2008 March | HowBits | Tidbits, Helpful Tips, and Guides

Archive for March, 2008

17 Mar

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Using StumbleUpon For Traffic

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I have been using StumbleUpon since the very beginning of this website, which is a little over a month ago, and I have had good success with it, considering I had no friends on the service to vote I Like It. StumbleUpon brings over 100 visitors, and growing each day. I have noticed that unlike Digg, Stumble has a delay time before you start getting traffic, usually around 2 to 4 days, but unlike Digg traffic, Stumble traffic is stable and visitors continue to come day after day, long after the article / website was posted.

The process of submitting a website to StumbleUpon is an easy uncomplicated process and takes all of a minute to do. Then in an ideal world, people will come to your website or blog entry and click I like it on the stumble bar and this votes up your website, which results in more traffic.

I do not see a need to write a full article about this service, because so many people have written amazing articles on StumbleUpon and the several ways to use it effectively. I have read everyone of these pages and recommend them to anyone who is actively trying to get traffic or least quality backlinks to their websites. I have listed 3 links to websites explaining everything and anything someone would want to know about the service, and how you should build your StumbleUpon profile so that you can get people Stumbling your page or pages.

How to Use StumbleUpon for Your Business: The Definitive Guide

Build Super Links and Traffic With StumbleUpon

A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website
15 Mar

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Things To Check When Using WordPress

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I am writing this post as a result of my lack of due diligence. I am usually good at checking the important parts of a website to make sure everything is working and correct, but this little tiny thing that I forgot to check, went unnoticed until today.

So here I am, testing out some search engine ideas for my website, and I noticed in Google search that the description for howbits was way off, in fact it was nothing like what I had put into the all in one SEO plugin. So off I go, back to my website to investigate this weird issue and come to find out, when I changed website design I had forgotten to remove the default meta description and keyword code for the theme.

I learned that, all in one SEO loads it’s meta tags after the themes header information, so if a meta tag is used before all in one SEO meta tags, the first meta tags are shown and not the later ones. As a result all in one SEO description was not showing up, and my website description was the default blog description.

So for anyone who has a WordPress website, who uses themes, and the plugin All in one SEO, you may want to follow this list of what to remove out of your themes header file. » Read the rest of the entry..
14 Mar

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- How To
Googles Newest Toy – Google Sky

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This is awesome, Google is now offering a Google maps of outer space. I actually spent a lot of time looking at the Historical overlay of the stars, funny to see the map of the sky from the old times.

Here is a quote from the website, I recommend checking it out.

Traveling to the stars has never been easier

To help you explore the far reaches of our universe, we have teamed up with astronomers at some of the largest observatories in the world to bring you a new view of the sky. Using Google Maps this tool provides an exciting way to browse and explore the universe. You can find the positions of the planets and constellations on the sky and even watching the birth of distant galaxies as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

We are particularly excited about the ability to view the universe at different wavelengths, to see how it would look if our eyes worked in the x-rays or infrared. As you explore these new layers, play with the transparency to blend between the different wavelengths and see how different parts of the universe light up at different wavelengths

If you are interested in what’s happening on the sky tonight or over the next few months then check out the podcasts from Earth and Sky or search for the position of your favorite planet.

Google Sky

About Google Sky
12 Mar

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Decoding Encrypted PHP Files

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Since I was just dealing with an encrypted footer.php file for the theme I use, I thought I would post how to decode encrypted Php files. This took me a few hours to find a source that actually worked. The most common way to decode a file is to create three files, decrypt.php, encode.txt, and decode.txt, to bad this didn’t work for me, and time consuming trying to figure out why it didn’t work. So as a result I found an easier way to get the information from encrypted php files.

I am posting this for legal use, if you use this for illegal use, keep it to yourself, because that’s not the reason I am putting this on here. I am posting it to keep WP theme creators honest, and not loading up the footer with links to webpages you do not support. In the case of this theme, they had lots of links to online casino and gambling websites. I have no problem keeping a link on my page to the theme creators website and WordPress.org, but anything else is pushing it.

