Archive for July, 2008
Welcome To The New Enkay Blog
Jul 7th
Welcome to the New Enkay Blog!! This is a really exciting day for me as I finally have made the switch over from my very long and hard to remember URL to an easy www.enkayblog.com. I had already owned the domain but the fear of losing my rankings made me not want to switch over but I finally decided to take the plunge and do so more than a year after I first started blogging.
Lets take a look at the new theme here. It is a custom design based on Statement by BlogOhBlog as mentioned before. It probably took me a week to get everything right and almost 14 hours of work last night to get the SQL databases transferred over and working right which by the way didn’t work so well as I had to input thousands of lines of database code manually. Either way, have a look around and let me know what you think of the theme. This is the first theme that is based on a template other than Vertigo Enhanced which has been the base for all my past theme designs. If you find any errors, please email me and you may just get a link back 
Also, right now I don’t know if you will have to update your RSS readers so until I get that clarified just hang on and I’ll get that figured out soon. I also put up a new contact form to get rid of the old one that would provide me with thousands of spam emails on a daily basis so hopefully this will be better than the last. Well, once again Welcome to the new blog and hope you like it!
Stephen Fung’s Contest
So, while I was down for the day I won ANOTHER contest over at Stephen Fung’s Blog and this time its a nice little unbranded iPod Nano which I may be giving away so look for that soon. As you may recall, it wasn’t long ago that I won the contest over at Balkhis for the Flip Minoe and at Nick Throlson’s blog for the advertising. Oh, and lets not forget the Zune over at Ms. Danielle’s about a year ago as well so lets keep this luck rolling! Thanks again Stephen!
Update: So, I figured that you won’t have to update your RSS feed readers as long you have the feedburner link as those have been updated internally. Now all I need to figure out is getting my blog back on Alexa. For the most part, I’m happy that I finally have a PR rating!
Entering Michael Kwans Creative Contest
While I’m currently working on compiling a new Female Blogger List, I decided to post up my contest submission for Michael Kwan’s contest where you have to photoshop a picture of John Chow by making it funny. Here is my entry.
Featured Plugin: Maintenance Mode
Jul 3rd
I used to always wonder if people used a test blog or some kind of separate wordpress set up as they made changes to their blog design. It turns out that there is a plugin called Maintenance Mode that allows you you to set up a splash page that your readers will see as you work on the blog. While you are logged in as admin, you will be able to see the blog and the admin panel however your visitors will not have to deal with the changes you are making.
This is a great plugin and I have used it on the blog for over a year. I decided to blog about the plug-in considering that I am planning a major move to change my main domain to www.enkayblog.com. This requires an entire database change, all links to be re-adjusted and images to be re-located to a brand new server with a new location. So heres a screenshot of what the splash page can look like and remember that you can modify what the page displays as this is just a sample.
Its a great plugin to use for those of you who want to make minor changes and now you can do so without it horribly messing up. The plugin actually does a really good job and all you have to do to activate the splash page is go into your PLUGINS tab and Activate the plugin.
Anyway, let me know what you guys think of the concept of this plugin and I will definitely give all of you a heads up before I move to the new server. Also, I doubt that you will have to update your RSS readers considering the fact that I use feedburner. Anyway, hopefully you guys will enjoy the new EnkayBlog which should be ready by the end of this week! Have a great 4th of July to everyone who is celebrating!
Stephen Fung’s Contest
So I just wanted to take a moment and mention a contest that is possibly still going on over at StephenFung’s blog where he is giving away an iPod nano and a Flip Flap. I believe the contest date was mentioned to end July 1st so hopefully we will see those results soon but I figured I’d still blog about it just for the fact that I feel that it has gone a little unnoticed plus even if this doesn’t count atleast he gets a link back
Sneak Peak At The New Theme
Jul 3rd
As many of you know, I like to be a perfectionist when it comes to graphics and design. I’m definitely not the best and blog design is really not my forte but I have been working on a new theme. I like to take my time to make sure that everything works perfectly before I make the switch so thats exactly what I’ve been doing. I’ve decided to give you guys a sneak peak below with a little explanation of what I was thinking when I came up with this.
I picked a theme called Statement by BlogOhBlog and decided to customize it. I have been working on it for the most part today and am about half way complete. I really don’t know when the new theme will roll out, so it will be a surprise.
Making The Switch
I also know that my URL which is currently probably the longest on out there isn’t helping me much. I know I should have changed it a long time ago but considering that I have time now, I decided to buy a hosting package over at 1&1 and will finally be setting up www.enkayblog.com as the main address. So, very shortly you will have all the main pages linking from www.enkayblog.com which will make the blog more accessible and easy to remember. I also needed more bandwidth and a faster server to help improve load time and my new hosting package will allow for that and more.
Anyway, I’d like to hear your feedback on the theme. Sorry that the image isn’t bigger but thats the only way I can keep you guessing as to what the completed version will look like. Hope you have a great week!
Follow Me On Twitter!
Jul 1st
So, I finally decided to sign up for Twitter after seeing how many people were actually on there. If you’d like to follow me then click here and do so and if you are on Twitter and I’m not already following you then please leave me your twitter URL and I will add you!
I really don’t know how well Twitter works for some bloggers but it seems that the more popular bloggers seem to be doing fine with it in terms of a source of traffic. So far I think quite a few people have stumbled upon my back through Twitter. It seems like an interesting concept for those of you who haven’t checked it out as yet. I do have to say that updating it for those who don’t have a good texting plan or wifi through a mobile device can be hard as I usually update from my desktop at home. Either way, its something interesting to try out. So, if you want to check it out, add me first!
I also wonder how much traffic some of you see from Twitter or do you consider it a good tool for networking? I haven’t come up with any of my fancy lists as yet but I am sure that you will surely see one of these lists pretty soon. I see the networking aspect of Twitter but I also wonder how some of you have incorporated it into your blog as a source of income/traffic. Have a great rest of the week!
