Anyway, when I set my 2012 New Year’s resolutions, one of my goals was to set new intentions in March. The month is almost over, and I’ve yet to follow through with the task, so using the power of procrastination… LET’S DO THIS!!!

But first, before I get to my new resolutions, I’m going to take a look back at my old ones to see if I’ve stayed on track the past few months.

New Year’s Resolutions 2012

1. Stop Looking for Approval

I’m still working on this, for sure. It’s difficult to secede the thought of approval from your life! With the way most of us are raised, we’re heavily conditioned to seek acceptance of others. I feel though, that when you can break free from that, it opens up a lot of doors and makes life more fun.

One idea I had to work on reversing the habit was to do affirmations every morning when I wake up. It sounds lame as hell and embarrassing to admit, but I think it could have a positive effect. I would do probably both written and verbal affirmations, as I feel a combo would be most effective.

2. Get My Student Loans Paid Off

My goal was to get them paid off by the end of January… but I didn’t get them paid until the first week of February. FAIL!

… nah, in all seriousness, I’m actually really stoked I was able to get them paid off by the time I intended. I’m now pretty much broke, but debt free! Sorta. More on that later.

3. Keep an Open Mind on New Projects

I’ve gotten both SixPrizes and PkmnCards under cruise control at the moment, with no definite plans to expand or improve either one. I’m pretty happy with how both have developed. I worked super hard the first 8-10 weeks of the new year getting them in peak condition to ride along for a while.

What this means is that I’m basically free to brainstorm new projects and pursue something else. I was offered a role in a potential upstart, but didn’t feel totally confident in it, so I declined. Still, I’m going to stay as receptive as possible for new ideas.

4. Read More

If you count skimming through the occasional article on Grantland reading, then yeah I read more. But what I intended was to read more books, which I haven’t (count: 0), so I still need to work on this. I’ve got a lot more free time as well, so I have no excuse. I waste way too much time watching pointless YouTube videos. Damn you, internet.

Even my friend Lee, who is rumored to have graduated high school without actually reading an entire book, has outdone me this year, which is embarrassing.

5. Make more phone calls

I made some phone calls, and I was able to get in touch with some people… others not. I at least made some effort though, which is good. Still, overall I’ve put forth a pretty weak effort here.

6. Get more serious about tennis

The past few months I haven’t really done much other than keep up my conditioning and get ahold of a couple backup racquets, but I guess that counts as something.

I still need to take more action, which will be one up my upcoming goals…

7. “Every day, do your best. Or at least try to.”

I admittedly forget this sometimes. One thing I was planning to do to remind myself of this saying was to set a photo of my dad working as the background on my laptop. That way I’ll have a daily visual reminder to do my best. My dad was an extremely hard worker, and I feel like for him, there was no alternative other than do to his best, every day.

8. Make new resolutions in March

… I’m going to do that right now!

Quarter 2 Resolutions – 2012

1. Get my business in order

I feel like I’ve finally got all my money-making websites well-organized, but I’ve been slightly negligent about the business side of everything. Specifically, here’s what I need to do:

A. Incorporate to an LLC so that I have liability protection and will be less likely to get fucked over.

B. Get an accountant (and bookkeeper) since I get totally stressed about doing that stuff myself and would rather outsource it so I can have peace of mind.

Obviously it’s going to cost me some coin for those services, and paying off my loans in full has set me back a couple dimes, so I can only move forward with this once I’m sure I can budget it. First though, I need to do this…

2. Pay taxes

Everything from 2011 was entered into TurboTax, I just need to double-check the numbers, print some paperwork, and mail my checks. Also, I need to start paying quarterly taxes, so on April 1st I’ll be able to enter in my revenues thus far in 2012, and get that taken care of.

I’m skating a little thin by addressing my student loans before paying Uncle Sam, but I should be ok. If not, I’ve got savings bonds I can cash, and most likely will because I don’t want to sit around waiting to earn enough money to get stuff done. I want things done right now.

Seriously, after I get these first 2 things taken care of, I’ll feel so freaking good. I’m just trying to get back to a baseline with my finances.

3. Spend money

It sounds kind of silly to be thinking about hemorrhaging away even more money, but I’ve been holding off on buying some things that will grant me fun and freedom because I want to make sure I get my taxes and business straightened away first.

Mainly, I want to soup up my bike a bit since I’ve really grown to enjoy riding, and it’ll probably be my main method of transportation during the summer. Specifically, I need to get lights so that I’m more visible and cars can avoid me, and a lock so that my bike won’t get stolen.

I also want to get a YMCA membership so I can go there and play tennis. I’ve played pretty much exclusively with my friend Josh the past couple years, and I need to find new people to play. I may also get a USTA membership and play tournaments.

… oh and I could use a haircut too. Salons aren’t cheap.

4. Keep a consistent journal

I’ve found it extremely helpful to keep a diary of my thoughts every couple days. It seems to keep me focused and solve mental blocks or issues I might be having. I highly recommend anyone reading this to start keeping a journal yourself.

