Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

Setting Up Your Own WordPress Blog : The Preparation

Feb 19, 2008 Blogging, Blogging Tips, Tools

Gundam

You found a hosting provider and also have bought (or plan to buy) your domain. Before proceeding, there’s a few things you need to take note. You need to do this in order to make the setup smoother. And if you prepared well, your blog will be up in less than 30 minutes, but if you think you don’t need any, please at least consider a file compression and also a FTP software. Once your blog is up, the main purpose is to start blogging, so it’s better to do the groundwork before you actually start.

WordPress Theme

WordPress comes with 2 lame … basic themes. In order for you to stand out, you need to get something different, but to get a premium theme, it can be expensive. It will start from $24, and of course the cheaper ones are usually sold to other people as well, and that doesn’t make it unique. Hey, don’t worry. You can still get a free theme that are good and sometimes better if you spend some. Maybe it has been downloaded a 1000 times. Let it be. What you need is to get something you like, use it first and after some time, start customizing it yourself when your are familiar with it. Or, you can also purchase a header instead of buying a premium one. But if you have money, I’m not stopping you.

For free themes, you can refer to my previous post :

Applications

This is a list of applications that you will need to setup your blog :

  • FileZilla, a ftp software that you will use to upload and download files between your server (at your hosting company) and your personal computer.
  • WinZip a file compression software. Useful to uncompressed the files you download. Another alternative is WinRar.
  • And finally PSPad , a freeware programmer’s editor. Similar to the windows text editor but with more functions. It will be useful for modifying your WordPress php codes.

Not to forget a photo editing tool, which I guess you are already familiar with that :) . Some of the people who are asking are already very good in photoshop.

Plugins

Plugins can extend the basic WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. Some people convert to WordPress not for the software alone but for the plugins available. I did. I found blogger.com a bit too limited. The plugins you need will depends greatly on the things that you want to do with your blog.

Others include statistics plugin, Google sitemap etc … the list is endless.

You can just ignore all these (except FTP software) and start setting up WordPress .. and blog but then … again, do some preparation before you actually start.

Lastly, be prepared to fall asleep on your keyboard.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,


Image Credit : Greefus[/tags]

Setting Up Your Own WordPress Blog : Domain

Feb 18, 2008 Blogging, Blogging Tips

Gundam Tr-1

This is a continuation from Setting Up Your Own WordPress Blog : Hosting. Some of my friends have been asking me a lot of things regarding setting up a WordPress blog, own domain and paid hosting. I’m compiling all the discussions so that if anyone else ask me on the related topic, I’ll just redirect him/her to specific post.Now that you have the tools and a place to build your own WordPress blog, you need an address so that your friends know where to find you.

Domain Name

Think domain name as your address. The address you give your friends when you invite them to play at your virtual playground. You already have a base and the tools to build your playground, now you need an address to tell people where to find your playground.

Domain vs Hosting

Some people get confused between domain and hosting

  • domain = your web address = http://azwanhadzree.com (the one you type in the address bar column in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox).
  • hosting = a physical server to host your web address = the place you host http://azwanhadzree.com. It must be accessible by anyone (unless it is password protected) and you need a server at a data center. Your hosting provider can give you just that.

I use my own name as my domain name. You need to pay for the domain too. The price is standard but some companies may give special offer when you register with them. Unless you have your own server, you have to purchase both domain and hosting. Take note that you can purchase both from different vendor but before doing that please ask for the charges involve on transferring domain and linking set up. For a newbie, get both from one. NetKL offers free domain when you register for any of their hosting packages. It is only RM60 per year for the basic package.

Domain & Niche

Deciding on a domain name sometimes can be tough as it depends on what you want. If you want to blog about something specific then you should do a keyword search for your niche blog. You may want something like http://my.exgirls.com. This suits a weirdo who wants to spill out all the things about his ex. Example OK … example. If you’re an expert in SAP workflow (I am not one yet) and you want to establish yourself as one, in the SAP community, a domain name that contains ‘workflow’ or ‘SAP’ would be a good choice. So it depends. To make it simple, register your own name like I did.

Domain & SEO

The reason for a keyword search is for SEO, Search Engine Optimization, especially if you are planning to monetized your blog or if you are planing to be an expert in a certain area. What SEO can do to your blog? Refer to my Cari Duit post and how I fine-tuned it . It’s still on the first page of Google for the keyword Cari Duit although I only did tuned it once. But of course, the search results is less than 1 million, it’s easy to get on the front page.

Search Engines are the most widely used Internet tool to find products or information. Search engines drive potential visitors (customers and also spammers) to your blog, but in order for them to reach you, you need to provide the search engines with specific keywords that best describe your blog. Then again, to just discuss about search engines, niche and SEO would take more than just 200 or 300 words. So I leave that to other experts. You can refer to http://wordtracker.com for keywords (refer to my entertainment niche post), registration to their newsletter is free. If your blog is only a personal blog why bother :) , but that doesn’t mean it can ‘t be optimized.

Domain Tips

  • If you are getting your hosting/domain from Malaysia and the price is in RM, pay in USD with PayPal if possible. You get a much better exchange rate compared to transferring the money from PayPal to your Debit Card and there’s no fee (or any charge) involve.
  • Some hosting company include domain in their packages while some don’t. Please make sure you know what are you paying for.
  • For companies that offer a free domain with any of their packages, please make sure that it belongs and registered under you name, not theirs.

Everyone is blogging these days about all different things which is why you find blogs on just about every topic from television blogs to soldier blogs. If you are looking for information on blogs, you can easily find good tips online.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,


Image Credit : BeckZaidan, which has nothing to do with the post ..ha..

