I am Adam

Talented artist Emila Yusof created this stylised graphic of my name just for commenting on her blog.



What do you think?

Geeky girls

Way back in 2003, I once asked "Are most bloggers, Girls?" I later wrote "Not all Bloggers are teenage girls". This was followed by "WAHMs leading the blogging brigade" in my technology focussed blog, Adamok.net.

Well according to an article in The New York Times,

..the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls.

The article also quotes the results of a Pew study, which says that the doubling of the number of bloggers from 2004 to 2006 was due to the “the increased activity of girls.”

Not only are there more teenage girl bloggers, but apparently the primary creators of Web content and social networking sites are girls. I guess it's true because just looking at my classmates - almost all of the girls are on Facebook whereas some of the guys haven't even heard of it. Of course, I should point out that some of these guys have teenage kids and are not really into the new developments on the net.

Katy has always something to write about

It's been quite sometime since I last visited 'I’m Blogging That' blog. It was on my old blogs "to review" list but ..... (excuses, excuses). Anyway, blogger Katy Castro is a work at home Mom who currently resides in Las Vegas. She blogs on a number of topics but mostly related to the blogosphere and on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), something that I am keen on as well.

One of her latest posts gives tips on ways to "make your free theme unique". It's a post that all new bloggers should read. I totally agree with her. Come to think of it, I know of several long time bloggers who are still using the generic Blogger templates. Talking about themes, I really like the new blog design. It's a bit "girly " with the pink colours but why not.

One new rumour I just learnt from her blog is that Google might start offering sponsored reviews in the near future. That's great news and I am really looking forward to signing up if it does go ahead.

There are loads of interesting posts on her blog. I am really looking forward to her series on ways to improving your page rank. As the tag line of Katy's blog goes "Because there is always something to write about."

Vote for Katy on the 2008 Blogger Choice Awards.

Bloggers are Opinion leaders

Have you ever wondered who the most influential people in the World are? Are they politicians or are they the celebrities - actors and actresses, singers? Paris Hilton? I certainly hope not because apart from a few, majority are definitely not good role models.

I asked a few of my friends and quite a few mentioned their parents. Some mentioned peer groups and in particular- the opinion leaders. So who are these opinion leaders?

Searching for a suitable definition, I cam across several. Wikipedia defines an opinion leader as "the agent who is an active media user and who interprets the meaning of media messages or content for lower-end media users. Typically the opinion leader is held in high esteem by those that accept their opinions".

However, I prefer the definition given by Ronald S. Burt in his paper "The Social Capital of Opinion Leaders" in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 566, No. 1, 37-54 (1999). According to him,

"Opinion leaders are more precisely opinion brokers who carry information across the social boundaries between groups. They are not people at the top of things so much as people at the edge of things, not leaders within groups so much as brokers between groups."

By this definition, I guess a lot of Bloggers are indeed opinion leaders. We share and carry information among various groups around the World. We bloggers can proudly say that we are indeed the most influential people in the World. Organisations, Governments and companies that ignore that fact do so at their own risk.

A Battle of Faith and Love reviewed

It's been quite sometime since I wrote a post here. It's not that I have been too busy as I have been updating my other blogs, it's just one (or a few) of those days when you just don't feel like updating.

Finally got around to visiting one of the blogs on my long long overdue "to review" list. I only a few more to go now. I also realise that most of them have removed the link to my blog but I am still going ahead.

'A battle of faith and love' is one of the few blogs that made me think. The author who calls herself Chickpea, who was raised as a Muslim, shares her thoughts on religion and spirituality. Most of the content is quite serious. Quite interesting as I ask/ have asked the same questions but came to quite different conclusions, though some views on some issues were quite similar.

The blog has a simple and neat Wordpress layout with no ads - makes it stand out from the ad splattered blogs that litter the blogosphere now.

The Freemium model

The 'Freemium model' is the latest concept from Chris Armstrong, Editor-in-chief of Wired and best known for his 'Long Tail' theory.

I read the exclusive interview with the author on the 123-reg blog, where Chris discusses his latest concept and clarifies some misconceptions about the Long Tail theory. He also shares his thoughts on social networking as well.

In the interview, Chris mentions how online companies "experiment with giving away one thing to sell something else." I guess commercial blogs work with the same principle but in a slightly different way. That is why you see ads and sponsored posts on a number of popular blogs.

