Too Early
Graphic Warning
Right after midnight, I awoke to a churning in my stomach. Upon sitting on the toilet, a stream of liquid shit just came pouring out. After a while, the churning in my stomach grew, I just new it was coming out the other way too. Luckily I had an empty trash can next to me. Only took 5 or 6 heaves and the thing contained a stomachful of liquid Lobster Penne Alfredo. It tasted good the first time, not so much the second.
After that was all done I had a message from Cherryl so I responded. Only two messages in, power goes out on the whole island, cell service drops. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. I was tossing and turning all night after this and suffering from horrible heartburn. Eventually when the power came back on (and my queued up messages about the power going out and me going back to sleep) she starts calling me. Over and over until I answered. I blame the language barrier for her not understanding I was trying to sleep. It’s sweet that she worries.
Morning
Once I got up at a proper time, I found my roommate was still asleep. Seems like there’s not going to be a walk today, and that’s just fine! Time to finish writing about yesterday’s trip!
Now that I’m done with that, it’s time to work. Analytics still show a fairly high bounce rate, but I’m going to give it some time to see if things improve. It is possible that the current site design just isn’t keeping people’s interest. I really need to get back to work on the new and improved site. Pretty sure I’ve decided to use Avada as the new theme. I just need to bite the bullet and shell out the cash so I can get customizing.
Checking my email I got a reminder that my Amazon Prime membership would be renewing in just over a month. Because Prime does nothing for me here, no need to keep it. They have so many steps you have to go through to actually cancel, had to click like 3 or 4 times to finally get it done.
Nothing new went on our Facebook page, so insights are pretty flat. It really does seem to be important to post regular content. I’m really not sure what our next post will be. Still not much action on Twitter, one day I’ll figure out a good strategy to grow there, but for now we’re mostly focusing on Facebook and Instagram since they’re an easy fit for our business.
Reading through my marketing multireddit I’ve seen a topic come up again that I’m considering, heat mapping. I don’t think I’m really ready to go that far yet, at least not until I get the site overhaul done, but eventually I feel it would fun, and hopefully beneficial. There do seem to be a few plugins for WordPress that do heat mapping, so maybe I can play around with one here.
Well, looking further into the plugins, none seem to updated recently, and there’s not a whole lot of adoption. The most installed is like 10,000 active installations, although there’s one specifically aimed at eCommerce (which this site isn’t meant for) with over 100,000 installations, SumoMe. Some of the features available in that plugin may benefit the company site though.
Google Ads shows 5 more keywords they suggest and this time the list came up on my first try! The keywords all feel appropriate, so now my total is up to 2,207. It seems that my new strategy is limited by my budget. 80% of my keywords and impressions are limited, that’s not good. Maybe instead of aiming for the top of the first results page I’ll aim for anywhere there. Once the business picks up more I’ll see about increasing my budget in the hopes of being able to do more with Google Ads.
Oh wait, it seems that my max CPC is set manually really low for the ad group? Maybe that’s part of the problem. I’ll leave it as it is now and check back later to see how it’s doing. I should probably increase that a bit as these keywords can run upwards of $2 CPC.
Ugh, another day without any real water pressure. It’s worse today than yesterday, the shower just dripped. So I stood there splashing a bit of cold water all over me, more of a quick whore bath rinse than anything. Hopefully this won’t last too much longer, although maybe if it rains later I can get a shower then.
Afternoon
The time finally came to leave the house. We were off to the government building to pay some bills and check the PO boxes. Running around the government building is always interesting. You never know if they’ll have the bills ready. Luckily my Social Security card was there for pickup and I got my NHI number (but no card).
After that it was time to stop in Mermaids and Pirates for lunch. Another perfect burger and fries. There’s just something about the place I really dig. The people are always friendly and the food is great. Plus it’s air conditioned!
While there we talked with a guy who’s working on some promotional events for the restaurant. So far they have karaoke and movie nights planned and I suggested they should do some video games for the kids. I’m considering picking up a couple of Nintendo Switches while I’m back in the States to sponsor it.
Next stop was Buck’s for some groceries (they have flavored creamer again finally!) then home to chill for a bit. We had the plumber look into the hot water situation next door. Turns out the solar heaters need a circulation pump to keep the water flowing correctly. For the time being they’ll have to be on the electric water heater until that is done.
Evening
The water pressure seems to be coming back but it’s still not great. There was enough water to get the dishes washed though! I’m definitely going to have to shower again before bed, it’s been another hot one and I’ve been feeling icky all day.
I played a bit more Minecraft. I continued looking for the witch hut and I found it! It’s not far from my spawn base, right next to a mesa biome. It will work out pretty well if I decide to dig everything around it out to turn into a mob farm. Along the way I picked up two more tridents and got another nautilus shell.
It rained a bit too, got a nice photo of a rainbow to post on Instagram. I also got that nifty shot of the rocks for this post. Best part about it is the breeze; it’s been so hot and dry today, now it’s finally cooling off a little bit.
Upon retiring to my room for the night I decided to try the shower again. The water pressure was better but still not great. I was able to wash up enough to get rid of the ickiness. Once out of the shower I watched this week’s Elementary. The sale was excellent as always. Afterwards it was a night of YouTube videos from Vintagebeef and Guude.
