Blogging

Why it is important for a company to have a website

by Yin on April 6, 2012

As I have mentioned so many times, a company really needs a website if it wants to continue to be competitive in today’s era.  Setting up a website need not be difficult- you can even engage a college IT student to do it for a low cost in exchange for a good portfolio (having developed website for a good and known company would definitely put the graduate at a distinct advantage over other applicants).

Websites can be set up so easily nowadays- one can even use the most popular blogging platform, WordPress to set up the site.  That is why sometimes I don’t understand why a company can’t even spare a little budget to just set up a website and keep it running.

An example I would like to discuss today is Hinode shop- the shop that sell most of its product for RM5 each (similar to Daiso). From what I can see, the company does not have an official website (if it does, I am not able to find it online). Visitors looking for more information about Hinode online ended up in my other blog, where I happened to write an article about Hinode.  They even ended up on a blog that writes about Daiso, their competitor.

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Tagged as: entrepreneur, small business, website

What is wrong with monetizing your site using Google Adsense

by Yin on March 21, 2012

If you are wrestling with the dilemma of whether to monetize your blog or website, do note that many well-known sites have put up Google Adsense as one of their primary advertising means.

Most readers would understand- that a website runs on continous costs… hosting, hiring writers, programmers and designers. In order to continue to provide the kind of service or articles, the output must be able to cover back the costs and reap profits for the owners.

Years ago, there was a site that had decided to run based on donations by readers alone- I knew the site owner. The site was providing top quality news in a niche and have many visitors from all over the world. Initially, donations poured in from all around the world. And then, the contributions starts to dwindle.  There is only so much that limited number of people could give.

Of course, due to large number of viewers sucking up the site’s bandwidth, the donations were not enough to cover the cost of the site. Even if it does, there was no compensation for the owner, who is not a rich guy but had dedicated a great deal of his time towards the site.

Today, when I visit the site, I’ve noted that the site has finally put up some ads from Google Adsense. Rather than getting visitors to physically fork out money, running the ads would be a better long term solutions. If the readers see something they like, they can just click on the ad and see if they want to buy the service. By the reader clicking on the ad (at no cost to the reader except of the reader chooses to buy something), the owner could earn income back based on his contribution and dedication. The earnings also give some sort of motivation for the owner to keep going.

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Tagged as: adsense, Blogging, business, entrepreneur, monetise, newspaper, small business, websites

Blackberry: Unable to upload videos to YouTube?

by Yin on March 15, 2012

Over the net, many Blackberry users are facing problems uploading videos recording with the handheld mobile into YouTube.

Usually, the upload would carry on just fine and as you excitedly wait for the 100% upload to be done, it would suddenly come out with this message: “401 error and Connection to YouTube Server cannot be established”. You may try many times and yet the same error may occurr.

When I first attempted to upload my recorded videos via YouTube using my Blackberry Torch, I face hours of frustration to upload and reupload the videos- only to be met with the same message.  And I thought, if I cannot upload the video, then the device had not much use for me.

After checking through various forums and websites offering the advice, I still find that the upload failed. But I refused to give up since I’ve spent good money on the thing- and if I am able to upload videos, then I could express a lot more things in videos that sometimes words cannot express effectively.

Finally, the next day after trying and trying, I’ve figured out the solution. As you can see in my YouTube account, most of these are videos I’ve recorded myself.

How to upload a video recorded with your Blackberry Device directly to YouTube (you need Wifi connection):

1. When you upload, you must have logged out from your gmail accounts or your YouTube account in your device.

2. TURN OFF YOUR MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER and the BIS-  to do that, select Mobile Network and uncheck the network connection. That would remove your mobile network and the BIS from your phone. Then turn off your phone and turn it on again. This is the very important point- I could not upload the video until I turned the mobile coverage off.

3. Upload must be done using Wifi connection- with your mobile coverage turned off.

4. Access via Media> Video instead of via the icon YouTube> Upload a Video. That means, you need to go into the Media folder of your BB and select the video. It will auto play but you use the back arrow- so that the video you want is selected.  Then select “Send”> “Upload to YouTube”. Login with your YouTube user name and password and UNCHECK the box that states “stay signed in”.

5. Make whatever amendments you want to like the video title, tags, etc and press “Publish”. Then the video would upload and gets completed. Usually, I login to my netbook after the video is uploaded and then edit the title from my netbook as it is easier to type more text.

