Home of Don Charisma

Welcome to Don Charisma  dot org

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This is my personal and professional site, which is dedicated to CHARISMA – the art of being strong, wise and happy. Many people visit for me for my blog, here’s the entrance :

DonCharisma.org-blog-entrance2

I love to work with media such as photos, video, graphics and text. Art, graphic design, photography and videography – or there or there about. Browse my Photography category :

DonCharisma.org Photography

I’m passionate about promoting, it’s very very important for any online presence. So you will find articles here about promoting and SEO. Browse my SEO category :

https://doncharisma.org/seo/

Also of importance for any online presence is writing. So you will find writing here varying from creative to humorous to serious writing. People find blogs and websites with words, so wordsmithery is key skill on the web and in life.

DonCharisma.org-writing2

Advertising on this site goes towards meeting the costs of running this blog and is provided by the WordPress WordAds programme. We actually make very small amount from it, but it does help a little with costs.

If you would like to make a DONATION or GIFT towards current and future expenses of DonCharisma.org please contact me, so that I may let you know my paypal details. All such gifts are gratefully received.

Please have a quick look at my FAQ page before asking a question – many times questions have been asked before …

Unless otherwise specified all work here is (c) DonCharisma.org and (c) DonCharisma.com. Explicit permission is required from copyright owner for inclusion anywhere outside of Don Charisma websites. With the exception of *official* sharing buttons – reblogs and sharing on FB, Twitter, WordPress.com etc helps us. If in doubt please ask, usually we’re glad to oblige.

Welcome and enjoy your visit.

Warm regards

Don Charisma

4,733 thoughts on “Home of Don Charisma”

    1. Hey Jean, you are welcome and good to be in touch. Photography is an interest of mine, but not able to do as much with it as I’d like at the moment. I love to stitch panoramas, will be putting more up here soon.

      LOL yes the RD jr photo gets a lot of pageviews, as yet I haven’t gotten round to photoshopping him out and putting my picture instead … one of these days LOL

      Have a good weekend too, keep in touch

      Warm regards

      DOn Charisma

  6. Hey hello (again) Mr Charisma. I just deleted a post of mine that I wasn’t keen on, and then noticed you liked it… Thank you for liking what I thought wasn’t good enough – probably being hard on myself there!

    1. It’s fairly grown up here on WordPress … I’ve often though my stuff wasn’t much good and then been surprised that people have liked it … I think the main thing is just keep on trying and don’t be too hard on oneself:)

      Warm regards

      DC

      4. You can add twitter and facebook with a widget, the twitter one puts your twitter feed on your blog … the google plus, is in with the publicize settings:)

      8. Oh I forgot to mention you can add a bunch of social apps with the about.me widget in wordpress. If you don’t have already set yourself an about.me page. I don’t remember portfoliobox being one of the apps, so you’ll have to check that yourself. About.me have about 20-30 social accounts you can link.

        If it’s not possible any other way you can add your link on the sidebar with the text/html widget – might be helpful to look at the post I did here – https://doncharisma.org/2013/10/21/diy-widget-coolest-bloggers-fun-with-html/

        Warm regards

        DC

  8. “I’d like to do something I love and make a decent living doing it.’….I used to think I was old-fashioned when I say this. But guys like you give me “charisma” to feel proud living my life this way 🙂

    1. Didn’t someone say that a man’s happiest when he’s doing what he wants most of the time ?

      I really enjoy the blog and hope that I can make my living doing it, or related activities, SEO, web design, building the tech behind it 🙂

      Thanks for dropping in in my blog good to hear from you … Cheers DC

      1. I have a slightly different take on that. I think “work” is a much abused term. Most people confuse it with “job”. To my mind, work is something that, to however small a degree, enriches both the individual and the whole of humanity. Some people, passionate teachers for example, are lucky enough to live from work; most only have a job. Since I retired I can at last spend my time working, and the blog is one facet of that.

