NSpeaks

Sometimes, we don’t know what our readers would like to read on our blogs. Readers also would feel comfortable in suggesting if a tool is there which lets them vote directly for what they would like to see on a blog. And a blogger can get good ideas on how he should follow.

That is where Skribit comes in. (I wonder howcome people get ideas to develop such applications!) Skribit allows readers to directly suggest topics for you to post on your blog. Not only it allows readers to post suggestions but also helps readers find related blogs since a reader himself need to have a Skribit account to suggest on a blog.

And not only posting suggestions, but readers can help improve a blog by suggesting anything which they would like to see in that blog.

A blogger can add a Skribit widget to his blog very easily. Registration is also easy. Widget is highly customisable so that it blends well with your site’s design. Each blog gets a public profile page where a reader can vote for the suggestions already posted or suggest something new. Its upto the blogger to check that he can implement suggestions which are voted the maximum times. And best part is that it works with almost all blogging platforms and even static sites(I haven’t checked but you can use Skribit to gather suggestions for your site - why only blogs get the advantage? ).]

One Suggestion for Skribit from me - Atleast disallow suggestions to your own blog. I added that second suggestion you currently see.

(Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.)

Tragedy can occur anytime. Its uncalled for and unwanted too! Recently I saw two blogs suffering tragedies. One was TylerCruz.com and other one was GatherSuccess.com Former one suffered at the hands of inefficient server management team and server failures while second one got hacked. Even my friend Saurav’s blog Chotocheeta.com got almost lost due to inefficient and poor webhost.

All these incidents happened suddenly without any warning. Some are prepared while some are not prepared against these incidents. Don’t think that this can’t happen to your blog any day. It can happen to everybody. So are you prepared for the worst? If not then do so otherwise you will repent it later when you lose your last 1 or 2 years post, the readers, the comments and a lot of income! Recreating would be extremely difficult. So better be safe then sorry.

How to be prepared?

Good question. There are few steps you should follow to be prepared for such tragedies.

First Step

Identify what all things you need to backup. There will be the blog database, blog files, themes, plugins and files you uploaded. Blog’s database holds the content you produced complete with all formatting you had done to the text. Its the most important part to be backed up in a blog since everything can be recreated except original content again. Second most important thing is identifying blog files and your custom files. If you are using Wordpress, a default blog contains 3 folders wp-content, wp-includes and wp-admin folder and a few php files in the root directory. wp-content folder contains 2 folders: plugins and themes which you obviously know are very crucial and need to be backed up definitely. wp-includes and wp-admin folder contains core wordpress files. These are not important to be backed up unless you tweaked your wp installation since they are available with a default wp installation too (Check version of wordpress - files change with wordpress versions)

Last thing remains your uploaded files. By default Wordpress uploads attachments in wp-content/uploads/ folder unless you are keeping some extra files. Make a note of all such pathnames to be backed up somewhere.

Second Step

Now that you have identified all things to be backed up, now is the time to make a backup. Don’t worry…taking backups is not that difficult. For blog database I would recommend using WP-DBManager Plugin. It will take care of all your blog’s database needs. For Files, I will recommend manually make note of all folders and files to be taken care of and then using a ftp/shell software, downloading them on your pc.

There is a plugin which can backup both files and database together and even schedules backups. Try this: BackUpWordpress plugin (Works with Wordpress 2.5.x). But if your blog is huge and are using a shared hosting, beware…it may not be able to do complete file backup due to php memory limits set by your webhost.

Final Step

Final Step is making sure you do take backups regularly and never let a tragedy set upon you. You can use cron feature to schedule backups. (Anyways sorry I won’t be able to describe that here in this post). And for preventing loss of files make sure you do editing on your local pc and then upload it to your website. This way, you will never lose files/themes/plugins. To run Wordpress locally on your pc, read this guide.

Server speed and processing time are critical components for any successful company with an online presence. With the growing importance of e-commerce, businesses realize that the traditional days of dial-up internet are long gone. Even high-speed internet doesn’t do the job anymore for many businesses. There is now a growing shift among large organizations to move towards Managed Hosting in order to provide employees and clients with the internet access and processing speeds they require.

Managed hosting is a type of web hosting that utilizes a dedicated server. This means that the client user does not share their server with any other internet users. This allows users to have complete control of their operating system, hardware, programs and other important specifications. Large organizations utilize Managed hosting because the exclusivity of the server enables more programs and computers to run off their server.

Managed hosting is beneficial because it includes valuable Managed services that are not available to users of a shared server. For example, companies that use managed hosting can perform updates and patches to programs on multiple computers at the same time.

