All posts by The Artist

Computing & Internet

Wild Apricot’s Membership Database Management Software

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I am in-charged of the employees’ union of my company and I have always wondered if there is a way for me to better manage the membership database. Today, I came across a Member Database Software by Wild Apricot which could be my solution.

According to the website of Wild Apricot, this software allows us to transfer our existing database to this program easily without manual input. What I like about it is that we can specify specific database fields and only have what are relevant to our group activities. The previous one that I tried did not allow me to customize my layout and I ended up with a lot of blank fields which I could not edit or delete.

Another feature that I like is that I can easily search for members because the search results keep narrowing down as I type. This feature helps me a lot since we have a few hundred members and I used to search through my records one by one and it was very tedious.

With Wild Apricot, not only can I search through my records seamlessly, I could also sort them according to membership levels of involvement, groups and branches and send out email to these specific groups or personalized messages to individual members. Also, I can keep the list private and only allow certain key people access it.

Overall, I can see how it could improve the way I have been managing my ever growing list of members and I hope that once I have shown this to my superiors, they will agree that this is what we need to keep track of our members. At least, there’s no more excuse of not being able to track down who hasn’t paid up his membership renewal fee!

Blogging

It’s Kinda Weird!! GGGrrrr

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You know, when I was blogging and posting sponsored post as and when I like without caring if there was an organic post between every single sponsored post, I was getting my bids accepted like nobody’s business from a marketplace that requires us to place our bids on jobs.

This month, I started to make a conscious effort in slipping an organic post between all my sponsored posts and guess what? My bids were not accepted at all. Not even one! GGGrrrr It is so disappointing. Perhaps sponsors like to read my sponsored work upfront so that they know what to expect. Perhaps they don’t want to waste time guess which is sponsored and which isn’t. Just because a post has a link in it does not mean that it is sponsored, right?

So, how now? I am trying to shift my balance a little and see if there is any improvement! I certainly cannot let a single company dictate how I should have my posts published, right?

Finances

Stringent Checks Should Be Implemented

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I am sure that most of us are bogged down with debts. How can we not be when it is just so easy to get a loan? When we need to buy a car or a home, we need to get a loan because most of us can’t afford to pay cash. Taking out a home loan is a great burden to us but then when we want to buy a house that is what we have to go through. That is why it is always important to check out cheap mortgages and see what fits our requirements the most. Perhaps we could save a considerable amount of money!

Do you know, many of my friends have taken out personal loans just because they CAN? They think nothing of spending first and then repaying at the end of the month and most of them CAN’T repay on time because they have mismanaged their finances. It’s hard to feel pity for them, right?

There was once when my dad wanted to apply for a secured loan to get a sum of cash to expand his business. He wanted to use our house as collateral. We objected because if he failed to repay the money to the financial institution, we would be without a home. That is a scary thought!

I think that it is way to easy for people to apply for loans. Whether they are using it for something frivolous like a holiday or in an medical emergency, financial institutions should apply stringent checks so as not to cause further hardships to borrowers. What do you think?

Blogging

Feeling Bad Deleting Comments

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Since joining the DoFollow blogroll, I have an increased traffic and comments but although some comments are legitimate and on topic, I don’t know how I can approve comments by someone by the “name” of Teak Wood Furniture or Anti-Smoking eBook. I know that in order to place a fairly on topic comment, even though it is just a short line, these people did read my post, even if they only skimmed through the text.

I know I definitely can’t approve such comments that were left on my sponsored posts due to the competition but then when these were left on my organic posts, without a conflict of interest even though they just want some PR juice and a link back to their commercial site, I feel rather bad that I have deleted these comments. I mean, technically, I could let them be, but like I said, I don’t think I am that desperate to need to keep comments by Teak Wood Furniture.

However, I keep thinking that behind every handle is a REAL person. I pity that he is doing all these “work” for nothing. *sigh* Perhaps I am just thinking too much!

General

Getting Your Boat Covered

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I live rather near the beach and I have many friends who own boats. Some of these boats are commercial use some are private but in any event, they are all covered by insurance. Do you know that the sea is very fickle and could be unfriendly at any time, hence, people who go out to sea whether to catch fish as their livelihood or to go our on a sea excursion know that they have to get boat or dinghy insurance for their precious property and for the people too.

If we go out to sea without insurance coverage, we are actually playing with fire or taunting fate. My friends who own boats tell me that boat repair is very expensive and they cannot afford not to buy insurance for it. Why save that little money on insurance premium when it will save us a lot of money in the long run should anything unfortunate happen to the boat, right?

My friends, the boat owners, tell me that they even make it a ritual to check their insurance policy each time they plan to go out to sea. This is to make sure that their policy is still valid. I think this is a very good practise.

Computing & Internet

Apartment Finder

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This morning while surfing the internet, I came across a website which enables browsers to easily search for apartments. I remember my friend, Jason, telling me that he plans to move to an apartment by the end of the year. Being single and having to travel so much in the course of work, it is not practical or cost effective to continue renting a house.

With Jason in mind, I checked out ApartmentFinder.com and I really like their advanced feature of searching for available apartments for rent based on an address. I could even get results based on apartments that are near schools or other amenities. This is all made possible with the map-based search engine. I don’t think I have seen such a feature before on other similar websites.

Apartment Finder turns the chore of searching for an apartment into something fun. This is because that I could view photos and floor plans of all the apartments that I have found through the site. If this is not enough, I could take a tour of the place if I am so inclined.

I think that my discovery of Apartment Finder will help Jason look for his dream apartment easily. I just hope that he won’t seek my help in packing and moving :-)

Computing & Internet

Google AdSense For Mobile

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Logging into my Google AdSense account, I saw a new product called AdSense For Mobile. I was very excited because a friend of mine has a site which is doing very well with AdSense and I thought I’d let him know about this and thought that he has a lot of work ahead of him by making a mobile copy of his website.

However, to my dismay, upon checking the eligible countries, I note that Malaysia is left out. AGAIN! Why is Malaysia always left out of all the good things?? *sigh*

Google did include a note that they will be expanding Google AdSense for mobile to more countries in the near future but there is no set time frame. So, we will have to wait.

And by the way, will Google be giving us direct transfer anytime soon? We need to be shown some Google love over here!