Blogger Tips: Earn By Selling Links with Ask2Link

I’ve been looking for ways to monetize my other sites. I haven’t been really that successful with Google Adsense with my other blogs and I’m far more interested in finding other ways to earn money from my blogs. A year ago, a blogger friend suggested selling links. Hmmm, interesting. I have tried out two well-known text links companies for my blogs and I just love it! Regular monthly income and I don’t do anything but update my blogs and generally keep it alive.

This made me far more interested in selling text links as a way to earn from blogs and I’ve been looking around for similar companies that could help me sell text links. Then I found Ask2Link from another blog and I signed up. Getting things started with them is real easy. I’ve just installed the widget and once you’re done, your site will be up in their marketplace. It does help to have a PR when you sign up though.

Why I like Ask2Link? (1) You have the freedom to choose your links selling price. (2) Its easy to sign up. (3) Their text link ads are non-obtrusive. You can easily blend it in your sidebar.  (4) No minimum payout. Now this is a really good point. They pay every month so even if you just earned a small amount you don’t have to wait to enjoy it. (5) Publishers are accepted no matter where you are. (6) Full control of text link ads you add to your site. (7) And best of all, they support more varieties of website platforms even WORDPRESS.COM and BLOGSPOT blogs.

Before I had a hard time looking for text link brokers that accept  wordpress.com and blogspot sites but Ask2Link does. So, I had been trying this out on some of my Blogspot blogs. I’m still waiting to get my first link and hopefully it’ll be soon. Check out Ask2Link website and sign up to earn from your blogs.

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I Totally Forgot..

To Renew THIS DOMAIN! For those who dropped by late last Sunday and early Monday, I’m so sorry. Pinaywifespeaks went on a short holiday =). I own several domains and all of them I bought from GoDaddy and domain management has been a breeze for those domains.

I’ve forgotten that this domain – Pinaywifespeaks, I have registered elsewhere,then transfered to Hostgator. I haven’t been checking my email and Hostgator has been emailing me about the expiring domain. Then I checked the site last Monday coz my cousin said something weird was coming out when she types in my URL, and my blog site was replaced by a webpage selling adult toys and photos. Hehe so this sent me in a panic mode, and I was thinking, ‘Has my site been hacked?? Who would even bother to hack this?’

I then contacted Hostgator’s 24/7 tech support and you can imagine my relief when they said that its simply a case of the domain expiring. Ok, I just love Hostgator’s support team. They are very accommodating and patient in guiding a semi-crazy person like me. I’m not very familiar with renewing domains and billing with Hostgator but the guy from tech support guided me all throughout. Few minutes and less than $20 later, I had my domain back. Whew! I should really set a reminder about this. I’ll probably be putting this on auto-renewal mode so this won’t happen again.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Pinaywifespeaks

Time passed by just like a breeze and I was browsing through my archives that I realized February 2008 was when I first started with this blog. And now its hard to believe that I have been at it for 2 years already. There where reasons why I didn’t blog earlier, but I’m glad I did.

This blog has been my virtual playground, a place to take out my frustrations, to rant and vent. How many times did I mess up with my Wordpress installation – read posts here and here, that time when I forgot that I exceeded my bandwidth limitations, my paranoia about transferring web hosting, how many times the whole site went into frenzy just because I could not get enough of tweaking the themes?  It’ll be an understatement if I say I learned something from blogging. I should say, I learned a lot. I also discovered a lot of things about myself and blogging..

…That I have the aptitude for things technical and for tweaking this and that. For understanding what’s behind the blog – the themes, the plugins, the site structure etc.

…That yeah, though I’m not a great writer I can work on it and practice more, still some people somehow survive reading my entries

…That yahoo! I could actually earn from blogging! This blog supports itself. My initial outlay was for the domain registration only, while the monthly hosting bills are all taken care of out of the blog’s earnings. I know some blogging purists would say inserting paid links is something almost like a crime but hey! this is my blog, I’m sure people who visit understands that while I love to blog, write, share thoughts, I’m still a practical person, I don’t have bottomless pits of money to support the blog, so occasional paid links are fine and I do strive my best to be discrete and choosy about paid links.

