How to Know When Your Site is Down: Free Web Monitoring Service

Would you like to know when you website or blog is down?  Well here’s a simple free way how. You can sign up to Free Web Monitoring site (just click on the banner below) and start entering up to three sites that you monitoring. When that site is down for whatever reason, the system will send you a notification at the email you specified so you can take action immediately. The system will also notify you when the site is up again.

It’s a simple tool and one that I use all the time to monitor my sites… and it’s FREE and works on all website and on all blogging platform.. Awesome!

PS: Want a blog makeover? Contact me today.
PSS: View all my work here

Cheerio…

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How to Get $0.01 Hosting for the First month Hosting from HostGator

I’ve been asked many times about the differences between blogging with Blogspot and WordPress. Personally for me, I don’t see much difference in the two platforms. A lot of blogger feels that you’re only a real blogger if you use WordPress. Well although I myself have moved to WordPress (for businesses purposes) , I can tell you that I was very much a “real” blogger even back then when I was blogging with blogspot.

I was still making money from my blogs then (on blogspot) so definitely no difference in that department. Although having said that, there are potentially a lot more opportunity for you to earn more when you are using the WordPress platform as for reason advertisers prefers you to have static IP (which is what you will have if you have your own hosting) or there are advertisers programs that just need you to insert some php codings and blogspot does not allow that.

Potentially there is also a risk of losing your blog on one fine day simply because blogger decide that your blog was a spammy blog and with WordPress that won’t happen .. unless your hosting is gone.

This brings me to hosting issues. Reliable and dependable hosting is definitely deciding factor after you decide to move to WordPress for whatever reason.

I use hostgator and I’ve not had any complains with them. No sudden offline alert that my blogs are not reachable, their customer service is very helpful most times and they have been around for years.

If you decide to move to WordPress and wanna give hostgator a try, here’s how you can try them out for a month at only $0.01. If for some reason you are not satisfied they offer a 45days money back guarantee.

Here’s how:

1. All you need to is go to Hostgator site. As shown below, if you already have a domain name, enter the “I currently have a domain box” (and if you don’t I suggest getting one from godaddy first. I suggest getting your domain separate from your hosting so that it’s easier if you decide to change hosting later).
2. DO NOT CLICK on the “Continue to Step 2” until you replace the “Enter a Coupon Code” to ladyjavadeal
   
3. Now click on the “Continue to Step 2”
4. There will be three package types to choose from. I would recommend the “Hatchling” if you only have one domain name or the “Baby” if you are hosting more than 2 domains.
5. After selecting the package, you will see that under the “Billing cycle” box will reflect as “0/mo” 
6.  You will now proceed to finish entering your registration info
7. After making sure all is order, click on the “Create Account” buton

 

Within a few minutes you will get an email from hostgator with all your login info. They will also request you to send in scanned photo id of yourself for verifying purpose. Don’t worry if you dont have a scanned copy, just use your camera phone and take a photo of it and send it to them.  That would be sufficient too.

If you do continue with them and opt for the monthly payment, please make sure you send your payment on time or risk your site being suspended.

I hope that is useful and do let me know if you need any help.

PS: Want a blog makeover? Contact me today.
PSS: View all my work here

Cheerio…

First Commenter
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How to Backup Your Blogspot Blog

On my recent Entrecards drops, I noticed a few blogs hosted on Blogspot suddenly disappearing although apparently all these bloggers are active with a few blogs to their names. Then I noticed a post by one of the bloggers at her other blog which stated that Blogger had apparently DELETED her blog stating that it was a SPAM blog and even after numerous email, she still had not received any answer and her blog is still gone.

I am not here to question who is right or who is wrong but here’s a way to salvage your blog data should that happened.

TWO WORDS..

BACK UP!

 

.. and here’s how you do it in blogger/blogspot.

1. Go to your blog dashboard

2. Click on Settings>>Basic and you will see the the EXPORT link.

 

3. Click on that and click on DOWNLOAD BLOG to somewhere safe on your hard drive. What this does is it will save your blog in a XML format that you can IMPORT back to another blogspot blog or use to import into another blogging platform, WordPress, while you decide your next course of action if and when this happens.

4. NOTE: This will ONLY back up your blog entries and comments.  It DOES NOT backup your template or your widgets.  To back up your template, you can do so from Design>>Edit HTML menu

Go get exporting/backing up NOW!

PS: Want a blog makeover? Contact me today.
PSS: Need hosting? Need transfer services?
PSSS: View all my work here

Cheerio…

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Monica

How To Create Subdomain For Your Blog and Host it On Blogger

Here’s the scenario. You already have a domain name and already used that domain for your main blog. You then opened up another blog that is serve as a extension to your existing blog. You now want to publish it as a subdomain. Here are the steps: PS: these steps are for domains hosted on godaddy. Domain Sale! $7.49 .com at GoDaddy 1. You should be at this screen of your godaddy site 2. Look for the DNS Manager and click on Launch 3. Your next screen should show up with the following screenshot 4. Click on the Quick Add and a little box would appear just like the screenshot below 5. In the box.. enter the information as below.. please note, where I put “shop”, this is where you would put whatever subdomain name you want and click on “Save Zone File” 6. Now go to your blogger dashboard and click on your blog Settings>> Publishing>> Custom Domain >> Switch to advanced settings 7. Enter the new address you have created just now over at goddaddy. So in my case it was shop.yourblogmaindomain.com 8. Save and you’re done! Now test your new blog url :) PS: Has this post helped you? Buy me some Java Juice? PSS: Want a blog makeover? Contact me today. PSSS: View all my work here Cheerio…

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How To Have Mobile Versions Of Your Blogger Blogs

One of the things that I really love about WordPress are the plugins and one of the best plugin that I installed on all my WordPress blogs is the WordPress Mobile Press plugin which I was able to customized to include a header an adsense code.

