TechSlip.net

I’ve decided to make a post about my Twitter stats for the month so far. I use Twitter for sharing new posts from the website, tweet tips and links, plus other random stuff. It is a great tool for connecting people to my website and keeping them updated. I created my account last year but never used it because I didn’t think Twitter was that popular, but then I realized how helpful it can be and started using it last month.

As you can see below, just last month I started out with 17 followers, and today it is at 272 (also in 8 user lists). That is a pretty big jump for one month and I am happy with the results. I followed the tips that I wrote about in a previous article called “6 Tips For Getting Twitter Followers” My goal is to have 1,000 followers by the end of April. Let’s see if I can get there!

Blogging is a great way to share your thoughts with others and spread information to readers. The fun part about it, is that you can blog about anything you want! The topic choice is all up to you. Of course that doesn’t mean just because you blog about “Cool New Socks” that everyone will want to read about it, but still it is your choice. Whether you are blogging just because you want to share information or you are doing it to create a profit and deliver good content to your readers, the basics still apply to both.

I wanted to create a list of basic tips for bloggers who are just starting, or even haven’t started at all but are interested. So let’s get on with the basic bloggin tips for beginners.

1. First of course you need to find a service to start blogging with. The two most popular services are Blogger and WordPress. Both are great websites to use (I will create a post in the future about the differences), but the big difference is that Blogger provides Adsense integration and is very user friendly. So this is great for someone who knows nothing about blogging and wants to be able to make money with their blog. WordPress.com blogs are great but they do not have the ability to use advertisements. So choose either “profit” or “no profit”.
2. Choose your topic. Once again, the topic choice is yours but if you are looking to get a lot of readers, then you will want something that attracts visitors to your blog. Choose a niche that you have and can share with others. Something you are passionate about will show greatly to your readers and will make your blog more personal and interesting. You do not want to choose a topic that you know nothing about because you will not be able to create useful posts and the blog will seem boring.
3. Create a good title and description. This is a very important step because you want your title to stand out. Keep it short and simple. Your description is very crucial because this is what visitors will first see when arriving at your blog and it is what search engines will show. Keep your description within the character limit. Do not overdo it and explain your site in huge detail so that everything is given away and your readers are left not curious. Be short but descriptive and use proper grammar. A blog with a long description scares me away usually, because it seems like the author is begging me to read it all.
4. Choosing a good layout. The layout of your blog is very important because it is the shell of it all and it is what readers always see. A visual impact is important when creating a blog. You do not want to have a layout with bright neon colors everywhere so that it blinds the reader. Try to keep the color scheme blended well so that it pleases the reader’s eyes and does not drive them away. Images are great to have so that your blog seems more full and less boring. It gives people something to look at along with the text. So simple, clean, and uncluttered is definitely the way to go when choosing your layout. Color Scheme Designer is a great free tool for this job.
5. Content. As always content is king. Publishing great posts is easy if you take your time, be descriptive and creative, and provide interesting content. Posts that take forever to read, can scare away readers because most have a short reading span. So don’t bore your readers with a 5 page story, unless it is necessary and part of your niche.
6. Attract visitors to your blog. This can be the most frustrating part of it all because you spend all that time making posts but do not see anyone reading or subscribing. It is not an easy task to gather up thousands of readers, daily, or even monthly. Be sure to spread the word about your blog without spamming it. Include your blog url in forum signatures, participate in discussions at other blogs, use Twitter and Facebook, use content sharing websites, and research SEO. These are just a few out of the many ways to increase your visitor count. Check out SEOmoz.org to learn about SEO and be sure to use their helpful free tools.
7. Patience! The last and most important tip for creating a successful blog is to be patient. It takes time to gain subscribers and for your blog to rank high, so don’t get frustrated or give up just because you are not #1 in a month. Hard work pays off, and it will show if you keep blogging the right way.

I hope this list helps out a lot of people who are interested in blogging and inspires others. I will be writing more posts about blogging, Adsense, and SEO in the future. Be sure to share this article so that others can learn!

I have usually had bad luck with PayPal but of course like most people, sometimes you just have to use it. Well last week was a day that I decided to purchase a “Featured Listing” on Sedo.com for a web domain that I wanted to sell. The cost for a 30 day featured listing is about $40, which doesn’t sound too bad if you can sell a decent domain name for a couple of hundred bucks.