(That’s pretty much what I’m doing with these resolution posts, and if you noticed, my written goals seem to come to fruition more often than not. It’s like magic.)

I wrote in my journal fairly often to start the year, but haven’t touched it in about a month. I want to at least write in it once a week, if not more frequently.

5. Do better with all my previous goals

I’m not going to type them all out again, but basically any goal I haven’t completely fulfilled so far, I  want to keep a priority. Reading and dropping approval are probably the main two I want to focus on.

… and that wraps up my 2012 first quarter prospectus. Hopefully I’m able to knock off most these goals within the next few weeks so I can focus on enjoying the seasonal spring weather to come.

But first I want to take a look back at my resolutions from last year and see how I did with them…

Last Year’s Resolutions

1. Do something with this site

Ok… I didn’t really do much with this site. I kind of dropped the ball there (pun intended). I did move over to the adamcap.com domain so that was a success, but I didn’t write as much as I hoped I would. I actually do still want to make something more of this digital canvas, but more on that later.

2. Focus better

I got worse at this during 2011. Like Beavis and Butt-head bad. I used to go full days without checking my e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and phone, and then at some point I fell into the pleasure trap all those devices try oh-so-hard to make you succumb to. The past few weeks I’ve been a lot more conscious of why I’ve been losing focus, and I’ll talk about that in a minute.

3. Get SixPrizes on autopilot

I’ve realized I’ll probably never get 6P on complete autopilot, but I got things pretty well organized over there. It takes less time to maintain then ever, unless I’m working on adding new features, in which it takes a lot of my mental focus.

4. Try a raw foods diet for a while and educate myself about nutrition

I nailed this one; out of the ballpark. I literally knew nothing about nutrition or raw foods before last year, and now I feel I know like 95% of what I need to know. I’ll always be learning more, but basically it boils down to this:

1. Drink enough water so you’re always pissing clear (otherwise you’re probably dehydrated)
2. Eat as many whole carbs as possible (fruits are best, rice/potatoes/yams/peas/corn are great too)
3. Get at least 8 hours of sleep (I feel best on 9 to 10 hours)

Pretty damn simple. I owe a lot of what I know to DurianRider on YouTube, so check him out if you want to know more.

I also learned a lot about fitness from him and other people, and I’m easily in the best shape of my life now. I’ve dropped fat and put on around 10 pounds of muscle. I train a lot smarter than I used to and I’ve actually reversed some nagging injuries I though I’d have to deal with my whole life.

(The saying “no pain, no gain” is completely idiotic by the way; “moderate and consistent” is the motto to train by.)

My left knee was bothering me for a while, and now it’s nearly 100%. My hips have nagged me for a few years, and they are getting better every day. My left elbow was messed up and I avoided doing push-ups for a few years in fear of making it worse, but now it’s a non-issue.

I did strain my neck pretty badly in the spring through an improper warm-up technique (which I’ve now corrected), but I’m confident it’ll be copacetic in due time. The only thing that legitimately gives me issues sometimes is my lower back, but I know that’s due to poor posture. I’ll have to work on that.

5. Read more

I got a Kindle last Christmas and was stoked… then realized you have to spend money to get new books on it. No thanks. I know how effective recurring revenue streams are, so I said sayonara to my Kindle a few months later and haven’t been reading at all the past 6 months. I have a new plan for this year though…

6. Make more phone calls

Eh, didn’t do too hot here. I texted more, but texting is weaksauce.

7. Get an apartment by the summer (May or June)

I’m still at home, but I will say my plans sort of changed half way through 2011. More on that with this year’s resolutions.

8. Minimize and simplify

I’ll probably always be working on this, but I did get rid of a ton of stuff the past year and it feels awesome. I’m hoping by next year I’ll be totally happy with my physical possessions, and then focus on organizing my digital “stuff” (or as I call it: “the last frontier”).

Overall I’m pretty happy with my progress the past year. Getting my health down was a pretty huge goal for me, and having that info in my back pocket will serve me well the next 80 years.

This Year’s Resolutions

1. Stop Looking for Approval

This is absolutely the number of reason I lost focus during 2011. I guess it was probably only a week ago that I realized this, but I am totally insane when it comes to seeking approval. I think a lot of other people are as well, and to give you an example, think about this:

Facebook is literally an approval DYNAMO. Any surprise that it’s the 2nd largest website in the world?

Somebody adds you as a friend; you’ve gained social approval. Friends like and comment on your witty status; you’re approved. You have more friends than me; you’ve got more approval and I feel jealous. Et cetera.

Seriously… think about why you probably check your Facebook a completely absurd number of times per day. You’re looking for approval! It’s like a drug, and Facebook the prime dealer.

I guess it’s a primordial instinct to actively seek approval from a group; otherwise survival in the wild would be unlikely on our own. In terms of a psychological approach to the matter, we’re looking to reinforce our sense of self; that we are who we think we are.

It’s not even just that seeking approval is distracting, but it also holds me back from moving forward with projects and bettering myself. You only get one shot at life, and it’s stupid to worry about whether people approve of you. As long as you approve of yourself and your desired action, THAT is all that matters. The outcome is irrelevant.

