Blogging is basically journaling. The only difference is that instead of using pen and paper, you get to use technology. If you wish to reach a wider audience, then blogging is the more ideal medium for expressing your thoughts. If you are at a loss on what to do here are some basic information you need to know for setting up your own blog:

A blog can be anything and everything about the sun. Check out other blogs and you’ll find out different sorts on different topics. However, it need not be complicated. You can create a blog about your pets, or your hobby, or a special interest. The easiest is to of course, create a blog all about yourself. Make entries on whatever topic you wish and you can post pictures to it too. A blog can be a perfect way to keep family and friends updated with what is going on in your life.

Set up your blog. Search for free blog providers in a search engine. Choose one that would suit your needs. Make sure that it is simple and user-friendly too. You can always transfer to another blog provider once you’ve known all the ropes. If you are still unsure, you can ask someone to set it up for you and don’t forget to ask for instructions on the basics.

Now, you can start blogging! The key here is to post frequently and consistently. You don’t have to do it everyday. However, if you decide to post once a week, make sure that you do it every week. Choose a specific day to blog (such as every Wednesday). Make your blog known by sending the web address of your blog to family and friends.

Later on, you might even make money through ads. But that’s for another topic.

Who doesn’t blog anyway? Quite a lot have jumped on to the blogging bandwagon and that saturated the blogosphere to the point of filling the Internet with more blahs than blogs. So how does one avoid some of the common blogging blunders, read on.

But what makes the blog special is also what makes it harmful. Just like any other online account, the first rule is that you should never share anything that’s too personal. With the rising cases of identity theft and other prowlers out there, you might want to keep your most personal details to yourself. You always have the option to not state your real name and your address. By being anonymous, you protect your privacy.

Limit the scope of your topics. People usually write their experiences on their blogs like what happened on their travel, school, work, or house. But do think twice before posting media because you might not want strangers to see where you live or where you go. Also, some websites hold claim to your media once you upload them, so make sure to read the website’s policies and terms first before signing up.

Use it for things other than personal. Blogging have been a part of most people’s social life so make the most out of it. It’s an efficient way to invite attendees to an upcoming event or announce promos. Spark your own personal social network through your blog.

Connect with people who share the same interests. It’s fun to have virtual friends who can share their experiences you’re also interested in. Read, link, comment and share with these people. In time, you’ll be able to find your own niche and soon, a following if you continue to charm them with your ideas.

Today marks a new day as far as WordPress themes are concerned with the release of WPUnlimited. It covers almost everything that a blogger needs in terms of customization and administration – layout and design customization interface, SEO options, and an AdSense generator.

It’s a paid theme but what you’re getting for $59 (for a single user license) is worth every cent you’ll shell out. Better still if you’re a developer. You can purchase a developer’s license for just $150 and use the theme on all your projects.

Get WPUnlimited here.

• Cleaner admin interface
• Multi-file uploading
• One-click plugin upgrades
• Built-in galleries
• Customizable dashboard
• Salted passwords and cookie encryption
• Media library
• A WYSIWYG that doesn’t mess with your code
• Concurrent post editing protection
• Full-screen writing
• Search that covers posts and pages.

You can view the screencast for the Release Candidate here.

Amit over at Digital Inspiration wrote this great article on the modus operandi of the AdSense click fraud scheme in India. India ranks among the highest in click fraud (as shown in the map above, via Click Forensics). So basically what they do is:

You basically create a website and then write a few articles to get accepted into the official Google AdSense program. Once you become an AdSense publisher, you join any of these “bogus” AdSense network and are introduced to other members who are in the same boat as you.

It is quite disturbing to read news about these so-called networks. Hey, I work for a blogging network too and never did we encourage to click ads of blogs in our own network. We play it clean and let our traffic (via our hard labor in writing posts) drive our income. Not that I’m demeaning a whole nationality but this recent news could probably taint the great reputation of great bloggers who are based there. What if Google decides to ban all IPs originating from India because of that?

