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Good day to everyone, and I hope that each of you made the most of last week and weekend to spend time with family and friends vs. in front of the computer. I know I did. On the 4th, a few friends and I managed to go out to the lakes and enjoy the beautiful sunny day and nice weather. I got to brush up on my kayaking skills (by that I mean I have no skills, so anything is an improvement). Needless to say, I didn’t get sun burned thanks to some SPF 50 :). Overall it was a lot of fun, and I wish every weekend this summer was like that.

Over the past two weeks, blogging for me has slowed as I have been working on other projects. Don’t worry, I will be back on track very shortly as the dust settles a bit, but until then I am making the most of the nice weather.

HBO series on John Adams

I rented the 3 disc HBO series about one of America’s founding fathers and 2nd president of the United States. If you have never seen the series, I would highly recommend watching it. I do not think I could have picked a better time to watch that series with the 4th of July in full swing and remembering our (America’s) stand against tyranny. It is not often that a country and government is formed conscientiously (prior to wars and coups). The best part of the series if recognizing that our founding fathers were no more perfect as humans than any of us today. Experience History.

Have a happy 4th, and I hope everyone blew things up responsibly.

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A new milestone

Two days ago I broke my goal of 225 RSS subscribers for the Month of June. Once again thank you to all who have subscribed. If you did not get your Entrecard credits for subscribing, you must let me know by email or message in order to get them.

First post series

This week was the first time I ran a post series and I enjoyed it very much. I got a lot of feedback and enjoyed the input that everyone gave. I will be working on another series for the upcoming week. In case you missed it here are the links:

• How to make the switch to working online Part 1
• How to make the switch to working online Part 2
• How to make the switch to working online Part 3
• How to make the switch to working online Part 4 

New blog theme

Recently I ran a poll asking whether or not it was time to change the blog theme and as the results came in, the majority voted to change. Let me know what you think of the new look.

Upcoming week

This next week is going to be very busy for me, and I would like to wish you all an early Happy 4th of July.

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Wow, it has been a while since my last Random Rants, but all is not lost in the world of Unconventional Marketing. This week I am excited to present a series on how to go from working a “typical job” to working online. I have to warn you beforehand not to get too excited, because I will not be promoting any products online in order to help you. No ebooks, No software, No seminars, No conferences, just tough questions and some tips learned by me in my quest to work for myself. On to other news.

RSS

Last month boosted my RSS subscriptions to 203. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to subscribe and I know you’ll be getting your money’s worth this week. As a reminder for any new subscribers affiliated with Entrecard, if you would like your 300 Entrecard credits for subscribing, you will need to let me know either here or by a message.

Poll

On the side bar I posted a poll (thanks to vizu.com) asking whether or not you felt I should change my blog layout or style and so far 41% say yes I should change it. I will be looking into a few different options over the next week or so and encourage you to stick around and see what I come up with.

Business Card

I had a competition worth $50 to design a business card for me and the Unconventional Marketing blog. I had 7 entries and it was really a toss up between 1st and 2nd. Jason ended up winning the prize and walked away with $50. Thanks Jason and everyone else who made a go of it.

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Travels are over, at least for now

Yesterday was my first day back home after 3 weeks of traveling. I spent two weeks in northern California visiting family and lending a hand where I could. Then I took a trip to Washington state to visit my mother and some friends. Overall, it was a great time and I got to do some of my favorite things like eating huge home-cooked meals, hiking and sight-seeing. I am sure glad to be back home, though.

End of the month stats:

• Unique Visitors:  43,716
• Page Views: 107,112
• Pages Per Visit: 2.5
• RSS Subscribers: 176 (more than month goal)
• Technorati Rank: 48,166
• Alexa 150,510: (just above month goal)

Next month goals will be posted on the side bar.

Here are some pictures from my trip

Family cabin in northern California, a little morning breakfast.

My mother’s cat Pretty Girl and I (used to be my cat).

Blaine, Washington about 2 miles from Canada on the coast.

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First I would like to say thanks for bearing with me on this slow posting week. I left Fargo on Monday and headed to northern California to stay with and help some family. I will be in California for about another week until I depart for Washington state. I am making the most out of this trip and visiting my mom in Ephrata, WA, for a couple days on my way back to Fargo.

HOT!

Everyone knows California gets a lot of sun (at least in most areas), but 94 degrees in the middle of May? Due to the lack of air conditioning where I’m staying, not much gets accomplished in that kind of heat. I did manage to build a shelving unit before noon and called it quits. The temperature is dropping slowly, so the next week should be nice. Here are a couple of pictures.

(This is the view from my grandparents’ front porch in Weed, CA)

RSS Feed

Last week I did a blog review of Marcus Hochstadt and mentioned how he doesn’t rely on FeedBurner because at any moment they could delete your RSS feed and all of those who were subscribed. About two days later my FeedBurner wasn’t showing the email subscribers I have. So my number for a couple days was down below 100 :(. I was about to get worried and then the email numbers kicked back in and were much higher than before :). After last months unsuccessful attempt of acquiring a specific number of subscribers, I lowered my expectations for this month to 170. Then yesterday I was at 173 with a lot of May left to go. Serves me right. I try and meet my goals right at the end of the month knowing they were just high enough for me to reach.

Also if you subscribed to my RSS feed by email and want the 300 Entrecard credits I advertised, you need to tell me either by message at Entrecard or email me at: Josh@JoshWhitford.com so that I can get you your credits. Otherwise I have no way of knowing you subscribed.

Review of Marketing Blogs

I really enjoyed reviewing different marketing blogs and probably will continue to do so every now and then. If you want me to review your blog or marketing blog, either comment or send me an email, and I will try to do so shortly. Here are the reviews I’ve done so far:

• Internet Business Guide by Marcus Hochstadt
• Marketing Deviant on Marketing Strategies
• Make and save money with Moremerchant.com
• Talking about 1 Million Readers in 365 Days

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