So I purchased the featured listing, went to checkout with PayPal, and the payment went through and my listing was paid for. Sounded good and I was happy. Well then I receive an e-mail from PayPal stating my account has been set to “Limited” because of suspicious activity on my account. I have never had an account limitation before so I found it strange that this happened only after my Sedo purchase.

I checked my PayPal account and messed with that for a few hours because in order for them to remove this “limited account”, they had to verify my location and blah blah. The payment sent to Sedo showed “Temporary Hold” because of the limited account. So finally after getting everything fixed, my payment to Sedo was shown as sent.

This all happened on the first day I placed my order, and my listing was shown within a day. So I was happy and everything seemed fixed. WELL then Sedo decided to e-mail me two days after the payment was sent and my PayPal account was fine, to tell me that the payment was held and my account was limited through PayPal, and once it was fixed they would place my listing back up. Well my account WAS fixed and had been for nearly 3 days and NOW they tell me there is a problem. So I emailed the person back to tell them it was fixed and to place my listing back up.

My listing was never placed back on the “Featured” homepage or the full featured list at all. They have not replied back to any e-mails, I am out $40, and I only received barely 2 days of featured listing. I would NOT recommend Sedo at all for premium services. They are only worth using for domain parking, and waiting to sell a domain. I am very disappointed in PayPal and Sedo for all of this hassle and rip off madness.

That’s my $40 thought! Take it to the bank and shove it Sedo/PayPal.

Hey everyone, sorry for not posting too many new articles. I have been busy with maintenance on the website. Cleaning out broken links, deleting old pages, fixing bugs, making some changes, and all of that good stuff. I have added a cool new toolbar at the bottom of the site. It has lots of shortcuts and helpful links that can be used for the website so that you don’t have to go jogging around to find stuff.

Let me know if you like the changes and what you want changed. Not sure if the site is too cluttered or not. Hoping to get some feedback from visitors. Thanks!

I have owned the domain TechSlip.net for a few years but never really did anything with it until this January. Getting good quality traffic isn’t easy but I have been doing my homework and have learned a lot about SEO and gaining visitors.

Traffic for the site has actually been better than expected. Stats by the month are as followed :

January 2010 – Under 100 visitors

February 2010 – 530 visitors

March 2010 – 1,103 visitors so far with an expected result of 4,136 visitors

So that is a HUGE improvement from month 1 in January. An increase from 530 to 4,136 is quite a bit with a gain of roughly 680%. Hopefully it continues to grow and I can get some people to start registering on the forums to get some activity going there. That’s the update for now!

The 17 year old Russian, Andrey Ternovskiy decided to make a new and exciting chat website that would change the way people chat via webcam. The website is becoming a big hit and is being featured on news stations everywhere. It already attracts more than 20,000 visitors per day. The idea behind Chatroulette goes something like this, you join the site via webcam and are connected to another totally random webcam user. Teens are finding the website to be cool but parents on the other hand think differently. Jon Stewart used the website so it is even capturing a celebrity’s attention.

I personally think the idea is ridiculous and needs to be improved a LOT. So I have created a list of 5 reasons why Chatroullete sucks (sorry Andrey)

1. The person you are connected to is 100% random – I do not want to hop into a webcam chat and then come face to face with some 80 year old man wearing just underwear in his living room. It’s just not for me really. I mean cheers to the old man wearing underwear but dang that’s sick.
2. The age requirement is 16 years old – Ok….like this is going to keep kids under the limit away. Just like every other website, young people will want in and they will get in. Now giving them access to older men/women’s webcams. Who knows what they are doing. It is a parents worst nightmare to think their kid may be on video chat with a pedophile.
3. Just hit the “Next” button if you don’t like the person – With the amount of users on the website and the personal appearance preferences for people, they may have to click next a thousand times, just to find someone they find interesting or attractive. Unless you are bored to death or drunk and don’t care who you talk to, then maybe this works out well.
4. The layout makes me want to run away. I see two boxes and some text, all in black and white……..oh wait there is a link in blue.
5. The name alone makes me think of Russian Roulette (which is odd because this was made in Russia) and already I want to blow my brains out from the idea of it.

I remember a few years back when all of my friends and family were using MySpace. Everywhere you went, you heard about MySpace and people just couldn’t get enough of it. It was the place to reconnect with old friends, talk to distant relatives, meet new people, and socialize.

