Webhost issues

I'm using myhosting.com and I'm going to document the problems I've experienced.

1) 13 March 2012 @GMT+8 11:00am to 3:00pm, network problem. Both my site and myhosting.com display a gateway timeout. I contacted myhosting.com and they admited there was a problem with it. This is a second time I experience this and it happen around the same time. I suspect that they were doing some maintenance.

A 'screwup' Ad

Once in a while, an Ad will screw up my blog causing some weird random problems. Here is the problem I encountered.

1) Ad on the first right side column. Causing both my right side column and footer to 'vanish'.

I'll be documenting future problems here.

The importance of backup

I am not talking only about backing up to your computer. I'm talking about backing up your computer to another location.

My HDD crashed and all my backups from my past blogs are totally gone. Time to invest on a home NAS. Lost data is going to set me back on my blog progression.

A more efficient way to track my banner ad?

In my previous post, I use a simple way of tracking my banner ad - that is to check if the number of referrals went up. However, this may not be very accurate. Also, my advertiser inform me that he would prefer that I give him a html code. That's when I found ClixTrac. The free service should be good enough for me.

Track clicks on each banner or link for up to 7 days or 100 clicks.

Track views/impressions on each banner for up to 7 days or 500 impressions.

I wonder if it will still work after 7 days or 100 clicks. Only one way to find out.

Update:
Start Date: 01-29-2012 Expires: 02-05-2012
I realize that  there is a time stamp in my Ad. Meaning, it will no longer be free after 7 days.

Back to the drawing board again.

Update 30 Jan 2012
There ain't any free service out there and it's not worthwhile to subscribe to services like ClixTrac and ClickMeter to track just one ad. I will stick to my original simple tracking.

Ad Campaign

It's not my first ad campaign but it will be the first that I am going to track properly. This blog is quite popular and I'm thankful that the owner is kind enough to allow me to advertise my site for a nominal fee. I am going to try it out for three months first before deciding to continue for the rest of the year.

Here's the results before the ads went live.

	Jun-11	Jul-11	Aug-11	Sep-11	Nov-11	Dec-11	Jan-12	Feb-12	Mar-12	Apr-12
Referral Visits	909	1,045	1,227	590	526	471	391
All traffic	19,500	19,408	20,681	17,797	17,652	17,807	23,032
%	4.66%	5.38%	5.93%	3.32%	2.98%	2.65%	1.70%

It will be interesting to find out if the total referral visits will increase and how much does it contribute to the overall traffic.

Increasing my feedburner email subscribers - an unexpected result

Have you ever notice those side bar tabs on some of the blogs? They are useful for two purpose

1) Reduce the clatter of having additional widgets on your side-bar
2) Increase visibility or at least I hope it would do.

There are a couple of plugins available and I decided to use Share and Follow plugin because of its popularity. It's basically a plugin to share your blog using all the various social media available. As my focus is on increasing my feedburner email subscribers, I tweaked it to link it to a page on my site instead of directly to a social media portal.  The results were astonishing. Within three days, my feedburner subscribers jump from 801 to 874. However, upon further investigation, my email subscriber only increase by one. It would seem that most are not comfortable in subscribing via email and are subscribing via readers. I am particular on this and consider the implementation a success.

I will let it run for another week or two, or until I reach the magical 1K subscribers. After which will be Facebook.

ERROR: This email is already registered, please choose another one.

Trying to figure out which account is using this email so that I can update my Gravatar. Realised I can sort by email but I got the error message above.

Creating new users in WordPress with the same email account is no longer possible but there is a little trick:
There is a trick that works with Gmail (and possibly other email providers) to let you use one email address as though it were several different addresses. Gmail lets you add “+something” to your mailbox name and still get your mail. For example, joe@gmail.com and joe+wordpress@gmail.com and joe+secretblog@gmail.com each look like different addresses to our system but they all route mail to the same inbox: joe@gmail.com.

Source: http://en.support.wordpress.com/email-address/

Improving Site Speed

After updating WordPress, I realize that my site loaded slower. I notice several spikes in CPU usage when extracting new feeds. However, on the average, my resource utilization is pretty low. I inform my webhost about it and I specifically tell them that upgrading more resources is the last thing I want to do.

They were kind enough to do this for me:

We have optimized apache and Mysql configurations on your server and now we can see that your domains are loading fine without any slowness. We have increased the following values in Mysql configuration file.

=====================
max_heap_table_size
thread_cache_size
table_open_cache
tmp_table_size
=====================

Currently you are using word press site, some themes and Plugins may cause domain slowness. You may please try to disable and re-enable each themes and plugins which helps to find out which one causing domain slowness.

