Sorry, the No Index, No Follow tags are (you'll need to add the opening and closing html operators): META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, FOLLOW"/ META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOINDEX, FOLLOW"/ Salut! […]
OK Damian, I have it working now. I also use Go Daddy, and Justin's "all in one" code also caused my server to crash, so it looks like a Go Daddy thing. I love Go Daddy though, the service is great, and this is no reason to switch (believe it or not, I also host over at Network Solutions) As for the fix: First, I did not put the rewrite code i […]
Man, thanks for the great review and info. I love that it could be argued that this movie is targeted at social workers and teachers who practice LaME. On a side-note: I hope to have that indexing turned around in 36 hours at the latest. Lots going on tomorrow. Moving furniture for wood floor dude Grandma hired for us (Christmas gift). […]
Thanks..I always wanted that comment follow-up plugin but always forget about it when I'm online. You'd think WordPress would have put that in their default code by now...How are you checking to see if it really redirects? Check Justin again and try to follow his steps. I think you may have got in too deep with the move and created a unique situati […]
More irony, folks: clicking Add Video doesn’t give me a preview- it gives me a white box. Clicking insert embed media gives me a flash player square when I preview this post. Ya gotta love WordPress for making this easy for me.
So let me Save Draft, download a video plugin, and then install plugin to get video to embed without changing my General Setting options. Hold on.
Wow, so I typed “youtube” in the search plugins box and received “An unknown error occurred”. Then my Dashboard froze. Is it chrome? Wordpress? GoDaddy? MagicJack? Okay, lemme Save Draft again, and go into Mozilla. Hold on.
Okay, I’m back; turns out I uncovered a NEW WORDPRESS or GoDaddy bug that doesn’t allow me to ad new plugins right now. Yep, that’s what their forums said. This is an older trouble ticket; the first person said to disable all of your plugins and then activate them. Turns out that was wrong advice, glad I didn’t do that. Next person said to change themes. Turns out that was wrong, too. (Boy am I glad I didn’t test those out.) Therefore, you can go ahead and watch Tony Vahl’s excellent video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRxt86XgTUc
Hold on, let me try to embed by simply pasting the embed code from YouTube in the HTML post tab. Ah! That worked, but the width is too much, so my right sidebar is being cut. Let me edit the width, hold on. Nope. Let me try again. Hold on. Yaaaaah! Got it! Had to change the width in TWO places in that code. Okay, without further ado- here it is:
I checked it out- it’s one of the funniest videos I’ve seen. It’s a Hitler parody about Google’s Blogger FTP problems and migrating to WordPress.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand…90+ minutes later and I’m still working on getting Overstream to embed in WordPress custom domain blogs. Actually I just gave up since I just flushed more time down the toilet. The irony of ironies is that I’m sure Blogger would have embedded it instantly.
Overstream videos aren’t supported by WordPress, so I downloaded a VodPod plugin, signed up with VodPod, got the VodPod API, imported video from Overstream to VodPod, searched for the vid I just imported, found the ID code, clicked on add video in post, clicked on VodPod, selected VodPod ID from the dropdown, pasted the ID in like this: Video.3106403&w=425&h=350&fv (trial and error), hit GO, saw the thumbnail, and….that’s it- no way to insert it.
Due to Google’s official mandate that Blogger’s FTP support will be discontinued, I had to research the most simple way for me to transfer my subdomains over to WordPress. I’m not a network administrator or PHP superstar, so it had to be somewhat simple.
Now Google official Voice of Fate says that only a half percent of all Blogger users use FTP on their domain name. That’s kinda misleading, especially since a percentage of blogspot accounts are dummy accounts that spammers set up in one minute or by amateur bloggers that set up and forget. It’s also misleading because the sheer number of comments and technical issues that people have been posting regarding migrating from FTP Blogger to WordPress is NUMEROUS to say the LEAST! Trust me!
So here is my quick guide migrating from Blogger to WordPress. I have a few assumptions: that you have a real webhosting company that allows easy WordPress installation, it is running a Linux server, you know how to use an FTP program like FileZilla or an FTP web interface provided to you by your webhost, and that you have patience and some computer knowledge of moving files around or editing files. Finally, these instructions can be used if you just transferred to a new webhost or are working on your current webhost. Okay without further ado:
1. You MUST make an EXACT copy of your site on a hard drive. You MUST retain all files and folder structure.
1a. If you bought a new webhost for easy WordPress installation, now is the time to upload everything to it.
