I'm currently revamping Dolphinitis's layout.
Sorry for any incovenience.
I'm currently revamping Dolphinitis's layout.
Sorry for any incovenience.
Haven't been updating this blog for some time. Looks like it needs some lawn mowing...
Anyway, I've finally decided to do a revamping on this blog as well as my other blogs. Well, I'm almost there... In fact I have been busy with the redesigning from scratch for the past few weeks and I hope to roll out the new look next two weeks. Stay tune!
First I would like to apologize for not updating this blog for a while, as I've been spending most of my time in my Chinese blog.
Since I don't like to repeat things here, as a result I have been neglecting this blog, Now, I need to revive it by thinking of blogging something different here to make this blog more interesting.
Any suggestions?
One of the many ways to promote your blog is through email subscription.
If you look around you would see that, nowadays many blogs have moved towards this email subscription direction. They have, from a blogger, become a content provider. Instead of having we, readers, log in to their blog, but having their content deliver to our mailbox.
You may ask what is the difference between RSS subscription and email newsletter? The main difference is that RSS only goes to your Feed Reader, while email newsletters are directed to your mailbox.
Email newsletter is not a new thing in the web world. However having email newsletter subscription for a blog is a step forward within the blogsphere.
Zookoda
is one of the email marketing application which is designed to cater the need of bloggers. And it’s free for bloggers who would like to build their readership and keep their readers coming back to their blog.
All you have to do is to open an account with Zookoda
, get the subscription form code and place on your blog. When your blog readers subscribe to your newwsletter by entering their email address, Zookoda
will add these data to your mailing list.
No installation is required. Zookoda
works on PC, Mac or Linux. It is compatible with IE 6 or later, and Firefox on the PC, as well as Safari on Mac.
Zoodoka also provides templates which can be easily edit and format. With the online HTML Editor Zookoda
provides, you can quickly edit or customize your email newsletter to your liking.
Meanwhile Zookoda
gives you full control over how your newsletter contents appear to your readers, which you can edit manually.
If one day you should want to discontinue Zookoda
’s service, you can just export your mailing lists in Excel format at any time you want with no obligations.
So if you thik you have great content and would like start email newsletter subscription service for you blog, Zookoda
will be a good place to start with.
Since I could no longer find the uploaded images' url to be embedded in my respective blogs, I decided to switch back to Picasa. The only shortcoming of Picasa is their maximum image width is 800px. Anything bigger than that will be shrunk to 800px to keep the loading speed. Sad.
Thinking of a place to store my blog header background images...geee
Finally have taken the time to update this photo blog of mine, Life is a Darling!
The blog is basically dead. Now I have to revive it by updating it more often... don't worry I still have plenty of photos to share... It's just a matter of scanning them and and do the editing.
Do drop by.
Have set up a YouTube Channel, DolphineChannel to share my two darlings' videos.
Will uploaded some of their older as well as latest videos there. Do drop by to check out the videos.:)
Last Saturday marks the first anniversary of this blog. It's been a year since I started this blog. Hoo hoo...
So far this blog has over 100 entries for 12 months. Phew... slow huh?
I would like to seize the opportunity to express my gratitude to all of you who read this blog and leave your comment. Thank you. And to those who want to comment but feel shy, I hope to hear from you. Don't be shy shy...
From my part, I'll try to write more often with more interesting stuffs. I know I can be long winded and boring at times. Oh well, that's me.
So far have I achieve what I set out for with this blog? Well, I must say YES!
I wrote about my kids, my last pregnancy and some of my 2 cent. Meanwhile I also manage to earn some extra cash, not much though, since I'm very occupied currently with my kids.
Perhaps when I go back to work and when Max is older, I can find more time to put in more effort in this blog, like change theme. Also now that my Photoshop is still missing, I can't edit my photos for posting up here. Sorry about that...
I love to put more pictures here.
Frankly I have so many things I love to write about with so little time I have.
Anyhow, once again I thank you all for your support. It's your comments that keep this blog going. So keep them coming, the more the merrier...
It's good to be back.
Nope I didn't go anywhere. It was my PC. It suddenly went kaput one of the nights last week. The water cooler was leaking, the cpu flooded and the motherboard was wet and damaged.
So for almost a week I managed to survive without pc, internet, and blogs. Thank God, I was pretty occupied with baby max, Natalie and my dad's place renovation work, which started last Sat. Did a lot of running around during the day.
During the nights I could only watch TV, though a few nights were spent at IKEA. We were shopping there till they chased us out, to get some wall lamps and stuff.
Anyway, it was tough without the internet or the pc. I couldn't do my work and most importantly, surf. Felt lost touch with the world outside. I didn't know what were happening out there, besides my own little world. Thanks God it's finally back now(still got some software installings to do though...).