You’ve won if you follow through with that action. Plain and simple. If you don’t, that’s a total fail and you should feel awful about it. And vice versa.

Of course it’s going to take some time to get over this, but now that I’m conscious about it, I’m excited to forge ahead and work on it.

2. Get My Student Loans Paid Off

I pay about $300 a month in student loans right now, and I’ve got about $22,000 left to pay off. I have about $10,000 in bonds from my grandmom and I’ve saved umpteen-thousand the past year.

After I get my taxes in order, the first thing I want to do is get my loans paid in one fell swoop. I know the interest on those things will kill me in the long run, so the sooner I can get them paid, the better. I want to be totally debt free.

That is the reason I decided not to move out last summer; I decided it would be best to save as much money as possible so I could free myself from the red. Spending money when you owe money doesn’t make much sense.

As far as a timetable, I’m shooting for by the end of January.

3. Keep an Open Mind on New Projects

The way I work is that if something inspires me, I make it my job. It doesn’t really matter if it’s something that directly makes me money because when something is important to me, I know it’ll eventually pay off.

SixPrizes has been an inspiring project for me to work on, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Yes, sometimes it can be challenging and stressful, but even if it made no money, I’d still be working on it.

PkmnCards is another project that really got me motivated to wake up in the morning, and though it took about 6 months from the conception to completion of the idea, it was a great experience building the site and I’m glad I went through with it.

At this point, I’m sorta taking it easy and trying to be receptive of new ideas. I am thinking about making this website a more forefront project and start developing it more. It’s really cool looking back at my old posts and seeing what I was doing/thinking at the time. If nothing else, it helps ease my sense of terror management.

I do have an idea for a new database website, but I’m not sure how inspired I am to work on it. I think I need to bounce the idea off a few people to see what they think of the concept. In my head, it’s just kind of an average idea, but if it gets other people stoked, then maybe there is something to it.

Regardless, my schedule is pretty open right now, so I’m trying to keep my antennae up incase any bright ideas are floating around.

4. Read More

Since I was so successful accomplishing this last year, I thought I’d try something different in 2012. Using the power of time constraints, I’ve decided the best way to get myself to read more is to take out books from the library.

My Kindle idea was flawed since I don’t want to spend an extra $20 – $40 a month on books, plus there is no urgency to read them once I buy them. If I take a book out from the library, then I have to return it in 2 weeks, and it’s much more likely to be read.

I’m going to need to come up with some sort of schedule though. Like plan to go to the library every other Tuesday or something like that.

The reason I want to read more is because I always want to keep learning, and reading is a better use of my time than watching television.

5. Make more phone calls

I didn’t do so hot with this last year, so I’m adding it to my resolutions again. I’ve lost touch with a lot of people I used to talk to during high school and college, especially since I’ve been Facebook-less since the summer. Life is too short not to extend an olive branch to those people every once in a while.

Whether or not I actually get in touch with anyone is irrelevant; as long as I make an effort I’m happy with myself.

6. Get more serious about tennis

I really love playing tennis… I also hate it too. But since I do love it sometimes, I think I want to start playing more. Like maybe try playing a few tournaments, stuff like that. I haven’t played competitively since high school, so it would be fun to get at it again. I’d like to see where I’m ranked on the USTA scale.

7. “Every day, do your best. Or at least try to.”

I’ve made that my mantra the past few months now. I think it’s foolish to say “Every day, do your best” since it’s impossible to do your best ever single day.

My best mile time so far is 5:52, but there is no way I could run that time every single day; I would burn out. I’d be setting myself up for definite failure. But if I simply try my best and am intelligent about it, I will be training smartly and become even faster/better over time.

So every day I do my best. Or at least I try to. I feel there is no other option.

8. Make new resolutions in March

Since I mentioned earlier that I think a year is too long of a gap between re-analyzing and re-tooling my goals, I’ll plan to give them a once over in three months.

That concludes my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions… thanks for reading if you actually made it to this sentence, and now go and make your own goals. I’m a huge fan of writing stuff down – things magically seem to get done when I put them into writing – so jot down a few things you’d like to change or do better.

Rock on,

Adam

Basically our goal here is to give users an option to join our e-mail list when they register for our website. Sounds simple enough, right?

Beautiful.

On the Prowl

I initially tried searching for a simple plugin to “git er dun,” but only two legitimate-looking results came up: AWeber Registration Integration (ARI) and Aweber WordPress Plugin (AWP)

Neither plugin has been updated since 2009 (which makes them near-ancient at this point, technologically speaking), but I thought I’d give them both a whirl and see what would happen.

AWP wouldn’t even install, so that was an easy cross-off my long list of options. On to ARI!

ARI sort of worked. At times I was able to get it functioning, then other times it seemed to stop working. It also comes packed with this extra feature that monitors which of your registered users elected to opt-in to your e-mail list. It’s sort of pointless to track that natively in WordPress in my not-so-humble opinion, since you can track all of that in AWeber (and most likely any other e-mail software).

