Testing Blogger Mobile on Sony Ericsson P1

I came across Blogger Mobile (a software for blogging via smartphones) this morning as I was browsing with my Sony Ericsson P1. Out of curiousity, I decided to install it on my phone. After successful installation, I thought I will just test it out! Well, this post is the result of the testing.

I guess now I no longer have an excuse for not updating my blog. I only need to take a picture and send it with a click, lol. No much hassle, I'll have a new blog post here at my blog. An easy way out for a lazy blogger you'll say. I quite agree with you. The only issue now is the extra bucks I will need to pay to the phone company. They don't give MMS free, I have to pay for the data transmission ;-)

Busy But Guilty!

Well, I am back after a longtime AWOL. I wish to apologize to my readers for running off without any explanation. The truth is, I have been busy doing other things and I practically abandoned this blog. Too bad, it reminds me of a movie I watched titled "Busy But Guilty".

I felt guilty that I abandoned this blog which happens to be my first attempt at blogging. Well, I am back and I intend writing a minimum of one post per week.

Of course the blog will still be a personal diary showcasing what I consider interesting. You can come around to read my ramblings and make comments on those you consider interesting or educative. Thanks for visiting. Cheers.

4 Ways To Get Free Backlinks To Your Website

If you have a blog, you need traffic. Period. Regardless of how great you may think your blog is, if no one can find it you're dead in the water. Watching day by day go by without so much as a nibble.

That's where backlinks come into play. Backlinks are links that come from other sites and point to your blog posts. The more sites you have linking to you, the more likely you will receive traffic and the more likely that search engines will rank you higher in their search engine results pages.

Here are 4 make or break tactics to get those much-needed backlinks pointing to your blog.

1. Use Wordpress. If you aren't using Wordpress as your blogging platform of choice you're missing out on a whole world of traffic. It's important to note that you should be using Wordpress on your own server rather than using simply Wordpress.com. Having Wordpress on your own server opens up a world of options to you that Wordpress.com doesn't offer.
2. Create Linkbait. At first glance linkbait sounds like a bad thing. However, it's nothing more than making a blog post that gets people's attention. This could be something useful, something controversial, or something fun. Whichever you choose, make it interesting enough to get people to link to you.
3. Submit Your Blog. Submit your linkbait to places like StumbleUpon, Propeller and Digg.
Claim Your Blog. Be sure you sign up to Technorati and claim your own blog.
4.Submit Your Post to Social Bookmarking Sites. One quick and easy way to do this instead of visiting each individual social bookmarking site is to sign up to OnlyWire which will allow you to bookmark in multiple places online with one click of your mouse.

These are just four ways to get links back to your blog. There are multiple more ways but even these five ways will put your blog leaps and bounds over your competition.

It's not difficult by any means to use the tactics above but it will take a little time. Carve out a portion of your day and spend some time submitting those great blog posts of yours. Before you know it, you'll start to get noticed and nothing is more important than getting noticed online.

You can find more killer free tips as well as applications to generate backlinks quickly at KristineWirth.com. Taken from over 11 years of experience online, Kristine's once privately held information is now made available for free on her site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristine_Wirth

You Can Make Money By Blogging

Entrepreneurs make money blogging using two main types of business models. The most common way that people turn blogging into a profit making machine is to contact different companies that will want to reach your readers to buy advertising. Another way that money can be made is to help a single brand improve its image by creating a positive association between your blog and their product in the minds of purchasers. You can make lots of money with either method, especially if you use your marketing skills.

There are two basic ways that you can recruit companies to buy advertising on your site, if that is why you are blogging. If you want sponsors to put ads on your site you can let someone else take care of recruiting them or you can recruit them yourself so that all of the proceeds will go to you. If you don't have time to recruit sponsors, then you may want to do what many other people do. They make money through Google's AdSense program, which has numerous advantages. One of the best advantages is that it takes very little effort on the part of the blogger to start making money. Most people find, though, that they make less money than they had planned from their blog.