        Glad you enjoyed “Plus ça change…” by the way.

        Best
        roger

      2. Hear you roger… I think the point was/is that people would like to be doing “something”, whether that’s a job or work, that they enjoy doing. Keeping occupied and being involved in “something” enjoyable, exciting, interesting and rewarding, is good for most people, keeps them from destroying themselves.

        Words I’m afraid are often misused and abused, look at how often jealous is used when people mean envious for instance. It’s just one of those annoyances we have to get used to, or be annoyed all the time, I’m of the mind that life is too short and other people will do what they want anyway.

        Cheers

        DC

  9. Hi Don, wanted to thank you for the props on my blog. I aspire to have a blog as great as yours. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

    1. Hey, you are most welcome:) … I read your post about what you’re doing, I’d copy that into your about page. Your about page is the first place a lot of visitors will head, they want to know more about you. So if you’re doing web design make it professional, and fairly personable, friendly but not overly familiar. Getting a great blog takes time and effort, just need to keep posting really. I post about what I am doing right now, like literally I’ll do a post about creating a logo or an avatar, that I’m actually doing, right now.

      Be friendly, follow other’s blogs and like their stuff. Get your social media accounts on FB, Twitter and G+ etc etc etc and link them into your blog. WordPress has a great publicize feature to share your blog posts on your other social networks. Friends and acquaintances will help you promote yourself, it’s very very powerful so don’t ever underestimate anyone, they might be the next person that reblogs, retweets or gives you a job. Basically just be polite and friendly, and don’t take the negative people to heart to much.

      Start customising your blog, but you don’t need to pay for any upgrades, most stuff you can do on the free platform. Also start creating your online identity and brand. Mine is Don Charisma, I have logos, avatar etc. It’s a lot of work to get a brand out there so best start now.

      Also if you’re purely looking for web design work, then perhaps consider elance and the other freelancer sites, start setting up profiles there and looking for your first jobs. At the moment I don’t use those sites, so not the best person to ask for advice.

      That should be enough to get started, it’s such a large field hard to tell you everything “in a tweet”. I am always happy to answer questions, and if I think it’s something others would like to read about can do a blog post on specific topic.

      WordPress.com is an awesome platform you really have a massive opportunity here to make friends and meet others who are like minded and positive, so make the best you can.

      I’m planning to do more about blogging for beginners, including stuff about promoting and SEO, so keep an eye on what I’m posting and read what you find interesting. For instance I just posted about best time of day to do a blog post –

      Sincerely

      DC

  13. Thank you for that reply Don, but you do already follow me! And I appreciate that very much. I totally agree with what you’re saying about the trolls, just petty envy. I really think also that people should take more responsibility for their own lives and futures rather than being intolerant to the success of others, they should strive for their own and be happy for others. It is a sad life that someone must lead to not be happy for others so we should really wish them well. I will keep in touch. Thanks and all the best. Sophie 🙂

    1. Hey Sophie, I don’t know what happened. I’ve suggested to a few people that they update their gravatar’s links back to their blog. If your gravatar page has a link back to your blog then I see it in my comments and my followers list has a direct link to your blog. Gravatar is a bit confusing, but it can be done, and it would help any blog on wordpress your leaving comments for.

      You got the message and we’re on the same sentence, on the same page, in the same book, so I’m happy, can’t expand on what you’ve written:)

      TC

      DC

    1. I’m behind I think 2 leibsters and some others, didn’t want you to get the hump or start jew-hater bashing me LOL

      Weekend good, good idea to take a break Sat was exhausted. How about you?

      1. I should have replied with “Are you charismatic”

        and waited for “what the f*** has that got to do with it?”

        … all good bit tired my sleep pattern is mixed up at the moment, keep on going for a rest and falling asleep, only wake up few hours later and start doing something and then can’t get back to sleep …

        Probably have a more technical week as my partner in crime wants to do some stuff on his blog, we’re doing some stuff with php/apache/cakephp/perl etc at the moment.