2. Log in to your blogger account as usual, Goto Settings >> Publishing and then choose ‘Switch to: blogspot.com’ . ‘Save Settings’. It’s official: blogspot seems to be pointing to a copy of original site or else did the quickest copy in the world. Both exist at the same time.
3. Using your FTP client, go to the webhost that will be serving WordPress and delete the existing files inside your blog directory. You should already have uploaded_images and any attachments you made in your posts on your hardrive, right? Believe it or not, you have to delete everything in the subdomain folder server. Otherwise you run the risk of an 500 server error and you may spend 2 hours trying to reinstall WordPress. If you get 500 error anyway, remove the subdirectory from your webhost’s control panel , delete the FTP folder, and then recreate it in your webhost’s control panel .
4. Install Wordpress on your domain. You need it to match your old domain exactly. Again, if you have a legitamate webhosting company, creating a WordPress database is easy. If not, I can’t help you.
6. Upload the ‘uploaded images’ and any attachment files from your hard drive to your sub-domain root.
7. Log in to your new Wordpress blog e.g. www.yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/ and choose Tools >> Import. Then choose BLOGGER! Before you import, clean WordPress up- Delete the Page, Links, and Post first! If you are logged in Gmail, WP will see what BlogSpot sites you own. If it reads it, you should see something like 0/100 meaning you imported 0 out of 100 blogspot posts. You need to click Import and WAIT. If you have a small blog, you will have no problems with importing posts from Blogger. If you have 1000 posts or more, you will run into problems. When you get stuck, refresh your screen. The Import Magic Button changes to Continue. Click continue. You may have to repeat this 10 times. Make sure you get at least 96% of your posts and comments imported. Oh, and if you click the wrong blog (if you have more than one blogspot account), you are screwed. So please be careful. Once done, the button changes to “Set Authors”. No need to really do that now.
8. How to retain Blogger URLs in Wordpress: Here is the direct link: http://justinsomnia.org/files/wp-maintain-blogger-permalinks-1.1.zip. You need to download the zip to your computer and then on the left side of WordPress’s menu “Add New Plugins” and Upload the Zip. Then Install and Activate. Feel free to check out Justin Watt’s site JustinSomnia.org if you have issues. There are over 100 comments from people just like me and you.
9. In WordPress go to Tools >> Maintain Blogger Permalinks and click the Justin’s ‘Maintain Blogger Permalinks’ button. This will rename your existing posts to be the same format as they were in your Blogger FTP blog, thus preserving the page rank and links to those posts that already exist. If you don’t do this, you lose all of your hard work and backlinks.
10. Still in Wordpress, choose Settings >> Permalinks and click the Radio Button for ‘Custom Structure’ and enter the following in the box ‘/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html’ ( inside the apostrophes) – and click ’save changes’ this will ensure new posts follow the same naming convention as Blogger. Okay, this is an optional course of action. The other way for advanced users to to modify that naughty .htaccess file.
11. Speaking of that naughty .htaccess file, you need to add this into the first line (before it says WordPress):
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^(labels)/([^/]+)\.html$ category/$2/ [QSA,R=301,L]
</IfModule>
If you want Blogger’s Label.html files to be redirected and replaced with WordPress’s Catergories. If you don’t do this, your visitors will not be able to see the original files. There is also code for converting your Archive files, but I haven’t done that yet, and don’t want to put too much stress on my server. Here’s that code:
12. Do yourself a favor and do a quick spot check and make sure your posts looks right. If you corrupted something along the way, you need to start this whole process over.
13. Delete the blogspot copy from Blogger dashboard at some point.
14. Set up your WordPress blog by changing theme, getting WordPress plugins, and setting up your widgets. If you have never used WordPress before, this may be a challenge, but it’s better than being chained down to Google’s Blogger software.
Please post here if you can’t find where things are or have any questions. WordPress gets easier with experience.
