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Blogspot Now Supports Pages!

15Apr10

For the longest time, Blogspot has made a move and have now added support for individual Pages.

It was a pain in the arse to configure your blogger/blogspot theme to make it look like it has static pages. With this, adding a stand-alone page is now easier on Blogger/Blogspot compared to what it was before.

Steps in Adding Pages in Blogspot/Blogger:

You create a page similar to how you write a blog post. From Blogger, click Posting | Edit Pages tab, then click New Page. (Note: you can create up to 10 pages)

Once your page is published, you can link to it from the new Pages widget. The Pages widget lets you add links to your pages as tabs at the top of your blog, or as links in your blog’s sidebar. (Note: existing third party templates may not support pages as tabs, but pages can still be added as links in your blog’s sidebar)

In the Pages widget, you can decide which pages will have links, and in what order they will appear. You can also choose whether or not you want links automatically created for pages when you create them by checking or unchecking the box to the left of Add New Pages by Default.

For information on how to add a gadget to your blog, you can visit Adding a Gadget

Making Custom Templates Compatible With Pages Tabs

If you are familiar with HTML and want Pages as tabs, follow these steps carefully (caution – this is not for the faint of heart!):

Make sure the Pages Widget hasn’t already been added, if so, remove the widget
Go to the Layout | Edit HTML tab for your blog
Download a backup of your template by clicking Download Full Template
Click the checkbox next to Expand Widget Templates
Look for the following three lines of HTML. If this HTML exists, change showaddelement=’no’ to showaddelement=’yes’

&lt;div id='crosscol-wrapper' style='text-align:center'&gt;
         &lt;b:section class='crosscol' id='crosscol' showaddelement='no'/&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;

If this HTML does not exist, paste the following lines of HTML where you want the tabs to appear (for instance, after <div id=’content-wrapper’>)

&lt;div id='crosscol-wrapper' style='text-align:center'&gt;
         &lt;b:section class='crosscol' id='crosscol' showaddelement='yes'/&gt;
       &lt;/div&gt;

Confirm tabs are correctly added, click Save Template
Go to Layout | Page Elements and look for the new horizontal Gadget area and add the Pages gadget there.

Filed under Blogger and Blogspot. |1 Comment

Google Pagerank PR Updated

05Apr10

A number of people was expecting the new Google Pagerank update to be rolled out April of 2010. Indeed, Google has updated Pagerank!

I have gained PageRank on sites I have been wanting to gain PR for, lost a PageRank on a site and not regained PageRank on 2 sites.

Here is a list of the sites:

Pagerank winners:
These are my sites that have gained Pageranks.

1. Armed And Loaded has gained Pagerank 2. The site was started January of 2009 and I have long wished for it to gain a Pagerank but to no avail. At last, it has gained a PR 2 after more than 1 year of waiting.

Current Pagerank: 2/10

2. The Wandering Couple has gained a PageRank 1. It has a gained a Pagerank based on just sole original content and a number of forum links. I am very happy for this blog as this was just started November 2009. Not bad for a site who relies solely on original content. I am prepping this baby to contend for the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2010 and hopefully for the Top 10 Best Cebu Blogs of 2010 by the end of this year.

Current Pagerank: 1/10

Pagerank Neutrals:
These are the sites that has not gained or lost a Pagerank.

1. Fight Fiesta – I was expecting this not to gain a Pagerank yet as I lost momentum building traffic and content for it. Content building stalled as I needed to pay more attention on my other blogs/sites.

Current Pagerank: n/a

2. Kinakusgan.com – I should consider this a neutral though it should be considered a loser. This was a Pagerank 3 but has dropped to Pagerank 2 on the former updates and have never regained back the Pagerank 3. This is a neutral since the site is unupdated and was done for more than 3 months due to hosting problem. I should consider this Pagerank as a gift from Google.

Current Pagerank: 2/10

Pagerank Losers:
These are the sites that have either been left our or Google just hates these sites ( for no apparent reason).

1. The King Lebron James – this site has had a PageRank 3, then down to Pagerank 2 and now it is down to Pagerank 1. I have updated this baby every now and then with Lebron James news and anything about Lebron James. Maybe I will need to update this more and I need to as the NBA Playoffs 2010 drawing near and it’s time to document another MVP season for King Lebron James.

Current Pagerank: 1/10

2. SimplyBlackAndWhite – yes this blog is a Pagerank loser! This blog was a Pagerank 2 and have lost Pagerank and have never regained it for almost 2 years now. For what reason? The only viable reason is Paid posts which is not that many on this blog. It could be the IP address of my host, however, Armed and Loaded just regained Pagerank2 and that

Current Pagerank: 0/10

3. d’MusicBox (TambayanBox) - the biggest loser! This blog/site is my money maker and I do the money making without any Pagerank also for almost 2 years now. This site has has tough luck on regaining the Pagerank 3 it once had. Same as SimplyBlackAndWhite, the only thing I am seeing that caused the PageRank problems is paid posts which I have stopped centuries ago to see if I can regain PageRank to no avail. It also started with I blatantly sold links on the Smorty’s forum. If to regain Google PageRank I need to have original content and backlinks, I have both intact. Anyway, I am still generating income on this blog, my main money maker, and I am a part of the Top 10 Best Cebu blogs of 2009 but it would be a bigger gift to get the Pagerank this site deserves, a PR 3 or PR 4.

