Can Talk Tech

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About

• Can Talk Tech is the tech blog of Rhodilee Jean Dolor. I wanted my blog to be named something else. Thanks to domain squatters, I ended up adopting Can Talk Tech and up to this day I still wonder whether I have to change the title of my blog.

Links

• Online Job Workers
• Insomniac Diaries
• Telebabad Queen
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Wordpress Upgrade Horror: Automatic Upgrade Plugin Won’t Work

I finally decided to upgrade my WP 2.1 blog to the newer version of wordpress last week because of the “security vulnerabilities” of the older version. Excessive bandwidth usage in two of my blogs also prompted me to decide to upgrade.

I upgraded my personal blog Rhodilee dot com using the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin without having any trouble at all. Unfortunately, the plugin won’t work in my other blogs including this blog and my niche blog Online Job Workers.

So what do you do when the wordpress automatic upgrade plugin does not also work with your blog? Here are some suggestions:

1. Use another wordpress upgrade plugin. The instant upgrade plugin for wordpress is another plugin that does the same thing as the wordpress automatic upgrade plugin. Nevertheless, wordpress users who installed their blogs via fantastico (such as in my case) will not be able to use it.

2. Upgrade via fantastico. I considered upgrading my site via fantastico hoping the upgrade will be as easy as installing a wordpress blog. Unfortunately, I was neither able to upgrade using fantastico because upgrade to wordpress 2.5 and 2.5.1 is not yet available due to “bug fixing and testing”, according to my hosting provider. Nevertheless, here is a good tutorial on How To Upgrade Wordpress 2.3.x+ Via Fantastico.

3. Upgrade your blog using Filezilla. Wordpress actually recommends the use of filezilla to manage a wordpress site and using filezilla to upgrade to wordpress 2.5 or 2.5.1 may be a good option that you have if you can’t automate your upgrade. To upgrade using filezilla, download the filezilla client and read this article: Upgrade WordPress Guide How To Upgrade WordPress. If you are stuck on how to upload and download files using filezilla, read this post.

I was able to upgrade my sites using filezilla.

Posted in Blogging | No Comments »

New adsense alternative for publishers

Google has been releasing a number of new rules recently including the display of a privacy policy in sites that display google adsense. The company also requires their publishers to make google ads distinguishable which can otherwise affect ads click through rates. There were also publishers who were banned from adsense which is why news of companies which can potentially replace adsense as a source of revenue among publishers can really be interesting. Just recently, I read at Techsagar about India’s first google ads alternative, Adzant.

I am not sure if Adzant is available to international publishers but I already signed up to receive an email notification once the company becomes fully operational. The company reportedly offers publishers different options for selling ads. I just hope that the ads that will be displayed are targeted to my traffic. I do not want to be posting ads about traveling to France when my blog post is about cooking adobo.

Posted in Blogging, Money | No Comments »

Will Google eliminate the 336 x 280 ad format?

After requiring adsense publishers to post privacy policy in their sites, Google has again announced new rules that should be observed by bloggers who monetize their sites with adsense. This time, publishers are prohibited to place ads under a title or section which will give out an impression that the ads are not ads.

I am quite uncomfortable with this because my adsense monetized sites generally display adsense right below the post title. Worse, I always enumerate things in my sites so I generally use titles such as Wednesday jobs for writers; Beautiful Free Blog Templates for New Blogger, etc. See this screenshot from Jobzonline:

This new adsense rule update also prohibits the use of ads near links or texts that have the same colors and line spacing as the ads. To make things easier to understand, Google is eliminating ads that can “trick” non web savvy users to click ads that look like part of the site contents.

Uh-oh, this will really make me busy updating my sites the next few days.

The ad format that works well with my sites is the 336 x 280 size and since most adsense publishers use this format to make the ads look like part of the site content, (yes, “trick non websavvy users” as you may say), will Google eliminate the 336 x 280 or similar ad formats soon? If that happens, that will surely be a bad news for me and a number of adsense publishers out there.

Posted in Blogging, Money | No Comments »