Mistakes made and problems faced by a blogger

When I started with blogging, I had a pretty unclear picture in mind on how to go about blogging. So the result was … mistakes. Human tendency to play and mess around with things is too high that no one gets started in the first go. You need to get through a lot of trouble.

Well mistakes cause problems and problems may lead to mistakes. Here are a few:

Domain with a typo

What if you are with limited resources and buying a domain. While entering the domain you typed “yourdoman.com” instead of “yourdomain.com”. They look pretty similar, right. (If still didn’t find the difference, they differ by just an “i”) Anyone can misjudge this to be right and carry on with the registration. But after registration , you’ll know that you wasted a domain and your 10 bucks. Such a situation sucks. Right?

No Backup, no blog

Well, I have been in such a situation several times now. Some mis happening may lead you to a dead end. Thinking positive, you didn’t take backup, and next day you loose your blog. You’ll be left with nothing expect two options. First to start all over again and second to quit.

What the heck, installation

Installation is fun once you are familiar with it. But for the first timers it can be a hell of a job. I’ll illustrate a few situations :

a) You installed wordpress and but forgot to note down the password provided to during installation. In such a situation, an experienced person would surely change the password using phpmyadmin or do something similar. But a newbie would probably reinstall the whole thing.

b) This happens with many of us, not only bloggers, I’ll say everyone. You downloaded, uploaded and are ready to install a software. And now while installing you come to know that your host wont support all the features and now you need to look for a new host. That is really annoying right!

c) In due to course of installing something, you have a power cut or your computer hangs. Then you’ll surely want to bang your head against the wall that now you gotta start all over again.

d) While installing you come across a field that has to be filled but you don’t know what to exactly fill. eg. you need to enter your mysql username. You created ‘user’ using control panel but you didn’t know that your host add some thing to it like “cpuser_user”. You’ll have good trying “user” when it wont work.

All’s well, that updates well

Suppose while updating your wordpress installation, an error shows up and your blog stops working. If you are a hardcore webdeveloper then maybe you’ll get over this but if not, you’ll have a hard time. You’ll feel helpless as you know what went wrong but really can’t do anything about it. Your blog will be nothing more than a living dead body as it would have everything but nothing would work.

This has even happened to me last year when while updating my blog, something happened and I lost everything.

No money, what to do?

If you got a job or have any other source of steady income, then this point wont bother you. But for people who are beginning or are still studying in schools or colleges then this should be a problem. You have to arrange the startup amount for the initialization by any means. And most people tend to start working as freelancers or turn to PTCs or such programs. Once you are through you’ll feel relieved as not only bloggers but everyone feel at ease if they got money around.

Time and tide wait for none

Well, its really hard to take out time if you are employed somewhere or you need to study. A blog really requires a lot of work to be done. If you can’t devote enough time to it then its gonna be difficult, both for you and your blog. With shortage of time, you can’t really interact with your readers properly, can’t post regularly(you may take my example on this). Nothing is left important when everything is important. You have focus on everything and mange your time well.

My site’s ready, what next?

So every thing’s set and you are ready to take over the world but…… how? Even when a blogger is through with his site, he is yet to face biggest challenge of all, traffic. Getting traffic is the most difficult job for a blogger, an internet marketer or even a small shop owner. To convince people to visit your blog and comment is quite tough.

Out of ideas, can’t think of anything

You have been going great guns past few months but suddenly ………….now what?

You really can’t think of anything interesting to write about. That’s a general thing to happen once you have written so much. Even when you have some ideas, there may come some stituations when you’ll not be able to exploit them. eg. You just got a brilliant idea in your head but while surfing you come across a post, by a fellow blogger, on the same topic. Well, that would be sad and in 90% cases you tend to drop that idea.

No one wants me to blog

Situations will arise when people around you will think that you are wasting your time. That would be very discouraging and some might even quit. You may lose your interest and all the inspiration. I’ve been in such situations and lemme tell you that it really sucks. One day or the other you’ll feel like, “Forget it! Blogging is not worth my time”. errr…. That was ugly.