A more lucrative way of making money through blogging is by recruiting companies to put their ads and links on your blog yourself. You may want to do this yourself, especially if you have contacts in different companies that may be interested in advertising on your blog. If you have a sales background, you may also do very well in selling advertising yourself. The only problem with selling advertising directly to companies is that it will take a sizable readership to attract the companies to buy ads, and this means that you may have to complete several months of work before you begin to see the money through blogging.

Established companies are trying to find a way that they can get into the lucrative business of blogging. One of the ways that they are getting into the blogging business is by creating blogs to put a friendly face on their company. They will have an experienced blogger create a blog that will appeal to their prospective customers to create a positive attitude about their company and the brand that they are trying to sell. You would be surprised by the number of bloggers who didn't plan on making money blogging that have been contacted by a company with a substantial financial offer to blog for them.

You can make money blogging. You just need to learn about the different ways to make money so that you will be more knowledgeable about the process. Then you can type your way to making money.

Andrew McNaught is a successful webmaster and publisher of Online Business Central where you can find out lots more about online business including blogging.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_McNaught

Entrecard Team Offers 75,000EC in Contest!

The Entrecard Team is offering a chance for bloggers who are members of the community to win 2000EC and 15,000EC in two separate contests that are running concurrently. This contests are meant to promote the launch of their official ebook. The ebook is meant to serve as a guide to new bloggers joining the system. You can download the manual from here.

The ebook is free but you have to do one or two things to participate in the contests. To win the 2,000EC you need to make a post like this one on your blog and then drop a comment on the official Entrecard Blog. For the 15,000 Entrecard Credit you have to add a new blog to the one you already have on Entrecard or combine two separate blogs or more into one account. You can get more details about the contest here.

Permission to visit Blog?

You mean a blogger who is looking for traffic will at the same time lock up his/her blog and inform visitors that they are only allowed to visit the blog upon invitation. I hope it is not true. I for one have been begging cap in hand for increase in traffic. So I don’t really care if someone I don’t like or someone with opposing views visit my blog.

Everyone is welcome, the only issue is, I won’t allow anyone to post rubbish on my blog in the name of commenting. The worst a hater can do is to post his anger and resentment about my blog on his own blog.

I attempted visiting some blogs today, I was shocked to be confronted with the following error message

“This blog is open to invited readers only

http://xxxxxx.blogspot.com/

It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.

Meanwhile, I have visited the same blogs days before without invitation. It is interesting to note that some of these blogs belong to the Entrecard System. I guess, Graham will need to look into this.

A Satisfied Customer recommends Bansal-Inc

Last week, I purchased a domain name from Theme Lab via the Entrecard Shop. I was so impressed by the merchant that I made a post (A Satisfied Customer Recommends Theme Lab) about my experience. Yesterday, I had another wonderful experience. This time around, I bought a Linux-hosting package from Bansal-Inc.

The package was advertised by U3-Smart via the Entrecard Shop. At first, I was skeptical about parting with my hard earned EC (I have a very slow internet connection, so each drop is earned the hard way), however, when I remembered the experience I had with Theme Lab, I decided to go ahead with the transaction. The transaction was smooth. The merchant was customer-friendly and quite patient. He gave simple easy to follow directives on what I was required to do.

Sincerely speaking I was so impressed by the treatment I received that I made up my mind to do a post about my experience. This is my personal testimony. I also want to use the opportunity to commend the effort of the Entrecard Team for putting up the Shop and advertising merchants that are trustworthy.

If you're in doubt of the genuineness of the Entrecard Shop, I am giving you a reassurance that the system works. It would have been much more difficult for me to pay for a domain name and hosting plan because I do not have a PayPal account yet. Nigerians are still been denied the privilege of doing business online via PayPal. So Entrecard came to the rescue.

Note: This is not a paid review. It is rather the testimony of a satisfied customer. Bansal-Inc rocks! Long live Entrecard!

A Satisfied Customer recommends Theme Lab

I purchased a Domain name from Theme Lab today, via the Entrecard Shop. The whole transaction happened so fast and so smooth. I was so impressed by the dedication of the webmaster at Theme Lab to ensure that I got value for my money (Entrecard EC).

If you're in doubt of the genuineness of the Entrecard Shop, here is a testimonial from a fully satisfied customer of Theme Lab stating without sentiment that the system works. I actually look forward to doing more business with Theme Lab.

