If I was into list building I could easily have used that post to help build my list, but I’m not, I’m more for helping people and that doesn’t include writing posts merely to get their details so I can fill their email box with offers promising them ways of increasing their wealth.

Still, I digress. I first noticed the problem when I booted up my PC as it took the form of all my icons flashing on the desktop. Whilst that was an annoyance I decided that I’d look into it after doing my usual bout of commenting. Imagine my surprise when every time started to comment on a blog the page would reload, thereby losing my comment. I thought that perhaps I could write the comment in NotePad or Word and then cut and paste it into the comment form. Nope, that wouldn’t work because all these characters started appearing automatically, mainly the date, making it all a wasted effort.

Now I’m pissed. First I thought that I had picked up some virus or something so I did a scan of the PC and it came up clean. My only other option was to Google my problem. I tried several searches;

• Why does commenting on WordPress Blogs cause the post to reload? That search was a bust so I tried.
• Why do characters appear automatically in Word? That also didn’t come up with anything useful, so back to the drawing board.
• How can I stop the icons from flashing on my desktop? Yep, that one gave me a lot of hits so I had to refine the search some by stating that I was using XP.

It took me literally days to work it out, and I did everything from downloading and running malaware programs to hurling abuse at the monitor, none of which worked, although swearing at the computer did let of a little steam.

I finally came across something that made no sense but I thought I would give it a try. Someone posted somewhere, I wish I made a copy of the link, that perhaps it all had to do with the PC’s display adapter. It turned out to be the correct fix, and if you’re having the same problem following these steps may fix it.

1. Go to your control panel and click on system.
2. Click on the (+) next to Display adapters which will show you your current display adapter.
3. Right click on that adapter and select Update driver…
4. This will bring you to Hardware Update Wizard. Select the first option, Install the software automatically (Recommended) This may take awhile so be patient.
5. Several drivers should come up and I selected the first one, which worked fine for me.

That’s it, everything has been fine since. So if your icons are flickering on your desktop or your getting pissed because your commenting keeps getting interrupted by your page refreshing, perhaps all you need do is update your display driver.

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You may be wondering what this has to do with saving time when commenting,  and the answer to that is it has other useful features which I will get to shortly. As most of you know every time you reply to a comment your whole page loads which not only takes time it also uses a lot of bandwidth not to mention uses a fair bit of CPU on your server. One of the unique features of this plugin is that no longer happens, once you’ve replied to a comment it appears withing seconds without loading the whole page. If you get a lot of comments you can imagine how much time it will save you.

But that’s not all. It has another cool and very useful feature. Linda from Linda Grace Online, in a comment today, asked me;

How is it that you send notice to my inbox everytime you answer my comments – with what you said and what I said? I see that I’ve clicked on the box to notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail (wasn’t that automatically clicked and I’d have to unclick it if I didn’t want to be notified?) I’ve clicked on other blog’s before and I was notified everytime anyone made a comment, I don’t want know every comment ever made on that post so I stopped clicking. I really like knowing what you comment back and I’d like to do the same thing on my blog… how would I?

Well, the answer to that is, wait for it, the WP Threaded Comments plugin. You can set it up so it’s ticked automatically or you can leave it up to the commentator. It also allows you to change the email message so that you can personalize it. Another cool feature is it allows you to delete comments without going to the dashboard.

If you think this plugin may be of use to you then you may want to head on over to Linda’s blog to thank her. You ,may find her post, How A $6 Mosquito Netting Prevents Malaria And Saves Lives, to be of interest as it’s outlays a very worthwhile cause.

Naturally there are those of you who may not want to use this plugin because your blog is already top heavy with them and you can’t bear to ditch one to replace with this guy. Well don’t worry, you can do the same thing from within the WordPress Dashboard by going to the comment section. I don’t know how long this feature has been there, I only noticed it the other day. Anyway, under each comment you will notice several links that will allow you to unapprove, reply, quick edit edit, spam or trash a particular comment. Well that reply option will do the exact same thing.

Hope you’ve found this post to be of use.

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A note from a compassionate, loving and caring Aussie husband…

LOOK AFTER YOUR WIFE…..

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the patio, drinking beer and watching my wife mow the lawn.

Cheryl from next door saw us and was so upset that she came over and yelled at me, “You lazy prick! Sitting there drinking beer while your poor wife pushes that ancient lawn mower around! Get up off your fat arse and give her a break !”

I thought ‘Shit woman!’ Took another swig from my stubby, wiped the cold foam from my lips, lifted my sunnies, stared directly at this nosey cow and told her in no uncertain terms to sod off and mind her own business. I told her my wife had green fingers and that she really enjoyed gardening.

After a few days I felt really bad, so I went out and bought her a ride-on mower to show my sensitive side. I’m really proud of the deal I got and also very proud that my wife can now sit down while mowing the lawn. Yes guys, we should take good care of our wives… then maybe they’ll take good care of us.

