– Confucius

It’s good to know that my reputation for helping those in need has not diminished over the last few years

Asalamalakum? Greetings,

I am Safia Farkash, wife of late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who is presently been killed by the unfaithful opposition leaders in my country. Following the heat as a result of the crises in Libya against
my late husband, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, I have been able to escape to a Neighboring
country in Algeria with my daughter who recently gave birth to save our lives.

I am desperately looking for a foreign reliable partner whom I can trust to handle some funds on our behalf. The deposit was made one time by me in one of the security Companies in the United Kingdom in
my name. The UN and the Western world have freezed most of our assets and funds bearing
Gaddafi’s name anywhere in the world Consequently, our status/position of the present state
does not permit us to open an account or run any huge financial business at the moment, hence I contacted you to claim the funds.

The necessary Legal documents will be changed to your name to enable the release of the funds to you by the finacial Company.

Your assistance will enable us invest the funds in your country. But before we proceed you will promise me that you will not betray or abscond with the funds when it eventually released to you. Last time the government moved to officially freeze the assets held by the Libyan regime in the UK following sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council Find below the links where some of our assets were freezed.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/144251/libyas-first-lady-owns-

airline.html

I will furnish you with more info as soon as I hear your response indicating your interest to partner with me. At present I don’t receive or make calls for security reason (s) as it is being monitored. All communication is
based on internet. Waiting for your prompt and positive response.

Thanks.
Mrs.Safia Farkash Gaddafi
Email:safia.kash@143.ae

Does anyone else want a piece of this action? If so, please let me know

– Thomas A. Edison

The SkyDrive interface isn’t as user friendly as some other free hosting alternatives, looking like just another page on Hotmail. You can upload photos, documents or regular files. Where the service really excels though is its generous amount of free storage. Whereas Dropbox only offers 2GB of storage and other solutions like Amazon CloudDrive and Box offer 5GB for free; SkyDrive gives you a whopping 25GB of storage for free.

With me travelling so much and connecting to the web in so many different ways, a good online file solution is something that is becoming more important to me. Dropbox is currently my favourite file hosting service however they only give you 2GB for free. To upgrade to the next package, which gives you 50GB of storage, is $99 per year. I must admit I have been tempted to purchase this due to how great Dropbox is and how easy it makes maintaining everything. Currently, I use it to store all of my important website files (backup files, themes, images etc).

Whilst I’m sure Dropbox is great for photos, I don’t feel comfortable paying $99 a year if there are so many free alternatives. I’ve been trying to some of my photos to Facebook recently however that’s far from a perfect solution. First of all, it’s very time consuming. Secondly, I don’t want to upload every photo I own to Facebook. Photos cannot be uploaded in their full size either.

With photo storing functionality and 25GB of storage, SkyDrive is a great place to store your photos. After reading about the release of the SkyDrive application for iPhone last week, I decided to give it a try and upload a few gig worth of photos.

The iPhone app works great. The main limitation that the desktop and mobile application have is that you can’t upload folders. This is a real pain and something which, for me, makes the service pretty much useless. I simply don’t have time to manually create a folder on SkyDrive for every folder I want to copy over. With Dropbox, I simply drag and drop a folder and it disappears into the background and backs everything up for me.

They did announce some major changes recently so hopefully it will be added soon

How To Manage Your SkyDrive Account From Windows Explorer

If you are using Windows, you can map your SkyDrive account and delete, modify and upload files and folders as you please. The process is very straight forward.

In order to connect to SkyDrive, you need to know your account CID code. The quickest way to do this is to hover over any link in your account (e.g. Documents, photos, shared etc). Within the link you should see a code such as &cid=86GBZF2F27576AY1. Copy this code (i.e. the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX part).

Next you should open up My Computer and click on Tools at the top of the explorer window. Click on the Map Network Drive option.

Select the drive letter you want to use for SkyDrive and then enter \\docs.live.net@SSL\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX as the folder address; where XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is your CID account code.

Once you click on the finish button, Windows will attempt to connect to your SkyDrive Account.

You then need to enter your SkyDrive login details (i.e. your Hotmail/WindowsLive account details).

That’s it. You will now be able to manage SkyDrive through your Windows computer.

Unfortunately, my Mac is back home at the UK, therefore I haven’t tried this using an Apple computer. The process is very similar though. All you have to do is make sure you map your new network drive to \\docs.live.net@SSL\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

SkyDrive isn’t the ultimate file hosting service. In fact, when compared to most alternatives it’s poor user interface really shows it up. What it does offer is a crap load of free storage, which makes it a great option for storing a lot of your photos and other files online. This year the maximum file size was also doubled from 50mb to 100mb so it’s a great solution for pretty much everything except movies.

I would still recommend Google Docs for documents and Dropbox if you don’t need more than 2GB.

