All posts by The Artist

Computing & Internet

They Say It’s Manual

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Well, people have been saying that our sites are getting smacked selectively. I have to agree. I know of many other sites with blatant advertisements or call it whatever you like and yet their ranks are not tanked. The problem with this issue is that bloggers have been linking out to anything and everything for years but just because some are given a little compensation to pay for the hosting and upkeep of their blogs, they are smacked. Heck, I have a blog that I link out to websites in every single posts and I did not get any compensation at all but I still link out just because I like and want to. Why is this a problem NOW?

Today, I decided to reveal this screen shot that I took from my stats tracker. I discovered this visitor from Georgia, Carollton, USA visiting all my ‘working’ blogs persistently a few times a day almost every day since July or August this year.

I remember mentioning it to my friend and told him that this is not a good sign and he told me that I am being paranoid. No, I am not! I labelled the IP as “SPY” and he or she truly is! You can see for yourself! This is why I have been keeping a low profile all these while. Maybe it’s not low enough!

spy.jpg

General

Shopping For Baby’s Needs

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My friend whom I wrote about who got married a little late in life but is now a parent told me that he prefers to shop for baby items online. I can understand that he is uncomfortable with the busy body sales people.

This friend says that although there are quite a few baby shops that he came across on the internet, he would only shop from those that are highly recommended by his friends. I think trust comes into play here!

I know of this website called Lila Guide that allows parents to share their experiences with the upbringing of their children and also their shopping experiences. I think that this friend, whom I shall not name, in case he gets mad at me, will benefit from the website, even though it is geared towards mothers.

Computing & Internet

Update: Entrecard – Blogger’s Call Card

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As an update on my post on Entrecard a week ago, I finally found the time to register my blog last night. Yea, see, I am so free now /sarcasm GGrrr

Anyway, registration is very simple and I think every blog will be accepted by default until they are manually reviewed. Blogs must be in English with fairly good content, not offensive, racialistic and bla bla bla the usual negatives.

I placed the widget on my blog and went visiting to other members but I could not find anywhere to “drop my card”. I did however, receive cards that were dropped to me and also “advertisement” Yay.. happy, happy!

Because I am a new member, my credit is low. I think it’s a 2:1 ratio on the rate of dropping a card and receiving one. In the morning though, once again I visited all the blogs and this time, I could find the “drop my card” link. I think it took a little while for the widgets to recognise me as an Entrecard holder or something.

So off I went visiting blog after blog and dropped my card. With the cards I dropped, collected and also advertisements bought from my blog, I have more than 100 points already. Happy!

Like I said, this is a great way to get your blog out. I have many visitors from my participation in Entrecard 😀

It would be great if we could register different blogs on Entrecard on different categories and different images and respective widgets like how we could do it on Fuel My Blog. Graham Langdon, the CEO, personally replied my email on Sunday (impressive) that they will be working on it but it will take a little while.

I think that the earlier we participate the better because we will have more chances to collect credits plus it will be cheaper to advertise on big name blogs.

ETA: I would also love it if there’s some way for us to see which blogs were newly added to the system, so that we could visit to drop our cards.

Travel

Getting The Most Out Of Your Travel Budget

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I mentioned before that a friend of mine, Fariz, is based in Egypt working in the Oil & Gas sector. We all know how rich those guys are, don’t we? Still, Fariz prefers to look for cheap flights to Egypt for his family to visit him when they have a break off school.

His family is based in London, so making is the occasional trip to Egypt is rather expensive, according to Fariz, but thanks to Holiday Hypermart, he would be able to give the family trips to Egypt as often as he could afford it, and he could also go back to London more frequently.

If you are in Europe, you may want to check out Holiday Hypermart to get the most out of your travel budget.

Blogging

Go Dot Com

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I’ve been thinking that since my blogs have tanked, I might as well move my content to DOT COMs. I have been meaning to do that but have not gotten around to it because each of my blogs, free hosted and on sub-domains, has more than a thousand posts published.

I heard that we could just import our posts to the new domains but I am such a perfectionist, I would want to take the opportunity of migrating blogs to check for dead links and images. Wooo… that would be so much work, wouldn’t it???

I don’t know if I am up to it or not or if I may give up mid way. This is also the time for me to consolidate my blogs and also revive my old niche blogs which are currently free hosted. I am thinking that by the time I am done migrating, merging and reviving, I would have about 7 blogs. I wonder if I will have the stamina to upkeep them and for how long.

What do you think? What’s the ideal number of blogs to maintain if we do not monetize them?

General

Medical Equipment Online

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An aunt asked for help to look for a certain medical equipment that my uncle needs but the local store has run out of stock. At first, she asked me to help her to buy it from the capital city but I am not heading that way soon and do not like asking friends for help when I could easily buy it myself online.

So I did a search on the internet for her item. I came upon the site called Allegro Medical which is an online store that carries the widest range of home medical supplies and equipment that I have ever seen.

I don’t know if the item that my aunt wants is what they are selling but I hope it is an exact match. I am lazy to keep looking online for her. Hey, I’ve got other better things to do, you know?

Blogging

Ten Referrals

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It is surprising what some people want for their money. Sure, I understand that people look for the most bang for their money but I read once that a guy wanted a blogger to bake a cake, take high resolution photos of it and scan them for him so that he could make a book!

A blog post, buzz and contents for a book, geddit? I think he paid $50 for that.

And then just a couple of days ago, a friend received an offer for $30 for a post and she has to refer ten friends and family members to sign up to the site. Tell me, does this sound like selling the email contacts of your friends and family? That doesn’t sound too right, if you ask me.

Some people may not mind being sent registration invitations like this but we never know what the company will do with the growing mailing list.

One word: Ridiculous!