I’ve attached a picture below…hope it comes through OK

Heck, if nothing else it shows off our Aussie ingenuity!

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I find that quite staggering. You can almost say that there is a 50/50 chance that people are not commenting on a Disqus blog. So, if you’re starved of comments at the moment and you’re running Disqus, then perhaps you should rethink your choice of commenting system.

Some like DiTesco commented that they voted no, not because he liked Disqus, but because,

there are too many blogs that I like and belong to friends that are Disqus powered and I am taking that extra mile to comment.

Unfortunately not everyone is willing to go that extra mile. There were a lot more comments that you may find interesting, both for and against, but when you consider those results I’m glad that I decided against Disqus and stuck with the one that comes with WordPress.

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Take it from me, that’s what I thought when I first got into business. Off I went and I purchased the right software and stationary and I thought I was set for printing out some professional business cards. After days at the computer and much trial and error, the best I could come up with was amateurish to say the least. There was no way I even considered using them either because I wanted to impress my customers, not give them something to laugh at.

The problem is that as good as printers are these days they’re still nowhere as good as what the professional use. That’s why photos that you print at home tend to fade over time where photos that you’ve had printed professionally look as good today as the day you had them printed.

That was only business cards! After that there was no way I would ever attempt professional glossy brochures or flyers! What I learned the hard way was that if I needed professional printing done then I needed to have a professional working for me, one who used top quality equipment.

Business being what it is today there may be times when you need something done quickly, so it’s great that there are places like nextdayflyers.com who can guarantee that as long as print ready files are completed and approved by 6 PM PST they are printed and ready to ship out the next business day. If you live local, 18711 South Broadwick St. Rancho Dominguez, CA, you can even drop in an pick up your order.

I could go on and on but the best thing for anyone interested is to go online to see all they have to offer. You can design your job online or you can upload it to them in the knowledge that they will do their utmost to fulfill your needs.

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The best way to do this is to change your header image. This is easily done if you’re using FlexSqueeze as all you do is point to the directory with your header image file. It’s still pretty easy if your using a normal theme as long as you choose one that has an image in the header

The first thing you do is to find the name of the image being used. It may be header.jpg but it could be anything. Rename that to headerold.jpg so that you can keep it as a backup. Now all you need do is upload your new image that you’ve named the same as your old image and voila, you have a new header. It’s always a good idea to keep the same dimensions so that it doesn’t screw up the rest of your theme.

So where do you get a new header image? You could search the net looking for a free one or you could pay for one at a site such us Dreamstime, which also has free stock photos.

The problem with those options is that someone else may be using the same image and so once again your blog theme is not truly unique. The way to get a really unique banner is to make your own, and that isn’t as hard as it sounds as long as you have a digital camera. Most of the headers I use are from photos I’ve taken, including the one I am using now. You can see the original photo on my Photos2Blog blog.  I almost used this one as my header;

As you can see it was taken from the same photo, and I may even use it at a later date.

So, you see, it’s not all that hard to change your header, and it’s another of the many benefits from hosting your own blog, and if you ever decide to go that route I always recommend BlueHost because it’s the one I use.

That particular photo was take with my Panasonic Lumix.

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I’ve had them all, from newbies to A Listers, one A Lister even comparing Wassup to a Christmas tree. I’m not going to mention his name because I don’t want to be accused of link dropping for the sole purpose of getting traffic. Yep, I was actually accused of that when I wrote my post on why I no longer link to the likes of Problogger and John Chow, a post that didn’t link to either of them.

So, why did I remove them? It was because of a woman, and you all know how I love to please my women. Yep, I can still remember the time when I pulled out all the plugs just to please Holly, another of my female commentators. You can read all about that in this post on how to remove InfoLinks from your comments.

Still, that is another story and this one belongs to another amazing woman, Kimberly and her post 31DBBB – Day 4 – Analyze a Top Blog In Your Niche where she honestly reviews three blogger, yours truly being one of them, and guess what what? She refers to the ads on my blog as clutter! So what makes her opinion different from all the others? Was it because she’s of the opposite sex Well, all I can say is that her post moved me to the point where I just had to act, and if it made just one more woman happy then it was all worth while.

Seeing as how I’m talking about advertising on blogs I think it’s a good time to mention the OIOPublisher plugin, a plugin that automates all ad purchases on a blog, including text ads, banner ads, and paid reviews! Whats really good about it is that it frees up your time so that you can devote it to what is really important, writing good content. I think that because it’s completely automated it may allow potential advertisers to book a spot on your blog who may not have otherwise parted with their hard earned money.

While the plugin normally costs $47 you can get OIOPublisher for $37 by mentioning My Coupon: ‘SOLAR-WASSUP’ when purchasing it. This coupon is only valid till the end of August. There will probably be another coupon when that expires but I can’t say how much it will be worth. I know I delayed buying it for quite awhile and I admit it was a mistake because that decision probably cost me some sales.

