On January 1, 2010, I’m launching a new community for the general bloggers and webmasters. BloggersBB. It is an exciting project for me because I have always wanted to setup my own community. I have attempted running a few many times over the last few years, but due to multiple reasons, I had to shut down the forums or sell it off.
I have a few sites which I really do hold on tightly. I also do have a lot (or maybe too many) of mini-sites optimized and monetized to grow money. I recently sold off my soccer site to re-launch it under a different name this coming summer. Hence, I don’t have a single website (aside from this blog) right now that I consider to be a “major” online project for me. I plan on making BloggersBB that one.
BloggersBB will be kicking off the new decade with a contest. More details regarding the contest will be released on this blog this blog on the 1st. However, I thought that I might as well share with you guys some of the plans I have specifically for BloggersBB this year. I feel that whenever I set goals for my websites, I can direct the site a little bit better. This is one of the reasons why I never set monetization goals aside from things like, “I’m going to reach $100/month for a certain site.” Anyways, to the goals.
BloggersBB 2010 Resolutions
Reach 1500+ Registered Members: I know that member counts don’t really mean much because members’ activity matters more. However, I would still like to set a target of 1500+ registered members for BloggersBB this coming year. That is a little over 4 registrations per day. This pace probably isn’t possible and easy at the beginning stages of the forums life, but I’m sure correct promotion will help pick up the registrations.
50,000 Posts: Past experience in running forums tells me that depending on the community’s topic of interest, posting rate will differ. 100 posts a day will equal 36,500 posts in a year. I hope to make BloggersBB have more talk going on and hence, set a goal of more than 100 posts per day. 50,000 posts equals out to be about 136 posts per day and I feel that this is perfectly possible as long as I stay active in the forums and continues to promote it.
Two Major Contests: Contests will be a big portion of BloggersBB and I will certainly work within my boundaries to run some sort of a contest every month. However, I plan to run at least two major contests/competitions this 2010. The first one will be the launch contest which the full details will be released on January 1, 2010. The second will most likely come sometime during the middle of the year or a little later on. If there is something special to celebrate, that probably will be when the contest/competition is run. If you are interested in sponsoring any sort of prizes for bloggers and webmasters, feel free to get in touch with me.
Black Label Development: Black Label is a special group status in BloggersBB which I plan on working on pretty hard this coming year. It will be the core of the “blogging course” or “academy” which I plan on developing. More details regarding this will follow. I hope to have at least 50 members in the forums by 2011 as Black Label members. Of course, these would have to be 50 happy members who are extremely proud of their Black Label status.
100% Reinvestment: This is more of a promise than a goal. Whatever I earn from/through BloggersBB, I intend to put everything back into the promotion and the development of BloggersBB. Developing a successful community doesn’t come for free. All funds earned will be saved and invested into areas such as promotion, custom modification development, script upgrade (or purchase, as I’m not liking vBulletin 4.0 right now), and server costs.
Hopefully, things will work out perfectly and I will overachieve what I have set today, a year from now. How can I achieve it? I need the help from you guys!
BloggersBB will have a launch contest this Friday, January 1, 2010. We will be giving out over $1000 worth of prizes. If you are a blogger or a wembaster, I would like to encourage you to join as there will be prizes for everyone. 
So yesterday, I promised to write a post on how to move your WordPress blog or any site for that matter to a new host. I guess this post could be relevant at this time of the year, as one of my favorite things to do during this time is to introduce people to blogging and the easiest way is giving out hosting. Some have their own hosting, but choose to change ships and if you are one of those, this post will be relevant to you.
For this post, I’m going to focus specifically on migrating your WordPress blog over from one host to another host. I’ll cover the more general technique of transferring your blog over to another blog. Then, I’ll cover a really straightforward option possible in the case the control panel your web hosting company offers you is cPanel.
Moving Your WordPress Installation
To move your blog over to another host, the two things that you want to backup are your wp-content and your MySQL database. To backup your wp-content folder, it is pretty straightforward. Just download the folder through your FTP client and you’re done.
Backing up your MySQL is a little more complicated. Login to your phpMyAdmin and select the database that has your WordPress installation. With the database selected:
- At the top, click Export
- When the page loads, at the left side in the Export box, there will be all the tables in your current database. Click Select All to select all the tables.
- Underneath, among the radio buttons, there should be one labeled SQL. Select that.
- Under the SQL section in the right, tick the settings: Structure, Add DROP TABLE, Add AUTO_INCREMENT, and Enclose table and field names with backquotes.
- Then right below, tick Save as file. Once you save it to your computer, you’re pretty much done backing up.
Now, putting it back online.
