The Rotater is attracting international attention. Two highly respected physicians from the U.K. have contacted us about our shoulder rehab and stretching device and have expressed an interest in distributing the Rotater in the U.K. One of theses physicians ( a distinguished orthopedic surgeon who specializes in shoulder injuries ) has ordered a Rotater for testing and evaluation. We are very excited.

The Rotater Guys go to the NATA conference in St. Louis

(photo used courtesy of merfam)

Scott Kay and I will be in St. Louis ( June 17–21 ) at the America’s Center Convention Center (booth #2242) for the National Athletic Trainer’s Association’s annual convention to demonstrate and answer questions about our shoulder rehab and stretching device – the Rotater. This should be another great opportunity for us to make the sporting world aware of the benefits of stretching your shoulder with the Rotater.

Scott unveiled a very crude prototype of the Rotater at the 2006 NATA annual conference in Atlanta. This initial showing was a viability test for the Rotater. The response of these sports professionals was beyond our wildest dreams and provided the motivation for refining the design, producing a mold and proceeding to mass production.

If you’re coming to the NATA convention or live in the St. Louis area, then please stop by booth #2242 and say hi. I’d love to meet you.

(this is me and Scott at the ACSM conference in Indianapolis)

WordPress Automatic Uprgrade Plugin Saves “Shoulder Performance & Rehab”

After returning from Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago, I started having problems with Blogjet / Wordpress – but only on our blog – Shoulder Performance & Rehab. I sent an inquiry to the support staff at Blogjet ( I love Blogjet and they have very good customer service ) and was informed that I needed to upgrade my WordPress software. Sadly, I was running version 2.02 and had been putting off this dreaded task.

I have done some research into the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin in the past, but was never really convinced that something terrible wouldn’t go wrong and cause me to lose everything. Now I had no choice.

• I down-loaded the WPAU
• I uploaded it to my plugins folder as directed
• I activated the plugin
• WPAU walked me through the entire procedure
• Everything worked perfectly

Ten minutes and I’m done. It was simple, filled with instructions and explanations. If you’ve been putting off a badly needed upgrade, don’t wait any longer. Down-load the plugin and get it over with.

Soupornuts.com is next on the upgrade agenda – if I can just make time to do it.

Tags: WPAU+plugin, NATA, the+Rotater, Shoulder+Performance+&+Rehab

• your next post
• how to best convey your message
• where you will find sources for visual images
• how you can get more traffic

How to get more traffic

Okay, I’m not going to give you a list of things that you can do to increase your exposure or tell you how to get other people to link to your blog or web-site.

I’m going to tell you to visit Websitegrader.  Simply input your url (or any url), scroll down to the bottom and click on the “generate report” button.  Websitegrader.com will run a series of diagnostics that analyze your blog/website for:

• On-page SEO – which includes things like number of keywords (and why you don’t need more than ten), header summary, image summary, interior page analysis and readability level
• Off-page SEO – domain info, google page rank, google indexed pages, date google last crawled your site, links
• much more – you’ll be amazed at how much info they can provide you about your blog and how to make it more marketable
• free – that’s right, it’s free

My initial results sucked!

The first time that I ran soupornuts.com and therotater.com was pretty sad.  I think that I scored a 79/100 for soupornuts.com and 63/100 for therotater.com.  The beauty of Websitegrader.com is that they tell you what you can do to correct the problem.

For example, after I found out how low my sites were scoring, I got busy.  I would make changes and check again.  Pretty soon, I was scoring in the 90’s for both sites.

I ran soupornuts.com through just prior to beginning this post to see where I stood.  I was surprised to see a score of 88/100.  After a quick check, I saw that three of the images on my page did not have alt tags.  I quickly corrected those and ran websitegrader again.  Poof – 92/100!

I just ran therotater.com and it scored 92/100 as well.

More tools and information

Websitegrader.com can also check your site to see how it is grading for your keywords and how it compares against your competitors.  And they have a great blog. 

No matter how many times you use this service, it cost nothing and provides you with invaluable information.  Give it a shot – you won’t be disappointed. 

The Good Stuff

1. Daddy – Daughter Date Night

My two girls and I attended Daddy – Daughter Date Night sponsored and hosted by a local church this past Sunday night. It was an event that my girls had been looking forward to for weeks.

Yes, this is a picture of me painting the nails of my youngest daughter. I also:

• blow-dry hair
• help brush teeth
• give piggy-back rides
• play dolls, on occasion
• and I also put on corsages, as I am doing for my oldest daughter (on the right)

Because I wanted each of my girls to feel particularly special, I enlisted the help of my father to double-date with us. With his help, each of my girls had someone’s full attention all night.

