Archive for December, 2007
Do I Need A New Theme? Do I?
Dec 11th
Well, it seems its that time of year again, when people start to think about whether or not to update their theme designs for their blogs. I for one worked on my theme over the course of 1 or 2 months to make it look the way it does and thats mainly because I liked to see how making a small change affects the blog. Today, I read that Ms. Danielle is planning on changing the theme for her blog which is going to be a big step for her.
I remember how popular the “Misty” theme used to be. For those of you who don’t know, Misty used to be the look for JohnChow before his new theme. I also helped my friends down at TheKingKongBlog update their theme recently and that worked out great too. The folks down at Unique Blog Designs along with Nate Whitehill have taken blog design to the next level. If you’re wondering whether you need to update your blog design, here are a few things that are signs that you probably need to do so:
1) Outgrown Your Current Design – all this means is that you are running out of room. Today there are so many widgets and sidebar items to include in your blog that you may not have enough room to implement all the widgets effectively meaning that you probably need a little more room to grow. A new design can help address these problems, and that is until you outgrow the new design too!
2) Boring Current Design - Sure, the Misty theme looked great a year ago, but its just old news. Dont get me wrong, its a great looking theme but its been over used and its just too common. People want to see something new and maybe so do you as a blog owner. The best way to get around the symptoms of a “bland design” is to redo or refresh your current theme.
3) Not Branded Well – Well, this is a big deal in blogging. The reason I put my face on my blog is so that people can relate to it. If you have a current theme that may be unique but it has nothing on it that makes it your own, then you probably should consider a new design. If you’re not as good at Photoshop, ask around and you will probably be able to find help in creating your new brand. For example, look at Brian Aldrich from ThePrizeBlog, he created a brand image based on his cartoon character.
There are more reasons for you to consider re-doing your theme but I think these 3 are the key reasons you may want to consider re-doing your theme. If you’re like me, then you like to have a yearly change, similar to a year-end-model-clearance at your local Chevy dealer. Either way you look at it, it may be time to think about what a new theme can do for you. This begs the question, do you think you need a new theme? and if you do, whats your reason for it?
Send Some Flowers!
Dec 10th
Valentines Day is fast approaching and I am sure that many of you are wondering what you should be doing for your loved one. Now, I am not an expert in this matter nor can I suggest any fantastic ideas but 1800 Flowers is a great website in case you need flowers for valentines day. They are a well known website and have been established for quite a long time.
On a daily basis you can send flowers, teddy bears and the like but for Valentines Day, 1800 Flowers takes it a step further. They offer special Valentines items such as roses, red colored cases and chocolates. They also have combos where you can send flowers, candy and a teddy bear in one package. Their prices range from $35 all the way up yo $100 for most items however if you want to do something a little special, they can arrange for that too. They have gifts for him and her as well as several different types of combination gifts. Their selection also includes tulips, gift baskets, luxury gifts and plans.
They even have a gift guide in case you are a bit lost on what you may want to give to your special someone. Aside from their current Valentines selections, they offer gifts and specialty items for all occasions. Their variety in gift items is what makes 1800 Flowers special and several of their items are brand names, so you know you are getting some of the best quality gifts out there. They also have prices ranges to suit all kinds of budgets so this Valentines season, definitely check out 1800 Flowers and you won’t be disappointed!
Is Blogging Worth Your Time?
Dec 9th
For some, blogging is what they call their “anti-drug” and for others its their source of income. I fall into the gap in between because although I dont make a large sum of money off the blog, I feel that it is interesting to interact with people that do come around to get their daily fix. I agree that lately I haven’t been up to the mark but hopefully I can make up for lost time. So here are a few questions you can consider to answer the question I asked in the title:
1) What is your reason for blogging? Do you do it for fun or money or some other reason. Theres no harm in agreeing that you do it just for the money because we all know that money makes the world go around. You can even blog because you want to blog or because you feel like blogging.
2) What are you gaining from blogging? This depends on person to person. Obviously, if you are blogging for money then money is your motivation however, if you do it just for fun, then what else motivates you. Some things you can consider are other blogs that you get to come across, people from around the world that stop by and networking with others in the same field of work
3) Do you feel like blogging or are you forced into it? This is probably the most important question mainly because you shouldn’t do something because you are forced to do it. By this I mean that you shouldnt blog with this thought in your mind: “I really have to write a blog about something today just so I can have a post down”. All that translates to is a post that is not as informative and has no motive behind it.
