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What Did You Do This Christmas?
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After the launch of the new design, I spent few minutes killing some theme bugs (Although I’m sure there are still some) then got back to work with the product I was talking about before. The report was finished near midnight 11 PM. When I converted it to PDF a minor glitch pop-upped. It seems like the image lost its quality. I haven’t encountered this before and in fact, I’m still using the same converter (Adobe 3d) and the same image types.
Luckily I’ve got a friend on MSN who was willing to help. Dean Hunt generously converted it for me just so I finish it before the deadline – Thanks man.
While we were chatting, I was surprised when my mom told me that we’re going out tomorrow. Of course, I didn’t ask why because obviously it’s Christmas time. That snowballed and gave the launch 3 days of delay, considering that I got hacked for a whole day. But anyway, we just got back, it will be out on the next hour or two. Watch out!
What We Did On Christmas
I don’t often post personal stuff here, but since it’s Christmas, I’m going to give a little taste of what the Kidblogger is behind the blog.
As little as this:
The World’s Smallest Pineapple
That thing is 2 inches tall. I don’t know if it’s edible or not, but I’ll soon find out >:-D
Days Hotel
After a busy day of blogging, I deserve a whole day off. Although the WiFi was too tempting.
Cultivated Mushrooms
After having a BigMac stop at McDonalds, we tried the local’s infamous Mushroom burger. The burger costs half the price of a BigMac but tastes double and probably half the junk, Haha.
Horseback Riding!
While my brother was on his bike, I took the chance to do something different, Horseback Riding! Looks classic eh?
RC Helicopter Finale
It was one of the best holiday vacations ever. And oh, I almost forgot, the video with my RC helicopter as I promised:
Don’t worry though, the chopper has crashed loads of times and it’s still running smoothly.
How About You?
What did you do this Christmas? Share them to everyone, make a post about it then give me the link by commenting below. I’d be glad to link all of it in a future post. Don’t forget to include pictures!
We Got Hacked – And How We Fixed It
This Sunday morning, Slashpix IMed me on gtalk about a shocking thing that happened to my blog. He asked “What’s up with your site?”, with enough curiosity I checked out my blog and wow – this just scared the heck out of me:
Parking Page of Carl Ocab dot com
In the hopes of just a web host slip, I checked every domain on the same hosting account. Eight of them were taken down and all under the name of my dad. Namely carlocab.com and grandstart.com.
I paused for a moment and logged in on MSN to find guys whom I can chat with and get help because this is the first site hackage I encountered. Three people started IMing me and asked about the parking page. One of them was my buddy XMCP who gladly helped me and gave me useful advices on what to do.
After a few minutes, I chatted with Host Gator and asked them why that page was showing up. It took them about 10 minutes to give me a solution – that didn’t work.
They told me that the domains were removed as an addon on cpanel. They said I should install them back, but it seems like I can’t because it’s already added on another account.
The funny thing was, the nameservers was not changed at all. The hacker might have used another host gator account with the same nameserver to put that ugly landing page on my domain. This gave me time to breathe, no files were removed, no files lost so no worries. I just have to nail this hacker and this thing is solved.
After a few IMs with XMCP, he told me to call Host Gator to get more live help and track down the hacker. I told my dad about the situation then he called HG. Again, it took the support 10 minutes to answer the problem and gave my dad a link to a site restore page where we should pay $15 per domain to restore the site.
Actually, if we did pay that it would cost us $120 without getting the problem fixed.
I thought of a quick solution to fix this in less than 24 hours, (I can’t manage to wait for Host Gator to answer or fix this, it’ll take weeks probably) so Google won’t notice the parked site and I won’t lose all of my rankings within the day.
Carl Ocab Dot Com Rebirth
If someone was using it as an addon on Host Gator then I can probably get away with it by changing the nameserver and switching to a new host. I packed away all the WP stuff and look for a more secure hosting plan.
There comes Media Temple. One of the biggest folks in the web hosting world. They hosted sites like ABC news, Nike, Adidas and even Adobe. It didn’t gave me a second thought. I then purchased their Grid-Service package and after 5 minutes, all was set in place!
I switch the nameservers of all hacked sites to Media Temple’s and got it working within an hour. Special thanks to Charles Lau’s post on how to transfer Wordpress to another server. It helped me transfer my blog with ease.
Lesson Learned
After a tiring day, I didn’t have any choice but to learn from what happened.
Never, ever be cheap when buying your web host. Always take the first class because it’s the life of your artwork. It’s the dirt that makes your tree grow. Back up files regularly too.
Personal Or Just A Security Hole?