Before you go full force in Search Engine Optimization and internet marketing you should make sure your website gets listed via directory submission services. This is a one time thing, but many internet marketers forget this early step, which helps with getting listed in search engines and getting website backlinks. It’s an action with so side effects and is very quick.
Google, Google, Google….The Ultimate Big Brother of information…what is Google’s end game? Is it simply to store every bit of data in the world, and store all of our personal information and habits to sell to advertisers and custom make targeted ads? I mean, that’s a gold mine right there. For the last few years, many concerned technical orientated individuals have posted about the problems with Google’s privacy policy, Google’s immortal cookies, gmail being stored, and Google’s methods of creating a character profile for you, Joe Surfer.
Since Google has made themselves irreplaceable with their search engine, webmasters and SEO marketers MUST obey and comply…or be banished to Bing (little traffic). The only people who say Google doesn’t have privacy issues are the brown nosing apologists. This is not paranoia. Google offers some great tools to use “for free” but the price is that everything you do is recorded, even watching copyrighted YouTube videos.
With the announcement that Google is shutting down Blogger FTP and graciously allowing users to use their “free” blog hosting services, it’s time for a change for me…at least I hope Tony and I will be able to transfer successfully. DNS servers, WordPress migrations, and dealing with webhosting companies can be complex.
I know folks, it’s not a NEWSFLASH that “nothing is for free”, but as our society increases our reliance on technology, internet, and digital, one has to wonder if Google will make some sort of weird and unprecedented power play in the future…something bigger than Google AdSense.
I mean would we allow some entity to log, store, and analyze our everyday non-Internet personal daily habits and link them to our name and location? You know, like a giant database that tracks our every move and opinions just so we can get hit with ads or maybe something more devious? Because that’s what happens when we gladly sign up or use Gmail, Blogspot, Google search, Google Analytics, AdSense, AdWords, Toolbar, Chrome, Picasa, etc.
I may be uneasy, but I like Google and use Google. They are innovative, and Google generally improves my internet experience. I just think it’s time we started to kinda wean ourselves away from it. I’m sure I will get labeled as a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist because I have “Google Paranoia”. Heck, you can call me a hypocrite since I use Google’s services.
But unlike the government, law enforcement, credit card companies, or banks, Google is in the process of consolidating everything about you. Sure, the thousands of people who feel suspicious about Google may be in the same class as those who were afraid of flashbulb cameras when they first came out…or not. Who knows?
Welcome to the year 2010, where such different technologies such a Samsung HDTV, LCD TV, Plasma TV, LED TV, LCD Monitor, and Blue Ray DVD players are all hot and coveted items. It’s not just the upper class or middle class that have these entertainment devices, it is very common for the lower classes to have flat screens in their living rooms and bedrooms. Anyone who says this is the lowest point in American history has zero perspective.
With water softeners becoming such a hot trend in recent years to combat hard water, I have to wonder about DC Comics Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick’s origin, in which he inhaled the hard water vapors. That would not happen today due to the wide availability and low price of water softeners. It is very probably that if the Flash was created today, the comic book writer would use chemicals instead of hard water vapors.
I was listening to the Paul and Young Ron radio show this morning as my alarm clock and they were talking about how the scroll TV screen already exists but it has not been mass produced yet because the price is too high. Until we reach the day where you can paste paper thin roll up TV screen on your wall, you stil need tv stands.
Anyone that knows me, realizes that I love my netbook. I sure did a lot of research before I purchased my particular netbook this summer, however. I must admit that Acer Aspire is a front runner in the world of netbooks. Quite honestly, if you need a lightweight portable computer and are tired of squinting with an iPhone or Blackberry, you can’t go wrong with a netbook.
Industrial pulls and industrial handles are used with machinery and industrial metal cabinetry. They are made from metal, plastic, or rubber. In some cases, the mounting hole extends through the height of the handle and is accompanied by a counter bore. Obviously you need to have faith that you can grip the product, so you can avoid an accident. Therefore, it’s important to research the different brands.
Internet Browser comparisons: Google Chrome vs Mozilla Firefox vs Internet Explorer 8
Google Chrome:
The Good
Chrome is a FAST browser, and is not a resource hog. I can log into sites more fast than the others, as well.
Chrome has a nice front page for easy access to my most-visited sites.
Chrome is easy to install.
