Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

May is a very busy month for me. I’ve been so busy, my last blog post was last week. Unthinkable! Hahaha. There is a backlog of blog posts in my head. Funny. Whenever I am busy I will have lots to blog about and no time to blog it. Then when I have a bit more time to blog, I write nonsense because there is less to blog about. Its a chicken and egg situation.

I’ve been so busy, not only my blog has been neglected, my house has been too. Neglected to the point that the other day we discovered a rat in our kitchen! Horror of horrors! It was so horrible but I will write about that in another post. No time today. I’ve got to clean house.

Speaking of cleaning house, this middle aged aunty had her 5 minutes of limelight the other day. Thanks to Sheila Rahman, consultant of the new Malay Mail, lil’ ole me was featured in the BlogSpot page in the Malay Mail on Tuesday May 20, 2008. I was bursting with pride to see my avatar and graphics of my three blogs put side by side plus a 3 quarter page write up. Probably the only other time I had my 5 minutes of fame was on my wedding day! Hahaha.

I proudly showed my husband my blogging milestone ie the Malay Mail page which was online. I can’t link it since the Malay Mail is updated daily. You’ll have to look for the print version if you want to read more about me. *wink wink* or you can view the .jpg picture here. You’ll need a microscope for that though.

Later on when we were out hubby asked me to buy the papers for him. I was so happy that he remembered to ask me to buy the print version so I could keep it for keepsakes but then he asked me “Eh, how come you bought the Malay Mail? You were supposed to buy the Star for me.” Hehehe. There goes my 5 minutes of fame and glory. Lol! Now that my feet is firmly planted on the ground again, its time to think about what housewives are supposed to think about ie… housework.

I really must stop writing now as my house has been grossly neglected. So I’m skipping off to do my house cleaning now. Theres the toilets to clean, the floors, the laundry and I promised my girl that I will make more flowers for her teachers. There will be no time to bloghop yet (Boo Hoo Hoo. Been missing out for a week, so much to catch up on.) and I will have to write about the rat in my kitchen another day.

Dear Readers,

I just had a sex change operation and obtained a Ph.D ……errrrmm …. lets see…. Ph.D in exercisology. Yup! FYI my name’s just been changed to Rick Nauert and I am now the proud owner of a Ph.D in exercisology.

Don’t believe me? Well, just go here and click on the name Rick Nauert, Ph.D and see what happens.

P.S. There is no guarantee that the link will still work if you read this late.

Attention all mommy bloggers (and other bloggers too)! SocialSpark is here at last. I did promise in my previous post that I was going to talk about another way you can find money making opportunities for your blog.  Well, I was talking about SocialSpark. So what is SocialSpark? Lets see, the best way I can describe it is SocialSpark is like a cross between a blog advertising site like PayPerPost, a statistics and analytics calculator site like Site Meter or IzeaRank and a social networking site like Blog Catalog. Everything rolled into one. Its a social networking site for bloggers and advertisers. Fantastic! I love it. Now I don’t have to click or monitor several sites when one site does it all.I’ve just signed up so I’m still feeling my way around but I like what I see so far. Here’s what I like about it.

• when you click on an opp you are interested in, you will see the recent visitors to the opp, people who have taken the opp, recent posts for the opp (including the number of words - so much detail!) as well as the best post to date (Ooh! I love a challenge and must try to get to the best post to date page.). It also shows the number of opps the advertiser has created. You can also leave your comment for the opp. One click on the advertiser’s link will bring you to the advertiser’s profile with even more details.
• on the other hand the blogger’s profile page will show you the blogger’s profile, the blogger’s blogs (and most bloggers have a few these days) and the blogger’s network of friends. You can also leave comments or vote for the blogger just like most social networking sites. However, clicking on the blogger’s blog links will give  you much more detailed information like the blog’s RealRank and Alexa Rank (no Google pagerank here), pageviews, visitors, detailed demographics in numbers and graphs.  You can also view summaries of the latest blog posts from the blogger. All these are extremely useful information for an advertiser. Its very transparent all out in the open. I would also advise you to make your numbers public (if you have previously made it private) in IzeaRanks because advertisers like to see numbers
• On the home page you can browse blogs or browse opportunites, if you like to interact, you can go to the community tab and browse users, participate in the Izea boards, read the Izea blog or watch RockStartUp
• Under your account tab, you can manage your finances, manage your public profile or your blogs and view your messages from your friends, advertisers or customer love
• The opps use no follow links and there is complete disclosure like what you see at the bottom of this post
• There is a bonus payment for best posts for certain opps. This is great because bloggers will be motivated to write better posts to qualify for the bonus as well as get extra traffic from being linked as best post for the opp

Here is a preview of how your profile will look like at SocialSpark. Nice?