Try it and see- hope it works for you :)

Tagged as: Blogging, mobile

Smartphone for the blogger’s soul

by Yin on March 10, 2012

Well, it should mean “Chicken Soup for the Blogger’s Soul” – is the Smartphone sort of a Chicken Soup for the blogger? ;)

Days after publishing the blog post Is your Smartphone robbing you of a real life? and an earlier article of Smartphone Addiction and how it ruins families in my Health Blog, I contradicted myself and ended up buying myself a Smartphone…. a Blackberry to be precise. This is after about a few months of deliberation as well as deciding which type of phones- ie iPhone, Andriod, Windows, Blackberry, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab, iPad….the choices are so many but budget is so limited.

Well I figured there is no point of wondering about the “what ifs” – silence the nudgings, buy the fella and get it over and be done with. 

I chose a shop where I feel the sales assistant is experienced enough to know what’s the best. Months ago he was selling the Samsung Galaxy phones and when I wanted to buy, he was selling more Blackberrys.

One of the first questions he asked me was my budget and what is the features that I’ve placed importance on. I told him I need to use the phone to type a lot and also the camera must be of reasonable good quality. Then he said for the purpose of typing and email, the best would be a Blackberry- because nothing beats a real keypad (even though it is so minute).  This was what my Smartphone user friends shared with me- that a physical keypad makes a difference if you are typing often.

The camera was to help me to take pictures- and with a Smartphone, you can immediately upload photos in Facebook, send via email or load in your WordPress blog (you need to download the WordPress for Blackberry in order to do that).

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Tagged as: Blogging, mobile, money, wordpress

Mobile Blogging for those on the go

by Yin on February 18, 2012

When we are attempting to blog via mobile it is slower but
t we need not carry our laptop with us wherever we go. We can snap a picture, write a few sentence and viola, blig post is published. Therefore after some thoughts on this- a few weeks of deliberation, I’ve decided well, what the heck, I’ll just get myself the Smartphone. This is the first post that I am publishing using my BlackBerry. And the virtual keyboard is not hard to use for speed typers.

Tagged as: Blogging, mobile, time

Is your Smartphone robbing you of a real life?

by Yin on February 15, 2012

This is a question I keep pondering back and forth as I contemplate in getting either a Smartphone (like the Galaxy Note) or a tablet that my friends have been recommending me to use.  Most people I know already own a Smartphone.

I’ve thought of owning it mainly to help me to be able to post more blog posts while on the go- like snap a photo and then write a short sentence and publish the post. Then I would not need to come back and spend time in front of my netbook, or rewrite drafts that I’ve written on my physical notebook. 

At the same time, I am aware of how much the iPhone, iPad, Adriod and Blackberry smart applicances are taking over people’s lives. As it is, I often have to chide myself for spending too much of time surfing the net instead of blogging (of course, I’ve minimized my TV watching time- in fact I usually don’t watch TV except that I happened to be following the 1 hour show of Journey to the West in 8TV. After the show is over, I have no problem switching off the TV).

If the Smartphone had been so popular a few years ago, I would have bought it because those days I could not stand being idle. When in the train commuting to and fro from work, I always had a book with me- and have finished a number of books that way. I could hardly stand being idle- sitting down to wait and doing nothing.

But it had also made me very exhausted- a day job then that was quite pressured, and then in the between where I was either reading or doing something. It caused my mind to be scattered and distracted. Easily agitated, and I was constantly tired- because my brain was active all the time that it probably never quite ‘shut down’ probably.

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Tagged as: Blogging, choices, facebook, friends, life, money, work

Blogging on a netbook vs iPad or iPhone

by Yin on February 6, 2012

Today, a thought ran in my mind to purchase a iPad, mainly for the purpose of blogging and surfing net. First thought that the iPad is highly portable and I can carry it easily around compared to a netbook.

To part time bloggers like us who have a full time job plus other personal responsibilites, blogging on the go seemed to be a good idea. Right now, I have a laptop plus a netbook.  There are so many things that I would like to write about but when I have time to sit down, I find myself feeling too tired. Well, another temptation to use that hard earned cash….

For anyone who is thinking of investing money to buy anything, would strongly recommend that you spend sometime to google more about the comparison of the products. There is always the pros and the cons. In the end, armed with the information at hand, you can at least make some informed decision.