Good luck,
Kevin

- James Dean

Most inexperienced bloggers need you to walk them through everything. Specifically, new bloggers ask you exactly what type of article they should write. I can understand the concerns of someone new wanting to get the article right however I do feel that they should show some initiative. If they took the time to look at previous articles on the website they were writing for they would have a good idea of the length the article needs to be and the topics that need to be covered.

As a blog owner, I give guidelines to writers on topics they can cover (when needed) but I don’t like to tell them exactly what they should write about every time. It can take just as much time thinking up topics and making sure beginners know what they’re doing as it would to just write an article yourself.

I try and give most writers the freedom to write about what they want. The only stipulations I have are that the quality of the article is high and the article is relevant to my website. For example, I’ve rejected dozens of making money online articles for my WordPress blog WordPress Mods as it has nothing to do with WordPress. Likewise, I’ve had to reject at least 20 guest posts on subjects such as ‘What is WordPress?’ etc i.e. an article explaining that WordPress is a CMS is not really relevant to people who already run WordPress websites and modify them regularly.

Most Writers Need Freedom

I occasionally write articles for Blogging Tips and John Chow. Both blog owners allow me to write about pretty much anything I want. They don’t edit what I have written and they trust me to write something that their readers will enjoy. This freedom brings out the best in me and ensures that the article is of a high quality.

I’m also currently writing for the design website Noupe twice a week. I liaise with their editor Rob Bowen on a weekly basis. He’s friendly, professional and always gets back to me quickly. Their submission policy is a little more streamlined than Blogging Tips and John Chow; which you should expect from a large design magazine such as Noupe. We usually agree on the topics before hand and then talk a little about what each article will detail. Apart from ensuring I use H3 header tags and crop images to 550 pixels in width, they don’t restrict me from what I write. This is one of the main reasons why I enjoy writing for the site and why it hasn’t become a chore.

The freedom to write without having worrying about an editor ripping your work apart brings out the best in writers. Granted, editors are there to ensure that all writers are consistent and write articles that fit into the owners long term goals for the site. Grammar issues aside, I think editors should trust the people they hire and allow them to do the job they were hired to do.

Too Many Rules Restrict Bloggers

I was recently in talks with a large gambling related network about writing for them on a regular basis. Their rate wasn’t amazing but most articles were short and news related and I didn’t suspect they would take long to write. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I first became suspicious when the editor starting talking about their writing policies and said that they wanted to chat on Skype for an hour about the writing guidelines they were going to send me. On the day that we were supposed to talk I emailed them and apologised for not being able to talk because I was swamped with work. They were fine with this and asked if I could have a look over the writing guidelines and email them my thoughts on it.

Whilst I can understand that a large website network will have more rules and guidelines for writers than a stand alone blog, I was really surprised at what they force their writers to go through. It’s ridiculous.

In total they sent me several documents with each document being several pages long. There were over a dozen guidelines each on style, tone, formats, headlines and SEO. The section on meta tags was incredibly long too. There was also an overly complicated scheduling process that all authors had to check and update on a regular basis and articles had to be submitted by certain days and times and then be approved for publication. To top it all off, all edited content had to be uploaded to Dropbox!

To be fair to them, they were quite understanding when I explained that I couldn’t work for them because their system makes writing articles for their network too time consuming. As I noted before, the rate was pretty poor. Around $20 for a 500 word article. As most of their articles are news related, I figured that if I did enough research and subscribed to all the relevant blogs in the niche, I would be able to write 3-4 articles an hour as all I would have to do is report the news and give my own view on it etc.

$60-$80 an hour is a good wage if the work is consistent but their whole system ruined any chance of me giving it a try. It would probably have taken me 15 minutes to write the article, another 15 minutes to make sure all of their numerous formatting rules are adhered too and then another 15 minutes to update all of their spreadsheets and documents. I’m sure this process would have got easier over time but I was reluctant to waste any of my time finding out.

Guidelines Are Important But Keep Them To A Minimum

It makes sense for a blog owner to create a set of guidelines for those who write for them. I do feel that there comes a point where guidelines become counter productive and make the whole editorial process needlessly long for both authors and editors.

Guidelines about header tags, image sizes, tone and relevance are important. Beyond that, I think that you are asking too much of authors. You really shouldn’t want your authors to be worrying about meta descriptions and weighing them down with complicated procedures that puts 10 different stages between an author submitting an article and the article getting published.

If you are a blog owner, I encourage you to have a rethink about your overall editorial process. Are you asking too much of your authors? Can the submission process be more efficient?

Thoughts, suggestions and general rants all welcome

Thanks,
Kevin

- Homer Simpson

I read on Time Magazine that Twitter is rolling out a new redesign over the new few weeks. People generally fear change, so whenever a large social media service such as Twitter or Facebook changes the user experience slightly, there are a lot of complaints.

