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Tips for creating a blog

admin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:38:38 +0000

The first thing to do is to have a site. You can either go to one of the top blogging spots and get a site off of their domain, or what I would recommend, buy a domain. If you plan on either blogging for fun (family, etc.) or for business, a unique domain name is the way to go. Take a look at a few sites which you may want to take a look at which also offer hosting of the site also: (in no particular order)

JKA Hosting
- This site has hosting packages (some where you can get free domains!) and free blogging tools. Take a look!
My Hosting
- This site has great deals (as little as $6.45/month) to help you start your blogging!
WestHost
- Has $3.95 VPS Web Hosting! Great deals to help host your blog for CHEAP!
Host Color
- Great packages starting from 50MB/month to 30GB/month so you can alter your package as your site grows!

Once you have chosen your domain name/hosting situation, I would recommend going with WordPress as your publishing platform. WordPress.org has great links to themes, which are not only aesthetically pleasing, but you can choose to use themes that allow widgets (plugins for your website that you can drag and drop into place, which makes adding plugins easy) and how many columns the theme has. I will soon write another post about great sites for themes, but this should get you started. Also be sure to read and FAQ’s and Installation instructions on wordpress.org’s site for any howto installation questions.

After customizing your blog, the most important thing to do is fill it with content. Write as much as you can, but make sure it is quality writing and things that you would want to read about (especially if it is a professional site, and not a personal “here’s how my life in Vietnam is going” site that you may write to keep your family up-to-date). For professional sites, use plugins (which I will go into detail later) that help people share your content with others, or easily track the discussion in the comments section of your post. Try to keep your articles around the same general (would be better if it’s specific) subject, so you can have people constantly reading your site for new and interesting information about whatever.

Lastly, you may wish to participate in ads, or some sort of affiliate program. Google Adsense is a major player, but they have strict rules in which they will not hesitate to ban you for breaking. I will also write a list of good replacements to Google Adsense, as well as a list of affiliate programs and detailed information about them.

If you have any questions, as always, let me know! And have fun bloggin!

Buying or Building a PC?

admin — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:25:40 +0000

First off, let’s decide if you’re going to be building the computer or buying it from someone? If you are purchasing the computer (I’m assuming a PC, because if it’s a Mac, then www.apple.com is your site) there’s many manufacturers. There’s the new IBM purchaser Lenovo, as well as Dell, HP/Compaq, and Toshiba. Out of these, based off of my experience, and dealing with thousands of computers, I like Dell’s high end lines, and their warranty replacement. HP is great for office printers, as well as Toshiba. But you can also go to alternatives such as CyberPowerPC which I ordered from a long time ago, and enjoyed their customization. And for the really high-end computer gaming, go with AlienWare. Although they are on the high-priced side, they have the new, fastest, latest, greatest, etc. custom-built PC’s. With that being said, building a computer may be another option for you.

If you can build your own computer (it’s not very difficult, but you may want to do some research on the subject if you’re new to it) there are a few sites that you can go for ordering parts. A big site, that is great with their RMA’s and selection is NewEgg. Although they do not have GREAT deals, they do have some good deals some of the time. If you are trying to go strictly on price, go to PriceWatch. This site will allow you to see the lowest prices for the specific type of component you are looking for, with the link and a rating for each site. There are many other sites, but these two should suffice and get you well on your way.

Whatever option you choose, make sure you do a little hunting first. It will save you money and hassle in the end.

Coupons and Deal Finding!

admin — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:03:58 +0000

Many times we go to a website and go to order something to see that promotion code or coupon code box staring us in the face. Telling us there’s someway we could be saving money on this purchase. Well there are a few sites that have good deals, coupons, FREE stuff, as well as Cash Back for your purchases. Here are some of the sites and their benefits:

FatWallet: This site has a lot of different things. First off, make sure you register. This gives you the ability to narrow your searches down better, as well as registers you for Cash Back purchases. Make sure to read through the help to answer all your questions, so there won’t be an issue with your purchases and receiving cash back (but it’s pretty straight forward). Second, under the forums link, there is a link to hot deals. You can search these threads for things, sites, you are wanting a deal from. The posts there are linked on how good or “hot” the deal is for the commentor. Two threads I would suggest searching for is the Official Office Depot thread and the Official Staples thread. Both of these threads having a feature where they are updated each day, and you can get great deals (I bought several $100 leather chairs for $7.50, as well as a desk for $6.00, all brand new). They also have a portion of the site dedicated to free stuff. I have signed up for a few things and received the items in the specified time (note: you may get signed up for junk mail, etc. if you sign up for these, so use a junk email to help yourself out).

Deals2Buy: This site is another good site with links for all sorts of things you can get on the web. It has the items linked so you can see what exactly you are wanting and similar items to that. It has coupons, as well as $0 deals, and a wide variety of Dell deals (I think Dell’s higher end computer lines are very good, and warranty service is a must). So browse around and see if anything peeks your interest.

SlickDeals: This site is updated everyday (as are the others) but is much easier to navigate. It has a basic design and not as much stuff to sift through (although not as many deals either). Give this a try, and you’ll find some deal that makes it worthwhile.

Woot: This site is more of a random bargain site. Many people watch woot constantly and stay up until midnight (server time, which is 12ET) because if there is a hot product, it can be sold out in minutes (and I mean literally like 5 minutes). People will go nuts for a B.O.C. (bag of crap) in which they get a goodie bag full if random stuff that can sometimes contain a big screen TV. A good idea is to setup your credit card on speed entry if you are constantly getting to their deals too late at midnight. People also will be posting about the product with information about the sales and have websites with timers of their own, monitoring the speed and other statistics of the “Woot Off.”

If anyone has another other sites to add, let me know, or again, if you have any questions, contact me at the top of the page!

Good luck hunting!