New direction

Sorry for the lack of updates lately - I've been having some problems with my internet connection.

It made me realize, though, that trying to come up with posts to write all the time is quite stressful, and decreases the fun of having a blog in the first place. I know that everyone says you have to post every day to have a successful blog, but it kind of defeats the object if blogging starts to become a chore.

So I have decided to not stress about it anymore, and just post when I have something interesting or helpful to say. This might mean less posts - although I've always tried to post interesting or helpful things, I won't be actively trying to think them up anymore. So if you don't want to check back often and would rather be notified when I update, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or subscribe via email.

Also, I was thinking of focusing a bit more on what this blog was originally going to be for: graphic resources, links, tutorials, downloads etc. for the cheaper Mac graphic programs like Pixelmator, VectorDesigner, ZeusDraw, Drawit, Gimp, and Inkscape.

But I will still post any interesting info I find about blogging, and any other pixelly subjects ;)

Earn $50 for writing just one post!

Did that title get your attention? :P It's true, but there are more reasons to sign up with RevResponse than just the $50. Read on as I tell you about my experience with them.

The offer
I had signed up with RevResponse a long time ago, but I've been so busy lately that I hadn't gotten around to setting up my page (or mini-site) yet. I finally logged into my RevResponse account yesterday to set up my page, and saw that they're offering users $50 in the month of July just to write a post about them! For those of you who don't know what RevResponse is, it's a company that has a wide range of ebooks, whitepapers, software downloads, etc. to offer for free on your site, and you get paid every time someone downloads something.

Help a cause and win a Nintendo Wii or Flip Mino!

The contest & sponsors
Thanks to The University Kid and Market Leverage, you can help raise money for cancer research and win a Nintendo Wii or Flip Mino!

The University Kid is a young entrepreneur blog that I recommend you all check out - it's not one of those "make money online" blogs that try to sell you everything under the sun just to get their cut of the sales. A day or two ago Jason even gave me a tip that would have saved me money and lost him an affiliate sale!

Jason has a straightforward, humorous style of writing that is a pleasure to read, and he's also very helpful. You can also check out his blogging forum, Blog Premiere, and meet a whole lot of great bloggers.

Market Leverage is an affiliate network characterized by their great customer service. The staff is friendly and helpful, with a great sense of humor too! (check out this post)

The cause
Two Market Leverage affiliate managers, Debby Phillips and Jen Fluker, are training for a 60 mile walk to raise money for breast cancer, and have entered the Blogging Idol challenge in an effort to win and collect more money.

How to help
Gaining the most subscribers out of all the Blogging Idol contestants will win them the cash prize, so subscribing to their blog will help and get you entered into the competition. You can also help by spreading the word to help them get more subscribers, by donating money to the cause, or by donating Entrecard credits so they can advertise on more blogs. You could also buy a spot on their Scratchback widget for $5, or display their 125x125 banner on your blog.

Entrecard's next target: Comments for your blog!

First Entrecard formed a Digg community to help Entrecard bloggers get more exposure and traffic to their blogs. Now Entrecard has formed a partnership with SezWho to help increase the amount of quality comments their users receive and submit on other blogs!

I think it's a great initiative - and not only will it help increase quality comments (which I absolutely adore receiving, by the way ;) ), but it should also help reduce the bounce rate that was the only downside to using Entrecard.

I say quality comments because SezWho has a rating system, so if users post spammy comments then they will see their rating fall quickly. I haven't gotten spammy comments on Bits and Pixels, but I know they're a problem on many bigger blogs. SezWho also has an optional filter system that can be used to show only comments with a certain rating, so you can choose to read only the highest quality comments - this is great for blogs that routinely get dozens (or hundreds) of replies on each post.

But the best thing about SezWho is that you can find all comments and blog posts left by other commenters all over the web - so for example if you find someone who writes great posts, you can check what other blogs they have been commenting on, and maybe find more great content!

This will also be a way of getting more traffic: Person A leaves a comment on your blog, then leaves a comment on another blog. Then Person B reads Person A's comment, and decides to check out their other comments. He then finds your blog thanks to Person A's comment!

