So I'm sitting here on Friday afternoon, the time where I'm supposed to be blogging, and I have nothing good to write about. What do you do in that situation? All comments necessary!

I'm pretty pumped at this, my plugin is now an official plugin on WordPress. You can easily install it by going to Plugins -> Add New and putting in wpFutureCal!

I increased the font size and coloring to make it easier to read. I found out the hard way it was too small when I posted the same day twice! I caught it in time but didn't want to even have to think using this. Go install it now! If you have a WordPress login I'd love it if you went and rated the plugin.

Another contestant that I haven't reviewed yet is Patrick Griffin. His blog is great because he gives a ClickTrackProfit badge to subscribers. What else can I say? Actually...

Sorry!

That's right, Sorry Patrick for not reviewing your blog sooner. I just found this in my drafts. Apparently I started, forgot to finish, but thought I had done it. And last year you came all the way to New England to meet us TimTech Nerds and you didn't say a thing.

I'll be honest here, Patrick is one of the few guys that I'll actually read his posts. I even read the crazy words on wednesdays and use them in my personal facebook posts to make my friends think I'm smart.

If that doesn't convince you, maybe this will. We like his blog so much he actually helped us make the CTP Blog Mastery. So if you aren't subscribed to his blog go ahead right now and check it out. It's almost as good as mine!

Ironic because Jon Olson just decided to ditch Aweber completely, and here I am going wow this is great! He's got a beef with Aweber that goes back far, me on the other hand, I still like it.

They updated their Aweber WordPress Plugin to allow users who comment on your post to subscribe to updates with a checkbox. The genious is that they made the plugin and the API so you know it's 100% within their TOS.

This is very valuable to bloggers because people who comment are interacting with you. So having them know when you post next helps increase that interaction. I've commented on numerous blogs and had no clue if there was a way to get email updates. This makes it painfully easy!

So if you are using Aweber for your WordPress blog, go get this plugin now!

I've shown you the calendar I use to mark off days I write on my blog. Well interestingly enough I've found a problem with that method.

My problem is I have a laptop upstairs, and my desktop in my office. Usually when I'm in the writing mood I'm upstairs with a cup of coffee and the laptop. But my calendar is downstairs. Ouch.

So my solution was to build into WordPress a plugin that shows the calendar whenever I write a post. That way even if I'm on a vacation I can easily see when my next open slot is.

I'm calling it wpFutureCal simply because it's a calendar that shows future posts. It's drop dead simple, but effective. So go download it if you have a self hosted WordPress blog!

I get in trouble all the time, because I still talk about building your list. And then Jon and Justin will make statements like TimTech isn't really into list building, it's into social.

Well the big aha moment is this: My list is my blog. My blog is a social tool. I'm trying to communicate with you, and allow you to communicate with me.

See we don't view lists like people back in 2000 did. This isn't about mass emailing. This is about you getting to know me, and me getting to know you. So while you can subscribe via email, it doesn't end there.

It makes a big difference when it comes time to writing that post. I like to stir up thought, give reviews, or talk about the news. Stuff that's useful.

Traditional list building tells you to market to your list. As long as they stay subscribed keep them coming! Ouch. If I did that I wouldn't have 11,000 subscribers would I?

If you have a list but not a blog I totally recommend you try it this way. Get real people to give you feedback on your posts. It's more enjoyable and I really firmly believe you get better results from it.

OK so I might not have been 100% telling the truth about these calendars. That's because I kind of cheat. Which is a good thing but also a bad thing.

I use my calendar to track my blogging of posts, to make sure I do it every day. But it's also useful for queuing up posts.

Take Today for example. You think it's the 5th, but it's actually the 2nd. That's because I'm in the mood to write so I'm writing what's on my mind right now.

Then I use the calendar to mark off the posts. That way I can hit the schedule button and know which date to schedule it.

It's a simple tool and works REALLY well for things like charting blog posts, charting emails to your lists, etc. Which to me is the same. My blog is my list.

Which makes me think of a new topic. I'll write it after this and post it on Monday just to make you wait!

I'm only doing this blog post because I have to. Otherwise all of you will come crashing down on me about how I say to use a calendar to mark your progress. And how I said I wanted to post to the blog every day in the new year.

Or maybe I didn't say that yet. Yes! Breaking Blog News! I want to get back into blogging every day. So that's my goal for the new year. That's why I've got the calendar setup.

In 2010 I did this, I think it was that year at least, and it worked great. I marked off every day that I posted to the blog. I started to get so into it I did owner interviews and had content queued up for weeks in advance.

In 2011 I forgot to get a new calendar until it was February. Seeing a full month of no progress killed my motivation. I marked off a full week in February and didn't use the calendar until November.

So that's why I'm pumped about starting it up on day 1. Or day 2, I mean come on yesterday was New Year's Day. And a Sunday. That counts for something right?

So my goal is to post every weekday in 2012. That's because I want to leave the weekends for family time. Yes sometimes I'll still work, but if I do it tends to be on projects without anyone knowing. I need the break from the daily routine of go do this go do that go do this what was I doing?? So that's why it's only every weekday.

I give you full permission to Tweet the pants off me if I haven't posted by 8AM EST. You guys can hold me accountable. That way I'll feel guilty if I don't do it =P

I didn't think it would be possible, but this Thanksgiving we're VERY happy at TimTech!

The mysterious weird lag issues we've been having was finally solved. It turns out a single line of code in a configuration file can turn 82 Cores and 216GB RAM server cluster into a big frustration. But as these graphs are showing, this really looks good now.

So anyways, that's what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving. Besides the usual family, job, house, type. What are you thankful for?

OK Folks so Larry won't stop talking about winning this referral contest, so I figured I'd tell you guys so he can stop talking about it to me. I mean c'mon I've already joined the site I can't help him.

He's actually doing a pretty good job too. He setup a video, he made a splash page, and now he's giving out goodies to anyone. Check it out here for details. It's a great example of what to do to win these contests.