Chrome has a very simple interface.
Downloads stay at the bottom of the browser and be opened up from there.
The Bad
Chrome still has too many bugs and is incompatible with many applications, such as MSN Hotmail (how about that?) Anyway, I get frequent Chrome crashes. I have issues playing video (depends on the site) as well.
Chrome privacy: there is none with Big Brother Google.
Chrome and Google’s Blogger software are a bad combo. Linking photos is insane- that is IF you can upload them.
Does Chrome have add-ons?
Lack of any real options. Lame.
Conclusion:
Google Chrome did not live up to the hype. There is a growing “Chrome Sucks” campaign that lists all of the frustrating bugs with it. That being said, I use this as an internet browser because it is super fast to open and doesn’t slow other applications down.
Mozilla Firefox 3
The Good
Add-ons. Firefox add-ons. Can’t say enough about them…To me, Firefox revolutionized what the average surfer can do; and if you have any scripting or programming experience, you can REALLY push the limits of the World Wide Web. Firefox is a fully customizable browser, powered by the people.
Password management and bookmarking is great. Love the RSS feed bookmarking.
StumbleUpon..’nuff said.
The most safe and most private browser.
Blogger.com lets me upload and link photos!
The Bad
Speed tests show that it’s slower than other browsers, and slows your system down.
Some pages are still incompatible with it, and won’t play videos sometimes (there are cases where I simply can’t enable Microsoft Media Player).
Conclusion I still think this is the best browser, although no software is perfect.
Microsoft Windows Explorer 8
The Good
Microsoft copied a bunch of Firefox features.
Compatible and mainstream, although IE 7 seemed better at playing streaming radio. In fact IE7 seemed to be more compatible with a lot of other things.
I just use it to watch Netflix and MLB. My wife uses it 50% of the time and has no complaints (she uses it for Blogger.com, Yahoo mail, and videos).
The Bad
No download manager.
Technically uses more memory than Firefox although load times seem faster.
Has issues with Javascript more so than other browsers.
Attempts to take over your system, like an octopus.
Constant Microsoft IE updates you are forced to download.
Tabs love to say “Connecting….” while showing white screens.
CSS scripting? You’d rather go to the dentist.
Conclusion Typical Microsoft.
Other browsers such as Opera and Safari:
Wake me up when I can use Flash, Silverlight, etc. In other words, I can’t watch MLB, Hulu, Netflix or other cool stuff on Wii or IPhone. How convenient.
BOTTOM LINE
I still believe “your mileage will vary”. I require multiple logins to various sites, so I need multiple browsers. No browser is perfect, but Mozilla Firefox is the closest to perfection.
The above As Seen On logo has to be the lamest As Seen On banner of all time. This “company” is boasting that it appears on SEARCH ENGINES. Wow…{clap, clap, clap, clap}. dogpile is an aggregate search engine, like Leapfish and Scour, too- in other words it pulls from the big search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing and has no original content. And to even put Lycos, Netscape, and altavista on this logo is beyond lame…those companies are not even 2000-late, they are relics from the Dot Com Bust.
Okay, now this second As Seen On header is VERY misleading. I guess this “company” (this one happens to be based in a 3rd world Asian country and is run by website designers) believes that if their advertisements (usually Google ads or their own banners) appear on DailyNews, Dr. Phil’s website, or Glamour that they have the right to use their logos. Repeat: the majority of corporate websites don’t even know which ads are being run; all they care about is getting paid per click, and usually their IT guy or marketing guy just signs up with an advertising company on the net that solicits these ads.
The deeper scam occurs when a local affiliate news channel like FoxNews Chicago DOES have a “feature” on a product (what they don’t tell you is that they may get paid for that, too).
The truth about unscrupulous internet marketing is that it’s no different that the As Seen On TV logos we were hit with in the 1970’s until today. You can claim “As Seen On TV” if you bought an infomercial at a local public access cable channel in Nebraska. Take a look at the above As Seen On Logo: if this product was on all of these TV shows, I would think it would be a household name and branded already. I assure you that you’ve never heard of the product they are selling. It’s very possible local news affiliates ran a little human interest story on this company, but they are not ENDORSING the product, which is exactly what this company wants you to believe when you see all of these logos.