When we got to church this morning, it kept me thinking if this was intentionally done to us or it was just a cpanel security hole like what happened last year. What do you think?
7 Steps To Media Fame – Part 2
Today we are going to complete our 7 Steps to Media Fame experiment. This is a continuation from part one, so if you didn’t read part one, and would like to get your website, blog, or business mentioned in the national media… for FREE, then go and read part one first.
STEP FOUR – Write an Overview
You now should have some email replies, some will be positive and some will be negative. It is likely that they will want an overview from you.
Warning: Journalists will try to use a more complex word than “overview”, I don’t know why they do this, perhaps to seem more intelligent, but expect to be asked for:
- A Capsualization
- An Outline
- A Précis
- A Synopsis
I was personally asked for a 200 word Précis. Just remember, they want a general overview of the story.
Your goal here is to write an overview that is interesting, easy to understand, fairly well written, and has a unique aspect to it.
Note: Don’t worry about grammatical errors, but ask a friend or family member to proof read it before you send it, and use an online spell checker.
Focus on keeping it simple, and remember to include your unique angle.
STEP FIVE – Get More Coffee
They have your overview now, so grab another coffee, and perhaps an Xbox360 controller as well (contact me if you want to know my Xbox Gamertag) and wait again.
They will reply and either say:
- “We like it, can you please send me/write the full story and then I will speak with the editor and try and get it published.”
- “We don’t like it!”
If they say they don’t like it, don’t worry! There are plenty more fish in the sea, and don’t forget, there are millions of magazines as well as newspapers.
If they say they like it, then you will have to move to Step Six:
STEP SIX – Writing the full story
If you have reached this stage then give yourself a big pat on the back. You are close to becoming famous in your industry, and getting tens of thousands of dollars worth of publicity for FREE.
Note: If you are a terrible writer then you could hire one instead, or perhaps a friend could help you.
Your goal here is to write your full story, aim for around 500 words, and remember to include as many of these as possible:
- WHO
- WHAT
- WHERE
- WHEN
- WHY
Read other stories and copy their formatting style. Test your ideas and then have it proof read once you are finished.
It is also best to include your contact information at the bottom, and send 2 or 3 photos as well.
TIP: They want high quality photos, so don’t send them a crappy .GIF file. Use the originals, and in the highest possible quality.
STEP SEVEN – Making a Deal
Most newspapers are NOT going to pay you for your story. But remember, you are getting a lot of free publicity, so don’t worry.
Your goal is to try and mention your site or product without it sounding like a promotion.
My Example
I got a mention of DeanHunt.com by talking about my personal blog. It was logical to give the URL, but I didn’t promote it by saying stuff like “Best Buzz Marketing Site on the Net.”
I simply slipped it gently into the conversation.
Remember: Editors will remove anything that sounds like a promo-piece.
Summary
There we have it. Seven steps you can start using today to get yourself into national newspapers.
Since my article was published I have had over 80 emails from readers. I am meeting with people in Madrid this weekend, and I have had two job offers.
You probably won’t be the next Paris Hilton of the media, but you can get thousands of dollars of publicity for yourself, your site and your business.
I welcome your questions and feedback here at Carl Ocab.
From Dean Hunt – a Newly Published Writer ;)
Christmas Goodies from Dean
The Web Traffic Orgasm FREE marketing Case Studies, Free Buzz Experiments and Free Media Tricks are still available. Download them today!
Also, if you are looking for a little more cash for the holidays, have you considered selling one of your websites or blogs?
I welcome your feedback.
Have a happy holidays and a hazy New Year ;)
Dean Hunt
New Theme Is Out And It Rocks!
Ah Christmas, time to give, time to receive and time to launch a new theme! First of all, Merry Christmas, I hope you had a superb time with your family and friends. This is probably one of the best Christmas ever, I got a cool RC helicopter from my dad. I still don’t know how to fly it properly but it’s still the best. I’ll post a video soon.
Anyway, without further ado – welcome to the new Carl Ocab dot com!
Pause for a minute. Have a look at the beauty and oh for those feed subscribers, just click here.
The theme isn’t as sleek as it looks. There maybe bugs crawling out there, so please help me find them and spray them out.
I’ve changed a lot of things from the old design, here is a recap:
- A wider design to accumulate all the new features and to give more space for the content.
- Observed the nofollow attribute more and added them to links to non valuable pages.
- Fixed the 3 boxes and replaced them with text, it was an image before.
- Added a featured post area so the best tips don’t go down so easily and get replaced by some of my ramblings or maybe newsy kind of posts, heh.