Update – Try this method before proceeding to the code below. Change the php encrypted code from eval to Echo and then open the file in a browser, when the page comes up, goto view, page source, and this should be the exact code for the encrypted information. If this did not work, then try the code entered below.

Note: If the code is $_F=__FILE__;$, this is another type of encoding that will not work with this code, it is encoded using Source Cop.

This is the easiest way I found to get the encoded information

Copy this code into notepad, or whatever editor you prefer to use. » Read the rest of the entry..
11 Mar

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Helpful Tips For Housework Part 2

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1. Need to paint a room, but hate the noxious fumes? Add two teaspoons of pure vanilla extract to a gallon of (water based) paint. It neutralizes the odor.

2. If you have stains on your golf balls or piano keys, erase them-with an old fashioned pink eraser.

2. Did you spill coffee on the carpet? Sop it up with a baby wipe. It won’t even stain.

4. To prevent tools from rusting, keep a charcoal briquette inside the toolbox. It absorbs moisture.

5. Don’t use paper towels or rags to clean windows and mirrors. They’ve got lint on them. Instead, use coffee filters. They’re lint-free

6. Attention cheaters: Lipstick stains on a collar go away with a dab of petroleum jelly.

7. Ink is one of the hardest substances to get off of skin. If a pen leaks on your hand, rub shortening on it to help remove the stain.

8. Hard-to-remove price stickers can be taken off with a dollop of corn oil.

9. Denture-cleaning tablets don’t clean just fake teeth. Dissolve one in water to polish diamonds…or hubcaps.

10. Toothache? Apply a dab of Tabasco sauce to the gum.

11. When a metal shaving-cream can gets wet and rusts on the bottom, it can stain a shelf or counter top. To prevent this, apply a coat of nail polish to the bottom of the can and let dry.

Tips from bathroomreader.com
10 Mar

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Quick Tips For WordPress Speed Up

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The subject of optimizing WordPress and making a website Stumble / digg proof, has been rehashed so many times, that I had to talk myself into even writing a post about it. This list is short and straight to the point about optimizing WordPress, with easy to use plugins and tips. Most of these have been mentioned several times before, but since I just re-did the design on my website and had to optimize it all over again so that it would load as fast as possible, I figured now would be a good time to post about how to do it, since it’s still fresh in my mind. This list is for people who don’t have access to the http.config file or the Php.ini file. It is over the top configuration, so no editing of the htaccess file.

Recommended website to check out the loading speed of your website, and how big the web site file that is sent to each visitor. Website Speed Test

WordPress Plugins – This article includes an advanced tweak for wp super cache, I have also included instructions on other things you should do instead of relying on the plugins to do all the work. I just wrote an article about must have and highly recommend WordPress plugins and all of these plugins are listed, with some other plugins that most bloggers should have and use.

Wp-Super-Cache – Whenever your website is viewed or indexed, your database dishes out the information for the page. This can cause the website to load slow if the database has to do this for every visitor on your website. Wp super cache, takes the database information and makes static content that can be resent thousands / millions of times, so that the database doesn’t have to recreate the webpages every time someone visits your website.
Advanced Wp Super Cache tip – Some people try to get the most out of this great plugin. The most common tweak is adding Gzip to the plugin, so that the page is zipped up and sent in a package to a visitor, which can result in a faster loading webpage. I say to use this at your own risk, I have had some issues with it where my webpage comes up as a blank index with nothing loading up, even though to me the page appears to be working fine. I ended up removing this tweak, even though the problem occurs only a couple times a week. For those brave souls out there that want to give it a try, heres how you add it. » Read the rest of the entry..
10 Mar

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- How General
Today Is Edit The Website Day

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6 days ago, was the 1 month point for howbits.com. I have owned this website for a little under a year, but I have never used it for anything until I created this blog, which was February 4th. I am constantly trying out new ideas and testing designs to improve this website. So today I have decided, since it’s somewhat of a day off for me, that I am going to update some things on the website which is a result as some test I have been running.