The bottom line is that although the times change, human nature in modern times doesn’t change at the macro level. The forum and media changes, but the behavior doesn’t. When I read old comic books and see the X-Ray specs, Charles Atlas ads, how to learn martial arts, and Sea Monkey advertisements, I grin because that’s exactly what still happens today. I admit that I am “in on it”, too, FCC be damned. It’s nothing new, folks.
Perhaps the most telling symbol of LME (Lazy Man Ethics) is the fact that CNN, FOX, and Google don’t enforce their trademarked logo and symbols. It’s a free for all, folks.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
I don’t know about you, but for once I agree with Mac in the Mac vs PC commercials- I’m not buying or upgrading to Windows 7. I have no desire to. Windows Vista will go down in history as a folly no matter how well it was patched up months after Vista launch day.
But guess what? Windows 7 already made millions, it’s on top of the search engines, the marketing campaign already worked no matter how LOUD the Linux community is and no matter how LOUD the Mac community is.
If you are a hardcore internet surfer or Linux dude or Mac chick, you may no believe me, but Windows 7 is here to stay, Windows 7 is selling like hotcakes, and Microsoft can never be defeated no matter if Windows 7 is bad or not.
My first exposure to Windows 7 occured when Microsoft was allowing people to download beta versions of Windows 7 for free. Their servers crashed because of the interest. Of course, intial results filted through- people had crashing issues and some lost their hard drives.
According to Windows 7 reviews, PC veterans such as myself enjoy the Mac-like interface. I’m a Mac virgin, so I can understand their reaction to engage in something that feels new. Others report that it is faster than Vista, which doesn’t say a whole lot. The complaint department is full, of course. No matter what the Windows 7 commercials say, programs do freeze, Windows 7 sleep mode still sucks, and there are around 200 issues people have with it.
I’ve already exhausted the PC vs Mac vs Linux argument in the past- DO WHAT YOU WANT, I won’t stop you-but the bottom line is that Microsoft’s marketing campaign rubs me the wrong way, and Mac’s marketing campaign has already rubbed me the wrong way, and Linux can never be marketed to the general public as long as you have to use the command line and self-install drivers.
Each community turns me off. I dislike the PC/Mac/Linux apologists and defenders. Even if Windows 7 is bad millions of people will buy it based on the brandname and commercials alone. Microsoft has all the computer manufactors and retailers in their pockets- Windows 7 will be pre-installed on all new machines. It’s already a gold mine. The demand is there, the interest is there, no matter how many problems people have with upgrading from Vista to Windows 7.
PC tech junkie have run benchmarks and decreed that Windows 7 is vastly superior to Windows Vista and Windows XP, and runs more smooth. However, keep in mind the initial reviews of Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Infinity Squared all were gushing from these same techies for the first week.
Check out the Windows 7 reviews: they are written by snarky computer geeks that proclaim that it passes all the speed tests. They remind me of Captain Software II from Tashman Technologies.
It’s like getting a new dress.
Guess what? Windows 7 is not bad. In fact, it’s perfect! Microsoft finally got it right! Guess what, though? I’m done! I want a refund for all the stress they gave me for buying their products in the past.
If you were like me, you are AGONIZING over buying a netbook:
Can a netbook play games?
Can a netbook install Dreamweaver?
Does a netbook monitor have glare issues?
Does a netbook have good speakers?
Do I need to upgrade netbook RAM?
Which is the best netbook model or company: Samsung, HP-Mini, Acer, Assus, etc.
Are netbook monitors too small?
What is the battery life of netbooks?
Can a netbook play CDs?
Perhaps you read all of the netbook magazine articles, netbook reviews, and netbook price comparisons. Perhaps you scratched your head in frustration due to the pros and cons list and finding that not one netbook is perfect in terms of features or price.
Well guess what: after I bought the Samsung N120 online a number of months ago, I have never read another netbook review, and have gotten so used to my Samsung netbook that I have ZERO buyer’s remorse. ZERO.
Here are the great things about the Samsung N120 netbook:
100% portable- I can take it anywhere and blog with NO problems with typing or dealing typing or online publishing quirks from Blackberry or iPhone.
Boot up time and shut down time is amazing- amazing.
