Archive for November, 2007

Here’s what my front room table looks like after we get home from work..

Maybe a phone or two too many?

Popularity: 4% [?]

I am so excited! This weekend there will be some changes to FiddyP.

I am having a theme professionally designed by an Indonesian designer and it’s looking really good! It’ll have curved corners, drop shadows and double span sidebars hovering over two fixed height sidebars! yey.

The guys name is Sunaryo and I am most impressed with his ability, he has been able to create a fantastic theme based on a screen grab I made of a theme I liked. I gave him a bit of a headache by asking for all sorts of extras like a double sidebar with double span divs and to top it all, a single sidebar’d single post page and more. I’ve seen a great mockup picture and there’s even a demo of it working, coded completely from scratch from a jpeg image. awesome.

here’s a little peek of the main page..

and one of the single post page..

Why a single post page with only one sidebar? Well, I wanted to do things backwards. I know the general rule is to plaster your adverts on single post pages as they are the ones that get linked to by the search engines but on a few blogs that I have seen, I have really liked a single post page that has just the information on it and not too many flashy things saying “buy me!” it encouraged me to look around the blog a bit more to see what’s there.

This is what I want to do with FiddyP;

• I want to provide valuable information in a format that will be easy on the eyes with a little bit of personality thrown in.
• Provide a ‘fun’ place to go to read tutorials and learn things that can make life easier
• Run contests that encourage community participation
• Throw the limelight on other blogs that I particularly like
• Have a series of posts that run concurrently like an AJAX series of tutorials taking someone from ‘hello world’ to a fully functional useful plugin
• Regular guest spots for writers with talent
• Real reviews of products that I use, not just kiss-arsey-buy-it-so-I-earn reviews, good ones that also mention bad points!
• more… MORE!

I hope to have something up by the weekend (oo-er!) so if you visit, please be patient while I tweak, tweak, tweak!

Popularity: 4% [?]

I am an affiliate with a lottery site and have been for a few years now to great success but, I have never really entered the realm of affiliate marketing with products before. Apparently it is supposed to be an ok earner if you have enough traffic (and enough sites) to make it worthwhile.

I get between 200 and 500 uniques a day here, do you think that would be enough to monetize this blog with affiliate products?

I’m not sure, I’ve never been one to recommend stuff just to earn money off it but I have some decent reviews to write about after my new theme is here (still no word from the designer yetI heard from him and it’s probably the best theme I have ever seen!) and it would be nice to offer people that read the reviews a convenient way to purchase the product (and for a little trickle of coins to come my way if they do).

I have seen the likes of TradeDoubler and Amazon associates all over the place, if you use either or both of them I would be interested in hearing your experience of them. Did they make you any money? are they worth it?

How about successful ways that you have monetized your blog? I’m lucky enough to earn a fair amount from my TeamPlayLotto site, full time job and my own company so earning megabucks within a microsecond of blogging time is not really a high priority for me so I’d just like to experiment with some things so I can use the experience for monetizing clients’ sites, if I can get some detailed knowledge of money making website tools then I can pass that along with the clients project (along with an extra charge of course!) and then put some of that money to use for fabulous competitions! …. that would be nice, a self financing contest blog..

Any affiliate experiences you want to share?

Popularity: 2% [?]

Here are a couple of plugins that have really saved me some time since I installed them.

1. One Click Install

Install and update plugins and themes with one click of the mouse.

2. Absolute Comments

Reply to comments directly from the dashboard or email.

The first one, One Click Install, is a great little plugin that works with a Firefox extension enabling you to install a plugin or theme by right clicking a link to it’s zip file.

I didn’t install it at first because I felt I had enough plugins already but, this is especially useful for updating plugins from within the WP dashboard. Whenever I saw a plugin that needed updating on the plugins page I would make a mental note to visit the plugins’ page, download the zip file, extract it to my hard drive, upload it with ftp and finally check that it shows as activated on the plugins page.

9 times out of 10 I would forget the mental note until such a time where I would be missing one tool required for the update process (at work or on the road). Now it’s a simple process, to get started install the plugin and the OneClick Install Firefox Plugin. Do the Firefox restart that is required after installing an add on and then visit your Wordpress plugin page to activate the One Click Install plugin.
Next, visit the admin page for the plugin at Dashboard/One Click Install

And look at the bottom of the page for your oneclickURL

Paste it into your Firefox addon by visiting Tools/Addons/ and selecting the Oneclick Installer for Wordpress addon ‘options’ button.

And you’re ready to install any updates to plugins that you have. Visit your dashboard and check the plugins page for any that need updates (WP2.3 and up)..

You can see the message saying “There is a new version of..” and a link to the official Wordpress plugins page, click that and you get to the plugin’s page at Wordpress.org.

Then just right click the Download Plugin button and choose to install as plugin..

As long as you’re logged in to your Wordpress, you will be taken to the Oneclick page and informed that your plugin was installed successfully.

Yey! note: you don’t actually have to use the Firefox addon, you can just paste the zip file URL into the box on the plugin admin page and install it from there or upload a zip file from your computer by clicking the ‘browse’ button and selecting it that way.

Very useful! Nice one Anirudh, thanks for a truly useful plugin.