We all had a wonder time. I’ll never forget it and I hope that my girls don’t either.

Thanks Pop for all your help.

2. The Rotater Continues to Impress

We saw the guys from 1StopForGolf.com in Orlando at the PGA expo. They have been using the Rotater since September and have featured it as their Golf Product of the Month (November 2007). Every time that they came by the booth to see us, we were busy demonstrating the Rotater.

A couple of days ago, I discovered that they had posted “The Rotater Continues to Impress” on their blog.

3. The Birmingham News runs a feature article on the Rotater

About three weeks ago Anna Velasco, a writer from the Birmingham News traveled about 150 miles to meet Scott and myself so that she could interview us about the Rotater. She was especially intrigued as to how an industrial mechanic could have created a shoulder device that is so effective for so many people across so many different markets.

Anna spent a couple of hours asking questions and picking our brains, which resulted in this article: Industrial Mechanic invents tool to improve shoulder mobility, finds niche in athletics.

4. Huge traffic to the Rotater website

Because of the article in the Birmingham News, we received a massive influx of traffic, which translated into huge sales.

The Bad Stuff

1. The Rotater website crashes!

Huge traffic is cool – if you are prepared for it. Apparently, we were not. I am unsure as to who the real blame lies with:

• I could immediately point a finger at our hosting provider
• or perhaps it is because I did not purchase a plan that provides for such a huge traffic inflow

You can be sure that it is a priority for me now that I realize how vulnerable we are.

Fortunately, we were only down about thirty minutes before the system reset itself and traffic was able to resume. However, there is no way to be able to calculate how many people tried and did not get to see our website nor whether they will ever come back.

2. Our blog crashes – down two days!

Our blog, Shoulder Performance & Rehab crashed a short time later. It did not reset itself, so I set out to determine what the problem was.

When I tried to login to my blog, I kept getting the following message:

WordPress database error: [User 'mydomainname' has exceeded the 'max_questions' resource (current value: 50000)]

The wording of this message led me to believe that there had been some kind of problem in my databases. I was wrong. After doing some research, I discovered that our hosting provider sets a limit of 50,000 requests per hour for this particular plan, regardless of your hosting plan’s advertised total bandwidth allowance.

50,000 requests per hour sounds like a lot. In reality, it is not. Every link, image or widget on a page is considered a request. You can easily have one hundred or more requests per page.

The result: 50 people in one hour hit your blog, each viewing ten different pages – your blog goes down. And it does not come back up without contacting technical support – only after you discover it is a hosting issue and not a database issue.

3. Hosting Suggestions?

I have been doing some research in order to find a hosting provider that:

• offers excellent and dependable service
• responsive customer service
• affordable hosting plans

Do any of you guys out there have any suggestions? Please leave a comment and let me know about your experiences.

The Other Stuff

1. No Baby – Yet

My wife is still pregnant. She is due to deliver our baby any day. We can hardly wait.

2. The Rotater goes to Boston

Scott Kay (my business partner) has traveled to Boston to introduce the Rotater to the golfing public for the first time at the National Golf Expo.

3.  Special Thanks

I’d like to thank Albert @ Urban Monk for mentioning soupornuts.com in an article he wrote entitled “The beauty of Impermanency and the Illusion of Ego”.  Thanks for your endorsement – you carry quite a bit of clout.

Tags: the+Rotater, daughters, hosting+plans, golf

1. My grandparents were sharecroppers.

Consequently, when my father was 17, he convinced his mother to allow him to join the army. He tells me that he joined the army because he was “tired of looking at the south end of a north-bound mule”.

I guess that I got my work ethic honestly. My parents are both 67 years old and still work twelve hours a day (at least 5 days a week).

2. I became an entrepreneur at the age of twelve.

Just before summer vacation started, when I was in the sixth grade, my father brought home a slightly-used lawn mower and told me that “if I wanted any spending money, then I needed to get busy cutting grass”. He went on to say that everything that I made after paying him $40.00 (the cost of the lawn mower), would be mine.

I would get up early in the morning, tie the lawn mower to my bicycle and drag it everywhere in search of grass to cut. It turned out to be lucrative (at least in my twelve year old mind).

3. I put myself through college by working in a textile factory.

Hard work will not kill you. You are capable of doing a great deal more than you may initially believe you are capable of, if you are highly motivated.

4. The smell of liver can make me puke.

5. My wife and I are expecting our third child, any day.

I can’t wait.