You can view your domain statics or logs through Webalizer Stats option available in cPanel. Please follow the below steps to view the same.

1. login to cPanel account of your domain

2. Click on Webalizer under logs section >> and then click on view.

Could you please check and let us know if you still face any difficulties ?

I decided to use Google page speed online to identify what I can improve on. I got a score of 87/100 which I think is pretty decent. Nevertheless, I decided to look at the high priority issues.

I realize that about 50% of the enable compression is caused by Ads and I decide to test out how much faster  my site will become if I remove that ad.

Hmm.. no difference when I remove both ads but still I will remove the leaderboard at the bottom which I think generate very little traffic.

Tracking the 'hot' posts

In my earlier post, I mention that I implemented a new little text widget to maximise the exposure of a few articles. Here are the current statistics.

5 Jan 2012

CapitaMalls Asia issue 10yr Retail Bond - 378 views

CapitaMalls Asia Bonds On Offer - 243

CapitaMalls Asia Bonds 2012 - 200

CapitaMalls Asia 10 year bonds – a quick FAQ - 146

CapitaMalls Asia Public Offering of 10 Year Retail Bonds at 3.8% pa - awaiting stats

I will let it run till a few days after the end of the announcement to see what the improvement is like.

A neat little way to show hot articles

There was a sudden jump in traffic these few days to an announcement of a particular financial product. Most of the traffic are directed at a few articles relating to that financial product. Hence, I brain stormed on how I could maximise the exposure of these articles.

A few ideas come to mind. 

1) Make the posts sticky. As an aggregator, new posts come in thick and fast. Making these posts sticky even for a few days will give the impression that no new articles have been added.

2) Highlighting the post. Seems messy since readers will be scrolling down and wondering what those highlighted post are. Furthermore, once new posts are published, the highlighted posts will be push back.

After some thought, the text widget is probably the best way to achieve my goal. However the default text widget is too plain and I wanted it to stand out. After some "Google-ing", I found the answer - Fancy Text Widget. It's not listed in WordPress plugin because it is not free. However, you can still download it for free. One way is to download the demo version. I think it's exactly the same as the full version just fewer images or you can download for free in wpsale (I stumble upon this accidentally). This free version contains more images than the demo but it is only version 1. The latest version is just one update newer and this free version is working nicely so no complains.

Step By Step Guide To Creating A New Finance Aggregator Site

FeedWordPress Plugin Customization
1) Download and installed FeedWordPress Version 2009.0707

2) Require to upgrade of MagpieRSS after activating plugin (normal).

3) Syndicated a test feed (http://thefinance.sg) and found a whole long list of unwanted code appended to each post. After testing on other feeds, realized that the rest are ok and the problem is only on my feed.
4) Increased the excerpt length of the feed by editing ../wp-content/plugins/feedwordpress/syndicatedpost.class.php (L74 and L75)
Change the code to:

if (strlen($excerpt) > 503) :
$excerpt = substr($excerpt,0,500).'...';

5) How do I make the permalinks for post titles open in a new browser window? or [Private]

Note that since I will be making changes to index.php, archive.php and search.php in the theme folder, I will have to make sure I modify the files after each theme upgrade.

For thesis theme, I have to modify custom_functions.php. Not going to do this because the general consensus is that opening in a new window is bad.
Beware of Opening Links in a New Window [Usability and Information Architecture]

6) How to make feedwordpress retrieve only a short excerpt and not the entire post? Feedwordpress : truncate the article

Finally found the solution. Look for the file syndicatedpost.class.php and insert the code below above line 66.

 $content = substr($content,0,500).'...';

It is basically similar to to the excerpt code, it will retrieve from 0 - 500 words and post it into the content. Hence my code look something like this now.

$content = $this->item['description'];
endif;
$content = substr($content,0,500).'...';
$this->post['post_content'] = apply_filters('syndicated_item_content', $content, $this);

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feedwordpress/

7) Point Permalinks to the local copy on this website.
Go to Syndication -> Posts -> Under 'Links' -> point to local copy on this website

8) Add a 'Read full article' at the end of the single syndicated post
Put this signature code to Thesis Theme, custom_functions.php

// Signature -> http://diythemes.com/forums/showthread.php?p=74152#post74152
function my_signature() {
if (is_single() && is_syndicated()) { ?>
<p><a href="<?php the_syndication_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><br/>Read the full article &rarr;</a></p>
<?    }
}
add_action ('thesis_hook_after_post' , 'my_signature');

9) Next post permalink is 'screwed'

Auto-resolved. I guess is because of point 7 - Point Permalinks to the local copy on this website.