…  I realized I could actually find lots of people who share the same views, who could somehow appreciate what I have to say. I love receiving emails and comments from readers. Some would email me when they are coming over to Cambodia, asking for travel advice, some would give me suggestions, some would critique a post.. This is for me, is one of the most gratifying things about blogging – connecting with people who reads the blog.

… that I could actually find friends through this blog. I found friends I could constantly correspond with through email, some blogging friends from all over, and here in Phnom Penh, I found a great set of Filipina friends (Zarah, Josiet, Che..)  all thanks to blogging.

Blogging has been a superb learning experience for me. Being able to earn from it is an added bonus and I love the extra income I get out of blogging. So what’s in store for this blog for the next year? More posts, just more.. Things I dunno yet, so do keep visiting, explore and experience blogging with Pinaywifespeaks.

Changes, Changes and A New Blog

I’ve been doing the laundry this morning and its one of the chores around the house that I don’t particularly enjoy. And since I almost loathe it, I would usually allow my mind to wander and ironically this is usually the time when ideas and plans are best conceptualized.

Here’s what I’ve been mulling on while the sheets were being laundered. I’ve decided to make more changes to this blog. When I first started this I really had no idea what this will be all about, more like a random thoughts – personal blog thing. Then it just evolved by itself I guess and just last year I made changes to organize all posts. For sometime, Pinaywifespeaks.com  has been my blog for musings about living in Cambodia, about life in the Philippines, and also about blogging and the web.

I found myself getting more and more immersed in Cambodian culture and lifestyle so lately that seemed to be what I had been constantly writing about. So then from now on this would be focusing mainly on three things:

• Living in Cambodia and exploring Cambodian culture
• of course, Philippines is still home for me, so expect some occasional posts about Pinas
• and my other passion, Travel. Just featuring travels, places, travel promos and deals.

I’ll be removing the blogging and web categories soon. Though previous posts on these categories will still remain under Exploring the Web category. I will be running a featured Cambodian blog soon too.

Last year, on a whim I registered another domain – Lui-bloggera.com, then I promptly forgot about it and it has been sitting on my hosting account like a wet blanket. I should really bang my  head often on the wall! It’s time I make use of this domain and not let it go to waste.

I’m developing it into a new personal blog where I could blah blah about my other interest. Topics would be…

• blogging – Wordpress, earning with blogs, blogging tips etc,
• trend hunting –   i love trends! ,
• latest buzz  - celebs, gossip, luxury lifestyle,tech, fashion – yeah I’ll be indulging my gossiping tendencies a bit..

I’ll be awfully busy these next few days to get this off the ground and I’m super excited. =) I guess I’ll be loosing some sleep over this and getting some pimples again, but that’s nothing acne scar removal creams can’ t take care of. I’m always excited about new things, new projects.  Things are looking up and I do hope you check out my latest blog – Lui-Bloggera.com..

Duh! Is PPP Really That Cheap?

I know it’s Christmas season, but I’m not talking about any shopping. I’m referring to one paid to blog/review program which has been around for sometime already. One way I keep my blogs going is by doing reviews and this one has been a source of good review opportunities in the past.

Sadly, the past year, it doesn’t really have much to offer in terms of good opps not just in price but the sites that are offered for review. I’m quite picky when it comes to websites that I link to. So I found myself doing less and less work for them.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to check out what’s new with their site and lol! I was really surprised with the offers there. $.50 for a post? And they have a lot of requirements aside from the link! And they also have the nerve to demand PR3 or higher..Is it really that cheap? I realize that we are in dire times now, the marketplace is brimming with more bloggers waiting to write review but come on! $.50???

It’s not like I’m asking for payment enough for me to take florida vacations (but that’s okay too..), but those prices are simply too cheap. I know I can’t do anything about it, its their company’s decision to do that, but I won’t be writing reviews for them anymore. Not really a loss, as I have some more much reliable blog for reviews company who offer regular opportunities at fair prices.

Keeping Busy..