Since I’m a such a perfectionist and I don’t like using plugins if I don’t have to, I decided to delve into the code of ARI and figure out exactly how it worked. Here’s the basic gist…

How it Works

Normally when you want somebody to sign up for your e-mail list, you have them fill out a form which includes name and e-mail input fields. I didn’t realize this until took a closer look at one of those forms, but basically all that happens when somebody clicks “submit” is that a unique URL is generated containing their name, e-mail, and some other parameters.

In essence, clicking submit is like clicking a URL they literally just created on the spot by filling out their name and e-mail. This is how somebody gets added to your list.

I personally use AWeber for all my e-mail lists since it’s easy to manage and it flat-out WORKS. Conveniently, they have a whole webpage explaining all the parameters you need for generating their “add-user-to-list” URLs.

So for example, this URL would add a user with the name Fred and e-mail fred@email.com to our hotleads e-mail list:

http://www.aweber.com/scripts/addlead.pl?listname=hotleads&meta_adtracking=wpreg&name=Fred&email=fred@email.com
&meta_message=1&redirect=http://www.aweber.com/form/thankyou_vo.html

It’s honestly pretty simple once you break it down. It’s really just an “add lead” URL with some parameters to tell the software who to add to which list.

Getting back to the WordPress registration…

Connecting the Dots

Knowing what we now know about how new leads our added to AWeber, all we need to do is pass along a couple variables (name and e-mail) from our WordPress registration form to generate the add lead URL.

Once we have the proper URL in place, only one problem remains: How do we “click” it?

Meaning that we need some way to have the add lead URL placed in a virtual browser and clicked so that it executes the add lead function. You catch my drift? Just generating the URL does nothing; it needs to be “clicked.”

Luckily I’ve fooled around with web scraping (pulling data from external websites) for TcgScans, so I knew it would be a pretty simple job with CURL. It basically mimics a user visiting a link (which is exactly what we’ve got to do here).

I looked back through the ARI code again and realized that this is precisely how it works, but for some reason the code is a lot more complex than I could comprehend. I’m not exactly sure why it does some of the things it does.

Anyway, I was able to pull out bits and pieces from the ARI code to help build my own functions. The biggest thing it helped with is making sure I was using the right WordPress hooks.

The Code

So without any further adieu, here’s the complete code (which you can plop in your theme’s functions.php):

//
// Registration Form
//

// Show extra fields on registration form
add_action( 'register_form', 'show_extra_reg_fields', 1 );

function show_extra_reg_fields() { ?>
	<p>
	<label>First Name<br/>
	<input type="text" name="first_name" id="first_name" class="input" value="<?php echo $_POST['first_name']; ?>" size="25" tabindex="30" />
	</label>
	</p>

	<p>
	<label>Last Name<br/>
	<input type="text" name="last_name" id="last_name" class="input" value="<?php echo $_POST['last_name']; ?>" size="25" tabindex="40" />
	</label>
	</p>
<?php }

// Check if extra fields are filled out correctly
add_filter( 'registration_errors', 'check_fields', 10, 3 );

function check_fields($errors, $login, $email) {

	if ( $_POST['first_name'] == '' && $_POST['last_name'] == '' ) {
		$errors->add('empty_realname', "<strong>ERROR</strong>: Please enter your first and last name");
	}
	elseif ( $_POST['first_name'] == '' ) {
		$errors->add('empty_realname', "<strong>ERROR</strong>: Please enter your first name");
	}
	elseif ($_POST['last_name'] == '') {
		$errors->add('empty_realname', "<strong>ERROR</strong>: Please enter your last name");
	}

	return $errors;
}

// Update user profile
add_action( 'user_register', 'register_extra_fields' );

function register_extra_fields( $user_id ) {

	$userdata['ID'] = $user_id;
	$userdata['first_name'] = ucwords(strtolower($_POST['first_name']));
	$userdata['last_name'] = ucwords(strtolower($_POST['last_name']));

	wp_update_user($userdata);
}

//
// E-mail list MAGIC
//

// Checkbox to join list
add_action( 'register_form', 'email_opt_in' );

function email_opt_in() { ?>
    <p>
    <label style="font-size:13px;">
    <input type="checkbox" name="email_opt_in" id="email_opt_in" class="input" checked="checked" value="1" <?php checked( $_POST['email_opt_in'], 1 ); ?> tabindex="99" style="width:12px;padding:0;margin:0 3px 0 0;font-size: 13px;" />
	Join our famous e-mail list
	</label>
	</p>
	<br/><?php
}

// Add Lead!
add_action( 'user_register', 'join_email_list' );

function join_email_list( $user_id ) {

	//
	// 0. First Check if they Opted In, otherwise kill
	//
	if ( empty($_POST['email_opt_in']) ) return;

	//
	// 1. Get WP Variables
	//
	$email = $_POST['user_email'];
	$firstname = ucwords(strtolower($_POST['first_name']));
	$lastname = ucwords(strtolower($_POST['last_name']));
	$fullname = $firstname . ' ' . $lastname;

