September 21st, 2009 by john 
in Categories: 
A couple of months ago, I did what I have done many times before without a hitch. That is, I upgraded WordPress to the latest release. However, things did not go as smooth as they had in the past. To make a long story short, my theme blew up. Several plugins quit working and I became very frustrated. I immediately loaded a temporary theme to tide me over until I could figure out what had gone wrong. Then things took a turn for the worse. I discovered that the author of my theme had called it quits. Or at least his web site had disappeared. So I began looking for a new theme.
My New Theme
After much research and testing, I decided to go with the Thesis Theme. I chose Thesis for many reasons, the first being the ability to completely customize the look and feel of my blog. This theme was developed with customization in mind. With a little patience and a willingness to learn something new, anything is possible. Second is the support forum. There is a very active Thesis community of users who are extremely helpful. Most of the customizations on EZGreatLife were accomplished with the help of the forums. And last, but certainly not least, is the quality of the code. It is streamlined for maximum efficiency, optimized for SEO and again, offers incredible flexibility. Enough said. How do you like my new digs?
Your Ad Here
Another change you may have noticed is that I am now offering ad space on the right sidebar. Look for the “Your Ad Here” banner. At $10 per month, it is an affordable advertising solution. I would love to run your ad! Feel free to contact me. And, if you purchase an ad between now and October 31st, I will give you 1000 EC’s! I am managing EZGreatLife’s ads myself using OIOpublisher . It is very flexible and it cuts out the middle man. You keep ALL of your hard earned dollars! Have you checked out OIO yet, if not, you should. Use coupon code TERRA-1434 before September 30, 2009 and save $10.00. Are you using OIO, what has been your experience?
Energize Your Blog With Adgitize
Last week I signed up with Adgitize. I initially signed up as a publisher, just to get my feet wet. I placed some ad code and started visiting other Adgitized blogs. I have discovered several cool new blogs. Well, new to me. 
Last night I signed up as an advertiser and my first ads are running today. I like what I have seen so far. I will know in a few days how many visits my ad is generating. If you haven’t all ready, you can check it out here: Adgitize . Anyone else using Adgitize? What do you think about it?
Spam Me Not
I have been considering doing away with comment moderation for some time now. After reading the AD Master’s post 5 Simple Ways to Increase Blog Comments, I am even more convinced that I need to do it. My only hesitation is SPAM. I get lots of it. 14,489 bogus comments to date. I use Akismet , which works fairly well, but I still get several spam comments a day. What do you think? Do you moderate comments on your blog? I am interested in hearing what you think.
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for visiting!
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My name is John.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, you’ve got a lot going on lately! Sorry to hear that you’re having problems with the WP themes.
As for spammers, they’re just as funny as they want to be, aren’t they?
I just use my comment moderation for them to keep them out. Works pretty well. Don’t ya just love it when someone comments and then lists 3 to 5 of their links at the end? I love it because they get deleted first!
Good luck with the new theme.
The Fitness Diva´s last blog ..Time to Just Quit
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John reply on September 22nd, 2009 6:35 am:
Diva – Yeah, I’ve been busy! As for the spammers, they crack me up! I just deleted one trying to sell Percocet. Like I’m going to buy illegal prescription drugs from some loser sitting in his mothers basement! No thanks! I don’t understand why they even try.
AND yes, I delete all the link spammers too!
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Like the new look! You are so brave, upgrading by yourself – I couldn’t deal with everything crashing.
Re Adgitize: It’s fantastic. Even when I don’t quite cover costs, I’m getting more traffic than from EntreCard.
Re spam: I like comment moderation. I guess I just like to be in control LOL! Akismet is very good, but it is not human. Sometimes you need to have a feel for a comment, because sometimes they seem innocent but they are not. It took me a while to figure that out.
Jan from BetterSpines´s last blog ..Would you like mercury with that?