If you decide to purchase the plugin I suggest that you create some sort of Advertise Here page where you explain to potential advertisers why they should purchase a spot from you. Don’t pay too much attention to my page as I put it together fairly quickly and it could really do with some major work. If you do a great job on this page the prospect of getting advertising dollars is greatly increased.

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I’m sure that there are some bloggers out there who feel that they could have been part of the Pro Blogger group if only they had been given the chance. Truth is that we’ve all got potential to be more than what we are but we don’t all utilize that potential.

I found a video that sums all this up really well and I hope you all get a real kick out of it.

If you haven’t seen any of the Vicar Of Dibley Series you don’t know what you’re missing out on. Here are a couple of DVD’s to get you started.

The Vicar of Dibley – The Complete Series 1

The Vicar of Dibley – The Complete Series 2 & the Specials

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Enter the Platinum SEO plugin which really does a brilliant SEO job on almost any blog. I reckon a lot of you probably already use this plugin but I wonder how many of you use it to it’s full extent. Did you know that you could optimize your category pages? I didn’t, and I’m not going to tell you how it’s done either because the author has done a brilliant job of how you can add meta description and meta keywords tag to the head section of your category pages.

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To all those people out there who are sitting on the fence wondering if they should take the leap to hosting their own blog but are being held back because of the cost factor I would like to list my top ten ways of saving money. If you were to follow these tips you could easily invest the money saved into starting your very own self hosted blog.

So, how much do you have to save? Well, for a measly $6.95 per month you could use BlueHost, which is the host I use for this blog. I’ve used several hosts and I’ve found them to be the best and their CPU Throttling feature is an added bonus, not to mention that you also get a free domain for life as part of your membership and your own domain is a great way to build your brand.

OK, enough of that, here’s the top 10 ways for saving money.

1. Give up smoking: Honestly, health risks aside giving up smoking could save you a fortune. If you smoked a pack of cigarettes a day at a cost of $11.50 a pack you would have spent $4,197.50 in a year. When you consider your hosting package for the same year would have cost you $83.40 you would have $4114.10 up your sleeve.
2. Electricity Costs: Changing your normal light bulbs for the newer fluorescent lamps could save you up to $10-$50 per year.
3. Heating / Cooling costs: Setting your thermostat a few degrees lower in winter and a few degree higher in summer can also save you a fair bit of money. Having your home insulated,closing curtains and plugging up leaks will also add to your savings.
4. Water Costs: Having shorter showers, installing water saving shower heads and reducing the thermostat on your water heater will also save you a nice wad of money.
5. Eating Out: Cutting back on the amount of times you eat out can save you heaps. If you’re in the habit of buying your lunch consider taking a home made lunch and watch your savings grow. Not only that but you will probably eat a lot healthier.
6. Consolidate Your Loans: If you have more than one loan then I suggest you consolidate them all into one loan with the cheapest rate you can find. This includes your credit card debts which normally have a very high interest rate. If you find it difficult to control your credit card expenditure then I suggest cutting them up and relying only on cash.
7. Minimize Car Usage: Try walking to the local shops instead of using your car, not only will you save money but your health and fitness will improve. When you do use your car drive economically to minimize the amount of fuel you would use.
8. Buy only what you can consume: I know some people go crazy when they see certain items on special and so they buy up not realizing that they’ve bought more than they can consume meaning they have to throw the excess away. This is a dreadful waste so make sure you check expiry dates and don’t buy more than you need. You don’t need to worry about things like toilet paper and stuff so you can buy up on these items.
9. Shop around: I save heaps of money by just shopping around for the best deal and this is so much easier now that we have the Internet.
10. Always use a shopping list: This can be used in conjunction with #9 and is important because you will save heaps by not buying impulse lines and things you don’t need if you stick to a shopping list.
11. Take coffee from home: Coffee is a huge industry and rightfully so as there is a huge markup on a cup of coffee and every time you buy a cup you’re lining someone’s pocket. Taking coffee from home can be a huge money saver, and if you’re a big coffee drinker bring a thermos full to work.

Yeah, I know I said I would only give 10 ways to save money but seeing as how not everyone smokes I thought I would stick in an extra one. As you can see, buy following these simple steps you can easily afford to use BlueHost to host your own blog, and if you consistently provide good content and use services such as adsense you will soon find that your blog will earn enough to pay it’s own way and usually enough for a little extra and so you can use all the extra money that you’ve saved to help paying off your loans thereby saving even more money.

OK, that was enough stressful reading for one day. You may want to read something a little more lighthearted like my post on Taking Off Your Clothes For The Greater Good where I show you how going naked can solve all the world’s problems. There were a few comments about being too cold and I wonder if there are any thermal paints that could be used which could give body art a whole new meaning. Just to put you in the mood here is a photo of a pretty gal wearing nothing but body paint, yep she is totally naked and the remarkable artist is Mark Reid.

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