  15. Hey Don, I read your post about trolls and I didn’t even realise that people did that sort of thing. I’ve only just started blogging so it could be that with a bit of luck. I noticed though that you mentioned you followed all bloggers that follow you and a few more that interest you so thank you very much for following mine! I only started really at the end of August so its still very exciting for me!
    I will look forward to seeing your future posts as it seems you have done or are doing a little bit of everything. Thanks again and hope my future posts are useful to you as well 🙂

    1. Hey Sophie,

      In the main my discussions with other friends etc, it seems envy has a lot to do with it. I’ve got a following now, and people can see that I’m “successful”, they see that I’m enjoying myself and others are enjoying it to. They then make a comparison to themselves and this is where the trouble starts. I understand this process in myself as I’m a human being too, and have a certain tolerance for others experiencing it. But honestly I believe people should try harder to process their own emotions internally by themselves, and not project the responsibility elsewhere. I’m not the source of the envy, that originated with the person who made the comparison.

      Plus side is that it gives me the chance to grow and it’s also a measure of success when the envious turn out, so should probably give myself a pat on the back. They do also say there’s no such thing as bad publicity and this has proven the rule.

      Blogging is a lot to do with experimenting, as I’m sure you’ve discovered already, some things work and other don’t work so well. It’s also a lot of patience and persistence, but isn’t that how life generally is anyway ?

      Happy for you to be following, I hope that in the future I can enlighten, entertain, teach and be a bit of mentor, this would make me happy. I struggle to keep my follower list up to date, but know that I will follow you back when I get a chance. It is virtually impossible to give each individual reader attention all the time, there just aren’t enough months in the year LOL

      Do feel free to keep in touch, always happy to share a little time or experience:)

      TC

      DC

    1. Got it, no worries:) Gravatar image would help, for your blog could be a landscape, airplane, beach scene (you know better than I do) OR a nice photo, headshot or upper body, give you a chance to play around in photoshop or pay a decent photographer to do it OR do a cartoon like I did or pay someone to do it. Consider paying for stuff if you’ve got the money, if not then figure out how to do it yourself, the web is a massive resource, take advantage, be creative and resourceful.

      Start building your identity, your brand, you’ll need it, it’s important. Break the ice with Photoshop or GIMP, photos and pictures are a real goldmine, I’ve got the most likes for the least work from photos, check out the recent floraide pictures and the number of likes here – https://doncharisma.org/2013/10/06/canberras-floriade-2013-gallery-including-bid-duck/ and the sunsets and sunlight breaking clouds here – https://doncharisma.org/2013/07/24/sunsets-and-storm-clouds-breaking-through-thailand/ … if I ever get bored of writing I’ll do a photography blog, easy hits, least work, maximum result. A friend sent me the floriade pictures so didn’t even take photos myself. The sunset/sunshine photos I took with iphone and ipad, all I did was resize smaller (stop the leechers) and put logo on it (stop the leechers, well at least if they leech might get some traffic if my website on there)

      Cheers

      DC

      1. Hey thanks…I appreciate you taking the time . I’ll go play with the ideas. Ill give credit on my blog when I’ve fixed it up nice 🙂 Have a great day .

  17. Hey Don Charisma…I’m the one wanting to rack your brains about your success. :))) I value any help cause I can see you have really created something enjoyable to read

    1. Hey, really good to hear from you and appreciate the compliments, they do encourage and inspire me and are very welcome. Also reblogging my stuff, get’s you noticed as someone who cares enough to help me, so good way to build “brownie points” with influencers. Obviously try and keep reblogs, retweets etc relavant’ish to your blog, or at least where you want your blog to go. Doesn’t hurt to throw the odd curved ball in, get them readers mixed up a bit, confuse them a little bit. Made for a little drama when I posted 6000 words of full-on geek about Hacking a seagate GoFlex net. But flushed out a couple of idiots, so I’m grateful they aren’t following me anymore. My real loyal readers didn’t care and probably actually added some followers. I don’t like to be in a niche too much, I get bored, just writing and doing one topic. I couldn’t care less if google likes thick content and dislikes thin content, I’m not doing a blog for google, I’m doing a blog for me and my readers, and my potential readers.