They also exert much more control over the programs and features their users have access to. This saves the company time and money while also increasing internet security and network speed. There are plenty of managed hosting providers out there so be sure to do your research before selecting one!

Earlier I found it too difficult to handle threaded comments on my blog. But now it seems, we have lot more options than only 2 plugins earlier. And the new plugins are extremely simple requiring no template edits. Brian also updated his plugin for Wordpress 2.5 and fixed some bugs but still is very difficult to implement for a newbie blogger. So let’s look at almost all threading comments plugins we have now to choose from:

1. Brian’s Threaded Comments (Updated for Wordpress 2.5 and ready to use) - For more powerful use check HowtoSpotter’s Hacked Version of it(Obviously inspired by me - lol)

2. YATCP - A nice and simple plugin implementing trackback separation also. Easier to implement but still requires lot of tweaking.

Now its time to welcome some new plugins(atleast new for me if they existed before)

3. Ajax Comment Reply - One of very powerful plugins enabling ajax replying, threaded support, email to administrator of replies, pagination of comments and ajax editing of comments for administrator in post page. Requires little or no template edit for threaded comments. Also support gravatar. Plugin page is in chinese so for english version check here.

4. Wordpress Thread Comments - Very powerful comment plugin just made for threaded comments feature but support ajax reply too. (Check compatibility with other Ajax Comment and non ajax comment plugins.) Again requires little or no template edit. Plugin page is in chinese - for english version check here.

5. Ajaxed Wordpress - Very Powerful and Huge Plugin mainly for converting your Wordpress Blog into ajaxified blog adding ajax to nearly everything. But includes threaded comment support also via inline comments and inline comment form module. Little or No Template Edit required for this one too.

So you see, now we have 5 options to make our comments threaded. So you have no excuse to not have them on your blog. Afterall they make lives of commentors easy.

BTW NSPeaks uses Ajax Comment Reply(Number 3 above) here for threaded comments.

Tnx.net was launched among with great hype last year. Has it survived this time? Does it stand against Google’s new rules regarding link selling or buying? Well let’s check it out.

Tnx.net(SMS Lingo: Thanks) is a network allowing publishers to sell links on their websites and advertisers to buy links on publisher’s site. Pretty Simple?

Tnx allows you to buy links on individual pages of a site and rates are decided on the basis of Google Pagerank. Links are sold on individual pages and Tnx.net keeps only 25% of the amount.

Tnx for Advertisers

Well for advertisers, you can choose links on basis of yahoo! backlinks, google pagerank but never on traffic. So you can place your link on pr 5 site which might only be receiving 1000 uniques per month. Even my site NSpeaks is now getting very low traffic(check falling alexa rank) as compared to December(17000 uniques).

So when you sign up for Tnx.net as a advertiser, keep in mind that you will be buying links for only PR’s sake and not for traffic sake.

Check prices of links based on Google PR here.

Tnx for Publishers

Publishers can add their sites easily. Sites are send for approval which may take 1-3 business days. You can add the code for displaying links meanwhile in your sites. And i must say, the code is too big.

Publishers earn points on the basis of links and get to select which links they want to show. But I think the system has a bug where it can’t inform a advertiser whether its link is placed successfully or not thereby robbing the advertiser in case the publisher doesn’t publish the link as the advertiser’s money(points) are still being used. Publishers receive payments monthly via Paypal or cheque.

Tnx.net Affiliate Program

Tnx.net has a affiliate program allowing you to earn by referring members and get 13.3% of points generated by referred members. You also receive 5% of payments made by referred advertiser. You can also use the system where you can post direct link to tnx.net and still earn money.(Same as botw.org referral program). So you may be beware whether direct links to tnx.net here are affiliate links or simple links.

Bug

Their site does not keep a user logged on when I open the site again in a new tab. Somebody should check this. Nor do they provide auto remember log in info.

In compliance with Google?

Well does not look to me like that. Links placed are not nofollow. So first point is violated here. Secondly the manner in which links are displayed on Publisher’s sites look more spammy than genuine. Thirdly being in the business for almost 6+ months, Tnx.net has a 0PR itself. Does all these things indicate something?

Popularity?

When it was launched, I saw its reviews everywhere and everybody signing up. But now I have never seen anybody using Tnx.net or links which could tell that they are a part of tnx.net. I have never seen any site’s advertise page saying Tnx.net handles their links selling/buying. If you know a site using tnx.net system, do let me know in comments.

Conclusion

I don’t recommend Tnx.net for earning or gaining traffic. There are lot other genuine methods. So sign up at Tnx.net at your own risk with Google.

This review does not mean that I covered everything about Tnx.net. Check the website for more about it. Afterall you can judge it better.