6. I have become a computer geek out of necessity.

I did not log on to the internet or use a computer from 2000 to 2006. I was too busy. However, some friends and I discovered that there was a niche that was being ignored, so we set out to develop an internet business model that would cater to their needs. This project is still developing, but we have recently had an infusion of new talent that looks to be incredibly promising. I hope to announce something about our project later this year.

I also had the opportunity to become involved with the Rotater, which has turned out to be a rehabilitation and athletic phenomenon.

7. One of my goals is to have a vacation home in Hawaii.

My wife and I spent a week in Maui, several years ago. It was beautiful, exotic and paradise.

Now for the rules:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Post 7 random or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Tag – your it!

Holli Jo – Evolving Blueprint

Jeanie Marshall – JMViews Personal Development and Meditation

Karen Lynch – Live the Power

Millionaire Mommy Next Door

Personal Growth with Corinne Edwards

Robin Skeen – Robin’s Reflections

Leila – Special 2 Me

Tags: meme, 7+random+things, work+ethic

A brief description of commentluv.

Basically, it works like this:

1. A person, (who has their own blog) reads on of your blog articles.
2. That blogger then leaves a comment on your site.
3. The commentluv plugin then goes to the other bloggers blog and retrieves that bloggers latest post title and places it at the end of his/her comment as a link back to his/her site.

Sounds cool, huh? Want to see how it works? Go to my article Six Barriers to Successful Living and scroll down through the comments. At the bottom, you will see where MichelleVan has left a couple of comments since I have installed this plugin.

Example

• • I loved this article because of the solutions. Nice work. I stumbled it. – off to digg it now.
    MichelleVan’s last blog post..Subscribe to Divine Purpose -3 Ways to Stay in Touch
    By MichelleVan on Jan 10, 2008 | Edit

Try the commentluv plugin for yourself

Leave me a comment and then watch and marvel at how well it works. Instant links.

Thanks to Andy Bailey at FiddyP

Thanks Andy for this fantastic plugin. I hope that this article sends a lot of traffic your way. You deserve it. Kudos!

Tags: commentluv, WordPress+plugin, link+love, blogging, blog

Great Bloggers, Great Friends and Great Support

This rise in the popularity of soupornuts.com is due to the help of a great blogging community along with their continual motivation and support. As a result, I want to use this article to express my thanks by adding some great blogs to my blogroll.

• Luciano Passuello at Litemind – Luciano asked me to participate in his “Lists Group Writing Project”, which resulted in a large increase in new visitors to soupornuts.com. My list was – 26 ways to change the world.
• Daylle Deanna Schwartz from Lessons from a Recovering Doormat – Daylle has been a source of inspiration for me. She writes excellent articles (she is a published author of several books), she has been on several TV shows and she is very approachable. Daylle tagged me to participate in a meme ( 7 things that you may not know about me ) and since then we have corresponded on a number of occasions. Most recently, she hosted a blog carnival and asked me to submit an article from my “other” blog, Shoulder Performance & Rehab. I submitted an article written by my business partner, Scott Kay, entitled “Shoulder Rehab (shoulder rehabilitation)”.
• Tina Fukuchi at Public Spark – Tina is a great writer with phenomenal insight.
• Michelle Vandepas and CK Reyes at Divine Purpose Unleashed.
• Holli Jo at Evolving Blueprint.
• Al at 7P Productions – all the powerful P attributes – Passion, Purpose, Planning, Pursuit, Progress, Power and Peace.
• Jeannie Marshall at JMviews Meditation and Empowerment.
• Karen Lynch at Live the Power.
• Daniel Sitter at Idea Sellers.
• Albert at Urban Monk.Net – Albert has a powerful insight and a humble delivery of his views.
• Change Therapy
• Pearl at Interesting Observations
• Work(s) in Progress
• Luke Houghton at The Issues of Life – Outstanding advice, applicable insight and quite knowledgeable.
• Peter at I WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE . COM
• Pricilla Palmer.com – Pricilla’s idea for a list of Personal Development blogs was a stroke of genius for both her and those of us who benefitted from the exposure and increased traffic. A million thanks Pricilla!
• Tina Su at Think Simple Now – Tina is a continual source of inspiration for me with many outstanding articles. My personal favorite is The Art of Smiling.
• Robin Skeen at Robin’s Reflections.
• Kirsten Harrell at Ipopin
• Personal Growth with Corinne Edwards
• Bob at every, every minute – Bob allowed me to participate in his Desiderata Project for which I am eternally grateful.
• Tune Up Your EQ
• Tristan Loo at The Synergy Institute – Tristan is a published author, former NCAA athlete and a great motivator.
• ElemantalTruths.Com
• JobMob
• Dream Jobs Dialog
• Millionaire Mommy Next Door – the real thing.