	// Encode them for URL
	$email = urlencode( utf8_encode($email) );
	$fullname = urlencode( utf8_encode($fullname) );

	//
	// 2. Define Aweber Variables
	//
	$listname = 'somelist'; // YOUR LIST NAME
	$adtracking = 'wpreg'; // AD TRACKING

	//
	// 3. Build URL
	//
	$url = 'http://www.aweber.com/scripts/addlead.pl?listname=' . $listname . '&meta_adtracking=' . $adtracking . '&name=' . $fullname . '&email=' . $email . '&meta_message=1&redirect=http://www.aweber.com/form/thankyou_vo.html';

	//
	// 4. Run the URL via CURL
	//

    // build the individual requests as above, but do not execute them
    $ch1 = curl_init( $url );

    // Options: http://se2.php.net/manual/en/function.curl-setopt.php
    $options = array(CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
	                 CURLOPT_USERAGENT => 'Mozilla/5.0',
	                 CURLOPT_HEADER => false,
	                 CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
	                 CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 10,
	                 CURLOPT_FAILONERROR => true,
	                 CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER => true,
	                );

	curl_setopt_array( $ch1, $options );

    // build the multi-curl handle, adding both $ch
    $mh = curl_multi_init();
    curl_multi_add_handle($mh, $ch1);

    // execute all queries simultaneously, and continue when all are complete
    $running = null;
    do {
        curl_multi_exec($mh, $running);
    } while ($running);

    // all of our requests are done, we can now access the results
    //$html = curl_multi_getcontent($ch1);

	// close
	curl_multi_remove_handle($mh, $ch1);
	curl_multi_close($mh);

}

You can also download it here.

Confused?

A couple notes…

1. First, we add First Name and Last Name fields to the default WordPress registration form. You don’t have to do this, but I like to get a user’s full name since it can be pretty powerful to have that in your system.

//
// Custom Registration Form
//

// Show extra fields on registration form
add_action( 'register_form', 'show_extra_reg_fields', 1 );

function show_extra_reg_fields() { ?>
	<p>
	<label>First Name<br/>
	<input type="text" name="first_name" id="first_name" class="input" value="<?php echo $_POST['first_name']; ?>" size="25" tabindex="30" />
	</label>
	</p>

	<p>
	<label>Last Name<br/>
	<input type="text" name="last_name" id="last_name" class="input" value="<?php echo $_POST['last_name']; ?>" size="25" tabindex="40" />
	</label>
	</p>
<?php }

Think of how nice it would be to customize a sales page on your website if you had the prospect’s full name… I know you could REALLY grab my attention with a headline like…

“Why Adam Capriola is Failing”

Or you could do something as simple as say “Welcome back, Adam!” after I log in. Small customizations like that can go a long way. Sure, maybe a couple less people will register for your site because they don’t want to take 5 extra seconds to type out that info (or maybe they don’t want to share it), but I think the leverage you gain is well worth a few less leads.

2. The code after the extra fields checks to make sure the user actually entered their first and last name, and then it saves that info to their profile.

Pretty simple:

// Check if extra fields are filled out correctly
add_filter( 'registration_errors', 'check_fields', 10, 3 );

function check_fields($errors, $login, $email) {

	if ( $_POST['first_name'] == '' && $_POST['last_name'] == '' ) {
		$errors->add('empty_realname', "<strong>ERROR</strong>: Please enter your first and last name");
	}
	elseif ( $_POST['first_name'] == '' ) {
		$errors->add('empty_realname', "<strong>ERROR</strong>: Please enter your first name");
	}
	elseif ($_POST['last_name'] == '') {
		$errors->add('empty_realname', "<strong>ERROR</strong>: Please enter your last name");
	}

	return $errors;
}

// Update user profile
add_action( 'user_register', 'register_extra_fields' );

function register_extra_fields( $user_id ) {

	$userdata['ID'] = $user_id;
	$userdata['first_name'] = ucwords(strtolower($_POST['first_name']));
	$userdata['last_name'] = ucwords(strtolower($_POST['last_name']));

	wp_update_user($userdata);
}

If you were saving a custom data field to the user’s profile, you could need to save it like this:

update_usermeta( $user_id, 'CUSTOM_DATA', $_POST['CUSTOM_DATA'] );

A little more on that in a minute. Also, I’ve set up an auto-converter to make their first and last name capitalized via:

ucwords(strtolower($_POST['first_name']));

You don’t have to do that, but I put it there just incase the user types their name as “adam capriola” or “ADAM CAPRIOLA” and we want to make it look more proper.

Of course you may run into a slight issue if they have one of those names like DiCaprio, in which case this code will turn it into Dicaprio, so it’s totally up to you on this one.

3. Finally we get to the good stuff… first we insert an opt-in checkbox so the user can decide whether or not they want to subscribe to our e-mail list. I have it checked by default via checked="checked", but you don’t have to do that if you don’t want. I think it’s smart to do that though.

