McNicholl Holdings

A new template for MusicReviewZone.com.

I feel that the current template is to …. Bloggy. For the site to gain a reputation for being news worthy I need it to look a little less amateur and a lot more “professional news service”.

At least - that is what I am aiming for.

So the layout is going to be completely different. Over the weeks I also want to add a lot of functionality to the site. I really wish BuddyPress was available in something resembling production quality as this would enable a lot of extra functionality very fast - but alas - it isn’t.

I am not sure if I’ll release the new template until I am ready to rock with a Google Adwords campaign and have some paid content writers on board.

If you would like to be paid to write album reviews or to provide your own slant on the current (latest/breaking) news stories then give me a shout using the “Contact Us” link above or clicking here.

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I have created a simple Wordpress plugin for anyone who wants it.

Basically it allows you to cloak any links of your choosing so that the user doesn’t know where they are to be redirected when they click on them.

There is a page in the admin section of Wordpress to maintain the list of cloaked links as well as a sidebar option list in the “Write Post” page so that you can easily choose which link to insert into the post you are constructing.

The links will be in the format :

<your site>/go/<your link text>

e.g http://blog.mcnicholl.com/go/musicreviewzone

The above example is setup to redirect to http://www.musicreviewzone. There are many improvements that I could make to this plugin, but finding the time is difficult. If there is enough demand for enhancements - then I’ll see what I can do

The plugin is pretty simple but hasn’t been extensively tested - definitely working with Wordpress 2.3.2 - definitely not working with 2.6 - I’ll find out why and post an update. So be warned. Any feedback is welcome and if you could drop me a note to say how it is working out for you - that’d be great.

User Manual:

1. Install the plugin
2. Go to Manage->Redirect Links to administrate your cloaked links
3. Go to Write->Post to use the links. You should see a side menu called “Redirect Links” - from here you just have to click on a cloaked link to insert it into the body of your post.
4. That’s it!

Screenshots:

Download the plugin here : 20080827_mcn_redirect

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For those that don’t know, I am from Northern Ireland. The process for starting a business here is as simple as going to a “company formation” company, telling them the name of the company you want to setup, what it does and then show some proper identification.

This process, I am sure, is the same in most countries around the world and definitely is for the rest of the UK.

Most startups are encouraged to go on the “Start A Business” programme - which essentially steps you through the different functions of a business i.e Finance, Marketing, Sales etc. This is the best way to prepare the uninitialized for what they are getting themselves in for.

I have one week left to go on this course and I must admit that it has been fun and I highly encourage all those fresh entrepreneurs out there, in the UK at least, to give it a go when you are starting out.

I will be starting a series of posts over the next few weeks that outlines what is involved in the course, and a business so that you can make an informed decision on whether you would want to startup or not.

There are so many things to think about!

For any American readers: Do you guys have anything similar to the UK’s Start a Business programme?

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