      I’ve got a lot planned for my blog and online presence, I want to continue with the Virgin’s guide, but it’s getting renamed to “Don Charisma’s guide”, if you didn’t see it already first part is here – https://doncharisma.org/2013/08/30/virgins-guide-to-promoting-a-blog-or-website-on-google/ … also watch my blog like a hawk as there is a series of posts coming out about promoting blogs. You could help a lot by letting me know what you’d like to know about next, any feedback, often lots of useful stuff happens in the comments after I’ve posted it.

      For my comments, and on any public forums, youtube, etc etc etc anywhere I can get a link, put one on there back to your blog or a specific relevant post. For comments I use the “a” tag in html, currently I look like this – Don Charisma dotorg & dotcom however that keeps on changing as I refine it and tune it. It’s a “a” tag in html, href=my blog, title=Don Charisma, and the “anchor text” is dotorg and dotcom. Look up the “a” tag and experiment, once you get it how you want it, have it in a notepad open so you can copy and paste it. Obviously grow the idea as you learn more, twitter and FB bit different, but same ideas. Just get your links in where you can, and apologise if you manage to break protocol somewhere (like I did on WordPress forums!). Some forums won’t let you use “a” tag, so you’ll have to experiment same as I do. BTW public forums are a great place to get backlinks, but do be subtle and relevant, talk about stuff you’re interested or knowledgeable about anyway, be a real contributor, or at least a real commenter, otherwise you’re a spammer. Public forums get picked up by search engines, so the links will help your SEO and you’ll get some traffic off them.

      Basically like I said on the tweet (I’m shit at twitter, honestly still don’t understand who sees what, yet) :

      ABP

      Always Be Promoting (yourself, your blog, your brand, your articles)

      I’ll post more about this in “Don Charisma’s guide to promoting a website or blog, part 3” and will mention your tweet and blog as it’s inspired me to write it, part 2 is about branding and domain names.

      There’s a little bit to help, I could go on forever about this stuff, but there’s just a limit to the hours in the day and the creative energy I have in current conditions. I’m always happy to help, do my best. In fact you’ve helped me with your tweet and question as I now know what to write in my article part 3 … so thank you:)

      It’s a great community here, really awesome. People do help each other, so take full advantage of the alliances and friendship you can form here, trust me some of these people have tremendous power to help you and will if you’re a genuine ally and friend. And the saddos that want to fight, well, f*** ’em, I just wrote a post about how to deal with them as you know. Some people are just happy being unhappy, I understand and sympathise, but they won’t help us become successful, they want us to roll around in misery with them, been there done that not interested in going back. Also, personally I don’t want to get successful feeding on other people’s misery, just not moral or ethical, rather be doing something inspiring and genuinely positive, genuinely helping people. Make my life great whilst enhancing other’s at the same time, win-win.

      Keep in touch

      Sincerely

      Don Charisma

  19. Hey Don Charisma!

    A friend of mine nominated me for something called the Liebster Award, for blogs. In return, I had to nominate some of MY favorite blogs that I follow. So I nominated you! Hope you’ll participate

    http://clairelitakeover.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/nominated-for-liebster/

    I chose your blog, because you’re incredible well-rounded, and your blog covers a multitude of interests I’m very passionate about. As a business student, I love reading your financial section. As a software & web developer, and info-tech consultant, I naturally love reading your “Internet” and “Practical” section.

    -Claire

    1. Hey Claire,

      That’s very sweet, and really appreciate that, I’m very happy to be nominated 🙂

      I will post my acceptance as soon as I can.

      Keep it real !