I’ve had NO compatibility issues with my favortite PC games or programs. The hardest thing I had to do was to adjust the monitor screen resolution for certain games.
I’ve have NO issues with internet browsing. It’s musch more stable than my desktop Dell.
Style- I truly am the envy of my local middle school and anyone who sees me with this.
Built in webcam comes with a great application called YouCam.
Perfect for reading online digital comics or reading ebooks.
Only laptop in which I never had to worry about battery life.
Great value.
Discrete- take it with you anywhere- boot it up fast and start working.
The best portable word processor, reader, internet surfer, and production machine- especially if you are a blogger or Facebook freak.
DailySkew Tip:
A lot of reviews and comments go into great detail about partitioning hard drives, installing Linux, inserting RAM chips, uninstalling programs, and other stuff like that. The truth is, if you are not a computer geek or hardcore gamer, you can just use your netbook right out of the box.
Don’t settle for squinting while surfing the web using your mobile phone or dealing with crazy typing techniques. Don’t lug around a heavy laptop anymore. Buy the
Did you guys hear about the Honeywell Dolphin 6100 mobile computer barcode scanner? This mobile PC can fit in your hand and has full Bluetooth technology and is capable of reading all standard 1D, 2D, Postal and OCR codes. You can connect to printers and secondary barcode scanners as well. With 8-hour plus battery life, this unit can help your business immensely.
With the growth of “Web 2.0″ social networking and applications like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, WordPress, Wikipedia, Flickr, torrents, tags, RSS, let me hit the rewind button and go waaaaay back to..1993 when America Online was the KING.
Before America Online, the only way I could interact with people in front of their computers was via bulletin board systems or if I could get through to newsgroups via Seflin library service. All of these methods were still using 1980’s concepts and technology.
But then AOL came into computer users lives and teens and kids demanded it from their parents even though the pricing was outrageous when you considered the metered time. I mean if you had cybersex with a girl who was really a guy for an hour, you lost most of your minutes. And it seemed AOL did everything it could to slow things down and keep you on .
AOL had exclusive features from major corporations, and if you actually check some advertisements in magazines or comic books from that time period, you can see how companies didn’t even have websites back then- they had an AOL Keyword portal. AOL used to be THE place to chat, but tickets online, read interviews, play AD&D, and download music but AOL kept their community closed and was anti-World Wide Web and anti-Internet. This sheltered existence worked at the beginning, but led to its ruination.
The reason why American Online jumped the shark is because people had no reason to use it anymore.
The major factors leading to the decline of AOL:
1) They didn’t have exclusive rights to the pipes of the product: any company can run telecommunication lines underground.
2) Broadband. AOL was stuck in dial-up for too long, and as soon as cable or phone companies offered DSL lines or cable modems was there any reason to use AOL? I mean- the internet is always on with DSL.
3) Companies realized how easy it was to set up and design their own websites and were no longer exclusive to AOL.
4) Open areas within AOL became “partnership areas” (paid, of course).
5) Did not have the vision to move with the times and adapt.
6) Poor customer service.
7) People started using web applications like Yahoo Messenger and over time the openness of the web took over mainstream surfing from AOL. AOL didn’t even allow non-users to see profile pages.
As an AOL member, your “website” had to have the aol domain name all over it.
Since AOL was the king of the hill in the mainstream and an “essential component” of the Internet, I have to wonder which of the current popular sites will be the next AOL. Will it be MySpace? Twitter? Facebook? Google? Yahoo? eBay?
Take a look at other fallen “dot com” sites, search engines, or software programs that lost their market share and see how easy it is to lose relevance REAL QUICK:
Just a word of warning for those who get use PayPal for online transactions- regardless if you are using a personal or business account- if the Sender is paying you for Goods, Services, or eBay Items under the Purchase Tab, PayPal gets a percentage.
If you are wiring money ($40) to your friend or family member, the person will receive $38.54.
Here is the way to avoid getting charged from PayPal if you are sending a non-invoiced personal money transfer:
You have to click on the PERSONAL TAB before you Send Money. Leave the radio button on GIFT. *For now* you will not be charged by PayPal.