The other plugin to save time especially if you get a lot of comments on your blog is the Absolute Comments plugin. I really like this one because it allows you to reply to comments directly from the comments page of the dashboard. No more do I need to visit each individual post to reply to comments! You can even reply from a comment notification. I haven’t used this part though as I have always got access to the dashboard if I have access to my email.

Just click on ‘reply’ from within the comments dashboard page..

Popularity: 4% [?]

I have finally finished the commercial project that has kept me busy for a week. yey! I can now go back to my ‘real’ computer work which is basically, stumbleupon, blogroll and comments!

A big thanks to AntiBarbie for filling in with an introductory post about herself. I’m sure we can work something out with a short story here and there, I really like a good short story to make me think!

I have quite a few commercial projects in the pipeline so I have been in contact with quite a few designers over the past two weeks to get quotes and discover hidden talents. Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Romania and Russia have all got decent designers and coders that can do the same job as a locally employed coder but for half the price (sometimes less!).

I have the advantage of being able to do a bit of PHP code here and there so I only have to get a theme or initial CSS layout done and then I can add all the functions that the client wants myself.

The initial design is always the hardest to get done, once the look is how I want it then adding the other bits is relatively easy. Mostly, I use reusable PHP snippets that I have made in the past and insert them into the page wherever I want. Anything new that’s required can be coded from scratch and added to my library of geekery.

I even think there will be time today to visit the usual suspects and see what I’ve been missing this past week… I am Browser of Borg, prepare to be commentated!..

testing…

Popularity: 2% [?]

Howdy folks! AntiBarbie, your friendly neighborhood guest blogger here to say ‘hi’ to all the readers here at FiddyP. Starting very soon you might start seeing some short stories and articles written by yours truly for your amusement.

Now, you all need to thank Andy for this because my services do not come cheap. While I can’t disclose actual amounts, you can be sure I will not settle for anything less than I deserve. That’s right. If negotiations go well, not only will I be able to afford a double cheeseburger but a small fry as well when I go through the drive thru window at McDonalds. Heck, I may even have enough money left over for the tax!

So, there you have it. By the way, my lawyer says that this post serves as a warning that will protect me from any liability should someone say, I don’t know, suddenly have a sharp drop in IQ points after reading my works. Andy on the other hand… Well, I’d start saving up now, maybe refinance the ol’ homestead if I were him.

In any case, kudos to Andy for allowing me this great opportunity to get my work out there. I hope all you readers out there will find my stories and other mind droppings as fun to read as they are to write. I hope to be back soon with a first installment!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Please help, I don’t know what to do…

The other day, while I was trying (unsuccessfully) to increase the resolution of my monitor, my wife came in and told me she was going to bingo. All was fine with that as she goes every week and has done for the 3 years of our marriage but lately she has been getting over-excited when she is due to go, she even puts on ‘party’ clothes now! I asked her about them but she just said that the girls go to the pub after the last game has finished.

She has been acting very strange and always deletes her text messages right after she receives them instead of leaving her cell phone to get to the “too many messages” error. Also, I’m not complaining but, she is always wearing the expensive perfume that I gave her last Christmas. She didn’t even wear it when I last took her on a night out six months ago!

I’m starting to get really suspicious now, the phone rings and whenever I answer it there is no one there or the person says it’s a wrong number or asks for someone who doesn’t live here. I asked her why my she never gets any wrong numbers but she couldn’t explain it. I found a receipt in her jacket pocket for a local restaurant but, when I checked our joint account there wasn’t an entry for that restaurant. When I asked my wife about it, she said it must have been for her work expenses account (she doesn’t work anywhere near this restaurant!!!)

Last night was the final straw, I came home early from work to give her a surprise (she always complains that I work too much) and she was in her nightdress talking animatedly on the phone with someone. As soon as I came in through the door, she finished the call without even saying goodbye. All she could say about being in a night dress was that she was coming down with a cold and was going to take a bath before going to bed early.

While she was in the bath, I checked the last received call to her cell phone and used my own phone to dial it. A man answered! I asked him who he was and he just said he worked for some computer company and he didn’t know who the last person to use the phone was. I got the company name out of him and used the internet to find out it’s address so I could go down there and get some answers. I went upstairs to talk about this to my wife and she was on another cell phone, she should only have one cell phone! where did she get a new one?? I had had enough so I told her to get out of the bath and come with me to the company I had just talked to.

She didn’t want to come and we had a big fight so I decided to go there myself! I nearly crashed twice on the way with so much horribleness going through my mind but I finally made it, I pulled up right in front of the company window. Just under the special offer sign for a 29 inch widescreen monitor going for 200 quid.

The question I want to ask is, do you think I should get this monitor now or wait until a bigger version comes along?

kind regards

Mr. G. Eek.

hehehe, this is an entry to AntiBarbie’s contest to win a custom blog header graphic.

Here are the rules if you want to enter yourself (and you should!), write a letter to Shabby asking for advice. The one deemed the best by Dawn by December 17th will win the prize.

All entries must follow these simple rules or be disqualified:

1.) One entry per person please.

2.) The entry *must* be up on your own blog with a link back to this post (and a mention of the prize would be great too!)

3.) The entries can be as long or as short as you want but all entries are due by December 17th!

After the contest closes I will take a very short interlude to read all the entries/letters and pick the winner. The winning entry will be posted on this blog, along with Dear Shabby’s response. Good luck and have fun with it!

Popularity: 5% [?]