However, today I found out that blogger has rolled out, through their Blogger in Draft, their own Mobile Templates. This is what my blog over at Online Money Chat looks like on mobile version. Awesome right?  I have not tested to see if it works on all kinds of templates so please let me know if yours was able to be transported nicely ya..

Here’s how you get your..

1. Login to Blogger in draft using your blogger id and password

2. Go to Settings >> Email & Mobile

3.  Under Mobile Template, click on the “Yes, On mobile devices, show the mobile version of my template”

4. Save and you’re done. You can also do a Preview to see what yours would like like.

Enjoy!

PS: Want a blog makeover? Contact me today.
PSS: View all my work here

Cheerio…

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Mariuca | Bill

Snow for Blogspot Blogs

As promised, here’s the code that I found to work wonderfully for blogspot blogs. It is so easy to install too.. Just install as a page element or gadgets :).. Enjoy!

This widget was created using the Snow Effect Without Images script by Kurt Grigg which is distributed by Dynamic Drive.

[cce]
[/cce]

PS: Want a blog makeover? Contact me today.
PSS: View all my work here

Cheerio…

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Monica

Snow Plugin for WordPress

It’s the week before Christmas and bloggers round the world are making their blogs as festive as possible to reflect the mood they are in. So to add spice to your blog.. why not add some Christmas elements like a Christmas header or even a whole  Christmas blog makeover… or if you want something simple, why not snow? I found a simple snow plugin for your wordpress blog. Here’s how..

1. Go to your Plugin menu

2. Add New Plugin

3. Search for “Snow Storm”

4. I picked the one from Tribulant Software as it’s the easiest one so far

5. Click install and you’re done. You’ll have snow just like this blog and my blog over at LadyJava’s Lounge

Enjoy!

Coming up next post.. Snow for Blogspot Blog…

PS: Want a blog makeover? Contact me today.
PSS: View all my work here

Cheerio…

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Mariuca

Get a Mobile Version of Your Blog

I must admit I simply love the MobilePress plugin for WordPress. It lets visitors view a lighter version of my blog on their mobile phone and it looks simple awesome. The standard version comes with no header but me being me, I tweaked it and presto, I got headers for them as well! Check out the screenshot or view it via your phone now. Just type: http://javaura.com, bookmark it and never miss another update again.. heheh PS: Want to tweak your own mobile version? Contact me today. PSS: View all my work here Cheerio…

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Monica

Tips on Choosing Great Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is always exciting as for me it means you now really own that blog or website, much like owning a house and putting some home address plaques in front of your house.

Like address signs, a great domain name is equally important. So here are some tips to remember when choosing that all important address sign or domain name for your blog.

1. Always remember to make it short and sweet. You want something that represent you but at the same time something that people can remember easily.   K.I.S.S. Keep it simple and sweet, and you’ll get more traffic coming to your site.

2. Pay attention to punctuation. Sometimes the domain you want might not be available but something with punctuation might work. Although dashes and underscores are generally alright, avoid any strange punctuations like the exclamation sign for instance.

3. Make your domain name memorable so people will type in the address straight into the address bar instead of using a search engine and this is particularly important if yours is a business website. Search engine means your potential customer might find a competitor while looking for your site.

I hope you find the tips useful… and oh ya.. congrats on your new domain name!

PS: Want a blog makeover? Contact me today.
PSS: View all my work here

Cheerio…

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Mariuca

How to Add Blogger Share Button On Your Blog

Blogger now have added their own Share Button widget to their blogspot blog. It is a simple process.

1. Go to your DESIGN menu
2. Click on your Blog Post Edit link
3. Scroll down the menu that opens and tick on the SHOW SHARE BUTTON

Now if you check your blog, you should see the widget on your blog post footer. However, if you template is heavily modified, you have to add a code to your blog HTML coding. So here’s what you do..

1. Go to EDIT HTML and tick theEXPAND WIDGET TEMPLATE
2. Next search for [cce]
post-footer-line-3[/CCE]

and add this code just underneath it..

[cce]

[/cce]

Now view and your Share Button should be there already. Let me know if you still have have problem.

Cheerio…

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Mariuca

How to resize your Twitter Remote widget

I’ve recently added Twitter Remote widget to the sidebar here and over at my cat blog, Blogger Cats. I noticed that the minimum width that the widget allows was 180px at the site. I didn’t really thought anything about it because my sidebar is that size so the widget fits nicely. However, my BFF, Mariuca, emailed me asking how to resize the widget. So here’s what you need to do in case you too want to resize it to fit smaller sidebars.

Look at your code

Change the highlighted number to something to that would fit your sidebar. Remember to not make it too small as the words in the widget might get squished up. Good luck!

Find these tips useful? Buy me coffee ya.  Thanks!

Cheerio…

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Mariuca

How To Get Your Own Table of Contents In Blogger

I recently found a tutorial on how to get your own table of contents for blogger blog. Just a few lines written by Abu Farhan and you’re all set!

1. Create a page (or post if you prefer)
2. Copy the following code into you entry box. Make sure it is in EDIT HTML code

[cce]
[/cce]

3. Change XXX to the url of your blog
4. You’re done

Check out here what it will look like.

If you find the above find useful, you might want to buy me coffee perhaps?

Cheerio…

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Mariuca | Monica