I’m in a bit of a crabby mood since Monday.. Oh, did I mention it was holiday again last Monday here in Cambodia? Anyway, we did accomplish a lot this past weekend. Played around with my little garden, re-potted some of my orchids. Hi-ace even bought a really big pot, filled it with water coz he and Chinks are planning to grow lotus or lilies as well as grow some fish. Cool idea and they are having a blast..

I had been building several new websites including Hi-ace’s (..I’m not publishing the link yet.. hehe when its ready..) as well as some other new niche blog sites. I want to experiment with different streams of income I could get online.  Some will have Adsense etc, some will focus on doing reviews, some I intend to build to sell text links in the future. The thing is, once the site is up and running, what then takes time is of course, content writing and building links. This could be really tedious, from exchanging links to directory submission, etc. So here I am really slaving but making money online is just as tough as having your own business and you really have to put in much effort. Not that I’m complaining, in fact I find it really interesting and fun.

I also got myself sunburned!! And obviously I’m not happy about it. I mean who would but anyway I did enjoy myself despite the burnt skin. Last Monday, we went to a pagoda somewhere in the nearby province. We all opted to ride a tuk-tuk haha just for the experience and for sure I did enjoy the countryside more so I was always sticking my face out of the tuk-tuk hence the sunburns. Will write more about the pagoda visit soon.. It was definitely interesting! Another unique insight to Cambodian culture.

For now, I’m staying inside the house since I don’t want to aggravate my already roasted skin. And I’m also getting a lot of writing done. I also felt like doing some reading again. Light reading preferably something for young adults. There are times I like doing this, it’s refreshing to read not so serious stuff so I picked Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series. I know I watched the movie but after reading the first book, its different and I think the book was better. The whole series has 10 books plus some short novels (Meg Cabot calls it ‘half’ books) and  I’m on the 5th book already (see I got hooked!)  and I’m actually feeling better! Ahh!! Sometimes, I do wish I was still a teenager with nothing to worry about but my acne or what dress to pick for my prom.

Bye for now. I have to feed the fish! Why is that I’m given this task? I mean it was their idea in the first place to have these fishes so why am I the one tasked to feed it regularly? I guess I was simply outvoted.

10 Steps to Faster Blog Indexing

I don’t profess to be an expert on blogging but after a two years of setting up blogs I learned a lot. I’ve set up dozens of blogs already. And the start-up phase is usually the most hectic and confusing part if you are not sufficiently organized. To make things easier for me I made myself a Wordpress set-up guide as well as blog indexing guide.

As soon as we have a blog set up of course, we’d want to have our blog indexed in search engines. But how do we do that? Blogs can actually get indexed without you doing anything except to post and update it. Especially if you are using Wordpress and set up the Ping Options.But if you go by this route, indexing may take time.Thankfully, there are lots of things you can do to have your blogs indexed faster.

Let me share my blog indexing guide list. Be sure to have at least 2-4 posts on your blog before you start doing this. This list has made things really easier for me.

10 Steps to Faster Blog Indexing:

1. Submit site to Google, Yahoo Directory, MSN, DMOZ..
2. Claim blog with Technorati.
3. Join BlogCataglog and MyblogLog and claim blog. – I find this very helpful and they send some traffic also once you have a community. They also publish a snippet of your RSS feed.
4. Submit blog to Blog and Website Directories.- There are countless free web directory sites to submit to,and it can be a little overwhelming. So choose a couple of sites and do it little by little and you don’t really need to submit to all of them. There are also softwares for website submissions you might want to have a look at that.
5. Blog hop and leave comments on several blogs. – But do make sure your comments are relevant to the blog posts. You wouldn’t want to be branded as a spammer, right? In any case, leaving comments and connecting with other bloggers is one of fun perks in blogging.
6. Exchange links with related blogs. – How? For me, simply asking nicely gets the best results. A lot of bloggers are open to exchanging links.
7. Join Entrecard and add widget to your blog. – I know some would say Entrecard is passe but I still get a good number of visitors from Entrecard without even doing much Entrecard dropping.
8. Write a profile page or add blog URL to your social networking profiles. – If you have personal profiles in sites like Facebook, YouTube, Linkd In, Twitter, MySpace, Plurk (the list is actually endless..) then make use of it and link to your site.
9. Bookmark your URL or one of your posts in Social Bookmarking sites. – Digg, Delicious, Furl, Propeller etc..
10. Post in relevant forums and add your blog url on your profile signature. – Search for niche forums and sign up. Make sure your forum posts are relevant to the discussions. You can find related niche forums using forum search engines like www.boardtracker and www.boardreader.com.