And I missed blogging and blog hopping.
Btw, my Chinese language setting is still out. Can't even display my own blog content properly. Hopefully it works with Firefox, trying to download the setup now.
Ever since I had Natalie, I've been dwelling on possiblities that allow me to work from home. So that I can spend more time with her.
Now that I have Max, the desire of working from home is growing stronger.
Online business has been one of the areas that I've been considering. Online business no doubt has great potential but it's also very competitive, as many people have already jumped on the bandwagon. The most popular option is blogging. And there are companies offers themselves as the middle man to connect bloggers with advertisers.There are many other online business ideas which are shared by Experienced People about Where's there's free, there's money.
What they are sharing are simple ways of making money online, such as buying and selling websites, Ebay trading and so on. You can also find out ideas of how to work from home with your skills and passions.
Besides, they also have a complied list of websites and contacts which can help the middle-aged experienced of individual to find job opportunities and trainings course.
They have some simple yet interesting ideas which are worth checking out.
With these interesting ideas the Experienced People share, all you need is just to add a bit of creativity and originality, you and I can also make something work.
Hoo hoo... payperpost (PPP) had finally approved Dolphinitis blogspot last month, but I was too busy with Max and had no time to sit down and work on anything seriosuly.
To kick start my PPP writerhood, this is it, to write about PPP.
I’d long heard about PPP, even before I started this blog, through blogs which I frequent. It’s an interesting way for bloggers to make some extra cash while doing what they like, blogging.
However, I wasn’t keen on signing up with PPP as I knew that I didn’t have time to blog often, to meet their minimum requirement. It’s because I have a day job, and at night I have to take care of my darling daughter, Natalie. I was still a new mother who was trying to juggle between work and family, so is now with Max, the crying baby.
Meanwhile I have another two blogs to take care of, my chinese blog, Dolphinever blogspot, and my photolg, Lifeisadarling blogspot. After all, I tend to spend more of my time with Dolphinever, with my emotional entries, about my late mom, and others.
Now that Natalie is getting older and with a new member in the family, baby Max, well, money not enough. It’s time to look for ways to make some extra cash by writing paid posts.
Also, I've more topics to blog, about pregnancy, parenting as well as journal for Natalie and Max. It means I’ll spend more time and effort in the blog. The blog is slowly build up with content to meet PPP’s requirement. So why not give it a try.
What do I think of PPP?
Well, I started with Smorty to test water and to see if I can manage it. Well, I have to admit that writing review is addictive. Apart from the money, it’s fun and addictive to write. It makes me use my brain. Sometimes, when I breastfed Max, I thought of ideas for all these reviews though I have no time.
However, my first attempt of submitting my blog was rejected. So I tried PPP Direct. It’s still no result so far. Later I tried again before I went for my labour, after Dolphinitis has met PPP’s minimum requirement. Finally it’s approved!
Opportunities...
One of the things I like about payperpost is they have a numbers of available opportunities, if one don’t mind the price tag. And some are really interesting to write about. However all of them are grabbed fast like hot cakes. And I was always late… never mind.
Also it’s exciting yet sad to see all those red and grey coloured opportunities as some of them would be fun to blog, such as food flavourings, car wallpapers and others.
However, PPP takes about 30 days to approve a submitted post. It means the payout will take longer time. Oh well sometimes it is better to keep moving on and writing whenever I have time, without thinking about the earning too much. As I believe when the time (money) comes, the sense of reward is greater. Don’t you think so?
How would I spend my extra earning?
Simple! Rule number ONE, whenever I get paid, I always pay myself first. Every dollar I earn I’m saving it for my two little darlings. This is my main reason to blog for money. What about you?
After all, one has to love what he or she is doing with passion. I’d spent a few years finding my passions. Now that I’ve found them, other than my family, I love surfing, web designing (I mean beautifying my blog) and of course, blogging during leisure. So why not killing two birds with one stone; making some small income via something I enjoy doing for my family?
For a small fries blogger like me, Smorty works for me so far. I get assignment on and off and I get my payout the moment my post approved, no need to wait that long. It's motivating to see money grow in your PayPal, though small, but it's good enough for me.
Last week, I tried resubmitted in this blog to PayPerPost for review, but they have yet to reply, so I guess it's been turned down again. Never mind. Seriously it took me very long to think whether I should put the PPP Direct badge on my page, as I didn't really like to put images on my sidebar. I like it clean and simple. But I did in the end, trying for some luck.
As for Smorty, I really enjoy writing for them, especially since now I have the time to, while waiting for baby's arrival. Apart from those small little $ sign, it's the satisfaction after completing each post.
If you are thinking of making some extra cash, since some now said that because of the recent major PR revamp which affected many bloggers, Smorty is worth trying. Besides, if you have a better PR than mine, you can probably gets more assignments than me.