4) Are you helping/informing others? This is an externality of blogging. By externality I mean that this is something that results from your blogging. When you blog, and you are able to help guide someone or help inform them about something they don’t already know about. This is very motivating for most bloggers as they are able to see their readers progress and move forward because of how the readers were inspired by their work.
So hopefully this was an interesting post. I plan to have some more posts coming up later this week once my last exam is over but hopefully you guys will stay tuned and give me some feedback on this post! Have a great day!
Helping the Sinking Ship!
Dec 8th
Hello everyone! It has definitely been a very long time and I am back! Well, my exams are almost over as I only have one more to go and after that I will be back to blogging as usual! I had a few issues with the blog lately and I have decided to go ahead and fix those. Apparently, the amount of spam I was receiving through email was getting a little out of hand. Just to give you guys an example, I get about 500 spam comments on a daily basis and over the course of the last 10 days, I have received close to 12,150 spam comments. Thats about twice as much as usual! What is unusual about this whole story is that for the first 3 months of blogging I received a total of 10,000 spam comments however now it seems like I am making up for lost time. Here is a screenshot of my total spam count till date.
In comparison, lets take a look at my spam email over the course of about 3 days. This is a screenshot of about 50 emails and the ones highlighted in red are all Spam emails. So hopefully some of you will understand why it used to be difficult to receive a reply. Today I went through and installed a spam protection box so lets see how this affects the spam emails I was receiving.
Well now that I am back, I have devised a list of a new things to help my sinking ship, as I like to call it! If you are having the same types of issues then here are some things you might want to consider.
1) Guest Posting – I have talked a lot about having others guest post for you and although I may not have a guest poster, it could have been one of things that I could try and implement to keep the ratings alive.
2) A-Post-A-Day – Although sometimes it gets hard to even have one post, it may be a good idea to have a short post rather than have nothing at all. This reminds me of the idea of “something is better than nothing”
3) Universal Posts – By universal posts I mean something that is interesting but is not focused in on one subject area. Something that would classify as a universal post would be a news story or an interesting video. Obviously, these cannot be used all the time but it can still help in bringing readers to your blog.
Those are a few tips for some of you who are having the same problem I was having for the past couple weeks. I have to apologize to all of you for not being around for such a long time but hopefully once my rankings start rising again, it will help people in noticing me once again and remembering me as the “comeback kid”. Anyway, hopefully you guys are still around and reading and I just wanted to see how all of you are doing!
Top Commentators [Updated]
I have to award my commentators for the month of October who were Nick and Simon. I also have to award my commentator of the month for November who is Life is Colourful. I cannot determine the winner between Nick and Simon and so I will be awarding them a month of 125×125 advertising each and Life is Colourful gets his free review!
Thoughts.com Reviewed Again!
Dec 6th
I remember reviewing Thoughts.com a long time ago in July when I had accepted an offer through Sponsored Reviews. I was excited to see that they had requested a review through ReviewMe from me. Aside from having a really great domain name, Thoughts.com offers quite a few features. It essentially allows visitors to create a free blog or journal and have it hosted on thoughts.com. It also allows users to upload pictures, videos and chat amongst each other. There is no limit on bandwidth so you can have as many readers as you want.
They also have monthly and annual contests and this years the winners got a Vegas getaway! Thats a pretty sweet contest, I have to say. Appearance wise, Thoughts.com hasn’t change but definitely needs to liven up a little bit. Theres a little too much blue in everything but hey, if you like blue, then this is going to work for you. Another thing that I liked is that Thoughts.com may be more targeted towards the youth but they include a nice news widget in their website that helps bring news to its users.
Nowadays, most teens get their news online and if they are using Thoughts.com then that is one more place where they can get their news and relevant news too! Aside from that, there is a video feature and it is quite similar to Youtube’s player. They also have a search engine that combines Yahoo, Google and MSN which is pretty interesting and their news section is actually quite impressive. They also have a charity page listing their favorite charity, which I think is a great concept and I commend them for that. Overall, I am impressed by Thoughts.com yet again and I really hope that they see success in the future!
