Weekend snapshot

I will not be participating in this week’s Weekend Snapshot. I have a lot of things to do and there was no time to shoot and all. I will be joining by next week and will be posting pictures of my new place here at home. We will be buying a new desk for the laptop and the desktop tomorrow and will be arranging my stuff a bit. I have a lot of files lying around and I have a bit of a mess here.

Anyway, I will show you my new “work place” here at home in my next WS entry. Till then…

Entrecard Drop List

I drop cards everyday. I try to maximize the 300 drops limit of Entrecard and almost always, I reach it. But well, I am sure just like me, you also get disappointed when your drops are not reciprocated. So I am making my very own Drop List. I am hoping that the list I will create will have bloggers who really embrace “U Drop I Follow”.

Please leave your Blog Name and URL at the comments section of this entry and I will include you in my list. I assure you I will visit you daily

This list will be for my three blogs: Sasha says, My Own Utopia and Splotches.

That would be 3 drops for you already.

If I reach the 100th blog, I will create a file that you can also use (if you want) to make dropping easier for you. You only need Firefox and your bookmarks folder and you are good to go.

Upgrading to WordPress 2.5

Bluehost’s Fantastico does not have yet the latest version of WordPress. I have yet to upgrade to the latest version, I am still using WP 2.3.3 which is really great with uploading photos in your posts. I have read mixed reactions to WP 2.5 that’s why I held off upgrading. Sure it looks a lot sexier than the old dashboard but I don’t know. My other blogs are already using the 2.5 version but I find it confusing than the old one. Or maybe I haven’t explored it yet.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts on the latest version.

BEWARE of Blog-for-Bucks!!!

I know several bloggers have been contacted by either Michelle Go, a certain Skylar Sinclaire or now, someone using the name Jean Carrey. They are offering link orders at $5 per link for a monetizing program named Blog-For-Bucks (blog-for-bucks.com). I was able to do link orders for them in another blog of mine. My sister was able to do one set of orders for them. Both payments were delayed but it was okay. The delay was just over two weeks.

Then my cousin did 3 links for them. After he submitted the links to Skylar, he was promised payment after three weeks. Fine with him because there are other programs paying a month after. The day of the supposed remittance, he did not receive any payment, not even an email explaining why they cannot remit payment on that day. After two days, he emailed Skylar asking for an explanation why the $15 (YES, FIFTEEN FREAKING DOLLARS!) was not yet remitted to him. No email. Nothing. After a few days, another email. And then he sent an email directly to blog-for-bucks via their submission form on their homepage. No response. NOTHING.

And then I thought of emailing Michelle Go because she was the one who contacted me before. I received a response two days after from Jean Carrey (notice the similarity of the name to a famous Hollywood comedian). She said that apparently, Skylar resigned already and they cannot access his email. Yeah, right! Skylar is using [email protected] so you know right away that they can easily manipulate this email at their cpanel. Jean/Michelle is using a gmail account ([email protected]).

I am just angry on my cousin’s behalf because for $15 they are shortchanging him of what’s due him. And you know what, my cousin emailed them SEVERAL TIMES! I don’t know what kind of a company this Blog-For-Bucks is but I tell you, BEWARE OF THEM! Sa $15 nanloloko na sila ng blogger, what more kung mas malaki pang amount!

BEWARE OF BLOG FOR BUCKS!

Before I forget…

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY WORDPRESS!

I prefer WordPress over Blogger. The latter may be simpler and easier and caters to blogger newbies out there, but for me WordPress is still the better platform, even for newbies. Everything I know about CSS I learned because of WordPress.

So a big THANK YOU and more years of WordPress to come!

Latte shot

I am thinking of different categories for this blog. Something akin to what Lorelle has. Only 4 main categories. I might have more than that, but what I currently have.

The first category I thought of is CAFFEINE FIX. This category will be a catch-all for those entries I cannot put under the specific ones I am thinking of.

Is your head aching, brain hurting and your body just not cooperating? A good caffeine fix will do you a world of good.

Good conversation is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
- Anne Morrow Lindberg

Reliable web hosting

Before anything else, let me tell you right away that I am not being paid to write this post. The following is my experience with my new web host…

I was with another web host when I started with this blog. But since I experienced several inexplicable and unreasonable downtimes with that web host, I started looking for a new one. I was afraid to transfer at first because I have several worries then:

Downtime - I am monetizing most of my blogs. I was afraid that it might take me 24 hours before I can transfer all my domains. THE TRUTH IS, it took me a couple of hours, if I remember it right, 5 hours to transfer the main domains. I did it on a weekend so there was little interruption.

