Blogging Girl

How to find hosting

Blogging Girl — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:27:21 +0000

I bought my very first domain and hosting plan in the fall of 2001. At that time, I was new to all things hosting. All I knew is that I was done with free servers, I was done with bolt.com and geocities.com, and I wasn’t interested in being hosted on someone else’s domain. I wanted my own domain, my own space. So I pulled up one of the first search engine results for “domain and web hosting”, and talked my mom into purchasing a domain and a hosting plan for me. The cost? $40 for a year’s domain registration (.org), and $25 per month for a small hosting plan.

I know, you guys are reeling from those costs. So am I! These days, you can easily pay $25 or less per YEAR for the cost of a small hosting plan, and the average domain registration for a .com, .net or .org can be under ten bucks per year. But hey, I didn’t know. And even these days, there are many people that don’t know the real price of things, nor what they should be looking for, what features to look for, what you don’t need, the companies that are worth your time and money, and the ones that aren’t.

Web Hosting Geeks is one solution for someone who is new to hosting and domains, or who simply wants to learn more about it. The site offers unbiased web hosting reviews, side by side comparisons of hosting companies and the services they offer, and blog posts and articles that can fill you in on all of the 411 of hosting and domains.

For more information, check out webhostinggeeks.com.

WordPress plugin: Comment Relish

Blogging Girl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:22:47 +0000

When it comes to socializing on the internet, there are a few basic forms of etiquette (or netiquette, as I like to call it) that should be followed. Respond to emails, respond to IMs if you make your instant messenger information public, and comment on the blogs whose owners comment on your blog.

But if you like to go above and beyond when it comes to reaching out to people who visit your website and comment on your blog, then consider a plugin like Comment Relish. Comment Relish is a quick and easy little WordPress plugin that emails new commenters to your blog with a message of your choosing. The default message can easily be customized to reflect custom text of your choosing.

The Comment Relish plugin is easy to install and easy to use, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to reach out to new commenters on their blog.

What blogging can do for you

Blogging Girl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:51:18 +0000

Two years ago my husband’s income was the only one we lived on. Our daughter was two years old, our son was four months old, and I stayed at home with both children. We had rent, a car payment, utilities and food to cover. We made it work, but we didn’t have a lot of extra money, and my husband and I skipped health insurance because we just couldn’t afford it.

Then I took up paid blogging with PayPerPost. It made me an extra few hundred per month, so I stuck with it. Eventually, I got noticed by an advertiser with the company, who hooked me up with a lot of freelance work. Today, I make around $2000 dollars per month, and that figure doesn’t include the paid blogging I do with the original company I got started with — PayPerPost.

Since paid blogging and SEO work isn’t something that will be affected by the economy, it’s nice to know that I’ll never have to worry about jobs in Manhattan, or anywhere else for that matter.

Dull, dull, dull

Blogging Girl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:37:19 +0000

One thing I often have to write articles about and blog about is golf equipment. I don’t know much about golf, I never liked golf when I was forced to play it for several weeks during gym in high school (if I remember correctly, my test grade at the end of the corner was a very high C!), and I only tolerate mini-golf when I do it with friends (everything is more fun when done in a group!).

So yeah. Golf equipment, golf clubs and golf drivers? Dull, dull, dull. But I’ve definitely learned a lot about it!

Will blog for Vaios

Blogging Girl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:30:34 +0000

My brother-in-law does a lot of work with networking stuff, as well as setting up televisions and entertainment systems for clients, both clients he has at work and clients he gets hooked up with at home and through his own portfolio website (in8studios.com, if you’re interested in visiting him and seeing what he can do!). Well, at any given time he might have a large assortment of goods in his apartment. The other night he had not one, not two but FIVE 52″ plasma televisions just chilling in his living room. His cat was draping himself all over the boxes like they were nothing but convenient ledges to relax on. Other times he’ll have a Sony Vaio in his kitchen, or speaker equipment stashed in his bedroom.

I gotta hand it to my brother-in-law… I don’t think I’d have the willpower to just ignore such drool-worthy stuff in my living room!

The holidays are coming

Blogging Girl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:48:24 +0000

My husband and I have a pretty good idea of what we’re getting everyone. For me, the two most expensive people on my list are going to be my husband, my mom, possibly our friend, and Dan’s youngest brother. For his other brother, we’d love to get him a nice set of bar stools. But since he doesn’t have a bar in his apartment to use them with, we’ll be settling for… well, just in case my brother-in-law reads this blog, I won’t be able to say.

What to blog about?

Blogging Girl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:41:06 +0000

Many bloggers choose to have one blog that is a catch-all for anything and everything they want to talk about. Others, like myself, have several blogs, with each one being a specific niche type of blog. I’d say my most category-specific blog would have to be In My Bag. This is my product review blog, where I basically blog about anything I buy and use, or even products I am sent for a specific review. In My Bag has covered a variety of product reviews, including diaper bags, voice recognition software, even a brief mention of diet pills.

How do you blog? Do you use one blog or do you maintain multiple blogs?

Time for a trim

Blogging Girl — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:58:45 +0000

Being a blogging girl means keeping my nails trimmed short. I don’t grow them very long, but it seems like once they reach maybe 1/6th of an inch past the edge of my fingertips, they’re long enough to cause problems with typing. With my laptop, the keys are flat and low, and so my nails sometimes push against the keys and push my fingers off. On my desktop, I need to use more “force” to depress the keys of the regular keyboard, and that can be somewhat uncomfortable to do with nails.

It’s a shame. As much as I like having longer nails like now, I might have to trim them down, because I have a lot of writing on Asgi shoes and other things to do this week!

Blogging funk

Blogging Girl — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:51:14 +0000

Writing for a living definitely has its drawbacks. I used to be very good at blogging daily, sometimes multiple times a day. Then I would get busy with work or family, and slack off a bit. About a year and a half ago I started getting really into blogging again, but then I started doing freelance writing on a full time basis.

These days, I am sad to report that blogging does not come as easily to me as it used to. I’ll find it easy to write a sponsored post on Orovo detox, or look up information on Wikipedia to then use in an SEO article, but freeform blogging? It’s something I really struggle with.

Do you ever struggle with blogging?

February is coming!

Blogging Girl — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:44:26 +0000

In February of 2009 all television providers will be switching things around so that stations are only broadcasted in digital format. This means if you still use the old school “analog” (think rabbit ears), you’re screwed. Fortunately, there are plenty of low cost and decent converters available for people who are currently receiving their television stations in analog. But despite all of the commercials and information going around about the conversion, there are scammers abound. Take it from me: you do not need an HDMI switch or anything like that. Unless, of course, you have HDMI audio or video equipment and wish to get it all hooked up.