Note: This is not a paid review. It is rather the testimony of a satisfied customer and probably a challenge to other Entrecard Licensed Merchants. Theme Lab rocks! Thumbs up for the Entrecard Team!

Learn Basic Html Codes for free !

Yesterday, as I was stumbling from one website to another, I came across a website that provides free tutorial on Website Design’s and related topics. The curious one that I am, I got hooked. I spent over an hour learning basic HTML codes using the tutorials provided on the website.

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It was quite interesting. I felt it was a good investment of my time. I made some good discovery but much more, I was happy that I am learning how to go under the hood to see what really makes the engine tick.

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The website has an easy approach to the subjects such that as you learn one little code, you can practice it immediately and derive immense pleasure in seeing the code work. You don’t need to install any software or register for anything. Just invest a little time and have fun while accumulating knowledge at the same time.

I sure am going to learn a lot from there. This post is unique just because I have been able to apply some little tricks and tips I learnt from there. Enjoy!

Mission Accomplished!

Yes, the Goal is accomplished. Dumb as it may seem, I feel elated that I didn't abandon the tour because of other people's opinion. Did I learn anything? Yes, I learnt quite a few things. Here are the ones I consider most important.

• I learnt the power of setting Goal and putting a time limit.
• I learnt the importance of not celebrating success when you are 75% done. It is not over until you get the trophy.
• I learnt that there are many wonderful blogs and bloggers.
• Finally, I learnt that the Entrecard system is unique in the blogosphere.

See the last set of blogs I visited below.


Please note, PowerDropping was not the last blog I visited, it is actually one of the few I visit everyday, but I realised it wasn't in my list and yet the blog that was Number 1,000th was not displaying the Entrecard Widget, so I simply replaced the blog with PowerDropping which is more worthy of the unique position.

To all those who encouraged me I say a big THANK YOU! Also to all those who criticized and express how silly, stupid, un-innovative and dumb the Tour was I say a bigger THANK YOU! ;-)
Finally, to the Entrecard Team I say the biggest THANK YOU!!!
Entrecard Rocks!

Updated 2008: I had to remove the list of visited blogs and replace it with a poor screenshot because I got penalized by Google for having too much links on a page! (Did that when I was a noob. Now I know better) Maybe they will reconsider and return my PageRank.

Is my blog the Ugliest?

I wonder if my blog is the ugliest blog around. I received a visitor to my blog in the wee hours of today. The person was so angry with my statement that the blogs that I have visited can be categorised into the GOOD, the BAD, the UGLY and the WEIRD. The person under the camouflage of Anonymous dropped some unprintable words in the comment section.

I was just surprised that someone can get so upset when I have not pinpointed his or her blog as being the UGLY or the WEIRD! Anyone that has visited more than ten blogs in their lifetime will agree that some blogs layout design are simply ugly (maybe mine is among, you are left to judge) yet they have quality content! Yet some have beautiful designs but are simply lacking in quality content.

Since I did not call any blog names, I guess it is plain wickedness someone calling me unprintable names just because I viewed my opinion. After-all it is boldly stated that this blog is all about my online diary. If you don't like the content of my diary, you can simply write what you like in yours and share it :-) There is no need looking for who to pick a quarrel with.

All said and done, I think I have one of the ugliest LOGO, but I love it! It is copyright protected!!! (Just kidding, lol) Cheers.

Goal almost accomplished!

Yes, I've done about 90% of the tour. Now, I am optimistic that the February 29th deadline is a reality. Find below the Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Wierd. Not sorted into categories because I don't want to be sued! (Just kidding :-)

Update: List of blog removed because I got penalized by Google for pasting too many links in a post. :-( Hope they will reconsider and restore my PR!

My Entrecard Tour Continues!

I've been able to visit some more blogs. As usual, I met the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. However, some were weird. Find the long list below.

Update: List of blog removed 'cos I got penalized by Google!

The Entrecard Members’ Blog Tour Continues

I have resumed my Entrecard Blog tour after a long time off. I received quite a lot of encouragements from the comments posted on my initial post about the tour.