Current Pagerank: 0/10

More Google PageRank updates to come!

Filed under Google and Google PageRank. |1 Comment

Going Full Time Full Throttle

25Mar10

Last month, I was able to secure myself copies of How to be a Rockstar Wordpress Designer and How to be a Rockstar Freelancer but have not had the luxury of finishing them due some priorities that needs to be handled first such 9 hours of corporate work, part time SEO and webdesigning jobs, personal blogs/sites’ SEO and maintenance and a whole lot of other stuffs.

I have been contemplating of quiting my full time job (pays good but I haven’t learned anything significant for 1 year) and go for a full time Web Designing/SEO gig. I have roughly 3-4 years experience in Web Designing/SEO/Article Writing but for 1 year of working with my current employer, I feel like I haven’t reached “ROCKSTAR” status. My aim is to reach the Rockstar status and going full time freelancing is the only way I can dedicate myself to learning new stuffs and relearning sh*tload of things I have forgotten

I am currently getting part-time Web Designing and SEO Jobs every now and then and once I get the change to get a full time gig, then its time to sign that resignation letter! To start, I am now drafting my portfolio site (but have currently finished just the landing page http://portfolio.tambayanbox.org). More updates to come on going Full Time Full Throttle!

Filed under Ebooks, How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer and How to Be a Rockstar Wordpress Designer. |0 Comments

Much Love Wordpress 3.0

19Mar10

My favorite CMS/blogging platform, Wordpress, is set to release WordPress 3.0 is within the next 30-60 days.

The release date of Wordpress 3.0 is drawing near and I am pretty much excited. I feel like wetting my pants thinking of the new features of Wordpress 3.0. The new features of Wordpress 3.0 is ORGASMIC!

To name a few new features in Wordpress 3.0:
(1) Your own Username and Password – A BIG YES! from me, Wordpress! Now, I won’t haev to deal with using “admin” as a login. I feel like using my own username during installation

(2) New Default Theme! – Don’t get me wrong, I love the default Kubrick theme as it looks neat, but the new default Theme is so effin’ good you wouldn’t want to look for another theme. Can I hear an OH YEAH?!

(3) Multi-site Capabilities and WPMU Codebase Merge – I have been wanting to try WPMU but I had a gut feeling that Wordpress will integrate that feature on the future updates. I guess I am related to Nostradamus as Wordpress has now merged codebase with Wordpres MU. This would make handling large WordPress networks easier.

(4) Custom Background Support – by just adding add_custom_background(); to your functions.php, Wordpress beginners would be more comfortable changing the background rather than touching the codes.

Other Wordrpress 3.0 New Features:
Custom Post Types, Custom Taxonomies, Easy Menu Management (menu manager) , Specific author templates and Media UI redeign

With Wordpress 3.0, Wordpress is not just one user-friendly platform, it is now shaping into powerful CMS!

Filed under Wordpress and Wordpress 3.0. |0 Comments

First Registered Domain Name Ever Turns 25

15Mar10

First ever registered Domain Name Symbolics.com turns 25 today, March 15, 2010. SYMBOLICS.COM was the first domain name ever to be registered. The registration took place on March 15, 1985, about 25 years ago. Symbolics was a computer manufacturing company and now the domain name is being used as the personal blog of Aron Meystedt.

Happy 25th Birthday Symbolics.com! May you have more birthdays to come. (Ugh!)

On a lighter note, I am now thinking of a domain name to register for my personal streaming site and I am intrigued to use Sweetcron (I’ll be back Wordpress). My full name sounds too formal and I am anything but formal. **brainfreeze**

Filed under Domain Name, Rants, SweetCron and Wordpress. |0 Comments

My Facebook Account Got OWNED!

08Mar10

I was away from my computer for almost 2 days as I was on a mission to save man kind from the Evil Haxxor! After defeating the evil Haxxor, I knew I needed to login to Facebook to check for updates.

Upon logging in, I was greeted by a message that my account was compromised and I needed to update my security and password. My Facebook Account Got OWNED! This the copy of the mail that I got in my mail since I failed to take screenshots of my Facebook account since I panicked and almost peed on my pants.

Dear Edcel XxXxXx,

We have detected suspicious activity on your Facebook account and have temporarily suspended your account as a security precaution.

You can regain control of your account by logging into Facebook and following the on-screen instructions.

Please be sure to visit the Facebook Help Center (http://www.facebook.com/help/) for further information regarding these security issues and let us know if you need assistance.

Thanks,
Facebook Security Team

I don’t share my logins and I only use Facebook at home and the site is bookmarked. I am not sure how this happened and I will start monitoring my account’s activity now. That was not fun at all. I hope that doesn’t happen again.

Filed under Facebook and Hack. |0 Comments

How to be a Rockstar Wordpress Designer

21Feb10

Just recently got myselfy a copy of RockablePress’ How to be a Rockstar Wordpress Designer. How? I purchased a copy of it! **winks!**

I am still on the first 2 chapters of the e-book and it still quite boring. The 1st chapter is an introduction on on Wordpress and everything you need to know about Wordpress. I am still on Chapter 2 and it gets a little more interesting from this time on (hopefully).

Will I be a Rockstar Wordpress Designer after reading the How to be a Rockstar Wordpress Designer from RockablePress?

Filed under RockablePress and Wordpress. |0 Comments