Archive for 2008
Three Thousand Stumbles and Counting
A Monumental Milestone of Time Wasting My favorite Firefox extension has always been the StumbleUpon toolbar. I have been using it since June of 2006. Whenever I’m bored or looking for something new and interesting it’s just a button click away. I was looking at my profile yesterday and realized that I was at around [...]
Read More »What, Why and How of Self Hosting Explained
When I registered a domain for my Blogger hosted blog, I used to wonder, why people self-host their blog when they can get free Google hosting. Blogger hosting permits the usage of custom .com domains, plus infinite bandwidth and lots of space and life-time free Google support. But when I chose to shift to Wordpress, I decided to self-host my blog. Now I am here to tell you why you too should go for self-hosting.
What is Self Hosting?
Self-hosting means, you purchase storage space on a server and keep all your data including the images and admin files in that space. You will have to pay a monthly payment towards the maintenance of your storage and support. Popular hosting providers are DreamHost, Host Gator etc.
The Self-Hosting Advantage
Copyright over Content: Most blogs have this statement (or equivalents); “All articles are copyrighted to the author and unauthorized content copiers will be legally prosecuted”. The free hosted publisher believes that he is the owner of his content, till he deals with a content copier legally. The free publisher has limited rights over his content and cannot press a valid charge against a content copier. But when you self-host your blog, you are the total owner of all your content and files. So when you say, All Rights Reserved, you can really mean it.
Flexibility: When are hosting with a free host, they decide which folder to place your images, where to place the data and stuffs like that. Moreover, most free hosts do not permit upload of mp3’s, exe’s and files other than image files. With a self-host you are in total control. You can upload anything depending on your storage space. More flexibility means better service and more readers. Also you can choose your own service provider. Every hosting company has their own packages, so if you are not satisfied with one, you can easily shift at the click of your mouse.
Increased Earning Potential: All advertising programs do not run on Free Blogs. Also some pay per post programs does not accept free-hosted blogs. Self-hosting increases your scope and gives you more earning potential.
Professional Feel: Because of the increased flexibility of self hosting, like custom permalinks, custom storage, your blog looks more professional and you have a better chance of impressing your audience.
Quality Support: Hosting companies are usually ranked by the quality of the support they provide. Most of them have 24×7 support via mail, chat and phone, that too, at no extra cost. Better support makes blogging less tiresome and more interesting.
Hosting is cheap too: Recently due to the reduction in the cost of magnetic storage and improvement in technology, domain hosting is very cheap. A host service named WebHostingPad provides hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth plus free lifetime domain registration for just $3.5 per month. Dreamhost and HostGator have similar services from $10 per month.
How do I choose my host?
Finding the best host is simple, define your requirements, then read the online brochure of various popular hosts and find the best package. When you have found your host, google for the quality of their service, support and usual downtime period. You can read the wordpress hosting guide by Wordpress Codex team for suggestions. If still have not registered your domain yet, do it now and take all its advantages home.
Okay, so if you already are self-hosted, tell me about the pros and cons of your host, so that others can follow you. The commenting lines are open for you. :)
Read More »Get Bargains on Tech Gear for Christmas
Use the Web to S-t-r-e-t-c-h your Dollar$
In Part 1 (Upgrade Your Career) of my series on Conquering the Recession Using Technology, I talked about finding a higher paying job. Until you start making the big bucks, you’ll need to make your money go further.
Christmas season is upon us and money is tight. You can still take care of all of your gadget gift giving with cash to spare. There are a bunch of sites on the internet that will help you save a boatload of loot.
I’m going to show you how to do the following:
- Save a Fortune at Amazon.com
- Get Paid to Buy Stuff
- Find the Best Price on Anything
- Have Bargains Come to You
Save a Fortune at Amazon.com
Amazon has an product line that goes on forever. There is always something on super-terrific clearance sale. You can find giant discounts on products at Amazon.com. The links below list products that are at least 75% OFF in their respective categories.
75% Off Cameras and Accessories
75% Off Computers and Accessories
75% Off Electronics and Gadgets
You can use their Search options to weed through the haystack of bargains to find your needle.
Get Paid to Shop at Live.com
Microsoft’s Live.com search engine is so hard up for users that they’ll actually PAY YOU to search for things to buy. This is obviously a long-term plan to capture market share and drum up affiliate sales. Guess what, who cares? You still get paid.
You can use Live.com to Search For and Get CashBack savings on the products you want from the stores that you know and trust.
Find the Best Price on Anything with Price Comparison Engines
Are you looking for something that hundreds of sites carry? Well, there are a number of Price Comparison Engines that will show you who sells an item for the best price. I always check these before I buy.
If those were not enough, here is a huge list of price comparison sites on ProBargainHunter.com.
Let the Bargains Come to You
There are a few sites where great deals are being posted all day long. The deals are posted by members who find them online.
e="Techbargains.com the best deals in tech" href="http://www.techbargains.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">TechBargains.com
All of these sites have RSS feeds that will send you regular updates as they are posted.
Christmas Gadget Gift Ideas
OK, so you know HOW to save big bucks, but what are you going to buy? Here is a list of Great Gadget Gift Ideas for the tech lover in your life.
Stay tuned for the finally of the three part series “Getting Great Stuff for Free”.
Subscribe to the VitaminCM.com Feed
Don’t Miss the Next Article
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Read More »
See How to Upgrade Your Career in a Recession Using Technology
Use Software, the Web, and Social Networking to Ace your Job Search
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last month or so, you’re probably worried about your job. Blue chip companies are falling into the deadpool or getting taken over on a daily basis.
You either just got laid off or you’re worried that you could be. If that’s not the problem, then you probably just need more money (welcome to the club). with the job market so tight, how do you compete?.
Let Technology be your
not-sosecret weapon to find all of the best jobs even in a tough market.
You can use software, social networking, and dead-simple techniques to make the whole process painless and successful.
It all starts with your Resume. You already have one (don’t you?), but take a little time to make sure it’s a good one. Go to Google and type in "Create a Great Resume" or something like that. Follow the instructions to make your resume a great one.
Save your Word Resume with the following title: "First name-Last name-Resume.doc". Now, when you email the resume to people, they always know what the file is, it’s YOUR RESUME!
When you go online to start this process, you’ll need to paste the text of your resume into a bunch of sites, forms, emails, etc. This is a huge hassle and can either slow you down or force you to give up. If you don’t make it easy on yourself, that is. You’re going to have a copy of your resume in a plain text file to breeze through this part.
Read More »
Conquer the Recession (Three Part Series)
Live Large in a Small Economy
Are you sick of this floundering economy? Is your 401k looking more like a 201K? Well, I for one have had enough of this crap. I’ve decided to do something about it.
original illustration – graphite pencil – derwent graphic – August 2007
I’m unleashing my own bailout package. A 3 part series aimed at surviving conquering this recession. The series will focus on a few areas:
- Get More Money – If your job is shaky or just plain gone, I’m going to show you how to use technology to quickly and easily find a better one.
- Get Stuff for Less Money – It’s not just making more, you need to spend less. I’ll show you how to find incredible bargains on things that you need every day.
- Get Great Freebies – What’s better than getting things for less? FREE of course. I’m going to show you where you can score some valuable free stuff.
Stay tuned for the first article: See How to Upgrade Your Career in a Recession Using Technology.
Read More »
Recent Comments