- Excerpted posts for faster loading, more pageviews and to kill duplicate content.
- Wrapped the AdSense ad on the homepage and removed them on single posts. I’ve found out that 90% of clicks were only coming from the homepage, probably people from the keyword “Make Money Online”.
- Blogrush wasn’t working good enough for me. For the whole time I used it on this blog, I only got 30 unique visitors from them. To start the new year, I’m trying out Entrecard, I’ve heard a lot of people like it and got a good amount of traffic from them. My space is currently empty so don’t forget to drop yours! 2 credits is the cost this time.
- I’ve added an affiliate ad in the middle of the 3rd and 4th post and replaced the AdSense ad above the footer with a private ad deal.
- I guess you can see the big RSS button below :-)
I didn’t change the colors much so everyone can still recognize the old blog from this one.
Your Thoughts
The most important aspect of a great design is what the visitor wants. At this point of time, I’m asking you. Drop your feedback and your constructive criticisms in the comments section.
Bye for now, I’m off to bug hunting!
Christmas = New Design!
No post for the last 6 days? There should be something going on.
Yes there is, and it’s not only one but I’ve been working on two major projects. I’m planning to launch them both exactly this Christmas. That’s 3 days wait so don’t get bored yet because it’s already knocking on your door.
Back to the second announcement – I’m a little bit tired of this current design. It looks scrunched up, the advertisements are taking over so for the second major project I got a custom blog design! Not only that, my designer also came up with a unique logo that truly describes what this blog is all about.
And Here It Is
What we’ve done:
- As you can see, the logo’s main structure is that of an atom with the nucleus replaced by a dollar sign. Making money online is not by chance or luck it should be studied scientifically down to every atom ;-)
- The text “Carl Ocab” is broken into two so people would stop confusing my name to Carlo Cab or other variations. The funniest so far was Carl O’cab.
I wanted a logo since start so something can symbolize what I’m doing without reading a single word on my blog. Man, it makes a good sticker too. Anyone up for one?
For those who are wondering, I got Design Guru Ryan for the blog design and the logo. He’s also the one who designed the salesletter of my upcoming product.
I only requested a PSD design from him and got it coded elsewhere because he doesn’t code Wordpress. The total cost of the design is around $350, that’s $250 for the design and $100 for the coding. But don’t look down the affordable price, Design Guru Ryan crafted some of the top notch internet marketer’s salesletters like Mike Filsaime’s The Seven Figure Code and Chris Mcneeney’s Day Job Killer.
The logo design was a bit tough because we had to experiment with placements of the text and logo. He are some of what came up:
Finally, I got the idea to break up the Carl with the Ocab. It would benefit my name so it wasn’t a hard decision.
That’s it, don’t go anywhere guys. This will be something unique.
How Strong Is Your Dream?
This article is guest posted by Kenneth Elliott
I read an article yesterday that explained the many trials and tribulations that Internet entrepreneurs go through. The article centered on lasting effects, staying the course. I hear of so many people who broadcast these info commercials that in effect promise thousands of dollars a day with little to no work. Well, unless there is a crystal ball or a major platform for these types of websites “Don’t Believe Them”.
Internet marketing/affiliate marketing takes a lot of time and efforts in the beginning. It’s like the turtle and the rabbit. Yeah, there are those that will begin with a fast pace but those who maintain the steady pace will win the race. Usually, the ones that start out with a fast pace burn out or just don’t finish the race. They fall out of the race in a month or two. That is what this business tends to do. People get into this business and feel that they can make $10,000 to $20,000 dollars in the first year as site like shoemoney.com or John Chow dot com. But what they don’t know is all the struggles and time these sites put into generating traffic and writing articles in the beginning. Hell, I thought the same thing when I first started. But I soon found out that a year or even two years is nothing when developing a base for this business. But those who stick in there will definitely see the benefit.
How Strong IS YOUR DREAM? There are thousands of dollars out there for those who will work hard and put in the time. Are you the rabbit or the turtle? Put the time in and work hard to develop the necessary relationships and you to will be bringing in the big money like shoemoney.com or John Chow dot com.
I wrote this article to give a little inspiration to those that have not seen the income that they wanted to see thus far. Stick in there. The seeds that you plant today will blossom!!
Kenneth Elliott is the owner of Make Money Online – Marketassociate.com. The website concentrates on revealing tip and tricks that will help developing individuals to make more money online.
Carl Ocab is one of the most successful teenage bloggers on the net. But remarkably, Carl was just 13 years old when he rose to fame with his hugely popular “make money online” website: www.carlocab.com