To read more advantages of using SezWho, see JoeTech's post, and to read all the details of how it works, see Entrecard's announcement post. You can also participate in the contest to earn up to 5000 EC!

WordPress 2.6 released!

WordPress 2.6 has been released, and has some great new options that will increase usability. Check out the video:

I love the new "Press this" feature, and I really hope "Gears" for Safari will be available soon - I need all the help I can get with my slow connection! The word count and image captions will be very useful, and the new image control and drag-and-drop reordering of the galleries will make orgainizing things much easier. The ability to select a range of checkboxes by shift-clicking was a good idea, but unfortunately I noticed that it only works if the checkboxes you select after the first one are below it, and not above it. You can read more about the new features at the official post.

Before upgrading to the new version, be sure to create backups of your posts and database. You can use the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin, or the WordPress Database Backup plugin if you want to upgrade manually. But be warned - I have used WordPress Automatic Upgrade twice now, and both times it has failed to reactivate my plugins. So before upgrading, also make a list of your activated plugins so that you can quickly reactivate them if WAU fails to do so.

Upgrading to the new version of WordPress will also replace your smilies with the default ones, so if you have replaced them with custom smilies, be ready to reupload them after the upgrade.

To enroll or not to enroll - that is the question!

I'm not sure how it started, but these last few days I've been going from one "make money online" site to another, subscribing to newsletters and downloading a few dozen free ebooks. I've got so many now that I don't know where to start reading them!

I've also found quite a few offers for courses or software to make money online with affiliate marketing and niche stores, and they look so good! But with my recent experiences (that's not the only one, but I'm hoping the other will still work out before I post about it), I'm hesitating to enroll. It's also difficult to find honest reviews on the internet - everyone is promoting the products because they want their cut of affiliate sales!

The thing is, the 2 offers I'm most interested in are both on sales that are going to be ending soon (like in a few hours or less), and while I know many people say that and then don't actually put the prices up, these 2 seem to have a solid reputation, and so will probably keep their word.

I've decided to wait until my parents come home and talk it over with them; after all, if I do decide to go for it, it will be their money I'll be spending! :P And if the offers aren't available anymore by the time they get home, then it just wasn't meant to be.

Either way, I think it's a good idea to learn more about affiliate marketing and niche stores, and I've downloaded a lot of ebooks on these subjects now. If I find any good ones, I'll let you all know! ;)

Choosing a webhost

I chose Dreamhost to host my blogs because a popular site recommended them. Since then I have learnt not to trust people just because they are well-known. If you've read my previous posts or are following me on Twitter, then you know that I've had problems with the loading speed of my blogs, and am looking for a new webhosting company.

I found a very useful site called Web Hosting Geeks, which has reviewed many web hosting companies and lists the best ones and their features in a handy chart. I especially like the fact that they allow customer reviews too -  it satisfies the (relatively new) pessimist in me, that worries that the hosting companies might have payed review sites to give them positive reviews. :P

So before choosing a host for your blog or site, remember to check Web Hosting Geeks before you make your decision. You can never do too much research if you want the best for your blog!

What about you? What hosts have you tried, and how was your experience with them?

Don't be fooled by free "bonuses"

I enjoy reading and listening to self-improvement and motivational books. I particularly enjoy reading and listening to Jim Rohn's books and CDs, and own several of them. One of his DVDs was of a seminar with many other motivational speakers, and I subscribed to several of their newsletters.

Yesterday I received an email from one of these speakers, announcing the release of his latest book. The email also stated that if I bought the book in the next few days, I would get over 20 bonuses! So I went to the website to see what  the bonuses were, and they included ebooks and mp3 recordings of other self-improvement and motivational speakers, all with a "valued at" amount beneath them. Some of these bonuses looked really good, and some were valued at quite high amounts, so even though I wasn't very interested in the guy's new book I decided to buy it anyway for the bonuses.

Bits and Pixels accepted at PayPerPost!

Bits and Pixels has been accepted at PayPerPost, a paid blog reviews site! I've been hearing about all these people who earn a ton of money from their blogs, and I really wanted to start earning some money too so I could help my parents pay the bills.

