get here, but at least I made it. I wanted to do something different for this 100th post, something which specifically notes the fact that it is the 100th post. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do, so I did some browsing of other bloggers' 100th/200th/300th milestone blog posts for inspiration. It seemed like a lot of them were basically thanking the readership of those blogs for reading, and explaining how much writing the blog has meant to them. I like both of those things, so I'll include them in this post. Thanks to all who have visited my blog! This blog is not very popular (yet!), and so not all that many people have visited. But to those who have,...

 Bloggers want to have their sites rank well in search engines. Not only because it is pretty cool to type something into Google and see your own website show up, but because it means an increased number of people will read what you write. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) advice for how to improve your website's rankings in search engines comes in many shapes. The most commonly shared strategy is to increase the number of backlinks to your content, because the more backlinks to your site, the better your site will rank in Google. Another strategy is to post regularly on social media , and include links to all of your new blog content. The thinking is that people will discover your posts on social media, then click through to your website. Also, having activity on social media platforms that references your site may be a ranking factor that Google considers. A third category of advice involves posting content to your blog consistently and more frequently . The more posts you hav...

 I started this blog and continue to write for it in the hopes that it would someday generate significant traffic. I also hope that it will generate an income for me which is at least as much as I currently make from my job so that I can quit my job and focus on building this blog. Currently, those are still just hopes for the future. This blog does not attract many readers, and it does not make me any money. I think that lots of people who start blogs have roughly those same goals. They are sick of their jobs and hope that their side hustle of a blog will allow them to quit. But I think that's about where it stops for most people. They want to use their blog to replace their income. And if the income from the blog grows, great, its just more money to spend, save, or invest. But there isn't really a bigger goal. But I hope to use the money from the blog to do something more. I have written about my plans for what I would do if this blog ever takes off in another post, and this...

 As I have written in other blog posts recently, I struggle to find the time to write blog posts because of my job, family, and other time commitments. If I could choose the ideal time to write , it would be in the mid-morning, but that time is taken up with work. When I look at my day realistically, the time left available to me to do discretionary things such as writing is at night before I go to bed. Roughly 9:30pm onward is the time I can sit down and punch the keys to produce a blog post. The trouble is that I feel very tired that late at night. Not so much physically tired, but mentally tired. As if I'm just not operating at peak creativity. And I really need to feel at least a little energized and creative to be able to write. If it were some routine physical task, I could do it while exhausted, but something like writing takes more of you to do. But I really want to write more , so I need to find a way to make that time work.  At first I looked into taking a quick nap ...

 When you search the internet for information about how to increase the traffic your blog gets, you find all kinds of suggestions.  Do whatever you can to attract or create backlinks. Write guest posts. Write comments on other blogs with links back to your own blog. Use email outreach to ask other bloggers to link to you. Use linking to control the link juice on your site. You can link to other high authority websites to indicate to search engines that your own site is high quality as well. Using internal links to direct readers to other posts on your site can help keep people on your site longer. Post on social media regularly to find and attract an audience on those platforms, and gradually send them over to your blog. Post links to all of your blog posts as you publish them. Perfect the non-written content aspects of your blog. Use photos, videos, and infographics to create appeal. Improve your site speed. These are just a few of the ways that are typically suggested that y...

 I started this blog because I wanted to share my thoughts and ideas. And when trying to come up with blog post ideas, I usually want to pick topics suitable for essays. I want a thesis, claim, or topic, and then use the blog post to fill out the idea. That is the goal. But writing that sort of article can be very time consuming and take a lot of effort.  I struggle to find time to write blog posts, and the time I usually end up with is late at night before bed. And by that time I am mentally pretty exhausted. And not feeling overly creative. So an essay-type topic is pretty tough to work on then. But that doesn't mean I just want to throw up my hands and not produce any content. I might sometimes just want to curate content, and add a little commentary. I wrote about that desire in my post about acting as a recommendation engine . But as much as that is something I want to do, and even something I committed to in that post, I haven't done a whole lot of it. I've tended to ...

You have to be 21 years of age or older to purchase alcohol in the United States. And most liquor stores will not just take your word for it, they will require seeing a state identification card (such as a drivers license) to prove your age. The best practice would be to just carry your drivers license with you when you go to the liquor store, but you might be wondering if you really need it. Or maybe you are on your way to the liquor store and have just realized you don’t have your ID with you, and are wondering if you need to go home to get it first. I can tell you from experience that, yes, you will need your ID . Total Wine is very strict about checking for IDs. I have never had a time where Total Wine did not check for an ID. Total Wine’s own website says they have a policy where they will check for ID from anyone that appears to be under the age of 30. However, in practice I think the cashiers at Total Wine just ask for IDs from everyone of any age. Total Wine also has a policy ...