Most Talkative : December 2007

Jan 17, 2008 Blogging, Reviews

As mentioned previously, I’m making some changes to the monthly top commentators. Instead of listing 10, I will start to list only 5 in my monthly top commentators review post starting from December’s 2007 Most Talkative. The top 10 will always be on the sidebar at the front page.

Having a top commentator plugin is like saying thank you by passing some of Google juice but … since Google took away my PR, there’s nothing to share :(

Here they are :

What do you get for being the top commentator at azwan hadzree dot com? Once a while, I will randomly choose one of your blogs (if you have more than one) or a specific post and link it from my post. If you are lucky, you will enjoy the traffic as well. Like Am did from my sex video and privacy concern post.

Tags: ,

Web Hosting

Dec 23, 2007 Blogging, Tools

Much much earlier, when I did a post on “Hosting, Setting Up Your Own Wordpress Blog”, it was supposed to be the first post of a series of “Setting Up Your Own Wordpress Blog” posts. I had some post ready but somehow forgot to post them. This is what happened when you are blogging part time. You start something, stop and then totally forgot about it :) . Someone, who was looking for information, emailed me and asked “what happened to it?”

I will continue it soon. For the time being, check out http://www.webhostingchoice.com if you still can’t decide which hosting company to choose. From the home page, if you click on the “Advance Search”, you can input your selection criteria and it will propose a hosting company that fits your criteria and also list the rest for you to compare. Example below :

selecting a web hosting company that meets your budget

It’s a good way to start, but .. if you ask me. I’ll still propose for you to get a hosting company from Malaysia especially when your target audience is people from here.

Tags: ,

Using MyOpenID With Blogger

Dec 14, 2007 Blogging, Tools

… and still able to link back to your own hosted blog.

MyOpenID Blogger

Usually, when visiting my friends blog hosted at blogger, I don’t sign in as ‘merapuman’ but I clicked on ‘other’. By doing that, Blogger allows you to key in your name/nickname and your URL. I was happy with that ….. until earlier this month where Blogger made some changes and I am not allowed to leave the link to my site anymore. You can still put your nickname but not your site’s address.

It looked like Blogger (or Google) was forcing everyone to get a Google Account. I was furious when I found out about this. Some Bloggers felt the same way. First, there was the slap by Google on posties and now this. Who doesn’t.

Anyway, Google apologized to me :lol: yesterday.

We apologize for removing the URL field from the comments form prematurely two weeks ago. That was a mistake on our part that came from launching OpenID support on Blogger in draft.

Read the rest here.

Although, they allow you to sign in using your WordPress.com, LiveJournal, AOL Journals or with your AOL/AIM accounts, you still need to make some adjustment if you want to leave a link to your own hosted domain.

Here’s what you need to do :

  • Get a MyOpenId account. Mine is http://azwanhadzree.myopenid.com/
  • Then, modify your blog header. Go to the <head> section of your blog and ad this :

<link rel=”openid.server” href=”http://www.myopenid.com/server” />
<link rel=”openid.delegate” href=”http://azwanhadzree.myopenid.com/” />

More details here.

Now you can start commenting (again) at blogger and leave your mark.

Tags: , , ,

Most Talkative : November 2007

Dec 3, 2007 Blogging, Reviews

It’s the time of the month, again, where I list out the top 10 commentators (or most talkative :) ) of this blog for the past month. And for November 2007, here they are :

Top Commentators

Thanks for your comments and thanks for taking the time to visit, read and comment my posts.

There will be a few changes next month.

  • I will not do a post of the top 10 commentators anymore. Maybe I’ll just list 5 or 3 instead of 10. Just to make it more fun and challenging. Your link will be permanent in post such as this, so I think it is fair enough. However the top 10 list on the sidebar will remain.
  • Another thing is … since this is a personal blog. I would prefer you to sign in with your name instead of your site’s title or keyword. I hope you understand. But if you insist, it is still OK with me (for the time being :) ). [edited] Or at least introduce yourself first.

And for your info, there will be a top commentators contest in February 2008. Prizes will be announced next month.

That’s all for now.

Tags: , ,

Stand Out With A Unique Favicon

Nov 29, 2007 Blogging

Hi, how are you today?

Let’s get back to one of the boring topics I always cover, about blogging. Ya .. sometimes I blog about things that are soooooo .. boring that it can make you go to sleep

… but please don’t snore :P

FAVICON

I always wanted to have a Favicon for my blog. It is a little image icon that helps identify a site. It was in my to do list but since it was not a priority I put it aside … until a nights ago when I visited some of my friends’ blogs. Cikgu Azleen blogged about making your blog unique by having a favicon while Syamsul Ariff blogged about how to put an animated favicon. Stop whatever I did and tried it out. Now, every time you open my blog, you will see the orange man icon next to the address bar. I am already accustom to it, so why not?

Since I have that there, I will be replacing the orange man avatar on this blog to a picture of the real me. Soon.

Regardless whether you want the ordinary or the animated one, the steps are still the same

  1. Make a small 16X16 pixel image. Save it as favicon.ico. You can use Irfan View to edit it.
  2. Upload that image to your blog’s root directory or your themes image directory (you need some knowledge on ftp and you also need to know your blog’s directory structure for this), or anywhere where you usually upload pictures.
  3. Then, open your header.php or the place where your header tags is, between <head> and </head>, and add in these lines (replace my example with your link)

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”http://www.azwanhadzree.com/favicon.ico”>
<link rel=”icon” href=”http://www.azwanhadzree.com/favicon.ico”>

or your can do like I did below, provided you know where and how your theme works.

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”<?php bloginfo(’stylesheet_directory’) ;?>/img/favicon.ico” />

Try it and you should see the icon next to your address line. If you bookmark my blog, the icon will show up in your bookmarks as well. More info at the links above.

Tags: , , ,

ss_blog_claim=b955b5e1b5146d0cab088548d04f4d2f