Nope, this is not a sponsored post.
As usual last night when I got up for my second toilet visit to release the bladder, I felt hungry again. So while snacking, I decided to do my review.
Shortly it started to rain cats and dogs outside and a couples of lightning stroke. I quickly pull out my modem cable, thinking that "...my modem is safe now." Phew.
Little did I know it was taken by the last stroke until I tried to reconnect it, after I'd done with my review and wanted to submit it. Cis! I thought it was the connection at first. So I called up to TM technical service. The gentlemen was kind and patient with me, though it was already 5 in the morning. After some troubleshooting, no result, I gave up, and went back to bed to have a nice and chill slumber.
By the time I got up, I quickly tried again. No result. And I called TM again. No result.
Last resort, I asked hubby to replace the modem with the back up one, an second hand TM modem, which he insisted to buy, while I was all agaisnt it, thinking it was a waste of money.
Hubby: So who was the one who said it was a waste of money to get a spare?
Me: ... -_-;;
Well, I guess he was right after all.
But this 2004 TM model's connection and transmission is darn slowly comparing to the kaput Aztech one. Hubby said it's because of the quality of the modem. So I guess we have to get another better one. Meanwhile no choice but stick to the slow one first. Better than no surfing. Heehee...
Earlier PPP rejected this blog, because it didn't meet their minimum requirement, minimum 20 posts in 90 days.
Last night I resubmitted this blog for a try, as it has finally met the minimum requirement. Hopefully it will get approved this time. Since I have some extra time to spare while waiting for baby to come.
Also, I'd signed up with Linkworth to get more opportunities...
I have never Friensters in my life. It quickly became a big hit after it was launched. But I didn't feel or bored to be part of it. Perhaps I was feeling too old for Friendsters. In fact I've grown out my YM, IM or ICQ phase.
Until recently when a colleague invited me to join the Facebook, currently the most popular online socialising network. Even Google offered to buy them over.
In fact, it's fun to use, as there are so many third party applications one can add and have fun with. And some of those applications are very addictive, especially those Vampire and Werewolves fightings... can gain points from fighting. It's one of my favourites.
And I also just started a Malaysia Blogger Mommies Daddies group, feel free to join. It's for all the Malaysian Blogger Parents who blog in English and/or Chinese, whether you reside in Malaysia or outside Malaysia.
After days of waiting anxiously for new job, finally one came along. I accepted without second thought at first, as it worth slightly more than my first two jobs. But after a while I began to have doubt, whether I should do it. It's an online betting review. Well, I once in a while do buy 4Ds on my car's number plate or one two ringgit of Toto lucky pick. But I don't really believe in it and I don't I want to promote or encourage such activities to others.
Then on the same day, I read about MG's turning down on a USD65 worth paid review for an online casino.
Frankly it wasn't the money that I was worried about, for so long there are job offers coming in, I can always make up to it, no bi deal. It was the fear of rejecting the job would affect my Smorty score, that really bothered me and kept me from removing the job. I was tussling over it.
So I left the job pending, meanwhile I was hoping another offer would pop by. And true enough another one dropped by, quickly I removed that online betting review and accepted the new one though it pays less. I know, I know, it was stupid and probably it had already affected my score the moment I removed the job. Well, it's too late to do anything. But at least I felt better.
But seriously if it were to be worth USD65, I 'm really not sure if I could resist it. It's my more than my one day salary.
Ouch...it's a painful to have to choose between money and principle.
I still like visit my favourite blogs personally, instead of reading it from my Google Reader. It's that personal touch I get from those blog.
There are 2 main categories of blogs I read. First group, my daily frequent blogs which accumulated since last year, when I started reading blog again. The numbers are still growing. I still frequent them personally, some everyday, some alternate day, except weekends. Have to take care of my daughter, and she's very demanding and wants 100% attention. So no surfing when I'm with her.
Though I subscribe to their feed, but I hardly read their posts from my feed, maybe weekends, just to check if there is any new posts. If yes, I'll hop over if I can.
Group two; these are mostly "Make Money Online" blogs. The number of these blogs increase very fast. And I can't remember all their url. And I don't visit them everyday, so I read from my feed when I have the time. Try to read up as much as I could but there are simply too many of them.
One of the reasons, I like to see if there is new changes to those sites. For instance Twinsmom, she changes her blog theme every now and then, and sometimes she adds new things to it. Changing theme and keep improving your blog layout is a way to keep your visitors coming back personally. And I love to see simple and slick blog layout, and they inspire me to do something about mine. :)
Well，having to say that, I think it's time for me to sit down and do something to my blog layout. Hee heee...
Hoo hoo... I have got my first payment from Smorty, though it's small, but I'm happy with it.