However, if you receive payments from eBay or if you receive payments from someone who does not select “Gift”, you will no longer receive the full amount. Be careful-your PayPal homepage will list the Gross. You have to click on Purchases Received to see the deductions.
All of this was explained in PayPal’s new Terms of Service, doncha know?
My legal department is telling me to be clear that I am not advocating that you select or tell someone to select “Gift” if the transaction was for goods or services or cash advance or something else. I’m just notifying you about the change of PayPal terms since the new PayPal fees have been shocking for some.
The bottom line is that PayPal is a huge corporation and could do whatever they want, similar to your bank’s TOS. For eBay sellers (who are forced to only use PayPal for their online transactions), this is no surprise: you have been double charged for a while now. (eBay and PalPal are the same company- one fee to have the auction, one fee per transaction to get paid only through PayPal).
Also many PayPal users have complained about PayPal holding their money for up to 21 days.
It’s not like there are a bunch of free alternatives to PayPal or widely accepted PayPal alternatives out there either. Does it suck? Yes, but it’s the cost of doing business.
One innovative product that webmasters should consider is live chat for websites and businesses or any size or industry. Live chat windows are an easy way to help with technical support, customer support, and, of course, sales. You may have already experience live chat sessions online and wondered how they can be set up or what software they are using.
Credit card scams, telemarketing scams, and Internet scams are all reasons to get identity theft protection. There are so many thieves out there that try and collect your social security number, credit card number, bank account routing number, and pin numbers via false advertising, spam, and fear tactics. Many criminals pose as government helpers over the telephone as well, and use the recession to fear monger their way to get your personal identity.
Comparison regarding WordPress (made by the Internet community) blogging vs Blogger (Google) blogging:
Free Blogger.com accounts vs free Wordpress accounts
By free, I mean they own the domain name (myblog.blogger.com or myblog.wordpress.com), and you don’t host. In other words, you are blogging for recreational purposes, and don’t mind that Google or Wordpress have the right to remove your blog and legally own your content:
Signing up and getting started Assuming you have experience surfing the web and know basic computer commands, like installing iTunes, you can probably get both done in under 10 minutes, with no issues.
WordPress has an easier layout of all the options and settings- everything is located at the left-side of your dashboard. Blogger has a bunch of tabs and subtabs. Have fun.
Load times WordPress is almost instantaneous. Someone Blogger…gets stuck..even on their own server.
Templates and Customizing Wordpress has the edge in terms of a better selection of varied templates to avoid looking like another cookie cutter blog. Wordpress also has the edge in modifying the visuals, adding logos, moving links around. Links have their own dropdown menu, and there are “widgets” that enable you to add search boxes, archives, and much more.
Blogger can be tiresome if you are editing HTML code in your Template Settings…to say the LEAST! They thankfully added “Page Elements” in “Layout” where you can add Google Gadgets (Wordpress widgets). But you still only have a few template themes to pick. You can change colors around.
Comments WordPress wins decisively with comments- it is automatically set up with an e-mail-like listing, and you see the comment’s IP address, e-mail, comment, a SPAM button, Approve, Reject, Delete. You have bulk actions, so you can mass delete a spammer or mutant.
Blogger’s default settings (and let’s face reality- most users use default settings for every application they come across) has no comment moderation, so spammers and mutants can run free as long as they have a gmail account or OpenID. If you’d like to have sex with HIV+ people with no protection, go ahead and turn the Anonymous setting on with no comment moderation. Blogger does allow comment mod. but you have to turn it on.
Adding Video, Photos, Polls, etc WordPress’s only flaw here is that you have to change an Rich-Text Editor option to embed YouTube videos in your post. Otherwise, attaching pics with captions, changing size, and placement are great. You can also manage fully your media library. You can create polls, and they are one click to install.
Blogger has some bugs and quirks when posting pics, and the customization is not there.
Typing a post Both services have issues, but then again I have little issues with every text editor except NotePad++- I find it harder to indent and make paragraphs in WordPress. But WordPress does have an “unlink” button when you want to remove a hyperlink, in addition to Quick Edit and Quick Publish. Blogger allows mobile posting and e-mail posting. But Blogger has issues with fonts and pasting- I find myself removing tags in the Edit Html tab. Also, spellcheck is quirky with Blogger, especially depending on your Internet browser.
