Category

life

Ted Murphy
In life

Balancing Work and Play

I work a lot. Even when I am not “working” I am working. I check my email in bed, I use my morning runs to plan out my work day and I brainstorm in the shower. I would say 90% of my daily thoughts are work-related. I love it. I am passionate about what I do and the challenge of my job is what keeps me motivated to push myself further.

All that work is great… but I don’t let it completely consume me. I try to balance hard work with a consistent dose of play. Most workaholics find that difficult to do, but I have made a conscious commitment to have a little fun each day. I have found that the right balance leaves me happier and more effective in everything I do.

Apparently Chris Brogan picked up on my vibe, you can see his thoughts below:

Get out there and PLAY! Dance on a table! Jump in a bathtub full of cereal! Paint something! All work and no play makes Ted a dull boy.

Ted Murphy
In

Blog Design Makes a Difference

It’s been just over a month since I worked with the guys at Unique Blog Designs to launch this blog. I abandoned my old domain and started Ted.me fresh with no traffic and no inbound links. Nate Whitehill has been helping me periodically over the past month to tweak the blog and fix stuff when I break it (which I have done a couple of times). I can’t say enough good things about Nate and crew. If you are considering a redesign of your blog call these guys at 1.870.619.4550. I am a customer, I have no interest or ownership in UBD, I just like working with them.

More Traffic

I have been very impressed by the increase in traffic I have seen since I made the switch. Even though this domain is completely new I had a 8x increase in visitors and a 3x increase in pageviews from October to November. It’s still a pretty small number, but it’s a number I can start building on.

More Comments

Many of my posts on my old blog had no comments at all. This new blog enjoys a relatively steady stream of comments independent of the post topic. I enjoy the interaction and spend more time responding to people who leave comments.

Why is This Blog Performing Better?

The Design

The new design is appealing, clean, fun and user friendly. The comments flow nicely, links are easy to see and the font is big enough for virtually anyone to read. I am getting a bunch of people sending me emails about the design of the blog itself.

Design is the single biggest flaw I see in so many blogs. People have blogs that are just plain ugly. UGLY UGLY UGLY. If your blog looks like crap it is an instant turn off for me (and advertisers if you care about making money). If you don’t have the skills to create a good looking blog yourself buy a template or hire the guys at UBD to help you out. Don’t underestimate the importance of good design. It is the difference between an iPod and a Zune.

The Platform

I really enjoyed using Tumblr, but WordPress is where it is at. WordPress is easy to use and ridiculously extensible. I have installed a ton of plugins to make my life easier and my blog more user friendly. I have now used Tumblr, Blogger, TypePad, Moveable Type and WordPress for various projects. WordPress is hands down my favorite. If you are on one of these other platforms (except Tumblr) you can export all your blog posts and comments into a .txt file and import them into WordPress without losing any data. Do it, you will thank me.

The Content

Tumblr didn’t really lend itself to longer form content. I did a lot of mobile posts that were nothing more than a picture. Now I find myself writing less posts with more meat since the switch to WordPress. I put more effort into my posts and my readers spend more time on my site in turn. The whole cereal thing didn’t seem to hurt traffic either.

Ted Murphy
In

Gary Vaynerchuck Invades the Lamberson Household

Yesterday Tara and I went to the Apple store and bought her parents an AppleTV (I am a huge fan) as an early Christmas present. We are doing Christmas with my parents this year in Naples and Tara wanted me to hook the AppleTV up for them. I had it working in 5 minutes and showed them the basics ( I LOVE APPLE TV ).

I was working on my computer this afternoon when I heard a familiar voice blaring from her parents bedroom. I walked in to find Tara’s mom watching a podcast of Wine Library TV with my buddy Gary Vaynerchuck on her Apple TV. She found it on her own, while looking for content about wine.