& many more problems are faced by the bloggers.

You would have gone through similar problems or even something which I was not able to think. I know you wouldn’t mind to share your experience with me or tell about something which I can improve on in this article.

A blogger’s life is sweet, live it to the fullest.

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Posted in Blogging, My philosophy, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Getting Started Chapter 2 – Time to get hosted(Part-2)

What we were talking about was where to get hosting from and I hope you might be through with an account by now. In case, you are not, just leave a message (as a comment) and I will try to help.

You should have received the welcome mail with your hosting details. It should include the following:

1. Your account details

These include you user name and password.

2. Site details

Your site’s domain name (should be a sub domain provided by the host/domain you signed up with) and cpanel’s address.

3. Server details

These should include name servers and might include shared ip address.

You will need the server details later once you’ll get your domain name. But if the host asks for a domain name at signup, get a co.cc domain from http://co.cc.

Getting familiar with your working conditions

Once you have an account,you should get thorough with the control panel. Just wander around,click on random links, to get familiar with your control panel. You will generally find short instructions coming up for your help once you navigate to any page.

Site Initialization

Navigate to the file manager and find you main root folder its generally public_html or ht docs (depends on the service ). Now use, ‘create a new’ file option to create new html document with file ‘ index.html ‘ (don’t use any other name for this time ). For the content go for anything like ‘hello world ! Welcome to my new site’.

Now you are surely through with the hosting so now you need to learn how to set up stuff on it like blogs, forums, etc.

Next chapter will help you learn about setting up domains.

DRV

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Maximizing your potential: Knowing the real you

‘I gave my 100%’. Well, you might have heard and used these words quite often. May be then you should question yourselves, ‘Is that it? Is that all I’ve got? Have I reached the limit?’ You’ll surely get a no from yourselves.

Actually humans got no limitations. For example, more you exercise, more stronger you’ll get. There are absolutely no limits. Now just look around and you’ll find millions of people doing the same stuff which have done many times before by many other people. Even if you think you are doing something unique you’ll still find loads of people on the same very path. So If you want to give this world something new you really need to think a lot.

All of us tend to spend our lives in searching ones real potential. But as I mentioned in the previous para that we’ve got no limits which in turn means, infinite potential. It all depends on you on to what extend you are able to exploit your potential.

Doing hard work isn’t enough but doing it intelligently and in a unique direction is what matters. That’s the only way you can give something new to the world. I really wouldn’t like people to forget me when I’m no longer around, I’d like whole world to acknowledge my work and remember me in the centuries to come.

Well, I feel that one’s life is a waste if he/she fails to do something extraordinary which has never been done before and is of any use to our future generations. What do you think about yourself, your potential, you aim in life? I know you might have bigger problems to deal with but this is where the secret of life lies.

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Posted in My philosophy | Tagged | 3 Comments

Announcements: 7th May 2009

I finally turned 16 today! And Divyun.com will be completing an year in a few days!!

You should have seen a great deal of improvements around the site!

1. About Page updated.

2. Advertise page finally online and will be further updated soon.

3. Chapter 2 of my tutorials finally out.

4. Proper orderwise list of the chapters can be found at http://divyun.com/tutorials

I know you wouldn’t mind wishing me birthday!

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Getting Started Chapter 2 – Time to get hosted(Part-1)

TIME TO GET HOSTED

Part-1

Hosting

Well,  other tutorials might suggest you to a create a site and then host it afterwards but I find the following sequence better. As a beginner, making a fast online presence is quite important.

I don’t agree with the idea of launching a site on a particular day or put count downs. I have tried this and believe me , it just wont work. No one’s interested in your site till you really got some viewable stuff on it.

You should get started from the first day itself. Behave a little shameless and invite people to your site ignoring how bad it looks. Constant diligent hard work, maintenance  and promotion is what’s needed for a brand new site.

And now back to topic.

What is meant by hosting??

A web server is expensive and needs a lot of maintenance which, in turn, means more money and time. So we need an alternative and that’s where web space/hosting comes into play.