Thesis Theme Customization

Tips on resolving Error establishing a database connection - WordPress

This problem should be very rare in a blog that is already running fine and there were no major changes done to it. I can only think of a few causes:

1. Someone change your wp-config.php
2. Your MySQL database is screw up
3. MySQL service is not running.

For the first two causes, it will usually mean that your site is hacked. It is unlikely that your webhost screw up your files. The most probable cause is the last one.

A sure way to check is to go to WHM and check MySQL service. I'm not sure if cPanel shows. I had problems restarting the service a few times.

TIP: Using a cahce plugin like Total Cache or Super Cache helps to alleviate the problem since it will still show the cache post/homepage rather then a homepage showing "Error establishing a database connection". This will give you enough time to resolve the problem.

 here are some tips on how I resolve the error.

Guest Writer or Guest Author

I am creating a new user in WordPress for guest articles and I'm torn between the above two names. As far as I am concern, the only subtle difference between an author and a writer is the former gets his work published and the latter does not.

I decide to check the number of search results in Google for both names:

"guest writer" : 5,010,000
"guest author" : 3,960,000

Intrigued, I decided to check on a few other terms as well:

"guest blogger" : 6,070,000
"guest post" : 14,000 000

Guest Blogger is definitely out as not everyone is a blogger. Guest writer is my pick.

800 FeedBurner subscribers

I reach the 800 figure mile stone today. It will be a tough struggle in the coming few weeks as I struggle to push further deeper into the 800 mark. Once that is achieve can I set my eyes on the magical 1,000.

Looking back, I didn't really do anything innovative just plain hard work - replying to interested guest writers and emailing my new new subscribers. Although not substantial, replying to all emails sent to you by interested parties does help to increase my readership by a little.

Lesson learn: don't neglect seemingly mundane and tedious tasks.

Drawing a divider line in WordPress

I was using a very tedious method of inserting an image of a divider line into my WordPress post until I found this site - http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/divider-lines/

Feeling really stupid but better late than never. I believe it should work for Blogger too. Try it out.

How to publish your google analaytics to public without plugins or third party apps?

I'm searching for a way to show my stats to potential advertisers and stake holders without the need for plugins or third party apps because I don't want to be at their mercy. Plugins and thrid party apps may require frequent updating if Goolge or Wordpress update their current version.

Gave up my search and decided to export my report in CSV format. Darn, the exported report doesn't show any charts and learning Google Chart Tools is too time consuming (another day perhaps). In the end, I took a screen  capture.

Do let me know how you can publish your Google analytics report without the need of plugins or third party apps.

Thanks.

Accumolo Wordpress Theme

Many moons ago before I engaged a design firm for my site, I was looking at various Wordpress aggregator themes. Accumolo was one of them and while reviewing my old notes, I took down some of the sites that was using the theme. It will be interesting to see how these sites are now.

1. MusicEdNews.com : This was the first site I want to learn from should I opt for the Accumolo theme. The webmaster has done a good job in improving it. With PR4, there could still be a thing or two to learn from.
2. pureitems.com : The site ceased to exist.
3. Grape Daily : PR0. I doubt there was any update on the site.
4. LakeMarySports.com: PR0. Like Grape Daily, there wasn't much updates.
5. Scrappy Marketing: PR2. I believe there was sporadic updates much like my site. 
6. IT Splat: PR1. Doesn't look at all like the usual Accumolo theme. Anyway, it has not been updated since last year.
7. Naijaweb: Doman name up for sale.
8. becomethemedia.com: Search results show becomethemedia.org and my browser warn that it is a malware site.
9. Thesis Buzz: Not sure why it is not using Thesis instead. Anyway, the site has ceased to exist.

Of the nine sites, only two are still being updated and they are still using the Accumolo theme, which speaks volume of its reliability.

Time to get the engine running...

I have been a bad boy. It's been over a month since I worked on my blog. In the Internet world, one month is a lot of time. I wonder how many missed opportunities have passed by me. Time to roll out.

Million Dollar Blog Project Update - 17 Oct 2011

It has been two weeks since I joined ThinkTraffic Million Dollar Blog Project and I did not see any increase in traffic. In fact, readership and earnings went down. I'm kind of surprised because I'm still updating my site regularly.

As you can see, readership has dropped by almost half - 900 per day to 450 per day. I may be on the first page of the Million Dollar Blog Project leaderboard but it counts as nothing.

My goal is to have a daily average of 1000 readers per day and just when it seems I am getting there. It's always the extra push that is the most difficult.

Sudden Drop in Feedburner Subscribers

There is no news from feedburner that there is a problem. On further investigation, I notice that my email subscribers seem to be omitted from the total number. Hopefully the problem will self resolve on its own.