Widgets, Advertising and direction update.

September 2, 2007 | 5 Responses

Sorry no MyBlogLog widgets here for now.

For the sake of this current design, I will not be including the MyBlogLog recent readers widget. It isn’t that I don’t appreciate my friends from that community, If fact, I have been making a point of going and checking out the blogs/profiles of everyone in my community lately and also trying my best to leave a comment or two; the issue is more with the widget code itself. It really lags the load time on a blog.

Fact is, most widgets, unless they come as a Wordpress plug-in (sometimes even then), slow your site down. The more remotely hosted widgets you have, the more sites your visitor has to connect to before they can finish loading the page.

Until I either get a new design or MyBlogLog gets a cleaner widget, I will be out of that loop. But that doesn’t stop me from handing out love to my community. The newest members are…

Gadgetastic

Florida weather info lady

GorillaSushi

TheHotIron

IndieMusicLounge

Thanks to all of you for joining the Needless Productions group. Sorry about the lack of a recent readers box. I’m trying to keep my layout junk to a minimum.

Speaking of junk.. how ’bout those ads?

As you will notice I have opted to include ads on my blog. I tried to keep it minimal in choosing only ads for products or services I think my readers will benefit from.

The first ad is ultimately selling ME. I’m a beneficial product or service. I write fair and objective reviews through sponsored posts. I am very careful to be fair and accurate in my findings. It is best to request a neutral review. However, if I truly believe something is good, I am capable of producing a positively toned review.

The second ad ties in with the first one. This ad is for PayPerPost. Its a good way for bloggers to make money. I use it to pay for hosting. Some people have alleged making a perfectly decent living off of being a PPP blogger. It is viable for advertisers because of the high volume of relevant links (with content) it generates. It is lucrative for bloggers who are serious enough to maintain a strong and constistent blog. The higher your blog ranks, the more you can get paid for your posts. There is no cost to start up, but your blog must meet certain standards before you qualify.

The third ad is a product that was passed along to me by my hosting company (that I love so much its’ sick). Website Magazine is a webmaster magazine available free online, so all their content is there for you. They also have a print version that you can subscribe to for free and receive the magazine at your door at no cost. Currently, the print version is only available in Canada and the United States. Other countries keep your fingers crossed and check out the online version in the meantime.

So that is the story behind my ads, behind the lack of MyBlogLog presence on this site and behind why I feel like getting up to take a walk after hours of steady typing.

In other news: I’ve added a top commentators board to the sidebar of this site. You will notice that at the time of this publishing my Uncle, and own flesh and blood is currently at the second last spot on the list with David Hopkins sitting in first and Darren trailing him in second place. Knock these players off their rockers and take the title for yourself. All you have to do is respond somewhere for a free link.

And on that note… View My Reader Community / Join My Reader Community

The prize every geek must have

August 26, 2007 | 0 Responses

From time to time you will see contest notifications posted here. Oftenties it is intended to let our readers in on the good stuff thats going fast, but in this case, its because I this its cool and I really  want one SO BAD! www.enwikopedia.com is throwing this contest to give away a DARTH VADER thumb drive. A friggen Star Wars thumb drive.
So I will be your rival in this contest and you will have to match up against my Jedi mind tricks. Beware the power of the dark side.

The paid encyclopedia

Better band sites #1: The dreaded domain name

August 21, 2007 | 1 Response

If you want your band to really have a presence on the web, you need a domain name. Preferably top level (i.e. WWW.YOURBAND.COM). When I was getting into playing in bands for the first time there was a great service at cjb.net that redirected your nickname with them to your site and masked the address. Instead of http://www.geocities.com/stuff/music/my-band-name/ I was able to have my-band-name.cjb.net … a little better. But cjb is saturated with advertising and pop-ups and stuff now. A .com is just nicer looking.

Its maybe five bucks for a domain name, depending on where you register. Either way it will not cost more than a mere hour’s pay at any job. A popular domain registry is GoDaddy. I haven’t had any problems with Yahoo or Namespro so far. Give them a shout.

If you absolutely cannot afford to register a domain name for your band, I can tell you a way to get one for free in this article. It may seem like a pain but with your whole band sharing a throw-away email adress, I’m sure you guys can manage to do enough of the offers.

Killer band websites on a starving musician’s budget

August 21, 2007 | 0 Responses

In this series, I’m going to tell you some different ways you can have a better website for your band. There are a lot of responsibilities to live up to and a lot things to do when a band is just starting out. This article is here to help you minimize the amount of things you have to worry about. Between promotion, getting gigs, writing songs, recording demos, whatever else, theres certainly more than enough to do. Bands that are just getting the ball rolling don’t need to worry about developing their website, let alone honing their skills at it. Spend more time practicing your music.

You probably don’t have the money to hire a webmaster, and you might not always have a buddy with mad development skills. So look no further if you’re in one of these predicaments. I promise you some short and easy reads that will help you get this thing out of the way.

1. The dreaded domain name

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