Tip: Have your details handy when you’re submitting in directories. I find it really helpful to have my URL, Site Title, Site Description, Email (most directories will email for confirmation), RSS Feed URL. Have this ready in a notepad to make submissions faster.

a Lazy Update..

So what’s up with me? I should have been updating this but things are getting really hectic this past week. For one its Pchum Ben Festival here in Cambodia so we had been hopping to some pagodas last weekend. Curious about Pchum Ben Festival? It’s the Cambodian festival for Commemorating the Spirits of the Dead. Much like All Soul’s Day and usually extends for 15 days for Khmers and one of the festivals that Khmers really take to heart. I’ve done a fair bit of research on that and will be posting it soon. Hmmn, living in Cambodia is certainly opening my mind to new things about Cambodian culture.

I am also in the midst of working on several different web projects. Some blogs and a full blown website so its taking a lot of my time. I’m spending about 12-14 hours in front of the PC even forgetting to eat sometimes which is simply not healthy but I console myself by thinking I don’t have to rush around looking for the best fat burner just to get rid of my scary love handles.

Tomorrow I’ll have a bit of time to relax and take some rest as the projects are almost done and its holiday here so hubby and Chinks don’t have school (meaning I could get lots of help around the house ).

Will update the soonest..

Blogging Chronicles: This site almost went pfft! again..

I’m hardly an expert in Wordpress, in fact after a year of using it, I still have a lot to learn. One particular thing I love Wordpress is the multitude of plugins available to add  this and that to you blog. Its one of the things that makes Wordpress really a standout as a CMS, not just as a blogging platform. Plugin developers also extend great support, but if I can’t find any solution to my Wordpress debacles, the codex and the forums is where I can easily turn to for answers.

Just like this weekend, I had my Wordpress installation upgraded to the latest version 2.8. For reviews of WP version 2.8 you can find good reads here, here and here. Though the version doesn’t offer gigantic changes from the previous versions, I still decided to upgrade because the changes to the widget admin area I find particularly helpful.

The only problem was that, after upgrading to the latest version and viewing my blog, presto! all my sidebars were gone. All widgets in the admin area were still there, so I wondered what went wrong again. I changed my theme thrice, the same thing happened. That’s why this site was in maintenance mode for 24 hours. I’ve checked out the forums for what went wrong and hmm, it must be the plugins. But which one? Geez, I’m using almost 30 plugins and now I have to sift through all of them, deactivate, reactivate one by one. know there is a tool to check, but there was a time it failed me so I decided to do it one by one. It turned out the plugins I installed for the photo galleries were not up to the current version yet.

Thank God, everything is up and running now. And of course, I’ve given Pinaywifespeaks a new “attire” with a new theme – Atahualpa with custom rotating headers. I just love this WP theme it can be easily be customized with more than 200 elements you can tweak and you can completely modify the look of your blog withouh much HTML or CSS knowledge. I’m so enamored with this theme, I’ve even used it also on my latest blog about Asia asia – Pinkchopsticks.

So now everything is working well and good but I still need to find a photo gallery plugin that would suit what I have in mind (if you know of a nicely styled gallery plugin, drop me a note ^o^). I have a free ad spot banner page which I keep promising myself I would update real soon plus I already have some new free banner graphics up for grabs so I have to upate it soon enough. More work to do..

Blogging and Bathroom Blues

Curious at the title? What does a bathroom and blogging have to do with each other. I know I’ve been neglecting my blogs for a couple of weeks already.  For one thing, I don’t have yet a reliable internet connection at home. ISP’s here charge astronomical fees for not so good services. My complaints about about internet services here in Phnom Penh is really enough to fill several post.

