Let's admit it, we are millions (if not billions yet) here and why do we blog? Why? I was able to ask myself this question and I ended up reading this article on blogging.  I am also amenable that in this blogosphere where everyone can just write anything, it also endangers the Internet. As I read, I was able to see that blogging used to be something for big companies but eventually developed to an individual level just like what we all are doing right here at this moment.

Having so many blogs, I have learned a lot of syuff but I know that the more I know, the more I don't really know. 

According to the abovementioned article, blogging is all about three thin

• Information Telling your customers what you’re doing and finding out what they are thinking.

• Relationships Building a solid base of positive experiences with your customers that changes them from plain-old consumers to evangelists for your company and products.

• Knowledge management Having the vast stores of knowledge within your company available to the right people at the right time.

I am not convinced of those three above though. The world of blogging has evolved so much that the above idea is already obsolete. These days, one need not be affiliated to any company to share what he/she thinks and at the same time, earn as well. It is even an honest opinion I guess if one is not even employed, his/her opinion is more honest (or so I thought).

Anyway, the article I mentioned made me realize some stuff, some I agree some I don't but all the same, it enriched my knowledge. I still blog these days but not as active as before. Been quite lazy in a while... :)

Lately, the unsolicited, irrelevant, non-English comments have been plaguing one of my blogs! And the question was why? And why that blog? Why not one of the rest? Is it because that blog has established a strong Page Rank from Google for around a year now? In fact I have been speculating too much for the reasons why such incomprehensible comments were anonymously left in the current "latest post of that blog. So why do Spammers spread those unsolicited stuff around: from emails to blog comments or through false advertisements? There can only be thousands but one reason for being a Spammer: money, earnings, financial benefits, proft, gain and you name it and you'd know!

As the image below displays, the comments are all in Chinese (anonymous comments) and who knows what they mean unless we utilize Google Translate services to decipher these comments? I tried to tranlate one of them and that was around Michael Jackson's death and peak times and the spam has written like 20 "Michael Jackson"-related phrases in the comments but the commentor, as always, is Anonymous!

Morover, in the next image further down this post, it is apparent that when the post or comments are expanded, the words are linked to some web sites. Then, it is obvous that these comments are Spam, and serves no other purpose but to have the Spammer gain something he/she does not deserve at all: satisfaction of any kind!

The overview of my Spammy Blog...

For the time being, the blog mentioned has 36 pending comments, at least 25 of them are these Chinese meaningless, irrelevant spammy comments. I want to observe how they would go as I manually publish or reject comments in each of my posts in all my blogs. I want to see if I post a new article, the spam comments would be directed there instead, and not in currently rampantly spam-commented item.

So why Spam?
1. Creat free backlinks to the desired sites of the spammer
2. Put the links of advertisements that when clicked, the spammers earn revenue
3. To solicit traffic to the website the spammers wish to direct the gained traffic caused by the attention gained by the spam
4. Defraud others (usually in email spam on lottery or false fortune offers)
5. To serve clients such as distributing their links, getting trafic, etc., etc.,

So how do we protect our sites from these spams?
1. Install spam filter
2. Manually filter comments (my style)
3. Don't allow comments at all (not so exciting option)
4. Reposrt spammers to Google after confirming to them (informing them/warning them of the spammy stuff)

When those comments are expanded, they are obviously hyperlinked and once clicked, the Spammer has just succeeded in his/purpose for doing these spams... So don't click! Or don't publish at all!

I pity Spammers, they too just crave for earnings but the sad part, they do their earnings at the expense of others. As for those who became BIG with Spam, they also cannot live in peace b'cause Spam is a crime! They might grind the steel prison bars for years if they get unlucky enough doing their Spammy Spammy Spam!