//
// E-mail list MAGIC
//

// Checkbox to join list
add_action( 'register_form', 'email_opt_in' );

function email_opt_in() { ?>
    <p>
    <label style="font-size:13px;">
    <input type="checkbox" name="email_opt_in" id="email_opt_in" class="input" checked="checked" value="1" <?php checked( $_POST['email_opt_in'], 1 ); ?> tabindex="99" style="width:12px;padding:0;margin:0 3px 0 0;font-size: 13px;" />
	Join our famous e-mail list
	</label>
	</p>
	<br/><?php
}

If you want to be really on top of your stuff, you could try and get even more info from the user and adding them to a segmented list. For example, you could have them select their country, and create conditional statement for the next part of code to add them to a specific list.

Or ask for their gender… favorite food… stuff like that. Any info you can gather to send them specified e-mails is valuable. Think of how much information Facebook tries to gather and then market back to you. This information can then be saved to the user’s profile via update_usermeta( $user_id, 'CUSTOM_DATA', $_POST['CUSTOM_DATA'] ); which I mentioned earlier.

4. Lastly, we check to make sure the user opted-in to our list, then we build the “add lead” URL and “click” it with CURL. I will admit it’s not the perfect CURL code as I was running multi-CURL for another project and didn’t feel like changing it back to singular CURL. This shouldn’t have any effect on performance, but feel free to edit if you want.

// Add Lead!
add_action( 'user_register', 'join_email_list' );

function join_email_list( $user_id ) {

	//
	// 0. First Check if they Opted In, otherwise kill
	//
	if ( empty($_POST['email_opt_in']) ) return;

	//
	// 1. Get WP Variables
	//
	$email = $_POST['user_email'];
	$firstname = ucwords(strtolower($_POST['first_name']));
	$lastname = ucwords(strtolower($_POST['last_name']));
	$fullname = $firstname . ' ' . $lastname;

	// Encode them for URL
	$email = urlencode( utf8_encode($email) );
	$fullname = urlencode( utf8_encode($fullname) );

	//
	// 2. Define Aweber Variables
	//
	$listname = 'somelist'; // YOUR LIST NAME
	$adtracking = 'wpreg'; // AD TRACKING

	//
	// 3. Build URL
	//
	$url = 'http://www.aweber.com/scripts/addlead.pl?listname=' . $listname . '&meta_adtracking=' . $adtracking . '&name=' . $fullname . '&email=' . $email . '&meta_message=1&redirect=http://www.aweber.com/form/thankyou_vo.html';

	//
	// 4. Run the URL via CURL
	//

    // build the individual requests as above, but do not execute them
    $ch1 = curl_init( $url );

    // Options: http://se2.php.net/manual/en/function.curl-setopt.php
    $options = array(CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
	                 CURLOPT_USERAGENT => 'Mozilla/5.0',
	                 CURLOPT_HEADER => false,
	                 CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
	                 CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 10,
	                 CURLOPT_FAILONERROR => true,
	                 CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER => true,
	                );

	curl_setopt_array( $ch1, $options );

    // build the multi-curl handle, adding both $ch
    $mh = curl_multi_init();
    curl_multi_add_handle($mh, $ch1);

    // execute all queries simultaneously, and continue when all are complete
    $running = null;
    do {
        curl_multi_exec($mh, $running);
    } while ($running);

    // all of our requests are done, we can now access the results
    //$html = curl_multi_getcontent($ch1);

	// close
	curl_multi_remove_handle($mh, $ch1);
	curl_multi_close($mh);

}

NOTE: Make sure to change $listname and $adtracking to suit your needs.

Again, you could customize this by adding conditionals and multiple lists depending on what kind of information you ask the user during registration.

Bonus Tip!

What I would do if you’re using AWeber is to create a main list, which we’ll call mainlist, and then sublists, which we’ll call sublist1 and sublist2. You will want to add users to either sublist1 or sublist2 depending on whatever conditionals you make, but then I’d also add them to mainlist via AWeber automation tools.

This way you have a “master list” with all your leads, but also the targeted lists. You could alternatively just have 1 list and then create segments via AWeber custom fields, but I find it simpler to have separate lists. You gain a little more flexibility with lists and can do some cool things with them.

Another Bonus Tip!

You could also probably adapt this to get leads if someone comments on your site. I don’t know the proper hooks, but I’m sure it’s pretty simple to add a “Join my list!” checkbox to your commenting form (just like we do for the WordPress registration form here).

Conclusion

Anyway, I ain’t no perfect coder, so let me know if you see any mistakes or have any suggestions. This is pretty powerful stuff and I’m surprised it isn’t more well-known or used.

Catch you on the flip,

Adam

Consider this a list of things I wish someone else had told me about YEARS ago… so I’m telling you right now: go check this stuff out!

The best way for me to sum the benefit of these resources, is that they’ll enable you to make your life better than you ever thought possible.

Biz

• Four Hour Workweek
• John Carlton’s RANT
• The Gary Halbert Letter
• Eben Pagan – Everything he does, just Google him

Health

• The China Study
• In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
• DurianRider
• LifeRegenerator

Quotes

• “The greatest skill you can master is empathy.” – Eben Pagan
• “Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness.”
• “Wherever you are, be there.”