Hosting is a popular keyword widely used among webmasters. It generally stands for a little space on a web server which allows your files to be viewed on internet using a web browser(eg. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.).

A browser connects to the web server and displays the files user has asked for. So the first thing is to arrange for web space.

Where to get hosting from??

Just like a web server, hosting might sound to be a costly affair. But the truth is that there are loads of hosts providing web space for free. Though, they lack in a few essentials services you might need later. But for now they would do.

My host suggestions/tips:

Go with http://byethost.org. I think they should be highly suited for our purpose.

Or else.. Google’s always there for you. Search for keywords like ‘free host’, ‘free hosting’, ‘free web space’, etc. and you’ll find thousands of them. Keeping searching till you find something which suits your requirements best.

….Continued in part 2.

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Getting Started Chapter 1 – The Basics(Part-2)

Originally posted on 12 February 2009

THE BASICS – Part 2

site traffic

This the 2nd part of the Chapter 2 of the tutorial series, I started long ago! Let’s get started.
From where we left was the functionality that the scripting languages provide.
Now in Part 2, we will discuss about the following:
1. Site traffic
2. Search Engines and other traffic sources
3. Optimizing your site

Site Traffic

Like you need automobiles on the road, the same way you need visitors or readers on your site. Amount to people visiting your website is usually referred to as site’s traffic. Actually, the motto of a site is to spread awareness about something. As the time will pass you’ll come to know that getting traffic to your site is the toughest job for a webmaster.

Search Engines And Other Traffic Sources

Traffic coming to your site needs to come from somewhere. There is very little probability that somebody, unknowingly, will directly type in your site’s domain name and reach to your site.
Some sources we will discuss in detail in the following chapters:
1. Search engines
2. Mouth to mouth advertising
3. Social networking
4. Blog commenting
5. Forum postings, etc.
Don’t think too hard, you’ll be familiar with these terms by the end of the tutorials.

Optimization of your site

Optimizing your site involves matching the current standards of the web. Making it compatible to various browsers, search engines, etc. And this what’s gonna help you build traffic.
Detailed info of all the topics will be in the upcoming chapters.

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Getting Started Chapter 1 – The Basics(Part-1)

Originally posted on 26 Nov 2008

THE BASICS – Part 1

www

Introduction

This chapter will make you familiar with a few terms which constitute the basic knowledge required for creating or getting started with websites.

Part 1 will include the discussion about the following terms:

1. Web Hosting

2. Domains

3. Web Pages

4. Scripting languages

Hosting

What is meant by web hosting?

Web hosting allows you to make your site available to anyone using internet. Your website can’t accessed without being hosted on a web server.

Kinds Of Hosting

1. Free Hosting – Hosting on a shared server(i.e. many sites on one server) with all the basic features. This is what you should prefer when starting.

2. Paid Hosting

1. Shared Hosting – Similar to free hosting but may have advanced features.

2. Dedicated Server – A server dedicated to your sites, you get a server on lease and you may use it to your own wish but under some conditions.

3. VPS (Virtual Private Server) – Its like a virtual dedicated server on a big server.

We’ll discuss about “how to use” in the following chapters.

Domain Names

Domain names are a specific identity or address to your website. How do they work? We’ll discuss this in the following chapters.

Web Pages

It is a document which is suitable for the internet can be accessed through a web browser when hosted on a web server. They are generally created using html and css.

Scripting Languages

These kind of languages are used to add functionality to web page. They help you create dynamic sites.

What are dynamic sites?

Using only html would create sites which will be static, ie. there will be no changes in your web page unless you do them manually. When dealing with dynamic sites, you can modify pages or part of pages using a scripting language in a single click. You see tags plugin in the sidebar of this site, it updates as soon as I post an article.

Hope you got what dynamic means.

Scripting languages offer high functionality

You should have seen some web sites which allow to register, login , logout, etc. and that is what I mean by functionality.

Continued in Part 2 . . . . . . .