I’m quite impressed with the new changes though. I love the way photos are embedded on timelines now overall the new design is a lot cleaner.

What are your thoughts on the new design of Twitter?

Kevin

I went to bed as normal (albeit with a sore back from training) and when I woke up I had a severe pain down my left shoulder, arm and hand. It felt like pins and needles, so I assumed that I had just slept in a funny position and it would get better.

It took me about an hour to get out of bed and another 20 minutes or so to get dressed. I really had no idea what was wrong with it so didn’t go to the hospital right away.

Thankfully I made the sensible decision the next day and went to the hospital in the afternoon. The two doctors who saw me took some x-rays and tried their best to figure out what was wrong but they really didn’t have a clue and asked me to come back on the Friday to see the orthopaedic surgeon.

6 days later I was back. The surgeon x-rayed my neck and didn’t find any problems. He then said that it is probably just nerve damage and I should be fine in 6 weeks. He started to walk out the room before I stopped him to ask some questions. When I asked if it was possible to do any exercise he said ‘yes just do what you can’, and then left the room.

As you can imagine, I was a little pissed off with having to wait 5 days to see a doctor who clearly didn’t care about how I was feeling. Around this time my own doctor prescribed pain killers. Unfortunately they were not strong enough so I was only getting 3 or 4 hours sleep a night.

After a few days I finally went to see a local chiropractor. They performed an EMG scan to determine where the pressure was on my spine. This illustrated the problem I had with the left side of my neck and shoulder and the lower back problem I had got from training. They gave me great advice as to what to do and what not to do. They also stressed that I should ice my neck and shoulder every hour because the inflamed tissue was causing most of the pain (something which 3 doctors at my local hospital failed to tell me).

My EMG levels can be seen in the image below. Mild pressure is shown in green, moderate in blue and severe in red. Black levels are beyond severe.

I have since got stronger painkillers from the hospital as the original ones I got were doing nothing and this week began seeing the chiropractor 3 times a week. I’ve also managed to do some work this week. Which was good as the pain was so severe that I was unable to type (and hence, not do any work) for about 2-3 weeks.

I’m certainly a long way from recovery. I can’t even think about when I can start training again, however I’m glad that I’m getting a good sleep now and I can do some work with all this free time I now have

If you are ever unfortunate enough to hurt your back or do some nerve damage, my advice to you is to go and see a chiropractor or an osteopath (and ice the problem area frequently). Your doctor is obviously your first port of call however I would encourage you to seek a second opinion from someone who specialises in the problem you have. It will cost you a lot of money but it will save you a lot of time, pain and energy in the long run

Kevin

I’m settled in my new house and focused on making WordPress Mods a success. The site has started to make a little money through affiliate commissions already. Probably between $50 and $100 a month, which is nothing to shout about but is encouraging considering the readership of the site so far.

I now have to step things up and try and get the site making at least a thousand dollars a month by the end of the year. With less than 4 months left this is perhaps a big ask but it’s what I’m going to aim for.

Traffic

Traffic has been growing steadily. Back in June I posted some stats to show the sites growth.

Below is an update of traffic for WordPress Mods.

Webalizer

Since the start of June traffic has almost tripled according to Webalizer to around 1,500 daily visits. I’d like this to increase to around 5,000 by the end of the year.

AWStats

From around 350 uniques a day at the start of June, AWStats are no showing daily visits of around 1,000. This is about the same rate being shown in Webalizer.

Google Analytics

In June Analytics was showing around 150 unique visits per day. It now stands around 500. Traffic jumped on August 31st to around 3,000 uniques due to one of my posts being heavily stumbled.

RSS Subscribers

At my last update RSS readership was only 43. It has increased to around 135, which is a bit disappointing, but it does seem to be following the same growth patten as traffic.

Essentially, traffic and readership has tripled in 3 months. This is the kind of growth you would expect with a new blog. If I keep the momentum going then I see no reason why I cannot triple traffic again within the next 3 months.

Guest Posts

I have been trying to write a lot of blog posts in advance. This allows me to free up time and work on other things. Guest posts are going to be my main way of promoting WP Mods so it’s important to write good posts and spread the word about about the site.

Two posts were published today: one at Flipping Websites and one at John Chow.

I have also just finished a post for Blogging Teacher and have written the majority of a post for Daily Blog Tips too. I will hopefully continue to write the odd post for these sites plus write for several more.

Due to this, I have added a guest post information page which lists all the articles I have written. It should provide a good reference for future collaborations.

I hope you have enjoyed this update. I will do my best to keep these updates up, as over time they should paint a good picture of launching, developing and monetizing a blog.

Thanks for reading

Kevin