Not only it will cure boredom, but it will consistently conciliate curiosity.

With that idea a site was born. We snatched List25.com which was available to register. Put up a custom theme on it. Now we are just producing content.

One of the obstacles we ran into was that our twitter name was @list_25 rather than @list25…. but thankfully to my friends at twitter it worked out. Now we have @list25 on twitter. Follow us. Your support is what will keep us going.

So that is when I got the idea for WordPress/Blogging Coupons. We have a good enough audience of WordPress users / bloggers. We also have good connections with a lot of developers, theme designers, web hosts, other bloggers (authors), and other companies. So why don’t we combine the two and bring a quality resource for users that is also mutually beneficial for the businesses. Furthermore, the power of the community always surpasses the efforts of one person, so this way if anyone else finds a deal going around, then they can submit the coupon.

Our editorial staff will review it, and publish it on the site. If it is a kick-ass deal, then it would be emailed out to those who don’t visit the site as often. As I came up with the idea, I am like, “Now that’s what I am talking about”.

So I started jotting down notes, competition, ideas, and everything else that I wanted the site to have. Now because we are using Genesis as the framework, we didn’t need to work that much. We already have the child theme for WPBeginner Gallery. So, we just based the coupons theme off on the gallery child theme and made few modifications. Ofcourse, Gravity Forms made life even easier in terms of creating coupon submission forms.

What took so long is my nit-picking… I wanted to try like 10 different ways before I can agree on one. Well, so there we have it.

A one stop shop for WordPress and Blogging Coupons. Use it, but don’t abuse it

If you have feedbacks for me, then please let me know. As I am always up for improving the way I do things. Because this is very experimental, I will post another update on how this site is going as it is fully integrated within the WPBeginner main site.

I want to offer you an opportunity to get listed in our gallery. What do you need? A custom design or highly modified premium / free theme, and the site has to be powered by WordPress (DO’H)

What do you get in return? A do-follow link from our gallery for FREE.

What the heck are you waiting for? Go Submit your site to our WordPress Gallery

Well, I attended two WordCamps back to back this past two weekends. I was a speaker at both of these events. Everyone I met was awesome, and I had a great time.

WordCamp Raleigh 2010: How to Utilize Facebook and WordPress to build a more interactive community

WordCamp Fayetteville 2010: I’ve got a blog, Now What Do I DO?

Hope you guys will find these helpful.

Sponsors for this Trip

Buy Sell Ads

Romow Web Directory

Why am I excited about this event?

The main reason is networking. I will get to network with top guys in the industry like Gary Vaynerchuck, Matt Mickiewicz of Sitepoint, Yanik Silver himself, and many other top entrepreneurs in the industry.

I will keep this post short as I am writing this while sitting at Orlando Airport, but there will be more news about this event on Balkhis through out this week.

Even though I got the conference ticket through the scholarship which was a big expense, a lot of other expenses needed to be covered such as airfare, lodging, food etc. I am very happy and thankful to the two companies that stepped up and they are sponsoring my trip to D.C.

Sponsors for this Trip

Buy Sell Ads

Romow Web Directory

I will be attending WordCamp Raleigh and WordCamp San Francisco. If you guys live in the area, and/or planning to attend these events, definitely let me know as I would love to meet some of my cool readers.

1. Redesign Uzzz Productions
The past year has been filled with projects, but surprisingly the company that launched it all has been neglected. In 2010 I will implement a new design on the Uzzz site that will not only update the site but show off some tricks I have picked up over the past year.

2. Redesign some aspects of WPBeginner
Launching WPBeginner and watching it grow over the past few months has been incredibly rewarding. It has also shown me the tweaks that need to be made to the nuts and bolts of the site’s design.

3. Broaden WPBeginner’s reach
In 2010, WPBeginner will be tweaked to add more features, services, and freebies for it’s users. This will probably take most of 2010 to complete, but it will be well worth it.

4. Increase social media presence
This goal pretty much speaks for itself. Not only do I plan to organically grow through sites like Twitter and Facebook, but I look forward to the new social networks that 2010 will bring.

