Just A Quick Note

I was finally able to get one of my older/larger wordpress installations moved. The new host uses Simple Scripts so I used it to install the same version wordpress as what I was moving. Then I updated the wp-config.php to point to the new database I had manually installed from an exported copy from the old host. After some initial odd errors I was finally able to get it to work and using Simple Scripts I was able to auto update it from 2.0 to 3.0 yay!!

The second wordpress is a wash apparently it had been hacked and I hadn’t worked on it in so long I hadn’t noticed. Since I was requesting the old host to cancel my account I didn’t even ask If they had a backup file for it. I was hoping using wordpress would stop the hacking on of my websites, maybe I’m wrong. Regardless I can’t reinstall the wordpress until I find the original files from that project. Then again I might decide to just start from scratch at least then the wordpress could be an up to date version.

What’s on today’s schedule, well I’ve been receiving these Halloween Super Affiliate emails for a couple weeks now and I’d love to jump on the bad-wagon but there’s no way I can afford the price tag. So I’ve taken the information Brian shared, done some research, and I plan to mimic the system on my own as best I can, wish me luck! Personally I love Halloween so I’m looking forward to adding this to my network of websites =}

WordPress Rant

Why is it so hard to move a dang wordpress installation from one host to another!! I’ve already moved two small wordpress blogs manually (actually copy/pasting individual post) one being this blog (so if you saw it being wonky thats why).

However I have two more blogs that are quite large and several years old. I’ve about come to the conclusion I’m just going to be losing them. I really don’t know If I’ll have the heart to start them over if that happens. One is my personal blog which is a lil more than five years old and is where I’ve poured my heart out when I needed to vent.

What I’ve done is backup the old wordpress (downloading all the files via ftp and exporting the database) then add the domain to the new host as a addon domain. Install the same version of wordpress via simple scripts. Manually add a myql database and import the old database structure. Manually edit the wp-config file to point to the new database. Should work right? Well it doesn’t!!! What am I missing??

June 2010 Earnings

June 2010
Adbrite $44.06
G $53.04
Amazon $1.06

I Didn’t even break the hundred dollar mark. This is pretty disappointing and I’m rightly disgusted with my June totals.

My Goals For July

Moving nearly 80 some odd websites is time consuming! My last two weeks has consisted of downloading, uploading, importing, exporting, searching, and testing, I’m sure you get the idea.

I decided at the last minute to move all my domains to the Blue Host account I purchased last month (or maybe it was the month before) to help lower our monthly bills. I haven’t had any complaints with Blue Host. I didn’t have a single issue installing and uploading the wallpaper sites. I think I’ll even purchase a second account asap since I’ve pretty much loaded this one up. Then again since they are on shared servers maybe not, I’ll have to think about that …

So just before I got busy with switching host I was doing one last sweep of the fourteen sites I put up in June. Well I got started anyway, I didn’t get done checking all those sites which means all of them are not loading any type of ads since I prefer to get indexed first. And I know on one or two sites I used some articles from ezinearticles.com to fill out my post counts. I’ve since been told thats a big no-no if you really want rank well so now I’ve got to add removing those articles to my “To Do List”.

My goals for July:

• finish checking over Junes websites
• research, purchase, and put up ten new domains
• update and change the ads on the database websites
• a new design for my main store site

Random Commentors?

Woohoo, back in the grind, I put up four new websites two nights ago, then two more last night, and got both of my other two fansites online and looking more active. I have a few more domains purchased that need to go up but I realized last night I haven’t had any new content written for them.. ugh! I’ll have to wait till next month to get to those since I’ve run out of funds for this month. But drum roll roll please… that makes fourteen websites this month! That’s awesome as far as I’m concerned and more than my goal of ten.

So far several are ranking, the best came in at #5 and worst at #29 and #38. I don’t consider any of them finished (as in mark them off as passive sites) but I’m hoping to have enough content on them by the end of the month that I can mark them off my of work list anyway.

I’m still having issues getting the fansites where I want them. I think I’m torn between wanting a true fansite and wanting a monetized fansite. On one hand the sites need daily postings for the constant news bits, photo ops, and online videos. On the other hand I could just go with bio’s, music, episodes, ect.. Maybe that makes my goal of meeting in the middle unreasonable, but if so I’m just not ready to give in yet! I know there are ways to setup auto-posting I’ve just got to find them!

Right now I’m trying to work with wp-o-matic (just for the fansites) although I’m not happy with it. I found yesterday that all the post it put up were pointing to the original authors site. Not that I don’t believe in giving credit where credit is due, but it turned my ‘recent post’ links into links to the another site! I had to delete and re-post every post moving the credit links inside the post. I spent a couple of hours cleaning this up, talk about frustrating! I’m also trying to find a decent related post plugin. Right now I’m testing Related Posts YAFPP since it seems to be recommended often.

I’ve received several comments on a couple of the sites which leads me to wonder how others handle there visitors comments. While some comments seem on topic others are blatantly random comments just to leave a link. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention how they handle this situation on their sites, suggestions?

Still Plugging Away!

This past week has found me working on fansites again. I have no idea where my fansites stand as far as rank, I haven’t checked. I’d like to get all the basics up, setup a couple months worth of post, and let the site breath for a couple weeks before I start obsessing on rankings. Since I have had the first site up a few weeks now, I started monetizing it yesterday. I’m only using Amazon & cpaLead for these sites right now. Ok I peaked my own curiosity, this first fansite has been indexed and is #19.

I was finally able to figure out how to use the wp-o-matic plugin on my new host. So now I’ve finally got some auto posting going on using rss feeds for news topics. I had forgotten how hard it is to find full rss feeds!! I’ve got to find some nice middle ground for these sites though, auto posting won’t make them stand out so of course I’ll use it sparingly. I actually have wp-o-matic set to post drafts only.

Speaking of my new host, I find it a bit confusing sharing one cpanel for multiple domains but its far more reasonable in price than my last host and I’ve had no complaints in my first 30 days with them. The real test is my wallpaper sites. I’m able to upload papers quickly on my last host without any slow-loading issues. However when I tried to move them to another well known host recently I found the sites loading so slow that at least half the time I spent working on them was reloading half loaded pages. I should have already started testing this on the new server, but if you’ve learned anything about me in the last few months then you know I tend to procrastinate … often.

Not that it really matters, even though I’m very happy with my current host I just can’t afford the cost anymore. I’ve got to tighten the belt you might say. Some things are just going to have to be cut, like my satellite internet. I don’t want to cancel my account, without it I’m back to working on dial-up 24-7 (I live out in a rural area, there’s no cable or high speed available) but with my youngest having turned eighteen in March and graduating this month we’ve found ourselves in a financial crunch. I’m talking about a $700 drop in monthly income! Of course we’ve known this would happen for some-time now and it’s been a huge motivation for me to work harder on my sites. Its been one of those unspoken goals, you know to build the sites up enough to bring in enough income to more than cover the loss. Well it didn’t happen! I’m worried, not only because with YPN closing my online income also went down but my oldest is getting ready to move out again so that extra rent every other week goes bye bye as well. What can I do … back to work. Not!