I specially found the interview with Chris really interesting because it is quite relevant to my doctoral research topic. It was also the first time I heard about the social networking site Ning (www.ning.com). That doesn't sound good for someone who's doing research on the Internet and show how no one can claim to be a "Net Guru" as the Internet is evolving so quickly with new applications and sites emerging every day. Looking forward to his new book.

Moving to WordPress

At present all my blogs are hosted with Blogger. I am quite happy with that but I would be lying if I told you that I haven't been tempted to move to WordPress and hosted somewhere else. One of my friends was describing the various bells and whistles on his WordPress powered blog including the various plugins support by this blog publishing system, the ability to block IP addresses of people I don't like and of course the huge number of themes available on the web.

A lot of people told me that if I consider myself a serious blogger, then I should move from Blogger and get myself a unique domain name and host my blog somewhere. In the past I did survey around a bit but good hosting companies that supported WordPress were charging quite a lot. However, today I realise that there are a number of reliable and reasonably priced blog hosts around. 34SP.com Ltd is one affordable WordPress webhosting company that I recently came across. Their prices start from $35.95 per year for 200Mb space and 2000Mb of bandwidth per month. For those who are new to WordPress, do check out their list of useful WordPress resources on the web - from codex, themes and plugins to discussion forums.

Right now they are offering all new customers who order WordPress hosting a free upgrade - double storage space and bandwidth.

Loads of fun quizzes

If you are a blogger, I am sure you would have taken one or more of those online fun quizzes and tests. If you don't know what I am talking about, here's an example: Ladies, take the sexy test to find out how appealing you are.

Quiz Rocket has loads of online personality quizzes and fun tests. it's pretty amazing how these simple tests can tell about your personality. I don't really take them seriously and just reading the answers make me laugh. They have a few trivia quizzes to test your general knowledge as well.

Mommy blogger

Here's a long long overdue review. Sometime back, I had promised to review blogs for free but along the way I somehow forgot all about the list of blogs to review, until today.

Saw that on top of the list is "My Little Tribe", a personal blog of another mommy blogger. It has a really neat and clean template and the font used for the title is quite unique. Carla, the "matriarch" of the tribe blogs about her life as a mother and a wife. I like the pics she posts up - quite artistic. The fact that her blog does not carry any noticeable ads will definitely appeal to a lot of people who are sick of blogs plastered all over by ads (including my own).

Some Great Links

Azwan Hadzree (MY): [one] blog, world, life. Live It!

Eches Blog (MY)

Edwardkhoo.com (MY): Edward Khoo's blog.

Cambridge Executive Development: Marketing, HR and Management skills training.

Chris (KZ): Kazakhstan Blog from Astana.

genki desu yo!! Gib

NAFASG

NSN Group of Companies: Official website of the NSN group of companies, owned by my friend Nicos Nicolaou from Cyprus.

Pinksterzisme: A Malaysian student in Egypt.

1K + posts

This is my 1001st post on this blog.

My blog also turned 4 last month. My first blog post was on Monday, September 08, 2003 and it has come a long way since then.

I picked up a lot of skills as I went along and learnt from other bloggers. Through this blog, I made some really good online friends, most of whom I have never met in person but feel like I know them personally.

I would like to say a BIG "Thank You!" to all the visitors to my blog.

Charlotte Cosmetic Dentist

A dentist who is also into amateur photography- sounds strange. Well, Dr. Tom Farley, is a dentist who uses his hobby to document his dental work. The photographs have proven useful to visually communicate with patients, labs, insurance providers as well as his peers.

Dr. Farley is a qualified cosmetic dentist who resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. His clinic offers a full range of dental services from restorative to periodontics to whitening. In case you are wondering, his portrait studio is situated right in his office.

I later found out that he's a blogger as well. check out his blog here.

A global child

The next blog on my review list is Preyanka's 'Dreaming of Hanoi'. Preya is a true global child. She was born in Calcutta, India to an American mother and Indian father. She spent her childhood moving between Colorado, India, and Thailand before moving to Hanoi, Vietnam in 1992. She finally went back to the US in 2000 and right now teaches English literature to high school students in Boulder, Colorado.

Used to visit her Blogspot blog before she finally moved to her new website. The blog has a neat and tidy template uncluttered by ads.

She asked me to give her some "brutally honest advice" and well all I can say is, keep doing what you have done so far. I love her pictures and really original and thought provoking posts. I can identify with some of her posts as an expat child myself - but slightly different, as an Asian in the West.