Organizing a post WordPress totally devastates Blogger when it comes to labeling, tagging, filing posts, and even lets you change the HTML name on the fly. WordPress’s labels are clearly displayed wherever you want. Editing or adding keywords is a snap. Blogger has labels, which is a lame attempt to offer some organization.
Traffic Reports WordPress has graphs, keyword searches, and hits all in the software itself; Google has Webtools, which you must verify/install. Webtools is much more in-depth although it doesn’t list hits. You’re better off getting other free web stat tools.
AdSense Blogger makes it a snap to setup for AdSense, obviously. You can visually create and insert Google ads. WordPress takes some studying.
Blog Advertising A close look at their TOS shows that neither application allows it.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Blogger posts get indexed quicker, but doen’t ping everywhere. Their archive system can bury posts, especially if you have been around a long time. You can set up your WordPress blog to be SEO friendly, but it takes time.
Space WordPress is the industry leader: 3 GB of free storage. Google is around 1 GB.
OKAY, NOW THE IMPORTANT STUFF: Hosting Blogger or Hosting WordPress with your own domain name
After a while, you will want your own domain name, so you can own all of your work, get indexed better, never fear of getting shutdown, and advertise/promote yourself or others. It costs less than $100 to register your own domain name and use a webhosting company for a year.
Installation If you go with a major webhosting company like GoDaddy from WordPress’s website, not only do you get a coupon code to save 20% on hosting, but WordPress installation is (around) one click away.
If you don’t have a cool webhosting company like GoDaddy, you will be forced to create SQL or PHP databases, download WordPress, edit files, FTP upload, modify databases, link stuff, and do all sorts of things that Mommy Bloggers, Manila girls, (and me) do not have the patience for.
So..WordPress gets a A+ if have the right webhosting company. (By the way, IXWebhosting does not have this feature.)
But it gets an D if you have to do it manually- even with their cool instructions and steps. That’s because your PHPSQLSFTPERVERLINUXSERVER varies.
If that sounded scary, let me tell you that Blogger isn’t a walk in the park, but it is easier. With Blogger, you really need to be in the control panel of your hosting company, and be very familiar with FTP. Get a free program like FileZilla.
Importing blogs You can EASILY import your old WordPress blog that they hosted into your newly hosted WordPress blog. Migrating from Blogger to WordPress is a DIFFERENT story, and gets a F from me. Blogger allows you to export and import blogs using Atom XML, but I never tested it. It looks like merging multiple blogs should be easy under blogger, but I can’t vouch for it yet. Perhaps I will attempt to add a small deliquent blog to mine to see what it did.
Add-Ons WordPress has the best plug-ins including ways to edit the metatags for each post before you publish, to aid in becoming visible in the search engines, adding Dig.It buttons and dozens more. You need to FTP the folder into the proper WP directory on your server, and then it’s one click away. Google add-ons? Copy and paste HTML code into your template for a “Google Talk chatback badge”? Pass.
SEO WordPress has plugins which allow you to set up Google Adsense. They have sitemap generator plugins so the major search engines can crawl your site. The only SEO google wants you to do is to sell AdSense, but the bottom line is that you can SEO either blog without Google interference.
Templates The sky is the limit with WordPress if you own your domain. Not only do you have access to even more templates, but you can easily customize them.
Blogger actually downgrades options if you host! And if you choose a new template with Blogger, it wipes all of your old links, template changes, logos, and scripts away! Hey remember I said Blogger allows you to add gadgets (widgets) in Page Elements? Well, that tab is gone if you have your own domain and upload via FTP!! Gone!
Customer Support Google has the help forums, but your site may go down for hours, days, weeks, or forever due to their Java/security/server issues. Blogger remains Google’s red-headed step-child (they bought blogspot over years ago).
The joke with WordPress is– you don’t need customer support after you are installed.
Final verdict: WordPress. Hands down. If you don’t know how to design websites in Dreamweaver or don’t know how to use a content management system or don’t want to manage forums, but you are serious about your creative work or making money online or getting your message out there, go with a WordPress one-click installation from a good webhosting company.
Once you go WordPress, you will not want to go back to Blogger.
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As an AOL member, your “website” had to have the aol domain name all over it.