5. Attend and speak at more conferences and events
This year brought me to New York City for my first Wordcamp. In a week I will be speaking at Wordcamp Atlanta and spreading the word about increasing WordPress security. I hope this year bring me more opportunities such as these to network and meet more of you in person.

6. Have Fun
With Balkhis, WPBeginner, Uzzz Productions, and school, it is hard to find a moment to just relax and have fun. My final resolution is take time to myself and enjoy some off time. In the spirit of this resolution, I am blogging from Tennessee, in my first vacation of 2010. Lets hope this year brings more chances for times like these.

I hope 2010 is a successful and enjoyable year for all.

As you all know that I am still a student and week after thanks giving is the last weeks of school and exams are on my head, so it is pretty crazy along side with the clients and campaigns, it become really hectic. Yes I did go black friday shopping, but the best part about this year was that everything was online. I got a WD Passport Portable HD with 500 GB because it was $59.99. I was going to get a laptop from Best Buy because they put out exclusive offers to their Silver Premier members that we could get a head start on Black Friday deals by ordering online. But too bad Best Buy’s staff ruined it for them.

This awesome laptop was only $450 and I was dialing the phone. The girl picked up, told me to hold on and hung up. Called again, transferred me and no one ever picked up. I wrote an email to Best Buy and the best they could do was give me a 750 points in my reward zone. For those who want to know that is $15 worth… That is not how you treat loyal customers Best Buy. From now on, I will be looking for other alternatives before I go shop there.

Another thing that I realized on this blog is that a lot of people are using long keywords as their name while commenting. To all old and new users, it is getting really annoying. And I am sending every comment that does not use their name to SPAM. If it gets really worst, I will begin blocking IPs. I offer do follow top commentator list in the sidebar so don’t abuse it. I am getting keywords like NJ SEO Guy, India’s SEO Company, Business Cards etc. If need be, I will close down comment, or require user registration to cut down spam and worst of all, remove top commentators and make the blog nofollow links. I can now understand why Vitaly Freidman of Smashing Magazine removed the concept of links from the comments. They do not allow users to add links of their website both in the comment, or in the form at all. I might take that route. So take this seriously.

I am attending WordCamp Orlando this weekend and hoping to have a great time. So those who want to come join me, feel free to do so.

For the New Years, I will be going to Tennessee again to Ober Gatlinburg because we had a great time there last year. So a lot of fun coming soon, but right now it is tought times.

So we stayed in Sheraton at the Meadow Lands Plaza, East Rutherford, NJ. I have learned my lesson not to drive in NYC, so I did not waste a lot of time. Trains and Subways all the way. Now this was by far one of the best conference and it was really cheap. $40 << That's it.... Those who did not go missed a great social networking opportunity.

I met:

Matt Mullenweg, Founder of WordPress
Brian Gardner from StudioPress
Jane Wells, Interface and experience designer for WordPress
Jeff from WPTavern
Daisy Olsen from WP Mama
Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Author of WordPress for Dummies book
Adria Richards from Freshworkshops

And Many Many Other people.

Aside from meeting these awesome people, I had a blast in Time Square LOL.

Well the plan in the future is that I am definitely attending WordCamp Orlando which is scheduled for Dec. 5th 2009. So for those of you who are in the area, it is definitely a great one to attend.

Thanks Giving is coming next week, so I am planning for the Black Friday Shopping. And most importantly, Zain’s Birthday is coming next Tuesday. He will be turning 6 years old now. I changed his blog to a single page website, which we do plan to build more on some day.

If you are in the affiliate marketing industry, Market Leverage has a great offer for Christmas which I think will provide great results. This offer is Santa Letters from the North Pole. From personal experience, a lot of parents and grandparents buy these, so it would be a great success in PPC and Mommy Blogs. A few extra bucks can help you buy Christmas presents for your loved ones too

I would like to speak at WordCamp Orlando, so lets hope they accept my proposal because I think I can give an awesome presentation on the topics I suggested them, so if you would like to see me speak, then send them a message (Shameless lobbying lol)