- Download a copy of WordPress from WordPress.org. Extract it and except for the wp-content folder, upload everything.
- Then, update the wp-config-sample.php file to a database you have created in your new hosting account.
- Upload the wp-content folder you backed up to your blog’s root directory.
- To restore your MySQL database, login to phpMyAdmin and choose a database you wish to restore your tables into.
- Then, click Import, Browse, select your SQL file, and click Go.
- You should be all set then.
Super Easy Way If You Use cPanel
If you have cPanel and your new host uses cPanel, simply click Backup and backup the Home directory and the MySQL database. Then, in your new hosting account, simply use the Restore wizard, click Browse, and select your backups. Done!
Conclusion
When I changed hosts, I utilized both methods. I can confidently say that both methods work very fine. If you do try one of the two methods and get stuck somewhere, feel free to contact me and I’ll try to help you out.
How do you successfully move your blogs over, as not all hosts are always perfect? Any migration episodes to share?
So I was nearing the end of the contract with my previous host. Well, my previous host’s servers weren’t all that amazing as it was some pretty old hardware. To make the blog and my sites run a little faster, I have decided to move onto a server with better and more recent hardware. You should see a significant increase in performance regarding the page load times.
Tomorrow, I’m planning on sharing with you all a tip for bloggers and general webmasters. A difficulty I had with this transfer was the transfer itself. I usually relied on webhosts to do the migration for me, but I decided to conduct the move myself this time. I used the steps for four of my blogs recently and all of them transferred over fine, so I’m assuming it is somewhat fail-proof.
Anyways, I’ll see you all then tomorrow.
It’s already that day, December 25th! Take a break from your online work and spend time with your family and friends. Although I always emphasize taking every opportunity to work, this day is one of the days in the year that you should ignore my advice.
Merry Christmas!
So I said that WordPress 2.9 is pretty slick with its new features. Well, it’s working fine for me right now, but I guess that isn’t the case for all.
Unfortunately (?), although I am on the Beta now, because I don’t have the issue with the curl, I can’t actively take part in this testing. If you do have a problem though, I suggest you jump on-board because the more people WordPress has testing, the quicker your issue will get fixed.
vBulletin released its 4.0 Gold release and as they are (still) one of the most widely used softwares when it comes to forums, it has created a good amount of talk throughout many forums. Well, there clearly is mixed opinion regarding the release that came out today (and the Beta and RC versions before the Gold). I personally own multiple (maybe a little too many) vBulletin licenses and despite all having the capability to go 4.0, I have decided not to not play “early adopter” this time and see how the 4.0 release comes out. Like many other forum owners who have been extremely long clients/users of vBulletin (personally since 2002), I feel that 4.0 isn’t the vBulletin I used to know.
BloggersBB and a few smaller forums I run will certainly NOT be going 4.0, at least for the first few months. In the future, who knows, as support for the 3.8 series ending might force me to make the upgrade…
Why I’m Not Upgrading Anytime Soon
So I thought I might as well explain why I’m not upgrading anytime soon. I am not just jumping on the bandwagon of haters and I am certainly not simply dazzled by IP.Board’s latest version.
1. vBulletin Solutions Disappointed Me
What I mean by this is that the new team in charge, not Jelsoft, has disappointed big time for me. vBulletin had the huge edge over competitors like IP.Board, phpBB, and SMF because of not only their extensive features, but the smooth coding and the excellent support. After the change in ownership, a lot of the coders leaving led to not just a drop in support, but also a free-fall in the quality of the coding. Supposedly there are ~200 queries running with the Publishing Suite and the bugs are rushed to completion. vBulletin always stood strong for the “Big Boards” and I strongly believe that a good portion of it was because of the excellent coding. The state the 4.0 is at right now certainly will set off smokes for most forums.
2. Forced Pricing
I don’t mind paying for quality software, but I am sensitive when people force me to pay for certain products that I feel is not worth the price. At the current state of 4.0, I’m glad I didn’t jump on Internet Brand’s promotional pricing structure. Software prices should be based on the overall quality of the software and the support provided. I personally believe 4.0 is a step-down from the 3.8 (when comparing comparable stats and features) series and support is at most, as good as it used to be. I don’t understand an increase in prices when the software’s quality drops and the support for it stays the same.
3. vBulletin’s Release System
So the new pricing structure states that 4.0 publishers will, for a one-time fee, get all updates in the 4.0 branch. This means that you may have paid for a forum license that may last only 18 months, the current speculated date. Paying $195 for a forum software or $285 for the Publishing Suite isn’t a cheap solution for anyone and having to pay that every time for every major update is not cool at all. It’s not as if vBulletin 4.0 is a huge jump from the 3.8 or far superior to competing scripts.
4. Subsequent/Minor Release Schedule
I always believed coding should have some time constraints, bu when a deadline is set, it should be set with a very clear picture on how finished the product will be. The stability of the Gold release shows a sheer lack of scheduling sense and it just makes me wonder how big of a difference the two updates that the management team has set in January will bring to the software.
5. Others’ Reviews
vBulletin 4.0 just might not suit my tastes. However, if it is still excellent and performs, I will use it. IP.Board doesn’t exactly fit my style, but I would use it if I had a license and had a need to use it. The problem with vBulletin 4.0 though, is that it isn’t just me. Threads questioning the readiness of 4.0 and the reviews of 4.0 show that most people are disappointed with 4.0 See how it’s not just me?
Am I Never Upgrading? Am I Leaving vBulletin?
Certainly not. I still think that 3.8 is an extremely powerful, complete, and effective software that does what I require it to do for my communities. I will stick with using vBulletin for my communities until 3.8 becomes way too outdated or I just need support. I am considering the option of possibly using IP.Board, but as I grew up using vBulletin, I may consider purchasing a license maybe a year from this post.
Regarding upgrading to vBulletin 4.0, I’m definitely holding off. I’m going to see how the 4.01 and the 4.02 release comes out to be. If it looks like it has the potential to really outshine the 3.8 series, I’ll start looking into upgrading and see what modifications I have for the boards right now are available with 4.0. If nothing much changes, you can be sure to NOT see any of my communities running the 4 branch. Maybe 5, but probably not 4.
Are you a vBulletin-based community owner? If you are, are you planning on upgrading to 4.0? I’d like to hear your opinion as communities mean much to me and therefore, softwares are pretty important.
Are you a vBulletin-based community member? Did any of your communities recently upgrade to 4.0? I’d like to hear your opinions too regarding your end-user experience on 4.0 as I’m always looking to make my communities better for my members.
I just updated ahnternet to WordPress 2.9 and everything seems to be working just fine. I think the biggest addition to this release is the built-in image editing ability.
Just did some testing with it and it isn’t Photoshop, but if you don’t have Photoshop on your computer, don’t want to turn it on, or just need some quick editing done for a simple upload on your blog, WP’s built-in capabilities should suit you just fine.
So I will admit. I have been a poor blogger in 2009. Less than 50 posts and many of the posts that I posted… they were all pretty bad. This year is quickly coming to a close, and I’m about to give this blog a big change and a lift from its dormancy. Get rid of some of those cobwebs in the WordPress admin dashboard and give some life to this thing.
2010 Changes
This coming year, at least for the first month, I’m going to test around what I can and cannot do with this blog. Currently, aside from this blog, I have school work to do (Engineer’s life is tough!), a personal blog I (seldom) post, a community to run, a soccer blog to maintain, and promotion to do for all my sites. Then I have that gaming community that I have been trying to start but never got around. I probably won’t touch that until Summer 2010, but what the heck, I’ll still mention it here. Not to forget, I also have a personal life to keep up with and running. I do have other small sites here and there, but those don’t take up nearly as much time as the ones I mentioned, so I’ll pass on those. Plus, those have been running fine anyways.
On ahnternet, the biggest change that you readers should see are obviously the increase in posts. So I’ve been really bad and have been posting crap. Well, that’s about too change. Expect from this blog at least two quality posts that should help you out on the topics I focus on in this blog: making money online, blogging, internet marketing, social networking, and community management.
Another thing you should notice is hopefully me checking out your blogs. I’m at the forefront of running a community for bloggers of all types. I might as well practice sharing tips and helping out on this blog as well as over at BloggersBB. What does this mean for you? As I don’t have every one of your blogs in the favorites, please make a comment and I’ll head over and return the favor.
So, let’s see how this goes with this year. I’m taking more classes than ever this coming quarter, so academically, I will be extremely busy. However, I still do want to keep my hobby going, so yeeeaaah!
BloggersBB will be launching on January 1, 2010 with $1000+ worth of prizes to handout to numerous winners! As some of you may know already, ahnternet will be serving as the official BloggersBB blog for the time being, as I can’t manage soo many blogs at once. 
Anyways, back to the pre-launch deal!
So, we’re going to be *officially* launching on the 1st day of the new decade. HOWEVER, the forums are actually open right now!
What does that mean?!
You can jump start on the contest now!
Head on over to the contest page and see how you can take part over 10 days before everyone else does!
Hey everyone. It’s been a while.
I’m currently in the process of setting up a blogging forum. More info to come starting December 12th!