Just as a sign of reciprocating love, I ensured that the blogs I visited first were those of the people that posted those comments. Their blogs are first on the list posted below.

My experience today is not too different from that of other days. I saw a few blog that were not displaying the Entrecard widget. However, that did not bother me since I wasn’t out to acquire 1,000 credits by dropping cards. That can easily be achieved within 4days by continuous dropping.

I came across a lot of blogs with beautiful layouts and powerful contents. Overall, I think it is good to tour the blogosphere. You can only end up becoming a better blogger as you garner experience from the wisdom of other bloggers and learn how not to make the same mistakes that others have made.

The blogs I visited are posted below:

501. Blog Cherry 502. PlayThere 503. Environmentastic 504. TheSerie 505. TheSerie2 506. My Thoughts On Stuff 507. Animes 508. BenSpark 509. Bloody Computers 510. Imod 511. Texas Travel 512. Lee Doyle 513. Karlshome 514. Mums Home 515. Crazy Medical Cases 516. The Chaser's War on Everything TV 517. Klik Digital 518. Beyond Kewl 519. The WVb 520. MarkLloyd.org 521. Entrepreneurs Only 522. Energy This 523. Reyna Elena 524. Fam5 Blog 525. Blogging and Social Sites 526. Digital Order 527. Automoblog.net 528. Nothing Of Particular Interest 529. The Astonishing Adventures of Lord Likely 530. Gearfire 531. online discount shopping 532. Cool Things In Random Places 533. Black Zedd's Basic Literature 534. Blarguments 535. Inspired Money Maker 536. BlueStem Winery 537. AndroidGuys.com 538. Nissan Skyline GT-R's in the USA 539. 24 Hour Paradigm 540. High Stakes Living 541. Online Life Knowledge Experiment 542. Zack Wenthe 543. Change Your Tree 544. Drop Ship Digest 545. Sha Money Maker 546. rice for poor 547. Tom LeDree . Com 548. Internet Entrepreneur 549. Hot Wheels 550. Civil Engeering meets Transport Economics meets Supply Chain Management 551. Video Store Blues 552. Losing It - Getting Fit 553. Money Makers News 554. Just About Dogs 555. Algorithm Betting 556. Investing Adventures 557. GeekSpeak 558. Hawaiian Blog 559. Speedvine 560. Mostly True Stories 561. BudgetCents Blog 562. Heart of Wisdom 563. Crooked Pitch 564. i am jack's design 565. ATV Style 566. Cardielos 567. YOUTUBE MOST VIEWED VIDEO 568. BOS: Seasons 569. Truth About Life 570. A journey towards a better me 571. Geiger 572. Andrew Benton 573. Chicken Fried Therapy 574. Listen, Are you Listening? 575. All Souled Out 576. Contest Beat 577. Adrian Corscadden - Observations of a Student 578. WillYouMind 579. Blank Canvas 580. Gadget District 581. iPentimento 582. StockTube Make Money Online 583. Hollywood's Hot and Sexy Men 584. The Genetic Genealogist 585. 30 Day Man 586. Pizza Recipes 587. People Management 588. Taszara 589. moneyonmoney 590. Keeping Children Safe Online 591. mimijude.blogspot.com 592. MyAnimes MySpace 593. Contestu.com 594. :: Beautiful :: 595. Breaking The Silence 596. Deb on the Rocks 597. Hacking Your Small Business 598. My Olympic Space 599. WeDreaming 600. Bloggings of a Domain Flipper 601. VP Online! 602. Life & Trends 603. Bakla Ako, May Reklamo? 604. Second-Life Fashion & Social Network 605. Atomic Popcorn Movie and TV reviews 606. Learning About Natural Healing 607. Letters To Businesses 608. Orangeinks 609. Broken Perfection 610. Trend Spike 611. I'm not that girl anymore... 612. Young Urban Professionals nOOk 613. The Optimizer SEO News 614. The 1000 Push Ups Club 615. Earn Blogger 616. Blogs That Make Money 617. JoeTech.com 618. John's Tech Blog 619. A.K.A. Mum 620. Idiocrasies Of The English Language - That are fun and funny ' 621. Do Know Evil 622. Baddieverse 623. WeirdTube.tv 624. The Habitation of Justice 625. Tech, How to, Review, Computer, Linux, Dog, Make Money Online 626. GorillaSushi 627. Beauty Recipes 628. My Chronic Life 629. Aloe Vera Blog 630. Impnerd 631. The Hustler 632. Bebo Author 633. On the Horizon 634. No Nonsense Internet Tips 635. Widgets Lab 636. Contestime 637. Latest Free Downloads from iTunes 638. Entrecard 639. Paul Hartrick Dot Com 640. Link Bait Me 641. My Blog 642. Urutora no Hiv 643. Eavesdrop Writer Blog 644. TheRatingBlog.com 645. Bloggin-Ads 646. Debo Hobo dot Com 647. Stephan Miller 648. Article Specialist 649. Make Money Online With Etienne Teo 650. Cardiogirl: 19% body fat 100% fun 651. Truebluetitan 652. Black Tennis Pro's 653. ThinRedLine