So I signed up with a few paid-to-post sites, but my blog has not been accepted yet because it either doesn't get enough traffic or it's page rank is too low (Google hasn't assigned me a page rank yet). I also signed up on Social Spark, but my blog wasn't accepted because apparently I had too many sponsored posts, when in fact this post is actually my first sponsored post! I have resubmitted my blog, but they take a while to answer, and so I thought I'd sign up with PayPerPost in the meantime.

PayPerPost is owned by the same company as Social Spark, so I thought I'd have to wait a while for a response from them too, but they actually answered me the very next day! Granted, it was to reject my blog, but it was still an answer :P This time the reason was because my posts are truncated, and advertisers want their posts fully visible on the front page.

Now, I had decided to truncate my posts for three good reasons:

1. To make my blog faster to load. This helps especially when there are images in my posts.
2. So my readers could find posts that interest them faster and more easily.
3. To keep accurate statistics of which posts are the most read. This is also needed for the "Popular Posts" plugin I'm using.

I wrote back to them explaining why I truncate my posts, and asking if it would be okay if I left just the advertisers' posts full-length, and they sent me an email the next day agreeing. So far PayPerPost is the paid-to-post site with the most prompt customer service!

Something else I like about PayPerPost is that advertisers can also specify the tone in which the post must be written (positive, neutral, etc.), so bloggers can choose whether they agree or not. I have often wondered if certain posts I read on other blogs are sponsored, because they sound fake and positive, with no objective comments. This makes me trust the blogger less, so I'm glad I won't have to do that to earn from my blog. If that was the only way then I don't think I'd do it.

However, there aren't many opportunities I can take, because my blog hasn't been assigned a page rank yet. I would also prefer to only take opportunities that my readers would be interested in reading about. Hopefully I will get a page rank soon, and then I can take more offers!

With my first payment, I think I will buy a new domain name so I can start a personal blog - I often have things to post about, but I can't because they have nothing to do with Bits and Pixels! :P

So stick around or subscribe to my RSS feed, and I'll let you know when my new blog is up and running! ;)

Bloggers at risk

Bloggers and other people who use computers all day, whether for work or play, run a risk of injuring themselves or getting headaches. Yesterday I woke up with a terrible migraine - a result, I think, of working too much on the computer.

I often switch on my Mac to check my mail as soon as I wake up, and then start using the computer after I've finished my chores, but sometimes even while I'm eating breakfast. I then use the computer practically all day long - posting on my blogs, gathering info for the posts, dropping Entrecards, entering contests, and looking for ways to earn money. Then there's always making graphics, reading ebooks, and I could go on and on - there's just so much to do!

So yesterday I woke up with this terrible migraine, and any light made it worse - when I switched on the computer the pain immediately spiked up and I even felt nauseous. I tried to bear it because I had to fix up my new blog, but after a few minutes I had to give up and go lie down again.

But headaches are not the only things bloggers are risking - RSI is also a common problem with people who work on computers all day. My uncle even had to get his arms operated, because they had become almost unusable from the pain - he is now slowly starting to regain strength in them.

I bought an application called "MacBreakZ 4" to help prevent RSI - it monitors my keyboard and mouse activity and warns me when I'm putting myself at risk. It also pops up a window periodically with exercises for me to do that should help prevent RSI. The problem is, I often get irritated by it and switch it off! Then after a few hours I start feeling pain in my arms and I switch it on again, but I really have to learn to leave it on all the time and take breaks when it tells me to.

How much time do you spend in front of the computer every day? And do you do anything to prevent yourself from getting headaches, burning eyes, or RSI? Please leave a comment, I'd love to hear your answers!

Prizes I won in June 2008

To everyone who never enters contests because they don't think they'll win: if you don't enter, you can be sure you won't win! Since I started my blog I've run across many contests with great prizes, and often the only requirement to enter is subscribing to the blog via email! I haven't won any of the BIG prizes yet, but I have won a ton of Entrecard points and quite a few high quality WordPress themes.