Huge Blogroll Update

Ok, guys and girls, if you are on this list, then you should also appear on my blogroll ( if for some chance you don’t appear on my blogroll, please contact me and I will correct the problem). I have researched every site and if you appear here, then it is because I feel that your blog has something valuable to say and should be heard.

I also want to thank:

• Stephen Hopson at Adversity University
• Brad Baggett at Juice of Champions
• Eric Sanders at Brainwavers

Tags: blogging, great+personal+development+bloggers, personal+development, networking, blogroll

Daylle tagged me to participate in her “Creating Better Habits” challenge. I am honored that she asked and the following is my contribution.

The Rut

A little over a year ago (Oct. 14. 2006, to be exact), I decided to create a better life for myself. It’s amazing how a pivotal date can stick in your mind, isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, I had and still have a good life, but I was wallowing in the rut of a high-paying union job. Great pay, fantastic benefits, okay work, NO CHALLENGE – NO FULFILLMENT. Plants can’t live in a rut and neither will you – you die on the inside.

The “Aha” moment

My good friend, Scott Kay and I were discussing the then-recent purchase of Myspace for an amount in excess of half a billion dollars, when I asked Scott, “Why don’t we do something like that?” He responded, “Okay”. That moment will be burned in my mind forever, because it changed my life.

We had an idea

Scott and I came up with an idea for an internet business. The strange thing was that neither of us knew anything about the internet. In fact, I had only recently bought a computer and had not even been on the internet in over six years. I guess that we are “intelligently ignorant” as Zig Ziglar would call it. We are like the bumble bee who doesn’t know that he’s not supposed to be able to fly.

The changes

Having a life-altering thought is easy. Changing your life is not. It requires changing yourself, which is something that people naturally avoid. I began by creating better habits, like:

• changing my mind – I spend every spare minute reading. Internet technology, blogs, internet commerce, motivation, business, legal information, SEO, social networking, marketing, promotion, packaging, networking and much more – believe me, YOU CAN TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS
• attempting new things – I had no idea how to create a web site or what a blog was, but I kept reading about how I needed one, so I started a blog on one of the free hosted platforms in order to get the feel of it. It felt good – Yes, I am addicted.
• avoiding negative people – when we started, it was all a big joke to the people that we worked with. We would hear comments like, “How’s that little internet thing coming along?” or “How’s that shoulder thing working out for you?” Now, it’s a different story, we are getting a lot of press and lot more orders. Now, people stop us and ask, “Are you selling stock in your company yet?” or “When you start hiring, remember me”.
• testing myself – it is amazing when you realize how much you can accomplish when you are passionate about something. Sleep is for sissies – at least that is what I keep telling myself. We’ve had so many orders for the Rotater lately that we don’t have the luxury to sleep. That is, if we expect to maintain excellent customer service. And we do!
• not taking “No” personally – some people don’t understand the concept of the Rotater or how it can help them. That’s not a problem for me, because those who reject it are in the minority and I know that it is not an indictment of me or my abilities. I just keep plugging along because I know that we are helping people regain their quality of life.

The result

I am tired, overworked, excited, stressed, stretched, learning, growing – and I absolutely love it. I am having the time of my life. How long will it last? As long as I am willing to maintain good habits.

Thanks

Thanks again, Daylle. I didn’t realize until I began, how much I needed to write this article. What a release.

Tag, your it

I would like to tag:

• Brad Baggett – my good friend and a phenomenal connector. He “knows” people and can put you in touch with people that can help you – a networker “par excellence”.
• Eric Sanders – another good friend with a sense of humor that is so similar to mine, that it is scary. Strong opinions and willing to share as well as defend them. A real “idea” man.
• Tristan Loo – I’ve read some of Tristan’s writings and have been impressed with his style and substance. Recently, I had the pleasure to read “Lucky You!”, an article that he had published in a sweet self-help magazine entitled GOING BONKERS. As usual, it was great.
• Stephen Hopson - a good friend and constant inspiration. He is one of the best networkers that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing

Tell us all how you’ve created better habits. Anyone who feel compelled to share, go to Daylle’s site and check out the rules and join the fun. The more the merrier.

Tags: change

• 100 Sites I Seek Inspiration From
• What you think is what you see: 4 Ways to stop negativity
• 5 Things That I Believe To Be Lies
• 7 Powerful Tips to Overcome Failure
• 21 Punching Tips On Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization

I hope that you enjoy these as much as I did.