Since I'm pretty new and I can't really have high expectation. However, it doesn't mean I'm not aim high. Just one step at a time. Rome wasn't built in one day.
Been reading up some full time bloggers' blog. Some of them really earn a lot and I salute them for make the effort to write. Wondering WHEN can I reach that level. Hahaha... just day dreaming a little sometimes, when I'm bored with my work, coz with my day job, I can't earn that amount. However, at this moment, I don't mind working full time and do some part-time blogging during leisure to earn some extra cash.
So for the time being, I'll just stick with Smorty, while I build my way up so that one day PPP and ReviewMe will accept my blog.
Again thanks to Smorty.
Just saw this BlogRush thing from JohnChow's site. I've signed up for it instantly:) and thought of sharing it here with my fellow blog friends. I also sent out an invitation to some of you; Vien, Mumsgather and...
Another blog stat's tool? Something like that but more. But it's not a money making tool, but traffic generator.
Almost real-time blog traffic stat
First it provides close to real-time stat, with perhaps a few minutes delay.
The moment you sign up, it'll take a 12-24 hours before your stat can be actually displayed in the Dashboard. So I haven't been able to see my Dolphinitis' and Life is a Darling's stat figure.
At the moment I'm using Google Analytic and MyBlogLog to keep track of my daily blog stat. However, neither of them are real-time. That's why I'm trying out BlogRush.
More than just stat...
Here's another advantage of BlogRush , it doesn't allow you to keep track your blog stat, but it helps to generate more traffic, the RIGHT traffic, and bring in more readers to your blog.
How? You ask. By adding the widget BlogRush widget into your blog *image*
When our blog page is loaded, the BlogRush widget on our blog will load with a set of 5 links. They called this the syndication credits.
Meanwhile you'll also have one of your recent post titles loaded inside of a BlogRush widget on other blogs, which are in the same category of yours.
Here's the math: if your blog gets 50 total pages a day, and you'll have one of your recent post titles showed across BlogRush network 50 times a day. The math doesn't stop here...
More...
If BloggerA click on one of those 2 links (see left image, one of the red dots), then sign up with BlogRush and start hosting the widget on his blog, they'll signed up as your referral.
So when Blogger B goes to A's blog that has the widget, you also get one of your post titles showed across B's network which share the same category. This will increase the exposure of your blog.... and the math goes on, up to 10th generation referrals.
And all the referrals information, and the traffic they brings are all available in BlogRush Dashboard, so you can keep track of where your traffic from, who brings them and so on. Sounds cool eh?
Can be better
Well, the things which I don't like about the widget are, its category option, and I can't customise the widget to suit my blog layout. Hopefully they'll improve that in future.
Readers and traffic are bloggers' inspiration. Increase of readership in your blog is very encouraging.
Also, I think it's a useful tool for bloggers who do paid posts, it can help to improve your Page Rank.
Not to forget those who have Advertlets or Nuffnangs ad on their blog/s, as it also help generate more pageviews to your blog.
Just give it a try. And see for yourself.
And Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! everyone. :)
Like I've said, one of my reasons to blog again is to make some extra money out of blogging. However, I have not been really working on it, other than writing for pleasure.
But now, I think I have got the gist of blogging and can churn out stuff faster. So I think my blog and I are both ready to take the challenge and make some extra cash.
To start the ball rolling, I choose Smorty, a service that connects us, bloggers with the advertisers. It gives us a chance to earn some income by sharing our opinions on peoples products, services or websites on our blog.
Why Smorty?
Besides earning extra cash. I can make my blog content more dynamic with Smorty's campaigns. I can get ideas, choose to write stuffs within my interest and share my opinions with you.
You won't miss out
Smorty also send out email to notify me if any new opportunities available.
For people, like me, who always keep their email account or instant messenger login 24/7, this feature is very useful.
It keeps me aware of any new opportunities, before they are taken. Remember, opportunities await no man.
The best, Weekly Payout
There is no minimum payout. It means I get paid my article is approved, which normally takes about 5 days.
I have control over how much you can earn on a weekly basis. The minimum is US$6 per post, and can go up to a maximum of $100 per post, depending on your Page Rank along with a high Smorty smart score.
Well, the more you write, the more you earn. Tempting huh?
More than opinions blogging...
You can also sign up as an Smorty advertiser to get your blog, your product or services to be reviewed by other bloggers.
Or become a Smorty affiliate and get paid for referring bloggers who signs up for Smorty Blog Advertising. Huge potential in generating more income for professional blogger.
Last but not least,
Smorty also provides very useful tips and links on how to optimise your blog/s. It is worth reading up, if you're serious about building your blogs'Page Rank.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up now and get paid to blog!
And, I'm off to set up my Paypal account. :)
