Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

Lately I’ve been toying with the idea of starting another blog. I don’t have the time but I can still dream, can’t I? Now, what shall the blog be about? Shall it be a food blog (nyah I’m a so-so cook), a finance blog (I could get hubby to give some input), a beauty blog (I’m not very beautiful, so errr… hahaha), a Marketing Blog (I’m not a marketing person, I’m too straight), a hobby blog, a household tips blog, a review blog or…..

Please excuse me for dreaming but having blogs and collecting blogs is an irresistable hobby. After you’ve been blogging for a while, you will realise that one blog is not enough. Its so exciting to start new blogs and build your cyber real estate. Besides, the lure of $$$ is hard to resist. Once you’ve got a winning formula, duplicating it is easier than when you first started.

Anyway, the reason why I’m dreaming about a new blog is because I only have one dot.com (this one) and I’m finding it increasingly difficult to fill all the advertiser orders in it. I have to turn down many offers to write. Although this blog is newer than my Parenting Blog, has less readers, page load etc, its doing better in Alexa rankings and is definitely preferred by advertisers. So here I sit dreaming of another dot.com to grow and nurture. Now, if only I had the time………

It happened to me again this morning. I didn’t have to press “accept” to have the amount credited into my account. I wonder if this is just temporary or a new thing. If it is, it’ll be good, no need to keep on pressing “accept” for each and every transaction.

Anyway the good folks at Paypal has replied to me. This is what they said.

Hello, I will be happy to assist you with your question
regarding your PayPal account.

Understand you concern about the two transaction.

By checking your PayPal account information, I found that the two
payments have been instant credit in your PayPal balance on Oct. 1,
2007. You do not need to accept them manually Please log in your PayPal
account for the double check. Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,
PayPal, an eBay Company

So those who also had the same trouble can rest assured that your account is not being played around with by anyone with unauthorised access.

This morning when I logged into my Paypal account to accept my payments I was surprised to see that out of the several payments from various sources that I received today, some showed the status of “complete” even though I hadn’t pressed the accept button yet. So I immediately wrote to support.

However as I was accepting my first payment, upon completion, I saw that the rest turned into the “complete” status even though I hadn’t accepted them yet. So I had to write another email to support.

I read that Malaysians can now receive Adsense payments via direct transfer to our bank accounts and Paypal payments with the  use of debit/credit cards with some local banks. That is great news. As usual, I will wait for the big big tai kor and tai soh to carry out their transactions before I try out. Hehe.

Anyway, back to Paypal, has anyone had this problem before? I wonder if there is a bug in the system or there is unauthorised use of my account. What a lousy way to start a day.

Independent Note: Several web hosting services, especially the popular ones like ix web hosting offer the personalized accounts for the webmasters where they can take or receive payments. It’s good to read webhosting reviews of powweb or other hosting companies before you decide for the best web hosting service that provides a personalized account service or at least a pay pal support.

1. I will not open more than 10 website pages at one time
2. I will not refresh those pages more than 10 times an hour
3. I will limit my blog hopping to 10 blogs per day
4. I will not write more than 10 posts a day
5. I will spend not more than 10 minutes on those 10 posts
6. I will not spend more than 10 hours in front of the monitor without a break
7. I will try to reply to at least 10 comments a day
8. I will not add more than 10 tools on each of my blog template
9. I will not let my ToDo List grow longer than 10 items due to my blogging
10. I will not walk back to my PC every 10 minutes to check on my pages

Well, those are my new blogging resolutions. Ok. I may have exagerated somewhat but the gist of it is the same. I will not let blogging rule my life. I will organize and prioritize. I will be better at time management and I will type at the speed of lightning. All because I want to blog but I still have a responsiblity of looking after the family and the home.

Whats your Blogging Resolution?

I’ve just turned 3 years old as a blogger but I’m turning into a blog machine! Hahaha. 

Tell me. How long does it take you to write a blog post? For me it takes anything between 5 minutes to 30 minutes. 5 minutes is for things close to my heart. A word, an idea, a scene can get me going and *clickety clickety clack* A blog post is born in about 5 minutes of less. The same amount of time it would take me to write or reply to an email. Usually my brain works faster than my fingers so I have to learn to type really fast.

It takes me just a short while to write and little while longer to browse, download and upload relevant photos due to the slow internet connection. Grrr… *pulls hair*

Contrary to what others may think, posts which take a longer time to write for me are sponsored posts. I have to read up, do some research, post some pictures, post the correct links with the right keywords. Phew! Its a lot of hard work.

As for my personal posts, well, like I said, all it takes is a word, a look, an idea, some news I read, etc and *clickety clickety clack* For the record, it took me just 5 minutes to write this post.

How much time do you spend on your blog posts?

I’ve just been tagged by Shooi. That reminds me I have a backlog of tags to do and have almost forgotten them as I have been writing lots of my own posts lately, no time for tags and memes. Anyway this one is easy peasy so I’ll let this skip the queue and do this first.

