The Heath Mullikin Project

Figuring it all out one day at a time

Michael Hyatt

Blog Renovations

Time for a Renovation

It’s been almost two years since I started Chase Your Lion and it’s time for some Blog Renovations.  It has been such a great learning experience and blessing for me.  I know I’ve been hot and cold with the blog.  My brain knows what to do, but yada yada yada.  I’ve discovered two great blogs since October 2009 that have been a tremendous encouragement and guide to great blogging.  Michael Hyatt and John Saddington(aka The Tentblogger) have two of the best blogs out there and give great tips and advice.  A lot of what you see here is a result of what I see them do as far as look and feel.  We all use Tentblogger’s Standard Theme.  Believe me, it is the easiest premium theme I have purchased and used by far.

With all that in mind, it’s time for some Blog Renovations around here.  It’s going to be a lot of work, but here’s an overview of what’s happening.

  1. I have switched from the All In One SEO Pack to Yoast’s WordPress SEO.  These are plugins that give your blog a better chance of being discovered on search engines(Search Engine Optimization).  I took the time to write this stuff.  I want people to find it and read it.  Yoast’s plugin is easier to use and has deeper options.
  2. I will be adding a picture to every post to make the nRelate Related Content plugin look prettier.  It will hopefully get more [Read more…] about Blog Renovations

Twitter Changes

Stop the Twitter Spam!

In the past few weeks, two of my favorite bloggers announced they were starting over with twitter.  First Chris Brogan and then Michael Hyatt declared that the recent proliferation of spam had led them to make the decision.  Note to self:  don’t click on any DM links that says “I laughed when I saw this picture of you.”  These guys both had huge followings and it got me to thinking about my twitter strategy.  I have had two Chase Your Lion accounts for a while and today made the move to merge the two.  What I found is that their follower lists are almost identical.  It has taken some time this morning to get Tweet Adder and Hootsuite back up and running properly.  I actually had to delete Hootsuite on my iphone and reinstall it.  So, now I’m pointing all my followers to http://www.twitter.com/chaseyourlion.  It is the former @chaseurlion account and now the old Chase Your Lion is now @chaseyourlion2 until I’ve got everything moved and delete it.  I will then keep up with who’s spamming me by running Twitblock once a month and blocking them.  Now, the next phase is changing all the old links on my blogs to reflect these changes.

The top 3 reasons for doing all of this:

  1. My Chase Your Lion tweets will be more frequent and focused since I’m not having to come up with material for 2 accounts.
  2. I can now spend some time on another not so serious Twitter personality I’ve created.
  3. I was never happy with the name “chaseurlion” but ChaseYourLion wasn’t available in 2009 for some reason.

What are your thoughts?  Have you noticed an uptick in the twitter spam you receive?  Are these guys crazy to unfollow tens of thousands of people?

 

National Day of Unplugging and Working Smarter

From sunset to sunset on March 19-20 has been declared the National Day of Unplugging.  I found the Sabbath Manifesto which was a welcome site considering my recent posts on the subject.  You should check out their site and really think about what it means to unplug.  I will be participating in a lock-in Friday night so I will be up and unplugged all night long.  When I get home Saturday I will be shutting my phone off and catching some shut eye.  Along this same theme of work and rest, I found a great series of post from Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson publishing.

It’s amazing how our productivity affects our ability to unplug and get away.  It comes down to something as simple as deciding what’s important and what’s not.  If you’re out of work right now, Tim Kirkpatrick has a great post today about finding a job in this difficult economy.

Happy Unplugging!

Blocked Dunks, Porn, and a Pie Chart

In taking a page from the old playbook, here are some great posts from the ole Google Reader.  As the title of the post suggests, they cover a broad range of topics.

On a separate note:  am I the only pastor who hasn’t already attended 3 great conferences this year?  The Southern Area Minister’s Conference was canceled at Southern Wesleyan University and I imagine they won’t have it next year either because of the denominational Gathering next January.  I do miss the traditional lunch at Keith Street Bar and Grill in Clemson with a van full of youth pastors.  We went to Unleash last year, but it’s sold out this year.  So, if you had to pick just 1 conference to go to every year what would it be?

Currently Reading:

32085: Financial Peace: Revisited Financial Peace: Revisited

By Dave Ramsey

Want to get out of debt and stay out? Financial Peace Revisited gives you the tools to understand why you are in debt, create a budget you can stick to, set goals you can achieve, and make things right for you and your family emotionally, spiritually, and financially, for good. Updated version of the bestseller Financial Peace includes new chapters on marriage, singles, kids, and families.