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Getting started with websites – Introduction

Originally posted on 2008-11-24

Introduction

welcome-to-the-world-wide-web-sign

This is gonna be series of tutorials which will help you become a full-fledged webmaster or will surely get you started with this.

The Reasons behind this tutorial

I have a large amount of relatives, quite a big family. There is a cousin of mine known as Shivohm Gupta who wanted me to create a website for him similar to this one. But vow! I am not a freelancer, I do this for fun. After I used my right of refusal, he asked me to give instructions on how too do this on his own. Instructions on IM err…… So that’s what motivated to me to write this series.

Prerequisite knowledge

You should know how to use internet and your computer, of course. :P As we’ll start from the basics, nothing is really required. But if you know any kind of language like PHP, javascript, etc. well and good. Don’t know what do I mean by languages here- don’t worry, we’ll discuss about them too. :D

I really don’t know how long will this be but I will surely compile this in a form of ebook later. I might create a audio version too. Remember, I might! lol

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Posted in Tutorials, Web Development, Websites | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A PHP and Mysql combination.

Originally posted on 29 Jul 2008

Hi masters,

You see a site with same content, same design and same navigation, and opening in an .html extension. Well this is a static site.

On the other hand you see a site where everything seems to automatically done. These sites are dynamic and usually have and extension like .php, .asp, .jsp, etc. They look just like html pages but have several other features. Out of all the languages, php is the most sought after because it is light and has great functionality, and most important it is free. It can run on most kind of servers.

To make a site dynamic you need need a database along with your object oriented web developing language. For this, mysql is the best and is free too. Along with php, mysql is the most widely used database system.

Divyun.com is running wordpress which makes use of php and mysql. Php and mysql seriously rock and are the life of internet.

Biggest php rival

The biggest rival of php is asp and asp[dot]net. Though supported by microsoft they have multiple disadvantages:

1. They are slower than php.

2. The database used by them is ms-sql which is not free.

3. Not widely used.

So if you want to become a web developer, you should go for php and mysql.

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3rd Open Source CMS award results are out

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 9 Nov

Well they were out a week ago, but I came across them today.

Since 2006, Packt Publishing has been organizing “Open Source CMS Award” for the best and deserving CMS.

The Award was split up into two main stages. The first being the nominations followed by voting. Nominations were open back in July 14 2008. Anybody was allowed to nominate a CMS. After a mother, the nominations were closed on August 25. Then, the Judges chose the finalists on the basis of the most number of nominations received and also on number of other factors including performance, usability, accessibility, ease of configuration and customization, scalability and security. Voting Began on 1st of September and ended a month and half later on 20 th October.

They had the following categories:-

1. Best overall CMS. -> The overall winner.

2. Most promising Open Source CMS. -> CMS which has the potential to become the best.

3. Best Open Source PHP CMS. -> The Best CMS written in PHP.

4. Best Other Open Source CMS. -> For CMS written in a language other than PHP.

5. Open Source MVPs. -> It is a new category introduced for the Most Valued People from Open Source Content Management Systems.

Note: The Category “Best Open Source Social Networking Content Management System” has taken a back seat this year.

Now its time for the winners:

1. Best overall CMS.

1. Drupal – Won this second time in a row.

2. Joomla! – Was the winner in 2006.

3. DotNetNuke – Replaced last year’s runner up CMS Made Simple for the third position.

2. Most promising Open Source CMS.

1. SilverStripe

2. CMS Made Simple

3. ImpressCMS/MiaCMS

Replaced MODx, TYPOlight and dotCMS who this last year.

3. Best Open Source PHP CMS.

1. Drupal – Defeated Joomla this time.

2. Joomla!, CMS Made Simple

e107 out of the list this year.

4. Best Other Open Source CMS.

1. Plone – Was the 1st runner up last year.

2. dotCMS

3. DotNetNuke

Mojoportal and Silva out of the scene this time.

5. Open Source MVPs.

A long list of 24 personalities including Wordpress’s Matt Mullenweg, etc. Refer here http://www.packtpub.com/article/open-source-cms-most-valued-people-announced.

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