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John reply on September 22nd, 2009 6:42 am:
Thanks so much Jan! Upgrading your software can be nerve racking! Especially when it crashes and burns! I have a sandbox blog where I test everything before going live. Sometimes it plays nice in the sandbox and then throws a temper tantrum when going live!
I haven’t decided weather or not to do away with moderation. I would like to encourage more comments, but not at the risk of MORE spam. AND you are absolutely correct about Akismet. It’s not human! It’s pretty good about keeping spam out. But, it frequently tags legitimate comments as spam.
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I had my blog updated by my son from WP 2.7 to 2.8.4 two days ago. I tried to do it myself by clicking the “update automatically” link in my dashboard by it did not work. Everything seems fine now.
Also, I am using NOFF plugin which was set before to 5 comments before the links (signature and CommentLuv) become DoFollow. I now set it to just three (3). I am thinking that whoever posts comment the first time and comes back to post another two (2) deserves the DoFollow reward.
EdZee´s last blog ..Suing An Internet User With Libel
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This is not SPAM. I found it interest you live by the quote, “Family, Fitness & Finance”. It is very similar to mine. One of headings were Fitness and Finance. I actually found a unique to combing both. Check it out if your interested. Either way, keep blogging brother. Health is Wealth, pass it on…
FitnessMeetsOpportunity´s last blog ..About Us…
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I hear ya. I use wordpress and sometimes it can really be upsetting. Checkout wpforest.com. They usually have some great themes. Its funny that you have Family, Fitness & Finance in your header. I use to have Fitness & Finance for mine. I actually found a way to combine them both with BeachBody(P90X and Hip Hops Abs). Check it out sometime. Keep blogging brother. Health is Wealth, pass it on….
FitnessMeetsOpportunity´s last blog ..About Us…
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John reply on September 24th, 2009 2:08 pm:
Fitness – Yeah, sometimes it’s frustrating! I like tinkering with code though, so it’s all good! It’s just time consuming…
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Hi John,
should i use Wordpress and give me the stress that everybody seems to have as soon as there is a new update or upgrade available due to security flaws?
I think i will stay with blogger for some more months but change one or two of my templates. This is also some work which is time-consuming. Hopefully i can manage it until next week
Comments: I like to have them moderate even when other prefer them immediately visible. But i have the advantage that i can read each of the comments. In the past i had the problem that i didn’t notice new comments on older posts.
Perhaps i should make a time limit for those older posts.
Adgitize is great especially when you advertise. In the first week you are new and gets little bit more traffic, afterward it depends on the topics and on the updates of your blog. 80 visitors a day is a good number as there are more and more advertiser in the network and the competition who will receive one of the 50 or 100 clicks gets more and more.
Good luck with your online earning opportunities!
cornyman´s last blog ..Weekly Wednesday Worth Readings: EntreCard
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John reply on September 24th, 2009 2:17 pm:
Thanks Cornyman! Myself, I would set up a self-hosted blog running WordPress. If you have the patience to learn a little coding, the Thesis Theme is great. That’s what I’m running here. It’s totally customizable. I like having complete control over the layout and operation of my blog. But, that’s just my 2 cents worth.
Yeah, the comment moderation is bothering me. I can’t decide whether or not to turn it off. I may try turning it off and see how it goes.
Adgitize rocks! I’m addicted. I learned how to maximize it’s potential from your blog posts on the subject…thank you very much!
Thanks for stopping by and see ya next time!
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Your new theme looks great.
I am still on blogger so I don’t know about some of that. I don’t moderate comments per say, I used to but it was to much of a hassle, but if a spam comment does go through I have the option of deleting it after anyway. I use Adgitize just as a publisher not as an advertiser. Not sure what benefit it really is. I can not afford to pay for advertising right now. And I don’t have time to click all the links to get like 2 cents for it. I don’t think I’m making any money on it. Oh well. I actually like CMF ads better. I have been getting some traffic from that, and after you accumulate some credits, you can place ads with those.
Sue´s last blog ..Don’t Try This At Home – truTV
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