What just happened?!? Are my worlds colliding here? Will I come back to Virginia next year to see her dad with an iPhone and her mom on Twitter? It’s only a matter of time before social media truly goes mainstream…. and I will have to find something new ; )

Ted Murphy
In art

My Take on Christmas Lights

Tara and I took a trip to the local a Christmas light display. I decided to take a different approach to photographing the lights. These are normal Christmas lights, photographed with an extended exposure and some camera movement. What do you think?

Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights

Ted Murphy
In life

Happy Thanksgiving Recovery Day

I spent Thanksgiving with Tara’s family this year. We have been alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving the past few years. Alternating makes it easier, neither of us half to deal with the parental guilt trip for missing a holiday and each family gets to see us both every year. It cuts way down on the stress and drama, we get to have quality time without feeling torn. I am happy to say there hasn’t been any familial blow outs since Tara and I started dating.

Photo Courtesy of BenSpark.com

Photo Courtesy of BenSpark.com

Instead of drama my holidays are filled with food, relaxation and sleep, which can be equally draining. I don’t know about you, but I ate a bit more than I probably should have yesterday. I also had a few beers while watching the football game. The result? I was passed out in a food coma by 7pm on Tara’s sister’s couch.

Today I am in a post Thanksgiving recovery. It was hard to get out of bed thing morning, I was still full and tired after almost 12 hours of sleep. I forced myself out of bed, made it out to run 6 miles and had a modest breakfast. I got my blood pumping, but I am still tired. I have no idea how that is even possible.

Tonight we are going to a French restaurant for dinner. A little escargot…maybe a choclate crepe…a few glasses of wine. I have a feeling I may be fat, dumb and happy again when I return home. This recovery may be an ongoing process. I’ve got to suck it up though, I have an 18 mile run planned on Sunday.

Ted Murphy
In life

Who Wants to Party?!?

Earlier today I asked this question on Twitter “if money were no object what kind of party would you throw and where?” Below is a sample of the responses I received.

alexiskn
an awesome masquerade ball… in Rome.
Timothy_Jones
I would rent a yacht and have a huge off-shore party over at least a couple days
Legere
Party for all the Legere’s from Ma,Canada and Louisiana- big family reunion with Salmon Pie and beans-in Bora Bora!
alexdesigns
rent an island and pay for everyones travels!
at1mp
I would recreate the party in Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet.
HeatherinBC
A real Luau on Waikiki and I’d invite all my IZEA friends 🙂
birdonawire55
I’d throw a party at St Judes hospital for all the kids complete with Ringling Bros in tow
webfugitive
Prehistoric. Cavemen like. Somewhere outside – have a mud pit perhaps. Wire up a cave for good accoustics. Serve ribs.
fishinole1
I would recreate a Nick Carraway party from the Great Gatsby.
isfan
launch party for world changing initiative at statue of liberty. might even invite you.
melissacollier
I’d throw @corycollier a 30th Birthday party in Ireland where they have the best Guinness!
slove554
I would throw the wedding of my dreams on the beach somewhere. Boo, economy. Boo.

How about you?

Ted Murphy
In charity

And the Winner is….. Everyone

Earlier today I picked the winner of the bathtub of cereal. The winner is Ricard Kligman. Congratulations Richard! I had promised that if I received over 500 comments on my post I would donate another 52 boxes of cereal to charity. Well… I came up short. I managed to get 125 comments in all. But I don’t care, I had a blast doing this promotion and I am making a donation of 52 boxes anyway to my local food bank. Thank you all for your support.

I will be doing this again real soon… perhaps with a bathtub full of mashed potatoes, gravy or stuffing in the holiday spirit. If you have any ideas on what I should fill my next tub with please let me know.

Ted Murphy
In health

I Rocked My 16 Mile Run

I finished in 2h 19m 05s, that is an average pace of 8m 41s. I don’t know how I managed to do it but I took 11 seconds per mile off of my run from last weekend, even though I ran 2 miles further. This was the longest run I have done to date and I am feeling pretty good about it. I made a short video that captures the beginning, middle and end of my run.

How about you? Have you managed to commit to getting yourself healthy again? How’s it going?