My Life With IT

Amazon is well-known for its books. However, it went on to other products besides books such as apparel, jewellery, music and many more. I love the recommended sections when I browse through the products besides it’s one click technology. It’s a breeze to make my selections.

I like its Amazon Associates function as I can setup my own online shop without worrying about the payments. I don’t even have to spend most of my time trying to setup the online store’s look.

Another way to setup your own store online is using Zlio. You select the markets that you want to choose from and you will be shown the products that are available. The products selected may be out of stock, this isn’t made known until you have completed the adding process; something that Zlio will have to make note of. If the product is no longer available, it should not be included in the adding process.

The difference that I noticed between Zlio and Amazon Associates is that Zlio allows you to choose your own sub domain and even allows linking to your own domain so that you can increase your sales. Amazon Associates allows a tracking ID behind the fixed sub domain. This is Amazon’s way of tracking and isn’t controllable by us.

Zlio allows you to add analytic codes when you have added the module so you can check your site’s traffic in your familiar Google Analytics or other metric systems.

I like both as I don’t have to worry about stocks and shipping on my side.

Having won a premium theme, I have decided to implement it here. My initial panic was that none of the thumbnails appeared automatically. I have photos in almost every post and they couldn’t have just disappeared. That’s when I saw the link to the forum for Arras Gaming theme.

What I Like

• Neat placement of the posts with excerpts.
• Widget enabled.
• Theme options available.
• Different colours available for the site.

What I Found Wrong

• The links to the forums are outdated although the theme has been updated to the latest version.
• When accessing the theme’s option page, the section for entering codes for banners had display problems. The textareas were overlapping each other. I had to add 2 divs for that section so they won’t overlap.
• Whenever I updated the theme options, I have to check to make sure that my category options for Top Navigation and Gaming sections are set again.

What I Found Tedious

• Apparently, with the special thumbnail functions, I had to edit every post to include the new custom field and the images’ URL.
• I had to create a new logo for the site.

After implementing this theme, I’m glad to have won it because it helps me to display the information in a much neater format than before.

Brad Blogging is giving away $2200 worth of prizes for this Halloween. Sponsors include the following:

Platinum Sponsor

• Jay Green & The Balesio Team (http://www.balesio.com) donating:

1. 1 Copy Of “ALLCapture Enterprise 3.0″ Screen Recording Suite – $344 USD Value
2. 2 Copies Of “ALLCapture” Screen Recorder – $466 USD (combined) Value
3. 8 Copies Of “PPTMinimizer” Powerpoint Compression (up to 98%) – $331 USD (Combined) Value

Gold Sponsors

• Fresh Never Frozen Web Design (http://freshneverfrozendesign.com) donating:

1. 2 Custom Blog Designs – $300 USD (combined) Value
2. 1 Hour Blog/Website Design Session Consultation – $49 USD Value

• Carlocab (http://carlocab.com) donating:

1. 5 Copies of Direct Response Templates for Minisite Design – $185 USD Value

• Logo Design Team (www.LogoDesignTeam.com) donating:

1. A Best Seller – Logo Design Package – $149 USD Value

• Scot (http://www.revvenue.com) donating:

1. 1 Hour “Adsense Tutoring” Session – $39 USD Value
2. $30 Gift Certificate to Starbucks – $30 USD Value

• Corey Freeman (http://www.deadlyclever.com) donating:

1. A Logo Design Package From Deadly Cleaver – $99 USD Value
2. Blogroll Link on Diligent Design – $5 USD Value

• Adam Pieniazek (http://www.adampieniazek.com) donating:

1. 3 Months of 125×125 Advertising On His Sidebar – $30 USD Value
2. $42 Cash Prize from the42ndEstate.com

• David Leonhardt (http://SEO-writer.com) donating:

1. Copy Of “Don’t Get Banned By The Search Engines” Ebook – $40 USD Value
2. Top 52 S.E.O. Tips Sheet – $10 USD Value

• Peter Lee (http://www.peterleehc.com) donating:

1. Copy Of “Quit Being a Wage Slave in 10 Easy Steps” Ebook – $49 USD Value

• Blogupp Team (http://www.blogupp.com/) donating:

1. 50 000 BlogUpp Impressions – N/A Value

• Hugo Santos (http://bloggervenue.com) donating:

1. 3 125×125 ads on his sidebar (1 month) – $20 USD (combined) Value
2. 3 Text Link Ads – $19 USD (combined) Value

• Dan And Marsh (http://www.giveawaycity.blogspot.com) donating:

1. 2GB Kingston Data Traveler (USB Storage Drive) – $29 USD Value

• Pam Hawk (http://www.passitonplates.com) donating:

1. A “Pass It On Plate Lite” Edition (See This For More Details) – $29 USD Value

Silver Sponsors

• AnotherMMOBlog (http://www.anothermmoblog.com/) donating:

1. 2 x 1 Month Text Link Ad
2. 1 Month 125×125 Sidebar Ad

• Lhurey (http://www.phblogger.net) donating:

1. 2500 Entrecard Credits

• Tim Johnson (http://www.yimto.com) donating:

1. 2000 Entrecard Credits

• Yan (http://thoushallblog.com) donating:

1. 1000 Entrecard Credits from Wpbeginners.com
2. 1 Month Text Link Ad on his blog – Thoushallblog.com

• TH (http://www.twinshappiness.com) donating:

1. 125×125 Ad On Their Sidebar For A Month
2. 125×125 Ad On thereishappiness.com Sidebar For A Month

• Hussein (http://www.niessuh.com) donating:

1. 125×125 Ad On His Sidebar For 2 Months

• Marvie Pons (http://underscore30.blogspot.com) donating:

1. 125×125 Ad On His Sidebar For A Month

• Indo Contest (http://www.indocontest.com/) donating:

1. 468×60 Ad On His Header For A Month

• Multiply Themes (http://marviepons.blogspot.com/) donating:

1. 1000 Entrecard Credits

• Charles (http://piggybankpie.com/) donating:

1. 1000 Entrecard Credits

• NHC (http://themelib.com) donating:

1. 1 Month Text Link Ad

• Rajaie AlKorani (http://RajaieTalks.com) donating:

1. 1 Month Text Link Ad

• Sharon Hart (http://sharonahart.blogspot.com) donating:

1. 1 Month Text Link Ad

Contest ends on 31 Oct 2008.