I digressed.. Another reason I’ve not been blogging aside from the ISP concerns, a busy schedule, is that I’ve broken a toe when I slipped in the bathroom. So it’s the bathrooms fault I haven’t updated my blogs as much as I needed to..hehe.Not only did I slip, but a big bottle of shampoo fell on my toenail so now I’m also holding a funeral for my toenail. Grrr! The pain was really excruciating and for several days I’ve been in agony lazing about the house unable to do much.

I often thought bathroom safety products doesn’t really have much use. Serious injuries can occur in the bathroom and well, I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. Bathrooms should be safe to use particularly if there are children and elderly in the house. After the incident, we have taken to installing safety grab bars and non-slip mats on the bath.

Now I’m pretty much back to normal except for my dead toenail, I’m good to go now. We’re planning a weekend trip to the southern coast of Cambodia and thankfully my toe is all healed enough for me to go.

Guide to Moving from BLOGGER to WORDPRESS

I started blogging with Blogger. Why? It’s a free service, it can be easily navigated and customized by someone as non-techie as me. However, like most bloggers who have grown to be serious about blogging, I wanted to have more flexibility so I decided to switch to Wordpress blogging.

Wordpress blogs are more flexible and customizable, it is search engine friendly and it has a large support community as well as lots of add-ons like plugins and themes to make your blog better.

Don’t get me wrong, Blogger is a great free service but if you have your own domain, consider moving on to Wordpress.At first I was hesitant to make the transfer because I thought installation and its management is complicated and I feared losing Pagerank, traffic as well as the permalink structure of my Blogger blog.

With the launch of Wordpress 2.2 though, IMPORTING from other blogging platforms have been seamlessly integrated already with Wordpress.I have successfully managed to transfer one of my previously Blogger hosted blog, CelebrityAdsOnline to Wordpress and this a guide on how transferring from Blogger to Wordpress.

1. Get your own domain and your host. Change your NameServers and use the one’s specified by your new host. Domain propagation would take a few hours.

2. Install Wordpress. Most web hosts include Wordpress in their control panels. Login to your Cpanel, select FANTASTICO, select WORDPRESS, click on new installation. Fill in the required data and voila! your new wordpress is installed. If your host doesn’t include WORDPRESS in their easy install menu, you have to manually install it. Don’t despair though, Wordpress CODEX has a step-by-step guide for that.

3. Fix your PERMALINKS structure. LOGIN to your WORDPRESS (admin page is usually at www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin).

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Choosing a Value for Money Web Hosting

One of the most important considerations for bloggers and site owners is a reliable and budget friendly web host. Cheap web hosting is widely available on the net. There are literally scores of web hosts on the net that sometimes it could be difficult to choose which one would meet our needs.

First things first, you have to know yourself what you will need. Decide on how much disk space or storage as well as bandwidth you need. You may also want to look into a webhost who accepts add-on domains in case you want to have more than one site in the future.

Consider also the technical support as well as customer service you will be getting. Are you able to contact support at any time? Check the background of the webhost you choose. Read reviews and recommendations of their clients.It really pays to look around and check if the company has a solid reputation.

Check what are the offerings they have in their hosting plans. Depending on what site you want to build, you will be requiring softwares, installations etc and your host should allow this. Example if you want to have an ecommerce site, your webhost should have the facilities needed to setup an ecommerce site.

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Sporting a New Theme..

I had the itch again.. Not to scratch but to change my theme. You see, I have several things cooking for this blog and I wanted a theme with clean lines, 3 columns, preferrably with neutral colors, with tabs on top so I could have my pages prominently up there.

There are literally thousands of themes out there with new ones being lauched everyday that I found it so hard to choose. Would you believe it took me two days just to decide which one to load up? I finally chose the Statement theme by BlogOhBlog. I like the look of it, with posts highlighted and the clean, sleek lines.

This is the 3rd time this blog changed “clothes”. I love tweaking my themes and I usually end up messing things but I don’t mind coz I learn something along the way.. (Mostly to back up in case I really mess up lol!). The first theme I ever used was the Inbiz theme which stayed for more than six months, then last October I shifted to the Blue Grey theme, and now the Statement theme..

This made me reminisce how this blog used to look like…

So, how’d you find the new look?

