Drupal Instant Messenger
A few months ago we installed the Instant Message module. It allowed our Premium 
Members to send PMs (private instant messages) to each other via the website. The IM module is very basic and allows members to send short (254 characters) plain-text messages to each other. The instant-messages appear at the top of the next page the recipient views. The Instant Message module is very lightweight, but also very simple and limited - For example, you can only send a message to a member that is currently online.
Last week I stumbled across the Drupal Private Message module (I don’t know how I missed it all this time). The Private Message module allows members to send WYSIWYG messages, with no size limit, to any member (although we limit it to Premium Members) online or offline. It also has an “inbox”, a sent-items folder, it allows for creation of new storage folders, and even lets you know if your recipient has read your message or not. You can read about all the features and planned upcoming features on the Privatemsg page.
The users absolutely love this new instant messenger - we have received more comments and feeback on this feature than any upgrade we’ve ever done.
If you’re looking to add some socialization to your Drupal social website, give it a try.
Drupal PrivateMSG Module for V4-5
Anatomy Of A Logo
Image and “branding” are important for any big-business, and just as important for even the smallest of websites. If your visitors can’t remember your domain name you need to do your best to ‘burn’ the image of the website into their memory (think Coca Cola or McDonalds). Ideally, you would plaster that image or ‘brand’ of your website all over the internet with advertising and all over the real-world with T-shirts, mousepads and whatever else you can slap your logo on.
When I first started GrownUpGeek.com, I had zero budget, so I used my mad Photoshop skillz to throw together this logo:
This logo served it’s purpose for a few months but once the website was generating some income we figured it was time to invest in something better.
After some Googling we found George Coghill. George had a unique style that we liked so we commissioned him to come up with some ideas. We only specified to him that we wanted a sexy yet geeky female character based on my wife (aka “The Geek”). I sent him some photos and he came up with this draft:
We then used the final of that draft for our logo which we’ve been using for about the last 2 years:
Using George’s original artwork I was also able to hack this ‘haircut’ version that we’ve used in various places:
We’ve been using George’s logo for a while now and decided that we wanted a new look. We wanted the same character, but something with a “Web 2.0″ look to it. I had seen John Cow’s new logo that he had done last year and Tyler Cruz’s - both which were done by SOSFactory.com, and decided to see what they could come up with. A few hundred dollars later and Sergio sent me this first draft:
We liked the new look and told Sergio to press the “colorize” button and we got this:
He then added our text and tagline:
SOSFactory will provide layered PSD’s so we will be able to move things around as we see fit. Our finalized header will probably look something like this:
We will do the finalizing of the logo and put it live on the website (hopefully) in the next few days.
If you have not already “branded” your site you should consider doing so. Even with no money at all you can come with something on your own like we did, or you can find a struggling new artist to do something very inexpensive (like $10 or $20) over at the Digital Point Forums. If you’ve got a few hundred $ that you’re willing to invest you can’t go wrong with George Coghill, and if you want to take it to the next level (and spend even more), I highly recommend SOSFactory.
Sometimes Being A Webmaster Sucks Ass!
For the most part, since I opened the website in 2006 it has been smooth sailing… On a 
national radio show after being online for only a month, featured as an Adsense Success Story after less than a year, generating over $1,000/mo after the first four months and $9,000/mo. after only two years - so yeah, it’s been all wine and roses here .. Up until about the last month when it started to feel like the wheels were falling off and the shit was hitting the fan. So for all of you who love to watch “the big guys” squirm (if I even count as a ‘big guy’) this post is for you.
In my blog charter, I promised no personal rants, so instead this post will be more of an outline of what my next several posts will be about - Each one of these posts will be under the subject of Sometimes Being A Webmaster Sucks!
- Banned from PayPal! Yep - I got a notice from PayPal that my account was permanently “limited” and if I’m lucky they’ll give me the $5,100 in the account sometime in the next six months. In this post I will go over how I went from being suicidal over the loss of this source of $6,000/month, to earning more per day and paying lower transaction fees by being forced to find something better than PayPal.
- Adsense Earnings at an all-time low! Since December 2007, Adsense has been earning approximately 1/4 or less than in all of 2006 and 2007 even though traffic continues to rise
- One Week With Zero Firefox Referral Earnings! I’ve already made this post, but an entire week without Firefox Referral Earnings has significantly impacted this month’s earnings.
- My $10,000 Tax Bill Is Due: I guess April sucks for a lot of people, but on top of 2007’s tax bill, it’s time to pay my quarterly estimated taxes also
- I Fucked Up: Read about my biggest mistake so far at the website
- Continued Drama At The Website: Read about how member’s egos and other problems at the website have spiraled to nearly totally out of control
- Out Of The Blue Bandwidth Charges: Read about how this month’s server bill is nearly three times higher than usual due to some surprise bandwidth charges
Maybe May will be a better month..
Google Says: Jump.. I say “My Privacy Policy Is Updated”
Last week Adsense updated their Terms of Service. You probably noticed the change because they forced you to acknowledge the updates when you logged-in to your Adsense account. The TOS was the page that you scanned-thru to find the “I accept” button at the bottom so you could hurry and get back to looking at your Adsense stats.
I actually did take the time to read the changes, but I’m not going to dissect them here because that’s not what my blog is about - To read a good comparison of the changes “before” and “after”, jump over to Jim Karter’s blog. He has taken the time to put together a complete before/after comparison in this post (be sure to thank him by dropping a comment).
Anyway, the one big change that a lot of Adsense publishers are talking about is the requirement by Google to have a privacy policy on your website that discloses your use of cookies and ‘web beacons’ - AND it says you must actually abide by that policy. Here is the exact wording from the new TOS:
You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your user’s browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.
Since I already had a privacy policy as required by Hotmail back when they decided I was a spammer, this was not a big deal. But now I had to update it, and actually make it available to visitors and members. As I was updating the policy it occurred to me that forcing Adsense publishers to have and abide by a policy like this is a very good idea. I think that Google is realizing that Adsense is partially due to the downfall of the internet by spawning so many millions of MFA websites and they’re attempting to root-out the krap. This is partially proven by all the grumbling and complaining I’ve seen in some of the webmaster forums. It’s funny how “real” website publishers don’t seem to mind all that much, but the “MFA’ers” are bitching and whining. I can’t wait to start seeing a Privacy Policy posted on all of those 1 or 2 page, worthless websites and it’s only a matter of time before we start to see all the of the “I got banned from Adsense for no reason” posts at DP Forums (and others) for the MFA’ers that choose to ignore or didnt bother to read the policy changes.
Updating my privacy policy wasn’t difficult, but it did take a few minutes of research. I added several things of my own, and borrowed a few ideas from some Google-owned websites. I also decided to place a link to the new policy that was visible on all pages, just in case Google decided to audit me (which I’m sure they’ll be doing at some point). Even though Premium Memberships are now generating far more income than Adsense - $4,500 vs less than $2,000 for Adsense in February ‘08, I still would not want to loose that Adsense income.
If you value your Adsense account like most of us do, you should probably take a few minutes to create or update your privacy policy. If you need help, there are several threads in the Adsense section of DP Forums. You can also have a look at my updated privacy policy. Feel free to copy & paste from it, just make sure you change the site name and other site-specific information. If you DO copy and paste from it or get any ideas from it for your new or updated privacy policy, please drop a comment.