Now that time has gone by and more and more teens/pre-teens are using the once awesome website, it seems that it is different now. By different I mean it is now “Here is a pic of my sexy booty! Think I’m hot? Add me as a friend!” or status update “OMG! I just went to the mall and like it was so like cool!”. Where did the fun and actual reconnecting go?! Are there any users left on MySpace who actually use it to talk to friends (who are actually friends) or family?

Maybe it has all went downhill and MySpace is in the deep fiery pits of “Social Hell”. I am not complaining about it (Ok maybe a little) but I just don’t see the point of having a MySpace profile these days. It might come in good use if I am looking to start a gossip and drama chat, or wanting to create a Hot Celebz Group but I don’t think that I am quite ready to die just yet.

But now with FaceBook here to save the day, I can finally reconnect with friends/family and have normal conversations again! Well until Farm Frenzy came out……and then Mobsters…..and some Aquarium game……

I have been working on quite a bit the past week and have been trying to improve the site but one thing missing that I need is a logo. An official logo is being worked on and should be up on the website within the next couple weeks. This will be available on all of the merchandise and will be used for the website, as well as everything else. So keep checking back for the new logo!

Although I may not be the King of Twitter-land, I have just begun spreading my chaos worldwide. I have researched Twitter and the top “Tweeters”, and decided to create a short but useful list for new Twitter users on how to improve their follower numbers. Let’s get started with 6 basic tips!

1. As they say “content is king”, and for Twitter this applies as well. Even though you are limited to a few words, try to keep your tweets catchy and original so that it attracts users. By just tweeting “I am going to sleep” or “Hey I am on Twitter!” you won’t get much attention because well….it is boring. Provide your followers with information they can use, helpful tips, catchy sayings, or interesting facts. Try to seem excited so that your followers will feel the same.

2. Share your personality with your followers. Whether you are funny or cocky, you want to share that personality with others so that it gives you a distinct presence. You want others to get a feel of what you are really like. By doing this, your followers will feel more of a connection with you and not just feel like they are reading a news article. Also be sure to fill in your bio information on your profile. Keep it short and informative so that others know who you are.

3. Retweet! This is a great way to catch some new followers. Encourage others to retweet your links or articles so that it spreads around quickly. You can also retweet popular posts from other members, but try to keep them relevant to your profile. Keep in mind that retweeting constantly and not providing followers with your own material, will lose you those fans. Why follow someone who just retweets everything I have already read from the original source? Don’t try to copy another member by reposting their Tweets as your own. Be sure to give them credit.

4. Use hashtags. These are great for getting your tweets into the search results on the website. It provides members to find your tweets based on keywords you provide. Example, lets say I post “I just finished playing #Mario on my #NintendoWii“. #Mario and #NintendoWii would be considered my “hashtags”. So if someone searched #Mario or #NintendoWii, my tweet would be in the search results. Great exposure if you use hashtags that are hot at the moment. Just add a # symbol before the word you want as a hashtag. Easy to do and effective. To find the hottest hashtags updated live, visit HashTags.org

5. Follow other members. If you are just looking to increase the number of followers and do not really care if they all listen to you, this is a good way to do it. If you search and browse through members, follow as many as possible. At least half will follow you back. This may not apply to celebrities and big name companies since it seems they do not follow many people.

6. Share your Twitter profile around the world! Be sure to include links to your Twitter profile in forum signatures, comments on other websites, Digg, FaceBook, and every other social place you visit on the web. This will help spread your Twitter profile while providing information to others.

I have created a list that will help you decide if you are addicted to World of Warcraft. Please seek professional help if any of these apply to you!

1. You refer to your car or truck as your mount

2. Instead of paying with cash at the checkout, you try to use gold

3. For your history test question “Name a king from medieval times”, you answer The Lich King

4. You think drinking Red Bull gives you mana

5. You call in sick for work just to finish an instance run

6. You call an airport and ask how much it costs for a gryphon ride from Ironforge to Stormwind City

7. When you go to the club, your favorite dance is “The Moonkin”

8. When shopping for new clothes, you ask an employee if they sell shirts with attribute bonuses

9. When driving through a new town, you ask for directions to the nearest Paladin trainer

10. The book you read your kids at night is a World of Warcraft Player’s Guide

Have some other ways of knowing if you’re addicted to WoW? Comment below!