Entrecard - The Bloggers' First Choice

Call it whatever you like. Entrecard is making wave and it has come to stay. Few big time bloggers are calling the traffic generated by this community-effort junk-traffic. In my opinion that is just a way of letting out their frustration that the system is not recognizing them. The system cares less, who you are. As long as you visit and drop cards on other's site, you must have traffic.

For the past two months, I have visited blogs and website that I might not have visited in the next 5years irrespective of how much advertisement they might buy from Google and the rest advertisers.

The system put in place by Entrecard is so natural. It is like visiting individuals in their homes one by one. Of course, the response is quite encouraging. If you call at my home as a friend and drop a note, it is most likely that I will want to check on you too. If for nothing else, just to reciprocate the love shown.

Beside this, the rewarding system put in place by the Entrecard team has turned out to be another unique innovation on the internet. Gone are the days that you can only buy things if you have PayPal or credit cards. Now I can buy advertisement, books and some other things and actually pay using the Entrecard Credits that I have accumulated. This might not mean so much for those of you readers in developed countries. For some of us in third world countries it is a great relief.

For some months now, I have been having a serious challenge. I wanted to purchase some services over the net, but the companies are not willing to have anything to do with me just because I do not own a credit card. Yet I have the physical cash to pay. They don't want wire transfer, they don't want Western Union and that is it. Maybe in few months to come, they will be willing to accept EntreCash! :-)

I personally look forward to more innovation from the Entrecard Team. Bloggers that are members of the Entrecard communities too have been developing wonderful ideas. I guess Google and other advertisers will have to buckle up. Thumps up to Entrecard!

Which hosting company? BlueHost vs Hostgator

Having settled the name I want to call my new blog, the next hurdle was that of choosing the webhosting company to use. Since I planned a lean budget, I had to look for the manageable quality at affordable price J. A tough one isn’t it.

After spending hours reading reviews and checking out forums, I have zeroed down to two choices. But picking the best of the two is difficult. There are too many users praising both. So, I said to myself, why not seek the opinion of my readers and fellow bloggers, they will be more sincere since they are not marketing either of the two companies.

So, in your candid opinion, which do you prefer and why? Waiting for your comments! Thanks.

I got Spammed!

I never appreciated the need for activating comment moderation on my site until today. For the first time since I started my blog in July, 2007, I got spammed today. See below the comment.

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barb michelen said...

Hi again, see tthis is the site i told you i signed up to. It has some nice information about how to make money using OPP, i think you might find it interesting. here it is. bye!

January 19, 2008 4:06 PM

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I suspected that this comment was a spam because the commentator sounded as if I have had previous contact. So, I went ahead to check out the supposed commentator's blog and there was none. After that I checked the "here it is" link and it was one of those "Get Rich Quick" sites. I was asked to pay $99 as if I have stolen money that I don't know how to spend. I didn't stop there, I googled the name and I was not surprised to see that the same "robot" has been dropping spam comments on other blogs. That was it!

I quickly fired up my blog's admin page and activated comment moderation and word verification.
I never wanted to because I felt that people should not be restricted from dropping their candid opinions (without me tinkering it) on my post as fast (without being forced to type jargons dictated my a computer) as they can! But then, I don't want to share my blog with "robots".