How to use Paypal without charges? In short, how to utilize the free service that Paypal offers?As I have discussed in my previous post here regarding Paypal charging fees to so many of my transactions lately, I wanted to discover stuff. I tried a couple of transactions sending some amount to my aunt and her sending to my account and as I wished, THERE WERE NO PAYPAL CHARGES. All I did was to try and see and a little bit of patience when sending some amounts. If we all pay attention, we will not be charged with any amount when we send money for non-business related transactions. Since the send-outs of money through Paypal was between me and my aunt, which is mostly like gifts and trials, those transactions were obviously not intended for gain, in lay man's term, not for commercial or business purposes.



These were the transactions with charges and they were not anymore the whole amount sent when received. The receipt of $76.58 was from an amount sent totaling to $80.00; The receipt of €95.75 was from €100,00 and the $9.31 was originally $10.00 when sent. Lots of deductions as auto charges from Paypal, right? Click to read the whole story about these charges...

Notice the last two rows of transactions from the preceding image?? These two were bith free of any Paypal charges. Notice that the "Type" of transaction is "Gift" from sender and "Payment Owed" from sender. These are non-commercial transactions and do not deserve to be charged at all.

The next image, the details of the transaction type "Gift" from sender, is presented. Note that if suc person is paying party or the sender is paying for some purchases of goods or services, "Seller Protection" is not available as it is treated to be "non-commercial". Thus, if you are the buyer, better be careful then. Don't worry if the receiver will be charged a little amount, so long as your purchases are protected! After all the fee is charged from the vendor and NOT from the customer. So how would our receivers be not NOT charged? This is explained below.

The following image is a combined screen shot of how to pay for goods/service/others and to be sure that our payment/purchases is secure and how to process a transaction and not be charged a single cent.

In the first image (the upper portion), the tab used is "ONLINE PURCHASES". This transaction charges the receiver of the money or the seller.

On the other hand, the bottom images idicate the tab, "PERSONAL PAYMENTS" and this is FREE of any charges. If you send amount to friends or relatives or as a personal payment, use this option to have your payments or gifts be received without any deductions.

Now we know how to properly utilize Paypal. Hope we all are educated so that we can maximize the freebies around as much as we can. Happy Paypal usage!

One thing I still cannot maximize the powers of my blog is because of the fact that this very particular blog still lacks its ownwebsite hosting company. Thus, I have been searching around lately for various options to take when the time comes that I would say "yes" to pay for my own web host. My quest for a very good webhost has taken me to the site of Webhostingrating, a collection of priceless information when one has to search regarding website hosts and related stuff. I was so glad I did stumble this site.

Landing at the homepage of the website of webhostingrating, I was already flooded with information. Below is the list of the Top rated hosts by webhostingrating, graded based on various criteria.



Isn't the above information helpful? Just like when we shop around, comparing one price to another and benchmarking which one of the products is the better choice really help us save some bucks and at the same time, afford ourselves the correct product. The same theory applies when we shop for services: the services of our we host. Compare and contrast and see the prices. The existence of webhosting rating is really a big help for me.

Are you in any way interested in other stuff related to web hosting? I was actually interested which one of them was awarded with some honorable service and performance. You will be amazed with the citations and those awards. Just see here and see which of them are the awardees

Can you believe it? Out of nowhere, I received a freebie offer from Google: €50 worth of Google adwords. That os around $80 of free advertising! Isn't it great? If you are in my case, what would have been the course of action that you'd do? It's a great feeling and a great luck to receive such offer, right? The offer was however written in Dutch as the entity that offered it to me, mailed the offer to me, was Google Netherlands. If I tell I ignored the offer, what would you think?



I have no idea why Google actually gave me this freebie but as I said, there's no such thing as free lunch thus, I expect the end benefit is on their side, but all the same, €50 is better than nothing, right?. I actually cannot fathom the reason why they sent me such €50 opening balance but I can only count the following:

1. I always search Google adwords tips around click on Google adword related items;
2. I run so many Google adsense advertisements
3. It's a normal thing in Netherlands
4. The end benefit will come to Google anyway



In fact, I think that claiming th offer was not worth all the hassles and the effort and everything so I ignored it. I think it will expire in few days and up t now, it's still lying around here being unregistered. If it's yours, would you claim it? What do you think? Is it wise to ignore it? Any wise opinion from you?