Credit for Image: I am sure that the good folks at Izea won’t mind that I took their screenshot for this

Now for some of my grouses so far. You have to wait in Q for opps and once available you only have 12 hours to complete it. 12 hours is too short for bloggers who are not in the same time zone as SocialSparks. I am afraid that if I get the opp reserved for me in the morning SocialSparks time (at night my time) and I only find out about it the next morning (my time), I would have missed the 12 hours deadline. Another thing, I managed to reserve the opp at a certain price but it keeps on fluctuating higher and lower on a demand and supply basis I presume. Thats very frustrating when I manage to get it at a much lower price. But these are minor grouses which I believe will be ironed out. Afterall, they just came out of Alpha and is in Beta now. I was an Alpha tester but only for a day. Haha.

My major grouse is now I will be stuck in front of the PC for many more hours each day monitoring my SocialSpark activities. Help!

Note: Opp = Opportunity to write a sponsored post for an advertiser

BTW, there are three kinds of Opps in SocialSpark.

1. The regular Sponsored Posts
2. Blog Sponsorships ie advertisers sponsoring your blogs on a day to day basis
3. Sparks - Free Opps. You don’t get paid for this but they may count as interim posts. Anyone can create a Spark. You can create a spark to create a buzz for your own blog and leave a “bloguback” to all bloggers who take up your opp. Its like tit for tat. I rub your back, you rub me back. In this case I buzz you and you buzz me back. Everyone benefits from this blog pimping for each other. And if the spark comes from an advertiser, no problem if you don’t get paid, it’ll give you more blogging ideas for blog posts

I’m really long winded here and thats because I’m really just so excited about this new platform for bloggers to network with advertisers but I won’t keep you any longer.  Mommies, Daddies and everyone else, why not go register and find out for yourself what SocialSpark is all about?

“It only takes a spark to get a fire going.”

The other day I was clearing or doing some housekeeping on my Parenting Times blog when I noticed that I had many posts in draft that I had forgotten to publish! Haha.

When I first started blogging, I just blogged whenever I felt like it. This soon became daily as I got more in touch with addicted to blogging. Then I found that sometimes I had several things (blog posts) to say in a day and none at all for several days. So I started keeping posts in draft to *ahem* space them out. Afterall we blog for the interaction right. Better to have daily posts then to have several posts in a day. Your readers can’t keep up with that.  

Then I started a few more blogs (to make money blogging) so I had to make sure I had things to say everyday. So more drafts. Then I had to make sure I had interim posts between my make money  posts so I had to make sure that I had lots of draft posts to slot in between.

Then the make money posts dried up (but they will be back soon hopefully and I will tell you why in another post.) And all of a sudden, I found that I have quite a few blog posts in draft that I didn’t publish and had forgotten about. Hahaha.

Thats the crazy things that us bloggers do. So when you read a blog, what you read is not what you get. You may only read about something that happened to me last week “today”.  (That is if I forget to change it to “last week”). This wordpress blog has the feature to schedule blog posts to be published when you choose to but I don’t use it. I still prefer to hit “publish” myself when I am around and not when I am away but thats just me.

However, having said this, I am sure some bloggers are not like this. They will genuinely publish only when they write and whenever they write. But those who are like me are those who write a lot and also those who get paid blogging. There are also some who write ahead of time and schedule those posts to be published daily when they are not around but thats not me. Some have unpublished posts because they changed their mind about publishing after writing the post.

What about you? Do you have many unpublished posts in draft?

Your kid tells you….

“Mummy, I can see your eyes got computer.”

This was said to me by mine who had wedged himself between me and the computer table, climbed up my lap and stared into my eyes, looking at the reflection of the computer in them.

That means I gotta get my big bum out of this chair RIGHT NOW! Just imagine that. Blogging till the computer is coming out from my eyes. Lol!

How do you tell when you’ve been blogging too much?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Today I read an article in the New York Times about the demise of two famous bloggers who blog for a living. Its called In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop. Interesting article.

I’m not sure if people will actually die from blogging but one thing is clear. Blogging is an unhealthy activity. Physically unhealthy that is rather than mentally. For most of us casual bloggers it is probably mentally stimulating to engage in discussions. It is also an avenue for us to vent our frustration. That is much better than keeping it inside. Not only are we able to vent our anger, we also get voices telling us “Yes, I feel this way too sometimes” so we do not feel so alone.

However on the physical aspect, there is no denying it. Blogging is unhealthy. Hours and hours of having our eyes glued to the pc screen can’t be good. It leads to a sedentary lifestyle and sometimes it can get out of hand when we can’t control the time we spend blogging leading to relationship problems. We should be spending more time with our kids or spouse for example. For those at work it can be a major disruption too if you have to keep on checking your blog for comments throughout the day! It can also create sleep problems too. If you have ever experienced waking up in the middle of the night thinking about some blog post idea than you should know what I mean.

Lets face it. Blogging is a little bit addictive so we have to learn to control it ie we mustn’t let blogging take over our lives. I have learned to control my blogging by doing less blog hopping. Oh, I do love to read all my favourite blogs and catch on with whats happening to those bloggers but theres just only that many hours in a day. So I have no choice but to reduce my blog hopping. I do however still write more frequently than I should since I have 3 main blogs which I love equally and I spend too much time on them. Another area

I’ve cut down is the admin part of blogging. I’ve stopped playing with my templates and trying to change and tidy up things around too much because that too is very time consumming. I’ve stopped doing all those things that are supposed to increase traffic like submitting to directories and pinging services except occassionally. Heck, these things take time. I’ve also stopped writing paid posts from lack of opportunites rather than as a control measure. Fortunately, otherwise my blogging would be even more out of control.