Tags: list’s+writing+project, blogging, lists

The Think Different Challenge was started by Peter at I will change your life . com. Peter’s premise, though simple is very profound. Choose something in your life that you are currently viewing as a negative situation and re-frame your perspective so that this negative situation becomes a positive opportunity.

The Think Different Rules

1. Write a new blog post in which you “think different”. Follow my suggestions above, or be a bit different and interpret the challenge the way you want.
2. State that the post is a part of the Think Different Challenge and include a link and/ or trackback to this post so that readers know the rules of the challenge. Feel free to use the above banner (inspired, of course, by Seth Godin).
3. Include a link and/ or trackback to the blogger who tagged you.
4. At the end of your post, go ahead and tag some fellow bloggers. Don’t forget to email them to let them know they have been tagged.
5. That’s it! Just sit back and enjoy reading peoples’ responses to the challenge.

My Think Different Situation

I am a morning person. I love the mornings. Most of the time, I’m up by 4:00 a.m. and hit the ground wide open. I’m loud, excited and as my wife says, “obnoxious”. Only in the mornings, of course.

My wife on the other hand is not a morning person. She wakes up in stages – if she must get up. She does not wake up immediately, it’s more like waking up a little at a time.

• Stage 1: Hit the snooze button at least two times, but preferably multiple times.
• Stage 2: Change from a horizontal position of inactivity to a vertical position of inactivity – in other words get out of bed and sit down to rest.
• Stage 3: Frown at anyone who speaks to you and no matter how quietly they speak, complain that it is too loud.
• Stage 4: Go to the bathroom a start the shower. Don’ t get in – just start the water.
• Stage 5: Sit down to rest.
• Stage 6: Get into the shower and stay there for at least ten minutes
• Stage 7: Get out of the shower, functionally awake but looking at the bed longingly every time you pass it.
• Stage 8: Eat some breakfast and begin to interact with others.

Until just recently I have believed that my wife’s actions were a matter of choice. I believed that she just enjoyed being grumpy, ill and slow. Not anymore.

I have two daughters. The youngest wakes up just like me. Okay, mostly like me, but my oldest daughter is exactly like my wife. She is not, in any way shape or form, a morning person and regardless of my attempts to helping her rise in a good mood, she would rather just wake up at her speed.

My revelation? Maybe the way we wake up in the morning is hardwired into our DNA. Sometimes people don’t want to be excited, encouraged or in a good mood. They just want you to be there – sharing life with them.

I’m still “raring to go” in the mornings, but my youngest daughter and I try to keep it between us.

I Tag

I’d like to tag Daylle Deanna Schwartz of Lessons from a Recovering Doormat.

The Pink Rotater

The “Pink Rotater” became a reality this week. Though there are still some updates that need to be made to the logistics of handling orders as well as some cosmetic changes that are being worked out on the Rotater web site, we are excited to have reached this stage.

I visited with several physical therapists yesterday, all of whom expressed praise for their experiences with the Rotater.

The Rotater – “New Golf Product of the Month”

I received an email from Derek Highley late Thursday with a link to a newsletter that he publishes. When I clicked on the link, I was thrilled to discover that the Rotater had been chosen as the “New Golf Product of the Month” in a monthly newsletter put out by 1stopforgolf.com.

Words cannot begin to express the pride and encouragement that I feel right now. Thank you all for your support.

Tags: Think+Different, The+Pink+Rotater, 1+stop+for+golf

That being said, here is this week’s installment of sites and articles worth your time.

1. Business and Legal information

Do you have business, patent, will, estate planning or other legal questions? If so, then take a look at nolo. This site is vast and deep, so make them one of your stops if legalities arise.

2. The rise of “neurolaw”

Dr. Vaughan Bell, a clinical psychologist in training and a contributor for Mind Hacks writes in his article“My brain made me do it” about a disturbing trend toward the use of brain scans as proof that a person is not responsible for their actions.

3. Increase your creativity

Roger von Oech at Creative Think writes a very compelling article on how to find new ideas (hint: they are not is the same places that you always look).

4. Plugins to help your WordPress blog

Mark O’neill’s article at makeuseof – Another 10 must-have plugins for your WordPress blog, lists some of the often overlooked, but useful plugins that you might be able to put to use. I am going to check out the Subscribe-Remind for soupornuts.com.

That’s all for now. If you know of any cool stuff that you’d like to make soupornuts readers aware of, then leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments. Thanks and have a soupornuts day.

Tags: reasons+to+click, legal+info, neurolaw, creativity, wordpress+plugins