I'd like to send out a big thank you to all the sites that held these contests, and to all the sponsors that donated the prizes! Here's what I've won since about the beginning of June, when I started entering these contests:

• PhotoshopStar contest
  Blog Perfume - Blubs theme
• Entreblast - 554 EC
• BloggerJesse - 2050 EC
• WPThemeDesigner contest
  WPelements - TV.Elements theme
• Blog Premiere contest
  PowerTheme - MagPress theme
  PremiumThemes - Ecstasy theme
• Rockfuse - 3100 EC

Thanks to all of you, I really appreciate the prizes! As you can see, I'm using the Blubs theme on Bits and Pixels, and I'll be using the two themes I won in the Blog Premiere contest on blogs I'll be opening soon (subscribe to my RSS feed to stay updated!). The TV.Elements theme, on the other hand, will have to wait a while before I can use it - I have some great ideas for a video blog, but I'll need a camcorder first! :P

The Entrecard credits will also be very useful for promoting Bits and Pixels and my other new blogs once they're up and running. I have also donated 1000 EC to Entreblast's "Summer Credit Splash" contest that will be starting soon, with at least 20,000 EC up for grabs!

What you don't know can hurt you

A couple of weeks ago I clicked a link to a blog post that was announcing a contest with some absolutely fantastic prizes - and almost hit the back button! The reason? The content of the post was written in huge, red writing - even bigger than the title of the post! Not only was it ugly, but to read the whole post you had to scroll and scroll and keep on scrolling down the page.

It was reminiscent of those pages you find all over the net trying to sell you the secret to becoming a millionaire, and my first impression was that the blogger either didn't know what he was doing, or that his blog was a scam. The only reason I stopped myself from immediately leaving the site was because I had read the list of prizes on the referring blog, and I had nothing to lose by entering the contest.

So I subscribed to his blog to enter the contest, and was pleasantly surprised by the posts I received in my inbox. So I went back to his site and looked around, and found it was full of useful info on the blog's subject. This guy obviously knew his stuff, so why the horrible design? Couldn't he see how bad it was?

A few days later I was checking the contest post again to find out how many entries everyone else had, but this time in Firefox - I  have no idea what made me use Firefox that day, as I greatly prefer Safari. And surprise surprise, the text was now black and the usual size! It turns out that there was an error in the code of his theme, just a </h2> after the post title instead of </h1>. The page was a mess in Safari, but the blogger didn't know it because he hadn't tested his blog in different browsers. I don't know how long he had that layout, but he probably lost a whole lot of potential readers because of that one little mistake.

So the moral of the story is, always check your websites in as many browsers as you can - and if you can't check them in the browsers like Internet Explorer or Safari because you don't have the right operating system, then use an online service like BrowserShots, which will show you a screenshot of what your site looks like in the different browsers. Remember to check not only your homepage, but your other pages and individual posts as well.

Laptops shock barefoot users

The other day I was typing on my MacBook Pro when suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my wrist. I got a huge fright, but I didn't know what it was so I just carried on typing. Then it happened again, and when I cautiously touched the casing of my Mac with my hand, I felt an uncomfortable tingle.

I did a search on Google to find out why my Mac was suddenly emitting shocks, and found many results not only for MacBooks but other laptops as well. They were all complaining about getting shocked while their laptops were charging - apparently it's a common problem with the grounding, and can be fixed by using a grounded plug.

But I was only getting shocked when my MacBook wasn't charging. I wondered what I was doing that day that was different from every other day I had used my Mac and never got shocked, and then I realized it - I was barefoot! Sure enough, if I lift my feet off the ground and touch my Mac I don't get shocked, and if I put them down again - zap! Click here to read a forum thread in which this problem is discussed.

I bought my Mac in the winter and have been wearing shoes all the time, so I only noticed the shocks now that it's summer and I go barefoot around the house. My Mac could have had this problem since the beginning :(

Does anyone else have the same problem?

P.S. If you're wondering why my little vetor portrait is a bit on the grey side, that's supposed to be ash from the "electrocution" :P

The Dream Job

Oh my gosh people! Check out this video:

A bunch of great prizes for bloggers

Blog Premiere is giving away a whole bunch of very useful prizes for bloggers! Check out these fantastic prizes: