There are tons of hosting horror stories that I’ve heard from my friends.

First is from pakngah (pakngah.org) who hosting his blog on some Malaysian hosting company and they lost his database. Yea, all his previous posts and comments, all gone. Not once, but TWICE! I think that is the nightmare of every blogger. I can’t imagine how I would react if my blog disappeared.

Then I have this friend, Khai (justkhai.com) , who hosted his forum, blog hosting service and his own personal blog on a Malaysian hosting. He was sponsored by them. The bad thing is, their hosting is always experiencing downtime. And when their servers are down, all the employees disappear so the users are left hanging and wondering.

So what is a good web hosting company? Well firstly, find a company that is reliable. Google the company name and see if anyone has complained about it in forums, websites or in their blog. Then make sure that the company is established. Thirdly, look for a plan that suits your needs. Those are the basic three tips to looking for a good hosting company. You can google more articles such as “web hosting”, “creating a blog”, “what is html” and so on to gain more information before choosing the right web host. Good luck!

(1) Blog 365

I joined this site http://blog365.ning.com/ on the 3rd of January. What is it about? I guess you could say that this is my new year resolution (tho I didn’t officially make any). Its a commitment to blog 365 days in 2008 - which is basically one post a day. So far I have been making good progress. There was a few days that I missed out in the beginning tho

Looking back at my previous posts made me realize that it was so enjoyable to read the stuff that I did, said, saw and talked about back then. This blog also kind of serves as my online organizer with important dates and events. I’m sure it’ll be nice one day to look back at 2008 and have something interesting to read about each day

(2) Biru 2.0 Theme

As you can see, I changed my theme. There was a slight kekecohan about this theme but its all settled now. If it was me, I would probably not like other ppl commenting non-related stuff about a theme which I worked hard to create.

I modified it a bit. I took off a lot of the sidebar items because I didnt like it to look cluttered. Especially the huge RSS button. Will replace it with something smaller later (if ever). I also created my own Single Page (single.php) because I wanted the navigation on the single page to show the title post of the previous and next post (if you don’t understand what I mean, click the title of one of my posts and look at the top part).

Anyway, kudos to neutronics for this theme. It has been fixed to be used in IE and Firefox. Oh, Hariz pon pakai theme nie

(3) Phuket Countdown

Since we’re talking about this new theme, I added a new widget in my side bar, right at the top. Its the countdown to my Phuket trip on the 31st of January till 3rd of February. Im going to be travelling with Pam and Aree. 3 days of fun in the sun with my girls…wheeeeeeee~~

Note to self: need to buy new swimsuit if possible

(4) Ad Free since 2008?

As you can see, this is currently an ad free blog. After that Adverlets problem last week and also the fact that I changed my theme, I have not added any codes. I’m currently dropping “Voogle” ads from my blog because there is no income from there.

There are currently 4 blog ads companies in Malaysia, the two newest being Grab My Ass Ads and Nufflets. The reason why I didn’t subscribe to both was because GMA can only add blogs starting with a www which is kinda weird. Might be a technical error but its a turnoff for me. Nufflets…don’t you have any other more original name? I have yet to hear positive feedback on it so didnt sign up. My adverlets income is currently stagnant at rm70 - i think so, havent logged in for ages - and it’s been at that level for months now. Likewise to Nuffnang.

So basically, I haven’t had any income coming in from the companies above. So far all my blogging income has been from writing posts. Perhaps other people have good good feedback from them but not from me. To each his own i guess.

Anyway, that’s not the point of my blog. The point of my blog is an outlet to express how I feel - whatever extra I make is just a bonus (and also a way to pay for my domain and hosting - since I get paid in USD to Paypal).

So what do you think of my blog being adfree?

p/s: khai, i pon nak letak byk2 topic dlm 1 post

Have you been to certain websites and thought “Damn, that website looks so sophisticated and creative. I wonder how they do that?” Then again, maybe its because I’m interesting in this kinda thing - creating websites - since I was a kid.

I started getting hooked on the internet back in school. I even started blogging a little bit back then using a website that was aimed more for kids (well I was a kid back then) which was something like My Diary or something similar with colourful graphics and all.

After that I was enthralled by the world of HTML, the magical language that created all those great websites I see online. I decided to teach myself HTML - using nothing but Notepad. It was the trend then to create personal websites. Friendster, Myspace, Facebook and all those other social networking sites were not so popular then (were they even around yet? I don’t think so).

My most memorable incident related to webdesigning was in secondary school when 2 of my friends and I represented our school for this National webdesign competition - even though our school didn’t have a functional computer lab then. We were sent to take a course in Frontpage by the contest organizers. However, because it was such basic stuff (and we had a step-by-step handbook of screenshots of what to do) all of us installed CS in the computers in the training room and played CS instead. LOL!

So anyway, back to my opening question. I learned a lot about webdesigning by looking at the websites I liked and downloading the source code to see how they did it. Back then I didn’t know about programs that could copy web sites - including all the images, videos and codes.

Its actually been a while since I designed a proper website. Most clients all want it to be eye popping and animated so Flash is heavily used. Nowadays, I always feel like I’m not creative enough to be as good as the rest. Maybe I just need to find the time and the passion to try harder.

What again? Yea, I’m thinking of changing this theme - again. Looking for the perfect theme is like looking for a soulmate. Haha! I’m serious! It has to be the right colour, the right size, right images and most of all right feel for the blog. So yea, dont be surprised to see weird changes and what not.

Come to think of it, I don’t really like the sidebars on either side of the main window. Looks like too much text in one place. I think I still like my previous one with the sidebar on the right side. Im thinking of putting all my links in a separate page instead of at the side bar, kinda cluttered looking don’t you think?

Oh yea, Jai from Blog Oh! Blog is offering a lucky draw for a custom-made theme. Great way to start of blogging in 2008 yea? *crosses fingers in hopes of winning*

hey guys, i submitted my blog for the Malaysian Dotcom Youth awards. Wanna know more? click the Triangular vote for me button on the top right. Thanks!

(more…)

There was a question on the MalaysianBloggers forum about moving from a free blog service to their own dotcom. Well I think that having your own hosting and domain is better because then you can host your own blogging platform - like Wordpress which gives you more control over your blog(s).

Then, you can also host your own photos using many different photo album services instead of relying on free services which are limited. Not only that, dot com sites get better paid posts

However, there are so many different webhosts available. How do you choose the right one? Well, just drop by http://www.webhostingchoice.com and put your budget and requirements (size of space, bandwidth) then it’ll search for the most suitable webhost.

Good luck!