We Interrupt You Regularly Scheduled Programming

Well, I will be specifically.

I'm moving in about a week (a little over 1000 miles away) and since this also goes hand in had with a new job starting the week after that, the HoP posting schedule is not exactly stable at the moment.

We've got a great group of authors here on the writing staff and it turns out that they're such a good team that we're well on our way to making sure that we have pretty good coverage for their lay-about bosses' lack of free time.  So I don't imagine that there will be many days like last Friday where we just plain miss something as important as a Top X.  Looks like I can cancel the team building retreat I had scheduled since they're already a team and so forth.

Anyway, I just thought I owed it to all our loyal readers and our stalwart blogroll members to let everyone know that things may be a bit dodgy around here for a little while.

Now, on to other stuff...

Today marks the first time on the HoP where we didn't have any new members join up, so for the love of god, people get out there and spread the word! Jeez!!  I mean.. if you wouldn't mind.  Sorry I flew off the handle there.  It's been a stressful couple of weeks.

Anyway, there's no New Member Monday today because of legitimate reasons and not because I slept in or packed boxes all day.

Though if anyone is interested, over on my blog you can take a look at what I was doing this past week when I should have been writing a Top X or scheduling a pinch hitter.

Thanks!

Read More »

House of Paincakes Blogroll Search

Normally on a Friday, there'd be a Top X to read.  But not today.

Normally, someone from our crack staff of ace journalists would sift through the blog rolls and select 5-12 posts to promote.  It's actually some pretty solid  fun with a hefty dose of self edification.  But there are a couple of flaws - it's time consuming, it's not all that guided and it leaves people out.

That last bit is the important part. 

Unacceptable

As the House of Paincakes has grown and matured evolved, we've always stuck by our goal to promote our members.  The Top X. the intermittent User Content Days and all the authors we add are here to draw attention to the blogs we support.  Back in the beginning it was pretty easy to make that happen.  The blogrolls were shorter (and there were only two of them) and the only challenge we had in promotion was making sure we didn't constantly double up on our small (and elite) constituents.  

We're at about 370 members now.  It's been a wonderful ride so far and everything has exceeded our expectations.  But the mo' members, mo' problems.  Given the sheer number of people out there who have given us their support and the huge amount of conntent that gets churned out, we just can't keep up.

Until now.

Today is the day that we roll out our master plan to promote ALL of your blogs ALL of the time.

With the House of Paincakes Blogroll custom Google Search Widget Thing.

You can bask in all of it's glory over there on the right.  Nestled between our site header and the hallowed blogrolls.

What this will allow anyone to do is run a regular ol' Google search but only for information on the blogs on the HoP blogrolls - and not just the recent stuff.  It's pretty darn amazing if I do say so myself.

Not only does it give people an easy way to search for specific information , it gives people a reason to do so.  What's out there?  What did you miss when you got caught up in finals/your cousin's bar mitzvah/serving jail time?  It's all at your fingertips now.  The fleeting and ephemeral nature of blogging has been punched squarely in the dick.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this fantastic Google tool is add supported.  At some point you may see some sort of product or service being offered in the search results.  Rest assured that we are not the recipients of the revenue that may be generated.   Unless it's a specific brand of penis enlargement pills.  In which case I cordially invite you to spend money on them and add length AND girth to your genitals.  But that's more of a direct sales thing and outside the scope of this conversation.

I think that's about it.  if anyone has any questions, I'll be watching the comments thread.

Thanks again to everyone who's made this sort of tool a necessity.

Read More »