Transfer - Let me tell you how easy it is. Very easy! If you have experience with a cpanel and have added a domain already, then it will be a breeze for you. Now if you are unfamiliar with cpanel, it is easy to learn how to tinker with one. It is very straightforward. It took me 10-15 minutes to transfer a domain. I have several domains so it took me around an hour or two.

Reactivation of domains - If you did the transfer right, all your domains will be up in an hour or two. It’s that fast!

Tech support - One of the things I love about my old web host is that they have a superb tech support. So I worried if I will receive the same tech support from the new web host. And you know what? They are just one chat away. So far, I have used their chat service for a couple of times and all those times, I received the answers I was asking.

The web host I am talking about, my new web host, is BLUEHOST.COM. When I started inquiring about how to transfer, how to go about getting a new host, I received quite a mixed reaction with regards to this web hosting company. I considered everything and well, Bluehost is Fantastico enabled, has the same cpanel I am used to, is quite popular, has big capacity and affordable. The last two had been a big consideration for me. I want to be able to get a web host that is affordable and yet would give me the best package there is.

Let me reiterate, I am NOT being paid to write this. It took me quite a while to put up an affiliate button and a recommendation post because I wanted to be sure that I can really recommend Bluehost to my friends and readers. I know how it feels to have a web host that sucks. I know how it feels to worry when the next downtime would occur. No, Bluehost does not guarantee 100% uptime. But let me tell you this, the longest downtime I experienced so far is 15 minutes. And that’s it!

This is just a recommendation. You are free to dispute my claims here. You are free to try Bluehost if you like.

Let me know your thoughts and if you tried.

Clean-up

Hi guys! You might encounter some errors for the next few hours days. This blog will be undergoing some major clean-up. If you are looking for something here and it shows an error message instead, just leave a message in this post and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

BUT the site is still up and will continue running regardless. Just scroll down below to see my entries…

Happy Wednesday!

Blog tool

Most bloggers I know would certainly need this tool… Word count. If you are monetizing your blog, you know why.

www.wordcounttool.com

Before I discovered this website, I used MS Word in counting the number of words in my post. I am sure for those who are typing their posts in MS Word before transferring it know this: Tools - Word Count. But I write down my posts directly at my blog admin. So I just open another tab in my browser and key in the word count tool web site.

Try it.

Blogroll me!

As I have said in my previous post, I will be doing a Blogroll clean-up pretty soon. I am still in the process of ‘renovating’ this blog. And one of the projects I am currently working on is some Blogroll Linky Love for my loyal visitors and readers.

I also have a few requests for Blogroll link up. I also need to reciprocate some link ups I got. I will do that when I get back tonight. I am about to go out and accompany my sister somewhere so later would be a good time to do link ups.

Anyway, if you want to exchange links with me, then just comment in this post and I will get back to you tonight.

Later

It's been a year now…

I was blogging for over four years now. I started with bravejournal, moved to blogspot and then to my everdearest akoni blog. I was already blogging for a couple of months already when I thought of getting my very own DOT COM. And so sasha-says.com was born. It was actually May 8, 2007 when I registered this domain name but my blog went up on the 10th of May. It has been a roller coaster ride ever since. I met a lot of bloggers, became friends with most, lost some along the way and have gained some more. I gained numerous sisters, a tatay, an inay, a mouse(y) friend, a lot of titas and ates and kuyas…

Most of all, I have gained my stability and freedom with this blog.

And oh, the contest and everything new with the blog will be posted on Monday

Work in progress

Like my new blog look? I have wanted to change my blog look again for my 1st Blogoversary but this is not yet it. I am still thinking of a header and will be asking Vanessa to do it. For now, this will do.

Over the next few days, you will be seeing changes in color (perhaps) and other stuff in the sidebar. Notice I already joined Entrecard. I will also be putting my Twitter updates here. I will be cleaning my archives and will make a few changes in the way I categorize my posts.

This blog will now be concentrating more on community/society issues that I deem relevant, blogging issues, wordpress and wordpress themes, coffee talks that simply means conversation topics which I think are better done over a cup of coffee, and of course reviews. I will still join memes but will concentrate on Weekend Snapshot, Litratong Pinoy, Food Friday and That’s My Answer.

And, by the way, my blogroll will change. I will be notifying those I will retain and will concentrate more on those that truly visit. I will be adding a button display corner for those blogs I really like. No more Spott for me. They display porn-type of images. I will rant more about this in one of my next posts.

Okay, that’s it for now. Expect more changes here so pardon the mess if you ever encounter some and again, wait for my blog anniversary contest

Happy Sunday everyone!