It’s a very simple tag. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.) Write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general. Tag as many people as you want.

1. Look, read, and learn. http://www.neonscent.com/****
2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. http://www.bushmackel.com/****
3. Don’t let money change ya! http://www.therandomforest.info/******
4. Always reply to your comments. http://chattiekat.com/*****
5. Blog about what you know & love. http://sugar-queens-dream.blogspot.com/******
6. Don’t use filthy language-buy a dictionary. http://shinade.blogspot.com/****
7. Blog about something educational http://climateofourfuture.org/***
8. Be yourself; others will follow http://sfgirl-thealiennextdoor.blogspot.com/ ***
9. Don’t have too many blogs that will become a chore to maintain http://cubicledenizen.blogspot.com/***
10. Keep it simple, user-friendly, interesting and organised! http://erishaling.blogspot.com/ **
11. Keep the blog simple and sweet!! http://www.leslieho.com/ ***
12. Share with others your thoughts and don’t be shy! http://groovy-olives.com/blog****
13. Never ask for link exchange. Blog hop to increase traffic. http://www.jessieling.com/**
14. Don’t clutter your blog with ads all over the place. IT’S IRRITATING. http://oliviasy.blogspot.com/
15. Don’t comment for the sake of commenting. Some looked too fake and its a big turn off! http://sashablablabla.blogspot.com**
16. Share something interesting and you will gain more readers. http://judychow.blogspot.com**
17. Blog real and true story and never copy others posts. http://mylovelymummy.com

18. Don’t blog about things that you don’t want others to find out. You’ll never know who’s reading your blog. http://justmytots.com/

19. Don’t comment if you have not read the post in full. You’ll look stupid (and you are being insincere) to comment something that is irrelevant or out of point to what the blogger has been saying in their post. http://mumsgather.com

Now lets here it from:

Sesame, Doris, Kitty Cat, Shopping Mum and WMD..

Hmm lets see. The last time I checked I had written…..

• 646 blog posts on my Parenting Times blog
• 230 blog posts on my Mothering Times blog
• 20 blog posts on my Quotes Station blog
• 224 blog posts on this blog

That would bring me to a grand total of 1120 posts altogether. Muahahahaha. Can write book already. 

I think I’ve got to join a “Writers Annonymous Club” to talk about my compulsion to write, write and write some more. Lol! Anyone wants to join me? Can share with me your stats anot? Hehe.

This post is for those who write sponsored posts and have to maintain several blogs.

Now that you’ve started writing paid posts and maintaining several blogs to maximise your earnings potential, you’ve got to work really hard to maintain those blogs. Your regular visitors are not going to read each and every one of your blogs even if they love you. So how do you make your visitors stay longer? Regular as well as Search Engine Visitors? You link to your own blogs, thats how. (Another reason why you would want to link to your own blogs is to benefit from your own page rankings).

I just discovered that  you can use the Google Reader sharing tool to do this. I read that its a good idea to subscribe to your own blog rss feeds to be indexed or found by the top 3 search engines ie Google, MSN and Yahoo and thats what I’ve done.

After subscribing to my own feed using Google Reader, I can select or deselect recent blog posts from my blogs and share them. I can put a clip of my shared items anywhere I like on my blog. I’ve put them at the end of single posts as well as on my sidebar. You can check out the end of this post if you’re reading this single post or the end of my sidebar if you are on my homepage. (You can check out my Parenting Times blog or Mothering Times blog for more examples.) Visitors can click on any of the post headings that interests them and be directed to my other blogs or they can click “read more” and be directed to a url with all of my shared items there. You can see posts from all of my blogs listed there. There is even an rss feed for my shared items.

You can choose from a number of colored formats you like for your clip. I chose none so it blends seemlessly into my blogs in terms of size and color. You can share anything, not just your blog posts. You can share any link that you like with your friends or relatives by emailing them the url to your shared items or placing them on your blog the way I did.

I simply love Google. I use quite a number of tools in my Google Account. I have Gmail, Blogger and Google Reader. I also use Webmaster Tools and Analytics to monitor my stats. I like the Query Stats in Webmaster Tools. It shows me my top search queries and my average top position on Google search result pages. I subscribe to Google Alerts and I have a personalised iGoogle page. I am using the Beach Theme for my iGoogle and I love it. The sun rises and sets on my desktop according to my time.

This is what I do when I don’t write paid posts. I fiddle around on my blog to see how I can improve it.

Independent Note: A superb business web hosting always considers the traffic aspect of the website. Renowned companies like linux shared hosting or lunarpages do their best to facilitate the webmasters by providing several free webmaster tools. If you’ve taken the services of a cheap hosting server , then it’s preferable to use Google webmaster tools. The yahoo hosting tools are good, too but Google tools are easier to use for beginners.