      Don Charisma

    1. Hey Roger, my pleasure and thankyou for dropping in on mine.

      I like the community aspect here and like to follow blogs of people that look like “friendlies”. I also like to show some support for people who are new at blogging, as I had a lot of encouragement myself from other like me who’ve “established” themselves. The WordPress “reader” is great for looking for blog posts and other bloggers who are like minded, you can search by keyword.

      Cheers

      Don Charisma

  22. Thanks for following my blog. I will look around at your site in the days to come. I like the way you have your blog laid out. Mine looks very simple compared to yours!

    1. Hey Lisa, my pleasure and good to make your acquaintance. I started off simple, and just grew from that, quite a lot of time and effort, but it’s looking more how I want it:) Simple is a good principle for a blog, and for life too…

      Cheers

      DOn Charisma

  23. Hi there,(from beautiful shares blog)

    I would like to thank you for following my blog it is very sweet and kind of you…..it is nice meeting you even like this…
    ..I know that some posts are in greek and it is difficult to follow but the majority of the things I publish are in english……
    I am a new kid on the blog block and still learning the basics so be patient if things are missing or if I am not doing some things…….

    Kind Regards
    Ifigeneia

    1. HEy Ifigeneia,

      Oh it’s my pleasure and happy to be in touch 🙂

      Take your time it takes a while to get used to everything. Hope you will enjoy wordpress.com community as much as I do.

      Keep in touch,

      Don Charisma

  25. Thanks for visiting my blog. Yours looks incredibly technical and mine feels incredibly girly after reading yours! My brother would be thrilled when I tell him, that engineers can have cool blogs too.

    1. Hey there, the latest is very technical yes, but just me finishing a project. I’m doing other things here which are more on the being side of things too … thanks for the compliments, and lovely to have you visit and follow my blog, keep in touch, Don charisma

  26. Hope you’re feeling fine and thank you for the follow. Your blog looks pretty interesting and somewhat out of my regular interest zone – I’m looking forward to spending some time with it.

    Happy Monday,
    Coco

    1. Hey Coco, lovely to hear from you, and thankyou for following me also:) I try and keep it interesting to the best of my writing abilities, but challenging to keep momentum at 150% all the time, so I take Charisma break from time to time …

      Keep in touch, Don Charisma

    1. My pleasure, you’re not the only old Aussie that I follow, have a good friend from Sydney who’s no spring chicken:)

      Don’t let the bastards grind you down my old friend in England used to say …

      Keep in touch,

      Don CHarisma

    1. Hey Paula, my pleasure and thansk for following mine:) I’ve taken your last part as a positive, but could be read different ways … keep in touch, Don charisma

      2. Hey Paula, no probs, I figured it probably was:) sometimes an ambiguous comment can catch me out, and with spending a lot of time writing I’m more attune to meanings … honestly, no harm done, happy to meet you … keep in touch, Don Charisma

  30. Hi there, good to know you passed by my crazy blog. I´ve been browsing through your´s and for me a caveman when it gets to technology I can certainly use some of the advise. How in the world can you cram up so many things to do, scuba dive, financial world, computer hacker…you´re a man without a limit.

    1. My pleasure Charly, and thank you for dropping in on me and following my blog:)

      I don’t know what to say, other than what I said to Shaun recently – I don’t get bored very often, usually I’m too busy doing something until I’m burnt out, then I rest and do it all over again …

      Good to hear from you Bro, keep in touch, Don Charisma

  31. Hi, Don. Thanks for joining the reader family of Diabetic Redemption. I’m glad you did. On my site, I have a Friends page, where my readers introduce themselves and their blogs. I hope you will do the same. Welcome!