The creator, Melvin Lee, of Arras Theme is giving away 3 single-site license to lucky readers. To win, do the following.

• Write a post on your blog about the contest including a link to this announcement post, and to the Arras Theme site (4 entries) and/or
• Mention and link to this announcement via Twitter or Plurk (2 entries) and/or
• Submit/vote for this post on Digg, Stumbleupon, or Designfloat (1 entry)

I have done a post, Dugg and Stumbled it. Want a chance to win? Go check out the contest link I have sprinkled liberally.

Having been blogging for quite some time, I have come to identify that blogging is an obsession. A blog is a site where ideas and opinions are meshed together.

Blog Abuse

After reading different types of blogs, from niche to personal, I have realised the abuse that blogs have become. There are many who make use of the traffic from genuine niche blogs to redirect to their money making sites infested with Google Adsense, Kontera and affiliates. The sites have no content value except to trick the non-savvy into clicking the advertisements.

Image via Wikipedia

Blog Wars

When someone blogs about the personal opinion of a certain subject, another takes offence and starts a post linking to the “offending” post. Another trigger could be from an interview with the newspapers and one blogger starts to be offended at being quoted as “second fiddle” to the other. This starts with the blogger stating the reasons that the other isn’t good enough and a blog war is started.

Throughout my journey with blogging, I have experimented with a few niches that I have interests in and they are gaining traffic at a slow pace. This is a good sign as it meant that I am doing something in the right direction.

While there have been negatives seen along the way, blogs don’t necessarily mean negative. I haven’t seen anything that has no negatives.

New Friends

New friends with similar interests are found. It’s much more fun talking about blogging stuff with people who have similar interest in blogging.

Community

A community is created and it’s filled with more people who have tried blogging with different platforms and their frustrations with the platforms.

Knowledge Shared

Knowledge is shared among people with common interest. There have been times when one posted a request for looking for missing friends or family members whereby the people were found.

Blogs have evolved from personal diary to niche whereby different sites attract the group that is being targeted. Some have even started their own eHow, Wikipedia and even shop blogs. Shop blogs are gaining popularity in certain countries due to the uniqueness of the products and most of the time, availability of products that can’t be found in the country.

This is a group writing project by Daily Blog Tips.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

After using the Samsung Omnia for more than a week, I can safely say that I love it. I love the slimness and its sleek looks. I like the auto brightening of the display based on the surrounding lighting. I am use the auto function. So far, it seems to work fairly. I’m not a good gauge at the display.

I like the way Samsung built in the keyboards. They are not too tiny like the default keyboards that comes with Windows Mobile. I can press the keys using my finger and that is why I dislike iPhone despite its sleekness

Windows Mobile 6.1 has threaded messages and it makes it so much easier to continue the SMS if you key in halfway and have to answer someone else. I don’t have to save the message and read the message that I was trying to reply too. Unfortunately, deleting a message also means deleting the whole thread and you can’t save just one message from the same person.

I tried the mass sending of SMS and sent blank messages instead. I don’t know if that’s what it was supposed to do but I wasted a few good long SMS that way. Thus, I won’t be attempting the stunt except using the email. The volume is quite good but the vibration is a wee bit too weak. Perhaps it’s the size.

Overall, I love it a lot because I can take quite decent photos with the 5MP camera. The dim lighting will cause the photos to go dark but when I tried using the flash, the photos turned out too white. Looks like my S5 IS is a better option for such condition.

There is a slight lag despite turning off the Samsung Widget programme. I feel that the processor speed is alright but the RAM should be increased since it doesn’t seem to match the processor speed.

I still haven’t used the Wifi because the last time I connect to Wireless@SG, I didn’t manage to surf the net except the error page.

It is truly time for a replacement PDA phone. However, I’m still unable to decide which one to get despite the various choices of sexy PDAs available. Take the long wait for Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. The news for HTC Touch Diamond just came out too. It’s another piece of artwork by HTC.

HTC Diamond is so sexy that it reminds me of the coveted iPhone. The Asus Lamborghini ZX1 oozes with sleek form design too. Toshiba is known for producing laptops and desktops but this time, they want to let the world know that their Portege is also good enough to work as a PDA phone. See Toshiba Portege G810.

I’m thinking of HTC Touch Diamond, Asus Lamborghini ZX1 and MWg Zinc II. The problem? The first two are not launch yet. Was thinking of SE X1 but it’s a long wait. I just wonder if I would be able to afford the change. PDA phones are still expensive to buy.

After using WP for so long and doing my own upgrades when necessary, I found that the new UI is a refreshing look. All other features work find except for the widgets. I am not the only one complaining of the way the widgets work now.

I just wanted to move my text widget to another sidebar. So, I removed it and saved. Only to realised that it has been totally deleted. That’s not what I intended. I have to find all my codes again and add a new text widget. I have no idea why the new changes to the widgets but it would be nice for us to be able to control whether the text widgets gets deleted, no?

I thought it was so much easier just to drag and drop. Now, it’s changed to something that isn’t that friendly and easy to use at all.