There are endless temptations and new gadgets out. Perhaps now, as part of aging and the fact that I’ve been a spendthrift hoarding up nonsense that I am trying to get rid off,  I am starting to be more prudent in my spending. 

Subtly or directly, we have been so influenced that we must have something just because everyone else has it. It is the result of effective advertising and branding that goes into our subconscious. With that, no matter how much we earn, it will never be enough. That is no wonder why many people are living beyond their means and going into debt at a young age. This is reality…

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Tagged as: Blogging, money

Facebook Timeline? Why not start a blog instead

by Yin on January 26, 2012

Facebook is going to make its Timeline compulsory to all Facebook users according to an update I saw from Yahoo Finance. 

I am not sure about you, but I prefer the old format compared to Timeline (read the post by Smosh- quite funny). When I visiting pages of friends who have installed the Timeline, the entire page sort of hang and the loading time is slow. So usually I do not stay more than a few seconds in those pages with Timeline….probably because my own timeline to surf is so limited. I don’t own a Smartphone (and have no immediate plans of getting one) therefore I cannot surf on the go and while working. And my company has cleverly banned Facebook from its public internet access (something that I am thankful because in my previous company where there was no internet page restrictions, sometimes I find myself mindlessly surfing net and it affected my productivity).

Last time I love to login to Facebook to send comments- but now, I’ve disciplined myself to focus on blogging with the little time I have to blog (after office hours or weekends, divided between family, housework and outings).  Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD)  is now an officially diagnosed psychological disorder as per what was recently published in the papers- yes, it is easy to get addicted to Facebook and sometimes,Facebook can make you hit rock bottom if you are already down in the dumps.

Well, you cannot control what you don’t own

Facebook is a free access tool- and because we do not own it, basically we have no say of what they want to implement. Well, you can complain and rant all you want- but once the ones on top decides on something, there’s nothing much that can be done. 

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Tagged as: Blogging, facebook, Travel

Many report drop in Adsense earnings

by Yin on January 16, 2012

More and more web/blog owners are reporting a drop in Adsense earnings- some as much as 70% or more sudden drop in recent months. As Google did a round of algorithm- and wiped out a huge amount of its Adwords advertisers- coupled with the overall economy downturn, bloggers worldwide are affected.

The change can literally happen overnight- and it is a huge blow for those who have financial commitments. If you have been a full time blogger or earning money through the internet for years, it is not easy to go out to the job market again- because first, there is not much job match to blogging and secondly, if you are used to lucrative passive income, it’s hard to go back to earning active income. The only option is to mull over forums and sites trying to figure out  what one had done wrong- and often, these factors are really beyond our control.

Over these past months, I’ve seen a lot of rise and dip in traffic and earnings on my site. From June to September, my earnings were up by about 70%- and then they dropped back since November last year and had not really recover.  There is just too much of factors beyond our control- because as a full time blogger, one relies heavily on Google organic traffic. Without organic traffic, it would come to naught.

But then, another factor is advertising. Most sites/blogs have Adsense ads. So far, visiting most blogs, I see only the same kinds of ads when previously there were more varieties. And the free Adword offer is back again. So if all the blogs have the same kind of ads, then there would be less clickthrough because visitors are seeing time same ads everywhere.

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Tagged as: adsense, Blogging, monetise

Full time blogger would be affected by changes in Google search algorithm

by Yin on November 10, 2011

One of the challenges that a full time blogger must be willing to undertake is the uncertainties and strong dependancy of earnings based on Google’s traffic and search rankings. A change in Google search algorithm could drastically bring down traffic earnings – and this uncertainty is one of the main factors that prevented me from being a full time blogger.

Within this past month, I was a bit puzzled when I noticed a drop in my search engine traffic from sources of organic traffic delivered by Google. Upon checking around the net, I realized that many blogs have reported a significant drop in earnings after Google introduced its new search  algorithm, also known as Google Panda.

Blogs that are largely affected are those who go round scrapping content from other blogs. While this has been an ongoing issue that many bloggers have to deal with (I’ve had my original content scrapped many times over)- I am glad that finally Google is finding a way to remove this culprits from the search results.

Even though there is a slight drop in search results, I do notice that Google is delivering visitors who are seaching for specific content on the site- there are certain content that I write in depth about that these posts are finally getting traffic views.  So Google is effectively linking the visitors towards the content that they are really looking for.

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Tagged as: adsense, blog, Blogging, work

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