Monthly Archives: December 2004

HTML/PHP Random Image Rotation – Redux

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I’m pleased as punch – I took my picture rotator php code, added a few more tweaks and twiddles, and submitted it to SitePoint.com? Result? They published it, and now I’m an official SitePoint contributor.

For those that missed the earlier posting, the code was a simple random image rotator script in PHP. What made it unique was:

  • It could be called from an <img> tag, allowing it to be used from regular html (important for jobs where PHP pages weren’t an option).
  • It allowed more than one image per page, without repetition (mostly).

The article adds a bit more to the code (including a PHP-only solution). Besides SitePoint, I’ve also posted it to my site (finally!). The code is free for all, and I hope it benefits you (I ask that you keep the copyright in ït and of course think of me when you’ve got a PHP project coming up…)

It’s eBay Auction Time Again!

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As I’ve mentioned in the past, I sell on eBay. I’d like to say it’s only for the experience, but the extra money is nice, too. Plus, there’s something slightly addictive about getting your feedback higher and higher (I’m nearing 500)…

But last Monday was a rare treat – all auction listings were 10 cents apiece. These special occurrences are well worth planning for, and I was ready this time.

What to do?

  • Have auctions ready to go (I have html copies of the auctions on my hard drive that I just cut and paste in).
  • Put the high priced ones up now – the higher the better (since you save more on each).
  • …and list a lot of them.

You may not sell, but the exposure is great – and at 10 cents each, it’s hard to lose money.

In my case, my sales are arranged roughly this way:

  • I always offer eBooks at low cost – it’s a great way to get feedback points, and it gives customers a chance to check my service and support out before spending big money.
  • I occasionally offer my Promo-Cal calendars at a deep discount (eBayers love discounts!), but this time I also added my PromoWords and PromoQuotes programs.
  • A few of my custom Windows calendars from Gift-Cal.com
  • Some of my domains.

The domains of course are the big-ticket items. I’m offering a selection of my 4WDN (4 word domain name) locations, as well as putting HomeBusinessInsight.com on the block (I’m concentrating now on BigBizBlog.com)

Some are developed; some aren’t. But the great thing is that over time I’ve gotten most of their Page Rank to 4 and to 3, AND indexed in the search engines. For a new business looking to get noticed, these domains can make a great location (or even doorway site), so I suspect I’ll sell a few – all part of my master 4WDN plan…

In any case, feel free to drop by and look around – and get yourself a deal or two!

Thinking of a Discount?

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We often think of discounts as a way to jump start sales. After all, who doesn’t like a bargain?

But one thing we might fail to ask – how much is that discount REALLY costing me?

Let’s explain with a little (very little) math. My Gizmos and Gee-Gaws both sell for $5 – it costs me $1 to make each Gizmo, but $3 for each Gee-Gaw.

So to sell a few more, I take 20% off the price of each. This is what the customer sees – a good deal, and so I sell a few more.

But what do I see? My Gizmo PROFIT has gone from $4 each to $3 – which means I’ve lost 25% of my profit, not 20%.

And my Gee-Gaws are even worse -I’m only making $2 profit on them before, so I’m down to $1 – and I’ve lost 50% of my profit!

Look at it another way – how many more will I need to sell to make the same profit? If I’m making 3/4 of the profit I used to on my Gizmos, then I need to sell 4/3 (or 133%) as many to make the same profit.

But for the Gee-Gaws – it’s horrible – I’ve lost 1/2 the profit, so I’ll have to sell 2/1 (200%) to make the same profit – twice as many!

If the math makes your head hurt, then just take a few principles away from this:

  • Always do the math based on your profit, not your selling price.
  • Discounts always cost you more than the customer benefits.
  • Even when your profit margin is high, discounts can make earning that much harder.

So give discounts a try, but remember the math – and make sure your discounts count!

Yet Another Free MP3 Player

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December has been a month for cleaning up projects. One I’ve had for over a year now is audstuff 2, my mp3 player.

It’s main features are:

  • Multiple audio streams (play up two four songs at a time).
  • Foreground/background audio (play while previewing the next song, using one or two audio cards).
  • Unicode (International character set) support.
  • Easily adjustable speed, volume, and segueing.

Originally created on spec, the company that was involved found something else to involve themselves in (tips for business – if it’s not in writing, it doesn’t exist, and never work on spec). Without a viable market for it, I basically buried it, although I use it all the time at my computer.

So I decided to clean it up, and put an Alpha version on the site – and let the market decide if it’s interesting or not.

The program is best run under Windows 2000 or XP – give it a try, and feel free to email comments (I’ve placed a form on the website for that).

A Note About Categories

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Why use categories? The fact is, anything that increases site ‘stickiness’ is worth looking into. You want people to stay a little longer, and if you can give them an easy to browse list of categories, it might help.

What makes a good category? That’s why I waited until I had a few articles. For me, it helps to look at them all, and then try to group them. Often, they fall naturally into categories (WordPress articles, programming articles, etc.). Sometimes not though – which means the ‘General’ entry will still be used.

Some points about the WordPress setup:

  • Empty categories aren’t entered, which means you can create them early, and fill later.
  • You can have multiple categories for each category – which means that an article that straddles two or more can be put in both.
  • If you enter a description, it’s the text shown when your mouse is over the category name on the main page.

One annoyance – by default, categories are displayed in the order they appear in the database (which seems to be by order of creation). To change it, I consulted the WordPress Wiki, and found this solution – look for an entry like this in index.php:


<?php bbb_list_cats(); ?>

and change it to this:


<?php bbb_list_cats('sort_column=name'); ?>

Now your categories will sort alphabetically – and your blog is just a little more organized.