What Simply Works!

I am pleasantly surprised to see that this blog now has 8 feed subscribers! This ‘working’ blog will soon reach its 6th month and even though its PR was downgraded to ‘2’, the pa1d opportunities are still coming.

Who knows until when I will have this Google PR ranking and how long my dear readers will be patient with my writing (hee hee), but seriously, I’m thankful to you because advertisers like blogs with consistent traffic and feed subscribers. So once more, big thanks to you!

I’m planning to sign-up for my fourth domain. It will not be used for pa1d blogging but for photography. I currently have a photo gallery with Smugmug and a photo blog but I would like them to be used for my personal photos, such as those of my family and friends. With that I’m thinking of getting a different web host so that I won’t be solely dependent on my current host. Not that I’m unhappy with them or that their inefficient. It’s just that I would also like to try another company.

It’s so nice that I can check on reviews about web hosting rating on the Internet. I can choose upfront from their list of Top 10 Best Web Hosting Providers. If I want to go to specifics, I can also check for the best blog hosting or best budget hosting provider. But I’m leaning towards a host that has Cpanel installed. It is still is the most user-friendly control panel on earth! That means I have Bluehost or Hostmonster in my shortlist.

Thanks to the guys behind webhostingrating.com. They are doing a great job providing bloggers like me with very useful web hosting information. Go on, check out their site.

I tried to sell my health and food blog domain to a few blogger friends last week. But no one was seriously interested to buy it (hee). So I took the advice of a friend and enrolled it to a few pa1d sites and just wait until the Big G takes away the blog’s PR and stop pa1d blogging all together. It sounds like a good plan.

After six months of active pa1d blogging on this site, I’m happy to report that I’m able to earn enough to meet the requirements for tax filing. Ha ha. I was able to buy a few gadgets with my moolah making raket and it’s encouraging!

I’ve started to slowdown a bit due to health reasons, so the earnings won’t be that much in the coming months. But I’m not complaining, after all, I never imagined that I can get a few bucks with my writing skills! Hee hee.

Let’s see if I’ll reach the first year milestone in April 2009.

Finally, after changing wordpress templates several times for my four active blogs, I can finally say that I’m happy with them.  I won’t be tinkering with them for a long time and that’s a relief knowing how tedious it can be to change themes frequently.

Although I’m still eyeing to use a customized template for my personal blog.  As it is now more of a photo blog, I would like the theme to be personalized, fitting for the concept I have in mind.  Hmm, this is another item on my personal projects!

I didn’t access my blogs last Saturday since we were away on a day trip so when I got the chance to check them the following day, I found my two “working blogs” with -1 PR.  That means less opportunities for me to work on.  What surprised me though is that the Mighty “G” didn’t put both blogs to NIL ranking.

At the same time, the husband has requested me to minimize my blogging activites (read as: stop paid blogging) and I just promised that I will be less active and just allot an hour or 2 at the most for these in a day.  There’s no point in earning a few bucks at the expense of a good night’s sleep.

Guess what? I recently bought my 4th domain and created my 6th blog. Crazy, isn’t it? I was so encouraged with my current month’s paypal funds that I thought why not add 1 more to the pool?

But a week after my purchase, I feel that my decision was made out of haste. As it is, my hands are full with motherhood slash wifely slash photographer-wanna-be activities that I hardly have time to blog-hop and leave comments.

Ayayay, what do I do now?

Since I saw a really cute flower favicon in a blog, I wanted one too for all of my active blogs.  I realized how ‘dry’ and boring a URL address look without those cute favicons.  And what tool do I use to create them?

http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/

Creating one is just a breeze.  Try it!

I still can’t export what’s left of the almost 500 entries I have in my personal blog. I tried to back-up my SQL, delete and re-install it but it just won’t work. I scoured the wordpress.org forum for answers but there’s none.