One of the ways to promote your blog is to submit your blog to a blog directory. Should you submit your site to a free directory or a paid directory? Should you use automated submission software? How do you know if the directory you are submitting to is a low quality or a high quality web directory? Is PR or Alexa ranking a good indicator?

You can find out all this information and more on the Alive Webmaster Blog. The blog may be for Web Directory Owners but it still contains useful information about blog directories for the blog owner. 

After reading up on the information available, you could also consider whether its worthwhile to do a paid submission on the recently launched Alive Blog Directory. The Alive Blog Directory is an extension to the Alive Web Directory but it is specifically for Blogs. It offers a comprehensive selection of Blog Categories, deep link submission options and more. Do check it out if you want to promote your blog using a blog directory.

Does your spouse read your blog and how do your feel about it?

Mine does not. At first I was very disappointed that he did not. I was so hard up for him to read my blog that I went to the extend of emailing him entire blog posts complete with comments. Hahaha.

I thought that if he didn’t read my blog, it meant that he did not care about what I thought. I also thought that it meant he didn’t support my blogging hobby. In fact, at first he told me it was a waste of time and he didn’t understand why anyone would blog.

I thought it meant that he was not interested to know another part of me ie the part that comes out in writing. We all have many personalities and I believe the part that comes out in writing may not necessarily be the same as the one that gets portrayed in person. Sometimes the part that comes out in writing is a deeper more meaningful personality. Sometimes in writing you see more of a person.

In that same vein, I tried to encourage him to have a blog because I wanted to know him better. I wanted to read his thoughts because he is not very expressive. (like most men.) If he had a blog, I would probably read it word for word, post for post and try to dissect it. Maybe thats why he dare not have a blog. Hahaha.

So, I was disappointed for a while but not anymore. I don’t know when the change occured but all of a sudden, I saw it in a different light. I saw that the fact that he didn’t read my blog meant that he wanted to give me more personal space and as a matter of fact it has given me more personal space. Now I can rant as much as I like. Hahaha. But I seldom rant about him lah. Not because I fear he may be reading but I feel something as personal as a husband and wife relationship should be left that ie personal. I only talk about him if its something good that I want to share or remember and not because I fear that he may be reading. Thats why I have a Marriage and Relationships category. It would be something general though but in relation to a personal experience. Although I must say that many times I have been tempted to sit down here and bang away at my keyboard when I am really mad at him! Hahaha.

So although I wouldn’t mind if he did read my blog, now I’m actually glad he does not. So I never have to deal with him questioning me “How come you wrote that?” “Wow, you spend so much time blogging?” (He’d probably say that about me taking pics and posting up my kids crafts. Check out our latest craft here: Chain Paper Dolls. Hehe.) etc. So I’m perfectly fine with him not reading my blogs now. This way, I never have to worry about him misreading or having my blog post misconstrued by him. I think people who know you well may actually read more into what you have written. But I still admire those spouses who are close enough to blog together no I should say I admire those spouses who can blog together, for not blogging together does not mean that you are not close. I think that blogging by one spouse can sometimes lead to some misunderstandings or issues so what more when both parties blog.

Speaking about spouses reading blogs, I wonder whether parents should read their children’s blogs. Almost all of my nephews and nieces have blogs but their parents don’t read them simply because they’re not very computer savvy and don’t know how to find their blogs in the first place but some of them would like to read just to know their child better and to know whats going on.

I guess that if my children are older and have blogs I would want to read them. I don’t think its an invasion of their privacy because it is afterall a public blog. If you post something in public then you must be prepared for everyone to read what you have written, not only those who don’t know you personally. However, I know of many children who hate having their parents reading their blogs especially mums.

I don’t mind if my siblings read my blog but I don’t think they have the time to follow my blog that closely since they’re not bloggers themselves and they all have their own lives to lead.

As for friends, I don’t mind if they read my blog since its just an extension of me and I have nothing to hide. Sadly though, I don’t have that many close friends whom I care enough to give away my personal thoughts to and thats why I keep the url to myself instead of sharing it freely.

And if I had a boss, no, I would not want my boss to read my blog! Nor would I want any colleagues to, even if I don’t rant about work. I believe one must keep work and personal life separate but thats just me. Others may feel differently.

What about my children? If they are grown and they would like to, I certainly wouldn’t mind them reading my blog. I think they would find the archives about bring them up quite funny. Too bad I don’t post pictures, otherwise they would find it even more amusing or perhaps they may go “Awe mum! Why did you pose that naked pic of me?” Hahaha. Mums, have you thought of that?

Independent Thought: If you really are the kind of person who loves to stick with their memories, and often does an online file sharing, then it’s good to have backup computer files of your blog on your pc. Keeping a blog backup is like a memory bag always there for you and your loved ones. Try to install some data recovery programs for the purpose of data recovery , on your pc that are compatible with your blogging soft ware.