One really touching post was that on the evacuation of thousands of orphans after the fall of Saigon. It's a description of the hope amidst the chaos, as told by her mother, Cherie Clark.

Really nice blog.

Mei's wire jewelry addiction

Mei is a mother of two boys, from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. She blogs at "Wire Bliss: Handcrafted Wire Wrapped Jewelry".

I remember when she used to have a generic Blogger template but has now changed to a 3 column template. It definitely looks more unique. However the ads that come just before the posts were a bit too distracting. There are ads inside the post as well and having too many ads may turn off some visitors.

Her handcrafted wire jewelry are amazing. Mei calls it her addiction and they really are works of art.



Besides the end products, short tutorials showing how she made the jewelery would definitely attract more visitors to her site.

If you love jewelery, you will love Mei's blog.

A random review

Was just going through a blog called Random Encounters of We. It has two contributors: RandomEncounters and Random2 (the lady and the gentleman in the picture?), though I didn't come across a single posts written by Random2. I know a lot of bloggers prefer to remain anonymous but a "about us" or "about this blog" page would be nice.

It has some really interesting posts. Like mine, the blog has no specific niche and covers a number of topics. As RandomEncounters mentions, "Random is my Niche". She does have another blog with a specific niche called Random Games. It lists loads of interesting games.

One thing I didn't like about the blog was the design. I guess it is a matter of taste and everyone is different but I wish they would change the background colour from Green to something less harsh to the eye.

Having said that, I was quite impressed by the fact that they have a Google page rank of 4. That's really excellent for a blog that was only started in November last year. Would love to know their secret.

A Global Nomad in Thailand

Next on my "to review" blog list is Lillian's "My Thailand Diary". Lillian is another Third Culture Adult, or Global Nomad. Her background is quite interesting: she's Swiss but was born and grew up in Papua New Guinea. Now she resides in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand along with her husband and three children. Her blog records her interesting adventures as well as normal everyday life as an expat living in Thailand.

I have seen her go through a number of blog template changes before she finally settled on the one she has now. I prefer this to the colourful template she had before this - maybe because I have a weakness for simple and neat looking site template. What I would love to see is a list of her most popular posts. I am sure that there's a WP plugin for that.

Apart from one Google adsense unit at the top, you won't find other ads on the entire blog and I find it quite refreshing. I know it sounds strange coming from someone who has ads plastered all around his blog. I guess she not really into making money from her blog.

Go over and say "hi!" to Lillian.

I am a NAFASG Certified Partner

Learnt that I have been named as a ‘NAFASG CERTIFIED PARTNER’.


Thanks a lot guys.

Happy Birthday Blogger

I just learnt that today is Blogger's 8th birthday. It was in August 1999 that Pyra Labs launched Blogger, which is today the World's most popular web based blogging tool.

Happy Birthday

Thanks a lot for giving me a place to rant, share and expand my thoughts for FREE.

Do follow ah ok lah

After putting it off for several months, I finally updated my blog template from the old classic Blogger to the new Blogger.

Came across this free template called Adsense Tech Template by by Charm Skins. Spent several hours yesterday tweaking and modifying the template to look like my previous template and it was finally done around 2 am in the morning.

So what do you think?

One of the major advantages is that this template now allows me to remove the 'nofollow' tag from the comment module. So I am officially part of the Do follow movement. For more information, read my post "I do follow" on my SEO Expert blog.

I have also joined the "Do Follow Blogroll" that was started by my online pal, Tricia. Don't forget to leave your comments.



Please refer to the 'Do Follow Bloggers' post on Trica's blog for more information if you want to join in as well.

The queer blog

Ryan is a blogger from Melbourne, Australia and his blog is titled simply "R*yan". It is a personal blog and he has a nice writing style. Mind you it's a PR 5 blog with over 100 subscribers.

I like the way he has personalized his blog. It's amazing what a nice background can do to the over look of your blog. Certainly makes it slightly different from all the other Blogspot blogs with generic templates.

I also like the fact that he has pictures to go with almost all his posts. Something I have been trying to do as well. There are a lot of nice pictures and a lot of them are pictures of men. What do you expect? After all this is a blog with a queer bent.

Unfortunately Ryan has taken an "indefinite break" from blogging. You can still and read his old posts though.