3 out of my 6 blogs have this XML export problem. Now I have no idea what to do. There should be something out there that can be tweaked. I’m hoping that it’s a bug related to my Wordpress install. When I get a chance next time, I will try to rebuild everything from scratch and see if it will work.

I’ve been trying to download my WP file from my self-hosted blog and got this error:

The first few Google search results I got didn’t help at all.  I badly need to copy over the files to complete the blog changes I want to do.  Help please, WP gurus!

Most of my friends who have computers at home own a blog. It is not surprising though because there are a lot of free hosted online journals nowadays. But for me, nothing beats a self-hosted blog using the awesome platform, Wordpress.

At first, it can be intimidating for a non-technical person to dive into the world of self-hosting. But with ample time devoted to research and seeking advice from other bloggers, managing your own blog or website can be a pleasant experience. For web host requirements, Fat Jack Hosting is a reputable company that offers shared, dedicated or private web hosting, 24/7 support and domain registration.

What I like about the company is that they offer CPanel, the best front-end configuration application there is. They are also in partnership with big companies like IBM, Novell, McAfee, among the few. This only shows that customers are in good hands with this hosting company.

When I started blogging in 2004, not many of my peers have their own domain. The free hosting services offered by the likes of Blogger or Bravejournal were enough to share anyone’s thoughts to the world. These days, almost everyone who owns a blog, has their own domain. Aside from the price, both techie and non-techie people prefer the flexibility found in self-hosting. And what better way to start than by doing a bit of research on the ins and outs of hosting.

Webhostinggeeks.com is a good resource to start with. The site has a whole lot of fresh, updated information on domains, web hosting companies, user reviews and web hosting ratings (to name a few). If I had learned about this site at the time I started the groundwork of my websites, I would not have gone through a couple of mistakes in choosing the right web host.

True to the intent of the guys behind EntreCard, I have come to enjoy EC dropping. I have seen a few blog sites I’m interested to re-visit although some were just not visitor-friendly. What do I mean by that?

Well, if the blog site takes minutes to load, maybe due to the tons of widgets posted on the sidebar or the template is just image-heavy with flashing colors that can trigger a migraine (no kidding!), then I’ll be quick to leave the site if I don’t see the EC drop button upfront.

I know there’s a whole gamut of nice plugins and widgets out there but for the love of your visitors and would be readers, please refrain from making your site look like a circus. My blogs are far from the ideal, with my writing leaves much to be desired, but at least I try not to shoo-away my visitors by ‘scaring’ them with how I present my blogs.

Early this week, I started “working” on my EntreCard accounts. I have three blogs enrolled and since I started with EC three months ago, I never actively “dropped” ECs on other blogs. But I won’t let this month pass without clearing my Inbox.

So watch out my dear EC droppers, I’ll be visiting your blogs in the coming days!

For non-technical bloggers like me, it is pretty helpful to bookmark sites that provide reviews, tips and tricks in setting up a website. Web Hosting Geeks do just that. They provide very exhaustive information on hosting reviews, templates, domain names and a lot more.

If you’d like to self-host on a budget, there is page dedicated to the best budget hosting company for the year. The features, host ratings and customer ratings will be very helpful when deciding which company to get.

Also, if you prefer free domain name registration to go with web hosting, there is about 21 companies listed to choose from. I really admire the geeks behind this very helpful website. They really know what they’re talking about!

I wasted two precious hours surfing the Internet for a suitable replacement theme and found zilch. I downloaded at least four and hoped that one would at least meet my requirements but all of them needed major tweaking, which of course I don’t have time to do!

So much for “adding colors” to my supposed new template. I’ll use this neat black and blue theme for now and schedule another day to look for a final theme. Caramba! Why is it so difficult to look for a wordpress template?!?

I have tons of ideas for my new blog. I want it to be a gallery of sorts for my favorite photos where I’ll add my favorite quotes and verses. I will not use it for photo memes or to write personal thoughts.

As soon as I finished my to-do list, I will work on this photogallery slash blog of mine. I’m excited!