Take note of that classified ad image in Amit’s post: Rs 50,000 is the advertised earning potential in joining this kind of network. I wouldn’t know if they really reach this amount but Indian rupees is around US$ 1,253.20. I know some probloggers out there who work outside the US who get a (damn) lot less than that. And these are people who work long hours to generate great content.

I know how quick Google can drop the hammer on these guys. I just hope this doesn’t echo for these countries to be considered a bad market by Google. Anyway, Google has a research and development office in India.

This is yet another development in the tag-board technology.

In my early days of blogging, adding a tag-board for getting quick and easy replies from visitors was a must. Though over the years, people have cautioned people from placing tag-boards to encourage people to read posts and place relevant comments. I personally agree with this though I still see some blogs with tag-boards.

A variation of a tag-board is the chat widget made popular by Meebo and Cbox. Now Google is joining the fray with their own chat widget that links to your Google Talk account. You can simply grab the code and embed it to your web page (runs on iframe). What’s great about it is people need not have a Google account or anything else installed to send you a message. And even better, you can block people from spamming you just by enabling the “Busy” option when you’re not online.

Get the Google Talk Chat Widget here.

Now here’s a new update on the matter. CookiePie is a Firefox add-on that manages cookies on a per tab basis. That means that you will now be able to use solely the Firefox rendering engine to view the sites.

Here’s a video sample of how it handles two Gmail accounts simultaneously:

However, the author’s site indicates that there are still a few kinks that need to worked out with this one (e.g. conflicts with Tab Mix Plus) but it is a promising work in progress. Especially for those of us who need multiple log-in sessions.

Download CookiePie add-on here.

Via Firefox Facts

Just take a look at this starry and fab design:

Download Gossip City Wordpress Theme over at Celebrific.

Okay, a while ago, I upgraded my personal blog from WordPress 2.2.3 to WordPress 2.3. One of my biggest concerns was how would I switch from using the Ultimate Tag Warrior plug-in to WP 2.3’s tagging system. Good thing it didn’t involve too much of a fuss and I’d like to share how I did it.

1. Perform your backups – database, files, etc..
2. Install and upgrade WordPress (or overwrite the old version)
3. Make the necessary changes to your template to accommodate the tags In my case I had to replace the UTW functions with the WP’s tag functions.
   • First, I got rid of the <?php if (is_tag()) { echo ' : '; UTW_ShowCurrentTagSet('tagsettextonly'); } ?> in the header.php file. I previously put it there so that tags pages would show the tag in the page title.
   • Next, I replaced <?php UTW_ShowTagsForCurrentPost("commalist") ?> (shows my tags) with WP’s <?php the_tags('before','separator ','after'); ?> found in my index.php and single.php. Remember to replace before, separator and after with elements that you’d want to show up when showing the tags.
   • Finally, I replaced the tag cloud function <?php UTW_ShowWeightedTagSetAlphabetical("sizedtagcloud","",0) ?> in my tags.php template page with <?php wp_tag_cloud('smallest=8&largest=36&'); ?>
4. After editing the theme, it was time for me to import my tags from UTW to WordPress and it’s quite easy. The import manager is found in the Manage -> Import option of the wp-admin interface. You’d see there an option for Ultimate Tag Warrior. Clicking on it will bring you to the five-step import process of UTW tags to WP. It simply guides you to the quick and easy steps. Step 1’s backing up your database and the rest is just a matter of clicking the next button until you go through them all.

My blog’s running with no problems whatsoever.

• Native tagging support – Tags! Finally! And best of all, there are importers for those using Ultimate Tag Warrior, Jerome’s Keywords, Simple Tafs, and Bunny’s Technorati Tag.
• Update notification – WordPress now uses a new api.wordpress.org service that consolidates information about the tags you are using and provides suggestions when available.
• URL handling – Achieve better SEO with a better URL handling that ensures that changed slugs never go bad.
• Pending review – Great for multi-author blogs. This way editors can now see pending posts unlike before when you just have to wait for the editor to take notice.
• Improved WYSIWYG functionality – AKA the Kitchen Sink Button that allows access form features that were previously hidden.

Download WordPress 2.3 here.