Psychology

• The Self
• Curse of the Self
• Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It
• NLP: The New Technology of Achievement

Simplicity

• Mnmlist.com
• Zen-Habits.net

People

• Rod Brind’Amour

In short, I thought it would be cool to make a 6P spoof off this t-shirt:

However, I know from experience that you’ve got to be very careful when “borrowing” ideas from other people. In order to make sure the t-shirt parody project would get off without a hitch, I needed to make sure that I could get around the copyrights that Joy Division or Peter Saville may have on the design.

So I did the first thing anyone else would do… I checked ole trustworthy: Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia has a section about the packaging of the “Unknown Pleasures” album that gives the following information:

The front cover image comes from an edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy, and was originally drawn with black lines on a white background.^[13] It presents successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered, PSR B1919+21—often referred to in the context of this album by its older name, CP 1919.^[13] The image was suggested by drummer Stephen Morris^[13] and the cover design is credited to Joy Division, Peter Saville and Chris Mathan.

From this description, I assumed that the Saville took diagrams from the book and superimposed them on top of one another to make the cool looking image.

But upon further research, this page from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy surfaced:

They straight up used the exact image for their album cover! I guess you could say there is some artistic thought expressed by inverting the colors and choosing the positioning, but it’s the same exact image!

Joy Division - "Unknown Pleasures" - Album Cover

I was dumbfounded when I discovered this. Here I was all stressing about copyright infringement… but now it looks like the image itself might have been infringed upon already!

I had to do some more research to find out more about the pulsar to find its true origin…

It turns out the diagram actually first appeared in a January 1971 issue of Scientific American, and is credited to Jerry Ostriker (thanks to this page for that info, though I’m not convinced Ostriker was the one that published the image).

Here’s what it looked like in that magazine:

Scientific American - January 1971 - Pages 52-53

The image then made a second cameo in Graphis Diagrams in 1974:

And finally, it appeared in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy in 1977, which is where Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris saw the design:

This brings me back to my original purpose for doing this research, and that was to find out if the image is copyright protected.

I went straight to the source and tried e-mail Peter Saville to see if he had any comment on the matter. I wasn’t really expecting to get a response, but to my surprise his assistant Alice sent a prompt reply:

Hi Adam,
I write on behalf of Peter.
We understand the image as copyright free.
So believe you are liberty to do as you wish.
My best,

Alice

Now we’re on to something… I don’t necessarily take their word that the famous peaks and valleys are in the public domain (as I’m sure he’s made quite a pretty penny of them), but here are the facts:

• The pulsar itself was first discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell
• The image of its radio pulses first appeared in an American Scientific in 1971
• It’s not clear whether the research team that discovered the pulsar created the graph, or if Ostriker (or someone else) just pieced together the data

There is a 1968 research paper listed on the CP 1919 aka PSR B1919+21 Wiki page, but I’m unable to access it, and I don’t have the original Scientific American magazine to read the description.

That 1968 paper could potentially include the graph, and I am unsure about Ostriker being the one that published the image because the American Scientific article has no mention on his publications page.

[EDIT: I found the Scientific American reference on this page instead, so that story checks out. I'm still not sure if Ostriker created the diagram or not.]

What makes it most confusing legal-wise is that I can’t tell if an American or non-American created the diagram, as each of those scenarios would have a different boding on the copyright law.

I’m not even sure if the image itself is protectable… it’s essentially plotted data, but there could be a case made that it’s arranged in a unique matter.

Then if it qualifies for copyright there are a bunch of different scenarios that could be gone through depending on the year it was published, where it was published, if proper copyright formalities were taken, etc…

Overall though, I’d say it’s a pretty safe assumption to treat the image as if it’s in the public domain. It’s been on the cover of a fairly popular album that’s been selling for over 30 years now. If someone was going to drop the law hammer, it would have happened by now.

The only way I can see getting in trouble for using it is if you were marketing a product as a collaboration with Joy Division or Peter Saville. As long as you make it clear there’s no connection, you’re golden.

All that… for a spoof t-shirt. What time does the bar close?

EDIT: The story unravels…

I got in contact with Jeremiah P. Ostriker, who as far as I could tell was the first person to publish the image. Here’s what he had to say about it:

Dear Adam Capriola,

First, I doubt that I created the image but most likely obtained it from a published source.

I think it highly unlikely that I own copywrite to the image but if I do I am happy for it to be used in any way that would increase public education.

best wishes,

jpo

So Mr. Ostriker does not appear to have created it. After hearing this I took a closer look at the second picture above from Scientific American, and this is what I can depict in the caption:

EIGHTY SUCCESSIVE PERIODS of the first pulsar observed, CP1919 (Cambridge pulsar at 19 hours 19 minutes right ascension), are stacked on top of one another using the average period of 1.33730 seconds in this computer-generated illustration produced at the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico. Although the leading edges of the radio pulses… [can't decipher the rest]

Now we’re on to something… I can’t believe I missed that earlier. The image was computer generated at the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico. I wish I actually owned the issue of Scientific American so I could read the full caption and see if the article gives any credits, but that’s some information to work with.

