"Murphy was an optimist!"
Thinking about hosting your own blog? November 24, 2007 10:01 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Publishing, Software, Technology, WordPressI am a huge advocate of getting your blog away from 3rd party solutions like blogger.com. If you have blogspot in your blog’s address then you need to consider getting some hosting and using a solution like WordPress.org (note: wordpress.com is a 3rd party solution just like blogger.com and while I advocate every wordpress user having an account at wordpress.com for statistics and askimet key, you really need to use the open source software found at http://wordpress.org) WordPress is not the only content management system out there which is great for blogging. You have a ton of choices! If you have trouble setting up a WordPress blog, just contact me and I will help.
One negative in hosting your own blog is that you have to pay a host for server space. That is akin to renting a building to run your business. In the Internet business, like so many businesses, you get what you pay for. Free hosting will likely have problems but it is available. I have personally found 1&1 hosting to be very reliable with great customer service despite its low cost. I highly recommend 1&1!
The postive of paying for hosting is that you get full control over your content. If Blogger’s robots determined that your blog suddenly appeared like a spam blog, they could take you offline instantly and lock you out of your account. You could find yourself unable to access your posts and drafts. If Blogger suddenly went out of business or just quit, you’d be out of luck. Does this happen? Ask anyone that hosted their photos at Yahoo. Yahoo bought Flickr and did away with their photo hosting. Anyone that failed to move their photos by the deadline lost their pictures. All links to those pictures are now 404 pages. We personally came within minutes of failing to get our pictures moved. By paying for hosting, you get backups of your data, control of your site, and the ability to handle exceptions (like 404s) in a way that can benefit your audience rather than drive them away. Plus with your own domain name, you can virally market your blog by using the address in your emails. You can’t send an email from blogmaster@someblogname.blogspot.com but you can send an email from blogmaster@myowndomain.com and everyone who gets that email has the chance to say, "I wonder what myowndomain.com is?" Each email sent becomes a subtle advertisement for your site.
1&1 has a great deal right now! Since Uncle Danny is testing the limits of my webspace and monthly transfer volume, I thought I should review the limits on my account. When I did, I discovered that 1&1 is offering their Business shared hosting at only $5.82 per month! (normally $9.99) This is for the first year only with a 1 year commitment. It’s worth it! Their standard packages are still month-to-month (no contracts; no commitments) if I am not mistaken. They are $3.99, $4.99, $9.99, and $19.99 for shared hosting with increasing benefit respective to price.
Full disclosure: The 1&1 links in this post are associated with an affiliate id. If you purchase hosting from them by using one of those links I do get a payment but the affiliate link does not influence my decision to recommend 1&1. I genuinely like their service! This is also not pay-to-post. I just did this of my own inspiration.
2commentsColor commentary in 140 characters? Impossible! November 23, 2007 7:53 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Communications, Publishing, TechnologyFollow the bearden vs farragut game at http://twitter.com/djuggler
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The updates: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Update:: Knoxnews coverage. And Jack Lail’s coverage of my coverage.
1 comment so farWKRP Thanksgiving Turkey Drop November 21, 2007 12:18 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Holiday, Humor, Publishing, Thanksgiving, VideoI’m sure Youtube will pull this one quickly. So enjoy this wonderful piece of history while you can.Sure enough..youtube pulled it. Let’s try another one. Audio is available here.
WKRP in Cincinnati: Thanksgiving Turkey Bomb! @ Yahoo! Video
As God as my witness..I thought turkeys could fly.
Other versions: Youtube, beginning and ending cut off.
Hulu brings us the full episode! Gotta love Hulu!
1 comment so farMy Wife’s Got Style! November 16, 2007 8:22 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Cathy, Daily Life, Family, Of Interest, Publishing, TV / Movies, VideoYesterday Cathy appeared on WBIR’s Style. She was interviewed a month ago or so. They edited their story very well! I really enjoyed watching Cathy, Dr. Helen, and Katie Allison Granju talk about blogging. Read WBIR’s style story on Local women share their lives one post at a time and watch the video interview. The interview includes Katie Allison Granju, Dr. Helen, and Cathy. I really thought Cathy looked great! She saw it a little differently.