      1. I’m glad you took advantage of the Friends page, and I look forward to hearing your voice in our conversations. My name is Judith, which I know is not obvious from my user name. Again, welcome. 😎

  34. Thanks for following my blog! Can’t wait to read up on yours!

    BTW – I instantly felt you were a kindred spirit when you quoted “Peaceful Warrior.” That book changed my perspective on life in a big way. 🙂

    1. Hey Becca, my pleasure and happy for you to drop in on me:) Always happy to meet kindred spirits…

      Peaceful warrior was recommended by a dear friend and I went on to read, sacred journey and journeys of socrates too, which both inspired me muchly !

      From your about page we share common interests, well being and happiness are often challenging, but rewarding work nevertheless;)

      Keep in touch, Don Charisma

  36. Can I just say your Gravatar/Profile image is my very favourite!? Also, very useful blog my friend, glad you followed mine so I could discover yours!

    1. Hey Kit Cole, yes of course you can, and thank you so much, I’m really happy when people like what I do:)

      Thanks for following me also, and let’s keep in touch;) Don Charisma

  37. You are my first follower for http://realvoiceppm.wordpress.com !
    I’m still playing around a little while I find my feet with wordpress but thanks for following me DonCharisma! Looks like you have some good tips here on all this blogging stuff and you have an interesting, eclectic site – I love the way you have represented various different aspects of your self, and really like the originality of your gravatar!
    Maggie

    1. Hi Maggie,

      Really appreciate you taking the time to visit and thankyou for your kind comments. I like you idea of the conductor in thinking about leadership, first class:) WordPress is a great place and there’s a community here too so hope it will benefit in personal/professional life.

      Keep in touch

      Don Charisma

  39. Thanks for following me. I’m new to this site so it means a lot. Could you possibly give me tips on how to get my writings out there? Also, I like your blog; its very interesting.

    1. My pleasure and thank you for following me.

      As for tips, happy to help. The first month I was just experimenting and didn’t seem like much happening. I just got used to the wordpress platform, and posted a few things that were of interest to me. Shorter posts and pictures can get people’s interest, as can longer ones. Personally I like to try and include relevant pictures, as they say picture says 1000 words. Over time one starts to get a feel for how to present things in an interesting way, that’s engaging for people to look at or read.

      I could stress strongly enough the community aspect of wordpress, and helps to be in touch with others here. Don’t be afraid to follow other people’s blogs, genuinely like what they are doing, pay a compliment or perhaps add something. Relationships with others here will help you:)

      I’ve written a post “Virgin’s guide” about getting started with promoting via search engines, so that would be a useful read. Also plan to write more, as and when I get the right idea and time slot.

      There are many other avenues for promoting via social media, syndication etc, facebook profile/pages, twitter, google+ etc etc etc

      You have to be persistent, establishing a blog or a website doesn’t take a few days or hours, for one person working on their own we’re realistically talking about months and years. Also don’t forget to give yourself a charisma break, time away will help you a great deal.

      The internet is a massive resource, and other people out there have shared many many ideas on how to do just about anything, why re-invent the wheel ?

      Hope this is helpful, let me know if you have any specific questions.

      Sincerely

      Don Charisma

  42. Welcome aboard, Don Charisma, good to have you along. Thanks for sharing your techie knowledge so generously – it’s very helpful to laggers like us!
    Best wishes,
    Miles and Pippa

  45. Hi:) thank you for following my blog … I’m new here and it’s mean so much to me that’s somebody strange its willing to spend time reading it . Big thanks !!! And loads of luck and success in your future plans and dreams …

    1. Hi Aga, there’s lots of opportunities here for people to read and appreciate your work, so I’m hoping you’ll enjoy wordpress as much as i do and the inspiring people here.

      My pleasure on following your blog and thankyou for following mine:)

      Keep in touch

      Don CHarisma

  50. Hello Don, welcome to the blog Me & Ian or Spirit & Earthling. May it lead you to greater things 🙂

    1. HEy Ian, really lovely to hear from you. I see you’re a meditator of 19 years, I’m also a meditator of a lot less time. I understand the achievement and determination involved. Keep in touch, DOn charisma

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