So, I am apologizing in advance to my regular visitors for the inconvenience the word verification may cause you! Thanks for keeping this blog alive. Without your patronage, I won't be inspired to put down my ramblings. Enjoy!

N.B - Please, drop your comment about this issue. I might learn something new! Thanks.

Choosing the Right Domain Name

There are millions of blogs and websites already in existence on the world wide web. Yet, many more are being launched each day. Each one is christened with a name that is deemed unique enough to differentiate it from the millions that are already in existence.

So, how do I choose a name that is: (1) Unique (2) Easy to remember (3) Relevant to my content (4) Contains my keywords for SEO

I have been reading a lot of materials and visiting websites in the past one week. I desire to have my blog on a paid hosting platform. But choosing a name that reflects what I want to achieve has been a difficult decision to make.

The blog is meant to be a business blog. Not a diary like this one. It will be focusing on making money by rendering services online. My target audiences are: Newbie bloggers looking for tips, Newbie Online Entrepreneurs and bloggers from the developing nations. (A very large market ;-)

I have been made to understand that choosing the right name is like having a solid foundation for my website. Here are the issues I need to take into consideration:

• The name must be unique, else there will be branding problem. Imagine me registering JohnChow.com (lol) of course it is impossible to register a name that is already in use. Also, I don’t want to be a copycat or a duplicate, so I won’t register JohnChowJr.com

• The domain name must be simple and easy for any dummy to remember without searching in Google (lol). The ability of would be visitors to remember the website name without assistance is very crucial. Their repeated visit might just depend on it. So it is better to combine simple meaningful words to form the domain name than to use complicated words such as w9jfq4gy.com

• I should avoid hypens and dash. They can be confusing. During my tour, I came across some beautiful sites that I would have love to revisit. However, since I failed to write their address down, and I wasn’t in the mood to add them to my bookmarks, attempts to return to same sites were frustrating. I couldn’t remember where the hyphens and dash were suppose to be this_is-an_example.com

• My domain name must be relevant to the goal of the website. It is needless naming a website that deals with pets as motherandchilddelight.com this will attract the wrong category of visitors and the goal of the website will most likely be defeated.

The domain name if possible should contain at least one or two of my keywords (SEO). That one is the greatest headache I’m having now. It seems all the keywords have been overused!

That’s about the summary of all I have learnt. Now, I want to appeal to you my reader to come to my help. What is your advice? Should I use a name like nigerianbloggers.com or just my personal name like johnchow.com Thanks in advance.

My Entrecard Tour Day 4

I’ve been very busy since yesterday. Keeping to my schedule of tour was extremely difficult as I had to leave my desktop constantly for urgent official assignments. However, I am pleasantly surprised to discover that I have been able to achieve 50% of my target already within these four days.

Of course I had to make a lot of sacrifices. For example, I couldn’t visit my favorite blogs. I had to keep to the plan for the tour. Also, some of the blogs I visited were actually frustrating. They contained too many multi-media contents such that they upload at snail speed. However, my worst experience so far was a blog that I personally classify as “an adult content blog” http://lordlikely.co.uk. I was embarrassed visiting the blog. Of course it will be the last time I visit the site.

Since, I have accomplished 50% of the goal I set for myself. I am going to give myself a break for some days. I will still be visiting sites and dropping cards, but I will not do the tedious work of taking note of the address or number of sites that I visit per day until I resume the tour.

Find below the sites that I visited today. Some of them do not have the Entrecard Widget on them though, so I couldn’t really fully benefit from my laborious visit to those ones. Cheers.

Update: List of blog removed 'cos I got penalized by Google!

My Entrecard Tour Day 3

It has been quite exciting visiting the Entrecard Members Sites. My tour today took me to several sites. I was able to visit a total of 150 sites. That brings the total sites that I have visited to 253blogs.

I have learnt some useful lesson during the course of this tour and I hope to learn some more before it ends. Also, I have made some new friends. Hopefully, God willing, the tour will continue tomorrow. For the current list of the sites visited, you can check my post Goal - Visit 1,000 Entrecard Members sites Cheers.