Over the past few days I have been busy transferring this blog to a new host.  Since it was the first time I attempted such a feat I tried to take some time to prepare.  It actually wasn’t as hard as I first feared and so far everything seems to be operating OK.  There are just a few things left to tweak.

Reconnecting the RSS feed did mean subscribers had the last 10 posts re-delivered to their reader. 

The two tips I can pass on if you are moving your Wordpress blog to a new host, is to back-up fully first. And second, after installing the new Wordpress blog but before importing all your data, change the permalink to whatever structure you use.  This way when you import your data it will be imported with the same permalink structure otherwise it gets the default. 

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Whatever you celebrate this holiday season, I wish you all the best. Have fun and stay safe :-)  

A song from one of my favourite Christmas Movies, ‘A Muppet Chirstmas Carol’.

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I recommend using music to deal with shyness because it has been successful in helping me deal with my shyness over the years.   And I want to share with you two of the songs that I love. 

The first song is “Venus” by The Feelers, and the second is “Pacifier” by Shihad.  Both are Kiwi bands 

I have posted about using music to help deal with shyness before.  How, having a few songs that you can get lost in, and just relax too is helpful when you are dealing with shyness on a day to day basis.  In the post  how to use music to deal with shyness  I talked about how to find a song and train that song, so it is able to help you deal with shyness. 

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I recently upgraded this blog to wordpress 2.3.  I’ve never had problems upgrading before but this time comments didn’t work and I lost all my categories.  

What I did.

First I took the blog back to wp 2.2.3 and checked everything was ok - comments now worked but still no categories.   So I decided to try and reinstall wp 2.3.  While it was uploading I googled the problem and found that the old version of the google sitemap plug-in was not compatible and in addition some themes were causing problems.

I downloaded the latest sitemap plug-in and a new 2.3 compatible theme.  Once 2.3 was uploaded I changed theme and checked the comments.  My categories were back and comments worked.  So it must have been my theme or a plug-in. I activated all plug-ins one by one, checking that comments worked each time. I then switched my theme back (I really like this one)  And fingers crossed, so far everything seems to be working ok.  Since wp2.3 works with my old theme I can only conclued that if it wasn’t something odd that I did, then the problem was the google sitemap plug-in, which now updated, works fine.
One thing I didn’t like with wp2.3 was the incoming links in the dashboard.  It seems they are now being pulled from google blogs rather than technorati.  I followed (easy) instructions from the wordpress support fourm  and now my dashboard shows incoming links from technorati again.
It seems I need to tweak this theme to add tag support.  I’m still unsure whether I will do this or not.  I might wait and see how tags work on other blogs before deciding their value.    

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Writing projects are heaps of fun, first the task of choosing something to write that doesn’t stray too far off your blogs target but  fits within the theme of the contest.  Then once all the entries have been posted reading them is always good because I love finding new blogs to subscribe to.   This past week I entered two writing projects, and here are my picks for both.

Bluejar

Sarah over at bluejar hosted a ‘how to’ writing project.  My entry was ‘How to self promote when you don’t want to’.  After looking through all the other entries I have my top three:

1. 1. Contains zero trans fat truth or legal advertising.  One of my new favourite blogs, and an awesome post.  Now I know how to avoid trans fats. 
2. 2. How to add copyright notices to your blog. I found this very useful since I had been wondering how to do just this.
3. 3. Mind mapping tutorial on blogging. This post looked at mind mapping online applications. I liked this so much because the mind map you make looks like it has been drawn by hand.

Daily blog tips

Daniel at Daily blog tips also hosted a writing project - the theme was ‘Tips and Tricks’.  My entry was ‘Forgotten someone’s name? Use these tricks’.  I really enjoy looking through all the entries and because Daniel lets us have up to 10 faves - here are mine:

1. 1. 10 Financial mistakes to avoid - Really good practical tips.
2. 2. How I got aerobed to number 1 - Great tips in this post!
3. 3. 5 tips to being interesting - Great post, very interesting.
4. 4. Tips on gaining page views and returning visitors using post series - This is a really good idea. I know I enjoy post series; I usually star them in my google reader so I can read them altogether.
5. 5. 7 tips for brand new wordpress blogs - Good basic tips and not just for brand new blogs.
6. 6. 5 ways to increase internet traffic to your blog or web site - Something I really need to start working on, these are great tips to get me started.
7. 7. 3 mind tricks to feel better.  Great tips, it is always important to remember we decide our reality. 
8. 8. 7 key skills of the successful adwords advertiser.  Even though I don’t use adwords, I really enjoyed this post.
9. 9. Top 10 countdown of your most creative relaxation ideas. Relaxation ideas from people who actually use them and recommend them. 
10. 10. Tips to a healthier you.  Great tips, I am defiantly trying these tips.

Wow thats a big list.  So may good post and only 3 or 10 to pick.  Good luck to everyone and thanks again to Sarah and Daniel.

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Reading my favourite blogs this morning and I see there is a lot of buzz surrounding Ashwin who set up a fake blog contest offering a prize as $2,500.  There were many people who were skeptical about this contest since the prize was so high.  But that didn’t stop hundreds of people taking the risk that it might be real (myself included).

The thing that is most annoying is the ’winning’ blog is obviously one that Ashwin threw together at the last minute.  The guy didn’t even take time to set up a proper fake blog to win the fictional prize of his scam contest. How rude! 

A very cool new phrase “Pulling an Ashwin” has been born thanks to Angel at World of Angel .  Angel has his own contest where you can win $100 and I laughed as I read “Rest assured folks that I will not be pulling an Ashwin”   So if you are fuming after the Ashwin fiasco this contest might help.

 There is a great video here with all the details and it also reminds us all to remove links to Ashwin and spread the word.

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I just liked it because it said my ‘real’ age was 21. 

Poodwaddle.com

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I love quotes that remind you that anything is possible.   Here are some that I found and wanted to share. 

“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”
George Elliot

“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal.”
Elbert Hubbard

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
Henry Ford

“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.”
Oprah Winfrey

“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
Michelangelo

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I was not planning to enter any blog contest unless I could do so while staying (mostly) on topic and that doing so was fun.  I wanted the main motivation to be interaction and involvement not cash or an iPhone.   But a chance to win $2,500?  Well that’s different.  So here goes: 

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

This contest is certainly unbelievable, and there certainly a number of people who are non-believers.  At the moment I am too naive to believe that someone would run a fake contest.   So Ashwin I’m a believer.  

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1. It’s not easy being green.  It may not be easy but Kermit has shown us that by being happy and content with who you are can lead to great success.   It can be hard to establish an identity when you are fresh to the blogging world.    It is very easy to be passed over.   Just remember how important, creative and strong you can be.  Be content with in yourself and who knows what can happen.  

2. Do it because it is your passion.  This is the hallmark of what Kermit stood for.  The sole reason Kermit decided to head for Hollywood was because he wanted to make millions of people happy.   If you blog about something you are passionate about you will find the experience more fulfilling, you will be more motivated,  find  posting easier and therefore be more likely to succeed.    This follows true in life as well as blog. 3.  One day we’ll find it.  For those people who dare to dream big,  who keep their dreams alive and never give up.  These people will be the ones who have their dreams come true.   Blogging by itself may not be your dream, but educating, helping, informing, entertaining and inspiring can all be achieved through a blog. 

I really wanted to include ’Near and far’ in my list.  I give full credit to Sesame Street and in particular Kermit for teaching me all about near and far.  Now I’m not too sure how this relates to blogging, but it certainly helps in life, especially when you are driving.

This post was written as part of the blog project 3.With $300 in prizes you should enter too

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