How I Make Money On the Net with My Blog Sites

I’ve been blogging for more than a year already and it’s a really great hobby for me. I enjoy it, I love the tweaking part – “construction phase” of blogging, researching my content, writing posts, meeting fellow bloggers, and one of the best perks of blogging is that you can EARN from it.

Like me, at first, new bloggers might be wary that there are no legitimate means to make money online because of the presence of many scams and fly by night sites offering money making schemes. But as I explored the net and tried out various ways to earn online, there are actually earning methods online that are FREE and legitimate.

WRITING REVIEWS – one of my favorite ways to earn online.Majority of my online income when I first started blogging came from this. Sometimes I just don’t have the diligence to watch out and grab opportunities and I would just get reviews twice a week but I would still manage to earn about $150 – $200 per month for 2 blogs I use to write reviews. Not bad right? Enough to pay my hosting fee and a cup of frappuccino several times a week . That takes less than 6 hours of my time per week and I have some blogger friends who earn at least $400 per month just out of reviews.

There are review sites online and I’ve listed some of those I have joined and my thoughts on their services.

BLOGSVERTISE – easy to join, fast approval and they have a lot of regular opportunities.Reviews are assigned by admin and are priced around $7 to $15 and usually require 3 links from a 2-3 paragraph review. Once your review gets approved you will be paid after 30 days and from my experience they are one of those sites that really pay regularly. I’ve noticed that there are more review opps for home, furnishigs, lifestyle products here.Best of all, they accept blogspot or other free platform blogs.

SPONSOREDREVIEWS – one of my favorites. Easy to join, free hosted blogs are okay, and lots of available opportunities. This one though, you have to be active in bidding for review opp you want to write and the advertiser will ultimately decide if you can write it or not. So page rank, alexa as well as your blog content matters.Two things I like about SR is (1) their opps are priced reasonably well and (2) they pay every 2 weeks so you don’t have to wait out for a month to get your earnings.

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Prayer Tag and Link for the Philippines and the Filipinos

Instructions

This is a prayer tag and link for the Philippines and the Filipinos. You are enjoined to utter this prayer for nine (9) consecutive days and to tag as many bloggers as you can with preference for Filipinos. But only bona fide Filipinos shall be included in the official registry of Filipino bloggers in this blog. Each time a new blogger makes a link, be sure to send me an email of the entire link through melalarilla@gmail.com so that the official list will be consolidated in a master list in this blog. For our Muslim brothers, you may make your own special prayer formula but you must never deviate from the formula of this entire post.

Prayer
Dear heavenly Father, we consecrate to you our beloved country- the Philippines and all the Filipinos around the world. We acknowledge Father that apart from You, we can do nothing and it is only your divine providence and grace that can unite all Filipinos as one nation. We therefore humble ourselves before your throne. We confess all our sins to you individually and collectively as a nation. Forgive us our sins Father and wash us clean by the precious blood of Your beloved Son- Jesus Christ. Mend our wicked ways and let us experience a strong and genuine spiritual revival for ourselves and for our country. Let the Holy Spirit imbibe us with power, love and wisdom to return to Your path of holiness and righteousness. Bless our country, heavenly father. Bless all Filipinos wherever they maybe. Let progress, unity, harmony, stability, justice, peace and prosperity reign in our country.

Bless our leaders, from the President down to the lowest Barangay official. Touch their hearts that they may serve our country with all honesty and with love and integrity. Bless our children and our future generation. And bless us all Father in all aspects of our lives. This we pray to You heavenly Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
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Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)

It’s not as if this blog is that great but yes I do feel great to have found blogging as a hobby. My enthusiasm in creating this blog have really pushed me to learn things I did not really know before. Things I thought to be difficult, I have managed to learn just for the sake of making my blog sites work.

2008 was a great year for me as a blogger. It is when I started this blog, when I have started to explore the net with new possiblities. It is also when I’ve met several online friends who had been great supporters and I also found really outstanding blogs which has been a source of inspiration for me.

This site still has a lot of work needed but I am all fired up to keep it going and improving it. For one, I really have to consolidate the topics. I’ve posted about a wide range of topics that I find it confusing myself. So I have already made categories I will write about in this site as well as for the other sites I maintain.

