Archive for December, 2008
In this 2,000+ word, massive article, 12 Google services fight their non-G alternatives to boost your blogging career. Way beyond first blood.
1. Blogger vs. Wordpress
The first dilemma when launching a new blog comes pretty early. You have to decide which one of the numerous blog engines you want to choose to provide the CMS background for your blog. Although there are a number of available options, the vast majority of bloggers tend to pick one of the two (three, really, but I only want to cover free services here so that disqualifies Movable Type immediately) most popular blog engines: Blogger or Wordpress. The subject of which one you should choose has an extensive literature on the web, so I’m not going to dive deep into details here.
33 Ultimate resources to pick the perfect New Year’s Resolution (and to stick to it afterwards)
Yes, it’s that time of the year again. You may or may not like New Year’s resolutions, but since New Year’s Eve is literally around the corner, it is worth to give change a thought. Especially, since, we’re closing a year so full of changes. To make the process of picking your perfect New Year’s resolution, and more importantly, to help you stick to it, I have put together a vast list of brilliant resources on the subject. Forget the financial crisis: 2009 is just gonna be great! So, without further ado, here comes everything you’ve always wanted to know about New Year’s resolutions, but never dared to ask.
Continue reading ‘33 Ultimate resources to pick the perfect New Year’s Resolution (and to stick to it afterwards)’
Three weeks into blogging, I’ve found myself unhappy with the design of ZsoltBalla.com, and although I still like the look of the Redoable Wordpress theme. Even though I still dig the basic elements of the theme, I’ve already made a couple of modifications, and given certain difficulties I had to face when trying to modify it further and further, I’m not sure if I will stay with Redoable on the long run. Anyway, I’m sure I will change it to something else only if I completely run out of workarounds and alternative ways. But before that, here are the few modifications I made to make the site look better (I’m still not 100% happy with the result though, but I think I still have plenty of time to experiment).
Continue reading ‘A little more experience a few more changes’
I hope everybody is having a great time throughout the winter holidays, and I also would like to chip in by wishing happy holidays to all of you.
But while everybody is busy with preparing for the next year I also wanted to remind you that 2008 is far from over! If you want to make the most of the last days of this year, here are the six things you’ll definitely need to do before 2008 is coming to an end.
Continue reading ‘Six things to do before 2008 is over’
Every journey has a lesson to learn. Furthermore: if you are lucky (and if you pay attention) there are more than one lessons to learn from a three-day journey. After a really exhausting autumn, I was fortunate enough to spend the last three days in Rome with my wife. Being one of the cradles of European culture, and of human intellect as we know it, Rome is also a bottomless well of inspirations and an endless source of creativity. Its sparkling sunshine and 12-15 degree Celsius temperature, along with the great red wines, provide an unrivaled environment to recharge one’s batteries. I didn’t have internet connection or a laptop with me (I proved wise enough not to bring one), still I always found myself thinking about how this unique aura will help me in my daily work and life.
Here is what spending three days in Rome taught me about blogging and about an aptly built online career.
Continue reading ‘7 Things Rome taught me about blogging’
As you may know, I’ve only just begun this blog a few days ago. Still I have already learned a whole bunch of important things about blogging - by blogging.
Now I’m running over a couple of them. I plan to have this as a weekly regular (listing each week’s important lessons by the end of the week), so stay tuned, I’m sure that there’s more to come.
1. Bloggers are really-really nice people
When you start blogging, expect the first week to be busy. Extremely busy. You’ll have to play around with templates, establish your blog, watch out for all the technical details, and you’ll have to put a huge effort into planning the content as well. On the other hand, you’ll need to start networking with other people from your niche, let alone fellow-bloggers from outside your niche.
Continue reading ‘The 4 most important things I learned this week by blogging’
The blogosphere has some zillion blogs, websites and e-books focused on helping freelancers, sofa-entrepreneurs and bloggers, who are trying to make a living online. But if you mean your online business seriously, you will surely have limited time to read these blogs, simply because you will have to focus your time and energy on your own business. These 11 feeds, however, are really the ones you must follow right from day one (hint: count ZsoltBalla.com in as #12).
1. Problogger
Darren Rowse’s Problogger (good ol’ Problogger, as someone dubbed it, I don’t remember where) is the ultimate alpha and omega of making a living off blogging. Darren has been a full time blogger for more than four years. He launched some 25 blogs, made his mistakes, learned his lessons, and now focuses only on three projects blogs, one of which is Problogger. Problogger is both a great source for ideas, tips, tools to use for blogging, and and abundant source of finding fellow bloggers or building relationships. Furthermore, Darren writes in a very consumable, interesting style, while his ethical and quality standardsmake him the blogging hero of many of us.
Last week’s favorite post: How to launch a second blog
2. Top Ten Blog Tips
I love Ben Barden’s Top Ten Blog Tips because of it’s simple, transparent and clear style. When we started talking, it turned out that we have a lot in common with Ben, maybe that’s a part of the reason I enjoy his blog so much. (Maybe people, who start writing with a structured, IT background tend to pile up things into lists of 10 or eleven, like his posts are, or like this one is.)
Anyway, if you want an easy-to-read, straight-to-the-point style of guidance in the world of blogging, Top Ten Blog Tips is always there for you.
Last week’s favorite post: 10 things I’ve learned about blogging by actually doing it
Continue reading ‘11 Feeds to subscribe immediately, when you start blogging’
It happened earlier than I’ve ever thought it would. A lot earlier, in fact. My forecast (rather, my guess) would have been that I was to receive my first visitor from Google sometime between now and the end of the year, but not before, say, two weeks from the launch.
Instead, it happened in four days. And although eight visitors via Google may not seem too many, but it’s a pretty good start, I think.
It hasn’t been a week yet, but I’m already wandering from my original plan. I mean I know myself quite well, I had 30 years to get to know myself, but I’m still reticent to believe surprises like that. Anyway, the charity blog I launched yesterday can be found at http://zsoltballa.com/give.
Okay, it’s a bit more complicated than that. I’ve always been dreaming about building up a business on the Internet, including content and service sites, and I got very enthusiastic when I made my first move last week, and decided it was high time I started. So last Friday I registered the domain http://zsoltballa.com (although my real name is Balla Zsolt, but Hungarians, like the Japanese and the Chinese use family and surnames in reverse order, so the English compatible version of my name is Zsolt Balla), and started this blog.