(I’m actually somewhat tempted to buy the SA issue on this site for $17.95…)

Facts at this point:

• The pulsar itself was first discovered in July 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell of Ireland
• The image first surfaced (as far as I know) in January 1971
• The image was produced at the Arecibo Radio Observator sometime between then

There is one article that was published in February 1968 that could contain the image, but it’s doubtful. That article is located here and gives the following abstract and note:

Unusual signals from pulsating radio sources have been recorded at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. The radiation seems to come from local objects within the galaxy, and may be associated with oscillations of white dwarf or neutron stars.

1. Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge

This makes it extremely unlikely the illustration appeared in that 1968 publication as there is no mention of Arecibo (which is where the image was produced), so its appearance in the January 1971 issue of Scientific American is in all likelihood the first place it appeared for public consumption.

However… the question still remains: who owns the rights to the image (if anyone)?

Assuming the image was produced at the Arecibo Radio Observatory, here are some facts about said establishment:

• It is currently operated by Cornell University under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation(meaning it receives substantial government funding)
  • The exact quote from the Arecibo website is “A Facility of the NSF operated by Cornell University” which seems to suggest that NSF owns it and contributes major funding
• Arecibo received funding from the NSF as far back as 1967 according to this NASA article
• The original plan for the observatory was proposed to ARPA (now DARPA) in 1958 and subsequently a contract for building arrangements was signed between Cornell University and the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory (meaning it was government funded from the start)

With that in mind, copyright law does not protect works by government officers or employees as done part of their official duties (hat tip).

What is not clear to me is whether the persons working at Arecibo would be considered government workers… it seems like Cornell operates the facility, but most of it is paid for by the government.

More than likely, the people working there are considered contractors or grantees, and they ARE able to copyright their work.

I guess the last piece to the puzzle is whether or not whomever created the image formally copyrighted it. The image would have been produced between 1968 and 1970, and as per law at the time, it would have had to be published with a copyright notice to receive protection (unlike today where works are automatically protected).

The images above from Scientific American do not appear to have to have a © (copyright symbol), the word copyright, or date, which would have been required back then for protection.

Since image seems to have first been published in Scientific American and it’s missing those key elements, this leads me to be fairly confident the image is in the public domain.

I wish I had a copy of the January 1971 Scientific American, Graphis Diagrams, and Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy to double check if they give any copyright credits for the image, but if they don’t list an author, then it’s pretty much fair game.

I’m uncertain that the image was for sure first published in SA, and without the actual magazine the only reference I have is that it was produced at the Arecibo Observatory. Ostriker had to have obtained the diagram from SOMEWHERE, and if it was previously unpublished before his article, I guess him publishing it without a copyright notice or date has to mean it is public domain.

Otherwise whomever actually first published the image would have likely pushed legal action. And even if they didn’t ever publish it, unpublished work is automatically copyright protected so again, the original author would have likely filed a suit.

In closing, it would be nice to have an original copy of those 3 aforementioned works in front of me to see if they list any copyright, but with the information I’ve been able to gather, that’s the most logical conclusion I can come up with.

tl;dr

The image was first published in the US without a copyright (as far as I can tell) in the year 1971, so therefore it is in the public domain for failure to comply with copyright formalities of the time.

If you ever want to use the image for your own personal benefit, just make sure it’s clear you have no connection with Joy Division, Peter Saville, etc…

Image Credits: AllPosters, Joy Division Central, Wikipedia, Pieces of a Rose Holography

If you haven’t used it in the past year, get rid of it.

Why This Works

If you haven’t used something in the past year, chances are you probably won’t use it this year, and the unlikeliness of utility will just compound year after year after year.

So… you can safely say “sayonara” to your stuff.

… and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old …

- Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Seriously… how cool is it to have something to document your life? I wish I started something like this years ago, but now is better than never.

(I’ve actually knocked off a fair amount of them already which I’m pretty stoked about.)

I am a total believer in terror management theory, so to ensure I have some kind of legacy that remains long after I’m gone (and in turn boost my self-esteem to the stars), I’m going to make this website basically a log of my life.

I’ll just write about whatever I’m thinking about or working on at the time, post photo albums, document my health and measure my fitness levels, link to dumb YouTube videos I think are funny… basically make this site an open diary of sorts.

I’m still trying to plan out exactly how I’m going to organize all the different content, but it should be kinda cool and (maybe) technically sophisticated.  I’ll be able to look back over the years and see what I was up to at different times in my life.

I don’t know how productive this will be in terms of return of investment, but I figure I’ll at least get some more practice with WordPress and it’ll be something I can always look back on.  If I start writing about one topic in particular a lot, then maybe I’ll branch off and start a new website devoted to that subject and try to monetize it, but that’ll be a little ways off.

But yeah… just making this post to kinda get the ball rolling.  I’m hoping to get everything set up within a week.