For Pinaywifespeaks, I’d be writing more on these topics: Cambodia; home; parenting; money matters; travel;  culture and traditions; blogging and internet; fun, bizaare and entertainment and personal thoughts.

For my Blogger blog, Pinaywife Atbp – general (smorgasbord); fashion; photos; health and fitness; home and living; shopping; DIY tips; food and recipes; Philippines.

My other blogs have fairly focused niches. For CelebrityadsOnline – Asian celebrity profiles, photo galleries, TV and print ads. For Laugh Out Loud, just humor! For Desserthaven, yummy, sinful dessert recipes. For Template Frenzy, all free blogger templates…

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50 Personal Blog Posting Ideas

There times when I really feel like updating my blog yet no matter how much I try to squeeze a post out of my head I still come up with nothing.That is one reason why I always keep a small notebook with me wherever I go so I could write down ideas that just prop up. Ideas usually come up when I’m drinking coffee in some corner cafe especially when I can hear some interesting conversation around me, when I’m lining up in the grocery, waiting for my turn in the bank, the dentist’s clinic, or waiting in terminals.

Notepad is also one of my bestfriends. When I’m surfing the net I would always have my Notepad open to jot down interesting sites, news and possible posting ideas. For the past year that I have been blogging I have accumulated a smorgasboard of notes, and managed to fill up three small notebooks.

I’ve started making this list about some personal stuff I would want to write about. These are all just random, simple and cutesy topics but writing about them would reveal a bit more of the real person behind the blogger. For personal bloggers who are experiencing some lack of blogging inspiration, check out the list, it might prompt some ideas.

1. What was the funniest/nastiest/most memorable prank you ever pulled on someone?

2. Describe your first date/first kiss. Hmm.. did you see stars or you just felt gross?

3. What is scariest experience you had?

4. What kind of games did you play as a kid?

5. What do you miss most about your childhood?

6. What kind of child where you? Shy? A bully? Popular? Loner? Stubborn? …

7. Do you have any phobias? what thing do you fear most?

8. Who was your celebrity crush during your teens?

9. What outfit did you wear before that you swore you’d never wear again? If you have photos and the right amount of courage, then post it!

10. Do you have any regrets? Whats the biggest mistake you ever made?

12. What’s the weirdest/hardest/funniest job you ever had?

13. What’s the most embarassing thing that happened to you?

14. What’s your wildest dream?

15. Create characters about your family and friends and talk about their unique characters. Use avatars!

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Spam Glitches

I hate spam. (No not the canned food!) I’m sure most bloggers are familiar with it and I know a lot of them who are seriously pissed with spammers. It’s beginning to grate on my nerves too. Everyday, the first thing I would do is to sort out and reply on my blog comments. And everyday too I am greeted by hundreds of spams. I have more than five blogs so I think you can imagine how frustrating it can get…

I have Akismet installed for this wordpress blog and it has been a big help but still there are some legitimate comments that goes to the spam folder so I still end up checking it. It has been getting worse lately and not a day goes by where I have to weed out at least a hundred spam comments.

Grrr! Spammers be gone!

Upgraded to Wordpress 2.7 – Coltrane

To be honest, I’ve seen several wordpress upgrades this past few months that I thought this would just be an  ordinary “fix some bug” wordpress upgrade. So, I just clicked on my automatic upgrade link and I had to blink my eyes several times coz I thought I’ve messed it up again. I’ve actually lost this blog twice already when I was upgrading to Wordpress 2.5.

I just heaved a sigh of relief when I saw that everything was fine, wordpress is just sporting a totally new look! Do I love it or not? I still have to get used to the new interface but I must admit I kinda miss the colors of the past versions but this new one looks more organized and items more streamlined. Almost all things can now be easily accessed, so just a few clicks will get me to where I want to be.

Toolbars that used to be on top of the screen are now grouped together on the left. Noticeable additions are the QuickPress section where you can easily draft or publish a post from your dashboard, comment threading as well as reply links on the dashboard, paging, one-click plugin installation, sticky posts and I like the Screen Options where you can manage what sections you want to appear on you dashboard.

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