Thats basically the two main things I’ve done to control my blogging hours. Don’t blog hop so much and don’t play around with template. Oh yes, and one more thing. I try not to blog during the weekends. In fact I try not to go anywhere near the pc during the weekends. What about you? Is your blogging under control or do you live to blog? What have you done to control your blogging hours?

Some of my blog visitors are rather confused about my blogs so I am going to attempt a brief explanation here.

I only have 3 main blogs. This is how they differ….

1. Mumsgather - This blog. Its about me, I and myself, mostly. I should have given it another heading but when I first bought my own domain, I just used my old blog name which was more “famous”. Its my erm.. trademark name, if I can call it that. Lol!

2. Parenting Times - This is the old “Mumsgather” blog and its mostly about my children, my interactions with them, the funny things they say and the crafts we do together plus any useful children’s links I come across.

3. Mothering Times - This is my Mother’s only blog. Its about stuff that only mothers would care about. Its about the “technical” aspect of being a mother like toilet training, breastfeeding etc. Unless you are a mother, you would find this blog incredibly boring. The most searched words that bring visitors to the blog are things like “chemical pregnancy”. “falls during pregnancy”, “the best breast pump”. “confinement lady”. Those deal with the “early” parts of being a mother but I hope that the blog will grow along with me as I grow as a mother.

Still confused? Nevermind. Feel free to ask me anything you want, anytime and on any blog. 

This was what greeted me when I returned to my blog after being away from it for a while. Yeah. 9305 spam comments and several more not caught by Askimet. So what else is new? Not much.

I stayed away on purpose, sort of like having a blog vacation, the way people take a vacation or break away from work. I stayed away from my emails too because if I didn’t I would see some comments and be tempted to return to my blog sooner. And that made an advertiser cancel some links that they wanted to purchase because there was no response from muah. Sob. Sob. Sob.

Of course there’s lots to write about and pictures to post too but wait, I must get my momentum back first. Yes, you do lose some momentum when you don’t blog daily, its true. The more you blog, the more you have to blog about and if you don’t blog, you will soon have nothing to write about. Thats the way it is for me.

So, I’m just writing this nonsense until I get back my momentum again.

Dear Blogger Friends,

Thank you very much for your support and ideas about what to do when someone copies and tries to make a carbon copy of your site. I just checked and it looks like my posts have been removed from the site. Yippee!

Special thanks to Klaw for his tips. Mr BengBeng, maybe you’d like to try it too for the carbon copy of your My Longkang blog.

Now, I wish someone would tell me what to do with a stalker. I have had someone who arrives on my blog by searching for the term “mumsgather”. This person is from Singapore and has been doing it for the past 2 years.

I see it on my statcounter referrals and it really gives me the creeps to see this person on my blog everyday for a few hours each day for the past 2 years. Sometimes the entry is every minute. Even I don’t monitor my own blogs that frequently. Creepy! Creepy! Creepy!

Check out this link to my stats (sorry if this link is not working for you please refer to the paragraph below) for my Parenting Times blog. Can you see that there is someone entering my blog via the search term “mumsgather” every few minutes? This has been happening every day for the past 2 years now. It happens on all my blogs but mostly the Parenting one. Creepy? What to do?

I’m sorry I couldn’t do a screenshot well and my link didn’t work. You’d have to first go to my Parenting Times blog, wait for the page to fully load, then scroll right down right to the very bottom. After the bottom border you’ll see a “View my stats” (on grey blackground). Then look for the “Recent Keyword Activity” on the blue sidebar located on the left and click on that and you will be able to see what I am talking about. (I hope!)

My blog posts has been copied before by another blogger. She took several blog posts and passed it off as her own. But that was soon resolved.

And then recently there are robots or whatever it is you call them that goes around stealing posts from several bloggers to pass of as their own. These blogs would steal content as soon as you hit publish. They take posts from different bloggers on the same subject matter. Lets say its a Parenting blog. They would steal the content of several Parenting blogs and pass it off as their own. Many of my posts had been stolen that way before.

But now, I’ve just discovered that my ENTIRE BLOG is being copied! Everything. Every post. Every image. Here, take a look at my Parenting blog. Its called Parenting Times. And then take a look at the fake one. Its called Parenting Details. Its a replica of my blog content with all my pictures too including pictures of my children’s craft. I’m so upset but I don’t know what to do. I hate it that someone is trying to pass all my personal moments with my kids as theirs!

I forgot to mention. The forger has put 3 categories into the blog. My whole blog has been copied and being passed of as the Parenting Tip category. Another category is blank and the 3rd category is a copy of various Parenting news from online newspapers on the net.

Can somebody help me please???? What should I do? Can I report to Google or something? I don’t want my blog to be penalised for duplicate content. How should I do that? Anybody has any experience with this?