2commentsRoad Side Wasps! November 13, 2007 1:46 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Publishing, Touchy Subjects, Video, WarThe terrorists are using trained wasps!
add a commentThank you Internet! What would I do without you? November 11, 2007 11:46 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of Interest, Publishing, Star Trek, TV / Movies, VideoStar Trekkin’
add a commentThere are klingons off the starboard bow! It’s worse than that, he’s dead Jim! It’s life Jim but not as we know it, not as we know it!
Don’t believe what you see in pictures November 8, 2007 11:39 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Humor, Philosophy, Publishing, VideoNewscoma shares the Facebook photo deception which is very, very funny if you have ever watched the Dove evolution self-esteem campaign. Listen closely as you watch the two videos. And you should show the Dove evolution film to your children! Because self-esteem is important.
1 comment so farSo that’s what it feels like! November 3, 2007 1:58 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Daily Life, Publishing
I’ve been waiting since January 2004 for that! Special thanks to:
- Frank Murphy
- STAR 102.1FM
- Knoxnews’ Andrew Eder
- Knoxviews
- Michael Silence
- Knoxnews.com
- Knox Blab
- SchoolMatters
- RockyTopMBA
- Street View Gallery
- Newsvine
Apologies if I missed anyone. Just let me know in comments or email juggler [at] gmail.com
add a commentBlogging Abby Ham for hits November 2, 2007 8:56 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Publishing, radioI listen to music on Pandora at the recommendation of a college professor who told me that Pandora and its algorithmic music selection is the rage of his research assistants. Wanting to hang with the cool kids, I checked it out and was impressed. Now thanks to Darren Rowse at Problogger, I also listen to Sky.fm and enjoy the higher quality streaming but am not thrilled with the narrow selection of music choices. Thanks to my brother-in-law’s gift of XM Radio to Cathy I rarely listen to regular radio anymore.
I like Frank Murphy. He blogs and performs in my improv alma mater, Einstein Simplified. Even before the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra I had the best of intentions of checking out his STAR 102.1FM morning show but as is typical of "best intentions" I haven’t done it yet…until today. Frank drew me in with his mention of Reality Me’s report that Google Street Views is in Knoxville. What did I learn from today’s morning show? It is good! And apparently if you blog about Abby Ham, in particular Abby leaving Knoxville for Cleveland somewhere, you get traffic to your blog!
Good luck Abby Ham! Be strong!
Update: By the way, I highly recommend the 10th anniversary 5.5 version of Winamp!
Update: For Abby Ham fans, Frank Murphy suggests visiting Terry Morrow’s blog and Knoxville Trivia Blog.
add a commentLesson for disaster relief: Don’t invite the poor people November 1, 2007 7:46 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Economy, Environment, Politics, Publishing, Touchy Subjects, VideoA bad day is all relative October 29, 2007 1:42 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Humor, Noah, Philosophy, Publishing, VideoMy son could be this guy in the near future!
Blogging saves me time! October 23, 2007 10:43 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, ColdFusion, Daily Life, MySQL, Publishing, TechnologyWhy do I blog? Because when I spend a large amount of time troubleshooting, the next time the problem comes around (like getting ColdFusion 7 to connect to a MySQL datasource), I just have to read the post.
add a commentHave you voted for Glenda today? October 22, 2007 1:08 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Cool Sites, Of Interest, PublishingRemember, you can vote for Glenda Watson Hyatt once a day! Make sure you do it! See some details on Reality Me, or Chris Brogan’s post Glenda Watson Hyatt Rocks. Be sure to visit Glenda’s Do It Myself Blog. And vote for Glenda at http://blogforayear.com/!
add a commentWhat do you think of the audio narrations? October 22, 2007 11:16 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Podcasting, PublishingI know James liked the first audio narration. How are they being received by other readers? I know a couple were rushed and poorly read. Is anyone listening to them? Is there opportunity here for making Reality Me more accessible to people with vision challenges?
1 comment so farCan ustream be in a post? October 17, 2007 5:42 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Publishing, VideoWhat happens if I embed a ustream player in my post? Why yes you can!
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