So as a result, my website may be a little slow loading at times as I am uploading some files, new plugins, and various other additions to the website.

I want to do a Thank You shout out to all my readers, subscribers, and daily visitors. As of last week, Howbits.com is now receiving over 300 unique visitors a day, and Picbits has gone over 400 unique visitors a day, and increasing at a nice pace. On a side note – I am still getting my sea legs for blogging and finding my niche for this website. I really do believe that it takes a few weeks to a couple months to find your spot on the internet and to get into the habit of blogging. In the last 4 weeks as my writing skills, thought processes, and how I explain things have improved; I have gone over my old articles and updated them and continue to make subtle changes to each one. I do believe that a website / blog is never finished, and in keeping with this, I monitor my website statistics and make changes wherever need be to make sure that this website is Web surfer friendly and approved

I will be done with the renovations in about 2 hours from this posting, I try to go over every part of the website to make sure everything is working as intended. Once I know that everything is working then I go and pester some friends to go and try it out. Then I do the switch so that the updates are viewable to everyone else on the website.
09 Mar

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Helpful Tips For Housework Part 1

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1. Having a copper-polish emergency? Look in the fridge: Ketchup eliminates tarnish from copper.

2. It’s really gross to find meal worms in your cereal bowl. Keep them out of the cupboard with a few sticks of wrapped spearmint gum on the shelf. They hate the smell.

3. To repel ants, find where they’re coming into the house and spray the area with a mixture of equal parts water and vinegar. They hate the smell and it’s non-toxic.

4. Besides being great on steak, Worcestershire sauce makes an excellent brass polish. It also repairs scratched wood.

5. If you’ve got a dirty toilet bowl and you’re all out of cleanser you, try Tang.

6. Emergency shaving cream substitutes: Whipped Cream (not Cool Whip) or peanut butter(not the chunky kind)

7. More Shaving Cream Substitutes for the people who don’t like to use food Conditioner – Use your hair conditioner to shave. It’s a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your face/legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair.

8. Broken Glass – Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken glass pieces of glass – The fibers catch ones you can’t see!

9. Reopening envelope – If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour. Voila! It unseals easily.

10. Over time, a thermos will absorb the stains and odors of whatever you put in it. To undo the damage, pour in a tablespoon of uncooked rice and a cup of warm water. Then shake it up and rinse it out.

Tips from Bathroomreader.com
08 Mar

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- How General
Advice For The Burdens Of Life

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This list has been around for awhile but it’s some great advice and humorous, so enjoy the read.

Some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.

* If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it!

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

* Never buy a car you can’t push.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once

* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
08 Mar

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Must Have & Highly Recommended WordPress Plugins

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List of highly recommended and must have WordPress Plugins for the casual blogger to the full time professional blogger.

Akismets – This plugin stops about 90% or more of comment spam on my website, for any blogger you need to make sure your website does not become over ran by spam.

Wp-super-cache – Anyone who has a WordPress based website needs this. It speeds up your website by Caching and creating Static pages of your content. This results, in faster loading web site, since the database which dishes out the pages and various types of information, doesn’t need to work as hard. You will find that your bandwidth usage for your website will go down, and your website will show a significant increase in speed.

All in one SEO Pack – This little goody helps to make your Blog SEO friendly, and to give you greater control over the basic SEO practices such as Page Titles, Meta Keywords, Meta Description, etc. Easy to setup, and is a must for anyone with WordPress who wants traffic from search engines.

Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin creates the Sitemaps that you should be using with your blog to dictate what to search on your website. This plugin notifies MSN, Ask, Google, and Yahoo about changes on your website so the new content can be indexed.

Optimize DB – I wrote a blog post on the plugin last week about Avoiding excessive CPU usage errors from your web host. This plugin optimizes the database of your website, so you do not have to log into you phpadmin every day to keep your database small and efficient, so it does not take up the processing power of the machine that is hosting it. It will speed up the loading of your website and it’s easy to use, so use it at the end of the day if you have been posting or modifying your website. » Read the rest of the entry..

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